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A US federal judge has handed down a 23-year prison term to a Texas man whose years-long cryptocurrency fraud operation –Meta-1 Coin Trust– drained more than $20 million from hundreds of unsuspecting investors.

U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt of the Northern District of Illinois delivered the sentence against Robert Dunlap this week. The court additionally ordered Dunlap to pay restitution to the nearly 1,000 people his scheme left financially devastated.

At the center of the fraud was something Dunlap called the “Meta-1 Coin Trust,” a supposed crypto investment vehicle he promoted aggressively between 2018 and 2023. The pitch was straightforward, at least on paper: investors were told they were buying into a digital asset underpinned by enormous real-world wealth.

Dunlap claimed Meta-1 Coin carried backing from approximately $44 billion in gold reserves and up to $1 billion in fine art, with the supposed collection featuring works attributed to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Vincent van Gogh. To give the operation a veneer of financial credibility, he told investors that a professional accounting firm had independently audited and verified those gold holdings.

Prosecutors confirmed there was no gold, no art collection, and no legitimate audit, only a trail of fabricated legal documents Dunlap created specifically to obscure that fact.

The case also assumes more significance as prosecutors noted that a significant portion of victims invested their entire life savings on the strength of Dunlap’s promises, expecting the kind of outsized gains he dangled in front of them, returns he reportedly marketed at up to 224,923%. Instead, the Meta-1 Coin was never actually distributed to investors. Meanwhile, federal authorities allege the incoming funds were redirected toward personal expenditures and luxury purchases, including a Ferrari.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) had flagged the operation as early as March 2020, when it moved to freeze assets and sought emergency relief against Dunlap alongside co-accused Nicole Bowdler and former Washington state Senator David Schmidt.

Investigators found that Dunlap and associates deployed automated trading bots to manufacture artificial activity on the Meta Exchange, a platform he built himself, inflating both the apparent price and trading volume of the coin to simulate legitimate market interest.

In their sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini described Dunlap as “unrepentant,” noting that his fabrications grew more extreme as the scheme continued. The US government’s filing stated that he lied to investors for years and that over time his lies only grew larger. A federal jury ultimately convicted Dunlap on mail fraud charges before Judge Hunt imposed this week’s sentence.

The attorneys wrote that would-be criminals planning similar conduct need to understand that such actions carry serious consequences, including the extended loss of one’s freedom. 

In a major regulatory push, the Bank of France has called for reinforcing the European Union’s crypto regulatory framework, specifically around stablecoin payments, as questions grow over whether existing rules are sufficient to manage the risks posed by these digital assets.

Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, addressed the issue at the EUROFI High Level Seminar earlier this year. His remarks, subsequently published on the Bank for International Settlements website, confirmed that the institution has been advocating for changes to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, commonly known as MiCA, with a focus on how the framework handles payment stablecoins, particularly those pegged to non-euro currencies.

However, Beau indicated that MiCA’s current provisions only partially address the risks that could arise from the widespread adoption of stablecoins for payments, especially those issued by entities outside the eurozone.

Among the concerns outlined, Beau also pointed to the potential for large-scale stablecoin use to interfere with monetary policy transmission across the euro area. Further, he also flagged risks tied to operational failures among payment-focused stablecoin issuers and noted that consumer protections against de-pegging events may need to be reconsidered.

Meanwhile, Dollar-pegged stablecoins account for approximately 98% of total stablecoin market share globally, a dynamic that European policymakers have increasingly viewed as a structural challenge. Beau suggested that supporting tokenized central bank money and well-regulated private alternatives could form part of the response, alongside stronger rules. To stress his point, he referenced tokenization projects including Pontes and Appia as examples of progress on settlement infrastructure, while noting that regulatory measures alone may not fully resolve the issue.

Beau also drew a distinction between stablecoin issuers with banking backgrounds or electronic money licenses and those without, describing the latter as carrying comparatively greater financial risk.

Echoing similar views, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta had also noted in the past that MiCA has had limited impact on the adoption of compliant stablecoins within the EU, similarly pointing to the digital euro as a potential longer-term solution.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has named the founding members of its new Innovation Task Force, a group assembled to help the agency develop regulatory frameworks across digital assets, artificial intelligence (AI) and prediction markets.

The task force was launched on March 24 by CFTC Chairman Mike Selig, who appointed Michael Passalacqua, his senior advisor at the agency, to lead it. As per the official press release, the task force is composed of staff from various divisions and offices throughout the Commission, as well as individuals with extensive private sector experience working on these issues.

On Friday, the CFTC announced that Passalacqua will be joined by five members: Hank Balaban, a former Latham & Watkins crypto lawyer; Sam Canavos, an ex-Patomak crypto and prediction markets advisor; Mark Fajfar, a CFTC legal veteran; Eugene Gonzalez IV, a former Sidley blockchain lawyer; and Dina Moussa, a special counsel in the CFTC’s Market Participants Division.

According to the agency, the task force’s responsibilities will revolve around three key areas, which includes digital assets and blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and event-based contracts such as prediction markets. The inclusion of prediction markets is notable given the CFTC’s ongoing efforts to assert jurisdiction over event contracts amid legal disputes with state regulators and platform operators.

“The Innovation Task Force brings together a leading team that exhibits deep expertise and an enthusiastic commitment to deliver clear rules of the road for American innovators,” Selig said.

Meanwhile on Friday, Selig also announced the CFTC’s innovation tracker, which highlights work done under his leadership to advance regulatory clarity, market integrity and responsible technological progress.

The latest development comes against the backdrop of uncertainty prevailing over when the crypto market structure bill, known as CLARITY Act will become a law. CLARITY Act, if passed would establish clear divisions of authority between SEC and CFTC, defining which digital assets constitute securities subject to SEC oversight versus commodities falling under CFTC jurisdiction.

Key Takeaways

• In a statement, Woodcock said he planned to “execute the Chairman’s vision” in the role.
• Chairman Paul Atkins, who welcomed the appointment, said the division has undergone a “significant course correction” aimed at restoring congressional intent 
• Woodcock takes over on May 4, with Sam Waldon continuing as acting director until then

In a major development, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tapped David Woodcock to lead its division of enforcement, a month after its predecessor resigned.

Woodcock takes over on May 4, with Sam Waldon continuing as acting director until then. In a statement, Woodcock said he planned to “execute the Chairman’s vision” in the role.

Chairman Paul Atkins, who welcomed the appointment, said the division has undergone a “significant course correction” aimed at restoring congressional intent by prioritizing cases that provide meaningful investor protection and strengthen market integrity. “I am incredibly pleased to have David rejoin the SEC at this critical time, as we continue to focus on the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm to investors,” Atkins said, also crediting Waldon for his leadership during the transition.

During his prior SEC tenure, he served as a member of the Enforcement Advisory Committee, and created and served as chair of the SEC’s cross-office and cross-division Financial Reporting and Audit Task Force.

His predecessor Margaret Ryan resigned in March, and her exit has not gone unexamined. Several lawmakers have pressed for answers on whether she left due to the agency’s decision to drop crypto-related enforcement cases.

Senator Richard Blumenthal in a March 30 letter to Atkins stated: the agency “may have exercised preferential treatment for financial partners of President Trump against the advice and warnings of senior staff when the agency declined to litigate credible fraud cases.”

Separately, the SEC on Tuesday also released its enforcement results for the 2025 fiscal year, reporting seven crypto-related enforcement cases tied to registration issues and six related to the definition of a broker-dealer.

Rwanda’s National Bank moved swiftly to remind the public that cryptocurrency transactions involving the Rwandan franc remain illegal, days after crypto exchange Bybit quietly added franc support to its peer-to-peer trading platform.

The matter came to light after Bybit announced on Friday that the Rwandan franc could be used to buy and sell crypto through its P2P service. The central bank responded publicly on X two days later, making its position unambiguous. “Crypto-assets are NOT authorized for payments, FRW conversion, or P2P trading involving FRW under the current framework,” the NBR posted, urging citizens to avoid crypto due to “serious financial risks and no recourse in case of loss.”

In a separate post, the bank reinforced that the franc “remains the only legal tender in Rwanda” and that “NBR-licensed financial institutions are prohibited from converting FRW into crypto-assets or vice versa.” Cointelegraph reached out to Bybit for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Rwanda’s restrictions on private crypto use date back to 2018, making it one of the longer-standing holdouts against digital asset adoption on the continent. The policy covers payments, trading and conversions involving crypto within the country. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis data, Rwanda ranked low in crypto adoption during 2024 and 2025, receiving only a fraction of the crypto value seen in higher-adopting African nations like Nigeria and South Africa.

Despite its restrictive stance on private crypto activity, Rwanda has not closed the door entirely on digital asset regulation.

The Rwanda Capital Market Authority introduced draft rules for virtual asset service providers in March 2026, with the proposal aimed at balancing innovation against regulatory control. The central bank is also developing its own digital currency. Last month, the NBR achieved a significant milestone in its Central Bank Digital Currency journey by concluding its five-month Proof of Concept for a potential CBDC.