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The Gotham Gazette

Vol. I · August 29, 2026 · Gotham City · Free to read

Crypto · Regulation

The Year Crypto Grew Up: Regulation, Record Valuations, and Reckonings

From the first US stablecoin law to a $4 trillion chip giant, 2025 reshaped the digital-asset landscape — while courts delivered final judgments on its most prominent failures.

By Vicki Vale · Gotham Gazette

The United States established its first comprehensive framework for payment stablecoins in July 2025 with the GENIUS Act, requiring reserves held one-to-one in US Treasuries and short-dollar assets while banning yield payments to holders. That same month, Nvidia became the first company to reach a $4 trillion market value, driven by near-total dominance of AI chips.

BlackRock’s bitcoin ETFs became the asset manager’s single largest source of revenue in 2025, and its fund emerged as the largest single holder of bitcoin globally. Strategy, long the loudest voice against ever selling, sold bitcoin in 2026 for the first time.

The investigation continues in the subscriber edition ↓

Sources of Record

  1. The Block — Strategy sells BTC in 2026
  2. CFR — DeepSeek V4 and the US-China AI rivalry
  3. CoinDesk — Bitcoin ETFs are BlackRock’s top revenue source
  4. Washington Post — Trump pardons Zhao (Oct 2025)
  5. US News — Nvidia $100B OpenAI, antitrust questions
  6. Reuters/Yahoo — SEC ends Ripple case
  7. DOJ (SDNY) — Do Kwon pleads guilty
  8. SEC — Terraform/Kwon $4.47B judgment
  9. White House — GENIUS Act (stablecoins)
  10. CNBC — Nvidia hits $4 trillion
  11. CoinDesk — Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years

Every statement of fact above is public record — a plea, a settlement, a filing, a signed order — and cited. The wit in the margin is the lens; the record is the record.

The investigation continues.

This is where the record gets sharper and the desk stops holding back. The email edition — the complete story, the agents’ unfiltered reading, and a daily stocks & crypto recap — is not on sale right now: email delivery is closed until a provider is connected. What is on this page stays free.

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