Crypto
Man pleads guilty in failed ransom plot that may have been linked to $240M crypto heist
HARTFORD, Conn. — A Florida man pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with the carjacking and kidnapping of a Connecticut couple, in what authorities called a failed ransom plot that may have been linked to a $240 million cryptocurrency heist.
Michael Rivas, 19, of Miami, was one of six men arrested after a series of events in Danbury on Aug. 25. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy charges in federal court in Hartford. Two others are expected to enter similar pleas in the same court on Friday.
The couple were driving in a new Lamborghini SUV when the suspects forced them out of the SUV, assaulted them, put them in a van and bound them, police said. Witnesses immediately alerted police. Four of the men were arrested after abandoning their vehicles including the van and fleeing on foot, while the other two were later taken into custody at a nearby home the group had rented through Airbnb, authorities said. The couple were injured but survived the ordeal.
Rivas, dressed in a tan prison uniform with his legs shackled during the hearing, apologized for his actions. He said it was a “dumb” decision to help one of his co-defendants carry out what he called a “vendetta.” He did not elaborate.
His lawyer, Brian Woolf, said Rivas accepted a co-defendant’s invitation to take part in the plot with the hope of getting a share of the ransom money, and he regrets that decision.
The plot was hatched because the suspects “believed the victims’ son had access to significant amounts of digital currency,” and they planned to demand a ransom from the son to be paid in digital currency,” according to a federal indictment.
Just a week earlier, at least two thieves had stolen $240 million worth of Bitcoin in an elaborate scam over the internet and by phone, and then went on an indulgent spending spree on cars, mansions, travel, jewelry and nights out at clubs, authorities said.
Publicly, federal prosecutors and agents have not definitively linked the kidnapping to the Bitcoin theft. Officials have declined to comment on possible connections between the two cases including how the six suspects knew the couple’s son had a large amount of digital currency.
But federal agents told Danbury police that the FBI was looking into whether the couple’s son was involved in the Bitcoin theft, Danbury Detective Sgt. Steven Castrovinci told The Associated Press. Neither Danbury police nor federal authorities have named the couple or their son.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross Weingarten declined to comment after Thursday’s court hearing.
In mid-September, federal prosecutors announced that the two men, Malone Lam, 20, and Jeandiel Serrano, 21, had been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments in connection with the cryptocurrency theft.
Court documents say unnamed coconspirators were in on the scam with the two men. Their lawyers have not responded to requests for comment.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Lam, Serrano and the unnamed coconspirators posed as technical support staff for Google and a cryptocurrency exchange while contacting the victim of the theft with an offer to help him with a supposed security breach.
The victim, from Washington, D.C., believed them and gave them remote access to his computer on Aug. 18. That resulted in the alleged thieves making off with more than 4,100 Bitcoin, then valued at more than $240 million, prosecutors said. That amount of Bitcoin is now worth nearly $380 million.
According to prosecutors, Serrano, of Los Angeles, admitted during an interview with federal investigators that he used the stolen currency to buy three automobiles, worth more than $1 million in total, as well as a $500,000 watch. He also said he had about $20 million of the victim’s currency and agreed to transfer the funds to the FBI, authorities said.
Meanwhile Lam, a citizen of Singapore who had addresses in Los Angeles and Miami, Florida, was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a night at Los Angeles night clubs and acquiring custom Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches, prosecutors said. He also was renting two Miami mansions, bought a $2 million watch and had a Lamborghini Revuelto worth more than $1 million.
Federal prosecutors said in court documents that at least $100 million of the stolen funds remained missing.
Exactly a week after the crypto theft, the couple from Danbury, a city of more than 80,000 people along the New York border, were forced out of their SUV in their hometown after one of the carjackers’ vehicles rear-ended them and two other vehicles surrounded them. The group assaulted the man with a baseball bat and dragged the woman by her hair as they put them in the van, where the couple were bound with duct tape, police said.
“I’m deeply remorseful for my irresponsible behavior,” Rivas told U.S. District Judge Sarala Nagala on Thursday. “I should have known better.”
“This is not what my parents taught me growing up,” he added.
Rivas and the other five men also are facing kidnapping and assault charges in Connecticut state court. The other men are also from Florida.
Sentencing was set for May 13. The prosecution and defense agreed on sentencing guidelines that call for about 11 to 14 years in prison.
Key Takeaways:
- U.S. bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $532M in net inflows, their third consecutive positive day.
- U.S. ethereum spot ETFs added $61.29M, signaling institutional demand across both assets.
- April’s $2.44B in total spot BTC ETF inflows was the strongest monthly figure since October 2025.
Institutional Buyers Are Not Pulling Back
The three-day streak matters beyond the headline number, especially in crypto ETF markets, where multi-day inflow runs signal that institutional buyers are not treating a price move as a short-term trading event but rather as an accumulation opportunity. Three consecutive days of positive flows at these volumes suggests coordinated conviction rather than one-off positioning.
ETH ETFs have been slower to attract the kind of sustained institutional flows that bitcoin products have drawn since their January 2024 launch. A session where both product types see significant positive flows points to broad-based institutional appetite rather than bitcoin-only positioning.
At current prices, ether sits well below its all-time highs, giving institutional buyers a larger relative discount than bitcoin. Whether that combination of lower price and growing ETF infrastructure can draw sustained inflows (similar to what BTC experienced in October 2025) is the central question analysts are now watching.
It bears mentioning that sustained ETF inflow streaks historically correlate with price continuation. The pattern has been consistent, wherein institutional buying creates steady demand, reduces available supply on exchanges, and compresses the selling pressure that typically follows sharp price moves. Bitcoin’s cross above $81,000 on Tuesday came directly after this accumulation sequence built over the past fortnight.
On Friday, roughly $630 million in net inflows entered the ETF complex ahead of the weekend, buoyed by Fidelity, which added $19 million into its FBTC product. Similarly, Blackrock’s European bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) crossed $1.1 billion in assets under management, holding 14,200 BTC as of May 4.
If the inflow streak extends to a fourth consecutive day, the technical and fundamental case for continued upward price pressure could strengthen considerably.
Crypto
The Cryptocurrency News Everyone Missed: Pepeto Crosses $9 Million While PEPE and Chainlink Wait for a Catalyst
Consensus Miami just opened with more than 20,000 leaders in crypto, finance and policy filling the convention center, and the CLARITY Act stablecoin yield compromise reached its final text this month. The cryptocurrency news cycle is stacking events faster than most traders can follow, and the $629 million that poured into Bitcoin ETFs in a single session proves that conviction is climbing. Because Pepeto’s https://pepetoswap.com presale crossed $9 million while the spotlight stayed on BTC, the wallets loading into the entry are betting on a Binance listing that could outperform everything the conference discusses.
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Cryptocurrency News: Consensus Miami Opens as CLARITY Act Advances
Consensus Miami 2026 began this week at the Miami Beach Convention Center with more than 20,000 attendees from across crypto, finance and regulation according to Yahoo Finance. The event lands as Bitcoin holds above $80,500 and the CLARITY Act stablecoin yield text cleared its final Senate compromise according to CoinDesk. The agenda covers institutional adoption, tokenization and exchange oversight, and the cryptocurrency news from this week could shape the second half of 2026 for altcoins and presales.
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Where Pepeto, PEPE and Chainlink Stand in May’s Crypto Rotation
Pepeto
While Consensus Miami debates the future of regulation and PEPE and Chainlink wait for catalysts, Pepeto’s https://pepetoswap.com coming Binance listing sits at the center of the cryptocurrency news that most traders have not noticed yet. The data supports the attention: more than $9 million flowed into the presale at $0.0000001864 while the broader market dropped, a community of early believers doubled down during that drawdown, and traders expect returns between 100x and 300x once the marketplace opens for live trading. Every fact in that sequence points to one thing: this is where the real money is moving.
Because PepetoSwap runs zero fee trades across every token on the marketplace, small positions hold their value instead of getting chipped away by costs. The risk scorer reviews every contract before any token enters a wallet, so buyers filter out bad projects before they cost a cent. Every line of code behind the Pepeto marketplace cleared a SolidProof audit, and staking at 175% APY pays holders while they wait for the event that changes everything.
For traders tired of cryptocurrency news that moves prices without creating new entries, those tools turn headlines into action. The presale ends once the listing hits, and with traders targeting 100x to 300x from the current entry, the upside from Pepeto overshadows what PEPE or LINK can generate from their current levels.
https://youtu.be/wR3oOlNJj64?si=V7Ekv4mK69tQvNtI
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PEPE
PEPE trades at $0.0000040 according to CoinMarketCap, sitting just above its 100 day EMA with a 7% gain over the past day. The token needs to clear $0.0000050 to confirm a fresh rally, but even a run to the 200 day average delivers limited gains compared to what a presale entry can multiply into after a single listing event.
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Chainlink
Chainlink holds at $9,47 according to CoinMarketCap, supported by its role connecting real world data to smart contracts. LINK gained ground in April but still trades well below its 2021 high of $52, and even a push to $15 from here delivers a 63% return over months, which the cryptocurrency news cycle barely registers when presale entries multiply faster from a single event.
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Conclusion
The cryptocurrency news this week stacks Consensus Miami, CLARITY Act progress, and a BTC rally past $80,500, but none of those headlines include the presale that quietly built the strongest case in the market. PEPE and Chainlink will ride the wave, but for returns that change a wallet, the debate about which entry leads was settled by the $9 million that already flowed in. Pepeto arrives with a full marketplace, risk scoring tools, and a cofounder whose first project at zero products reached a market cap most tokens dream about, which means more tools logically reaches more. The cryptocurrency news confirms the setup, and entering the Pepeto official website now turns that into a position before the listing draws the line between wallets that acted and everyone who reads about it after.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale: https://pepetoswap.com
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FAQs
What does Consensus Miami mean for crypto?
The event brings 20,000 leaders together during a BTC rally, and cryptocurrency news from this week could shape regulation for the rest of 2026.
How does the CLARITY Act affect traders?
The stablecoin yield compromise clears a path for regulated returns, boosting confidence and adding stability for presale entries.
Why are wallets loading into Pepeto right now?
More than $9 million entered during fear, the marketplace runs with zero fees, and the Pepeto official website shows a Binance listing approaching.
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Disclaimer:
The information shared in this article is for informational use only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments are subject to extreme volatility and carry significant risk, including the loss of principal. Always conduct your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before investing.
Contact: Dani Bonocci
Website: https://www.tokenwire.io
Phone: +971586738991
SOURCE: Pepeto
Press release distribution
This release was published on openPR.
Key Takeaways:
- DTCC plans July live trades before an October rollout for tokenized securities markets.
- Participation includes over 50 firms across banking, custody, trading, and digital asset sectors.
- DTC supports the effort with over $114 trillion in assets held across its custody system.
DTCC Tokenization Service Moves Toward Live Production
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a leading American financial market infrastructure company, announced on May 4, 2026, that its tokenization service will move into limited live production trades in July before a planned October launch. The schedule gives banks, asset managers, brokers, exchanges, and digital asset firms a defined path to test tokenized securities through DTC’s infrastructure.
DTCC is building the service with input from more than 50 firms across traditional finance and digital asset markets. The effort is focused on real-world assets already custodied by The Depository Trust Company (DTC), rather than assets created outside existing market plumbing. Tokenized versions are expected to carry the same entitlements, investor protections, and ownership rights as securities held in traditional form. The first eligible assets fall within a defined liquid universe, including Russell 1000 constituents, major index-tracking exchange-traded fund (ETF) products, and U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, and notes. Frank La Salla, DTCC President and CEO, said:
“Our vision is coming to fruition: launching our tokenization service and successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi. We believe tokenization will significantly change how markets work and operate, bringing new levels of liquidity, transparency and efficiency to investors.”
Institutional Working Group Tests Market Infrastructure
DTC’s custody base gives the project its institutional scale, with more than $114 trillion in assets held across the depository. DTCC said the service is being developed to support production workflows and allow tokenized assets to operate across multiple chains. The work includes proving technical and operational processes before wider release. Regulatory clearance also frames the rollout. In December 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a No-Action Letter allowing DTC to provide a defined tokenization service to DTC Participants and their clients for three years.
The working group’s roster shows how broadly the project reaches across market infrastructure, trading, custody, asset management, and crypto services. Participants in the DTCC Industry Working Group include Alpaca, Anchorage Digital, Apex Clearing Corporation, Backpack, Bank of America, BetaNXT, Bitgo Bank & Trust, N.A., Bitwave, Blackrock, BNP Paribas, Broadridge, Charles Schwab, Circle, Citadel Securities, Citi, Digital Asset, DriveWealth, DRW, EDX Markets LLC, Fireblocks, FIS, Fi-Tek, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, Hilltop Securities Inc., HSBC, Interchange Clearing, Invesco, Jefferies, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds Bank, Marex, Mirae Asset Securities (USA) Inc., Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, NYSE Group, Inc., Ondo Finance, Payward, Principal Bank, Raymond James, RBC, Ripple Prime, Robinhood Markets, Inc., RQD*Clearing LLC, SEI, State Street, StoneX, Talos, TD Securities USA LLC, Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange, Tradestation Securities, Inc., Tradeweb, UBS, Velocity Clearing, LLC, Virtu Financial, Vision Financial Markets, and Wells Fargo.
The planned launch extends DTCC’s role from post-trade processing into tokenized market infrastructure, while keeping custody, rights, and controls tied to established systems. The phased schedule gives participating firms time to test interoperability, operational readiness, and market workflows before October. Brian Steele, DTCC Managing Director, President, Clearing & Securities Services, said:
“DTC’s tokenization service is designed to provide systemic scale where deep liquidity already lives.”
For DTCC, the initiative brings tokenization closer to live securities markets through a controlled, institution-led rollout.
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