Cryptocurrency

Some fans expected GTA 6 to acknowledge how many criminals embrace cryptocurrency. Even so, an insider now refutes an earlier report that the game will support these digital payments. Meme Bitcoins inspired by the franchise have surfaced, but Rockstar has kept GTA Online servers crypto-free.

Once again, several high-profile crimes have taken place during this year's holidays. Hackers pulled off a major coup with a supply chain attack on Trust Wallet, which apparently involved up to $7 million in cryptocurrencies.

A $19 billion crash erased billions from crypto markets, but prices rebounded sharply within 48 hours. Bitcoin and Ethereum led the surge, while total capitalization swung back to $4 trillion in one of the fastest crypto recoveries on record.

The world's biggest public crypto trading platform has teamed up wth the largest phone maker to offer direct trading access. A Coinbase One credit card can now be used for free with an introductory promo on Galaxy phones, too.

A Japanese marketplace that offers games and comics is fighting back against Mastercard and Visa. DLsite stopped using the payment processors after it demanded censorship of adult content. Fans now hope that Steam and itch.io will also turn to digital banks that don’t support delisting games.

BlockBlasters, a verified title on Steam, was removed after it stole players' cryptocurrency to the tune of an estimated $150,000 over a period of one month. The game, released in July 2025, reportedly stole from 261 user accounts, including that of a Twitch streamer who was collecting donations for his cancer treatment.

Arkham Intelligence has revealed that a December 2020 breach of Chinese mining pool LuBian siphoned 127,426 Bitcoins, worth $3.5 billion then and $14.5 billion today, via a weak 32-bit key-generation flaw.

President Trump has signed the GENIUS Act into law, enabling broader issuance and use of asset-backed stablecoins pegged to the US dollar. While potentially enabling faster, lower-cost electronic payments versus card payments, stablecoins do not come with loss protection from the FDIC or interest when held.

ChatGPT OpenAI Agent has computer and web access to complete complex tasks on its own, with improved AI LLM performance versus prior models. However, the AI is also potentially more dangerous, including the possibility of unauthorized bitcoin transfers and biological weapon creation.

Fans usually check the official Stellar Blade X account for the latest news on the PC and PS5 game. However, instead, a crypto scammer has asked followers to invest in a new coin. While the posts have disappeared, the game's developer has yet to regain access.

A studio headed by John Smedley, Tramell Issac, and Matt Higby has announced a new open-world persistent first-person shooter called Reaper Actual. The game will have both PvP and PvE, as well as Etherlink blockchain integration for in-game trading.

A recent report from TRM Labs has shed light on the inner workings of Nobitex, Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange. TRM’s analysis revealed that the platform was built with obfuscation tools, VIP bypass logic, and deep integration into Iran’s restricted banking system — raising serious concerns about the intent behind its design.

The first half of 2025 set a grim new record for the crypto industry, with over $2.1 billion stolen in hacks and exploits. This surge was overwhelmingly driven by state-sponsored cybercrime, highlighted by the single largest crypto heist ever: the $1.5 billion attack on the Bybit exchange, attributed by analysts to North Korea.

Sheriff Chuck Havard of Jasper County, Texas, announced on June 17, 2025, that the Sheriff’s Office, with the support of Hardin County police, successfully cut open a Bitcoin ATM in Hardin County and recovered $31,900. This was done in response to a family's report of losing $25,000 to scammers.

Princeton researchers expose a “memory poisoning” flaw in LLM agents: malicious context injections buried in vector stores can override guardrails and hijack crypto wallets.

Stader Labs has launched Cabbage, an AI-powered memecoin trading platform, as part of a strategic push to combine intelligent trading tools with long-term token value creation. With real-time analytics and one-click execution, Cabbage aims to bring structure to the chaotic memecoin market. At the same time, Stader is tying Cabbage revenue directly to SD token buybacks, giving token holders a tangible stake in the platform’s success.

Web3 gaming faces turbulence as projects stall and token values drop. Affyn’s CEO warns of uncertainty in a recent update, highlighting the pressure on blockchain games to deliver real results amid growing scepticism.

CheckMag YouTube has been drowning in ads promising "1-2 ETH per day" for at least two months now. These ads typically take you to videos of people claiming to be AI bot developers who supposedly explain how to start making boatloads of money with a few mouse clicks - no need to have coding skills or do hard work.

Blockchain.com, a crypto wallet is offering fee-free send transactions for Wildfire Relief Fund 2025. Crypto currency is now being used to help those in need from the California wildfires.

The cryptocurrency-friendly bank Sygnum has surpassed the $1 billion value mark after raising $58 million in its most recent investment round. Some of Sygnum's staff got involved as well, and the round was supported by crypto-focused venture capital firm Fulgur Ventures.

Mara has acquired a wind farm in Hansford County, Texas, for $240 million. The wind farm, with a 240 MW interconnection capacity and 114 MW nameplate capacity, will power a data center Mara plans to develop at the site, providing 100% renewable energy and eliminating marginal energy costs.

On December 11, 2024, a man by the name of Nuruhussein Hussein was arrested for stealing cryptocurrency from two victims. His scheme was simple; he posed as an Uber driver, found a reason to ask to use their phones, then got into their Coinbase accounts.

Bitcoin has finally crossed the long-awaited six figures mark. The cryptocurrency is up 140% in 2024 and is expected to continue its upward trajectory under the upcoming Trump administration.

Ultra Games' open-world game Paradise caused a stir two months ago with an impressive trailer. After having amassed over 650,000 views, it has now become clear that Paradise is simply a crypto rip-off from Russia rather than an alternative to GTA VI.

Although those over-the-top predictions that mentioned figures well above the $100,000 threshold failed to come to fruition year after year, the world's first cryptocurrency has finally managed to break the $80,000 barrier. Today, Bitcoin's all-time high became $81,054.70, three years after it hit $69,000 for the first time.

Deutsche Telekom has announced an agreement with Bankhaus Metzler to trial Bitcoin mining using excess green energy in peak production moments, thus stabilizing the balance between supply and demand in a rather unorthodox way.

The BingX cryptocurrency exchange has lost over $52 million to a hot wallet hack. The hack occurred around 4 pm UTC+8 in Singapore. BingX has frozen transfers and initiated emergency procedures to minimize losses.

With a federal debt of over $35 trillion, the US is looking at solutions to reduce this figure, and Bitcoin might be the answer. A recent proposal by US Senator Cynthia Lummis mentions the purchase of one million bitcoins, which accounts for 5% of the total supply. However, this initiative is still being discussed.

WazirX has outlined a strategy to address a recent cyberattack that resulted in the loss of over $230 million in crypto assets. The crypto exchange has implemented a two-tiered recovery plan, allowing users to choose between prioritized asset recovery with limited access or immediate access with delayed recovery. To mitigate losses, WazirX will distribute recovered funds among affected users through a “balanced crypto basket” approach.

Major Indian crypto exchange WazirX suffered a security breach, losing over $230 million in digital assets. The company posted a tweet on 18th July (3:48 AM EDT) announcing suspension of withdrawals as they investigate the incident - which reportedly involved a compromised multisig wallet. North Korean hackers are responsible for this incident, as per Elliptic.

Well-known YouTuber and ethical hacker Joe Grand, along with fellow software wizard Bruno successfully reverse-engineered a password generation tool and discovered a critical flaw in its earlier version. Thanks to this feat, they were able to re-create the password for a Bitcoin wallet which had been locked since 2013, allowing its owner to regain access to his fortune - worth now over $3 million.

Bill Gates’ TerraPower has started construction on its sodium-cooled Natrium nuclear power plant in Wyoming. Partnering with the US Dept. of Energy, the project reactor will provide 345-megawatts of electricity to help meet surging electricity demand from AI, EV, and cryptocurrency use. This clean energy alternative to solar and wind farms is not affected by changing sunlight and wind conditions.

The US is second to none with ~143,000 BTC mined in 2023 according to a report by BitRiver, the leading Russian cryptocurrency mining farm operator. This corresponds to $9.6 billion at May 18, 2024 value. Russia is a distant second with ~54,000 BTC, followed by Persian Gulf region countries.

The founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has been sentenced to four months in prison for putting profits above the law. The company was found guilty of inadvertently helping fund various criminal activities around the globe. Zhao pleaded guilty on the last day of April and he now has to spend several months in prison in the United States in addition to paying hefty fines.

After spending more than two years at lower altitudes, Bitcoin returned above the $60,000 threshold earlier today. With a few months left until the next so-called "halvening" and thanks to favorable market conditions, Bitcoin could hit a new all-time high not long after the three-fold increase that took no less than 16 months.

As part of an ongoing investigation that involves German authorities, an unnamed forensic IT company from Munich, and the FBI. Roughly 50,000 bitcoins were seized from two people suspected of money laundering and more. The two individuals allegedly got these funds while in charge of an illegal file-sharing platform.

The registration of a new X/Twitter account with apparent direct links to the company may be connected to its owner Elon Musk's long-held aspirations of converting it into an "everything app". On that note, the same social media platform has also just enabled video and audio calling on Android, whereas the pay-walled feature had heretofore been exclusive to iOS.

The X account of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees and regulates investments, was hacked earlier this week. The hackers created a false post stating that Bitcoin ETFs had been approved for trading. The hack was confirmed by X.

Recorded Future’s Insikt Group reported that hackers backed by a regime have acquired an estimated US$3 billion by targeting the cryptocurrency and finance industry, with South Korea being their primary target, as well as the rest of the West.

Previously rumored to arrive as PayPal Coin, the brand's first step into the crypto market finally took place yesterday. The PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin, which will be soon traded via the PayPal apps/website, is fully backed by USD deposits alongside short-term US treasuries and similar cash equivalents.

After shelving Bitcoin as a payment method due to criticism over environmental concerns, it appears that Tesla may start accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for its electric vehicles in the near future. The site's code also makes mention of Dogecoin, which is Elon Musk's favourite crypto flavour. The company has not announced any intentions to resume Bitcoin payments just yet.

While the first 3 nm chips from big companies like Apple could launch in late 2023, obscure companies like MicroBT already offer 3 nm technology to cryptominers for a substantial premium. MicroBT's M56S++ model was recently discovered to feature ASICs produced on Samsung's first gen 3 nm nodes with gate-all-around transistor design.

BlackRock's new Bitcoin ETF would give millions of Americans easy access to crypto investments, which has pushed the digital currency market to prices that haven't been seen in over twelve months. Aside from the positive developments in the US, German crypto fans have also received intriguing news.

The entire Bitcoin whitepaper can be accessed in pdf form through the Image Capture utility or directly opening it through a terminal command. It has been "a feature" since the 2018 Mojave update, but anonymous sources claim that it will soon be removed.

Despite the billions in profits from graphics cards bought for crypto mining rigs, NVIDIA's Chief Technical Officer confirmed that the company has a love-hate relationship with cryptocurrencies. 'I never believed that is something that will do something good for humanity,' said Kagan.

While the crypto market continues to struggle, Japanese authorities are planning to test the use of an official digital coin. The country's central bank revealed that a digital yen will be tested starting in April. Last year, China completed the first test of its e-CNY central bank digital currency (CDBC).

After climbing more than US$6,000 in the last 30 days, Bitcoin has reached a price of over US$23,000. While this translates to a solid growth of around 37%, there is a long road ahead until the all-time high value of US$68,789.63. For now, the value of the world's first cryptocurrency is 66% below its ATH.

Brazilian YouTuber Iskandar Souza and GPU repair specialist Paulo Gomes expose a new scheme involving used mining GPUs sold as new from Chinese online retailers. In order to hide the yellow tint on VRAM, cryptominers are now repainting the chips complete with realistic-looking serial numbers.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, has been arrested and detained in the Bahamas. The entrepreneur, who has now lost his billionaire status, could end up being sentenced to as much as 115 years in prison after being indicted of eight charges that include wire fraud of various types and conspiracy to defraud the United States.