South Korea’s Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung proposed creating a stablecoin tied to the Korean won to prevent capital outflows and strengthen national financial sovereignty.

Speaking during a recent policy discussion, Lee argued that a won-based stablecoin would allow South Korea to retain wealth domestically while reducing reliance on foreign-issued digital assets like USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), according to The Korea Herald.

Currently, South Korean law prohibits the issuance of domestic stablecoins, forcing local exchanges to rely on US dollar-based alternatives.

Between January and March, crypto exchanges in the country recorded 56.8 trillion won ($40.8 billion) in asset outflows, nearly half of which were linked to foreign stablecoins, the report said.

“We need to establish a won-backed stablecoin market to prevent national wealth from leaking overseas,” Lee reportedly said.

Related: Top South Korean presidential hopefuls support legalizing Bitcoin ETFs

South Korean candidates make pro-crypto promises

The proposal is part of Lee’s broader digital asset strategy, which includes legalizing spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Both Lee and rival Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party have pledged to support the introduction of spot crypto ETFs.

Source: Konstantin Tkachuk

Lee’s campaign also calls for the National Pension Fund and other institutional players to be allowed to invest in cryptocurrencies once price stability criteria are met.

To facilitate this, he proposed an integrated monitoring system and lower transaction fees, making crypto more accessible under government oversight.

However, the stablecoin proposal has sparked concern among economists. Shin Bo-sung, a senior Korea Capital Market Institute researcher, warned that stablecoins could inflate the money supply and shift monetary control to private issuers.

“We must not overlook the economic principles behind them. Stablecoins are essentially another form of banking, creating money out of nothing,” Shin said.

Related: RedotPay enters South Korea with crypto-powered payment cards

Democratic Party sets up “Digital Asset Committee”

On May 13, South Korea’s Democratic Party launched a Digital Asset Committee focused on developing cryptocurrency policies and promoting industry growth.

The committee, which held its inaugural meeting at the National Assembly Members’ Hall in Seoul, highlighted the importance of resolving regulatory uncertainty and addressing issues like stablecoin regulation.

The new committee joins similar organizations in South Korea, including the Virtual Asset Committee launched in late 2024 and another public-private crypto task force introduced in 2022, both initiated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

The Democratic Party is also set to introduce the Digital Asset Basic Act. The bill would establish a legal framework for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, requiring issuers to hold at least 50 billion won in reserves and gain approval from the FSC.

Magazine: Father-son team lists Africa’s XRP Healthcare on Canadian stock exchange

Update May 20, 11:20 am UTC: This article has been updated with comments from DCG.

Genesis has launched a pair of lawsuits against its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), and its CEO, Barry Silbert, accusing them of fraud, reckless mismanagement and siphoning more than a billion dollars in value from the now-bankrupt crypto lender.

On May 19, the Delaware Court of Chancery unsealed a complaint detailing how DCG allegedly used Genesis as a corporate ATM, draining funds through self-serving loans and concealed transfers while presenting a false image of financial health.

Through their court-appointed Litigation Oversight Committee (LOC), Genesis creditors claim that over a million digital coins — worth about $2.1 billion — were funneled away, even as Genesis edged toward collapse.

As per the complaint, Genesis creditors are still owed around $2.2 billion worth of crypto assets, including 19,086 Bitcoin (BTC), 69,197 Ether (ETH) and over 17.1 million other tokens, along with significant unpaid fees and interest as of Feb. 9, 2025.

At the core of the lawsuit is the claim that Silbert and other insiders ignored basic risk controls and pushed Genesis into reckless lending practices that ultimately served to benefit DCG’s crown jewel, Grayscale Investments.

DCG withdrew $1.2 billion from Genesis before bankruptcy

The complaint describes Genesis as having operated without a board or independent oversight, with key decisions made to enrich DCG at the expense of depositors.

“In particular, Silbert, Kraines, and Murphy orchestrated sham transactions at the end of the second and third quarters of 2022, when Genesis’s books closed, to deceive Genesis lenders into believing that DCG was providing liquidity and equity to Genesis,” the complaint states.

Genesis also said it was forced to accept illiquid Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares as collateral and was barred from selling them, creating major valuation risks.

“GBTC was illiquid because it could not be sold for six months after its purchase due to a lockup period imposed by the SEC, and DCG prohibited Genesis from reselling GBTC even after the lockup period ended,” the complaint states.

The complaint names DCG, Barry Silbert, former Genesis CEO Michael Moro, former DCG chief financial officer Michael Kraines, DCG President Mark Murphy and DCG’s investment banker Ducera Partners as defendants.

Source: GenesisLOC

Related: Bankrupt crypto firm Genesis completes restructuring

A second complaint, filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that DCG and its affiliates withdrew over $1.2 billion in US dollars and cryptocurrencies during the year leading up to Genesis’s bankruptcy.

These withdrawals, the LOC argued, were timed around major market events such as the collapses of Terra-Luna, Three Arrows Capital, and FTX — moments when Genesis was already insolvent.

Internal filings suggest insiders recovered 100% of their funds, while retail and institutional creditors were left exposed.

“These baseless lawsuits recycle the same tired, two-year old claims in an opportunistic attempt by sophisticated investors to extract additional value from DCG,” a DCG spokesperson told Cointelegraph. They added:

“We worked in good faith with a wide range of stakeholders to try to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the DCG-related aspects of the Genesis bankruptcy. We will vigorously defend ourselves against these spurious claims.”Genesis seeks to recover billions

In total, Genesis is seeking to recover more than $3.3 billion through the two lawsuits.

In April 2025, a New York judge ruled that most of the New York Attorney General’s civil fraud lawsuit against DCG, Silbert, and former Genesis CEO Michael Moro can move forward.

The suit accuses DCG and its bankrupt lending arm Genesis of misleading investors after the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, allegedly masking a $1 billion shortfall with a 10-year, low-interest promissory note.

While Gemini and Genesis have settled, DCG and the executives have fought the charges.

Genesis filed for bankruptcy in early 2023 with $14 billion in outstanding loans.

Magazine: Father-son team lists Africa’s XRP Healthcare on Canadian stock exchange

US President Donald Trump has signed a bill criminalizing nonconsensual artificial intelligence-generated deepfake porn, which also requires websites to take down any illicit images within 48 hours.

Trump signed the bill into law on May 19, known as the TAKE IT DOWN Act, an acronym for Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks.

The bill, backed by first lady Melania Trump, makes it a federal crime to publish, or threaten to publish, nonconsensual intimate images, including deepfakes, of adults or minors with the intent to harm or harass them. Penalties range from fines to prison.

Source: Melania Trump

Websites, online services, or apps must remove illegal content within 48 hours and establish a takedown process.

Trump said in remarks given at the White House Rose Garden and posted to the social media platform Truth Social that the bill also covers “forgeries generated by an artificial intelligence,” commonly referred to as deepfakes.

Melania Trump had directly lobbied lawmakers to support the bill, and said in a statement that the law is a “national victory.”

“Artificial Intelligence and social media are the digital candy of the next generation — sweet, addictive, and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,” she said.

“But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs, and sadly, affect emotions and even be deadly,” she added.

Senator Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar introduced the bill in June 2024, and it passed both houses in April of this year. 

US the latest to ban explicit deepfakes

There has been a growing number of cases where deepfakes are used for harmful purposes. One of the more high-profile instances saw deepfake-generated illicit images of pop star Taylor Swift rapidly spread through X in January 2024. 

X temporarily banned searches using Taylor Swift’s name in response, while lawmakers pushed for legislation criminalizing the production of deepfake images.

Related: AI scammers are now impersonating US government bigwigs, says FBI

Other countries, such as the UK, have already made sharing deepfake pornography illegal as part of the country’s Online Safety Act in 2023. 

A 2023 report from security startup Security Hero revealed that the majority of deepfakes posted online are pornographic, and 99% of individuals targeted by such content are women.

Magazine: Deepfake AI ‘gang’ drains $11M OKX account, Zipmex zapped by SEC: Asia Express

US President Donald Trump has signed a bill criminalizing nonconsensual artificial intelligence-generated deepfake porn, which also requires websites to take down any illicit images within 48 hours.

Trump signed the bill into law on May 19, known as the TAKE IT DOWN Act, an acronym for Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks.

The bill, backed by first lady Melania Trump, makes it a federal crime to publish, or threaten to publish, nonconsensual intimate images, including deepfakes, of adults or minors with the intent to harm or harass them. Penalties range from fines to prison.

Source: Melania Trump

Websites, online services, or apps must remove illegal content within 48 hours and establish a takedown process.

Trump said in remarks given at the White House Rose Garden and posted to the social media platform Truth Social that the bill also covers “forgeries generated by an artificial intelligence,” commonly referred to as deepfakes.

Melania Trump had directly lobbied lawmakers to support the bill, and said in a statement that the law is a “national victory.”

“Artificial Intelligence and social media are the digital candy of the next generation — sweet, addictive, and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,” she said.

“But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs, and sadly, affect emotions and even be deadly,” she added.

Senator Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar introduced the bill in June 2024, and it passed both houses in April of this year. 

US the latest to ban explicit deepfakes

There has been a growing number of cases where deepfakes are used for harmful purposes. One of the more high-profile instances saw deepfake-generated illicit images of pop star Taylor Swift rapidly spread through X in January 2024. 

X temporarily banned searches using Taylor Swift’s name in response, while lawmakers pushed for legislation criminalizing the production of deepfake images.

Related: AI scammers are now impersonating US government bigwigs, says FBI

Other countries, such as the UK, have already made sharing deepfake pornography illegal as part of the country’s Online Safety Act in 2023. 

A 2023 report from security startup Security Hero revealed that the majority of deepfakes posted online are pornographic, and 99% of individuals targeted by such content are women.

Magazine: Deepfake AI ‘gang’ drains $11M OKX account, Zipmex zapped by SEC: Asia Express

Shares in the Indonesian fintech firm DigiAsia Corp nearly doubled after the company said it plans to raise $100 million to seed its first of many Bitcoin buys.

The Jakarta-based Nasdaq-listed company said on May 19 that its board of directors approved creating a Bitcoin (BTC) “treasury reserve” and it was “committing up to 50% of any net profits generated to fund the acquisition of BTC.”

DigiAsia said it was also “actively exploring a capital raise of up to US$100 million” to kickstart its Bitcoin holdings and would look to earn yield on its holdings through means like lending and staking.

DigiAsia said it had “initiated discussions with regulated partners” on yield strategies and managing its planned Bitcoin holdings. The company added that it was also assessing whether to offer convertible notes or crypto finance instruments linked to its planned Bitcoin haul. 

DigiAsia stocks explode on Bitcoin plans

Shares in DigiAsia Corp (FAAS) closed May 19 trading at a gain of just over 91% at 36 cents after the company’s Bitcoin announcement, according to Google Finance.

DigiAsia’s Bitcoin plan has seen its stock price rise over 90% in the regular trading session. Source: Google Finance

However, after the bell, DigiAsia stock dropped 22% to 28 cents. The company’s shares are down nearly 53% so far this year, having peaked at just under $12 in March 2024. 

In a financial update on April 1, DigiAsia reported its revenues grew 36% year-on-year to $101 million in 2024. It projected growth of 24% to $125 million in 2025, along with earnings before interest and taxes of $12 million.

A growing number of companies are adding Bitcoin to their corporate holdings, following its popularization by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, which has the largest Bitcoin holdings of any public company at 576,230 BTC, worth nearly $60.9 billion.

Strive Asset Management announced on May 7 that it will transition into a Bitcoin treasury company, and video game retailer GameStop Corporation (GME) finished a convertible debt offering on April 1 that raised $1.5 billion, with some proceeds earmarked for buying Bitcoin. 

Related: Metaplanet scoops 1,004 Bitcoin in 2nd-biggest buy ever

Corporate Bitcoin treasuries collectively hold over three million in Bitcoin, worth over $340 billion, according to Bitbo data.

Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back predicted that firms with Bitcoin-focused treasuries are driving global adoption and could push Bitcoin’s market cap hit $200 trillion in the coming decade. 

Bitcoin’s market cap is currently sitting at around $2 trillion, with BTC changing hands at $105,642, up 2% in the past day, according to CoinGecko. 

Magazine: Rise of MicroStrategy clones, Asia dominates crypto adoption: Asia Express 2024 review

Crypto exchange Binance has asked a US federal judge to send all members of a class-action lawsuit alleging it sold securities to arbitration, arguing that the group waived their ability to form a class action under the company’s terms.

The exchange said in a May 16 filing to a New York federal court that its terms of service, which it claimed the class group agreed to, has a clause that users agree to arbitrate all claims, along with a clause preventing users from launching class actions against the crypto exchange.

“The Court should hold that Plaintiffs are required to arbitrate claims that accrued after Feb. 20, 2019, even if the Court adheres to its initial decision as to claims that accrued before then and that the class-action waiver in the 2019 Terms of Use is enforceable for all of Plaintiffs’ claims,” Binance said.

Binance argues that its terms of service have a clause about users agreeing to arbitrate all claims. Source: PACER

In March, Judge Andrew Carter denied Binance’s request to have all of the class action’s claims sent to arbitration for users who bought tokens on the exchange between April 1, 2017, and Feb. 20, 2019, and partially denied the motion for users who bought tokens after 2019 until a decision could be made to what extend the arbitration clause would apply.  

Binance said in its latest filings that it updated its terms in February 2019 to include the arbitration clause and argued that an earlier version of the terms of service included a clause that informed users that Binance could amend the terms as needed without any individual notice.

Binance case was previously dismissed 

Judge Carter had sided with Binance and dismissed the suit in March 2022. Binance had argued that it isn’t beholden to US securities laws because it doesn’t have a physical headquarters in the country.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned that decision in March 2024, and the Supreme Court later declined to hear Binance’s appeal in January.

Related: US judge transfers Binance lawsuit to Florida, citing first-to-file rule

Binance’s legal entanglements in the US have escalated since mid-2023, when the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company for selling unregistered securities, which was settled for $4.3 billion in November 2023.

Binance was also slapped with a class action in Canada in April 2024 for allegedly violating securities laws after it announced its departure from the country in May 2023.

Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins’ powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest, May 11 – 17

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, said his bank will soon allow its clients to buy Bitcoin, but it won’t custody the cryptocurrency.

“We are going to allow you to buy it,” Dimon said at JPMorgan’s annual investor day on May 19. “We’re not going to custody it. We’re going to put it in statements for clients.”

CNBC reported that Dimon also remarked on his long-held skepticism about crypto assets, pointing to their use in money laundering, sex trafficking and terrorism.

“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke. I defend your right to buy Bitcoin,” he said.

Michael Saylor comments on Dimon’s announcement. Source: Michael Saylor

JPMorgan will offer clients access to Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), CNBC reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Until now, the firm has limited its crypto exposure primarily to futures-based products, not direct ownership of digital assets.

Related: Morgan Stanley advisers can officially pitch Bitcoin ETFs

JPMorgan rival Morgan Stanley has also moved to offer spot Bitcoin ETFs to qualifying clients. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US have seen significant adoption, with almost $42 billion in total aggregate inflows since they launched in January 2024. 

Dimon’s Bitcoin bashing history

Dimon has long been skeptical of Bitcoin, labeling it a scam that he had no interest in buying in 2018 and calling it “worthless” during the 2021 crypto bull market.

“I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, Bitcoin, etc.,” he said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in 2023. “The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance.”

“If I were the government, I’d close it down,” he said.

At the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dimon said Bitcoin “does nothing. I call it the pet rock,” which came after the asset topped $100,000 for the first time.  

Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins ‘powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest

Update (May 20, 3:17 am UTC): This article has been updated to add statements from senators and information on the GENIUS Act.

The US Senate has voted to advance a key stablecoin-regulating bill after Democratic senators blocked an earlier attempt to move the bill forward over concerns about President Donald Trump’s sprawling crypto empire.

A key procedural vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed in a 66-32 vote on May 19 local time.

Several Democrats, including Mark Warner, Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego, changed their votes to pass the motion to invoke cloture, which will now set the bill up for debate on the Senate floor.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the bill’s key backers, said on May 15 that she thinks it’s a “fair target” to have the GENIUS Act passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.

The US Senate voted 66-32 to advance debate on the GENIUS stablecoin bill. Source: US Senate

Several Democratic senators withdrew support for the bill on May 8, blocking a motion to move it forward, citing concerns over potential conflicts of interest involving Trump’s crypto ventures and the bill’s Anti-Money Laundering provisions.

Warner expressed concerns about Trump’s crypto ventures in a statement before the vote, but said the US couldn’t “afford to keep standing on the sidelines” while the crypto industry evolves.

“We cannot allow that corruption to blind us to the broader reality: blockchain technology is here to stay. If American lawmakers don’t shape it, others will — and not in ways that serve our interests or democratic values.”Warren says bill won’t stop Trump’s “crypto corruption”

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime crypto skeptic, was one of the strongest opponents of the stablecoin bill, arguing before the vote that it failed to address Trump’s “blatant crypto corruption.”

Trump and his family have recently launched various crypto projects, which include memecoins, a crypto platform, a crypto mining company that plans to go public and a stablecoin that has quickly grown to be the seventh-largest by value, CoinGecko data shows.

”Trump and his family have already pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars from his crypto ventures, and they stand to make hundreds of millions more from his stablecoin, USD1, if this bill passes,” she said.

Senator Bill Hagerty introduced the GENIUS Act on Feb. 4, which seeks to regulate the nearly $250 billion stablecoin market, currently dominated by Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC).

Related: Circle plans IPO but talks with Ripple, Coinbase could lead to sale: Report

The bill requires stablecoins to be fully backed, have regular security audits and approval from federal or state regulators. Only licensed entities can issue stablecoins, while algorithmic stablecoins are restricted.

Hagerty’s stablecoin bill builds on the discussion draft he submitted for former Representative Patrick McHenry’s Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act in October.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Anza, a Solana blockchain infrastructure firm spun out of Solana Labs, has proposed a new proof-of-stake consensus called Alpenglow that it claims would be “the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol” and compete with current internet infrastructure.

“We believe that the release of Alpenglow will be a turning point for Solana. Alpenglow is not only a new consensus protocol, but the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol since, well, ever,” Anza’s Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski and Roger Wattenhofer said on May 19.

Alpenglow consists of Votor, which processes voting transactions and block finalization logic, and Rotor, a data dissemination protocol that would replace Solana’s proof-of-history timestamping system and aim to reduce the time it takes for all nodes to agree on the network state.

Source: Anza

Anza researchers claimed that “Alpenglow will shatter both these latency bounds” and the project expects it to reach actual finality in about 150 milliseconds, rivaling internet infrastructure.

“A median latency of 150 [milliseconds] does not just mean that Solana is fast — it means Solana can compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness, potentially making blockchain technology viable for entirely new categories of applications that demand real-time performance.”

Votor — which would replace TowerBFT — would aim to finalize blocks in a single round if 80% of the stake is participating, and in two rounds if only 60% of the stake is responsive.

Related: DeFi lender Aave reaches $40B in value locked onchain

These two voting modes are integrated and run concurrently, with finalization taking place as soon as the faster of the two paths terminates.

Anza’s researchers claimed this model would result in “unprecedented finalization latency” while enabling it to operate more effectively under “harsh network conditions.”

Alpenglow won’t fix Solana’s network outages

The project’s white paper noted that switching to Alpenglow wouldn’t completely shield Solana from the network outages that it has experienced in the past.

Solana currently only has one production-ready client, Agave, meaning any security vulnerability in Agave can disrupt the entire Solana network.

However, a new independent validator client called Firedancer is set to launch on Solana’s mainnet sometime this year, which will provide client diversification for the network.

Magazine: Father-son team lists Africa’s XRP Healthcare on Canadian stock exchange

The US Department of Justice is reportedly conducting a probe over Coinbase’s contracted customer service agents in India, who accepted bribes in exchange for allowing criminals access to user data.

According to a May 19 Bloomberg report, DOJ investigators are looking into the data breach, which Coinbase disclosed to the public on May 15. The exchange reported that a group of customer support contractors — subsequently fired — “abused their access to […] systems to steal the account data for a small subset of customers.”

“We have notified and are working with the DOJ and other US and international law enforcement agencies and welcome law enforcement’s pursuit of criminal charges against these bad actors,” said Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, according to Bloomberg.

Related: New Zealand man arrested in $265M crypto scam tied to FBI probe

Though “no passwords, private keys, or funds were exposed” according to Coinbase, the data breach resulted in social engineering attacks targeting users, including a Sequoia Capital partner, with losses estimated at up to $400 million. The attackers also attempted to extort $20 million from Coinbase in exchange for not disclosing the breach, which the company refused.

Backlash in the courts

The attempted social engineering attacks have resulted in Coinbase users filing several lawsuits against the exchange, alleging that the company mishandled their personal data. One user, a retired artist named Ed Suman, reported losing $2 million to the scammers.

Coinbase’s stock price fluctuated following the news of the breach and an unrelated probe from the US Securities and Exchange Commission over its reported “verified user” numbers. Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Magazine: Father-son team lists Africa’s XRP Healthcare on Canadian stock exchange