CoinDesk hosted its annual Consensus conference in Toronto this week. It was busy, to put it mildly.

You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.

Read more

The narrative

It's been a hectic week, watching the Senate's ongoing negotiations over its stablecoin bill, trying to track other legislation and the courts (more on that later perhaps) and just generally meeting folks here in Toronto.

Why it matters

Here's a selection of CoinDesk's coverage from the past week.

Breaking it down

• New York Finance Watchdog Harris Says State's BitLicense Is Still a Global Standard
• Anchorage Digital CEO Calls 'Bullshit' on Report of DHS Probe
• Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman Brandon Lutnick Says He Personally Checked Tether’s Reserves
• Trump Still on Track to Sign Crypto Legislation by August, White House's Bo Hines Says
• Banks Exploring Stablecoin Amid Fears of Losing Market Share, BitGo Executive Says
• World Liberty's Stablecoin Now Available on Multiple Networks Via Chainlink
• Trump’s Memecoin, Crypto Stake Make Legislating ‘More Complicated’: Rep. French Hill
• Eric Trump Says He Got Into Crypto Amid Political Attack, Calls Bitcoin 'Digital Gold'
• PayPal Crypto Head Says Banks Are Needed to Unlock Full Stablecoin Potential
• Dave Portnoy Says Meme Coins Are 'Gambling' and Not Built to Last
• Kevin O’Leary: 'I Want More Regulation, And I Want It Now'
• ‘Really Great Example’: Coinbase Praised for Hack Response Amid $400M Crisis
• Stablecoins Bring 'Meaningful Innovation for Global Payments,' Ripple Exec Says

Stories you may have missed

• Coinbase Could Pay Customers Up to $400M for Data Breach: Crypto exchange Coinbase said it suffered a cybersecurity breach wherein malicious actors were able to secure customer names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and bank account details — some of which were masked — by bribing overseas employees. These actors allegedly scammed customers using their personal details, and Coinbase said it would reimburse customers, expecting to pay anywhere between $180 million and $400 million.
• Movement Labs Secretly Promised Advisers Millions in Tokens, Leaked Documents Show: Another scoop by CoinDesk's Sam Kessler reveals that Movement Labs promised to send advisers token allotments, though Movement said those agreements were nonbinding.
• French Minister Agrees on Measures to Protect Crypto Professionals After Kidnappings: Attempted kidnappings of people with crypto or whose loved ones have crypto have become very common recently. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau agreed to heightened security measures.
• Senate's New Stablecoin Draft Doesn't Target Trump's Crypto, Tweaks Big-Tech Approach: The U.S. Senate has new legislative text for its stablecoin bill, with a cloture vote scheduled for Monday. Cloture is the motion to proceed to debate and needs 60 votes in favor to pass, meaning lawmakers will need bipartisan support to advance the bill.
• U.S. Senate's Stablecoin Push Still Alive as Bill May Return to Floor: Sources: CoinDesk reported earlier this week that new legislative text for the Senate's stablecoin bill was coming and there would be a vote soon.
• Telegram Shuts Down 'Largest Illicit Online Marketplace' After Elliptic's Insights: Telegram has shut down Huione Guarantee (which renamed itself Haowang Guarantee), citing research firm Elliptic's work identifying over $27 billion in stablecoin transactions.
• DOJ Will Still Pursue Roman Storm Case Despite Blanche Memo, Prosecutors Say: The Department of Justice said it had reviewed its prosecution of Roman Storm to ensure it is in line with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's April memo on "regulation by prosecution" and would proceed on most of its charges against the Tornado Cash developer.
• SEC Is Probing Coinbase Over User Number Misstatement Concern: Coinbase is having a heck of a week.
• FTX to Pay Over $5B to Creditors as Bankrupt Estate Gears Up for Distribution: FTX creditors will start seeing payouts from the exchange's bankruptcy estate on May 30.
• DOJ Charges 12 With $263M Crypto Theft Linked to Genesis Creditor: The U.S. Department of Justice charged 12 people for allegedly stealing over $263 million, tied to a previous investigation which saw scammers steal north of $243 million from a creditor to bankrupt crypto trading firm Genesis.
• Ripple-SEC Bid for XRP Settlement Rejected by Judge Citing 'Procedural Flaws': The federal judge overseeing the Securities and Exchange Commission's long-running case against Ripple rejected their proposed settlement, citing jurisdiction and procedural concerns.
• Trump-tied World Liberty Financial Rebuffs U.S. Senator's Probe: World Liberty Financial pushed back against Senator Richard Blumenthal's inquiry about its operations.
• CFTC Commissioner Mersinger to Be CEO at Blockchain Association: Commissioner Summer Mersinger will leave the CFTC on May 30 and become the next CEO of the Blockchain Association next month.
• CFTC's Pham Said to Plot Exit, Agency May Be Left Without a Party Majority: Acting Chairman Caroline Pham has told people she intends to depart, perhaps as soon as former Commissioner Brian Quintenz is confirmed by the Senate to become the permanent chair of the agency, CoinDesk's Jesse Hamilton reported.
• CFTC's Christy Goldsmith Romero to Leave Agency at End of Month: Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said she would depart on May 31.

This week

Monday

• 17:00 UTC (1:00 p.m. ET) The SEC held the latest of its crypto roundtables, this time focused on tokenization.

Wednesday

• CoinDesk's Consensus Toronto conference started.

Elsewhere:

• (Variety) Warner Bros. Discovery will rebrand its Max streaming service as HBO Max, after previously rebranding HBO Max as Max. Dream job: Person who rebrands stuff?
• (The New York Times) Buyers of the TRUMP memecoin told the Times that they explicitly want to try and influence policy with the president.
• (The New York Times) A company with a handful of employees that makes videos for TikTok said it planned to buy up to $300 million of TRUMP memecoin tokens. It registered zero revenue last year.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.

See ya’ll next week!