A pair of SEC filings on Friday from VanEck and Grayscale signaled that the long-running race to launch the first U.S. spot BNB ETF may be entering its final stretch, while Canary Capital advances its staking Tron ETF proposal.

VanEck filed Amendment No. 5 to its Form S-1 for the VanEck BNB ETF, which is set to list on Nasdaq under the ticker VBNB. The asset manager has been refiling the document at a steady cadence since the original May 2025 submission, which has since been amended five times.

Grayscale, the second issuer to enter the BNB ETF race, filed Amendment No. 2 to its own registration statement on the same day. If approved, the Grayscale BNB ETF would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker GBNB. The firm filed its initial S-1 in January, followed by a first amendment in April.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart said on X that the parallel activity suggested both issuers are responding to SEC feedback and could be aiming for a near-term launch. Seyffart speculated that BNB could be the next crypto asset to clear the SEC’s review process for a spot ETF in the U.S.

Both filings continue to exclude staking at launch, a feature VanEck stripped from its proposal last November amid lingering U.S. regulatory uncertainty around treating staking yield as a security, though the proposals contain conditional staking language. The two trusts would each hold BNB directly and list under Nasdaq Rule 5711(d) for Commodity-Based Trust Shares. VanEck would price against the MarketVector BNB Index.

BNB is trading at about $657.23 as of publication time, down 2.4% in the past 24 hours, per The Block’s BNB Price page. The token is currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Canary Capital eyes staked TRX ETF

The dual filings come as Canary Capital pushes its own altcoin product forward.

The Nashville-based asset manager filed Amendment No. 1 to its Canary Staked TRX ETF S-1 on Friday. Where the BNB filers have deferred staking, Canary’s amendment formalized the feature as a “secondary investment objective” of the trust, with the sponsor administering a staking program that earns additional TRX through participation in Tron’s proof-of-stake validation process.

The amendment also filled in service provider details that had been blank in the original April 2025 prospectus. U.S. Bancorp Fund Services would serve as transfer agent and administrator, U.S. Bank as cash custodian, and BitGo as the TRX custodian. CSC Delaware Trust Company remains the Trustee, and Canary Capital Group LLC remains the Sponsor. The exchange, ticker, and management fee remain undisclosed.

Canary first filed an S-1 last April for the Canary Staked TRX ETF. Tron’s native TRX is trading at about $0.35, up 0.61% on the day, per The Block’s Tron Price page.

The crypto ETF queue beyond BNB and TRX continues to expand. 21Shares’ Hyperliquid ETF launched earlier this week, initially beating rivals from Bitwise and Grayscale to market, though Bitwise’s BHYP began trading on Friday.

Ref: https://animalverse.social/community/?activity_search=%23BNB

#BNB #ETF #Crypto #VanEck #Grayscale #Binance #Altcoins #SEC #Blockchain #Investing

Crypto and decentralized finance security researchers are warning that artificial intelligence is tipping the scales in favor of hackers over defenders after a particularly rough stretch of DeFi exploits this year.

“In April, just last month, there were only three days without hacks,” CertiK co-founder and CEO Ronghui Gu said during an interview with The Block’s Gareth Jenkinson at the Consensus Miami conference. “More than $690 million got hacked last month in DeFi protocols.”

If the February 2025 Bybit exploit is excluded, Gu said April marked the highest monthly financial loss from DeFi hacks since March 2022.

Gu attributed much of the recent surge to AI tools that are making it easier for attackers to discover vulnerabilities and replicate attacks across protocols. He called this “an unfair game” because attackers can pour computing resources into probing a single protocol for weaknesses while security firms are forced to spread resources across dozens of clients.

Still, he argued that no system can ever be universally bug-free, pointing to what he called the “halting problem,” a computer science limitation on how programs will behave in every scenario.

“Even if you run an AI model for 30 hours and it doesn’t find a vulnerability, it can’t prove that your code is bug-free,” Gu said. “The only known way is through formal verification.”

DeFi attack spree

The April incidents Gu alluded to include attacks on Drift Protocol and Kelp DAO that together accounted for nearly $600 million in losses. They also gave security experts a closer look at how attackers are shifting their strategies.

Gu said that because smart contract auditing standards have improved significantly over the years, hackers are now going after security and supply-chain vulnerabilities instead of code flaws.

“Smart contracts become safer, so hackers look for supply chain, operational security, and so on,” Gu said. “The industry and most projects right now don’t pay enough attention to this.”

Drift Protocol, which suffered an exploit estimated at around $280 million in April, later linked the breach to an admin takeover tied to suspected North Korean attackers.

Kelp DAO’s $292 million exploit similarly stemmed from infrastructure and governance failures. Gu pointed to reporting that attackers compromised a LayerZero validator setup before routing stolen assets through Aave. That attack triggered a controversial freeze of roughly $72 million in assets by Arbitrum that then became tied up in legal disputes after plaintiffs from separate North Korean terrorism judgments sought to claim the funds as restitution.

Gu said these episodes illustrate just how complex incident responses have become in crypto as protocols, blockchain, and exchanges have to race against bad actors to coordinate freezes and recoveries.

“The industry needs to work together,” Gu said. “How to react as fast as possible to reduce the loss. How the community can work together to freeze tokens.”

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#DeFi #AI #Crypto #Hack #Cybersecurity #Blockchain #Web3 #SmartContract #CertiK #Security

The Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick for Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, ushering in a crypto-friendly leader to the central bank.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 54-45 for Warsh’s nomination, who will serve a term of four years. Current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends on Friday, but he reportedly has said he will remain on the Fed’s board until 2028.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 51-45 to confirm Warsh as a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors for a 14-year term.

Warsh previously served on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and also worked as a banker at Morgan Stanley. Warsh had spoken a few times about crypto, calling bitcoin an “important asset that can help inform policymakers.”

Financial disclosures released during the nomination process revealed that Warsh holds investments tied to several crypto companies and projects, including decentralized derivatives exchange dYdX, decentralized exchange protocol Lighter, venture capital firm Polychain Capital, NFT company Dapper Labs, as well as direct exposure to native tokens for Solana and Optimism, among other holdings.

During an initial Senate Banking Committee hearing last month, Warsh faced extensive questioning about interest rates, an issue that became increasingly tense between Trump and Powell. Trump openly spoke out against Powell and tried to fire him and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook last year.

The Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation against Powell, alleging false statements regarding a renovation of the central bank’s headquarters. Last month, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the DOJ was dropping the investigation and was instead referring the matter to the central bank’s inspector general.

http://www.paykalken.com

#Fed #KevinWarsh #Bitcoin #Crypto #FederalReserve #Trump #BTC #Markets #Finance #Economy

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly surged to reclaim $82,000 on Sunday following a weekend rally, while Sui saw a notable price increase driven by institutional developments.

According to The Block’s crypto price page, bitcoin rose 1.4% to $81,700 as of 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, ET. Earlier in the day, the cryptocurrency rose above $82,200, the highest level since May 6.

“Bitcoin hits $82,000 as institutional inflows accelerate, macro conditions improve, and persistent spot ETF demand continues to tighten supply,” said Zeus Research Analyst Dominick John. “Meanwhile, progress on the Clarity Act is boosting long-term sentiment.”

Last week, spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds reported $622.7 million in weekly net inflows, continuing their streak to six consecutive weeks of total inflows, according to SoSoValue data. During the six weeks, the ETFs have attracted a net inflow of over $3.4 billion.

Moreover, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee announced earlier that it will hold a markup hearing for the Clarity Act on May 14, advancing the much-anticipated bill that has been stuck in a legislative bottleneck for months.

Easing geopolitical tensions

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have also eased, though uncertainty surrounding the U.S.-Iran conflict persists.

“The current macro/geopolitical setup for crypto is cautiously supportive overall — easing Middle East tensions have helped reduce immediate risk-off spikes in oil and inflation fears, while broader liquidity and equity resilience provide a decent backdrop, though Fed policy uncertainty and sticky inflation remain watchpoints,” Andri Fauzan Adziima, Research Lead at Bitrue Research Institute, told The Block.

The U.S. and Iran have been discussing a potential extension to the ongoing ceasefire and possible end of war, though negotiations have so far remained deadlocked. On Sunday, President Donald Trump rejected the latest proposal from Iran, calling it “totally unacceptable.”

However, analysts said the current market momentum remains strong enough to drive the bitcoin price higher.

“The momentum does appear strong enough to challenge a sustained hold above the $80,000-$82,000 zone in the near term, backed by institutional flows and technical breaks, but it will need continued buying to clear resistance cleanly — pullbacks to $78,000-$80,000 support remain a healthy risk,” Adziima said.

SUI breakout

Meanwhile, Sui (SUI) emerged as the clear outperformer among altcoins today, surging 25% in the past 24 hours to $1.34, according to The Block’s price data.

The cryptocurrency’s sharp rally was driven by multiple events surrounding the Layer 1 blockchain, according to analysts.

Nasdaq-listed SUI Group Holdings (SUIG) recently announced that it is staking “substantially all of” the company’s 108.7 million SUI holdings. This removed a notable chunk of supply from the market, analysts noted.

Earlier in the week, Nigeria-based fintech firm Paga also announced a partnership with Sui blockchain to launch tokenized assets for cross-border payments. Bitrue’s Adziima added that CME Group’s recent launch of Sui crypto futures attracted regulated interest from institutions.

Additionally, Sui-based DeepBook launched its Predict feature on May 5, enabling onchain prediction markets, while Mysten Labs Co-founder and CPO Adeniyi Abiodun announced that the blockchain will launch confidential transactions later this year.

“With confidential transactions and more ecosystem milestones ahead, Sui is quickly emerging as one of the strongest Layer-1 growth stories this cycle,” Zeus Analyst John said.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #BTC #SUI #Crypto #Bullish #ETF #Altcoins #Trading #Blockchain #Markets

Coinbase Australia has launched support for self-directed retirement investing, offering trustees another avenue to diversify portfolios.

In a Monday blog post, Coinbase APAC Managing Director John O’Loghlen and executive Pete Patanapanlert said the company’s offering for self-managed super funds (SMSFs) includes downloadable data aligned with local accounting standards and a streamlined entity verification process tailored to domestic fund structures.

“With growing regulatory clarity in Australia and institutional adoption of digital assets, we see SMSFs as a core area of potential growth in Australia,” said O’Loghlen. “By combining security, simplicity, and global best practices, we’re helping Australians include crypto in their retirement strategy with total confidence.”

SMSFs are private retirement funds regulated by the Australian Taxation Office that give individuals direct control over their superannuation investments. Such funds are allowed to invest in a wide range of assets, including shares, property, and cryptocurrencies.

According to official data, the country had at least 664,000 SMSFs at the end of 2025, collectively holding an estimated AU$1.06 trillion ($758.2 billion) in assets.

Coinbase’s (COIN) push into SMSFs came after it obtained an Australian Financial Services License last month. The crypto exchange said at the time that it plans to offer crypto and equity perpetuals to Australian investors, followed by futures and options.

OKX, another global crypto exchange, has also expanded its presence in Australia and launched similar support for SMSFs last year. According to its FAQ page, eligible users can open dedicated crypto trading accounts for SMSFs and download transaction data for auditing purposes.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has taken a more proactive step in expanding crypto’s role in retirement systems. Last August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order permitting 401(k) plans to include crypto, and Indiana recently passed legislation allowing crypto allocations within certain state retirement plans.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Coinbase #Crypto #Retirement #Investing #SMSF #Finance #Australia #Web3 #Adoption #Wealth

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has completed its acquisition of Bitnomial, enabling it to offer crypto derivatives in the U.S.

With the deal closed, Payward now holds a full suite of U.S. derivatives licenses, including a Futures Commission Merchant, a Designated Contract Market, and a Derivatives Clearing Organization, according to a Friday company statement.

“This is the foundation that enables Payward to bring CFTC-regulated spot margin, perpetuals and options to eligible U.S. clients on Kraken and NinjaTrader,” the company said.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said that the company will start with rolling out spot margin services on Kraken, with perpetuals and options to follow. “That stack is what makes the next set of products possible,” Sethi added.

Bitnomial is a Chicago-based crypto-native exchange that holds three licenses issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to run a full-stack domestic digital asset derivatives business. The platform has often been among the first in the country to list new assets, such as Aptos futures.

As part of the acquisition, Payward plans to expand Bitnomial’s team as it builds out its U.S. derivatives business, according to the press release. Bitnomial will operate within Payward while retaining its existing licenses, regulatory framework and third-party businesses.

The company did not disclose the final terms of the deal. When it first announced the acquisition in April, Payward said it planned to acquire Bitnomial for up to $550 million in cash and stock, in a transaction that would value Payward’s equity at $20 billion.

Derivatives push

Payward said the acquisition also creates a new channel for its partners — including banks, brokerages and payment providers — to offer U.S. derivatives to their end clients.

Outside the U.S., Payward said it operates regulated derivatives businesses in the UK after acquiring a crypto futures platform in 2019. It also launched regulated EU derivatives offerings last year.

The Bitnomial acquisition follows Payward’s disclosure earlier this month of a $200 million investment from Deutsche Borse Group, which runs the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and provides clearing infrastructure across Europe.

Payward has been gearing up for a potential public listing, and confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Kraken #Crypto #Derivatives #Trading #US #CFTC #Exchange #Finance #Web3 #Markets

Bitcoin’s recent price gains appear to be a “speculative rally” rather than fundamental buying support, increasing the risk of a correction, according to onchain analytics firm CryptoQuant.

Bitcoin rose about 20% in April, from around $66,000 to as high as $79,000. However, this rally was driven mainly by growth in perpetual futures demand, while spot demand remained negative throughout the period, CryptoQuant said.

“Perpetual futures demand was the sole driver of bitcoin’s April price rally, while spot apparent demand contracted throughout, a configuration historically associated with unsustained price gains during bear markets,” CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, wrote in a report.

This divergence, with rising futures demand alongside contracting spot demand, is one of the clearest onchain signals that the rally is speculative rather than structural, Moreno said, noting that it suggests the price rise is driven by leverage rather than fresh bitcoin accumulation.

“Historically, such configurations lack the structural foundation required to sustain price gains and typically resolve via correction once futures positioning unwinds,” Moreno said.

Mirroring the pattern of the 2022 bear market?

CryptoQuant said the current demand pattern driven by perpetual futures is similar to what was seen at the start of the 2022 bear market, noting that while this does not guarantee the same outcome this time, the current structure carries “meaningful downside risk.”

The divergence suggests that the rally is “not sustainable” and that sustained price rallies during a bull market coincide with demand growth. “Without a reversal in apparent demand from negative to positive, rallies back toward the $79,000 local peak will lack the onchain support needed for a sustained breakout,” the firm said.

The CryptoQuant Bull Score Index also declined from 50 to 40 in April, returning to bearish territory below the neutral threshold, the firm said, noting that this confirms onchain fundamentals deteriorated after the recent speculative futures-driven price rally.

“The Bull Score of returning back to 40 indicates conditions are ‘getting bearish’ and places the market in the same range that historically preceded continued price weakness,” the firm concluded. The CryptoQuant Bull Score Index aggregates multiple onchain and market indicators into a 0–100 scale. A score above 50 indicates bullish conditions and below 50 indicates bearish conditions.

Bitcoin is currently trading at around $78,500, nearly flat over the past 24 hours

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #BTC #Crypto #Market #Trading #Futures #Leverage #Correction #Onchain #Risk

A global task force led by the FBI has arrested 276 suspects and disrupted nine scam centers used for crypto investment schemes, officials announced Wednesday.

The FBI, working with police in Dubai, Thailand, and China, targeted international fraud rings that operated so-called “pig butchering” schemes, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dubai police arrested 275 individuals, with three charged in the Southern District of California on counts of wire fraud and money laundering. Thai authorities also arrested one suspect.

The investigation began last year after FBI agents in San Diego identified multiple suspects and entities allegedly running crypto scam compounds. According to the statement, the group recruited individuals to work for three companies — Ko Thet Company, Sanduo Group, and Giant Company — which the authorities said functioned as scam centers.

The schemes followed a typical “pig butchering” model, where scammers build trust with victims over time before convincing them to invest in fraudulent crypto opportunities.

Specifically, the suspects allegedly targeted victims in the U.S. and other countries by promoting fictitious crypto investment returns. Victims’ funds were funneled through fraudulent platforms and transferred to accounts held by the scammers, who then laundered the proceeds through additional crypto wallets, according to the statement.

Rampant cross-border fraud

The authorities said investigators have identified “millions of dollars” in losses linked to these cross-border crypto investment schemes.

“Fraudsters who target Americans from overseas cannot operate with impunity, no matter where in the world they reside,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Scam center organizers and fraudsters who defraud Americans and others will face justice in American courts and in courts around the world.”

“These scammers thought they were safe half a world away,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California. “But their world has changed. Global crime now faces global justice.”

Crypto-related fraud has been on the rise, with losses hitting a record $11.3 billion last year, accounting for more than half of the $20.9 billion in total internet crime losses tracked by the FBI, according to a report released earlier this month.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#FBI #CryptoScam #Fraud #PigButchering #Cybercrime #Blockchain #Security #Global #Law #Crypto

Visa added five blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, bringing the total supported networks to nine as the company’s annualized settlement run rate surged 50% since last quarter to $7 billion, the payments giant announced on Wednesday.

The expansion introduces support for five additional blockchains, including Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo, according to a statement. These networks join Visa’s existing infrastructure for Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.

Per the statement, the broader multi-chain rollout builds on Visa’s effort to standardize settlement across fragmented blockchain networks while maintaining a single infrastructure layer for partners.

Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilots have been active across Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for several years. The company recently expanded USDC settlement to U.S. banks and now supports more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 50 countries, Visa said.

Analysts remain bullish on Visa’s strategy

Visa’s latest expansion comes as analysts at William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on the stock, citing what they described as underappreciated contributions from stablecoins, agentic commerce, and Visa’s broader value-added services portfolio.

In a note to clients, the analysts led by Andrew Jeffrey said Visa remains positioned to capture incremental volume from stablecoin-based B2B settlement, framing current activity as a small but expanding component of the company’s broader payments network.

The note also highlighted Visa’s engagement in emerging payment architectures, including agent-driven commerce and interoperability initiatives tied to digital currency frameworks in Europe.

The analysts pointed to continued development of digital euro-related infrastructure as a potential medium-term regulatory overhang, while noting Visa has pursued interoperability tools designed to connect central bank digital currency systems with existing payment rails.

Of note, Visa also said Tuesday it is partnering with “on-chain banking” firm WeFi to enable crypto payments using infrastructure that lets consumers maintain control of their crypto.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Visa #Stablecoin #Payments #Crypto #Blockchain #Web3 #Fintech #USDC #Global #Finance

Galaxy Digital posted a $216 million net loss in the first quarter of 2026, driven largely by declining crypto prices that weighed on its balance sheet.

CEO Mike Novogratz appeared unfazed, attributing the losses to an industry that is in a transition phase.

“For digital assets, this is a transition year — globally, we’re moving from a speculative asset class, the ‘crypto casino,’ some would call it, to a technology that will be embedded across industries worldwide,” he said on the company’s earnings call.

The crypto market cap slid roughly 21% last quarter, contributing to unrealized losses across Galaxy’s treasury and investments.

Despite this market-wide decline, Galaxy (GLXY) reported flat trading volumes, something Novogratz said marked “the first time we’ve really started to see a decoupling of our business from the price.”

Shares of GLXY were trading around $25.30 on Tuesday, a margional 1% gain on the day according to The Block’s crypto stock data.

Galaxy Digital (GLXY) stock price chart. Source: The Block/TradingView
Data center outlook

Novogratz harped on Galaxy’s growing data center business as being key to offsetting crypto market volatility, saying he remains “bullish on both our data centers and digital assets platforms.”

The firm recently delivered its first data hall at its Helios campus in West Texas under its lease agreement with CoreWeave, which is expected to generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue across the full buildout.

Galaxy Helios expectations. Source: Galaxy Q1 2026 earnings report
Executives see the milestone as a turning point for the business, calling it “the single most important de-risking event this business has experienced.”

Galaxy expects revenue from its data center segment, which it sees as insulated from crypto price swings, to begin ramping in the second quarter.

Rewiring capital markets

Meanwhile, Galaxy’s Digital Assets segment generated $49 million in adjusted gross profit during the bearish quarter, just barely falling short of the $51 million seen the quarter prior.

“If I could see that four quarters in a row, I’d have a big grin on my face,” Novogratz said.

Galaxy also flagged growing institutional demand for blockchain infrastructure, including custody, trading, and tokenization, noting that “the entirety of the capital markets … ultimately needs to be rewired.”

Executives said that over time, the firm’s performance should be less and less tied to crypto price swings and more dependent on usage of its platform.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#GalaxyDigital #Crypto #Bitcoin #DataCenter #AI #Blockchain #Finance #Markets #Investing #Future

Aave service providers put forth a governance proposal on Friday that would contribute 25,000 ETH worth nearly $58 million from the protocol’s DAO to DeFi United, a “coordinated relief effort” to restore backing for rsETH following last week’s Kelp DAO exploit.

The proposed contribution would go toward closing the remaining shortfall from the incident where an attacker minted unbacked rsETH through a compromised LayerZero bridge and used it as collateral on Aave to borrow real assets, leaving the protocol with significant bad debt.

Aave’s proposed contribution joins a stack of donations from ecosystem protocols and individual backers.

On Thursday, Lido DAO and Ether.fi proposed contributions of up to 2,500 ETH and 5,000 ETH, respectively.

Aave’s Senior VP of Engineering, Emilio Frangella, said he would be committing 500 ETH while Stani Kulechov, the protocol’s founder and CEO, is contributing 5,000 ETH, calling Aave his “life’s work.”

Separately, on Friday, Mantle proposed a low-interest credit facility of up to 30,000 ETH to help Aave absorb any remaining bad debt.

Including contributions from Golem, BGD Labs, and individual users, the DeFi United fund stands at roughly 69,534 ETH, or nearly $161 million.

DeFi United fund totals April 24, 2026. Source: DeFi United
Across all proposed contributions and the freezing of roughly 30,700 ETH on Arbitrum following the attack, X user DCF GOD estimates the hole has been filled, assuming all proposals pass. This could potentially reduce the amount that Aave would need to borrow from Mantle.

Data from The Block shows that total value locked on DeFi protocols now sits just above $80 billion, down over 27% from the $110 billion seen at the start of the year.

Expand Chart

Analysts at JPMorgan said that these repeated exploits are weighing down institutional interest in DeFi and causing users to shift funds into stablecoins.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Aave #DeFi #ETH #KelpDAO #Crypto #Hack #DAO #Blockchain #Web3 #Recovery

Tether said it supported the freeze of more than $344 million in USDT across two Tron addresses, confirming an earlier onchain blacklist action that appears to be one of the largest in the company’s history.

The stablecoin issuer said the freeze was carried out in coordination with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and U.S. law enforcement after authorities shared information tied to unlawful conduct.

In a Thursday notice, Tether did not identify the underlying investigation or say when the wallets were first flagged.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield had earlier said two Tron wallets — TNiq9…QZH81 and TTiDL…pjSr9 — were blacklisted on April 23. At the time, neither Tether nor Tron had publicly explained the move.

The two addresses were publicly visible on Tron explorers before the freeze, with one holding about $213 million in USDT and the other roughly $131 million, bringing the total to more than $344 million.

Tether said the action followed information linked to sanctions evasion, criminal networks, or other illicit activity. “USDT is not a safe haven for illicit activity,” CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the company’s statement, adding that Tether moves quickly when it identifies credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal actors.

The freeze is significant in two ways. It is reportedly the biggest one yet by size, and it fits a pattern Tether has leaned into more aggressively since late 2023.

Enforcement trend

The company also used the announcement to highlight its broader enforcement footprint.

Tether said it now works with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 65 countries, has supported more than 2,300 cases globally, and has frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets overall, including more than $2.1 billion tied to U.S. authorities.

Back in November 2023, the company froze about $225 million in USDT linked to a Southeast Asia human-trafficking and “pig butchering” investigation. In January this year, it froze roughly $182 million across five Tron wallets in what it said was a law-enforcement-linked action.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Tether #USDT #Tron #CryptoSecurity #Blockchain #CryptoNews #Compliance #Sanctions #Web3 #DigitalAssets

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major cryptocurrencies saw moderate gains early Wednesday, supported by strong exchange-traded fund inflows and easing geopolitical tensions.

According to The Block’s crypto price page, bitcoin rose 2.2% in the past 24 hours to trade at $78,015 as of 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Ethereum rose 2.7% to $2,386 in the same period, and the broader crypto market was up 2.3%.

“Crypto’s upside reflects a confluence of easing geopolitics, strong ETF inflows, and constructive positioning,” said Zeus Research Analyst Dominick John. “As Bitcoin broke above $75K, short positions were liquidated, triggering a mechanical squeeze.”

Spot bitcoin ETFs have reported three straight weeks of net inflows, drawing in around $1.8 billion worth of capital. Plus, Michael Saylor-led Strategy has recently purchased additional bitcoin, surpassing BlackRock to become the largest institutional bitcoin holder.

Earlier today, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he will extend the ceasefire with Iran to allow time for negotiations between the two countries, easing concerns over the approaching ceasefire expiry. However, Iran reportedly responded critically, accusing the U.S. for continuing to block Iranian ports.

Meanwhile, K33 Research said that bitcoin is likely to maintain its upward momentum, with a high possibility of more short squeeze events in the near term.

“Funding rates moved further lower over the past week, while prices climbed to three-month highs. Open interest continues to trend with higher highs and higher lows,” the K33 report said. “Gradually rising leverage alongside deeply negative funding rates suggests that short positions are steadily building in perps, increasing both the likelihood and potential magnitude of a short squeeze ahead.”

Expand Chart

Improving sentiment

The easing of risks tied to the ceasefire deadline appears to have bolstered crypto market sentiment. The Fear & Greed Index reflects the improvement, rebounding to 33 — back into “fear” territory — from an “extreme fear” low of 8 at the start of April.

“A Crypto Fear & Greed Index reading of 33 reflects a fear regime, but the uptick signals improving sentiment and a gradual re-risking bias rather than outright bullish euphoria,” John said.

Still, the current rally appears limited to the short term. A shift toward a full-scale bull cycle would require a combination of sustained positive developments across the market., analysts said.

“Bitcoin needs to hold key breakout levels around $78,000 to $83,000, keep spot demand absorbing supply, and see confirmation from stronger liquidity, sustained altcoin participation, and a more stable macro backdrop,” LVRG Research Director Nick Ruck told Crypto Whale Data

https://animalverse.social/community/?activity_search=%23CryptoMarket

#Bitcoin #BTC #Ethereum #CryptoMarket #Bullish #CryptoNews #ETF #ShortSqueeze #FearAndGreed #CryptoTrading #CryptoWhaleData

Ethereum Name Service gateway eth.limo was briefly hijacked at its domain registrar on Friday evening via a social engineering attack, the project said in a post-mortem published Saturday.

At 7:07 p.m. EDT on April 17, an attacker impersonated an eth.limo team member to trick registrar EasyDNS into running an account recovery process, according to the post-mortem and a separate blog post from EasyDNS CEO Mark Jeftovic.

The attacker flipped eth.limo’s nameservers to Cloudflare at 2:23 a.m. EDT on April 18, triggering automated downtime alerts that woke the eth.limo team. The nameservers were then switched again to Namecheap at 3:57 a.m. EDT before EasyDNS restored the team’s account access at 7:49 a.m. EDT, per the timeline.

eth.limo is a free, open-source reverse proxy that lets users reach ENS-linked content hosted on IPFS, Arweave, or Swarm through a standard browser by appending “.limo” to any .eth name. Its wildcard DNS record at *.eth.limo covers roughly 2 million .eth domains registered through ENS, per figures cited by EasyDNS.

A successful hijack of that wildcard would have let the attacker redirect traffic for any .eth page accessed through the gateway, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s personal blog at vitalik.eth.limo, toward phishing infrastructure.

“On behalf of everyone here, I apologize to the eth.limo team and the wider Ethereum community,” Jeftovic wrote. “ENS has always had a special place in our heart as the first registrar to enable ENS linking to web2 domains and we’ve been involved in the space since 2017.”

DNSSEC as backstop

What prevented that outcome, both teams said, was DNSSEC. The standard cryptographically signs DNS records so that validating resolvers can reject unsigned or incorrectly signed responses.

Because the attacker never obtained eth.limo’s signing keys, the chain of trust broke when resolvers checked the attacker’s new nameserver responses against the legitimate DS record still cached from the parent zone. Resolvers returned SERVFAIL errors rather than the malicious answers, per eth.limo.

“DNSSEC likely reduced the blast radius of the hijack. We are not aware of any user impact at this time,” the eth.limo team wrote.

Buterin, who had warned users on Friday to avoid all eth.limo URLs and pointed them to IPFS directly, confirmed Saturday that the situation was “all resolved now.”

EasyDNS’ mea culpa

In his blog post, titled “We screwed up and we own it,” Jeftovic said the incident marked the first successful social engineering attack against an EasyDNS customer in the firm’s 28-year history, and that no other customers were affected.

Jeftovic said eth.limo will be migrated to Domainsure, an EasyDNS-affiliated service aimed at enterprise and fintech clients that does not offer any account recovery mechanism. He declined to detail exactly how the attacker fooled the support process, citing an ongoing internal post-mortem.

Domain hijackings on the rise

The incident is the latest in a steady run of registrar-level compromises targeting crypto front-ends whose underlying smart contracts are decentralized but whose user-facing domains are not.

In November, DNS hijacks of decentralized exchanges Aerodrome and Velodrome drained more than $700,000 from users after attackers compromised an account at registrar NameSilo and stripped DNSSEC from the affected domains.

Stablecoin-focused protocol Steakhouse Financial disclosed a similar incident on March 30 after OVH support staff were socially engineered into removing two-factor authentication from its account, briefly allowing a wallet drainer to be served from a cloned site. Yield platform Neutrl suffered a similar incident in March as well.

In an ironic turn, eth.limo had provided “whiteglove” support to the Aerodrome team during the November hijack, according to an ENS DAO Q4 2025 update, with its gateway often held up as the decentralized fallback of choice when a DeFi front-end goes dark.

Buterin has long argued that Ethereum’s dependence on centralized DNS resolution is a form of trust backsliding, and in January declared 2026 the year developers should reverse it by pushing users toward direct IPFS access paths. That is the same workaround he pointed to during Friday’s incident, telling followers they could “check my blog via IPFS directly” while the gateway was down.

eth.limo’s service is back online under its original team’s control, according to the project.

https://animalverse.social/community/?activity_search=%23Ethereum

#Ethereum #ENS #ethlimo #CryptoSecurity #DNS #CyberAttack #Web3 #Blockchain #Phishing #CryptoNews

Alcoa is close to handing over the keys at Massena East.

The top US aluminum producer is in advanced discussions to sell the former smelter site, which sits along the St. Lawrence River, to New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), CEO Bill Oplinger told Bloomberg on Friday. Oplinger said a deal “should be done in the middle part of this year,” per the report.

Alcoa has been shopping around 10 shuttered US smelter properties as data center developers and crypto miners scout for large, pre-wired industrial footprints with utility-scale grid access. The Massena East facility draws hydropower from the New York Power Authority and was idled in 2014 after high energy costs and foreign competition dragged on domestic aluminum production.

For NYDIG, buying the site would cement a presence it has been building for more than a year. In October 2024, the Stone Ridge-owned firm took a strategic stake in Coinmint, the colocation host running Bitcoin mining hardware at the 435-megawatt Massena campus under a 10-year lease with Alcoa signed in 2018. That investment preceded a wave of Coinmint hosting client exits, including CleanSpark, Gryphon, and Bit Digital, as NYDIG cleared capacity to run more of its own rigs.

Mintvest Capital, a minority shareholder in Coinmint, alleged in a lawsuit earlier this year that NYDIG had effectively acquired Coinmint for roughly $200 million. (The lawsuit was filed because Mintvest believed it had not been compensated fairly for its share in the company.)

The expected sale extends a growing pattern of retired US smelter sites getting second lives as digital infrastructure. In February, Century Aluminum sold its Hawesville, Kentucky smelter to TeraWulf for $200 million in cash plus a 6.8% minority equity stake in a redevelopment vehicle, with that site earmarked for high-performance computing and AI workloads rather than Bitcoin mining.

NYDIG’s continued push into proof-of-work hashrate cuts against the broader industry drift. Public miners including Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, TeraWulf, and IREN have increasingly redirected power capacity toward AI and high-performance computing as post-halving mining economics tighten. BlackRock’s recent $40 billion Aligned Data Centers buyout valued power sites at roughly $8 million per megawatt, about 160% above typical public miner valuations.

NYDIG, by contrast, has been one of the most active consolidators in Bitcoin mining since the 2022 bear market. The firm acquired Consensus Technology Group’s roughly 120 MW of capacity across North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Missouri in late 2024, and in March 2025 announced a definitive agreement to buy Crusoe Energy’s Bitcoin mining business, including more than 270 MW of generation assets, as Crusoe reoriented toward AI infrastructure.

NYDIG did not respond to Bloomberg’s or The Block’s requests for comment.

https://animalverse.social/community/?activity_search=%23Blockchain

#Bitcoin #BTC #Mining #NYDIG #Alcoa #CryptoNews #DataCenter #Energy #Blockchain #Infrastructure

Tron founder Justin Sun said Wednesday the blockchain he helped build is taking steps to head off future technical threats posed by quantum computing.

“When Bitcoin was still debating whether to freeze quantum-vulnerable addresses, and Ethereum was still forming research committees, Tron was already taking action,” Sun said. “Today, we officially announce: Tron launches the post-quantum upgrade plan, becoming the first mainstream public chain to deploy NIST-standard post-quantum signature schemes on its mainnet.”

Sun’s comments follow researchers at Google Quantum AI recently publishing a paper that ignited debate over whether or not it could eventually be possible to break the cryptography that underpins cryptocurrencies.

Essentially, a technological advancement of Shor’s algorithm could potentially reduce the resources needed to crack private keys, allowing quantum computers to defeat modern encryption. Google announced a 2029 target for the migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

As some chose to panic, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao argued that upgrades to quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms should be able to counter any real-world threats.

“At a high level, all crypto has to do is upgrade,” Zhao said. “So, no need to panic.”

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has cautioned that the results of the Google publication required additional scrutiny and that timelines for practical attacks are probabilistic, not certain. He estimated there is a small but meaningful chance a quantum computer could break elliptic curve keys by the early 2030s.

“Quantum security shouldn’t be a debate; it should be a feature,” Sun added on Wednesday. “We will ensure that every Tron user’s assets are not at risk due to quantum threats. The technical roadmap will be released soon.”

Over $80 billion worth of stablecoins, primarily USDT, have been issued on Tron, according to The Block Data Dashboard. The blockchain’s total value locked is $5 billion, according to DefiLlama data.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Tron #JustinSun #QuantumComputing #CryptoSecurity #Blockchain #CryptoNews #PostQuantum #Web3 #CyberSecurity #FutureTech

Justin Sun, once World Liberty Financial’s largest outside backer, is now its most prominent public critic. By midday Sunday, the project had punched back.

In a post on X published early Sunday, the Tron founder accused the Trump family-backed DeFi project of building an undisclosed “backdoor blacklisting function” into the smart contract used to deploy WLFI tokens. The function, Sun wrote, gives the company “unilateral power to freeze, restrict, and effectively confiscate the property rights of any token holder, without notice, without cause, and without recourse.”

Sun framed the design as the inverse of what investors were sold, calling it “a trap door marketed as an open door.” He positioned himself as “the first and single largest victim,” pointing to the wallet World Liberty blacklisted in September 2025 after he moved roughly $9 million of WLFI between addresses.

“Every action taken by the WLFI team to extract fees from users, to secretly implant backdoor controls over user assets, to freeze investor funds without disclosure or due process, and to treat the crypto community as a personal ATM — all of these actions are illegitimate and were never authorized by any fair, transparent, or good-faith community governance process,” Sun wrote.

The post marks a sharp escalation. In September, Sun professed innocence and asked the team to unfreeze his tokens, calling the action “unreasonable” but stopping well short of alleging fraud. Sunday’s statement instead accuses the project of secretly embedding admin controls, extracting fees from users, and running governance votes whose “outcomes were predetermined.”

Sun also drew a careful political line, opening the post by reaffirming his support for President Trump and “his crypto friendly policy,” and limiting his attack to the “bad actors at WLFI.” He invested $30 million in the project in late 2024 and was named an advisor, later building his position to roughly $75 million alongside a $100 million commitment to the TRUMP memecoin.

His frozen WLFI stash, estimated by Bubblemaps at roughly 545 million tokens, has lost more than $80 million in value since the freeze, with the bulk of the decline tracking WLFI’s broader downtrend.

World Liberty responds

Hours later on Sunday, World Liberty responded directly on X, writing: “Does anyone still believe @justinsuntron?” The post accused Sun of “playing the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct,” called it a “same playbook, different target,” and claimed the project has “the contracts,” “the evidence,” and “the truth.” It closed with “See you in court pal,” a sign that WLFI is apparently prepared to litigate against its former marquee investor.

“Whoever is hiding behind this official account, step forward and identify yourself,” Sun responded in turn. “As the largest investor in this project, I demand that those responsible come forward by name, instead of hiding in the shadows.”

The timing of Sun’s broadside is pointed. WLFI fell to a record low last week after revelations that the project’s treasury had pledged 5 billion WLFI tokens on Dolomite, a lending protocol whose co-founder Corey Caplan also serves as a WLFI advisor and CTO, to borrow roughly $75 million in USDC and USD1. More than $40 million of those proceeds moved to Coinbase Prime. The position now represents over half of Dolomite’s total supplied assets, and the protocol’s USD1 pool is running near 93% utilization.

World Liberty has dismissed the resulting criticism as “FUD,” saying it is “nowhere near liquidation” and would simply post more collateral if WLFI’s price kept falling. The project also said it would file a governance proposal this week to set a phased unlock schedule for early retail buyers, around 75% of whose tokens remain locked.

World Liberty’s WLFI token currently trades at about $0.08, trading flat over the past day, according to The Block’s World Liberty Financial Price page. The project’s market capitalization is about $2.5 billion, per the data.

Ref:
http://www.paykalken.com
http://www.animalverse.club

#JustinSun #WLFI #DeFi #CryptoDrama #SmartContract #CryptoNews #Blockchain #Web3 #CryptoSecurity #Onchain

The Royal Government of Bhutan has moved another portion of its bitcoin (BTC) reserves, transferring roughly 319.7 BTC ($22.68 million) to two addresses on Thursday, according to onchain data.

Blockchain analysis provider Onchain Lens, citing Arkham data, flagged that Bhutan transferred roughly 250 BTC to a wallet reportedly used to move funds for sale via Galaxy Digital and OKX. Another 69.7 BTC was sent to a new, unmarked address.

Arkham noted in a post on X that the Bhutanese government has moved $215.7 million worth of bitcoin out of its holding addresses so far this year, with $162.6 million transferred to unlabeled wallets.

Following the latest transfers, Bhutan currently holds 3,954 BTC, worth about $280.6 million. At its peak, the country held roughly 13,000 BTC in October 2024. Druk Holding and Investments Ltd., the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, manages the bitcoin assets for the government.

The purpose of the latest transactions remains unclear, though such activities are often tied to potential asset sales. The Block has reached out to Druk Holding for comment.

Bhutan historically built its bitcoin holdings through hydropower-backed mining operations. However, speculation has emerged that the government might have halted mining, as its last bitcoin inflow exceeding $100,000 was recorded over a year ago, according to Arkham.

Bitcoin fell 1.3% over the past 24 hours to trade at $70,859 as of 2:30 a.m. ET Thursday, according to The Block’s price page. The world’s largest cryptocurrency previously reached an all-time high near $124,900 in October 2025.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Bhutan #Bitcoin #BTC #CryptoNews #Onchain #CryptoMarket #Whales #DigitalAssets #CryptoTransfer #MarketWatch

On Monday, the crypto advocacy group sent a response to the SEC, addressing Citadel’s letter in December that argued for stricter oversight over DeFi.

In December, Citadel said that many DeFi protocols meet the definition of an exchange by using non-discretionary methods, such as algorithms, to bring together buyers and sellers.

The firm called for the SEC to take on more of a notice-and-comment rulemaking approach, rather than an exemption, which the regulator is currently considering.

However, the Blockchain Association rejected that position, arguing that DeFi protocol developers are not brokers or dealers and don’t operate an exchange and “cannot be shoehorned into the statutory categories designed for human-operated intermediaries.”

“Blockchain Association respectfully urges the Commission to proceed with the innovation exemption framework that Chairman Atkins has directed staff to develop,” the group said in the letter. “The Commission should grant exemptive relief for tokenized equity trading, precisely as it did for previous financial technology innovations.”

Tokenization push

The letter comes as SEC Chair Paul Atkins has said the agency will soon seek public comment on a range of issues tied to future rulemaking, including a proposed innovation exemption that could function as a regulatory sandbox for onchain assets. Tokenization has gained traction as firms explore moving assets like stocks onto blockchain infrastructure, enabling faster and more efficient trading.

The SEC has greenlit several entities, including Nasdaq, to move forward with tokenized securities, while also asserting that those assets remain securities and must follow securities law.

The Blockchain Association — whose more than 100 members include Coinbase, Circle and Mysten Labs — said securities laws regulate the intermediaries, but not “neutral infrastructure.”

“Validators, autonomous smart contracts, non-custodial software, and other blockchain-based tools do not become regulated middlemen just because they help power upgraded financial rails,” the group said on Monday.

The Blockchain Association also said the SEC has previously relied on exemptions and has the authority to do so.

“The Commission should understand Citadel’s procedural demand for what it is: a strategy of delay,” the group said. “Citadel’s proposal for comprehensive rulemaking would take years. During that time, the benefits of tokenization would remain unavailable to American investors and innovation in the space would relocate to more innovation-friendly jurisdictions offshore.”

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#DeFi #SEC #BlockchainAssociation #Citadel #CryptoRegulation #Tokenization #CryptoNews #Blockchain #Web3 #Finance #DigitalAssets #CryptoPolicy #Innovation #Fintech #WallStreet

HypurrFi alerted users against interacting with its website and lending platform while it investigates a potential domain hijacking.

“Do NOT USE THE HYPURR .FI domain, it is compromised,” HypurrFi founder androolloyd posted to X on Friday.

The team noted there is no current risk to user funds and that its social media channels remain in its control.

“Do not interact with the app until further notice from the team,” HypurrFi said.

HypurrFi is a DeFi lending and borrowing protocol built on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s EVM-compatible high-performance blockchain for perps trading.

The platform has about $30 million in total value locked, according to DefiLlama.

Domain hijackings are a relatively common issue in the crypto sector, and particularly pernicious because they can exploit even the most well-audited smart contracts and secure onchain protocols.

Attackers will often take over a project’s frontend website to deploy wallet drainers or inject other malicious code prompts. Last month, for instance, attackers compromised the BONKfun domain.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#HypurrFi #DeFi #CryptoSecurity #DomainHijack #Web3 #CryptoNews #CyberSecurity #Blockchain #DeFiRisk #WalletSafety

The GMCI AI Index recorded a value of 51.26 on Sunday, up 48% since the beginning of February. However, it is worth noting that the index remains 84% below its all-time high from the first quarter of 2024.

The GMAI index comprises nine tokens with extreme top-heaviness, with Bittensor (TAO), Render (RNDR), and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) making up over 71% of the index.

Despite being called a crypto AI index, it is more of a measure of the performance of three large-cap AI infrastructure tokens rather than broader AI crypto sentiment. This composition matters for interpreting the March rally, as the price of TAO nearly doubled in March, and combined with its 24.89% weight, contributed the majority of the index’s appreciation.

The rise in the price of TAO is mostly due to the market catching up to a fundamental realization of what the Bittensor network can demonstrably do.

Expand Chart

Bittensor subnet 3’s team announced the Covenant-72B model, a 72-billion-parameter language model trained permissionlessly across more than 70 globally distributed nodes. The model scored 67.1 on MMLU, a popular benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of LLMs, putting it in a competitive range with Meta’s Llama 2 70B.

This showcased the first credible proof that distributed training, which has often been dismissed as too slow and fragmented, can produce models that compete with centralized incumbents. The top subnet token, τemplar (SN3), rallied by over 400% in the last month to a ~$130 million market cap.

This development in the Bittensor ecosystem gained the attention and acknowledgement of notable public figures such as Jensen Huang and Chamath Palihapitiya, which added further narrative fuel to the ecosystem and the TAO token.

The subnet ecosystem beyond Covenant-72B is also maturing, with Targon (SN4), a decentralized GPU compute marketplace operated by Manifold Labs, securing a six-figure deal to power Dippy AI’s backend of 8.6 million users.

At the time of writing, there have been over 10.7 million TAO tokens issued, with over 68% staked. The price of TAO stands at approximately $317, with a market cap of just over $3 billion.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Bittensor #TAO #AITokens #CryptoAI #AI #Blockchain #CryptoNews #DePIN #Web3 #Altcoins

Paradigm is reportedly developing a prediction markets trading terminal, according to anonymous sources in a Fortune report on Wednesday.

Arjun Balaji, a partner at the venture firm, is said to be leading the terminal initiative, Fortune reported.

Moreover, the firm is reportedly considering establishing an internal market-making desk for prediction markets and prediction market indices.

The Block reached out to Paradigm for confirmation.

Paradigm has been a significant backer of Kalshi, the largest U.S. prediction market provider, since at least June, when it led Kalshi’s $185 million Series C round at a $2 billion valuation.

The venture firm also led Kalshi’s massive $1 billion Series E in December 2025 at an $11 billion valuation.

Kalshi is currently valued at approximately $22 billion, following another $1 billion raise disclosed in March.

Paradigm founder Matt Huang has previously said that prediction markets represent a trillion-dollar opportunity. Huang sits on Kalshi’s board of directors.

Trading terminals enable users to access platforms through a custom-built trading interface, potentially aggregating opportunities across competing trading platforms.

While Kalshi and Polymarket continue to dominate the nascent prediction market sector, they are facing increasing competition. Crypto natives like Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Genesis have launched offerings, while established gambling brands like DraftKings are also tapping the field.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Chairman Michael Selig has been vocal that prediction market activity is permitted under the agency’s remit. However, several states have lobbed legal challenges at firms including Kalshi and Crypto.com for allegedly violating local gambling laws.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Paradigm #PredictionMarkets #Kalshi #Polymarket #CryptoNews #Fintech #Trading #MarketMaking #CryptoMarket #Blockchain #Web3 #CryptoTrading #Startup #VentureCapital #DigitalAssets

Ripple Labs and Convera said Tuesday they have partnered to “enhance global payments through stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure.”

Convera, formerly known as Western Union Business Solutions, is a fintech that deals with over 140 currencies in approximately 200 countries and territories. The company was acquired for $910 million in 2021.

“With the growing presence and use of digital currencies such as crypto and stablecoins, Convera has maintained a thoughtful approach by listening to what our customers want while watching this space continue to mature,” Convera CEO Patrick Gauthier said in a statement. “Ripple is a clear leader in the crypto space and a natural fit for Convera.”

Gauthier previously served as head of Amazon Pay. Ripple is the primary advocate for XRP Ledger and issuer of the RLUSD stablecoin.

The two companies said they will utilize a “stablecoin sandwich” model in which payments “begin and end in fiat” but leverage stablecoins in between.

“Enterprises are increasingly looking for faster, more flexible ways to move money globally without taking on the complexity of digital assets directly,” Ripple SVP of Product Aaron Slettehaugh said.

Through acquisitions and partnerships, Ripple has been aggressively expanding its global network as stablecoins and traditional payments merge. Last week, the company joined the Singapore central bank’s BLOOM initiative to pilot programmable cross-border trade settlements using the XRP Ledger and Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Ripple #Convera #Stablecoin #CrossBorder #Payments #Fintech #CryptoNews #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #Web3 #GlobalPayments #XRP #CryptoAdoption #MoneyTransfer #FintechNews

Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst and Zisk founder Jordi Baylina on Sunday announced a new “easy” initiative: the Ethereum Economic Zone, or EEZ, at EthCC conference in Cannes. The initiative, which is being co-funded by the Ethereum Foundation, aims to create a framework for rollups that can compose synchronously with Ethereum mainnet and with each other within a single transaction.

The EEZ is designed to let smart contracts on connected rollups call contracts on mainnet or other EEZ rollups with the same guarantees as if they were deployed on Ethereum itself. The framework uses ETH as its default gas token and requires no additional bridging infrastructure.

“Ethereum doesn’t have a scaling problem. It has a fragmentation problem,” Ernst said in a statement. “Every new L2 that launches with its own liquidity pool and its own bridge is another walled garden.”

The project represents the latest and most concrete effort to address Ethereum’s well-documented L2 fragmentation problem. The proliferation of Layer 2 chains has been a persistent concern as the ecosystem scaled blockspace while splintering liquidity and user experience.

The project is launching alongside an informal collective called the EEZ Alliance. Founding members include DeFi lending protocol Aave, block builders Titan and Beaver Build, real-world asset platform Centrifuge, and tokenized equities project xStocks.

As The Block reported in 2024, analysts flagged that a new Ethereum L2 was appearing roughly every 19 days, with each one adding a new silo of fragmented liquidity. The Block’s own 2026 L2 outlook concluded that most new L2 launches became ghost towns shortly after incentive cycles while meaningful activity concentrated around a small set of ecosystems.

The EEZ also enters a crowded field of interoperability efforts. The Ethereum Foundation’s own Account Abstraction team unveiled an “Interop Layer” in November 2025 designed to make the L2 ecosystem feel like a single unified chain. Meanwhile, Optimism’s Superchain and Polygon’s AggLayer have pursued their own cross-chain coordination strategies, and the =nil; Foundation has been developing a zkSharding-based approach to the same underlying problem.

What distinguishes the EEZ, its proponents argue, is real-time ZK proving. Baylina, who created the Circom programming language and co-founded Polygon zkEVM before spinning off the team into independent venture Zisk last June, said his proving stack is the enabling technology. “We spent two years building a ZKVM that can prove Ethereum blocks in real time,” he said. “Synchronous composability between rollups isn’t theoretical anymore.”

The announcement did not arrive out of nowhere. GnosisDAO governance records from February 2026 show the community had already been debating a six-month R&D collaboration with Baylina to explore converting Gnosis Chain into a natively integrated Ethereum L2 with synchronous composability. The EEZ appears to be the product of that exploration.

The Ethereum Foundation’s decision to co-fund the initiative is notable given its recent shift to a leaner spending posture. The Foundation paused its open grants program in mid-2025 as part of an effort to cut its burn rate to roughly 5% per year. Co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak have said their priorities include scaling Ethereum mainnet and improving L2 interoperability, making the EEZ a natural fit for the Foundation’s narrower focus.

The EEZ will be structured as a Swiss non-profit with all software released as free and open-source, per the release. The project aims for governance minimization and eventual non-upgradability. Technical specifications and performance benchmarks are expected in the coming weeks.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Ethereum #ETH #Gnosis #EEZ #Layer2 #Rollups #ZK #Blockchain #CryptoNews #Web3 #DeFi #CryptoInfrastructure #OnChain #Scaling #Interop

Bitcoin has held up better than gold and silver during the Iran war, with signs of inflows and rising activity, while precious metals have seen sharp outflows and position unwinds, JPMorgan analysts said.

Gold has fallen about 15% month-to-date, as rising interest rates and a stronger U.S. dollar weighed on “previously crowded positions,” JPMorgan analysts led by managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a Wednesday report. Both gold and silver had rallied to record highs earlier this year — near $5,500 for gold and $120 for silver — leaving them vulnerable to profit-taking and position liquidation once market conditions shifted, the analysts noted.

Gold exchange-traded funds saw nearly $11 billion in outflows over the first three weeks of March, while silver ETF flows have reversed all of the inflows built up since last summer, the analysts said. In contrast, bitcoin (BTC) has seen net inflows over the same period, pointing to relative strength compared with traditional safe-haven assets.

Bitcoin momentum signals recovering

Crypto activity surged in Iran following the outbreak of the war, as citizens moved funds from local exchanges to self-custody wallets and international platforms, the analysts said, citing Chainalysis data. Bitcoin’s borderless nature, ability to be held in self-custody, and 24/7 trading availability made it a preferred vehicle for capital movement during periods of economic instability, currency pressure, and capital controls, the analysts noted.

Institutional positioning also shows a shift. JPMorgan’s proxy for institutional futures positioning — based on changes in CME open interest — showed a build-up in gold and silver positions through late last year and early 2026, followed by a sharp decline since January, indicating profit-taking by institutional investors. Bitcoin futures positioning, by contrast, has remained relatively stable in recent weeks.

Momentum-driven traders appear to have amplified the move. Positioning signals tied to momentum strategies, such as commodity trading advisors, show gold and silver swinging from “overbought levels to below neutral,” suggesting forced liquidations played a role in the recent price declines, according to the analysts. Bitcoin momentum signals, meanwhile, have been recovering from “oversold levels towards neutral,” indicating improving sentiment.

Liquidity conditions have also shifted across assets. Gold has historically shown stronger market liquidity than both silver and bitcoin, as measured by the Hui-Heubel ratio, a metric that tracks market breadth and liquidity, the analysts said. However, that dynamic has recently reversed. Gold’s liquidity conditions have deteriorated, with bitcoin now showing better market breadth, while silver has seen an even sharper decline in liquidity, which may have worsened its price moves, according to the analysts.

“In all, silver ETF flows have unwound all of the previous inflows seen since last summer. The deterioration in liquidity conditions in gold has seen its market breadth decline below that of bitcoin currently,” the analysts concluded. “Crypto activity reportedly surged in Iran, highlighting the important role cryptocurrencies play as a safe haven for the citizens of countries that suffer from economic and currency instability as well as geopolitical stress.”

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #BTC #SafeHaven #CryptoNews #Gold #Silver #CryptoMarket #Geopolitics #DigitalAssets #MarketTrends

South Korean crypto exchanges saw roughly $60 billion in cryptocurrency outflow to overseas platforms and private wallets in the second half of 2025, according to the latest findings from the country’s top financial regulator.

In a report released Wednesday, the Financial Services Commission said total outflows reached 90 trillion won ($60 billion) during the period, up 14% from 78.9 trillion won ($52.5 billion) in the first half of the year.

“It is presumed that virtual assets are being transferred abroad for arbitrage and other similar activities,” the report said.

The report also showed that while user numbers and deposits on local exchanges increased during the period, overall profitability declined.

As of the end of last year, the number of crypto exchange accounts reached 11.1 million, up 3% from June 2025. Deposits rose more sharply, climbing 31% to 8.1 trillion won ($5.4 billion).

This growth did not translate into higher profits. The country’s 18 operating exchanges reported 380.7 billion won ($253.4 million) in operating profit in the second half, down 38% from 617.8 billion won ($411.2 million) in the first half.

The FSC estimated South Korea’s total crypto market capitalization at 87.2 trillion won (about $58 billion) at the end of 2025, down 8% from the first half of the year. Average daily transaction volume during the period was 5.4 trillion won ($3.6 billion), a 15% decline from the first half.

The regulator noted that declines in major crypto prices toward the end of last year likely contributed to the drop in volumes and exchange profitability.

The broader crypto market remains well below its October 2025 peak, when bitcoin hit an all-time high of around $126,080. Amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve outlook, bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have stayed relatively stable in recent days.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#SouthKorea #CryptoOutflows #CryptoMarket #CryptoNews #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #CryptoExchange #CryptoAsia #CryptoData #CryptoTrends #Bitcoin #BTC #Altcoins #CryptoFlow #OnChain #CryptoTrading #MarketAnalysis #CryptoRegulation #GlobalCrypto #CryptoEconomy

Major crypto asset manager Grayscale has filed to list the Grayscale HYPE ETF, an exchange-traded fund that would track the native Hyperliquid token.

Hyperliquid is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain focused on decentralized perpetual futures trading.

The network is currently the largest venue for onchain perps, according to The Block’s data.

According to the S-1 filing on Friday, the Grayscale HYPE ETF would trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GHYP if approved. Like Grayscale’s other funds, it would tap Coinbase Custody as a custodian and use CoinDesk’s Benchmark pricing data.

RELATED INDICES

The filing also notes that HYPE staking is currently prohibited, though there is a “Staking Condition” that could be met in the future.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, now led by Paul Atkins, an appointee of President Donald Trump, has moved to approve a range of crypto-related funds, though the introduction of staking rewards has been slower.

Grayscale, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, is not the first to file a HYPE fund. Major crypto ETF players 21Shares, Bitwise and 21Shares filed late last year.

A relative newcomer in the crypto space, Hyperliquid has quickly gained prominence. While the project is barred to U.S. users, the recently formed Hyperliquid Policy Center is working on lobbying efforts in Washington DC.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Grayscale #HYPE #Hyperliquid #CryptoETF #CryptoNews #DeFi #Perps #DEX #Blockchain #CryptoMarket #DigitalAssets #CryptoInvesting #Web3 #Altcoins #CryptoFunds

Iran has begun extracting payments of up to $2mn per tanker for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as the informal permits-for-passage system allowing only tankers from “friendly countries” through develops quickly, according to The Financial Times citing shipping data.

“Iran is charging $2mn per tanker to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The Financial Times reported the payment. The IRGC confirms it by radio. And the world’s most important chokepoint has been converted from a military blockade into a toll road,” according to the report.

American military planners were not expecting Iran to be able to keep the Strait open for the transits of selected oil tankers when preparing for this war. However, Tehran has introduced an informal system which allows tankers from certain countries to pass through the states. According to estimates around 90 tankers have traversed the chokepoint since the war broke out on February 28, Iran has continued to export its oil unabated and is earning a reported $150mn a day from allowing tankers from China, India, Bangladesh and others to sail through the narrow waterway.

Since the business began about a week ago, a bureaucracy is now being built up that effectively transfers what once was an open international waterway governed by the maritime right of innocent passage into a toll road that is entirely controlled by Tehran.

US President Donald Trump demanded the passage be opened by the US Navy, but the Navy has declared the passage “too dangerous to traverse.” Trump called on his Nato allies to send warships, but they have all refused. During an EU summit on March 19, the European powers said that they would not send any naval support until after the war was over.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has also suggested creating a “safe corridor” in order to allow ships into the Persian Gulf to supply essentials, similar to the Black Sea Grain Initiative introduced in the Ukraine conflict in 2022 to allow Ukrainian grain exports to reach international markets. The gulf states are almost entirely dependent on the import of food and other basics, as there is little domestic agricultural production in the region. The 100-odd tankers trapped in the Gulf also need to be resupplied.

The permits-for-passage system described relies on direct coordination with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. There is no central control as the Strait is currently controlled by one of the IRGC’s 31 autonomous cells acting under standing orders issued ahead of the war as part of its Decentralized Mosaic Defence doctrine (DMD).

“A tanker operator contacts intermediaries. The intermediaries negotiate with the IRGC. A fee is agreed, reportedly up to $2mn per voyage. Payment is made in cash, cryptocurrency, or barter. The vessel receives clearance. The IRGC hails the tanker on VHF radio, verifies its Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder data, and grants passage,” the report said.

“Roughly 89 to 90 vessels, including 16 oil tankers, have successfully made the journey between March 1 and March 15 under some form of IRGC clearance,” according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Not all ships were required to pay. Iranian-linked ship passes for free and other ships given permission via government-to-government negotiations, such as ships belonging to India, have also been given permits gratis, according to reports. On March 18 one ship that tried to traverse the strait without permission and with its AIS off was struck by an Iranian missile and turned back, according to reports.

The additional costs are compounding already elevated shipping expenses. “The $2mn sits on top of war-risk insurance that has surged to 3 to 5% of hull value where coverage exists at all,” according to Shanaka Anslem Perera, an independent analyst. Pre-war, the cost of insurance was a fraction of a percentage point of a tanker’s hull value. For a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), the workhorse of the oil business, valued at $120mn, that implies premiums of $3.6mn to $6mn for a single voyage, alongside charter rates that have risen to as much as $800,000 per day.

“The total cost of moving a single cargo of crude through Hormuz now exceeds what it cost to move an entire fleet through the strait six months ago,” according to Perera.

These costs are feeding directly into global prices. “The $2mn is not a bribe. It is a tax levied by the IRGC on global commerce, collected at the narrowest point of the world’s most concentrated energy transit route, and passed through to 4bn people downstream,” Perera said. “The IRGC did not just close the strait. It reopened it selectively, on its terms, at its price.”

Ref: https://www.intellinews.com/iran-s-permits-for-passage-through-hormuz-system-is-developing-fast-432822/

#Iran #Hormuz #OilMarket #EnergyCrisis #OilSupply #GlobalEconomy #Geopolitics #MiddleEast #OilTrade #Shipping #WarRisk #EnergyNews #GlobalTrade #OilPrices #Maritime

A court in Buenos Aires has ordered a nationwide block of Polymarket, citing concerns that the crypto-based prediction platform operates as an unlicensed online betting system.

The ruling, issued by Judge Susana Parada, directs internet service providers to restrict access to the site across Argentina and requires Google and Apple to remove or limit access to its mobile applications, according to a report from local outlet Buenos Aires Times.

Prosecutors said the platform allowed users to place wagers without identity or age verification, enabling accounts to be created within minutes. Authorities argued that such gaps left minors able to participate without controls.

The investigation was triggered by a complaint from Buenos Aires’ gambling regulator, which said the platform was operating without authorization in the jurisdiction. Officials also said checks with national lottery bodies found no evidence that Polymarket held licenses in Argentina.

Scrutiny intensified after trading activity linked to Argentina’s inflation data drew attention, according to local reports. Trading volume on a Polymarket contract tied to February inflation rose to roughly $91,000 shortly before official figures were released, which some observers said raised questions about a potential information leak.

The Block reached out to Polymarket for comment.

Global crackdown on prediction venues

Regulatory pressure on prediction markets has mounted globally in recent months. Several European countries, including Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, have already restricted access to Polymarket, while other jurisdictions, such as Colombia, have taken similar action.

The platform itself maintains geo-restrictions in multiple regions to comply with local laws, blocking users in parts of Europe, Asia, and sanctioned jurisdictions.

Regulators have increasingly focused on whether prediction markets resemble financial instruments or unlicensed gambling venues. Concerns have ranged from consumer protection to market integrity, particularly where contracts touch on sensitive real-world events.

Recent controversies have also kept the sector in focus. Polymarket has faced backlash over certain high-profile markets and reports of alleged insider-linked betting activity.

The platform is also navigating legal challenges in the United States as authorities work toward clearer rules. In Washington, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has signaled plans to establish a federal regulatory framework for prediction markets while some states crack down on sector leaders like Polymarket and Kalshi.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Argentina #Polymarket #PredictionMarket #CryptoRegulation #CryptoLaw #OnlineBetting #CryptoNews #Blockchain #CryptoSecurity #GlobalRegulation #Fintech #DigitalAssets #CryptoTrading #MarketIntegrity #TechPolicy

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on Friday denied Custodia Bank’s petition for rehearing en banc in its lawsuit against the Federal Reserve, effectively closing the crypto bank’s last serious appellate avenue to force the central bank to grant it a master account.

The full court voted 7-3 against rehearing, leaving intact an October 2025 panel ruling that held the Fed has discretion to approve or deny master account applications from eligible institutions. That 2-1 panel decision had itself upheld a March 2024 district court ruling in Wyoming reaching the same conclusion.

Custodia, a Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution founded by Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long, first applied for a master account in October 2020. The Kansas City Fed confirmed the application contained “no showstoppers” in early 2021 but ultimately denied it in January 2023, citing concerns about the bank’s crypto-focused business model.

Custodia sued in June 2022, initially over the 19-month processing delay and later arguing that the Monetary Control Act entitled any eligible depository institution to a master account as a matter of law. Courts at every level have disagreed.

Judge Timothy Tymkovich authored a dissent from Friday’s en banc denial, warning that the majority’s interpretation hands regional Federal Reserve Banks unchecked power over which state-chartered institutions can access the payments system. He wrote that the ruling raises constitutional concerns about granting such authority to officials who are not appointed under Article II of the Constitution.

“Without a master account, a bank cannot operate in the modern banking system,” Tymkovich wrote in the dissent. He added that denying one is functionally equivalent to vetoing a state-issued bank charter, undermining the country’s dual banking system. Judge Allison Eid joined the dissent.

Custodia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A person familiar with the bank’s efforts told CoinDesk on Friday that Custodia is still pursuing access. The bank’s remaining legal option would be a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, a long shot in any circumstance, though the constitutional questions raised by Tymkovich and the involvement of former solicitors general Paul Clement and Don Verrilli as amici at earlier stages of the case could lend the petition some credibility.

Fed granted Kraken limited master account

The timing is striking. Custodia’s courtroom defeat lands just days after the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City granted Kraken Financial a limited-purpose master account, making it the first crypto-native firm to receive one. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said he expects the Kraken approval to be the first of many.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller proposed the concept of a “skinny master account” last year, designed to offer eligible institutions access to Fed payment rails while restricting features like discount window lending and interest on reserves. The Fed Board is now actively developing that framework, according to TD Cowen. The Fed also withdrew restrictive 2023 guidance that had underpinned its earlier posture toward crypto firms, including Custodia.

Whether Custodia elects to petition the Supreme Court, attempts to reapply for a master account through the new administrative channels, or both, remains to be seen. Custodia has continued to build in the meantime, launching the Avit stablecoin in partnership with Vantage Bank last year

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Custodia #FederalReserve #Fed #CryptoBank #CryptoRegulation #CryptoLaw #MasterAccount #CryptoPolicy #BankingAccess #DigitalAssets #CryptoNews #USCrypto #Stablecoin #Fintech #CryptoBanking

TON blockchain’s ecosystem conference set for May in Dubai has been cancelled amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East, the organization said Thursday.

“Unfortunately, due to the Middle East conflict and safety conditions in the UAE area, we have made the decision to cancel Gateway Dubai, originally scheduled for May 1 and 2, 2026,” TON posted on X. “This was a difficult call, but the safety and well-being of our community always comes first.”

Shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes in Iran, the country attacked the United Arab Emirates with missiles and drones. Dubai, a popular city among crypto entrepreneurs, is the largest city in the UAE.

TON Gateway planned to bring together builders and developers working in the TON ecosystem. Event planners said Thursday they are “examining different formats to produce a Gateway event before the end of this year.”

“The UAE has borne the brunt of more than two-thirds of Iran’s strikes; the state targeted in part, say analysts, for its deep military and intelligence partnerships with western powers, and Dubai’s reputation as a favored centre for global finance and western holidays,” The Guardian reported Wednesday.

Dubai, along with many other cities in the region, has experienced severe travel disruptions due to the ongoing conflict.

The major crypto event Token2049, also set in Dubai and scheduled for next month, will go ahead as planned, according to Fortune.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#TON #TONBlockchain #CryptoEvent #Dubai #CryptoNews #Blockchain #Web3 #CryptoCommunity #CryptoConference #MiddleEast #TechEvents #CryptoIndustry #CryptoBuilders #TONGateway #CryptoUpdate

The United States’ two most prominent financial market regulators have agreed to collaborate in a manner that fosters innovation, including crypto regulation and new digital asset products.

Both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said Wednesday that they had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, that is meant “to guide coordination and collaboration between the two agencies to support lawful innovation, uphold market integrity, and ensure investor and customer protection.”

“For decades, regulatory turf wars, duplicative agency registrations, and different sets of regulations between the SEC and CFTC have stifled innovation and pushed market participants to other jurisdictions,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement.

The SEC and CFTC said the agreement represents a commitment to foster innovation and treat market participants respectfully. Among their planned initiatives, the two agencies said they would work on federal policy that provides a “fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto assets and other emerging technologies.”

In the MOU, the two agencies also committed to “closely coordinating and cooperating to remove obstacles where appropriate, to the lawful introduction of … crypto asset products.”

Although MOUs are generally non-binding, the fact that the two agencies are officially voicing their intention to work closely together on policy measures that include crypto is likely a welcome sign for digital asset advocates. Although President Donald Trump’s administration has been more pro-crypto than the previous administration, there is still a lot of work to be done.

“America’s financial markets are the envy of the world because they scale and adapt to meet investor demands. Like our markets, the CFTC’s and SEC’s regulatory frameworks must also evolve and modernize to accommodate the needs of our market participants,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said. “This Memorandum of Understanding solidifies the agencies’ commitment to harmonize regulatory frameworks to provide comprehensive and seamless financial market oversight.”

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#SEC #CFTC #CryptoPolicy #CryptoRegulation #CryptoLaw #CryptoNews #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #Web3 #CryptoMarket #Fintech #CryptoInnovation #CryptoFramework #CryptoProducts #CryptoUSA #CryptoRules #CryptoIndustry #MarketRegulation #Finance #CryptoFuture

A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday dismissed a sweeping Anti-Terrorism Act lawsuit against Binance, founder Changpeng Zhao, and Binance.US operator BAM Trading, finding that 535 plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege that the exchange’s conduct aided specific terrorist attacks, according to a 62-page opinion from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas ruled that plaintiffs adequately alleged Binance was “generally aware” of its role in terrorist financing, citing the exchange’s well-documented history of flouting AML/CFT rules, serving sanctioned Iranian users, and knowingly hosting wallets tied to designated terrorist organizations. But the court held that awareness alone was insufficient under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which requires plaintiffs to show “knowing and substantial assistance” with a nexus to the attacks themselves.

The plaintiffs, victims and relatives of victims of attacks perpetrated between 2016 and 2024 by groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRGC, al-Qaeda, PIJ, and ISIS, had argued that Binance’s deliberate violations of sanctions law and anti-money laundering requirements effectively funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorist organizations. The amended complaint detailed billions in Iranian transactions processed through Binance, the exchange’s hosting of sanctioned nested exchange Garantex, and internal communications showing executives were aware that terrorists transacted on the platform.

The court acknowledged this misconduct at length but concluded the allegations did not connect Binance’s actions to the specific attacks. With respect to Hamas and PIJ, which the court called “a closer call,” the opinion noted approximately $56 million in Hamas-linked and $59 million in PIJ-linked transfers through Binance, and the exchange’s own admission that it knew Hamas was transacting on the platform as early as 2019. But the court found the plaintiffs’ theory still depended on fungibility, meaning the logic that because Binance facilitated illicit transactions broadly, some of those funds must have supported the attacks.

Critically, the ruling applied the Second Circuit’s 2025 decision in Ashley v. Deutsche Bank, which held that a bank’s general facilitation of money laundering for clients with terrorist ties was too attenuated to support JASTA liability. Judge Vargas explicitly noted that a separate Binance terrorism case, Raanan v. Binance, had survived a motion to dismiss in February 2025 on similar Hamas and PIJ allegations, but noted that Raanan was decided before the Second Circuit’s Ashley ruling, which she concluded requires dismissal on the facts here.

Vargas also dismissed three conspiracy counts and a primary liability claim brought by the family of an infant who died after a Wizard Spider ransomware attack disrupted hospital systems. The court declined to reach personal jurisdiction questions regarding Zhao and BAM, having dismissed all claims on the merits.

The judge did not mince words about the 891-page complaint, calling its length “wholly unnecessary” and noting that a 30-page section on the evolution of Iranian politics from the 1970s onward “added little to the Plaintiffs’ claims.” But she granted the plaintiffs 60 days to file an amended complaint, signaling that the deficiencies could potentially be cured with more specific allegations about wallet ownership, transaction timing, and the relationship between particular account holders and the attacks.

Binance General Counsel Eleanor Hughes called the ruling “a complete vindication” and said the company is “confident that no amended pleading will be able to cure the fundamental deficiencies the Court identified.” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to federal AML and sanctions charges in November 2023 and was later pardoned by President Trump, had accused the plaintiffs of attempting to “piggyback” on Binance’s $4.3 billion criminal settlement.

The dismissal arrives during an intense period of scrutiny over Binance’s compliance record. The exchange has spent the past two weeks battling allegations from Sen. Richard Blumenthal and media reports that internal investigators discovered $1.7 billion in flows to Iran-linked entities and were subsequently fired. The Raanan case, brought by October 7 survivors, and a third lawsuit filed in North Dakota in November 2025, remain active.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Binance #CZ #CryptoNews #CryptoLaw #CryptoRegulation #CryptoExchange #Blockchain #CryptoMarket #Fintech #DigitalAssets #CryptoCompliance #AML #CryptoCase #CryptoIndustry #Web3 #CryptoPolicy #CryptoUpdate #CryptoJustice #CryptoRisk #CryptoWorld

PEI Licensing, the owner of the Penguin apparel brand, alleges that the Pudgy Penguins NFT brand has committed trademark infringement, according to a filing with the federal court.

The company said that although it sent Pudgy Penguins a cease-and-desist in October 2023, the NFT brand continued with its strategy of producing retail goods, which has had the effect of diluting the value of PEI’s Penguin brand, founded in 1955.

Pudgy Penguins has, in recent years, built a retail business that includes plush toys and apparel. In PEI’s complaint — filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida — it provides examples of where it alleges Pudgy Penguins has infringed on its trademark.

“Defendant knew, or should have known, that Defendant’s unauthorized use of Defendant’s Marks would cause an injury via deception of representation, omission, or practice that is likely to mislead consumers, as it gives rise to the incorrect belief that Defendant has some connection with PEI,” Penguin apparel’s lawyers said.

Pudgy Penguins didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Image: Example of alleged trademark infringement. Source: PEI’s complaint
Pudgy pivot

As the NFT market crumbled and most popular brands struggled to forge alternative revenue streams built on physical products, Pudgy Penguins began selling plush toys in 2023. The brand offered its products in major retail chains like Walmart and Target.

Less than a year later, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz announced that his company had sold over one million toys.

Pudgy Penguins has also produced and sold apparel like hats, hoodies, and sweatshirts, some of which were shown in PEI’s complaint. PEI is seeking monetary damages such as “all profits received by Defendant from sales and revenues of any kind … and all damages sustained by PEI as a result of Defendant’s actions,” the filing said

Ref: http://www.animalverse.club

#PudgyPenguins #PenguinBrand #NFTNews #NFT #CryptoNews #Trademark #IPLaw #Web3 #NFTCommunity #NFTProject #CryptoUpdate #NFTMarket #BrandDispute #Web3News #NFTBrand #CryptoLaw #NFTDrama #BlockchainNews #IPDispute #NFTWorld

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong didn’t mince words when he said the SocialFi experiments tested out in the Base App last year “didn’t quite work” in a recent episode of David Senra’s eponymous podcast.

“In the current incarnation, it wasn’t quite there in my view,” Armstrong said. “We tried it as an experiment. It didn’t quite work. The App has since pivoted to be more focused on trading and being a self-custodial version of the Coinbase app.”

In July 2025, Coinbase relaunched its noncustodial Coinbase Wallet as the Base App, pitched as an all-in-one “everything app” combining features of onchain social media, messaging, and gaming with its existing trading features.

Jesse Pollak, the head of Base at Coinbase, also heavily promoted the app’s Creator Coin features, which tokenized social media posts and creator accounts. Users could double-tap posts to buy associated tokens, with value flowing to creators.

“People were thinking of it as a way to reward and thank the creator,” Armstrong said.

However, Coinbase has since scaled back the SocialFi elements of the Base App to focus on trading. In January, Pollak posted to social media that “the app felt overly focused on social” and would “lean into a finance-first UX.”

The following month, Base also removed its Farcaster-powered social feed, shortly after that decentralized social media platform’s founding team sold the protocol.

While some notable creator coins briefly captured an audience, practically none of the tokens launched have maintained their value. For instance, Nick Shirley, a video journalist who went viral last year for reporting on alleged daycare fraud in Minnesota, launched what is often considered to be the most high-profile creator coin via Zora. $thenickshirley rallied to a $15 million market cap after being promoted by Armstrong, only for the token to crater.

Armstrong noted that “many posts” had “thousands of dollars worth of value at the terminal end” of Base’s SocialFi experiment.

“I think something is going to work in SocialFi,” Armstrong said, noting that the “tokenomics have not been quite figured out yet” and that the token’s “need to have some durability.”

Success and struggle

Still, at its height, Base grew to become the most popular chain for token launches in part due to the near-zero-cost token deployment enabled by Zora’s content coin mechanism. Asset manager Franklin Templeton also previously praised Base’s SocialFi appeal, largely due to the excitement around the launch of FriendTech v2 in 2024, which has since petered out.

Base’s creator coins are far from the only SocialFi experiment to struggle. In January, Aave Labs spun out Lens Protocol. Zora, meanwhile, has launched a new “attention markets” feature allowing users to bet on social media trends on Solana.

The Base protocol itself is undergoing a significant shift by replacing much of the OP Stack it was built on with bespoke parts. The Base team is also reportedly considering launching a native token.

Although Armstrong noted Base App’s SocialFi features were “polarizing,” he appeared grateful for the experience. The Coinbase co-founder and CEO noted that the company runs internal funding initiatives inspired by venture capital, where employees can pitch ideas to receive corporate funds, sometimes leading to outsized returns.

USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, was one such idea Armstrong initially “voted no” on, he said.

Ref : http://www.paykalken.com

#Coinbase #BrianArmstrong #BaseApp #BaseChain #SocialFi #CryptoNews #Web3 #Onchain #CreatorCoin #Tokenomics #CryptoMarket #USDC #Zora #Farcaster #FriendTech #DeFi #Blockchain #Altcoins #CryptoUpdate #FinanceFirst

Riot Platforms said it registered a record year for revenue in 2025 as the Bitcoin miner leans heavily into becoming a major provider of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure.

The company said it posted $647.4 million in revenue last year, up from $376.7 million in 2024. Riot also produced 5,686 bitcoin in 2025, up from 4,828 the previous year, as BTC’s price soared during much of the fiscal period. The company now holds over 18,000 bitcoin.

“2025 marked a watershed year for Riot, defined by a strategic evolution in our business that has transformed our future trajectory,” Riot CEO Jason Les said in a statement. “By unlocking our large, nearly two-gigawatt power portfolio for high-demand data center infrastructure, we are driving significant shareholder value.”

In January, Riot inked a data center deal with semiconductor firm AMD. Shortly after, activist investor Starboard Value said Riot Platforms’ new focus on AI and HPC could be worth as much as $21 billion while encouraging the bitcoin miner to pivot as rivals also aim to reposition themselves as AI data center operators.

“We have successfully commenced operations on the first phase of the lease with AMD, generating revenue for Riot, as of January 2026,” Les also said. “This partnership validates our unique ability to rapidly deliver power capacity at scale for the world’s leading technology companies.”

Riot said the average cost of mining bitcoin increased last year to $49,645, as compared with $32,216 per bitcoin in 2024. Still, with bitcoin’s price soaring to an all-time high in 2025, Riot’s BTC mining revenue climbed to $576.3 million last year, jumping from $321.0 million during the previous period.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

RiotPlatforms #BitcoinMining #BTC #CryptoNews #AIInfrastructure #HPC #DataCenter #AMD #WallStreet #CryptoStocks #BitcoinBull #AIShift #TechInvesting #Blockchain #DigitalAssets

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working to regain momentum on crypto oversight after what Chairman Paul Atkins described as a “big missed opportunity” under the prior administration.

On Friday, Atkins criticized the agency under former Chair Gary Gensler and said the SEC hadn’t tried to adapt to innovations during a fireside chat at the University of Texas.

“This has been a big missed opportunity for the United States that we’re quickly … trying to make up time for,” Atkins said.

Under Gensler, the SEC took a more cautious — and enforcement-heavy — stance toward crypto, asserting that many digital assets were securities and bringing numerous cases against firms, largely over registration violations.

Since the start of the Trump administration, however, the SEC has adopted a more industry-friendly posture. The agency established a crypto task force, dropped numerous enforcement cases against big industry players, and embarked on “Project Crypto” to modernize its rules.

While Atkins noted that individual cryptocurrencies may rise and fall, he expressed particular enthusiasm for the broader potential of distributed ledger technology, especially in payment clearing and settlement systems.

Earlier this week, the SEC granted WisdomTree exemptive relief for the 24/7 trading and instant settlement for its WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund — marking a first in the U.S.

“We’ve approved tokenized money market mutual funds, and to come will be tokenized bank deposits,” Atkins said.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#SEC #Crypto #CryptoRegulation #PaulAtkins #GaryGensler #TrumpAdministration #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #DLT #Tokenization #MoneyMarketFund #WisdomTree #24x7Trading #InstantSettlement #ProjectCrypto

PayPal’s consumer scale, including peer-to-peer app Venmo, would strengthen Stripe’s expansion beyond its core merchant business, Mizuho analysts said Tuesday after reports that a deal could be in the works.

Mizuho analysts Dan Dolev and Alexander Jenkins issued the note after Bloomberg reported Stripe expressed interest in acquiring all or part of PayPal. The privately held payments firm recently marked its valuation at $159 billion, compared with PayPal’s roughly $43 billion market capitalization.

“Stripe’s recent valuation of $159 billion dwarfs PayPal’s $43 billion market cap, making a transaction feasible from a size standpoint,” the analysts wrote.

On potential upside, Mizuho said Stripe, long viewed primarily as a business-to-business payments provider, would gain a scaled consumer brand through PayPal and Venmo, which the analysts described as the “ultimate” peer-to-peer franchise.

Additionally, the analysts suggested PayPal’s Braintree merchant infrastructure could help Stripe compete with its payments processor rival Adyen. “Braintree would add about ~$700 billion of total payment volume (TPV), which is material,” they said, adding that Stripe’s annual TPV is roughly $1.4 trillion.

Both PayPal and Stripe are already active in the stablecoin sector. Combined, Stripe and PayPal could become a stronger player in the space, the analysts said.

Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge last year, while PayPal launched its own dollar-pegged token in 2023 through a partnership with Paxos.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Venmo #PayPal #Stripe #Mizuho #Paxos #Stablecoins #Financial #Fintech

Solana Company (NASDAQ: HSDT) is kicking off an infrastructure buildout in the Asia-Pacific region, a first step in directly supporting Solana staking and validator operations.

This so-called Pacific Backbone initiative will involve developing a high-speed, low-latency network initially starting with connections between Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong, according to an announcement on Monday.

“The reality is, we see an opportunity to improve Solana staking and validation for users across Asia,” said Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital Management, a major HSDT backer. “We believe this investment roadmap will be critical for anyone holding and building on Solana and we expect it to diversify our revenue.”

Pantera, alongside Summer Capital, co-led the more than $500 million funding round that launched the Solana Company in September amid the so-called digital asset treasury investment trend that has since reversed. The firm was initially pitched as a SOL token holding vehicle that would also invest in other Solana operations.

Project Backbone will address gaps in Solana’s network coverage in the APAC region, helping to reduce staking and validation costs while boosting performance to meet the needs of market makers, high-frequency traders, and other Solana partners. Using “state-of-the-art hardware” may help capture “more value within the staking business,” according to the statement.

“In order to target mass adoption, Solana Company intends to build out DeFi, liquid staking, AMMs, RPC services, and execution services for its traditional finance partners in the APAC region,” the firm noted. “Solana Company plans to begin building out the network infrastructure immediately, expanding to optimizing performance and adopting new technologies by the second half of 2026, and anticipates launching liquidity related new products and services within the next 12 to 18 months.”

RELATED INDICES

Earlier this month, the firm partnered with Anchorage Digital and Kamino on a joint venture to enable institutions to borrow against natively staked SOL while keeping assets in custody.

The Solana Company has held over 2.2 million SOL since it began acquiring tokens in October, making it the second-largest publicly traded holder, according to The Block’s data. The total staked amount of Solana by public companies has largely held consistent despite a market retrenching that has seen Solana DAT valuations crater to all-time lows in recent days.

HSDT shares were down 8.3% Monday morning. Other crypto-related stocks are in the red on Monday, with bellwether crypto stock Coinbase down over 3% and major Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine down over 4%, according to The Block’s equities tracker. The biggest loser is small-cap Bitcoin treasury Prenetics, which is down over 7%.

HSDT is down over 90% since the firm first pivoted towards its Solana-related strategy in September. The firm, formerly Helius Medical Technologies, reportedly maintains its neurotech and medical device operations.

Ref: http://www.paykalken.com

#Pantera #Solana #Company #APAC #staking #infrastructure #SOL #Crypto #Blockchain