A South Korean court sentenced the head of centralized finance (CeFi) lender Delio to 15 years in prison for embezzling digital assets from more than 1,100 customers.
The businessman known as Miles Guo, who pushed the fraudulent H-Coin project and had close ties to Steve Bannon, was finally sentenced after his 2024 conviction.
Binance co-founder Yi He warns of an alleged impersonator referred to as “Zhu Pan” in Chinese-language posts as CoinUp distances itself from the individual.
Alexander Mashinsky, the founder of failed crypto lender Celsius, had earlier been imprisoned for fraud and is now formally banned from CFTC registration.
Rodney “Bitcoin Rodney” Burton faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
New legislation from a bipartisan duo would set up a multi-agency group under the U.S. attorney general to take a lead on cryptocurrency theft cases.
Zhu allegedly directed staff to publish false claims that Hodlnaut had no direct exposure to the TerraUSD collapse on Telegram and in customer emails.
The crypto exchange claims client funds were misused, commingled and concealed in a “Ponzi-like” scheme that unraveled amid a liquidity crisis.
A fake Ledger app on Apple's App Store drained $9.5M from more than 50 victims across Bitcoin, Tron and Solana, ZachXBT said.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis puts the number at close to $20 billion — the estimated volume of dirty money that flowed through Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto marketplace, between 2021 and 2025. Now the UK government wants to shut it down. Related Reading: Ethereum Supply Tightens As Staking And Outflows Hit Record Highs Scam Hubs At The Center Of It All Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced Thursday that it has imposed sweeping sanctions on Xinbi, a platform accused of providing crypto-based services, scam tools, and other criminal resources to bad actors across Southeast Asia. The move freezes any UK-linked assets tied to the platform and bans British banks, crypto firms, and citizens from doing any business with it — financial or otherwise. Xinbi is not just a payment processor for criminals. Reports indicate the platform sits at the center of a web of interconnected illicit operations, many of them tied to scam compounds scattered across Southeast Asia — operations that have drawn global attention for their use of trafficked workers to run large-scale fraud schemes targeting victims worldwide. Those who exploit vulnerable people, abuse human rights and defraud innocent victims will face serious consequences. Today we have: ❌ Targeted largest known scam compound in Cambodia. ❌ Sanctioned an illicit crypto marketplace. ❌ Frozen more London properties. pic.twitter.com/0PFp0h8Uyt — Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) March 26, 2026 Two individuals were also sanctioned in the action. Thet Li is accused of running the international financial network of the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based company tied to large-scale crypto fraud. Hu Xiaowei is alleged to have worked within that same financial network and to have links to #8 Park, a scam compound connected to the Prince Group. Cutting Off The Money Pipeline Chainalysis, which provided blockchain data supporting the sanctions, described the move as targeting the scam ecosystem’s on- and off-ramps — the critical pathways that allow criminal operators to move money in and out of the legitimate financial system. According to the firm, Xinbi acted as a commercial hub, offering payment processing and marketing services to fraud operators who needed reliable infrastructure to run their schemes. The FCDO said the sanctions are designed to isolate Xinbi from the broader crypto system, disrupting its ability to send and receive transactions. In practice, that means cutting the platform off from the exchanges, wallets, and financial services it depends on to function. Related Reading: Bitrue Says XRP Should Already Be At $10, Traders Are Betting It Gets There A Line Between Legal And Illegal Crypto What stood out in the UK government’s statement was its language. Officials drew a clear line between legitimate crypto activity and criminal misuse of the technology — a distinction regulators have not always been quick to make publicly. That framing matters to the industry. For years, critics have pointed to crypto’s role in fraud and money laundering as evidence the entire sector needs to be reined in. The Financial Action Task Force estimates that between two and 5% of global GDP passes through traditional financial networks as laundered funds each year. Data from Chainalysis puts illicit crypto transactions at below 1% of total activity on-chain — a figure the industry frequently cites in its defense. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
In this week’s Crypto Long & Short Newsletter, Jared Lenow’s insights on the DOJ’s increased focus on crypto seizures and what it means for the broader industry – the good, the bad and the ugly. Then, we dive into a year end vibe check with two observations, two predictions and reader favorite quotes from 2025 by Andy Baehr.
Authorities across Europe took down a massive crypto fraud and laundering network tied to fake investment platforms, deepfake ads and call-center operations.
The former FTX CEO, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud, has repeatedly claimed that the crypto exchange was solvent at the time of its bankruptcy.
The louder these companies protest regulation, the clearer it becomes that something’s off, argue Paradigm’s Katie Biber and Dominique Little.
A US investor says he lost $3 million in XRP after hackers emptied his wallet, and blockchain tracking suggests the funds moved fast through shadowy over-the-counter networks tied to Southeast Asia. Related Reading: Biggest Shiba Inu Burn In Months — And It Came From A Coinbase Account Funds Traced To OTC Networks According to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, the stolen coins were first pooled into a single Tron address and then pushed through OTC services linked to an illicit marketplace known as Huione Guarantee. Reports have disclosed that Huione Guarantee is tied to a range of criminal activity, and that once funds enter those channels they are very hard to recover. The trace provides a clear record of movement on public ledgers, but it does not guarantee that law enforcement can follow the money to its final holders. 9/ Unfortunately the likelihood of this victim seeing any funds recovered is rather low due to a delay in reporting the theft to competent people within the private sector. I recommend victims try to report theft addresses to people as soon as possible as otherwise it can be… pic.twitter.com/Ficcit611f — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 19, 2025 Victim Says He Followed Best Practices Brandon LaRoque, the investor at the center of the case, told viewers that he had built his position over eight years and held about 1.2 million XRP. He posted a video this week explaining the loss, which has drawn wide attention online. “I thought I did all the things right,” he said, after describing how his Ellipal device turned out to be connected to the internet. The device maker, Ellipal, acknowledged that the seed phrase was imported into an app and said it was doing everything possible to help. Based on reports, the company suggested the theft followed a misuse of the seed rather than a flaw in a strictly offline product. A Human Cost LaRoque said he and his wife retired about a year ago and were planning to buy a house in Las Vegas. Now they say they may need to return to work. The loss is a stark example of how long-term small investors can be swept away by a single security lapse. The emotional impact is real. Many viewers on social platforms have offered help, but experts warn that public attention does not equal recovery. Experts Urge Caution On Recovery Firms According to ZachXBT, victims who want to pursue recovery must move quickly and seek competent private investigators, while avoiding predatory firms that promise guaranteed returns. Tracing on the blockchain can show where funds went next, and it can expose links to mixing services or OTC desks, but converting that trace into arrests or asset returns is complex. In the US, access to specialized crypto law enforcement is limited, which reduces the odds of successful recovery in many cross-border theft cases. Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Moment? Analyst Urges Traders To Swap Gold For Crypto Institutional Activity Rises As Retail Losses Persist Meanwhile, XRP has seen notable activity in regulated markets. Reports show more than 476,000 XRP futures contracts traded since May 2025, totaling $23.7 billion. Open interest has reached $1.4 billion, and the number of large institutional investors hit a record of 29. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView
Qian defrauded more than 128,000 victims in China between 2014 and 2017, subsequently storing her spoils in BTC and fleeing to the U.K
Michael Shannon Sims, a founder and promoter of OmegaPro, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, who led OmegaPro’s operations in Latin America and some parts of the U.S.
Industry partners like Coinbase and Tether have assisted in large-scale recoveries, including $225 million in USDT tied to romance-investment scams
The investigation was supported by Europol, as well as police forces from Estonia, France and the U.S.
Anti-money laundering regulator AUSTRAC obtained data showing that 72% of all crypto ATM transactions are carried out by people over the age of 50.
Ngo Thi Theu was allegedly a key figure in a network that involved 35 officials and over 1,000 employees working across 44 call centres in Vietnam.
Smerkis worked for Binance from 2022 for just under two years.
Alex Mashinsky's lawyers rebuked the DOJ's request for a 20-year sentence and asked for a one-year prison term for the former Celsius CEO.
Crypto Whale Who Made Millions on Leverage Trading Is a Convicted Fraudster: ZachXBT
Brendan Gunn is the director of an Australian firm that facilitates investment in crypto and other overseas investments.
Criminals are no longer using BTC, but instead choosing stablecoins, the report revealed.
BitConnect's founder, Satish Kumbhani, is wanted in both India and the U.S.
Bitcoin investors must navigate a complex tax landscape, including understanding taxable vs. non-taxable transactions, key regulations by jurisdiction and ways to stay compliant.
The world’s largest illicit online marketplace keeps growing following the launch of its own crypto products, according to Elliptic.
Prosecutors are currently working to unlock four of Kwon’s cell phones provided by Montenegrin authorities.