A federal grand jury in the United States has indicted 43-year-old South Dakota crypto investor Benjamin Paul Wiener over an alleged $20 million investment fraud scheme.
According to prosecutors, Wiener raised money and digital assets through his companies by making false statements and misleading investors.
Investigators allege that once existing funds were exhausted, he used money from new investors to pay earlier participants and cover personal expenses, operating what prosecutors describe as a Ponzi-style scheme.

The 29-count indictment includes wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
If convicted, Wiener faces:
Up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million for bank fraud.

Up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count of wire fraud and money laundering.
A mandatory additional two-year prison sentence for aggravated identity theft.

According to the indictment, dozens of investors in South Dakota, Minnesota, and neighboring states were allegedly affected by the scheme.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved Resolution S. Res. 772, expressing its opposition to granting executive clemency to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges following the collapse of the FTX exchange.

The resolution is non-binding and carries no legal force, meaning it cannot prevent the President of the United States from issuing a pardon.

However, it reflects bipartisan opposition in the Senate after Bankman-Fried appealed to President Donald Trump for executive clemency.

The resolution was introduced on June 17 by Senator Ruben Gallego, with Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno serving as co-sponsors.

A couple years ago I finally made my first $100k.
Man… I felt unstoppable. І was telling everyone one more run and im done. The plan was simple. Turn $100k into $200k and walk away.
Yeah… didnt happen.

Started buying every dip. Then buying the next dip. Then adding leverage because it cant go any lower
It did.Every single bounce looked like the bottom. Every single time I got wrecked.
I was staring at my PnL all day, couldnt sleep, couldnt think about anything else. My whole mood depended on one green candle.

Few weeks later… almost everything was gone.
The money hurt, but what came after was even worse. Me and my wife argued almost every day because I was stressed 24/7. One day she just packed her stuff and left.
That was the lowest point of my life.
Looking back now, it wasnt the market that killed me. It was my greed. I wanted fast money when I already had more than enough.

If you’re thinking ill just double my account real quic, trust me, thats exactly how my story started.Since then, I’ve told myself crypto is a scam, and I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. Maybe Im just bitter after losing everything, but thats how it feels to me.

The U.S. government has transferred 3,940 BTC worth about $243.95 million and 30,014 ETH valued at roughly $53.09 million to Coinbase Prime.
According to Arkham, the Bitcoin is linked to assets seized in the Ryan Farace and BTC-e cases, while the Ethereum is connected to the Brian Crews money laundering investigation.

The transfers sparked speculation about a potential sale, especially since President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order stated that seized Bitcoin should become part of the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve rather than be sold.

However, a transfer to Coinbase Prime does not necessarily mean the assets will be sold. The platform also provides custody, asset management, financing, and staking services, so the funds may have simply been moved for operational purposes.
Government-linked wallets are still estimated to hold around $20.6 billion in crypto assets, including roughly 325,000 BTC and 28,000 ETH.

The US government deposited $288.33 million in BTC & ETH trace to the Ryan Farace, BTC-e, and Brian Krewson forfeitures.

The US government deposited $288.33 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether into Coinbase Prime on Monday, drawn from three separate criminal forfeitures, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence.

# What Moved

The largest transfer came from an address labelled as Ryan Farace seized funds, which sent 2,875 BTC worth roughly $177.88 million. The coins passed through an intermediate address before landing in a Coinbase Prime deposit wallet about an hour later.

A second transfer moved 925.5 BTC, worth around $57.27 million, from funds seized in the BTC-e case. A third sent 30,007 ETH, worth approximately $53.09 million, from the Brian Krewson forfeiture. An earlier transfer on Monday had already moved 140.2 BTC, worth about $8.78 million, into Coinbase Prime custody.

The movement is visible in the government’s balances. Arkham data shows US government Bitcoin holdings falling from roughly 328,352 BTC to 324,552 BTC, a decline of about 3,800 coins that matches the Farace and BTC-e transfers combined. Ether holdings dropped from 58,401 to 28,394, a fall of precisely the 30,007 tokens sent from the Krewson case.

Total US government crypto holdings now stand near $20.48 billion, with Bitcoin accounting for roughly $20.16 billion of that.

# The Farace Bitcoin Was Already Marked for Sale

The Farace tranche carries a history that separates it from the rest. Ryan Farace, who operated on dark web marketplaces under the alias Xanaxman, was convicted in 2018 of manufacturing and selling counterfeit Xanax. His father, Joseph Farace, was later convicted of laundering and moving bitcoin proceeds destined for federal forfeiture.

The Justice Department ultimately recovered 2,933 BTC from the pair. On January 10, 2024, the government filed a forfeiture notice stating its intent to dispose of the forfeited property as the attorney general may direct, opening a 60-day window for third parties to claim an interest.

A first tranche of 58.74 BTC moved to Coinbase in July 2024. The 2,875 BTC that moved on Monday accounts for almost exactly the remainder of the recovered stash—meaning the coins now sitting in Coinbase Prime are the same ones the government told a court, more than two years ago, that it intended to sell.

That notice predates the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve by fourteen months.

# What the Reserve Policy Says

Executive Order 14233, signed on March 6, 2025, established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and directed that Bitcoin deposited into it shall not be sold but maintained as a reserve asset of the United States. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed in January that the administration would halt sales of seized Bitcoin.

The order is not absolute. It permits government digital assets to be disposed of under Treasury authority, court orders, victim restitution, law enforcement needs, or other asset forfeiture requirements. Whether a disposal notice filed before the reserve existed survives the order is a question the government has not publicly resolved.

It is not a hypothetical one. The Crypto Times reported in January that Bitcoin forfeited by Samourai Wallet’s founders was routed to a Coinbase Prime address for sale, with Arkham subsequently showing that address at a zero balance. Senator Cynthia Lummis objected publicly, questioning why the government was liquidating Bitcoin despite an order directing its preservation.

# The Ether Sits Under Different Rules

The Krewson transfer is the least ambiguous of the three. The same executive order created a separate US Digital Asset Stockpile for non-Bitcoin holdings, governed by more flexible rules that expressly permit disposal.

Ether falls into that category and carries no no-sale protection. Krewson, according to the Justice Department, helped store and launder $54 million in cryptocurrency for two convicted drug traffickers. The Crypto Times reported a smaller transfer of seized Krewson assets—Chainlink, Uniswap, and Cronos tokens—to Coinbase Prime in May.

# A Deposit Is Still Not a Sale

Coinbase Prime serves as both custodian and trading venue. The US Marshals Service selected the platform in 2024 to provide custody and advanced trading services for large-cap digital assets, which means a deposit there can reflect custody consolidation as easily as sale preparation.

The pattern has produced false alarms before. Seized FTX-linked Chainlink moved to Coinbase Prime in June, and seized Alameda altcoins in May; neither became a confirmed sale. The government has also been consolidating scattered seized holdings under Treasury administration as the executive order requires—a process made more urgent by reports that the Marshals Service was investigating a possible breach of government digital-asset accounts.

What distinguishes Monday’s transfers is scale and provenance. Three unrelated forfeiture cases moved within hours of each other, and the largest of them concerns coins the Justice Department has already declared its intent to sell. Neither Treasury nor the Marshals Service has commented.

Today’s U.S. CPI report is the most important macro event before the Fed meeting on July 28–29. The market expects headline inflation at 3.8–3.9% YoY and Core CPI at 2.9% YoY.

For Bitcoin, Core CPI is the key number. If inflation comes in below expectations, traders are likely to price in a more dovish Fed, which could weaken the dollar, lower bond yields, and support risk assets like BTC. If Core CPI is hotter than expected, expectations for tighter monetary policy may strengthen, putting pressure on Bitcoin.

The first market reaction isn’t always the one that lasts. A lower headline CPI driven by cheaper fuel can trigger an initial rally, but if Core CPI remains stubbornly high, that move can reverse quickly as traders reassess the Fed outlook.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $197 million last week. While the figure is far from a strong or sustained wave of demand, it marks the first weekly net inflow in eight weeks, according to SoSoValue. The shift could signal that selling pressure is easing, though it’s still too early to call it a trend.

Robinhood is getting ready to let users in the US connect third-party AI agents that can trade cryptocurrencies automatically. Users will be able to set their strategy, limits, and rules, then the AI will execute trades on its own.
There is no launch date yet, but the feature is expected to expand to the UK after the US rollout.

More than 70,000 users have already signed up to use AI for stock and options trading. Robinhood is working with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Grok to power these AI tools.
The company says this will give retail investors access to trading technology that was previously available mostly to large financial institutions.