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Reform UK Secures $97M in Crypto Funding From Two Billionaires

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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has received a total of £72 million (about $97 million) from two crypto-linked billionaires, after Christopher Harborne matched a record donation initially announced by Ben Delo. The pair’s contributions are described as the largest ever given to a British political party, according to reporting cited in the original coverage.

Harborne announced on Saturday that he would donate £36 million, following Delo’s earlier announcement. Reuters reported Farage’s response, noting that Reform welcomed the donations as a way to ensure the party can compete in the upcoming political fight.

Key takeaways

  • Reform UK received £72 million total, combining contributions of £36 million each from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.
  • Harborne matched Delo’s donation after Delo announced his package the day earlier.
  • The funding is framed by Reform as enabling a “level playing field” for the next general election campaign.
  • The donations come amid ongoing political scrutiny in the UK over crypto-linked financial influence, following an earlier Farage scandal.
  • Delo’s background includes a US legal resolution tied to BitMEX-related charges and a later presidential pardon, per earlier Cointelegraph reporting.

Why the donations are drawing attention

The scale of the donations is itself notable: the combined £72 million is presented in the original report as the largest ever made to a British political party, underscoring how quickly Reform has become a focal point for debates over money in UK politics.

Harborne said he was motivated to match Delo’s donation and, according to a quote carried by The Telegraph in the underlying report, he expected no direct personal outcome—describing it as support for a party “ready for government.” Delo, a co-founder of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, said he wanted to help ensure a “fair fight” at the polls.

In remarks attributed to The Telegraph, the funding timeline was also used to manage risk around potential legal or administrative interruption. Delo described the donation as effectively £1 million per month until a general election expected in 2029, but said he paid the entire amount up front so it could not be blocked, rather than drip-feeding funds over time.

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Reform’s “level playing field” argument

Farage welcomed both donations, stating that the money would allow Reform to contest the next general election on “a level playing field,” Reuters reported. That framing is important for understanding how Reform is positioning the contributions: rather than describing them as advantage-making capital, the party’s leadership is presenting the donations as a mechanism to counterbalance the resources of other parties.

However, the political context is not purely about campaign budgeting. The original coverage points to heightened scrutiny from UK lawmakers after Reform became associated with crypto-linked figures and large transfers during a period that has already seen contested discussion about whether digital-asset money should be treated differently under UK campaign finance rules.

Scrutiny after the earlier crypto funding controversy

Last month, Cointelegraph reported that Farage was under investigation after receiving millions of dollars in donations and gifts connected to the crypto industry. The underlying reporting cited Christopher Harborne and George Cottrell among the figures tied to the controversy, while noting that Farage denied wrongdoing.

Cointelegraph also reported that Farage resigned as a Member of Parliament in July amid the crypto scandal. The resignation triggered a by-election that Farage won with 63% of the vote, according to the original piece, ahead of a satirical candidate known as Count Binface.

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Beyond individual allegations, the donations have intensified broader concerns among lawmakers about the potential influence of digital assets on UK political decision-making. In the underlying report, it was noted that Labour MPs were reportedly considering making a crypto-donation moratorium—announced in March pending legislation—permanent, in response to what Farage characterized as “gifts” from Harborne and Cottrell.

Taken together, the new donations place Reform’s campaign financing squarely inside an active policy debate: whether limits on crypto-related political giving are necessary, and how any such limits might be enforced in practice as crypto industry figures continue to engage with UK electoral politics.

Delo’s US legal history and pardon

The wider scrutiny around the donation also intersects with the personal legal history of one of the donors. Earlier Cointelegraph reporting stated that Delo was one of three BitMEX co-founders who pleaded guilty in the US to federal charges tied to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

That reporting added that Delo agreed to pay a $10 million fine in 2022 but did not serve prison time. It further noted that Delo, alongside Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed, later received a presidential pardon from then-President Donald Trump in March 2025.

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While the donation news is focused on UK politics, this US dimension is relevant for readers trying to understand why crypto-linked political contributions are polarizing: the donations are not only raising questions about UK campaign finance oversight, but also resurfacing attention to the donors’ broader regulatory and legal track records.

Looking ahead, investors, voters, and political watchers will likely focus on two practical questions: whether UK authorities or lawmakers introduce additional restrictions on crypto-related political donations, and how Reform responds to ongoing inquiries as the party prepares for the next general election. The larger issue behind the headline figure is how—or whether—crypto money will be treated as ordinary political funding as the debate over fairness and influence continues to escalate.

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Nvidia Weighs $10B Investment as Anthropic IPO Markets Near Record

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Anthropic is reportedly in discussions with Nvidia about a potential $10 billion investment that could help shape what Reuters called a potential “mega IPO” for the AI company. According to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, the talks are still fluid and the figures being discussed could materially reshape the size—and potential valuation—of any public debut.

Reuters also reports that Anthropic is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion in the offering, which could value the company at around $2 trillion. The individuals described the negotiations as confidential and asked not to be identified, and Reuters said Anthropic declined to comment while Nvidia had not yet responded to a request for comment.

Key takeaways

  • Reuters reports Anthropic is discussing a possible $10 billion Nvidia investment tied to a potentially massive IPO.
  • The offering size under discussion could reach up to $100 billion, implying an around $2 trillion valuation target.
  • Talks remain ongoing and could change, with neither Anthropic nor Nvidia providing comment.
  • The rumored move fits a broader strategy in which chip makers seek influence not just over compute, but also AI platforms and customers.

Why a potential Nvidia-Anthropic deal matters

If the reported discussions result in participation by Nvidia—potentially as an early strategic backer—it would strengthen more than just Anthropic’s funding prospects. Strategic investors often have outsized influence in how companies position their technology and partnerships, especially in fast-moving AI supply chains where chips, infrastructure, model ecosystems, and developer tools can be just as important as model performance.

For Nvidia, a relationship with Anthropic at a scale that could support a record-setting public offering would be consistent with its push to stay tightly embedded in the AI stack. Reuters’ account suggests Nvidia could benefit by reinforcing ties with a major customer while also taking a more prominent role around the timing and structure of an IPO.

Link to Anthropic’s infrastructure footprint

Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph highlighted Anthropic’s increasing demand for AI compute capacity. On Aug. 11, Cointelegraph reported that Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms had secured a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts of capacity from its Rockdale, Texas campus to a “leading frontier AI” company.

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Cointelegraph stated that the customer was Anthropic and that the deal was valued at about $9 billion, citing a Bloomberg report that also referenced people familiar with the matter. While such capacity agreements don’t automatically translate into IPO readiness, they can signal the scale of near-term compute requirements—an issue that matters to investors assessing how quickly an AI company can sustain growth in training and inference.

Nvidia’s software leverage and the Hugging Face acquisition

The Nvidia angle in this story also connects to its broader strategy beyond chips. Earlier in August, Cointelegraph reported that Nvidia had agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, extending its reach into the AI software and developer tooling ecosystem.

Hugging Face, as described in Cointelegraph’s earlier reporting and in remarks by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, serves more than 18 million developers and hosts over three million models. Huang said Nvidia to acquire Hugging Face would bring control of a major platform for AI models as AI companies increasingly compete across chips, software, and the developer tools used to build and deploy models.

In that context, the Reuters report—if confirmed—would underline a two-pronged approach: Nvidia aims to maintain leverage at the infrastructure level and also deepen its influence over the software layers where models are published, accessed, and integrated into applications.

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What to watch next

Because Reuters characterizes the negotiations as ongoing and potentially changeable, investors and industry participants should watch for follow-on reporting that clarifies whether Nvidia is expected to participate formally, how the offering size would be structured, and whether either company provides updated statements as talks progress. The broader implication—however it plays out—remains clear: AI capital formation and strategic partnerships are increasingly shaped by control of both compute and the platforms developers rely on.

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Coinbase Engineer Turns a Virtual Fly Brain Into a Crypto Trader

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Coinbase Engineer Turns a Virtual Fly Brain Into a Crypto Trader

A software engineer at Coinbase has wired a digital copy of a fruit fly’s brain into a Bitcoin trading account. The open-source project is called Stonkfly.

It shows the simulated brain a price chart and rewards profitable trades with a burst of virtual dopamine. The fly never sees a single price number.

How a Simulated Fly Brain Places a Trade

Alex Wormuth published the code on GitHub alongside a public dashboard. The model runs 166,700 neurons and roughly 25.6 million connections between them.

Those figures come from a connectome, a published wiring map of an adult male fruit fly’s nervous system. Neuroscientists spent years building it. Wormuth pointed it at a candlestick chart instead.

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Stonkfly draws that chart as a small image and splits it across the fly’s two simulated eyes. Light-sensing cells read the raw pixel colors. The brain then settles on buy, sell, or hold.

Profit fires 15 reward neurons. A loss fires two that register something unpleasant. Trading fees count as losses. The fly cannot borrow or bet on a falling price, which puts it ahead of many AI bots trading stocks.

The Creator Says It Proves Nothing

According to the Coinbase engineer, the experiment does not show everything.

Coinbase Engineer Turns a Virtual Fly Brain Into a Crypto Trader
Coinbase Engineer Turns a Virtual Fly Brain Into a Crypto Trader. Source: tomshardware.com

“Synaptic changes do not establish that it learns to trade profitably,” Alex Wormuth said.

The program runs on paper money by default, starting with $100. Live mode caps each order at $10, and limits attempts to 24 per day. The public dashboard still showed zero completed trades on Saturday.

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That caution lands differently in a falling market. Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $77,286 on Saturday, up 0.6% on the day but far below its peak.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto

The real question is not whether the fly makes money. It is whether a mapped brain rewires itself for a reward evolution never gave it.

The post Coinbase Engineer Turns a Virtual Fly Brain Into a Crypto Trader appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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XRP Price Analysis: 3 Major Catalysts Set to Shape September

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XRP is changing hands in the low-$1.30s, sitting near a level our price analysis has circled for weeks. That’s not a coincidence. Three catalysts, a critical demand zone, a looming regulatory decision, and shifting whale behavior are converging as the month moves forward, and the outcome could shape XRP’s trajectory into Q4.

Price feeds across major exchanges show XRP clustering around the low-to-mid-$1.30s, with CoinMarketCap’s tracking showing similar underperformance against the wider crypto market during the latest risk-off move.

The drop follows an August rally that took XRP from around $1 to the high-$1.60 range. That run is now cooling into a descending triangle, with the mid-to-high-$1.30s described as one of the market’s most significant demand zones, where billions of XRP previously changed hands.

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Macro conditions aren’t helping. Crypto markets are digesting Fed policy signals, and that pressure is bleeding into altcoin price action across the board. XRP’s next move likely hinges on whether buyers defend the low-to-mid-$1.30s or allow that support to crack.

Trade XRP on Bybit and Get a Chance to Win Our $1,000 USDT Airdrop

XRP Price Analysis: Break $1.45 This Weekend?

XRP is trading in the low-$1.30s, just below its recent seven-day range in the low-to-high $1.30s. That points to a sideways-to-mildly bearish structure heading into the final stretch of September. Volume has concentrated around the mid-$1.30s, reinforcing that area as an important line in the sand.

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Support sits in layers. The first floor is around the low-$1.30s, near the 20-day EMA, while the next major zone sits around $1.25–$1.30 near the 50-day EMA. Resistance builds quickly above the current range.

Xrp (XRP)
24h7d30d1yAll time

The first hurdle sits around the mid-$1.30s to low-$1.40s, followed by heavier supply around $1.45–$1.55. Beyond that, the $1.55–$1.70 region becomes the next major test.

The bullish scenario would see XRP reclaim the low-$1.40s, potentially opening a path toward the $1.60 area and eventually the high-$1.80s if the triangle pattern breaks higher. The base case is continued chop between roughly $1.30 and $1.40 while traders wait for a fresh catalyst. A break below the low-$1.30s would weaken the recovery thesis and put the mid-$1.20s back in focus.

RSI remains relatively neutral, while expanding Bollinger Bands suggest volatility could be building rather than fading. Traders watching the CLARITY Act vote timeline should treat it as a potential swing factor for the next major move.

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Bitcoin Hyper Targets Early Mover Upside as XRP Tests Key Levels

XRP holders sitting through this chop have earned the right to ask a blunt question: Is $1.35 support really going to hold, or is this just the market buying time before another leg down?

Whale accumulation patterns and retail positioning offer some reassurance, but at XRP’s market cap, even a clean breakout caps upside in the modest double digits, not the asymmetric moves early-stage capital is chasing. That’s pushing some traders toward earlier-stage infrastructure plays with more room to run.

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Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is one of the more notable examples, a Bitcoin Layer 2 project integrating the Solana Virtual Machine, positioning itself as the first Bitcoin L2 with SVM-based execution faster than Solana’s own network.

Currently priced at $0.013686, the presale has raised more than $33 million to date, with staking rewards offering a high 35% APY only for early participants. Standout features include a decentralized canonical bridge for native BTC transfers and low-latency transaction processing designed to bring programmability to an ecosystem historically limited to simple transfers.

Research Bitcoin Hyper directly before the presale window closes.

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The post XRP Price Analysis: 3 Major Catalysts Set to Shape September appeared first on Cryptonews.

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India’s Demat 2.0 Could Change Bond Tokenization: Here’s How It Works

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have launched a pilot infrastructure for issuing, holding, trading, and settling corporate bonds as digital tokens.

Called Demat 2.0, the model is being integrated directly into the nation’s existing regulated securities market, unlike many tokenization experiments built on standalone blockchain platforms.

$116M Tokenized and Counting

India’s approach allows corporate bonds to be created natively on a distributed ledger maintained by market infrastructure institutions, with ownership records held by the country’s statutory depositories. As written on Demat 2.0’s explanatory page, the system is connected to the RBI’s wholesale digital rupee through its Unified Market Interface. This allows the securities and cash legs of a transaction to settle at the same time.

This so-called atomic delivery-versus-payment model eliminates the period previously needed when one party has transferred an asset while still waiting for the other side to complete the payment. The statement also noted that three companies have already issued tokenized bonds worth a total of ₹1,025 crore (or $116 million).

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REC Limited led the charge, becoming the first issuer on September 7, raising ₹500 crore from 18 investors. Larsen & Toubro followed suit with the same amount from four investors, while IIFL raised ₹25 crore from a single investor on September 9.

SEBI said issuers can receive funds on the same day as bidding, compared with the traditional two-to-three-day process. Secondary-market investors could get their proceeds immediately as well.

Smart contracts can also automate coupon and redemption payments directly into investors’ CBDC wallets. Separately, investors can use their existing demat accounts rather than create an entirely different blockchain wallet infrastructure.

Beyond Bonds?

The statement noted that tokenized bonds remain legally identical to conventional ones as existing rules covering credit ratings, disclosures, debenture trustees, and investor protection continue to apply. Given the evident growth of the real-world asset (RWA) industry, India’s authorities said the rollout of their local system will come in three stages.

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The current phase is focused on institutional corporate bond issuance. The second will introduce secondary-market trading and expand access to retail investors, while the last one could bring additional regulated entities onto the network and explore tokenization of other financial instruments.

The infrastructure remains private and permissioned, with nodes initially operated by depositories and stock exchanges. This is important because India’s initiative is not an attempt to move its securities markets onto public blockchains; rather, it aims to combine DLT-based ownership, smart contracts, and central-bank money within its existing financial system.

The post India’s Demat 2.0 Could Change Bond Tokenization: Here’s How It Works appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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The ETF Built to Bet Against XRP Price Has a New Launch Date

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The ETF Built to Bet Against XRP Price Has a New Launch Date

Teucrium has pushed back the launch of its short XRP ETF (exchange-traded fund) for the 19th time. A filing dated September 11 moves the earliest possible start to October 11, 2026.

The fund is built to pay investors when XRP falls. Its mirror image, which pays when XRP rises, has been trading since April 2025.

19 XRP Short ETF Filings and Not One Launch

Public records held by the US Securities and Exchange Commission show the same three-page document arriving roughly every month since April 4, 2025. Each one does a single job. It moves the date.

The newest filing carries no explanation beyond the new date. Strategy, fees, and risk warnings all stay untouched.

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Even that date is not a launch date. It marks the first day the fund is permitted to start trading, and permission is not the same as arrival.

The first postponement landed four days before the 2x long XRP fund began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Teucrium sold the upside version and shelved the downside one.

No regulator blocked this. The company chose each delay itself.

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Why the Bet Against XRP Never Reached the Market

The product aims to move twice as much as XRP does each day, in the opposite direction. It would never sell any XRP. Instead, it would use contracts with trading firms that pay out when the price drops.

Teucrium has never explained the holdup in any filing.

Meanwhile, the thing the fund was designed for happened without it. XRP peaked at $3.65 in July 2025 and now trades near $1.37, suggesting a drawdown of over 60%. Anyone wanting a listed way to bet against that slide had none.

XRP Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto

Ordinary funds that simply hold XRP did arrive, and money kept flowing in. Over their past 20 trading days those funds took in $190.5 million, with withdrawals on a single day.

Buyers stayed put through the decline. Cumulative inflows since launch now stand at $1.70 billion. What nobody could buy was the other side of the trade.

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XRP ETF Flows. Source: SoSoValue
XRP ETF Flows. Source: SoSoValue

October 11 marks the 20th deadline for this fund. After 19 postponements, the sharper question is what changes if it ever does launch.

The post The ETF Built to Bet Against XRP Price Has a New Launch Date appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Report Says North Korea Is Recruiting Foreign Talent for US Firm Infiltration

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Crypto Breaking News

North Korea’s cyber and financial theft efforts are increasingly relying on remote workers based in third countries, according to a report published by NBC. The scheme reportedly involves recruiting foreign IT workers—such as people located in Iran and Lebanon—to help North Korean-linked actors infiltrate US companies and route funds back to the DPRK in support of its weapons programs.

The renewed focus on “outsourced” digital labor comes after a July alert issued by the US government and multiple foreign agencies, warning that North Korean IT workers actively seek contracts with the aim of remitting salaries to parent agencies in North Korea. The alert also described these workers as potential insider threats, including roles in data exfiltration and cryptocurrency theft.

Key takeaways

  • US and partner agencies warned in July that DPRK-linked IT workers use employment contracts to funnel pay back to North Korean agencies.
  • NBC reports North Korea is using remote workers from third countries—reportedly including Iran and Lebanon—to pass job interviews and gain access to US firms.
  • After contracts are obtained, NBC says North Korean operatives often take over the positions.
  • The reported tactics extend to cryptocurrency theft, with some candidates allegedly being offered crypto compensation for part-time work.
  • Broader reporting ties North Korea’s cyber operations to large crypto losses, underscoring how persistent these campaigns can be.

A US warning highlights contract-driven infiltration

The July alert cited by NBC frames the DPRK’s approach as more than typical hacking. Instead, it emphasizes how North Korean-linked IT workers attempt to gain entry through normal business channels—seeking contracts and leveraging employment relationships to access internal systems.

According to the alert, these workers “seek out contracts with the intent of remitting their salaries to their parent North Korean agencies.” It also describes them as posing an insider threat to companies, with participation in data exfiltration and cryptocurrency theft, as well as the theft of sensitive information. That combination points to a multi-stage method: gain a role legitimately or semi-legitimately, then convert that access into monetizable outcomes and compromised data.

Third-country remote staffing as a growing tactic

NBC reports that as governments have moved to counter DPRK efforts, the strategy has shifted toward recruiting remote IT workers from outside North Korea. The report says foreign workers are scouted—NBC specifically mentions LinkedIn—as North Korean-linked actors attempt to recruit people who can pass initial screening and interviews for remote positions.

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Once those work contracts are obtained, NBC says the remote workers are typically followed by a transfer of control, with the roles then “usually” taken over by North Korean operatives. For firms hiring contractors—particularly those operating across borders—this is an important nuance: the risk is not only external malware or credential theft. It also includes what happens after a contractor is onboarded and gains legitimate access to development environments, internal documentation, or payment-related workflows.

NBC also reports that some of the foreign recruits were offered cryptocurrency—about $500 monthly in at least one case—in exchange for part-time work, described as “interview associates.” That detail matters for compliance teams: it suggests intermediated recruitment and payment schemes may be used to normalize crypto transfers in otherwise ordinary hiring processes.

The July alert’s themes—remittance intent, insider-threat potential, and links to crypto theft—appear consistent with what NBC portrays as a practical hiring pipeline. If implemented as described, the scheme reduces friction for DPRK actors by blending into legitimate commercial operations while still creating pathways to exfiltrate data and move value.

Crypto losses connected to DPRK activity remain substantial

The hiring/infiltration angle is part of a broader pattern that has repeatedly surfaced in cybersecurity reporting. Cointelegraph previously reported in May, citing CrowdStrike, that North Korean state-affiliated hackers were responsible for more than $2 billion in crypto losses in 2025—an estimated 51% increase year-on-year.

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While the NBC report focuses on recruitment and insider access, the continued magnitude of crypto losses—per the CrowdStrike-cited figure—suggests that monetization channels (including cryptocurrency-related theft) remain a central goal. In practice, insider positioning and data access can accelerate theft by expanding the target set: not only wallets and exchanges, but also internal systems that may contain credentials, private keys, payment rails, or proprietary information that can be leveraged for further attacks.

For crypto investors and market participants, this matters because large-scale theft and follow-on laundering attempts can affect confidence in compliance and custody systems, and they can increase perceived regulatory pressure on the broader industry. Even when theft is confined to specific victims, the ecosystem-level narrative tends to build around repeat offenders and persistent attack methods.

Sanctions pressures, but limited signs of economic slowdown

Alongside the cyber narrative, economic reporting suggests sanctions have not prevented North Korea from sustaining activity at home. Cointelegraph previously noted, citing the Bank of Korea, that North Korea’s GDP increased 3.5% in 2025 despite global sanctions.

That estimate doesn’t prove the cyber recruitment scheme directly caused macro outcomes—but it provides context for why such operations may remain attractive to the DPRK. If the country’s economy is not collapsing under sanctions, then actors may have continued resources and incentives to invest in complex infiltration strategies that require coordination across borders and jurisdictions.

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From a risk-management perspective, this implies that defensive measures must be ongoing. If North Korea can adjust recruitment tactics—shifting to remote third-country workers and using crypto compensation for part-time roles—then security teams should expect further evolution in how these threats blend into normal business processes.

What companies should watch next

As the details reported by NBC and the July alert suggest contract-based insider risk tied to crypto remittances, the most urgent question for employers and vendors is how these schemes will be detected in practice. Firms should track warning signals around contractor onboarding—especially scenarios involving unusually fast access to sensitive systems, crypto-focused payment arrangements, or patterns consistent with insider takeover after initial screening—while cybersecurity and compliance teams closely monitor how DPRK-linked recruiting methods develop.

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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK lands $97 million donations from two crypto billionaires in 24 hours

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$5 million political donation by BitMEX’s Delo lands amid U.K. crypto crackdown


The combined haul equals the largest individual political donations in U.K. history, sharply scaling up crypto industry backing.

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Anthropic CEO calls for AI race to slow down. Musk and OpenAI's Altman agrees

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Anthropic CEO calls for AI race to slow down. Musk and OpenAI's Altman agrees


Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk have agreed on an unusual position: frontier AI development may need to slow as systems become capable of helping build their own successors.

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Why Ripple (XRP)? 21Shares Highlights 4 Reasons Investors Should Take Notice

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Swiss-based asset manager 21Shares has outlined its investment case for XRP, citing regulatory clarity, institutional access, growing XRPL utility, and a predictable supply.

Nevertheless, it outlined one major risk, which continues to haunt the underlying asset.

Why Bullish on XRP?

Given Ripple’s years-long battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the favorable outcome in the past year or so, 21Shares’ report identified regulatory clarity as the first pillar. The conclusion in August 2025 removed what the asset manager described as a major compliance obstacle for institutions, and the regulatory environment for the asset improved further in 2026, giving it considerably clearer treatment than it had under the previous SEC tenure.

Perhaps related to regulatory clarity is the second pillar: expanding institutional access. Recall that several spot XRP ETFs hit Wall Street last November and attracted over $1 billion in a month and a half. As recently reported, the cumulative inflows reached a new all-time high above $1.7 billion, even during this difficult year for the asset.

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Next, 21Shares outlined the actual network usage, as the report noted that XRP Ledger has processed close to $500 billion in on-chain value during the past 12 months. At the same time, Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin expanded from a market cap of $72 million to $1.6 billion in less than two years.

Tokenized assets on XRPL have also grown substantially, recently hitting $4 billion. The network continues to target payments, stablecoins, and real-world assets.

Crypto commentator Vincent Van Code also weighed in on 21Shares’ report, arguing that Ripple’s broader infrastructure strengthens that proposition. They described it as an “out-of-the-box, turnkey end-to-end solution” for institutions looking to adopt digital assets.

Lastly, the report mentioned XRP’s fixed maximum supply of 100 billion tokens, with no ongoing inflation schedule and a small amount permanently burned through transaction fees.

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Major Uncertainty

Despite all the bullish comments explained above, 21Shares highlighted an important weakness in that thesis, as more XRPL usage does not automatically mean more XRP demand. Institutions can use the network while holding XRP only temporarily. In some cases, they might only barely use the token.

The crucial question here is whether expanding payments, stablecoins, and tokenized assets will ultimately translate into sustainable value accrual for XRP.

For investors convinced that global finance will increasingly move on-chain, 21Shares argued that XRP provides one of the more regulated and institutionally connected ways to gain exposure to that trend. However, the investment case still depends on adoption eventually translating into actual demand for the underlying asset, which continues to struggle against the $1.40 resistance as of press time.

The post Why Ripple (XRP)? 21Shares Highlights 4 Reasons Investors Should Take Notice appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Reform UK secures record crypto-billionaire donation, reports say

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Ben Delo, a co-founder of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange and a prominent UK crypto figure, has donated £36 million (about $49 million) to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, according to reports from the DPA and other UK media. The payment is described as the largest single donation ever made to a British political party.

Delo said the contribution was intended to help Reform UK ensure a “fair fight” in the run-up to the next stage of voting. The move lands amid an ongoing UK political debate about whether donations and gifts tied to the crypto industry can distort elections and how lawmakers should regulate them.

Key takeaways

  • Ben Delo reportedly gave £36 million to Reform UK, the biggest political-party donation in the UK, according to DPA and other media.
  • Delo frames the donation as a way to enable a “fair fight” at the polls.
  • Reform UK’s earlier major crypto-linked donors included Christopher Harborne, who previously gave £9 million.
  • UK politicians have been debating whether to impose a permanent ban or moratorium on crypto donations in response to the Farage donation controversy.
  • Delo’s background includes prior US federal charges tied to the Bank Secrecy Act; he later received a presidential pardon, according to prior reporting.

Why the £36 million donation is drawing scrutiny

The reported £36 million donation by Ben Delo gives fresh fuel to concerns about the influence of digital-asset wealth in British elections. It also intensifies a controversy that has already prompted investigations and parliamentary fallout.

Earlier reporting from Cointelegraph said Farage was under investigation after receiving millions of dollars’ worth of donations and gifts from figures connected to the crypto sector, including Christopher Harborne and George Cottrell. Delo’s latest contribution is therefore not happening in a vacuum—it follows a sequence of political and legal developments that have put the spotlight on how the UK treats crypto-related political funding.

For investors and builders in the crypto industry, the political implications are not abstract. Election funding that draws from large, market-aligned fortunes can shape the policy environment affecting digital asset regulation, compliance expectations, and future tax or licensing rules.

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Reform UK’s fundraising and the “fair fight” rationale

Delo reportedly said he donated the money to ensure a “fair fight” at the polls. Farage responded by expressing confidence in Reform UK and describing the party as the only one capable, in his view, of reversing the country’s economic decline.

The scale of the donation also contrasts with earlier fundraising milestones for Reform UK. Cointelegraph previously noted that Delo’s fellow crypto-linked donors included Harborne, who gave £9 million to the party last August, making him the second-largest donor behind Delo’s reported contribution.

According to The Telegraph, the £36 million was structured as £1 million per month up to the general election in 2029, but Delo made the full payment upfront so it could not be blocked. That detail matters because the controversy around crypto donations in the UK has increasingly focused not only on who funds political parties, but also on how such funding is timed and administered.

Investigation backdrop: resignation, by-election, and lawmakers’ response

In July, Nigel Farage resigned his position as a Member of Parliament amid the crypto donation scandal, which triggered a by-election that Reform UK won with 63% of the vote—ahead of a satirical candidate, Count Binface, as described in prior coverage.

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Cointelegraph previously reported that Labour MPs were considering making a moratorium on crypto donations—announced in March and pending legislation—permanent in response to the situation Farage described as “gifts” from Harborne and Cottrell. The reported Delo donation adds new pressure to those discussions, because it demonstrates that large-scale political funding tied to crypto-linked wealth can continue even as lawmakers weigh whether existing rules are adequate.

More broadly, the case highlights a tension in UK political life: the desire to attract legitimacy and investment while also addressing concerns that opaque or poorly understood funding channels could undermine public trust in democratic processes.

Delo’s legal history and what the pardon means for the political debate

Ben Delo’s political visibility is also tied to his legal history in the United States. Cointelegraph previously reported that Delo, one of three BitMEX co-founders, pleaded guilty to federal charges related to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Cointelegraph also reported that Delo agreed to pay a $10 million fine in 2022 and did not serve prison time.

Importantly for context, earlier reporting also states that Delo and his colleagues Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed received a pardon from US President Donald Trump in March 2025. While a pardon does not erase prior conduct in the public record, it can change how figures are perceived legally and politically, including their ability to participate openly in public life and major funding decisions.

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For UK lawmakers trying to decide on permanent restrictions, the Delo case underscores a practical dilemma: regulating political influence often requires judgments about risk, reputation, and compliance—rather than relying only on the presence or absence of formal convictions.

What to watch next

As Reform UK faces fresh attention following the reported £36 million donation, the key question is whether UK lawmakers move beyond debate toward binding, enforceable rules on crypto-linked political funding. Readers should watch for signs of whether the proposed permanent moratorium evolves into legislation—and how parties and donors respond to any new compliance expectations.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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