The widow of a man turned into a “human bomb” by the IRA has hit out at a controversial law which would effectively end prosecutions linked to The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
MPs have approved the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, which will stop new cases and inquests being opened into killings on both sides of the conflict, as it passed its final Commons hurdle.
Patsy Gillespie, from Derry, was strapped into a van and forced to drive a bomb into a British Army checkpoint on the border between Londonderry and Donegal on 24 October 1990.
The device was triggered by remote control and the 43-year-old man was killed along with five soldiers – he managed to save the lives of other troops after shouting a warning to them.
Sinn Fein described him as a “legitimate target” because he worked in the army’s canteen. But no-one has ever been convicted over the atrocity.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998.
Under the new Westminster law, which has sparked anger from all sides on the island of Ireland, conditional amnesty will be offered to those who reveal information about the incidents to a new truth recovery body.
‘They’re not getting punished’
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Gillespie’s widow Kathleen criticised the legislation, saying: “What they did to Patsy has been condoned and all the other atrocities are being condoned.
“At the end of the day, they’re getting away with what they’ve done. And they think they are these big men, they are trotting about… And they’re not getting punished.
“So let me ask whoever is listening to this. How would you feel if you were in my position? Would you be alright about it.”
She said if one of the men involved in the 1990 attack ever came to her front door asking for forgiveness she said she would “make it very clear there was no forgiveness in me”.
Mrs Gillespie added: “The one question that I would ask is, what made you think it was okay to sit down with other men and plan what you did to my husband?”
Why bill could be biggest test of Anglo-Irish relations in 50 years
Legislation to end historical prosecutions in Northern Ireland could be the biggest test of Anglo-Irish relations in half a century.
It was 1971 when Dublin last brought a case against the UK government to the European Court of Human Rights.
Opposition to the controversial Legacy Bill has created the most unlikely alliance of Unionists, Nationalists, Dublin, Washington and the EU.
The government will focus on the fact that British Army veterans will be granted immunity from prosecution for historical offences.
But the amnesty will also apply to the very terrorists who murdered British soldiers on the streets of Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris claims the bill will “draw a line under the past”.
But relatives of victims say it only benefits perpetrators because it is they who will choose between truth and justice.
If someone accused of murder provides information to a new Truth Recovery Body, they will be granted a prosecutorial amnesty.
With 3,000 of the 3,500 Troubles murders unresolved, the legacy of the past has clouded the Northern Ireland peace process.
But the cloud won’t be lifted by demanding too high a price from those who have paid most – the victims.
Read more:
The Good Friday Agreement 25 years on
Bloody Sunday: A ‘watershed’ in the history of The Troubles
Gerry Duddy, whose 17-year-old brother Jackie was shot dead by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday in 1972, said he was “very angry” at the new legislation because he “never got any justice”.
He told Sky News: “If I draw a line now, I am letting my brother down and other people that died and to the British Army.
“And I made a promise one time and I intend to keep that promise going for as long as I’m here on this Earth.
“I’m very, very angry. We never got the chance to finally finish grieving. We are still grieving because we never got any justice.”
Gerry Duddy said he was ‘very, very angry’
Last year, the sister of Jackie Derry urged the soldier who fired the fatal shot to admit it.
Kay Duddy said Jackie cannot rest until that happens and directly appealed to former members of the British Parachute Regiment.
She said: “Please put your hands up and say you did it, so we can lay our wee brother to rest.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he believes the bill – which will now return to the Lords to be approved before becoming law – will “draw a line under the past”, and it has received support from a number of veterans’ organisations.
Opinion by: Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch
Institutional players have been closely watching decentralized finance’s growth. Creating secure and compliant DeFi platforms is the only solution to build trust and attract more institutions.
Clear waters attract big ships
Over the past four years, institutional DeFi adoption has gone from 10% of hedge funds to 47%, and is projected to rise to 65% in 2025. Goldman Sachs is reaching their arms to DeFi for bond issuance and yield farming.
Early adopters are already positioning themselves in onchain finance, including Visa, which has processed over $1 billion in crypto transactions since 2021 and is now testing cross-border payments. In the next two years, institutional adoption will speed up. A compliant regulatory framework that maintains DeFi’s core benefits is necessary for institutional adoption to engage confidently.
DeFi’s institutional trilemma
It is no secret that many DeFi security exploits happen every year. The recent Bybit hack reported a $1.4 billion loss. The breach occurred through a transfer process that was vulnerable to attack. Attacks like these raise concerns about multisignature wallets and blind signing. This happens when users approve transactions without full details, rendering blind signing a significant risk. This case calls for stronger security measures and improvements in user experience.
The threats of theft due to vulnerabilities in smart contracts or mistakes by validators make institutional investors hesitate when depositing large amounts of money into institutional staking pools. Institutions are also at risk of noncompliance due to a lack of clear regulatory frameworks, creating hesitation to enter the space.
The user interface in DeFi is often designed for users with technical expertise. Institutional investors require user-friendly experiences that make DeFi staking possible without relying on third-party intermediaries.
Build it right, and they will come
Institutional interest in bringing traditional assets onchain is enormous, with the tokenized asset market estimated to reach $16 trillion by 2030. To confidently participate in DeFi, institutions need verifiable counterparties that are compliant with regulatory requirements. The entry of traditional institutional players into DeFi has led some privacy advocates to point out that it can counter the essence of decentralization, which forms the bedrock of the ecosystem.
Recent: Securitize to bring BUIDL tokenized fund to DeFi with RedStone price feeds
Institutions must be able to trust DeFi platforms to maintain compliance standards while providing a safe and seamless user interface. A balanced approach is key. DeFi’s permissionless nature can be achieved while maintaining compliance through identity profiles, allowing secure transactions. Similarly, transaction screening tools facilitate real-time monitoring and risk assessment.
Blockchain analytics tools help institutions to maintain compliance with Anti-Money Laundering regulations and prevent interaction with blacklisted wallets. Integrating these tools can help detect and prevent illicit activity, making DeFi safer for institutional engagement.
Intent-based architecture can improve security
The relationship between intent-based architecture and security is evident; the very design is built to reduce risks, creating a more reliable user experience. This protects the user against MEV exploits, a common issue of automated bots scanning for large profitable trades that can be exploited. Intent-based architecture also helps implement compliance frameworks. For instance, restricting order submissions to clean wallets and allowing resolvers to settle only the acceptable orders.
It’s well understood that in traditional DeFi transactions, users rely often on intermediaries like liquidity providers to execute trades or manage funds. This leads to counterparty risk, unauthorized execution and settlement failure. The intent-based architecture supports a trustless settlement that ensures users commit only when all conditions are met, reducing risk and removing blind trust from the picture.
DeFi platforms must simplify interactions and UX for institutional investors. This system bridges the gap between. Through executing offchain while ensuring security, the intent-based architecture makes DeFi safer and more efficient. However, one of the challenges to this includes integrating offchain order matching while maintaining onchain transparency.
Late adopters of DeFi will struggle to keep up
For the early adopters of DeFi, there is a competitive advantage in liquidity access and yield advantages, whereas late adopters will face more regulatory scrutiny and entry barriers. By 2026, the institutional players that have failed to adopt DeFi may struggle to keep up. This is seen in the examples of early adopters like JPMorgan and Citi’s early tokenization projects. TradFi leaders like them are already gearing up for onchain finance.
The way forward
Regulatory bodies, supervisory agencies and policy leaders must provide clear, standardized guidelines to facilitate broader institutional participation. Uniform protocols underpinning wider institutional involvement are underway. DeFi platforms must be prepared beforehand to provide all the necessary pillars of compliance and security to institutional players who want to embrace mainstream adoption. Executing this shall require combined efforts from regulators, developers and institutions.
Opinion by: Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Prediction marketplace Kalshi has started taking Bitcoin (BTC) deposits in a bid to onboard more crypto-native users.
The company that lets users bet on events ranging from election outcomes to Rotten Tomatoes film ratings has seen a strong uptake among crypto traders, Kalshi told Cointelegraph on April 9. For instance, event contracts for betting on Bitcoin’s hour-by-hour price changes have seen $143 million in trading volume to date, a spokesperson said.
Kalshi is a derivatives exchange regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As of April 9, it listed some 50 crypto-related event contracts, including markets for betting on coins’ 2025 highs and lows, as well as on headlines such as US President Donald Trump’s proposed National Bitcoin Reserve.
Kalshi has doubled down on crypto event contract markets. Source: Kalshi
The platform started accepting crypto payments in October when it enabled stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) deposits.
Kalshi relies on ZeroHash — a crypto payments infrastructure provider — for off-ramping BTC and USDC and converting the deposits to US dollars. The exchange accepts BTC deposits only from the Bitcoin network.
Most Kalshi traders no longer expect core tokens to earn positive returns this year. Source: Kalshi
Related: Kalshi traders place the odds of US recession in 2025 at over 61%
More accurate than polls
Launched in 2021, Kalshi rose to prominence ahead of the US’s November elections.
It became a top venue for trading on 2024 political events after winning a lawsuit against the CFTC, which tried to block Kalshi from listing contracts tied to elections.
The regulator argued that political prediction markets threaten the integrity of elections, but industry analysts say they often capture public sentiment more accurately than polls.
For instance, prediction markets, including Kalshi, accurately predicted Trump’s presidential election win even as polls indicated a tossup.
“Event contract markets are a valuable public good for which there is no evidence of significant manipulation or widespread use for any nefarious purposes that the Commission alleges,” Harry Crane, a statistics professor at Rutgers University, said in an August comment letter filed with the CFTC.
As of April 9, Kalshi traders peg the odds of the US entering a recession at 68%, according to its website.
In March, Kalshi partnered with Robinhood to bring prediction markets to the popular online brokerage platform. Robinhood’s stock rose some 8% on the news.
Kalshi competes with Polymarket, a Web3-based prediction platform. Polymarket processed more than $3 billion in trading volumes tied to the US presidential election despite being off-limits for US traders.
Magazine: Bitcoin heading to $70K soon? Crypto baller funds SpaceX flight: Hodler’s Digest, March 30 – April 5
Politics
No crypto project has registered with the SEC and ‘lived to tell the tale’ — House committee hearing
United States securities laws are not flexible enough to account for digital assets, as evidenced by the parade of crypto-native companies that have tried and failed to get into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) good graces, Rodrigo Seira, special counsel to Cooley LLP, told a House Committee hearing on April 9.
The hearing, titled American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets Aligning the U.S. Securities Laws for the Digital Age, featured Seira, WilmerHale partner Tiffany J. Smith, Polygon chief legal officer Jake Werrett and Alexandra Thorn, a senior director at the Center for American Progress.
“It is clear that the current securities regulatory framework is not a viable option to regulate crypto. It fails to achieve its stated policy goals,” Seira said in his opening remarks. “[T]he idea that crypto projects can come in and register with the SEC is demonstrably false.”
Cooley LLP special counsel Rodrigo Seira addresses the committee on April 9. Source: House Committee on Financial Services
Seira acknowledged that crypto promoters who raise capital for a new enterprise should be subject to federal securities laws.
“In practice, however, virtually no crypto projects have successfully registered their tokens under federal securities laws and lived to tell the tale,” he said, adding:
Projects that tried to comply with [the] SEC’s current regulatory requirements expended significant resources and effort only to fail or survive in a state of regulatory uncertainty. Moreover, registration is not a simple one-time process. Registering a token in the same manner as a stock triggers an obligation to operate as a publicly reporting company […].”
Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — or does it?
Righting the ship
In introducing the witnesses, Representative Bryan Steil, who heads the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, acknowledged regulatory roadblocks, which he said were put in place by the previous administration.
Congressman Bryan Steil addresses the hearing on April 9. Source: House Committee on Financial Services
Under President Donald Trump, lawmakers are attempting to right the ship by passing sensible legislation, said Steil.
One of the first steps occurred last week when the House Financial Services Committee advanced the STABLE Act, which is designed to regulate payment stablecoins tied to the US dollar and other fiat currencies.
Source: Financial Services GOP
A month earlier, the Senate Banking Committee advanced the GENIUS Act, which aims to regulate stablecoin issuers by establishing reserve requirements and requiring full compliance with Anti-Money Laundering laws.
The next step is “advancing the second half of this agenda: comprehensive digital asset market structure legislation,” said Steil.
Representative Ro Khanna told a digital asset conference last month that a market structure bill will cross the finish line this year.
The purpose of such legislation is to establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets, including their legal categories and the enforcement jurisdiction of agencies such as the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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