📰 *France Is Crypto Kidnapping Capital: 'Wrench' Attacks Surge Amid KYC Data Leaks*
France has emerged as the global epicenter for so-called “wrench” attacks on crypto holders, raising alarms about how leaked personal data, KYC rules and custody practices can translate into real-world danger. The numbers are stark. Bitcoin reporter Joe Nakamoto says France accounts for roughly 70% of reported physical attacks on crypto holders and their families. His latest tally puts France at 41 crypto-linked kidnappings so far in 2026 — about one every 2.5 days. French police records and reporting show a sharp rise in incidents: PNACO tracked 18 incidents in 2024, 67 in 2025 and 47 so far in 2026. Authorities have already charged dozens of suspects: one report cited 88 people (including minors) connected to wrench attack investigations. What is a wrench attack? A wrench attack is an extortion tactic where criminals use force, threats, home invasion or kidnapping to coerce victims into handing over private keys, passwords or crypto. Targets are frequently family members who may be easier to reach than the primary holder. Why France? Nakamoto and others point to centralized KYC and customer data leaks as a major factor. Stolen or leaked records — names, emails, phone numbers and home addresses — give criminals precise leads. The 2020 Ledger customer data breach, which exposed details tied to more than 270,000 customers worldwide, is often cited as a flashpoint that made large numbers of holders identifiable and vulnerable. “It’s the canary in the coal mine,” Casa CEO Jameson Lopp said, arguing that financial regulation and centralized customer records can create a “sur...
📰 *BofA Piles Into BlackRock's IBIT in Q1 — MicroStrategy Still Its $660M Crypto Bet*
Bank of America leaned into Bitcoin in Q1, concentrating the bulk of its modest crypto ETF exposure in BlackRock’s IBIT. Key takeaways - BofA reported roughly $53 million in crypto ETF holdings in its Q1 2026 Form 13F-HR (reporting period March 31; filed May 18). - The largest single ETF holding was BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT): 972,590 shares worth about $37.3 million, up from 719,008 shares in the prior filing. - Other bitcoin ETFs on the books included Bitwise BITB (~$7.98 mill...
📰 *XRP Breaks Down From Month‑Long Triangle as Whales Pull Back — $1.14 Target*
Headline: XRP Breaks Down From Month‑Long Triangle as Whales Pull Back — $1.14 Now in Sight XRP suffered a tougher week, slipping more than 5% as the broader market struggled. The token has been stuck in a narrow band between $1.29 and $1.55 since February, but recent technical and on‑chain signals suggest that range could finally give way to a deeper leg down. Technical picture: triangle breakdown On the daily chart XRP had been carving a symmetrical triangle — a classic consolidation patter...
📰 *StablR pegs break after multisig key breach — attacker mints millions, flees with ~$2.8M*
Headline: StablR stablecoins lose pegs after suspected multisig key compromise — attacker mints millions, exits with ~$2.8M StablR’s euro and dollar stablecoins, EURR and USDR, briefly lost their pegs after a suspected private-key compromise allowed an attacker to take control of minting permissions and mint unbacked tokens. Blockchain security firm Blockaid flagged the ongoing exploit on Ethereum, saying roughly $2.8 million was extracted in the incident. What happened Blockaid’s detection s...
📰 *NEAR Protocol Jumps 54% Weekly as Short Sellers Cover and AI Rotation Accelerates*
Key Takeaways Short sellers absorbed millions in NEAR liquidations in 24 hours, forcing buybacks that accelerated the crypto asset’s 54% weekly gain.
Bitwise’s NEAR Staking exchange-traded product (ETP) and Grayscale interest signal NEAR is attracting institutional capital beyond retail in 2026.
NEAR’s Dynamic Resharding upgrade, targeted for June 2026, is the next test for whether roadmap execution sustains momentum.
NEAR Surges as AI Narrative and Cow Swap Integration Draw Traders
The most immediate driver was mechanical. Short sellers got caught on the wrong side of a breakout above a specific resistance range. Derivatives data from coinglass.com show millions in NEAR liquidations primarily came from short positions, with millions wiped out in several trading sessions after the price cleared a few barriers. Forced buybacks at scale can accelerate a move fast.
The derivatives setup also showed traders piling in through new positions. NEAR futures volume climbed massively, while open interest rose above $720 million. Rising price alongside rising open interest tends to signal new leveraged positioning rather than short covering alone. That can extend a move, but it also makes the trade fragile if funding overheats or longs get trapped late.
The AI angle is doing real work here. NEAR markets itself as “the blockchain for AI,” describing its network as an execution layer where AI agents can own assets, make decisions, and transact across chains. That framing gives tra...
📰 *Bitcoin’s hard-money thesis is colliding with 5% Treasury yields*
Bitcoin was created as a response to the kind of debt-financed monetary disorder now playing out across global bond markets. The original thesis was that when governments borrowed recklessly and debased their currencies, hard-money assets would absorb the resulting demand. What that thesis left unresolved is the possibility that the debt spiral could tighten financial conditions strong enough to suppress speculative assets before the hard-money argument has time to play out. In 2026, the long-term narrative and the short-term mechanics are running in opposite directions, and understanding why requires spending a few minutes with the most consequential number in global finance right now. On May 20, the 30-year Treasury yield reached 5.18%. A $25 billion auction of new 30-year bonds on May 13 was awarded at 5.046%, the first time investors have received 5% on the long bond since 2007, driven by surging energy prices and rising expectations that inflation could prove more durable than markets assumed. Graph showing the yield on 30-year US Treasury securities from Jan. 1, 2007, to May 20. 2026 (Source: FRED ) The last time yields were at these levels, Bear Stearns was still a concern, and quantitative easing was still a theoretical concept. Everything that's happened in markets since (the post-2008 era of suppressed rates, central bank asset purchases, near-zero borrowing costs) was predicated on yields eventually coming back down and staying there, and the current repricing is c
📰 *AI is speeding up the quantum threat to crypto, security experts warn*
The crypto industry has spent years debating whether quantum computing poses an existential threat to blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Now, researchers and builders believe artificial intelligence may be accelerating that timeline, and forcing a broader rethink of how digital security works altogether.
Leaders working on post-quantum cryptography and blockchain security described a rapidly changing landscape in which AI is simultaneously becoming a weapon for attackers, a defensive tool for developers, and an accelerator of quantum computing research.
“The security landscape of the future is going to be different,” said Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, a company focused on quantum-resistant infrastructure for crypto.
“Between quantum and AI, we’re going to go into a world where security, and this is more broadly than just crypto, you simply cannot count on the way you’ve always done things,” Pruden said.
The convergence of AI and quantum computing has become increasingly urgent following warnings from major technology firms and researchers that cryptographically relevant quantum computers may arrive sooner than previously expected. While experts remain divided on exactly when a quantum computer capable of breaking modern encryption will emerge, many believe AI could dramatically compress development timelines.
“AI is definitely being used to accelerate the development of quantum computing,” Pruden said. Researchers are already using machine learning systems t...
📰 *BitMine’s $126M Ethereum buy sets up a Russell index test tied to $12.2T in assets*
BitMine bought an additional 60,000 ETH worth about $126 million as Ethereum traded near $2,000, extending one of the largest corporate accumulation strategies tied to the second-largest digital asset. The purchase came just as the firm was named to the preliminary list for the Russell 1000 Index, positioning the crypto holder to capture a slice of the $12.2 trillion in assets benchmarked against Russell US Indexes. Why BitMine is adding to its Ethereum holdings during current selloff On May 23, blockchain analyst EmberCN reported BitMine's latest ETH purchase was executed through BitGo and Kraken. BitMine Latest ETH Purchase (Source: EmberCN/X) The purchase lifted BitMine’s Ethereum holdings to more than 5.2 million ETH, valued at roughly $11.1 billion at current market prices. The company has continued to accumulate even as ETH trades near $2,000, which is about 60% below its August 2025 record high of $4,953. Notably, this latest purchase occurs about two weeks after the company signaled its intent to slow the pace of its ETH accumulation. However, BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee previously described ETH’s recent decline below $2,200 as an attractive entry point. According to him, the pullback has provided an opportunity to add to its ETH exposure ahead of any potential recovery in digital assets. Lee stated that the recent regulatory developments around the CLARITY Act could bolster growth in the emerging industry. As a result, his firm has continued to increase its exposure
📰 *MiCA Compliant Euro Stablecoin Depegs to $0.85 After 1-of-3 Multisig Exploit Drains Millions*
Key Takeaways StablR’s EURR dropped to $0.85, and USDR fell between $0.40 to $0.64 on May 24 after attackers minted unbacked tokens.
A 1-of-3 multisig threshold reportedly let attackers hijack minting controls, draining roughly $2.8M in ETH.
Onchain observers flagged StablR’s alleged weak multisig setup as a governance risk that MiCA regulation did not prevent.
EURR Drops 24%, and USDR Falls 37% as StablR’s Two Stablecoins Depeg After Key Exploit
Reports say the breach did not stem from a smart contract flaw. Attackers reportedly gained access to a single private key controlling a 1-of-3 multisig wallet that governed StablR’s minting function. With one key, the attacker removed legitimate signers, added a controlled address, and issued tokens without collateral backing.
At 8:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, StablR addressed the issue on X, stating:
“Security update: We have identified an exploit affecting StablR and are actively working to contain it and minimize impact. Protecting our users and your funds is our top priority. We’ll share verified details and next steps as soon as possible.”
Onchain analysts estimated the attacker minted approximately 8.35 million USDR and 4.5 million EURR before selling them across DEX trading pairs with thin liquidity. The extracted value was reported at roughly 1,115 ETH, equivalent to approximately $2.8 million, though total unbacked token issuance may have reached $10.4 million.
The selling pressure broke both pegs quickly. EURR fell to ...
📰 *Crypto rails are becoming the default payment layer for AI agents, report says*
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents autonomously spending money online is still a tiny market, but some of the world's largest tech, payments and crypto firms are already racing to build the infrastructure for it, Keyrock said in a new report.
The crypto trading and investment firm estimated that AI agents settled over $73 million across roughly 176 million transactions on blockchain rails between May 2025 and April 2026.
The volumes remain negligible compared to traditional finance (TradFi). Visa, for example, alone processes $14.5 trillion annually. But the significance lies less in the headline U.S. dollar value and more in how quickly the infrastructure stack is forming, the report argued. Global firms such as Coinbase (COIN), Stripe, Google (GOOG) and Visa (V) all rolled out competing systems for machine-to-machine payments.
The broader idea behind agentic payments is that software increasingly consumes digital services autonomously rather than through human-managed subscriptions and accounts. An AI trading agent, for example, could continuously purchase market data, cloud computing or AI-generated analysis in tiny increments throughout the day without a human authorizing each payment manually.
That potential is driving ambitious forecasts how big the agentic payment sector could grow. Gartner projects AI agents could intermediate $15 trillion in purchases by 2028, while McKinsey estimated retail agentic commerce could reach $3 trillion-$5 trillion by 2030, accord...
📰 *Funcționarii CFTC care au pus la îndoială piețele de predicție au fost suspendați: NYT*
O investigație a New York Times a descoperit că oficialii de rang înalt ai CFTC care au ridicat îngrijorări cu privire la Polymarket, Crypto.com și Gemini au fost suspendați și dați afară.
Oficialii de rang înalt de la Comisia pentru Comerțul Futures au ridicat îngrijorări cu privire la companiile de piețe de predicție, fiind suspendați, investigați și în cele din urmă dați afară din agenție.
Conform unei investigații a New York Times publicate duminică, oficialii au semnalat îngrijorări cu privire la Polymarket, Crypto.com și un afiliat al Gemini, fiecare având legături comerciale presupuse cu familia Trump. Personalul din carieră s-a îngrijorat că Crypto.com nu trata corect micii pariori, că Polymarket nu avea protecții adecvate împotriva fraudelor și că afiliatul Gemini nu finalizase revizuirea de reglementare necesară pentru a opera.
În ciuda acestor îngrijorări, atunci când președinta CFTC în exercițiu, Caroline Pham, și consilierul său de rang înalt au intervenit pentru a ajuta firmele să obțină ceea ce își doreau, surse au declarat pentru NYT. Până la sfârșitul anului 2025, doi oficiali care au ridicat întrebări au fost plasați în concediu administrativ și sub investigație internă. Trei alții care au aplicat legile crypto au avut aceeași soartă. Nimeni nu a fost informat despre ce au făcut greșit.
„Dar actualii și foștii angajați ai agenției au declarat în interviuri că forța de muncă a comisiei a primit un mesaj clar: Nu provoca probleme pentru acele industrii”, a scris raportul.
Related: Comitetul Bancar al Senatului SUA votează pentru avansarea Actului CLARITY
CFTC se retrage de la aplicarea legilor crypto
Raportul a menționat că CFTC s-a retras semnificativ...
📰 *Tether’s $141 billion Treasury pile reveals the stablecoin risk now embedded in US debt*
There's a huge contradiction sitting at the center of modern American finance. The same industry regulators tried to isolate from the mainstream financial system has become one of the largest US Treasury buyers on the planet. Tether , the company behind the world's largest stablecoin USDT, closed 2025 with total direct and indirect exposure to US Treasuries surpassing $141 billion , making it one of the largest holders of American government debt worldwide. The company itself said it was the 17th largest overall, and the largest non-sovereign holder of US debt, a ranking that makes some policymakers nervous and others genuinely relieved. The US government spent years debating whether to ban digital assets like stablecoins, restrict them, or treat them as a fringe curiosity. Then, finally, after over a decade of a legal standstill, it signed legislation designed to make stablecoins part of the US financial system. The GENIUS Act , signed into law by President Trump on July 18, 2025, after passing the Senate 68-30 and the House 308-122, established the first federal regulatory framework for stablecoins in US history. Its core requirement is that stablecoin issuers must maintain 100% reserve backing with liquid assets like US dollars or short-term Treasuries, with monthly public disclosures of reserve composition. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called that provision a “debt relief engine” on the day the Senate voted, saying that stablecoin reserves parked largely i
📰 *HYPE Brothers Wax, ETH Brothers Wane – Week In Review*
Key Takeaways.
Bitcoin lost $80K as ETF demand cooled; Glassnode sees resistance, with October bottom eyed.
lost $80K as ETF demand cooled; Glassnode sees resistance, with October bottom eyed. Ethereum saw 8 EF exits and 31% staking ; Bankless turmoil may spur a new ETH org.
; Bankless turmoil may spur a new org. Hyperliquid’s HYPE rose 50% on $11M fees; CME pressure and ETF flows are next tests.
Bitcoin spent the week grinding downward after losing the $80,000 level, finishing Friday just below $77,000. Ethereum and altcoins went sideways, with a few select outliers printing green candles.
The very concentrated stock indices pushed higher once again, while precious metals continued consolidating. Meanwhile, bond markets in both the U.S. and Japan showed more signs of weakness as yields climbed even higher.
Bitcoin is currently battling heavy overhead technical and institutional resistance. Glassnode corroborated this cautious outlook, noting that weakening spot demand, slowing ETF inflows, and overcrowded long positions are actively cooling upside momentum.
The exhaustion is showing at the institutional level. The latest 13F filings revealed that Harvard University slashed its spot Bitcoin ETF exposure by nearly 50% and completely liquidated its ethereum positions in Q1. Meanwhile, billionaire Mark Cuban made waves by announcing he sold most of his bitcoin.
However, zoom out and the long-term cyclic pattern remains intact. One analyst highlighted a metronomic hist...
Add Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
In brief Zoltar is a full divination engine: Swiss Ephemeris natal charts, live daily horoscopes, structured tarot readings, I Ching, numerology, and Elder Futhark runes.
Antiscammer uses Hermes to flood scammers on WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord with the complete Shrek screenplay—3,679 lines—until they're forced to block you.
Book-Mirror produces a personalized two-column chapter analysis that mirrors every idea in a book to your actual life using your real words, real people, and real situations from Hermes's memory.
You installed Hermes. You made it look better than ChatGPT. Now you're wondering what to actually do with it.
Most Hermes skills are serious things: GitHub PR workflows, research pipelines, developer operation automation, etc. The kind of content that belongs in a productivity deck at an enterprise AI conference.
But AI agents can be fun too.
One of the nice things about AI agents is that they can be configured to do whatever you want, and not whatever your AI provider wants the AI to do for you. This is why some argue agents will shape the next era of the internet: People will be able to create apps on demand, tailored specifically to their needs, instead of having to wait for someone else to publish an app on the Google Play Store that fits what they’re looking for.
Here are three non-work-related skills that might make your time with Hermes a little more enjoyable.
📰 *Tranzacțiile cu Bitcoin privind tăierea ratelor Fed se răstoarnă pe măsură ce piața obligațiunilor devine riscantă*
Bloomberg a raportat pe 22 mai că traderii de obligațiuni preconizează complet o creștere a ratei dobânzii Fed până la sfârșitul anului, cu swap-uri de rate ale dobânzii sugerând că rata de referință a Fed va fi cu cel puțin 25 de puncte de bază mai mare până la sfârșitul anului 2026. În aceeași zi, guvernatorul Fed, Christopher Waller, a declarat că Fed ar trebui să elimine biasul de relaxare și a numit discuțiile despre tăierea ratelor „nebunești”, având în vedere că inflația a rămas peste țintă, iar piața muncii a rămas stabilă. Bitcoin a pierdut suportul de $76,000 pe 22 mai, o mișcare legată de incertitudinea SUA-Iran și de recalibrarea așteptărilor privind ratele Fed. Această acțiune de preț surprinde doar o parte din recalibrarea macro în curs, deoarece vântul favorabil al tăierilor de rate care a susținut activele riscante în mare parte din prima parte a anului 2026 a devenit un risc de creștere a ratelor, iar piața obligațiunilor a preluat responsabilitatea de a stabili condițiile financiare înainte ca Fed să facă o mișcare formală. Kevin Warsh a depus jurământul ca președinte al Fed pe 22 mai, cu FOMC alegându-l în unanimitate. O cronologie în cinci pași trasează cum contextul macro al Bitcoin-ului s-a mutat de la un vânt favorabil al tăierilor de rate la o probabilitate de 58% pentru o creștere pe 22 mai, cu randamentul pe 10 ani atingând 4.69%. Nomura a renunțat la prognoza sa privind tăierea ratelor Fed din 2026 din cauza inflației persistente și a riscurilor geopolitice, în timp ce prețurile CME FedWatch au arătat aproximativ o șansă de 58% de cel puțin o creștere de 25 de puncte de bază până la sfârșitul anului. Randamentele pe termen lung ale obligațiunilor Treasury crescuseră deja înainte ca traderii de obligațiuni să prețuiească complet o creștere, cu randamentul pe 30 de ani atingând 5.201%, cel mai mare din 2007, în timp ce randamentul pe 10 ani a atins 4.69%, cel mai mare din J
📰 *Argentina Launched an AI to Predict the Future. It Couldn't Predict a Typo*
Add Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
In brief Argentina's Ministry of Human Capital launched the “Digital Twin” initiative designed to simulate the impact of social policies before they're implemented.
The promotional video triggered instant mockery for grammatical errors, an AI-generated avatar of Minister Sandra Pettovello, a Singaporean flag, and a visible Amazon AWS logo.
Opposition politicians filed formal information requests, and privacy experts warned the system lacks a governance framework and could enable algorithmic surveillance at scale.
Argentina's Ministry of Human Capital has a bold claim: It can predict the future of social policy using artificial intelligence. President Javier Milei announced the “Gemelo Digital Social” initiative (which roughly translates to “Social Digital Twin”) on Friday via X, calling it "a paradigm change in social policy."
He closed the announcement with "MAGA. VLLC!"—a nod to Trump's slogan alongside his own—lest anyone miss the political branding.
ARGENTINA SE ADELANTA AL FUTURO, PORQUE EL FUTURO NO ESPERA
Por primera vez, nuestro país lidera el futuro social.
El Ministerio de Capital Humano presenta el Gemelo Digital: un cambio de paradigma en la política social con el uso de Inteligencia Artificial.
MAGA.
VLLC! pic.twitter.com/4DY1Wexziq — Javier Milei (@JMilei) May 22, 2026
The system, a "social digital twin," is designed as a virtual, dynamic replica of Argentine society. It ing...
📰 *Bitcoin Dives Below $75K for First Time in a Month as Crypto Liquidations Near $1 Billion*
Add Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
Bitcoin is starting to rebound after a rocky night that saw the top cryptocurrency by market cap dive below $75,000 for the first time in over a month, dipping as low as $74,344 in the early hours of Saturday.
The coin is currently trading around $75,500, showing a 1.8% drop over the last 24 hours and 2.7% in the last week. Bitcoin had traded above the $80,000 mark as recently as last week before leading a broader crypto market dip in the days since.
Other major cryptocurrencies are showing similar declines, with Ethereum falling 2.7% in the last day to a recent price of $2,059 and Solana declining over 3% to a price of $84.
Thanks to Bitcoin's overnight dip below the $75,000 mark, a growing pile of crypto futures positions has been liquidated in the last day. CoinGlass currently shows $917 million worth of liquidations during the past 24 hours, led by Bitcoin with $371 million worth and Ethereum at about $261 million worth.
Long positions—or bets that an asset's price will rise—dominate the carnage with $827 million worth of liquidations.
While there's no immediately obvious trigger for Bitcoin's latest leg down, the dip below $75,000 comes as Bitcoin ETFs had a terrible week, shedding over $1.25 billion worth of investments amid a six-day streak of outflows p...
📰 *Firefox's Big Redesign Gives You a Button to Kill All the AI*
Add Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
In brief Mozilla's Project Nova redesign adds a single Settings control to disable all AI features in Firefox.
Brave launched Brave Origin in April, a $60 one-time purchase (free on Linux) that compiles out AI, Wallet, Rewards, and telemetry entirely.
Chrome recently removed its disclosure promising to keep Gemini Nano data off Google's servers, adding fuel to the AI-in-browsers backlash.
The browser wars just got a twist: Instead of cramming more AI down your throat, Firefox is adding a switch to turn it all off.
Mozilla unveiled Project Nova on May 21—a full visual overhaul of Firefox rolling out later this year. The redesign is cleaner, warmer, and faster, featuring rounded tabs, a refreshed color palette inspired by fire, and compact mode finally making a comeback. But the headline feature for a growing slice of users isn't the aesthetics.
It's an anti-AI switch.
Mozilla is redesigning its settings with plain-language controls that make privacy choices easier to act on—including, per the official announcement, "controls for turning off AI features entirely." No buried menus. No dark patterns. Just an off button.
It also comes with a graphic update, meant to make the new generation of Firefox browsers look a lot better.
Image: Mozilla
The timing couldn't be better. Chrome has been quietly installing an undeletable 4GB Gemini Nano model on its users’ PCs. Meanwhile, browsers like Dia, Op...
William Mougayar says critics are measuring the Ethereum Foundation by the wrong standard, claiming it was never meant to pump ETH or court institutions.
A blockchain researcher has pushed back against growing criticism of the Ethereum Foundation, arguing that the organization is doing “exactly” what it was designed to do, which the critics keep getting wrong.
In a post on X titled “Leave the Foundation Alone,” William Mougayar, a Toronto-based blockchain investor, researcher and best-selling author, argued that the EF is a protocol steward, not a marketing engine.
Mougayar said that ETH, Ethereum and the Ethereum Foundation are three separate entities with three separate trajectories. “The asset is money. The infrastructure is shared compute. The Foundation is a non-profit that is steering the protocol toward irrelevance for its own founders,” he wrote, adding that confusing the three leads to bad predictions and misplaced anger.
Source: William Mougayar
The post comes as the foundation has faced a wave of criticism from the crypto community in recent months. ETH sales, unstaking moves and public silence have drawn repeated accusations that the organization is harming ETH’s price performance.
Related: Ethereum is still a good long-term buy, according data: Analyst
EF is hardening the protocol
Mougayar said the EF is on a “subtraction path,” working to become less central to Ethereum over time. “ It is hardening the protocol so the world does not need it so much. I...