Raise Ready - Avalanche Foundation eyes $1B raise to fund ywo crypto treasury companies.

Figure IPO - Blockchain-based lender Figure prices IPO at $25 per share, raising nearly $788M.

Kraken Perps - Kraken introduces crypto ‘perps’ trading in select regions.

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As governments and major financial institutions shift from dismissing crypto to regulating and integrating it, the industry’s center of gravity should stay on building credibly neutral systems that keep working when politics intrudes on money. That means infrastructure that reduces the surface area for financial repression, protects citizens from debanking, and preserves privacy without inviting impunity.

Consider Canada in 2022. During the trucker convoy protests, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time since its passage and directed financial institutions to freeze accounts tied to the protests. A senior Finance Department official told Parliament that more than 200 bank accounts holding about C$7.8 million were frozen, and that banks began unfreezing them as the measures ended. It showed how quickly access to bank deposits can become contingent on politics. Authorities also extended that reach to digital assets, where police sent regulated firms a list of 34 crypto wallet addresses and told exchanges to stop facilitating transactions.  

Privacy tokens and protocols are a linchpin to maximizing financial freedom for individuals; these tools matter most in contexts where revealing counterparties, history, or balances creates personal risk. These tools have been exploited by bad actors like the notorious Lazarus Group, and they are controversial, but the underlying capability is a neutral safety feature for citizens in environments prone to debanking and censorship resistance, not a promise of immunity.  

A related case is Tornado Cash, a non‑custodial mixer that uses smart contract pools and cryptographic proofs to break the link between deposit and withdrawal. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the protocol in August 2022 based on observed laundering, including funds tied to the Lazarus Group. In March 2025, following litigation over whether immutable smart contracts were sanctionable “property,” OFAC removed Tornado Cash from the SDN list, while related legal actions against founders continued, and one founder remained designated. Privacy infrastructure holds immense value in hostile environments, and it's essential to establish credible guardrails that target malicious actors without outlawing cryptography. These two truths can coexist, regardless of one's stance on mixers. Unique users on Tornado Cash have reached the highest number since being sanctioned in March 2025, demonstrating the compliant demand for such a service.