Tag: Business – Decrypt

Bitcoin ripped through $69,000 Wednesday, climbing as much as 8.7% to an intraday high of $69,749. That’s the steepest one-day move since March 4 and the highest price Bitcoin has touched since June 1. Traders hadn’t seen a green candle like this in more than five months.

So where does Bitcoin go next? The charts have one read, and prediction markets have another. A mere 24 hours ago, traders on Myriad—a prediction market operated by Decrypt’s parent company—were sure there was more pain in store for Bitcoin ahead. Now, it’s a coin flip, with odds moving fast.

What a difference a squeeze makes.

The trigger for today’s big move doesn’t appear to be crypto-native. The U.S. Treasury said Wednesday it will at least double its long-bond buybacks, from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation starting September 9, pushing long-end yields down and weakening the dollar. These types of moves typically bode well for risk assets, like crypto, because they loosen financial conditions—lower yields cut the opportunity cost of holding a non-yielding asset like Bitcoin, and a weaker dollar makes dollar-priced assets cheaper for foreign buyers, the same dynamic analysts have already nicknamed ‘QE Lite.’

The timing also lined up with a White House meeting between crypto executives and regulators, plus a fresh SEC proposal easing registration rules for some digital-asset offerings. It was a perfect storm, in the best way for crypto bulls, and the move overextended fast.

CoinGlass’s liquidation panel showed $1.14 billion in shorts wiped out across crypto in a single hour, with Bitcoin alone accounting for $677.64 million of that. Crypto-linked stocks followed the squeeze higher, with Strategy up nearly 12%, Coinbase up 9%, and Circle and BitMine both gaining roughly 9-10% on the day.

Predictors scramble to catch up

Nobody saw it coming, and prediction markets are showing it. Myriad’s “BTC next move” market—wagering on a pump to $84,000 against a dump to $55,000—had traders leaning roughly 70% toward the dump just days ago.

By Wednesday afternoon, those odds had collapsed to a near coin flip: 51.9% on $55K, 48.1% on $84K.

The swing isn’t isolated to Myriad. Polymarket’s flagship 2026 Bitcoin price market was pricing a 56% chance BTC touched $55,000 before year-end and just 51% odds of a run to $75,000 as of last week.

On Kalshi, traders were even more cautious, giving Bitcoin a 54% shot at clearing $67,500 in August and 31% at $70,000—both thresholds Bitcoin blew through Wednesday.

The split is the story. Near-term predictors got caught flat-footed by a 7% green day they hadn’t priced. The year-end markets barely flinched. Prediction markets have been setting volume records as more traders hedge real positions with them, which makes the Myriad flip today less a forecast than a recap of who got squeezed.

The next line in the sand sits at $70,284, the lower edge of a resistance band on Bitcoin’s chart. A daily close above it opens room toward $73,245; losing $68,000 drags Bitcoin back inside the range that’s trapped it since June.

The accused architect of a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme is back on American soil after more than a year on the run in the South Pacific, the Justice Department said Monday.

Edward Zimbardi, 59, of Flowery Branch, Georgia, appeared in federal court to face wire fraud and money laundering charges after Fijian authorities deported him to the United States on Aug. 14, working alongside the FBI and the State Department.

He was charged in a July indictment with 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and one count of money laundering conspiracy.

Prosecutors say that between June 2022 and August 2023, Zimbardi built and promoted an operation called The Crypto Program, luring investors with videos and websites that pitched advertising packages carrying a guaranteed 25% monthly return.

Participants were told to fund their purchases by sending cryptocurrency into wallets that Zimbardi secretly controlled. Thousands of people ultimately moved more than $165 million into those wallets, according to the government.

Rather than buying advertising, Zimbardi allegedly gambled more than $34 million on risky foreign-currency trades and paid earlier investors with money from newer ones, the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors say he also spent at least $10 million on himself, including a house for his son, luxury vehicles and alimony payments.

When the scheme collapsed in August 2023, Zimbardi traveled abroad, and after learning of the FBI probe in July 2025, he settled in Fiji, according to the DOJ. Prosecutors say he skipped his son’s wedding in Virginia in May 2026, correctly suspecting agents would be waiting to arrest him.

The FBI is asking those who invested to come forward.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order Tuesday imposing new restrictions on large AI data centers, including rules aimed at making developers pay for their impact on the state’s electrical grid.

Executive Order 2026-05 establishes new requirements for data centers with peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts. Developers seeking a streamlined state review must agree to Pennsylvania’s environmental, energy, workforce, and community requirements and obtain necessary local approvals.

“I’m putting these developers on notice and letting them know that we will not let them bully Pennsylvanians, disregard our constitutional right to clean air and pure water, and drive up our utility bills,” Shapiro wrote on X. “I’m using the full weight of my executive authority to block the objectionable, unwarranted projects and put the nation’s strictest set of protections in place.”

The order also removes data centers from Pennsylvania’s Permit Fast Track Program and prohibits state agencies from signing non-disclosure agreements related to data center projects.

Pennsylvania will also create a public map of proposed facilities and require operating data centers to report their energy and water consumption annually beginning in July 2027.

The executive order also directs the state’s Special Counsel for Energy Affordability to seek utility rules making data centers cover certain grid costs and face curtailment first during some emergencies unless they secure enough power to meet their demand.

In the executive order, Shapiro noted that more than 100 data centers have reportedly been proposed in Pennsylvania, though only 20 have submitted permit applications to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

“From Archbald to Montgomery County to all across Pennsylvania, to your comments, texts, calls, and letters to my office, I’ve heard you loud and clear,” Shapiro wrote. “Pennsylvanians do not want AI data centers in their communities that would raise their utility costs and pollute their resources.”

Data center backlash

Opposition to AI data centers has spread across the U.S. as communities push back over electricity and the environmental impacts as more sites come online.

In January, a Brookings analysis warned that local resistance could slow or block AI infrastructure projects and called for binding community benefit agreements.

In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed a White House pledge to pay for new electricity generation and infrastructure needed for their data centers as costs rose after the start of the U.S. led war with Iran.

The fight over data centers has increasingly moved to local governments. By August, at least 37 people had been arrested this year in protests tied to AI data centers across the U.S.

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new rules Tuesday that would let crypto projects raise funds without requiring full securities registration, abruptly changing course after calling off a meeting late last week in which the Commission was expected to introduce the measures.

Under “Regulation Crypto Assets,” a startup exemption would allow digital token offerings of up to $5 million over four years. A second exemption would allow token issuers to raise up to $75 million every 12 months if they provide financial statements and ongoing reports.

Both would require disclosures, while federal antifraud and antimanipulation rules would still apply.

The measures come at an opportune time for the cryptocurrency industry after a setback in negotiations over the Clarity Act sunk hopes that the marquee market-structure legislation would be passed this year. The Clarity Act would, if passed, formally legalize most crypto activity in the United States, but SEC Chair Paul Atkins had previously signaled in late July that the Commission was prepared to step in with its own rules if the bill fell short.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce today acknowledged that the proposed exemptions would not cover every type of crypto project, calling on the crypto industry to provide feedback on how the rules should evolve.

“The Commission wants to accommodate innovation on many fronts, and our rules need to be tailored to changing market developments and designed to protect investors and market integrity,” she wrote. “This proposal is one step on a long road toward a clear, sensible, enforceable regulatory framework for crypto.”

The proposal also includes a conditional safe harbor allowing an issuer to “delink” a crypto asset from the investment contract through which it was sold. That could allow a token initially tied to a securities transaction to separate from that contract if the issuer meets the SEC’s conditions.

The proposal comes after the SEC abruptly canceled a meeting on Regulation Crypto Assets last week, citing an “unforeseen scheduling issue.”

On Monday, Crypto In America reported that SIFMA, a Wall Street trade group representing broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers, had discussed a potential legal challenge to the SEC’s authority. At the same time, the White House had asked the agency to postpone the meeting amid Clarity Act negotiations.

The news also comes as other federal agencies advance crypto rules.

On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department proposed regulations implementing the GENIUS Act that would generally require stablecoin issuers to obtain federal or state licenses beginning in January 2027. Crypto platforms would face restrictions on selling stablecoins from unapproved issuers beginning in July 2028.

President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is working with an AI company that offers models from Chinese tech firms his administration has flagged over national security concerns, Reuters reported Monday.

According to Reuters, the companies are collaborating to expand the use of World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin, which WorldClaw accepts as payment for access to its AI models. World Liberty executive Ryan Fang also serves as an adviser to WorldClaw.

Hong Kong-based WorldClaw offers access to dozens of AI models, with 43 of its 90 models developed by Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and Z.ai. It also offers models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman said WorldClaw is independent and noted that major U.S. firms also offer Chinese and American AI models.

“This is a common and widely accepted approach,” Wachsman told Reuters.

In January 2025, Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI, was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, restricting its access to U.S. technology. In June, the Pentagon designated Alibaba and Baidu as “Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States,” barring the Defense Department from doing business with them.

“Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy,” an Alibaba spokesperson told Reuters, calling the designation “arbitrary and capricious” and said it would sue to have it removed.

It’s unknown how much the Trump family has earned from WorldClaw or the financial terms between the companies. World Liberty executive Ryan Fang advises WorldClaw, while Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have promoted it.

The news comes as several Chinese AI firms available on WorldClaw have also been accused of distillation attacks on U.S. AI developers.

In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax of using roughly 24,000 fraudulent accounts to generate more than 16 million Claude exchanges through model distillation, a technique in which one AI model learns from another’s outputs. In June, Anthropic urged Congress to tighten export controls and penalize large-scale model extraction.

“We believe combating the threat of illicit distillation requires coordinated action between government and industry, and we will continue working with Congress and the administration to maintain American AI leadership,” an Anthropic spokesperson told Decrypt.

Citi is preparing to add Bitcoin custody alongside traditional assets as the banking giant builds out its digital asset infrastructure.

Announced on Tuesday, the service will be part of Custody+, a suite of custody and settlement tools. The bank said clients will be able to access traditional securities and crypto custody through the same framework.

The announcement expands on plans Citi revealed in October to launch institutional Bitcoin custody in 2026.

“Custody+ is the product of a multi-year commitment to building infrastructure that matches the speed of our clients’ strategies,” Amit Agarwal, Head of Custody at Citi Investor Services, said in a statement. “We have designed each solution to help clients simplify their operating models amid increasing complexities in the operating environment.”

Citi said more than 80% of its asset-servicing event volume is now processed in real time. Its Citi Token Services platform also allows clients to move tokenized deposits nearly instantly, 24 hours a day, across select markets.

“Custody+ is our response to their evolving needs as the industry continues to transform, moving away from legacy to next-generation architecture,” Agarwal added.

The announcement comes as major banks expand their digital asset businesses.

In January, the New York Stock Exchange said it was working with Citi and BNY on a planned blockchain-based platform supporting tokenized stocks and ETFs. In February, Morgan Stanley applied for a national trust bank charter for an entity that would offer crypto custody.

A Bitcoin stash that had sat frozen since the network’s earliest days has moved for the first time in more than 15 years, the latest in a string of ancient wallets flickering back to life.

According to Galaxy Research‘s blockchain monitoring, a Bitcoin address beginning in “1Emi” holding 8.54 BTC first received the coins on June 13, 2011, when Bitcoin traded around $14, and then went silent for 15.1 years.

The balance, now worth roughly $538,000, was swept out on Aug. 16 in a single transaction recorded in block 962,770. At an average cost basis near $14, the position represents a gain of about 461,981%.

Movements like this draw outsized attention because so few holders from Bitcoin’s infancy still control their coins, or their private keys, after this long. In 2011, Bitcoin was a thinly traded curiosity worth pocket change, not a trillion-dollar asset.

Wallets that have stayed untouched since then are widely presumed lost, so when one stirs, analysts and traders take notice, watching for signs that an early adopter may be preparing to cash in.

The metric they lean on is Coin Days Destroyed, which tallies the age a coin accumulates for each day it sits unmoved. A single transfer from a 2011 wallet wipes out thousands of those accrued days at once, flagging a long-held balance changing hands even when the owner’s motive stays hidden. A large print can mean profit-taking, but it can just as easily reflect a holder relocating funds for security or custody.

The reactivation is far from a one-off. Ancient Bitcoin wallets coming back to life has become something of a trend within the last two years.

Just last week, a Bitcoin address holding millions moved its stash after 12 years. Another wallet dormant since 2011 moved 49.97 BTC earlier this month, a Bitcoin whale shifted $383 million after eight years, and roughly $2 billion in coins untouched since 2013 changed hands in a single 2024 sweep that analysts pinned on a custodian rebalancing. In most such cases, the coins have flowed toward professional trading infrastructure rather than a retail seller dumping on the open market.

Galaxy noted the awakened address carried no public attribution, leaving the identity and intentions of its owner unknown.

Chainalysis has taken the U.S. government to court over a nearly $95 million Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract awarded to competitor TRM Labs without an open bidding process, pitting the two biggest names in blockchain forensics against each other.

The company’s government arm, Chainalysis Government Solutions, filed the bid protest on July 27 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The dispute centers on a one-year deal worth about $94.6 million, running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, that covers blockchain forensic software and support services for Homeland Security Task Force investigations, including work on scams, cybercrime, and sextortion cases.

Chainalysis argues ICE’s decision to route the award to TRM on a sole-source basis was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable, saying it had submitted a capability statement after the agency signaled its intent to buy the services from a single provider.

The heart of its legal argument stays hidden for now: the court granted Chainalysis permission on July 31 to keep its complaint under seal because it contains confidential business information and trade secrets.

TRM Labs entered the case on July 28 as a defendant-intervenor, lining up alongside the government to defend the award. Judge Stephen Schwartz has set oral arguments for September 2 under an expedited schedule, with the government requesting a decision by September 10.

At issue is how ICE reached its conclusion. According to the agency’s justification, it ran a market-research window of roughly six days before determining that only TRM could meet its requirements. Eight companies responded, four of them small businesses, and ICE found all of them lacked the necessary capabilities.

The fight underscores how lucrative federal work has become for blockchain-intelligence firms. Chainalysis built much of its business selling tracing tools to agencies including the IRS and the U.S. Air Force, and the Joe Biden administration moved to expand crypto-tracking capabilities to combat ransomware. TRM has since grown its own government footprint, previously landing smaller sole-source awards from ICE.

A bid protest challenges a procurement decision and is not an accusation of wrongdoing by the winning vendor.

Austrian regulators have fined crypto exchange Bitpanda 70,000 euros, roughly $82,000, in what stands as the first publicly disclosed enforcement penalty under the European Union’s landmark crypto rulebook.

Austria’s Financial Market Authority, known as the FMA, said the sanction stems from several breaches of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA, the bloc’s comprehensive framework for digital assets.

The regulator said the Vienna-based company failed to submit a required crypto-asset white paper to the FMA at least 20 working days before publishing it, as the rules mandate.

The FMA also found that Bitpanda circulated a marketing communication before publishing the underlying white paper, a sequencing MiCA prohibits. In a separate marketing message, the company omitted a mandatory disclaimer stating that the material had not been reviewed or approved by any regulator and that the offeror bears sole responsibility for its content, and left out a required phone number and email address.

The case was wrapped up through an accelerated procedure under Austrian financial-market law, and the FMA said the penalty ruling is legally final.

The violations are procedural and disclosure-related rather than allegations of fraud or investor losses, but the case is notable as an early marker of how European authorities intend to police the new regime. MiCA is designed to create a single set of rules across all 27 member states, with the stated goals of protecting investors and safeguarding the integrity of crypto markets.

The penalty lands as the industry navigates MiCA’s rollout. The framework took full effect for crypto-asset service providers in late 2024, with a transition period letting existing firms keep operating while they secured authorization. That grace window has been winding down across the bloc, squeezing companies that hadn’t yet come into full compliance. Brussels is also expected to revisit MiCA in 2027, with proposed revisions that would tighten oversight of foreign stablecoin issuers.

Bitpanda, one of Europe’s larger crypto platforms, holds MiCA licensing and has expanded aggressively across the continent. The relatively modest fine suggests the FMA treated the lapses as compliance failures rather than serious misconduct.

Kraken parent company Payward has joined Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and is using Claude Mythos to hunt for security flaws.

The move follows an open letter from over 40 Bitcoin and crypto companies, including Kraken, sent last week to Anthropic, OpenAI, and other leading AI labs demanding frontier labs open trusted-access programs to qualified defenders to help guard against threats.

Payward said Monday that the company will use Mythos 5 to scan its systems for vulnerabilities, with findings sent to its security teams for review. It’s the first reported crypto company to join the project and gain access to Claude Mythos 5.

“Selection gives Payward’s security division early access to the same class of model, sharpening its ability to combat sophisticated software vulnerabilities and protect millions of customers across the globe,” Payward wrote.

Flaws found in third-party open-source software will be reported to project maintainers, the company said, adding that the approach could help protect its financial infrastructure and strengthen open-source software used across the crypto industry.

Project Glasswing is Anthropic’s cybersecurity program that gives vetted organizations access to its most capable cyber models. Launched in April and expanded in June, the program’s partners have since uncovered thousands of high- or critical-severity vulnerabilities.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Decrypt.

The news comes amid growing evidence that AI models can be powerful tools for both finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities. In April, Mozilla reported Anthropic’s Claude Mythos identified 271 vulnerabilities in Firefox during testing.

Last week, more than 40 Bitcoin and crypto companies, including Ark Invest, Coinbase, Block and BitGo, called on major AI labs to give qualified security researchers access to their most powerful models. Organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the letter argued that developers protecting open-source financial infrastructure need access to frontier AI to find and fix vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.

“Security has always been an unfair game. An attacker needs to find one flaw. A defender has to find all of them, first, every single day,” Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said. “Frontier AI is the first thing that flips that asymmetry. A model can read every line of code the way an attacker would, at machine scale, so we find the flaw before anyone can build the exploit.”