JD Vance denies insulting British troops over ‘random country’ jibe
JD Vance has hit back at criticism after saying a potential peacekeeping force in Ukraine would be “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
The US vice president was accused of “disrespecting” British forces who served alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a former veterans minister branding him a “clown” who needs to “check his privilege”.
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Although the UK and France are the only countries to have pledged troops to a potential peacekeeping force, Mr Vance said the suggestion he was referring to those two allies is “absurdly dishonest”.
“I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond,” he said in a post on X.
“There are many countries who are volunteering (privately or publicly) support who have neither the battlefield experience nor the military equipment to do anything meaningful.”
Mr Vance made the initial comments to Fox News on Tuesday, saying the only security guarantee Donald Trump will provide for Ukraine is a minerals deal.
He said: “The president knows that if you want real US security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine.
“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
Several British politicians interpreted this as a dig at the UK and France, who have led the idea of a “coalition of the willing” to provide boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, accused Mr Vance of “ignoring the service and sacrifice” of personnel from the two countries that fought in Afghanistan after 9/11.
He said that is the only time NATO’s Article 5 has been invoked, which holds that members of the alliance will come to the defence of an ally under attack.
He added: “Britain and France came to their aid deploying 1,000s of personnel to Afghanistan, including numerous parliamentary colleagues, past & present. It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service & sacrifice.”
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Former Tory veterans minister Johnny Mercer called Mr Vance a “clown” who “needs to check his privilege”.
Helen Maguire, the Lib Dem’s defence spokesperson who also served in the army before her career in politics, accused Mr Trump’s deputy of “erasing the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan from history”.
She said: “Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality. Vance has demeaned his office.”
Speaking after Mr Vance clarified his remarks, a Downing Street spokesperson said the US vice president was “talking about other countries” when asked if he should apologise.
They added Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “is full of admiration for British troops who fought alongside the US and others in wars and their courage and bravery”.
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Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told GB News “a lot of people are getting carried away”.
“They’re saying loads of things and getting quite animated, let’s keep cool heads,” she said.
“I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they’re looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well.”
It is not the first time Mr Vance has riled the UK, after previously attacking it over free speech and saying the UK is “Islamist under Labour”.
The row comes after the Trump administration paused military aid to Ukraine following an extraordinary showdown between the US President and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The falling out has thrown into jeopardy the prospect of a minerals deal, which would give the US access to Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth minerals.
Mr Trump has suggested this would deter Russia from invading Ukraine again if a peace deal is struck – but Sir Keir said yesterday that it would not be enough on its own.
The prime minister told MPs on Monday that Britain must “lead from the front” on supporting Ukraine and Europe must “do the heavy lifting to support peace on our continent”.
However, he said “to succeed, this effort must also have strong US backing”.
Ghana has legalized cryptocurrency trading by establishing a regulatory framework targeting the industry.
Ghana’s parliament has passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill into law, Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor Johnson Asiama said, according to a report on Sunday by the state-owned Daily Graphic news agency.
“Virtual asset trading is now legal, and no one will be arrested for engaging in cryptocurrency, but we now have a framework to manage the risks involved,” Asiama said on Friday at the BoG’s annual Nine Lessons, Carols and Thanksgiving Service.
The timing aligns with earlier central bank communications, as Asiama had previously indicated Ghana was targeting the introduction of crypto regulation by the end of 2025.
Ghana’s central bank gains supervisory powers
Under the legislation, the Bank of Ghana becomes the primary regulator for cryptocurrency activity, with powers to license and supervise crypto asset service providers (CASPs).
The law positions Ghana to better protect consumers from fraud, money laundering and systemic risks, while removing uncertainty over the legal status of cryptocurrency, Asiama said, adding:
“What this means is that now we have the framework to manage it and to manage the risks that can involve that kind of activity […] These are not just legal milestones; they are enablers of better policies, stronger supervision and more effective regulation.”
The governor also mentioned that the crypto law is intended to support innovation and expand Ghana’s financial inclusion, particularly among young people and tech-driven entrepreneurs.
Ghana ranks among Sub-Saharan Africa’s top five crypto economies
Ghana’s move to regulate cryptocurrency activity comes as the country emerges as a significant player in crypto adoption across the region.
According to Chainalysis’ 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, Ghana ranked among the top five Sub-Saharan African countries by total crypto value received between July 2024 and June 2025.
In the meantime, Nigeria continued to dominate the region, receiving at least $92 billion in crypto value over the period, or nearly three times the amount recorded by South Africa, the report showed.
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The Sub-Saharan region received over $205 billion in on-chain value, up about 52% from the previous year. This growth makes it the third-fastest growing region in the world, just behind Asia-Pacific and Latin America, according to Chainalysis.
Crypto investment products saw $952 million in outflows, marking the first red week in four, as investor sentiment took a hit due to delays to a key US crypto regulatory bill.
Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $952 million in outflows, led by $555 million for Ether (ETH) funds and $460 million for Bitcoin (BTC) funds.
The large-scale outflows were mainly attributed to delays to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or Clarity Act, a matter that prolonged “regulatory uncertainty and concerns over whale selling,” according to a CoinShares report published Monday.
“As a result, it now appears highly unlikely that ETPs will exceed last year’s inflows, with total assets under management standing at $46.7bn compared with $48.7bn in 2024,” CoinShares said.
The lion’s share, or $990 million of the outflows, came from the US, marginally offset by $46 million in inflows from Canadian investors and $15.6 million from Germany.
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Clarity Act delays were the main catalyst for crypto fund outflows: Analyst
On Thursday, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said that the Senate markup for the long-awaited Clarity Act will occur in January 2026, as opposed to previous expectations that the bill would get to President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of 2025.
”We are closer than ever to passing the landmark crypto market structure legislation that President Trump has called for. We look forward to finishing the job in January,” Sacks wrote in a Thursday X post.
CoinShares’ head of research, James Butterfill, attributed the erosion in investor sentiment to the delays related to the bill.
“Ethereum saw the largest outflows, totaling $555m, this is understandable given it has the most to gain or lose from the Clarity Act,” wrote Butterfill.
The Clarity Act seeks to define crypto securities and commodities, providing much-awaited clarity on the jurisdictions of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission relating to digital assets.
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Despite the delays, the crypto industry’s best-performing traders by returns, who are tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen’s blockchain intelligence platform, continued betting on Ether’s short-term price increase.
Smart money traders were net long on Ether with a cumulative $476 million worth of leveraged long positions, while being net short on Bitcoin for $109 million, according to Nansen.
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Binance reportedly continued to allow suspicious accounts to move funds in crypto even after the exchange pledged to tighten controls as part of its $4.3 billion US criminal settlement in 2023.
According to internal data reviewed by the Financial Times, a network of 13 user accounts processed about $1.7 billion in transactions from 2021, including roughly $144 million after the November 2023 plea agreement.
The files reportedly include Know-Your-Customer (KYC) documents, IP and device logs, and transaction histories for users in countries including Venezuela, Brazil, Syria, Niger and China.
Regulatory and AML specialists cited by the Financial Times said that the findings raise fresh questions about how effectively Binance has implemented the governance and surveillance upgrades promised US authorities after the settlement.
Binance did not provide a comment to Cointelegraph by press time.
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Suspicious account behaviors
In one case, a Binance account linked to a 25-year-old Venezuelan woman received more than $177 million over two years and changed its linked bank details 647 times in 14 months.
Former prosecutors told the Financial Times that such activity would normally be treated as highly suspicious and potentially consistent with an unregistered money-transmitting business.
Another account, held by a junior bank employee living in a poor district of Caracas, saw about $93 million flow in and out between 2022 and May 2025. Internal logs showed the account was accessed from Caracas one afternoon and from Osaka, Japan, less than 10 hours later, a sequence experts told the FT was physically impossible and the type of anomaly that should automatically trigger review at a regulated institution.
Nick Heather, head of trading at ONE.io, a financial services company providing digital asset trading services, told Cointelegraph that such cases underline the importance of adaptive governance frameworks in digital asset markets.
“When accounts displaying repeated red flags remain active, that points to an escalation and oversight challenge rather than one of market structure. Robust governance, sanctions screening, and post-trade surveillance are of critical importance, and institutional and retail traders operating in regulated markets are already accustomed to these requirements,” Heather said.
All 13 accounts shared markers of suspicious behavior and collectively received about $29 million in stablecoin USDt (USDT) from wallets later frozen by Israel under anti-terrorism laws.
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Plea deal promises and Trump pardon backdrop
Binance in its 2023 plea deal promised to implement real-time monitoring, enhanced due diligence and regular customer reviews to detect suspicious activities.
At the time, US authorities said Binance had failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions involving activities including ransomware, child sexual abuse, narcotics trafficking and transfers linked to groups including al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The Financial Times report comes after US President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October.
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