Dragonfly’s Qureshi argued that asset migration is not a real solution in case of AI models breaking cryptographic signatures, and urged blockchains to adopt proactive measures. Dragonfly’s managing partner, Haseeb Qureshi, called Ethereum researcher Justin Drake’s “bunker mode” warning “cryptographic doomerism,” and said migrating tokens to fresh addresses was not a real solution against the threat of artificial intelligence breaking cryptographic signatures. “Bunker mode” would only protect investors’ coins as long as they weren’t moved from the fresh address, wrote Qureshi in a Thursday X post, adding that these coins would be “worthless if all of the other coins are being hacked and mass-sold.” Instead, Qureshi urged blockchain networks to adopt proactive measures to protect users aga…
French authorities recorded 90 crypto-related cases involving kidnapping, extortion, threats and violent theft in seven months. What makes France such a hotspot? French authorities have recorded 90 cases involving kidnapping, abduction, extortion, threats, and violent theft related to cryptocurrencies in just over seven months. The figures, provided to Cointelegraph by the French Interior Ministry, are from Jan. 1 to mid-August 2026. Authorities also recorded 223 arrests, and 126 people were imprisoned from January to July. The figures equate to a new case every two and a half days, although there is no official year-on-year comparison to understand if the problem has become suddenly worse: “We do not have the statistics on these items for 2025, as the recording of events began on Jan. 1,…
ESMA is seeking industry feedback on the legal, liquidity and operational risks of tokenized collateral before deciding whether additional EU regulatory measures are necessary. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) wants evidence that clearinghouses can access tokenized collateral and turn it into cash if markets come under stress. ESMA published a call for evidence Friday to seek industry feedback on the implications of tokenized collateral. “We must create the conditions for tokenized markets to operate safely and at scale across borders, with legal certainty, interoperable infrastructures and appropriate supervision,” ESMA Chair Verena Ross said.
The UK sanctioned crypto exchanges and payment processors, some of which were tied to thousands of Russian entities and the sanctioned HTX exchange. The UK government has sanctioned three cryptocurrency exchanges and two payment platforms suspected of helping Russian entities circumvent financial sanctions. Three of the service providers were linked to Kyrgyzstan, while two of them facilitated transactions with the Kremlin-backed A7 network, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) announced Thursday. Cutting off these platforms makes it harder for sanctioned entities to move and access funds, the Foreign Ministry said, adding that the A7 financial network claimed to have moved more than $90 billion last year, or nearly half of Russia’s annual military expenditure.
France’s Finance Committee backed taxes on stablecoin swaps, as well as unrealized crypto gains when households with more than 800,000 euros move abroad. France’s National Assembly Finance Committee approved proposals this week to tax swaps into fiat-pegged stablecoins and extend the country’s exit tax to crypto investors. Amendment I-CF1826, submitted by French MP Nicolas Sansu and adopted Wednesday, would make crypto conversions into fiat-pegged stablecoins taxable events from Jan. 1, 2027. The explanatory text describes the current tax treatment as a “loophole in the legislation,” according to a machine translation.
Bitcoin dipped below $81,000, sparking mass crypto liquidations as traders sent BTC to exchanges at a loss. A Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins sell-off triggered more than $1 billion in liquidations over 24 hours as short-term holders sent tens of thousands of BTC to exchanges at a loss. Key points: Data from CoinGlass put total crypto liquidations at $1.09 billion for the 24 hours to 10 am UTC on Friday.
Bitcoin ETFs lost $244 million on Thursday, while Ether funds extended their outflow streak to eight sessions, shedding $641 million. US spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded nearly $1 billion in combined net outflows so far in October. According to Farside Investors, Bitcoin ETFs recorded $244.1 million in net outflows on Thursday, following $484.9 million in withdrawals on Wednesday, the largest daily outflow since June 25. Ether ETFs posted $72.5 million in net outflows on Thursday, extending their losing streak to eight consecutive trading sessions. The funds have shed about $641.3 million in net outflows over the streak, which began Sept. 29.
Anthropic’s new opt-in service promises vulnerability reports from its strongest AI models, including Claude Mythos. Ethereum client developer Nethermind and Bitcoin and Lightning wallet ZEUS are among several crypto companies to apply for a newly launched Anthropic program that gives open-source projects access to security reports from its most powerful AI models. The projects submitted enrollment requests on Friday for OSS Scanner, which Anthropic launched on Thursday with the aim of helping open-source developers find and fix vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them. “These reports will be generated by our strongest models (including Claude Mythos) to give open-source projects the largest defensive advantage,” Anthropic said in its announcement.
The White House outlined a $215 million quantum computing competition and $2.4 billion in AI industry commitments as concerns grow over quantum threats to cryptocurrency security. The Trump administration has announced over $6 billion in science initiatives, including a $215 million quantum computing competition and $2.4 billion in industry commitments for artificial intelligence tools and computing resources. On Thursday, the Department of Energy identified eight scientific applications to guide its Quantum Genesis Q Competition, which offers up to $215 million in planned funding to companies developing fault-tolerant quantum computers. First announced in September, the funding includes milestone-based awards and incentive prizes for companies that demonstrate increasingly powerful quant…
The rules are set to take effect next week, allowing crypto ETFs to trade exclusively on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday finalized rules allowing crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to list on Thailand’s main stock exchange, limited initially to Bitcoin and Ether. The regulator said the rules will take effect on Oct. 16, 2026. Crypto ETFs must be listed for trading exclusively on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Products linked to foreign crypto ETFs, such as depositary receipts, will not be permitted initially, while Thai brokers will remain barred from facilitating investments in overseas crypto ETFs for retail investors outside institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. “We have previously seen examples in the United State…
The letter follows a report by the Democratic investigators last month alleging Tether’s USDT has become a key tool for Iran’s shadow banking network. US investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald is facing scrutiny from a Senate Democrat over its ties to Tether, with Senator Richard Blumenthal demanding records on the firm’s partnership with the stablecoin issuer and how much Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s family has made from the arrangement. In a letter on Thursday, Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, asked Cantor chairman Brandon Lutnick to explain how it monitors Tether’s compliance with banking and sanctions laws, along with all communications involving Howard Lutnick about Tether, including after he left Cantor. “Disturbingly, Cant…
Despite ongoing bans, China has seen a big surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use. New figures show South Korea’s $450B crypto economy is the largest in East Asia. The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026. Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.
Securitize’s new offering gives eligible investors access to tokenized shares of 12 US companies, with dividend and voting rights and plans for round-the-clock trading. Securitize shares climbed about 10% Thursday as the company launched tokenized versions of major US stocks on Solana, offering eligible investors exposure to equities backed by underlying shares with dividend and voting rights. The new offering, called Securitize Stocks, includes tokenized shares of Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Tesla and eight other US-listed companies. The tokens are backed one-for-one by underlying shares and will initially trade during extended market hours through Securitize’s registered broker-dealer platform, according to Thursday’s announcement. Securitize (SECZ) stock. Source: Yahoo Finance
According to the league, Kalshi and other prediction markets “threaten game integrity” because many event contracts are “highly susceptible to manipulation.” The National Football League (NFL) largely sided with New Jersey officials in their petition for the Supreme Court to consider a case on sports bets through prediction markets platforms In an amicus brief filed with the US Supreme Court on Wednesday, the NFL called on the justices to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari from New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and gaming enforcement interim director Mary Jo Flaherty. The filing came in response to New Jersey officials petitioning the court to consider its case against Kalshi, potentially resolving whether the jurisdiction of prediction market companies falls under sta…
Sam Bankman-Fried remains in federal prison following his 2023 conviction, while Caroline Ellison was released in January. Video streaming platform Netflix released a trailer for its eight-episode series about the lead-up to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, centered on former CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and his colleague and girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, who headed the company’s sister arm, Alameda Research. In a Thursday X post, Netflix showed footage from the upcoming series to be released on Nov. 19 “about the love scorned prodigies behind the FTX scandal.” The series, starring Anthony Boyle as Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner as Ellison, seemed to focus on the idea that “going all-in every time is the mathematically optimal strategy,” likely referring to the crypto exchange’s…
The global financial institution found tokenized equity markets less liquid and more volatile than traditional markets, despite growing demand for 24/7 trading. Tokenization could reshape financial markets by making trading and settlement more efficient, but legal uncertainty and risks to financial stability could hinder wider adoption, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In a Thursday analysis, the IMF said tokenized financial markets are growing rapidly but remain small compared with traditional markets, with poor interoperability and a lack of widely accepted settlement assets among the key obstacles to expansion. The gap between tokenization’s potential and its current scale is evident in trading activity. Tokenized repurchase agreements, or repos, dominate tokenized tr…
Bitcoin dipped below $81,000 and oil prices gained after reports that military confrontation between the US and Iran could return. Bitcoin (BTC) risked losing key support at $82,500 after Thursday’s Wall Street open as oil prices gained over concerns of US-Iran military action.
Blockchain analysts identified the US government wallet tied to the recovery of funds from the Bitfinex hack. The US government completed another major transaction involving seized cryptocurrency hours after moving a significant amount of Bitcoin to a Coinbase Prime wallet. Blockchain data from Wednesday showed that a wallet associated with crypto seized by the US government had transferred more than 12,267 Bitcoin (BTC), worth more than $1 billion at the time of publication. The move came just hours after similar transfers from the government totaling $770 million in BTC to a Coinbase Prime wallet. Arkham Research linked the wallet moving the Bitcoin to the recovery of funds from the 2016 Bitfinex hack, in which hackers stole 119,756 BTC. The identity of the owner of the recipient address…
Tokenization offers structural advantages to financial institutions and helps asset managers reach new markets, according to Fidelity’s head of digital asset strategists. Financial institutions are increasingly moving toward an onchain future with tokenization initiatives which provide access to new markets and offer structural advantages compared to traditional investment products, according to Matthew Horne, head of digital asset strategists at Fidelity Investments. “In the last 18 months, if you look at the push by true institutions to move toward an onchain future, it’s really no going back,” said Horne during a panel discussion at Longitude Singapore on Thursday. US asset managers are particularly incentivized to move assets onchain as tokenization provides better investor access and…
Crypto lending has risen by 55% since July, but now has to deal with the dangers of AI assisted hacks, and risks cascading through interlinked protocols. Here’s how to stay safe. As the charts flip from red to green, crypto lending has seen a resurgence of interest after a particularly dismal second quarter. Figures from Galaxy show that $11.33 billion left the sector in Q2 — partly due to the crisis of confidence in lenders caused by the Kelp DAO hack in April that left users of the most trusted protocol, Aave, unable to access their ETH. Since the beginning of July, however, total lending value locked has gained more than 55% to sit around $56 billion today.
