Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 16:48 May 18, 2025
Bodyguard security firms are experiencing increased demand from cryptocurrency executives in response to a disturbing rise in kidnappings. 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. Additionally, French law enforcement officials recently announced enhanced security measures for crypto entrepreneurs and investors, following at least three separate kidnapping incidents so far in 2025. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:05 May 18, 2025
Ethereum's price dropped to $2,400 on May 17 before resuming its rally, which can take ETH toward $3,000 or more. 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. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:00 May 18, 2025
The rapid rise of Ethereum layer 2s isn’t a problem. It’s a sign of healthy growth and innovation. The future isn’t chain consolidation but a thriving ecosystem of thousands of specialized L2s. Opinion by: Igor Mandrigin, co-founder and CTPO of Gateway.fm Every 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 louder: “This is definitely the saturation point, no more chains are needed.” Some of the most outspoken critics of L2s argue that L2s are redundant, but this is narrow thinking. In many ways, the idea that creating new L2s should be slowed down is like arguing that there were too many websites in 1998. The proliferation of L2s is n... -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:30 May 18, 2025
Bitcoin is in line to leave its tight range behind in the coming days — even retaking all-time highs and pushing into price discovery after several months. 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. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:40 May 18, 2025
Saifedean Ammous says he would “throw in a few sats” to fund a developer dedicated to making Bitcoin spam more 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 filter inscriptions more easily. According to GrassFedBitcoin, the lack of inscription filtering tools contributes to unnecessary blockchain bloat and undermines Bitcoin (BTC)’s role as a monetary protocol. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:13 May 18, 2025
A retired fabricator was tricked into entering his seed phrase on a fake Coinbase site, losing a crypto portfolio worth $2 million. 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 portfolio that comprised most of his retirement savings. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 04:57 May 18, 2025
UK crypto firms will need to report customer transactions on their platforms from 2026 onward as part of an initiative to strengthen crypto tax reporting practices. 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 companies, trusts and charities transacting on crypto platforms will also need to be reported. Failure to comply or inaccurate reporting may incur penalties of up to 300 British pounds ($398.4) per user. The UK Revenue and Customs department said it would inform companies on how to comply with the incoming measures in due course. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 00:49 May 18, 2025
Hong Kong police have arrested 12 people tied to a $15 million crypto laundering operation, which was dismantled on the same day. 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 to launder the illicit funds, Hong Kong Commercial Daily reported on May 17. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 22:14 May 17, 2025
The blockchain sector has matured and now requires physical communication infrastructure, according to DoubleZero co-founder Austin Federa. 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 Consensus 2025. The executive explained: The executive added that the constraint posed by public internet infrastructure is now the limiting factor in blockchain performance and not compute power or software development. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:55 May 17, 2025
Arthur Hayes predicts Bitcoin could reach $1 million by 2028, an analyst says altcoins “powerful rally” looms: Hodler’s Digest Bitcoin has two strong tailwinds that will help propel it to seven digits in a few years, according to former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes. For Hayes, shifting capital controls worldwide and US Treasury devaluation means that Bitcoin will become the go-to safety net for investors everywhere. He summarized: Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:40 May 17, 2025
Rising debt and no concrete plans to reduce government spending are the primary drivers behind the reduced credit assessment for the US. Moody's credit rating agency downgraded the credit rating of the United States government from Aaa to Aa1, citing the rising national debt as the primary driver behind the reduction in creditworthiness. According to the May 16 announcement from the rating agency, US lawmakers have failed to stem annual deficits or reduce spending over the years, leading to a growing national debt. The rating agency wrote: The credit downgrade is only one degree out of the 21-notch rating scale used by the company to assess the credit health of an entity. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:05 May 17, 2025
Unsustainable costs and opaque pricing have created a major pain point for large financial institutions, Michael James told Cointelegraph. Michael James, the head of institutional business development at Douro Labs — the company that developed the Pyth high-speed blockchain oracle network — told Cointelegraph that oracle networks like Pyth are disrupting the $50 billion financial data industry that provides critical price information to exchanges, brokerages, trading firms, and other institutional entities. In an interview at Consensus 2025, the executive said that Pyth Network's data pull model sets it apart from traditional pricing oracles, allowing customers to pay for data on demand, reducing costs for institutions reliant on real-time market data. According to the executive, the financial data industry is currently monopolized by around eight major providers that continually raise prices on clients arbitrarily. James added: Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:21 May 17, 2025
There are few places on Earth as Bitcoin-friendly as the scenic Garden Route in South Africa, where Bitcoin circular economies have blossomed. South Africa’s Garden Route, famed for its lush forests, expansive beaches and charming towns, has become a testbed for Bitcoin adoption. From Mossel Bay to Witsand and Plettenberg Bay to Knysna, Bitcoin has become popular among shop owners and travelers alike for a multitude of reasons. “We’re seeing the early signs of a parallel, permissionless economy emerging across an entire region,” James Caw, founder of SimplB — a local crypto asset provider — told Cointelegraph, “where small businesses benefit from faster, lower-cost digital payments and where people have more options to earn, send and receive sound money securely.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:00 May 17, 2025
Fintechs’ reliance on legacy financial infrastructure keeps them slow, costly and inflexible. It’s time to flip the script with a DeFi mullet. This way, companies can deliver more transparent financial services. Opinion by: Merlin Egalite, co-founder at Morpho Labs Fintechs in the front, decentralized finance (DeFi) in the back: the DeFi Mullet. Today’s fintech companies offer excellent user experiences but are constrained by traditional financial infrastructure — siloed, slow, expensive and inflexible. Meanwhile, DeFi provides lightning-fast, cost-effective, interoperable infrastructure but lacks mainstream accessibility. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:09 May 17, 2025
Scott Melker says a $250K Bitcoin price in 2025 is “totally possible,” citing institutional adoption and declining volatility as key drivers. Bitcoin’s next explosive move could send the asset to $250,000 by the end of 2025, according to Scott Melker, a crypto analyst and host of The Wolf of All Streets podcast. Speaking in a recent interview, Melker cited growing institutional interest and diminishing volatility as key factors that could drive the next leg up. “250K this year, totally possible,” Melker said, adding that Bitcoin (BTC)’s volatility has declined significantly in recent years. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:12 May 17, 2025
Everstake met with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force to argue that non-custodial staking is a technical process, not a securities transaction. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has held discussions with Everstake, one of the largest non-custodial staking providers globally, to explore clearer regulatory definitions around staking in blockchain networks. The meeting, which also involved the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, comes at a time when over $193 billion in digital assets are staked across major proof-of-stake (PoS) networks. However, despite the massive scale of participation, staking remains in a legal gray zone in the US as regulators wrestle with its classification under existing securities law. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 07:03 May 17, 2025
Authorities in New Zealand arrested 13 people in a $265 million crypto fraud probe, with one Wellington man indicted under US racketeering laws. A man from Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, has been arrested in connection with an FBI-led investigation into a global cryptocurrency fraud operation that allegedly stole $450 million New Zealand dollars ($265 million). According to New Zealand Police, the man is one of 13 individuals charged after authorities executed search warrants across Auckland, Wellington, and California over the past three days. The charges stem from allegations that members of an organized criminal group manipulated seven victims to obtain large amounts of cryptocurrency, which was then laundered through multiple platforms between March and August 2024. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 05:14 May 17, 2025
The mayor of Panama City seemingly advocated for a city-level Bitcoin reserve in a mysterious post after meeting two of El Salvador’s Bitcoin policy leaders this week. Panama City Mayor Mayer Mizrachi has hinted at establishing a city-level Bitcoin reserve in a cryptic post following his meeting with two of El Salvador’s Bitcoin policy leaders. “Bitcoin Reserve,” Mizrachi wrote to X on May 16 after meeting El Salvador-based Bitcoiners Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert. While Mizrachi didn’t share details about his discussions with Keiser and Herbert, the timing of the post came 11 days before the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, where Mizrachi is scheduled to speak. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 02:27 May 17, 2025
Paraguayan law enforcement has deported three undocumented immigrants from China after they were caught breaking into a crypto mining facility attempting to steal machines. Paraguayan law enforcement has deported three individuals and arrested another for attempting to steal crypto miners at a facility near the country’s Itaipu hydroelectric dam. According to a May 15 statement from Paraguayan prosecutor Irene Rolón, the men were caught by police soon after breaking into a locked section of Teratech SA’s facility in Coronel Bogado, leading to their arrest. Prosecutors believe the men may have had ties to Teratech as independent contractors, but are still waiting on official confirmation from the company’s CEO. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 00:57 May 17, 2025
Bitcoin price consolidation after a powerful double-digit rally is normal. Will the current bull flag confirm and send BTC to new highs? Key takeaways: Traders expect a Bitcoin price pullback to $90,000, but a bull flag could break out to new highs if profit taking near the range highs reduces. On-chain data suggests the current profit taking is too weak to extinguish Bitcoin’s current price momentum. Read more
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