A confidential United Nations report obtained by Reuters reveals that North Korea’s notorious cybercriminal group known as the Lazarus Group transferred millions of stash of stolen cryptocurrency back to the Asian country last year.
In March 2023, these North Korean hackers illicitly took $147.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from HTX, a crypto exchange owned by TRON founder Justin Sun. A year later, they funneled the funds into the isolated nation using the sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
North Korea’s Cyber Warfare
According to a report submitted last week, the monitors told a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions committee that they had been probing 97 suspected North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency firms between 2017 and 2024, valued at

Ontario’s self-styled ‘Crypto King,’ Aiden Pleterski, was arrested and accused of fraud and money laundering related to an alleged Ponzi scheme following one of the most extensive fraud investigations the region has witnessed.
The 25-year-old, along with his associate, 27-year-old Colin Murphy, allegedly stole approximately $30 million from unsuspecting victims.
Crypto King’s Arrest
The charges stem from a 16-month investigation known as ‘Project Swan’ conducted by Canadian authorities amidst an ongoing bankruptcy case related to the alleged scheme, which has garnered significant media attention in the country.
This investigation involved interviews with numerous victims, dozens of court orders, as well as thousands of pages of financial documents, according to officials.

Two siblings who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are now facing allegations of exploiting a vulnerability in the Ethereum blockchain. The duo reportedly swindled $25 million within 12 seconds, which the prosecutors labeled as a first-of-its-kind caper.
If convicted, both of them could potentially serve sentences exceeding 20 years in prison.
Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, are facing federal charges in Manhattan for fraud and money laundering.
The accusations stem from what prosecutors describe as a meticulously planned cyber heist executed from their computers over several months.
They were arrested on Tuesday in Boston and New York. Commenting on the development, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said,
“The Peraire-Bueno

TON has emerged as one of the top-performing Layer 1 blockchains in 2024, according to the latest analysis by CryptoQuant.
Demonstrating a remarkable 118% outperformance over Bitcoin since the beginning of the year, TON has stood out in stark contrast to other popular Layer 1 chains, which have struggled to gain momentum.
Among major blockchains, only TON and BNB have significantly outpaced Bitcoin in this period, as per the intelligence resource. This relative strength, combined with the robust network effect provided by Telegram, positions TON as a particularly noteworthy cryptocurrency to monitor during this bull run.
TON Network Overview
Despite a turbulent start, the Telegram Open Network (TON) has experienced significant growth over the past year, establishing itself

After wreaking havoc across the digital asset sector and stealing millions of dollars, scam-as-a-service kingpin ‘Pink Drainer’ has vowed to erase all traces of its operations and announced the winding down of its nefarious infrastructure.
In an unexpected statement shared via Telegram, Pink Drainer, the wallet drainer tool known for siphoning funds from cryptocurrency wallets, announced its retirement. This decision comes after Pink Drainer said that it had reached its goal.
In their final message, Pink Drainer’s developers also said they have no plans to return. They added that any messages purporting to be from them should be treated with suspicion unless they are verified by specific wallet signatures (0x636/0x9fa).
The Pink Drainer’s dev note shared by the on-chain

Solana-based meme coin launchpad Pump.fun announced that a former employee used their “privileged position” to access “withdraw authority” and misappropriated around 12,300 SOL, worth approximately $1.9 million at the time.
To prevent further damage, Pump.fun halted trading and updated the contracts.
Flash Loan Exploit
Addressing the exploit, Pump.fun said in an X post that a former employee misused their access to the withdrawal authority, which they had obtained through their previous position within the company.
Utilizing flash loans on a Solana lending protocol, the individual in question borrowed SOL and bought up coins to push them to 100% on their bonding curves. This allowed them to access the bonding curve liquidity and repay the flash loans.
Trading on the

The first month after the Bitcoin halving last month has been uneventful. However, this might change soon as CryptoQuant observed a serious spike in the volume of stablecoins entering the market.
Interestingly, there are significant jumps in stablecoin inflows at various points, often corresponding with movements in bitcoin’s price.
Surge in Liquidity Signals Strong Bullish Trend
Bitcoin witnessed a significant increase in value after the historic approval of US spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year. However, it has been struggling to gain upward momentum since it dropped below its 2021 all-time high of $69,044 in early April. The initial hype over ETFs has diminished, slowing down the cryptocurrency’s previously unstoppable climb.
Nevertheless, there are signs of

Alongside the rest of the cryptocurrency market, Cardano also witnessed a lackluster month. But certain cohorts of high-profile investors have been slowly amassing significant amounts of ADA tokens.
Cardano whales – those holding between 100 million and 1 billion ADA – have added 11% to their balances in the past month, according to ITB’s latest findings.
ADA Whales Adds More Tokens
The latest surge indicates a growing confidence or strategic positioning among large ADA holders. As of now, this cohort of ADA investors commands 6.71% of the entire token supply. Such an insight highlights the whales’ substantial influence within the Cardano ecosystem.

Cardano whales holding between 100m and 1b $ADA have added 11% to their balances over the past 30 days.
This group now holds

AI and big data crypto projects and tokens are suffering losses, reflecting a market lacking a clear direction. As a result, the broader altcoin sector is in turmoil as traders eagerly await signals from Bitcoin.
A new analysis suggests that the dominance of the world’s largest cryptocurrency is increasing, which is holding back altcoin profits. A decrease in its dominance may come as a huge relief for the alts.
Altcoin Rally Ahead?
Glassnode founders ‘Negentropic’ observed that Bitcoin’s dominance in the market is currently rising, which has been suppressing the gains of altcoins.
However, a potential decline in Bitcoin’s dominance could trigger significant rallies among altcoins. Notably, POWR, FTT, and NMR have emerged as top performers among the lot. Bitcoin’s recent

Nearly a month after the fourth Bitcoin halving took place, the first signs of miners’ revenues decreasing are slowly emerging with one clear indicator being the drop in the network hash rate.
The recent decline in this metric potentially indicates miner capitulation, where less efficient miners are quitting due to decreased profitability.
Hash Ribbons Shows Signs of Capitulation
Earlier, the 30-day moving average of the hash rate reached its peak at 630 exahashes per second (EH/s), but now it’s at 606 EH/s. Although this decrease is relatively small and brief, it’s notable because the hash rate usually goes up, indicating a pattern shift.
CryptoQuant’s findings revealed instances of rapid declines in the hash rate, which often signal “miner capitulation.”
“Miner

Digital assets investments said the first inflow in five weeks with $130 million of net gains over the past week.
Interestingly, the lack of action from US regulators regarding spot Ethereum ETF applications has sparked speculation that approval won’t happen soon, and this has resulted in significant outflows for Ethereum in the same timeframe.
Investors Brace for Delay in Spot Ethereum ETF Approval
CoinShares’ latest edition of Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report revealed that Bitcoin investment products experienced $144 million in inflows, rebounding from a sluggish month. Short-bitcoin ETPs experienced outflows of $5.1 million, bringing the total outflows over the last 8 weeks to $18 million.
Among the altcoins, Solana stood out with weekly inflows of $5.9 million.

The movement of stolen cryptocurrency from the Poloniex hack in November 2023 is far from over. Although Poloniex claimed to have identified the attacker weeks later and offered a $10 million reward, the stolen funds were never returned.
In the latest development, PeckShield, a blockchain investigation company, found that more than half of the stolen funds were moved through Tornado Cash.
More than six months after the hack, the bad actor moved 17.8K ETH – worth approximately $53.5 million from six different wallets – to a single address of the controversial coin mixer, Tornado Cash.

#PeckShieldAlert The #Poloniex hacker has already sent a total of 17.8K $ETH (worth ~$53.5million) to #TornadoCash pic.twitter.com/gpkIYVA2fZ
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 14,

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried revealed that he hasn’t experienced abuse and doesn’t “feel unsafe.” The only time he feels bothered is during the night when they ask about the rice bags they plan to use for trade.
This was his first comprehensive interview since being imprisoned.
SBF’s Prison Survival: Beans, Rice, and a Currency System
The disgraced founder of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research, who was found guilty of wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in November, now has a new form of currency for trading while in prison at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
While speaking to Puck News’ William D Cohan in an interview arranged by SBF’s mother – Barbara Fried – the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange informed Puck magazine that

Coinbase’s Layer 2 network – Base – has witnessed a resurgence of user activity. Franklin Templeton’s latest analysis revealed that Base has received significant traction from SocialFi applications such as Friend.Tech.
Friend.Tech’s model, which financializes social interactions, has drawn attention, particularly with the launch of its version 2 platform and the airdrop of its FRIEND token.
Additionally, Base has experienced a notable surge in the supply of USDC on its network, surpassing $2.5 billion. This increase coincided with Coinbase’s announcement in December 2023 of free USDC transfers on Base via the Coinbase Wallet, indicating a strategic move to boost Base’s ecosystem and facilitate seamless transactions for users.
Base Hits Home Run in SocialFi
According to

Kraken and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remain embroiled in a dispute, as the crypto exchange filed a new document questioning the accuracy of the regulator’s case.
The development comes three months after Kraken filed a motion to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit against it.
SEC’s Case Isn’t Worded Correctly
Kraken recently filed a response to the SEC’s April letter regarding the company’s motion to dismiss the case. In it, the exchange alleged that the securities regulator failed to identify any investment contracts that were traded, brokered, or settled on its platform.
The filing claims that the SEC used terms like “investment concept” and “ecosystem” instead of “investment contract” and “enterprise” in its argument.
The SEC had previously stated that “the

Binance CEO Richard Teng has advocated for the release of Tigran Gambaryan, head of the crypto exchange’s Financial Crime Compliance team, who has been detained by the Nigerian government for over 70 days.
Gambaryan reportedly flew to the country in February for talks on collaborative policy meetings, only to be detained later. This move by the Nigerian authorities has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide, Teng said in his statement.
Arrest of Executives Sets Dangerous Precedent
In the latest blog post, the Binance CEO said Gambaryan didn’t travel to Nigeria to make decisions or negotiate. He was there solely as an expert in financial crime, contributing to policy discussions and capacity building. Teng said the arrests were made despite Nigerian

A proposal to list and trade shares of prominent asset manager Grayscale’s Ether futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been withdrawn, as per a new document filed on Tuesday.
The filing by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the application for the Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust ETF, filed by NYSE Arca, Inc. in September last year, was withdrawn on May 3.
Previously, the agency had delayed consideration of Grayscale’s ether futures ETF, with the most recent postponement occurring in March.
However, the SEC had approved a batch of ether futures ETFs in October 2023, including those from ProShares, VanEck, and Bitwise.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart was the first to point out the development. Initially, Seyffart believed that Grayscale had

Layer 2 networks have witnessed massive activity this year, even as their native tokens slumped amidst intense volatility across the broader market. These solutions have witnessed relatively steady activity since the beginning of the year.
However, the latest analysis by IntoTheBlock revealed that Base continues to be the primary attraction for new capital.
Investors Flock to Base
Over the course of this week, net ETH deposits into the Base have exceeded 6,500 ETH, marking a significant increase, according to the data shared by ITB. On the other hand, its rival Arbitrum saw just half of this figure. Optimism lagged even further behind with only a fifth of the deposits Base received.
Such a trend suggests that despite the growing interest in Layer 2 scaling solutions,

During the ongoing cycle, BTC and ETH have witnessed a growing divergence in their respective performances.
According to Glassnode’s findings, this can be attributed to a general trend of weaker capital rotation, particularly in comparison to previous cycles and all-time high breakthroughs.
Ethereum Receives Weak Capital Flows
Leading up to bitcoin’s peak established on March 14, Glassnode observed a surge in speculative activity. As per its latest on-chain weekly report, capital accumulation was seen among the short-term holders of BTC, with approximately $240 billion in wealth held in coins moved within the last six months, nearing peak levels.
The same cannot be said for Ethereum, which has failed to replicate this trend so far. The leading altcoin hasn’t even surpassed

The stablecoin sector is not a stranger to controversies, but a recent study questions whether these assets are being widely used as claimed.
According to the report, a new metric developed by American multinational payment giant Visa indicates that over 90% of stablecoin transactions aren’t made by genuine users, suggesting that these cryptocurrencies are far from being widely adopted for payments.
Only 10% of Stablecoin Transactions Organic
Visa, along with Allium Labs, has created a dashboard to filter out transactions initiated by bots and large-scale traders, focusing only on those made by real people. Out of $2.2 trillion in total transactions in April, only $149 billion were from “organic payments activity,” according to Visa.
That essentially means that less than

A wallet that laid dormant for 10.3 years has suddenly sprung to life, transferring all 687.33 bitcoins, worth almost $44 million, on May 6, according to Lookonchain’s latest findings.
The wallet in question had received the 687.33 BTC, valued at $630,000 at that time, on January 12, 2014, when bitcoin’s price was $917 and, interestingly, a time when Satoshi Nakamoto was still on the scene.
Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Wallet Comes Alive
The movement of funds from such decade-old dormant wallets often triggers a curiosity within the crypto community.
The wallet divided its holdings, sending 625.43 BTC to an address beginning with bc1qky and the remaining 61.9 BTC to bc1qdc, as identified by the on-chain tracking platform. This activity, especially from the Satoshi era, invites

Blockchain analytics company Elliptic said that its researchers have made progress in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to detect money laundering in Bitcoin.
A recent paper detailing this research was co-authored with researchers from the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. Elliptic revealed a successful identification of illicit proceeds deposited at a cryptocurrency exchange, new patterns of money laundering transactions, and previously unidentified illegal wallets upon utilizing a deep learning model.
The firm said that findings are already being used to improve its products.
Exposing Hidden Money Laundering Patterns
The underlying data has been released to the public. With more than 200 million transactions, this dataset will allow the community to create new AI methods for

The leading blockchain security firm, CertiK, released its latest report revealing a significant downturn in losses from crypto-related hacks and scams as April concludes.
Noting a notable decrease, CertiK stated April saw approximately $25.7 million lost to exploits, hacks, and scams. This figure marks a decline of 141% from the previous month’s losses, demonstrating a trend towards increased security within the cryptocurrency industry.
Specifically, CertiK’s breakdown of the losses indicates that roughly $4.3 million was lost to exit scams, $129,000 to flash loans, and $21 million to exploits, based on confirmed incidents.
This reduction in losses is a promising sign for the cryptocurrency industry, especially considering the significant losses reported in previous

While meme coins have seen a massive resurgence this year, this has raised concerns for certain industry players.
Chris Dixon – a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) – has expressed concern over the US regulatory system, questioning why meme coins were allowed to thrive while cryptocurrency companies and blockchain tokens with useful applications “get stuck in regulatory purgatory” due to potential classification as securities.
Trapped in “Regulatory Purgatory”
While delving into the resurgence of meme coins and the regulatory challenges they present in the crypto industry, Dixon raised concerns about excessive speculation and questioned why the market repeatedly favors them over more productive blockchain innovations.
In his latest article, Dixon described meme

Bitcoin’s recent market correction that dragged the world’s largest cryptocurrency near the low of $56,500 turned out to be a good opportunity for high-profile investors.
Data shared by CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju revealed that whales have accumulated a whopping 47,000 BTC – worth more than $2.8 billion in current price – over the past 24 hours alone. This shopping spree signals the beginning of “a new era” for the primary cryptocurrency, according to the exec.
Bitcoin whales increasing their holdings may indicate growing confidence in the cryptocurrency’s future trajectory among institutional investors or high-net-worth entities.
The CryptoQuant founder also revealed that the whale wallets in question are mostly custodial ones, including ETFs, but clarified that the

Experts now suggest that bitcoin may have reached a local bottom and will gradually recover over the coming months.
BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, for one, noted that the leading cryptocurrency might see a surge in value if, as he predicts, liquidity increases in the economy next week due to Janet Yellen’s policies.
Bitcoin May Have Hit a Local Bottom
In his latest blog post, Hayes said bitcoin’s latest slump has “played out” as he anticipated, attributing it to various factors such as the US tax season, uncertainty surrounding the Fed’s actions, the halving “sell the news” event, and a slowdown in the growth of assets under management (AUM) for the spot ETFs in the US. The BitMEX founder sees these “coalesced” events as a necessary cleansing for the market.
He even implied

Dormant tokens in the XRP Ledger have begun to stir, setting the stage for May’s market activity.
New data suggest the blockchain is seeing another “huge blast” in dormant XRP movement, alongside increasing open interest (AI).
Surge in Old XRP Coin Movement
According to Santiment’s Token Age Consumed metric, there has been a significant surge in the movement of old XRP coins on the ledger, similar to the spike observed just before the market downturn on April 13th, during which the cryptocurrency plummeted by 16%.
However, in this particular case, there’s a compelling argument suggesting that this movement is tied to potential “buy the dip” interest from influential stakeholders, the crypto-analytic platform said in its latest findings.
“This time around, however, there is

Aave Labs, the team behind the DeFi lending platform Aave, has proposed a slew of major upgrades and expansions two years after introducing its V3.
The suggested improvements include Aave V4, Aave Network, a Cross-Chain Liquidity Layer, non-EVM L1 deployments, and a fresh visual identity.
Aave V4
According to the latest blog post, Aave V4 will be built with a brand-new architecture featuring an efficient and modular design while aiming to minimize disruptions to third-party integrators.
The most important architectural change of the latest iteration is the proposed introduction of a Unified Liquidity Layer, which expands on the Portals concept introduced in Aave V3. This layer enables a fully agnostic, independent, and abstracted infrastructure for liquidity provisioning.

Binance founder and former CEO – Changpeng Zhao a.k.a CZ – received a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In the first tweet following the sentencing, CZ revealed his intention to remain a passive investor and holder in the crypto industry while simultaneously highlighting the importance of compliance in the industry.
CZ Reacts
In his final tweet before beginning his four-month prison sentence, CZ expressed gratitude to his supporters, acknowledging the letters, messages, and various forms of encouragement he received.
He even went on to emphasize the importance of their support in keeping him resilient during this period.
“I will do my time, conclude this phase, and

While Bitcoin has been recognized as a commodity, the same cannot be said for Ethereum’s status, which has been more ambiguous due to its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014.
However, a new report suggests that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its chairman, Gary Gensler, seem to have believed that Ethereum is an unregistered security for a long period of time.
SEC and Gensler’s Beliefs Exposed
According to the latest FOX report, court documents filed by Consensys on April 29 stated that the SEC and Gensler seem to have believed for at least a year that Ether was an unregistered security and has been trading in violation of current federal regulations.
The latest development follows Consensys filing an unredacted complaint against the agency in a Texas