02/24/26 What Does A Billion Buy You?

What does a billion buy you in 2026 America? Today we follow the money from Binance—where internal investigators flagged $1.7B in crypto allegedly routed to Iranian-linked entities—to a growing pay-to-play crypto pipeline where major donations and friendly regulatory/legal tailwinds start looking a little too synchronized. 

Then we hit the ground with ICE, where whistleblower Ryan Schwank says the academy is “deficient, defective, and broken,” alleging training hours were slashed, cadets are being pushed through even after failures, and some instruction effectively nudges recruits toward constitutional violations—claims DHS disputes, but that have now landed squarely in the oversight spotlight.