Author: Kryptonews

The US Department of Justice has completed the forfeiture of more than $400 million in assets tied to Helix, a darknet cryptocurrency mixer that authorities say was widely used to launder proceeds from illegal online marketplaces. Key Takeaways: US authorities seized over $400M in assets tied to the Helix crypto mixer. Helix laundered about $300M in bitcoin for darknet markets, prosecutors say. The case underscores growing regulatory pressure on crypto privacy tools. In a statement released Thursday, the US Department of Justice said a final court order issued last week granted the government legal title to a range of seized…

Are you a creator asking, what is ERC-20? You’re not alone. Many people want to understand how digital assets actually work and why some tokens succeed while others disappear. ERC-20 sits at the center of this conversation because it defines how tokens behave on the Ethereum network and why they can move smoothly between wallets, exchanges, and apps.The article focuses on what ERC-20 is, its history and purpose, how it works, and its real-world use cases like decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoins. It also compares ERC-20 with other token standards, highlights its benefits and limitations, and discusses its future in…

Nubank has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to form a national bank, a step that allows the fintech to offer deposits, lending, credit cards and digital asset custody in the United States. The approval moves Nubank into the bank organization phase, during which it must meet capitalization and supervisory conditions and secure additional approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve before launching operations.According to a company announcement on Friday, the US bank will be led by co-founder Cristina Junqueira, with former Central Bank of Brazil president Roberto…

Opinion by: Robert Schmitt, founder and co-CEO at CorkDeFi has entered its institutional phase. As large investors dip their toes into crypto ETFs and digital asset treasuries (DATs), the ecosystem is gradually evolving into an institutional-grade financial system in its own right, with the introduction of new financial instruments and digital counterparts of well-established ones.​DeFi’s current growth exposes mounting risks that could lead to trust roadblocks. For institutions to confidently onboard, the ecosystem must implement stronger risk guardrails and resilient infrastructure. It’s worth exploring the main areas where risk is concentrated, how TradFi handles similar challenges, and the guardrails DeFi needs…

Bitcoin’s MVRV Z-score printed record lows on a rolling two-year basis, making BTC price more “undervalued” than at the pit of past bear markets.Bitcoin (BTC) may be “close to the end” of its correction as a classic BTC price metric beats records.Key points:Bitcoin’s MVRV Z-score is at record lows on two-year rolling time frames.The “wild” data is leading to predictions of an imminent BTC price recovery.Analysis says that the precious metals rally is “done for now.”MVRV Z-score says Bitcoin is “undervalued”In an X post Friday, crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe confirmed the lowest-ever readings for Bitcoin’s…

Alright, today we’re talking real-world assets and more specifically, a showdown a lot of people are quietly watching. Chainlink versus Ondo. Both sit at the very top of the RWA sector. Both are working with serious institutions. One of these altcoins has BlackRock behind it… the other just got picked by the NYSE. So which one actually wins? The BlackRock Factor (Ondo’s Biggest Weapon) Let’s start with Ondo, because you really can’t talk about it without mentioning BlackRock. Ondo is essentially BlackRock’s preferred RWA partner. And look, it’s tough to bet against BlackRock. What is the impact of BlackRock launching…

Ethereum’s most infamous experiment is back. Not as a venture fund, but as something the ecosystem arguably needs more: a permanent security budget.On Jan. 29, a group of Ethereum veterans announced plans to convert roughly 75,000 ETH in decade-old recovery funds into a staked endowment whose yield will finance smart contract security work across Ethereum and its layer-2 ecosystem.The capital comes from “edge case” funds left over from the 2016 hard fork that rescued TheDAO from collapse. Those are funds thatwere always intended, if unclaimed, to support security infrastructure.A decade later, the tooling and threat landscape have matured enough to…

Anish Kapoor, a Turner Prize–winning artist who has never been afraid of controversy, has plotted his next project: sending a sculpture to space. What, exactly, the work might be remains a mystery, but he told the Times of London this week that it will ponder such questions as: “What is adequate? What can stand up against vast, eternal, cosmic space? It’s ambitious to put something in space which is visible from Earth.” According to Kapoor, the sculpture “might” involve mirrors. Related Articles It is ambitious, yes, but Kapoor is not the first to have attempted such a feat (or stunt,…

Decentralized GPU networks are pitching themselves as a lower-cost layer for running AI workloads, while training the latest models remains concentrated inside hyperscale data centers.Frontier AI training involves building the largest and most advanced systems, a process that requires thousands of GPUs to operate in tight synchronization.That level of coordination makes decentralized networks impractical for top-end AI training, where internet latency and reliability cannot match the tightly coupled hardware in centralized data centers.Most AI workloads in production do not resemble large-scale model training, opening space for decentralized networks to handle inference and everyday tasks.“What we are beginning to see is…

The Lido Labs Foundation unveiled stVaults on the Ethereum mainnet on Friday.stVaults marks a shift from a single-product model toward shared staking on the protocol through opening its infrastructure to external builders.In simple terms, stVaults let other teams plug into Lido’s staking system instead of building their own from scratch. Until now, developing an Ethereum staking product typically meant setting up validators, integrations and liquidity independently, which can be a costly and complex process. stVaults aim to lower that barrier by letting builders use Lido’s existing plumbing while customizing how staking works for their users.stVaults are isolated staking environments that…