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Crypto’s lack of ‘frothy use case’ a good sign: WisdomTree exec

Jason Guthrie, head of product at asset manager WisdomTree, says he’s optimistic despite a noticeable lack of hype that typically comes along with a crypto bull run.

There hasn’t been a “really frothy use case that has typically driven these market cycles previously,” such as initial coin offerings (ICOs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or DeFi lending, Guthrie told Cointelegraph at Consensus.

“This time, we’ve continued to see the asset class gathering value, we’ve continued to see the companies that are built on this technology, growing revenue, growing client bases, continuing to innovate without really hanging their hat on one of these frankly less than useful use cases,” he said.

WisdomTree founder Jonathan Steinberg (left), Jason Guthrie, head of product (middle) and head of digital assets Will Peck (right). Source: Jason Guthrie

The ICO boom <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-ico-boom-history-crypto" rel="null" target="null"

DOJ charges 12 more gamer-turned $263M Bitcoin robbers

Another 12 people have been charged for their involvement in a $263 million crypto crime spree that stole 4,100 Bitcoin from a Genesis creditor last August, along with a string of break-ins and money laundering.

The 12 new names, included in a superseding indictment, add to charges originally brought against the main defendant in the case, Malone Lam, on Sept. 19, 2024, the Department of Justice noted in a May 15 statement.

Jeandiel Serrano was named a defendant in the initial indictment but was not included in the superseding one.

The DOJ said several defendants have been arrested, while two others are believed to be living in Dubai.

Many of the suspects, with aliases like “Goth Ferrrari” and “The Accountant,” come from California, mostly aged between 18 and 22.

The group allegedly began operating in October 2023, evolving from friends while playing online

Grok 'white genocide' rant due to unauthorized prompt change: xAI

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI has blamed an “unauthorized modification” to the Grok chatbot’s response, causing it to generate responses mentioning political and racial tensions in South Africa.

On May 16, xAI provided an update on the Grok AI chatbot’s inflammatory responses, stating that on May 14, “an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot’s prompt on X.”

“This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” it added.

The firm stated that it had conducted a thorough investigation and is implementing measures to enhance the AI chatbot’s transparency and reliability.

Grok generated responses on May 14, mentioning a “white genocide” conspiracy theory in South Africa when answering completely unrelated questions about topics like baseball, enterprise software, and construction.

The AI bot claimed it was

Coinbase drops 7% on customer breach, SEC probe into user numbers

Coinbase stock dipped after news broke of a cyberattack that exposed customer data and an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation over misstated user numbers in 2021.

The double whammy of bad news rattled investors as company stock (COIN) slid 7% in a fall to $244 in after-hours trading on May 15, according to Google Finance.

Coinbase stock 24 hours. Source: Google Finance

Coinbase has since confirmed the report from The New York Times, which stated the SEC has been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures, an inquiry that began during the Biden administration and has continued under the Trump administration.

“This is a hold-over investigation from the prior administration about a metric we stopped reporting two and a half years ago, which was fully disclosed to the public,” confirmed Coinbase chief legal officer Paul

Brazil fintech gets approval to become a Bitcoin treasury company

Méliuz’s executive chairman says his fintech firm has become Brazil’s first publicly-traded Bitcoin treasury company following shareholder approval, with the firm also announcing it bought $28.4 million worth of Bitcoin to add to its existing stack.

“Historic day! Our shareholders have approved, by a wide majority, the transformation of Méliuz into the first Bitcoin Treasury Company listed in Brazil,” Israel Salmen posted to X on May 15.

Salmen said the firm snapped up 274.52 Bitcoin (BTC) for an average purchase price of $103,604, achieving a BTC yield of 600%.

Méliuz now holds 320.3 Bitcoin, worth a little over $33 million, with the latest purchase adding to the Brazilian fintech firm’s first purchase of 45.73 Bitcoin on March 6.

Details of Méliuz’s latest Bitcoin purchase. Source: Israel Salmen

In a May 15 statement, Méliuz <a data-ct-non-breakable="null"

AI scammers are now impersonating US government bigwigs, says FBI

Deepfake-assisted hackers are now targeting US federal and state officials by masquerading as senior US officials in the latest brazen phishing campaign to steal sensitive data.

The bad actors have been operating since April, using deepfake voice messages and text messages to masquerade as senior government officials and establish rapport with victims, the FBI said in a May 15 warning.

“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic,” the agency said.

If US officials’ accounts are compromised, the scam could become far worse because hackers can then “target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using the trusted contact information they obtain,” the FBI said.

As part of these scams, the FBI says the hackers are trying to access victims’ accounts through malicious links and directing them to <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-spot-a-fake-crypto-investment-platform-10-red-flags"

Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm trial goes ahead with slight trim

US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month.

Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge.

“After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,” Clayton wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s April memo said the Justice Department would end the so-called “regulation by prosecution” of crypto, and added that the agency wouldn’t

Wisconsin Investment Board sold off its Bitcoin ETF stash

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which oversees the state’s retirement funds, unloaded its shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) during the first quarter, filings show.

The Wisconsin Investment Board reported no spot Bitcoin ETF positions in its 13F filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 15, liquidating all 6,060,351 IBIT shares it reported holding from the previous quarter.

The more than 6 million IBIT shares are worth around $355.6 million at current prices.

SWIB was one of the first state investment funds to provide Bitcoin exposure to US retirees when it bought $164 million worth of Bitcoin ETFs in Q1 2024 — the same quarter the Bitcoin products launched.

Source: Julian Fahrer

The mass sell-off comes only a quarter after SWIB reported additional purchases of IBIT shares in

Legacy forex, payments platforms ‘hate’ stablecoin adoption — Kevin O’Leary

Global foreign exchange and payments platforms are lobbying hard against stablecoins, which stand to significantly disrupt their business models, investor Kevin O’Leary said during a keynote address at Consensus 2025.

Legacy forex and payments platforms often extract large fees for servicing cross-border cash transfers and stand to lose out on revenue if regulated stablecoins become accepted as a cheaper, faster alternative, O’Leary said at the Toronto conference.

“Currency trading is a multi-trillion dollar market — and it’s old and ugly and inefficient,” O’Leary said, adding that “[ t]he biggest threat to that monopoly or oligopoly is a regulated stablecoin.”

“Once that’s approved, the multi-trillion dollar FX market becomes efficient, transparent, and inexpensive,” he said.

Kevin O’Leary speaking at Consensus. Source: CointelegraphStablecoin legislation

US lawmakers are working on legislation that stands to accelerate global stablecoin adoption, O’Leary added.

US Senators are aiming to pass the so-called Genius Act — a framework for regulating stablecoins — <a

Trump’s crypto ties ‘add a certain level of challenge’ to passing bills — Coinbase exec

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal addressed some of the concerns raised by US lawmakers and industry leaders around President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures, and how they may affect related legislation.

Speaking at the Consensus conference in Toronto on May 15, Grewal said there had been “hiccups” in Congress since the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, in March. Though Grewal said there were disputes over “substantial issues that need to be addressed” in the bill, he hinted that Trump’s involvement in the industry was a “complicating factor.”

“The discussion around the president’s support for a certain memecoin or two and other efforts does add a certain level of challenge to the effort to get Democrats and Republicans aligned on the right way to regulate the [spot market], but I have confidence that the Senate