Cryptopolitan previously reported that in return for opening the strait and resuming nuclear talks, Tehran requested that the U.S. lift the embargo on its ports, which has caused immense damage to its economy. Trump, though, announced to the public that Tehran seeks an agreement after the elections and that any agreement must get rid of its nuclear program. Privately, Trump is less sure Iran will accept his demands. Officials said he has told staff that another bombing campaign is likely.

Trump likely to reconsider stance soon

Although Trump has declared many times before that he was victorious after the start of the war, his tactics have fluctuated between negotiations, strikes, and stronger sanctions. Officials allegedly said his position could change over the coming weeks and may be shaped by the midterm results. The size of any future U.S. attack has not been decided. Officials could not determine how extensive those strikes might be.

Officials said Trump is reluctant to restart a major combat campaign because Washington wants to preserve shrinking weapons stockpiles for other possible conflicts. Still, he has threatened large attacks when talks with Tehran stall. He has sometimes followed through, while stopping short of his most extreme warnings, including threats to destroy Iran. Trump addressed Iran at the United Nations General Assembly this week and said electoral politics would not affect his decisions.

“The Republican Party is running, and I’ll be helping them, but I am not running. I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence through the election when it comes to Iran. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” He has also told Republicans to vote as if his name were on the November ballot. The Senate rejected a war powers resolution aimed at restricting Trump’s authority over the Iran war. The measure had passed the House, but senators voted it down this week.

Qatar continues to push for negotiations

A U.S. official said Washington and Tehran are still talking through mediators, including about Iran’s nuclear program. An American-led operation helping oil tankers move through the Strait of Hormuz has also reduced Washington’s need to rush into an agreement. Qatar and other regional mediators have been working to restart U.S.-Iran talks. During a meeting in Qatar on Sunday, Iran proposed a seven-day pause that could lead to an end to attacks on shipping if Washington removed its blockade.

Reporting around the General Assembly confirmed Tehran has been promoting a seven-day roadmap built around reopening Hormuz and restarting nuclear discussions. Iran’s terms go beyond removing the naval blockade. Tehran wants Washington to unfreeze some Iranian assets and lift restrictions on Iranian oil exports. Iran would then reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin negotiations over its nuclear program.

This message has been passed by the U.S. to Iran and its facilitators that Trump does not have any intention to lift the sea embargo on them. The American government assumes that economic sanctions would finally bring them to terms that suit America and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. Arab mediators said Iranian diplomats have offered several plans to stop the war and acknowledged Iran’s worsening economic crisis. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has taken a different position.

The powerful military and economic force, which has effectively run Iran since the war started in February, has said it will not consider new deal structures and is prepared for a prolonged conflict. Trump has informed Iran and the mediators of his desire to keep the maritime embargo. The Americans hope that by keeping up pressure on the Iranians economically, they will eventually agree to their terms and those of the Arab states around the Persian Gulf.

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The joint advisory released by the FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated that Chinese firms had been taking capabilities from United States frontier AI systems since late 2024. These agencies claimed that Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and xAI’s Grok have been targets of the “distillation” technique, where a smaller model is trained on the outputs of a larger, more capable model to replicate its behavior.

China refutes accusations made by the United States

The agencies acknowledged that distillation was a standard, widely used method in AI research; however, they claim the issue lies in the scale and intent of the Chinese firms. “The sheer scale of these campaigns and their sophistication indicate that distillation is not a supplement to these companies’ AI model development, but the critical core of it,” the advisory said. The agencies also added that the activity was carried out “likely with Chinese government awareness,” although they stopped short of claiming Chinese intelligence services were involved.

Six Chinese AI developers were mentioned in the joint advisory, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun and Z.ai. The joint advisory document stated specific capabilities that the agencies allege were copied from particular U.S. models, ranging from “legal specialization optimization” to “agentic functions.” The security agencies also described a gray market of proxies called “transfer stations” that Chinese firms allegedly use to slip past geographic limits, safeguards and terms of service on United States products.

The Chinese companies are also said to have reduced costs by purchasing premium subscriptions from United States firms in bulk and sharing access among teams of developers. Anthropic had made a similar claim previously, alleging that three Chinese labs ran about 24,000 fraudulent accounts to generate more than 16 million interactions with Claude. Beijing responded on Wednesday via Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, who said the country’s AI progress was due to “high-level scientific and technological self-reliance” and urged Washington to stop “making groundless accusations,” according to NBC News.

Mao also stated that both China and the United States were “major artificial intelligence countries” that “should step up cooperation.” A Chinese Embassy spokesperson in Washington called the distillation statement a “deliberate attack” on China’s AI industry. AI governance is expected to feature as a major talking point when Trump meets Xi on September 24.

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The company is willing to run to hit a 2030 production date while AI chip demand continues to outstrip supply. Samsung Electronics is asking its equipment suppliers for a SEMI certification, which is a standard industry safety check that equipment must pass before it can be shipped to another country. Suppliers typically start the certification process only after a factory’s specifications are finalized, but Samsung has told several of its tool suppliers to obtain this certification ahead of the launch of the planned second chip plant in Taylor, Texas, to save time for faster installation later.

Samsung wants to hit a 2030 production date

Concrete plans for the factory are expected to become clearer by the end of the year, with production expected by 2030. The first Taylor factory already has Tesla as a major customer. Tesla signed a foundry contract worth about 22.76 trillion Korean won ($14.09 billion) with Samsung last year. The contract revived the Taylor timeline, which had been delayed several times due to weak demand and a lack of customers.

The first factory is set to open this year and will start trial production as early as next month, focusing on 2-nanometer production. The second factory is yet to have a customer of its own. According to industry sources, the second factory’s timeline depends on whether Tesla expands its orders or a new large customer signs up. Samsung’s construction unit, Samsung E&A, is reportedly preparing to send dozens of staff to the Taylor site to support the work.

In an interview, the mayor of Taylor, Jim Buzan, said that Samsung “put in the piers and foundation” for the second plant while it was still building the first. The mayor said Samsung “preplanned it several years back,” and shared that he expects this head start to let Samsung move faster on the second factory than it did on the first. Samsung’s reported figures put its initial minimum Taylor investment at $17 billion, its biggest ever in the United States.

The company has owned the land for its Taylor chip site since 2021, and has it zoned for as many as 10 factories. Around 100 Samsung employees have already moved to Taylor, and the total number of newcomers is likely to reach several hundred once partner company staff arrive. Mayor Buzan said Samsung has not received any of the $4.745 billion in CHIPS and Science Act money awarded to it in 2024.

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The nonbinding resolution carries no legal weight, nor does it stop the president’s clemency power. However, it puts all 100 senators on record against clemency for Bankman-Fried. The effort was steered by Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Sen. Rubén Gallego, an Arizona Democrat. The United States senators introduced the motion on June 17, days after Bankman-Fried formally petitioned for a pardon with the White House through the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney’s Office, Cryptopolitan reported.

United States senators barred from lobbying for SBF’s pardon

Sen. Lummis said SBF was trying to avoid the consequences of his conviction. “SBF has clearly ramped up his pardon campaign, and Senator Lummis wants Fried to know she and her colleagues think he’s right where he belongs,” said a spokesperson for Sen. Lummis’ office.

Sam Bankman-Fried has been lobbying for a presidential pardon over the past year, more especially after President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in November. On June 8, he formally filed a clemency application, despite the president’s having said earlier this year that he had “no intention of pardoning” the convicted FTX founder.

SBF was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to the 2022 collapse of FTX, which wiped out $183 billion of value across the crypto market. He was sentenced to 25 years. Prosecutors described the scheme as one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history, with FTX customers losing more than $8 billion. Bankman-Fried will only be eligible for release in 2044.

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According to an earlier Cryptopolitan report, the Pentagon released the update just as the two countries kept tightening controls on technology, data, energy, and manufacturing. The Ministry of Commerce of China announced on Saturday that America went beyond its limits in terms of national security concerns, as well as exerted governmental influence to pressure the business of China. The ministry demanded the withdrawal of such decisions. It also asked Washington to deal with Chinese companies in a fair manner and build a stable relationship with China.

China warns the US to cancel its categorization of Chinese platforms

China was direct in its latest warning, noting that, “Otherwise, China will take resolute and forceful countermeasures, and the consequences and responsibility arising therefrom will rest entirely with the US side.” The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the blacklist. Spokesman Liu Pengyu said firms from China follow the laws of the countries where they operate. “The US should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment,” Liu said.

The Pentagon list is known as the Section 1260H list. US law requires the Defense Department to update it yearly through 2030. A company can ask the Pentagon to review its case and submit evidence to challenge the label. Alibaba said there was “no basis” for adding the company, and that being named on the 1260H list does not just automatically ban exports or stop a company from serving American customers. The US Commerce Department runs a separate Entity List, and that list can block or limit access to American technology, Alibaba explained.

The 1260H list is one of several tools Washington uses as the US and China separate in sensitive sectors. On Saturday, Chinese regulators announced stricter rules for financial information services. The Cyberspace Administration of China said companies must sort data into four groups: core, important, sensitive general, and routine general. Officials said each category would depend on its value, sensitivity, and the damage a leak could cause. Six other agencies issued the rules, including the People’s Bank of China.

The rules are part of Beijing’s data security system. China passed broad laws before adding sector rules. “Financial information services are developing in an orderly manner, and the volume of data is expanding … which urgently requires standardised, classified and graded management,” the guidelines said. The new rules do not cover state secrets or military information. Meanwhile, as previously reported, Trump announced Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor.

Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, said the choices showed that Trump planned to put China at the center of his foreign policy. Before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk met separately with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Washington. Han attended as Xi Jinping’s special representative. His visit showed Beijing wanted working ties with the new US administration even as both sides added more pressure in trade, technology, security, and industry.

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This group aims to give a method of reporting losses for victims who are currently without a clear path to do so. According to official government data, United States residents lost more than $11 billion to cryptocurrency fraud in 2025 alone. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report shows that there were 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency, with total losses exceeding $11.3 billion. This represents a 21% jump in complaint volume from the previous year. Investment scams were the biggest contributor to the total amount, accounting for $7.2 billion of those losses.

A report from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs found that wallets linked to illegal activity received $158 billion in cryptocurrency during 2025, a sharp increase from $64.5 billion in 2024. These losses were driven largely by sanctions evasion and nation-state actors. However, it is worth noting that illegal activity as a share of all crypto activity actually fell slightly to 1.2% in 2025. The FBI reports that, more than any age group, people over 60 filed 44,555 complaints and lost $4.43 billion to crypto scams.

United States legislators submit a new bill to go after fraudsters

In the United States, the bureau’s 2025 Internet Crime Report logged 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency, with total losses exceeding $11 billion, representing a 21% jump in complaint volume from the prior year. The FBI has launched initiatives like Operation Level Up to identify and notify victims while a scam is still happening, and that has helped save an estimated over $500 million since it began in 2024. In 2025 alone, the operation saved $225.8 million. There were also 3780 recorded victims that year.

The bill, called the Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Enforcement and Coordination Act, was introduced by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden and Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer as a means to give victims, who currently have no single place to turn for help, a place to make reports. Rep. Lance Gooden is a Texas Republican who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, while Rep. Josh Gottheimer is a New Jersey Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.

Rep. Gooden said in a statement that Americans lack a coordinated strategy to stop the crypto criminals who are stealing millions from them. The task force would be based in the Department of Justice and would bring together the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the Treasury Department. Its job is to coordinate investigations, create a standard playbook for local police on handling crypto theft, and provide better support for victims. The Trump administration disbanded the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) in 2025.

Officials at the time argued that the previous administration had used the team to regulate crypto through lawsuits rather than focusing on catching criminals, and now the new bill will fill that gap, albeit with a different approach. Federal enforcement of crypto-related crime is currently split across multiple agencies and has overlapping but fragmented rules that have produced inconsistent responses, leaving investigators and victims to navigate the inconsistent framework.

The Digital Chamber, a crypto policy organization, endorsed the idea, saying law enforcement needs better tools and training. Dennis Porter of the Satoshi Action Fund said the bill would give “victims, investigators, and local law enforcement the unified federal response they have been missing.” The bill still needs to pass through committees or be attached to a larger legislative package to become law.

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Geopolitical tensions, concerns over a risk of sanctions, and a growing desire among some countries to lessen their exposure to dollar-denominated assets have been key factors driving this shift in central bank reserve allocations. The ECB had assessed the international role of the euro over the past year and found that gold accounted for 27% of global central bank reserves as at the end of 2025. This figure stood at 20% just one year earlier. US Treasuries, however, moved in the opposite direction, falling from 25% to 22% through the same period of 2025, according to the report.

ECB report reveals central banks now hold more gold

According to the ECB report, assets linked to the euro remained steady at 15% with no increase or drop. This ‘switch’ means gold has officially displaced the dominant reserve asset for the past few decades after the World Wars. The US government debt and treasuries served as the default store of value for central banks in managing exchange rate stability and liquidity. This has now switched actively to gold as a store of value.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the war that followed, the US and its allies froze Russian dollar-based reserves in support of Ukraine. This move then prompted world governments to assess how much of their national wealth sat in assets the United States could restrict, and how this could be changed, as noted by the ECB findings. ECB President Christine Lagarde addressed the trend directly in the report. “Geopolitical tensions continue to drive strong demand for gold among central banks,” Lagarde said.

Gold, on the other hand, carries no such risk and cannot be frozen by a foreign government, a trait that became more attractive to central banks and world governments after the US’ actions in 2022. The results of the ECB’s assessment do not point to an immediate drop in demand for US government debt. US Treasuries continue to account for more than one-fifth of global foreign exchange reserves, while the dollar remains the dominant currency in international trade and finance.

Notably, the ECB‘s report also found that the euro’s share of global reserves had remained the same over the time period, which ultimately suggests that central bank value purchases are flowing primarily into gold rather than into competing reserve currencies. China, India, Turkey, and Poland have been the largest buyers of gold for their central banks in recent years, as gold purchases by governments have continued to rise since 2022.

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This marks one of the largest coordinated seizures targeting crypto fraud networks operating overseas by United States authorities. The global crypto market has been witnessing a wave of minor recovery rallies. The cumulative market cap hovers around $2.6 trillion. According to the release, Authorities said that the funds were “restrained” through a mix of legal processes and voluntary cooperation from crypto exchanges. This was part of a major campaign launched to dismantle scam centers that have bilked victims out of billions.

United States government goes all out against scams

The operation went ahead with just freezing funds only. United States officials confirmed criminal charges against two Chinese nationals. They are accused of running a crypto fraud compound in Myanmar and attempting to expand operations into Cambodia. However, the crackdown also included the seizure of a Telegram channel that was used to recruit trafficked workers into scam centers,

It added that the victims were allegedly forced to impersonate banks and law enforcement agencies to defraud Americans. As reported, the authorities had shut down 503 fake investment websites tied to the scheme. US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro has described the effort as part of a government-wide push to combat cyber-enabled fraud. She stated that they have charged the Chinese bosses who ran a scam compound in Burma. She highlighted that the Office continues to work to identify funds stolen from victims.

Pirro noted that the current administration is lock-step in combating these scams, and we are not done. The $700 million figure represents funds linked to crypto scams and money laundering. Authorities are now seeking to forfeit the property and potentially return it to the victims. The effort is coordinated with multiple agencies. This includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Secret Service. However, financial regulators and international partners are also a part of it.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said the goal is to ensure that overseas fraud networks can no longer operate beyond the reach of US enforcement. “Fraudsters who target Americans from overseas may believe they cannot be reached,” Duva said. “We are working to ensure they cannot operate with impunity.” Before the operation, the United States Treasury Department had announced sanctions against Cambodian operators linked to scam centers.

On the other hand, the State Department announced rewards for information leading to the recovery of funds linked to the so-called Tai Chang scam network in Myanmar. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the admin would continue targeting fraud networks “no matter where they operate or how well-connected they are.” Meanwhile, officials say the operation is ongoing, and the $700 million figure may not be the final tally.

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Grewal also mentioned that policymakers are starting to realize they need to find the right balance between encouraging innovation and providing clear regulations. The biggest point of debate right now is whether stablecoin yields could cause money to flow out of traditional bank deposits. Banks have been pressing lawmakers to put crypto platforms under the same rules they follow. Grewal pushed back on that fear, saying there’s simply no real-world evidence to back it up.

Coinbase challenges bank concerns

In his statement, Grewal admitted the theory might sound reasonable on paper, but stressed that the actual data doesn’t show any deposit flight happening. “I can understand why people worry that stablecoins might pull deposits away from banks, especially community banks,” he said. He also cautioned that policymakers should not make significant decisions on hypotheticals and what-ifs.

Grewal argues that the issues with the banking industry cannot be attributed to the innovation of stablecoins. He reiterated that the law must safeguard consumers but leave space for new technology to develop. Even as things look like they’re moving ahead, there’s still plenty of friction. In a recent X video, Cardano founder Charles Hoskin heavily criticized Coinbase.

He stated that the exchange is more concerned with stablecoin yield revenue than with increased regulatory transparency. “Coinbase is the ONLY GROUP Blocking CLARITY Act,” Hoskinson noted. According to Hoskinson, Coinbase’s actions will delay the legislative process, including token classification under federal law. Senate leaders plan to hold a markup session of the Senate Banking Committee sometime in the second half of April.

Senator Cynthia Lummis said that the debate over stablecoin yield is pretty much settled, “99% resolved.” At the same time, Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks just put forward a compromise proposal. The proposal would ban passive yield on idle stablecoin balances. Meanwhile, Tim Scott is expected to announce the exact schedule for markup soon, once everyone’s back from the Easter break.

The Clarity Act is on a very strict legislative timetable. Once a committee markup is successful, the bill must go to the Senate floor, iron out some differences with the House version, and finally pass before it reaches the president’s desk. Notably, back in July 2025, the House of Representatives passed its version of the Clarity Act with a solid 294–134 vote.

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The headlines concerning the TRUMP token were positive after it returned to the green column after it was announced that President Trump would invite the top 297 holders to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago. The other update about the House Oversight Committee’s show of intent to keep digging into the Epstein files is a more ambiguous issue, especially for people like Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, who believe that the Trump administration is using the Iran military conflict as a distraction from criticism of its handling of the files.

TRUMP token gains value amid the Iran war

Since the beginning of the conflict in Iran, there have been conspiracies and theories concerning the situation. In addition, political critics have suggested that the Trump administration leaned into the “war machine” to distract people from the long-awaited release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. However, today’s news headlines were dominated by prison guard testimonies and Mar-a-Lago luncheons, showing that the public’s demand for accountability is still active.

The Solana-based memecoin TRUMP witnessed a massive surge of over 50% earlier today after it was announced by the token’s team that the top 297 holders of the coin would be invited to an exclusive Gala Luncheon at the Mar-a-Lago residence on April 25, 2026. The event has been explained as a high-level crypto and business conference featuring President Donald Trump as the keynote speaker.

A previous dinner held last year at a Trump-owned golf club also caused a significant price increase. Lawmakers have also shown concerns about the President profiting from the crypto industry, and criticized the dinner. Before this spike, TRUMP was trading near an all-time low of approximately $2.75, a 96% drop from its January 2025 peak of $75.35. However, despite this poor performance, whales have been quietly accumulating the token.

Is the Iran conflict overshadowing the Epstein files update?

The House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced on national television that the committee intends to bring in Tova Noel for a transcribed interview. Noel was one of the two Metropolitan Correctional Center guards on duty the night Epstein died. Records show that Noel made a $5,000 cash deposit just ten days before Epstein’s death, but the Department of Justice allegedly never investigated it.

Comer noted that suspicious activity reports are rarely filed for sums under $10,000. Documents suggest Noel searched Google for the “latest on Epstein in jail” just minutes before he was found dead. Comer stated that “most people on the committee aren’t confident 100% that Epstein’s death was by suicide,” and they are seeking answers on whether the government was involved in destroying or hiding evidence.

A second batch of Epstein-related documents containing FBI interview materials that allegedly implicate several high-level elites was released on March 5, but public interest in these files plummeted almost immediately as U.S. and Israeli air campaigns against Iran began dominating the news. Senator Jeff Merkley suggested that the two events are connected, claiming the administration wanted to get the files “off the front page.”

Iran has continued to threaten that it will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, which could drive oil prices to $120 a barrel. General Michael Flynn, who briefly served as national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration, made it clear that a reckoning would come for the “degenerates” that Epstein enticed. “Make Accountability Great Again” has become a rallying cry for those who believe the still unnamed contacts of the disgraced financier must finally face the consequences of their actions.

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