Varyante

Russia arrests Blum co-founder Vladimir Smerkis on fraud charges

Vladimir Smerkis, a co-founder of the Telegram-based crypto project Blum, has reportedly been arrested in Moscow, Russia, on fraud allegations, amid Blum confirming he is no longer affiliated with the project.The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow approved a request from investigators to keep Smerkis in custody while he is being investigated, Russian state-owned news outlet TASS reported on May 18.Smerkis — who previously ran operations for Binance in Russia — is suspected of co

Bitcoin impulse move toward new highs sets a fire under HYPE, ETH, XMR and AAVE

Key points:Bitcoin’s rally to $105,980 has traders predicting new all-time highs this week. Traders lift their end-of-year Bitcoin price targets to $200,000 based on technical factors and institutional investor adoption. Bitcoin (BTC) has been stuck in a narrow range for the past few days, but the rally above $105,500 on May 18 increases the possibility of an upside breakout. Popular trader Alan said in a post on X that Bitcoin could soar to $116,000 early next week.Another bullish vo

Stock futures fall after Moody’s strips U.S. of its top credit rating

Strategists warned the move, announced after the market close on Friday, could spark some near-term selling in stocks and Treasurys.

Tornado Cash dev's attorneys say prosecutors hid exculpatory evidence

Attorneys for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm filed a motion asking the court to reconsider the motion to dismiss the case due to the prosecution withholding exculpatory evidence in the form of communications with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dating back to 2023.According to a May 16 letter from Storm's attorneys to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, the FinCEN documents show that non-custodial crypto mixers do not fall under the legal definition of a "money transmitting busine

Strong earnings keep stock-market bulls in charge. What could bring the rally to a halt?

U.S. stocks have mounted a strong comeback, but lurking behind the optimism is one of the market’s old, expensive problems: stocks are pricey once again.

Bessent warns some steep ‘liberation day’ tariffs may return, dismisses Moody’s downgrade

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Sunday that some of America’s trading partners could soon face a sharp hike in tariff rates, and dismissed Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating.

Pavel Durov rejects EU pressure to censor Romanian election content

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said he rejected pressure from a European Union (EU) country to censor political content on the social media platform ahead of the May 18 presidential elections in Romania.According to Durov, a Western European government, which he hinted at with a baguette emoji, approached the platform and requested it censor conservative voices, which he flatly denied. Durov wrote in a May 18 Telegram post:"You can't 'defend democracy' by destroying democracy. You can’t 'fig

Crypto execs beef up security following string of kidnappings: Report

Crypto industry executives are beefing up personal security and demanding more bodyguard services in response to a recent string of kidnapping and ransom attempts worldwide — particularly in France — targeting investors and professionals in the sector.According to a Bloomberg report, Infinite Risks International, a private security firm based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is seeing more inquiries into bodyguard services and more long-term clients signing up for a private security detail

Ethereum back to $3K in May? Latest rebound says ETH price 'still has more gas'

Key points:Ether price rose 3% to $2,550 on May 18, triggering $22 million in short ETH liquidations.A bull flag on the chart suggests a $3,700 target, with analysts predicting Bitcoin’s price to go as high as $5,000 in May.Ether’s (ETH) price was up on May 18, rising more than 2.5% over the last 24 hours to trade at $2,536. This recovery reinforces the optimism among traders that ETH price could hit $3,000 in May, citing strong technicals.Ether wipes out $7.5 million shorts in an ho

Don’t believe the noise: There can never be too many L2s

Opinion by: Igor Mandrigin, co-founder and CTPO of Gateway.fmEvery couple of weeks, it seems another layer 2 rolls out, much to the chagrin of some Web3 industry commentators who are concerned about fragmentation. A recent Gemini Institutional Insights report actually noted how a new Ethereum L2 solution is launched approximately every 19 days. In response to the seemingly endless conveyor belt of new zkEVMs and optimistic rollups coming to market, the chorus of criticism continues to grow loude

Prices are probably going up at Walmart. Target and other retailers will detail the tariff impact this week

This week, the lens on the consumer will narrow, as we get quarterly reports from retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s and other chains.

BTC price to $116K next? Bitcoin trader sees 'early week' all-time high

Key points:Bitcoin is convincing traders that an upside breakout is around the corner, with all-time highs in sight.One target demands $116,000 next week, moving BTC/USD firmly out of its narrow range.A quick dip before continuing higher is among the options for BTC price action into the new week.Bitcoin (BTC) reduced volatility to a minimum into the May 18 weekly close as traders bet on a fresh breakout.BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewBTC price brews classic breakout sign

‘They will drown you too’: My co-worker found out I inherited money — and harassed me to give him a loan

“When I didn’t give him money, this co-worker became so enraged that he went on a whispering campaign.”

‘Bitcoin Standard’ author backs funding dev to make spamming Bitcoin costly

Economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, Saifedean Ammous, has weighed in on the ongoing debate over spam inscriptions on the Bitcoin network, suggesting he would “throw in a few sats” to fund a full-time developer focused on making Bitcoin spamming more difficult and expensive.Ammous made the remarks in response to a thread initiated by the pseudonymous developer GrassFedBitcoin, who called for Bitcoin Core to merge pull request #28408, which would enable node operators to

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 17 report by Bloomberg.After retiring, he turned to cryptocurrency investing, eventually accumulating 17.5 Bitcoin (BTC) and 225 Ether (ETH) — a por

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 for every transaction, including the cryptocurrency used and the amount moved, the UK Revenue and Customs department said in a May 14 statement.Details of comp

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 Kong. The suspects allegedly recruited others to open bank accounts to receive proceeds from fraud cases, which were then converted into crypto at crypto exchange shops

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 Kong. The suspects allegedly recruited others to open bank accounts to receive proceeds from fraud cases, which were then converted into crypto at crypto exchange shops

Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Moody’s degrades US credit rating, Bitcoin’s next explosive move could send the asset to $250,000 by the end of 2025, according to analyst Scott Melker, and the co-founder of World Liberty Financial pushes back against US lawmakers' attempts to probe potential conflicts of interest involving the president.Moody's rating agency degrades US credit ratingMoody's, one of the major credit ratings agencies, downgraded the US government's creditworthiness from Aaa to Aa1 on

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 relationship of one big server talking to one little server," Federa told Cointelegraph in an interview at Conse