US soldier charged over Polymarket bets on Maduro pleads not guilty
The US special forces soldier charged with using classified information about the military operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to bet on Polymarket pleaded not guilty.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke appeared before a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the five charges that prosecutors brought on Thursday.
The court released Van Dyke on a $250,000 bond and ordered that he surrender his passport and restrict his travel.
The Justice Department charged Van Dyke with three counts of violating federal commodities laws, one count of wire fraud and one count of unlawful monetary transaction, which together carry a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison if he is found guilty.
Polymarket denies data breach, says hacker is selling public data
Prediction markets platform Polymarket denied recent reports that its customer data was breached, after a hacker on the dark web posted what they claimed was a trove of private user details.
Cybersecurity company Vecert Analyzer and several other X accounts that track dark web activity shared screenshots from DarkForums on Tuesday showing a hacker using the pseudonym “xorcat” claiming to have breached Polymarket.
In the post, xorcat said they had stolen over 300,000 records, including 10,000 unique user profiles with full names, profile images, proxy wallets and base addresses.
Polymarket called the claims of a data breach “complete and utter nonsense” and said the information the hacker posted is already available online.
US, UAE and China joint effort dismantles 9 crypto scam centers
A Dubai police-led international crackdown on scam rings last week resulted in the arrest of 276 individuals and the shutdown of at least nine crypto scam centers, the US Department of Justice revealed on Wednesday.
In a joint operation with the FBI and China’s Ministry of Public Security, Dubai authorities arrested 275 people, with an additional person arrested by the Royal Thai Police.
Six people have been charged in connection with the scam centers. Four of the defendants and two fugitive co-conspirators were charged with federal fraud and money laundering in federal court in San Diego, according to the DOJ. If convicted, each offense carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison and hefty fines.
“The charges and arrests announced today reflect an international consensus that scam centers are unwelcome everywhere and must be rooted out…. In contemporary society, fraud is borderless, and law enforcement activity to combat it and eliminate it is as well,” said US Assistant Attorney General Andrew Tysen Duva.
Twenty One Capital rises on proposed merger with Strike and Elektron
Shares in the Bitcoin-buying company Twenty One Capital climbed in after-hours trading on Wednesday after its majority shareholder, Tether, proposed a three-way merger with two other crypto companies.
Tether said Wednesday that it intends to vote in favor of a proposed merger between Twenty One Capital and Bitcoin payments company Strike, followed by a proposed merger of the combined company with Bitcoin mining firm Elektron Energy.
Tether added that if the mergers go through, “Strike would be contributing a profitable financial services platform, global distribution and regulatory infrastructure and Elektron would be adding large-scale Bitcoin mining infrastructure, operational depth and proven execution capabilities.”
CLARITY Act stablecoin yield rules finalized: ‘Go time’ for crypto bill
The US CLARITY Act, which aims to provide the US crypto industry with more regulatory clarity, could now move closer to becoming law after new stablecoin yield provisions were published, according to Coinbase chief legal officer Faryar Shirzad.
“It’s time to get CLARITY done,” Shirzad said in an X post on Friday, after US Senator Thom Tillis and US Senator Angela Alsobrooks published the final text aimed at settling the stablecoin yield dispute between the banking and crypto industries, which has centered on whether such yields would harm the banking system’s competitiveness.
“In the end, the banks were able to get more restrictions on rewards, but we protected what matters – the ability for Americans to earn rewards, based on real usage of crypto platforms and networks,” Shirzad said.
Most Memorable Quotations
“In the end, the banks were able to get more restrictions on rewards, but we protected what matters – the ability for Americans to earn rewards, based on real usage of crypto platforms and networks.”
Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase chief legal officer
“History suggests this setup carries meaningful downside risk as Bitcoin remains in a bear market regime.”
CryptoQuant
“Engaging in any way in a prediction market or trying to place bets where we…
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