meth

A survey by the Democratic Party of the U.S. Senate claims that the stablecoin USDT issued by Tether has become a major payment method for Iran. The survey shows that among over 800 sanctioned cryptocurrency wallets, about 84% primarily or exclusively use USDT.The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had previously stated that its review of blockchain records, sanctions lists, and asset seizure notices found that the sanctioned wallets are mainly distributed across the Tron and Ethereum networks and have conducted USDT transactions.

Meta's personal AI assistant Muse has been accused of reading users' private iMessages without permission and providing false explanations about how it accesses this information. Technology columnist Jason Aten installed the assistant on his iPhone and Mac when Muse launched on September 8 and explicitly refused to grant it access to personal data such as information and calendars.A few days later, Muse sent Aten a notification suggesting he write a column about the new iPhone that he had just discussed with his podcast partner, also mentioning a deadline reminder from the editor. Aten asked Muse how it knew this, and it replied that the Mac application only forwards notification previews and does not involve the content of messages. In reality, Muse had synchronized over 187,000 records from the local private information database on the Mac, an operation that requires full disk access permissions on macOS.David Singleton, head of Meta's superintelligent lab, responded on Threads that this feature requires users to actively choose to opt-in. Aten denied ever turning on that switch and stated that Meta had not answered related questions. Amazon has banned Muse from shopping on its site, stating that the assistant did not indicate its AI identity while browsing and seemed capable of capturing and storing user credentials. Since its launch, Muse has been downloaded over 2.5 million times, with its promotion emphasizing user control over access.

The founder of Slow Fog, Yu Xian, disclosed that following the previous FomoPeek App poisoning and theft incident, a food delivery app named ComeCome (comecome.icu) has been found to implement attacks using similar methods. FomoPeek versions v1.1-1.2 contain a malicious SDK that integrates 8 types of iOS kernel exploit schemes, which can automatically select attack methods based on device model and system version. The known affected iOS versions cover iOS 12--18.7 and 26--26.1.After a successful attack, it can break through the iOS sandbox mechanism, thereby stealing assets from cryptocurrency wallets. Yu Xian warned that such threats may also affect iPad and Mac devices, and advised users to immediately update to the latest iOS version and remain highly vigilant against apps from unknown sources.

Gate, the global cryptocurrency exchange, has launched the Gate Card, a Visa prepaid card product, in collaboration with Bridge and Stripe, significantly reducing the implementation period to about 6 months, compared to the over one year estimated by traditional banking partners.The Gate Card is issued by Lead Bank and allows users to top up with stablecoins and spend on the global Visa network. The card can be added to Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Previously, Gate had launched card products in overseas markets, but faced complexities related to compliance and multi-party coordination in the U.S. market.Gate US COO Laura Lui stated, "Bridge serves as a critical coordinating layer among different participants, allowing Gate US to focus on customers, product experience, and overall business strategy." Gate US views the Gate Card as an early step in a broader stablecoin payment strategy, with potential plans to issue its own stablecoin in the U.S. through Bridge's stablecoin platform in the future.

According to Bitcoin.com, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) disclosed that in the fiscal year 2026, over 19,400 online scams were removed (a year-on-year increase of 182%), among which cryptocurrency investment scam platforms reached 3,106, an increase of about 30% compared to the previous fiscal year.ASIC pointed out that scam groups are heavily leveraging generative AI technology to build a systematic fraud ecosystem: by using deepfake videos of well-known figures such as Australian Prime Minister Albanese and financial commentators to promote fake cryptocurrency trading robots, while simultaneously creating counterfeit media websites, AI-generated comments, and fake profit dashboards to lure victims into continuously increasing their investments, with funds ultimately flowing to overseas criminal groups. Just from the impersonation of high-profile individuals alone, the related losses have exceeded 7.4 million Australian dollars.

The B.AI platform officially launched the "Recharge for Others" feature on August 12, allowing users to top up platform points for team members or friends with one click. Users can input the recipient's email or on-chain address (compatible with TRON, EVM, and Solana networks) for precise targeting and real-time crediting.In terms of payment channels, this feature has fully integrated with fiat channels such as WeChat, Alipay, UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, and Apple Pay, while also supporting mainstream cryptocurrency payments. To encourage user adoption, the platform has simultaneously launched a recharge reward campaign: recharging via BNB Chain allows users to receive a 1:1 equivalent point bonus, while other payment methods offer a 1:0.5 reward. Each user can receive up to $100 in additional rewards.

Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that Bitcoin developers have launched a new visualization tool to explain how entropy works and how to generate randomness for Bitcoin private keys.The tool covers true random number generators (TRNG), pseudo-random number generators (PRNG), rolling dice, and flipping coins.

According to The Block, Trezor's Chief Business Officer Danny Sanders refuted recent criticisms of cryptocurrency hardware wallets made by blockchain investigator ZachXBT.Earlier this week, ZachXBT posted on Telegram, "All hardware wallets are complete garbage and I do not recommend using them for important tasks such as signing transactions or storing funds," and suggested that users use a dedicated iPhone to store funds and sign transactions.In response, Sanders acknowledged in an interview that firmware/software updates for hardware wallets can sometimes interfere with urgent or large transactions, and that the user experience can indeed be "clunky," understanding the users' frustration. However, he opposed ZachXBT's blanket statement: while hardware wallets may not be the best single solution for advanced users managing large amounts of funds, they are not garbage.He pointed out that compared to hardware wallets, the operating system and connectivity features of an iPhone present more "attack risks." For the average cryptocurrency user, hardware wallets remain the best self-custody option available.

According to the South China Morning Post, Sun Shengbin from the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau and Lou Yandi from the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department's Criminal Investigation Team published a technical paper on June 4 in the journal "Forensic Technology," systematically disclosing the Chinese police's forensic tools and case handling processes for virtual currency assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The content covers aspects such as device cracking, evidence collection, on-chain transaction tracking, and asset freezing and seizure.The paper outlines several tracking methods, one of which involves tracking transaction fees back to exchanges like Binance, allowing the police to obtain user data. The police can acquire "Know Your Customer" (KYC) records from major exchanges such as Binance, OKX, and HTX through formal legal channels. For funds stored in exchanges, the police can freeze accounts for six months, and the freezing period can be extended.Additionally, the document emphasizes strict operational bottom lines: investigators must not privately hold private keys. The principle of "separation of case handling and custody" must be adhered to, with comprehensive supervision and the establishment of a clear regulatory chain record.

According to CoinDesk, blockchain analysis company Chainalysis has released a new methodological proposal aimed at establishing a unified on-chain fund tracking standard framework for law enforcement agencies and investigators, to identify address clusters and determine their possible control relationships.The proposal defines the on-chain analysis structure in the form of "ontology," focusing on systematically breaking down the currently unstandardized concept of "cluster" in the industry into wallet segments and functional roles, and describing on-chain relationships through a two-layer structure: the first layer defines the transaction graph structure, and the second layer assesses inference confidence.Chainalysis stated that the framework aims to enhance the interpretability and legal applicability of on-chain forensic methods, and is designed and validated based on its practical experience in relevant cases within the U.S. Department of Justice, including the analytical application in the mixing service Bitcoin Fog case.The company's Chief Scientist Jacob Illum pointed out that the goal of the proposal is to answer "on what evidence basis can these addresses be considered to belong to the same entity," while emphasizing that on-chain analysis itself cannot directly identify the ultimate user identity and still requires legal investigative methods combined with centralized entities such as exchanges.Chainalysis indicated that the standard proposal is currently open for discussion within the industry, hoping to promote the formation of more unified technical specifications for on-chain analysis methods in the fields of law enforcement and compliance.

Humanity released an independent investigation report by Quantstamp, which disclosed that in the H token security incident, the attacker used tools and methods characteristic of North Korean hackers, disguising themselves as communication from the Bithumb exchange through phishing emails, inducing project directors to click on malicious attachments, thereby deploying a remote control Trojan on their devices, ultimately gaining full desktop control and wallet private keys. Subsequently, on Ethereum and BNB Chain, they launched on-chain attacks: on the Ethereum side, by stealing keys to upgrade contracts and transferring approximately 141.18 million H tokens, and on the BSC side, by taking over the ProxyAdmin contract and minting new tokens. The stolen assets were then continuously sold on Uniswap and PancakeSwap for about 8 hours, causing significant impact on liquidity and market prices.Currently, the H token contract on the Ethereum side has been frozen, the mainnet bridge remains unaffected, but the BSC deployment has been controlled by the attacker and still has minting permissions. The team is working with exchanges and security parties to advance subsequent disposal and recovery plans, while reminding users to be wary of false "compensation/claim" links, and stated that further progress will be announced through official channels.Previously, the Humanity Protocol was attacked, resulting in the leak of a private key from a member of the Humanity Foundation, leading to over 31 million dollars in funds being stolen.

According to GeekWire, AI startup Prometheus, co-founded by Jeff Bezos, has completed a $12 billion Series B funding round, with a valuation of approximately $41 billion. Investors include JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, DST Global, and Arch Venture Partners.Prometheus has dropped "Project" from its original name and is dedicated to creating what Bezos calls "general artificial intelligence engineers," using AI tools to accelerate the physical product development process from design to manufacturing. Prometheus co-CEO Vik Bajaj stated that over the past few years, they have been able to transform complex issues from design to manufacturing into end-to-end AI problems. Bezos revealed that the company may acquire some manufacturing businesses that could benefit from its technology and help improve their production processes.This marks Bezos's first CEO role since stepping down as Amazon's CEO in 2021. The company currently has about 150 employees and is headquartered in San Francisco, with teams in London and Zurich. Bezos mentioned that the product launch timeline has not yet been determined, but an early version is set to be released soon.

Digital asset market infrastructure provider Prometheum recently launched Digital Brokerage Solutions, offering agency clearing, custody, and trading services for broker-dealers and registered investment advisors (RIA), enabling them to provide cryptocurrency assets and tokenized securities directly to clients through traditional brokerage accounts.Co-founder and co-CEO Aaron Kaplan stated that hundreds of billions of dollars in tokenized securities have been issued on-chain, but there is a lack of distribution channels to reach mainstream investors. He believes that the crypto industry has solved the tokenization issue but has not yet addressed the distribution problem, and that broker-dealer and RIA channels are key to achieving scalable reach to investors.

According to Caixin, the "Global Payments Report 2026" released by global payment technology and software company Global Payments indicates that digital wallets account for more than half of global online transaction volume and one-third of offline transactions. Digital wallets can flexibly integrate different payment methods, including cryptocurrencies. The report predicts that direct cryptocurrency payments will become the fastest-growing online payment method, with a compound annual growth rate of 16% from 2025 to 2030. This means that by 2030, the volume of e-commerce transactions using direct cryptocurrency payments could account for 0.28% of global e-commerce transaction volume, nearly $31 billion.However, despite the global total market value of cryptocurrencies nearing $3.2 trillion by the end of 2025, it remains a relatively marginalized payment method for consumers to merchants. Reports from MRC and Visa show that only 10% of merchants globally accept cryptocurrency payments directly. In 2025, cryptocurrencies will account for only 0.19% of global e-commerce transaction volume, approximately $15 billion.

According to the official announcement, digital asset market data and analytics provider Kaiko has announced the acquisition of the European decentralized finance infrastructure provider Cometh, which holds a MiCA / CASP license, to integrate data, analytics, indices, and on-chain infrastructure capabilities, along with Cometh's expertise in smart contract engineering.Kaiko stated that after the transaction is completed, the company will form an integrated infrastructure covering BMR authorized indices, MiCA compliant products, oracle services, and on-chain execution capabilities. Cometh has previously been granted a MiCA / CASP license by the French AMF and holds ISO 27001:2022 certification.

According to Decrypt, digital asset market infrastructure provider Prometheum has officially completed its first batch of cryptocurrency transactions after nearly a decade of establishment and raising approximately $100 million, currently only supporting Ethereum transactions.Prometheum has been controversial in the industry for supporting the compliance path and regulatory stance of the U.S. SEC during Gary Gensler's tenure, and in 2023 became the first company to obtain a Special Purpose Broker-Dealer (SPBD) license from the U.S. SEC and FINRA, allowing it to custody digital asset securities under a federal regulatory framework. However, with Gary Gensler's departure, the U.S. SEC's withdrawal of lawsuits against companies like Coinbase, and the regulatory framework shifting to a more lenient model, the compliance and custody license advantages that Prometheum has built over the long term are being weakened.

According to CoinPost, the Financial Services Agency of Japan announced a cabinet order amendment, officially recognizing foreign trust beneficiary rights that are "equivalent" to Japan's electronic settlement system as electronic settlement methods under the Fund Settlement Act. The amendment will take effect on June 1.This revision clarifies: first, it establishes a legal basis for qualified foreign trust-based stablecoins to provide services within Japan; second, it stipulates that electronic settlement method operators should use equivalence with the Japanese system as the eligibility criterion when handling foreign electronic settlement methods. At the same time, relevant foreign trust beneficiary rights will be excluded from the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act's securities and will only be regulated as electronic settlement methods.The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan has officially approved the "AI + Blockchain Finance" proposal, supporting yen stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

On May 19, the Financial Services Agency of Japan announced the revised Cabinet Office Ordinance related to electronic payment methods and transaction operators, clearly including trust beneficiary rights established under foreign laws that are equivalent to the Japanese system within the scope of electronic payment methods under Japan's Fund Settlement Act, providing a legal basis for the compliant circulation of trust-type stablecoins issued by specific foreign entities within Japan. The new regulations will take effect on June 1, 2026, and also clarify that the relevant foreign trust beneficiary rights are not considered securities under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.