Bo Hines, executive director of President Donald Trump’s White House Crypto Council, has announced his departure to return to the private sector. Key Takeaways: Bo Hines is stepping down as executive director of the White House Crypto Council. During his tenure, the council advanced US crypto policy but fell short on its strategic Bitcoin reserve plans. Hines proposed revaluing US gold holdings to fund Bitcoin purchases without increasing public spending. Hines, appointed in December 2024, confirmed the move on Saturday , expressing gratitude to the crypto community and crediting his collaboration with AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks for helping “position America as the crypto capital of the world.” A successor has yet to be officially named, though independent reporter Eleanor Terrett suggested deputy director Patrick Witt is the leading candidate. Hines-Led Council Shaped US Crypto Policy With July Regulatory Plan Under Hines’ tenure, the council played a key role in shaping US crypto policy, including a July report outlining a regulatory action plan for digital assets. However, the group faced criticism for falling short on its strategic Bitcoin reserve initiative. In January, President Trump signed an executive order establishing both a national crypto stockpile and a strategic Bitcoin reserve. The order prevents the government from selling its BTC holdings and requires “budget-neutral” methods to acquire more, meaning no additional public spending. New BTC can only be obtained through asset seizures or other non-budgetary avenues. Hines proposed one such method in March, suggesting the US revalue its gold holdings, currently on government books at $42.22 per troy ounce, closer to the spot market price of around $3,400. He argued that a portion of the revaluation gains could be converted into Bitcoin, expanding the reserve without increasing public expenditure. “As I return to the private sector, I look forward to continuing my support for the crypto ecosystem as it thrives here in the United States,” Hines wrote. Serving in President Trump’s administration and working alongside our brilliant AI & Crypto Czar @DavidSacks as Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council has been the honor of a lifetime. Together, we have positioned America as the crypto capital of the world. I’m… — Bo Hines (@BoHines) August 9, 2025 Trump Administration Pushes Pro-Crypto Agenda The Trump administration advanced its pro-crypto agenda this week with a series of policy and regulatory moves. President Trump signed an executive order urging regulators to remove barriers that prevent 401(k) plans from including alternative assets such as cryptocurrencies. If implemented, the reforms could allow millions of Americans to allocate retirement funds to Bitcoin and other digital assets through regulated channels. Trump also nominated economist Stephen Miran , a digital asset advocate, to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, signaling continuity in his administration’s pro-crypto stance. The announcement coincided with Bitcoin climbing back above $117,000, highlighting the link between policy developments and market sentiment. In a separate executive order, Trump moved to end “debanking” practices that target lawful crypto firms. The Blockchain Association praised the measures as a “historic shift” that would expand consumer choice, empower wealth-building, and reduce operational barriers for blockchain businesses. The SEC added to the positive momentum by clarifying that certain liquid staking models, such as those involving receipt tokens like stETH, are not securities. SEC Chair Paul Atkins reinforced his commitment to keeping crypto innovation in the U.S., pledging a proactive approach to regulation and a shift away from enforcement-led policymaking. The post White House Digital Assets Adviser Bo Hines Steps Down, Returns to Private Sector appeared first on Cryptonews .
The ongoing speculation about an XRP ETF persists, even after BlackRock publicly stated it has no current plans for one. Analysts remain optimistic about future approvals. BlackRock’s spokesperson confirmed no
Ripple has completed its August monthly XRP unlock after some speculation about whether it would eventually come
Making optimistic statements about the future of Ethereum, Bitmine Director Tom Lee announced that his company's strategic goal is to acquire 5% of the total ETH supply. In an interview with Bankless, Lee stated that Ethereum is one of the biggest macro investment opportunities of the next decade. Lee argued that the Ethereum price is still at low levels and its potential is higher than Bitcoin, saying, “Bitcoin traded sideways for most of 2017, but exploded at the end of the year. Ethereum is at a similar point right now.” Related News: Ethereum Begins Major Rally, One of Its Founders Sells Again - Here Are the Details Lee, who said that the company is aggressively purchasing ETH at around $3,500, predicted that the price could reach at least $4,000 in the short term and the $7,000-$15,000 range by the end of the year. Lee highlighted Bitmine's strong balance sheet and high liquidity, noting that they have a daily trading volume of $1.6 billion, which directly accelerates growth in the sector. He emphasized that Ethereum reserve strategies are not just an alternative to ETFs but a critical infrastructure for the ecosystem, adding that additional income can be generated through staking revenues and other methods. *This is not investment advice. Continue Reading: Tom Lee, Who Is Said to Be Behind the Ethereum Rally, Reveals His Latest Predictions About ETH
Why BlackRock could still file for XRP ETF after saying it won't
Economist and crypto critic Peter Schiff recently gave a surprising endorsement for bitcoin donations to Ron Paul, who celebrated his 90th birthday on August 9. In a post on X, Schiff stated that such donations are “actually something useful” because the Ron Paul Institute can simply convert the cryptocurrency to fiat currency and “put it
Bitcoin is at risk of crashing if the Nasdaq 100 index faces a significant correction, according to economist Henrik Zeberg, who cites market bubbles as a concern. Bitcoin and Nasdaq
KuCoin’s native token KCS surged 15%, hitting a multi-month high and ranking among the top market gainers. At press time, KCS remains up 9% on the day and has gained over 51% year-to-date. Notably, the price surge coincided with an announcement from the KuCoin CEO earlier today. The KuCoin exchange’s native cryptocurrency, KCS, is standing out as one of the best-performing crypto assets today, posting an impressive 15% price surge. The coin touched a multi-month high of $12.38 earlier today. Considering KCS traded at a low of $10.17 just this past Friday, it is now up by 21.7%. Interestingly, KuCoin is seeing this notable price surge even as leading altcoins like XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin undergo a correction. For instance, XRP is down by 5% in the last 24 hours, while Dogecoin and Solana are both down by about 2%. Meanwhile, KCS remains up by 9% at press time, trading at $11.99. Over the past year, the coin has risen by 51% at its current price. KuCoin Token Among Top Gainers BC Wong, CEO of the KuCoin exchange, highlighted the platform’s token performance in a tweet today, noting it had surged 15.43% over the last 24 hours. Wong added that… The post KuCoin (KCS) Soars 15%, Becomes Top Gainer: What’s Behind the Sudden Pump? appeared first on Coin Edition .
RWA blockchain Pharos Network has revealed that it’s working with lending network Morpho to roll out native lending backed by tokenized real-world assets. The collaboration will see new lending capabilities take root on Pharos, adding greater utility to RWAs and giving them DeFi-like powers, strengthening the incentives for holding these tokenized assets. Morpho knows a thing or two about lending, having accrued more than $9B in user deposits, but its move onto Pharos’ Layer 1 will mark fresh territory for deploying its best-in-class infra. The idea behind the initiative is to enable asset originators and LPs on Pharos to enjoy greater capital efficiency through being able to access lending markets on demand. Morpho will take care of the infra, with the Pharos ecosystem onboarding the sort of professionals who stand to benefit from this arrangement. RWAs Come of Age Now a $25B sector, tokenized real-world assets may have taken their time in gaining traction, but they’re making up for it now, having been posting an average of 5% monthly growth all through 2025. Pharos has been doing its bit to expedite this process, its EVM-compatible chain providing the scalability and compliant framework institutions need to access the thriving RWA onchain economy. But while tokenizing assets such as equities and bonds is the starting point, it’s certainly not the endgame. The next step is to add greater utility to these assets over and above the ability to trade them 24/7, which is where Morpho comes into the picture. “Deploying natively on Pharos allows us to keep extending Morpho's most trusted lending infrastructure to the real-world asset space following initial success like private credit and tokenized stocks,” explains Morpho’s Kirk Hutchison, adding: “Pharos’ vision for RWAfi aligns with our commitment to transparent and scalable credit systems. Together, we are creating a powerful infrastructure for structured lending products, better risk pricing, and more accessible yield opportunities across both institutional and retail markets.” The phrase “RWAfi” is significant here. It’s an attempt to combine the best bits of DeFi – global access; composability; money markets – with the compliance and professionalism that characterizes TradFi. Once assets have been tokenized and made tradable onchain, there’s a lot more that can be done with them than simply swapping them. Lending is the most obvious DeFi-native use case to give the RWA treatment, allowing institutions and pro investors to use their assets as collateral and borrow against them or lend them to counterparties. DeFi Dressed Up There’s an array of DeFi protocols out there offering yield and novel financial primitives galore, but the majority are unsuited to institutions, who are required to tread carefully when transacting onchain. While recent legislation such as the GENIUS Act has made it safer for Wall Street firms to enter the onchain economy, they are obliged to do things by the book – which is why solutions such as that being developed by Morpho and Pharos hold so much promise. Pharos is preparing to deploy a number of institutional-focused vault launches and capital deployment frameworks, and this is where Morpho will be involved initially by helping refine the vault designs. The integration of Morpho's lending infrastructure expertise will support composability with Pharos’ existing infrastructure. In the process, it will showcase the sort of financial primitives that RWAs can support, allowing LPs and asset issuers to generate yield and efficiently put their capital to work. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
An Indian high court has denied the bail application of a suspect involved in a crypto investment fraud worth Rs. 2,000 crore (approximately $240 million). The suspect, Abishek Sharma, is an Una resident and one of the key accused in the crypto scam that duped about 80,000 investors in Himachal and neighboring states. While dismissing his bail plea, the judge considered the severity of the offense and its impact on society. “The investigation, prima facie, revealed that the petitioner was a close associate of the main accused, Subhash Sharma, who absconded and moved out of India,” the bench, headed by Justice Sushil Kukreja, said while dismissing the bail petition. The court noted that even though Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees a speedy trial and a suspect on trial cannot be detained or held for an indefinite period, the fact of the matter is that the trial is not likely to be concluded in the near future. The court added that this does not qualify the petitioner for bail as he is prima facie found to be involved in an economic offense on an extensive scale. Indian high court denies suspect linked to crypto investment fraud bail Justice Kukreja also pointed out that even though the petitioner Sharma has been in custody since October 2023, his counsel has failed to provide a substantial change in the details surrounding his circumstances after the dismissal of an earlier bail application, which would have seen Sharma being released on bail. The court also held that the offenses are grave, as they affect the country and are taken seriously. According to the Indian police, the multi-million dollar fraud started in 2018, but came to the attention of authorities when one of its investors, Arun Singh Guleria, registered an FIR in September 2023 at the Palampur police station in Kangra district. The complainant mentioned that a group of individuals, including Subash Sharma, Hem Raj, Sukhdev, Milan Garg, and Abishek Sharma, were involved in fraudulent activities related to digital assets in Himachal Pradesh. On the advice of Subash, the complainant and others invested funds in a website called voscrow, allegedly being run by the individuals. He mentioned that they were offered digital assets in return for their investments. Sukhdev, along with other promoters of the platform, allegedly cheated the public through the platform, using another one called Hypenext to also promise investors that their funds would be doubled. Investigations reveal the modus operandi of the group Reports noted that over 1,000 state police personnel were among the victims who lost funds to the fraudulent platform. On September 26, 2023, a special investigation team, headed by DIG of the northern range, Dharamshala, was created to investigate various cryptocurrency-related fraud transactions across the country. The Indian police were able to apprehend all the other suspects in the case, except for Subhash, who they said had left the country. The investigation revealed the modus operandi of the group, noting that they played on the innocence of their victims by offering them high rewards for their investments. They also created a network of people who recruited new investors, keeping a chain that made the investment look like a Ponzi scheme . In addition, the group was said to have given them crypto prices that they had manipulated, causing the investors several degrees of losses. The Indian police also said that during the investigation, they discovered that Abishek, the petitioner, was in charge of hosting several gatherings with investors across the state. The investor gathering happened at different locations, including Una, Kullu, Mandi, Baddi, Chandigarh, Palampur, and Hamirpur. It was also revealed that the individuals created several shell companies to launder the stolen funds, with some of them spending the proceeds on properties and other luxury and high-end items. Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.