Crypto Vesting – Page 106 – Just another WordPress site

NFT founder stole millions from Bitcoin project, investors allege

Several investors in a non-fungible token (NFT) project, Hashling NFT, have accused its founder of misappropriating millions of dollars in profits from the project and a closely tied Bitcoin mining operation.

According to the May 14 court filing in Illinois, the plaintiffs allege that their former business partner, Jonathan Mills, lied about transferring assets from Hashling NFT and at least $3 million from the Bitcoin mining project to a holding company — Satoshi Labs LLC (formerly known as Proof of Work Labs LLC), which Mills is the founder and CEO of.

The plaintiffs have sued Mills for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, claiming that they have not received any of the equity returns that he supposedly promised.

They also claim to have raised a combined $1.46 million from two NFT drops on the Solana and Bitcoin blockchains, but didn’t receive any returns from their investment.

Excerpt of the

Sonic Labs wins judgment for Multichain Foundation to wind up

A Singapore High Court has ruled in favor of Sonic Labs’ motion to force the Multichain Foundation to wind up in an effort to recover funds stolen during a 2023 hack.

In the May 9 judgment in the Singapore Supreme Court, Justice Kwek Mean Luck granted a request from Sonic Labs, formerly the Fantom Foundation, to declare Multichain bankrupt and appoint liquidators from global audit, tax and advisory service KPMG.

Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong said in a May 14 statement to X that the team behind the layer 1 Sonic blockchain felt it had no choice but to file a lawsuit to forcibly wind up Multichain because its former employees were being “completely uncooperative” and “hid from victims.”

“Going forward, the liquidators can now start working with other parties to initiate the process of trying to acquire

Stablecoin bill won’t target Trump as Senate aims to pass it next week

The US Senate could pass a key bipartisan stablecoin bill as soon as next week after removing language targeting President Donald Trump and his family’s sprawling crypto interests.

Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said onstage at an event by Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand With Crypto, that she thinks it’s a “fair target” to have the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.

Joining her onstage was Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who hinted that the bill’s language was changed to scrap provisions that targeted Trump’s various crypto projects, which include memecoins, a crypto platform, a stablecoin, and a crypto mining company that plans to go public, among others.

“When this language comes out, people will see really good refinement, a lot of progress, on things like consumer protection, and bankruptcy protection, and ethics,” Gillibrand said.

Telegram shuts the ‘largest darknet marketplace to have ever existed’

A major Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been shut down by the Telegram messaging service, upon which it operated.

The internet’s largest illicit marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it will shut down following Telegram’s ban of thousands of associated accounts on May 13.

“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from now on,” read the notice on the marketplace website.

A report from Wired said that this involved banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served as the infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its vendors.

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told the outlet, “communities previously reported to us by WIRED or included in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down,” before adding that “criminal

Chainalysis CEO offers a clue into the recent spate of Paris crypto attacks

Some criminal organizations are yet to receive the memo — crypto is traceable — and could explain the recent string of crypto-related kidnappings, says Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin.

Law enforcement has been increasingly successful at tracing stolen funds and crypto ransom payments, resulting in a “lot of arrests,” Levin said during the 2025 Consensus crypto conference, covered by Cointelegraph.

“For whatever reason, there is a perception that’s out there that crypto is an asset that is untraceable, and that really lends itself to criminals acting in a certain way,” he said.

“Apparently, the know that crypto is not untraceable hasn’t been received by some of the organized crime groups that are actually perpetrating these attacks, and some of them are concentrated in, you know, France, but not exclusively.”

Jonathan Levin (left) says criminals targeting the crypto industry should know that the funds are traceable and law enforcement can track

Coinbase CEO looking at more acquisitions after $2.9B Deribit buy

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says his firm will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit.

“We are always looking at M&A opportunities,” said Armstrong on Bloomberg Television on May 14.

He added that the firm has a large balance sheet that can be put to use.

The firm revealed in its latest revenue report that its balance sheet has strengthened, ending the first quarter with $9.9 billion in US dollar resources.

“Part of the benefit of being a public company is, you have a liquid currency to do that,” he said, adding: “We are looking at acquisition opportunities; doesn’t mean we swing at every pitch. We want it to be the right opportunity.”

On May 8, the firm announced that it agreed to acquire crypto options trading platform Deribit in a transaction worth

Europol helps dismantle $23M ‘mafia crypto bank’

European law enforcement in January arrested 17 suspects of a “mafia crypto bank” who are said to have laundered over 21 million euros ($23.5 million) in crypto for criminal entities in China and the Middle East.

The money laundering services were allegedly carried out on behalf of other criminal networks engaged in migrant smuggling and drug trafficking, Europol said in a May 14 statement.

Spanish authorities said the criminal organization ran a secret informal money transfer system called hawala and was often compensated in crypto.

A total of 17 individuals were arrested — 15 in Spain, one in Austria and one in Belgium — while 4.5 million euros ($5 million) worth of items were seized, including cash, crypto, 18 vehicles, four shotguns and several electronic devices.

Of the 4.5 million euros, 183,000 euros ($205,000) came as crypto. Another 421,000 euros ($471,000) in cash was

Dems seek suspicious activity reports linked to Trump crypto ventures

US Democrat lawmakers have sent a letter to the US Treasury demanding access to suspicious activity reports (SARs) on several Trump-backed crypto projects as part of the latest probe into the president’s digital ventures.

Penned by representatives Gerald Connolly, Joseph Morelle, and Jamie Raskin, the May 14 letter asks Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for all SARS filed since 2023 related to World Liberty Financial (WLF) and the Official Trump (TRUMP) token.

Financial institutions in the US must file SARs with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau within the Department of the Treasury, when they detect suspicious activity, including potential money laundering or fraud.

Source: Oversight Committee Democrats

The sweeping probe asks for any SARs mentioning WinRed, America PAC, Elon Musk, political action committee, PAC, Trump, World Liberty Financial,

eToro jumps 30% on Nasdaq debut after upsized IPO

Crypto and stock trading platform eToro has seen its share price gain nearly 30% during its debut on the Nasdaq after the company made a last-minute boost to its initial public offering.

Shares in eToro Group Ltd (ETOR) closed May 14 trading at $67, up 28.9% from its initial offering price of $52, according to Yahoo Finance. It brings the company’s market value to over $5.5 billion.

Its stock price shot to a high of $74.26 during the trading day before cooling and has also slightly dipped by 0.7% after the bell to $66.53.

EToro shares shot up and then traded sideways on the company’s debut US offering. Source: Yahoo Finance

The day before, on May 13, eToro boosted its IPO to $620 million after pricing its shares above its previously suggested range of

Crypto startups scaring away VCs with 80x valuations: 10T Holdings

Too many crypto startups are pricing themselves out of venture capital funding by chasing valuations far exceeding their revenues, according to Dan Tapeiro, the CEO of crypto-focused venture capital firm 10T Holdings.

“For some reason, founders and CEOs think that they should be raising capital at 50 to 80 times revenue. So that makes it very hard for us to make a return for our liquidity providers,” Tapeiro said while speaking in a panel discussion at the Consensus conference in Toronto on May 14.

“So a lot of those deals we just pass almost automatically, even businesses that we really like, we won’t invest in if the price isn’t reasonable in the beginning.”

10T Holdings has passed on over 200 companies for similar reasons, including the now-bankrupt FTX, BlockFi and Celsius, Tapeiro said.

Tapeiro said 10T Holdings looks for crypto projects that have valuations above the $400 million to