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French national Maximilien de Hoop Cartier was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for operating an unlicensed over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency exchange, assisting in the transfer of over $470 million in drug trafficking and other criminal proceeds through the U.S. financial system to Colombia and other locations, and was ordered to forfeit approximately $2.362 million in commissions and related shell company accounts.Since 2018, Cartier converted cryptocurrency into fiat currency through more than a dozen U.S. shell companies, falsely claiming to banks that he was engaged in software development and forging contracts and invoices to cover the source of funds. After law enforcement agencies seized his accounts in 2021, he still submitted forged documents, resulting in some funds being returned. In October 2025, Cartier pleaded guilty to two charges of operating an unlicensed remittance business and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Web3 security company CertiK released the report "2026 Digital Asset Regulatory Status," systematically outlining global regulatory trends. The report indicates that by 2026, the regulatory frameworks in major jurisdictions will have basically been established, and the industry is entering a phase of full compliance. The report shows that anti-money laundering enforcement has replaced the definition of securities attributes as the primary regulatory risk, with global anti-money laundering-related fines exceeding $900 million in the first half of 2025, and transaction monitoring capabilities becoming a core compliance requirement.At the same time, smart contract security audits are evolving from industry best practices to entry requirements, becoming essential for license approval and token listings. Additionally, global stablecoin regulatory frameworks are becoming more consistent, generally establishing principles such as full reserves and licensed issuance; however, differences in cross-jurisdictional regulation still pose compliance challenges. The report points out that with regulatory convergence and strengthened enforcement, the industry has entered the "strong compliance era." CertiK states that the core issue facing enterprises is shifting from "Are we compliant?" to "Can we quickly build and implement compliance capabilities?" Licensing in multiple regions, investments in anti-money laundering, and ongoing security audits are becoming the foundational thresholds for institutional development.

The crypto derivatives trading platform Liquid has completed a $18 million Series A financing round, led by Neo and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Haun Ventures, K5 Global, SV Angel, AntiFund, and Sunflower Capital.The company previously completed a $7.6 million seed round led by Paradigm. Liquid was founded by former Two Sigma quantitative researcher and Harvard graduate Franklyn Wang, initially as a perpetual contract aggregation platform, and has now expanded to multi-asset trading including stocks, forex, commodities, and prediction markets. The platform supports leverage of up to 200 times and integrates various asset trading, including positions from Polymarket.

According to the Korea Herald, two active-duty sergeants in their 30s from the South Korean Army Special Warfare Command were sentenced to two years in prison by the Changwon District Court on April 26 for illegally operating an unreported virtual asset exchange during their service and assisting in money laundering for drug transactions, and were fined 54.69 million won.Investigations revealed that the defendants operated an illegal trading platform through Telegram from 2023 to 2024, assisting buyers in converting approximately 54.69 million won in drug payments into virtual currency and transferring it to sellers on 90 occasions.

According to the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, the Hong Kong police have disclosed the resolution of a cross-border phone scam case, where a criminal group impersonated mainland officials, specifically targeting mainland students studying in the UK and Australia.The scammers falsely claimed that the victims were involved in criminal cases such as money laundering and demanded their "cooperation in the investigation." They instructed the victims to travel to Hong Kong to purchase gold grains in multiple transactions at jewelry stores as "collateral," with each transaction not exceeding HKD 120,000 to evade the registration system of gold shops. The group members then collected and transferred the stolen goods. The gold grains were subsequently melted down into gold bars or exchanged for cash and virtual currency. The police have currently received a total of 7 related cases, involving approximately HKD 7 million, with the highest single case loss reaching HKD 1.6 million.

According to CoinDesk, the open interest (OI) of the Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund IBIT under BlackRock once surged to $27.61 billion, surpassing the $26.9 billion scale of the Bitcoin options market on the crypto derivatives platform Deribit for the first time. Analysts believe this milestone indicates that the institutionalization process of the Bitcoin market in the United States is accelerating.Additionally, according to Volmex data, the open interest volume of IBIT call options suggests that its call options primarily expect the Bitcoin trading price to rise to $109,709, which is about 41% higher than the current market price of $77,400. Furthermore, the average expiration date of IBIT options is also about two months longer than that of Deribit, indicating stronger bullish sentiment and a preference for longer-term holdings.

According to market news, Colombia and U.S. law enforcement agencies have jointly acted to successfully dismantle a transnational cryptocurrency money laundering network associated with the Mexican "Jalisco New Generation Cartel" (CJNG). Since 2023, this network has transferred over $190 million in illegal funds through cryptocurrency channels, seizing multiple crypto wallets and cash on site.Investigations show that the network commonly employs tactics such as fund splitting, decentralized transfers across multiple wallets, circulation across jurisdictions, and token swaps to evade tracking. Currently, authorities have not disclosed specific details regarding the cryptocurrencies involved, trading platforms, or the number of arrests, and the investigation is still ongoing.

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced a reward of up to $4 million under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program for information leading to the arrest of Daren Li, who assisted various scam centers in Southeast Asia in laundering their proceeds.According to court documents, Daren Li laundered funds obtained from victims through cryptocurrency scams and related fraudulent means, instructing accomplices to open U.S. bank accounts in the name of shell companies, and monitored the interstate and international wire transfers of victim funds. At least $73.6 million of victim funds were directly deposited into bank accounts associated with him and his accomplices, including at least $59.8 million from U.S. shell companies involved in laundering the proceeds obtained from defrauded victims.

According to market news, the Nasdaq-listed company Nakamoto announced its actively managed Bitcoin derivatives program, which will operate starting in the first quarter of 2026. The program aims to generate recurring volatility returns from a portion of the company's Bitcoin holdings and to hedge against some downside risk in Bitcoin prices.The program is managed by Bitwise Asset Management through a separately managed account, with the relevant Bitcoin held by Kraken's qualified custody solution as collateral. The strategy includes covered call options and call spreads on the income side, as well as protective put options and put spreads on the hedging side. Nakamoto stated that the premiums earned from the program could be used to cover hedging costs, increase Bitcoin holdings, or for general corporate purposes. The results for the first quarter of 2026 will be included in the quarterly 10-Q report for that period.

In response to the U.S. accusations of China "stealing" intellectual property from American artificial intelligence laboratories, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiaqun stated during a regular press conference on the 24th that the U.S. claims are unfounded and are a smear against China's achievements in the development of the artificial intelligence industry. China firmly opposes this. We urge the U.S. to respect the facts, abandon prejudice, stop suppressing technology related to China, and do more to promote technological exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

According to the official announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand, the Thai SEC is publicly soliciting opinions on adjusting the licensing rules for futures contracts. The core content allows existing digital asset business operators to directly apply for a futures contract business license without the need to establish a new company, while also formally including digital assets in the category of reference targets for futures contracts.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, the Venus attacker transferred 2,301 ETH (approximately 5.32 million USD) to address 0xa21...23A7f, and then gradually transferred it into Tornado Cash for laundering. Currently, there is still 17.45 million USD worth of ETH on-chain.

According to on-chain analyst Specter (@SpecterAnalyst), the North Korean hacker group TraderTraitor began laundering stolen funds from KelpDAO early this morning Beijing time, just three hours after the Arbitrum Council froze 30.7 ETH (approximately $71 million).The attackers split the remaining funds into three wallets, holding approximately 25,000 ETH (about $57.6 million), 25,700 ETH (about $59.2 million), and 25,000 ETH (about $57.9 million), with the third wallet immediately starting the laundering process, currently holding about 3,800 ETH (approximately $8 million). The funds are primarily being bridged to the Bitcoin network via THORChain, with about 99% of the funds flowing through this protocol, causing THORChain's trading volume to surge to $211 million that day, more than ten times its 30-day average, generating approximately $189,000 in fees.During this laundering process, the funds were also mixed with illicit proceeds from the BTC Turk (2025) and Bybit (2025) hacking incidents, with related funds currently tracked on the Bitcoin network totaling approximately 442 BTC (about $33 million), and the entire laundering process has utilized over 400 addresses.

According to CoinDesk, the prediction market platform Kalshi is preparing to launch cryptocurrency trading in the United States, expanding beyond its core prediction market business. According to insiders, the platform plans to initially introduce perpetual contracts linked to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.This move will put Kalshi in more direct competition with cryptocurrency platforms like Coinbase. Coinbase currently does not offer true perpetual contracts in the U.S., but has launched "perpetual-like" futures contracts with long durations and has expressed intentions to introduce more advanced derivatives products within the U.S.Kalshi holds several licenses from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and has recently been approved to offer margin trading, positioning it to enter the derivatives market. Insiders say the company expects to start with cryptocurrency-linked perpetual contracts and may expand this model to other asset classes in the future.Kalshi's competitor Polymarket also announced on X plans to launch perpetual futures on its platform, but did not disclose further details. A video in the tweet shows that users will be allowed to trade leveraged long and short positions on assets like gold, NVIDIA, BTC, AAPL, and indicates that registration will provide early access.

Binance co-founder He Yi responded to questions about personal plans and the company's management structure at the BNB Chain event in Hong Kong.Regarding whether he would write a book, He Yi said, "Never say never," but at this stage, he has no desire to express that and is not considering writing a book for now. When discussing how to face challenges, He Yi summarized two points: first, the mutual trust between Binance and its users; second, having great employees is crucial.Regarding changes in the management structure, He Yi pointed out that CZ is the founder and the foundation, but he has currently stepped back from management. The current management structure is led by him and Richard Teng, and they will continue to seek suitable partners globally in the future. On this basis, Binance will focus on applying for more global licenses, with Richard responsible for establishing standards, while He Yi focuses on user growth and service.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken's parent company Payward announced that it will acquire 100% of the digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial for up to $550 million (cash + stock). The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.Bitnomial is the first crypto-native platform to obtain all three U.S. derivatives licenses (designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization, and futures commission merchant). This acquisition will help Payward quickly gain a complete compliant derivatives infrastructure, significantly accelerating its expansion in the U.S. market. After the transaction is completed, Bitnomial's clearing and trading capabilities will be integrated with platforms such as Kraken and NinjaTrader, offering products like spot margin, perpetual contracts, and options to U.S. customers, and will be regulated by the CFTC.This acquisition will also expand Payward Services, allowing banks, fintech companies, and brokerages to access the U.S. compliant derivatives market through a single API. Industry insiders believe that with the market warming up and valuations recovering, merger and acquisition activities in the crypto industry are on the rise, as leading institutions are accelerating their transformation into comprehensive trading platforms for institutional clients by acquiring key capabilities such as compliance, custody, and derivatives.

According to official news, the Binance wallet plugin now supports mnemonic-derived accounts. By backing up a set of mnemonics, you can derive up to 99 independent accounts.It can protect the security of mnemonics and efficiently manage accounts; multi-chain support allows a single account to be used across chains. The supported plugin version is 1.12.0 and above.

Deribit officially tweeted that tomorrow at 08:00 UTC (16:00 Beijing time), approximately 2.1 billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency options will expire on the platform.Among them, the notional value of BTC options is about 1.63 billion dollars, with a put/call ratio of 1.02, having flipped from bullish dominance to bearish dominance since last week; the notional value of ETH options is about 445 million dollars, with a put/call ratio of 0.94, and the open interest (OI) for Ethereum has increased week-on-week.Deribit pointed out that despite overall market volatility, both major assets are currently operating below their maximum pain price levels. The maximum pain for BTC is 71,000 dollars, and for ETH it is 2,250 dollars.