Bitcoin’s return above $80,000 has brought back a question traders have not 
had to confront at scale since 2020: how does the world’s largest digital 
asset behave when a health scare, rather than rates, regulation, or crypto- 
native leverage, becomes the market’s dominant risk headline? The immediate 
trigger is a hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius, […]
The post Bitcoin’s potential bull run return faces pandemic-style fear as 
Hantavirus scare gets amplified appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin’s potential bull run return faces pandemic-style fear as Hantavirus scare gets amplified

Bitcoin failed to clear its 200‑day simple moving average near $83,300 and 
slipped back under $81,000, reviving comparisons with the March 2022 breakout 
that quickly reversed into a deep selloff. Bitcoin’s latest rally hit a wall 
just below its 200‑day…

Bitcoin stalls at 200-day average, rekindling fears of a “false breakout”

Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of the now-shuttered Bitcoin privacy wallet 
Samourai Wallet, has published an appeal from federal prison asking the 
Bitcoin community for donations to help cover more than $2 million in 
accumulated legal debt — after acknowledging that hopes for a presidential 
pardon have effectively faded. Related Reading: Bitcoin Uptrend Still Healthy, 
But Volume Divergence Raises Questions Rodriguez, 37, is five months into a 
60-month sentence at FPC Morgantown, a federal prison camp in West Virginia. 
In a post published on X on May 6, written in his own name, he described a 
financial situation that has left him and his wife Lauren with no remaining 
options. Daily calls and letters from lawyers demanding payment, combined with 
ongoing pressure from the Department of Justice to begin making good on a 
$250,000 court-imposed fine, have made the situation untenable, he wrote. The 
Financial Toll Of The Case &#8211; Bitcoin Community&#8217;s Rol The legal debt Rodriguez 
is carrying reflects the scale of a federal case that stretched from his April 
2024 arrest through a guilty plea in July 2025 and sentencing in November of 
the same year. Rodriguez and co-founder William Lonergan Hill — who received a 
four-year sentence — pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed 
money-transmitting business, forfeiting approximately $6.37 million in fees 
earned from Samourai&#8217;s operations as part of the judgment, according to the 
U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Southern District of New York. Rodriguez told 
journalist and Bitcoin educator Natalie Brunell in December 2025, as reported 
by CoinDesk, that he accepted the plea after calculating that proceeding to 
trial carried the risk of significantly longer prison time and millions more 
in legal costs. The calculation did not spare him the financial consequences 
of the defense itself. Pardon Hopes Have Dimmed In the X post, Rodriguez 
addressed directly what many in the community had hoped for. President Trump 
indicated in December 2025 that he would review the case and consider a pardon 
— a statement that generated brief optimism, particularly given Trump&#8217;s 
earlier pardons of Binance founder Changpeng &#8220;CZ&#8221; Zhao and Silk Road founder 
Ross Ulbricht. The Bitcoin 2026 conference came and went without action. &#8220;One 
must come to terms with the fact that I am simply a federal prisoner without 
money, power, or influence,&#8221; Rodriguez wrote in the post, &#8220;and I will serve my 
full sentence.&#8221; A petition supporting a pardon had gathered approximately 
15,955 signatures as of May 7, according to Cryip.co. Rodriguez directed 
donation requests to the Bitcoin address 
bc1qtjjcvn98wh7dfd55m8kxhjcfexanttwt8gtan8, with private alternatives 
available through his wife&#8217;s X account. At the time of writing, the address 
provided by Rodriguez shows around $65,000 in donations. A Case That Redefined 
Developer Liability Samourai Wallet served over 100,000 users and processed 
more than $2 billion in Bitcoin transactions since its 2015 launch, according 
to the DOJ. Federal prosecutors argued that co-founders Rodriguez and Hill 
knowingly facilitated criminal activity through the platform&#8217;s Whirlpool 
mixing and Ricochet hopping services, citing court evidence including private 
communications and public statements made by both men promoting the tools to 
users seeking to obscure transaction origins. The case has continued to anchor 
a broader debate within the Bitcoin and open-source development community over 
whether builders of non-custodial software tools can face criminal liability 
for how third parties choose to use their code. The Cato Institute argued the 
prosecution risked a chilling effect on privacy advocates, human rights 
activists, and software developers alike, per earlier reporting. The original 
Samourai code continues to circulate through the Ashigaru fork, developed by 
an independent group of contributors following the platform&#8217;s shutdown. 
Related Reading: Bitcoin Uptrend Still Healthy, But Volume Divergence Raises 
Questions Rodriguez himself warned in December 2025 that Bitcoin miners could 
become the next targets of money transmission enforcement if the legal 
reasoning applied in the Samourai case is taken to its logical conclusion. 
BTC&#8217;s price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on 
Tradingview This development marks a significant and troubling moment for the 
nascent sector — one that will likely continue to shape how developers, 
lawyers, and regulators think about the line between building financial 
privacy tools and operating financial infrastructure under US law. Cover image 
from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Samourai Wallet Founder Writes From Prison Asking Bitcoin Community For Help — Family Is Out Of Options

Religious tensions in Nigeria highlight the global impact of extremist groups 
and geopolitical instability.
The post Joe Lonsdale: Religious persecution in Nigeria is a critical global issue, Iran&#8217;s destabilizing influence on Lebanon, and the US is poised for a nuclear energy resurgence | Shawn Ryan Show appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Joe Lonsdale: Religious persecution in Nigeria is a critical global issue, Iran’s destabilizing influence on Lebanon, and the US is poised for a nuclear energy resurgence | Shawn Ryan Show

Microsoft is reconsidering one of its biggest climate commitments as spending 
on artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to surge. According to a 
Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, the company is 
debating whether to delay or drop its “100/100/0”…

Microsoft faces clean energy challenge as AI infrastructure spending climbs

Kalshi&#8217;s growth signals a mainstream shift in prediction markets, enhancing 
institutional hedging strategies and market forecasting capabilities.
The post Kalshi closes $1 billion raise at $22 billion valuation as Wall 
Street piles in appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

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