Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

About Author

Amin Ayan is a crypto journalist with over four years of experience in the industry. He has contributed to leading publications such as Cryptonews, Investing.com, 99Bitcoins, and 24/7 Wall St. He has…

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Last updated: 

July 26, 2025

Dragonfly Capital may soon find itself in the crosshairs of U.S. prosecutors over its 2020 investment in Tornado Cash developer PepperSec, Inc., the firm behind the now-sanctioned crypto privacy protocol.

The venture capital firm signaled Friday that it would push back hard if formal charges are filed.

In a statement on social media, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi defended the investment, stressing that it was made in good faith after receiving legal assurances of compliance.

“We made this investment because we believe in the importance of open-source privacy-preserving technology,” Qureshi wrote. He added that legal counsel at the time found no regulatory red flags.

US Crackdown on Tornado Cash Sparks Crypto Privacy Debate

The controversy stems from the US government’s crackdown on Tornado Cash, a tool that enables users to obscure the origin and destination of crypto transactions.

Though the protocol was pitched as a decentralized privacy enhancer, it became a favorite among hackers and sanctioned entities seeking to hide digital footprints.

In 2023, the Department of Justice charged developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov with money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions.

Storm’s trial is currently underway in New York and could result in a decades-long prison sentence. On Friday, prosecutors suggested Dragonfly itself could be next.

Qureshi dismissed the notion as an intimidation tactic. “We believe the government’s statement in court today was primarily to undermine a defense of Tornado Cash,” he said. “Bringing charges now would be outrageous.”

Tornado Cash has remained a legal and ethical flashpoint in the debate over privacy and regulation in crypto.

Its sanctioning by the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC in 2022 was a landmark moment, with authorities alleging it facilitated billions in illicit transactions, including funds tied to North Korean hackers.

Despite the sanctions, Tornado Cash has shown surprising resilience. Flipside Crypto reported $1.9 billion in deposits through the platform in the first half of 2024, indicating continued demand for anonymity tools in blockchain transactions.

No Final Ruling Needed After Tornado Cash Removed from Sanctions List

In March, the US Treasury Department argued that no further court ruling is necessary in the legal battle over its sanctioning of crypto mixer Tornado Cash, citing its recent removal of the platform and associated addresses from the sanctions list.

As reported, a developer has ported Tornado Cash to the MegaETH blockchain’s public testnet, enabling private transactions on the high-performance network.

MegaETH, which recently launched, boasts a throughput capacity of up to 20,000 transactions per second.

The developer, known pseudonymously as Gunboats, said the idea was sparked by the U.S. Treasury’s recent removal of Tornado Cash addresses from the OFAC sanctions list, following a court ruling earlier this year.

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

About Author

Amin Ayan is a crypto journalist with over four years of experience in the industry. He has contributed to leading publications such as Cryptonews, Investing.com, 99Bitcoins, and 24/7 Wall St. He has…

Share

Last updated: 

July 19, 2025

Peter McCormack, well-known Bitcoin podcaster and owner of Real Bedford FC, has announced a bold plan to tackle rising crime in Bedford, UK, stepping into a role some liken to a real-life Batman.

Frustrated by what he calls the police’s failure to protect the community, McCormack is personally funding a pilot initiative deploying ten security guards to patrol the town center every Saturday.

In a post on X, McCormack said, “If the police won’t keep the town safe for our women and children, I will.”

Rising Crime in Bedford Sparks Business Closures

McCormack said his concerns center on a surge in crime, including aggressive begging, shoplifting, and harassment, which he says have driven shoppers away, forced stores to close, and left families feeling unsafe.

The Bedford-based entrepreneur and football club owner claims he issued a warning to local police before launching his plan, criticizing them for not addressing these issues.

Bedford, a town of around 185,800 residents located less than two hours from London, has seen McCormack become a vocal advocate for community safety.

Alongside his business ventures, he runs Real Bedford FC, a football club famously dubbed the “Bitcoin soccer team,” backed by investments from Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

McCormack has engaged local residents by surveying them about crime and has called for community meetings to build support for his security project.

Despite the initiative’s ambition, legal questions remain around how these private security personnel will operate in public spaces.

Vigilantism is illegal in the UK, and experts from JD Spicer Zeb Solicitors caution that such efforts must stay within legal boundaries.

It is suggested that the guards may function more as informants, gathering video evidence to assist police investigations, similar to the growing trend of traffic vigilantes in the country.

While the concept of privately funded security patrols might seem unconventional, it reflects a broader trend in areas facing police shortages.

Lieutenant Eric J. Altorfer of the San Francisco Police Department noted earlier this year that private security increasingly fills gaps left by understaffed law enforcement agencies.

However, Altorfer emphasized the importance of clear collaboration between private security firms and public police to ensure accountability and effectiveness.

Crypto Execs Hire Bodyguards Amid Influencer Kidnapping Concerns

As reported, crypto executives are turning to personal security services as targeted kidnappings and ransom attempts continue to escalate, particularly in France.

In May, private security firms such as Infinite Risks International, based in Amsterdam, reported a sharp increase in demand from crypto professionals seeking round-the-clock protection amid rising crypto kidnappings.

The rise in inquiries came after a spate of violent attacks, including multiple kidnapping attempts that have alarmed both investors and law enforcement.

In France, the father of a crypto millionaire was brutally attacked. And in New York, a tourist was tortured for over two weeks as kidnappers tried to extract his Bitcoin credentials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s outfit at a June 24 NATO meeting in the Netherlands has become the focal point of a fierce dispute between Polymarket bettors. 

A user on Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction platform, created a betting market that asked whether Zelenskyy would wear a suit before July. To settle the bet, a photo or video must show Zelenskyy wearing a suit between May 22 and June 30.

The market racked up nearly $79 million in volume. The result initially landed on “yes,” but has been disputed twice since and now awaits a final decision. 

On July 1, Polymarket said it was aware of a dispute on this market, and that at the time, “a consensus of credible reporting has not confirmed that Zelenskyy has worn a suit.” 

Arguments over what makes a suit 

Debate over Zelenskyy’s ensemble has those on social media questioning whether it’s a suit, a fitting blazer with a collared shirt and long pants, or if the trainers disqualify it from the suit classification. 

Those in favor argue that it’s all made from a similar cloth, with similar colors and has a formal appearance like a suit, with cuts and style being irrelevant. 

Those against are saying it’s a black shirt and a black jacket that resembles a casual blazer rather than a traditional suit jacket, and his trainers don’t match the rest of the outfit, making it not technically a full traditional suit. 

A community-run Polymarket account on X, Polymarket Intel, classified the Ukrainian President’s outfit as a suit. 

ChatGPT, when asked by Cointelegraph, said the outfit was not considered a suit as it lacks key elements of a traditional suit. It called it a military-style field jacket or tactical coat.

President Zelenskyy in a suit last night pic.twitter.com/Uo3Rhuzkq1

— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) June 25, 2025

Meanwhile, Canadian men’s fashion industry writer and commentator Derek Guy, also known as the menswear guy on X, didn’t do much to solve the dispute, saying on June 26 he thinks Zelenskyy’s outfit is “both a suit and not a suit.” 

Second time’s the charm 

This isn’t the first time Zelenskyy’s outfit has caused issues on Polymarket. Another similar betting market closed on May 31 and sparked a debate about whether a similar-looking outfit Zelenskyy wore in a meeting in Germany that month was a suit. 

Polymarket eventually determined that it wasn’t a suit. Derek Guy also weighed in on that debate to declare that Zelenskyy was technically wearing a suit, which is defined as “just a garment where the jacket and pants have been cut from the same cloth.” 

Zelenskyy has been blasted for not wearing a suit to formal meetings with world leaders. 

Zelenskyy himself said he would wear a suit again when the war against Russia ended, Politico reported on March 22.  

A March 5 report by the Ukrainian media outlet The Kyiv Independent also explained that the Ukrainian President prefers a more casual military-style outfit because the war is still ongoing, and if he “puts on a suit, it means he agrees that the war is over.”

Polymarket controversy 

Polymarket has been at the center of several other controversies this year, such as the proposed TikTok ban in January, with arguments over the technical details of the outcome because the platform was banned but still available for use when the betting market closed. 

Related: Polymarket gets backlash over ‘approved’ outcome on $13M Ethereum ETF bets

Polymarket employs UMA Protocol’s blockchain oracles for external data to settle market outcomes and verify real-world events. 

The UMA has faced allegations of going rogue in the past, or someone manipulating the oracle, like in the case of the bet over a $7 million Ukraine mineral deal in March. 

Meanwhile, a report on Thursday from blockchain-powered economic database Truf.Network argued that proving the truth can be tricky because the entire market relies on “trust in the data,” and it is often “fragmented, unverifiable, and too often, manipulable.” 

“It’s not about who decides the truth, but whether everyone can verify it. When no one can verify a price, who won, what the score was, or even if it rained yesterday, the market itself collapses,” it said.

“If the person verifying the outcome is also betting on the game, truth becomes debatable.”

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