Hack the hackers, catch the pigeon (weekly crypto updates)

Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote about crypto, as I enjoyed some holiday away from the keyboard. What happened in crypto over the past 4 weeks? Bitcoin value goes up and down between $102K and $110K for now. Altcoins started to rally. Trump and crypto - he will eventually end up in prison because of it. The hackers from the Lazarus Group got hacked after one of them forgot to use the VPN. What else? Read below:

• Bitcoin: And there it is, BTC finally smashing pumpkins through the $110K barrier. Cantor Equity Partners acquired $458M worth of BTC as part of the planned merger with Twenty One Capital (a BTC investment firm backed up by Tether, Bitfinex, and Softbank. El Salvador BTC holdings show a $357M paper gain. JPMorgan Chase is set to allow its clients to buy Bitcoin, despite CEO Jamie Dimon's continued criticism, and it is set to allow its wealth and trading clients to use crypto-linked ETFs as collateral for loans. Pakistan is allocating 2000 megawatts of electricity in the first phase of a plan to power Bitcoin mining and AI data centres, a part of a broader push to legalise crypto, attract foreign investment and create high-skilled jobs, according to the country's finance ministry. The medical equipment manufacturer Semler Scientific raised its total holdings to over 4200 BTC. Jack Dorsey's Block is bringing BTC payments to Square terminals using the Lightning Network. Meta shareholders voted against a proposal to explore BTC as a potential Treasury asset. Amazon had a mirror proposal, and it is yet to be voted on. Metaplanet used another 16.89B yen to buy BTC, reaching 8888 BTC. They aim for 10.000 as a target. Trump's Truth Social seeks to launch a spot BTC ETF on NYSE Arca. Even Ukraine is drafting legislation to create a Bitcoin reserve. Wisconsin Investment Board sells its entire Bitcoin ETF position, even if Adam Back stated that BTC may hit $1M this cycle. Governments are quietly buying Bitcoin exposure via MicroStrategy shares (SK national pension service, Swiss National Bank, retirement funds from California, New York and other states, to name some). Strategy new stock STRF pays 10% annual dividends in BTC. Looks like the Japan bond crisis is also driving Bitcoin higher. A solo miner claimed $330K worth of Bitcoin solving the block 899826 through solo mining.

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• Ethereum: The SEC raised fresh concerns about two proposed ETFs tied to ETH and Solana, questioning the staking features and whether they qualify as legal investment companies. Ethereum Foundation laid off several members of its research and development team, focusing on critical design challenges facing the blockchain's core protocol. Ethereum Foundation is planning a strategic treasury overhaul, promising solo staking, lending WETH, borrowing stablecoins and allocating capital to tokenised real-world assets. BlackRock has filed with the SEC to allow in-kind redemptions for its ETH ETF, enabling investors to receive actual ETH rather than cash when selling shares. Ethereum fees dropped to an average of $0.03, and I like it. They are now on par with Solana, minus the activity breakdowns. An early ETH investor just sold 1613 ETH for $4.11M with Kraken, after six years of inactivity. The Pectra upgrade made staking more efficient and pushed prices higher, but daily transactions and active addresses remain flat. Even worse, over 80% of the new delegations went to malicious contracts designed to drain compromised wallets. To worry even more, the Ethereum Foundation is running out of time and cash, having only 2.5 years of runway left. Well, ETH ETFs are outperforming Bitcoin ETFs lately. SharpLink Gaming announced a $425M private placement to initiate an Ethereum Treasury Strategy.

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• Altcoins and stablecoins: Bublemaps launched a tool analytics called Time Travel, which can reconstruct the token distribution history to identify insider activity and coordinated wallet behaviour, detecting scams before launch. Cantor Fitzgerald's chairman said that he personally verified Tether's reserves amid scrutiny, and its tokens are fully backed. Hong Kong approved a stablecoin licensing bill, joining the global regulatory push. Some of the largest US banks consider a joint stablecoin to counter crypto rivals. The first US XRP futures ETF began trading last Thursday. Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, is set to go public on the NYSE. They targeted a $7.2B valuation in an expanded IPO, but with the share price at $31, the valuation was 'only' $6.9B in its market debut, but at the end of the first day, the share price was closing at $83. Circle also launched a borderless payment network, using stablecoins. Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun plans a $1B token sale at a $4B valuation. Tether launched a cross-chain gold token called XAUt0, making physical gold as portable as stablecoins. XRP briefly overtook Tether, becoming the third-largest crypto. South Korean traders have gone all-in on XRP, with the top trading volume of $1.2 B. Ripple is looking to expand in the Middle East too, after the meeting with the UAE officials at the Dubai Fintech Summit. Their efforts were rewarded, as Dubai just became the first government in the world to tokenise real estate on the XRP Ledger. Brave Browser integrated Cardano. Solana Name Service launched its SNS token. Fun fact: the memecoins outperformed Bitcoin on average. Elon Musk confirmed that X M money is officially in very limited beta testing. Kazakhstan wants to build a crypto-city, a pilot zone where all the payments can be made in crypto.

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• NFTs and blockchain games: Bonk launched a game where you win the player stake if you kill him, but you lose everything if you die. Enjoy! I have enjoyed playing Golem Overlord lately on Hive, and it is quite profitable, I would say, with some significant updates lately. On Splinterlands, we have had the Land NFT new update and improved tokenomics on March 18. The presale of its latest Conclave Arcana collection has started now, and we have top buyers prizes, promo card rewards and even a raffle. Check my Holozing article to learn about a new blockchain game that looks full of potential. I am also playing a cute little game called Chain of Legends, which reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic, even if there is some overlap. Polygon quietly becomes an NFT powerhouse, just crossing $2B in total NFT sales.

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• Good news: RobinHood is expanding in Canada, acquiring the crypto exchange WonferFi. Van Eck launched a tokenised US Treasury fund across multiple blockchains. EToro shares jumped 29% in Nasdaq debut, raising $310M in its IPO. Looks like thousands of creditors of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX will begin to receive payouts from a $5B pool starting from May 30. Speaking at a panel in Toronto, PayPal's Head of Digital Currencies said that banks may not be crypto-native, but they are essential to stablecoin growth. The US Senate voted to advance the GENIUS Act, a bill that would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Kraken has launched regulated crypto derivatives trading across Europe. VanEck plans to launch a private fund focused on the Avalanche blockchain. The judge has overturned the fraud and market manipulation convictions of Avraham Eisenberg, the trader who siphoned $110M from Mango Markets, saying that his actions, while aggressive, were permitted by the code and rules set by Mango Markets itself. The SEC dropped the lawsuit against Binance, and there are talks about a dismissal with prejudice. Uber is considering stablecoin payments. Even Gemini is now filing confidential IPO paperwork with the SEC. Solana's token-powered phone pays you back after securing 150.000 pre-orders, and will start shipping on August 4th. The craziness does not stop here, as Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller just released a limited edition watch collection with your Solana wallet embedded on the dial, and one of the 1111 models can be yours for 20.000 Swiss francs. FIFA launched a dedicated blockchain on Avalanche. The Chinese firm Webus filed with the SEC for a $300M XRP Treasury.

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• Bad news: Coinbase faces up to $400M in costs after a group of support agents were bribed by cybercriminals to hand over sensitive user data. Heck, the US DoJ investigates the cyberattack targeting Coinbase. Probably the same hackers tried to socially engineer their way in order to gain access to internal systems, but Binance and Kraken fended off their attempts. A US judge denies the SEC and Ripple's joint request to move forward with a settlement, delaying resolution in the XRP case. Crypto lender Genesis has filed two lawsuits against its parent company, Digital Currency Group and its CEO, Barry Silbert. South Korea tightens crypto KYC rules ahead of the institutional ban easing. Trump's memecoin dinner met with democratic protests, as the new bill is targeting crypto ties. As they opposed political influence and foreign participation in the crypto industry, Donald entertained guests like retired NBA player Lamar Odom and dodgy Chinese-born entrepreneur (we cannot say thief, right?) Justin Sun. The House Democrats formally asked for records on World Liberty Financial and Trump memecoins, especially after Justin Sun's 475M investment. They also pointed out that Trump Media is planning to raise $3B to buy crypto-assets. In the end, they only raised $2.5B, with $1.5B in newly issued common stock and $1B in convertible senior secured notes. The idea that the US President is an (un)willing spy for both Russia and China is no longer just a theory. Michael Saylor calls on-chain proof-of-reserves a security risk for institutions. SBF may be released 4 years earlier in 2044 instead of 2049, for good behaviour. Russia's central bank is opening the door for qualified investors to access financial products tied to cryptocurrency prices. Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, is rolling out a structured bond that gives investors exposure to the BTC price. Argentina has cleared President Javier Milei in the crypto promotion ethics probe after he said that he made the comment in his personal capacity and not as an official government activity. Cetus Protocol, SUI's largest DEX, suffered a $233M exploit. India blocked crypto despite the court push.

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• Joke of the week: Starting January 1, 2026, cryptocurrency platforms operating in the UK will be legally required to report data on every customer transaction under new rules aimed at boosting tax reporting. I would laugh indeed, thinking who is gonna check my few millions Hive transactions that may amount to $160 per month. HM Revenue and Customs wants full names, home addresses, tax identification numbers and specifics about the digital assets traded. According to the FCA research, 12% of UK adults owned crypto last year. As Trump was not enough (they were friends, right?), now Nigel Farage is talking about the creation of a bitcoin reserve at the Bank of England, if his party wins the next elections. God help us!
• As a second contender, Lazarus Group was hacked by BitMex security researchers after one hacker accidentally forgot to activate the VPN and exposed its true IP, in Jiaxing, China. It looks like the organisation is fragmented into separate sub-groups with varying threat capabilities, from low-skill social engineering up to sophisticated exploit developers.

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All the best,

George

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Why not...

...have fun and win rewards on my favourite blockchain games (Splinterlands- a Hearthstone-like card game) (Golem Overlord - a Play2Earn game on Hive) (Upland - a real-life virtual land) (Holozing - a Pokemon-like game)and ( Chain of Legends - with a hint of Heroes of Might and Magic).

...get crypto while writing on the Publish0x blog, using the Presearch search engine to maximise your income with PRE tokens. Use Torum instead of Twitter. I am also writing for crypto on Hive.

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