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Former Mt. Gox CEO Seeks Bitcoin Hard Fork to Reclaim $5.2B in Stolen Cryptocurrency

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Former Mt. Gox CEO Seeks Bitcoin Hard Fork to Reclaim $5.2B in Stolen Cryptocurrency

TLDR

  • Mark Karpelès, who previously led Mt. Gox, has floated a Bitcoin hard fork idea aimed at retrieving approximately 80,000 BTC taken during a 2011 security breach, currently valued above $5.2 billion.
  • His plan would enable these funds to transfer without accessing the lost private key, through implementing a specialized consensus mechanism for one specific wallet.
  • The draft was posted to GitHub as an exploratory discussion rather than an official Bitcoin Improvement Proposal.
  • Detractors believe this creates a risky precedent that could undermine Bitcoin’s foundational immutability principle.
  • These stolen coins exist separately from the approximately 200,000 BTC currently undergoing distribution to Mt. Gox claimants, with that process scheduled through October 2026.

Mark Karpelès, who formerly ran the defunct Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange, has unveiled a draft plan advocating for a Bitcoin hard fork. His objective centers on retrieving approximately 79,956 BTC taken during a security breach over 15 years ago.

These digital assets remain locked in one specific wallet, representing more than $5.2 billion based on current market valuations. The funds have remained untouched since their theft in June 2011.

Bitcoin’s existing protocol requires the original private key to authorize any transaction. That critical key was never retrieved.

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Karpelès uploaded his proposal to GitHub last Friday. His suggestion involves creating a novel consensus mechanism enabling fund movement to a designated recovery wallet without needing the missing key.

Source: Github

This rule would exclusively target that particular wallet address. Network-wide adoption would trigger activation at a predetermined future block height.

Karpelès showed transparency regarding the proposal’s nature. “I want to be upfront: this is a hard fork,” he stated.

He positioned this submission as a solution to an ongoing impasse. Nobuaki Kobayashi, serving as the Mt. Gox trustee, has refused to pursue blockchain-based recovery without guaranteed community support for such a protocol modification.

Why Critics Are Pushing Back

The suggestion has triggered substantial opposition, primarily focused on Bitcoin’s unchangeable nature. Bitcoin operates on the principle that confirmed transactions cannot be reversed or altered.

Numerous community members contend that modifying ownership protocols for a single address, regardless of theft circumstances, establishes dangerous precedent. Bitcointalk forum participants cautioned this might encourage comparable requests following future security incidents.

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The proposal recognizes this concern directly. It notes: “If it can be done once, the argument goes, it can be done again.”

Governance concerns also emerge. Bitcoin lacks established procedures for determining which past thefts warrant protocol rule modifications.

Successful hard fork implementation requires widespread approval from miners, node operators, and trading platforms. Throughout Bitcoin‘s history, achieving consensus on divisive modifications has proven exceptionally challenging.

How This Fits Into Broader Mt. Gox Repayments

The 80,000 BTC held in the compromised wallet exist independently from funds presently distributed to creditors. Current repayments originate from a distinct reserve of roughly 200,000 BTC retrieved following the platform’s 2014 shutdown.

Creditor distributions commenced during mid-2024, with the completion deadline now pushed to October 2026. The stolen coins remain completely beyond trustee jurisdiction.

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Mt. Gox declared bankruptcy in Tokyo on February 28, 2014, following the loss of approximately 750,000 customer bitcoins. During its operational prime, the platform processed 70% of worldwide Bitcoin transactions.

Certain creditors have expressed approval for this initiative. One individual identifying as a creditor mentioned receiving roughly 15% of their Bitcoin through bankruptcy proceedings and would endorse a legal mandate to recover the remaining stolen assets.

The proposal currently exists as a preliminary discussion draft without official endorsement or implementation schedule.

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Foundation unveils $1M audit subsidy program

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Why cautious TradFi firms love staked ether

The Ethereum Foundation is doubling down on one of the ecosystem’s most critical needs: security.

On Tuesday, the organization unveiled a new initiative aimed at tackling a persistent challenge in crypto development—the high cost of smart contract security audits.

Through its “Audit Subsidy Program,” the foundation is partnering with leading audit providers and ecosystem firms to make professional security reviews more accessible to builders.

Backed by a $1 million subsidy pool, the program is designed to lower financial barriers that have historically prevented many teams from undergoing comprehensive audits, despite their importance as an industry best practice.

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The initiative is part of the foundation’s broader Trillion Dollar Security Initiative, which focuses on strengthening Ethereum as it scales to support increasingly complex applications and larger amounts of value on-chain.

The program includes partners such as Nethermind, Chainlink Labs and Areta, and connects builders with more than 20 top-tier audit firms, helping streamline access to trusted security expertise across the ecosystem.

Alongside the rollout, the foundation also introduced a new framework it calls the “CROPS principles,” short for censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security. The framework is intended to guide how applications are built and evaluated across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Builders can submit their projects for consideration, after which an expert committee reviews applications. Selected teams receive subsidies that can be applied directly to audit services through Areta’s platform. The program is open to all Ethereum mainnet builders, regardless of size or stage.

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“The subsidy program makes audits accessible and strengthens the Ethereum ecosystem,” the foundation wrote on X.

Read more: Ethereum Foundation publishes new mandate defining its role, core principles

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Coinbase Reportedly Courts Anthropic to Bolster Exchange Security Infrastructure

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Coinbase Reportedly Courts Anthropic to Bolster Exchange Security Infrastructure

Coinbase is reportedly in talks with Anthropic to gain access to Claude Mythos Preview, the AI company’s restricted frontier model with advanced cybersecurity capabilities.

The outreach, first reported by The Information, reflects growing urgency among crypto exchanges to defend against increasingly sophisticated AI-driven threats.

Project Glasswing Raises the Stakes for Crypto

Anthropic launched Project Glasswing in early April 2026, a defensive cybersecurity initiative giving select partners limited access to Mythos.

The model identified thousands of previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities during testing, including a 27-year-old flaw in OpenBSD and a 16-year-old bug in FFmpeg.

Founding partners include Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and Palo Alto Networks. Over 40 additional organizations maintaining critical software also received access.

Anthropic committed $100 million in compute credits and $4 million to open-source security groups for the program.

For Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, the timing is significant. The platform dealt with a major insider breach in 2025 that exposed personal data of roughly 70,000 users after overseas support agents were bribed by criminals.

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Coinbase refused a $20 million ransom demand and instead posted a matching bounty for information leading to arrests.

Anthropic’s own research has shown that AI agents can autonomously exploit smart contract vulnerabilities, generating millions in simulated stolen funds.

That finding indicates why exchanges may view Mythos access as essential rather than optional.

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Mythos will not reach general availability. Anthropic plans to integrate its capabilities into future Claude releases with strengthened safeguards.

Post-preview pricing sits at $25 per million input tokens and $125 per million output tokens.

Whether Coinbase secures formal partnership status or broader Glasswing access remains unclear.

The exchange already uses Claude for customer support operations across more than 100 regions.

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The post Coinbase Reportedly Courts Anthropic to Bolster Exchange Security Infrastructure appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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SEC Approves Elimination of Pattern Day Trader Rule and $25,000 Minimum: FINRA

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SEC Approves Elimination of Pattern Day Trader Rule and $25,000 Minimum: FINRA

The SEC granted accelerated approval to FINRA’s rule change eliminating the Pattern Day Trader designation and its $25,000 minimum equity requirement for day traders.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved FINRA’s proposed rule change eliminating the Pattern Day Trader designation, the $25,000 minimum equity requirement, and all related day-trading buying power provisions under FINRA Rule 4210. The accelerated approval removes longstanding restrictions that have governed retail day trading for decades.

The SEC simultaneously approved new intraday margin standards requiring broker-dealers to monitor and address real-time risk exposure in customer margin accounts. The regulatory shift represents a substantial change to day-trading accessibility and compliance frameworks for retail investors in U.S. equity markets.

Sources: WatcherGuru | WatcherGuru

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This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

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Global recession inevitable if Strait of Hormuz stays shut

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Global recession inevitable if Strait of Hormuz stays shut

Ken Griffin, chief executive officer of Citadel Advisors LLC, at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said Tuesday that the global economy is headed toward a recession if the Strait of Hormuz stays shut for much longer.

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“Let’s assume [the strait is] shut down for the next six to 12 months — the world’s going to end up in a recession,” Griffin said on stage at the Semafor World Economy conference in Washington, D.C. “There’s no way to avoid that.”

As a result, the world is going to see a massive shift toward alternative fuel sources, including wind, solar and nuclear, he added. To be sure, the hedge fund leader thinks the consequences of the war would have been worse if the U.S. delayed any strikes until Iran’s military capabilities had grown.

Stocks have managed to rebound back to where they were before the U.S. first attacked Iran in February, but the optimistic sentiment among investors is contingent on the duration of the war in the Middle East. Many expect risks of an escalation in tensions between the two countries are not at all priced into the market.

Global economies especially in Asia remain vulnerable to spikes in oil prices, which remain elevated at around $100 a barrel. That’s off their highs during the conflict, but remain far above where they were before the war, at just below $70 a barrel.

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Paxos Labs Raises $12M to Launch Crypto Yield and Lending Platform

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Paxos Labs Raises $12M to Launch Crypto Yield and Lending Platform

Paxos Labs has raised $12 million in a strategic funding round led by Blockchain Capital to expand its Amplify platform, a suite of tools that lets companies offer crypto yield, lending and stablecoin issuance through a single integration.

The Amplify suite includes three modules — Earn, Borrow and Mint — allowing platforms to generate yield on digital assets, enable crypto-backed loans and issue branded stablecoins with a single integration designed to unlock additional features over time.

According to Tuesday’s announcement, the platform provides a single SDK with configurable controls, while Paxos Labs manages liquidity, counterparty vetting and backend operations, and shares a portion of generated revenue with integrating partners.

The company said partners including Aleo, Hyperbeat and Toku are already using the platform, with Hyperbeat reporting more than $510,000 in assets under management since launching on April 9. The raise also included participation from Robot Ventures, Maelstrom and Uniswap.

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