Judge gives Heart a break, Trump throws crypto summit, Metaverse plans unveiled | Weekly Recap

Today’s edition of the weekly recap covers a legal setback in the Heart case, an upcoming White House crypto summit, and the Trump family’s planned metaverse expansion. Meanwhile, MetaMask adds Bitcoin and Solana support.

Judge dismisses case against HEX founder

• U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon has dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit against Hex founder Richard Heart.
• Heart, who also founded PulseChain and Pulsex, was accused of raising over $1 billion through unregistered cryptocurrency offerings and defrauding investors out of $12.1 million to purchase luxuries (i.e. the largest black diamond).
• The judge ruled that there was insufficient connection between Heart’s alleged conduct and the U.S. Heart, a U.S. citizen, resides in Finland, where he was accused of tax evasion and assault.

Trump to host White House crypto summit

• President Donald Trump will host a cryptocurrency summit on March 7, featuring industry leaders and administration officials.
• The event will be coordinated by crypto and AI czar David Sacks and Bo Hines, executive director of the digital assets working group.

Trump family explores metaverse

• A recent trademark application shows the Trump (TRUMP) family’s intention to develop a TRUMP-branded metaverse. This expands their cryptocurrency ventures beyond meme coins and NFTs.
• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing was submitted on an “intent to use” basis.

MetaMask plans Bitcoin and Solana integration

• The popular cryptocurrency wallet will add native support for Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) ecosystems this year. This will eliminate the need for users to manage multiple wallets or use wrapped tokens.
• Full Bitcoin support is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025, while Solana integration is targeted for May.

Bybit hackers move stolen funds to Bitcoin

• MetaMask Head of Security Taylor Monahan reported that Bybit hackers have transferred at least 209,384 Ethereum (ETH) (approximately $480 million) to Bitcoin. This is more than half of the estimated 400,000 ETH stolen from the exchange.
• According to Arkham Intelligence tracking, at least $240 million was laundered using THORchain, with most funds converted to native BTC.
• North Korea’s Lazarus Group moved another 62,200 ETH ($138 million) on March 1. This leaves them with just 156,500 Ethereum remaining from the original theft, according to an analysis by crypto researcher EmberCN.

SEC agrees to drop Consensys lawsuit

• The SEC agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against Consensys, the developer of MetaMask, which had alleged securities law violations.
• According to Ethereum co-founder and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin, the SEC will file a motion to end the case.
• In another development, the SEC formally filed to dismiss its case against Coinbase with prejudice on Thursday, confirming the agreement announced last week and ensuring the case cannot be refiled.

BitMEX seeks deal

• The cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform co-founded by Arthur Hayes in 2014 is exploring potential buyers.
• BitMEX has faced regulatory challenges since 2020, when it was charged with failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering measures, eventually pleading guilty.

Metaplanet seeks additional Bitcoin acquisition funding

• The Japanese firm is looking to raise 2 billion yen ($13.6 million) through zero-interest ordinary bonds, with proceeds set aside for additional Bitcoin purchases.

SEC and Tron request case pause

• The SEC, the Tron (TRX) Foundation, and Justin Sun filed a joint motion Wednesday asking a federal judge to temporarily halt the regulator’s ongoing legal action.
• The regulator had initially sued Tron, Sun, and BitTorrent in July 2023, alleging market manipulation, fraud, and issuing unregistered securities.

ZachXBT joins Paradigm as security advisor

• The pseudonymous blockchain investigator has taken a position with research-driven investment firm Paradigm as an incident response advisor to support their portfolio companies.
• Paradigm cofounder Matt Huang praised ZachXBT’s accomplishments, noting the investigator has helped recover over $350 million for victims of hacks and scams.

SEC drops Uniswap investigation

• The SEC has terminated its investigation into Uniswap Labs, the company behind the decentralized exchange protocol, according to Tuesday’s announcement.
• Uniswap had received a Wells notice last April indicating the SEC’s intent to bring charges for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities broker and exchange.

Strive CEO urges GameStop to adopt Bitcoin reserves

• Matt Cole, CEO of Strive Asset Management, has formally requested that GameStop consider adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset.
• The letter to Chairman and CEO Ryan Cohen suggests Bitcoin adoption could position GameStop as a market leader.

Sam Bankman-Fried breaks X silence

• The former FTX CEO posted publicly for the first time in two years.
• His Monday evening posts addressed the challenges of firing employees, suggesting terminations often result from company-role mismatches rather than employee shortcomings.

OKX affiliate reaches $505 million DOJ settlement

• Cryptocurrency exchange OKX’s affiliate Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd has agreed to pay over $505 million in penalties after pleading guilty to serving U.S. customers without proper licensing and failing to follow anti-money laundering regulations.
• The settlement includes a $420.3 million criminal forfeiture and an $84.4 million criminal fine.

Strategy completes nearly $2 billion Bitcoin purchase

• The company formerly known as MicroStrategy has acquired 20,355 Bitcoin at an average price of $97,514 per coin. This marks a total investment of almost $2 billion.

Zhao reveals 98.48% portfolio concentration in BNB

• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao disclosed his cryptocurrency holdings on Binance’s social platform, revealing that BNB (BNB) comprises 98.48% of his portfolio.
• His remaining assets include a modest 1.32% allocation to Bitcoin, followed by smaller positions in stablecoins EURI (0.17%) and USDT (0.03%).

Pump.fun explores automated market maker development

• The popular Solana-based meme coin launchpad is reportedly testing an in-house automated market maker (AMM) that could replace Raydium as the default decentralized exchange for new tokens.