Senate Bans Fed CBDC to 2030 in 85-5 Vote, Democrats Probe Trump UAE Deal

Crypto News A group of Senate Democrats is pressing Republican leaders to open hearings into a reported $500 million arrangement between World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture tied to President Donald Trump, and an Abu Dhabi investment firm backed by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The deal, struck in early 2025, handed the Emirati entity a 49% stake in the platform months before Washington approved a major arms and AI-chip package for the UAE. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Gary Peters, Dick Durbin and Ron Wyden signed the letter, demanding officials testify under oath about potential conflicts of interest. Trump has said he was unaware of the transaction. The US Senate advanced one of the year’s most consequential crypto-policy measures, passing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in an 85-5 vote that bars the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through December 31, 2030. Tucked inside a bipartisan housing-supply package, Title XI prohibits the Fed from creating a digital dollar or any substantially similar asset, directly or through intermediaries. The legislation carves out open, permissionless and private dollar tokens, shielding regulated stablecoins already governed by last year’s framework. After the ban lapses, the Fed would still need explicit congressional authorization. The bill now heads to the House before reaching the president’s desk. Cboe Global Markets entered the fast-growing prediction-market arena, launching binary options on the Mini-S&P 500 Index through Interactive Brokers under its new Cboe Predicts suite. The yes-or-no contracts, listed as XSPBW and XSPBX, pay $100 when the index settles at or above a chosen level and clear centrally through the Options Clearing Corporation. Charles Schwab will add access in coming months. The move places the established derivatives operator alongside Polymarket and Kalshi as sector open interest recently touched an all-time high of $1.48 billion. Executives tied the rollout to surging demand for zero-days-to-expiration options and pledged tighter standards for product design and investor protection. The crypto industry’s leading super PAC again flexed its electoral muscle, with Fairshake directing roughly $5.5 million toward Maryland Democrat Adrian Boafo, who won his primary for retiring Representative Steny Hoyer’s open House seat. The Senate-scale spending drew sharp criticism from Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who condemned the “obscene amount of big special-interest money.” Boafo, rated “A” by Stand With Crypto, favors regulatory clarity for digital-asset innovators. Fairshake also backed incumbents in Maryland, Utah and New York, spending $1.3 million on pro-crypto Democrat Ritchie Torres. The latest wins follow the PAC’s $12 million push for Barry Moore’s Alabama Senate bid last week. Hut 8, the former bitcoin miner now centered on AI data centers and high-performance computing, agreed to pay $2.35 million to settle a securities class action over its 2023 all-stock merger with U.S. Bitcoin Corp. Investors alleged the company overstated the deal’s benefits while failing to disclose persistent energy-curtailment and connectivity problems at King Mountain, a Texas mining venture. The suit gained traction after a January 2024 short-seller report triggered a share-price drop exceeding 23%. According to the court filing, the recovery equals about 19.6% of estimated maximum damages, above the 2025 median. Hut 8 denies wrongdoing; its shares have climbed more than 640% over the past year. Binance co-founder Yi He used X to warn users about an alleged impersonator known as “Zhu Pan,” whom she said attempted scams in her name, including one targeting Tron founder Justin Sun. The derivatives platform CoinUp moved quickly to distance itself, stating the individual is not a member of its team and plays no role in core operations, though it acknowledged ties to a project listed on its exchange. The episode, which CoinUp linked to selling pressure on its CPX altcoin, highlights how viral social-media allegations can entangle exchanges and high-profile figures, amplifying reputational risk across markets where project affiliations are frequently opaque. Taken together, the day’s headlines trace one arc: crypto’s deepening fusion with US politics, regulation and institutional finance. A Senate CBDC freeze, multimillion-dollar super-PAC spending and a presidential conflict-of-interest probe show policy has become a dominant price variable. COINOTAG’s aggregate data underscores the caution coursing through markets: the Fear & Greed Index reads 17, firmly in Extreme Fear, Bitcoin dominance has risen to 70.4%, and total crypto market capitalization sits near $1.78 trillion as risk appetite contracts. With institutions formalizing prediction markets and automated AI trading bot strategies, market structure is maturing even as sentiment stays defensive.COINOTAG does not provide financial advisory services. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments involve high risk.