US-Iran Technical Talks Held Today, Another "Mexican Standoff" in the Strait of Hormuz

June 21: U.S. Representative Bryan Steil introduced the "Prohibition of Congressional Insider Trading Act," which would bar members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from placing bets on prediction markets linked to government policies or official actions. Violators would face a civil penalty equal to the greater of $2,000 or 10% of the transaction amount, plus forfeiture of all profits from the trades. Government oversight group Project On Government Oversight (POGO) praised the bill but noted its scope is too limited. POGO is calling for the ban to be expanded to all federal officials and staff across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The watchdog pointed out that existing rules impose almost no conflict-of-interest restrictions on federal employees, and the rise of prediction markets has amplified risks of insider information misuse—fueling unfair competition and potential distortions to public policy decisions. U.S. Congress currently holds just

June 21 — Per monitoring from OnchainLens, the crypto whale address "pension-usdt.eth" has opened a new short position on Ethereum using 3x leverage, totaling around 26,499 ETH and valued at roughly $46 million. The address has also placed additional limit orders to further scale up its short position.