Best of coindesk.com on Kiwi News
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116 stories from coindesk.com have been shared on Kiwi News since 20 April 2023, with 235 upvotes and 76 comments in total. The latest was shared on 10 August 2026. The 50 most upvoted are listed below.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- Alex Pertsev sentenced to 5 years of prison
Dutch judge Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer, was sentenced to 64 months in prison for money laundering by a court in s-Hertogenbosch on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The court found that between July 9, 2019 and Aug. 10, 2022, Pertsev made "a habit of committing money laundering" and should have at least suspected the criminal origins of illicit transactions on the Tornado Cash platform. Pertsev can appeal, and it does not appear that his time in custody since his August 2022 arrest will count against the sentence. The verdict could affect future trials of other Tornado Cash developers, including Roman Storm, whose U.S. trial is set for September.
- U.S. House Approves Crypto FIT21 Bill With Wave of Democratic Support
The U.S. House approved the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), a crypto market-structure bill, by a 279-136 vote on Wednesday, with Democrats crossing party lines to support it. The bill would set consumer protections, make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a leading regulator of digital asset spot markets, and more clearly define when a crypto token is a security or a commodity. Overall, 71 Democrats and 208 Republicans voted in favor, while President Joe Biden opposed the bill in a policy statement and SEC Chair Gary Gensler argued it was not needed. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it has no counterpart and its prospects are unclear.
- Google Play Updates Policy to Allow NFTs in Apps & Games
Google Play has updated its policy to let developers include digital assets such as NFTs in apps and games, provided companies disclose blockchain-based elements in the Play Console. In a blog post shared with CoinDesk, Google Play Group Product Manager Joseph Mills wrote that the change will let partners reimagine "traditional games with user-owned content" and boost "user loyalty through unique NFT rewards." Reddit, a partner on the policy, had its senior engineering manager Matt Williamson describe the guidelines as "aimed at creating a level playing field that promotes user trust." Developers may not promote earnings from playing or trading, and a Google Play spokesperson said the first tests may appear in late summer, with full rollout later this year.
- MakerDAO Is Now 'Sky'
MakerDAO has rebranded as Sky as part of its multi-year "Endgame" overhaul, with co-founder Rune Christensen saying the goal is to grow DeFi to a scale as large as Tether or bigger. The protocol, which has $7 billion in assets, will introduce a new stablecoin, USDS, and governance token, SKY, on Sept. 18. Existing DAI and MKR will remain in circulation, with DAI exchangeable 1:1 for USDS and each MKR swappable for 28,000 SKY. Christensen said reward accrual for USDS and SKY holders will be restricted in certain jurisdictions, including the U.S. and U.K.
- Ethereum Foundation Under Investigation by 'State Authority'
The Ethereum Foundation, the Swiss non-profit at the center of the Ethereum ecosystem, is facing questions from an unnamed "state authority," according to a February 26, 2024 GitHub commit to its website repository. That commit said the foundation had received a voluntary enquiry that included a confidentiality requirement, and it removed a footer stating the foundation had never been contacted by any agency in a way requiring nondisclosure, along with the site's warrant canary. An attorney familiar with the situation said a Swiss regulator may have served a document request and may be working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The article also reports, citing Fortune, that the SEC is seeking to classify ETH as a security.
- Wall Street warms up to a new paradigm of liquidity: RWAs
Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), such as buildings, gold, treasury bills and royalty streams, is gaining traction on Wall Street, according to this report. Lucas Vogelsang, CEO of Centrifuge, says the approach creates liquidity for things that aren't liquid today, and Centrifuge has tokenized over $400 million of RWAs. Allan Pedersen of Monetalis says the group has tokenized $1.2 billion in treasury bills used by MakerDAO as collateral. The article cites a Boston Consulting Group projection that the tokenized RWA market could reach $16 trillion by 2030.
- Telegram Is Crypto’s Adoption Machine
David Zimmerman, a research analyst at K33 Research, argues that Telegram is onboarding the masses to crypto and ushering in a new era for public blockchains. He contends that Telegram and a handful of independent developers have made more progress in bringing people to crypto than the $100 billion in venture capital invested in the space since 2014. Zimmerman points to Telegram's messaging app, which has 800 million monthly active users, its integration of The Open Network (TON), and its native USDT on TON, launched in April. He also cites Telegram's Mini Apps as a way for businesses to distribute crypto-friendly products, though he says more consumer-facing apps are still needed.
- TON Resumes Block Production After Nearly Six Hour Outage
The TON blockchain resumed block production in the early afternoon Hong Kong time on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, after a nearly six-hour outage. The article links the halt to a surge in network traffic, which it suggests may have been driven by an airdrop of the DOGS memecoin, though it notes that observers said TON's transactions per second came in well below expectations. The team said several validators were unable to clean the database of old transactions, which led to losing consensus. Bybit temporarily suspended withdrawals and deposits citing network instability.
- Judge Fines Ripple $125M
A federal judge ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million civil penalty and imposed an injunction against future securities law violations, after finding last year that its institutional sales of XRP violated federal securities laws. District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York imposed the $125.035 million fine after finding 1,278 institutional sale transactions violated the law, well below the $1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $900 million in civil penalties the SEC sought. The judge also ruled that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP to retail clients through exchanges did not violate securities laws, a portion the SEC unsuccessfully tried to appeal. The SEC is likely to appeal the July 2023 ruling now that a sentence has been imposed.
- Key Opinion Leaders Are Bad for the Crypto Industry
The author of this CoinDesk opinion column argues that crypto projects should stop paying Key Opinion Leaders, influencers paid to promote projects, because their paid, often undisclosed endorsements mislead audiences and harm the industry. The column cites Polkadot's treasury report, which showed more than $87 million spent in the first half of the year, including $37 million on "Outreach" efforts such as advertising, sponsorships, events and influencers. It also points to YouTuber BitBoy (Ben Armstrong), who was caught taking payouts to pump tokens without disclosure, and to "Professor Crypto," whose KOL Award announcement was exposed as astroturfing. The author says the new project Last Network will build a coalition of industry and community figures instead.
- Crypto wallet firm Ledger faces new data breach through Global-e partner
Crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger is dealing with a data exposure incident at its third-party payment processor, Global-e, which exposed names and contact information of Ledger customers. Global-e's email notification to customers, first shared by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT on X, did not disclose how many clients were affected or when the exploit occurred. Ledger told CoinDesk that the breach occurred at Global-e, not on Ledger's platform, hardware or software, and that payment information was not involved. Ledger also said an unauthorized party accessed a Global-e cloud system holding order data from multiple other brands.
- Ether ETFs Filing Process Sees Abrupt Progress
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked exchanges seeking to list spot ether exchange-traded funds to update their 19b-4 filings on an accelerated basis ahead of a key deadline that week, according to three people familiar with the situation who spoke to CoinDesk. The move suggests progress, though approval is not guaranteed, because the S-1 applications must also be approved and the SEC could take an indefinite time on those. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart raised their odds of approval for a spot ether ETF to 75% from 25%, later clarifying that the odds related to the 19b-4 approvals, and the SEC is expected to decide on a VanEck spot ether ETF on May 23.
- Decentralization is why we fight for crypto
Miles Jennings of a16z argues that digital asset laws should enshrine decentralization standards to guard against volatility, scams and casino culture. He says decentralization, meaning the distribution of control and decision-making without a central authority, should be the basis of a new "fit for purpose" regulatory framework for blockchains. Such a framework would reduce regulatory burdens and enable broader market access for projects that spread ownership and control and provide tailored disclosures. Jennings says it would build on the SEC's 2019 Framework for Digital Assets while avoiding that framework's paradox, under which projects were incentivized to obfuscate development efforts.
- Stablecoin Giant Circle Files to go Public on NYSE
- Ethereum's 'Identity Crisis' Is What Real Decentralization Looks Like
Nick Johnson, co-founder and lead developer of Ethereum Name Service, argues that the Ethereum community should ignore price moves, governance disputes and competing narratives and focus on building credibly neutral infrastructure. He contends that Ethereum's governance debates and high gas fees look like crisis to outsiders but reflect deliberate decentralized innovation. The column cites a Bernstein report saying investor interest is starting to reflect in ETH ETF inflows, and notes Ethereum ETFs' longest inflow streak of 2025, with BlackRock's ETHA adding $492 million in a single week.
- The Memecoin Grift and How It Threatens Ethereum Culture
Paul Dylan-Ennis argues that memecoin promotion, which he says is a cynical pumping of valueless tokens, threatens Ethereum's reputation and must be addressed for cryptocurrency to be widely adopted. He describes influencer grifters who post Ethereum addresses and ask people to send ether with no promise of return. Because Ethereum is permissionless and has no one who can sanction such activity, he proposes an annual Citizen's Assembly where stakeholders from validators to Average Joes could discuss issues and encourage a shift from degen to regen culture.
- Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Vitalik Buterin Back $45M Investment in Polymarket
Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market platform, raised $45 million in a series B round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, according to founder Shayne Coplan, who spoke to CoinDesk. Other participants include Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, 1confirmation, ParaFi and Dragonfly Capital, and the company has raised well over $70 million in total, including a previously undisclosed $25 million series A led by General Catalyst. The article reports that traders have wagered $202 million on Polymarket this year, per the company, and that the platform is barred from doing business with U.S. residents under a 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
- Ethereum's ENS Identity System Set to Launch Own Layer-2 Blockchain
ENS Labs, the company behind the Ethereum Name Service, plans to build its own layer-2 blockchain called Namechain, which will use zero-knowledge rollups and will likely go live around the end of 2025. Chief operating officer Katherine Wu told CoinDesk that the network will leverage an existing zkEVM-compatible chain, with the team in the final stages of choosing which one to use. The plan is part of ENSv2, a re-architecture of the ENS protocol that ENS Labs proposed in May, and Wu said Namechain will be backward compatible with ENSv1 from launch, with users seeing no front-end difference apart from lower gas fees.
- Paxos Cuts 20% of Staff: Bloomberg
Paxos has laid off 65 people, or 20% of its staff, as it shifts focus toward tokenization and stablecoins, according to a Bloomberg report that cited an earlier article by The Block. In an all-hands email obtained by Bloomberg, CEO Charles Cascarilla said the layoffs "allows us to best execute on the massive opportunity ahead in tokenization and stablecoin" and that the company is in a "very strong financial position to succeed." A company spokesperson said Paxos has more than $500 million of corporate assets on its balance sheet, separate from customer assets. Paxos intends to gradually discontinue its settlement services in commodities and securities, Bloomberg reported.
- Robinhood to Buy Crypto Exchange Bitstamp in Effort to Expand Outside the U.S.
Robinhood has agreed to buy U.K.-based crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million in cash, as it seeks to expand its crypto presence globally and attract institutional clients. The company announced the deal on Tuesday, and it is expected to close in the first half of 2025, according to the press release. Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said the acquisition helps the company expand its footprint outside the U.S. Bitstamp, founded in 2011, offers spot trading of over 85 cryptocurrencies, and its CEO JB Graftieaux said its leadership team will remain in place after the sale.
- The Memecoin Grift and How It Threatens Ethereum Culture
- Crypto Enters Shock Internet Era Mode With The Unthinkable Happening
Pump.fun, a Solana-based memecoin platform, has seen users stream shock videos, including self-harm, animal cruelty and explicit sexual content, to try to raise their tokens' market capitalization, and the platform has paused live streaming in response. The article says the crypto community, particularly on X, has largely criticized the shock content, and that most tokens tied to such themes struggle to reach significant market capitalization. Pump.fun founder @a1lon9 wrote that the platform actively moderates illicit content, including live streams. Hours after initial publication, Pump.fun said it was pausing live streaming indefinitely until its moderation infrastructure is ready.
- OpenSea delays launch of SEA token, citing challenging crypto market conditions
OpenSea co-founder Devin Finzer said the launch of the SEA token is being delayed from its planned March 30 kickoff, because the company wants a fully prepared rollout rather than a debut amid difficult crypto market conditions. Finzer wrote on X that "a delay is a delay" and said the foundation concluded SEA "only launches once." As part of the update, OpenSea will end its current rewards campaign after the ongoing wave, offer users of waves three through six refunds of retained platform fees, and set its own token trading fees to 0% for 60 days starting March 31. A new launch timeline will be announced later.
- Cloudflare Outage Sends Shockwaves Through Crypto, Renewing Push for DePIN
Cloudflare suffered a major outage on Tuesday that cascaded into widespread disruptions across thousands of websites and applications, renewing crypto-sector calls for decentralized infrastructure. BitMEX faced an outage and Telegram-linked blockchain Toncoin had significant downtime, while platforms such as X and ChatGPT also went down. Fadl Mantash, Chief Information Security Officer at Tribe payments, said the impact of a single upstream provider failure does not stay contained. Nökkvi Dan Ellidason, CEO of Gaimin, a DePIN project focused on distributing cloud infrastructure, argued for a truly distributed cloud model.
- 2023 Coinbase Layer 2 Base Overtakes Optimism in Daily Active Users
Base, Coinbase's layer 2 blockchain, has reached a record 136,000 daily active users, according to Dune Analytics, driven largely by activity on Friend.Tech, a social network where users buy and sell shares tied to popular Twitter figures. Per tokenterminal data, Base has overtaken Optimism in daily active users and is close to Arbitrum's total of 147,000. About $175 million in cryptocurrency has been bridged to Base since its inception, with almost 580,000 transactions recorded on Thursday. The app is in beta and requires a sign-up code, and users are sharing referral codes in hopes of an airdrop from a token that a grayed-out section suggests is coming.
- Crypto going through a massive dot-com style shakeout as over 100 projects fold
Over 100 crypto projects shut down, filed for bankruptcy or went permanently dark in 2026, according to RootData data cited in the article, and the article describes a dot-com style shakeout in which only projects with real revenue and users are surviving. Four firms, BitMEX, BitMart, Movement Labs and Storj Labs, announced closures or filings in late July alone. The article attributes much of the collapse to token-denominated treasuries that lost 70% to 90% of their value in the bear market, while the surviving protocols it names, Hyperliquid, Aave and Ether.fi, earn fees in dollars or stablecoins.
- China orders Apple to pull Dorsey's Bitchat, the app used during Iran protests
Apple removed Bitchat, a decentralized messaging app created by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, from its China App Store at the request of Beijing's internet regulator, Dorsey disclosed in an X post. The Cyberspace Administration of China said the app violated rules for online services with "public opinion or social mobilization capabilities," which require security assessments before launch. Bitchat works over Bluetooth and mesh networks without an internet connection, and it has been used during recent protests in Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia, and Iran. It remains available in other countries.
- Crypto code commits fall 75% as developers move to AI projects
Blockchain projects are losing developers as contributors shift toward artificial intelligence work, according to data from analytics platform Artemis. Weekly crypto commits to repositories fell roughly 75% from about 850,000 to 210,000 since early 2025, while active developers declined 56% to around 4,600. Over the same period, GitHub added about 36 million developers in 2025 and hosts more than 4.3 million AI-related repositories. The article suggests crypto may be consolidating rather than collapsing, as developers with more than two years of tenure now produce roughly 70% of commits.
- Trump's World Liberty Financial Gets Boost From Justin Sun's $30M WLFI Purchase
Justin Sun, founder of the TRON blockchain, bought $30 million worth of WLFI tokens from World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform backed by Donald Trump and his three sons. The purchase came after slow initial sales, as investors bought far fewer WLFI tokens than the project hoped. Before Sun's Monday purchase, the project had sold $21 million of its $300 million target. According to the project's "gold paper," a portion of sale proceeds goes to a Trump-controlled company, but only once proceeds exceed $30 million.
- Kraken gets 25m OP token grant from Optimism Foundation
Kraken's decision to build its layer-2 network Ink on Optimism's OP Stack came with an undisclosed grant of 25 million OP tokens from the Optimism Foundation, which CoinDesk reports was worth roughly $100 million when the deal was struck earlier this year and is now valued at about $42.5 million. Both Kraken and the Optimism Foundation confirmed the grant to CoinDesk, and the foundation confirmed the token number but declined further comment. Ryan Wyatt, the foundation's chief growth officer, said in posts on X that 5 million OP would fund engineering for Ink and 20 million would reward transaction milestones.
- Inside Trump Crypto Project Linked to $2M DeFi Hack and Former Pick-Up Artist
Trump's inner circle has been privately shopping a white paper for World Liberty Financial, a crypto borrowing and lending project, and CoinDesk reports that its early code appears to be lifted from Dough Finance, a DeFi app drained of $2 million in July. Four people listed as World Liberty Financial team members previously worked on Dough Finance, according to a person familiar with the matter, and the article notes that Zachary Folkman, listed as head of operations, once registered Date Hotter Girls LLC, a pick-up advice company. Folkman, Chase Herro, World Liberty Financial and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
- SEC Sues Consensys Over MetaMask Staking, Broker Allegations
The SEC sued Consensys on Friday, alleging its MetaMask wallet acted as an unregistered securities broker and that its Swaps and Staking products violated federal securities laws. The suit also targets Ethereum staking services Lido and Rocket Pool, with the SEC treating their stETH and rETH liquid staking tokens as unregistered securities. The SEC said at least 5 million of the more than 36 million transactions MetaMask facilitated over four years involved "crypto asset securities." Consensys said it "fully expected the SEC to follow through" and called the action regulatory overreach, while saying it will continue its separate Texas case.
- Congress hits Polymarket and Kalshi with a massive insider trading probe
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has opened an investigation into Polymarket and Kalshi over concerns that U.S. government employees may be using insider information to profit from policy and national security events. Comer sent letters Friday to Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour demanding details on identity verification, geographic restrictions and the flagging of anomalous trading. Comer said he may pursue legislation barring members of Congress, administration officials and other government employees from prediction markets. Separately, Nicolas Vaiman of Bubblemaps said his team found 80 Polymarket bets with a 98% win rate, which he called statistically impossible.
- Bitcoin miners are losing $19,000 on every BTC produced as difficulty drops 7.8%
Bitcoin miners are operating at a steep loss, with Checkonchain's difficulty regression model estimating average production costs of $88,000 per bitcoin as of March 13 against a market price of about $69,200. Rising energy prices tied to Middle East tensions, including oil above $100 and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, are squeezing margins and pushing hashrate and network difficulty down. Difficulty fell 7.76% on Saturday to 133.79 trillion, and Luxor's Hashrate Index put hashprice near $33.30 per petahash per second per day, close to breakeven for most hardware. Miners are selling more bitcoin and expanding into AI and high-performance computing, including Marathon Digital and Cipher Mining.
- Mentioning crypto on AI agent OpenClaw's Discord will get you banned
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger has banned any mention of crypto, including bitcoin, from the project's Discord server after a January episode in which scammers hijacked the project's accounts during a rebrand. Scammers seized the old GitHub and X handles and promoted a fake $CLAWD token on Solana that hit a $16 million market capitalization before crashing over 90% when Steinberger publicly denied involvement. A user was blocked immediately for mentioning bitcoin in an unrelated multi-agent benchmark context, and Steinberger said the rule is listed among the server rules users accept on entry. Steinberger has since joined OpenAI, and OpenClaw has moved to an independent open-source foundation.
- Vitalik Buterin Uses Privacy Tool Railgun Again, Signaling Ongoing Embrace of On
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin transferred around $2.6 million in ETH and USDC through the privacy protocol Railgun on Wednesday, and the protocol's RAIL token rose 15% over the following 24 hours. The article says it is unclear how the funds were ultimately used, and that Buterin has not commented directly on the transfer. It notes this is not his first use of Railgun, as he moved approximately $500,000 through it in March. Railgun is described as a DeFi privacy toolkit that, unlike Tornado Cash, includes screening features to deter illegal transactions.
- SEC Goes After Another Crypto Firm, Slaps Immutable With Wells Notice
- Chase U.K. to Block Crypto Payments Citing Fraud, Scams
Chase U.K. is banning crypto-linked payments made by debit card or outgoing bank transfer for U.K. clients starting Oct. 16, according to an email to customers reviewed by CoinDesk. The email says Chase will decline payments it believes relate to crypto assets, while customers remain free to use another bank or provider to invest in crypto. Chase said that fraudsters are increasingly using crypto assets to steal large sums of money, and a Chase U.K. spokesperson said the bank has seen an increase in crypto scams targeting U.K. consumers.
- AWS-Reliant Blockchains Won’t Bring Transparency to AI
- Crypto and the Real Meaning of 'Radicalism'
- Hedgehog partners with CoinDesk Indices for automated crypto investing
Hedgehog, an SEC-registered investment adviser, is adding crypto sector indexes from CoinDesk Indices to its direct indexing app so advisors and users can invest in them automatically. CEO Colton Dillion said the stacks will hold assets as close as possible to the CoinDesk indexes. The offering includes five select sector indexes covering computing, culture and entertainment, currency, DeFi, and smart contract platforms, plus the CoinDesk Market Select Index (CMIS), which combines all five. The article notes that the interview was conducted by CoinDesk Indices and is not CoinDesk editorial content.
- Harris Odds Rise Polymarket 'Election Fraud' Allegations Ramp Up Trump Hedge Bet
Odds on Kamala Harris winning the U.S. presidential election rose on the Polymarket betting platform from 33% on Oct. 30 to nearly 39%, while Donald Trump's fell to 61%. Some observers suggest the shift reflects traders hedging Trump bets, with trades above $10,000 showing large purchases of Harris "yes" shares and Trump "no" shares. The article also cites three new surveys showing Harris leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as reported by Newsweek, and notes that the market's low liquidity can produce sharp price swings.
- Crypto.com secures multiyear sponsorship deal with UEFA Champions League
Crypto.com has become the official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, nearly two years after it withdrew from a similar deal. The sponsorship will be unveiled at Wednesday's UEFA Super Cup match between Real Madrid and Atalanta in Warsaw, according to an announcement by the exchange. Neither the financial terms nor the length of the multiyear deal were disclosed. The company's earlier five-year Champions League sponsorship, reportedly worth $495 million, was abandoned over legal issues around its licenses to trade in the U.K., France and Italy.
- Bitpanda, OKX, Crypto.com Secure MiCA Licenses as Crypto Exchanges Eye EEA
Crypto exchange Bitpanda has received a MiCA license from Germany's regulator BaFin, while rivals OKX and Crypto.com have received accreditation from Malta, letting them operate across the European Economic Area. The MiCA rules took effect at the end of last year and let license holders operate across the EEA without separate approval from each country. Bitpanda, based in Austria, had 6 million users in December and said it will use the license to accelerate growth. Boerse Stuttgart Digital, MoonPay, BitStaete, ZBD and Hidden Road have also received MiCA licenses.
- Hamster Combat bashes crypto VCs ahead of HMSTR token
Hamster Kombat, a viral play-to-earn crypto game on Telegram, criticized crypto venture capital funding as "exit liquidity" and said it has turned down every investment offer it received from major Web3 venture firms. The game's admins said they want the Web3 space to "return to its fundamentals" and focus on projects that generate real value and revenue. The game claims 200 million users as of July and 53 million subscribers on its Telegram channel, and developers say venture funds will access the future HMSTR token by buying it on exchanges like any other user.
- Any Near-Term Rebound in Crypto Market Likely to Be Temporary: JPMorgan
JPMorgan says any near-term rebound in cryptocurrency markets is likely to be tactical rather than the start of a new long-term bullish uptrend. The bank states that bitcoin remains too high relative to its production cost of $43,000 and its volatility-adjusted comparison to gold at $53,000, with bitcoin trading around $67,220 at publication time. JPMorgan notes that bitcoin futures momentum has been weak due to liquidations by Gemini creditors, Mt. Gox creditors and the German government, and expects liquidations to subside this month. Analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou say bitcoin and gold may both benefit from a higher likelihood of a Trump election win.
- Ryan Selkis Quits as Messari CEO Following Inflammatory Tweets
Ryan Selkis stepped down as CEO of Messari, the crypto data and research firm he co-founded, after a week of inflammatory tweets about politics, civil war and an immigrant's expulsion. In announcing his departure on X, he wrote that "this week was the first week in 6.5 years that my politics and rhetoric put the team in harm's way." Messari said Chief Revenue Officer Eric Turner will serve as interim CEO so Selkis can focus on crypto policy and national issues. Selkis later posted "I beat @JoeBiden. Again."
- Nic Carter and David Hoffman square off for karate combat at Consensus
Crypto influencers Nic Carter, representing Bitcoin, and David Hoffman, representing Ethereum, are scheduled to fight in the Karate Combat Pit at CoinDesk's Consensus conference in Austin, Texas, on May 30. The bout is two two-minute rounds, with a third round if a tiebreaker is needed. The fighters have a side bet to donate $10,000 to the winner's chosen open-source group: Carter chose Bitcoin Core and Hoffman chose Protocol Guild. Billy McFarland, the Fyre Festival entrepreneur, is also on the card, facing the influencer known as @shillin_villain.
- Bitcoin cold-wallet attack spreads to 4,500 addresses as losses near $89 million
Galaxy Research flagged a third wave of attacks that drained about 208 bitcoin from 1,912 addresses between Friday midday and Saturday morning UTC, bringing total losses across three waves to 1,367 bitcoin, nearly $89 million, from 4,585 addresses. The attacks exploit a vulnerability in a March 2021 Coldcard firmware release that generated seed keys with predictable software randomness instead of the chip's hardware randomness, allowing attackers to reproduce keys offline. The first wave, on July 30, took 1,083 bitcoin from 1,196 addresses in 41 minutes, averaging close to one coin per victim. Galaxy Research believes each wave comes from a single operator but cannot determine whether the same attacker is behind all three.
- Commerce protocol x402 system joins Linux Foundation
Coinbase's x402 payment protocol is moving toward becoming open, standardized infrastructure under the Linux Foundation, with an initial governing body called the x402 Foundation that includes Cloudflare and Stripe. The protocol is designed for AI agent payments of fractions of a cent at high frequency, which the article says traditional credit card networks struggle to handle. Coinbase said in a press release that Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Shopify and Visa have also expressed initial intent and support. Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin said the foundation will create an open, community-governed home for developing these capabilities.