US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce will hit the road this fall, leading a 10-city tour as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new crypto outreach initiative. The regulator announced a roundtable series on Friday aimed at gathering feedback from industry stakeholders, developers and investors as the agency weighs future digital asset rules.

“The Crypto Task Force is acutely aware that any regulatory framework will have far-reaching effects, and we want to ensure that our outreach is as comprehensive as possible,” Peirce said in a statement.

The agency’s crypto task force is “particularly interested” in meeting with crypto startups less than two years old and with 10 or fewer employees. The roundtable discussions will take place between August and December.

Many of the 2025 roundtable discussions hosted by the SEC have featured input from crypto and traditional heavyweights like a16z Crypto and asset management companies BlackRock. In its previous roundtables, the crypto task force has discussed the regulation of crypto, custody, tokenization and decentralized finance.

Founded in 1934, the SEC oversees and enforces US securities laws. While the agency had an often antagonistic relationship with the crypto industry, its approach has shifted under the administration of President Donald Trump. Enforcement actions against high-profile firms such as Coinbase, Uniswap and Kraken have been dropped, and the agency is now signaling a willingness to engage in open dialogue with players.

It is unclear whether the SEC has conducted this type of outreach before or how much it will cost. The agency receives its budget through the congressional appropriations process. Cointelegraph reached out for comment but had not received a response at time of publication.

Related: Coinbase seeks SEC approval for ‘tokenized equities’ — Report

Trump’s crypto promises gain momentum

The SEC’s initiatives come months after Trump said he would make the US the “world capital of crypto.”

On July 18, Trump signed the GENIUS Act, a bill that regulates stablecoins and their issuers, a moment hailed as a win by the crypto industry. Meanwhile the CLARITY Act, a market structure bill, has passed the House of Representatives, while the Senate is considering legislation addressing similar crypto market structure issues.

Other government agencies are also following the Trump administration’s lead. In June, the Federal Reserve cut the “reputational risk” category critics say was used to debank crypto companies. The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has eased restrictions on how banks can engage with the crypto industry.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Friends,

In the time since the last Devcon announcement, the state of the Ethereum ecosystem has been electric. We’ve realized critical milestones on the Eth2 roadmap, as well as countless breakthroughs and major progress by teams across the ecosystem. We are incredibly excited to celebrate these achievements with all of you at Devcon in Bogota soon.

That said, we need to talk about timing, because we’ve made the difficult decision to hold off on reuniting for a bit longer rather than pushing ahead with our August target (). While nothing is guaranteed given the ongoing pandemic, we’re hopeful that a new date announcement is possible soon with the availability of COVID-19 vaccines ramping up now, and updated pandemic-related trends improving. Still, we want to make sure we do this responsibly and that as many people as possible are able to make the trip from all around the world, which seems unlikely by early August. We have, in recent weeks and months, continued to monitor and listen to the concerns raised by the community, and general sentiment around the August date, and it is clear that the best way to ensure that that we can deliver for everyone is with just a little bit more time.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot going on! The road to Devcon will be paved with the many events, virtual and in-person — including EthCC, which is now scheduled to take place in July of 2021 (hosted in Paris by our friends at Ethereum France). We’re excited to support the efforts of all of the amazing and creative teams working to keep our ecosystem thriving. And while we’ve stayed engaged and connected over the last year from afar, we hope to come together again as the situation improves.

As soon as we are able to make date-related announcements, you’ll find right alongside it information on ticketing, speaker applications and all the other details we know you’re eager to learn. Until then, we’ll continue to actively review Devcon Improvement Proposals, so if you’ve got an idea that you think will make Devcon better, send it our way. We’ll continue to work toward putting together an amazing event, which will be here before we know it.

Friends,

As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to grow and mature at break-neck speeds, we continue to work hard on delivering an amazing Devcon 6. Though the timing is still unclear as to when we’ll all be able to reunite in Bogota, we want to keep our community involved along the Road to Devcon! In an effort to do this, we’re announcing Road to Devcon Quests!

What are Quests?

Road to Devcon Quests are periodic engagements for our community to continually collaborate, contribute, and learn. For each Quest, you’ll have the opportunity to earn a POAP badge representing your participation — see how many you can collect!

Upcoming Quests are listed on Devcon.org, and we welcome community-initiated Quests as well — if you have an idea for a community Quest, share it in our RTD Discord server!

Kicking off Quests with EthStaker

To kick off the first of these Quests, we’ve decided to team up with the EthStaker Community for a series of fun online events on the Road to Devcon.

The EthStaker community is no stranger to the Ethereum ecosystem. They’ve become one of the canonical communities for Ethereum staking. The EthStaker crew regularly hosts events to help educate the community with the goal of lowering the technical barrier to entry in addition to welcoming more people into the world of solo and pooled staking.

The excitement of Devcon has inspired the EthStaker community to host two online events to compete for bragging rights, POAPs, and Devcon tickets. Each event listed below is open for anyone to participate, and the more you participate, the more chances you will have to win a ticket to Devcon.

Painting Party: 29 May, 2021

POAP.art is the newest experiment by POAP, and it sits at the intersection of art and technology. POAP.art is an interactive digital canvas that allows artists of all skill levels to collaborate with one another, to make original pieces of pixel art, and mint them as NFTs effectively cementing your art digitally on the blockchain forever.

The POAP.art canvas will be open for anyone to use for 1-hour during a livestream on YouTube. While you’re dropping pixels, we will be hearing from Devcon and EthStaker community members providing lite commentary while we watch the canvas fill up.

In order to participate, you will just need to be present during the Livestream and obtain your ‘Painting Party Viewer’ POAP, which grants you access to the POAP.art Canvas. All who are present during the Painting Party Livestream will receive this POAP, and all who drop at least one pixel on the POAP.art canvas will receive a ‘Painting Party Pixel Dropper’ POAP.

Following the Painting Party the EthStaker crew will host a double-header POAP.fun Raffle. Round 1 is eligible to those who hold any past Devcon POAPs, or who is an Beacon Chain Genesis Depositor. Round 2 is eligible to those who hold the Painting Party Viewer or Pixel Dropper POAP. Winners of the raffles will secure participant seats for the following Devcon Trivia Game.

For more information, find the full details here!

Devcon Trivia Game: 10 July, 2021

Trivia Games are a staple within the EthStaker community and are an incredibly fun experience. All are welcome to participate during the Livestream Play-Along hosted on the EthStaker website, while those who won Trivia Game seats compete against each other in a live Trivia Game played using the Kahoot! platform. Participants are asked a series of questions ranging from general Ethereum knowledge, Devcon history, and everything in between.

The participant with the highest scores will win tickets to Devcon and bragging rights. There will be four available POAPs for this event; the viewer, the Play-Along participant, participant, and the winner.

For more information, find the full details here!

See You on the Road to Devcon!

We hope to see you at any (all ) of the Quests along the Road to Devcon, and help us build excitement for the event! If you have any questions or want to know how to get involved, reach out anytime at support@devcon.org, @EFDevcon on Twitter, Reddit r/EthStaker, EthStaker Discord, or @EthStaker on Twitter.

Community organizers are the glue that holds the Ethereum ecosystem together, and whether they’re leading large-scale events, local meetups, hackathons or seminars, we might all be wandering in the dark forest of the analog world without them. But where’s the fun in relying on chance encounters with kindred spirits identified by a telltale laptop sticker, or that indefinable air of cryptocool?

Although major events tend to generate more buzz, not everyone can travel halfway across the world for a conference. Smaller events play a crucial role in making Ethereum inclusive, accessible and cohesive: anyone with an internet connection and a laptop can participate in a virtual meetup or join an online hackathon team, and there are myriad opportunities at any given time.

With this in mind, the Devcon team is collaborating with ESP to host a round of grants of $500-1500 for meetups and small events. If you’re organizing an event or series and need help covering associated costs, or have been putting off something special due to lack of resources, we’re here for you! If your event doesn’t have any associated costs but you’re running into some other obstacle, feel free to get in touch anyway and we’ll see if we can help.

To be eligible for a grant, your event should be:

• Ethereum focused
• Free to attend
• Open to anyone
• If held in person, compliant with all local COVID-19 restrictions and guidance
• Not focused on investment, price or token sales
• Events that have already taken place are not eligible

We hope to hear from organizers of all kinds, from anywhere in the world. Regardless of whether you need support, any event that meets the criteria can participate – just submit the form to let us know you’d like to be listed on devcon.org and receive a special “Road to Devcon” badge to display on your website.

Head here for more details and the submission form.

This grant round is specifically targeted at small events with relatively minimal costs, with a streamlined application process. If your event doesn’t fit the criteria or you’re seeking larger sponsorships, you can always submit an inquiry to ESP.

Ross Ulbricht, the imprisoned founder of the Silk Road darknet marketplace who was granted clemency by US President Donald Trump earlier this year, received a whopping $31 million Bitcoin donation from an anonymous wallet over the previous weekend.

The sizable gift, sent less than five months after Ulbricht’s sentence was commuted, immediately sparked speculation that he had covertly reclaimed old Silk Road earnings.

Anonymous Bitcoin Gift to Ross Ulbricht

According to the intel shared by cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis with WIRED, the 300 BTC donation did not originate from Silk Road at all. Instead, the funds appear to trace back to AlphaBay, a now-defunct darknet market that operated between 2014 and 2017, well after Silk Road’s takedown.

AlphaBay, which was reportedly ten times the size of Silk Road at its peak, was known for trafficking in drugs, malware, and illegal services. Phil Larratt, Chainalysis’s director of investigations and a former UK law enforcement official, said there are “reasonable grounds to suspect” the Bitcoin came from someone involved with AlphaBay – likely a former vendor, given the size of the amount.

Prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who had earlier examined the donation, also concluded the funds did not come from Silk Road.

Despite the sender’s use of Bitcoin mixing services, ZachXBT traced the BTC to a wallet previously flagged by Chainalysis as connected to illicit activity. He shared his conclusion with WIRED, wherein he noted that the donation itself may be genuine, but “not legitimate funds.”

Additional clues suggest the person behind the transfer may have been actively trying to avoid detection: ZachXBT discovered the same individual had previously cashed out other crypto through centralized exchanges in small, spread-out amounts, rather than large single transactions. This behavior is consistent with an effort to evade asset freezing or scrutiny.

AlphaBay Crackdown

Chainalysis reportedly declined to share specifics on how exactly it linked the donation to AlphaBay.  But it is important to note that the firm is widely known for its expertise in mapping illicit activity across blockchain networks and played a crucial role in dismantling the now-defunct marketplace during the multinational law enforcement initiative known as Operation Bayonet, involving the FBI, DEA, and Europol.

The crackdown later led to the conviction of Bryan Connor Herrell, an AlphaBay moderator, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison. As for Ulbricht, he has not publicly addressed the donation.

The founder of the darknet marketplace Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, received 300 BTC, worth around $31.4 million, in a single donation from an unknown wallet, data from Arkham Intelligence shows. 

Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison, received a full and unconditional pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump on January 21. He was released following the pardon after serving 12 years in prison.

Blockchain data further indicates that Ulbricht transferred the received funds on June 1, sending $31.29 million to one address and $10,000.43 to another. 

The latest donation amount far exceeds those Ulbricht received after his release. A wallet operated by the Free Ross campaign bagged $270,000 worth of Bitcoin within days after he was freed. The funds were donated to “help Ross’s transition into his new life.”

Ulbricht’s personal items have fetched $1.8 million in an auction so far

The above transactions took place after Ulbricht had already secured $1.8 million from his ongoing auction of personal items. The auction, which is live till June 2, is being conducted on the Bitcoin-only marketplace Scarce City. 

In a note on Scarce City, Ulbricht wrote: 

“I’ve decided to auction some personal items from before my arrest and during my time in prison. I don’t need the reminders, and I’m sure some of you will love to have them.”

The personal items up for auction include a sleeping bag and backpack from before his arrest, prison ID cards, and paintings he created during his incarceration. 

Ulbricht’s most recent prison ID card was sold for 5.5 BTC, worth over $580,000, after the winning bid of 11 BTC (worth approximately $1.1 million) was not paid. 

According to the item’s description, Ulbricht had to have his ID reissued with a recent photo in 2024 after a prison guard threatened to suspend his visitation rights. Talking about the ID photo, which depicts Ulbricht smiling, he noted: 

“The guard tried to get me to stop smiling for the photo, but my joy comes from within, so I smiled that day, even though I was in prison :)”

A December 2023 oil painting entitled ‘Archway,’ which Ulbricht created in collaboration with a fellow inmate who goes by Omega, was sold for 1.01 BTC, worth over $106,000. The item’s description noted that Omega had taught Ulbricht oil painting techniques. He wrote:

“I loved the look of this archway in a photograph so much, I had to paint it. It gave me the feeling that, if I could pass through it, something better would be on the other side.”

Ulbricht can access millions of dollars worth of dormant BTC

In addition to the large sums Ulbricht has racked up in donations, he might also have access to millions of dollars worth of BTC that were never seized by the U.S. government. During the 2013 Silk Road bust, the government had seized over 100,000 BTC.

On Jan. 22, Coinbase director Conor Grogan found 430 BTC, worth around $47 million, across multiple wallets linked to Ulbricht. These wallets were lying dormant for over 13 years, Grogan noted. 

Grogan’s discovery was confirmed by Arkham Intelligence, which traced 14 Bitcoin wallets linked to Silk Road, one of which contains BTC worth $9 million.

Earlier last month, two of these dormant wallets became active, transferring 3,422 BTC worth $324.2 million.

Mentioned in this article