Coindesk

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a Philippines-based tech company, Funnull Technology Inc., for providing the computer infrastructure for “hundreds of thousands of websites” involved in pig butchering scams, according to a Thursday press release from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).OFAC also sanctioned Liu Lizhi, a Chinese national working as Funnull Technology’s administrator. According to the press release, Funnull Technology has directly facilitated more than $200 million in losses from scam victims in the U.S. Of those victims, the average losses per individual were over $150,000.“Today’s action underscores our focus on disrupting the criminal enterprises, like Funnull, that enable these cyber scams and deprive Americans of their hard-earned savings,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury...

The family of U.S. President Donald Trump has allegedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to two entities behind a forthcoming — and already heavily disputed — Trump-branded crypto wallet, according to a Thursday report from Bloomberg.Since the announcement of the so-called $TRUMP Wallet (named for the President’s eponymous memecoin) earlier this week, Trump’s three sons — Don Jr., Eric, and Barron — have all publicly repudiated the project, saying that neither the Trump family nor its firm, the Trump Organization, is connected to or otherwise authorized the $TRUMP Wallet.“This project is not authorized by @Trump,” Eric Trump wrote in an X post. “I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our...

As artificial intelligence (AI) powers ahead, the question is no longer if we will integrate AI into core Web3 protocols and applications, but how. Behind the scenes, the rise of NeuroSymbolic AI promises to be useful in addressing the risks inherent with today’s large language models (LLMs).Unlike LLMs that rely solely on neural architectures, NeuroSymbolic AI combines neural methods with symbolic reasoning. The neural component handles perception, learning, and discovery; the symbolic layer adds structured logic, rule-following, and abstraction. Together, they create AI systems that are both powerful and explainable.For the Web3 sector, this evolution is timely. As we transition toward a future driven by intelligent agents (DeFi, Gaming etc.), we face growing systemic risks from current LLM-centric approaches that...

Shares of Circle (CRCL) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday, opening at $69 a share in early trading, 123% above the $31 price it had set the night before.The company announced late Wednesday that it sold roughly 34 million shares in its initial public offering, raising $1.1 billion and landing a valuation of $6.9 billion. The listing marks Circle’s long-awaited arrival on public markets after previous attempts, including a failed SPAC deal in 2021.Circle's debut lands in a market still wrestling with an uncertain macroeconomic environment. Earnings season is winding down, and more companies have flagged weak outlooks for the next quarter than strong ones, suggesting that U.S. stocks could face added pressure in the...

High throughput blockchain Keeta and credit data platform SOLO, companies both backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, are introducing an on-chain credit bureau to give digital asset owners access to mortgages, small business loans, and other traditional lending services.Keeta and SOLO have created PASS, a blockchain-based, bank-grade financial identity layer, using know-your-customer, income, crypto assets, and business credentials, according to a press release on Thursday.Blockchain infrastructure is synonymous with trust, so it makes sense to use the tech to store real world financial credentials, and cater to new digital paradigms within lending.The PASS product creates modern credit rails for wallets, dApps, and embedded finance, while allowing for pseudonymous lending and borrowing based on trusted credentials, the release stated.“This is...