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Virtual Assets LLC and Co-founder Indicted for a $10M Money Laundering Conspiracy

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Federal prosecutors in Chicago indicted Firas Isa, a 36-year-old resident of Frankfort, Illinois, and his company, Virtual Assets LLC, for their alleged role in a money laundering conspiracy involving at least $10 million.

Virtual Assets LLC operates a network of cryptocurrency automated teller machines (ATMs), primarily Bitcoin ATMs, across the United States, including locations in Illinois, Texas, and other states.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Isa and his company facilitated the laundering of illicit funds derived from: Wire fraud schemes.

The scheme reportedly involved criminals using the company’s ATMs to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrencies and vice versa to obscure the origins of the money. Prosecutors claim that Virtual Assets LLC processed these transactions with knowledge that the funds were proceeds of illegal activities, charging high fees up to 30% that generated significant profits for the company.

The indictment alleges that Isa personally directed employees to ignore anti-money laundering (AML) red flags and to process suspicious transactions. Isa faces charges including: Conspiracy to commit money laundering up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Operating an unlicensed money transmitting business up to 5 years. The company is also charged as a co-defendant. Virtual Assets LLC founded by Isa in 2020, Virtual Assets LLC grew to operate over 100 crypto ATMs nationwide, marketed as a convenient way for users to buy and sell digital assets.

The company was registered in Illinois but had a national footprint. This case highlights ongoing regulatory scrutiny of crypto ATMs, which have been criticized for weak AML compliance compared to traditional financial institutions.

Isa was arrested and appeared in court on November 19, 2025, where he was released on a $100,000 bond. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, in coordination with the IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI.

No trial date has been set yet. This incident underscores the U.S. government’s increasing focus on crypto-related financial crimes, following similar enforcement actions against other ATM operators.

The indictment against Firas Isa and Virtual Assets LLC represents a significant escalation in U.S. federal enforcement against cryptocurrency infrastructure providers accused of facilitating financial crimes.

Both defendants face a single count of money laundering conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison if convicted. Additionally, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business could add up to 5 years under 18 U.S.C. § 1960.

Isa has pleaded not guilty, with a status hearing scheduled for January 30, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo. A conviction would likely trigger mandatory forfeiture of any property involved in the scheme, including a personal money judgment against Isa, and the government could pursue substitute assets if direct recovery proves impossible.

This case joins a wave of similar actions, such as the 2024 indictments of Gotbit’s founder for market manipulation and a nine-person network tied to drug cartels, signaling the DOJ’s intent to treat crypto-related laundering as a high-priority “threat category.”

Regulatory and Industry Implications

Crypto ATMs, which grew to over 38,000 machines in the U.S. by mid-2025, have long been flagged as regulatory blind spots due to inconsistent Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) enforcement compared to centralized exchanges.

Prosecutors allege Isa bypassed these requirements, allowing criminals to convert fiat from wire fraud and narcotics trafficking into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin via Virtual Assets’ “Crypto Dispensers” network—processing at least $10 million between 2018 and 2025 while charging up to 30% fees.

This has amplified calls for stricter oversight from FinCEN, the U.S. Treasury’s financial intelligence unit, which classifies ATM operators as Money Services Businesses (MSBs). Post-indictment discussions on platforms like X highlight potential reforms, including mandatory on-chain surveillance tools from firms like Chainalysis and lower transaction thresholds for KYC verification.

Industry-wide, operators may face increased audits, higher compliance costs, and reduced investor confidence, potentially stalling the sector’s expansion amid broader crypto adoption under a pro-innovation administration.

Ironically, recent pardons like that of Binance’s Changpeng Zhao underscore a mixed federal stance—cracking down on operators while softening on exchanges. This case underscores the tension between cryptocurrency’s promise of financial accessibility and its vulnerability to exploitation by illicit actors, eroding public trust in digital assets.

Economically, it may accelerate blockchain analytics adoption, benefiting firms tracking illicit flows, but at the cost of innovation for small operators like Virtual Assets, which targeted convenience stores and gas stations for on-ramps.

Globally, it reinforces U.S. leadership in anti-laundering standards, potentially influencing international bodies like the FATF to tighten rules on crypto kiosks. For everyday users, heightened scrutiny could mean more ID checks at ATMs, balancing crime prevention with privacy concerns—a “fence that needs reinforcing,” as one analyst put it.

Ultimately, while targeting real criminals, the “widening dragnet” risks ensnaring early innovators, echoing historical overreaches like the 1933 gold confiscation.

Samourai Wallet Co-founder Sentenced to 4 Years Imprisonment

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

William Lonergan Hill, the 67-year-old co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Samourai Wallet—a privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet app—was sentenced to four years in federal prison on November 19, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The sentencing stems from charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Hill, along with co-founder and CEO Keonne Rodriguez, pleaded guilty in July 2025 after their arrests in April 2024.

Rodriguez received a five-year sentence two weeks earlier. Samourai Wallet, launched around 2015, included tools like Whirlpool a coin-mixing service and Ricochet a transaction-obfuscation feature designed to enhance Bitcoin privacy by breaking transaction links.

Prosecutors argued these features were marketed to cybercriminals, facilitating the laundering of over $237 million in illicit funds from sources including drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, hacks, frauds, sanctioned entities, murder-for-hire schemes, and even a child pornography site.

The service processed more than $2 billion in Bitcoin transactions from 2017 to 2024, earning the founders approximately $6.3 million in fees. 4 years reduced from the statutory maximum of 5 years due to mitigating factors.

Supervised Release: 3 years following incarceration. Fine: $250,000. Hill and Rodriguez have already paid $6,367,139.69, covering the fees earned by Samourai, in partial satisfaction of a $237.8 million forfeiture order tied to traceable criminal proceeds.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote cited Hill’s recent autism diagnosis and advanced age as reasons for the lighter sentence compared to Rodriguez. Hill’s attorney argued that his neurodivergence contributed to his belief that the operations were legal.

Hill, a U.S. national, was arrested in Portugal and extradited. The case highlights escalating U.S. regulatory scrutiny on cryptocurrency mixing services, which obscure transaction trails to promote privacy but can enable illicit activity. The Department of Justice emphasized that such tools make it “virtually impossible” for victims to recover stolen funds.

Crypto advocates, including Bitcoin developer Alexander Städelmann, have criticized the rulings as an overreach that stifles innovation in privacy tools, potentially setting precedents for decentralized software development. Earlier defense filings claimed prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from FinCEN indicating Samourai didn’t require a money transmitter license, though this did not alter the outcome.

This sentencing concludes the core proceedings against the Samourai founders, though appeals or broader industry impacts remain possible. Prosecutors successfully argued that even non-custodial privacy tools like Samourai Wallet’s Whirlpool mixer qualify as unlicensed money transmitting businesses under federal law 31 U.S.C. § 5330.

If they facilitate obscured transactions exceeding certain thresholds. This ruling reinforces the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) stance that developers bear liability for foreseeable criminal misuse, regardless of open-source nature or lack of asset custody.

It aligns with FinCEN’s 2019 guidance but extends it aggressively, potentially classifying similar tools as money transmitters without explicit registration. This case parallels the August 2025 conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, who faces up to five years for similar charges, signaling a broader DOJ crackdown on mixers tied to over $3 billion in laundered funds in 2025 alone.

Expect more indictments against privacy protocol developers, with emphasis on marketing to “high-risk” users (e.g., dark web promotions). Calls for clearer statutes on non-custodial tools, potentially via amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act, to balance innovation and anti-money laundering (AML) goals.

The rulings underscore a U.S. policy prioritizing traceability over anonymity, viewing mixers as “gifts to criminals” that hinder victim restitution. Privacy advocates, including the Bitcoin Policy Institute, decry this as a “war on privacy,” arguing it criminalizes tools essential for dissidents, journalists, and everyday users in surveillance-heavy regimes.

Coders may self-censor, relocating to jurisdictions like Portugal or Singapore with laxer rules, stifling U.S.-based innovation in zero-knowledge proofs or CoinJoin protocols. Rise in “regulatory-friendly” privacy layers (e.g., audited zk-SNARKs in Ethereum), but at the cost of usability and true anonymity.

Critics warn this erodes Bitcoin’s core ethos of pseudonymous transactions, potentially driving adoption toward centralized exchanges with KYC mandates. Rodriguez’s public petition for a presidential pardon highlights community mobilization, echoing support for Storm from the Ethereum Foundation.

Legitimate privacy seekers face reduced options, increasing reliance on VPNs or offshore tools, while criminals adapt faster via decentralized alternatives like Monero mixers. Short-term dips in privacy coins like Zcash, Dash expected, with long-term growth in compliance-focused DeFi; overall crypto adoption may slow in the U.S. due to perceived risks.

Non-U.S. regulators like EU’s MiCA may harmonize tougher rules, but it could accelerate “crypto exile” to pro-innovation hubs, fragmenting the ecosystem. Ultimately, these sentences tip the scales toward regulation, forcing the industry to innovate within legal bounds or risk existential threats to privacy as a foundational principle.

Appeals could soften this trajectory, but absent clemency, they mark the end of an era for unchecked anonymity tools.

Uniswap’s UNIfication Proposal: Activating Fees and UNI Burns Amid Record 2025 Revenue

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Ethereum, is at a pivotal moment as its protocol fees for 2025 approach the $1 billion mark.

Year-to-date through October, the platform has generated over $985 million in fees, averaging nearly $93 million per month, with October alone exceeding $132 million—its highest since January. This surge, up 17% month-over-month since Q2, positions Uniswap to surpass last year’s totals, driven by robust trading volumes exceeding $150 billion in the past 30 days.

In response, Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation have jointly proposed “UNIfication,” a governance overhaul that activates long-dormant protocol fees, introduces a UNI token burn mechanism, and streamlines ecosystem incentives. If approved by UNI holders, this could mark a transformative shift for DeFi tokenomics.

Announced on November 10, 2025, by Uniswap founder Hayden Adams in his first governance proposal, UNIfication aims to align protocol success with UNI token value accrual.

Protocol Fee Activation; Enables a “fee switch” to divert 10-25% of liquidity provider (LP) swap fees from Uniswap v2/v3 (e.g., 1/10th, 1/6th, or 1/4th) to the protocol treasury. Ends Uniswap Labs’ front-end fees.

Based on 2025’s $985M fees, this could yield $98-246M annually for the treasury, with v3 alone contributing $671M YTD $381M from Ethereum mainnet.

UNI Burn Mechanism

Fees flow into a “burn-first” smart contract that automatically incinerates UNI tokens. Includes a retroactive burn of 100 million UNI from the treasury worth ~$800M-$1B at current prices, compensating for missed burns since launch.

Reduces circulating supply, boosting scarcity. Had it been active, ~$150M in UNI worth ~$26M in the last 30 days would have been burned YTD. Annualized fees of $2.8B could burn $280-700M worth.

Unichain Integration

Redirects sequencer fees from Uniswap’s Layer-2 network Unichain, launched ~9 months ago to the burn after covering L1 data costs and Optimism’s 15% cut. Unichain’s $100B annualized DEX volume and $7.5M sequencer fees add ~$4.6M annually to burns 84% margin.

Introduces Protocol Fee Discount Auctions (PFDA) for bidding on fee-free trades internalizing MEV and v4 “hooks” turning Uniswap into an on-chain aggregator for external liquidity fees. Enhances user incentives and captures revenue from competitors, potentially adding millions in burns.

Consolidates Foundation functions into Labs; allocates 20M UNI/year for growth; drops Labs’ API/wallet takerates to zero. Streamlines decision-making, focusing on adoption while democratizing value flow.

The proposal builds on Uniswap’s v3 fee options but defaults to burns unless governance votes otherwise, prioritizing token holders over Labs’ revenue. The announcement triggered an immediate bull run: UNI surged over 35% within two hours, adding $1.6B to its market cap and hitting a 2-month high.

Whales piled in, with the token later rallying 50% overall. Analysts forecast further upside, eyeing $12.5 resistance, as the burn could evolve UNI from a pure governance token into a yield-bearing asset. For context, successful fee switches at peers like Aave 75% annualized price gain in 2025 and Ethena highlight the model’s potential.

On X, the proposal has sparked lively debate. News aggregators and analysts highlighted the $1B fee milestone and burn’s deflationary edge, However, rivals like Aerodrome’s CEO mocked it as a “strategic mistake,” citing their 56% Base chain market share vs. Uniswap’s 40-44% though filtered data adjusts Uniswap’s non-fraudulent volume favorably.

Community estimates peg monthly buyback potential at $38M, outpacing some competitors but trailing hype-driven ones like HYPE. If passed, UNIfication could set a precedent for fee-sharing in DeFi, tying protocol dominance to token utility and countering criticisms of UNI’s limited value capture.

With $503M in v2 fees YTD and growing stablecoin volumes ($19.4B), Uniswap’s 2025 haul underscores its resilience post-October’s market crash. Governance voting is underway—watch for outcomes that could redefine DEX economics.

 

UBS Warns New Swiss Capital Rules Pose “Serious” Threat, as Ermotti Presses Bern for a Holistic Compromise

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti has intensified his pushback against Switzerland’s proposed capital overhaul, warning that the government’s plan risks weakening the country’s only global bank and could force UBS to rethink how — and where — it operates.

Speaking at a finance conference in London on Thursday, Ermotti said the bank is committed to remaining headquartered in Switzerland, but only under a regulatory structure that makes strategic and economic sense.

“We want to be a Swiss bank,” he said when pressed on whether UBS might consider moving its headquarters if the government goes ahead with the capital plan. His answer was pointed: the intention is to stay, but the current framework from Bern is “not acceptable.”

Under the proposal, Switzerland would require UBS to raise billions more in capital to guard against future crises. The plan emerged from a year-long regulatory rethink following the collapse of Credit Suisse, but Ermotti argued that the burden goes far beyond what is needed to protect financial stability — and would instead erode the bank’s competitiveness at a critical moment.

“They are not going to work for us,” he said of the proposed rules, describing the situation as “quite serious.” He added that the new regulatory push “harmed the competitiveness of the bank and the country,” suggesting that Switzerland risks undermining its own position as one of the world’s most influential financial hubs.

The comments underline a growing tension between UBS and Swiss policymakers. Since rescuing Credit Suisse in March 2023 and absorbing its operations, UBS has taken on enormous complexity, capital requirements, and political scrutiny. But the bank has also repeatedly argued that the government’s response has become overly aggressive, with demands that exceed global standards for systemically important banks.

Ermotti noted that UBS might eventually have to examine “other actions” if the capital rules go forward unchanged — a marked shift from earlier, more cautious critiques. He declined to detail any mitigation strategies but made clear that the bank is thinking beyond short-term negotiations.

Instead, the CEO urged Swiss authorities to shift their focus away from raw capital accumulation and toward practical resolution frameworks — the mechanisms that decide how a bank can be stabilized or wound down in crisis without destabilizing the broader system.

UBS, he stressed, is still aiming for negotiation, not confrontation. The bank remains “hopeful that a reasonable outcome” can be reached with the government.

“Compromise is the ability to really look holistically on how you make the financial system stronger,” Ermotti said.

He added that any solution must balance the interests of UBS, its shareholders, its clients, and “also the country,” signaling that the current draft fails to achieve that balance.

The CEO’s intervention comes as the Swiss government faces increasing pressure to demonstrate that lessons have been learned from Credit Suisse’s downfall. Lawmakers, regulators, and the Swiss public want assurances that no bank will again become “too big to save” — a phrase that has hung over the UBS-Credit Suisse merger since day one.

But Ermotti indicated that Switzerland must strengthen the system without weakening the one bank keeping it globally relevant.

OpenAI Rolls Out Global Group Chats in ChatGPT, Deepening Its Push Toward a Social, Multi-User AI Platform

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

OpenAI has begun a full global rollout of group chats inside ChatGPT, allowing up to 20 people to collaborate with the chatbot in a shared conversation.

The launch follows a quiet pilot earlier this month and marks one of the clearest signs yet that the company is steering ChatGPT toward something that increasingly resembles a social platform rather than a purely one-on-one AI assistant.

The feature lets users pull friends, family members, and coworkers into the same chat to plan events, build itineraries, brainstorm, or draft projects together while ChatGPT listens in and participates when needed. OpenAI says the system is trained to understand the natural rhythm of multi-person conversations, deciding when to speak and when to hold back so it doesn’t dominate the chat. Users can summon it directly at any moment by mentioning “ChatGPT.”

A group chat can be created by tapping the “people” icon in the upper corner of the ChatGPT app. The assistant will copy the current conversation into a new group space, where participants can be added through a shareable link that anyone can forward.

The first time a user enters or creates a group chat, ChatGPT prompts them to pick a name, username, and photo to make their identity visible to everyone in the room. ChatGPT can also react to messages with emojis and can use profile photos to create personalized images on request.

Settings for adding or removing members, muting alerts, and applying custom instructions for the assistant are accessible from a dedicated menu. OpenAI stresses that the assistant does not pull from its memory of private one-on-one chats when operating inside a group and will not store new memories based on group conversations.

The experience is powered by GPT-5.1 Auto, which automatically selects the most suitable model available for a user’s prompt. Rate limits only count when ChatGPT sends a message, not when human participants talk among themselves.

The release fits into a pattern of social-leaning features that OpenAI has been rolling out over the past year. Earlier, the company introduced memory for ChatGPT, letting users maintain long-running personal context across conversations. It added “shared GPTs,” which allow users to build and distribute personalized mini-apps inside ChatGPT. It has also been expanding its image-generation, voice-mode, and personalized creativity tools, all intended to anchor users inside an ecosystem where people interact with each other — and with the AI — in increasingly fluid, social ways.

The new group chats extend that strategy by creating a space where many users can operate together, turning ChatGPT from a solitary assistant into something closer to a collaborative hub. For OpenAI, which has been broadening the product beyond simple conversation, this aligns with an emerging vision: a platform where AI sits at the center of shared planning, creation, and communication.

The company’s rapid rollout of new features has been interpreted in the tech industry as an attempt to build a sticky, always-on product experience that rivals the social networks people already use for coordination. With group chats now open to all logged-in users, OpenAI is presenting ChatGPT not just as a tool you talk to, but a place where you and others can gather to work, plan, and create with AI as an active partner.

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