🐕 Wild Dog Crypto · Morning Briefing (October 23)
1️⃣ A Circle shareholder has sued the sitting president directly. J. Benjamin Greenberg—a former Circle software engineer who holds about 10,000 Class A shares—filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The defendants: Trump, World Liberty Financial and its affiliated entities, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The allegation: two UAE-linked deals violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. First: before taking office, 49% of World Liberty was sold for $500 million to an investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon. Second: Abu Dhabi’s MGX used the USD1 stablecoin to pump $2 billion into Binance—according to the complaint, just “weeks after Trump took office.” The suit calls this “blatant corruption,” says it made Circle “unable to compete with USDC,” and demands a full investigation into all foreign payments, disgorgement of illegal gains, and damages. The White House called it a “boring lawsuit” and denied any conflicts of interest; Circle distanced itself from the case, calling it an individual shareholder’s action; World Liberty denied the allegations. Honestly: a stablecoin shareholder is suing the president over a rival coin and foreign money—the crypto version of the emoluments fight. Let the show begin.
2️⃣ The Pentagon has issued a direct ban on betting in prediction markets. A memo dated October 20 from Defense Secretary Hegseth, obtained by DefenseScoop on Thursday, bars all Defense Department personnel from betting with nonpublic information—including on “traditional gambling platforms and prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi,” whether the information is classified or not. The memo says: “Our adversaries are watching the movements in these markets” and “the lives of service members often depend on the enemy not knowing what comes next.” Violators will face action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or federal law. For context: Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke was indicted in April this year for allegedly using classified intelligence about the operation to capture Maduro to make around $400,000 on Polymarket (he has pleaded not guilty); CNN also reported in August that more than 150 wallets appeared to be trading on military insider information. Put simply: when the Pentagon has to issue a specific warning telling soldiers “don’t bet on war,” insider trading in prediction markets has gotten out of control.
3️⃣ a16z has renamed its crypto fund—the word “crypto” didn’t survive the meeting. Andreessen Horowitz has renamed a16z Crypto to “a16z Frontier,” expanding its focus to AI, autonomous machines, and biotech. Crypto investing will continue (led by Chris Dixon and jointly managed by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Eddy Lazzarin, and Guy Wuollet), and the official line is still bullish. Dixon’s reasoning: blockchain has moved into the background—“Wall Street and fintech companies roll out blockchain-based products every day. Does that make them crypto companies?” The fund’s last disclosed size was $2.2 billion (the firm raised over $15 billion in January this year). Honestly, one of the top VCs that shouted loudest about crypto last cycle apparently no longer thinks “crypto” looks good on a business card. The new story is “AI agents paying each other with tokens.” The official line calls it “expansion”; old hands on the timeline see the industry’s biggest brand hedging against the word.
4️⃣ A senator wants to investigate Tether’s payments to a former White House crypto adviser. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote to Tether and Nxum Group on Thursday. The consulting firm was co-founded by Bo Hines, a former Trump crypto adviser who now leads Tether’s U.S. business. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Nxum received large consulting fees from Tether while Hines was still at the White House helping shape crypto policy—including stablecoin policies that directly benefited Tether. Blumenthal called the terms “highly unusual,” raising “serious ethical and legal concerns,” and demanded payment records, wallet addresses, and lobbying communications by November 3. Tether says outside counsel investigated and found no issues. CoinDesk previously reported that Hines’s company was a major ad buyer for a Tether-affiliated PAC and earned millions of dollars. Honestly: a White House crypto adviser collecting consulting fees from the largest stablecoin issuer while writing stablecoin policy—the revolving door is spinning so fast it might take off. Democrats are in the minority now, but the books are already on the table.
5️⃣ Coinbase has been fined in Ireland again. Again. The Central Bank of Ireland fined Coinbase Ireland €3.25 million (about $3.6 million) for breaches of electronic money regulations covering safeguarding customer funds and outsourcing obligations, between November 2020 and August 2025. The findings: overreliance on its U.S. parent for safeguarding procedures, inadequate local oversight, and an average 0.54% shortfall in designated safeguarding accounts in 2023 and the first half of 2024—all caused by a code bug. A settlement was reached on October 21, with the fine reduced by 30% from the original €4.65 million; it still needs approval from the Irish High Court. Coinbase admitted the violations and self-reported them, saying no customers lost money or were unable to withdraw funds. But here’s the thing: this is the second time in a year—Coinbase Europe was fined €21.5 million for anti-money laundering failures in May. Folks, “protecting your money” is the entire product of an electronic money institution. Getting caught twice in one year has to sting. Do better.
Just the facts. No predictions, no shilling. 🐕
Not investment advice.
1️⃣ A Circle shareholder has sued the sitting president directly. J. Benjamin Greenberg—a former Circle software engineer who holds about 10,000 Class A shares—filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The defendants: Trump, World Liberty Financial and its affiliated entities, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The allegation: two UAE-linked deals violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. First: before taking office, 49% of World Liberty was sold for $500 million to an investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon. Second: Abu Dhabi’s MGX used the USD1 stablecoin to pump $2 billion into Binance—according to the complaint, just “weeks after Trump took office.” The suit calls this “blatant corruption,” says it made Circle “unable to compete with USDC,” and demands a full investigation into all foreign payments, disgorgement of illegal gains, and damages. The White House called it a “boring lawsuit” and denied any conflicts of interest; Circle distanced itself from the case, calling it an individual shareholder’s action; World Liberty denied the allegations. Honestly: a stablecoin shareholder is suing the president over a rival coin and foreign money—the crypto version of the emoluments fight. Let the show begin.
2️⃣ The Pentagon has issued a direct ban on betting in prediction markets. A memo dated October 20 from Defense Secretary Hegseth, obtained by DefenseScoop on Thursday, bars all Defense Department personnel from betting with nonpublic information—including on “traditional gambling platforms and prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi,” whether the information is classified or not. The memo says: “Our adversaries are watching the movements in these markets” and “the lives of service members often depend on the enemy not knowing what comes next.” Violators will face action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or federal law. For context: Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke was indicted in April this year for allegedly using classified intelligence about the operation to capture Maduro to make around $400,000 on Polymarket (he has pleaded not guilty); CNN also reported in August that more than 150 wallets appeared to be trading on military insider information. Put simply: when the Pentagon has to issue a specific warning telling soldiers “don’t bet on war,” insider trading in prediction markets has gotten out of control.
3️⃣ a16z has renamed its crypto fund—the word “crypto” didn’t survive the meeting. Andreessen Horowitz has renamed a16z Crypto to “a16z Frontier,” expanding its focus to AI, autonomous machines, and biotech. Crypto investing will continue (led by Chris Dixon and jointly managed by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Eddy Lazzarin, and Guy Wuollet), and the official line is still bullish. Dixon’s reasoning: blockchain has moved into the background—“Wall Street and fintech companies roll out blockchain-based products every day. Does that make them crypto companies?” The fund’s last disclosed size was $2.2 billion (the firm raised over $15 billion in January this year). Honestly, one of the top VCs that shouted loudest about crypto last cycle apparently no longer thinks “crypto” looks good on a business card. The new story is “AI agents paying each other with tokens.” The official line calls it “expansion”; old hands on the timeline see the industry’s biggest brand hedging against the word.
4️⃣ A senator wants to investigate Tether’s payments to a former White House crypto adviser. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote to Tether and Nxum Group on Thursday. The consulting firm was co-founded by Bo Hines, a former Trump crypto adviser who now leads Tether’s U.S. business. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Nxum received large consulting fees from Tether while Hines was still at the White House helping shape crypto policy—including stablecoin policies that directly benefited Tether. Blumenthal called the terms “highly unusual,” raising “serious ethical and legal concerns,” and demanded payment records, wallet addresses, and lobbying communications by November 3. Tether says outside counsel investigated and found no issues. CoinDesk previously reported that Hines’s company was a major ad buyer for a Tether-affiliated PAC and earned millions of dollars. Honestly: a White House crypto adviser collecting consulting fees from the largest stablecoin issuer while writing stablecoin policy—the revolving door is spinning so fast it might take off. Democrats are in the minority now, but the books are already on the table.
5️⃣ Coinbase has been fined in Ireland again. Again. The Central Bank of Ireland fined Coinbase Ireland €3.25 million (about $3.6 million) for breaches of electronic money regulations covering safeguarding customer funds and outsourcing obligations, between November 2020 and August 2025. The findings: overreliance on its U.S. parent for safeguarding procedures, inadequate local oversight, and an average 0.54% shortfall in designated safeguarding accounts in 2023 and the first half of 2024—all caused by a code bug. A settlement was reached on October 21, with the fine reduced by 30% from the original €4.65 million; it still needs approval from the Irish High Court. Coinbase admitted the violations and self-reported them, saying no customers lost money or were unable to withdraw funds. But here’s the thing: this is the second time in a year—Coinbase Europe was fined €21.5 million for anti-money laundering failures in May. Folks, “protecting your money” is the entire product of an electronic money institution. Getting caught twice in one year has to sting. Do better.
Just the facts. No predictions, no shilling. 🐕
Not investment advice.