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Crypto super PAC network to back GOP House candidates in Florida

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A Super PAC network funded by the crypto industry is poised to back two Republican candidates for the United States House of Representatives in Florida’s April 1 special elections, according to a March 21 report by Politico. The network includes Fairshake, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress.

Defend American Jobs will start the spending by airing a $1.2 million ad for Florida State Senator Randy Fine, who aims to replace former representative Michael Waltz, who resigned his House seat to become US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. “Floridians want crypto innovation!” Fine posted on X on Jan. 14, while also highlighting the need for “clear rules of the road.”

Defend American Jobs is also spending $345,000 to support Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in his quest to replace former representative Matt Gaetz. Gaetz resigned his House seat after Trump nominated him to become US attorney general, for which he later withdrew his name from consideration.

As Florida’s chief financial officer, Patronis wrote a letter to the State Board of Administration requesting a report on the feasibility of devoting part of the state’s retirement monies to investing in digital assets.

Overall, there are four vacancies in the US House of Representatives, with two of the vacancies in Florida. If the Democrats were to sweep all four spots, the result would be just a one-person advantage for the GOP in the House, a very slim margin.

Related: Crypto firms double down on influencing US elections via PACs in 2026

Defend American Jobs backed Fine and Patronis in primaries

As Cointelegraph reported in January, crypto-funded Defend American Jobs backed Fine and Patronis during the primaries to select the nominees in the special elections.

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Defend American Jobs spent more than $500,000 supporting Fine and $200,000 backing Patronis. The two candidates won their primaries in the state’s 6th and 1st congressional districts, respectively.

Defend American Jobs expenditure report supporting Randy Fine. Source: FEC

While Fairshake gets much of the attention in the crypto PAC world, Defend American Jobs also spends millions of dollars supporting crypto candidates. According to OpenSecrets, the PAC raised and spent around $60 million from 2023 to 2024. The PAC’s location is listed as Alexandria, VA and it focuses on securities and investments, specifically crypto.

Unlike Fairshake, which has a tendency to support candidates from different political parties, Defend American Jobs spends almost entirely in support of Republicans, with no spending support listed for candidates belonging to the Democratic Party, according to OpenSecrets.

Magazine: Crypto exposes sudden rift among Democrats months ahead of election

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Binance suspends staffer after internal investigation into insider trading

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Crypto exchange Binance has suspended a member of its Binance Wallet team, adding it could take further legal action after launching an internal investigation over allegations of insider trading.

The exchange’s crypto wallet business, Binance Wallet, launched an investigation on March 23 after it “received a complaint alleging that one of our staff members engaged in front-running trades using insider information to gain improper profits,” it said in a March 25 X post.

It claimed a preliminary investigation found a Binance Wallet staffer who joined the team last month was suspected of using information from a former position in a business development role at BNB Chain to “front-run” trades of a project token. 

“The employee was aware the project was planning a Token Generation Event (TGE) and anticipated it would generate significant community interest,” Binance Wallet wrote.

It claimed the staffer “used multiple linked wallet addresses to purchase a large volume of the project’s tokens” before it publicly announced the token launch and then, after the announcement, “quickly sold part of his holdings to realize significant profits.”

Binance Wallet accused the staff member of front-running trades based on non-public information gained from a previous role in breach of company policy. 

It added the staff member was “suspended immediately and pending further disciplinary action,” and the company would cooperate with authorities in the relevant jurisdiction to take legal action.

The company did not name the staff member but noted the allegations circulating on X prompted the investigation.

Earlier this week, multiple X users pointed to a former operations manager at BNB Chain — Freddie Ng — whose LinkedIn shows he joined Binance Wallet’s business development team last month.

As noted by X user “py,” one of the wallets that DEX Screener shows has profited $82,400 from the token in question, U DEX Platform (UUU), is a wallet that received UUU tokens from another wallet initially funded by the address “freddieng.bnb” — which Ng had shared on his X account.

A wallet allegedly linked to a Binance staffer sold holdings of a token just minutes after it debuted on March 23 and hit a peak value of $31.5 million. Source: DEX Screener

Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ng was contacted for comment.

Related: BNB Chain launches $100M liquidity program 

Binance Wallet said it appreciated the public efforts, but it would only reward those who submitted reports to a whistleblowing email “to protect whistleblowers’ interests.”

It said it would hand out $100,000 equally distributed among four anonymous whistleblowers who emailed the exchange.

Magazine: What are native rollups? Full guide to Ethereum’s latest innovation 

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Kentucky governor signs ‘Bitcoin Rights’ bill into law

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Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has signed a measure known as the “Bitcoin Rights” bill, into law, enshrining protections for crypto users, as two other US states’ Bitcoin reserve legislation advanced.

Crypto advocacy group the Satoshi Action Fund said in a March 24 statement to X that House Bill 701 protects the “right to self-custody, run a node, and use of digital assets” without “fear of discrimination.” 

First introduced to the Kentucky House by Rep Adam Bowling on Feb. 19, HB701’s description says it safeguards the right to use digital assets and self-custody wallets and bans local zoning changes that discriminate against crypto mining

Source: Satoshi Action Fund

At the same time, the legislation provides guidelines for running a crypto node, excludes crypto mining from money transmitter license requirements, and specifies that mining and staking are not considered offering or selling a security.

The bill passed Kentucky’s House of Representatives on Feb. 28, with all 91 representatives voting in favor, and passed the state Senate on March 13, with all 37 senators voting in favor. It was then signed into law by Beshear on March 24. 

The legislation mirrors similar legislation signed into law by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt in May 2024. 

Kentucky’s Bitcoin Rights bill enshrines protections for crypto users in the state. Source: Kentucky General Assembly

Kentucky has also introduced a bill to establish a Bitcoin reserve, allowing the State Investment Commission to allocate up to 10% of excess state reserves into digital assets, including Bitcoin (BTC); the bill is still under review. 

Other Bitcoin reserve bills move forward

Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s House Bill 1203 (HB 1203), known as the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, has passed the State House of Representatives 77 to 15, according to the crypto advocacy group, the Oklahoma Bitcoin Association.

The bill was introduced to the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Jan. 15 by state Representative Cody Maynard and passed the Government Oversight Committee with a 12–2 vote on Feb. 25. 

Related: Crypto bills stack up across the US, from Bitcoin reserves to task forces

It must now pass through the Senate before the Oklahoma governor can veto or sign the bill into law. Oklahoma state Senator Dusty Deevers also filed legislation on Jan. 8 that would allow residents in the state to receive salaries in Bitcoin

Bitcoin legislation tracker group Bitcoin Laws said in a March 24 X post that Oklahoma has now moved into equal second place with Texas in the State Bitcoin reserve race.

Oklahoma has now moved into equal second place in the State Bitcoin reserve race. Source: Bitcoin Laws

Arizona remains in the lead after two strategic digital asset reserve bills cleared Arizona’s House Rules Committee on March 24 and headed to the House floor for a full vote.

Bitcoin Laws speculates that because Republicans dominate the Oklahoma Senate and the governor is Republican, the bill “has a good chance to pass into law.” 

Missouri’s Special Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs is also in the process of evaluating the state’s Bitcoin reserve bill, according to Bitcoin Laws.

Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025

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Massive Bitcoin whale buys $200M in BTC, another wakes up after 8 years

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A massive Bitcoin whale wallet holding has just added $200 million worth of Bitcoin to its position after selling over 11,400 Bitcoin over the last few months — coinciding with a recent rebound for the original cryptocurrency. 

The Bitcoin (BTC) whale added 2,400 Bitcoin — worth over $200 million — to their stash on March 24, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence said in an X post.

Data shared by the firm shows that despite some sales in February, after the latest purchase, the whale holds over 15,000 Bitcoin in its wallet, worth over $1.3 billion, at current prices.

“A $1 billion Bitcoin Whale just withdrew $200 million of Bitcoin this morning from Binance,” Arkham said.

The whale started acquiring Bitcoin five days ago after selling off its stash when Bitcoin’s price was between $100,000 and $86,000 in February. CoinGeck data shows on Feb. 1, Bitcoin was worth over $104,000, but it steadily declined to hit a low of $78,940 on Feb. 28. 

Source: Arkham Intelligence

The whale movement comes amid a recent Bitcoin price rebound. 

Bitcoin has been trading $81,000 and $88,000 in the last seven days, according to CoinGecko, with a price surge of 3% on March 24, distancing itself from its $76,900 low on March 11.

Bitcoin whale wakes from slumber 

At the same time, another Bitcoin whale has woken up after eight years of dormancy, moving over 3,000 Bitcoin, worth $250 million, in one transaction on March 22.

“His Bitcoin stack went from $3M in early 2017 to over $250M today — and he’s held Bitcoin on one address for over 8 years,” Arkham said in a March 22 X post. 

Another huge Bitcoin holder, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with approximately $11.6 trillion in assets under management, has been steadily accumulating more Bitcoin over the last week as well, according to Arkham.

Across 15 transactions, the asset manager bought an extra 4,054 Bitcoin, giving it a total stash of 573,878, worth over $50 billion, data on Bitbo’s Bitcoin treasury tracker shows

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) also led a rally of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US, snapping a five-week net outflow streak by clocking a net inflow of $744.4 million. 

The bulk of net inflows came from BlackRock’s iShares, which recorded $537.5 million, followed by Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $136.5 million.

Bitcoin whales weren’t the only ones accumulating more crypto. Lookonchain used Arkham data to track a lone Ether whale who added 7,074 Ether (ETH) to its stash on March 21, worth $13.8 million.

Source: Lookonchain

Ether has been moving between $1,876 and $2,097 in the last seven days, CoinGecko data shows. It’s still down over 57% from its all-time high of $4,878, which it hit in November 2021.

However, its open interest surged to a new all-time high on March 21, and the number of addresses with at least $100,000 worth of Ether started rising at the beginning of March, from just over 70,000 addresses on March 10 to over 75,000 on March 22.

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