Binance Facilitated Billions in Iranian Funding Despite Red Flags
In new reporting from the WSJ, Internal Binance compliance reports indicate that Iranian financier Babak Zanjani moved $850 million through the exchange over two years. Billions more allegedly flowed to networks funding Iran's military, with transactions continuing into 2026, despite Binance investigators flagging accounts as money-laundering operations. The activity persisted even after Binance's 2023 guilty plea and $4.3 billion fine for sanctions violations. Foreign law enforcement officials report tracking Iranian transactions via Binance as recently as this month. Binance of course disputes the claims.
Bitcoin Fort Knox Round 2
Yesterday a bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Nick Begich and co-led by Democrat Jared Golden, introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act – a rebranded push to turn Trump’s strategic bitcoin reserve idea into actual law. The bill would direct Treasury to build and hold a bitcoin reserve for at least 20 years, with the headline goal of acquiring 1 million BTC over five years – roughly 5% of bitcoin’s total supply. Begich’s pitch is simple: the U.S. owns about 5% of all gold ever mined, so it should own the same share of bitcoin. Of course, we have heard versions of this promise before, and a bill is not the same thing as actual buying. But ARMA would move the reserve from executive-order territory into something more durable. Read more →
Jane Street Accused of Insider Trading in Terra Collapse
Liquidators overseeing Terraform Labs' bankruptcy have unredacted a lawsuit accusing Jane Street, co-founder Robert Granieri, and employees Bryce Pratt and Michael Huang of using insider information to profit from Terra's collapse. The suit alleges Pratt used a secret Telegram chat called "Bryce's secret" to relay non-public information from Terraform employees to Jane Street, enabling the firm to exit its $192 million UST position on May 7, 2022 – the day before UST collapsed to near-zero. Jane Street allegedly pocketed $19 million on UST shorts and $115 million on Luna shorts. Jane Street denies the claims, calling the suit "baseless" and attributing Terra losses to management fraud. Read more →
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