Coindesk

A 26-year-old man from Alabama has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for his role in a social media hack that briefly sent the price of bitcoin BTC soaring.Eric Council Jr. of Huntsville pleaded guilty to charges tied to the January 2024 hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.Posing as a telecom customer using a fraudulent ID, Council used a SIM-swap technique to hijack a phone number tied to the SEC’s account. His co-conspirators then used it to falsely post that the agency had approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a long-awaited regulatory milestone.Within minutes, the price of bitcoin surged by more than $1,000. It...

Two of the year’s most chaotic token blowups — Movement Labs’ MOVE scandal and the collapse of Mantra’s OM — are sending shockwaves through crypto’s market-making businesses.In both cases, rapid price crashes revealed hidden actors, questionable token unlocks, and alleged side agreements that blinded market participants, with OM falling more than 90% within hours late April on no apparent catalyst.Unlike traditional finance, where market makers provide orderly bid-ask spreads on regulated venues, crypto market makers often operate more like high-stakes trading desks. They're not just quoting prices; they’re negotiating pre-launch token allocations, accepting lockups, structuring liquidity for centralized exchanges, and sometimes taking equity or advisory stakes. The result is a murky space where liquidity provision is entangled with private deals,...

Major tokens slumped Saturday as investors digested the implications of Moody’s Ratings downgrading the U.S. credit score, with ether (ETH), XRP, and dogecoin (DOGE) dropping roughly 3%. The broader crypto market held at $3.3 trillion, paring earlier gains after briefly touching the week’s high.The move came after rating giant Moody’s cut the U.S. sovereign credit rating to Aa1 from Aaa, citing the country’s swelling deficits, rising interest expenses, and a lack of political will to rein in spending. The firm now joins Fitch and S&P in assigning a rating below the once-unblemished triple-A status long held by the world’s largest economy.As such, the White House was quick to respond, with spokespersons for President Donald Trump criticizing the decision as politically...

Despite recent setbacks, U.S. legislation to regulate stablecoin issuers may be heading toward debate and passage next week, according to the backers of the bill known as the "Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins" (GENIUS) Act.“Next week, the Senate will make history when we debate and pass the GENIUS Act that establishes the first ever pro-growth regulatory framework for payment stablecoins,” said Senator Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who sponsored the bill to set U.S. standards for stablecoins, which are typically dollar-based tokens such as Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT that are vital to crypto trading activity.The latest draft of the bill began circulating this week, and a copy seen by CoinDesk showed language had been adjusted in modest...

Blockchain development platform Alchemy said it has acquired Solana developer DexterLab for an undisclosed fee.The acquisition will accelerate the development of Solana-based Web3 applications to meet growing enterprise demand, Alchemy said in an emailed announcement on Friday.DexterLab's technology has previously powered the Solana development of Google and the Solana Foundation, establishing itself as "a go-to infrastructure provider," according to Alchemy's announcement.One of Alchemy's aims in acquiring DexterLab is to consolidate Solana development alongside that of Ethereum to reduce complexity for projects building across multiple networks. Alchemy may be be attempting to capture the growing prominence of Solana as a preferred venue for blockchain applications.While Ethereum remains comfortably the larger blockchain in terms of total-value locked, there are some metrics where...