Strategy President and CEO Phong Le has invested $1 million in the company’s STRC preferred stock as shares continue trading below their intended $100 par value.

In a June 22 X post, Le said he purchased $1 million worth of STRC and plans to hold the position until the stock returns to par value, adding that he may continue holding it beyond that point.

I bought $1 million of $STRC today. Will hold it until it reaches par, likely longer.

— Phong Le (@phongle) June 22, 2026

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The purchase arrived as STRC remains under pressure following a sharp decline that recently pushed the preferred stock below $83. After Le disclosed the investment, STRC recovered from session lows and rose 1.46% to $89.88 before settling at $89.20 at press time.

His investment comes at a sensitive time for Strategy, as STRC plays a central role in the company’s Bitcoin acquisition model. When the preferred stock trades above its $100 par value, Strategy can issue additional shares through its at-the-market program and direct the proceeds toward Bitcoin purchases. With the stock trading below par, that funding channel has become less effective.

Strategy points to reserves as concerns grow

Recent debate around STRC intensified after investors questioned whether Strategy’s financing structure could continue operating smoothly if pressure on the preferred stock persists.

Earlier on June 20, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor defended the company’s Bitcoin-backed capital model after criticism emerged following STRC’s decline. According to Saylor, Strategy’s Bitcoin and cash holdings exceed its outstanding debt by roughly $48 billion.

Saylor also stated that the company has raised more than $60 billion in capital since 2022 and used those funds to acquire Bitcoin.

More recently, Strategy disclosed steps intended to strengthen confidence in its balance sheet. In a regulatory filing released Monday, the company reported that its U.S. dollar reserve had increased to $1.4 billion, roughly $300 million higher than previous levels. Strategy said the reserve is intended to support the credit quality of its Digital Credit securities while helping meet future dividend and debt obligations.

The same filing showed that Strategy sold 2.71 million MSTR shares during the previous week, generating nearly $335.5 million in proceeds.

Critics continue questioning the capital structure

While company executives have defended the model, several market participants have raised concerns about STRC and the sustainability of the broader financing strategy.

Long-time Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff argued that investors could potentially pursue legal action against Strategy and Saylor. Schiff also claimed that Saylor may have violated SEC marketing rules through the way the preferred stock offering was promoted.

Separate concerns have focused on Strategy’s ability to maintain dividend payments tied to its preferred securities. Market maker QCP previously estimated that the company’s available liquidity could cover preferred dividend obligations for approximately seven and a half months.

Additional criticism came from Arca Chief Investment Officer Jeff Dorman, who suggested Strategy may eventually need to sell between $3 billion and $4 billion worth of Bitcoin to reduce pressure on its capital structure and support STRC holders. Analyst Ali Martinez also drew comparisons between aspects of STRC’s structure and Terra’s former LUNA ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Strategy has continued adding to its Bitcoin position. Saylor recently disclosed the purchase of 520 BTC for approximately $35 million at an average price of $67,068 per coin. Following the acquisition, the company reported total holdings of 847,363 Bitcoin.

Pressure on STRC also follows Strategy’s only disclosed Bitcoin sale this year. As crypto.news reported, the company sold 32 BTC for roughly $2.5 million at the end of May to help fund obligations associated with STRC dividends.

Fomo has raised $75 million in a Series B funding round that values the crypto trading platform at $550 million after attracting more than 625,000 users and generating $4 billion in trading volume within its first year.

According to a June 22 announcement by Fomo, the round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and existing investor Benchmark.

The company also received backing from several angel investors, including Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus, Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz, Discord chief executive Humam Sakhnini, and Nexos AI co-founder Tomas Okmanas.

Built around social trading, Fomo allows users to see transactions made by other traders in real time and execute similar trades across multiple blockchains without manually moving assets between networks. The platform said users can access crypto markets using an Apple ID or email account while avoiding the complexity of bridges, gas fees, and wallet management.

The funding arrives as investors continue to back consumer-focused crypto products despite digital asset prices remaining below recent highs. Data from RootData shows crypto startups raised $4.11 billion across 148 funding rounds during the second quarter.

Social trading drives user growth

Alongside details of the funding round, Fomo disclosed that its platform has recorded more than 110 million social interactions since launching a year ago. The company said over 68,000 users purchased cryptocurrency for the first time through Apple Pay, generating roughly $25 million in transaction volume.

Describing the opportunity, Fomo argued that blockchain-based financial products are becoming increasingly accessible as more assets move on-chain. The company compared the current transition to the digitization of stock trading that began in the 1970s, while stating that many consumers still lack simple access to emerging financial products.

Interest in the platform’s social features has also drawn attention from industry researchers. In a December post on X, Delphi Digital said Fomo’s design may be helping attract users by making trading feel “more like scrolling a feed than sitting at a terminal.”

Fomo is emerging as the leading social trading app for onchain speculation.

Crypto natives are opting into a consumer app because the social layer changes how they trade.

You see what people in your network are buying in real time and can execute across any chain without… https://t.co/26RCiBZag1 pic.twitter.com/BiEmrt18dU

— Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) December 9, 2025

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Delphi Digital also noted that Fomo generated more monthly fees than Moonshot during November, despite being a newer product and charging lower fees.

Competition in the social and copy-trading segment remains intense. Exchanges including Binance, Bybit, OKX, Bitget and KuCoin, among others, already offer copy-trading tools that allow users to mirror strategies used by other traders.

Venture funding remains active across crypto and tech

Recent product launches suggest Fomo is expanding beyond spot trading. On June 11, the company introduced perpetual futures powered by Hyperliquid for users outside the U.S.

The latest raise adds to a string of large private-market financings announced in June. Earlier this month, Digital Asset Holdings secured $355 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s flagship crypto fund to support the growth of the Canton Network ecosystem.

Outside the crypto sector, Neura Robotics announced up to $1.4 billion in Series C financing backed by investors that included Tether, Qualcomm, Amazon, Nvidia, Bosch, Schaeffler, and the European Investment Bank. According to the company, the capital will be used to expand the development of humanoid robots and real-world automation systems.

For Fomo, the new funding provides support from firms that previously invested in consumer platforms such as Robinhood, Coinbase, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, according to the company’s announcement.

Against that backdrop, Ethlabs represents what supporters describe as a broader transition toward a “multi-node” development model, where independent organizations share responsibility for advancing the network rather than relying heavily on the Foundation.

“We are now poised to recognize and implement the idea that there should be a number of steward nodes of Ethereum,” Joe Lubin said, “each configured in their unique way to evolve and protect what is sacred about the network and massively grow the world’s appreciation and utilization of it.”

Ethlabs’ initial work will focus on faster transaction settlement, expanding Ethereum’s capacity and improving infrastructure for institutions issuing tokenized assets and stablecoins onchain. Ethereum dominates the $300 billion stablecoin market with a 53% market share and hosts roughly half of the $32 billion tokenized asset market, RWA.xyz data shows.

The initiative also reflects the growing institutional investment in Ethereum. SharpLink and Bitmine have both built sizable ETH treasury strategies, while Ethereum continues to host the majority of stablecoins and tokenized real-world asset issuance.

“Ethereum is at a pivotal moment,” Ansgar Dietrichs, Ethlabs’ executive director, said in a statement. “As blockchain systems move rapidly into mainstream use, the coming years will define the shape of the onchain economy for decades.”

Main Street Finance’s stablecoin msUSD has depegged to $0.27, sparked by a post addressing the “shutdown of [its] third-party proof-of-reserves dashboard.”

The following day, the firm behind the dashboard in question, Accountable, announced it was terminating its asset verification services with msUSD’s issuer.

In classic DeFi fashion, the fallout appears to have led to a bank run on Altura’s USDT vault, leading to the firm deciding to close down the vault.

At least $8.5 million was withdrawn ahead of the announcement and before a sell-off of the AVLT vault token led to an 11% depeg.

The weekend’s depegs come on the back of ongoing troubles for DeFi stablecoins apxUSD and sUSDat, which are backed by Strategy’s struggling STRC.

Read more: Saylor distances himself from STRC-backed DeFi after stablecoin wobble

Main Street Finance: ‘Institutional-grade yield’

Late on Saturday, Main Street Finance published a long post to X reassuring users that it “remains fully backed,” calling the loss of its dashboard a “reporting issue, not a solvency issue.”

By the time of the post, the price of msUSD had already collapsed. It sat at around $0.12 after losing its $1 peg around six hours previously but has since rebounded to around $0.27 from a low of $0.06 in the early hours of Sunday morning (UTC).

The advance reaction led some to believe that “insiders… got the memo that they should take the available liquidity to get out.”

Then, on Sunday, RWA accounting firm Accountable announced that, following Main Street Finance’s failure to provide adequate proof of reserves, it was terminating its contract with the firm.

Others questioned Accountable’s lack of prior action, given that doubts over Main Street’s transparency were publicly raised back in April.

Accountable’s post positions it as “neutral verification infrastructure,” however it also claims it “did not retain an ongoing, source-level view of [Main Street’s] reserves,” raising concerns over the reliability of its data on other clients.

Read more: DeFi projects under fire for inflated TVL and murky lending loops

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Given Accountable’s entire business case, the post also drew ridicule, with one user comparing it to May 2022’s infamous Three Arrows Capital AUM statement.

In addition to the depeg of msUSD, Main Street’s yield token, msY, which it promises “turns box spreads into market-neutral” 12% yield also collapsed in price.

Blockchain auditor Peckshield highlighted the Morpho msY/USDC market hitting 100% utilization, trapping $18 million of AlphaPing assets.

Read more: Resolv hack shows DeFi learned nothing from last contagion

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Altura: “the yield engine”

Altura runs a HyperEVM-based USDT yield vault, currently offering almost 30% yield.

In a post on Sunday, Altura distanced itself from the msUSD depeg, stressing it “never had any exposure to Mainstreet or any of its underlying investment strategies.”

It also assured users that it had successfully redeemed over $5 million during the previous 24 hours.

Rather than reassuring depositors, however, it appears the post had the opposite effect.

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Twelve hours later, Altura co-founder and CEO Ranveer Arora revealed that, due to “sustained withdrawal demand and current market sentiment” the firm would proceed with “an orderly wind-down of the Altura vault.”

Redemptions had now climbed to $8.5 million.

The rush for the exits was reflected in the price of the vault’s yield-bearing AVLT token. Over the past 24 hours it has dropped 14%, from $1.09 to $0.93 at the time of writing. 

Between redemptions and price action, AVLT’s market cap dropped from $39 million to a low of $26 million over the weekend.

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In a later update, Altura stated that “a maturity mismatch between our onchain and off-chain positions” forced it to pause withdrawals. It promised market making strategies would be closed within 72 hours but “RWA positions will take more time due to their inherent nature.”

On top of the $18 million exposed to the msY/USDC market, AlphaPing also has over $10 million of exposure to AVLT, according to its Morpho curator dashboard.

Read more: High yields to haircuts: Has DeFi learned anything from yield vault collapse?

DeFi’s risk curator “daisy chain”

Despite its premise as transparent, open finance, the DeFi sector has faced a number of shocks in recent months due to murky “daisy chains” and recursive lending.

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In late October, concerns began to circulate over the stability of a number of high yield vaults. These tokens often used looped leverage against one another, inflating TVL far above the legitimate stablecoin backing.

The space exploded days later when one of the main offenders, Stream Finance, revealed it had lost $93 million. Its stablecoin, xUSD, immediately collapsed 75%.

Read more: Four months on, MEV Capital falls victim to $4B DeFi daisy chain implosion

Later, in March, a $23 million hack of Resolv’s USR due to a private key compromise wrought havoc across multiple yield vaults as opportunistic traders bought depegged USR and used it to drain liquidity in markets with hardcoded oracles.

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So-called risk curators even continued to provide liquidity to the vulnerable markets via Morpho’s Public Allocator automation feature.

Such episodes go to show that rather than a novel financial system which operates autonomously and permissionlessly, DeFi is all too often forced to recur to the blame game when things go away.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Crypto markets and policy did not move in a vacuum this week. On one side, the security environment in decentralized finance continued to produce major incidents tied to bridges, rollup infrastructure, and MEV-related trading. On the other, regulators in the United States and the European Union advanced proposals and rules that could reshape how transactions are processed, especially for centralized exchanges and custodial services.

Separately, a wallet application update brought a set of product changes, including expanded token and transaction display features and additional third-party trading providers. While these updates do not directly address protocol-level vulnerabilities, they influence user workflows around custody, routing, and compliance controls.

DeFi exploits: multiple incidents across bridges, rollups, and MEV

Aztec Connect and other deprecated bridge components targeted

The week’s most notable theme was how attackers continued to find value in systems that were already in decline. According to the roundup, Aztec Connect was drained twice via distinct exploits. The first incident involved an alleged $2.1 million outflow, described as linked to a privacy-focused rollup bridge that had been deprecated in 2023. A separate incident was then described as pulling an additional $2.15 million from another private rollup bridge, reportedly deprecated in 2022.

From an industry perspective, these cases underline a recurring challenge in DeFi security: “deprecated” does not always mean “fully unreachable” for every integration, contract dependency, or edge-case flow. Even when a product is scheduled for retirement, interfaces that remain technically exploitable can continue to create attack surfaces.

Taiko exploit described as forged proof verification

The roundup also described an incident on Taiko tied to chain-state verification. It characterizes the issue as attackers submitting forged message proofs that were accepted as valid by Ethereum mainnet.

The described impact included roughly $1.7 million drained in USDC and ETH, alongside nearly 2 million TAIKO tokens. If accurate, the incident highlights a critical class of risk for layer-2 and bridging systems, where correctness depends on verification logic. Even when verification is meant to protect downstream execution, weaknesses in proof-handling can create outsized consequences.

MEV bot manipulation: “fake wrapped assets” and simulated profitability

Beyond bridges and rollups, the roundup points to a case involving an MEV bot on Ethereum, identified as Jaredfromsubway.eth. The description focuses on attackers tricking automated trading logic by creating fake wrapped assets and liquidity pools that simulated a profitable sandwich trade.

The roundup states that approximately $7.5 million was siphoned through permissions already granted to the bot. In practice, MEV strategies often rely on pre-approved token allowances and on fast transaction execution. This incident, as summarized, fits a broader pattern where adversaries attempt to make an automated system believe in a profit opportunity that exists only in a simulated environment.

Illinois adopts a digital asset transaction tax plan

Regulation in the United States also featured in this week’s roundup. It describes Illinois’ passage of a $55.9 billion state budget that includes the Digital Asset Privilege Tax Act. The plan, as outlined, would impose a 0.2% transaction-level levy on crypto activity starting January 1, 2027.

The described scope focuses on digital asset brokers, including exchanges and custodians that exchange, transfer, or store crypto for Illinois customers. The summary also notes registration requirements and felony charges for noncompliance. Additionally, the roundup references concerns raised by the Crypto Council for Innovation, describing the tax as among the most punitive in the country and warning about precedent effects.

For businesses, a transaction tax at the protocol or transaction level can change unit economics. For users, it may ultimately influence which services offer custody and routing into and out of regulated intermediaries.

EU rules target cash, identity checks, and privacy-asset access via on/off-ramps

On the European side, the roundup summarizes a set of incoming rules affecting cash payments, identity verification, and the ability of regulated providers to handle certain transactions.

It describes a proposed cash cap in the EU: cash payments above €10,000 would be prohibited for goods and services. It also states that cash transactions over €3,000 would trigger mandatory identity verification. For regulated crypto service providers, the roundup notes identity checks on transactions of €1,000 or more and indicates that anonymous accounts are banned.

Crucially, the roundup frames privacy assets as not being outright criminalized for self-custody ownership, but it says the rules would restrict regulated intermediaries from touching privacy coins in certain contexts. It also emphasizes that peer-to-peer onchain transfers between self-custody wallets would remain outside the regulation’s reach, while on-ramps and off-ramps would face tighter constraints.

If these provisions are enacted as described, the immediate operational impact likely falls on exchanges, custodians, and payment providers, which may have to implement stricter routing, monitoring, and customer identification workflows. Over time, this could affect liquidity, pricing, and availability of certain assets through centralized channels.

Wallet and app update: UTXO address generation and expanded trading options

Alongside security and policy, the roundup includes a wallet product update labeled v5.39. While it is not a security incident response, it signals how mainstream crypto apps are adapting their user experience around transaction visibility and third-party trading providers.

MoonPay Trade, Apple Pay via Mercuryo, and provider controls

The roundup states that MoonPay Trade was added to the provider lineup, with features such as filtering between centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges and the ability to rate providers after a swap. It also notes iOS support for purchasing crypto using Apple Pay through Mercuryo.

UTXO dynamic address generation and Solana history visibility

The update also reportedly includes dynamic address generation for selected UTXO networks, producing a new address for each incoming transaction. It further describes Solana transaction history appearing in the app.

Tangem Pay improvements and card management changes

Separately, the roundup mentions improvements to Tangem Pay, including the ability to reissue and rename a Tangem Pay card and adjust daily spending limits. It frames these changes as making real-world spending more flexible for users operating a self-custody setup.

What this week signals for security and compliance risk

Across the items summarized, a few themes stand out for industry watchers.

• Security risk persists after deprecation. Protocol retirement does not automatically close all pathways, especially where contracts remain technically accessible.
• Verification systems remain high-value targets. The Taiko incident description points to the importance of proof correctness and end-to-end validation across chains.
• Automation increases the stakes of trust assumptions. MEV bots can be exploited by adversaries who design fake liquidity and permissions-aware execution paths.
• Regulation is converging on intermediaries. U.S. and EU measures described in the roundup emphasize identity checks and transaction handling controls by exchanges, custodians, and regulated providers.

For users, the practical takeaway is not only to monitor security headlines, but also to understand how evolving compliance rules can change access paths and the reliability of on/off-ramps. For builders, the incidents reinforce the need for rigorous decommissioning plans, continuous audit coverage for legacy components, and stronger guardrails around automated trading logic.

• Hedera (HBAR) price is currently consolidating in a tight range.
• A falling wedge pattern is forming on the 15-minute chart.
• A confirmed move above the wedge resistance zone near $0.0815 would signal a rebound.

Hedera (HBAR) has been trading in a narrow range, with price action showing repeated compression around key short-term levels.

At the time of writing, HBAR was trading at $0.0801, moving within a 24-hour range of $0.07801 to $0.0803.

The market has shown minimal directional strength today, with a 24-hour change of +0.1%, reflecting near-flat momentum.

While the token has seen a mild gain today, it continues to show weakness across longer timeframes.

HBAR is down 2.4% over the past 7 days, 6.7% over the past 30 days, and approximately 39.9% over the past year.

This extended decline places current price action in a longer consolidation phase rather than a sustained recovery trend.

Tight consolidation dominates short-term structure

Looking at the charts, the lower boundary around $0.0780 has acted as consistent support, while upside movement has been capped near $0.0803–$0.0810.

This compressed structure has resulted in a tightly controlled trading environment where volatility is declining.

Each minor rebound has been followed by rejection at nearby resistance, while dips continue to attract buyers at similar levels.

The result is a market that is neither trending upward nor breaking down decisively, but instead moving sideways in a constrained channel.

Falling wedge formation

On lower timeframes, particularly the 15-minute chart, HBAR is forming a clearly defined falling wedge pattern.

The pattern is characterised by two downward-sloping trendlines that converge as price action tightens.

The lower boundary of this wedge sits near $0.0780, a level that has been tested multiple times without a breakdown.

Each retest has produced short rebounds, indicating that selling pressure is gradually weakening at this zone.

The upper boundary of the wedge is positioned around $0.0805 to $0.0815, where repeated rejection has occurred.

The price is gradually compressing toward the apex of this structure, a phase often associated with directional expansion once a breakout occurs.

Hedera price forecast

The current technical framework places clear importance on two primary levels.

On the upside, a confirmed move above the wedge resistance zone near $0.0815 would represent the first sign of a bullish rebound.

If followed by sustained momentum, short-term projections indicate a move toward $0.0830, with extended targets around $0.0840 to $0.0850.

On the downside, a breakdown below $0.0780 would invalidate the current wedge structure.

Such a move would expose lower liquidity zones and extend the existing bearish consolidation phase.

However, at present, price remains positioned almost exactly between these two thresholds, reinforcing the compression narrative.

TLDR:

• Strategy acquired 520 BTC at $67,068 avg, below its $75,651 overall cost basis
• 2.71M MSTR shares sold June 15–21 generated $335.5M in net proceeds
• Total bitcoin holdings now stand at 847,363 BTC worth $64.1B in cumulative cost
• USD Reserve reached $1.4B to cover preferred dividends and debt interest

---

Strategy Inc. disclosed a new 8-K filing on June 22, 2026, revealing fresh equity sales and bitcoin purchases. The company sold 2.71 million MSTR shares between June 15 and June 21, generating $335.5 million in net proceeds.

A portion of those proceeds funded the acquisition of 520 BTC at an average price of $67,068 per coin. The move brings Strategy’s total bitcoin holdings to 847,363 BTC, valued at a cumulative cost of $64.1 billion.

Strategy Converts ATM Proceeds Into Bitcoin

The share sales occurred through Strategy’s at-the-market offering program, a mechanism the company regularly uses to raise capital.

The 2,714,839 MSTR shares sold during the week generated $335.5 million in net proceeds after commissions. No preferred stock was sold during the same period across the STRF, STRC, STRK, or STRD programs.

Strategy deployed $34.9 million of those proceeds directly into bitcoin purchases. The 520 BTC were acquired at an average price of $67,068, inclusive of fees and expenses. That purchase price sits below the company’s overall average cost basis of $75,651 per bitcoin.

The company still has approximately $25.4 billion available under its MSTR stock offering program. That figure reflects remaining capacity across both the current offering and a $21 billion expansion announced in March 2026.

Proceeds from preferred stock programs remain untouched, with over $25.2 billion in combined issuance capacity still on the table.

The bitcoin purchases confirm that Strategy continues converting equity capital directly into digital asset reserves. The company’s acquisition pace has remained active throughout 2026 as it steadily grows its treasury position.

USD Reserve Climbs to $1.4 Billion

Alongside the Bitcoin update, Strategy reported that its USD Reserve reached $1.4 billion as of June 21. The company established this reserve in December 2025 as a designated liquidity buffer. It is intended to support dividend payments on preferred stock and interest on outstanding debt obligations.

The $1.4 billion figure includes expected cash proceeds from ATM share sales that had not yet settled by June 21. Strategy tracks this balance separately from its bitcoin holdings and considers it part of its broader capital management structure.

Strategy said it plans to replenish the reserve over time based on market conditions. The company frames the reserve as a tool for maintaining the credit quality of its Digital Credit securities. That approach ties equity capital markets activity directly to liability management.

The reserve balance reinforces Strategy’s multi-layered financial structure, which now combines a growing bitcoin treasury with a dedicated dollar liquidity cushion.

Both are funded through the same ATM equity issuance framework the company has used consistently throughout its bitcoin accumulation strategy.

A New York attorney has asked a state judge to unmask an anonymous claimant who wants to take legal ownership of roughly 3.8 million BTC, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s holdings.

The request landed in the New York State Courts Electronic Filing system a few weeks before an in-person hearing on July 14.

Soon, a judge will have the ability to decide whether one of the boldest property claimants in crypto history — seeking ownership of near a quarter trillion dollars worth of BTC — may keep its mask on.

The claimant calls itself “Noah Doe,” an obvious play on the John and Jane Doe placeholder names for legal procedures. Alongside two unnamed Wyoming companies, listed as “ABC Company” and “XYZ Company,” Doe sued in New York County Supreme Court.

Doe wants to obtain legal title to approximately 39,000 supposedly “dormant” crypto wallets holding roughly 3.8 million BTC.

At Monday’s BTC price near $64,500, that stash is worth approximately $245 billion.

the $10 trap: plaintiffs valued the claim at $10 to fit the lost-property statute.. cohen: so either it’s a $10 case with zero urgency, or it’s the largest attempted property seizure in us history hiding behind a $10 label

— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) June 20, 2026

The $10 loophole

Despite the enormous value based on today’s BTC price, the plaintiffs pegged each wallet’s value below $10.

That dollar amount is no accident. New York’s lost property statute, Article 7-B of the Personal Property Law, can hand a finder a quicker path to legal title when a found item is worth under $10.

For this reason, Doe valued each wallet under $10, which might have been true in the past when the price of BTC was much lower.

Disturbingly, New York law defines “lost property” broadly.

Indeed, according to New York Personal Property Law Article 7‑B, § 251(3), “the term ‘lost property’ includes lost or mislaid property. Abandoned property, waifs and treasure trove, and other property which is found, shall be presumed to be lost property and such presumption shall be conclusive unless it is established in an action or proceeding commenced within six months after the date of the finding that the property is not lost property.”

On its face, that definition seems to favor Noah Doe. However, plenty of people disagree entirely.

$10 claims and a quarter trillion dollars

New York attorney Ian Cohen is among those who disagree, filing an amicus brief on May 29 calling Doe’s theory preposterous.

“A ruling accepting plaintiffs’ theory could open the door to systematic exploitation of long-dormant bitcoin wallets… effectively creating a private industry of ‘Bitcoin finders’ operating under color of lost property law,” Cohen wrote.

Protos reached out to Cohen, who referred us to his filings, including his granted motion to appear as amicus curiae, and his June 19 response.

Because Doe wants to repossess the property of people who prefer to remain anonymous — such as Satoshi Nakamoto — they’re unlikely to appear as defendants in court.

“Amicus curiae” allows a lawyer or organization who isn’t a party to the lawsuit, such as Cohen, to submit information to help the court decide.

Judge Kathy King granted Cohen’s request for amicus curiae and stayed the entire case pending the oral hearing on July 14. Cohen will participate in-person as amicus curiae.

The judge’s stay order ended the plaintiffs’ ideal outcome of a quiet, default judgment.

Back in the courtroom on July 14

Plaintiffs’ lawyer, David Lin of Brooklyn firm Lewis & Lin, tried to vacate that stay, but as it stands, will probably appear on July 14 to represent Doe.

As amicus curiae, Cohen has been clear: “If you want a judge to hand you Satoshi’s coins you should have to say your name out loud,” he posted on X. 

Although Cohen is one of many people who’d like Doe to unmask themselves, Cohen hasn’t demanded that Doe personally appear, since Lin is technically allowed to represent his plaintiff.

Cohen has, however, asked Lin to justify the pseudonym. There should be a very good reason a party seeking hundreds of billions of dollars should get to use a fake name, Cohen argued.

Defendants in Doe’s action are approximately 39,000 wallet addresses. Each address received a “dust” transaction carrying an OP_RETURN output notice with a short blurb of text about the lawsuit. 

Cohen called that method of legal service as indistinguishable from spam. “This is not service,” he said. “It is a broadcast into a void.”

Satoshi Nakamoto’s right to remain anonymous

Another problem with Doe’s claim is that supposedly abandoned wallets keep waking up.

Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn counted 52 named addresses that moved 34,335 BTC after the suit’s initial filing. Of those, 29 shifted 12,302 BTC after an OP_RETURN messaging scheme occurred.

These movements certainly weaken the premise that owners ever meaningfully abandoned their wallets in the first place.

This OP_RETURN dusting campaign surfaced last year under the revived “Salomon Brothers” brand name. Protos has previously documented that scheme, which sent tiny amounts of BTC and text to old BTC wallets.

Read more: BTC from 2011 moves after ‘Salomon Brothers’ repossession notice

Protos wasn’t able to easily verify whether the well-known Salomon Brothers actually published the messages.

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A legal victory for Doe wouldn’t actually hand Doe private keys to the BTC, but it would grant legal title from the State of New York.

The court has scheduled oral arguments for July 14 at 60 Centre Street, in an open courtroom where members of the public may attend.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Cryptocurrency exchange OKX and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo would co-lead a joint venture focused on digital assets.

In a Monday notice, OKX and ICE said Cuomo, who lost his bid to be New York City’s mayor in 2025, would co-chair the joint project between the two companies “focused on building next-generation infrastructure for tokenized and digitally native financial products.” The venture, which the companies said would allow OKX users to “access ICE futures and NYSE tokenized equities markets,” is subject to regulatory approval. 

Cuomo has largely been out of the public eye since his failed 2025 mayoral run, in which he said he intended to make New York City the “global capital for cryptocurrency.” He had the endorsement of the crypto-aligned Innovate NY political action committee (PAC), but lost to Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who secured more than 50% of the vote. The former governor began working with OKX in 2023.

The joint venture notice followed a partnership between ICE and OKX announced in March in which the former invested an undisclosed amount in the exchange at a $25 billion valuation. ICE’s ventures into the crypto industry also included a $2 billion investment pledge into prediction markets platform Polymarket.

Related: NYSE owner ICE to launch oil-linked futures with OKX

Since taking office on Jan. 1, Mamdani has not announced any significant policies related to crypto or blockchain. He confirmed in January that he holds no digital assets as New York City mayor.

New York to hold party primaries on Tuesday

On Tuesday, New York, Utah and Maryland will hold primaries to determine candidates for US House of Representatives and Senate seats in the November general election. Cryptocurrency-aligned PACs, including Fairshake, have poured money into advertising and other campaign efforts to support candidates they view as favorable to the digital asset industry.

Magazine: Bitcoin decouples from tech stocks, Ether eyes ‘selling wave’: Market Moves

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