[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | U.S. Senate Democrats Call for Hearing on Trump Family Crypto Project

Bitcoin (BTC) has surpassed $63,000 on OKX.

According to Odaily, BTC was trading at $63,008.90, up 0.83% on the day. In the broader crypto market, whether major price levels can be broken is being closely watched as a key variable for short-term direction.

U.S. Senate Democrats have urged Republican leadership to immediately hold a hearing to investigate potential ties between the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial, and the Abu Dhabi royal family.

According to Odaily, The Wall Street Journal previously reported that an investment firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, secretly acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial. World Liberty Financial is a DeFi and stablecoin project, and former President Trump and his three sons were reportedly listed as advisers.

According to the report, the $500 million deal was signed by Eric Trump four days before Trump's inauguration in January 2025. Half of the amount was paid upfront, with about $187 million flowing to entities controlled by the Trump family and at least $31 million going to entities linked to the family of World Liberty co-founder Steve Witkoff.

Trump's side said it was unaware of the $500 million investment and was not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of World Liberty Financial. Democrats argued that the matter raises the possibility of conflicts of interest involving the president's family business interests, foreign capital, and government diplomatic posts, and called on the Republican-led Senate to launch a prompt investigation.

A crypto tax legislation framework being developed in the U.S. Senate may be unveiled this fall.

According to Odaily, Senator Steve Daines, a Republican involved in drafting the Senate's tax proposal, said the crypto tax legislation framework is basically complete and could be released as early as this fall.

Daines said the framework has “more similarities than differences” compared with the proposal previously released by the House Ways and Means Committee. He expressed hope that the legislative review process would move forward this year, though no specific details were disclosed.

A draft amendment to the People's Bank of China Law includes language clarifying the legal status of the digital yuan.

PANews, citing Caixin, reported that the draft amendment to the Law of the People's Bank of China was submitted on June 23 to the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress for its first review.

The draft newly includes the phrase “clarifying the legal status of the digital yuan.” In the 2020 public consultation draft, it had only stated that the renminbi includes both physical and digital forms.

The earlier consultation draft also prohibited institutions or individuals from producing or issuing token notes or digital tokens intended to replace the renminbi in market circulation. Violators could face orders from the People's Bank of China to cease issuance and destroy the tokens, confiscation of illegal income, and fines of up to five times the amount involved.

President Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at strengthening U.S. quantum computing capabilities and transitioning government systems to post-quantum cryptography, according to Odaily.

The executive orders focus on defending against advanced cryptographic attacks and promoting quantum innovation. The U.S. government plans to advance deployment of quantum sensors by September 2028, while federal high-value assets and high-impact systems must transition to post-quantum cryptographic systems by the end of 2031.

Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, said the move signals that the U.S. government is willing to commit funding and time to meet post-quantum security goals, and that related requirements could expand across federal contractors.

Industry participants said that while the executive orders do not directly mention Bitcoin, they could positively influence blockchain security research. The Ethereum Foundation and Solana Foundation have previously pursued post-quantum security research.

Some publicly exposed Bitcoin addresses have long been considered potentially vulnerable to private key inference if sufficiently powerful quantum computers emerge in the future. Pruden said the measures could accelerate the maturity of related tools, standards, and migration pathways.

KG Financial, the fintech subsidiary of KG Group, has signed an MOU with the Solana Foundation to jointly develop Web3-based digital asset payment infrastructure, according to PANews.

The two sides have been discussing digital asset payment solutions since April and have completed a proof of concept including stablecoin issuance and real-world payment services, confirming both technical and commercial feasibility.

KG Group plans to pursue commercialization of stablecoin payments by linking the infrastructure of payment processor KG Inicis with its network of about 220,000 merchants. The two parties will focus on developing stablecoin payment and settlement systems, validating digital payment services, and integrating them with existing payment networks.

Solana also said on X that KG Inicis plans to adopt Solana-based stablecoin payments and may later introduce a token-based merchant rewards program.

Cardano ecosystem project SecondFi said it has identified the cause of its security incident as its own native Cardano web wallet generation software.

SecondFi said the initially estimated damage amounts to about 1.6 million ADA, or roughly $2.42 million. The platform is currently operating in security maintenance mode, and after completing balance snapshots and on-chain analysis, it is conducting a separate technical review with a blockchain security firm.

SecondFi said it plans to compensate affected users. It added that it is working with ecosystem partners including IOG, the Cardano Foundation, Intersect MBO, and SundaeSwap to monitor exchange-related fund flows and reduce the impact on other protocols.

An older Royalties contract on the Polygon chain was exploited, resulting in losses of about $261,200, according to PANews.

According to TenArmorAlert monitoring, the attack targeted an outdated contract named Royalties, and the transaction hash of the exploit was also disclosed.

TenArmor said its monitoring system was used to detect the on-chain attack early and support automated response.

According to Whale Alert, 58,261 ETH was transferred from Kraken to an unidentified wallet on June 23 (local time).

The transfer was worth $96,565,096 and represents a large on-chain movement out of an exchange. The entity behind the transfer and its purpose have not been identified.

According to Whale Alert, 1,044 BTC was transferred from an anonymous wallet to Coinbase Institutional.

The transfer was worth about $65.23 million. Large transfers into exchange-related wallets can be interpreted as a potential sign of sell pressure, though no actual sale has been confirmed.