The United States Senate has moved a step closer to forcing President Donald Trump to obtain congressional authorization to continue military operations against Iran. On Tuesday, lawmakers approved a procedural war-powers measure by a 50-47 vote, with four Republicans joining Democrats in support. The resolution reflects a broader argument in Washington that Congress, rather than the president alone, should decide whether the United States goes to war, consistent with the Constitution’s allocation of war-making powers.
The measure would require Trump to withdraw US forces from Iran unless he secures explicit approval from Congress. That prospect has gained urgency as the conflict involving the United States and Israel has stretched on for nearly three months. The fighting has intensified pressure on global markets, particularly through higher energy prices after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route for oil and gas.
Even with Senate approval at the procedural stage, the resolution faces a difficult path. It still needs to pass the full Senate and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Trump could also veto the measure, and overriding that veto would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers, a threshold that would be difficult to reach.
Supporters of the resolution have framed the conflict as both legally and economically damaging. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the bill’s sponsor, said Congress has the authority to halt what he described as an unwise war and argued that the Senate should force the White House to stop the campaign. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy also backed the effort, saying the administration had not kept Congress sufficiently informed about the operation.
The developments may carry implications beyond Washington. Analysts say prolonged conflict in the Middle East has helped keep pressure on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, by sustaining inflation concerns and limiting appetite for speculative investments. A reduction in geopolitical risk could ease oil prices and improve sentiment across financial markets.
Some market researchers view the Senate vote as a modestly positive signal for crypto, particularly if it contributes to lower energy costs and a broader easing in risk aversion. Others argue the effect may be limited unless macroeconomic conditions improve more decisively. So far, digital assets have remained subdued, with Bitcoin trading near $76,500 and showing little movement over the past day.Bankr, an AI-driven crypto trading assistant, has suspended transaction activity after detecting unauthorized access to at least 14 wallets. Users have reported losses of as much as $150,000 in crypto from individual wallets.
The incident surfaced after Bankr said it was investigating reports of compromised wallets and had disabled swaps, transfers and token deployments as a precaution. The platform, which lets users issue natural-language instructions for trading and token launches, said it identified an attacker with access to multiple wallets and moved to lock down activity while the investigation continues. Bankr also said it would reimburse lost funds.
Bankr’s system automatically creates a crypto wallet for every X account that interacts with its bot, a feature that has raised security concerns before. Earlier this year, attackers reportedly abused that setup by manipulating an AI prompt into requesting a token launch, then draining funds linked to the resulting token.
The breach comes amid a broader rise in crypto-related attacks. More than $168 million in digital assets were stolen in the first quarter of the year, while April saw two of the largest incidents so far, including major exploits involving Drift Protocol and Kelp. Verus Protocol’s Ethereum bridge was also compromised earlier this week.
Bankr advised users not to sign any transactions until further notice and warned that in at least one case a seed phrase may already be in the hands of an attacker. For affected wallets, the company recommended abandoning the compromised address, creating a new wallet on a clean device, generating a fresh seed phrase and transferring any remaining assets if possible. If assets cannot be moved, it advised revoking approvals to limit further losses.
Some users said the drained funds were worth up to $150,000 per wallet. Tech entrepreneur Austen Allred said one Bankr wallet tied to his AI project was affected, with Ether stolen but the project’s memecoin holdings left untouched. He said there was no indication that anyone other than him had accessed the account, suggesting the attacker may have obtained the keys through another route.
