特朗普支持比特币储备计划 加密货币 ETF 产品每周流入 19 亿美元

12 more individuals have been charged in a RICO crypto theft case that allegedly netted over $263 million. A four-count superseding indictment unsealed this week in the U.S. District Court have added twelve new defendants to the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) case, expanding charges against ringleader Malone Lam and others involved in the cyber-enabled criminal ring that operated across U.S. and internationally from October 2023 through March 2025. The indictment charges the group with RICO conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Several suspects were arrested this week in California, while two remain at large and are believed to be in Dubai. According to the indictment, the enterprise grew out friendships formed on online gaming platforms and evolved into a coordinated network of hackers, organizers, social engineers, burglars, and money launderers. The group allegedly targeted victims by purchasing stolen databases to identify owners of large crypto holdings. They then used social engineering tactics, including cold calls pretending to be from cybersecurity teams, to trick victims into disclosing sensitive access information. Once they had control, members stole victims’ crypto, often transferring it through crypto mixers, peel chains, and VPNs to obscure their tracks. In some cases, they even physically burglarized victims’ homes to steal hardware crypto wallets. The group allegedly used their illicit proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle that included nightclub services costing up to $500K per evening, luxury handbags and watches valued in the hundreds of thousands, designer clothing, private jet charters, bodyguards, and a fleet of at least 28 exotic cars worth between $100K and $3.8 million. They also rented luxury homes in Los Angeles, Miami, and the Hamptons. You might also like:10 high-profile crypto fraud cases that aren’t Bankman-Fried’s Malone Lam, arrested in September last year, was at the center of the operation. In one incident, he allegedly contacted a victim in Washington, D.C., posing as a cybersecurity expert and manipulated them into granting access to their digital wallet. He then drained over 4,100 Bitcoin (BTC) from their wallet—valued at more than $230 million at the time—accounting for the vast majority of the group’s $263 million total haul. Even after his arrest and while in pretrial detention, Lam is accused of continuing to run the operation from jail. On one occasion, he hacked into a victim’s iCloud account to track their location, while Marlon Ferro, one of the ring’s members, broke into the victim’s home to steal their hardware crypto wallet. Other key figures include Kunal Mehta, Hamza Doost, Joel Cortez, and Evan Tangeman, who were charged with laundering the stolen crypto and other offences. You might also like:Southeast Asia’s criminal syndicates launch custom infra, stablecoins for global fraud, UN warns

Arbitrum DAO 正在加倍投资现实世界的资产，并批准了一项向该领域分配更多资金的提案。 2 月 18 日，Arbitrum DAO 宣布社区已批准将 3500 万 ARB 分配到各种稳定资产中。按目前 Arbitrum (ARB) 价格约 0.44 美元计算，总投资价值约为 1550 万美元。 这些资金来自该项目的稳定财政捐赠计划，该计划此前已于 2024 年 6 月拨款 3500 万 ARB 用于投资六种产品。 STEP 是一项旨在将 Arbitrum DAO 资金的 1% 投资于代币化 RWA 的计划。该计划旨在实现 DAO 资金的多元化，同时利用行业增长来产生收益。 你可能还喜欢：PancakeSwap 将高级交易工具扩展到 Arbitrum、Linea 和 Base The latest allocation is part of Arbitrum DAO’s STEP 2.0 initiative. It adds to the 35 million ARB from STEP 1.0 and 15 million ARB from treasury management, bringing the total RWA investments to 85 million ARB. According to Arbitrum DAO, this investment is currently one of the largest by a DAO. “So far, STEP has accrued $450K in interest for the DAO,” Arbitrum Foundation said in a post on X. In July last year, the Arbitrum community approved allocations to BlackRock’s BUIDL, Ondo Finance’s USDY, and Superstate’s USTB. Other tokenized asset products selected for investment included Mountain Protocol’s USDM, OpenEden’s TBILL, and Backed Finance’s bIB01. Arbitrum’s growing presence in the RWA market is evident in the total amount of on-chain assets launched on the network in 2024. With BlackRock and Franklin Templeton among those expanding their products to Arbitrum, the network’s RWA market share surged from around $100,000 at the start of the year to approximately $70 million. According to rwa.xyz data, Ethereum currently leads the RWA market with over $3.8 billion in assets. ZKSync Era ranks second with nearly $2 billion, while Stellar follows in third with about $380 million. 你可能还喜欢：Grayscale 推出 Pyth Trust 以扩大 Solana 上的机会

The crypto market continued its downward trend on Saturday, May 17, with most altcoins erasing some of their recent gains.  Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped from this week’s high of $105,000 to $103,000. Some of the top laggards were Pi Network (PI), Bonk (BONK), Floki (FLOKI), and Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), which dropped by over 10%. Top laggards in the crypto market | Source: CMC Bitcoin is often the main driver in the crypto market. In most cases, altcoins rally whenever the top coin is on an upward trend and fall when there’s a retreat. For example, most of them surged by double digits recently when Bitcoin broke the resistance at $90,000 and reached $105,900. In this case, altcoins are falling because Bitcoin has failed to cross the resistance at $105,000 and retest its all-time high.  Crypto prices are also crashing because of profit-taking among investors who benefited from the recent surge. Indeed, some of the top gainers during the rally have become the top laggards. For example, Bonk, which dropped 26% from its monthly low, was up almost 200% from its lowest level in April. Similarly, Floki was up 162%, while PENGU was up over 330%. It is common for cryptocurrency prices to retreat after a strong rally. The crypto market is also falling because of the overall market risks. While the US reached a truce with China, it maintained a 30% tariff. Officials also maintained the baseline 10% tariff on most goods from the UK, and talks with Japan have stalled. As such, there is a risk of a recession in the US, with Polymarket traders bringing the odds to 38%. Meanwhile, Moody’s, one of the top three rating agencies, downgraded the U.S. on Friday after the market closed. It cited the country’s large public debt and Washington politicians’ deteriorating fiscal policies. You might also like:Pi Network price crashes as centralization risks persist Will the crypto market go back up The best way to predict whether crypto prices will bounce back is to look at Bitcoin. On the daily chart, there are signs that it is slowly forming the bullish pennant pattern, comprising a vertical line and a triangle pattern.  Bitcoin is also forming a cup-and-handle pattern, a popular bullish continuation sign. It also remains above the 50-day moving average. Therefore, it may bounce back and hit its all-time high of $109,300.  Moving above that level will point to more gains in this cycle, leading to a strong rebound of most altcoins. Read more:Chainlink unveils new startup program ‘Build on Solana’

Sonic, one of the fastest-growing blockchains for stablecoin activity, is set to transition from bridged USDC to native USDC and integrate Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2 (CCTP V2).  The upgrade is expected to begin with a bridging pause on May 6, with full deployment completed approximately a week later, Sonic Labs announced.  Launched in December 2024, Sonic has quickly become a leading hub for bridged USDC, boasting over $480 million in bridged USDC and $1 billion in total value locked. The upcoming shift to native USDC (USDC) aims to further streamline liquidity and offer developers a more consistent user experience. The upgrade will require no action from developers or users. Existing USDC.e tokens will automatically convert to native USDC, eliminating the need for manual swaps or contract changes. During the upgrade, USDC.e will remain fully functional for trading and bridging through third-party tools. You might also like:SEI price targets $0.40 as anticipation builds for staked SEI ETF CCTP V2 The transition also brings CCTP V2 to Sonic, a protocol that uses a burn-and-mint model to enable faster and more secure USDC transfers across supported blockchains.  In other words, CCTP V2 is Circle’s protocol that enables native USDC to be burned on one blockchain and instantly minted on another, allowing fast, secure, and capital-efficient cross-chain transfers without using wrapped assets.  It enhances interoperability across supported chains and simplifies integration for developers. Sonic will join Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, and Linea as part of CCTP V2’s interoperable network. Circle will take over ownership of the bridged USDC contract during the transition, allowing the rollout of native USDC and integration of Circle Mint services for institutional access. This move is expected to enhance smart contract functionality, improve liquidity, and unlock new use cases across Sonic’s growing ecosystem of over 125 applications. You might also like:Exclusive: Oasis Protocol unveils verifiable AI agents for crypto trading

While some policymakers have described Bitcoin as a store of value, its recent price action seems to suggest it’s being treated more like a high-beta tech stock. 瑞士加密银行 Sygnum 的分析师在最近的一份市场展望报告中表示，尽管包括美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔在内的众多意见领袖将比特币 (BTC) 描述为避险资产和黄金的潜在替代品，但其近期的价格走势导致一些人将其与科技股进行比较。 然而，分析师指出，比特币的价格主要受到其作为价值存储资产的认知所驱动，而不是其网络上的技术相关应用。 “实际上，比特币基本上不是一种技术游戏，因为其价值只有一小部分来自于网络上的应用程序和其他相关活动，而其大部分价值取决于它是否被接受为一种价值存储资产。” 西格纳姆 你可能还喜欢：Digital shift in Swiss economy shows ‘substantial opportunity’ for Swiss stablecoin, Bitcoin Suisse says It has long been assumed that Bitcoin would be traded as a gold proxy, while Ethereum (ETH) would serve as the crypto market proxy, given its significant market share in blockchain applications. However, Bitcoin is increasingly being seen as the de facto crypto market proxy, which impacts its price behavior, Sygnum notes. As the analysts say, this impact is evident in the weak adoption of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds, with many new investors concluding that holding Bitcoin is enough exposure to the crypto sector. “This is also evidenced by the poor adoption of the Ethereum ETFs — new investors for now conclude that a Bitcoin holding is sufficient to have exposure to the crypto market.” Sygnum The analysts caution that this trend could hinder Bitcoin’s progress as a reserve asset if it continues to behave like “the Nasdaq on steroids.” Addressing Bitcoin’s future, the Swiss crypto bank says the cryptocurrency’s role could depend largely on actions from the U.S. administration, which may influence whether Bitcoin is viewed as “digital gold” or a crypto market proxy. 阅读更多：Cango 以 3.519 亿美元退出中国市场，转向比特币挖矿