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Rare earth miners jump as Trump is eyeing mineral stockpile

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Rare earth miners jump as Trump is eyeing mineral stockpile

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 30, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

Shares of U.S.-listed rare earth miners jumped Monday after news that President Donald Trump is preparing a sweeping plan to build a strategic stockpile of critical minerals.

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The proposal, known as Project Vault, would launch a first-of-its-kind strategic critical minerals stockpile designed for the U.S. private sector, according to a White House official. The plan pairs $1.67 billion in private capital with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the person said. Trump’s move is aimed at cutting America’s dependence on China for materials essential to electric vehicles, defense systems and advanced technology.

MP Materials, the operator of the Mountain Pass mine in California, surged 6% in early trading Monday. USA Rare Earth and Critical Metals Corp. rallied 13% and 12%, respectively, as investors bet the initiative could accelerate domestic demand and government-backed financing for the sector.

Bloomberg News first reported on the proposal earlier Monday.

USA Rare Earth has already held discussions with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, pitching its domestic mining and magnet assets to the federal government. Those talks would ultimately lead to a proposed deal that could provide the company with about $1.6 billion in funding, subject to certain conditions, and include a U.S. government equity stake.

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The moves build on a more direct role Washington has begun taking in the sector. The Department of Defense struck a landmark agreement with MP Materials last summer that included an equity stake, price floor, and long-term agreement to buy a specific amount of rare earth minerals and magnets.

— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.

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Crypto World

New AI Cybercrime Tool Targets Crypto, Bank KYC Systems via Deepfakes

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New AI Cybercrime Tool Targets Crypto, Bank KYC Systems via Deepfakes

A threat actor known as “Jinkusu” is allegedly selling cybercrime tools designed to bypass Know Your Customer (KYC) checks at banks and crypto platforms.

The tool uses deepfakes and voice manipulation to trick KYC verification systems on finance platforms, cybercrime tracker Dark Web Informer wrote in a Sunday X post.

Cybersecurity company Vecert Analyzer added that Jinkusu uses AI for real-time face swaps via InsightFace for “fluid gesture transfers,” along with voice modulation to evade biometrics.

Source: Dark Web Informer

The emergence of deepfake tools is a “wake-up call” for the industry, as it highlights the shortcomings of KYC verification systems, according to Deddy Lavid, CEO of blockchain security platform Cyvers.

“As AI lowers the barriers to synthetic identity fraud, the front door will always remain vulnerable,” Lavid told Cointelegraph, urging platforms to adopt a layered security approach combining identity verification with real-time AI monitoring.

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AI can crack KYC systems with a single picture

Binance chief security officer Jimmy Su highlighted the growing threat of deepfake technology back in May 2023.

He warned that improving AI algorithms will be able to crack KYC identity systems by using a single picture of the victim.

Related: Revolut confirms ex-employee threatened to leak KYC data for crypto ransom

The new fraud kit also enables scammers to run romance scams, such as “pig butchering,” with no technical knowledge.

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Crypto investors lost $5.5 billion to 200,000 flagged pig butchering cases in 2024.

Scam-as-a-service threatens crypto investors

The author of the new fraud package, Jinkusu, is suspected to be the same threat actor who released the phishing kit Starkiller in February 2026.

Unlike traditional, HTML-based phishing kits, Starkiller creates a real-time reverse proxy by creating a headless Chrome browser inside a Docker container, loading the genuine login page of the target brand and relaying all user input, including login and passwords, to the threat actor, explained cybersecurity platform Abnormal, in a Feb. 19 report.

Starkiller phishing-as-a-service malware. Source: Abnormal.ai

While losses to crypto phishing attacks fell 83% in 2025, malicious crypto wallet drainer scripts remained active and new malware continued to emerge, Scam Sniffer said in a January report.

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