A second person suspected of being tied to the alleged kidnapping and torture of an Italian man for his crypto will surrender to New York City police, according to multiple reports. A second person suspected of being involved in a high-profile crypto kidnapping case in New York City is expected to turn himself in to police, according to several reports. The second man is a Swiss crypto investor who allegedly assisted business partner Joel Woeltz, who is accused of kidnapping Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan and torturing him in a Soho apartment in an attempt to pressure him into revealing his crypto wallet phrase, ABC7 New York reported on May 26. A separate NBC report said the Swiss trader — who is not named — would turn himself over to police within a week. However, FOX5 New York reported that the man may already be in custody, citing conflicting sources. Read more
BitVM smart contract system is now supported by Bitcoin mining pools controlling 31.5% of the network’s hashrate. Bitlayer’s Bitcoin smart-contract system is being implemented by mining pools behind 31.5% of the network’s hashrate, a development that will help ensure that its system will operate on the Bitcoin blockchain, the company said. According to a May 27 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Bitlayer’s BitVM implementation will be supported by major Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools including Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool. Antpool CEO Andy Chow said: BitVM (Bitcoin Virtual Machine) is a framework that enables complex smart contracts to be deployed on the Bitcoin blockchain without changing the base protocol. The idea was introduced by Robin Linux in 2023, and allows for the complex computation involved in smart contract systems to be verified onchain and executed offchain in a way resembling optimistic rollups. Read more