Eric Council Jr., 26, of Athens, Alabama, has been sentenced to 14 months in federal prison for his involvement in a cybercrime conspiracy. The case involved the hacking of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) official X (formerly Twitter) account. Eric Council Jr Sentenced to 14 Months According to a statement from federal authorities, Eric Council Jr conspired with others to gain access to the US SEC’s X account by carrying out a SIM swap. On January 9, 2024, a false post was published from the account, falsely claiming the SEC had approved Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Bitcoin’s price rose quickly by more than $1,000 before falling after the SEC confirmed the post was not legitimate. Eric Council Jr pleaded guilty in February 2025 to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 14 months in prison, ordered the forfeiture of… Read More at Coingape.com
Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to hurt the global markets, and now, experts such as JPMorgan are predicting a US recession will happen this year. This development is significant considering how it could impact the crypto market, although not in the way some might expect.
Donald Trump’s Tariffs Raise Odds Of US Recession This Year
In a CNBC interview, JPMorgan’s chief economist, Bruce Kasman, revealed that they have raised the odds of a US recession to 60% following Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement earlier this week. Deutsche Bank has also raised the probability of a recession to 50%.
Meanwhile, prior to Trump’s announcement, Goldman Sachs raised the odds of a recession from 20% to 35%. Market commentator The Kobeissi Latter stated that a recession is impossible to avoid if these tariffs persist. Traders are also betting on a downturn this year. On the prediction platform Kalshi, odds for that to happen have surged to 61%.
A US recession is significant considering the impact it could have on global markets. The stock market has already entered bear market territory following Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on almost all countries on April 2.
As such, a recession would only cause the stock market and other markets to plunge harder. However, amid this downtrend in the global markets, the crypto market, led by Bitcoin, has shown some impressive strength.
A CoinGape market analysis noted that Bitcoin has decoupled from stocks. The flagship crypto is down only 5.51% while the S&P 500 has crashed 12% over three days. A plausible explanation is that market investors see BTC as a flight to safety amid the market downturn, which is undoubtedly bullish for the crypto market, especially if a US recession occurs.
It is worth mentioning that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink had also previously praised Bitcoin as an “uncorrelated asset” that provides a hedge against market turmoil.
A Recession Might Be Bullish For The Crypto Market
Amid talk of a US recession following Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement, Dom Kwok, an expert and co-founder of EasyA, has affirmed that recessions are bullish for crypto prices. He explained that the US Federal Reserve lowers interest rates during recessions to spur the economy.
This immediately leads to quantitative easing (QE), which is bullish for the crypto market, and more liquidity flows into the market during this period. Dom added that all this would lead to crypto and risk asset prices rising. He also alluded to how the Bitcoin price surged during the 2020 COVID recession.
As such, the crypto market is likely to soar again if a recession occurs. Analyst Kevin Capital also echoed a similar sentiment following China’s response to Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The analyst stated that the crypto market was more focused on the Fed’s monetary policies rather than tariffs. This indicates that a market boom would happen even in the face of a recession, since the US Central Bank would likely step in to help stimulate the economy.
Bitcoin’s recent price action has defied expectations, leading to uncertainty among market analysts and traders. Cheeky Crypto, a self-proclaimed crypto…
The Yua Mikami meme coin (MIKAMI) experienced a dramatic price drop shortly after its launch on May 8, 2025.
This meme coin, tied to Japanese entertainment star Yua Mikami, plummeted over 80% from its peak, leaving pre-sale investors with losses of up to 60%.
Fans Burned as Yua Mikami’s Meme Coin Collapses
Yua Mikami, a well-known Japanese entertainment star, had no prior involvement in the crypto space. However, leveraging her fame, Mikami launched her own meme coin, MIKAMI, on the Solana blockchain. This coin initially garnered significant attention from the crypto community.
According to an official announcement from the Mikami Coin account on X, the MIKAMI pre-sale concluded on May 3, 2025. It successfully raised over 23,000 SOL, equivalent to approximately $3.4 million at the time.
The same account confirmed that 17,560 valid addresses participated, contributing a total of 23,320.74 SOL. Notably, the team filtered out over 21,000 spam transactions involving deposits of less than 0.002 SOL. Pre-sale investors received tokens proportional to their contributions, with an average cost of $0.245 per token.
However, shortly after MIKAMI officially launched and began its airdrop in the early hours of May 8, the token’s price nosedived. Within just five hours of launch, MIKAMI’s price dropped to $0.1, marking a 60% loss for pre-sale investors.
As of this writing, the token’s price has continued to decline sharply, losing over 80% from its peak, with a market capitalization of roughly $7 million. Price charts on Dexscreener reflect this collapse, showing MIKAMI falling from a high of $0.828 to $0.1 in a matter of hours.
What Caused the Sharp Decline?
The crash of MIKAMI is not an isolated incident in the meme coin market, which is notorious for its high volatility and reliance on crowd psychology.
“Meme coin psychology: It’s not FOMO — it’s “maybe this one will fix everything,” said one X user
However, these tokens frequently lack intrinsic value and are prone to manipulation. In MIKAMI’s case, the 80% price drop immediately after launch suggests a possible “sell-off” by large investors (whales). They accumulated tokens during the pre-sale and dumped them once the token was listed.
Additionally, data reveals that MIKAMI’s tokenomics structure carries inherent risks: 50% of the total supply is locked for Yua Mikami until 2069, 20% was allocated to the pre-sale, 15% to liquidity, 10% to the community, and 5% to marketing.
The 15% liquidity allocation is considered low compared to the typical 20-25% standard for meme coins, making the token’s price highly susceptible to sharp fluctuations during significant selling pressure.
Meanwhile, MIKAMI’s collapse was also influenced by broader market sentiment. At launch, the meme coin market was facing a downturn, with a 56.8% drop in capitalization since December 2024. This makes investors susceptible to panic selling when prices fall, further exacerbating the downward pressure on MIKAMI, which already lacks liquidity and community support.
The downfall of Yua Mikami Meme Coin (MIKAMI) serves as a textbook example of the risks inherent in the meme coin market, where high expectations tied to celebrity fame often fail to sustain token value.
