245 - XRP Breaks a Dollar, $36 Billion Showdown & Trump's Crypto Bank

This week on Crypto Curious, we're fresh off our 1 million download celebration - and what a week to get back to the news desk. Thank you again for all the love on the reunion episode; now the crypto world has served up one of the wildest news weeks of the year.

👉🏼 First, XRP has fallen below $1 for the first time in almost 2 years - and the trigger was a hack that took just 97 minutes. We unpack how a flaw in a little-known bridge let attackers drain almost every coin it held, and why such a small exploit managed to rattle an already nervous market.

👉🏼 Then, a story with a genuine constitutional twist. New York has sued prediction market Kalshi for a staggering $36 billion, claiming it's running an unlicensed gambling operation - while the federal regulator has fired back with an emergency order telling Kalshi to keep operating anyway. One company, 2 governments, completely opposite instructions. The courts now have to decide who's actually in charge.

👉🏼 And finally, a sentence that would have sounded like satire not long ago: the Trump family's crypto firm is on its way to becoming a bank. World Liberty Financial has won conditional approval for a federal trust bank charter - we explain what that actually means, why critics are calling it "the most brazen act of self-dealing" in financial history, and why crypto firms everywhere are queuing up for banking licenses.

Plus, the short sharp news bites, including the US state where running a Bitcoin ATM can now land you in jail.

Let's get into it 🚀

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