News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that the District Court of Rotterdam, Netherlands, has declared the cryptocurrency trading platform Knaken Cryptohandel BV and its affiliated foundation bankrupt. Earlier, the public prosecutor's office stated that approximately 7 million euros (around 8 million US dollars) in client assets from the platform are unrecoverable. The court ruled on Thursday that since Knaken has suspended its platform services and restricted user access to accounts, initiating bankruptcy proceedings will facilitate an orderly liquidation of the company's assets. The court noted that the company's current assets are insufficient to fully repay user funds, and users also lack sufficient information to assess their own legal rights.The Dutch Public Prosecution Service filed the bankruptcy petition on June 30, having already launched a criminal investigation into the missing funds. The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) also raided Knaken's offices in late June, seizing related equipment and assets.Knaken was founded in 2017, headquartered in Rotterdam, and ceased operations in early June this year. According to Dutch media NL Times, the company was not listed on the register of authorized crypto asset service providers maintained by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).The AFM previously stated that after the Netherlands concluded the transition period for the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) on June 30, 2025, it has begun taking regulatory and enforcement actions against unauthorized crypto asset service providers. (Cointelegraph)
Argentine Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez ordered the identification and freezing of a group of wallets linked to Libra, after the Federal Police Cybercrime Technical Department tracked the flow of related funds across multiple crypto networks since May. The investigation involves 8 wallets labeled "Libra team," which are directly connected to the token issuance.The report shows that 4 of these wallets had funneled nearly $57 million to an address, which was previously frozen and then unfrozen by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. On May 10, related funds were transferred to a Tron address via an interoperability protocol, with the amount close to $500,000. At least 10 out of 17 transactions passed through Binance, while another 8 wallets are associated with Bybit, 2 with OKX, and 2 with Bitfinex. Some users involved in the $8.2 million in funds could potentially be identified through the KYC rules of centralized exchanges. The remaining funds are currently managed by Libra Trust, which plans to distribute them as grants to Argentine companies by November. There are already 71 applications pending approval.
According to reports from Lianhe Zaobao, Taiwan's largest virtual currency merchant, Bixiang Technology, colluded with fraud groups to launder 2.3 billion New Taiwan Dollars (approximately 92.13 million Singapore Dollars). The Shilin District Court issued a first-instance verdict on July 16. The mastermind, company head Shi Qiren, who had a background in the Tiandao Alliance gang, was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and criminal proceeds exceeding 43.71 million New Taiwan Dollars were confiscated. It is reported that Shi Qiren was the head of the Taiwan region of the offshore virtual asset exchange CoinW (CoinWin). Since CoinW had not completed the anti-money laundering compliance registration with the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission, he acquired Bixiang Technology, which had passed the compliance declaration, as a shell company for 19.2 million New Taiwan Dollars in October 2023. Subsequently, 45 physical stores were opened across Taiwan to illegally sell Tether (USDT), collaborating with fraud groups to deceive the public through methods such as fake investments, fake friendships, and fake recruitment. Between January 2024 and April 2025, a total of 1,539 victims suffered losses, with the defrauded amount reaching 1.275 billion New Taiwan Dollars, and the overall money laundering amount exceeding 2.3 billion New Taiwan Dollars.
According to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of New York Office of the United States Attorney, two Chinese citizens, Zhuoying Chen (aka "Jolene", 27, Brooklyn) and Haojie Zhang (aka "Kevin", 38, Queens), were formally indicted on July 16 at the Brooklyn Federal Court on charges of conspiracy to launder money. According to the allegations, between 2020 and 2022, the two managed a money laundering network of more than ten people in Queens and Brooklyn, New York, using approximately 45 shell companies and 140 corporate bank accounts to transfer at least $43 million in proceeds from "pig butchering" investment fraud to accounts within China. "Pig butchering" scams contact victims through social media or instant messaging software, gaining trust with false high-return investment opportunities before absconding with the funds. This case was jointly investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI, IRS-CI, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. If convicted, the two defendants each face up to 20 years in prison.
According to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputy Scott Allen Simpkins (34 years old) was sentenced by a federal court on July 13 to 18 months imprisonment and fined $10,000 for obstructing a judicial investigation. Simpkins was previously employed by a private security company under businessman Adam Iza, who claims to be the "godfather" of cryptocurrency. In August 2021, he witnessed Iza threaten party planner R.C. with bullets at his Bel Air mansion, forcing him to transfer $25,000. During the federal investigation in November 2024, Simpkins lied multiple times to the FBI and federal prosecutors, falsely claiming he did not witness the ammunition and financial transactions, thereby interfering with the criminal investigation into Iza. Iza has currently pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to violate rights, wire fraud, tax evasion, and suspected kidnapping and robbery involving Bitcoin, among others, and is awaiting sentencing. This case was jointly investigated by the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.
According to Bloomberg Law, the U.S. Department of Justice plans to drop all criminal charges against Matthew Goettsche, the alleged mastermind of BitClub Network, overturning the indictment decision from 2019. Goettsche was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and selling unregistered securities; the BitClub Network he operated attracted investors under the guise of "mining pool dividends," but actually fabricated returns and is suspected of defrauding investors of over $722 million. The case was originally scheduled for trial in October this year, but the Office of the Deputy Attorney General recently ordered the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey to terminate the prosecution via "dismissal with prejudice," while still seeking to recover some investor losses. Analysts point out that this move is the latest case of the Trump administration significantly scaling back cryptocurrency enforcement actions—both Trump himself and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche hold crypto assets, sparking external questions about conflicts of interest. Previously, three co-defendants had pleaded guilty one after another, while Goettsche's case was delayed for nearly 7 years due to evidence review of approximately 2 million electronic records and multiple breakdowns in plea negotiations.
U.S. prosecutors have recently filed criminal charges against a man currently serving a prison sentence, accusing him of transferring and laundering approximately $290,000 in crypto assets that had been ordered confiscated by a court.According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bulgarian national Rossen Iossifov is charged with, in January 2024, conspiring with others to withdraw and transfer a batch of cryptocurrency assets from his Kraken-registered account that had previously been ordered forfeited by a federal court. Prosecutors allege that these funds were subsequently funneled through cryptocurrency mixing services and trading platforms in an attempt to conceal the source and destination of the funds before the U.S. government could complete the seizure.The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky stated that these crypto assets were held in a Kraken account under Iossifov's name and had been restricted by judicial authorities during the related investigation. The DOJ has not yet disclosed how the account was accessed or whether the involved funds have been recovered.Iossifov was previously convicted of conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy to commit money laundering for his involvement in an online auction fraud ring. Prosecutors allege that his cryptocurrency exchange platform, RG Coins, helped the criminal network convert illicit proceeds into cryptocurrencies and cash, with the network defrauding at least 900 U.S. victims. Previous investigations showed that Iossifov processed nearly $5 million in crypto asset money laundering transactions in less than three years.A court had previously ordered Iossifov to pay over $2.6 million in restitution and to forfeit the related crypto assets. The new charges include obstruction of property seizure, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 25 years in prison.The U.S. Department of Justice emphasized that the indictment represents only charges and that Iossifov is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. (Cointelegraph)
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett tweeted that Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied its preliminary injunction application in the case involving Kalshi, allowing the case to proceed to the motion to dismiss stage. The court held that New York State gambling law applies to Kalshi's sports event contracts, and such application is not preempted by the Commodity Exchange Act. This ruling means Kalshi has suffered another unfavorable setback in the relevant legal dispute.
Odaily, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina resident Trevor Vernon and his company, Argent Capital Management LLC, accusing them of defrauding approximately 60 investors out of a total of $14 million through a fraudulent commodity pool.According to the complaint filed by the CFTC on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, the commodity pool operated by Vernon and his company involved trading in multiple asset classes, including stock index futures options, stock index futures contracts, and crypto assets.The CFTC alleges that Vernon misled investors by portraying himself as a "successful trader" through quarterly financial updates and monthly performance review emails. In reality, however, he incurred substantial losses while trading with investor funds.The regulator stated that Vernon suffered cumulative losses of at least $8.6 million from trading futures, options, and crypto assets. The CFTC claims that his actual trading results were marked by "consistent and catastrophic losses," which significantly contradicted the profitability he presented to investors.
Odaily A federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut has revived common law fraud claims in the Genesis Yield lawsuit against Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert, DCG, and other defendants, while allowing federal securities law claims in the case to proceed.The ruling amends a prior decision by the court from February of this year. The plaintiffs had argued that the court has jurisdiction to hear their state law claims under the Class Action Fairness Act. Judge Stefan Underhill accepted this argument and reopened the relevant state law claims.The case revolves around the defunct Genesis Yield lending program, which allowed users to deposit crypto assets and earn interest. Investors allege that Silbert, DCG, and other defendants misled customers about the company's financial health and risk controls before Genesis suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy in early 2023.However, not all state law claims were revived. The court dismissed consumer protection claims from four states and stayed related claims from three others. Overall, the ruling re-centers the dispute regarding fraud liability for DCG and Silbert as a focal point of the case. (The Block)
the Shanghai Baoshan District Procuratorate disclosed a case yesterday. The defendant, Huang, illegally crossed the border to participate in telecom fraud activities abroad, inducing victims to invest in virtual currencies. After the dissolution of the Myawaddy compound in Myanmar, he continued to engage in "pig-butchering" scam fraud. By using methods such as AI face-swapping and communicating through foreign models, he gained victims' trust and then guided them to participate in cryptocurrency investments. Subsequently, a team leader would take over, tricking the victims into registering, depositing, and investing on fake websites. He was ultimately sentenced by the court to two years and six months in prison for fraud, and fined 30,000 Chinese yuan. (CCTV News)
According to news from the Jing'an Procuratorate, the People's Procuratorate of Jing'an District, Shanghai has publicly prosecuted a criminal gang involved in illegal foreign exchange conversion using cross-border virtual currency matching in accordance with the law. The gang used overseas "private banks" as a cover and, through an "RMB—Virtual Currency—Foreign Exchange" matching model, provided illegal currency exchange services to high-net-worth clients with needs for overseas property purchase, immigration, or study abroad funds, charging a 3% currency exchange service fee. The case spanned 3 years, involving over 200 million yuan. On June 10, 2026, the court held a session and announced the verdict in court. The 9 involved personnel were handled categorically, among whom 5 were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from six years to two years and six months, and fined ranging from 1.5 million yuan to 300,000 yuan, while the other 4 were given relative non-prosecution treatment due to minor circumstances. Currently, the Shanghai Branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has initiated administrative case filing investigations against the non-prosecuted personnel, building a "criminal accountability + administrative punishment" cross-border financial governance closed loop.
OdailyOdaily reports that the Dutch Public Prosecution Service has requested the Rotterdam District Court to declare crypto platform Knaken Cryptohandel and its affiliated entity Stichting Knaken Payments bankrupt, citing "public interest" as the reason. Knaken has been offline since the beginning of June, leaving approximately 30,000 customers unable to access their funds.Knaken had allowed users to exchange euros for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and provided trading and digital asset storage services. Under EU crypto regulations, such activities require a license from the Dutch market regulator AFM, but Knaken did not obtain the necessary authorization. Additionally, a separate criminal investigation initiated by the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service is ongoing. On Monday, investigators searched relevant premises, seizing laptops, mobile phones, and company assets. No arrests have been made so far. (Decrypt)
According to The Paper, 14 individual consumers and three small businesses filed an antitrust class-action lawsuit on June 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of conspiring to manipulate DRAM supply and pricing since 2022, leading to an approximately 700% increase in memory prices over the past four years. The plaintiffs claim the three companies used the transition to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) as an excuse to artificially cut supply of traditional DDR3 and DDR4 memory, disregarding "all economic and business logic". The lawsuit also cites Apple's recent price increases for iPads and Macs as evidence that supply restrictions have affected downstream products. If successful, the defendants are required to pay treble damages, and the scope of the lawsuit may expand to all consumers and businesses purchasing products containing DRAM. Notably, Samsung and SK Hynix were previously fined in the U.S. for price-fixing behavior in the early 2000s, and Samsung was even handed a $300 million criminal fine in 2005. Investment bank Jefferies predicts that the high level of memory prices is difficult to reverse in the short term, with prices still expected to rise quarter-on-quarter by 30% to 50% in the third and fourth quarters of 2026, and a significant decline may not occur until 2028 at the earliest.
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.