On Wednesday, DTCC completed its first live production trades involving tokenized securities, marking a major step toward bringing blockchain technology into traditional financial markets.

Broadridge’s findings suggest those efforts are influencing the broader industry. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said tokenization will at least partially reshape financial markets within the next three to five years, while nearly one-third plan to increase investment in tokenization projects by 26% to 50% or more over the next two years.

The survey also found firms are not preparing for an all-onchain future. Instead, 92% expect digital and traditional assets to coexist for the foreseeable future, and 69% plan to integrate tokenization into existing infrastructure rather than build separate blockchain-native systems.

That mirrors the approach taken by many large financial institutions, which have generally focused on connecting blockchain networks to existing trading, custody and settlement systems instead of replacing them.

Adoption remains uneven across the industry. Forty-four percent of capital markets firms said they already have tokenization initiatives in production or operating at scale, compared with 20% of asset managers and 9% of wealth managers.

The survey also pointed to where firms expect tokenization to gain traction first. About 80% of respondents believe tokenized mutual funds and money market funds will play a meaningful role within five years, reflecting the rapid growth of tokenized Treasury products. By comparison, only about half expect tokenized equities to achieve similar adoption over that period.

Cybersecurity researchers are flagging a fresh wave of malware tactics aimed at people who hold, build, and advise on crypto-related software. Kaspersky, for instance, says it has discovered a new malware framework—dubbed OkoBot—that targets cryptocurrency investors by combining social engineering with data theft capabilities.

At the same time, SlowMist warns of a separate intrusion campaign that targets Web3 developers through seemingly legitimate recruitment messaging on LinkedIn, pushing victims to run poisoned code hosted on GitHub. Together, the incidents underscore how attackers are increasingly using everyday work routines—interviews, code trials, and app installs—as delivery mechanisms for malware.

Key takeaways

• OkoBot is designed to steal crypto-related data by harvesting wallet files, browser information, credentials, and injected browser or extension activity.
• Kaspersky says it has observed multiple OkoBot-linked attacks since January 2026, and that the framework evolved from an earlier campaign called TookPS.
• OkoBot’s infrastructure reportedly routes all payload delivery through an SSH tunnel, enabling remote data transport to attacker-controlled systems.
• SlowMist reports LinkedIn-based “recruiter” scams that deliver malicious GitHub repositories disguised as technical interview tasks for Web3 developers.
• The recruitment workflow mirrors legitimate developer interviews closely enough to lower suspicion, increasing the chance victims will run the malicious code.

OkoBot targets crypto holders through wallet and browser theft

In a report released this week, Kaspersky described OkoBot as a malware framework that kickstarts an infection chain using social engineering and “malicious app” delivery tactics. According to Kaspersky, the initial entry includes tricks such as ClickFix, which aims to persuade users to execute harmful commands, as well as trojanized GitHub applications that can introduce a backdoor to a compromised device.

Once a system is under attacker control, Kaspersky says OkoBot is capable of collecting sensitive information that is directly relevant to crypto ownership. The company reports that the malware can:

• Harvest cryptocurrency wallet files.
• Extract browser data and user credentials.
• Inject malicious extensions.
• Capture wallet application windows, potentially enabling theft through on-screen or session-related data.

Kaspersky also stated that it identified multiple attacks using this malware family since January 2026. For investors, the practical concern is not only that wallets could be accessed, but also that browser activity and stored authentication data can be used to move faster toward account takeovers or transfer operations.

How the infrastructure works: payload orchestration via SSH

A notable detail in Kaspersky’s analysis is that OkoBot allegedly differs from prior campaigns by how it manages its malicious payloads. Kaspersky said the framework orchestrates all 20 malicious payloads via an SSH tunnel, which supports remote transport of data from compromised computers to systems controlled by attackers.

That matters because it points to an operational model where the attacker retains strong control over follow-on stages after initial compromise. Instead of relying solely on static behavior, a tunneled architecture can help attackers adapt to victims and collect information more reliably, depending on what the malware finds on each host.

Kaspersky also described OkoBot as an evolution of TookPS, a malware campaign first identified in 2025 that distributed a Trojan downloader through fake software websites. By evolving from an earlier delivery approach and adding more coordinated payload handling, the OkoBot framework appears positioned to increase both infection success and post-compromise effectiveness.

LinkedIn recruitment scams push Web3 devs into running poisoned repositories

Separate research from SlowMist focuses on a different target set: Web3 developers. In a report published on Saturday, the firm said attackers are reaching developers through LinkedIn messages that impersonate Web3 recruiters.

SlowMist’s description of the workflow suggests attackers are deliberately choosing a high-trust, familiar entry point. After initial contact, victims are sent what appear to be fake GitHub repositories, framed as a “minimum viable product” that the developer should install and try before an interview.

The technique is effective, SlowMist argues, because it resembles a real technical interview process. The report notes that a legitimate developer workflow often involves pulling code, installing dependencies, and launching a project—steps victims naturally perform while preparing for an interview. In that environment, malicious code can be less obvious, especially if the victim does not expect a security risk from a repository “connected” to a recruiting conversation.

What attackers aim to steal from developer systems

SlowMist said the end goal is to deliver a complete remote access trojan to the victim’s device. Once established, the malware could enable attackers to steal sensitive materials associated with development and operations, including project keys, cloud credentials, or data tied to wallet extensions.

SlowMist also emphasized that the recruitment approach is part of a broader pattern: attackers are increasingly leveraging scenarios such as recruitment, code reviews, and project collaborations to trick developers into running malicious repositories. In other words, this is not only about deception, but also about timing—waiting for the moment a developer is likely to execute code as part of normal work.

Importantly, this LinkedIn-focused warning came after SlowMist reported another campaign targeting macOS users. That earlier effort, as SlowMist described it, aimed to steal credentials and hijack Telegram sessions in order to coerce victims into submitting wallet recovery phrases through fake websites. While the TTPs differ between the campaigns, both point to the same underlying threat: attackers are methodically chaining social engineering and credential theft to ultimately compromise crypto access.

Going forward, both reports suggest readers should watch for more “legitimate-looking” pathways into compromise—especially where code execution is requested via recruiters, interview workflows, or third-party repositories. For investors and developers alike, the immediate question is not only whether malware is present, but whether attackers can leverage everyday trust and authenticated sessions to reach wallet-relevant secrets quickly.

Kaspersky has exposed OkoBot, a year-old malware operation that uses roughly 20 modules to steal crypto wallet recovery phrases and has affected users across at least five countries.

Kaspersky researchers discovered that the malware has remained active for more than a year, according to a report published by Bits.media. Most identified victims were located in Brazil, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, and Turkey, while the operators blocked IP addresses from Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States countries.

Distributed through GitHub repositories, OkoBot is disguised as legitimate software, including Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Kaspersky found that the attackers rely on the ClickFix social engineering method, which tricks victims into running malicious commands on their own devices.

The technique often presents users with fake error messages, verification steps, or repair instructions. Following those directions causes victims to execute code that installs the malware without realizing the command is malicious.

OkoBot targets seed phrases and wallet credentials

Among OkoBot’s modules, SeedHunter displays a fake recovery interface linked to hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor, according to Kaspersky. When users enter their recovery phrases into the fraudulent screen, the module sends the information to the malware operators.

A second module called MC Keylogger records keyboard input and monitors clipboard activity, allowing it to capture passwords, copied wallet addresses, and other credentials. OkoSpyware can track wallet passwords and record videos of open windows, giving attackers another way to observe activity on an infected device.

Once a recovery phrase is exposed, the attackers can use it to take control of the associated wallet and move its assets. Kaspersky warned that victims have little chance of recovering stolen cryptocurrency because blockchain transfers are generally irreversible.

The malware’s modular design also lets its operators collect different types of information from a single infected system. According to the security company’s findings, OkoBot can target both wallet access data and credentials connected to other services used on the device.

ClickFix attacks have also targeted crypto developers

OkoBot is the latest malware campaign found using ClickFix against the cryptocurrency sector. As crypto.news reported in April, North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group used the same technique in a macOS campaign known as “Mach-O Man.”

Citing research from CertiK, the report found that Lazarus sent fake online meeting invitations to fintech and crypto executives. Victims were instructed to paste supposed repair or verification commands into the macOS Terminal, which installed malware capable of stealing cryptocurrency and corporate information.

CertiK also found that the Mach-O Man toolkit deleted itself after running, making forensic analysis more difficult. The campaign combined social engineering with terminal-level commands instead of relying only on malicious file downloads.

Developer tools have provided another route into crypto systems. In May, crypto.news reported that TrapDoor malware was distributed through poisoned software packages targeting developers in cryptocurrency, decentralized finance, artificial intelligence, and security infrastructure.

According to that report, TrapDoor sought wallet data, API keys, cloud credentials, and SSH access tied to services and ecosystems including Coinbase, Binance, MetaMask, Brave, Solana, Sui, and Aptos. Researchers also found hidden prompts designed to manipulate Claude and Cursor into running fake security scans that exposed secrets and transmitted them to the attackers.

France’s gambling regulator has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, escalating a wave of restrictions aimed at prediction platforms operating outside local authorizations.

In a Friday press release, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) said prediction websites fall under illegal gambling rules if they are not authorized, adding that advertising or promoting such sites is a criminal offense punishable by fines of up to 100,000 euros.

Key takeaways

• France’s ANJ has ordered ISPs to block Polymarket, citing lack of authorization and illegal gambling promotion risks.
• The regulator argues Polymarket’s features resemble regulated gambling, but without “protective mechanisms” found in the legal market.
• ANJ also raised concerns about possible outcome manipulation, including allegations involving weather-related contracts.
• Polymarket has already been geoblocked in multiple regions, according to its own documentation.
• Regulatory scrutiny is not limited to Europe: similar legal disputes have played out in the US between state actors and federal authorities.

France moves to block Polymarket

The ANJ’s order targets access to Polymarket through internet service providers, framing the platform as an unauthorized gambling offering. According to the regulator, Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France, and the advertising of gambling sites without permission constitutes a criminal offense.

The decision comes as prediction markets continue to gain mainstream attention. Polymarket, in particular, has grown rapidly over the last two years, with trading volume reaching billions of dollars, even as regulators worldwide question whether its event contracts are gambling products, unlicensed offerings, or something closer to financial instruments.

France’s action also reinforces a broader pattern of country-by-country enforcement. Polymarket access has been blocked in places including Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil, and Indonesia, while at press time Polymarket said it was geoblocked in 36 regions, based on its published API documentation.

ANJ cites “addictive” mechanics and missing safeguards

Beyond the authorization question, the ANJ’s reasoning focuses on how prediction products are experienced by users. The regulator said Polymarket offers “addictive features” that are comparable to those of legally regulated gambling, but it claims those features are “amplified by the absence of the protective mechanisms found in the legal gambling market.”

This distinction matters for investors and users because it goes to how regulators classify the product. When a platform resembles regulated gambling mechanics but lacks corresponding protections—such as consumer safeguards and oversight—authorities are more likely to pursue takedowns, advertising restrictions, and access blocking, even if the platform markets itself as a different kind of market.

Outcome manipulation concerns and investigation status

The ANJ also pointed to the risk of outcome manipulation in certain event contracts. It cited alleged rigging, including a specific example: bets tied to weather outcomes where the regulator said weather sensors may have been hacked.

“Some of the bets offered on this platform appeared to be rigged: for example, bets on the weather revealed that weather sensors may have been hacked.”

In addition, the cybercrime unit of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation in May 2026 and, according to the article’s account of the regulator’s findings, identified a lack of identity verification safeguards such as Know Your Customer checks.

For participants, this kind of enforcement pressure highlights a key operational fault line: regulators are not only focused on contract structure, but also on platform controls—especially around participant verification and the reliability of the information used to settle outcomes.

France builds on earlier warnings, while US regulators escalate

This is not France’s first move. Earlier coverage noted that the ANJ shared plans in November 2024 to block Polymarket after the platform allegedly failed to comply with national gambling laws, and the Friday decision follows through with the required ISP-level blocking.

The French action arrives amid an ongoing legal fight over prediction markets in the United States. On June 17, Kentucky sued five prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging they were operating unlicensed sports betting platforms—according to the earlier reporting cited in the article. Additional states have followed suit. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sued New Mexico, arguing that state-level interference encroached on the federal regulator’s exclusive authority over federally regulated event contracts, as reflected in the referenced CFTC dispute.

Taken together, the US and France developments underscore a persistent regulatory tension: prediction markets sit at the intersection of gambling law, securities and commodities frameworks, and consumer protection rules. Even when platforms frame themselves as market infrastructure for forecasting rather than wagering, regulators appear willing to treat them as gambling-like products when participation mechanics and consumer risk resemble traditional betting.

As France implements the ISP blocking order, the next question for readers and market participants is how Polymarket and other affected platforms will adjust compliance, identity verification, and settlement-risk controls—and whether the broader trend shifts from geoblocking to more formal legal resolutions in major jurisdictions.

Ethereum has risen 1.8% to $1,845 after Rep. Bryan Steil raised hopes for a Senate vote on the CLARITY Act next week, while ETF inflows and firm chart support kept traders cautiously bullish.

Steil, who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, told FOX Business that the bill could reach the Senate floor in the coming week. Passage could place ETH under a digital commodity framework and establish federal rules for its trading and oversight.

During a July 17 hearing, Steil urged lawmakers to complete the legislation as the Senate prepares to consider it. “Let’s pass CLARITY,” he stated in remarks published by the House Financial Services Committee.

Polymarket traders raised the probability of the bill becoming law in 2026 to 39% from 30% on July 17. However, unresolved disputes over ethics rules and stablecoin yields have kept the odds below 50%.

Institutional flows have also improved. SoSoValue data showed that spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $105 million between July 13 and July 17, their strongest weekly inflow since April.

Ethereum’s decentralized finance activity has grown alongside the ETF demand. DeFiLlama placed the network’s total value locked at about $40.5 billion, up from roughly $36 billion at the start of July. The network also processed $978.9 million in decentralized exchange volume and 2.46 million transactions over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum must clear $1,854 to reopen the path toward $1,947

Ethereum’s daily chart shows a double-bottom structure formed around $1,511, with the neckline near $1,847. ETH briefly climbed to $1,947 before returning to test the neckline, which now overlaps with the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement at $1,853.82.

A daily close above $1,854 would place the recent $1,947 high and the 100-day exponential moving average near $1,939 back in play. The double-bottom structure has a measured target near $2,180, while crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe expects $2,200 to $2,400 if the $1,780 support remains intact.

Daily momentum still favors buyers, although the pace has slowed. The MACD line stands at 35.57, above the 21.69 signal line, while the positive histogram has contracted to 13.88. The relative strength index sits at 57.15, leaving ETH below overbought territory.

On the 4-hour chart, Ethereum (ETH) remains inside an ascending channel that has guided the recovery since late June. Its lower boundary and the previous Supertrend support meet around $1,830, while the upper boundary extends toward $2,040. Chaikin Money Flow remains positive at 0.07, but the active Supertrend resistance at $1,908 must fall before buyers can retest the July high.

CoinGlass’ 48-hour liquidation heatmap places the nearest dense leverage cluster between $1,860 and $1,870. More positions sit around $1,900, while downside liquidity has accumulated near $1,810 and $1,790.

According to analyst Ted Pillows, the $1,820–$1,850 region will decide ETH’s next move.

“If Ethereum holds above it, expect another uptrend towards $1,950–$2,000.”

A break below $1,780 would weaken Ethereum’s recovery

Ethereum would lose its 4-hour channel if sellers force a close below $1,830. Such a move would expose the 50-day EMA near $1,812 and could trigger leveraged long liquidations around $1,810.

A deeper decline below the 61.8% Fibonacci level at $1,780.64 would weaken the double-bottom setup and open the 50% retracement at $1,729.24. Pillows also cited the escalating U.S.-Iran situation as a risk to the $1,820–$1,850 support zone.

Political uncertainty remains another invalidation risk. Failure to resolve the CLARITY Act’s ethics and stablecoin provisions could delay a Senate vote, remove the immediate catalyst behind ETH’s rebound, and place the $1,780 support under renewed pressure.

Kaspersky has uncovered a new malware framework targeting cryptocurrency investors.

Dubbed “OkoBot,” the malware initiates an infection chain that starts with social engineering tactics such as ClickFix, which tricks users into running malicious commands, or trojanized GitHub apps that deliver a backdoor to infected devices, the cybersecurity company wrote in a Wednesday report.

The malware can harvest crypto wallet files, browser data and user credentials, inject malicious extensions and capture wallet application windows to steal assets. Kaspersky said it identified multiple attacks involving this malware family since January 2026.

Kaspersky added that the malware framework evolved from “TookPS,” a malware campaign first identified in 2025 that distributed a Trojan downloader through fake software websites, and that it opens the door to copycat attacks.

It differs from prior campaigns by orchestrating all 20 malicious payloads via an SSH tunnel, which enables the remote transport of data from infected computers to remote machines controlled by attackers.

Original OkoBot infection chain. Source: Kaspersky

Fake LinkedIn recruitment campaigns target Web3 developers with malware

Separately, a new malware campaign is seeking to infiltrate the devices of Web3 developers via fake LinkedIn recruitment opportunities, according to SlowMist.

Attackers contact blockchain developers via LinkedIn, posing as Web3 recruiters. They then send fake GitHub repositories to victims, claiming they contained the minimum viable product that needed to be tried before the interview, the blockchain security company said in a Saturday report.

The workflow closely resembles a legitimate technical interview where developers pull code, install dependencies and launch a project, which makes it difficult to notice the attack, according to SlowMist.

Related: UK sentences 2 hackers tied to $115M crypto ransom scheme

The malware aims to deliver a complete “remote access trojan” that infects devices, enabling attackers to steal project keys, cloud credentials, or wallet extension data from these developers.

“This attack is not an isolated case,” wrote SlowMist, adding that recent incidents illustrate that “attackers are increasingly leveraging scenarios such as recruitment, code reviews and project collaborations to trick developers into actively running malicious repositories.”

The report came a day after SlowMist warned of a separate malware campaign targeting macOS users, aiming to steal their credentials and hijack their Telegram sessions to ultimately trick investors into entering their wallet recovery phrases through fake websites.

Magazine: Does Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi?

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has bought $18.3 million of SpaceX shares after the stock fell 5.43% to a new post-IPO low, according to the firm’s July 17 trading report.

According to ARK’s daily disclosure, four of its actively managed exchange-traded funds purchased a combined 147,623 SpaceX shares as the stock closed Friday at $123.99. During the session, shares dropped as low as $122.12.

The ARK Innovation ETF made the largest purchase, adding 95,129 shares worth about $11.8 million based on Friday’s closing price. ARK’s Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF bought 30,464 shares valued at $3.78 million, while its Space Exploration & Innovation ETF added 12,611 shares worth around $1.56 million.

Completing the purchase, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired another 9,419 SpaceX shares valued at approximately $1.17 million, according to the same disclosure.