Author: Gabby

Kevin Warsh was officially inaugurated as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve during a ceremony at the White House on Friday, coinciding with Bitcoin trading around $77,400. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the oath of office, marking the first time a Fed leader has been sworn in at the executive mansion since Alan Greenspan in 1987.

Warsh, aged 56, steps into the role previously held by Jerome Powell, who served as chair from 2018 and will continue as a Fed governor until 2028. The Senate confirmed Warsh on May 13 with a tight 54-45 vote, with only Democrat John Fetterman crossing party lines to support the nomination.

During his swearing-in address, Warsh emphasized the Fed’s dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment. He asserted that with wise and clear policy, inflation can be reduced, economic growth can strengthen, and real wages can increase. Warsh committed to leading a reform-focused Federal Reserve and vowed never to set interest rates at the behest of any elected official. President Trump, who had frequently criticized Powell’s rate decisions, expressed his desire for Warsh to operate with total independence.

Bitcoin remained steady near $77,400 on Friday, with market participants having largely anticipated the leadership change. All eyes are now on Warsh’s first Federal Open Market Committee meeting scheduled for June 17.

Warsh is recognized as the most crypto-savvy Fed chair to date. His financial disclosures previously indicated indirect holdings in DeFi lending, Layer 1 networks, and prediction markets, though he has since pledged to divest fully. However, his policy views could pose challenges for risk assets. Warsh has argued that the Fed’s balance sheet is excessively large and needs to be reduced, a move that might tighten liquidity conditions—historically a headwind for crypto rallies. Currently, markets assign near-zero probability to a rate cut in June, with some traders anticipating hikes in early 2027.

Warsh assumes leadership amid persistent inflation above the Fed’s 2% target, oil prices exceeding $100 per barrel, and consumer sentiment near historic lows. His initial policy decision will test whether the most crypto-friendly Fed chair can provide more than symbolic support in a macroeconomic environment that offers little room for monetary easing.

In May 2010, a seemingly ordinary pizza delivery turned into one of the most famous moments in cryptocurrency history. Jeremy Sturdivant, then a 19-year-old forum user known as “jercos,” agreed to purchase two large pizzas from Papa Johns for Laszlo Hanyecz. In exchange, Sturdivant received 10,000 Bitcoin—a sum valued at roughly $40 at the time. Neither party could have imagined that those same coins would eventually be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Unlike many early Bitcoin adopters who held onto their digital assets, Sturdivant took a different approach. He viewed the cryptocurrency as a “living currency” meant to be spent, not hoarded. Over the following years, he gradually used the 10,000 BTC on everyday expenses, including travel and various goods, as Bitcoin’s price inched up from fractions of a cent toward the $1 mark. By the time Bitcoin reached its all-time high near $69,000 in November 2021, the original 10,000 coins would have been worth a staggering $690 million. However, Sturdivant had long since spent them, leaving him without the massive fortune he could have had.

Sturdivant’s story serves as a cautionary tale for early adopters and a reminder of Bitcoin’s unpredictable journey. While Hanyecz continued to buy more pizzas with Bitcoin in subsequent months, Sturdivant faded from the spotlight, resurfacing only occasionally in retrospective articles about Bitcoin Pizza Day. Today, he remains a footnote in crypto history—a young man who once held a fortune but treated it as pocket money, embodying the experimental and carefree spirit of Bitcoin’s early days. His decision to spend rather than save underscores the tension between using Bitcoin as a functional currency versus treating it as a long-term investment, a debate that continues to resonate in the cryptocurrency community.

Cross-chain infrastructure provider Squid has secured $6 million in a strategic funding round, with Ripple among the key participants. This investment supports Squid’s mission to create user-friendly tools for moving digital assets across diverse blockchain networks. North Island Ventures led the round, with contributions from Dialectic, Borderless, Scenius Capital, Altos, and Arche Capital, alongside angel investors including Axelar co-founder Georgios Vlachos and Enso Finance founder Connor Howe.

Squid’s platform enables seamless asset transfers between blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, and the XRP Ledger in a single transaction. Since its launch in early 2023, the protocol has facilitated over $6 billion in volume through more than 4 million transactions, serving over one million users. Its innovative execution layer, Squid Intents, leverages market makers to fulfill cross-chain swaps and settles them via trusted execution environments, eliminating the need for smart contracts on every chain and supporting over 100 networks.

The new capital brings Squid’s total funding to $13.5 million, following previous seed and strategic rounds. The company plans to expand its consumer-facing product suite, aiming to simplify direct access to crypto services. As the official bridge partner for the XRP Ledger and an active validator on the network, Squid’s collaboration with Ripple is a natural progression. Ripple’s involvement aligns with its broader strategy to bolster the XRP Ledger ecosystem, which has seen recent tests involving tokenized Treasury settlements and the launch of yield products for XRP holders through the XRP Alliance.

Squid’s co-founder Fig emphasized the goal of making cross-chain interactions as straightforward as the swaps currently offered. With a team of around 20 members, Squid is preparing to reveal more details about its consumer roadmap in the coming months.

A federal appeals panel has turned down emergency motions from prediction market operators Kalshi and Polymarket, allowing state gambling lawsuits in Nevada and Washington to proceed. The Ninth Circuit’s May 22 ruling determined that arguments based on the Commodity Exchange Act do not automatically grant federal court jurisdiction. The panel emphasized that a CEA preemption defense is an affirmative claim and cannot, on its own, move a case from state to federal court.

The judges also dismissed Polymarket’s contention that its adherence to Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight meant it was operating as a federal agent. The court noted that simply complying with federal law does not equate to acting under federal direction.

Nevada’s enforcement actions focus on both platforms operating without required state gaming licenses. Washington’s lawsuit specifically targets Kalshi for offering sports event contracts that state officials deem illegal gambling products.

This decision highlights a deepening legal divide among federal courts regarding prediction market regulation. The Third Circuit previously supported Kalshi by granting a preliminary injunction against New Jersey gaming authorities. That contradictory outcome raises the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court may eventually need to resolve the dispute.

The panel consisted of three judges appointed during President Trump’s first term: Ryan Nelson, Bridget Bade, and Kenneth Lee. On the same day as the ruling, Kalshi announced the formation of Americans for Fair Markets, a new advocacy group intended to push back against the gaming industry’s efforts to restrict prediction markets. Representatives from Kalshi, Polymarket, and the Washington attorney general’s office have not yet commented. Nevada’s gaming control board declined to discuss the case due to ongoing litigation.