News linked to both this project and an event.
According to disclosures on the official website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a default final judgment on June 16, 2026, regarding the NanoBit crypto fraud case, involving four entities and two individuals. Reportedly, since September 2023, the fraud participants, posing as financial professionals through WhatsApp groups, induced investors to deposit funds into the fake crypto trading platform NanoBit and promised high returns through fake ICO projects. The platform falsely claimed that its affiliate NanobitUS Securities was an SEC-registered broker-dealer, but in reality, no real transactions ever occurred on the platform; over $2 million in investor funds were transferred to Hong Kong bank accounts, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto assets were misappropriated. The final judgment requires the defendants to pay a total of over $5 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest, and permanently prohibits them from violating relevant securities laws.
Coinbase officially stated it is cooperating with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in New York to assist in investigating a long-term impersonation scam targeting platform users and supporting victims in recovering funds.According to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, a Brooklyn man has been charged with long-term impersonation of Coinbase customer service. Using social engineering tactics, he tricked users into believing their accounts had been compromised and instructed them to transfer funds to a "secure wallet," subsequently moving and stealing the funds. The case involves approximately 100 victims, with the total amount involved nearing $16 million. Over $600,000 has been recovered so far.Coinbase stated that this type of scam does not stem from platform security vulnerabilities but is a social engineering attack exploiting user trust and a sense of urgency. Common methods include identity forgery, impersonating customer service, and creating panic over account risks. The company stated it has cooperated with law enforcement agencies to complete various investigative tasks, including identifying suspects, assisting with victim notifications, providing data support for legal requests, and conducting on-chain fund tracing. It emphasized that blockchain traceability helps law enforcement track the flow of funds.Coinbase also reminded users that the platform will never ask them to transfer funds to a "secure wallet" or request 2FA codes, seed phrases, or password reset links. It recommends that users only contact customer service through official in-app channels. The company will continue to strengthen its anti-fraud mechanisms, user education, and cooperation with law enforcement agencies to address increasingly sophisticated crypto asset fraud activities.
a federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts, has blocked the implementation of U.S. President Trump’s executive order aimed at tightening mail-in voting regulations, preventing the order from taking effect before the November elections that will determine control of Congress. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani supported the claims of a coalition of Democratic-led states, which argued that Trump is unlawfully attempting to interfere with state administration of federal elections.The judge noted that the President lacks the authority to compile state voter rolls, and the U.S. Postal Service also has no statutory authorization to establish binding mail-in voting rules. Under the U.S. Constitution, the responsibility for administering federal elections lies with the states. (CCTV)
According to Cryptopolitan, prediction market platform Kalshi has filed a lawsuit against Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, among other officials, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois over the state’s newly signed SB3019 bill. The bill requires prediction market platforms to obtain state-level operating licenses and imposes a 0.2% tax on digital asset transactions involving Illinois residents; it is set to take effect on July 1. Kalshi argues that, as a CFTC-registered platform, it is protected under the Commodity Exchange Act, which grants the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over exchange-traded derivatives—a federal authority that conflicts with the state-level regulatory framework. The company has also sought both a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to prevent the bill from taking effect as scheduled.
this week that Kalshi has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Governor JB Pritzker, and other state officials.Kalshi stated that the state's budget bill, SB3019, which requires prediction market platforms to obtain state-level licenses and is set to take effect on July 1, conflicts with the federal preemption provision of the Commodity Exchange Act, putting it in a position of either violating federal or state law. According to Kalshi, if it ceases to offer sports event contracts in Illinois to comply with the bill, it would violate the uniformity requirements of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and harm its business interests. Kalshi has requested the court to grant a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction to prevent Illinois from enforcing the law. (The Block)
According to Crypto in America, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Sheriffs’ Association jointly sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council, expressing strong opposition to Section 604 of the “Clarity Act”—the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). Law enforcement groups argue that this provision could create regulatory loopholes exploitable by criminals for illicit activities including drug trafficking, fraud, child exploitation, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency-backed candidates achieved sweeping victories in primary elections across Maryland, New York, and Utah. Fairshake—a pro-crypto super PAC—has collectively spent over $7.6 million supporting these candidates, including $5.5 million backing Adrian Boafo, the candidate for Maryland’s 5th congressional district. Miller Whitehouse-Levine, founder of the Solana Policy Institute, warned that August 7, 2026, may be the final window for Congress to pass cryptocurrency market structure legislation. He stated that the industry is willing to make limited revisions to the BRCA provisions to address law enforcement concerns—but firmly opposes any fundamental changes that would weaken the core protections enshrined in the provision. Additionally, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on “The Future of Payments” the same day.
According to The Block, four major U.S. law enforcement organizations—the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Sheriffs’ Association—jointly wrote to the Department of Justice and the White House, warning that Section 604 of the “Clarity Act” (i.e., the “Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act”) contains regulatory loopholes. This provision offers a “safe harbor” exemption for non-custodial developers; law enforcement agencies contend that it could shield individuals or entities assisting in the transfer of crypto assets, hinder investigations and prosecutions of crypto-related crimes, and weaken the existing anti-money laundering framework.
the U.S. CFTC on Tuesday sued Kentucky, attempting to prevent the state from regulating prediction market platforms as illegal sports betting and gambling operations, further establishing federal jurisdiction over prediction markets.Previously, Kentucky had last week sued platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket, accusing them of operating unlicensed illegal sports betting and gambling businesses within the state.In its complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the CFTC stated that Kentucky’s attempt to shut down federally regulated designated contract markets interferes with the federal regulatory system established by Congress for the national swaps market. The agency claims "exclusive jurisdiction" over event contracts and prediction market products.Kentucky has become the ninth state that the CFTC has sued in the prediction market regulatory dispute, indicating that the conflict between federal derivatives regulation and state-level gambling oversight continues to escalate.
Odaily Odaily News, the Hong Kong District Court today sentenced a cross-border money laundering case. A 34-year-old mainland Chinese woman was convicted of four counts of money laundering and sentenced to 47.5 months in prison for opening multiple shell accounts at a local digital bank to assist a cross-border criminal syndicate in laundering criminal proceeds, and for purchasing cryptocurrencies at a virtual asset exchange shop to conceal the source and destination of the funds.Investigations revealed that the woman laundered approximately 9.29 million Hong Kong dollars in suspected criminal proceeds between August and September 2024. Furthermore, between June and September 2024, this cross-border money laundering syndicate used 43 local bank accounts to receive proceeds from 34 fraud cases, involving approximately 18 million Hong Kong dollars. It is suspected that they used local bank accounts for cryptocurrency transactions, laundering up to 230 million Hong Kong dollars in suspected criminal proceeds. (hk01)
Odaily Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its Chairman Michael Selig in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, concerning the agency's routine approval of cryptocurrency perpetual futures. The lawsuit stems from the CFTC’s May 29 approval of a perpetual futures contract linked to the spot price of Bitcoin by prediction market platform Kalshi, and the issuance of a no-action position for a similar product on the Coinbase exchange. In the filing, CME argues that the CFTC's treatment of "futures" with expiration dates as "swaps" violates directives from the U.S. Congress and the Commodity Exchange Act, and requests the court to invalidate the relevant perpetual futures actions. CME also claims that Selig acted unilaterally without a full panel of five commissioners. A CFTC spokesperson stated that CME is waging a "legal battle" against the agency and the government’s crypto policy, calling the lawsuit "frivolous." Kraken has also announced the launch of perpetual futures trading for U.S. users via the CFTC-regulated platform Bitnomial.
According to the Xinhua Daily, police in Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, have cracked a cross-border online pornography-related criminal case. The pornographic manga website “Xiuxiu Seman” lured adolescents into making frequent small-value top-ups for profit. The site recorded over 100 million page views, with illicit transaction volumes reaching more than RMB 12 million (approximately USD 1.66 million). Police investigations revealed that domestic suspects received illicit funds through multiple corporate and personal accounts, and then transferred the proceeds overseas via virtual currencies under the direction of Li Mouwu and others. Recently, the Ya’an City Mingshan District People’s Court issued a first-instance verdict, sentencing five defendants to prison terms for crimes including profiting from disseminating obscene materials and aiding information network-related criminal activities. Judicial authorities are still investigating the overseas financial backers behind the website.
: The U.S. CFTC has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico against Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Attorney General Raúl Torrez, and other officials, aiming to prevent the state from applying gambling regulations to prediction market platforms.Previously, New Mexico sued Kalshi, accusing it of offering unauthorized sports betting to state residents and allowing users below the state's legal gambling age of 21 to participate. The New Mexico Attorney General stated that legal gambling in the state can only operate under tribal-state gaming compacts or a strict state regulatory framework.The CFTC argues that platforms like Kalshi offer federally regulated derivative contracts, not gambling products under state law. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stated that New Mexico is attempting to impose state gambling laws on a federal derivatives exchange that falls under the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction.Over the past few months, the CFTC has filed lawsuits against several states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, Connecticut, and New York, to establish its regulatory authority over sports prediction markets. This week, the agency also proposed broader rules for prediction markets that still generally permit sports-related contracts, indicating an escalating conflict between federal and state governments over the boundaries of prediction markets and sports betting.
Odaily Odaily News Recently, the Haidian District Court ruled on a fraud case. Retiree Meng, addicted to virtual currency trading and unwilling to use her own pension, pretended to be a young woman named Xiaohong, claiming to work for a central ministry in her 20s, on a short video platform. She established an online romantic relationship with a young man. Under the pretext of needing urgent surgery fees for a family member and preparing for overseas study exams, Meng defrauded the man of more than 200,000 yuan.Meng invested all of the defrauded 200,000 yuan into virtual currency trading, opening a ten-times leverage position. Subsequently, due to a market downturn, her position was liquidated, resulting in a total loss of all funds. The Haidian District Procuratorate previously indicted Meng for fraud. Ultimately, the Haidian District Court sentenced Meng to four years in prison and imposed a fine, while also ordering her to compensate the victim for his economic losses. (Beijing Evening News)
the Qingdao Licang District Procuratorate issued an announcement stating that the defendant, surnamed Zhang, took advantage of an opportunity to register a virtual currency wallet on behalf of the victim to obtain the seed phrase, and subsequently transferred 107 Bitcoins from the victim, surnamed Feng, in multiple batches during the early morning hours. Zhang then layered the transfers through various virtual currency trading platforms, converting the Bitcoin into over 660,000 RMB. The Qingdao Licang District People's Court sentenced Zhang to 10 years and 9 months in prison and imposed a fine of 100,000 RMB for the crime of theft in the first instance.After the defendant appealed, the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court ruled to dismiss the appeal and uphold the original verdict. The case determined the theft amount based on the actual illegal proceeds from the sale, totaling over 660,000 RMB. (Shandong Legal Daily)
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Texas resident Nathan Fuller, alleging he fraudulently raised approximately $12.3 million from about 150 investors through a fake "AI crypto trading bot" project.The SEC stated that from October 2022 to mid-2024, Fuller offered and sold crypto investment joint venture interests through entities named Privvy Investments LLC and Gateway Digital Investments. He claimed to use an "AI high-frequency arbitrage bot" for crypto asset trading and promised investors "guaranteed returns" of 40% to over 100% within 21 to 45 days.Regulators allege that Fuller also falsely claimed investment funds were protected by FDIC insurance, surety bonds, and professional liability insurance. In reality, the purported trading bot did not operate as advertised. The SEC charges that Fuller misappropriated at least $6.2 million of investor funds for personal expenses and used approximately $5.5 million from new investors for "Ponzi-like payments," while misleading investors through fake account statements and fictitious institutional communications.The SEC has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, accusing Fuller of violating securities offering and anti-fraud laws, and is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and civil penalties.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a motion to intervene in litigation before the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to block Rhode Island’s enforcement—under state gambling laws—against CFTC-registered prediction markets. The CFTC asserts that it holds clear and longstanding exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts under the Commodity Exchange Act, and that applicable state laws cannot override designated contract markets. Previously, Rhode Island had initiated a parallel state-court action seeking substantial civil penalties and demanding that the prediction markets cease operations and disgorge profits. This case marks the latest instance—following similar challenges by Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and Minnesota—in which a state government has contested the CFTC’s regulatory authority over prediction markets.
the Cangshan District People's Procuratorate of Fuzhou City disclosed that a man was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for stealing 4 Bitcoins from another person and illegally profiting approximately 900,000 yuan. The verdict was upheld in the second instance.According to the case details, at the end of 2020, a person surnamed Wang commissioned a person surnamed Lin to assist in liquidating his Bitcoin holdings. While accessing Wang's Bitcoin wallet hard drive and computer, Lin stole the wallet's "private key" and related data, transferred 4 Bitcoins to his own account, and subsequently sold them off for profit. In 2024, Wang discovered the asset anomaly and reported it to the police, leading to Lin's arrest.The procuratorate stated that although current Chinese regulations clarify that virtual currencies do not hold legal tender status, Bitcoin possesses value, manageability, and transferability, which aligns with the general characteristics of "property" under criminal law. Therefore, it constitutes an object of property crimes, and related infringing actions will also be subject to criminal liability.
: Bitcoin financial services company Swan Bitcoin (along with its operating entity Electric Solidus Inc. named as defendants) is facing a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, with claims approaching $1 billion.The lawsuit was filed by PCT Litigation Trust, aiming to recover crypto assets related to the 2023 collapse of Prime Trust. The plaintiff accuses Swan of using "material non-public information" to transfer funds out of Prime Trust before its failure, thereby avoiding significant losses.According to the court filing, Swan had transferred assets including approximately 11,992 Bitcoin (currently valued at around $917 million) out of Prime Trust before it filed for bankruptcy, along with roughly $22.4 million in fiat currency, $5 million in stablecoins, and 91,444 XRP tokens.The plaintiff also alleges that Swan had ties to a senior executive at Prime Trust, who also served as an external consultant for Swan. This individual is suspected of providing Swan with information prior to regulatory meetings, thereby helping the company withdraw its assets early.Swan Bitcoin responded, stating that the relevant assets belong to client trust property and should not be used for bankruptcy liquidation, expressing confidence that the court will ultimately support its position. (Decrypt)
According to The Block, Bitcoin Depot (BTM), a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin ATM operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 18th in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, announcing an orderly liquidation and asset sale. CEO Alex Holmes stated that increasingly stringent state-level compliance requirements, transaction limit restrictions, and operational bans in certain regions have rendered the company’s existing business model unsustainable. Previously, the company suffered a security breach in April 2026, resulting in a $3.7 million loss; its Q1 2026 revenue declined 49.2% year-on-year, with a net loss of $9.5 million. Currently, all over 9,000 Bitcoin ATMs operated globally by Bitcoin Depot have been taken offline, and its overseas entities—including those in Canada—will also be shut down.
According to The Block, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held oral arguments in the appeal filed by Roman Sterlingov, the alleged operator of Bitcoin Fog. The court focused on whether prosecutors presented sufficient evidence that Bitcoin Fog operated in Washington, D.C., and whether U.S. unlicensed money transmission laws apply to global cryptocurrency service platforms serving U.S. users. Judges also questioned the reliability of FBI evidence linking Sterlingov to Bitcoin Fog based on “IP address overlap” analysis. Sterlingov was previously convicted in 2024 of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. The outcome of this case may influence the scope of U.S. enforcement actions—under Section 1960—against developers and service providers of cryptocurrency privacy tools.