March 5 (UPI) — The Trump administration is closing investigations into cryptocurrency marketplaces as President Donald Trump seeks to grow the United States’ footprint in the digital asset space.
Trump has taken several actions meant to signal his deregulation of cryptocurrency while calling for the United States to build a digital stockpile, moves that experts expect may lead consumers to be more comfortable investing in digital assets.
“Certainly at the moment the expectation is we are going to get a clearer regulatory framework. A more permissive regulatory approach,” William Luther, associate professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University, told UPI. “So individuals who may have otherwise been hesitant to purchase or use cryptocurrency will see that the government is more favorable to these assets than it was previously. That will give them a bit more confidence to enter into this space.”
Regulations and enforcement
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped two key cases against cryptocurrency marketplaces since Trump has taken office.
Last week, the SEC agreed to drop charges against Coinbase for allegedly illegally selling securities, according to Coinbase. The company, a cryptocurrency exchange marketplace, said in a statement that it was a case that “should never have been filed in the first place.”
Robinhood Cryptocurrency announced that the SEC was ending its investigation into the company over potential violations of securities law. Like Coinbase, Robinhood said in a statement that the investigation should not have happened.
“Robinhood Crypto always has and will always respect federal securities laws and never allowed transactions in securities,” Dan Gallagher, chief legal, compliance and corporate affairs Officer for Robinhood Markets, said in a statement. “As we explained to the SEC, any case against Robinhood Crypto would have failed.”
Both investigations were launched under the administration of former President Joe Biden, but Luther explains that Trump and Biden’s policies as they relate to cryptocurrency are not all that different.
“It’s not that the prior administration was opposed to crypto to the extreme,” he said. “Even Gary Gensler, when he was at the SEC, wasn’t stamping out cryptocurrencies. He even indicated at times that some of the things that they were trying to do to limit the reach of cryptocurrency, particularly to retail users, wouldn’t apply to assets like Bitcoin, which he described as not being a security.”
Gensler, the chair of the SEC under the Biden administration, was often characterized as aggressive when it came to enforcing regulations on cryptocurrency firms. His focus on the asset was primarily in mitigating fraud and penalizing fraudsters.
Cryptocurrency is the most common form of payment fraudsters are paid with in ransomware attacks, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department.
Trump has nominated Paul Atkins to be the next chair of the SEC. Atkins is a former co-chair at the cryptocurrency advocacy group the Token Alliance.
Embracing crypto
In his remarks from Miami last week, Trump said he is committed to making America the “crypto capital.” His Jan. 23, executive order suggests he is interested in spurring along the adoption of digital assets in the United States and establishing a government stockpile.
Trump has commissioned the establishment of the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, charging it with identifying regulations, proposing regulatory frameworks and evaluating the potential creation of a national digital asset stockpile.
The government has long held cryptocurrencies, at least relative to the history of their existence. It has acquired cryptocurrencies by seizing them through its enforcement efforts, much like it has acquired cash, cars and other goods.
“Make no mistake. The U.S. government owns crypto because that’s what criminals have been using,” Aaron Klein, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told UPI. “Just like the U.S. owns some Ferraris too.”
Biden similarly commissioned research into cryptocurrency, directing the Federal Reserve to explore whether the government should create its own cryptocurrency in 2022.
Months later, the Federal Reserve came back with a recommendation for the government to explore creating a cryptocurrency that it referred to as a digital dollar.
“Innovation is one of the hallmarks of a vibrant financial system and economy,” then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “But as we have learned painfully from the past, innovation without appropriately addressing the impact of these developments can result in significant disruptions and harm to the financial system.”
The Trump Administration is not yet following up on this recommendation. In fact it is moving in the opposite direction. As part of Trump’s executive order, he has prohibited the Central Bank or any agency from establishing, issuing or promoting a digital currency in the United States or abroad.
$TRUMP
Hours before taking the oath of office, Trump launched a meme coin called $TRUMP. A meme coin is an often volatile form of cryptocurrency derived from internet memes.
Trump’s coin experienced an almost immediate spike in value after launching but has collapsed since. With its initial spike it was trading as high as $31. The current value is a fraction of a cent, down more than 97% since launching.
First lady Melania Trump also launched a coin just as Trump was taking office. $MELANIA has also plummeted in value since launching. A coin was worth about $2 when it launched and is now worth about $0.85.
The first family’s venture into cryptocurrency as they moved into the White House raises immense ethical concerns, Klein said.
“It’s a five-alarm bell fire,” he said. “There’s massive fraud in the meme coin space. Whatever the actual details of the Trump meme coin turn out to be, giving the appearance of legitimacy of a meme coin to the president-elect gives the impression that he is prioritizing his own wallet over the good of society.”
A chief ethical concern in a president, or president-elect, launching a new business venture is that it creates a conflict of interest. The president is uniquely positioned to have a direct impact on the business they own or are invested in. This is why presidents have historically divested from their business dealings while in office.
Trump has refused to do so. In 2017, again days before taking the oath of office, Trump announced he would not divest from the Trump Organization, a company that holds a majority of his investments and various business ventures.
Argentina is reckoning with an ethics conundrum involving its president and cryptocurrency as well. President Javier Milei has been accused of fraud for allegedly promoting the cryptocurrency $Libra.
Milei argued that he did not endorse or promote $Libra after sharing a link to a website that sells it in February.
“The world wants to invest in Argentina,” Milei said in the post sharing a link the cryptocurrency marketplace.
Following Milei’s alleged endorsement, the value of $Libra grew from a fraction of a cent to nearly $5 before falling. It is valued at a fraction of a cent again. Milei’s political opponents in the Argentine National Congress have called for him to be impeached.
Milei’s actions demonstrate the influence a president can have on the cryptocurrency trade, an influence Trump exercised when launching his meme coin. Likewise his broader embrace of cryptocurrency through policy and public comments signals to consumers that the United States is a crypto-friendly environment.
“When the president of the United States promotes an asset it tends to move the needle for people to buy it,” he said.
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) — A proposed cryptocurrency mining facility is under review in Starkville, with city officials and residents divided over its potential benefits and drawbacks.
Several citizens voiced concerns at a recent meeting, citing potential noise pollution, environmental impact and the volume of resources the facility would require to operate.
Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said the facility would benefit the community, describing it as a $10 million investment. She said the money would go to the city, the county and the school district.
Spruill said the facility is projected to use 20,000 gallons of water per day, noting the city’s splash pad uses more — at 60,000 gallons per day.
The center would draw 30 megawatts of power; the city has a 50-megawatt capacity.
Spruill said the facility would generate about $1 million for the electric department, allowing the city to offset rate increases.
Michael Frayser, owner of High Ground Coffee, said he opposes the proposal.
“What it’s really going to do is — it’s going to gobble up electricity. And all these people are up in the air about the environment and all this stuff. I don’t really want to see a cryptocurrency mining center here gobbling up even more resources, taking up space. I’m not a fan of it,” Frayser said.
Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins said he needs to see all of the facts and has questions for the company.
“As a decision maker, if I see any type of impact, I’m not going to vote for it to locate here because I’m not willing to risk any quality-of-life issue,” Perkins said.
Spruill said the board could see plans as soon as August.
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Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq: IBKR), the automated global broker that manages approximately $930.3 billion in client equity as of mid-2026, integrated these capabilities directly into its core electronic trading architecture. Clients can now execute automatic conversions to withdraw U.S. dollars from their brokerage accounts directly into external destinations, including personal non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets, using Circle’s USDC, Paypal’s PYUSD, or Ripple’s RLUSD.
This infrastructure upgrade bridges traditional finance (TradFi) markets and digital currency networks without requiring investors to switch between separate applications. By allowing near-instantaneous transfers 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays, the firm ensures that market participants can move capital onto the platform and begin trading across 170 global markets within minutes.
“We believe digital assets should be integrated into a client’s broader financial experience, not treated separately,” explained Milan Galik, Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Brokers. Galik emphasized that as stablecoins become a more widely used method of payment and transfer, the firm remains focused on providing seamless digital asset access alongside a diverse range of global products.
The institutional expansion addresses a critical friction point for high- volume traders who frequently contend with steep transactional overhead on specialized crypto exchanges. Interactive Brokers charges crypto commissions starting between 0.12% and 0.18% of total trade value, featuring a modest $1.75 minimum per order. Crucially, the broker imposes no added spreads, markups, or custody fees, undercutting conventional competitors by up to 85%.
Industry data reveals that recently launched crypto offerings from traditional brokerages charge client commissions as high as 0.75% per transaction. Alternative platforms often remain two to four times more expensive, with some retail applications charging up to 1.20% or more. By maintaining low overhead, IBKR leverages its $21 billion consolidated equity capital to aggressively capture market share from standard spot exchanges.
Tuesday’s Interactive Brokers crypto expansion routes new asset classes through separate regulated pipelines to guarantee institutional-grade compliance and security. Through its partnership with Zero Hash, the broker added Aave, Aptos, Canton, Lido DAO, Monad, NEAR Protocol, Plasma, Pax Gold, and Uniswap. The addition of Pax Gold provides a digital token backed entirely by physical gold stored in professional vault facilities.
Concurrently, Paxos Trust Company will facilitate trading for three of these newly supported assets, specifically AAVE, UNI, and PAXG. These choices join an existing institutional catalog that already includes high- liquidity crypto assets such as bitcoin, ethereum, solana, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and XRP. This dual-vendor model minimizes counterparty risks for the firm’s rapidly growing base of 5.185 million client accounts.
This strategic development coincides with a period of massive operational growth, as the firm’s Daily Average Revenue Trades recently surged 53% year-over-year to 5.269 million. Margin loan balances also climbed 67% to $108.5 billion, highlighting a highly active client base that utilizes capital leverage across unified portfolios. The addition of crypto flexibility serves as an onboarding tool for sophisticated international investors.
While the expansion enhances utility for domestic accounts, strict geographic limitations remain firmly in place due to fragmented cross-border regulatory frameworks. Bidirectional funding via stablecoin is entirely unavailable to clients registered under Interactive Brokers U.K. Limited or Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited. Furthermore, the newly introduced crypto-assets cannot be accessed by clients of the Irish affiliate.
Corporate executives maintained a realistic, risk-managed tone regarding broader market conditions, explicitly stating that digital asset trading carries exceptional financial danger. The platform noted that these specific digital products are designed exclusively for individuals with high risk tolerance and the financial capacity to sustain total capital losses. This conservative positioning aligns with the firm’s corporate credit profile and S&P rating of A- with a stable outlook.
As digital and TradFi continue to converge through tokenization and institutional investment vehicles, Interactive Brokers positions its balance sheet as a primary clearing house. The elimination of separate wallet ecosystems reduces operational friction for hedge funds and independent money managers alike. This long-term framework underpins the broker’s overarching strategy to capture institutional wallet share as the digital currency landscape matures.
Pig butchering scams do not start with crypto. They start with a conversation. Someone reaches out through a dating app, a text, or social media, and over weeks or months they build what feels like a genuine connection. They ask about your life and your goals.
At some point they mention a crypto platform that has been generating strong returns. They help you set up an account, walk you through the first deposit, and show you a dashboard with what looks like real profit. You put in more. The numbers climb. Then the platform locks you out or disappears, and the money is gone.
If this has happened to you, the most important thing is to move quickly. A crypto fraud lawyer can help you figure out what to do next and which legal options may still be available.
Scammers count on the shock to buy them time. Most victims spend the first few days trying to understand what happened instead of acting, and that delay allows evidence to disappear and funds to move further out of reach.
The first three days matter more than most people realize. Scammers do not sit still after taking money. They rotate wallet addresses, shut down platforms, and often keep pressuring the victim to send more under the guise of fees or tax payments needed to release returns that never existed.
Getting a lawyer involved early can cut through the confusion. They identify which wallets and platforms were involved, send notices to banks and exchanges, and start building a timeline while everything is still fresh. The window for certain recovery options is narrow, and even a week of delay can close off paths that were open on day one.
While the legal side gets underway, lock down every account you have access to. Change your passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and scan your devices for remote access software that scammers sometimes install during the setup process. Check your email for forwarding rules you did not set up, and review your exchange accounts for linked addresses or withdrawal settings that were changed without your knowledge.
Do this before making any further transfers.
Crypto transactions leave a trail, but the window for capturing it closes quickly. Exchanges update their interfaces, chat platforms delete messages, and fake investment sites go offline without notice.
Everything from this point forward depends on what you can document. Wallet addresses, transaction IDs, exchange account statements, screenshots of every conversation with the scammer (including the early ones), wire transfer receipts, credit card statements, deposit instructions, and dashboard screenshots from the fake platform (if you can still access it).
Get it together as early as you can. Messages will disappear. Platforms will go offline. Access will be revoked without warning. The picture you can put together on day three is going to be much more complete than anything you will be able to reconstruct a month from now.
Store copies in two separate places. A secure cloud folder and a local drive is a simple setup that works. Put together a log that records dates, times, amounts, and whatever names or identifiers were displayed on each platform. Organized records make everything easier for lawyers, investigators, and financial institutions.
Banks, credit card companies, and crypto exchanges may be able to freeze funds, flag suspicious wallet addresses, or open internal investigations. These processes tend to work better when the request comes in early, includes specific transaction details, and is submitted in writing. Vague complaints filed weeks later are much easier for them to dismiss.
Save the name of whoever you speak to, the reference number, and a summary of what was said. Keep copies of all emails and chat logs. This creates an audit trail that becomes important if a dispute escalates.
This is the part that catches people off guard. After the initial loss, a second wave often follows.
Someone contacts you claiming to be a recovery specialist, a government agent, or a tax official who can help get your money back. But first they need a fee, or your private keys, or a small crypto payment for verification purposes.
None of it is real. Scammers know that victims at this stage are desperate, and they use that against them. Some resort to threats. Others try to isolate the victim from family or friends who might step in and encourage reporting.
Treat any unsolicited contact about recovering your funds as a potential threat until it has been independently verified. Any request for upfront payment is a warning sign, without exception.
Most victims expect law enforcement to handle recovery. Criminal investigations into crypto fraud tend to move slowly and rarely focus on individual cases. Civil options often provide more direct paths, but they come with deadlines that can expire faster than people expect.
Legal remedies in crypto fraud cases are not open-ended. Payment dispute windows have fixed deadlines. Statutes of limitations run on a set schedule. Certain contractual claims expire within weeks, not months. The longer someone waits, the fewer options remain.
An early legal review can identify which of these deadlines apply and which ones are coming up fast. Credit card chargebacks, for example, have to be filed within a defined window. Certain claims against exchanges operate under similar constraints.
Timing also affects leverage. A demand letter backed by organized records and documented losses will be taken more seriously than a vague complaint filed months later. When the other side can see the case is well-prepared, negotiations tend to move forward more quickly.
Filing a police report is a good idea. It creates an official record and supports the timeline of events. But criminal investigations into crypto fraud are often slow and focused on larger networks. Direct results for any single victim can take a long time to secure, if they come at all.
Civil claims work on a separate track.
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