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Nigerian SEC Partners With Police To Tackle Crypto Ponzi Schemes – Details
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The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is maintaining an intense focus on the local cryptocurrency industry, as indicated by recent developments. While introducing minimum capital requirements for previously unregulated virtual asset service providers (VASPs), the securities regulator has also formed an alliance with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) against cryptocurrency fraud, among other illegal operations.
Nigerian SEC Looks To Improve Crypto Investors’ Protection
According to local media Voice of Nigeria, the SEC is ramping up efforts aimed at investor protection and transparent market operations in the crypto ecosystem. In a recent meeting with the NPF, the Commission’s Director-General (DG), Dr. Emomotimi Agama, communicated to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, concerns over malicious actors in the financial markets who exploit investors’ trust for personal gains.
Dr. Agama said:
They cloak their deceit in the glamorous but misunderstood language of cryptocurrency and forex trading. They target the vulnerable, the optimistic, and the simply unsuspecting, leaving behind a trail of shattered lives, depleted pensions, and broken trust. This is not just a financial crime; it is a social menace that erodes public confidence in our entire financial system.
Currently, there is a gap, a seam between identification and enforcement that these scammers exploit. Today, we aim to close that gap permanently.
In particular, the SEC DG is proposing the formation of a specialized SEC-NPF team with members who bring understanding of the financial principles and operations and the tactical intelligence to curb these investment frauds and protect the Nigerian cyberspace. The IGP approved the collaboration request while also stating a strong commitment to help the SEC achieve its aims.
Crypto Fraud In Nigeria
Notably, Nigerians have been victims of several cryptocurrency investment scams in the past few years. The most prominent of these is the Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) platform, which crashed in April 2025, losing over N1.3 trillion ($916 million) in user funds.
The Nigerian SEC is strongly committed to reducing such menace as shown by the recent collaboration with the NPF alongside other measures such as a revised minimum capital requirements for VASPs and a published list of all identified fraudulent crypto and financial investment businesses.
Notably, Nigeria remains one of the fastest-growing crypto hubs globally. According to data from TripleA, approximately 10.34% of Nigeria’s population, i.e., 22 million people, hold one digital asset or the other, therefore indicating the need for an effective regulatory oversight and protection system.
Featured image from Oriental News Nigeria, chart from Tradingview
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DOJ confirms seized Bitcoin from Samourai Wallet case has not been sold
Key Takeaways
- The US Department of Justice has confirmed that seized Bitcoin from the Samourai Wallet case will not be liquidated but will remain as part of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
- US government holds roughly 328,000 Bitcoin in seized assets, according to onchain data.
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Department of Justice has confirmed that Bitcoin forfeited in the Samourai Wallet case has not been liquidated and will remain part of the US government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
The confirmation was shared by Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, who said the assets will not be sold and will remain on the US government balance sheet under Executive Order 14233.
Concerns had emerged earlier this month after onchain analysts observed roughly $6.3 million in Bitcoin moved from a Samourai Wallet linked address to Coinbase Prime, prompting speculation that the US Marshals Service or DOJ may have sold the assets. Witt said the transfers did not represent a liquidation and were permitted under the executive order.
Executive Order 14233 was signed by Donald Trump in March 2025 and explicitly bars US agencies from selling seized Bitcoin. The order established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, marking a shift away from prior practices where forfeited crypto was routinely auctioned.
The forfeited assets stem from the prosecution of Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, who faced charges in 2024 and 2025 tied to operating a privacy focused Bitcoin mixing service. About 57 Bitcoin was forfeited as part of their plea agreement.
Onchain data from Arkham Intelligence indicates that the US government currently holds roughly 328,000 Bitcoin in seized and controlled assets as part of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, valued at about $31.2 billion at current prices near $95,000. The Samourai-related Bitcoin forms part of this broader pool of government-held BTC.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is managed by the US Treasury and is intended to hold seized Bitcoin as a long-term national asset rather than liquidating it into the market.
Editor’s note: Updated to include details on US government Bitcoin reserves.
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Solana Labs CEO Says Solana Must Adapt or Die
Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said he wants Solana to be a constantly evolving network, continuously updating to meet the changing needs of users, contrasting with Vitalik Buterin’s vision of Ethereum as a self-sustaining blockchain.
“Solana needs to never stop iterating. It shouldn’t depend on any single group or individual to do so, but if it ever stops changing to fit the needs of its devs and users, it will die,” Yakovenko stated in a post to X on Saturday.
His remarks were in response to a post from Buterin, who said Ethereum needs to reach a point where it passes the “walkaway test,” meaning it becomes self-sustainable without developer influence for decades to come.
Ethereum and Solana are two of the leading blockchains in a sea of layer 1 competitors.
Ethereum is by far the most decentralized smart contract layer 1 blockchain and dominates stablecoin and real-world asset tokenization activity, while Solana is one of the speedier networks that is arguably more popular for consumer apps and earns more fees.
Their planned paths to success, however, could not be more different.
Buterin wants to maximize decentralization, privacy and self-sovereignty on Ethereum — even at the cost of mainstream adoption — while Yakovenko wants Solana to be an evolving ecosystem that introduces new features to adapt to real-world needs.
Supporters of Buterin’s approach argue that adding too many features increases the risk of bugs, security flaws, and unintended protocol consequences, while expanding the attack surface for centralization.
Those aligned with Yakovenko’s “adapt or die” mentality, however, think a hands-off approach leads to slower innovation and potentially being overtaken by faster-moving competitors.
AI could update Solana in the future: Yakovenko
Yakovenko, however, said protocol updates should come from a diverse community of contributors rather than a few development teams.
Related: Bitwise’s exec says 2026 will be crypto’s real bull year, here’s why
He even pointed to a future where Solana network fees could fund AI-assisted development to write and improve Solana’s codebase.
“You should always count on there being a next version of Solana,” Yakovenko said.
Ethereum is not self-sustainable yet
Meanwhile, Buterin said there is still a lot of work to be done before Ethereum can adopt the hands-off approach.
Quantum resistance features, more scalable architecture, and a better block-building model that resists centralization pressures were among the main improvements Buterin said Ethereum needs to have to pass the test of time.
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The reality of personal branding in 2026: Why visibility is now a serious business asset
Personal branding has crossed a line.
In 2026, online visibility is no longer optional for founders and business leaders. Personal branding now sits at the epicentre of how credibility is built, and how much buyers and prospects are willing to trust you.
This isn’t about trends or personal promotion. It’s about how the mechanics of visibility have changed, and what that means for business founders who want to stay relevant in a market shaped by AI, shifting trust, and decentralised influence.
Libby Crossland, co-founder of The Leadership Visibility Co., says, “Whether you like the term or not, your personal brand already exists. The only question is whether you’re shaping it, or leaving other people and algorithms to do it for you.”
Personal branding has become business infrastructure
For years, personal branding lived on the edges of strategy. Useful, but not urgent. Something to “get to later”.
That logic is no longer valid.
Three forces have reshaped how business founders are discovered and assessed.
First, AI now sits between you and the person searching for you.
Search still starts online, but the outcomes look very different. The majority of searches now end without a click, because answers are delivered directly through AI summaries. Visibility is no longer driven by who has the best website. It’s driven by who AI systems can clearly identify, categorise, and trust.
If you’re not visible online, you’re also not visible to AI. And that’s a commercial risk.
Second, trust has shifted away from organisations and towards individuals.
Long-running research shows declining trust in corporate messaging and leadership statements. In contrast, people consistently say they trust peers and subject-matter experts more. Credibility now attaches to individuals who speak clearly, show their thinking, and demonstrate experience.
Third, individuals outperform brands across almost every platform.
Content shared by people consistently earns more reach and engagement than the same content published through corporate channels. Influence has become decentralised. The people inside a business increasingly shape how it is perceived.
Together, these shifts place personal branding at the core of modern visibility. Not as self-expression, but as infrastructure. The layer that helps others understand who you are, what you do, and why you matter.
Smaller audiences now create more value
For years, reach was treated as the goal. Bigger audiences. Bigger numbers.
However, now, decision-making is driven by trust, not volume. Smaller, well-defined audiences who recognise your voice and understand your work generate more meaningful engagement than large, diluted followings. Niche conversations drive messages, referrals, and opportunities in a way broad commentary rarely does.
As AI-generated content increases, depth becomes the differentiator. People pay closer attention to voices that feel grounded, specific, and human.
Leadership Visibility Co., co-founder Suzie Thompson says, “We see this every day. The leaders getting the best opportunities aren’t the most well known. They’re the ones who are clear, consistent, and recognisable when someone’s looking for that exact product or service.”
What a personal brand needs in 2026
The data points to a clear baseline.
Focus matters: Clear themes make expertise recognisable to both people and systems.
Thinking needs to be visible: Explaining decisions and industry shifts builds authority faster than polished conclusions.
Evidence underpins credibility: Articles, interviews, talks, posts, and case examples show that expertise exists beyond claims.
Profiles carry more weight than ever: They act as a credibility scan, not a biography.
Teams matter: Distributed visibility across leaders and experts builds trust faster than relying on a single voice.
Ownership matters too: An owned channel, even a simple one, creates stability in a shifting platform landscape.
Where this leaves UK business founders
The environment has changed. Search behaves differently. Trust behaves differently. Visibility behaves differently.
A personal brand now sits inside that reality as the practical layer that helps others understand your value before a conversation begins.
Some leaders will work with that shift. Others will ignore it.
Trump threatens legal action against JPMorgan in ongoing ‘debanking’ saga – DL News
- President Donald Trump has said he will sue top American bank, JPMorgan Chase.
- The US leader claims he was denied banking services.
- President Trump’s family says it got into crypto because it was ‘debanked.’
US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue JPMorgan Chase, the latest in an ongoing rift with banks that members of the first family say forced them into crypto.
Writing on his social media platform Saturday, President Trump took aim at a Wall Street Journal story that reported JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon saying he had been offered the role of Federal Reserve chairman.
“This statement is totally untrue, there was never such an offer and, in fact, I’ll be suing JPMorgan Chase over the next two weeks for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest, a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting — The Election was RIGGED,” the Truth Social post read.
( @realDonaldTrump – Truth Social Post )
( Donald J. Trump – Jan 17 2026, 11:13 AM ET )A front page Article in The Fake News Wall Street Journal states, without any verification, that I offered Jamie Dimon, of JPMorgan Chase, the job of Fed Chairman. T… pic.twitter.com/gQc41kUVcF
— Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial (@TruthTrumpPost) January 17, 2026
President Trump and his sons have pushed further into the world of crypto after claiming some of America’s biggest banks cut them off from services. The Trump family has released a number of digital asset products, and most recently, Trump-backed decentralised finance platform World Liberty Financial applied for a banking licence.
Debanking row
President Trump last year claimed that JPMorgan Chase cut him off as a customer before Bank of America also denied him services.
His son, Donald Trump Jr., said his family had no choice but to get into digital assets after banks refused to give them services following the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
“We got into crypto because we were debanked,” he said in a Fox News interview last year. “We had to come up with solutions,” he continued, adding that crypto was the most efficient way to go and “absolutely the future of banking.”
Eric Trump blasted Capital One for being “woke” and said the Trump Organization would sue the ban for denying it services.
JPMorgan has in the past denied debanking customers. The bank did not immediately respond to questions from DL News.
Crypto to the rescue?
Trump’s Saturday threat comes as the president and his family try to take over TradFi services using crypto.
Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, a borrowing and lending platform that runs on Ethereum, has its own stablecoin, USD1, and wants the digital token to be used by institutions and everyday people for payments, Zak Folkman, co-founder and COO at World Liberty Financial, told DL News earlier this month.
In a bid to make the stablecoin succeed, World Liberty Financial applied for a banking licence, joining other top crypto companies in a move traditional lenders have criticised.
World Liberty Financial says on its website that it wants to “unlock financial access for all by replacing the limits of traditional banking.”
War with the Fed
President Trump’s war with JPMorgan comes as the Republican fights with the US central bank.
The Justice Department this month hit the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas and is threatening a criminal indictment against its chief, Jerome Powell.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon this week criticised the Justice Department’s actions and said that attacks on the Fed could undermine its independence.
Since President Trump became US leader again last year, he has repeatedly attacked Powell, urging him to lower interest rates.
Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.
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