The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has imposed a $48.5 million penalty on Paxos as part of its enforcement action against the stablecoin issuer, according to an Aug. 7 announcement.

The settlement includes a $26.5 million civil monetary fine and mandates Paxos to spend an additional $22 million over three years to strengthen its compliance systems.

According to the financial regulator, this development follows a wide-ranging investigation into Paxos’ compliance failures related to anti-money laundering (AML) and customer due diligence procedures.

Paxos’ relationship with Binance attracts scrutiny

The enforcement action centered on Paxos’ relationship with Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

According to the financial regulator, Paxos began issuing the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin in collaboration with the exchange.

However, it failed to perform adequate due diligence on the trading platform, violating the terms of a 2020 agreement with the NYDFS.

This lack of oversight came to light during a review of Binance transactions conducted between 2017 and 2022. The review found that $1.6 billion worth of transactions were linked to illicit actors or entities sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

As a result, the NYDFS ordered Paxos to halt the issuance of BUSD in February 2023. This directive effectively ended Paxos’ partnership with Binance and led to the gradual phase-out of BUSD from the market.

Apart from the Binance issues, the NYDFS also highlighted broader systemic issues within Paxos’s compliance program.

These include weak Know-Your-Customer (KYC) protocols and delayed responses to law enforcement inquiries. Additionally, outdated, manual transaction monitoring systems failed to detect coordinated suspicious activity and clear money laundering patterns.

The investigation further noted that Paxos lacked internal policies to determine when to initiate investigations after receiving a law enforcement request. This oversight limited the firm’s ability to identify and respond to high-risk behavior in a timely manner.

New York’s crypto enforcement trend

The action is part of a broader trend in New York’s regulatory approach to the crypto industry.

Over the years, the NYDFS has taken enforcement actions against firms including Robinhood, Block Inc. (operator of Cash App), and the now-bankrupt Genesis.

Commenting on these enforcement actions, Superintendent Adrienne Harris reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to safeguarding financial markets and consumers.

She said:

“The Department of Financial Services has led the nation in regulating the virtual currency industry, protecting consumers and markets through examinations, supervision, and where necessary, enforcement.”

Mentioned in this article

The provocative collage master delivers his most ambitious work yet — and it’s pure fire

Artist. Instigator. Innovator.

There are NFT artists, and then there’s Slimesunday — a name that’s become synonymous with provocative digital art, fearless storytelling, and boundary-pushing innovation. Known for walking the razor’s edge between expression and censorship, Slimesunday has built a career out of asking hard questions in soft places — glossy magazines, polished platforms, and now, the hallowed halls of SuperRare’s Offline Gallery.

With Banned from New York, his latest and most ambitious solo exhibition, Slimesunday ascends to a new level — a complete and uncompromising vision that fuses physical works, NFTs, and immersive storytelling into one unflinching critique of modern censorship and creative suppression. This is not just a show. It’s a statement. And arguably, his greatest artistic achievement to date.

From Banned to Beloved: The Rise of Slimesunday

Based in Salem, Massachusetts, Slimesunday (Mike Parisella) made a name for himself by exploring themes too edgy for the mainstream. While social platforms regularly buried, flagged, or shadowbanned his content, audiences couldn’t get enough — his following exploded, and collectors quickly recognized the cultural weight of his work.

His surreal and often erotic collages have graced the pages of Playboy, Penthouse, Glamour, and Hunger, and he’s collaborated with major musical acts like Lana Del Rey, Beck, Katy Perry, J Balvin, and 3LAU, where he serves as art director and co-creator of the audiovisual project SSX3LAU.

In the NFT space, Slimesunday ranks among the top-earning crypto artists — not just because his work is controversial, but because it’s important. His pieces are as technically masterful as they are thematically bold, pulling from digital nostalgia, glitch culture, and raw human psychology. Whether you’re staring at one of his NFTs or walking past one of his wheatpaste works in NYC, the impact is unmistakable.

Banned from New York: A Career-Defining Exhibition

Slimesunday’s exhibition, presented by SuperRare and Roger Dickerman, spans the full spectrum of his medium mastery — physical sculptures, glitchy MP4s, wheatpaste panels, and digital-physical hybrids.

But what ties them all together? A singular theme: visibility vs. control.

“They don’t need to ban you,” Slimesunday says. “They just make sure no one sees it.”

MS Paint (2024) – $18,000

A deeply personal, physical tribute to his first digital art tool. The entire piece — carved in HDU and painted by hand — captures the exact palette and UI of Windows 98, turning nostalgia into fine art.

No Time to Kare & Winamp V6.9 – 5 ETH

Digital tapestries of broken pixels, dithering, and old forum energy. These are animated memories for the LimeWire generation.

Lady Liberty – Auction on July 31

A reimagined icon of freedom in a world of digital oppression. “Posting this hurts my reach,” he says. “But that’s why it matters.”

Weedman – $25,000

What started as glue, weed, and a Playboy ad became a layered commentary on cannabis, race, and incarceration. Backed by a $10,000 donation to the Last Prisoner Project, it’s proof that Slimesunday doesn’t just make noise — he backs it up.

Marked & Sunday School Dropout – $14k–$15k

Two wheatpaste-on-wood pieces that challenge religion, algorithms, and modern dogma. Sunday School Dropout was so controversial it was pulled from a prior gallery. Slimesunday didn’t flinch — he doubled down.

Squares Series (2024–2025)

Inspired by David Hockney, these deconstructed prints blur nudity, censorship, and composition into elegant chaos.

Roll Model – 3 ETH

The birth of Weedman in visual form. A chaotic, raw capture of the artist’s process in its purest state.

The Power of the Provocateur

Slimesunday doesn’t just comment on censorship — he experiences it firsthand. Whether it’s being shadowbanned on Instagram, throttled by opaque algorithms, or cut from a gallery last-minute, he has lived the tension that defines his work.

He’s not chasing likes. He’s chasing truth.

“Religion was the original algorithm,” he says. “Now the church is digital… and the priests wear Patagonia vests.”

This isn’t just edgy rhetoric — it’s the lived experience of an artist creating in a time when platforms, not people, decide what is “acceptable.”

The Offline Gallery: Where Digital Meets Real

SuperRare’s Offline Gallery in NYC is the perfect venue. More than just a space, it’s a proving ground for NFT art’s cultural legitimacy. And with Roger Dickerman and 24 Hours of Art behind it, the platform is set for this moment to resonate beyond crypto — into the larger cultural conversation.

Fireside Chat with RD – July 31, 6–7PM
Opening Reception – July 31, 7–9PM

Final Thoughts: This Is the Moment

With Banned from New York, Slimesunday isn’t just showcasing his best work — he’s cementing his legacy. This is the culmination of years of resistance, experimentation, and raw, unfiltered creation.

This isn’t art that asks for approval. It dares you to look, to question, and to feel.

And that’s exactly what makes it so powerful.

TL;DR

Slimesunday’s Banned from New York exhibition is the most important work of his career — a visceral, multidisciplinary exploration of censorship, nostalgia, and artistic resistance. With backing from SuperRare and Roger Dickerman, this show blends physical and digital mediums in a way only Slimesunday can, and solidifies his place as one of the most essential artists in the NFT and digital art landscape.

The New York Times recently disgraced itself obsessing over Zohran Mamdani having checked “Asian” and “Black or African American” boxes on a failed college application when he was a 17-year-old Ugandan immigrant. Worse, it got the data from hacked personal records provided to it by a far-right activist, and rushed out its story because it didn’t want to be scooped by a different far-right activist. Moreover, it misled readers about its source, claiming he was an “academic” opposed to “affirmative action”—but he was soon identified as a vulgar Twitter racist whose own family reports to be a college dropout. None other than former Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan raked the paper for its williness to ally with a far-right crusade, but as is often the case, humor is the best answer. Check out The Mamdani Times, which generates headlines for follow-up stories in the Times‘ distinctively clenched style.

Eric Adams Questions Mamdani’s Commitment to Serving Interests of Turkey
Zohran Mamdani Says He Flosses Every Day. But Does He?
In Mamdani, Some Democrats Recoil at Sight of Popularity

That third one there really gets to the heart of the matter! Mamdani is popular (and made shockingly fast work of Andrew Cuomo in the Dem primary) but a left-wing muslim becoming mayor of New York is unacceptable to the Times. If anything, Democratic party brass have merely distanced themselves from Mandani while they vet him, and will likely warm to his candidacy should his campaign remain sure-footed. It’s really mainstream media elites who can’t stand him to the point of throwing their lot in with right-wingers.

America’s political journalists poke around all day on Twitter, drowning in its anti-woke algorithmic preferences and outright Nazi gibberish. They’re at the center of a venn diagram of Audience Capture, “You Are Not Immune To Propaganda” and the ludic loops of process addiction. “Race science” is on their minds (and your screens) largely because of it, so it’s no wonder what is feeding their reportage and who they now see as journalistic peers.

Previously: New York Times Torture Euphemism Generator

In the latest development for the ongoing LIBRA coin legal saga, Argentinian newspaper La Nacion reports that Hayden Mark Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, submitted a voluntary statement last Monday to a federal court in New York. The case centers on a class action lawsuit brought by U.S. investors who suffered losses following the rapid rise and subsequent collapse of the controversial LIBRA token.

Davis strongly denied any allegations of fraud, insider trading, or other misconduct. Instead, he attributed the token’s sudden price drop to Argentine President Javier Milei’s decision to delete a social media post endorsing LIBRA. According to Davis, Milei’s tweet initially boosted interest and investment in the project, but its subsequent removal fueled rumors and accusations that LIBRA was a scam, claims that Davis insists are false.

The entrepreneur described LIBRA as a project intended to support small businesses and educational initiatives in Argentina, not as a pump-and-dump scheme to defraud investors. He emphasized that he was unaware of any “snipers” (individuals who allegedly profited by purchasing large amounts of the token just before its launch) and denied any personal involvement in such activities.

Davis also sought to challenge the jurisdiction of New York federal courts, arguing that he has no residence or business activities in New York and that the project was conceived and executed in Argentina. He suggested that any legal proceedings should take place in Argentine courts.

Of particular note in Davis’s statement was his proposal to return approximately $100 million in investor funds, which he reportedly moved between February 14 and 15, 2025. However, this plan was blocked by a U.S. court order freezing over $55 million in crypto assets.

The case continues to unfold, with ongoing investigations in both the United States and Argentina. The Argentine Congress has recently convened a special commission to examine the matter, and experts have raised questions about the circumstances under which President Milei accessed information about the token, casting doubt on some of the official statements made at the outset of the controversy.

As legal and political scrutiny intensifies, the LIBRA case highlights the complexities and risks associated with meme coins and the influence of public figures in the digital asset market.