Coindesk

French authorities have charged 25 people, including six minors, for their roles in a spate of crypto kidnappings in Paris, with the majority of the suspects connected to the recent failed kidnapping attempt of a crypto exchange CEO's family, Paris's public prosecutor's office said, Le Monde reported Saturday.The investigation is focused on the kidnapping attempt of the daughter and grandson of the CEO of crypto exchange Paymium, Pierre Noizat, that occurred on May 13, the report said.The probe also looked at other unsuccessful kidnapping attempts, including an earlier attempt on Noizat’s family members, plus an attempted abduction near the western city of Nantes last Monday that authorities thwarted.The arrests follow a spate of high-profile crypto kidnappings that have plagued France...

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (MARA) produced 950 BTC in May, a 35% increase from the previous month and its strongest output since the Bitcoin halving in April 2024, the company said Tuesday.The firm also set a new internal monthly record for blocks won, totaling 282, a 38% jump from April.CEO Fred Thiel attributed the gains to the company’s vertically integrated tech stack and its self-owned MARA Pool. “Operating our own pool means we keep all block rewards without paying fees to third parties,” Thiel said, adding that MARA Pool’s block reward luck has outperformed the Bitcoin network average by over 10% since its launch.The company’s energized hashrate ticked up slightly to 58.3 EH/s in May, while its share of available...

OpenAI just spent $6.4 billion acquiring io, Jony Ive's nascent hardware venture. As someone who grew up idolizing the Jobs-Ive partnership—Mac Addict subscription, Marathon on shareware, one of everything they ever made—I understand the allure. But this move reveals OpenAI's existential crisis: they're playing a game they've already lost.The Distribution Kings Have Already WonLet's be clear about the consumer AI endgame: Google and Apple will dominate, with Microsoft trailing on desktop and maybe, eventually, phones. They have what OpenAI desperately lacks: hardware expertise, distribution channels, and capital scale that dwarfs even OpenAI's eye-watering funding rounds.Hardware isn't just another moat—it's a moat where your competitors have decades of experience and you're learning to swim. Leaning into your weakness is how you...

AVAX broke through key resistance levels on high volume, establishing new support zones around $21.30 as traders navigate complex market conditions influenced by international trade disputes and monetary policy speculation.Technical Analysis• AVAX climbed from $20.52 to $21.31, representing a 3.8% gain with a total range of $1.28 (6.2%).• Price formed a clear uptrend with higher lows and higher highs, breaking through key resistance at $20.90.• Exceptionally high volume (1.33M) confirmed the breakout.• Strong support established at $21.15 following the surge.• Most significant price movement occurred when AVAX surged past the $21.00 psychological level.• Pronounced correction saw price drop 5.8% on the highest volume spike (40,669).• Decreasing volume suggests consolidation after volatile price action.Source link

Symbiotic, a universal staking protocol and EigenLayer rival, has launched Relay, a software development kit (SDK) that allows protocols to stake assets on Ethereum and verify that stake across any blockchain.Staking is a system for securing blockchains in exchange for rewards. In staking systems, so-called validators commit callateral — called "stake" — for a role in processing transactions. "Restaking" protocols like Symbiotic let users reuse stake across multiple blockchains at once, offering investors the opportunity to earn extra yield.Relay is, in essence, a generalized version of Symbiotic's restaking tech — a toolkit that can bring Symbiotic-style restaking to virtually any crypto ecosystem. According to the Symbiotic team, the tech lets developers build verifiable, secure coordination layers for decentralized applications (dApps)...