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Good Morning Crypto Enthusiasts!

Glad to have you back for another edition of the UseTheBitcoin.com newsletter.

1. CZ Denies Trump Connection: Binance co-founder CZ denied any ties to Donald Trump after receiving a controversial presidential pardon. He said he was unaware of the pardon and had only briefly met Eric Trump once.

2. Balancer Threatens Hacker: Balancer warned the hacker behind its $100M exploit to return stolen funds by Saturday or face legal action. The DAO offered a 20% bounty to recover funds.

3. 💡Feature of the Day - Elixir Shuts Down deUSD: Elixir ended its deUSD stablecoin after borrower Stream Finance defaulted on $68M in debt. The default caused deUSD to depeg to $0.015, though 80% of holders were fully redeemed.

   
   All this and more in today’s headlines!

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📰 News Highlights:

CZ Denies Trump Ties [Source][Source][Source][Source][Source]

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao denied any personal or business ties to former U.S. President Donald Trump or his family following his controversial presidential pardon. CZ stated he was “somewhat surprised” by the pardon and had no prior knowledge of it, adding that his only encounter with the Trump family was a brief meeting with Eric Trump at a crypto conference.

His remarks come after Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters, accused Trump of running a “pay-to-play” scheme involving Binance and the Trump-linked crypto venture, World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

The pardon has drawn fierce political backlash, with Democrats calling for an investigation into potential corruption and Trump defending CZ as a victim of politically motivated prosecution.

Lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders demanded the Department of Justice review the pardon’s legitimacy. Meanwhile, CZ maintained that he neither paid nor negotiated for his release and that his record with regulators remains transparent.

Balancer Warns Hacker [Source][Source][Source]

DeFi protocol Balancer issued a final warning to the hacker behind its $100 million exploit, offering a bounty if the stolen funds are returned. The DAO sent an on-chain message directly to the attacker, giving a Saturday deadline to accept the offer or face legal and on-chain actions.

The exploit targeted Balancer’s V2 Composable Stable Pools through a rounding error and BatchSwaps manipulation, allowing the hacker to drain assets like staked Ether and wstETH.

Balancer stated it’s prepared to use all technical and legal means to recover the funds, including collaboration with blockchain forensics and law enforcement. The team initially offered up to 20% of the stolen funds as a white-hat bounty, worth more than $20 million, to encourage the return.

💡 Feature of the Day: 

Elixir Ends deUSD [Source][Source]

Elixir has officially sunset its synthetic stablecoin, deUSD, after its borrower Stream Finance defaulted on $68 million in debt following a $93 million loss. Stream Finance’s liquidity collapse triggered a wave of redemptions, causing deUSD to depeg to as low as $0.015.

Around 80% of deUSD holders were fully redeemed at $1, but Elixir was forced to suspend support when Stream refused to repay or close positions, leaving roughly $75 million of deUSD stuck in limbo.

Elixir stated it is now working with lenders like Euler, Morpho, and Compound to liquidate Stream’s positions and ensure full repayment for remaining holders. The project aims to honor all redemptions 1:1 in USDC, maintaining that responsibility to users remains its top priority.

😂 Crypto Meme of the Day: 

Meme of the day provided by @slvbtc

And that’s it for this today.

See you all tomorrow’s edition!

Jonathan Gibson
UseTheBitcoin.com