Author: Kryptonews

Tom Lee, chairman of ether ETH$3,120.34 treasury firm BitMine Immersion (BMNR), urged shareholders to approve a board proposal for a sharp increase in the company’s authorized share count.In a start-of-the-year message, Lee said the proposal to boost the company’s number of shares to 50 billion from 500 million is not a precursor to a move to “dilute” shareholders.“[This]t doesn’t mean we’re issuing 50 billion shares. That’s what we want the total max shares to be,” Lee said.Acknowledging that a higher share count does make it easier to enable the company to raise capital, Lee reminded that it also allows BitMine…

Tether bought 8,888 Bitcoin in Q4 2025, lifting its holdings above 96,000 BTC, according to a post by CEO Paolo Ardoino.The purchase extends a strategy Tether has tied to operating results: allocating 15% of quarterly profits to Bitcoin.If USDT liabilities keep expanding and short-term rates remain high enough to keep interest income elevated, that policy can translate stablecoin earnings into recurring spot demand for BTC.The same choice also expands mark-to-market exposure inside a reserve stack built to meet redemptions.That issue has become more central to ratings and regulatory scrutiny.How Tether’s reserve strategy turns stablecoin growth into systemic exposureThe most recent…

An attacker has drained “hundreds” of crypto wallets on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains, siphoning small sums from each victim in what onchain investigator ZachXBT described as a broad but low-value exploit.The losses appear limited on a per-wallet basis, with each victim losing less than $2,000, according to ZachXBT. The activity has affected wallets on several EVM-compatible networks, indicating a widespread incident rather than isolated to a single blockchain. Source: ZachXBTA fraudulent email disguised as legitimate communication from Web3 wallet MetaMask could have been the vehicle for the attack, said cybersecurity researcher Vladimir S., who cited a clue left by…

Key NotesBitfarms sold its 70MW Paso Pe mining site in Paraguay for up to $30 million.The sale marks a complete exit from Latin America for the company.The buyer is the Sympatheia Power Fund, managed by Singapore-based Hawksburn Capital. Bitfarms will sell its 70-megawatt Paso Pe Bitcoin mining site in Paraguay for up to $30 million, completing its exit from Latin America. The company announced the deal on January 2, identifying the buyer as the Sympatheia Power Fund (SPF), a crypto infrastructure fund managed by Singapore-based Hawksburn Capital. Shares of Bitfarms (BITF) rose over 4% in pre-market trading to $2.44 following…

Ilya Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2024 after pleading guilty to charges tied to the 2016 Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange hack, was released from prison after just 14 months behind bars.“Thanks to President [Donald] Trump’s First Step Act, I have been released from prison early,” Lichtenstein said on X on Thursday. “I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can.”Trump signed the First Step Act, a prison and sentencing reform bill proposed and approved by legislators in 2018, purportedly aimed at saving taxpayers money.Lichtenstein thanked his supporters and criticized…

Russia’s Ministry of Justice has proposed new fines for unregistered cryptocurrency miners. This comes after the finance minister raised concerns about the rise in unauthorized mining activities.A draft bill proposed by the ministry would impose a fine of 1.5 million rubles (about $19,000) and up to two years in a labor colony. Illegal mining involving “outsized profits” could see a maximum of five years in prison, 480 hours of forced labor and a fine of up to 2.5 million rubles.Unregistered miners are a growing problem in Russia, where only 30% have registered their operations as of June 19, according to…

Caroline Crenshaw, the sole Democratic member leading the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will be departing the agency this week after serving more than five years.Crenshaw is expected to depart the SEC by Saturday, marking 18 months after her term ended in June 2024. Commissioners are permitted to continue work at the agency, provided the Senate has not confirmed a replacement.The Democratic commissioner, who was sworn into office in August 2020, has often been critical of the agency’s approach to digital assets. She spoke out against the SEC settling its enforcement case with Ripple Labs, and warned that weakening…

Monahan said Coinbase was warned for months before major exploits, yet leadership still prioritizes onboarding users over fixing vulnerabilities. Crypto security researcher Taylor Monahan has publicly slammed Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and accused the exchange’s leadership of prioritizing growth over user safety. Security failures tied to Coinbase Commerce resurfaced as Armstrong unveiled the company’s 2026 roadmap. Old Wounds, New Roadmap Responding to Armstrong’s tweet about Coinbase’s top priorities for 2026, which focused on expanding a global “everything exchange,” scaling stablecoins and payments, and bringing the world on-chain through Base, Monahan argued that user protection remains noticeably absent. She wrote, “Brian…

BitVentures Limited has entered the cryptocurrency mining sector, launching a new digital assets business less than two weeks after rebranding to reflect its new focus on blockchain-related ventures.The Hong Kong–based technology company said it has acquired fleets of mining hardware from Bitmain, including three types of Antminer machines, to mine Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE), according to a Friday report from Investing.com.The company said the acquisition includes 0.5 megawatts of power capacity across data centers in the United States, with deployment of the mining equipment expected later this month.BitVentures described the mining operation as the foundation of a…

With each passing year, new artworks are shorn of their copyright protections and entered into the public domain, allowing them to be used freely, without express permission from the estates that steward these pieces. This year, pieces by Salvador Dalí, José Clemente Orozco, and others of note have officially joined the public domain. There are some important exceptions about how these artworks can be used, however. In theory, in keeping with US copyright law, which states that a copyright lifts after 95 years unless it is renewed, any artwork produced in 1930 would now be rid of protections guiding it.…