Coindesk

North Korean hackers posing as American tech entrepreneurs quietly registered companies in New York and New Mexico as part of a campaign to compromise developers in the crypto industry, security firm Silent Push said Thursday.Two businesses, Blocknovas and Softglide, were created using fictitious identities and addresses. The operation is tied to a subgroup within the Lazarus Group.The North Korean-backed hacking unit has stolen billions worth of crypto in the past years using sophisticated techniques and strategies that target unsuspecting individuals or companies.“This is a rare example of North Korean hackers actually managing to set up legal corporate entities in the US in order to create corporate fronts used to attack unsuspecting job applicants,” said Kasey Best, director of threat intelligence...

Arbitrum (ARB) was set to make a splash.The Layer 2 network, home to a growing number of decentralized AI platforms, was preparing to announce a milestone: it had been named Nvidia’s exclusive Ethereum partner for the chipmaker’s new Ignition AI Accelerator, an offshoot of its Inception program that supports promising AI startups with infrastructure credits and mentorship.Then came the pivot.“We received some last-minute comms from Nvidia requesting to pause the announcement, however, they didn’t provide any specific details as to why,” a spokesperson told CoinDesk in an email.It’s a telling moment, and a reminder that despite crypto’s continued efforts to align with the booming AI sector, Nvidia’s programs still explicitly exclude crypto-related projects. A quick look at the Inception Accelerator’s...

The Federal Reserve has joined its fellow U.S. banking regulators in deleting its crypto guidance of previous years, including notices that banks should get pre-approvals before they get involved in crypto activity.Now, all three agencies — including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — have joined in reversing those previous policies, leaving crypto matters at banks in the hands of their managers and compliance executives. In the absence of guidance, the banking industry awaits new laws from Congress to define how the digital assets industry should operate in the U.S."These actions ensure the Board's expectations remain aligned with evolving risks and further support innovation in the banking system," the Fed said in...

Real estate tokenization—once a niche experiment—may soon become a core pillar of how property is financed, owned and traded, according to a Thursday report by Deloitte Center for Financial Services.The market of tokenized real estate could reach $4 trillion by 2035, growing at a compound annual rate of 27% from the current size of under $300 billion, the firm forecasted.Tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is a red-hot sector at the intersection of crypto tech and traditional finance. It consists of creating digital versions of assets like bonds, funds and real estate, that represent ownerships on blockchain rails. The process offers operational efficiencies, cheaper and faster settlements and broader investor access.For the real estate sector, tokenization's appeal lies in its ability...

El Salvador’s Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales (CNAD), the agency in charge of regulating digital assets in the Central American nation, is seeking to establish a cross-border regulatory sandbox with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).“We want to create international collaboration,” Juan Carlos Reyes, president of the CNAD, told CoinDesk in an interview. “Our biggest message is that digital assets don’t have any geographical barriers. Collaboration with regulators should not have international barriers either.”El Salvador is in a unique situation in that it did not boast of strong financial institutions, or even of an existing ecosystem of developers, when President Nayib Bukele made bitcoin legal tender in 2021. That means the CNAD was able to start with a blank...