HEX erases $246 million in market cap after founder detained in Turkey
The HEX market cap fell from $561 million to $315 million this week after founder Richard Schueler — better known to the crypto community as Richard Heart — was detained by authorities in Istanbul on October 14.
Police seized $7.15 million in cash along with firearms and ammunition during an early morning raid in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, alongside searches of 15 related addresses according to Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek.
Police impounded nine luxury vehicles registered to Schueler’s wife according to news agency Anadolu. The haul reportedly included 28 watches, 300 bags and 19 graphics cards.
Interpol issued a “Red Notice” for Schueler’s two years ago over allegations of tax fraud and assault, after Finnish authorities sought his arrest.
A spokesperson for Finland’s National Bureau of Investigations declined to comment on the matter.
Turkish media refer to Schueler as “Whale James” and have linked him to a $1 billion unregistered securities offering in the US. However that case was dismissed by a US judge in February 2025.
Images circulating in Turkish media appear to show a surprised Heart with no trousers on, and the bottom half of his body blurred out, provoking much merriment on social media. Vocal Hex critic Eric Wall, who has debated Schueler on video and social media, said he initially thought the image was AI generated but now believes it is real:
“i’m pretty much certain i died in a plane crash in 2015 and ever since that day i am still only alive in a fringe reality where everything is designed to be as funny as possible.”
Hex supporters claim that authorities are yet to confirm if Schueler has been formally arrested or charged.
Images circulating on Turkish media.
Ledger’s answer to wallet tampering costs $849 and ships next year
Ledger unveiled a new device on Thursday with stronger protections against tampering, days after confirming that wallets sold through a reseller in Asia contained malicious implants.
The French hardware wallet maker introduced Atom, an $849 device that combines a crypto wallet with everyday apps through a smartphone-like design. Atom separates Android apps from sensitive wallet operations and includes protections Ledger says would block the implants used in the recent Asia incident. It claims to detect tampering even when switched off.
Expected to become available in summer 2027, Atom will also support AI agent approvals, encrypted messaging and post-quantum cryptography.
Meanwhile a war of words has broken out between former Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, and Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. Kapeles claims that at least two people notified Leger of spyware discovered inside tampered Ledgers as far back as December 2025 — and notes the company had even written about the issue on its website in March 2026. He says the company failed to act properly to secure its reseller supply chains, which have now been suspended across Asia after more than $90 million was stolen.
Gauthier snarkily replied on X that Karpeles was “no white knight” and referred back to his failures in the lead up to the Mt Gox hack.
Karpeles replied:
“I was hoping you guys were better than that. I’ve been holding Ledger at a higher standard than what happened at MtGox, because I trusted you to do better by learning of my failure — to be better than me.”
QDay gets even closer as Starknet votes on becoming post quantum L1
Google has demonstrated a new process called “magic state cultivation” on its Willow quantum processor that reduces errors 40-fold. The technique achieved a record 99.99% accuracy rate for a specialized quantum state required to perform advanced calculations.
Meanwhile Theta Labs has posted three news quantum circuits that could reduce the number of qubits required to break elliptic curve cryptography by 28% from Google’s current estimate of 1,175 logical qubits.
With fears that AI is now getting so good at math that it may be able to break elliptic curve cryptography even before QDay arrives, Starknet has opened a vote to transform itself from an Ethereum L2 into a post quantum L1. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson says that Ethereum’s post quantum roadmap may be too slow to meet the challenge from AI, meaning that Starknet needed to consider becoming a fully post quantum L1.
“Quantum-proofing crypto is urgent, so we must move at lightning speed,” he told Cointelegraph. More than 99% of votes cast to date are in favor of the move. Starknet’s token has lost almost 50% in value this week, after a big surge last week.
Standard Chartered pushes $2T stablecoin forecast to 2030 as EU embraces USDC
Standard Chartered says stablecoin transaction activity continues to grow even as the market’s overall value has stalled, suggesting existing stablecoins are circulating more frequently rather than new supply driving growth.
The bank said it now expects…
cointelegraph.com