Daily Summary, May 20

Daily Summary, May 20

### ⚖️ Trump Signs Groundbreaking Executive Order Granting Crypto Companies Access to Federal Reserve Payments System

This morning, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the Federal Reserve and other regulators to review the rules governing access for fintech and crypto firms to the country’s payments infrastructure. Titled “The Financial Technology Innovation Regulatory Framework,” the document requires six federal agencies to remove existing barriers and simplify regulations within 180 days. Particular attention is given to providing crypto companies with master accounts at the Federal Reserve, allowing them to interact directly with its payment systems.

*Analysis:* This move is the most significant act of integrating cryptocurrencies into the traditional US financial system. Trump’s order directly attacks the “monopoly of banks” and could lead to the emergence of a new class of “non-bank financial institutions,” which fulfills one of his key campaign promises.

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### 🗽 Trump Media Withdrew Application to Launch Its Own Spot Bitcoin ETF

In a surprising turn of events, Trump Media & Technology Group has officially withdrawn its applications to register the “Truth Social Bitcoin ETF” and “Truth Social Bitcoin & Ethereum ETF” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The applications, originally filed in June 2025, were withdrawn on May 19. Analysts believe the reason for the withdrawal was the company’s recognition of a fiercely competitive market, where fees have already plummeted and investors have access to over a dozen similar products from major managers.

*Analysis:* The Trump family’s decision to abandon the launch of its own ETF, amid the presidential executive order supporting the industry, appears pragmatic. The reason is likely not regulatory hurdles, but basic economics and market maturity. The Bitcoin ETF market is already established, and competing with giants like BlackRock without a significant advantage would be difficult.

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### 🚬 Passive Income, Voronezh Style: Man Gave Scammers 10 Million Rubles

A typical, yet no less tragic, story: a 43-year-old Voronezh resident, lured by strangers’ promises of passive income of up to 20% per month from cryptocurrency trading, transferred 10 million rubles of his own savings to scammers. The regional Ministry of Internal Affairs has opened a criminal case.

*Analysis:* This scheme is as old as time, but it continues to exploit human greed. As a reminder: a guaranteed income higher than a bank deposit is always the first sign of a Ponzi scheme or fraud. Check licenses and never transfer money to “trustees” from instant messaging apps.

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### 🇹🇷 Turkey Cracks Down on Illegal Gambling: Over 670 Detainees and Traces of Crypto

Turkish law enforcement officials have summarized the results of an eight-day operation against illegal betting and gambling. More than 670 suspects have been charged in four major raids. The Adana Public Prosecutor’s Office officially stated that cryptocurrency platforms were used as the main conduit for laundering criminally obtained funds. The total amount of funds in the suspects’ accounts is estimated at billions of lira.

*Analysis:* Turkish authorities continue to actively combat illegal gambling, and this time the main target is the cryptocurrency infrastructure supporting these schemes. This is further confirmation that anonymity in crypto is a myth, and that blockchain is becoming an effective tool for financial investigations worldwide.

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### 🇷🇺 Russian Ministry of Finance: Cryptocurrency will not be banned, but will be integrated into the financial system.

The Russian Ministry of Finance has reiterated its position on cryptocurrency regulation, stating that it does not intend to ban them. According to Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov, a system is planned to be implemented by the end of 2026 that will legalize the circulation of digital currencies, dividing the market into “legal” and “illegal” sectors. Cryptocurrency will not displace traditional institutions, but rather will become a new layer within the existing financial system, operating in parallel with the traditional market and digital financial assets (DFA).

*Analysis:* This signal from the regulator is crucial for the market. It confirms a progressive but confident course toward integration, rather than isolation, of the crypto industry in Russia. Following the initiative to legalize crypto exchanges and the “Web3Gate” pilot project by Sber and Rostelecom, the market has clear prospects.

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### 🧑‍💻 Cyberattack of the Century: GitHub Hacked via VS Code Extension

Developer platform GitHub has confirmed a major breach: the hacker group TeamPCP gained access to approximately 3,800 internal company repositories. The compromise was caused by a malicious extension for the Visual Studio Code editor that a GitHub employee inadvertently installed on his work computer. The attackers are demanding a ransom for the stolen data, threatening to publish it publicly otherwise.

*Analysis:* This incident is yet another stark reminder that vulnerabilities are often rooted in human error, even at companies responsible for code security for millions of developers worldwide. The incident seriously undermines trust in the security of the software development ecosystem.

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### 🇷🇺 Banks to tighten controls on Russian accounts with annual turnover of 2.4 million rubles or more

Starting in the new year, Russian banks began implementing stricter monitoring measures. Clients with monthly income of 200,000 rubles or more, or 2.4 million rubles per year, are subject to special scrutiny. This measure is related to the implementation of the “Antidrop” system and is aimed at combating droppers, gray-market schemes, and tax evasion. In certain cases, card blocks and requests for documents confirming the origin of the funds are possible.

*Analysis:* The trend toward deanonymizing financial flows is gaining momentum. For ordinary citizens whose income is verified, these measures should not pose a problem. However, for those who practice P2P cryptocurrency exchange in the gray zone, the risk of account blocking is critically high. —

### 🦅 USDT on TRON: $442 billion in shadow economy and fake platforms

Analytics firm Elliptic has released a shocking report, calling the USDT stablecoin on the TRON network the main fuel for the global online shadow economy. Experts estimate the total volume of transactions related to fraudulent investment platforms, database sales, SIM cards, and money laundering services to be an astronomical $442 billion.

*Analysis:* This is a mixed signal. On the one hand, it confirms the huge demand for stablecoins as a store of value and payment instrument in regions with unstable economies. On the other hand, Elliptic’s report jeopardizes the reputation of Tether and the TRON network as “clean” and regulated, which could trigger a tightening of policies by global regulators.

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### 🦅 Trump Receives “God’s Shield”: Justice Department Permanently Bans Tax Audits

The US Department of Justice has officially entered into an agreement that “permanently bans” the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from auditing the past tax returns of Donald Trump, his wife Melania, his eldest sons, and their related companies and trusts. The ban applies to all returns filed before May 19, 2026, and is part of a $10 billion settlement of Trump’s lawsuit.

*Analysis:* In an unprecedented case, a sitting US president has won complete immunity from tax audits for past years through the courts. This event will undoubtedly spark heated debates about fairness, conflicts of interest, and the equal rights of all citizens before the law.

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### 🐒 Hype on Blood: Americans Climb into a Macaque’s Enclosure to Promote a Memcoin on Solana

Two US citizens—24-year-old student Reed Jahnai Deisun and 27-year-old singer Neel Jabahri Duan—were arrested at the Ichikawa Zoo in Japan. They had broken into the enclosure of an internet-famous macaque named Punch and were filming the incident. The purpose of this outrageous act was to attract attention and subsequently promote a memecoin on the Solana blockchain.

*Analysis:* This “crypto-drives-crazy” incident clearly demonstrates the depths to which the pursuit of quick money and hype can descend in the memecoin world. Such actions are not only dangerous and cruel to animals, but also cast a shadow over the entire industry.

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## 📊 Summary of the day, May 20th

It was an unusually eventful day. At the institutional level, US President Trump made a breakthrough by signing an executive order integrating crypto into the banking system, but his family-owned company withdrew its ETF plans. In Russia, regulators announced they would not ban crypto but would tighten controls on private account balances.

Cybersecurity suffered a major setback: a massive hack of internal GitHub repositories, caused by a single employee, compromised security worldwide. A report from Elliptic exposed the dark side of USDT, estimating the scale of the fraudulent economy involving it at hundreds of billions of dollars.

The traditional sector has also been affected: Trump received unprecedented tax immunity, and the pursuit of crypto hype led to the arrest of two Americans in a Japanese zoo. And, as always, there was another case where a desire to earn “passive income” from crypto resulted in the loss of millions of dollars in savings for a Russian.

Key takeaway: The market is waiting for a trigger. Keep an eye on the macroeconomics, don’t be fooled by promises of incredible returns, and be mindful of the risks of human error, whether in P2P or when installing extensions for VS Code.