Coin holders chow down with Trump

• President Donald Trump held an exclusive dinner Thursday night at Trump National Golf Club in Washington for the top 220 holders of his Trump trump-2%Official Trump meme coin.
• The gathering has sparked criticism from both parties as a broad attempt to monetize the presidency, violating federal bribery laws. The White House maintains the dinner followed ethical guidelines but has declined to reveal the identities of the guests.

• Polygon co-founder Bjelic announces departure

  • Mihailo Bjelic, one of four co-founders of the Polygon pol-2.34%POL (ex-MATIC) network, revealed his decision to step down from the Polygon Foundation board and reduce his day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs.
  • Co-founder Sandeep Nailwal acknowledged Bjelic’s contributions to the network and offered his support for Bjelic’s future endeavors.

  • World Liberty Financial disputes Binance collaboration report

    • World Liberty Financial co-founder Zak Folkman denied a Wall Street Journal report suggesting Binance founder Changpeng Zhao helped in foreign introductions for the Trump-associated DeFi platform.
    • Folkman characterized claims that Zhao acted as a “facilitator” or “fixer” for Folkman’s fellow WLFI co-founder, Zach Witkoff, as “not only false, it’s laughable.”

    • Semler Scientific adds $50 million in Bitcoin

      • The medical equipment company acquired 455 Bitcoin btc-1.04%Bitcoin for $50 million. Through its at-the-market equity offering program, the purchase was made for an average of $109,801 per Bitcoin.
      • Semler Scientific posted a 22.2% year-to-date Bitcoin yield in the first quarter of this year.

      • Major US banks explore joint stablecoin venture

        • Leading financial firms including JPMorgan, Bank of America, CitiGroup, and Wells Fargo are discussing a potential collaborative stablecoin project, according to Wall Street Journal reporting.

        • trategy announces $2.1 billion preferred stock offering

          • The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, filed with the SEC on Thursday to raise $2.1 billion through additional preferred stock issuance.
          • The Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock (STRF) offers institutional investors a 10% annual cash dividend with an escalation mechanism that increases payouts if Strategy misses payments.
          • The firm also acquired an additional 7,390 BTC for approximately $764.9 million between May 12-18.

          • Cetus Protocol suffers $223 million hack

            • The largest decentralized exchange and liquidity provider on the Sui sui-3.41%Sui network reported a major security breach resulting in $223 million worth of stolen tokens.
            • According to Cetus Protocol’s X announcement, $162 million of the stolen funds have been “paused.” The team is also working alongside the Sui Foundation to recover remaining assets.

            • FIFA partners with Avalanche for blockchain initiative

              • Football’s global governing body announced plans to use Avalanche’s avax-2.62%Avalanche network infrastructure to power its dedicated layer-1 blockchain.
              • The FIFA Blockchain will function as an Avalanche
                

                Bitcoin reaches a new all-time high

                • Bitcoin rallied past its previous all-time high in the USD and USDT markets on Wednesday and extended gains on Thursday, climbing to a peak of $111,880. Bitcoin’s breakout failed to usher euphoria among traders and the reaction on derivatives traders was muted, relative to previous BTC price rallies.

                • SafeMoon CEO convicted on fraud charges

                  • A federal jury found SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony guilty on three counts of fraud related to a cryptocurrency scheme that allegedly defrauded investors of millions.
                  • Karony faces up to 45 years in prison on charges including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

                  • World raises $135 million in token sale

                    • Sam Altman’s blockchain project World completed a $135 million private token sale of its World (WLD) token to venture capital firms a16z and Bain Capital Crypto.

                    • SEC sues Unicoin

                      • The SEC filed a lawsuit against Unicoin and its executives based on violations of securities laws in their $100 million token raise.
                      • The SEC alleges the team made “false and misleading statements and material omissions” across various public forums during their fundraising activities.
                        

                        India’s Supreme Court questions crypto policy delays

                        • The Supreme Court has questioned why India’s central government cannot formulate a “clear cut” cryptocurrency regulation policy, according to an Economic Times report.
                        • Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh noted concerns about a “parallel under-market” for cryptocurrency that could negatively impact the economy.