Retired artist loses $2M in crypto to Coinbase impersonator

Retired artist Ed Suman lost over $2 million in cryptocurrency earlier this year after falling victim to a scam involving someone posing as a Coinbase support representative. Suman, 67, spent nearly two decades as a fabricator in the art world, helping build high-profile works such as Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sculptures, according to a May …

UK to require crypto firms to report every customer transaction

United Kingdom crypto companies will need to collect and report data from every customer trade and transfer beginning Jan. 1, 2026 as part of a broader effort to improve crypto tax reporting, the UK government said. Everything from the user’s full name, home address and tax identification number will need to be collected and reported …

Hong Kong police busts $15M laundering ring that used crypto, 500 bank accounts

Hong Kong police arrested 12 people involved in a cross-border money laundering scheme that relied on crypto and over 500 stooge bank accounts to launder HK$118 million ($15 million), local news outlets reported. The syndicate was dismantled on May 15, resulting in the arrest of nine men and three women in mainland China and Hong …

The Public internet is a bottleneck for blockchain — DoubleZero CEO

Public internet infrastructure is the critical speed and performance constraint on high-throughput blockchain networks, according to Austin Federa, co-founder and CEO of DoubleZero, a project developing high-speed fiber optic communication rails for blockchains. “The downside of the public internet is it was never built for high-performance systems. It was always built for this sort of …

Moody's downgrades US credit rating due to rising debt

Moody’s credit rating agency downgraded the credit rating of the United States government from Aaa to Aa1, citing the rising national debt as the primary driver behind the reduction in creditworthiness. According to the May 16 announcement from the rating agency, US lawmakers have failed to stem annual deficits or reduce spending over the years, …

High-speed oracles disrupting $50B finance data industry — Web3 Exec

Michael James, the head of institutional business development at Douro Labs — the company that developed the Pyth high-speed blockchain oracle network — told Cointelegraph that oracle networks like Pyth are disrupting the $50 billion financial data industry that provides critical price information to exchanges, brokerages, trading firms, and other institutional entities. In an interview …

A Bitcoiner’s guide to South Africa’s Garden Route

South Africa’s Garden Route, famed for its lush forests, expansive beaches and charming towns, has become a testbed for Bitcoin adoption. From Mossel Bay to Witsand and Plettenberg Bay to Knysna, Bitcoin has become popular among shop owners and travelers alike for a multitude of reasons. “We’re seeing the early signs of a parallel, permissionless …

The DeFi mullet — Fintech needs DeFi in the back

Opinion by: Merlin Egalite, co-founder at Morpho Labs Fintechs in the front, decentralized finance (DeFi) in the back: the DeFi Mullet. Today’s fintech companies offer excellent user experiences but are constrained by traditional financial infrastructure — siloed, slow, expensive and inflexible. Meanwhile, DeFi provides lightning-fast, cost-effective, interoperable infrastructure but lacks mainstream accessibility. The solution? Combine …

Bitcoin to $250K in 2025 ‘totally possible’ — crypto analyst Scott Melker

Bitcoin’s next explosive move could send the asset to $250,000 by the end of 2025, according to Scott Melker, a crypto analyst and host of The Wolf of All Streets podcast. Speaking in a recent interview, Melker cited growing institutional interest and diminishing volatility as key factors that could drive the next leg up. “250K …

Everstake defends non-custodial staking as SEC weighs industry input

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has held discussions with Everstake, one of the largest non-custodial staking providers globally, to explore clearer regulatory definitions around staking in blockchain networks. The meeting, which also involved the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, comes at a time when over $193 billion in digital assets are staked across major …