investigation

According to the American financial media Semafor, Nvidia (NVDA.O) is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for antitrust issues.

On Sunday, the NVIDIA board announced an investigation and issued a statement on November 10 at 11 AM Eastern Time, confirming the hiring of former Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim and his law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct a comprehensive and independent investigation into matters related to CEO Jensen Huang. The board also stated that there is currently no reason to believe that the company's confidential information has been compromised, and Jensen Huang has expressed support for the investigation and committed to cooperating.Public information shows that Joon H. Kim served as the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2017 to 2018, overseeing more than 220 assistant U.S. attorneys, with cases covering economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, sanctions violations, and cybercrime. In March 2021, he was appointed by New York Attorney General Letitia James to independently investigate the sexual harassment allegations against then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, and shortly after the investigation report was released, Cuomo resigned in August 2021. In December 2023, he was again appointed by the special review committee of the Board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to independently investigate allegations of harassment and discrimination within the agency.

On November 10, 2026, an on-chain investigation reported that the Elysium issuance platform Ascend associated address transferred approximately $140,000 through two privacy pools into three new wallets, and purchased shortly after MONTRA went live. The tokens were sent to the same FOMO wallet, which holds 32,014,541 tokens, accounting for about 3.2% of the supply, and this wallet has no purchase records. MONTRA is the platform token of the Elysium issuance platform Montra, which went live at 00:36 UTC on that day. Ascend co-founder is CryptoTomYT.Route A deposited 40,000 USDC into the Privacy Cash on Solana on November 10, and withdrew an equivalent amount 47 seconds later, exchanging it for 530.57 HYPE, then purchased 6,846,772 tokens and transferred them out. Route B deposited 100,328.25 USDC into the Base privacy pool on November 9 and withdrew an equivalent amount within the same hour. Two new wallets from Route B purchased approximately 25.6 million tokens within about 5 minutes of going live, with launch fees up to 23.2%.The investigation stated that Route A's deposit wallet previously received 27.7 SOL from ethanhates.sol and transferred approximately $66,200 to an address claimed by CryptoTomYT. The first funds for Route B came from an Arkham labeled FOMO account as analyzationz. The remaining 10 new wallets that transferred funds within the same hour, combined with the aforementioned buyers, hold a total of 25.8% of the LAUNCHPAD supply.

In 2025, NVIDIA learned that Huang Le had been detained by the Singapore police and proactively inquired about the situation with senior officials at the U.S. Department of Commerce. A few weeks later, U.S. officials investigating its affiliated company Megaspeed for suspected chip smuggling began to face strict limitations, and by the end of the year, the Department of Commerce was instructed to cease its investigation.In late summer 2025, NVIDIA's General Counsel Tim Teter directly called U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler to ask whether the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under his supervision was involved in the Singapore police's detention of Huang Le. At that time, Huang Le had already been questioned by the Singapore police and was restricted from leaving the country, while the U.S. Department of Commerce was also investigating whether Megaspeed had illegally transshipped NVIDIA AI chips. A few weeks after this call, BIS investigators received new instructions that any contact with NVIDIA must first go through Kessler or obtain his approval, and they were even prohibited from mentioning Megaspeed or its Malaysian subsidiary during external investigations.Teter later requested to meet directly with the investigators but was denied, subsequently stating that he had obtained Kessler's permission and did not understand why he was still being refused. Investigators were concerned that NVIDIA might influence the investigation through high-level connections, so they forwarded the emails to Kessler, who did not ask his subordinates to cooperate and only replied that they should strictly follow the regulations in handling the case. By the end of 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice requested the Department of Commerce to stop its investigation and take over the criminal investigation. Individuals involved in the investigation revealed that BIS had sufficient evidence to continue but was forced to halt its work, with some officials believing that the sudden transfer of the case was unusual. NVIDIA responded that contacting the Department of Commerce was to provide information, understand regulatory requirements, and assist in preventing illegal chip transshipment, and Teter was unaware of the extramarital affair between Jensen Huang and Huang Le when he intervened.

According to Forbes, an unsealed search warrant shows that a former senior financial crime investigator at Binance stated during questioning by the IRS in May of this year that Binance's management ignored calls for an internal investigation into approximately 2,000 accounts suspected to be used by individuals within Iran, involving about $1.2 billion in fund flows (codenamed "Operation Loclock").The investigator was previously suspended along with several colleagues for investigating two accounts suspected of violating U.S. sanctions by transferring funds to Iran, and later left the company. He has since received a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. Binance responded that it has not violated Iranian sanctions, that the relevant investigators were terminated for violating company data privacy policies, that the investigation into the accounts has never been closed, and that the company will fully cooperate with law enforcement. No charges have been filed in this investigation so far.

Senator Blumenthal sent letters to Binance, Tether, and Trump-associated cryptocurrency companies, requesting cooperation with ongoing investigations and the submission of documents.

According to reports from multiple media outlets including Decrypt, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia stated that former FBI agent Patrick Steven Yaroch pleaded guilty on November 5 in federal court in Alexandria to charges of telecommunications fraud and money laundering.He used stolen credentials to conduct approximately 100 fraudulent transfers from 35 cryptocurrency wallets involved in FBI investigations, stealing about $2.47 million in cryptocurrency assets, and concealed the source of the funds through methods such as exchanging tokens. Some of the funds were used to pay off debts such as credit cards and auto loans. Yaroch faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for March 4, 2027. Previous reports indicated that the amount involved was approximately $1 million.

The on-chain analysis platform Bubblemaps stated that it recently investigated four crypto KOLs and found that their wallet movements do not completely align with their public narratives. The conclusions are based on Bubblemaps' analysis and estimates. Regarding "Kimchi," which was launched in collaboration with Pump.Fun, there were rumors in the community that it earned about 40 million dollars on TRUMP. Bubblemaps estimated related profits to be about 6 million dollars based on its publicly available airdrop wallet and associated clusters, questioning the reasons for concealing the associations.For Solstice, Bubblemaps stated that the multiple meme coins it promoted showed dozens of new wallets buying in simultaneously, each holding about 0.5% to 1% of the supply, and the public wallets can be traced back to the token deployer.For Anglio, after analyzing about 534 posts in October, the platform noted that associated wallets bought in an average of about 20 seconds before approximately 61% of the calls and sold quickly afterward, estimating profits of about 130,000 dollars, and he has admitted to using such tactics.For 0xEthan, Bubblemaps stated that he often sells about three minutes after making a call, with public wallets and secret side wallets buying in simultaneously, estimating related profits of about 125,000 dollars.

According to the Financial Times of the UK, after the Democratic Party won control of both the House and Senate, Hakeem Jeffries promised to announce the agenda within 100 hours of taking office as Speaker of the House on January 3, focusing on reversing Medicaid cuts, addressing tariffs, and pushing to end the war with Iran.Trump previously stated he would "veto everything." Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia are expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee, respectively, planning to investigate law firms that made deals with the Trump administration, donors to Trump's pardons, and his cryptocurrency business. There are divisions within the Democratic Party regarding whether to impeach Trump again.

The Democratic Party has regained control of both the House and Senate in the U.S. midterm elections. According to Fortune magazine, California Congressman Robert Garcia, who will serve as the chair of the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress, stated in a statement and on X to "Lawyer up." Reports indicate that the Trump family's cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial (WLFI) may become the first business to be investigated.Robert Garcia previously stated that the committee will focus on investigating "Trump family corruption," which includes Trump's cryptocurrency business, which Fortune claims has generated over $1 billion in revenue for Trump. With the Democratic Party controlling the committee, they will have subpoena power to compel the government, private companies, and individuals to provide documents and testimony.The Democrats have previously focused on a member of the UAE royal family known as the "spy chief," who is set to acquire shares in World Liberty Financial for $500 million in 2025. The company is currently applying for a national banking license that requires approval from an agency under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. House Democrats had previously called on U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to investigate the transaction and indicated they would review Trump's pardon of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who reportedly assisted the Trump family in launching a stablecoin. Robert Garcia stated that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and other government officials may face subpoenas on the first day of the Democratic majority's tenure; corporate donors to the White House banquet hall project and businesses that have dealings with the Trump family are also expected to be among the first subjects of investigation, with related inquiries potentially starting as early as February 2027. White House spokesperson Lauren Bis stated in an interview with Newsweek before the election that the only agenda for the Democrats is to continue their decade-long "witch hunt" against Trump.

According to Bloomberg, Jack Dorsey's payment company Block disclosed in regulatory filings submitted on Tuesday that it has reached a principle agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding its anti-money laundering compliance investigation, in which the Department of Justice will defer prosecution for three years on charges that Block failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and violated the Bank Secrecy Act.This deferred prosecution agreement still requires court approval, with an expected total amount of approximately $964 million, and a net payment of about $764 million. Block had previously accrued $526 million at the end of June and increased the accrued amount to $764 million by the end of September.

According to Binance's official disclosure, the security incident on October 29 involved approximately $6.34 billion in digital assets. As of the report's release, about $2.85 billion in assets had been frozen or intercepted, with amounts pending verification and affected by market price fluctuations.Binance's preliminary investigation stated that the attackers infiltrated employee devices through fake job interviews and malicious software downloads, subsequently using internal AI tools and stolen credentials to access wallet signature services, bypassing normal withdrawal processes to initiate transactions. The attackers also exploited the Ethereum EIP-7702 authorization mechanism, allowing the malicious contract to gain partial execution rights over the hot wallet.Binance stated that the company will bear the financial impact of the stolen funds; as of October 31, 98% of the affected token assets have been replenished, while the remaining assets with lower liquidity are still being purchased. The company has closed the identified attack vectors and is hiring independent security experts for further review.

According to Cointelegraph, Kraken has restricted accounts related to a suspected theft of over $133 million in cryptocurrency assets involving an unnamed institution in Europe, and is cooperating with law enforcement to recover the funds. Kraken stated that this incident did not originate from its platform, its security systems were not breached, and customer accounts were not compromised.Previously, on-chain investigator ZachXBT discovered that the suspected stolen amount increased by an additional $27 million from the previously disclosed $106 million. Bitquery data shows that approximately $62.98 million in stablecoins was exchanged for 27,553 ETH within about 4 hours. Kraken, Crypto.com, and OKX have all been reported to be involved in the related fund flows, with Crypto.com taking measures to prevent the related funds from being transferred through its platform, while OKX stated that it is investigating.As of the reporting time, approximately $78.3 million remains in wallets associated with the attackers, while about $30.5 million has been transferred out. The identity of the victims and ZachXBT's speculation about a large financial institution in Western Europe being attacked and attempting to cover up the incident have not been confirmed.

The liquidity service provider Quote Markets team member filo published a review of the XPL flash crash event on Hyperliquid. During the flash crash of XPL on Hyperliquid, 16 wallets associated with funds and trading activities withdrew approximately $2,038,600 in margin before the price plummeted, leading to HLP taking over a large number of XPL long positions.HLP ultimately took over about 160 million XPL and completed the sale within approximately 75 minutes, incurring a loss of about $555,787, equivalent to 55.6% of the clearing vault's own funds. Investigations showed that 14 of the 16 wallets had connections in terms of funding sources or trading activities, with 12 wallets withdrawing funds in advance, contributing to 90.7% of the positions taken over by HLP. However, the investigation did not find direct evidence that these wallets caused the XPL crash, nor could it confirm whether they hedged on other trading platforms.It is worth noting that these 16 wallets did not profit from this event on Hyperliquid, collectively incurring a loss of about $711,000. Additionally, XPL had already dropped about 6% before the first liquidation occurred on Hyperliquid, so the liquidation was not the starting point of this crash, and the initial active selling volume of Binance perpetual contracts was also significantly larger.

The United States Secret Service stated that investigators collaborated with industry partners within minutes after the incident to identify and freeze a large amount of stolen cryptocurrency, and the related investigation is still ongoing.

THORChain co-founder Chad Barraford stated that the information held by THORNode operators is publicly available and can be accessed in real-time, so law enforcement does not need to obtain relevant information through subpoenas. He believes this is the ideal situation for investigations.Previously, the FBI, United States Secret Service (USSS), and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS-CI) called on THORNode operators, RPC node operators, instant exchange platforms, and DeFi service providers to intercept transactions related to North Korean TraderTraitor attackers and the funds flowing from these addresses. This request involves the theft of over $6 billion in assets from Binance.

According to Bloomberg, Meta Platforms (META.O) is facing an investigation by UK regulators. Regulators are concerned that the company's commercial terms may impose "exploitative" conditions on publishers and advertisers.The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated on Friday that it will investigate whether Meta has abused its market dominance by "unfairly harming" the interests of businesses using its platform through its commercial terms.The CMA noted that Meta originally planned to revise the relevant terms starting November 20, but has now postponed the implementation. Under these terms, Meta could collect content from its website without obtaining consent from publishers.Subsequently, Meta could use this content to develop and provide its own products and services, including artificial intelligence features. In response to the investigation, Meta stated, "There is no reason to initiate a competition investigation. We have committed not to modify the relevant terms without consulting publishers and other stakeholders."

The founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency trading platform Gate, Han Lin, posted on X stating that Gate was not affected by the security incident that night. The security team has completed a comprehensive inspection, user asset security is intact, and deposits, withdrawals, and trading are all operating normally, with on-chain reserves verifiable at any time.Han Lin stated that Gate stands with Binance, which is responding to the incident. The platform has added the involved addresses to a tracking list, and any related funds that flow in will be immediately frozen, with the security team on standby to provide assistance. He also mentioned that the industry has come this far through collective efforts, and all parties should work together to build and safeguard.Previously, Binance stated that the security incident on its platform affected approximately $6.3 billion in assets, with about half already frozen with assistance from other platforms, and it claimed it would cover all losses. Preliminary checks indicate that the incident may be related to an engineer's laptop being compromised, allowing the attacker to make unauthorized withdrawals, and Binance is cooperating with law enforcement to confirm the identities of the individuals involved.