Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly policies since returning to the White House for a second term.
Published On 30 Jun 202630 Jun 2026
A new government report has shown that United States President Donald Trump made millions from cryptocurrency and settlements with media companies last year, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest.
On Tuesday, the US Office of Government Ethics released annual financial disclosure forms for both Trump and his vice president, JD Vance.
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One 927-page document itemises all of Trump’s reported assets and income for 2025. They include more than $1.4bn from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.
Trump received more than $500m from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture he and his sons co-founded. The president also reported another $635m from the sale of his $TRUMP meme coins.
The report suggests that investments in digital assets now generate one of the largest tranches of Trump’s income, overtaking even the real estate empire he inherited from his father.
The revelation is likely to intensify scrutiny of Trump’s policies.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly policies as he seeks to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”.
Early in his second term, for instance, the president announced that his government would create a national strategic cryptocurrency reserve to help ensure the stability of certain digital assets.
He also hosted the first-ever White House cryptocurrency summit.
The forum included several technology leaders that had been under investigation during the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
But Trump reversed those actions. In February 2025, for instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it would drop charges against Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange, after it was accused of acting as an unregistered broker.
Other digital currency firms came under suspicion for fraudulent transactions.
Trump has coupled the shift away from government oversight with efforts to champion new legislation, including the GENIUS Act.
The law, passed in Congress in July 2025, created a general regulatory framework that required stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency, to be backed one-to-one by US dollars. Advocates said the law would help to make cryptocurrency more mainstream.
“The entire crypto community: For years, you were mocked and dismissed and counted out,” Trump said during the law’s signing ceremony. “You were counted out as little as a year and a half ago, but this signing is a massive validation.”
But Trump’s increasingly close ties to the cryptocurrency industry have drawn criticism for its potential for corruption.
Last week, five Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, called on their Republican colleagues to join them in forcing Trump administration officials to testify under oath about their cryptocurrency dealings.
They pointed to investments from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in World Liberty Financial, the company the Trump family co-owns with government envoy Steve Witkoff’s sons.
Those investments, they argued, “raise questions about what more the UAE may receive — or may have already received – at the expense of U.S. national security after investing in the Trump family crypto company”.
The five Democrats urged immediate hearings on the matter.
The clock is running down on the most consequential deadline the crypto sector has faced in Europe.
From the start of July, the transitional window under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) closes for good, and companies that have not secured authorisation must either stop serving European customers or wind down altogether.
MiCA is the EU’s first comprehensive law for the crypto industry, bringing exchanges, brokers and digital wallet providers under the kind of formal oversight that has long applied to banks and other financial firms.
It replaces a fragmented mix of national rules with a single rulebook spanning all 27 member states: a company licensed in one EU country earns a “passport” to operate across the bloc, but in return it must meet standards on how much capital it holds, how it is run, how it safeguards customers’ funds and how it prevents money laundering.
“What emerges is a genuine single market replacing the old patchwork of 27 national regimes,” Yamal Kalaf, co-founder of MiCAR Whitepapers Europe, which advises crypto businesses on MiCA authorisation, told Euronews.
Since the core rules took effect at the end of 2024, existing operators have been allowed to keep operating under older national registrations, but that concession was temporary.
The scale of the looming shake-out is striking.
According to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which confirmed in April that there would be no extension, only around 210 firms had obtained full authorisation by May, out of more than 1,200 that previously held national crypto registrations across the EU.
That points to a conversion rate of well under a fifth, leaving the vast majority of the old market without a licence as the cut-off arrives in a few days.
Speaking to Euronews, Roshan Dharia, CEO of distressed-investment firm Echo Base, explained that “the low conversion rate suggests that a meaningful portion of the market has concluded that obtaining and maintaining a MiCA licence is not economically viable within its current operating model.”
National regulators have warned that firms operating beyond the deadline without the new licence face enforcement action. France’s markets watchdog has also cautioned that continuing without authorisation could expose companies to criminal prosecution.
ESMA has told unlicensed providers to prepare orderly wind-downs, including transferring customer assets to authorised platforms or self-custody wallets, and to notify clients in advance so they can move funds safely.
“What we will see after 1 July is a smaller, more institutional market with real passporting. That is not a market in retreat. That is a market growing up,” Miguel Zapatero, Head Counsel at Crossmint, told Euronews.
Crossmint is a crypto infrastructure provider whose licensed rails let developers build wallets, custody and payment products.
Plenty of familiar names have already cleared the bar.
Coinbase has been authorised in Ireland and Kraken in Ireland and Luxembourg. At the same time, the banking app Revolut secured its licence from Cyprus’s regulator late last year, allowing it to offer crypto services across the EU.
For these firms, the new rules promise a reward as unlicensed rivals retreat, the survivors stand to absorb their departing customers.
“MiCA is a genuine regulatory identity shift, not a registration exercise,” Gal Arad Cohen, partner at law firm S. Horowitz & Co, told Euronews.
The most prominent casualty so far may be Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
According to Reuters, which cited two people familiar with the matter, Binance is set to lose permission to serve EU clients because its licence application to Greece’s market regulator, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, is poised to be rejected.
Without approval in any member state, the exchange would be unable to operate across the bloc from July onwards.
Speaking to Euronews, Patrick Mollard, CEO at Fipto, a blockchain-based payments company for businesses, referred to the Binance case by stating that “scale earns you no shortcut to a licence, and that is precisely the point.”
Binance has pushed back, saying it has worked constructively with regulators for 18 months and believes its application met MiCA’s requirements. The company added that it understood the Greek authority had completed its review and found the filing compliant.
The company has promised a further update before 30 June.
The episode has also reputedly taken on a political dimension.
French crypto publication The Big Whale reported, citing unnamed sources, that ECB President Christine Lagarde had opposed Binance’s bid for a Greek MiCA licence.
Euronews could not independently verify the report, and neither the ECB nor the Greek government has publicly commented on the allegations.
The Big Whale also reported that Binance is exploring a potential MiCA application in France after the setback in Greece, a claim that neither Binance nor French regulators have publicly confirmed.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Euronews.
Beyond the biggest names, the deadline is expected to push smaller crypto apps and brokers towards licensed custody providers. Rather than building their own MiCA-compliant systems, many are likely to rely on authorised firms to hold customer assets.
“We will see consolidation and transfer of clients as the deadline will not be met by all currently operating entries,” Floortje Nagelkerke, partner at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, explained to Euronews.
The result, analysts suggest, will be a smaller, more concentrated European market, with fewer players, higher barriers to entry and a clear advantage for those holding a licence, but stronger consumer protections.
“People who hold crypto in the EU after 1 July will, on balance, hold it on safer rails,” Miguel Zapatero, Head Counsel at Crossmint, concluded.
remotevfx
Digital asset ETFs experienced heavy selling pressure last week as Bitcoin (BTC-USD) briefly dipped near $75K amid rising macro uncertainty and bond market stress.
From May 18 to May 22, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.26B in net outflows, according to
After months of tension over the Iran war, markets finally got something to feel good about. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing on May 14 and agreed the Strait of Hormuz “must remain open,” along with a shared stance that Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon.” Easing tensions in the Middle East usually means one thing for crypto: risk-on sentiment comes back.
That’s why the search for the best crypto to buy now is heating up again. This article looks at three picks worth a closer look while the mood is shifting: Poly Truth ($PTRUE), Meme Punch ($MEPU), and Bittensor (TAO).
Crypto pays close attention to global news, and this one is a big deal.
Approximately one-fifth of all oil shipments worldwide pass through the Strait of Hormuz. When it’s in danger, markets become anxious, oil prices increase, and inflation pressure increases. The opposite happens when it’s safe. Money often returns to more volatile investments, such as cryptocurrency.
That is the change that is currently beginning to take shape. The direction has shifted, but the war is still ongoing and the ceasefire is still unstable. Generally speaking, markets are more interested in future trends than current conditions.
Therefore, it makes sense that more buyers are considering cryptocurrency once more. Also, smaller picks usually move first when the mood improves.
While sentiment is changing, these three choices are worth a closer look. One is a well-known AI infrastructure project. The other two, which have more potential for growth and lower entry costs, are still in presale.
Prediction markets are growing fast, but most people still bet on instinct. Poly Truth steps in with a research tool that does the heavy lifting.
Drop in a prediction event, anything from a presidential race to a Champions League final, and the platform scans news, market data, historical records, and social signals. An AI layer checks everything, weighs the patterns, and returns a probability score for each outcome along with the reasoning behind it.
$PTRUE is the access token. Holders get tiered access to the tool, plus staking rewards and a vote on future updates.
The token is in Stage 1 of its presale at $0.001190, with the next price step at $0.001216. Audits are done with SolidProof and Coinsult, team tokens are locked, and 40% of supply goes to presale buyers.
Check polytruth.io for live numbers.
The majority of meme coins do nothing more than sit in your wallet and wait for a pump. That is changed by Meme Punch. In this play-to-earn battle game, you take action.
Five iconic meme characters, Pepe, Doge, Floki, Brett, and Pudgy Penguin, are dressed in medieval armor and spawned into a PvP arena. Pick your knight, fight other players, climb the leaderboard, and earn $MEPU as rewards. The token also unlocks weapons, skins, and special powers inside the game.
$MEPU runs on Ethereum, with a total supply of 10 billion. The presale takes 40%, with another 14.5% set aside for staking and 9.5% for in-game rewards. Payment options are ETH, BNB, SOL, USDT, USDC, and card.
Check memepunch.io for the current presale price and staking APY.
Bittensor runs a decentralized network where machine learning models compete to provide AI services, with TAO tokens rewarding the best performers. The network is split into subnets, each one a marketplace for a specific type of AI task.
The price action tells a useful story. TAO spent most of April trading sideways between $240 and $255 while markets digested the Iran war and the fragile ceasefire. Then, in early May, the breakout came. TAO climbed to around $326 on May 10 and now sits near $306, up over 20% in a month.
It’s a clear example of what happens when tensions decrease. Capital flows back into infrastructure plays, and AI is one of the strongest narratives going.
The mood can shift fast, so a few things are worth keeping an eye on:
When sentiment shifts, crypto usually feels it first. The Trump-Xi meeting isn’t a fix for everything happening in the region, but it’s the kind of news that turns the mood around, and the market’s already starting to react.
If you’re looking at the best crypto to buy now, the three picks above cover different angles. Poly Truth ($PTRUE) for the AI tool with a real use case. Meme Punch ($MEPU) for the meme coin you can actually play. Bittensor (TAO) for the established AI infrastructure pick is already moving on the news.
Take a look, read up on each, and only put in what you’re okay risking.
It depends on your risk appetite. Bittensor (TAO) is the safer AI pick, while presales like Poly Truth ($PTRUE) and Meme Punch ($MEPU) offer more upside for those willing to take on early-stage risk.
Sentiment is shifting back to risk-on after the Trump-Xi meeting, which usually helps small-cap tokens move first. $PTRUE and $MEPU are two presales catching attention while TAO leads on the AI side.
No one can guarantee explosions, but presale tokens priced well under a cent, like $PTRUE and $MEPU, have the most room to run if the market keeps warming up.
1000x runs almost always come from tiny market caps with a real product behind them, which is why presales like $PTRUE are where most of those bets land, while TAO offers steadier exposure to the same AI story.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. ModernDiplomacy.eu is not a licensed crypto-asset service provider under EU regulation (MiCA). Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and involve significant risk. Always conduct your own research and consult a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions.
Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie didn’t expect to ever get a statue outside Crypto.com Arena. After all, it had been 15 years since her jersey retirement and no other Sparks player was featured among the Lakers and Kings heroes outside the area.
After years of hearing from fans that she deserve to be immortalized, Leslie learned she would join Sue Bird in Seattle as the second WNBA player to be honored with a statue at a franchise’s home arena.
“One thing I never had on my bucket list was a statue,” Leslie told The Times on Thursday. “I grew up seeing the statues of some of the amazing Lakers, so I’m just really grateful to be alive and to be one of the first, especially in the WNBA for L.A. Sparks. It means a lot to me, and I’m really hoping that our community will really rally around it.”
The Sparks announced Thursday morning that Leslie will receive a statue to be unveiled during a ceremony on Sept. 20 before a game against the Portland Fire.
During her 12-year career with the Sparks, Leslie won three WNBA titles and league MVP honors. She also won four Olympic gold medals. She was the first player in WNBA history to dunk in a game and her No. 9 jersey was retired in 2010.
She was one of the Sparks’ original players in 1997 and is the franchise’s career leader in points, rebounds, blocks, field goals, free throws, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, minutes and games played, and is third in the WNBA in blocks and double-doubles.
“I’ve known Lisa for nearly three decades and believe that she is beyond deserving of this incredible honor,” fellow statue honoree and Lakers great Magic Johnson said in a news release. “She was the driving force behind bringing back-to-back championships to the Los Angeles Sparks franchise in 2000 and 2001, and Lisa’s hard work and commitment has made her one of the best to ever play the game.”
Johnson, who is part the Sparks ownership group, accepted responsibility for the team’s skid two years ago and promised to do more. The Sparks owners, who also own the Dodgers and Lakers, have responded to losing at a boom time in the WNBA by executing a coaching change, breaking ground on a new practice facility and installing the first Sparks statue outside Crypto.com Arena.
“Lisa’s legacy isn’t just measured by championships and accolades, though; it’s defined by the doors she opened and the standard she set for generations to come,” Johnson said in the news release. “More than an athlete, she is a pioneer, a cultural icon and a force who elevated women’s basketball to new heights. This statue celebrates her excellence, her leadership and the future she helped create, and it ensures her impact will forever be part of the fabric of this city.”
Leslie said that she noticed fans lobbying for her to get a statue beginning in 2019, and the timing for her and the Sparks felt right during the 30th anniversary season.
“It couldn’t be better with the new [practice] facility coming, the new CBA, everything is aligning so properly,” she said. “It’s more perfect than it would have been a few years before.”
The statue was created by sculptors Julie Rotblatt Amrany and Omri Amrany and will join 15 others outside of Crypto.com Arena, including Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Oscar De La Hoya, Chick Hearn, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Luc Robitaille, Shaquille O’Neal, Bob Miller, Elgin Baylor, Dustin Brown, Kobe Bryant (2), Gigi Bryant and Pat Riley.
“I hope she looks good,” Leslie said of the statue. “People don’t realize how hard it is to make a statue look good. … They helped me to be super specific about every little thing down to my earlobe and fingernail tip. So I’m excited about all the little details that have been added that people can kind of find on their own as well.”
