BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the Cryptocurrency Kiosk Fraud Prevention Act into law this week, putting rules and regulations on cryptocurrency ATMs.

In Hoover, community members have lost more than $800,000 to scammers luring them to crypto kiosks over the last five years. Many of these ATMs are found in places like gas stations or grocery stores.

“A lot of people who are victims of these scams they’re not stupid people. They’re people who are educated and have good jobs, and many times I have lived a very full life. They just fall victim because the scammers know what language to use,” said Capt. Daniel Lowe with the Hoover Police Department.

Under the Cryptocurrency Kiosk Fraud Prevention Act, transactions will be capped, fraud warnings displayed on machines and refund mechanisms set in place for confirmed fraud cases.

“Now that we have some parameters around these kiosks to hopefully prevent some of this fraud, especially the daily limits alone will at least lower the dollar amount that people can put into one of these at one time,” Lowe said.

The law also requires the kiosks to have a customer service line based in the United States. Anyone who violates it can face civil and criminal charges.

“It’s been a really prevalent problem, and we’re glad that our state is taking some steps to help get some parameters on this and hopefully keep our citizens’ money in their pockets because they’ve earned it,” Lowe said.

Police in Hoover do want to remind you that law enforcement would never ask anyone to pay a fine by using cryptocurrency. If someone gets a call asking them to do this, they should hang up and call police.

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Tucker Carlson: ‘Markets Are Doing Things You Would Not Expect Markets to Do’

The comments came against a backdrop that has left many analysts searching for explanations. Operation Epic Fury, the U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran, launched on February 28, 2026. Strikes hit Iranian leadership and infrastructure. Iran responded with missiles, drones, and disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil flows.

A fragile ceasefire emerged during the first week of April, but brinkmanship, ship strikes, and intermittent violence have continued into May. Despite all of it, equities climbed. The S&P 500 dropped roughly 10% in the initial weeks, then staged a sharp recovery, closing above 7,000 in mid-April and trading near 7,389 by May 8. The Nasdaq 100 logged a 13-day winning streak, its longest in over a decade. The Dow approached 50,000.

Carlson pointed to oil prices as the clearest sign that something is wrong. “The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for months now, in effect,” he stressed. The political commentator added:

“And yet oil, as of airtime tonight, was under 100 bucks a barrel. Much lower than it was in, say, 2008. That is bizarre. But it’s more than bizarre. It’s fake.”

Brent crude did spike above $116 per barrel on May 5 amid Hormuz threats, but fell back below $100 on any signal of de-escalation. That whipsaw pattern repeated itself throughout the conflict, with traders pricing in a rapid resolution each time.

Gold told a similar story. Prices climbed to the $4,500 to $4,700 range overall but failed to deliver the sustained safe-haven rally many investors expected. Correlations broke. Inflation fears, a stronger dollar, and doubts about rate cuts kept the metal from running.

Bitcoin moved differently. It climbed to $80,000 and then near the $83,000 range, pulled in a record $2 billion in exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows during April, and outperformed both the S&P 500 and gold in several stretches. Observers called it a digital hedge that absorbed geopolitical risk better than traditional alternatives.

Carlson saw this divergence as evidence of manipulation rather than fundamentals. “Markets are doing things you would not expect markets to do if they were behaving rationally in a free way, if they weren’t rigged,” he said. He argued that gold and oil have stayed “far lower than you would rationally expect them to stay after 60 days of terrible news.”

Wall Street analysts offered competing explanations. JPMorgan directly asked why stocks were hitting record highs without an Iran resolution, then attributed it to corporate earnings strength. Roughly 83% of S&P 500 companies beat estimates in recent quarters. Barclays analyst Stefano Pascale told the New York Times that “the market is trading assuming we have seen the worst of the conflict.”

In the same NYT editorial, ECB President Christine Lagarde called the tendency to assume “business as usual” simply strange. Still, Carlson pushed further. “It’s become too obvious to deny, over the past couple of months, that public markets are not what they told us they were, which is to say, open and free and equal for everyone to participate in,” he said.

He acknowledged retail investors have not fully absorbed this yet, but he suggested the knowledge is spreading. “Some people are getting rich from this, and most people aren’t,” he added. The debate over whether markets are rational or rigged is unlikely to be resolved while the Strait of Hormuz remains contested, inflation risks linger, and ceasefire terms stay unfinished.

History suggests equity markets tend to recover through geopolitical conflict. But history has shown some of the greatest crashes following irrational all-time highs. Whether any of these episodes fit historical patterns depends on what happens next.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – State officials ordered BG Wealth Sharing and two women to stop soliciting investors, as federal investigators also move in on what some authorities describe as a cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.

BG Wealth Sharing has been operating in Hawaii with small initial investments, promises of wealth and incentives for recruiting new members, according to state regulators.

Joy Arcenas, who is from California, posted a video in January saying she was in Honolulu to do training for top leaders and members. Her Instagram includes posts of BG investment parties across the West, where people hear a story that started with $333.

“That $333 brought me to a level seven at $4,100 a day and now with $30,000 a month,” Arcenas said in the video.

Regulators said Arcenas also hosted Zoom webinars to help investors, many of whom appeared confused about cryptocurrency rules and how to cash in their investments.

Her internet posts indicate she hosted multiple meetings in Hawaii. A woman who emailed Hawaii News Now said the scheme is spreading in the Filipino American community across Hawaii and that a relative is influencing other members of her family, including an elderly mother, into investing.

The woman said many people lost their hard-earned money.

“It’s sad that something like this is actually continuing to happen,” said Randal Lee, a former judge and prosecutor.

Lee said it is not the first time pyramid schemes have targeted the Filipino community.

“You have to stop it immediately because it will grow like wildfire if you do not stop it,” Lee said.

State securities investment regulators served Arcenas, BG Wealth Sharing and a local woman named Cranci Ilima Luci Hoopai with a cease-and-desist order.

The order describes a meeting of 40 to 50 people at Nanakuli Library in April, where investigators said Arcenas claimed $500 was enough to earn benefits for a lifetime and people could be millionaires in 11 months if they worked hard to sign up and train new members.

Hoopai used testimonials from her own family to prove the investments were legitimate, according to the order.

“But the red flag should be that if you’re going to become a millionaire within 11 months, that’s totally unrealistic,” Lee said.

The order directs BG Wealth Sharing, Arcenas and Hoopai to stop soliciting investors. State regulators also ordered each to pay $50,000 for failing to register as securities brokers.

Federal authorities are also moving in on the mainland company. In recent days, the company’s website was seized under a federal warrant by the Department of Justice. There are also reports the company’s mainland bank accounts have been frozen.

“I love BG with all my might and protect BG with all your heart,” Arcenas said in a video.

Lee said investors who recruited friends and family are often warned by scammers that they could be prosecuted if they talk. He said that is not usually true. Investors who believed the scheme was legitimate would most likely be treated as victims.