Crypto

The Last Frontier For Cryptocurrency Adoption

Published

3 months ago

March 1, 2026

The Last Frontier For Cryptocurrency Adoption

While studies reveal institutional investors and wealth managers believe tokenized ETFs will drive mainstream market adoption for cryptocurrency, there looms the theft of bad actors that most often go untraceable.

Currency throughout history that became mainstream

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Barriers to the expansion of tokenization are starting to fall as major investment firms consider launching tokenized ETFs, according to new global research by London-based Nickel Digital Asset Management (Nickel), Europe’s leading digital assets hedge fund manager founded by alumni of Bankers Trust, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.

Its study with institutional investors (pension funds, insurance asset managers and family offices) and wealth managers at organisations which collectively manage over $14 trillion in assets found almost all (97%) believe the potential launch of tokenized ETFs such as BlackRock’s will be important to the expansion of the sector with nearly one in three (32%) rating the development as very important.

The study also reflected the belief that tokenization will continue to grow, with nearly 70% of respondents believing that fund managers looking to tokenize investment funds and asset classes will increase over the next three years.

Nickel’s research with firms in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates found growing awareness of the benefits of tokenization. Private markets are seen as offering the greatest potential for tokenization, with almost 70% seeing private equity funds as the asset class with the most opportunity, followed by fixed income (55%) and public equities (42%).

Anatoly Crachilov, CEO and Founding Partner at Nickel Digital, said: “Tokenization is quickly moving from theory to real-world adoption as institutional investors grow more comfortable with its benefits and see major players enter the space. When firms like BlackRock step in, it fundamentally shifts the conversation. This development is timely for our multi-manager vehicle as expanding liquidity depth will allow some of our pods to start trading tokenized assets in the coming months.”

To address potential criminal threat, an advanced detection system to identify and trace blockchain funds connected with criminal activity was presented earlier this week at the Annual CyberASAP Demo Day in London.

The system, called SynapTrack, enables faster and more accurate detection of fraudulent activity using blockchains and cryptocurrencies, where traditional anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing systems struggle to keep pace.

Although current fraud detection methods pick up unusual activity, they deliver an extremely high rate (40%) of false positive reports. These require manual checking by compliance professionals, resulting in backlogs in identifying and acting on suspicious activity.

The SynapTrack system is designed to deliver a substantially lower rate of false positives. It has already been tested using real-life data from the notorious 2025 Bybit hack, where criminals stole $1.5bn of digital tokens from a cryptocurrency exchange. SynapTrack traced the hacker with 98% accuracy.

The team behind SynapTrack is keen to hear from exchanges, financial regulators or law enforcement agencies who want to test the prototype in real-world conditions.

SynapTrack uses a validated methodology to score the likelihood of transactions being part of a money laundering scheme. It has a self-improving algorithm that continuously adapts to new tactics – dynamically identifying suspicious patterns in blockchain transactions. It has a universal cross-chain capability, and is designed around how compliance teams work, presenting results in a dashboard. No infrastructure changes are needed for installation.

It is relatively easy to obscure fraudulent or criminal activity by moving funds between blockchains, or dispersing them across many blockchains, in what are known as ‘cross-chain’ transactions. It is these transactions that pose the greatest difficulty for existing anti-money laundering systems.

SynapTrack was developed by University of Birmingham computer scientists Dr Pascal Berrang and PhD student Endong Liu, in collaboration with blockchain developer Nimiq. Dr Berrang’s research is in IT security and privacy on blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The subject of Endong Liu’s PhD is transaction tracing. Nimiq is supporting with blockchain-specific insights, knowledge of real-world constraints, and implementation.

The team is currently fundraising to ensure regulatory readiness and complete the team with a CEO and software developers.

Dr Berrang said: “The last few years have seen a near-exponential growth in blockchain transactions. While many of these are legitimate, blockchains are attractive to criminals as funds can be moved very quickly to other jurisdictions. Our work with Nimiq and the creation of SynapTrack is addressing this black spot, and will enable more effective regulation, making the whole ecosystem of blockchain safer and more trustworthy.”

With the financial market and cybersecurity industry converging, cryptocurrency is here to stay.

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Crypto

Certik Unveils ‘Anti-Virus for AI Agents’ as Skill Marketplaces Face Hidden Threats

Published

12 hours ago

May 29, 2026

Press Room

Certik Unveils ‘Anti-Virus for AI Agents’ as Skill Marketplaces Face Hidden Threats

Key Takeaways

The Security Challenge

Blockchain and AI security firm Certik, on May 27, unveiled a new security platform designed to evaluate risks in third-party artificial intelligence (AI) skills. Dubbed the “anti-virus for AI agents,” the release comes amid growing industry concern over the security of AI skill marketplaces.

Security researchers have warned that many of these skills are unvetted, can execute system-level actions and may contain hidden malicious behavior, creating a new software supply chain risk for the AI era. Security audits across the sector have identified risks ranging from credential harvesting and data exfiltration to fund-transfer manipulation and prompt-based override attacks.

Despite these concerns, AI skill marketplaces have expanded rapidly as agent ecosystems mature. However, unlike traditional app stores, most skills are sourced from public repositories with little or no review. Analysts say this creates opportunities for attackers to embed harmful instructions, trigger unauthorized data access or manipulate autonomous execution flows.

In a recent blog post, Certik said its skill scanner platform is designed specifically to evaluate risks that emerge during execution, including scenarios involving financial transactions or fund calls. The scanner produces a numerical score from 0 to 100, along with “pass,” “warn” or “fail” verdicts and categorized findings. According to the company, the system achieves up to 90.5% precision in identifying security risks.

“As AI agents become more deeply integrated into financial systems, enterprise workflows and everyday digital interactions, the security model around third-party skills becomes critically important,” said Ronghui Gu, Certik’s CEO and co-founder. “CertiK Skill Scanner was built to establish a standardized trust layer before execution, helping users and platforms identify hidden risks before sensitive data, assets or systems are exposed.”

Certik said AI skill marketplaces can integrate the scanner directly into publishing pipelines, automatically reviewing skills before they go live and displaying security verdicts to users. Enterprises can deploy the tool as part of internal compliance and risk-management workflows, while independent developers can use it to self-audit skills before publishing.

The company said future updates will allow everyday users to scan skills themselves before installation. The scanner has already been deployed in select Web3 AI agent infrastructure environments. Certik is also expanding integrations with additional platforms, including Finchip.ai.

“Trust is the prerequisite for any skill economy to function at scale,” said Gary Yang, incubation investor at Finchip.ai. “CertiK’s work on skill security verification is exactly what this ecosystem needs. It’s what makes Finchip’s mission of programmable skill ownership and distribution worth building.”

The launch follows Certik’s expansion into AI-focused security infrastructure. Earlier this year, the company introduced its AI Auditor initiative to address risks tied to autonomous systems and AI-driven execution environments.

“AI applications are moving toward increasingly autonomous execution, which creates a new category of security and trust challenges,” Gu said. “We believe security infrastructure for the AI era must function proactively, not reactively.”

Crypto

FBI Seizes Over $8 Billion In Cryptocurrency As Part Of The Largest Forfeiture In US Government History

Published

1 day ago

May 28, 2026

Press Room

FBI Seizes Over Billion In Cryptocurrency As Part Of The Largest Forfeiture In US Government History

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The FBI seized over $8 billion in cryptocurrency, freed nearly 2,000 trafficked workers, and arrested nearly 300 people in a recent international operation.

As part of the operation, authorities shut down several “scam compounds” and crime organizations, including groups known as the Prince Group in Cambodia, Operation Sand Dollar in Dubai, and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army in Myanmar.

“Scam compounds are modern-day criminal enterprises built to steal from Americans, launder money, and exploit trafficked workers,” FBI director Kash Patel wrote on X announcing the results of the operation.

Fox News reports that the U.S. The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, an armed militia named after a region in Myanmar that is allegedly connected to the Chinese mob, faces sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury. The government has classified it as a transnational criminal organization.

Images from an operation in Thailand reveal that the FBI confiscated office supplies and thousands of smartphones.

seized-devices-from-an-FBI-anti-scam-operation-in-Thailand — FBI

The FBI in Dubai will extradite six of the 275 individuals they and local police detained there to the United States to face federal charges, according to the FBI. The authorities raided nine “scam compounds” in Dubai, each allegedly generating $6 million in fraud proceeds annually.

Cryptocurrency scams in the US reached a record high in 2025

In April, an FBI report revealed that cryptocurrency scams in the U.S. reached a record high in 2025, with reported losses of almost $11.4 billion. According to the FBI, cyber-enabled crimes defrauded Americans of almost $21 billion in 2025, with the costliest complaints involving cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI).

“The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Report highlights the ever-evolving tactics of internet scammers,” the FBI’s Baltimore office wrote on X. “From fake social media profiles to voice cloning and AI-generated content, cyber criminals are evolving.”

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over one million complaints in 2025, up from 859,532 in 2024. The most common complaints were about investment schemes, extortion, and phishing/spoofing.

Crypto

US-Iran Escalation Pushes Bitcoin to $72,622 as $870M Long Bets Collapse

Published

2 days ago

May 28, 2026

Press Room

US-Iran Escalation Pushes Bitcoin to ,622 as 0M Long Bets Collapse

Key Takeaways

Geopolitical Escalation Triggers Crypto Sell-off

Bitcoin plunged below $73,000 early Thursday following reports of fresh U.S. military strikes inside Iran. Market data shows bitcoin tumbled to a multi-week low of $72,622—its lowest level since April 13—before staging a modest recovery back to $73,000. This downturn continues a weekly bearish trend, contrasting sharply with broader global markets that had previously rallied on optimism for a permanent peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran.

The sharp decline pushed bitcoin’s daily losses to 3.6%, dragging its market capitalization down to $1.46 trillion and pulling the aggregate crypto market cap below the $2.6 trillion threshold. Since May 25, when bitcoin last attempted to test the $78,000 resistance level, the asset has shed over 6% of its value. Despite kicking off May on an upward trajectory, this latest price action positions the cryptocurrency to close the month in the red.

Retaliatory Strikes Threaten Peace Talks

According to reports, the latest U.S. military strikes targeted a strategic site in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. In retaliation, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reportedly launched strikes against a U.S. military base in Kuwait, where local authorities confirmed that air defense systems engaged incoming missiles and drones.

This escalation comes just days after the U.S. military struck Iranian naval vessels and an alleged missile launch site in Bandar Abbas, citing self-defense. Iranian forces responded at the time by downing U.S. drones. Notably, these hostilities unfolded while U.S. and Iranian negotiators were actively convening in Qatar to finalize a peace agreement. While the Trump administration initially downplayed the earlier friction to keep diplomatic channels open, this latest exchange will likely torpedo the talks and embolden hardliners on both sides who oppose a negotiated settlement.

Meanwhile, the decline in bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market resulted in the liquidation of more than $930 million in leveraged positions. Coinglass data showed that liquidations on bitcoin alone topped $366 million, with wiped-out long bets accounting for $348 million of that total. Overall, the market saw $870 million in long positions wiped out over 24 hours.