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- Samourai Wallet Accuses U.S. Prosecutors of Withholding Evidence
Samourai Wallet Accuses U.S. Prosecutors of Withholding Evidence
Plus, 💸 Trump’s dual donor dinners, 🪙 First BNB ETF filing off the blocks, 🧾 KuCoin BTC reserves plunge, ⚡ Saylor-inspired Solana plays sprout, and more!
Juan Aranovich
May 06, 2025
Hi! In today’s edition:
🕵️ A crypto team alleges dirty deeds
🎟️ Trump sells dinners to donors
🧾 VanEck files for first BNB spot ETF
🔍 KuCoin’s KYC move sparks BTC exodus
⚡ Solana treasury plays mimic Saylor
The Financial Freedom Report explores the role currency and banking play in the civil liberties and human rights struggles of those living under authoritarian regimes and how Bitcoin is used to push back.
By Tikta and Steven Ehrlich
Samourai Wallet's legal team alleged on Monday that U.S federal prosecutors had suppressed critical advice from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) showing that the crypto mixer did not require a money transmitter license before FinCEN charged its executives with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
In a letter yesterday to Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Samourai Wallet’s lawyers said that prosecutors had been told by FinCEN six months before they filed charges that, under existing guidance, the firm would not qualify as a “money services business” requiring a FinCEN license.
The company’s lawyers also claimed that prosecutors had been required to disclose their discussions with FinCEN two weeks after unsealing the charges, but that they instead withheld that information for more than a year.
The allegedly suppressed evidence came to light only after a so-called “Brady request,” which obligates the government to hand over any evidence that could exonerate a defendant.
The U.S. government alleges that Samourai’s mixing service facilitated more than $2 billion in illegal transactions and enabled money laundering worth over $100 million by online black markets and scammers.
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to raise millions of dollars this month through two high-profile, crypto-focused fundraising dinners — one targeting wealthy political donors and another for top holders of his TRUMP memecoin.
Monday’s “Crypto & AI Innovators Dinner” dinner, held to raise funds for the MAGA Inc. super PAC, charged $1.5 million a plate, CNBC reported.
The May 22 dinner for the 220 top TRUMP memecoin holders has already driven up demand for the token, whose value surged more than 50% after its announcement.
“I’m not profiting from anything,” Trump said in response to questions about his memecoin from an NBC News Meet The Press journalist. “All I’m doing is, I started this long before the election. I want crypto. I think crypto’s important because if we don’t do it, China’s going to. And it’s new, it’s very popular, it’s very hot.”
“But I want crypto because a lot of people, you know millions of people want it,” he said.
Heavyweight asset manager VanEck has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund directly tracking Binance Coin (BNB), the native token of the BNB Chain.
According to the firm’s S1 filing, the fund will hold actual BNB tokens in custody, with the token’s value calculated based on prices from the top five trading platforms.
A private investor has already supplied the seed capital for the ETF by first acquiring seed shares, which were subsequently converted into seed creation baskets of ETF shares whose value is based on BNB's index price at the time of the exchange.
The ETF application is the first attempt to bring a spot BNB ETF to the U.S. market, and news of the filing led to a 10% jump in BNB’s trading volume.
As of 1:30 a.m. ET, BNB was trading at $595.85, up 1.4% over the previous 24 hours.
Crypto exchange KuCoin has seen its bitcoin reserves plummet by more than 77% since it announced almost two years ago that it would implement mandatory know-your-customer (KYC) verification for all new users and require KYC checks for existing users to access key services.
The exchange’s bitcoin holdings had crashed to just 4,100 BTC as of this week from 18,300 BTC on June 28, 2023, when it announced the change, which took effect two-and-a-half weeks later on July 15, according to data from onchain analytics firm CryptoQuant.
“While it’s true that the long-term trend of declining BTC reserves on [centralized exchanges] is observed across the industry, KuCoin’s case is extreme,” pseudonymous analyst OnChainSchool said. “The timing and magnitude of this outflow strongly correlate with the enforcement of KYC.”
“This underscores how sensitive users remain to compliance-related changes, especially when privacy are [sic] perceived to be at risk,” OnChainSchool said.
As the bitcoin treasury company market gets increasingly crowded, companies are extending Michael Saylor’s Strategy playbook to Solana.
Solana was one of 2024’s standout performers, and multiple public companies are now racing to become leveraged plays on the volatile token, just as Strategy did with bitcoin five years ago.
But with new players piling in and early gains already rolling, the real question is: Can any of them replicate Saylor’s magic, or will the Solana gold rush end in a crash?
🧾🇺🇸 Four U.S. House Republicans on Monday introduced a 212-page draft bill to split crypto oversight between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission based on whether or not they are fully decentralized, revive elements of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, and enshrine rights such as self-custody and disclosures, all while aligning with President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto agenda.
🚪 U.S. House Democrats plan to boycott Tuesday’s crypto hearing in protest over Trump-linked initiatives, citing growing concerns about his financial stake in digital assets and claiming Republicans are using legislation to boost his influence over stablecoins.
⏳ The SEC requested public feedback on Monday before making a decision on the Canary Capital Litecoin ETF, delaying its ruling on the only major crypto fund proposal it hadn’t yet paused amid a broader wave of ETF slowdowns under new Chair Paul Atkins.
🧑💻 Police in Israel arrested dual Russian-Israeli citizen Alexander Gurevich at Tel Aviv airport last week for allegedly initiating the 2022 Nomad bridge exploit, which drained $190 million, with U.S. prosecutors seeking his extradition on money-laundering and cybercrime charges.
📈 Ethereum investment products attracted $149 million in inflows last week, marking two straight weeks of positive sentiment, while total crypto product inflows hit $2 billion, driven mainly by U.S.-based bitcoin ETFs.
🚫 Indonesia has suspended ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman’s World project over licensing violations and alleged misuse of legal entity credentials, halting operations just days after its U.S. rollout and amid reports of suspicious activity involving its biometric data tools.
🧾 Real estate-focused DeFi Development Corp. is acquiring a Solana validator business for $3.5 million to directly stake its SOL holdings, gaining control of 500,000 SOL worth $75.5 million and absorbing all associated staking rewards to boost protocol-native revenues.
🪙 Strategy bought 1,895 BTC for $180 million last week, its smallest acquisition this year, funded by $180 million in stock sales, while also unveiling a fresh $42 billion fundraising plan despite reporting a $5.9 billion quarterly loss due to asset depreciation.
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