Jerome Powell warned that near-zero interest rates may be a thing of the past, as the Fed grapples with high inflation and slower growth.

Stock market investors put on notice: Fed’s Chair Powell warns zero interest rates are not coming back

JPMorgan sees bitcoin dominating gold in 2025 as surging ETF inflows, 
corporate adoption, and state-level crypto reserves ignite a powerful wave of 
institutional momentum. JPMorgan Spots a Massive Rotation—Bitcoin Gaining, 
Gold Draining Global investment bank JPMorgan expects bitcoin to significantly 
outperform gold through the remainder of 2025, driven by a wave of crypto- 
specific catalysts that […]

JPMorgan Predicts Bitcoin Will Outgun Gold in 2025 Supercycle Shift

US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash 
founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the 
Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month.
Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge 
Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still 
stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money 
transmitting business charge.
&#8220;After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney 
General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter 
and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,&#8221; 
Clayton wrote.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche&#8217;s April memo said the Justice Department 
would end the so-called &#8220;regulation by prosecution&#8221; of crypto, and added that 
the agency wouldn&#8217;t prosecute crypto mixers like Tornado Cash &#8220;for the acts of 
their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.&#8221;
_A highlighted excerpt of Blanche &#8216;s memo stating that the Department of 
Justice was rolling back its crypto enforcement. Source: __US Department of 
Justice_
Clayton added that the indictment against Storm will cut the accusation that 
he failed to comply with money transmitting business registration 
requirements.
Prosecutors were pursuing that charge as part of their allegation that Storm 
conspired to run Tornado Cash as an unlicensed money transmitter.
The government will still push ahead with the charge under the accusation that 
Storm transmitted funds while knowing they were derived from a criminal 
offence or were intended to support unlawful activity.
The Justice Department alleged that Tornado Cash helped launder over $1 
billion worth of crypto, including for the sanctioned North Korean state- 
backed hacking collective the Lazarus Group.
Clayton said the Justice Department will also still pursue the other two 
charges in its indictment, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one 
count of conspiracy to violate US sanctions.
_**Related:**__**NFT founder stole millions from Bitcoin project, investors 
allege**_
The money laundering and sanctions violations conspiracy charges each carry a 
maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the unlicensed money transmitter 
conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Storm has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for July 14. He was 
charged alongside fellow founder Roman Semenov, who is at large and believed 
to be in his native Russia.
## Blanche memo cited in bids to toss
Other crypto executives facing charges have pointed to Blanche&#8217;s memo in a bid 
to have their cases dismissed.
Crypto mixer Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill had 
pointed to the memo to try to dismiss their charges of conspiracy to operate 
an unlicensed money transmitter and money laundering conspiracy.
Braden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has also cited the memo 
in an attempt to have the charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and money 
laundering conspiracy against him dismissed.
_**Legal Panel:**__**XRP win leaves Ripple a &#8216;bad actor&#8217; with no crypto legal 
precedent set**_

Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm trial goes ahead with slight trim

Independent market technician Dom (@traderview2) has drawn the crypto 
community’s eye to an unconventional but increasingly watched ratio: XRP 
priced in West Texas Intermediate crude. The Link Between XRP And USOIL In a 
two-hour TradingView screenshot posted on 14 May, the analyst shows the 
XRP/USOIL pair fading—twice—in the exact same resistance shelf that has capped 
price action since mid-December. “Last night we tapped the five-month range 
high again and price rejected perfectly,” he wrote, adding that “it’s amazing 
how much we are respecting this level as it gives a clear zone bulls need to 
fully regain for the next impulse higher.” Since December last year, the XRP 
price has been hammered down six times in the exact same resistance area. On 
May 13, Dom wrote: “ Could you ask for a cleaner range? This chart should be 
in a textbook… We know the importance of this range high. If it breaks, the 
probability $XRP goes to a new ATH goes up drastically. We know what happened 
right after BTC / USOIL hit it&#8217;s ATH 2 weeks ago, I would expect something 
similar here. Patience, this needs steam to breakout here.” Related Reading: 
XRP Surges Past Neckline—Analyst Projects Rally To $3.57 That ceiling is 
circumscribed on Dom’s chart by a charcoal-grey block from roughly 0.0418 to 
0.0430. Each of the last two probes into the band—one during Asian trade on 12 
May, the second during the New-York session on 14 May—produced sharp downside 
wicks. Momentum, moreover, is flowing against heavy sell pressure in the spot 
token. Citing on-chain order-flow analytics, Dom highlighted that “$210 
million of XRP has been net-market-sold over the past seven days—despite this, 
XRP is up twenty percent.” He argues that such divergence implies absorption 
by professional liquidity providers rather than retail exuberance: “Market 
makers or whales are likely soaking up aggressive asks through passive limit 
bids. When that dynamic persists, it usually precedes an explosive upside once 
sellers exhaust themselves.” Community members quickly asked what a definitive 
breakout could portend for XRP priced in dollars. One follower, The Standard 
(@Xrpdemon589), pressed: “Would you say if it breaks it, it will have another 
parabolic move up breaking ATH?” Dom responded, “If we see a full breakout, 
historically yes, it’s only time until XRP/USD prints a new high.” Related 
Reading: XRP Price Prediction: $36 Is In The Cards As 3-Month Timeframe Turns 
Bullish? Crypto commentator Moon Lambo (@MoonLamboio) queried the intellectual 
basis for linking an energy-based ratio to the standalone token. Dom conceded 
no fundamental thesis is proven, but stressed the analytical utility: “I 
really just think it provides another perspective of price action when we peg 
it to something deeply woven into the economic system. I don’t think there is 
any specific relationship—rather, it’s useful to see things you wouldn’t 
otherwise see on the USD pair.” Technically, the map is binary. Dom reiterated 
that he has “alerts set for a full breakout” above 0.0418–0.0430; any two-hour 
close in that region would, in his view, constitute decisive range expansion 
and “give bulls the runway for the next impulse higher.” Should buyers instead 
relinquish the amber pivot at 0.0394, the door reopens to 0.0378 minor 
support, with a break there exposing the 0.0357 floor and negating the current 
series of higher lows. Until either boundary yields, XRP/USOIL remains in its 
five-month box, but the very act of watching the pair, Dom contends, sharpens 
traders’ macro lens. “BTC, USOIL, XRP—combining them is just another way to 
triangulate liquidity,” he wrote. “Sometimes the edge is simply seeing the 
same market from a slightly different angle.” At press time, XRP traded at 
$2.46. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Surprising Link Between XRP And Crude Oil Revealed By Analyst

XRP’s regulatory clarity remains rock-solid as Ripple’s legal chief confirms 
its non-security status is untouched, even after a court setback stalls a 
proposed SEC deal. Ripple Legal Chief Defuses Panic After Court Rejects SEC 
Deal Over XRP Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, addressed the 
crypto community on Thursday following a court ruling that denied […]

Ripple Confirms XRP Victory Stands as SEC Deal Collapses in Court

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which oversees the state&#8217;s 
retirement funds, unloaded its shares in BlackRock&#8217;s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF 
(IBIT) during the first quarter, filings show.
The Wisconsin Investment Board reported no spot Bitcoin ETF positions in its 
13F filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 15, liquidating 
all 6,060,351 IBIT shares it reported holding from the previous quarter.
The more than 6 million IBIT shares are worth around $355.6 million at current 
prices.
SWIB was one of the first state investment funds to provide Bitcoin exposure 
to US retirees when it bought $164 million worth of Bitcoin ETFs in Q1 2024 &#8212; 
the same quarter the Bitcoin products launched.
_Source:__Julian Fahrer_
The mass sell-off comes only a quarter after SWIB reported additional 
purchases of IBIT shares in Q4, while reallocating all 1 million shares held 
in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to IBIT.
SWIB reported managing more than $166 billion worth of assets at the end of 
2024, meaning the Bitcoin ETFs represented around 0.2% of SWIB&#8217;s entire 
portfolio before it sold them off.
_**Related:**__**Jim Chanos takes opposing bets on Bitcoin and Strategy**_
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala snapped up another 491,439 
shares of IBIT in Q1, according to its latest 13F filing.
Its purchases brought Mubadala&#8217;s total IBIT shares to 8,726,972 as of March 
31, worth around $512 million at current prices.
## IBIT has been on a tear
IBIT&#8217;s net inflows surpassed the $45 billion mark on May 14 after recording a 
net inflow of $232.9 million, Farside Investors data shows. 
IBIT&#8217;s impressive 20-day streak of net inflows came to an end the day before 
&#8212; May 13 &#8212; when it registered a &#8220;0&#8221; inflow on the day. The BlackRock-issued 
Bitcoin product still hasn&#8217;t seen an outflow since April 9 &#8212; more than five 
weeks ago.
The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF 
(ARK) trail IBIT in all-time net inflows at $11.6 billion and $2.7 billion, 
respectively.
_Flow data of the 11 US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs since April 28. 
Source:__Farside Investors_
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