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⌐◪-◪ → Russia is getting sneaky with it!

Russia is now using crypto to settle oil trades with China and India, skirting Western sanctions. According to sources cited by Reuters, BTC, ETH, and USDT are being used in transactions worth tens of millions per month.

The use of USDT raises some interesting questions—Tether, as a centralized issuer, has the power to freeze funds. If the West pressures them to block these transactions, will Tether comply? And if they don’t, what consequences might they face?

Russia began experimenting with crypto settlements in December after legalizing international payments in digital assets. Since then, sanctions have pushed them further into crypto rails, particularly as local banks hesitate to process Russia-linked transactions.

Meanwhile, Trump has signaled interest in improving relations with Russia and ending the war in Ukraine—but whether sanctions will be lifted remains unclear.

Politics aside, this is a prime example of blockchain’s censorship resistance in action. Even if Tether gets involved, Bitcoin and Ethereum remain unstoppable alternatives. The first truly global, permissionless financial system is proving why it exists.

⌐◪-◪ → Trump-backed World Liberty Financial raises $550M

The Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) just wrapped up its latest public token sale, bringing its total raised to $590 million. This puts WLFI in the top 10 biggest token sales ever.

The latest round sold 5 billion tokens at $0.05 per token, raising $250M. The sale gained momentum after the hype around Trump and Melania’s memecoins, driving renewed interest in WLFI.

WLFI has been gaining traction despite early underwhelming demand. Notably, Justin Sun played a key role in the project’s success, contributing $30M to the token sale.

However, there’s a catch: WLFI tokens aren’t tradable yet. They were only available to accredited investors, and there’s no set date for an exchange listing.

The WLFI raise is now one of the largest in history—but whether it delivers on its DeFi vision remains to be seen.

⌐◪-◪ → Solana's latest governance vote just made history

Solana’s SIMD-228 proposal, which aimed to cut SOL inflation by up to 80%, just failed to pass the validator vote.

74% of staked SOL participated in the vote—making this the biggest crypto governance vote ever, both in participation and in total staked market cap.

Even though the proposal didn’t pass, Solana maxis are calling this a win for governance, showing an engaged and active validator community. That’s rare—most on-chain governance fails due to low participation.

Not everyone was thrilled, though. Mert, CEO of Helius Labs, said the process was chaotic and distracting, adding that his team will now build a tool to simplify staker voting.

Regardless of the outcome, this vote proves one thing: Solana’s governance is alive and well. The network isn’t just growing—it’s maturing.

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