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Crypto Long & Short: Asia’s digital asset crackdown: accountability gets personal

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Chart: Crypto investment fraud reported by age group

Welcome to our institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:

  • Bob Williams on how stricter crypto regulations in Asia are putting more personal responsibility on senior leaders, making strong governance and D&O insurance essential.
  • The FBI’s Haidy Grigsby on how crypto scams are increasingly targeting experienced investors by building trust and tricking them into making larger deposits until their money is gone.
  • Top headlines institutions should pay attention to by Francisco Rodrigues.
  • Hyperliquid’s TradFi bet is now 40% of its own volume in Chart of the Week.

-Alexandra Levis


Expert Insights

Asia’s digital asset crackdown: accountability gets personal

By Bob Williams, FinTech, digital assets, & blockchain advisory leader (Asia/Pacific), Lockton Companies

A new wave of digital asset regulations across Asia is increasing pressure on trading platforms and asset managers to strengthen governance — and to reassess their Directors’ and Officers’ (D&O) liability insurance arrangements.

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In recent months, three leading digital asset hubs — Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea — have announced plans to refine their respective regulatory frameworks. As regulatory expectations rise and senior management’s personal accountability becomes clearer, platform operators must stay informed of these developments and evaluate whether their existing risk transfer strategies remain fit for purpose.

Hong Kong: expanding accountability beyond governance

In August 2025, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular to licensed virtual asset trading platform operators clarifying senior management’s responsibilities regarding the custody of clients’ virtual assets. The circular reinforces expectations around governance, internal controls and effective oversight, signaling a continual shift toward personal accountability for directors and senior management.

An emerging consideration from the SFC’s consultation process is whether virtual asset management service providers should be permitted to rely on non‑SFC‑regulated or offshore custodians. From an insurance perspective, the availability of coverage for virtual asset risks is closely tied to the robustness of custody arrangements, including security controls, operational resilience and asset protection standards. To date, insurance capacity has largely been supported by the prescriptive requirements imposed on SFC‑regulated custodians and platforms.

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If alternative custody models are permitted, ensuring that non‑regulated or offshore custodians are held to equivalent standards, including appropriate insurance coverage will be critical. Without alignment, firms that have invested heavily to meet Hong Kong’s regulatory and insurance expectations may face a competitive disadvantage, while the objective of enhancing investor protection and market integrity could be undermined.

Singapore: reinforcing senior management competency

In 2025, Singapore introduced licensing requirements for digital token service providers serving only overseas customers, bringing a broader range of firms within the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s regulatory perimeter.

Under the licensing guidelines, the competency and fitness of key individuals are core admission criteria. Senior management is expected to demonstrate a clear understanding of the regulatory framework and to exercise effective oversight and control over business activities and staff.

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As regulatory expectations rise, so too does the personal exposure of directors and officers. In this context, D&O insurance remains a critical component of a firm’s overall risk management framework, helping to protect personal assets in the event of claims or regulatory actions arising from alleged governance or oversight failures.

South Korea: gearing up for Digital Asset Basic Act

South Korea is pursuing a more expansive regulatory overhaul through the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, introduced to the National Assembly in June 2025. The bill seeks to formalize the digital asset market by regulating issuance, trading practices and distributions, while introducing new governance structures around asset listing and delisting decisions.

These imminent changes would significantly increase compliance obligations for trading platforms and related service providers. In this environment, D&O insurance plays an important role in protecting directors and officers from the financial consequences of legal actions, investigations or claims arising from alleged regulatory breaches.

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Navigating regulatory complexity with D&O insurance

Across Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, regulators are refining already sophisticated frameworks to address the evolving risks of digital assets. These developments reflect a broader global trend toward intensified regulatory scrutiny and heightened expectations of senior management accountability.

For firms operating in the region, this means proactively reviewing governance structures, custody arrangements and insurance programs to ensure leadership is appropriately protected against emerging liabilities. D&O insurance is no longer a secondary consideration — it is a core element of responsible risk management in an increasingly regulated digital asset landscape.


Informed Perspectives

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Crypto scams are not just targeting the uninformed

By Haidy Grigsby, special agent, cybercrime and digital evidence unit, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

A common assumption is that crypto scams prey on the uninformed. While this is often true in financial fraud, crypto-related frauds are increasingly catching experienced investors, retired professionals and former market participants off guard with increasing frequency.

In my work at the FBI, I recently met with a retired trader who fit that profile exactly. He met a young woman online who claimed to know someone involved in crypto trading. He was told he had been selected as a consultant because of his experience. His case illustrates a strategy that we now see often.

Initial contact often begins with a wrong-number text, LinkedIn message or social media outreach. What starts as professional often turns personal or romantic, a tactic known as “pig butchering.” Scammers flatter expertise, create exclusivity and get the target to move the conversation to encrypted apps. In this case, “she” said WhatsApp was easier for her.

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Exploiting familiarity with legitimate infrastructure, victims are instructed to open accounts on real exchanges, then use self-custody wallets to access external sites through built-in Web3 browsers. Because they click within a trusted app, they often don’t realize that they have left it.

These fraudulent markets mimic real ones with a twist: unlike real markets, these platforms allow one daily trade at a set time, ostensibly to capture optimal volatility. Victims choose long or short, allocate funds and confirm a brief trade lasting seconds or minutes. The scammer will often claim to contribute their own funds, reinforcing trust and the illusion of shared risk.

Balances grow and profits appear real. In truth, no trading occurs — the website is controlled by the operation, and the returns aresimply numbers entered by the scammer on their end.

To build credibility, victims are encouraged to withdraw a small amount after a “winning” trade. The withdrawal appears processed successfully, but is funded with cryptocurrency stolen from other victims and is meant to encourage larger future deposits. “I took profits. It had to be real,” the retired trader told me in frustration.

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The websites change domains and branding frequently, with victims being told the company is merging, upgrading or rebranding. In reality these changes occur because of law enforcement takedowns, and victims are simply redirected to “new trading platforms.”

When victims attempt larger withdrawals, the narrative shifts: regulatory holds, tax prepayments, liquidity verification thresholds or tier upgrades. Each explanation is paired with urgent demands for more funds.

Convincing victims of the truth remains one of the greatest challenges. When I spoke with the retired trader, it was difficult to convince him I was law enforcement and that he had been dealing with a criminal organization, not one individual. No one wants to believe the person they built trust with and gave substantial sums of money to never existed. This retired trader was left to face his family, admit he had been defrauded and ask for help with basic living expenses. By the time he accepted reality, his retirement savings were already gone: assets had been transferred overseas, laundered and liquidated.

Chart: Crypto investment fraud reported by age group

Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 2025 Internet Crime Report, p. 53, https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2025_IC3Report.pdf

The FBI’s 2024 data show losses rising with age, likely reflecting the fact that older individuals have more accumulated wealth than those in their 20s.

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Victims gather evidence: phone numbers, accounts, photos and websites — most of it turns out to be stolen, fake or AI-generated. Despite the difficulties in apprehending the perpetrators of these sophisticated schemes, law enforcement continues to pursue these cases. Anyone affected should cease all communication and report the incident to local law enforcement, IC3.gov and Chainabuse.com.


Headlines of the Week

By Francisco Rodrigues

This week’s headlines show institutional adoption has kept on growing in the cryptocurrency space, yet old dangers remain. Protocol exploits, state-sponsored attacks, and technology disruption remain active threats.


Chart of the Week

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Hyperliquid’s TradFi bet is now 40% of its own volume

Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 has scaled from ~$115 million in its first week (Oct 2025) to a peak of $17.8 billion/week, now consistently representing 35–40% of total protocol volume. Despite launching as a crypto-adjacent product, HIP-3 is overwhelmingly a TradFi venue, with Commodities alone driving ~60% of volume and pure crypto categories accounting for just ~12%. The aggregate (core + HIP 3) volume continues to decline since the early March 2026 peak with the HYPE price now following the same trend.

Chart: Hyperliquid's TradFi bet is now 40% of its own volume

Listen. Read. Watch. Engage.

Looking for more? Receive the latest crypto news from coindesk.com and market updates from coindesk.com/institutions.


Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc., CoinDesk Indices or its owners and affiliates.

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Mantle’s 30,000 ETH loan for Aave enters vote as DeFi United tops $314m

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Solana DEXs match CEX pricing as on-chain liquidity structure evolves

Mantle’s proposal to lend up to 30,000 ETH to Aave’s DeFi United rsETH rescue has gone live on Snapshot, adding structured credit to a $314m multi‑DAO war chest.

Mantle Network has confirmed that its strategic credit facility proposal to support Aave’s rsETH relief effort has formally advanced to a governance vote.

Mantle’s rsETH rescue loan hits Snapshot

In a post shared by Mantle, the team said the measure—known in the forum as MIP‑34—is now live on Snapshot, with MNT token holders required to delegate voting power before they can participate.

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If approved, the proposal would authorize Mantle Treasury to lend up to 30,000 ETH to Aave DAO as part of the DeFi United rescue plan, with the funds earmarked specifically for clearing bad debt and collateral shortfalls created by the April 18 rsETH bridge exploit.

How the Mantle–Aave facility is structured

According to the MIP‑34 draft, Mantle’s loan would run for up to 36 months and pay a floating yield benchmarked to the staking return on Lido’s stETH plus a 1% spread, turning idle treasury ETH into a yield‑bearing position rather than a one‑off grant.

On the other side, Aave DAO has proposed backing the facility with 5% of protocol revenue and at least $11 million worth of AAVE tokens, while also granting Mantle delegated governance rights over roughly 130,000 AAVE to align incentives.

Collateral would be held in a multisig wallet, with no penalty for early repayment and default protections designed to limit Mantle’s downside if the broader rsETH recovery falls short of expectations.

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Aave founder Stani Kulechov has described the broader DeFi United framework as “the largest DAO coordination I have participated in,” pointing to parallel governance processes at Arbitrum, Aave, EtherFi, Lido, Compound, and Mantle.

DeFi United’s ETH war chest tops $314m

The credit facility comes on top of a large pool of pledged ETH and stETH gathered under the DeFi United banner.
As Phemex and other trackers note, the designated donation and relief addresses tied to the initiative have now accumulated 1,137,714.633 ETH, worth roughly $314.57 million at current prices.

Earlier updates from KuCoin and WEEX showed the total climbing from 13,500 ETH in early donations to more than 100,000 ETH, with major contributions from Arbitrum DAO (30,765 ETH of previously frozen funds), Mantle’s planned 30,000 ETH loan, AaveDAO’s proposed 25,000 ETH, EtherFi’s 5,000 ETH, Lido’s 2,500 stETH, and personal and institutional commitments from Stani and the Golem Foundation.

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The goal is to plug an estimated 68,900–118,000 ETH shortfall in rsETH’s backing after the KelpDAO bridge exploit and to restore healthy collateralization ratios across Aave and other integrated lending markets.

Legal analysis from firms tracking the case, such as Travers Smith and others, has framed DeFi United as a landmark example of “on‑chain interventions” coordinated across multiple DAOs, with the Mantle–Aave loan seen as a test of whether structured credit facilities can complement donations in large DeFi rescues.

For users who were hit by the rsETH incident, the combination of direct ETH contributions, governance‑approved credit lines, and protocol‑level technical fixes should—if fully executed—provide more options to exit or rehabilitate positions than a simple liquidation‑and‑write‑off process.

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Kashkari tempers hopes for 2026 cuts as war muddies inflation path

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Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari has shifted from penciling in one or two 2026 cuts to a data‑dependent stance as the Iran war and higher oil muddy the inflation path.

Summary

  • Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari says he had expected inflation to cool enough to justify cutting interest rates once or twice in 2026, but the Iran war has made that outlook far less certain.
  • He now argues that recent data, including March’s inflation prints, are not strong enough to change the Federal Open Market Committee’s policy statement, stressing the need to see how long elevated energy prices persist.
  • Kashkari still sees inflation trending lower over time, but says policymakers must “watch both sides” of the Fed’s mandate and avoid getting so aggressive on rates that they damage a labor market that remains broadly resilient.

According to Jinshi’s summary of recent remarks, Federal Reserve official Neel Kashkari said that before the Iran conflict escalated, he believed inflation would likely decline enough to make “one or two” interest rate cuts appropriate later this year.

From “one or two cuts” to data‑dependent caution

That view is consistent with comments he made in early March, when he told Reuters it was reasonable to expect a single 2026 cut as inflation pressures eased and the job market softened modestly.

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However, he also emphasized in that interview that the Iran war is a “new shock” for the global economy, saying the Fed now has to assess “the duration and magnitude” of the conflict and its impact on energy prices before firming up any rate‑cut path.

March data “not enough” to change the statement

Kashkari’s more recent message has been that March’s inflation and growth data, while not alarming, are not strong enough to warrant changing the Fed’s policy statement or guidance.

In remarks reported by Jinshi, he said the changes seen in March were “not sufficient” to revise the statement, a stance that aligns with his repeated insistence that officials need “more data” before deciding whether to lean more toward fighting inflation or supporting the labor market.

In a January appearance covered by CNBC, Kashkari argued that policy was “quite close to a neutral position” and warned that inflation remained “excessively high,” even as the economy proved more resilient than he had expected.

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That has left him wary of promising aggressive easing, especially with President Donald Trump’s tariff regime and the war‑driven spike in oil prices adding fresh uncertainty to the inflation outlook.

Watching energy prices and the dual mandate

Kashkari has repeatedly highlighted energy costs as a key swing factor.
Speaking at a Bloomberg Invest event in New York, he said the central question now is how persistent higher oil prices will be and whether they materially slow progress toward the Fed’s 2% inflation target.

At the same time, he has stressed in interviews reported by Morningstar and Reuters that the Fed must “watch both sides of our dual mandate,” warning that if policymakers push rates too high for too long, they risk unnecessary damage to employment.

Before the latest geopolitical shock, Kashkari said he saw inflation running in the 2.5%–3% range and expected it to trend lower, but he has now adopted a more explicitly data‑dependent stance, saying the war has “obscured” the policy outlook and that it is “too soon” to know whether the Fed can safely deliver the cuts he once penciled in for 2026.

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Aave Deposits on MegaETH Cross $575M as Post-TGE Liquidity Pours In

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Aave Deposits on MegaETH Cross $575M as Post-TGE Liquidity Pours In


MegaETH’s DeFi TVL has doubled since Thursday’s MEGA token launch, with USDM and Terminal Points farming pulling in fresh capital.

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XRP Rally Signal: Low Leverage and Steady Price Point to a Powerful Breakout Ahead

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR:

  • XRP leverage ratio is trending low while price remains elevated, creating a rare market divergence.
  • CryptoQuant analyst PelinayPA warns the calm market is quietly building strong upward potential energy.
  • Historically, low-leverage and high-price gaps in XRP resolve with fast, squeeze-driven price expansions.
  • If the leverage ratio turns upward, new long positions could trigger a sharper-than-expected XRP rally.

XRP investors are watching a key on-chain metric closely. Data from CryptoQuant shows a widening gap between XRP’s leverage ratio and its price.

Analysts say this pattern has historically preceded sharp price moves. The current setup points to a market where speculative excess has cleared out.

Yet, the price has not collapsed. This combination is drawing attention from traders who track market structure signals.

Low Leverage and Steady Price Create an Unusual Setup

The leverage ratio for XRP is currently low and moving sideways. At the same time, the price is holding at relatively elevated levels.

This gap between the two metrics is what analysts call a divergence. It shows the market is no longer being driven by borrowed positions.

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When leverage is flushed out of the market, it often means a cleaner base is forming. Traders are not piling in with excessive risk. So, the price is being supported by something other than speculation. That is a notable shift in market behavior.

CryptoQuant analyst @PelinayPA noted that such divergences rarely last long. Either the price pulls back to meet the ratio, or the ratio rises quickly.

When the ratio rises, it is usually tied to a strong price move higher. The current structure leans toward the latter scenario.

Historically, low-leverage environments like this one act as a reset. They reduce the chance of a cascade of liquidations on the way up.

As a result, any new rally tends to move faster and with more force. That is what the data is currently pointing toward.

Potential Energy Is Building in the XRP Market

According to PelinayPA, the market looks calm on the surface. However, beneath that calm, potential energy is accumulating.

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This is a common setup before aggressive price expansions. The divergence between price and leverage is the clearest sign of this buildup.

If the leverage ratio starts trending upward, fresh long positions will enter the market. That new demand tends to push prices higher quickly.

The move is often sharper than what most traders expect. A squeeze-driven rally becomes more likely in this kind of environment.

The key point is that leverage has already been reduced. Speculative positions have been unwound without a major price collapse.

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That means the market has absorbed selling pressure well. It also means there is room for new buying without immediate resistance from underwater longs.

Periods like this one have preceded some of the more sudden price expansions in XRP’s history. The setup is not a guarantee, but the structure is in place.

Traders watching the leverage ratio will be looking for the first signs of an upward trend. That shift could be the trigger for the next significant move.

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Galaxy Says Jack Mallers’ XXI Could Rival MicroStrategy After Tether’s Proposed Merger

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Top Public Companies Holding BTC

Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn said the proposed merger of Twenty One Capital (XXI), Strike, and Elektron Energy would establish XXI as the second most influential Bitcoin public company behind MicroStrategy.

Tether Investments, XXI’s majority shareholder, said this week it will vote in favor of merging the company with Bitcoin financial services firm Strike, followed by a combination with mining operator Elektron Energy.

Galaxy Positions XXI as MicroStrategy’s Closest Rival

XXI already holds 43,514 Bitcoin (BTC), making it the second-largest public corporate Bitcoin holder behind MicroStrategy.

Top Public Companies Holding BTC
Top Public Companies Holding BTC. Source: Bitcoin Treasuries

Strike adds brokerage, custody, and Bitcoin-backed lending across more than 100 countries. Meanwhile, Elektron Energy contributes roughly 50 EH/s of hashrate, around 5% of the Bitcoin network, with production costs reportedly below $60,000 per coin.

In Galaxy Research’s May 1 weekly brief, Thorn argued the combined entity would have something MicroStrategy lacks.

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“A combined XXI/Strike/Elektron… would arguably become the most strategically significant publicly traded Bitcoin-only company other than Strategy, and unlike Strategy it would have meaningful operating cash flows alongside its treasury,” Thorn explained.

Galaxy flagged governance hurdles. Jack Mallers serves as CEO of both XXI and Strike, while Tether owns majority stakes in both XXI and Elektron.

Thorn said the board will likely need a special committee, fairness opinions, and a majority-of-the-minority shareholder vote.

Elektron CEO Raphael Zagury, recommended by Tether to serve as president of the merged company, is a defendant in parallel Swan Bitcoin suits in California and the United Kingdom.

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Swan alleges that Zagury and other former executives conspired with Tether in 2024 to expropriate a mining joint venture.

Tether disclosed at Bitcoin 2026 that it now controls more than 140,000 BTC, signaling that XXI may serve as the US-listed face of a broader onshoring effort.

The post Galaxy Says Jack Mallers’ XXI Could Rival MicroStrategy After Tether’s Proposed Merger appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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ChangeNOW Marks a New Chapter with “Beyond the Hype” Documentary Movie

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ChangeNOW Marks a New Chapter with “Beyond the Hype” Documentary Movie

More Than a Milestone

In an industry that moves fast and talks loud, it takes genuine conviction to pause and ask a harder question: not what we are building, but why. ChangeNOW’s first-ever feature documentary, “Beyond the Hype,” is that pause and the answer that follows it. It arrives at a pivotal moment in our journey, marking our evolution from a simple exchange tool into a global infrastructure supporting over 8+ million users, 1,500 assets, and 110 networks.

This release does not follow the usual script. There is no product to announce, no partnership to trumpet. What ChangeNOW has released instead is something rarer: a film that looks honestly at the purpose behind the platform and invites the wider crypto community to look at them.
The documentary is available now on the ChangeNOW official YouTube channel.

Why We Do What We Do: The Human Core of Web3

At its heart, every financial system is a social contract, a promise that value can move from one person to another reliably and fairly. But for millions of people in places like Manila, those promises have been broken for decades. In the traditional world, sending money home is a gauntlet of “remittance taxes,” where intermediaries extract their share at every turn and a family’s support is delayed by days.

ChangeNOW exists because the status quo is no longer acceptable. We don’t just build code; we build the infrastructure for a new kind of trust. Our mission is to ensure that a woman in Manila receives her funds securely, in full, and in an instant, without a gatekeeper deciding how much of her own money she is allowed to keep. We do what we do to turn the abstract promise of Web3 into a life-changing reality for the people the old system left behind. This documentary is the story of that mission.

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The Voices that Shape the Conversation 

The strength of any documentary lies in who it gives the floor to. “The Future of Web3” is built around a set of conversations that span the full landscape of the decentralized economy, from infrastructure builders to community advocates, from exchange operators to those who cover the space critically and carefully.

Appearing in order, the film features:

  • ChangeNOW: Pauline Shangett & Tim
  • Strategic Partners: WanKyu Kim (D’Cent Wallet), KG (Internet Money), Tadeas Kmenta (Zelcore), Joel Valenzuela (Dash), Dorian Vincileoni (Kraken), Martin Masser (TON Foundation), Jye Sandiford (WalletConnect), Thomas D’Eletto (Arculus)
  • Ambassadors & Media: Ornella Hernandez, Albert Quehenberger (AQForensics), Oihyun Kim (BeInCrypto), Ramia Farrage (Forbes Middle East). 

Each participant brings something distinct. Taken together, they map out a space that is more serious, more self-aware, and more committed to the long game than its critics often allow.

A Note of Gratitude to the BeInCrypto Team

ChangeNOW would like to extend particular thanks to the BeInCrypto team for their contribution to this project. Their presence in the documentary reflects something the ChangeNOW team genuinely values: media that approaches the crypto industry with intellectual rigour, independence, and a commitment to accuracy.

The ChangeNOW team is grateful for that partnership and looks forward to continuing to work alongside a publication that takes its responsibilities as seriously as we take ours.

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The Right Moment to Tell This Story

The crypto industry has spent years in explanation mode: publishing whitepapers, launching testnets, refining tokenomics. That work has its place. But there comes a point where explanation alone is not enough, and what is needed instead is meaning.

ChangeNOW has reached that point. The platform has grown in size and now has users across different geographic locations and use cases. Since its founding, it has accumulated a genuine understanding of what decentralized finance should do for its users.

That view doesn’t fit easily into a product update or blog post. It fits in a film. And that film is now available for anyone to watch,  not just the existing community, but the people the community is still trying to reach.

About ChangeNOW

ChangeNOW is a leading non-custodial crypto exchange platform built for maximum safety, speed, and simplicity. The platform is committed to making the digital economy transparent and accessible to everyone, everywhere. It serves millions of users across the globe. ChangeNOW is designed for the future of finance, offering a truly borderless experience with support for over 1,500 cryptocurrencies, 70+ fiat currencies, and 110+ networks.

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The post ChangeNOW Marks a New Chapter with “Beyond the Hype” Documentary Movie appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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TradeXYZ Launches Pre-IPO Perpetuals

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TradeXYZ Launches Pre-IPO Perpetuals


IPOP markets reference anticipated public equity, convert to standard perps once shares list, and settle by TWAP if the listing fails.

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Bitcoin Pushes Above $78,000 as Risk Assets Shake Off Hawkish Fed

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Bitcoin Pushes Above $78,000 as Risk Assets Shake Off Hawkish Fed


Crypto markets open May with a rally despite an unresolved Hormuz blockade.

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CoreWeave (CRWV) Stock Surges 7% Following Citi’s Bullish Price Target Upgrade

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CRWV Stock Card

Key Highlights

  • CoreWeave shares climbed approximately 2.5% during premarket hours following Citi’s price target increase from $126 to $155
  • Analyst Tyler Radke maintained his Buy recommendation while projecting 35-40% quarter-over-quarter backlog expansion
  • A recently announced partnership with Jane Street and Meta is scheduled to scale through the conclusion of 2027
  • This strategic partnership may propel CoreWeave beyond its $30 billion annual recurring revenue objective
  • The company enhanced its SUNK platform with additional self-service capabilities and introduced the SUNK Anywhere functionality

CoreWeave experienced a premarket gain of roughly 2.5% on Thursday following Citi’s announcement of an upgraded price target, moving from $126 to $155.


CRWV Stock Card
CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock, CRWV

Tyler Radke, the covering analyst, maintained his Buy recommendation while highlighting an increasingly robust demand environment for artificial intelligence infrastructure solutions.

By midday trading, shares extended their gains, with CRWV trading more than 7% higher.

Radke’s analysis projects backlog expansion ranging between 35% and 40% on a sequential quarterly basis for the current period. He attributed this growth trajectory to an increasingly diversified customer portfolio spanning hyperscalers, artificial intelligence laboratories, and enterprise organizations, suggesting enhanced sustainability in the company’s growth narrative.

“The stars continue to align for AI infrastructure leaders like CRWV,” Radke wrote in a note to clients.

This evolving customer diversification strategy is increasingly capturing investor attention. Reduced dependency on individual clients mitigates concentration exposure, addressing a longstanding concern among market participants.

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Strategic Partnership with Jane Street and Meta Enhances Growth Trajectory

A newly established agreement involving Jane Street and Meta is projected to scale operations through fiscal year 2027. According to Radke, this partnership alone possesses the capacity to elevate CoreWeave beyond its $30 billion annual recurring revenue milestone.

The analyst additionally highlighted Anthropic as representing potential upside optionality, indicating additional growth opportunities should that commercial relationship expand.

From a capital structure perspective, newly secured investment-grade financing is reducing CoreWeave’s cost of capital. Radke indicated this development could trigger upward earnings per share estimate revisions extending through fiscal 2026.

Pricing dynamics surrounding next-generation Blackwell hardware may deliver incremental revenue opportunities. CoreWeave appears to have preserved strategic flexibility within its fiscal 2026 capital expenditure allocation, potentially enabling the company to capitalize on these favorable conditions.

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Platform Enhancement: SUNK Receives Significant Upgrades

CoreWeave announced substantial enhancements to its SUNK platform this week, incorporating self-service functionalities alongside the newly launched SUNK Anywhere capability.

SUNK Anywhere was engineered to accelerate cluster deployment processes for customers. The feature enables artificial intelligence workloads to operate seamlessly across diverse cloud infrastructure providers.

These platform improvements enhance accessibility for enterprise clients seeking to expand AI infrastructure deployments while minimizing manual configuration requirements.

CoreWeave’s year-to-date performance reflects approximately 55.84% appreciation based on available market data. Current market capitalization stands at roughly $61.34 billion.

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Average daily trading volume registers at approximately 27 million shares, demonstrating sustained market interest in the equity.

Technical sentiment indicators currently signal a Strong Buy designation for CRWV.

Citi’s revised $155 price objective represents substantial upside potential relative to the stock’s trading levels prior to the research note’s publication.

CoreWeave’s projected 35-40% sequential backlog growth remains the primary metric under analyst scrutiny approaching the upcoming earnings announcement.

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AI sirens go fishing at XRP Las Vegas

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AI sirens go fishing at XRP Las Vegas

Romance scammers are reportedly using AI generated images of attractive women to dupe followers and attendees of this week’s XRP Las Vegas conference.

The “women,” invariably pictured in glamorous cocktail dresses in front of the event’s official banner, were flagged by an XRP Ledger validator on Friday morning.

Their job was to slide into the DMs of visitors and XRP aficionados who they hope will be predisposed to welcome otherwise unusual conversations about the crypto.

Attendees of the event, which is billed as “the Largest XRP conference in the world,” and features speakers including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and XRP Ledger co-creator David Schwartz, will likely have spent hundreds of dollars on their tickets and even more on travel and accomodation.

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This makes them potentially rich pickings for criminals, specifically “pig butcherers,” who attempt to dupe gullible investors into romantic chats that eventually turn into crypto donation or investment scams.

The conference started on Thursday and will conclude today at the Paris casino in Las Vegas. 

Using XRP’s brand to steal XRP

The opening move of a pig butchering scam is almost always a fake photo.

Catfishing their victims, fraudsters build an emotional connection via broad social media platforms like X and Instagram. They’ll then usually steer the conversation to an encrypted messenger where they eventually ask for crypto donations or recommend fraudulent crypto investing platforms. 

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Conferences are an especially fertile ground for such scams, with attendees arriving expecting messages from new contacts, including DMs from strangers.

Read more: Pig butchering is creating entirely new industries

Hong Kong police broke up a similar operation run by a syndicate that used fake photos and AI face-swapping on video calls to impersonate attractive women. 

Those workers, including many who worked against their will under threat of violence, persuaded victims in Taiwan, China, Singapore, and India to send a combined roughly $46 million worth of crypto.

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This week’s non-existent bombshells at XRP Las Vegas are a miniature version of that playbook. The conference did the trust-building work that a face-swap algorithm did for the syndicate.

The FBI tallied nearly $11.4 billion in crypto-related fraud losses last year with romance scams alone accounting for more than $900 million of that figure. 

Unfortunately, less technologically sophisticated Americans over the age of 60 lost $7.7 billion to internet crime in 2025, the largest share of any age cohort.

Ripple has issued repeated scam warnings to its community. Schwartz himself flagged a fake Brad Garlinghouse Instagram account in April that was promoting an XRP giveaway and last November, the company warned holders about deepfake livestreams that surged after its Swell conference. 

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Protos previously documented how XRP influencers promoted a fake American Express partnership that never occurred.

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