WuBlockchain Weekly: White House Emphasizes It Will Not Pardon SBF, Block to Lay Off 4,000 Employees, ZachXBT Exposes Insider Trading Activities, etc

1. White House Spokesperson: President Trump Will Not Pardon FTX Founder SBF link

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of FTX who is serving a 25-year prison sentence, is seeking a presidential pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump. Despite SBF’s recent repeated overtures to right-wing audiences — including an unauthorized interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that resulted in his solitary confinement — and his father’s recent articles praising Trump’s policies, a White House spokesperson reiterated that Trump made it clear in January that he has no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, Robert Menendez, Nicolás Maduro, and others. Multiple lobbyists point out that while Trump has been friendly to the crypto industry and has already pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, unlike Ulbricht, SBF has not received widespread solidarity and support from the crypto community, making the possibility of a pardon extremely slim.

2. U.S. Senators Launch Investigation into Binance Over $1.7B in Funds Linked to Iran link

US Senator Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation into Binance, demanding an explanation for the alleged $1.7 billion in funds that flowed from platform accounts to Iran-linked entities, including Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Blumenthal sent a letter to Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, requesting records of transactions with relevant Hong Kong-based entities, as well as information regarding the suspension or dismissal of compliance personnel. Binance has denied the allegations, calling the reports false and stating that the platform has no Iranian users. The company added that it is conducting an internal review and will submit the findings to the U.S. Department of Justice.

3. Hong Kong Implements Licensing Regime for Fiat-Backed Stablecoin Issuers; First Licenses to Be Issued in March link

Paul Chan Mo-po, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, stated in the 2026 Budget that the government will submit a draft bill on digital asset policy within the year to establish a licensing regime for service providers of digital asset trading and custody. Currently, Hong Kong has implemented a licensing regime for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, and the first batch of licenses will be issued in March. The government and financial regulators will continue to encourage licensed issuers to explore more application scenarios under compliance and risk-controlled conditions. Chan added that the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong will further boost liquidity in Hong Kong’s digital asset market while fully protecting investors, providing more products and services for professional investors, and will establish an accelerator to accelerate market innovation.

4. Ethereum Foundation Releases Strawmap Roadmap Draft, Planning Approximately 7 Forks Through 2029 link

Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, has released the “strawmap,” a draft technical roadmap proposed by the Ethereum Foundation Protocol Team. It is designed to outline the future upgrade directions of the Ethereum L1 protocol from a holistic perspective for researchers and developers. The document plans for approximately seven forks by 2029, envisioning an upgrade cycle of every six months. It also puts forward five long-term goals, including a faster L1 with second-level finality, a throughput capacity of 1 gigagas per second, a high-throughput L2 based on data availability sampling, a post-quantum cryptography system, and native privacy transfer functionality.

5. ZachXBT Exposes Insider Trading by Multiple Axiom Crypto Platform Employees Who Abused Internal Permissions to Track Users link

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT has published an exposé revealing that Broox Bauer, an employee of crypto trading platform Axiom, along with several other staff members, have allegedly abused vulnerabilities in internal tools lacking access controls since early 2025. They have been querying sensitive user details and tracking private wallet activities to conduct insider trading. Broox, a senior business development employee based in New York, claimed in an audio recording that he can track any Axiom user via referral codes, wallet addresses, or UIDs. Since April 2025, Broox has repeatedly shared private screenshots from internal dashboards of various traders. The group also compiled spreadsheets summarizing the private wallet addresses of multiple targeted KOLs to profit from their position-building information before public calls. ZachXBT has identified Broox’s main wallet and associated addresses, and the recording also implicates several other Axiom BD employees and moderators involved in the incident.

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6. Circle Releases Q4 2025 and Full-Year Financial Results link

Circle released its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. For Q4, USDC’s year-end circulation reached $75.3 billion, up 72% year-on-year; on-chain transaction volume hit $11.9 trillion; total revenue and reserve income amounted to $770 million; net income from continuing operations was $133 million; and adjusted EBITDA stood at $167 million. For the full year, total revenue and reserve income reached $2.747 billion, a 64% year-on-year increase; the company reported a net loss from continuing operations of $70.1 million, mainly due to $424 million in IPO-related stock-based compensation expenses; adjusted EBITDA was $582.2 million.

7. Jack Dorsey Announces Block to Cut Nearly Half Its Workforce, Shifting to AI-First and Flatter Structure link

Jack Dorsey announced that Block will cut nearly half of its workforce, reducing headcount from over 10,000 to fewer than 6,000, with more than 4,000 employees being laid off or entering consultation. Dorsey stated the company remains financially sound with growing gross profit, and the move is not due to operational difficulties. Instead, it stems from his view that AI and intelligent tools are transforming organizational operations, requiring a shift to a smaller, flatter, intelligence-centric structure. He opted for a one-time adjustment rather than phased layoffs.

8. Gemini Announces Up to 25% Staff Cuts This Month and Exits UK, EU, and Australia link

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini announced this month that it will lay off up to 25% of its workforce and exit the UK, EU, and Australia. It has also recently cut additional US staff, with the departures of its COO, CFO, and CLO linked to cost-control efforts. Data shows Gemini’s global spot trading share fell to 0.1% in January, down from 0.6% last June. Last year, expenses rose about 70% while net income grew only 17%, and the international markets being exited contributed roughly 15% of revenue in the first nine months of 2025. The company is shifting to prediction markets, having received a CFTC license and launched the platform last December; cumulative trading volume so far stands at only about $24 million.

9. Citigroup Plans to Integrate Bitcoin into Traditional Finance and Launch Custody Services link

Nisha Surendran, Head of Digital Asset Custody Development at Citibank, said at the Strategy World event that Citi will launch infrastructure to integrate Bitcoin into the traditional financial system, providing institutional-grade custody, key management and wallet services. Core points: Customers can manage Bitcoin and traditional assets in a unified manner without handling wallets, private keys or one-time addresses by themselves; Bitcoin holdings will be processed through existing reporting, tax and compliance channels.

10. Morgan Stanley Plans to Offer Bitcoin Custody, Trading, Yield, and Lending Services link

Amy Oldenburg, Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Morgan Stanley, said at the Bitcoin for Corporations conference in Las Vegas that the firm plans to build its own Bitcoin custody and trading services, and explore yield and lending features, stating “We absolutely will do it — it’s a natural part of the roadmap.” Oldenburg emphasized the need to build technology in-house to ensure “zero mistakes” and meet client trust in the Morgan Stanley brand; client crypto asset holdings are “quite significant,” though some prefer self-custody. Previously, the firm has registered Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana funds with the SEC, and plans to offer BTC, ETH, SOL trading via the E*Trade app.

Fundraising

• Web3 trading and payment app Based has completed a $11.5 million Series A funding round, led by Pantera Capital. link

• Startup t54 Labs has announced the completion of a $5 million seed funding round. link

• Crypto options trading platform and market maker STS Digital has announced the completion of a $30 million funding round. link

• Bluprynt has announced the completion of an oversubscribed $4.25 million seed funding round, led by Valor Capital Group. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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