5 Convicted of Torturing Crypto Millionaires in London Kidnapping Ordeal

The Trump administration is drafting an unprecedented ban on Chinese data center equipment, threatening to destabilize US tech supply chains and directly impacting the AI and crypto sectors that depend on this critical infrastructure. This initiative represents a significant escalation in the tech war between the world's two largest economies, with potential global consequences for data security, AI development, and cryptocurrency mining.

A former FBI supervisory agent, Patrick Steven Yaroch, has pleaded guilty to stealing approximately $1 million worth of digital assets from an adversarial country, using internal systems to obtain credentials for cryptocurrency wallets. The agent conducted 10 unauthorized transfers between late 2024 and early 2025, depositing some funds into Suilend to earn yield before self-reporting the incident to authorities.

After self-reporting, Yaroch was placed on administrative leave, terminated, and subsequently arrested. Agents retrieved devices, seed phrases, and a Trezor wallet from his Virginia residence, allowing access to his accounts on Suilend and crypto exchange Kraken. With his cooperation, roughly $925,000 in funds were transferred to government-controlled wallets, highlighting security vulnerabilities within government agencies and the increasing need for regulation in the cryptocurrency sector.

Deribit maintains its dominant position in the crypto options market as Bybit records record-breaking ETH options volumes, signaling a significant shift in cryptocurrency market dynamics. Traders are now paying closer attention to platform execution quality and settlement preferences as competition heats up. This fierce competition among crypto options exchanges reflects the market's maturation and growing trader sophistication. With surging ETH volumes, Bybit demonstrates its increasing appeal to investors, while Deribit, the pioneer in the space, continues to defend its position through superior liquidity and technology.

Block's Bitcoin Engineering and Security team and independent Bitcoin Core developers have traced the recent batch of Coinkite Coldcard wallet losses to a specific firmware defect that exposed a hidden weakness in Bitcoin self-custody before any user touched a seed phrase. The bug diverted the device's random-number generation from its STM32 hardware source to MicroPython's software implementation, compromising the fundamental security of the wallet. This incident serves as a stark reminder that the 'not your keys, not your coins' mantra can be meaningless when users blindly trust a single device to generate their private keys. The Coldcard crisis highlights how even hardware wallets can be compromised through software vulnerabilities, undermining the very foundation of Bitcoin self-custody. As the crypto industry matures, this event underscores the critical importance of multi-layered security approaches and the dangers of over-reliance on any single component in the security stack.

Strategy's variable-rate preferred stock, STRC, has closed above $90 for the first time in seven weeks, extending its recovery from a June selloff that raised concerns about the Bitcoin treasury company's financial resilience. STRC closed at $92.32 on Monday, up 3.2% from Friday's close, marking a nearly 24% recovery from its June 26 closing low of $74.57. This impressive rebound is driven by the company's strategy of building its cash reserves and repurchasing STRC shares, demonstrating confidence in its financial position. The positive movement of STRC comes at a critical time for the cryptocurrency market as investors closely monitor the financial health of Bitcoin treasury companies. The STRC recovery may indicate growing optimism in the cryptocurrency sector and the company's treasury management strategy.