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“Flying Cars Are Real”: Musk Unveils Tesla Roadster With SpaceX ThrustersTesla has finally revealed its long-delayed second-generation Roadster, and it arrived with a rocket-company twist. At a livestreamed event on Thursday, October 15, Elon Musk showed a prototype that drove upside down along a curved ramp, flipped in mid-air, landed on its wheels, and posted a claimed 0-60 mph time of 0.81 seconds. Tesla says production will begin in 2028 and confirmed three versions, including a one-seat “Rocket” with a flight system.
The Event
The reveal took place at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Musk framed the car as the product of a partnership between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” and told the crowd it was “the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie.”
During the demo, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp until it was upside down, clung to the surface, left the end of the ramp, rolled 180 degrees in the air, and landed on its wheels as the audience cheered. Reports also describe it jumping over a line of Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and Cybercab.
“Flying cars are real,” Musk said, while adding that success was “not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.” He also told the audience they could say they saw it with their own eyes, because “what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
How It Works
Tesla explained the stunt with a mix of fans and SpaceX hardware. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the car uses a “fan suction system” on the underside that can pull up to 2 Gs, enough to hold it against a surface while upside down.
“Then we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest,” he said.
That technology is a set of cold-gas thrusters powered by compressed air rather than fuel. Reported specifications include 10 nozzles, two carbon-overwrapped tanks of about 600 liters holding roughly 250 kg of ultra-high-pressure air, and more than 80 kilonewtons of rear thrust. Tesla says the car can refill its air supply itself, and electric actuators provide precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second. Musk said the Roadster has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can “basically fly like a rocket.”
Three Versions
After the event, Tesla confirmed three configurations:
– Performance: two seats, active aerodynamics, and the suction system for extra downforce. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds. – Thrust: two seats plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, a limited release. Claimed 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds. – Rocket: an invite-only, single-seat version with additional thrusters that can lift it off the ground and control it in flight. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds. Tesla quotes a top speed above 230 mph (about 370 km/h) and range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km). Tesla’s own website says the Rocket variant is not approved for public road use.
The Numbers, With Caveats
The headline figure from the night was a 0-60 mph run of 0.81 seconds, roughly 96 km/h, displayed on the event’s own timer. It has not been independently verified. Reports describe two runs on stage, one at about a second and one at 0.8 seconds. The sub-0.9 and sub-0.59 second figures for the Thrust and Rocket versions are Tesla’s published targets rather than results shown on stage.
No vehicle price was announced. Tesla’s reservation page lists the Performance version with a reported $50,000 deposit and the Thrust version with a $250,000 deposit, while the Rocket is by invitation only.
A Very Long Wait
Tesla first showed the Roadster in 2017, promising deliveries in 2020. In November 2025, production was pushed to 2027 or 2028. The unveiling itself was postponed repeatedly, with reports counting at least seven different dates before October 15, and the event followed a two-week weather delay. Musk said production starts in 2028 and described the Roadster as the only manually driven car Tesla will make long term.
Is It Really a “Flying Car”?
Technical and regulatory hurdles have kept flying cars from becoming a mainstream product, and this one is no exception. The Rocket version is a limited, invite-only halo car that has not been approved for public roads, and what was shown on stage were controlled demonstrations on a SpaceX test site, not everyday flight. The first flying car prototype dates to 1917, and serious attempts have only recently become more plausible as electric motors and batteries have improved. Tesla has said it plans follow-up demonstrations, including a new attempt at Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump.
What Comes Next
Watch for official pricing, the independent testing of the 0-60 claims, regulatory answers about the Rocket version, and whether Tesla meets its 2028 production target after years of delays. Until then, the Roadster is best understood as a spectacular proof of concept from two of Musk’s companies, with the real test being whether it can reach customers.
“Flying Cars Are Real”: Musk Unveils Tesla Roadster With SpaceX Thrusters
Tesla has finally revealed its long-delayed second-generation Roadster, and it arrived with a rocket-company twist. At a livestreamed event on Thursday, October 15, Elon Musk showed a prototype that drove upside down along a curved ramp, flipped in mid-air, landed on its wheels, and posted a claimed 0-60 mph time of 0.81 seconds. Tesla says production will begin in 2028 and confirmed three versions, including a one-seat “Rocket” with a flight system.
The Event
The reveal took place at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Musk framed the car as the product of a partnership between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” and told the crowd it was “the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie.”
During the demo, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp until it was upside down, clung to the surface, left the end of the ramp, rolled 180 degrees in the air, and landed on its wheels as the audience cheered. Reports also describe it jumping over a line of Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and Cybercab.
“Flying cars are real,” Musk said, while adding that success was “not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.” He also told the audience they could say they saw it with their own eyes, because “what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
How It Works
Tesla explained the stunt with a mix of fans and SpaceX hardware. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the car uses a “fan suction system” on the underside that can pull up to 2 Gs, enough to hold it against a surface while upside down.
“Then we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest,” he said.
That technology is a set of cold-gas thrusters powered by compressed air rather than fuel. Reported specifications include 10 nozzles, two carbon-overwrapped tanks of about 600 liters holding roughly 250 kg of ultra-high-pressure air, and more than 80 kilonewtons of rear thrust. Tesla says the car can refill its air supply itself, and electric actuators provide precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second. Musk said the Roadster has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can “basically fly like a rocket.”
Three Versions
After the event, Tesla confirmed three configurations:
– Performance: two seats, active aerodynamics, and the suction system for extra downforce. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds. – Thrust: two seats plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, a limited release. Claimed 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds. – Rocket: an invite-only, single-seat version with additional thrusters that can lift it off the ground and control it in flight. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds. Tesla quotes a top speed above 230 mph (about 370 km/h) and range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km). Tesla’s own website says the Rocket variant is not approved for public road use.
The Numbers, With Caveats
The headline figure from the night was a 0-60 mph run of 0.81 seconds, roughly 96 km/h, displayed on the event’s own timer. It has not been independently verified. Reports describe two runs on stage, one at about a second and one at 0.8 seconds. The sub-0.9 and sub-0.59 second figures for the Thrust and Rocket versions are Tesla’s published targets rather than results shown on stage.
No vehicle price was announced. Tesla’s reservation page lists the Performance version with a reported $50,000 deposit and the Thrust version with a $250,000 deposit, while the Rocket is by invitation only.
A Very Long Wait
Tesla first showed the Roadster in 2017, promising deliveries in 2020. In November 2025, production was pushed to 2027 or 2028. The unveiling itself was postponed repeatedly, with reports counting at least seven different dates before October 15, and the event followed a two-week weather delay. Musk said production starts in 2028 and described the Roadster as the only manually driven car Tesla will make long term.
Is It Really a “Flying Car”?
Technical and regulatory hurdles have kept flying cars from becoming a mainstream product, and this one is no exception. The Rocket version is a limited, invite-only halo car that has not been approved for public roads, and what was shown on stage were controlled demonstrations on a SpaceX test site, not everyday flight. The first flying car prototype dates to 1917, and serious attempts have only recently become more plausible as electric motors and batteries have improved. Tesla has said it plans follow-up demonstrations, including a new attempt at Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump.
What Comes Next
Watch for official pricing, the independent testing of the 0-60 claims, regulatory answers about the Rocket version, and whether Tesla meets its 2028 production target after years of delays. Until then, the Roadster is best understood as a spectacular proof of concept from two of Musk’s companies, with the real test being whether it can reach customers.
The Event
The reveal took place at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Musk framed the car as the product of a partnership between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” and told the crowd it was “the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie.”
During the demo, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp until it was upside down, clung to the surface, left the end of the ramp, rolled 180 degrees in the air, and landed on its wheels as the audience cheered. Reports also describe it jumping over a line of Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and Cybercab.
“Flying cars are real,” Musk said, while adding that success was “not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.” He also told the audience they could say they saw it with their own eyes, because “what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
How It Works
Tesla explained the stunt with a mix of fans and SpaceX hardware. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the car uses a “fan suction system” on the underside that can pull up to 2 Gs, enough to hold it against a surface while upside down.
“Then we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest,” he said.
That technology is a set of cold-gas thrusters powered by compressed air rather than fuel. Reported specifications include 10 nozzles, two carbon-overwrapped tanks of about 600 liters holding roughly 250 kg of ultra-high-pressure air, and more than 80 kilonewtons of rear thrust. Tesla says the car can refill its air supply itself, and electric actuators provide precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second. Musk said the Roadster has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can “basically fly like a rocket.”
Three Versions
After the event, Tesla confirmed three configurations:
– Performance: two seats, active aerodynamics, and the suction system for extra downforce. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds. – Thrust: two seats plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, a limited release. Claimed 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds. – Rocket: an invite-only, single-seat version with additional thrusters that can lift it off the ground and control it in flight. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds. Tesla quotes a top speed above 230 mph (about 370 km/h) and range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km). Tesla’s own website says the Rocket variant is not approved for public road use.
The Numbers, With Caveats
The headline figure from the night was a 0-60 mph run of 0.81 seconds, roughly 96 km/h, displayed on the event’s own timer. It has not been independently verified. Reports describe two runs on stage, one at about a second and one at 0.8 seconds. The sub-0.9 and sub-0.59 second figures for the Thrust and Rocket versions are Tesla’s published targets rather than results shown on stage.
No vehicle price was announced. Tesla’s reservation page lists the Performance version with a reported $50,000 deposit and the Thrust version with a $250,000 deposit, while the Rocket is by invitation only.
A Very Long Wait
Tesla first showed the Roadster in 2017, promising deliveries in 2020. In November 2025, production was pushed to 2027 or 2028. The unveiling itself was postponed repeatedly, with reports counting at least seven different dates before October 15, and the event followed a two-week weather delay. Musk said production starts in 2028 and described the Roadster as the only manually driven car Tesla will make long term.
Is It Really a “Flying Car”?
Technical and regulatory hurdles have kept flying cars from becoming a mainstream product, and this one is no exception. The Rocket version is a limited, invite-only halo car that has not been approved for public roads, and what was shown on stage were controlled demonstrations on a SpaceX test site, not everyday flight. The first flying car prototype dates to 1917, and serious attempts have only recently become more plausible as electric motors and batteries have improved. Tesla has said it plans follow-up demonstrations, including a new attempt at Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump.
What Comes Next
Watch for official pricing, the independent testing of the 0-60 claims, regulatory answers about the Rocket version, and whether Tesla meets its 2028 production target after years of delays. Until then, the Roadster is best understood as a spectacular proof of concept from two of Musk’s companies, with the real test being whether it can reach customers.
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“Flying Cars Are Real”: Musk Unveils Tesla Roadster With SpaceX ThrustersTesla has finally revealed its long-delayed second-generation Roadster, and it arrived with a rocket-company twist. At a livestreamed event on Thursday, October 15, Elon Musk showed a prototype that drove upside down along a curved ramp, flipped in mid-air, landed on its wheels, and posted a claimed 0-60 mph time of 0.81 seconds. Tesla says production will begin in 2028 and confirmed three versions, including a one-seat “Rocket” with a flight system.
The Event
The reveal took place at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Musk framed the car as the product of a partnership between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” and told the crowd it was “the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie.”
During the demo, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp until it was upside down, clung to the surface, left the end of the ramp, rolled 180 degrees in the air, and landed on its wheels as the audience cheered. Reports also describe it jumping over a line of Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and Cybercab.
“Flying cars are real,” Musk said, while adding that success was “not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.” He also told the audience they could say they saw it with their own eyes, because “what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
How It Works
Tesla explained the stunt with a mix of fans and SpaceX hardware. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the car uses a “fan suction system” on the underside that can pull up to 2 Gs, enough to hold it against a surface while upside down.
“Then we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest,” he said.
That technology is a set of cold-gas thrusters powered by compressed air rather than fuel. Reported specifications include 10 nozzles, two carbon-overwrapped tanks of about 600 liters holding roughly 250 kg of ultra-high-pressure air, and more than 80 kilonewtons of rear thrust. Tesla says the car can refill its air supply itself, and electric actuators provide precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second. Musk said the Roadster has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can “basically fly like a rocket.”
Three Versions
After the event, Tesla confirmed three configurations:
– Performance: two seats, active aerodynamics, and the suction system for extra downforce. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds.
– Thrust: two seats plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, a limited release. Claimed 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds.
– Rocket: an invite-only, single-seat version with additional thrusters that can lift it off the ground and control it in flight. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds.
Tesla quotes a top speed above 230 mph (about 370 km/h) and range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km). Tesla’s own website says the Rocket variant is not approved for public road use.
The Numbers, With Caveats
The headline figure from the night was a 0-60 mph run of 0.81 seconds, roughly 96 km/h, displayed on the event’s own timer. It has not been independently verified. Reports describe two runs on stage, one at about a second and one at 0.8 seconds. The sub-0.9 and sub-0.59 second figures for the Thrust and Rocket versions are Tesla’s published targets rather than results shown on stage.
No vehicle price was announced. Tesla’s reservation page lists the Performance version with a reported $50,000 deposit and the Thrust version with a $250,000 deposit, while the Rocket is by invitation only.
A Very Long Wait
Tesla first showed the Roadster in 2017, promising deliveries in 2020. In November 2025, production was pushed to 2027 or 2028. The unveiling itself was postponed repeatedly, with reports counting at least seven different dates before October 15, and the event followed a two-week weather delay. Musk said production starts in 2028 and described the Roadster as the only manually driven car Tesla will make long term.
Is It Really a “Flying Car”?
Technical and regulatory hurdles have kept flying cars from becoming a mainstream product, and this one is no exception. The Rocket version is a limited, invite-only halo car that has not been approved for public roads, and what was shown on stage were controlled demonstrations on a SpaceX test site, not everyday flight. The first flying car prototype dates to 1917, and serious attempts have only recently become more plausible as electric motors and batteries have improved. Tesla has said it plans follow-up demonstrations, including a new attempt at Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump.
What Comes Next
Watch for official pricing, the independent testing of the 0-60 claims, regulatory answers about the Rocket version, and whether Tesla meets its 2028 production target after years of delays. Until then, the Roadster is best understood as a spectacular proof of concept from two of Musk’s companies, with the real test being whether it can reach customers.
“Flying Cars Are Real”: Musk Unveils Tesla Roadster With SpaceX Thrusters
Tesla has finally revealed its long-delayed second-generation Roadster, and it arrived with a rocket-company twist. At a livestreamed event on Thursday, October 15, Elon Musk showed a prototype that drove upside down along a curved ramp, flipped in mid-air, landed on its wheels, and posted a claimed 0-60 mph time of 0.81 seconds. Tesla says production will begin in 2028 and confirmed three versions, including a one-seat “Rocket” with a flight system.
The Event
The reveal took place at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Musk framed the car as the product of a partnership between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” and told the crowd it was “the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie.”
During the demo, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp until it was upside down, clung to the surface, left the end of the ramp, rolled 180 degrees in the air, and landed on its wheels as the audience cheered. Reports also describe it jumping over a line of Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and Cybercab.
“Flying cars are real,” Musk said, while adding that success was “not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.” He also told the audience they could say they saw it with their own eyes, because “what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
How It Works
Tesla explained the stunt with a mix of fans and SpaceX hardware. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the car uses a “fan suction system” on the underside that can pull up to 2 Gs, enough to hold it against a surface while upside down.
“Then we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest,” he said.
That technology is a set of cold-gas thrusters powered by compressed air rather than fuel. Reported specifications include 10 nozzles, two carbon-overwrapped tanks of about 600 liters holding roughly 250 kg of ultra-high-pressure air, and more than 80 kilonewtons of rear thrust. Tesla says the car can refill its air supply itself, and electric actuators provide precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second. Musk said the Roadster has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can “basically fly like a rocket.”
Three Versions
After the event, Tesla confirmed three configurations:
– Performance: two seats, active aerodynamics, and the suction system for extra downforce. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds.
– Thrust: two seats plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, a limited release. Claimed 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds.
– Rocket: an invite-only, single-seat version with additional thrusters that can lift it off the ground and control it in flight. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds.
Tesla quotes a top speed above 230 mph (about 370 km/h) and range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km). Tesla’s own website says the Rocket variant is not approved for public road use.
The Numbers, With Caveats
The headline figure from the night was a 0-60 mph run of 0.81 seconds, roughly 96 km/h, displayed on the event’s own timer. It has not been independently verified. Reports describe two runs on stage, one at about a second and one at 0.8 seconds. The sub-0.9 and sub-0.59 second figures for the Thrust and Rocket versions are Tesla’s published targets rather than results shown on stage.
No vehicle price was announced. Tesla’s reservation page lists the Performance version with a reported $50,000 deposit and the Thrust version with a $250,000 deposit, while the Rocket is by invitation only.
A Very Long Wait
Tesla first showed the Roadster in 2017, promising deliveries in 2020. In November 2025, production was pushed to 2027 or 2028. The unveiling itself was postponed repeatedly, with reports counting at least seven different dates before October 15, and the event followed a two-week weather delay. Musk said production starts in 2028 and described the Roadster as the only manually driven car Tesla will make long term.
Is It Really a “Flying Car”?
Technical and regulatory hurdles have kept flying cars from becoming a mainstream product, and this one is no exception. The Rocket version is a limited, invite-only halo car that has not been approved for public roads, and what was shown on stage were controlled demonstrations on a SpaceX test site, not everyday flight. The first flying car prototype dates to 1917, and serious attempts have only recently become more plausible as electric motors and batteries have improved. Tesla has said it plans follow-up demonstrations, including a new attempt at Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump.
What Comes Next
Watch for official pricing, the independent testing of the 0-60 claims, regulatory answers about the Rocket version, and whether Tesla meets its 2028 production target after years of delays. Until then, the Roadster is best understood as a spectacular proof of concept from two of Musk’s companies, with the real test being whether it can reach customers.
The Event
The reveal took place at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Musk framed the car as the product of a partnership between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” and told the crowd it was “the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie.”
During the demo, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp until it was upside down, clung to the surface, left the end of the ramp, rolled 180 degrees in the air, and landed on its wheels as the audience cheered. Reports also describe it jumping over a line of Tesla vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and Cybercab.
“Flying cars are real,” Musk said, while adding that success was “not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.” He also told the audience they could say they saw it with their own eyes, because “what you see with your eyes, you will not believe.”
How It Works
Tesla explained the stunt with a mix of fans and SpaceX hardware. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the car uses a “fan suction system” on the underside that can pull up to 2 Gs, enough to hold it against a surface while upside down.
“Then we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest,” he said.
That technology is a set of cold-gas thrusters powered by compressed air rather than fuel. Reported specifications include 10 nozzles, two carbon-overwrapped tanks of about 600 liters holding roughly 250 kg of ultra-high-pressure air, and more than 80 kilonewtons of rear thrust. Tesla says the car can refill its air supply itself, and electric actuators provide precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second. Musk said the Roadster has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can “basically fly like a rocket.”
Three Versions
After the event, Tesla confirmed three configurations:
– Performance: two seats, active aerodynamics, and the suction system for extra downforce. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds.
– Thrust: two seats plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, a limited release. Claimed 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds.
– Rocket: an invite-only, single-seat version with additional thrusters that can lift it off the ground and control it in flight. Tesla claims 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds.
Tesla quotes a top speed above 230 mph (about 370 km/h) and range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km). Tesla’s own website says the Rocket variant is not approved for public road use.
The Numbers, With Caveats
The headline figure from the night was a 0-60 mph run of 0.81 seconds, roughly 96 km/h, displayed on the event’s own timer. It has not been independently verified. Reports describe two runs on stage, one at about a second and one at 0.8 seconds. The sub-0.9 and sub-0.59 second figures for the Thrust and Rocket versions are Tesla’s published targets rather than results shown on stage.
No vehicle price was announced. Tesla’s reservation page lists the Performance version with a reported $50,000 deposit and the Thrust version with a $250,000 deposit, while the Rocket is by invitation only.
A Very Long Wait
Tesla first showed the Roadster in 2017, promising deliveries in 2020. In November 2025, production was pushed to 2027 or 2028. The unveiling itself was postponed repeatedly, with reports counting at least seven different dates before October 15, and the event followed a two-week weather delay. Musk said production starts in 2028 and described the Roadster as the only manually driven car Tesla will make long term.
Is It Really a “Flying Car”?
Technical and regulatory hurdles have kept flying cars from becoming a mainstream product, and this one is no exception. The Rocket version is a limited, invite-only halo car that has not been approved for public roads, and what was shown on stage were controlled demonstrations on a SpaceX test site, not everyday flight. The first flying car prototype dates to 1917, and serious attempts have only recently become more plausible as electric motors and batteries have improved. Tesla has said it plans follow-up demonstrations, including a new attempt at Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump.
What Comes Next
Watch for official pricing, the independent testing of the 0-60 claims, regulatory answers about the Rocket version, and whether Tesla meets its 2028 production target after years of delays. Until then, the Roadster is best understood as a spectacular proof of concept from two of Musk’s companies, with the real test being whether it can reach customers.
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Article
AI Frontier: Scale – Intelligence Draws a Full House in DubaiDUBAI, UAE – OCTOBER 14, 2026 — The AI Frontier:
Scale – Intelligence, hosted by CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands, successfully concluded yesterday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd. Held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai, the event brought together founders, investors, developers, and technology leaders across AI, Web3, finance, and decentralized infrastructure.
Led by Vaibhavv Ali, who heads CryptoMondays MENA, the gathering highlighted Dubai’s growing role as a hub for emerging technologies and regional collaboration.
Key Panel: Exploring AI, Compliance, and the Future Horizon
The centerpoint of the afternoon was a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Sarah Fathima Ahmed. The panel featured industry leaders, including Elja Boom (Founder & CEO of Mars Holding), Amira Soliman (CEO & Founder of Time Guardian | Athar), Donald Lavoile (Founder & President of Venturis 13 Global Holdings LLC), Evin McMullen (Co-Founder of Amantrue), and Harly Zappino (Managing Partner at Neo Legal).
The discussion spanned key dimensions of artificial intelligence, including:
– Early Exploration: Panelists shared personal stories about their first encounters with artificial intelligence, reflecting on how early experiments evolved into full-scale enterprise strategies. – Compliance & Governance: The panel tackled the challenges of navigating legal frameworks, data sovereignty, regulatory alignment, and building ethical AI models across global and regional jurisdictions. – Future Capabilities: Speakers discussed future shifts in AI, focusing on autonomous AI agents, decentralized intelligence, real-world asset integration, and localized compute capabilities. – Advice to Younger Selves & Next-Gen Builders: Closing with personal reflections, panelists offered advice to their younger selves and the next generation, emphasizing adaptable learning, continuous curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical innovation.
High-Signal Networking & Full House Success
Following the main stage discussions, attendees enjoyed high-value networking over refreshments. The sold-out, full-house event delivered strategic conversations, investment leads, and ecosystem partnerships across the regional tech landscape.
Event Overview
Title: The AI Frontier – CryptoMondays MENA – Scale – Minds By Animoca Brands Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2026 Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST Venue: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE ( Event Link )
Presented By:
Enya Labs · Ghaf Labs · CryptoMondaysMENA · Nadmah · Rox Custody
In Collaboration With: Salad Labs · Minds by Animoca Brands
Event Partners & Supporters
This event was made possible through collaboration across the regional and global technology ecosystem:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, CryptoEventsGlobal , and AllConfsbot
Media Contact
For press inquiries, post-event media, or future chapter updates, please contact the team via official community channels: Website / Event Hub: https://luma.com/cryptomondaysdxb Telegram: https://t.me/+yKTz36KWeXhiN2I9
AI Frontier: Scale – Intelligence Draws a Full House in Dubai
DUBAI, UAE – OCTOBER 14, 2026 — The AI Frontier:
Scale – Intelligence, hosted by CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands, successfully concluded yesterday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd. Held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai, the event brought together founders, investors, developers, and technology leaders across AI, Web3, finance, and decentralized infrastructure.
Led by Vaibhavv Ali, who heads CryptoMondays MENA, the gathering highlighted Dubai’s growing role as a hub for emerging technologies and regional collaboration.
Key Panel: Exploring AI, Compliance, and the Future Horizon
The centerpoint of the afternoon was a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Sarah Fathima Ahmed. The panel featured industry leaders, including Elja Boom (Founder & CEO of Mars Holding), Amira Soliman (CEO & Founder of Time Guardian | Athar), Donald Lavoile (Founder & President of Venturis 13 Global Holdings LLC), Evin McMullen (Co-Founder of Amantrue), and Harly Zappino (Managing Partner at Neo Legal).
The discussion spanned key dimensions of artificial intelligence, including:
– Early Exploration: Panelists shared personal stories about their first encounters with artificial intelligence, reflecting on how early experiments evolved into full-scale enterprise strategies. – Compliance & Governance: The panel tackled the challenges of navigating legal frameworks, data sovereignty, regulatory alignment, and building ethical AI models across global and regional jurisdictions. – Future Capabilities: Speakers discussed future shifts in AI, focusing on autonomous AI agents, decentralized intelligence, real-world asset integration, and localized compute capabilities. – Advice to Younger Selves & Next-Gen Builders: Closing with personal reflections, panelists offered advice to their younger selves and the next generation, emphasizing adaptable learning, continuous curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical innovation.
High-Signal Networking & Full House Success
Following the main stage discussions, attendees enjoyed high-value networking over refreshments. The sold-out, full-house event delivered strategic conversations, investment leads, and ecosystem partnerships across the regional tech landscape.
Event Overview
Title: The AI Frontier – CryptoMondays MENA – Scale – Minds By Animoca Brands Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2026 Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST Venue: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE ( Event Link )
Presented By:
Enya Labs · Ghaf Labs · CryptoMondaysMENA · Nadmah · Rox Custody
In Collaboration With: Salad Labs · Minds by Animoca Brands
Event Partners & Supporters
This event was made possible through collaboration across the regional and global technology ecosystem:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, CryptoEventsGlobal , and AllConfsbot
Media Contact
For press inquiries, post-event media, or future chapter updates, please contact the team via official community channels: Website / Event Hub: https://luma.com/cryptomondaysdxb Telegram: https://t.me/+yKTz36KWeXhiN2I9
Scale – Intelligence, hosted by CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands, successfully concluded yesterday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd. Held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai, the event brought together founders, investors, developers, and technology leaders across AI, Web3, finance, and decentralized infrastructure.
Led by Vaibhavv Ali, who heads CryptoMondays MENA, the gathering highlighted Dubai’s growing role as a hub for emerging technologies and regional collaboration.
Key Panel: Exploring AI, Compliance, and the Future Horizon
The centerpoint of the afternoon was a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Sarah Fathima Ahmed. The panel featured industry leaders, including Elja Boom (Founder & CEO of Mars Holding), Amira Soliman (CEO & Founder of Time Guardian | Athar), Donald Lavoile (Founder & President of Venturis 13 Global Holdings LLC), Evin McMullen (Co-Founder of Amantrue), and Harly Zappino (Managing Partner at Neo Legal).
The discussion spanned key dimensions of artificial intelligence, including:
– Early Exploration: Panelists shared personal stories about their first encounters with artificial intelligence, reflecting on how early experiments evolved into full-scale enterprise strategies. – Compliance & Governance: The panel tackled the challenges of navigating legal frameworks, data sovereignty, regulatory alignment, and building ethical AI models across global and regional jurisdictions. – Future Capabilities: Speakers discussed future shifts in AI, focusing on autonomous AI agents, decentralized intelligence, real-world asset integration, and localized compute capabilities. – Advice to Younger Selves & Next-Gen Builders: Closing with personal reflections, panelists offered advice to their younger selves and the next generation, emphasizing adaptable learning, continuous curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical innovation.
High-Signal Networking & Full House Success
Following the main stage discussions, attendees enjoyed high-value networking over refreshments. The sold-out, full-house event delivered strategic conversations, investment leads, and ecosystem partnerships across the regional tech landscape.
Event Overview
Title: The AI Frontier – CryptoMondays MENA – Scale – Minds By Animoca Brands Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2026 Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST Venue: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE ( Event Link )
Presented By:
Enya Labs · Ghaf Labs · CryptoMondaysMENA · Nadmah · Rox Custody
In Collaboration With: Salad Labs · Minds by Animoca Brands
Event Partners & Supporters
This event was made possible through collaboration across the regional and global technology ecosystem:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, CryptoEventsGlobal , and AllConfsbot
Media Contact
For press inquiries, post-event media, or future chapter updates, please contact the team via official community channels: Website / Event Hub: https://luma.com/cryptomondaysdxb Telegram: https://t.me/+yKTz36KWeXhiN2I9
64
Article
HEX Founder Richard Heart Detained in Istanbul on Finnish Interpol Red Notice As HEX Token Plunge...Richard Heart, the founder of the crypto projects HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX, was reportedly detained in Istanbul on October 14 in a joint operation by Turkish police and intelligence officers acting on an Interpol Red Notice requested by Finland.
The HEX token fell almost 45% on the news, according to Protos. The reports come from Turkish media, and no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention yet.
What Happened in Istanbul
According to Daily Sabah, citing the Turkish news agency İhlas (IHA), police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, along with his wife on Wednesday morning. Officers had monitored his address in the Beşiktaş district through technical and physical surveillance before moving in. The operation was reportedly coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, financial crimes investigators, and Interpol.
Reports on what was seized vary by outlet. İhlas described a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards, rifles, pistols, two drones, gold bracelets, and a large amount of cash in different currencies. Other outlets mention luxury watches including Rolexes, and some report specific cash and weapon counts. Because those figures differ and have not been officially confirmed, treat them as reported rather than established.
Why Finland Wants Him
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland’s request. A Finnish court had ordered his detention in absentia in September 2024. According to reporting, the notice concerns aggravated tax fraud involving alleged unpaid taxes of hundreds of millions of euros. Finnish authorities have also sought him over an alleged assault on a 16-year-old in 2021. One Turkish account described the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud, and Interpol’s public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on media reports.
It is worth being precise about what a Red Notice is. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act under its own laws.
Who Is Richard Heart?
Richard Heart is the public name of Richard James Schueler, 47, an American entrepreneur. He launched HEX in 2018, marketing it as a high-yield “blockchain certificate of deposit.” He later created PulseChain, an Ethereum fork, and PulseX, a decentralized exchange that runs on it. Heart became one of crypto’s most recognizable and divisive personalities, known for flamboyant promotion and a large online following.
The SEC Case That Is Now Closed
This arrest is a separate matter from his long-running dispute with U.S. regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion. The SEC also accused Heart and PulseChain of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds on luxury goods, including sports cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as “The Enigma.”
That case ended in Heart’s favor: in February 2025, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit. Wednesday’s detention stems from Finland’s request, not the U.S. case. Market Reaction
HEX plunged almost 45% following news of the arrest, according to Protos. FinanceFeeds noted that HEX and PulseChain operate on blockchain infrastructure that does not necessarily depend on Heart’s direct involvement, but legal uncertainty around a founder can still weigh on investor confidence. No statement from Heart, PulseChain, or Hex on the detention had appeared in the reports reviewed.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
– Reported by Turkish media: the detention of Heart and his wife in Beşiktaş on October 14, tied to a Finnish Red Notice. – Established background: the Red Notice published in December 2024 at Finland’s request, the 2023 SEC suit, and its dismissal in February 2025. – Not confirmed: official statements from Turkish or Finnish authorities, the exact charges on the notice, and the list and value of seized items. – Not established: any completed extradition. Whether Turkey would hand Heart to Finland is unclear and would follow Turkish legal procedure.
What Comes Next
The key questions are whether Turkish or Finnish authorities confirm the arrest, whether Finland files a formal extradition request, and how a Turkish court handles it. Extradition proceedings can take months, and Heart would have the right to contest them. For HEX and PulseChain holders, the near-term issues are price volatility and any statement from Heart’s team about how the projects will operate while he is in custody.
HEX Founder Richard Heart Detained in Istanbul on Finnish Interpol Red Notice As HEX Token Plunge...
Richard Heart, the founder of the crypto projects HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX, was reportedly detained in Istanbul on October 14 in a joint operation by Turkish police and intelligence officers acting on an Interpol Red Notice requested by Finland.
The HEX token fell almost 45% on the news, according to Protos. The reports come from Turkish media, and no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention yet.
What Happened in Istanbul
According to Daily Sabah, citing the Turkish news agency İhlas (IHA), police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, along with his wife on Wednesday morning. Officers had monitored his address in the Beşiktaş district through technical and physical surveillance before moving in. The operation was reportedly coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, financial crimes investigators, and Interpol.
Reports on what was seized vary by outlet. İhlas described a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards, rifles, pistols, two drones, gold bracelets, and a large amount of cash in different currencies. Other outlets mention luxury watches including Rolexes, and some report specific cash and weapon counts. Because those figures differ and have not been officially confirmed, treat them as reported rather than established.
Why Finland Wants Him
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland’s request. A Finnish court had ordered his detention in absentia in September 2024. According to reporting, the notice concerns aggravated tax fraud involving alleged unpaid taxes of hundreds of millions of euros. Finnish authorities have also sought him over an alleged assault on a 16-year-old in 2021. One Turkish account described the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud, and Interpol’s public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on media reports.
It is worth being precise about what a Red Notice is. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act under its own laws.
Who Is Richard Heart?
Richard Heart is the public name of Richard James Schueler, 47, an American entrepreneur. He launched HEX in 2018, marketing it as a high-yield “blockchain certificate of deposit.” He later created PulseChain, an Ethereum fork, and PulseX, a decentralized exchange that runs on it. Heart became one of crypto’s most recognizable and divisive personalities, known for flamboyant promotion and a large online following.
The SEC Case That Is Now Closed
This arrest is a separate matter from his long-running dispute with U.S. regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion. The SEC also accused Heart and PulseChain of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds on luxury goods, including sports cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as “The Enigma.”
That case ended in Heart’s favor: in February 2025, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit. Wednesday’s detention stems from Finland’s request, not the U.S. case. Market Reaction
HEX plunged almost 45% following news of the arrest, according to Protos. FinanceFeeds noted that HEX and PulseChain operate on blockchain infrastructure that does not necessarily depend on Heart’s direct involvement, but legal uncertainty around a founder can still weigh on investor confidence. No statement from Heart, PulseChain, or Hex on the detention had appeared in the reports reviewed.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
– Reported by Turkish media: the detention of Heart and his wife in Beşiktaş on October 14, tied to a Finnish Red Notice. – Established background: the Red Notice published in December 2024 at Finland’s request, the 2023 SEC suit, and its dismissal in February 2025. – Not confirmed: official statements from Turkish or Finnish authorities, the exact charges on the notice, and the list and value of seized items. – Not established: any completed extradition. Whether Turkey would hand Heart to Finland is unclear and would follow Turkish legal procedure.
What Comes Next
The key questions are whether Turkish or Finnish authorities confirm the arrest, whether Finland files a formal extradition request, and how a Turkish court handles it. Extradition proceedings can take months, and Heart would have the right to contest them. For HEX and PulseChain holders, the near-term issues are price volatility and any statement from Heart’s team about how the projects will operate while he is in custody.
The HEX token fell almost 45% on the news, according to Protos. The reports come from Turkish media, and no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention yet.
What Happened in Istanbul
According to Daily Sabah, citing the Turkish news agency İhlas (IHA), police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, along with his wife on Wednesday morning. Officers had monitored his address in the Beşiktaş district through technical and physical surveillance before moving in. The operation was reportedly coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, financial crimes investigators, and Interpol.
Reports on what was seized vary by outlet. İhlas described a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards, rifles, pistols, two drones, gold bracelets, and a large amount of cash in different currencies. Other outlets mention luxury watches including Rolexes, and some report specific cash and weapon counts. Because those figures differ and have not been officially confirmed, treat them as reported rather than established.
Why Finland Wants Him
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland’s request. A Finnish court had ordered his detention in absentia in September 2024. According to reporting, the notice concerns aggravated tax fraud involving alleged unpaid taxes of hundreds of millions of euros. Finnish authorities have also sought him over an alleged assault on a 16-year-old in 2021. One Turkish account described the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud, and Interpol’s public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on media reports.
It is worth being precise about what a Red Notice is. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act under its own laws.
Who Is Richard Heart?
Richard Heart is the public name of Richard James Schueler, 47, an American entrepreneur. He launched HEX in 2018, marketing it as a high-yield “blockchain certificate of deposit.” He later created PulseChain, an Ethereum fork, and PulseX, a decentralized exchange that runs on it. Heart became one of crypto’s most recognizable and divisive personalities, known for flamboyant promotion and a large online following.
The SEC Case That Is Now Closed
This arrest is a separate matter from his long-running dispute with U.S. regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion. The SEC also accused Heart and PulseChain of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds on luxury goods, including sports cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as “The Enigma.”
That case ended in Heart’s favor: in February 2025, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit. Wednesday’s detention stems from Finland’s request, not the U.S. case. Market Reaction
HEX plunged almost 45% following news of the arrest, according to Protos. FinanceFeeds noted that HEX and PulseChain operate on blockchain infrastructure that does not necessarily depend on Heart’s direct involvement, but legal uncertainty around a founder can still weigh on investor confidence. No statement from Heart, PulseChain, or Hex on the detention had appeared in the reports reviewed.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
– Reported by Turkish media: the detention of Heart and his wife in Beşiktaş on October 14, tied to a Finnish Red Notice. – Established background: the Red Notice published in December 2024 at Finland’s request, the 2023 SEC suit, and its dismissal in February 2025. – Not confirmed: official statements from Turkish or Finnish authorities, the exact charges on the notice, and the list and value of seized items. – Not established: any completed extradition. Whether Turkey would hand Heart to Finland is unclear and would follow Turkish legal procedure.
What Comes Next
The key questions are whether Turkish or Finnish authorities confirm the arrest, whether Finland files a formal extradition request, and how a Turkish court handles it. Extradition proceedings can take months, and Heart would have the right to contest them. For HEX and PulseChain holders, the near-term issues are price volatility and any statement from Heart’s team about how the projects will operate while he is in custody.
1
49
HEX Founder Richard Heart Detained in Istanbul on Finnish Interpol Red Notice as HEX Token Plunge...Richard Heart, the founder of the crypto projects HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX, was reportedly detained in Istanbul on October 14 in a joint operation by Turkish police and intelligence officers acting on an Interpol Red Notice requested by Finland.
The HEX token fell almost 45% on the news, according to Protos. The reports come from Turkish media, and no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention yet.
What Happened in Istanbul
According to Daily Sabah, citing the Turkish news agency İhlas (IHA), police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, along with his wife on Wednesday morning. Officers had monitored his address in the Beşiktaş district through technical and physical surveillance before moving in. The operation was reportedly coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, financial crimes investigators, and Interpol.
Reports on what was seized vary by outlet. İhlas described a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards, rifles, pistols, two drones, gold bracelets, and a large amount of cash in different currencies. Other outlets mention luxury watches including Rolexes, and some report specific cash and weapon counts. Because those figures differ and have not been officially confirmed, treat them as reported rather than established.
Why Finland Wants Him
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland’s request. A Finnish court had ordered his detention in absentia in September 2024. According to reporting, the notice concerns aggravated tax fraud involving alleged unpaid taxes of hundreds of millions of euros. Finnish authorities have also sought him over an alleged assault on a 16-year-old in 2021. One Turkish account described the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud, and Interpol’s public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on media reports.
It is worth being precise about what a Red Notice is. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act under its own laws.
Who Is Richard Heart?
Richard Heart is the public name of Richard James Schueler, 47, an American entrepreneur. He launched HEX in 2018, marketing it as a high-yield “blockchain certificate of deposit.” He later created PulseChain, an Ethereum fork, and PulseX, a decentralized exchange that runs on it. Heart became one of crypto’s most recognizable and divisive personalities, known for flamboyant promotion and a large online following.
The SEC Case That Is Now Closed
This arrest is a separate matter from his long-running dispute with U.S. regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion. The SEC also accused Heart and PulseChain of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds on luxury goods, including sports cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as “The Enigma.”
That case ended in Heart’s favor: in February 2025, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit. Wednesday’s detention stems from Finland’s request, not the U.S. case.
Market Reaction
HEX plunged almost 45% following news of the arrest, according to Protos. FinanceFeeds noted that HEX and PulseChain operate on blockchain infrastructure that does not necessarily depend on Heart’s direct involvement, but legal uncertainty around a founder can still weigh on investor confidence. No statement from Heart, PulseChain, or Hex on the detention had appeared in the reports reviewed.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
– Reported by Turkish media: the detention of Heart and his wife in Beşiktaş on October 14, tied to a Finnish Red Notice.
– Established background: the Red Notice published in December 2024 at Finland’s request, the 2023 SEC suit, and its dismissal in February 2025.
– Not confirmed: official statements from Turkish or Finnish authorities, the exact charges on the notice, and the list and value of seized items.
– Not established: any completed extradition. Whether Turkey would hand Heart to Finland is unclear and would follow Turkish legal procedure.
What Comes Next
The key questions are whether Turkish or Finnish authorities confirm the arrest, whether Finland files a formal extradition request, and how a Turkish court handles it. Extradition proceedings can take months, and Heart would have the right to contest them. For HEX and PulseChain holders, the near-term issues are price volatility and any statement from Heart’s team about how the projects will operate while he is in custody.
HEX Founder Richard Heart Detained in Istanbul on Finnish Interpol Red Notice as HEX Token Plunge...
Richard Heart, the founder of the crypto projects HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX, was reportedly detained in Istanbul on October 14 in a joint operation by Turkish police and intelligence officers acting on an Interpol Red Notice requested by Finland.
The HEX token fell almost 45% on the news, according to Protos. The reports come from Turkish media, and no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention yet.
What Happened in Istanbul
According to Daily Sabah, citing the Turkish news agency İhlas (IHA), police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, along with his wife on Wednesday morning. Officers had monitored his address in the Beşiktaş district through technical and physical surveillance before moving in. The operation was reportedly coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, financial crimes investigators, and Interpol.
Reports on what was seized vary by outlet. İhlas described a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards, rifles, pistols, two drones, gold bracelets, and a large amount of cash in different currencies. Other outlets mention luxury watches including Rolexes, and some report specific cash and weapon counts. Because those figures differ and have not been officially confirmed, treat them as reported rather than established.
Why Finland Wants Him
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland’s request. A Finnish court had ordered his detention in absentia in September 2024. According to reporting, the notice concerns aggravated tax fraud involving alleged unpaid taxes of hundreds of millions of euros. Finnish authorities have also sought him over an alleged assault on a 16-year-old in 2021. One Turkish account described the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud, and Interpol’s public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on media reports.
It is worth being precise about what a Red Notice is. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act under its own laws.
Who Is Richard Heart?
Richard Heart is the public name of Richard James Schueler, 47, an American entrepreneur. He launched HEX in 2018, marketing it as a high-yield “blockchain certificate of deposit.” He later created PulseChain, an Ethereum fork, and PulseX, a decentralized exchange that runs on it. Heart became one of crypto’s most recognizable and divisive personalities, known for flamboyant promotion and a large online following.
The SEC Case That Is Now Closed
This arrest is a separate matter from his long-running dispute with U.S. regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion. The SEC also accused Heart and PulseChain of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds on luxury goods, including sports cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as “The Enigma.”
That case ended in Heart’s favor: in February 2025, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit. Wednesday’s detention stems from Finland’s request, not the U.S. case.
Market Reaction
HEX plunged almost 45% following news of the arrest, according to Protos. FinanceFeeds noted that HEX and PulseChain operate on blockchain infrastructure that does not necessarily depend on Heart’s direct involvement, but legal uncertainty around a founder can still weigh on investor confidence. No statement from Heart, PulseChain, or Hex on the detention had appeared in the reports reviewed.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
– Reported by Turkish media: the detention of Heart and his wife in Beşiktaş on October 14, tied to a Finnish Red Notice.
– Established background: the Red Notice published in December 2024 at Finland’s request, the 2023 SEC suit, and its dismissal in February 2025.
– Not confirmed: official statements from Turkish or Finnish authorities, the exact charges on the notice, and the list and value of seized items.
– Not established: any completed extradition. Whether Turkey would hand Heart to Finland is unclear and would follow Turkish legal procedure.
What Comes Next
The key questions are whether Turkish or Finnish authorities confirm the arrest, whether Finland files a formal extradition request, and how a Turkish court handles it. Extradition proceedings can take months, and Heart would have the right to contest them. For HEX and PulseChain holders, the near-term issues are price volatility and any statement from Heart’s team about how the projects will operate while he is in custody.
The HEX token fell almost 45% on the news, according to Protos. The reports come from Turkish media, and no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention yet.
What Happened in Istanbul
According to Daily Sabah, citing the Turkish news agency İhlas (IHA), police and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, along with his wife on Wednesday morning. Officers had monitored his address in the Beşiktaş district through technical and physical surveillance before moving in. The operation was reportedly coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, financial crimes investigators, and Interpol.
Reports on what was seized vary by outlet. İhlas described a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards, rifles, pistols, two drones, gold bracelets, and a large amount of cash in different currencies. Other outlets mention luxury watches including Rolexes, and some report specific cash and weapon counts. Because those figures differ and have not been officially confirmed, treat them as reported rather than established.
Why Finland Wants Him
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland’s request. A Finnish court had ordered his detention in absentia in September 2024. According to reporting, the notice concerns aggravated tax fraud involving alleged unpaid taxes of hundreds of millions of euros. Finnish authorities have also sought him over an alleged assault on a 16-year-old in 2021. One Turkish account described the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud, and Interpol’s public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on media reports.
It is worth being precise about what a Red Notice is. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not an international arrest warrant, and each country decides how to act under its own laws.
Who Is Richard Heart?
Richard Heart is the public name of Richard James Schueler, 47, an American entrepreneur. He launched HEX in 2018, marketing it as a high-yield “blockchain certificate of deposit.” He later created PulseChain, an Ethereum fork, and PulseX, a decentralized exchange that runs on it. Heart became one of crypto’s most recognizable and divisive personalities, known for flamboyant promotion and a large online following.
The SEC Case That Is Now Closed
This arrest is a separate matter from his long-running dispute with U.S. regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion. The SEC also accused Heart and PulseChain of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds on luxury goods, including sports cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as “The Enigma.”
That case ended in Heart’s favor: in February 2025, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the SEC’s lawsuit. Wednesday’s detention stems from Finland’s request, not the U.S. case.
Market Reaction
HEX plunged almost 45% following news of the arrest, according to Protos. FinanceFeeds noted that HEX and PulseChain operate on blockchain infrastructure that does not necessarily depend on Heart’s direct involvement, but legal uncertainty around a founder can still weigh on investor confidence. No statement from Heart, PulseChain, or Hex on the detention had appeared in the reports reviewed.
What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
– Reported by Turkish media: the detention of Heart and his wife in Beşiktaş on October 14, tied to a Finnish Red Notice.
– Established background: the Red Notice published in December 2024 at Finland’s request, the 2023 SEC suit, and its dismissal in February 2025.
– Not confirmed: official statements from Turkish or Finnish authorities, the exact charges on the notice, and the list and value of seized items.
– Not established: any completed extradition. Whether Turkey would hand Heart to Finland is unclear and would follow Turkish legal procedure.
What Comes Next
The key questions are whether Turkish or Finnish authorities confirm the arrest, whether Finland files a formal extradition request, and how a Turkish court handles it. Extradition proceedings can take months, and Heart would have the right to contest them. For HEX and PulseChain holders, the near-term issues are price volatility and any statement from Heart’s team about how the projects will operate while he is in custody.
12
Affiliate Grand Slam: Europe’s top multi-vertical affiliate marketing event in 2026Affiliate Grand Slam (AGS) is Europe’s leading affiliate marketing event, providing a platform for professionals across various industries to meet, share insights, and make impactful connections. This flagship summit will be held in Rome, Italy, at Fiera di Roma from 02-05 November 2026. AGS will occupy Hall 2, which will host 250+ exhibitors and 5000+ delegates, creating a vibrant and dedicated space for networking, knowledge sharing, and business development.
The event promises to be a unique opportunity for growth, innovation, and deal-making at scale. AGS’s multi-vertical approach covers key affiliate marketing sectors and is set to bring together top experts and companies in a focused, brand-safe, and commercially accessible environment.
One ticket, four events
AGS is proud to offer attendees access to four key events with one ticket. Alongside AGS, attendees can also explore SiGMA, AIBC, and FX.World. SiGMA World is a renowned event dedicated to the digital and iGaming industries, providing a platform for innovation, networking, and business development.
AIBC focuses on blockchain and emerging technologies, making it an essential event for those at the cutting edge of tech. FX.world brings together the key players from across the global FX and fintech ecosystem. These events are known for their fresh ideas, global networking opportunities, and focus on digital innovation. AGS stands as a premier event in the affiliate marketing space, offering exclusive industry insights and facilitating strategic conversations across multiple verticals, including eCommerce, finance, performance marketing, and more. With 30,000 delegates expected, AGS is set to provide a global platform for cross-industry collaboration.
Built for deal-making at a global scale
AGS provides the ideal environment for businesses to grow by facilitating connections between leading affiliate marketers, publishers, advertisers, and brands. It is the perfect space to build partnerships, exchange ideas, and unlock valuable opportunities in the affiliate marketing world. With its global audience, AGS fosters a strong, professional networking environment to support your business’s international expansion.
AGS maintains a strict verification process for affiliates attending the event. This ensures that only verified professionals can join, keeping discussions and partnerships valuable and relevant to the industry’s needs. AGS provides a brand-safe environment focused on mainstream, scalable verticals, which opens the door to a broad pool of advertisers and partners.
Speakers and exhibitors
AGS 2026 will feature top speakers from around the world, offering insights on the latest trends and strategies in affiliate marketing. Confirmed speakers include:
– Niv Shaked, Sales Director at TikTok
– Nick Shackleford, Co-Founder at BREZ
– Oliver Kenyon, Founder and CEO at ConversionWise
– Joshua Chin, Founder at Chronos Agency
– Jordan Rolband, Founder and CEO at DFO Global Performance
– Caoimhe Nugent, Senior Strategist at Google
– Gabe Piacentini, Head of Business Development & Lead Generation at Snapchat
– Marisha Lakhiani, Chief Growth Officer at Mindvalley
In addition to these incredible speakers, AGS will showcase exhibitors from some of the leading companies in affiliate marketing. AGS focuses on key affiliate marketing verticals, including eCommerce, digital marketing, financial services, and nutraceuticals, offering solutions that can drive performance marketing at scale. These exhibitors are established players with proven success in their respective verticals, offering innovative tools, technology, and services. Notable exhibitors include:
– Google
– Meta
– TikTok
– YouTube
– SnapChat
– TrafficStars
– MGID
– Clickbank
These exhibitors offer solutions designed to help performance marketers scale their businesses and succeed across multiple geographies, ensuring that AGS remains a hub for strategic partnerships in affiliate marketing.
Join us at AGS 2026
Whether you’re an affiliate marketer, brand, or publisher, AGS 2026 offers the perfect opportunity to grow your business, make valuable connections, and discover new opportunities for growth in various industries. Don’t miss out on the chance to be part of Europe’s premier affiliate marketing event. For more information and to register for AGS 2026, visit Affiliate Grand Slam.
Affiliate Grand Slam: Europe’s top multi-vertical affiliate marketing event in 2026
Affiliate Grand Slam (AGS) is Europe’s leading affiliate marketing event, providing a platform for professionals across various industries to meet, share insights, and make impactful connections. This flagship summit will be held in Rome, Italy, at Fiera di Roma from 02-05 November 2026. AGS will occupy Hall 2, which will host 250+ exhibitors and 5000+ delegates, creating a vibrant and dedicated space for networking, knowledge sharing, and business development.
The event promises to be a unique opportunity for growth, innovation, and deal-making at scale. AGS’s multi-vertical approach covers key affiliate marketing sectors and is set to bring together top experts and companies in a focused, brand-safe, and commercially accessible environment.
One ticket, four events
AGS is proud to offer attendees access to four key events with one ticket. Alongside AGS, attendees can also explore SiGMA, AIBC, and FX.World. SiGMA World is a renowned event dedicated to the digital and iGaming industries, providing a platform for innovation, networking, and business development.
AIBC focuses on blockchain and emerging technologies, making it an essential event for those at the cutting edge of tech. FX.world brings together the key players from across the global FX and fintech ecosystem. These events are known for their fresh ideas, global networking opportunities, and focus on digital innovation. AGS stands as a premier event in the affiliate marketing space, offering exclusive industry insights and facilitating strategic conversations across multiple verticals, including eCommerce, finance, performance marketing, and more. With 30,000 delegates expected, AGS is set to provide a global platform for cross-industry collaboration.
Built for deal-making at a global scale
AGS provides the ideal environment for businesses to grow by facilitating connections between leading affiliate marketers, publishers, advertisers, and brands. It is the perfect space to build partnerships, exchange ideas, and unlock valuable opportunities in the affiliate marketing world. With its global audience, AGS fosters a strong, professional networking environment to support your business’s international expansion.
AGS maintains a strict verification process for affiliates attending the event. This ensures that only verified professionals can join, keeping discussions and partnerships valuable and relevant to the industry’s needs. AGS provides a brand-safe environment focused on mainstream, scalable verticals, which opens the door to a broad pool of advertisers and partners.
Speakers and exhibitors
AGS 2026 will feature top speakers from around the world, offering insights on the latest trends and strategies in affiliate marketing. Confirmed speakers include:
– Niv Shaked, Sales Director at TikTok
– Nick Shackleford, Co-Founder at BREZ
– Oliver Kenyon, Founder and CEO at ConversionWise
– Joshua Chin, Founder at Chronos Agency
– Jordan Rolband, Founder and CEO at DFO Global Performance
– Caoimhe Nugent, Senior Strategist at Google
– Gabe Piacentini, Head of Business Development & Lead Generation at Snapchat
– Marisha Lakhiani, Chief Growth Officer at Mindvalley
In addition to these incredible speakers, AGS will showcase exhibitors from some of the leading companies in affiliate marketing. AGS focuses on key affiliate marketing verticals, including eCommerce, digital marketing, financial services, and nutraceuticals, offering solutions that can drive performance marketing at scale. These exhibitors are established players with proven success in their respective verticals, offering innovative tools, technology, and services. Notable exhibitors include:
– Google
– Meta
– TikTok
– YouTube
– SnapChat
– TrafficStars
– MGID
– Clickbank
These exhibitors offer solutions designed to help performance marketers scale their businesses and succeed across multiple geographies, ensuring that AGS remains a hub for strategic partnerships in affiliate marketing.
Join us at AGS 2026
Whether you’re an affiliate marketer, brand, or publisher, AGS 2026 offers the perfect opportunity to grow your business, make valuable connections, and discover new opportunities for growth in various industries. Don’t miss out on the chance to be part of Europe’s premier affiliate marketing event. For more information and to register for AGS 2026, visit Affiliate Grand Slam.
The event promises to be a unique opportunity for growth, innovation, and deal-making at scale. AGS’s multi-vertical approach covers key affiliate marketing sectors and is set to bring together top experts and companies in a focused, brand-safe, and commercially accessible environment.
One ticket, four events
AGS is proud to offer attendees access to four key events with one ticket. Alongside AGS, attendees can also explore SiGMA, AIBC, and FX.World. SiGMA World is a renowned event dedicated to the digital and iGaming industries, providing a platform for innovation, networking, and business development.
AIBC focuses on blockchain and emerging technologies, making it an essential event for those at the cutting edge of tech. FX.world brings together the key players from across the global FX and fintech ecosystem. These events are known for their fresh ideas, global networking opportunities, and focus on digital innovation. AGS stands as a premier event in the affiliate marketing space, offering exclusive industry insights and facilitating strategic conversations across multiple verticals, including eCommerce, finance, performance marketing, and more. With 30,000 delegates expected, AGS is set to provide a global platform for cross-industry collaboration.
Built for deal-making at a global scale
AGS provides the ideal environment for businesses to grow by facilitating connections between leading affiliate marketers, publishers, advertisers, and brands. It is the perfect space to build partnerships, exchange ideas, and unlock valuable opportunities in the affiliate marketing world. With its global audience, AGS fosters a strong, professional networking environment to support your business’s international expansion.
AGS maintains a strict verification process for affiliates attending the event. This ensures that only verified professionals can join, keeping discussions and partnerships valuable and relevant to the industry’s needs. AGS provides a brand-safe environment focused on mainstream, scalable verticals, which opens the door to a broad pool of advertisers and partners.
Speakers and exhibitors
AGS 2026 will feature top speakers from around the world, offering insights on the latest trends and strategies in affiliate marketing. Confirmed speakers include:
– Niv Shaked, Sales Director at TikTok
– Nick Shackleford, Co-Founder at BREZ
– Oliver Kenyon, Founder and CEO at ConversionWise
– Joshua Chin, Founder at Chronos Agency
– Jordan Rolband, Founder and CEO at DFO Global Performance
– Caoimhe Nugent, Senior Strategist at Google
– Gabe Piacentini, Head of Business Development & Lead Generation at Snapchat
– Marisha Lakhiani, Chief Growth Officer at Mindvalley
In addition to these incredible speakers, AGS will showcase exhibitors from some of the leading companies in affiliate marketing. AGS focuses on key affiliate marketing verticals, including eCommerce, digital marketing, financial services, and nutraceuticals, offering solutions that can drive performance marketing at scale. These exhibitors are established players with proven success in their respective verticals, offering innovative tools, technology, and services. Notable exhibitors include:
– Meta
– TikTok
– YouTube
– SnapChat
– TrafficStars
– MGID
– Clickbank
These exhibitors offer solutions designed to help performance marketers scale their businesses and succeed across multiple geographies, ensuring that AGS remains a hub for strategic partnerships in affiliate marketing.
Join us at AGS 2026
Whether you’re an affiliate marketer, brand, or publisher, AGS 2026 offers the perfect opportunity to grow your business, make valuable connections, and discover new opportunities for growth in various industries. Don’t miss out on the chance to be part of Europe’s premier affiliate marketing event. For more information and to register for AGS 2026, visit Affiliate Grand Slam.
6
Article
AI Frontier: Scale – Intelligence Draws a Full House in DubaiDUBAI, UAE – OCTOBER 14, 2026 — The AI Frontier:
Scale – Intelligence, hosted by CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands, successfully concluded yesterday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd. Held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai, the event brought together founders, investors, developers, and technology leaders across AI, Web3, finance, and decentralized infrastructure.
Led by Vaibhavv Ali, who heads CryptoMondays MENA, the gathering highlighted Dubai’s growing role as a hub for emerging technologies and regional collaboration.
Key Panel: Exploring AI, Compliance, and the Future Horizon
The centerpoint of the afternoon was a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Sarah Fathima Ahmed. The panel featured industry leaders, including Elja Boom (Founder & CEO of Mars Holding), Amira Soliman (CEO & Founder of Time Guardian | Athar), Donald Lavoile (Founder & President of Venturis 13 Global Holdings LLC), Evin McMullen (Co-Founder of Amantrue), and Harly Zappino (Managing Partner at Neo Legal).
The discussion spanned key dimensions of artificial intelligence, including:
– Early Exploration: Panelists shared personal stories about their first encounters with artificial intelligence, reflecting on how early experiments evolved into full-scale enterprise strategies.
– Compliance & Governance: The panel tackled the challenges of navigating legal frameworks, data sovereignty, regulatory alignment, and building ethical AI models across global and regional jurisdictions.
– Future Capabilities: Speakers discussed future shifts in AI, focusing on autonomous AI agents, decentralized intelligence, real-world asset integration, and localized compute capabilities.
– Advice to Younger Selves & Next-Gen Builders: Closing with personal reflections, panelists offered advice to their younger selves and the next generation, emphasizing adaptable learning, continuous curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical innovation.
High-Signal Networking & Full House Success
Following the main stage discussions, attendees enjoyed high-value networking over refreshments. The sold-out, full-house event delivered strategic conversations, investment leads, and ecosystem partnerships across the regional tech landscape.
Event Overview
Title: The AI Frontier – CryptoMondays MENA – Scale – Minds By Animoca Brands
Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST
Venue: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE ( Event Link )
Presented By:
Enya Labs · Ghaf Labs · CryptoMondaysMENA · Nadmah · Rox Custody
In Collaboration With:
Salad Labs · Minds by Animoca Brands
Event Partners & Supporters
This event was made possible through collaboration across the regional and global technology ecosystem:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, CryptoEventsGlobal , and AllConfsbot
Media Contact
For press inquiries, post-event media, or future chapter updates, please contact the team via official community channels:
Website / Event Hub: https://luma.com/cryptomondaysdxb
Telegram: https://t.me/+yKTz36KWeXhiN2I9
AI Frontier: Scale – Intelligence Draws a Full House in Dubai
DUBAI, UAE – OCTOBER 14, 2026 — The AI Frontier:
Scale – Intelligence, hosted by CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands, successfully concluded yesterday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd. Held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai, the event brought together founders, investors, developers, and technology leaders across AI, Web3, finance, and decentralized infrastructure.
Led by Vaibhavv Ali, who heads CryptoMondays MENA, the gathering highlighted Dubai’s growing role as a hub for emerging technologies and regional collaboration.
Key Panel: Exploring AI, Compliance, and the Future Horizon
The centerpoint of the afternoon was a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Sarah Fathima Ahmed. The panel featured industry leaders, including Elja Boom (Founder & CEO of Mars Holding), Amira Soliman (CEO & Founder of Time Guardian | Athar), Donald Lavoile (Founder & President of Venturis 13 Global Holdings LLC), Evin McMullen (Co-Founder of Amantrue), and Harly Zappino (Managing Partner at Neo Legal).
The discussion spanned key dimensions of artificial intelligence, including:
– Early Exploration: Panelists shared personal stories about their first encounters with artificial intelligence, reflecting on how early experiments evolved into full-scale enterprise strategies.
– Compliance & Governance: The panel tackled the challenges of navigating legal frameworks, data sovereignty, regulatory alignment, and building ethical AI models across global and regional jurisdictions.
– Future Capabilities: Speakers discussed future shifts in AI, focusing on autonomous AI agents, decentralized intelligence, real-world asset integration, and localized compute capabilities.
– Advice to Younger Selves & Next-Gen Builders: Closing with personal reflections, panelists offered advice to their younger selves and the next generation, emphasizing adaptable learning, continuous curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical innovation.
High-Signal Networking & Full House Success
Following the main stage discussions, attendees enjoyed high-value networking over refreshments. The sold-out, full-house event delivered strategic conversations, investment leads, and ecosystem partnerships across the regional tech landscape.
Event Overview
Title: The AI Frontier – CryptoMondays MENA – Scale – Minds By Animoca Brands
Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST
Venue: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE ( Event Link )
Presented By:
Enya Labs · Ghaf Labs · CryptoMondaysMENA · Nadmah · Rox Custody
In Collaboration With:
Salad Labs · Minds by Animoca Brands
Event Partners & Supporters
This event was made possible through collaboration across the regional and global technology ecosystem:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, CryptoEventsGlobal , and AllConfsbot
Media Contact
For press inquiries, post-event media, or future chapter updates, please contact the team via official community channels:
Website / Event Hub: https://luma.com/cryptomondaysdxb
Telegram: https://t.me/+yKTz36KWeXhiN2I9
Scale – Intelligence, hosted by CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands, successfully concluded yesterday afternoon before a standing-room-only crowd. Held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai, the event brought together founders, investors, developers, and technology leaders across AI, Web3, finance, and decentralized infrastructure.
Led by Vaibhavv Ali, who heads CryptoMondays MENA, the gathering highlighted Dubai’s growing role as a hub for emerging technologies and regional collaboration.
Key Panel: Exploring AI, Compliance, and the Future Horizon
The centerpoint of the afternoon was a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Sarah Fathima Ahmed. The panel featured industry leaders, including Elja Boom (Founder & CEO of Mars Holding), Amira Soliman (CEO & Founder of Time Guardian | Athar), Donald Lavoile (Founder & President of Venturis 13 Global Holdings LLC), Evin McMullen (Co-Founder of Amantrue), and Harly Zappino (Managing Partner at Neo Legal).
The discussion spanned key dimensions of artificial intelligence, including:
– Early Exploration: Panelists shared personal stories about their first encounters with artificial intelligence, reflecting on how early experiments evolved into full-scale enterprise strategies.
– Compliance & Governance: The panel tackled the challenges of navigating legal frameworks, data sovereignty, regulatory alignment, and building ethical AI models across global and regional jurisdictions.
– Future Capabilities: Speakers discussed future shifts in AI, focusing on autonomous AI agents, decentralized intelligence, real-world asset integration, and localized compute capabilities.
– Advice to Younger Selves & Next-Gen Builders: Closing with personal reflections, panelists offered advice to their younger selves and the next generation, emphasizing adaptable learning, continuous curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical innovation.
High-Signal Networking & Full House Success
Following the main stage discussions, attendees enjoyed high-value networking over refreshments. The sold-out, full-house event delivered strategic conversations, investment leads, and ecosystem partnerships across the regional tech landscape.
Event Overview
Title: The AI Frontier – CryptoMondays MENA – Scale – Minds By Animoca Brands
Date: Tuesday, 13th October 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST
Venue: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE ( Event Link )
Presented By:
Enya Labs · Ghaf Labs · CryptoMondaysMENA · Nadmah · Rox Custody
In Collaboration With:
Salad Labs · Minds by Animoca Brands
Event Partners & Supporters
This event was made possible through collaboration across the regional and global technology ecosystem:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, CryptoEventsGlobal , and AllConfsbot
Media Contact
For press inquiries, post-event media, or future chapter updates, please contact the team via official community channels:
Website / Event Hub: https://luma.com/cryptomondaysdxb
Telegram: https://t.me/+yKTz36KWeXhiN2I9
125
Article
Blur, Once the Biggest Ethereum NFT Marketplace, Will Shut Its Website on November 12 After Tradi...Blur, which once handled most of Ethereum’s NFT trading, announced it will shut down its website on November 12, 2026, after monthly trading volume collapsed more than 99% from its peak.
The closure is a frontend shutdown rather than a full wipe-out: the marketplace’s smart contracts will stay live on-chain. But the end of the main trading interface, plus the wind-down of its NFT lending service Blend, marks another casualty in a brutal year for crypto projects built on incentives.
What Blur Announced
Blur posted the news on X on October 12:
“The blur.io frontend will be deprecated on November 12, 2026. This deprecation only applies to the frontend. The Blur marketplace protocol will remain operational on-chain, and $BLUR will continue to control its fee switch.”
The fee switch matters because Blur’s marketplace charged traders no marketplace fees and generated no revenue from transaction fees. BLUR token holders keep the ability to turn fees on at some point, though the team gave no indication that this is planned.
Blend Lending Is Winding Down
The same date applies to Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer lending protocol for loans backed by NFTs. Blur said:
“Blend will stop matching new loans on November 12, 2026. Borrowers have until then to repay their loans or allow them to default. After this date, we will provide a frontend tool to help users withdraw their assets from Blend.”
The announcement did not say when that withdrawal tool will be available. Borrowers with open loans have to decide before the deadline whether to repay or accept default.
From 70% Market Share to Almost Nothing
The scale of the decline is stark. Token Terminal data shows Blur’s monthly trading volume peaked at about $1.43 billion in March 2023, when it held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume. By March 2026, three years later, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5%.
Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by courting professional traders with low fees, trading tools built for speed, and token airdrop campaigns that rewarded activity. That strategy also drew criticism. Opponents argued that rewarding trading inflated volumes and encouraged transactions made mainly to earn rewards. Blur’s low-royalty policy also intensified competition between marketplaces and frustrated collection creators who relied on royalty income.
The Market Reaction
The BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement. The news also came ten days after Blur’s sister project Blast announced its own shutdown. Both were built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, which led CoinDesk to describe Blur’s closure as the second major retreat in ten days for projects from the same founder.
What It Means for Users and Collectors
For most NFT holders, the practical impact is limited. As Cryptopolitan noted, closing the marketplace does not remove any NFTs from people’s wallets, since the assets live on-chain. Users who trade through Blur will need to move to other marketplaces or interact with the on-chain contracts directly after November 12. Anyone with an open Blend loan, either as borrower or lender, should check their position and the November 12 deadline and watch for the promised withdrawal tool.
A Year of Shutdowns
Blur joins a long list of crypto projects winding down in 2026. Earlier this year:
– AscendEX ceased operations on July 1. – BitMEX announced in July that it would close on September 23. – BitMart announced a phased wind-down, with trading ending August 26 and full closure set for January 31, 2027. – Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 also tied to Roquerre, announced its shutdown on October 2. – Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Layer 2, will shut down on December 15.
Industry observers have tracked well over 30 crypto projects closing in 2026, including exchanges, blockchains, and DeFi protocols, citing tough market conditions, rising costs, and competition.
Why NFTs Specifically
Blur’s shutdown reflects how thoroughly the NFT market has cooled since its 2021-2022 peak. According to Decrypt, NFT market revenue is projected at about $318 million this year, a fraction of the boom years. When trading volume depends heavily on token incentives, activity can vanish once rewards fade, and Blur’s collapse from about $1.43 billion a month to under $7 million fits that pattern. Cryptopolitan described the broader picture as a sector in retreat rather than necessarily total collapse, since collectors, creators, and some marketplaces remain active.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will define what happens next:
– November 12: the date the website goes offline and Blend stops matching new loans. – Blend borrowers: how many repay versus default before the deadline. – The withdrawal tool: when Blur releases it and how smoothly assets can be recovered. – The fee switch: whether BLUR holders ever vote to turn trading fees on, which could change the token’s role even without a website. – Other marketplaces: whether Blur’s former traders move to remaining platforms or leave NFTs altogether.
For now, Blur’s closure is another reminder that growth driven by incentives can be fast and fragile, and that the infrastructure may outlast the website even when the users do not.
Blur, Once the Biggest Ethereum NFT Marketplace, Will Shut Its Website on November 12 After Tradi...
Blur, which once handled most of Ethereum’s NFT trading, announced it will shut down its website on November 12, 2026, after monthly trading volume collapsed more than 99% from its peak.
The closure is a frontend shutdown rather than a full wipe-out: the marketplace’s smart contracts will stay live on-chain. But the end of the main trading interface, plus the wind-down of its NFT lending service Blend, marks another casualty in a brutal year for crypto projects built on incentives.
What Blur Announced
Blur posted the news on X on October 12:
“The blur.io frontend will be deprecated on November 12, 2026. This deprecation only applies to the frontend. The Blur marketplace protocol will remain operational on-chain, and $BLUR will continue to control its fee switch.”
The fee switch matters because Blur’s marketplace charged traders no marketplace fees and generated no revenue from transaction fees. BLUR token holders keep the ability to turn fees on at some point, though the team gave no indication that this is planned.
Blend Lending Is Winding Down
The same date applies to Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer lending protocol for loans backed by NFTs. Blur said:
“Blend will stop matching new loans on November 12, 2026. Borrowers have until then to repay their loans or allow them to default. After this date, we will provide a frontend tool to help users withdraw their assets from Blend.”
The announcement did not say when that withdrawal tool will be available. Borrowers with open loans have to decide before the deadline whether to repay or accept default.
From 70% Market Share to Almost Nothing
The scale of the decline is stark. Token Terminal data shows Blur’s monthly trading volume peaked at about $1.43 billion in March 2023, when it held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume. By March 2026, three years later, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5%.
Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by courting professional traders with low fees, trading tools built for speed, and token airdrop campaigns that rewarded activity. That strategy also drew criticism. Opponents argued that rewarding trading inflated volumes and encouraged transactions made mainly to earn rewards. Blur’s low-royalty policy also intensified competition between marketplaces and frustrated collection creators who relied on royalty income.
The Market Reaction
The BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement. The news also came ten days after Blur’s sister project Blast announced its own shutdown. Both were built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, which led CoinDesk to describe Blur’s closure as the second major retreat in ten days for projects from the same founder.
What It Means for Users and Collectors
For most NFT holders, the practical impact is limited. As Cryptopolitan noted, closing the marketplace does not remove any NFTs from people’s wallets, since the assets live on-chain. Users who trade through Blur will need to move to other marketplaces or interact with the on-chain contracts directly after November 12. Anyone with an open Blend loan, either as borrower or lender, should check their position and the November 12 deadline and watch for the promised withdrawal tool.
A Year of Shutdowns
Blur joins a long list of crypto projects winding down in 2026. Earlier this year:
– AscendEX ceased operations on July 1. – BitMEX announced in July that it would close on September 23. – BitMart announced a phased wind-down, with trading ending August 26 and full closure set for January 31, 2027. – Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 also tied to Roquerre, announced its shutdown on October 2. – Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Layer 2, will shut down on December 15.
Industry observers have tracked well over 30 crypto projects closing in 2026, including exchanges, blockchains, and DeFi protocols, citing tough market conditions, rising costs, and competition.
Why NFTs Specifically
Blur’s shutdown reflects how thoroughly the NFT market has cooled since its 2021-2022 peak. According to Decrypt, NFT market revenue is projected at about $318 million this year, a fraction of the boom years. When trading volume depends heavily on token incentives, activity can vanish once rewards fade, and Blur’s collapse from about $1.43 billion a month to under $7 million fits that pattern. Cryptopolitan described the broader picture as a sector in retreat rather than necessarily total collapse, since collectors, creators, and some marketplaces remain active.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will define what happens next:
– November 12: the date the website goes offline and Blend stops matching new loans. – Blend borrowers: how many repay versus default before the deadline. – The withdrawal tool: when Blur releases it and how smoothly assets can be recovered. – The fee switch: whether BLUR holders ever vote to turn trading fees on, which could change the token’s role even without a website. – Other marketplaces: whether Blur’s former traders move to remaining platforms or leave NFTs altogether.
For now, Blur’s closure is another reminder that growth driven by incentives can be fast and fragile, and that the infrastructure may outlast the website even when the users do not.
The closure is a frontend shutdown rather than a full wipe-out: the marketplace’s smart contracts will stay live on-chain. But the end of the main trading interface, plus the wind-down of its NFT lending service Blend, marks another casualty in a brutal year for crypto projects built on incentives.
What Blur Announced
Blur posted the news on X on October 12:
“The blur.io frontend will be deprecated on November 12, 2026. This deprecation only applies to the frontend. The Blur marketplace protocol will remain operational on-chain, and $BLUR will continue to control its fee switch.”
The fee switch matters because Blur’s marketplace charged traders no marketplace fees and generated no revenue from transaction fees. BLUR token holders keep the ability to turn fees on at some point, though the team gave no indication that this is planned.
Blend Lending Is Winding Down
The same date applies to Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer lending protocol for loans backed by NFTs. Blur said:
“Blend will stop matching new loans on November 12, 2026. Borrowers have until then to repay their loans or allow them to default. After this date, we will provide a frontend tool to help users withdraw their assets from Blend.”
The announcement did not say when that withdrawal tool will be available. Borrowers with open loans have to decide before the deadline whether to repay or accept default.
From 70% Market Share to Almost Nothing
The scale of the decline is stark. Token Terminal data shows Blur’s monthly trading volume peaked at about $1.43 billion in March 2023, when it held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume. By March 2026, three years later, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5%.
Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by courting professional traders with low fees, trading tools built for speed, and token airdrop campaigns that rewarded activity. That strategy also drew criticism. Opponents argued that rewarding trading inflated volumes and encouraged transactions made mainly to earn rewards. Blur’s low-royalty policy also intensified competition between marketplaces and frustrated collection creators who relied on royalty income.
The Market Reaction
The BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement. The news also came ten days after Blur’s sister project Blast announced its own shutdown. Both were built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, which led CoinDesk to describe Blur’s closure as the second major retreat in ten days for projects from the same founder.
What It Means for Users and Collectors
For most NFT holders, the practical impact is limited. As Cryptopolitan noted, closing the marketplace does not remove any NFTs from people’s wallets, since the assets live on-chain. Users who trade through Blur will need to move to other marketplaces or interact with the on-chain contracts directly after November 12. Anyone with an open Blend loan, either as borrower or lender, should check their position and the November 12 deadline and watch for the promised withdrawal tool.
A Year of Shutdowns
Blur joins a long list of crypto projects winding down in 2026. Earlier this year:
– AscendEX ceased operations on July 1. – BitMEX announced in July that it would close on September 23. – BitMart announced a phased wind-down, with trading ending August 26 and full closure set for January 31, 2027. – Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 also tied to Roquerre, announced its shutdown on October 2. – Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Layer 2, will shut down on December 15.
Industry observers have tracked well over 30 crypto projects closing in 2026, including exchanges, blockchains, and DeFi protocols, citing tough market conditions, rising costs, and competition.
Why NFTs Specifically
Blur’s shutdown reflects how thoroughly the NFT market has cooled since its 2021-2022 peak. According to Decrypt, NFT market revenue is projected at about $318 million this year, a fraction of the boom years. When trading volume depends heavily on token incentives, activity can vanish once rewards fade, and Blur’s collapse from about $1.43 billion a month to under $7 million fits that pattern. Cryptopolitan described the broader picture as a sector in retreat rather than necessarily total collapse, since collectors, creators, and some marketplaces remain active.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will define what happens next:
– November 12: the date the website goes offline and Blend stops matching new loans. – Blend borrowers: how many repay versus default before the deadline. – The withdrawal tool: when Blur releases it and how smoothly assets can be recovered. – The fee switch: whether BLUR holders ever vote to turn trading fees on, which could change the token’s role even without a website. – Other marketplaces: whether Blur’s former traders move to remaining platforms or leave NFTs altogether.
For now, Blur’s closure is another reminder that growth driven by incentives can be fast and fragile, and that the infrastructure may outlast the website even when the users do not.
1
102
Blur, Once the Biggest Ethereum NFT Marketplace, Will Shut Its Website on November 12 After Tradi...Blur, which once handled most of Ethereum’s NFT trading, announced it will shut down its website on November 12, 2026, after monthly trading volume collapsed more than 99% from its peak.
The closure is a frontend shutdown rather than a full wipe-out: the marketplace’s smart contracts will stay live on-chain. But the end of the main trading interface, plus the wind-down of its NFT lending service Blend, marks another casualty in a brutal year for crypto projects built on incentives.
What Blur Announced
Blur posted the news on X on October 12:
“The blur.io frontend will be deprecated on November 12, 2026. This deprecation only applies to the frontend. The Blur marketplace protocol will remain operational on-chain, and $BLUR will continue to control its fee switch.”
The fee switch matters because Blur’s marketplace charged traders no marketplace fees and generated no revenue from transaction fees. BLUR token holders keep the ability to turn fees on at some point, though the team gave no indication that this is planned.
Blend Lending Is Winding Down
The same date applies to Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer lending protocol for loans backed by NFTs. Blur said:
“Blend will stop matching new loans on November 12, 2026. Borrowers have until then to repay their loans or allow them to default. After this date, we will provide a frontend tool to help users withdraw their assets from Blend.”
The announcement did not say when that withdrawal tool will be available. Borrowers with open loans have to decide before the deadline whether to repay or accept default.
From 70% Market Share to Almost Nothing
The scale of the decline is stark. Token Terminal data shows Blur’s monthly trading volume peaked at about $1.43 billion in March 2023, when it held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume. By March 2026, three years later, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5%.
Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by courting professional traders with low fees, trading tools built for speed, and token airdrop campaigns that rewarded activity. That strategy also drew criticism. Opponents argued that rewarding trading inflated volumes and encouraged transactions made mainly to earn rewards. Blur’s low-royalty policy also intensified competition between marketplaces and frustrated collection creators who relied on royalty income.
The Market Reaction
The BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement. The news also came ten days after Blur’s sister project Blast announced its own shutdown. Both were built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, which led CoinDesk to describe Blur’s closure as the second major retreat in ten days for projects from the same founder.
What It Means for Users and Collectors
For most NFT holders, the practical impact is limited. As Cryptopolitan noted, closing the marketplace does not remove any NFTs from people’s wallets, since the assets live on-chain. Users who trade through Blur will need to move to other marketplaces or interact with the on-chain contracts directly after November 12. Anyone with an open Blend loan, either as borrower or lender, should check their position and the November 12 deadline and watch for the promised withdrawal tool.
A Year of Shutdowns
Blur joins a long list of crypto projects winding down in 2026. Earlier this year:
– AscendEX ceased operations on July 1.
– BitMEX announced in July that it would close on September 23.
– BitMart announced a phased wind-down, with trading ending August 26 and full closure set for January 31, 2027.
– Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 also tied to Roquerre, announced its shutdown on October 2.
– Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Layer 2, will shut down on December 15.
Industry observers have tracked well over 30 crypto projects closing in 2026, including exchanges, blockchains, and DeFi protocols, citing tough market conditions, rising costs, and competition.
Why NFTs Specifically
Blur’s shutdown reflects how thoroughly the NFT market has cooled since its 2021-2022 peak. According to Decrypt, NFT market revenue is projected at about $318 million this year, a fraction of the boom years. When trading volume depends heavily on token incentives, activity can vanish once rewards fade, and Blur’s collapse from about $1.43 billion a month to under $7 million fits that pattern. Cryptopolitan described the broader picture as a sector in retreat rather than necessarily total collapse, since collectors, creators, and some marketplaces remain active.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will define what happens next:
– November 12: the date the website goes offline and Blend stops matching new loans.
– Blend borrowers: how many repay versus default before the deadline.
– The withdrawal tool: when Blur releases it and how smoothly assets can be recovered.
– The fee switch: whether BLUR holders ever vote to turn trading fees on, which could change the token’s role even without a website.
– Other marketplaces: whether Blur’s former traders move to remaining platforms or leave NFTs altogether.
For now, Blur’s closure is another reminder that growth driven by incentives can be fast and fragile, and that the infrastructure may outlast the website even when the users do not.
Blur, Once the Biggest Ethereum NFT Marketplace, Will Shut Its Website on November 12 After Tradi...
Blur, which once handled most of Ethereum’s NFT trading, announced it will shut down its website on November 12, 2026, after monthly trading volume collapsed more than 99% from its peak.
The closure is a frontend shutdown rather than a full wipe-out: the marketplace’s smart contracts will stay live on-chain. But the end of the main trading interface, plus the wind-down of its NFT lending service Blend, marks another casualty in a brutal year for crypto projects built on incentives.
What Blur Announced
Blur posted the news on X on October 12:
“The blur.io frontend will be deprecated on November 12, 2026. This deprecation only applies to the frontend. The Blur marketplace protocol will remain operational on-chain, and $BLUR will continue to control its fee switch.”
The fee switch matters because Blur’s marketplace charged traders no marketplace fees and generated no revenue from transaction fees. BLUR token holders keep the ability to turn fees on at some point, though the team gave no indication that this is planned.
Blend Lending Is Winding Down
The same date applies to Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer lending protocol for loans backed by NFTs. Blur said:
“Blend will stop matching new loans on November 12, 2026. Borrowers have until then to repay their loans or allow them to default. After this date, we will provide a frontend tool to help users withdraw their assets from Blend.”
The announcement did not say when that withdrawal tool will be available. Borrowers with open loans have to decide before the deadline whether to repay or accept default.
From 70% Market Share to Almost Nothing
The scale of the decline is stark. Token Terminal data shows Blur’s monthly trading volume peaked at about $1.43 billion in March 2023, when it held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume. By March 2026, three years later, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5%.
Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by courting professional traders with low fees, trading tools built for speed, and token airdrop campaigns that rewarded activity. That strategy also drew criticism. Opponents argued that rewarding trading inflated volumes and encouraged transactions made mainly to earn rewards. Blur’s low-royalty policy also intensified competition between marketplaces and frustrated collection creators who relied on royalty income.
The Market Reaction
The BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement. The news also came ten days after Blur’s sister project Blast announced its own shutdown. Both were built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, which led CoinDesk to describe Blur’s closure as the second major retreat in ten days for projects from the same founder.
What It Means for Users and Collectors
For most NFT holders, the practical impact is limited. As Cryptopolitan noted, closing the marketplace does not remove any NFTs from people’s wallets, since the assets live on-chain. Users who trade through Blur will need to move to other marketplaces or interact with the on-chain contracts directly after November 12. Anyone with an open Blend loan, either as borrower or lender, should check their position and the November 12 deadline and watch for the promised withdrawal tool.
A Year of Shutdowns
Blur joins a long list of crypto projects winding down in 2026. Earlier this year:
– AscendEX ceased operations on July 1.
– BitMEX announced in July that it would close on September 23.
– BitMart announced a phased wind-down, with trading ending August 26 and full closure set for January 31, 2027.
– Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 also tied to Roquerre, announced its shutdown on October 2.
– Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Layer 2, will shut down on December 15.
Industry observers have tracked well over 30 crypto projects closing in 2026, including exchanges, blockchains, and DeFi protocols, citing tough market conditions, rising costs, and competition.
Why NFTs Specifically
Blur’s shutdown reflects how thoroughly the NFT market has cooled since its 2021-2022 peak. According to Decrypt, NFT market revenue is projected at about $318 million this year, a fraction of the boom years. When trading volume depends heavily on token incentives, activity can vanish once rewards fade, and Blur’s collapse from about $1.43 billion a month to under $7 million fits that pattern. Cryptopolitan described the broader picture as a sector in retreat rather than necessarily total collapse, since collectors, creators, and some marketplaces remain active.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will define what happens next:
– November 12: the date the website goes offline and Blend stops matching new loans.
– Blend borrowers: how many repay versus default before the deadline.
– The withdrawal tool: when Blur releases it and how smoothly assets can be recovered.
– The fee switch: whether BLUR holders ever vote to turn trading fees on, which could change the token’s role even without a website.
– Other marketplaces: whether Blur’s former traders move to remaining platforms or leave NFTs altogether.
For now, Blur’s closure is another reminder that growth driven by incentives can be fast and fragile, and that the infrastructure may outlast the website even when the users do not.
The closure is a frontend shutdown rather than a full wipe-out: the marketplace’s smart contracts will stay live on-chain. But the end of the main trading interface, plus the wind-down of its NFT lending service Blend, marks another casualty in a brutal year for crypto projects built on incentives.
What Blur Announced
Blur posted the news on X on October 12:
“The blur.io frontend will be deprecated on November 12, 2026. This deprecation only applies to the frontend. The Blur marketplace protocol will remain operational on-chain, and $BLUR will continue to control its fee switch.”
The fee switch matters because Blur’s marketplace charged traders no marketplace fees and generated no revenue from transaction fees. BLUR token holders keep the ability to turn fees on at some point, though the team gave no indication that this is planned.
Blend Lending Is Winding Down
The same date applies to Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer lending protocol for loans backed by NFTs. Blur said:
“Blend will stop matching new loans on November 12, 2026. Borrowers have until then to repay their loans or allow them to default. After this date, we will provide a frontend tool to help users withdraw their assets from Blend.”
The announcement did not say when that withdrawal tool will be available. Borrowers with open loans have to decide before the deadline whether to repay or accept default.
From 70% Market Share to Almost Nothing
The scale of the decline is stark. Token Terminal data shows Blur’s monthly trading volume peaked at about $1.43 billion in March 2023, when it held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume. By March 2026, three years later, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5%.
Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by courting professional traders with low fees, trading tools built for speed, and token airdrop campaigns that rewarded activity. That strategy also drew criticism. Opponents argued that rewarding trading inflated volumes and encouraged transactions made mainly to earn rewards. Blur’s low-royalty policy also intensified competition between marketplaces and frustrated collection creators who relied on royalty income.
The Market Reaction
The BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement. The news also came ten days after Blur’s sister project Blast announced its own shutdown. Both were built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, which led CoinDesk to describe Blur’s closure as the second major retreat in ten days for projects from the same founder.
What It Means for Users and Collectors
For most NFT holders, the practical impact is limited. As Cryptopolitan noted, closing the marketplace does not remove any NFTs from people’s wallets, since the assets live on-chain. Users who trade through Blur will need to move to other marketplaces or interact with the on-chain contracts directly after November 12. Anyone with an open Blend loan, either as borrower or lender, should check their position and the November 12 deadline and watch for the promised withdrawal tool.
A Year of Shutdowns
Blur joins a long list of crypto projects winding down in 2026. Earlier this year:
– AscendEX ceased operations on July 1.
– BitMEX announced in July that it would close on September 23.
– BitMart announced a phased wind-down, with trading ending August 26 and full closure set for January 31, 2027.
– Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 also tied to Roquerre, announced its shutdown on October 2.
– Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Layer 2, will shut down on December 15.
Industry observers have tracked well over 30 crypto projects closing in 2026, including exchanges, blockchains, and DeFi protocols, citing tough market conditions, rising costs, and competition.
Why NFTs Specifically
Blur’s shutdown reflects how thoroughly the NFT market has cooled since its 2021-2022 peak. According to Decrypt, NFT market revenue is projected at about $318 million this year, a fraction of the boom years. When trading volume depends heavily on token incentives, activity can vanish once rewards fade, and Blur’s collapse from about $1.43 billion a month to under $7 million fits that pattern. Cryptopolitan described the broader picture as a sector in retreat rather than necessarily total collapse, since collectors, creators, and some marketplaces remain active.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will define what happens next:
– November 12: the date the website goes offline and Blend stops matching new loans.
– Blend borrowers: how many repay versus default before the deadline.
– The withdrawal tool: when Blur releases it and how smoothly assets can be recovered.
– The fee switch: whether BLUR holders ever vote to turn trading fees on, which could change the token’s role even without a website.
– Other marketplaces: whether Blur’s former traders move to remaining platforms or leave NFTs altogether.
For now, Blur’s closure is another reminder that growth driven by incentives can be fast and fragile, and that the infrastructure may outlast the website even when the users do not.
254
Family Offices Hold Just 0.4% in Crypto, Yet 74% Are Invested or Considering It: Inside the Quiet...By Anastasia Lit
Family offices are sitting on one of the widest gaps in digital assets: nearly three-quarters say they are invested in crypto or considering it, yet almost nine in ten hold none at all. As alternatives climb past 40% of the typical family portfolio, that gap is starting to close – and how it closes will be decided by governance, not price.
The shift is being driven by infrastructure rather than ideology. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, the US GENIUS Act and the end of MiCA’s transition period in Europe have handed investment committees tools that their custodians and auditors already understand.
The 42% Question: Where Crypto Sits in the Alternatives Mix
Family offices are the most patient capital in the world, and they are already deep in alternatives. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, which surveyed 307 families with an average net worth of $2.7 billion, alternatives make up 42% of the average portfolio — a share families plan to hold steady through 2026.
Crypto, however, remains the smallest line in that mix. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 89% of the 333 single-family offices it surveyed hold no crypto at all, with the average allocation to digital assets standing at just 0.4%.
Families Are Rotating, Not Retreating
Family offices are not abandoning alternatives — they are rotating within them. The illiquid end of the book is shrinking, while liquid and diversifying strategies are gaining ground. Private equity and real estate are taking the deepest cuts, with hedge funds, gold and infrastructure picking up the slack.
The message is liquidity and diversification over lock-ups. That is precisely the gap a well-structured digital asset sleeve can fill: liquid, uncorrelated during parts of the cycle, and accessible without a ten-year commitment.
Wide Interest, Narrow Exposure
The data tells two stories at once. On exposure, family offices remain cautious: J.P. Morgan’s 2026 report shows only 11% hold any crypto, with an average Bitcoin allocation of 0.2%. Only 17% name crypto as a key investment theme.
On intent, the picture looks very different. BNY’s 2025 survey of 282 single-family office professionals found that 74% have invested in crypto or are considering it, a 21% increase in a single year. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey showed optimism on crypto doubling from 8% to 17%, with Asia Pacific leading the way: 37% of families in the region are invested or interested, and roughly one in 20 holds more than 10% of investable assets in digital assets.
Conviction is also building among those already in the market. In a 2025 Ocorian study of 200 family members, family office executives and advisers, 78% said the value of their digital holdings had risen over five years, while 97% said digital assets are “here to stay.”
In short, interest is broad but exposure is thin — and the space between the two is where the next wave of family capital is likely to move.
Why Now: Infrastructure, Not Ideology
What changed for family offices is not their view of crypto but the plumbing around it. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs gave families an entry point their custodians and auditors already understand.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, set the first federal framework for stablecoins, requiring full backing by dollars or similarly liquid assets. In the European Union, MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, 2026, meaning crypto service providers now need full authorisation to serve European clients.
Five Ways Families Actually Hold Digital Assets
For a family office, the question is rarely “crypto or not.” It is which wrapper, which custodian and which mandate. According to Citi’s survey, 24% of families invest in digital assets directly and 18% do so through ETFs. Five routes now dominate.
Spot ETFs and listed products. Bitcoin and Ether exposure sits inside an existing brokerage account, with familiar reporting, tax treatment and audit trail. For a conservative investment committee, this is the easiest first step.
Direct holdings with a qualified custodian. Families own the asset outright, held by a regulated custodian or a bank. That brings more control, but also more operational work: key management, insurance and counterparty checks.
Crypto funds and managers. Liquid token funds, venture funds investing in blockchain infrastructure and market-neutral strategies let the family buy expertise, just as it would with any other alternatives manager.
Tokenized real-world assets. Treasuries, money market funds and private credit are increasingly issued on-chain. Industry trackers put the tokenized RWA market at around $19 billion in Q1 2026, with tokenized Treasuries the largest segment and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund near $3 billion. This is where crypto rails meet the private markets families already know.
Stablecoins as treasury infrastructure. Here stablecoins serve as a tool rather than an investment, enabling faster cross-border settlement, on-chain liquidity and collateral management. New regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is making this use case defensible at board level.
The Risks That Actually Stop Families
Volatility is the risk everyone names, but it is rarely the one that stops a family from allocating. What stops them is governance.
Custody and operational risk tops the list. Lost keys, exchange failures and counterparty collapses mean permanent losses, so families need institutional custody, segregated accounts and a written key-management policy.
Regulatory fragmentation is the second concern. MiCA now gives Europe a single rulebook, but service providers must hold full authorisation and many still do not, which means families need to check every counterparty against the ESMA register. The US has moved on stablecoin law first, with market-structure rules still evolving.
Reputational risk weighs heavily too. For a family whose name is its brand, association with a failed token or a sanctioned counterparty costs more than the capital itself, so due diligence must cover who stands behind a protocol, not only its code.
Concentration and correlation also matter. Crypto can diversify a portfolio, but its correlation with tech equities tends to rise in sell-offs. Position size — not conviction — is the main risk control.
Finally, there is generational alignment. Next-generation family members often drive the interest, while senior principals often hold the veto. A crypto sleeve without family-level agreement is a governance problem waiting to happen.
How Disciplined Families Build the Sleeve
The families that handle digital assets well treat them like any other alternative: mandate first, product second. In practice, that means defining the purpose — diversification, growth exposure, yield or operational use — since each leads to a different route.
It also means sizing before selecting: setting a ceiling the family could lose in full without changing its plans, along with a rebalancing rule for when prices move. Disciplined families start regulated, with ETFs and tokenized Treasuries, and only move to direct holdings and active managers once the committee has a track record.
Custody is institutionalised through a qualified custodian, insurance, segregated wallets and dual approval for every transfer. The rules are written into the investment policy, spelling out who can approve, which assets are eligible and which counterparties are authorised under MiCA or equivalent regimes. And the generations are brought to one table, with the next generation made accountable for the sleeve under the same reporting standards as the rest of the portfolio.
None of this is new discipline. It is the same framework families already apply to private equity — now applied to a newer asset class.
What Comes Next
Family offices have never been early adopters for the sake of it. They move when the infrastructure is trusted, the rules are clear and their peers have tested the path — and in 2026, all three conditions are falling into place.
The decisive conversations are unlikely to happen on trading screens. They will happen between principals, advisers and managers who trust each other enough to share what worked and what failed — the kind of closed-door exchange THE LIVE summit is built around for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
The question for families is no longer whether crypto belongs in the conversation. It is whether they will shape the framework, or inherit one built by others.
About the author: Anastasia Lit is the founder of THE LIVE, a global summit for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.
Family Offices Hold Just 0.4% in Crypto, Yet 74% Are Invested or Considering It: Inside the Quiet...
By Anastasia Lit
Family offices are sitting on one of the widest gaps in digital assets: nearly three-quarters say they are invested in crypto or considering it, yet almost nine in ten hold none at all. As alternatives climb past 40% of the typical family portfolio, that gap is starting to close – and how it closes will be decided by governance, not price.
The shift is being driven by infrastructure rather than ideology. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, the US GENIUS Act and the end of MiCA’s transition period in Europe have handed investment committees tools that their custodians and auditors already understand.
The 42% Question: Where Crypto Sits in the Alternatives Mix
Family offices are the most patient capital in the world, and they are already deep in alternatives. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, which surveyed 307 families with an average net worth of $2.7 billion, alternatives make up 42% of the average portfolio — a share families plan to hold steady through 2026.
Crypto, however, remains the smallest line in that mix. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 89% of the 333 single-family offices it surveyed hold no crypto at all, with the average allocation to digital assets standing at just 0.4%.
Families Are Rotating, Not Retreating
Family offices are not abandoning alternatives — they are rotating within them. The illiquid end of the book is shrinking, while liquid and diversifying strategies are gaining ground. Private equity and real estate are taking the deepest cuts, with hedge funds, gold and infrastructure picking up the slack.
The message is liquidity and diversification over lock-ups. That is precisely the gap a well-structured digital asset sleeve can fill: liquid, uncorrelated during parts of the cycle, and accessible without a ten-year commitment.
Wide Interest, Narrow Exposure
The data tells two stories at once. On exposure, family offices remain cautious: J.P. Morgan’s 2026 report shows only 11% hold any crypto, with an average Bitcoin allocation of 0.2%. Only 17% name crypto as a key investment theme.
On intent, the picture looks very different. BNY’s 2025 survey of 282 single-family office professionals found that 74% have invested in crypto or are considering it, a 21% increase in a single year. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey showed optimism on crypto doubling from 8% to 17%, with Asia Pacific leading the way: 37% of families in the region are invested or interested, and roughly one in 20 holds more than 10% of investable assets in digital assets.
Conviction is also building among those already in the market. In a 2025 Ocorian study of 200 family members, family office executives and advisers, 78% said the value of their digital holdings had risen over five years, while 97% said digital assets are “here to stay.”
In short, interest is broad but exposure is thin — and the space between the two is where the next wave of family capital is likely to move.
Why Now: Infrastructure, Not Ideology
What changed for family offices is not their view of crypto but the plumbing around it. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs gave families an entry point their custodians and auditors already understand.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, set the first federal framework for stablecoins, requiring full backing by dollars or similarly liquid assets. In the European Union, MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, 2026, meaning crypto service providers now need full authorisation to serve European clients.
Five Ways Families Actually Hold Digital Assets
For a family office, the question is rarely “crypto or not.” It is which wrapper, which custodian and which mandate. According to Citi’s survey, 24% of families invest in digital assets directly and 18% do so through ETFs. Five routes now dominate.
Spot ETFs and listed products. Bitcoin and Ether exposure sits inside an existing brokerage account, with familiar reporting, tax treatment and audit trail. For a conservative investment committee, this is the easiest first step.
Direct holdings with a qualified custodian. Families own the asset outright, held by a regulated custodian or a bank. That brings more control, but also more operational work: key management, insurance and counterparty checks.
Crypto funds and managers. Liquid token funds, venture funds investing in blockchain infrastructure and market-neutral strategies let the family buy expertise, just as it would with any other alternatives manager.
Tokenized real-world assets. Treasuries, money market funds and private credit are increasingly issued on-chain. Industry trackers put the tokenized RWA market at around $19 billion in Q1 2026, with tokenized Treasuries the largest segment and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund near $3 billion. This is where crypto rails meet the private markets families already know.
Stablecoins as treasury infrastructure. Here stablecoins serve as a tool rather than an investment, enabling faster cross-border settlement, on-chain liquidity and collateral management. New regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is making this use case defensible at board level.
The Risks That Actually Stop Families
Volatility is the risk everyone names, but it is rarely the one that stops a family from allocating. What stops them is governance.
Custody and operational risk tops the list. Lost keys, exchange failures and counterparty collapses mean permanent losses, so families need institutional custody, segregated accounts and a written key-management policy.
Regulatory fragmentation is the second concern. MiCA now gives Europe a single rulebook, but service providers must hold full authorisation and many still do not, which means families need to check every counterparty against the ESMA register. The US has moved on stablecoin law first, with market-structure rules still evolving.
Reputational risk weighs heavily too. For a family whose name is its brand, association with a failed token or a sanctioned counterparty costs more than the capital itself, so due diligence must cover who stands behind a protocol, not only its code.
Concentration and correlation also matter. Crypto can diversify a portfolio, but its correlation with tech equities tends to rise in sell-offs. Position size — not conviction — is the main risk control.
Finally, there is generational alignment. Next-generation family members often drive the interest, while senior principals often hold the veto. A crypto sleeve without family-level agreement is a governance problem waiting to happen.
How Disciplined Families Build the Sleeve
The families that handle digital assets well treat them like any other alternative: mandate first, product second. In practice, that means defining the purpose — diversification, growth exposure, yield or operational use — since each leads to a different route.
It also means sizing before selecting: setting a ceiling the family could lose in full without changing its plans, along with a rebalancing rule for when prices move. Disciplined families start regulated, with ETFs and tokenized Treasuries, and only move to direct holdings and active managers once the committee has a track record.
Custody is institutionalised through a qualified custodian, insurance, segregated wallets and dual approval for every transfer. The rules are written into the investment policy, spelling out who can approve, which assets are eligible and which counterparties are authorised under MiCA or equivalent regimes. And the generations are brought to one table, with the next generation made accountable for the sleeve under the same reporting standards as the rest of the portfolio.
None of this is new discipline. It is the same framework families already apply to private equity — now applied to a newer asset class.
What Comes Next
Family offices have never been early adopters for the sake of it. They move when the infrastructure is trusted, the rules are clear and their peers have tested the path — and in 2026, all three conditions are falling into place.
The decisive conversations are unlikely to happen on trading screens. They will happen between principals, advisers and managers who trust each other enough to share what worked and what failed — the kind of closed-door exchange THE LIVE summit is built around for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
The question for families is no longer whether crypto belongs in the conversation. It is whether they will shape the framework, or inherit one built by others.
About the author: Anastasia Lit is the founder of THE LIVE, a global summit for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.
Family offices are sitting on one of the widest gaps in digital assets: nearly three-quarters say they are invested in crypto or considering it, yet almost nine in ten hold none at all. As alternatives climb past 40% of the typical family portfolio, that gap is starting to close – and how it closes will be decided by governance, not price.
The shift is being driven by infrastructure rather than ideology. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, the US GENIUS Act and the end of MiCA’s transition period in Europe have handed investment committees tools that their custodians and auditors already understand.
The 42% Question: Where Crypto Sits in the Alternatives Mix
Family offices are the most patient capital in the world, and they are already deep in alternatives. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, which surveyed 307 families with an average net worth of $2.7 billion, alternatives make up 42% of the average portfolio — a share families plan to hold steady through 2026.
Crypto, however, remains the smallest line in that mix. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 89% of the 333 single-family offices it surveyed hold no crypto at all, with the average allocation to digital assets standing at just 0.4%.
Families Are Rotating, Not Retreating
Family offices are not abandoning alternatives — they are rotating within them. The illiquid end of the book is shrinking, while liquid and diversifying strategies are gaining ground. Private equity and real estate are taking the deepest cuts, with hedge funds, gold and infrastructure picking up the slack.
The message is liquidity and diversification over lock-ups. That is precisely the gap a well-structured digital asset sleeve can fill: liquid, uncorrelated during parts of the cycle, and accessible without a ten-year commitment.
Wide Interest, Narrow Exposure
The data tells two stories at once. On exposure, family offices remain cautious: J.P. Morgan’s 2026 report shows only 11% hold any crypto, with an average Bitcoin allocation of 0.2%. Only 17% name crypto as a key investment theme.
On intent, the picture looks very different. BNY’s 2025 survey of 282 single-family office professionals found that 74% have invested in crypto or are considering it, a 21% increase in a single year. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey showed optimism on crypto doubling from 8% to 17%, with Asia Pacific leading the way: 37% of families in the region are invested or interested, and roughly one in 20 holds more than 10% of investable assets in digital assets.
Conviction is also building among those already in the market. In a 2025 Ocorian study of 200 family members, family office executives and advisers, 78% said the value of their digital holdings had risen over five years, while 97% said digital assets are “here to stay.”
In short, interest is broad but exposure is thin — and the space between the two is where the next wave of family capital is likely to move.
Why Now: Infrastructure, Not Ideology
What changed for family offices is not their view of crypto but the plumbing around it. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs gave families an entry point their custodians and auditors already understand.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, set the first federal framework for stablecoins, requiring full backing by dollars or similarly liquid assets. In the European Union, MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, 2026, meaning crypto service providers now need full authorisation to serve European clients.
Five Ways Families Actually Hold Digital Assets
For a family office, the question is rarely “crypto or not.” It is which wrapper, which custodian and which mandate. According to Citi’s survey, 24% of families invest in digital assets directly and 18% do so through ETFs. Five routes now dominate.
Spot ETFs and listed products. Bitcoin and Ether exposure sits inside an existing brokerage account, with familiar reporting, tax treatment and audit trail. For a conservative investment committee, this is the easiest first step.
Direct holdings with a qualified custodian. Families own the asset outright, held by a regulated custodian or a bank. That brings more control, but also more operational work: key management, insurance and counterparty checks.
Crypto funds and managers. Liquid token funds, venture funds investing in blockchain infrastructure and market-neutral strategies let the family buy expertise, just as it would with any other alternatives manager.
Tokenized real-world assets. Treasuries, money market funds and private credit are increasingly issued on-chain. Industry trackers put the tokenized RWA market at around $19 billion in Q1 2026, with tokenized Treasuries the largest segment and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund near $3 billion. This is where crypto rails meet the private markets families already know.
Stablecoins as treasury infrastructure. Here stablecoins serve as a tool rather than an investment, enabling faster cross-border settlement, on-chain liquidity and collateral management. New regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is making this use case defensible at board level.
The Risks That Actually Stop Families
Volatility is the risk everyone names, but it is rarely the one that stops a family from allocating. What stops them is governance.
Custody and operational risk tops the list. Lost keys, exchange failures and counterparty collapses mean permanent losses, so families need institutional custody, segregated accounts and a written key-management policy.
Regulatory fragmentation is the second concern. MiCA now gives Europe a single rulebook, but service providers must hold full authorisation and many still do not, which means families need to check every counterparty against the ESMA register. The US has moved on stablecoin law first, with market-structure rules still evolving.
Reputational risk weighs heavily too. For a family whose name is its brand, association with a failed token or a sanctioned counterparty costs more than the capital itself, so due diligence must cover who stands behind a protocol, not only its code.
Concentration and correlation also matter. Crypto can diversify a portfolio, but its correlation with tech equities tends to rise in sell-offs. Position size — not conviction — is the main risk control.
Finally, there is generational alignment. Next-generation family members often drive the interest, while senior principals often hold the veto. A crypto sleeve without family-level agreement is a governance problem waiting to happen.
How Disciplined Families Build the Sleeve
The families that handle digital assets well treat them like any other alternative: mandate first, product second. In practice, that means defining the purpose — diversification, growth exposure, yield or operational use — since each leads to a different route.
It also means sizing before selecting: setting a ceiling the family could lose in full without changing its plans, along with a rebalancing rule for when prices move. Disciplined families start regulated, with ETFs and tokenized Treasuries, and only move to direct holdings and active managers once the committee has a track record.
Custody is institutionalised through a qualified custodian, insurance, segregated wallets and dual approval for every transfer. The rules are written into the investment policy, spelling out who can approve, which assets are eligible and which counterparties are authorised under MiCA or equivalent regimes. And the generations are brought to one table, with the next generation made accountable for the sleeve under the same reporting standards as the rest of the portfolio.
None of this is new discipline. It is the same framework families already apply to private equity — now applied to a newer asset class.
What Comes Next
Family offices have never been early adopters for the sake of it. They move when the infrastructure is trusted, the rules are clear and their peers have tested the path — and in 2026, all three conditions are falling into place.
The decisive conversations are unlikely to happen on trading screens. They will happen between principals, advisers and managers who trust each other enough to share what worked and what failed — the kind of closed-door exchange THE LIVE summit is built around for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
The question for families is no longer whether crypto belongs in the conversation. It is whether they will shape the framework, or inherit one built by others.
About the author: Anastasia Lit is the founder of THE LIVE, a global summit for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.
116
UK Crypto Trader Robbed of $800,000 in Crypto at Knifepoint in Home InvasionA crypto trader who posts as “realist” says armed intruders broke into his home in the United Kingdom, restrained him with tape, and forced him to hand over cryptocurrency worth about $760,000. With a stolen Rolex, he puts the total loss near $800,000.
The attack, which he described on X on October 12, adds to a growing list of physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders, a threat that data now shows is concentrated in Europe.
What the Trader Reported
In his first post, he warned others in the UK in blunt terms and wrote:
“just got my house invaded, taped up held at knife point & robbed for $800k.”
In a follow-up, he said the intruders threatened to kill him while holding three knives to his face. He reported losing $40,000 from his main wallets and $720,000 from one of his Ledger devices, along with the Rolex, and said his phone was smashed. He said he suffered only a few bruises. He first wrote that he was with police, then said officers were at his house collecting footage and that he could not enter because the property was being treated as evidence.
The assault and the police attendance have not been independently confirmed. The $800,000 figure is his own estimate.
What the On-Chain Records Show
The trader shared a Solana address as the “wallet with stolen funds.” Transaction records on SolanaFM show that address received 718,735.80 USDC at about 6:58 p.m. ET on October 12. At 9:41 p.m. ET, after his initial post, it sent 718,735 USDC on to another address beginning DN2cCPNJ. The same wallet also sent 20 SOL at 9:19 p.m. and 326.13 SOL at 9:20 p.m. to an address beginning DWMDdqJU.
These records corroborate large transfers through the wallet he named. They do not establish who controlled the addresses or whether the transfers were coerced.
His account also does not point to a technical compromise of a Ledger device. It describes a physical threat against a person, which is a different problem from the hardware implant case Ledger has been investigating in Southeast Asia.
What Is a “Wrench Attack”?
The term describes using violence, confinement, or intimidation to force a crypto holder to give up private keys or authorize transfers. It is named after an xkcd comic joking that a $5 wrench beats expensive encryption. Security firm CertiK tracks these incidents separately from software exploits, and its data shows the problem growing quickly.
The Numbers
– 2025: CertiK documented 72 verified physical-coercion incidents worldwide, up 75% from 2024. Europe accounted for about 40%.
– First half of 2026: CertiK recorded 52 verified wrench attacks globally, up from 39 a year earlier, with an estimated $124.1 million in recorded exposure. Average exposure per incident rose from about $270,000 to $2.39 million.
– Europe: 39 of those 52 incidents, or roughly 80%.
– France: 33 incidents, or 63.5% of the global total.
– Home invasions: up from one recorded incident in the first half of 2025 to 20 in the first half of 2026. That is the format closest to the UK case described here.
Chainalysis separately estimates that more than $30 million has been stolen through wrench attacks in 2026. Estimates differ because the firms count different things: CertiK includes ransoms, frozen funds, and failed attempts, while Chainalysis focuses on stolen funds.
Why France Is the Epicenter
France’s interior minister said authorities recorded 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of 2026, compared with 45 a year earlier. At Paris Blockchain Week, the ministry acknowledged 41 incidents since the start of the year, about one every 2.5 days. In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted over alleged wrench attacks in France.
CertiK points to several factors: major crypto firms and executives based in France, a culture of publicly showing off wealth, and leaks of sensitive personal data. In one widely reported case, a French tax official sold sensitive data to attackers. A French police intelligence report found organizers abroad coordinating with recruiters in France, who connect them with young people with criminal records to carry out attacks. In January 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped in France with his partner.
The UK Context
Public data on UK cases is thinner than for France. CertiK’s H1 2026 report does list a UK physical assault: longtime crypto figure Sillytuna, who was forced in March 2026 to hand over about $24 million in aEthUSDC. The latest case shows that the same tactics are appearing in Britain.
What Holders Can Take From This
Security experts commonly recommend:
– Avoid advertising holdings. Attackers increasingly buy names, addresses, and financial profiles from data brokers instead of surveilling targets.
– Don’t keep everything in one place. Spreading funds across wallets and using multisig or time-delayed withdrawals limits what can be taken in a single incident.
– Limit personal data exposure. Leaked tax and address records have fed attacks in France.
– Treat home security as part of crypto security. The weakest point is increasingly the person holding the keys.
What Comes Next
The key developments to watch are whether UK police confirm the attack and make arrests, whether the stolen funds are traced or frozen, and whether more UK victims come forward. CertiK has projected about 130 wrench attacks worldwide for 2026, so this will likely not be the last.
UK Crypto Trader Robbed of $800,000 in Crypto at Knifepoint in Home Invasion
A crypto trader who posts as “realist” says armed intruders broke into his home in the United Kingdom, restrained him with tape, and forced him to hand over cryptocurrency worth about $760,000. With a stolen Rolex, he puts the total loss near $800,000.
The attack, which he described on X on October 12, adds to a growing list of physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders, a threat that data now shows is concentrated in Europe.
What the Trader Reported
In his first post, he warned others in the UK in blunt terms and wrote:
“just got my house invaded, taped up held at knife point & robbed for $800k.”
In a follow-up, he said the intruders threatened to kill him while holding three knives to his face. He reported losing $40,000 from his main wallets and $720,000 from one of his Ledger devices, along with the Rolex, and said his phone was smashed. He said he suffered only a few bruises. He first wrote that he was with police, then said officers were at his house collecting footage and that he could not enter because the property was being treated as evidence.
The assault and the police attendance have not been independently confirmed. The $800,000 figure is his own estimate.
What the On-Chain Records Show
The trader shared a Solana address as the “wallet with stolen funds.” Transaction records on SolanaFM show that address received 718,735.80 USDC at about 6:58 p.m. ET on October 12. At 9:41 p.m. ET, after his initial post, it sent 718,735 USDC on to another address beginning DN2cCPNJ. The same wallet also sent 20 SOL at 9:19 p.m. and 326.13 SOL at 9:20 p.m. to an address beginning DWMDdqJU.
These records corroborate large transfers through the wallet he named. They do not establish who controlled the addresses or whether the transfers were coerced.
His account also does not point to a technical compromise of a Ledger device. It describes a physical threat against a person, which is a different problem from the hardware implant case Ledger has been investigating in Southeast Asia.
What Is a “Wrench Attack”?
The term describes using violence, confinement, or intimidation to force a crypto holder to give up private keys or authorize transfers. It is named after an xkcd comic joking that a $5 wrench beats expensive encryption. Security firm CertiK tracks these incidents separately from software exploits, and its data shows the problem growing quickly.
The Numbers
– 2025: CertiK documented 72 verified physical-coercion incidents worldwide, up 75% from 2024. Europe accounted for about 40%.
– First half of 2026: CertiK recorded 52 verified wrench attacks globally, up from 39 a year earlier, with an estimated $124.1 million in recorded exposure. Average exposure per incident rose from about $270,000 to $2.39 million.
– Europe: 39 of those 52 incidents, or roughly 80%.
– France: 33 incidents, or 63.5% of the global total.
– Home invasions: up from one recorded incident in the first half of 2025 to 20 in the first half of 2026. That is the format closest to the UK case described here.
Chainalysis separately estimates that more than $30 million has been stolen through wrench attacks in 2026. Estimates differ because the firms count different things: CertiK includes ransoms, frozen funds, and failed attempts, while Chainalysis focuses on stolen funds.
Why France Is the Epicenter
France’s interior minister said authorities recorded 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of 2026, compared with 45 a year earlier. At Paris Blockchain Week, the ministry acknowledged 41 incidents since the start of the year, about one every 2.5 days. In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted over alleged wrench attacks in France.
CertiK points to several factors: major crypto firms and executives based in France, a culture of publicly showing off wealth, and leaks of sensitive personal data. In one widely reported case, a French tax official sold sensitive data to attackers. A French police intelligence report found organizers abroad coordinating with recruiters in France, who connect them with young people with criminal records to carry out attacks. In January 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped in France with his partner.
The UK Context
Public data on UK cases is thinner than for France. CertiK’s H1 2026 report does list a UK physical assault: longtime crypto figure Sillytuna, who was forced in March 2026 to hand over about $24 million in aEthUSDC. The latest case shows that the same tactics are appearing in Britain.
What Holders Can Take From This
Security experts commonly recommend:
– Avoid advertising holdings. Attackers increasingly buy names, addresses, and financial profiles from data brokers instead of surveilling targets.
– Don’t keep everything in one place. Spreading funds across wallets and using multisig or time-delayed withdrawals limits what can be taken in a single incident.
– Limit personal data exposure. Leaked tax and address records have fed attacks in France.
– Treat home security as part of crypto security. The weakest point is increasingly the person holding the keys.
What Comes Next
The key developments to watch are whether UK police confirm the attack and make arrests, whether the stolen funds are traced or frozen, and whether more UK victims come forward. CertiK has projected about 130 wrench attacks worldwide for 2026, so this will likely not be the last.
The attack, which he described on X on October 12, adds to a growing list of physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders, a threat that data now shows is concentrated in Europe.
What the Trader Reported
In his first post, he warned others in the UK in blunt terms and wrote:
“just got my house invaded, taped up held at knife point & robbed for $800k.”
In a follow-up, he said the intruders threatened to kill him while holding three knives to his face. He reported losing $40,000 from his main wallets and $720,000 from one of his Ledger devices, along with the Rolex, and said his phone was smashed. He said he suffered only a few bruises. He first wrote that he was with police, then said officers were at his house collecting footage and that he could not enter because the property was being treated as evidence.
The assault and the police attendance have not been independently confirmed. The $800,000 figure is his own estimate.
What the On-Chain Records Show
The trader shared a Solana address as the “wallet with stolen funds.” Transaction records on SolanaFM show that address received 718,735.80 USDC at about 6:58 p.m. ET on October 12. At 9:41 p.m. ET, after his initial post, it sent 718,735 USDC on to another address beginning DN2cCPNJ. The same wallet also sent 20 SOL at 9:19 p.m. and 326.13 SOL at 9:20 p.m. to an address beginning DWMDdqJU.
These records corroborate large transfers through the wallet he named. They do not establish who controlled the addresses or whether the transfers were coerced.
His account also does not point to a technical compromise of a Ledger device. It describes a physical threat against a person, which is a different problem from the hardware implant case Ledger has been investigating in Southeast Asia.
What Is a “Wrench Attack”?
The term describes using violence, confinement, or intimidation to force a crypto holder to give up private keys or authorize transfers. It is named after an xkcd comic joking that a $5 wrench beats expensive encryption. Security firm CertiK tracks these incidents separately from software exploits, and its data shows the problem growing quickly.
The Numbers
– 2025: CertiK documented 72 verified physical-coercion incidents worldwide, up 75% from 2024. Europe accounted for about 40%.
– First half of 2026: CertiK recorded 52 verified wrench attacks globally, up from 39 a year earlier, with an estimated $124.1 million in recorded exposure. Average exposure per incident rose from about $270,000 to $2.39 million.
– Europe: 39 of those 52 incidents, or roughly 80%.
– France: 33 incidents, or 63.5% of the global total.
– Home invasions: up from one recorded incident in the first half of 2025 to 20 in the first half of 2026. That is the format closest to the UK case described here.
Chainalysis separately estimates that more than $30 million has been stolen through wrench attacks in 2026. Estimates differ because the firms count different things: CertiK includes ransoms, frozen funds, and failed attempts, while Chainalysis focuses on stolen funds.
Why France Is the Epicenter
France’s interior minister said authorities recorded 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of 2026, compared with 45 a year earlier. At Paris Blockchain Week, the ministry acknowledged 41 incidents since the start of the year, about one every 2.5 days. In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted over alleged wrench attacks in France.
CertiK points to several factors: major crypto firms and executives based in France, a culture of publicly showing off wealth, and leaks of sensitive personal data. In one widely reported case, a French tax official sold sensitive data to attackers. A French police intelligence report found organizers abroad coordinating with recruiters in France, who connect them with young people with criminal records to carry out attacks. In January 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped in France with his partner.
The UK Context
Public data on UK cases is thinner than for France. CertiK’s H1 2026 report does list a UK physical assault: longtime crypto figure Sillytuna, who was forced in March 2026 to hand over about $24 million in aEthUSDC. The latest case shows that the same tactics are appearing in Britain.
What Holders Can Take From This
Security experts commonly recommend:
– Avoid advertising holdings. Attackers increasingly buy names, addresses, and financial profiles from data brokers instead of surveilling targets.
– Don’t keep everything in one place. Spreading funds across wallets and using multisig or time-delayed withdrawals limits what can be taken in a single incident.
– Limit personal data exposure. Leaked tax and address records have fed attacks in France.
– Treat home security as part of crypto security. The weakest point is increasingly the person holding the keys.
What Comes Next
The key developments to watch are whether UK police confirm the attack and make arrests, whether the stolen funds are traced or frozen, and whether more UK victims come forward. CertiK has projected about 130 wrench attacks worldwide for 2026, so this will likely not be the last.
40
Article
UK Crypto Trader Robbed of $800,000 in Crypto At Knifepoint in Home InvasionA crypto trader who posts as “realist” says armed intruders broke into his home in the United Kingdom, restrained him with tape, and forced him to hand over cryptocurrency worth about $760,000. With a stolen Rolex, he puts the total loss near $800,000.
The attack, which he described on X on October 12, adds to a growing list of physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders, a threat that data now shows is concentrated in Europe.
What the Trader Reported
In his first post, he warned others in the UK in blunt terms and wrote:
“just got my house invaded, taped up held at knife point & robbed for $800k.”
In a follow-up, he said the intruders threatened to kill him while holding three knives to his face. He reported losing $40,000 from his main wallets and $720,000 from one of his Ledger devices, along with the Rolex, and said his phone was smashed. He said he suffered only a few bruises. He first wrote that he was with police, then said officers were at his house collecting footage and that he could not enter because the property was being treated as evidence.
The assault and the police attendance have not been independently confirmed. The $800,000 figure is his own estimate.
What the On-Chain Records Show
The trader shared a Solana address as the “wallet with stolen funds.” Transaction records on SolanaFM show that address received 718,735.80 USDC at about 6:58 p.m. ET on October 12. At 9:41 p.m. ET, after his initial post, it sent 718,735 USDC on to another address beginning DN2cCPNJ. The same wallet also sent 20 SOL at 9:19 p.m. and 326.13 SOL at 9:20 p.m. to an address beginning DWMDdqJU.
These records corroborate large transfers through the wallet he named. They do not establish who controlled the addresses or whether the transfers were coerced.
His account also does not point to a technical compromise of a Ledger device. It describes a physical threat against a person, which is a different problem from the hardware implant case Ledger has been investigating in Southeast Asia.
What Is a “Wrench Attack”?
The term describes using violence, confinement, or intimidation to force a crypto holder to give up private keys or authorize transfers. It is named after an xkcd comic joking that a $5 wrench beats expensive encryption. Security firm CertiK tracks these incidents separately from software exploits, and its data shows the problem growing quickly.
The Numbers
– 2025: CertiK documented 72 verified physical-coercion incidents worldwide, up 75% from 2024. Europe accounted for about 40%. – First half of 2026: CertiK recorded 52 verified wrench attacks globally, up from 39 a year earlier, with an estimated $124.1 million in recorded exposure. Average exposure per incident rose from about $270,000 to $2.39 million. – Europe: 39 of those 52 incidents, or roughly 80%. – France: 33 incidents, or 63.5% of the global total. – Home invasions: up from one recorded incident in the first half of 2025 to 20 in the first half of 2026. That is the format closest to the UK case described here.
Chainalysis separately estimates that more than $30 million has been stolen through wrench attacks in 2026. Estimates differ because the firms count different things: CertiK includes ransoms, frozen funds, and failed attempts, while Chainalysis focuses on stolen funds.
Why France Is the Epicenter
France’s interior minister said authorities recorded 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of 2026, compared with 45 a year earlier. At Paris Blockchain Week, the ministry acknowledged 41 incidents since the start of the year, about one every 2.5 days. In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted over alleged wrench attacks in France.
CertiK points to several factors: major crypto firms and executives based in France, a culture of publicly showing off wealth, and leaks of sensitive personal data. In one widely reported case, a French tax official sold sensitive data to attackers. A French police intelligence report found organizers abroad coordinating with recruiters in France, who connect them with young people with criminal records to carry out attacks. In January 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped in France with his partner.
The UK Context
Public data on UK cases is thinner than for France. CertiK’s H1 2026 report does list a UK physical assault: longtime crypto figure Sillytuna, who was forced in March 2026 to hand over about $24 million in aEthUSDC. The latest case shows that the same tactics are appearing in Britain.
What Holders Can Take From This
Security experts commonly recommend:
– Avoid advertising holdings. Attackers increasingly buy names, addresses, and financial profiles from data brokers instead of surveilling targets. – Don’t keep everything in one place. Spreading funds across wallets and using multisig or time-delayed withdrawals limits what can be taken in a single incident. – Limit personal data exposure. Leaked tax and address records have fed attacks in France. – Treat home security as part of crypto security. The weakest point is increasingly the person holding the keys.
What Comes Next
The key developments to watch are whether UK police confirm the attack and make arrests, whether the stolen funds are traced or frozen, and whether more UK victims come forward. CertiK has projected about 130 wrench attacks worldwide for 2026, so this will likely not be the last.
UK Crypto Trader Robbed of $800,000 in Crypto At Knifepoint in Home Invasion
A crypto trader who posts as “realist” says armed intruders broke into his home in the United Kingdom, restrained him with tape, and forced him to hand over cryptocurrency worth about $760,000. With a stolen Rolex, he puts the total loss near $800,000.
The attack, which he described on X on October 12, adds to a growing list of physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders, a threat that data now shows is concentrated in Europe.
What the Trader Reported
In his first post, he warned others in the UK in blunt terms and wrote:
“just got my house invaded, taped up held at knife point & robbed for $800k.”
In a follow-up, he said the intruders threatened to kill him while holding three knives to his face. He reported losing $40,000 from his main wallets and $720,000 from one of his Ledger devices, along with the Rolex, and said his phone was smashed. He said he suffered only a few bruises. He first wrote that he was with police, then said officers were at his house collecting footage and that he could not enter because the property was being treated as evidence.
The assault and the police attendance have not been independently confirmed. The $800,000 figure is his own estimate.
What the On-Chain Records Show
The trader shared a Solana address as the “wallet with stolen funds.” Transaction records on SolanaFM show that address received 718,735.80 USDC at about 6:58 p.m. ET on October 12. At 9:41 p.m. ET, after his initial post, it sent 718,735 USDC on to another address beginning DN2cCPNJ. The same wallet also sent 20 SOL at 9:19 p.m. and 326.13 SOL at 9:20 p.m. to an address beginning DWMDdqJU.
These records corroborate large transfers through the wallet he named. They do not establish who controlled the addresses or whether the transfers were coerced.
His account also does not point to a technical compromise of a Ledger device. It describes a physical threat against a person, which is a different problem from the hardware implant case Ledger has been investigating in Southeast Asia.
What Is a “Wrench Attack”?
The term describes using violence, confinement, or intimidation to force a crypto holder to give up private keys or authorize transfers. It is named after an xkcd comic joking that a $5 wrench beats expensive encryption. Security firm CertiK tracks these incidents separately from software exploits, and its data shows the problem growing quickly.
The Numbers
– 2025: CertiK documented 72 verified physical-coercion incidents worldwide, up 75% from 2024. Europe accounted for about 40%. – First half of 2026: CertiK recorded 52 verified wrench attacks globally, up from 39 a year earlier, with an estimated $124.1 million in recorded exposure. Average exposure per incident rose from about $270,000 to $2.39 million. – Europe: 39 of those 52 incidents, or roughly 80%. – France: 33 incidents, or 63.5% of the global total. – Home invasions: up from one recorded incident in the first half of 2025 to 20 in the first half of 2026. That is the format closest to the UK case described here.
Chainalysis separately estimates that more than $30 million has been stolen through wrench attacks in 2026. Estimates differ because the firms count different things: CertiK includes ransoms, frozen funds, and failed attempts, while Chainalysis focuses on stolen funds.
Why France Is the Epicenter
France’s interior minister said authorities recorded 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of 2026, compared with 45 a year earlier. At Paris Blockchain Week, the ministry acknowledged 41 incidents since the start of the year, about one every 2.5 days. In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted over alleged wrench attacks in France.
CertiK points to several factors: major crypto firms and executives based in France, a culture of publicly showing off wealth, and leaks of sensitive personal data. In one widely reported case, a French tax official sold sensitive data to attackers. A French police intelligence report found organizers abroad coordinating with recruiters in France, who connect them with young people with criminal records to carry out attacks. In January 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped in France with his partner.
The UK Context
Public data on UK cases is thinner than for France. CertiK’s H1 2026 report does list a UK physical assault: longtime crypto figure Sillytuna, who was forced in March 2026 to hand over about $24 million in aEthUSDC. The latest case shows that the same tactics are appearing in Britain.
What Holders Can Take From This
Security experts commonly recommend:
– Avoid advertising holdings. Attackers increasingly buy names, addresses, and financial profiles from data brokers instead of surveilling targets. – Don’t keep everything in one place. Spreading funds across wallets and using multisig or time-delayed withdrawals limits what can be taken in a single incident. – Limit personal data exposure. Leaked tax and address records have fed attacks in France. – Treat home security as part of crypto security. The weakest point is increasingly the person holding the keys.
What Comes Next
The key developments to watch are whether UK police confirm the attack and make arrests, whether the stolen funds are traced or frozen, and whether more UK victims come forward. CertiK has projected about 130 wrench attacks worldwide for 2026, so this will likely not be the last.
The attack, which he described on X on October 12, adds to a growing list of physical “wrench attacks” on crypto holders, a threat that data now shows is concentrated in Europe.
What the Trader Reported
In his first post, he warned others in the UK in blunt terms and wrote:
“just got my house invaded, taped up held at knife point & robbed for $800k.”
In a follow-up, he said the intruders threatened to kill him while holding three knives to his face. He reported losing $40,000 from his main wallets and $720,000 from one of his Ledger devices, along with the Rolex, and said his phone was smashed. He said he suffered only a few bruises. He first wrote that he was with police, then said officers were at his house collecting footage and that he could not enter because the property was being treated as evidence.
The assault and the police attendance have not been independently confirmed. The $800,000 figure is his own estimate.
What the On-Chain Records Show
The trader shared a Solana address as the “wallet with stolen funds.” Transaction records on SolanaFM show that address received 718,735.80 USDC at about 6:58 p.m. ET on October 12. At 9:41 p.m. ET, after his initial post, it sent 718,735 USDC on to another address beginning DN2cCPNJ. The same wallet also sent 20 SOL at 9:19 p.m. and 326.13 SOL at 9:20 p.m. to an address beginning DWMDdqJU.
These records corroborate large transfers through the wallet he named. They do not establish who controlled the addresses or whether the transfers were coerced.
His account also does not point to a technical compromise of a Ledger device. It describes a physical threat against a person, which is a different problem from the hardware implant case Ledger has been investigating in Southeast Asia.
What Is a “Wrench Attack”?
The term describes using violence, confinement, or intimidation to force a crypto holder to give up private keys or authorize transfers. It is named after an xkcd comic joking that a $5 wrench beats expensive encryption. Security firm CertiK tracks these incidents separately from software exploits, and its data shows the problem growing quickly.
The Numbers
– 2025: CertiK documented 72 verified physical-coercion incidents worldwide, up 75% from 2024. Europe accounted for about 40%. – First half of 2026: CertiK recorded 52 verified wrench attacks globally, up from 39 a year earlier, with an estimated $124.1 million in recorded exposure. Average exposure per incident rose from about $270,000 to $2.39 million. – Europe: 39 of those 52 incidents, or roughly 80%. – France: 33 incidents, or 63.5% of the global total. – Home invasions: up from one recorded incident in the first half of 2025 to 20 in the first half of 2026. That is the format closest to the UK case described here.
Chainalysis separately estimates that more than $30 million has been stolen through wrench attacks in 2026. Estimates differ because the firms count different things: CertiK includes ransoms, frozen funds, and failed attempts, while Chainalysis focuses on stolen funds.
Why France Is the Epicenter
France’s interior minister said authorities recorded 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of 2026, compared with 45 a year earlier. At Paris Blockchain Week, the ministry acknowledged 41 incidents since the start of the year, about one every 2.5 days. In April, at least 88 people, including 10 minors, were indicted over alleged wrench attacks in France.
CertiK points to several factors: major crypto firms and executives based in France, a culture of publicly showing off wealth, and leaks of sensitive personal data. In one widely reported case, a French tax official sold sensitive data to attackers. A French police intelligence report found organizers abroad coordinating with recruiters in France, who connect them with young people with criminal records to carry out attacks. In January 2025, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped in France with his partner.
The UK Context
Public data on UK cases is thinner than for France. CertiK’s H1 2026 report does list a UK physical assault: longtime crypto figure Sillytuna, who was forced in March 2026 to hand over about $24 million in aEthUSDC. The latest case shows that the same tactics are appearing in Britain.
What Holders Can Take From This
Security experts commonly recommend:
– Avoid advertising holdings. Attackers increasingly buy names, addresses, and financial profiles from data brokers instead of surveilling targets. – Don’t keep everything in one place. Spreading funds across wallets and using multisig or time-delayed withdrawals limits what can be taken in a single incident. – Limit personal data exposure. Leaked tax and address records have fed attacks in France. – Treat home security as part of crypto security. The weakest point is increasingly the person holding the keys.
What Comes Next
The key developments to watch are whether UK police confirm the attack and make arrests, whether the stolen funds are traced or frozen, and whether more UK victims come forward. CertiK has projected about 130 wrench attacks worldwide for 2026, so this will likely not be the last.
47
Article
Family Offices Hold Just 0.4% in Crypto, Yet 74% Are Invested or Considering It: Inside the Quiet...By Anastasia Lit
Family offices are sitting on one of the widest gaps in digital assets: nearly three-quarters say they are invested in crypto or considering it, yet almost nine in ten hold none at all. As alternatives climb past 40% of the typical family portfolio, that gap is starting to close – and how it closes will be decided by governance, not price.
The shift is being driven by infrastructure rather than ideology. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, the US GENIUS Act and the end of MiCA’s transition period in Europe have handed investment committees tools that their custodians and auditors already understand.
The 42% Question: Where Crypto Sits in the Alternatives Mix
Family offices are the most patient capital in the world, and they are already deep in alternatives. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, which surveyed 307 families with an average net worth of $2.7 billion, alternatives make up 42% of the average portfolio — a share families plan to hold steady through 2026.
Crypto, however, remains the smallest line in that mix. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 89% of the 333 single-family offices it surveyed hold no crypto at all, with the average allocation to digital assets standing at just 0.4%.
Families Are Rotating, Not Retreating
Family offices are not abandoning alternatives — they are rotating within them. The illiquid end of the book is shrinking, while liquid and diversifying strategies are gaining ground. Private equity and real estate are taking the deepest cuts, with hedge funds, gold and infrastructure picking up the slack.
The message is liquidity and diversification over lock-ups. That is precisely the gap a well-structured digital asset sleeve can fill: liquid, uncorrelated during parts of the cycle, and accessible without a ten-year commitment.
Wide Interest, Narrow Exposure
The data tells two stories at once. On exposure, family offices remain cautious: J.P. Morgan’s 2026 report shows only 11% hold any crypto, with an average Bitcoin allocation of 0.2%. Only 17% name crypto as a key investment theme.
On intent, the picture looks very different. BNY’s 2025 survey of 282 single-family office professionals found that 74% have invested in crypto or are considering it, a 21% increase in a single year. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey showed optimism on crypto doubling from 8% to 17%, with Asia Pacific leading the way: 37% of families in the region are invested or interested, and roughly one in 20 holds more than 10% of investable assets in digital assets.
Conviction is also building among those already in the market. In a 2025 Ocorian study of 200 family members, family office executives and advisers, 78% said the value of their digital holdings had risen over five years, while 97% said digital assets are “here to stay.”
In short, interest is broad but exposure is thin — and the space between the two is where the next wave of family capital is likely to move.
Why Now: Infrastructure, Not Ideology
What changed for family offices is not their view of crypto but the plumbing around it. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs gave families an entry point their custodians and auditors already understand.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, set the first federal framework for stablecoins, requiring full backing by dollars or similarly liquid assets. In the European Union, MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, 2026, meaning crypto service providers now need full authorisation to serve European clients.
Five Ways Families Actually Hold Digital Assets
For a family office, the question is rarely “crypto or not.” It is which wrapper, which custodian and which mandate. According to Citi’s survey, 24% of families invest in digital assets directly and 18% do so through ETFs. Five routes now dominate.
Spot ETFs and listed products. Bitcoin and Ether exposure sits inside an existing brokerage account, with familiar reporting, tax treatment and audit trail. For a conservative investment committee, this is the easiest first step.
Direct holdings with a qualified custodian. Families own the asset outright, held by a regulated custodian or a bank. That brings more control, but also more operational work: key management, insurance and counterparty checks.
Crypto funds and managers. Liquid token funds, venture funds investing in blockchain infrastructure and market-neutral strategies let the family buy expertise, just as it would with any other alternatives manager.
Tokenized real-world assets. Treasuries, money market funds and private credit are increasingly issued on-chain. Industry trackers put the tokenized RWA market at around $19 billion in Q1 2026, with tokenized Treasuries the largest segment and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund near $3 billion. This is where crypto rails meet the private markets families already know.
Stablecoins as treasury infrastructure. Here stablecoins serve as a tool rather than an investment, enabling faster cross-border settlement, on-chain liquidity and collateral management. New regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is making this use case defensible at board level.
The Risks That Actually Stop Families
Volatility is the risk everyone names, but it is rarely the one that stops a family from allocating. What stops them is governance.
Custody and operational risk tops the list. Lost keys, exchange failures and counterparty collapses mean permanent losses, so families need institutional custody, segregated accounts and a written key-management policy.
Regulatory fragmentation is the second concern. MiCA now gives Europe a single rulebook, but service providers must hold full authorisation and many still do not, which means families need to check every counterparty against the ESMA register. The US has moved on stablecoin law first, with market-structure rules still evolving.
Reputational risk weighs heavily too. For a family whose name is its brand, association with a failed token or a sanctioned counterparty costs more than the capital itself, so due diligence must cover who stands behind a protocol, not only its code.
Concentration and correlation also matter. Crypto can diversify a portfolio, but its correlation with tech equities tends to rise in sell-offs. Position size — not conviction — is the main risk control.
Finally, there is generational alignment. Next-generation family members often drive the interest, while senior principals often hold the veto. A crypto sleeve without family-level agreement is a governance problem waiting to happen.
How Disciplined Families Build the Sleeve
The families that handle digital assets well treat them like any other alternative: mandate first, product second. In practice, that means defining the purpose — diversification, growth exposure, yield or operational use — since each leads to a different route.
It also means sizing before selecting: setting a ceiling the family could lose in full without changing its plans, along with a rebalancing rule for when prices move. Disciplined families start regulated, with ETFs and tokenized Treasuries, and only move to direct holdings and active managers once the committee has a track record.
Custody is institutionalised through a qualified custodian, insurance, segregated wallets and dual approval for every transfer. The rules are written into the investment policy, spelling out who can approve, which assets are eligible and which counterparties are authorised under MiCA or equivalent regimes. And the generations are brought to one table, with the next generation made accountable for the sleeve under the same reporting standards as the rest of the portfolio.
None of this is new discipline. It is the same framework families already apply to private equity — now applied to a newer asset class.
What Comes Next
Family offices have never been early adopters for the sake of it. They move when the infrastructure is trusted, the rules are clear and their peers have tested the path — and in 2026, all three conditions are falling into place.
The decisive conversations are unlikely to happen on trading screens. They will happen between principals, advisers and managers who trust each other enough to share what worked and what failed — the kind of closed-door exchange THE LIVE summit is built around for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
The question for families is no longer whether crypto belongs in the conversation. It is whether they will shape the framework, or inherit one built by others.
About the author: Anastasia Lit is the founder of THE LIVE, a global summit for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.
Family Offices Hold Just 0.4% in Crypto, Yet 74% Are Invested or Considering It: Inside the Quiet...
By Anastasia Lit
Family offices are sitting on one of the widest gaps in digital assets: nearly three-quarters say they are invested in crypto or considering it, yet almost nine in ten hold none at all. As alternatives climb past 40% of the typical family portfolio, that gap is starting to close – and how it closes will be decided by governance, not price.
The shift is being driven by infrastructure rather than ideology. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, the US GENIUS Act and the end of MiCA’s transition period in Europe have handed investment committees tools that their custodians and auditors already understand.
The 42% Question: Where Crypto Sits in the Alternatives Mix
Family offices are the most patient capital in the world, and they are already deep in alternatives. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, which surveyed 307 families with an average net worth of $2.7 billion, alternatives make up 42% of the average portfolio — a share families plan to hold steady through 2026.
Crypto, however, remains the smallest line in that mix. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 89% of the 333 single-family offices it surveyed hold no crypto at all, with the average allocation to digital assets standing at just 0.4%.
Families Are Rotating, Not Retreating
Family offices are not abandoning alternatives — they are rotating within them. The illiquid end of the book is shrinking, while liquid and diversifying strategies are gaining ground. Private equity and real estate are taking the deepest cuts, with hedge funds, gold and infrastructure picking up the slack.
The message is liquidity and diversification over lock-ups. That is precisely the gap a well-structured digital asset sleeve can fill: liquid, uncorrelated during parts of the cycle, and accessible without a ten-year commitment.
Wide Interest, Narrow Exposure
The data tells two stories at once. On exposure, family offices remain cautious: J.P. Morgan’s 2026 report shows only 11% hold any crypto, with an average Bitcoin allocation of 0.2%. Only 17% name crypto as a key investment theme.
On intent, the picture looks very different. BNY’s 2025 survey of 282 single-family office professionals found that 74% have invested in crypto or are considering it, a 21% increase in a single year. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey showed optimism on crypto doubling from 8% to 17%, with Asia Pacific leading the way: 37% of families in the region are invested or interested, and roughly one in 20 holds more than 10% of investable assets in digital assets.
Conviction is also building among those already in the market. In a 2025 Ocorian study of 200 family members, family office executives and advisers, 78% said the value of their digital holdings had risen over five years, while 97% said digital assets are “here to stay.”
In short, interest is broad but exposure is thin — and the space between the two is where the next wave of family capital is likely to move.
Why Now: Infrastructure, Not Ideology
What changed for family offices is not their view of crypto but the plumbing around it. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs gave families an entry point their custodians and auditors already understand.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, set the first federal framework for stablecoins, requiring full backing by dollars or similarly liquid assets. In the European Union, MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, 2026, meaning crypto service providers now need full authorisation to serve European clients.
Five Ways Families Actually Hold Digital Assets
For a family office, the question is rarely “crypto or not.” It is which wrapper, which custodian and which mandate. According to Citi’s survey, 24% of families invest in digital assets directly and 18% do so through ETFs. Five routes now dominate.
Spot ETFs and listed products. Bitcoin and Ether exposure sits inside an existing brokerage account, with familiar reporting, tax treatment and audit trail. For a conservative investment committee, this is the easiest first step.
Direct holdings with a qualified custodian. Families own the asset outright, held by a regulated custodian or a bank. That brings more control, but also more operational work: key management, insurance and counterparty checks.
Crypto funds and managers. Liquid token funds, venture funds investing in blockchain infrastructure and market-neutral strategies let the family buy expertise, just as it would with any other alternatives manager.
Tokenized real-world assets. Treasuries, money market funds and private credit are increasingly issued on-chain. Industry trackers put the tokenized RWA market at around $19 billion in Q1 2026, with tokenized Treasuries the largest segment and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund near $3 billion. This is where crypto rails meet the private markets families already know.
Stablecoins as treasury infrastructure. Here stablecoins serve as a tool rather than an investment, enabling faster cross-border settlement, on-chain liquidity and collateral management. New regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is making this use case defensible at board level.
The Risks That Actually Stop Families
Volatility is the risk everyone names, but it is rarely the one that stops a family from allocating. What stops them is governance.
Custody and operational risk tops the list. Lost keys, exchange failures and counterparty collapses mean permanent losses, so families need institutional custody, segregated accounts and a written key-management policy.
Regulatory fragmentation is the second concern. MiCA now gives Europe a single rulebook, but service providers must hold full authorisation and many still do not, which means families need to check every counterparty against the ESMA register. The US has moved on stablecoin law first, with market-structure rules still evolving.
Reputational risk weighs heavily too. For a family whose name is its brand, association with a failed token or a sanctioned counterparty costs more than the capital itself, so due diligence must cover who stands behind a protocol, not only its code.
Concentration and correlation also matter. Crypto can diversify a portfolio, but its correlation with tech equities tends to rise in sell-offs. Position size — not conviction — is the main risk control.
Finally, there is generational alignment. Next-generation family members often drive the interest, while senior principals often hold the veto. A crypto sleeve without family-level agreement is a governance problem waiting to happen.
How Disciplined Families Build the Sleeve
The families that handle digital assets well treat them like any other alternative: mandate first, product second. In practice, that means defining the purpose — diversification, growth exposure, yield or operational use — since each leads to a different route.
It also means sizing before selecting: setting a ceiling the family could lose in full without changing its plans, along with a rebalancing rule for when prices move. Disciplined families start regulated, with ETFs and tokenized Treasuries, and only move to direct holdings and active managers once the committee has a track record.
Custody is institutionalised through a qualified custodian, insurance, segregated wallets and dual approval for every transfer. The rules are written into the investment policy, spelling out who can approve, which assets are eligible and which counterparties are authorised under MiCA or equivalent regimes. And the generations are brought to one table, with the next generation made accountable for the sleeve under the same reporting standards as the rest of the portfolio.
None of this is new discipline. It is the same framework families already apply to private equity — now applied to a newer asset class.
What Comes Next
Family offices have never been early adopters for the sake of it. They move when the infrastructure is trusted, the rules are clear and their peers have tested the path — and in 2026, all three conditions are falling into place.
The decisive conversations are unlikely to happen on trading screens. They will happen between principals, advisers and managers who trust each other enough to share what worked and what failed — the kind of closed-door exchange THE LIVE summit is built around for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
The question for families is no longer whether crypto belongs in the conversation. It is whether they will shape the framework, or inherit one built by others.
About the author: Anastasia Lit is the founder of THE LIVE, a global summit for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.
Family offices are sitting on one of the widest gaps in digital assets: nearly three-quarters say they are invested in crypto or considering it, yet almost nine in ten hold none at all. As alternatives climb past 40% of the typical family portfolio, that gap is starting to close – and how it closes will be decided by governance, not price.
The shift is being driven by infrastructure rather than ideology. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs, the US GENIUS Act and the end of MiCA’s transition period in Europe have handed investment committees tools that their custodians and auditors already understand.
The 42% Question: Where Crypto Sits in the Alternatives Mix
Family offices are the most patient capital in the world, and they are already deep in alternatives. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, which surveyed 307 families with an average net worth of $2.7 billion, alternatives make up 42% of the average portfolio — a share families plan to hold steady through 2026.
Crypto, however, remains the smallest line in that mix. J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 89% of the 333 single-family offices it surveyed hold no crypto at all, with the average allocation to digital assets standing at just 0.4%.
Families Are Rotating, Not Retreating
Family offices are not abandoning alternatives — they are rotating within them. The illiquid end of the book is shrinking, while liquid and diversifying strategies are gaining ground. Private equity and real estate are taking the deepest cuts, with hedge funds, gold and infrastructure picking up the slack.
The message is liquidity and diversification over lock-ups. That is precisely the gap a well-structured digital asset sleeve can fill: liquid, uncorrelated during parts of the cycle, and accessible without a ten-year commitment.
Wide Interest, Narrow Exposure
The data tells two stories at once. On exposure, family offices remain cautious: J.P. Morgan’s 2026 report shows only 11% hold any crypto, with an average Bitcoin allocation of 0.2%. Only 17% name crypto as a key investment theme.
On intent, the picture looks very different. BNY’s 2025 survey of 282 single-family office professionals found that 74% have invested in crypto or are considering it, a 21% increase in a single year. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey showed optimism on crypto doubling from 8% to 17%, with Asia Pacific leading the way: 37% of families in the region are invested or interested, and roughly one in 20 holds more than 10% of investable assets in digital assets.
Conviction is also building among those already in the market. In a 2025 Ocorian study of 200 family members, family office executives and advisers, 78% said the value of their digital holdings had risen over five years, while 97% said digital assets are “here to stay.”
In short, interest is broad but exposure is thin — and the space between the two is where the next wave of family capital is likely to move.
Why Now: Infrastructure, Not Ideology
What changed for family offices is not their view of crypto but the plumbing around it. Regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs gave families an entry point their custodians and auditors already understand.
In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, set the first federal framework for stablecoins, requiring full backing by dollars or similarly liquid assets. In the European Union, MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, 2026, meaning crypto service providers now need full authorisation to serve European clients.
Five Ways Families Actually Hold Digital Assets
For a family office, the question is rarely “crypto or not.” It is which wrapper, which custodian and which mandate. According to Citi’s survey, 24% of families invest in digital assets directly and 18% do so through ETFs. Five routes now dominate.
Spot ETFs and listed products. Bitcoin and Ether exposure sits inside an existing brokerage account, with familiar reporting, tax treatment and audit trail. For a conservative investment committee, this is the easiest first step.
Direct holdings with a qualified custodian. Families own the asset outright, held by a regulated custodian or a bank. That brings more control, but also more operational work: key management, insurance and counterparty checks.
Crypto funds and managers. Liquid token funds, venture funds investing in blockchain infrastructure and market-neutral strategies let the family buy expertise, just as it would with any other alternatives manager.
Tokenized real-world assets. Treasuries, money market funds and private credit are increasingly issued on-chain. Industry trackers put the tokenized RWA market at around $19 billion in Q1 2026, with tokenized Treasuries the largest segment and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund near $3 billion. This is where crypto rails meet the private markets families already know.
Stablecoins as treasury infrastructure. Here stablecoins serve as a tool rather than an investment, enabling faster cross-border settlement, on-chain liquidity and collateral management. New regulation on both sides of the Atlantic is making this use case defensible at board level.
The Risks That Actually Stop Families
Volatility is the risk everyone names, but it is rarely the one that stops a family from allocating. What stops them is governance.
Custody and operational risk tops the list. Lost keys, exchange failures and counterparty collapses mean permanent losses, so families need institutional custody, segregated accounts and a written key-management policy.
Regulatory fragmentation is the second concern. MiCA now gives Europe a single rulebook, but service providers must hold full authorisation and many still do not, which means families need to check every counterparty against the ESMA register. The US has moved on stablecoin law first, with market-structure rules still evolving.
Reputational risk weighs heavily too. For a family whose name is its brand, association with a failed token or a sanctioned counterparty costs more than the capital itself, so due diligence must cover who stands behind a protocol, not only its code.
Concentration and correlation also matter. Crypto can diversify a portfolio, but its correlation with tech equities tends to rise in sell-offs. Position size — not conviction — is the main risk control.
Finally, there is generational alignment. Next-generation family members often drive the interest, while senior principals often hold the veto. A crypto sleeve without family-level agreement is a governance problem waiting to happen.
How Disciplined Families Build the Sleeve
The families that handle digital assets well treat them like any other alternative: mandate first, product second. In practice, that means defining the purpose — diversification, growth exposure, yield or operational use — since each leads to a different route.
It also means sizing before selecting: setting a ceiling the family could lose in full without changing its plans, along with a rebalancing rule for when prices move. Disciplined families start regulated, with ETFs and tokenized Treasuries, and only move to direct holdings and active managers once the committee has a track record.
Custody is institutionalised through a qualified custodian, insurance, segregated wallets and dual approval for every transfer. The rules are written into the investment policy, spelling out who can approve, which assets are eligible and which counterparties are authorised under MiCA or equivalent regimes. And the generations are brought to one table, with the next generation made accountable for the sleeve under the same reporting standards as the rest of the portfolio.
None of this is new discipline. It is the same framework families already apply to private equity — now applied to a newer asset class.
What Comes Next
Family offices have never been early adopters for the sake of it. They move when the infrastructure is trusted, the rules are clear and their peers have tested the path — and in 2026, all three conditions are falling into place.
The decisive conversations are unlikely to happen on trading screens. They will happen between principals, advisers and managers who trust each other enough to share what worked and what failed — the kind of closed-door exchange THE LIVE summit is built around for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
The question for families is no longer whether crypto belongs in the conversation. It is whether they will shape the framework, or inherit one built by others.
About the author: Anastasia Lit is the founder of THE LIVE, a global summit for family offices, private capital and UHNW investors.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice.
234
Ledger Confirms Hardware Implant in Wallet Sold by Reseller CryptoBilis as Suspected Thefts Top $...Ledger has confirmed that a hardware wallet belonging to one of the victims in a major Southeast Asian theft wave contained an unauthorized hardware implant.
On-chain researchers estimate that more than $86 million has been drained from hundreds of wallets. Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through one reseller, CryptoBilis, and that its own systems and direct sales channels are unaffected.
What Happened
On October 9, customers who bought Ledger devices through CryptoBilis began reporting unauthorized transactions. CryptoBilis is an official Ledger reseller serving Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On-chain researcher tanuki42 first flagged more than $72 million moving to a group of suspected theft addresses.
Another researcher, Specter, later traced funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron and put suspected losses above $86 million. MistTrack and Arkham Intelligence later put the figure closer to $90 million, and some outlets cite estimates up to about $93 million across more than 300 wallets.
Ledger has not verified any of these totals, and it remains unclear whether every theft in the estimates is tied to CryptoBilis customers.
The Cost for One Victim
Lookonchain described one of the most painful cases. The investor bought 80 BTC, worth about $5.2 million, four months ago at around $65,000 and was sitting on roughly $1.38 million in profit. A week ago he bought a Ledger from CryptoBilis and deposited all 80 BTC into it. Now, Lookonchain said, he has lost everything.
Ledger’s Response
Ledger acted on October 9 by asking CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while it investigated. It advised anyone who bought a Ledger from this reseller in the past 90 days not to start setup if they had not already done so.
On October 10, Ledger issued a more serious update:
“Ledger can confirm that one of the impacted users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant. Ledger is reaching out to impacted users as part of the ongoing investigation. If you have information regarding the investigation, please reach out to Ledger’s bounty program: bounty@ledger.fr.”
In a 72-hour update, Ledger said it is working with relevant authorities and that the volume of impacted devices is limited. It added:
“To date, all confirmed cases related to the disclosed draining incident of Oct 9th, 2026, involve devices sold through the Southeast Asia reseller CryptoBilis. Our systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected.”
CryptoBilis suspended sales of its entire hardware wallet inventory pending the review.
What Researchers Found Inside
Before Ledger’s confirmation, researchers had already been examining tampered units. Tibane Labs published a technical whitepaper describing a device with a microcontroller and cellular communication hardware, connected to the display’s internal data lines. According to security reporting, researchers including Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio and the Tibane Labs team reverse-engineered compromised devices and identified three versions of the implant.
The reported mechanism is that the implant captures the recovery phrase while a user sets up the device. A recovery phrase is the 12 or 24 words that control the wallet, so anyone who obtains it can empty the wallet from anywhere. That would explain why victims lost funds without ever approving a transaction.
One important caution: Ledger has not confirmed that the implant caused the thefts, and the exact mechanism is still under investigation. The attack technique has been reported by researchers rather than confirmed by Ledger.
A Question About CryptoBilis
A statement shared with researcher Mark Karpelès and published by Tibane Labs said CryptoBilis completed a management transition in March and that the authors no longer control the company’s systems or customer databases. The statement does not establish who tampered with the devices or when, and that question remains open.
Why This Is a Different Kind of Attack
Most crypto thefts this year involved exchange hacks, smart contract exploits, or phishing. This one targets the hardware itself, before the user ever touches it. It is a supply-chain attack: the product is altered somewhere between the factory and your desk, which is why it can defeat even careful users who do everything right on their side.
It also targets the most trusted category of self-custody. Hardware wallets are marketed as the safest way to hold crypto because private keys stay offline. A tampered device undermines that promise if it is bought from an unverified or altered source.
What Ledger Users Should Do
Following Ledger’s guidance and standard security practice:
– If you bought from CryptoBilis in the last 90 days and have not set up the device: do not turn it on or initialize it.
– If you already use a CryptoBilis-bought device: replace both the device and the recovery phrase, and move your funds to a new wallet created on a trusted device.
– For everyone else: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer or an officially verified channel, never use a device that arrives pre-initialized or with a recovery phrase already written down, and make sure the packaging seals are intact.
– If you have information about the case: Ledger asks you to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.
What Comes Next
The investigation is ongoing and Ledger says it is working with law enforcement. Key questions remain: how many devices were tampered with, where in the supply chain the implants were added, and whether the final loss total will match or exceed the current $86 million to $93 million estimates. Expect further technical findings from Tibane Labs and other researchers, a possible forensic report from Ledger, and tougher scrutiny of how hardware wallet makers vet and monitor their resellers.
Ledger Confirms Hardware Implant in Wallet Sold by Reseller CryptoBilis as Suspected Thefts Top $...
Ledger has confirmed that a hardware wallet belonging to one of the victims in a major Southeast Asian theft wave contained an unauthorized hardware implant.
On-chain researchers estimate that more than $86 million has been drained from hundreds of wallets. Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through one reseller, CryptoBilis, and that its own systems and direct sales channels are unaffected.
What Happened
On October 9, customers who bought Ledger devices through CryptoBilis began reporting unauthorized transactions. CryptoBilis is an official Ledger reseller serving Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On-chain researcher tanuki42 first flagged more than $72 million moving to a group of suspected theft addresses.
Another researcher, Specter, later traced funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron and put suspected losses above $86 million. MistTrack and Arkham Intelligence later put the figure closer to $90 million, and some outlets cite estimates up to about $93 million across more than 300 wallets.
Ledger has not verified any of these totals, and it remains unclear whether every theft in the estimates is tied to CryptoBilis customers.
The Cost for One Victim
Lookonchain described one of the most painful cases. The investor bought 80 BTC, worth about $5.2 million, four months ago at around $65,000 and was sitting on roughly $1.38 million in profit. A week ago he bought a Ledger from CryptoBilis and deposited all 80 BTC into it. Now, Lookonchain said, he has lost everything.
Ledger’s Response
Ledger acted on October 9 by asking CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while it investigated. It advised anyone who bought a Ledger from this reseller in the past 90 days not to start setup if they had not already done so.
On October 10, Ledger issued a more serious update:
“Ledger can confirm that one of the impacted users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant. Ledger is reaching out to impacted users as part of the ongoing investigation. If you have information regarding the investigation, please reach out to Ledger’s bounty program: bounty@ledger.fr.”
In a 72-hour update, Ledger said it is working with relevant authorities and that the volume of impacted devices is limited. It added:
“To date, all confirmed cases related to the disclosed draining incident of Oct 9th, 2026, involve devices sold through the Southeast Asia reseller CryptoBilis. Our systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected.”
CryptoBilis suspended sales of its entire hardware wallet inventory pending the review.
What Researchers Found Inside
Before Ledger’s confirmation, researchers had already been examining tampered units. Tibane Labs published a technical whitepaper describing a device with a microcontroller and cellular communication hardware, connected to the display’s internal data lines. According to security reporting, researchers including Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio and the Tibane Labs team reverse-engineered compromised devices and identified three versions of the implant.
The reported mechanism is that the implant captures the recovery phrase while a user sets up the device. A recovery phrase is the 12 or 24 words that control the wallet, so anyone who obtains it can empty the wallet from anywhere. That would explain why victims lost funds without ever approving a transaction.
One important caution: Ledger has not confirmed that the implant caused the thefts, and the exact mechanism is still under investigation. The attack technique has been reported by researchers rather than confirmed by Ledger.
A Question About CryptoBilis
A statement shared with researcher Mark Karpelès and published by Tibane Labs said CryptoBilis completed a management transition in March and that the authors no longer control the company’s systems or customer databases. The statement does not establish who tampered with the devices or when, and that question remains open.
Why This Is a Different Kind of Attack
Most crypto thefts this year involved exchange hacks, smart contract exploits, or phishing. This one targets the hardware itself, before the user ever touches it. It is a supply-chain attack: the product is altered somewhere between the factory and your desk, which is why it can defeat even careful users who do everything right on their side.
It also targets the most trusted category of self-custody. Hardware wallets are marketed as the safest way to hold crypto because private keys stay offline. A tampered device undermines that promise if it is bought from an unverified or altered source.
What Ledger Users Should Do
Following Ledger’s guidance and standard security practice:
– If you bought from CryptoBilis in the last 90 days and have not set up the device: do not turn it on or initialize it.
– If you already use a CryptoBilis-bought device: replace both the device and the recovery phrase, and move your funds to a new wallet created on a trusted device.
– For everyone else: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer or an officially verified channel, never use a device that arrives pre-initialized or with a recovery phrase already written down, and make sure the packaging seals are intact.
– If you have information about the case: Ledger asks you to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.
What Comes Next
The investigation is ongoing and Ledger says it is working with law enforcement. Key questions remain: how many devices were tampered with, where in the supply chain the implants were added, and whether the final loss total will match or exceed the current $86 million to $93 million estimates. Expect further technical findings from Tibane Labs and other researchers, a possible forensic report from Ledger, and tougher scrutiny of how hardware wallet makers vet and monitor their resellers.
On-chain researchers estimate that more than $86 million has been drained from hundreds of wallets. Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through one reseller, CryptoBilis, and that its own systems and direct sales channels are unaffected.
What Happened
On October 9, customers who bought Ledger devices through CryptoBilis began reporting unauthorized transactions. CryptoBilis is an official Ledger reseller serving Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On-chain researcher tanuki42 first flagged more than $72 million moving to a group of suspected theft addresses.
Another researcher, Specter, later traced funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron and put suspected losses above $86 million. MistTrack and Arkham Intelligence later put the figure closer to $90 million, and some outlets cite estimates up to about $93 million across more than 300 wallets.
Ledger has not verified any of these totals, and it remains unclear whether every theft in the estimates is tied to CryptoBilis customers.
The Cost for One Victim
Lookonchain described one of the most painful cases. The investor bought 80 BTC, worth about $5.2 million, four months ago at around $65,000 and was sitting on roughly $1.38 million in profit. A week ago he bought a Ledger from CryptoBilis and deposited all 80 BTC into it. Now, Lookonchain said, he has lost everything.
Ledger’s Response
Ledger acted on October 9 by asking CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while it investigated. It advised anyone who bought a Ledger from this reseller in the past 90 days not to start setup if they had not already done so.
On October 10, Ledger issued a more serious update:
“Ledger can confirm that one of the impacted users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant. Ledger is reaching out to impacted users as part of the ongoing investigation. If you have information regarding the investigation, please reach out to Ledger’s bounty program: bounty@ledger.fr.”
In a 72-hour update, Ledger said it is working with relevant authorities and that the volume of impacted devices is limited. It added:
“To date, all confirmed cases related to the disclosed draining incident of Oct 9th, 2026, involve devices sold through the Southeast Asia reseller CryptoBilis. Our systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected.”
CryptoBilis suspended sales of its entire hardware wallet inventory pending the review.
What Researchers Found Inside
Before Ledger’s confirmation, researchers had already been examining tampered units. Tibane Labs published a technical whitepaper describing a device with a microcontroller and cellular communication hardware, connected to the display’s internal data lines. According to security reporting, researchers including Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio and the Tibane Labs team reverse-engineered compromised devices and identified three versions of the implant.
The reported mechanism is that the implant captures the recovery phrase while a user sets up the device. A recovery phrase is the 12 or 24 words that control the wallet, so anyone who obtains it can empty the wallet from anywhere. That would explain why victims lost funds without ever approving a transaction.
One important caution: Ledger has not confirmed that the implant caused the thefts, and the exact mechanism is still under investigation. The attack technique has been reported by researchers rather than confirmed by Ledger.
A Question About CryptoBilis
A statement shared with researcher Mark Karpelès and published by Tibane Labs said CryptoBilis completed a management transition in March and that the authors no longer control the company’s systems or customer databases. The statement does not establish who tampered with the devices or when, and that question remains open.
Why This Is a Different Kind of Attack
Most crypto thefts this year involved exchange hacks, smart contract exploits, or phishing. This one targets the hardware itself, before the user ever touches it. It is a supply-chain attack: the product is altered somewhere between the factory and your desk, which is why it can defeat even careful users who do everything right on their side.
It also targets the most trusted category of self-custody. Hardware wallets are marketed as the safest way to hold crypto because private keys stay offline. A tampered device undermines that promise if it is bought from an unverified or altered source.
What Ledger Users Should Do
Following Ledger’s guidance and standard security practice:
– If you bought from CryptoBilis in the last 90 days and have not set up the device: do not turn it on or initialize it.
– If you already use a CryptoBilis-bought device: replace both the device and the recovery phrase, and move your funds to a new wallet created on a trusted device.
– For everyone else: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer or an officially verified channel, never use a device that arrives pre-initialized or with a recovery phrase already written down, and make sure the packaging seals are intact.
– If you have information about the case: Ledger asks you to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.
What Comes Next
The investigation is ongoing and Ledger says it is working with law enforcement. Key questions remain: how many devices were tampered with, where in the supply chain the implants were added, and whether the final loss total will match or exceed the current $86 million to $93 million estimates. Expect further technical findings from Tibane Labs and other researchers, a possible forensic report from Ledger, and tougher scrutiny of how hardware wallet makers vet and monitor their resellers.
89
Article
Ledger Confirms Hardware Implant in Wallet Sold By Reseller CryptoBilis As Suspected Thefts Top $...Ledger has confirmed that a hardware wallet belonging to one of the victims in a major Southeast Asian theft wave contained an unauthorized hardware implant.
On-chain researchers estimate that more than $86 million has been drained from hundreds of wallets. Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through one reseller, CryptoBilis, and that its own systems and direct sales channels are unaffected.
What Happened
On October 9, customers who bought Ledger devices through CryptoBilis began reporting unauthorized transactions. CryptoBilis is an official Ledger reseller serving Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On-chain researcher tanuki42 first flagged more than $72 million moving to a group of suspected theft addresses.
Another researcher, Specter, later traced funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron and put suspected losses above $86 million. MistTrack and Arkham Intelligence later put the figure closer to $90 million, and some outlets cite estimates up to about $93 million across more than 300 wallets.
Ledger has not verified any of these totals, and it remains unclear whether every theft in the estimates is tied to CryptoBilis customers.
The Cost for One Victim
Lookonchain described one of the most painful cases. The investor bought 80 BTC, worth about $5.2 million, four months ago at around $65,000 and was sitting on roughly $1.38 million in profit. A week ago he bought a Ledger from CryptoBilis and deposited all 80 BTC into it. Now, Lookonchain said, he has lost everything.
Ledger’s Response
Ledger acted on October 9 by asking CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while it investigated. It advised anyone who bought a Ledger from this reseller in the past 90 days not to start setup if they had not already done so.
On October 10, Ledger issued a more serious update:
“Ledger can confirm that one of the impacted users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant. Ledger is reaching out to impacted users as part of the ongoing investigation. If you have information regarding the investigation, please reach out to Ledger’s bounty program: bounty@ledger.fr.”
In a 72-hour update, Ledger said it is working with relevant authorities and that the volume of impacted devices is limited. It added:
“To date, all confirmed cases related to the disclosed draining incident of Oct 9th, 2026, involve devices sold through the Southeast Asia reseller CryptoBilis. Our systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected.”
CryptoBilis suspended sales of its entire hardware wallet inventory pending the review.
What Researchers Found Inside
Before Ledger’s confirmation, researchers had already been examining tampered units. Tibane Labs published a technical whitepaper describing a device with a microcontroller and cellular communication hardware, connected to the display’s internal data lines. According to security reporting, researchers including Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio and the Tibane Labs team reverse-engineered compromised devices and identified three versions of the implant.
The reported mechanism is that the implant captures the recovery phrase while a user sets up the device. A recovery phrase is the 12 or 24 words that control the wallet, so anyone who obtains it can empty the wallet from anywhere. That would explain why victims lost funds without ever approving a transaction.
One important caution: Ledger has not confirmed that the implant caused the thefts, and the exact mechanism is still under investigation. The attack technique has been reported by researchers rather than confirmed by Ledger.
A Question About CryptoBilis
A statement shared with researcher Mark Karpelès and published by Tibane Labs said CryptoBilis completed a management transition in March and that the authors no longer control the company’s systems or customer databases. The statement does not establish who tampered with the devices or when, and that question remains open.
Why This Is a Different Kind of Attack
Most crypto thefts this year involved exchange hacks, smart contract exploits, or phishing. This one targets the hardware itself, before the user ever touches it. It is a supply-chain attack: the product is altered somewhere between the factory and your desk, which is why it can defeat even careful users who do everything right on their side.
It also targets the most trusted category of self-custody. Hardware wallets are marketed as the safest way to hold crypto because private keys stay offline. A tampered device undermines that promise if it is bought from an unverified or altered source.
What Ledger Users Should Do
Following Ledger’s guidance and standard security practice:
– If you bought from CryptoBilis in the last 90 days and have not set up the device: do not turn it on or initialize it. – If you already use a CryptoBilis-bought device: replace both the device and the recovery phrase, and move your funds to a new wallet created on a trusted device. – For everyone else: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer or an officially verified channel, never use a device that arrives pre-initialized or with a recovery phrase already written down, and make sure the packaging seals are intact. – If you have information about the case: Ledger asks you to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.
What Comes Next
The investigation is ongoing and Ledger says it is working with law enforcement. Key questions remain: how many devices were tampered with, where in the supply chain the implants were added, and whether the final loss total will match or exceed the current $86 million to $93 million estimates. Expect further technical findings from Tibane Labs and other researchers, a possible forensic report from Ledger, and tougher scrutiny of how hardware wallet makers vet and monitor their resellers.
Ledger Confirms Hardware Implant in Wallet Sold By Reseller CryptoBilis As Suspected Thefts Top $...
Ledger has confirmed that a hardware wallet belonging to one of the victims in a major Southeast Asian theft wave contained an unauthorized hardware implant.
On-chain researchers estimate that more than $86 million has been drained from hundreds of wallets. Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through one reseller, CryptoBilis, and that its own systems and direct sales channels are unaffected.
What Happened
On October 9, customers who bought Ledger devices through CryptoBilis began reporting unauthorized transactions. CryptoBilis is an official Ledger reseller serving Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On-chain researcher tanuki42 first flagged more than $72 million moving to a group of suspected theft addresses.
Another researcher, Specter, later traced funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron and put suspected losses above $86 million. MistTrack and Arkham Intelligence later put the figure closer to $90 million, and some outlets cite estimates up to about $93 million across more than 300 wallets.
Ledger has not verified any of these totals, and it remains unclear whether every theft in the estimates is tied to CryptoBilis customers.
The Cost for One Victim
Lookonchain described one of the most painful cases. The investor bought 80 BTC, worth about $5.2 million, four months ago at around $65,000 and was sitting on roughly $1.38 million in profit. A week ago he bought a Ledger from CryptoBilis and deposited all 80 BTC into it. Now, Lookonchain said, he has lost everything.
Ledger’s Response
Ledger acted on October 9 by asking CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while it investigated. It advised anyone who bought a Ledger from this reseller in the past 90 days not to start setup if they had not already done so.
On October 10, Ledger issued a more serious update:
“Ledger can confirm that one of the impacted users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant. Ledger is reaching out to impacted users as part of the ongoing investigation. If you have information regarding the investigation, please reach out to Ledger’s bounty program: bounty@ledger.fr.”
In a 72-hour update, Ledger said it is working with relevant authorities and that the volume of impacted devices is limited. It added:
“To date, all confirmed cases related to the disclosed draining incident of Oct 9th, 2026, involve devices sold through the Southeast Asia reseller CryptoBilis. Our systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected.”
CryptoBilis suspended sales of its entire hardware wallet inventory pending the review.
What Researchers Found Inside
Before Ledger’s confirmation, researchers had already been examining tampered units. Tibane Labs published a technical whitepaper describing a device with a microcontroller and cellular communication hardware, connected to the display’s internal data lines. According to security reporting, researchers including Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio and the Tibane Labs team reverse-engineered compromised devices and identified three versions of the implant.
The reported mechanism is that the implant captures the recovery phrase while a user sets up the device. A recovery phrase is the 12 or 24 words that control the wallet, so anyone who obtains it can empty the wallet from anywhere. That would explain why victims lost funds without ever approving a transaction.
One important caution: Ledger has not confirmed that the implant caused the thefts, and the exact mechanism is still under investigation. The attack technique has been reported by researchers rather than confirmed by Ledger.
A Question About CryptoBilis
A statement shared with researcher Mark Karpelès and published by Tibane Labs said CryptoBilis completed a management transition in March and that the authors no longer control the company’s systems or customer databases. The statement does not establish who tampered with the devices or when, and that question remains open.
Why This Is a Different Kind of Attack
Most crypto thefts this year involved exchange hacks, smart contract exploits, or phishing. This one targets the hardware itself, before the user ever touches it. It is a supply-chain attack: the product is altered somewhere between the factory and your desk, which is why it can defeat even careful users who do everything right on their side.
It also targets the most trusted category of self-custody. Hardware wallets are marketed as the safest way to hold crypto because private keys stay offline. A tampered device undermines that promise if it is bought from an unverified or altered source.
What Ledger Users Should Do
Following Ledger’s guidance and standard security practice:
– If you bought from CryptoBilis in the last 90 days and have not set up the device: do not turn it on or initialize it. – If you already use a CryptoBilis-bought device: replace both the device and the recovery phrase, and move your funds to a new wallet created on a trusted device. – For everyone else: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer or an officially verified channel, never use a device that arrives pre-initialized or with a recovery phrase already written down, and make sure the packaging seals are intact. – If you have information about the case: Ledger asks you to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.
What Comes Next
The investigation is ongoing and Ledger says it is working with law enforcement. Key questions remain: how many devices were tampered with, where in the supply chain the implants were added, and whether the final loss total will match or exceed the current $86 million to $93 million estimates. Expect further technical findings from Tibane Labs and other researchers, a possible forensic report from Ledger, and tougher scrutiny of how hardware wallet makers vet and monitor their resellers.
On-chain researchers estimate that more than $86 million has been drained from hundreds of wallets. Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through one reseller, CryptoBilis, and that its own systems and direct sales channels are unaffected.
What Happened
On October 9, customers who bought Ledger devices through CryptoBilis began reporting unauthorized transactions. CryptoBilis is an official Ledger reseller serving Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. On-chain researcher tanuki42 first flagged more than $72 million moving to a group of suspected theft addresses.
Another researcher, Specter, later traced funds across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron and put suspected losses above $86 million. MistTrack and Arkham Intelligence later put the figure closer to $90 million, and some outlets cite estimates up to about $93 million across more than 300 wallets.
Ledger has not verified any of these totals, and it remains unclear whether every theft in the estimates is tied to CryptoBilis customers.
The Cost for One Victim
Lookonchain described one of the most painful cases. The investor bought 80 BTC, worth about $5.2 million, four months ago at around $65,000 and was sitting on roughly $1.38 million in profit. A week ago he bought a Ledger from CryptoBilis and deposited all 80 BTC into it. Now, Lookonchain said, he has lost everything.
Ledger’s Response
Ledger acted on October 9 by asking CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments while it investigated. It advised anyone who bought a Ledger from this reseller in the past 90 days not to start setup if they had not already done so.
On October 10, Ledger issued a more serious update:
“Ledger can confirm that one of the impacted users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant. Ledger is reaching out to impacted users as part of the ongoing investigation. If you have information regarding the investigation, please reach out to Ledger’s bounty program: bounty@ledger.fr.”
In a 72-hour update, Ledger said it is working with relevant authorities and that the volume of impacted devices is limited. It added:
“To date, all confirmed cases related to the disclosed draining incident of Oct 9th, 2026, involve devices sold through the Southeast Asia reseller CryptoBilis. Our systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected.”
CryptoBilis suspended sales of its entire hardware wallet inventory pending the review.
What Researchers Found Inside
Before Ledger’s confirmation, researchers had already been examining tampered units. Tibane Labs published a technical whitepaper describing a device with a microcontroller and cellular communication hardware, connected to the display’s internal data lines. According to security reporting, researchers including Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio and the Tibane Labs team reverse-engineered compromised devices and identified three versions of the implant.
The reported mechanism is that the implant captures the recovery phrase while a user sets up the device. A recovery phrase is the 12 or 24 words that control the wallet, so anyone who obtains it can empty the wallet from anywhere. That would explain why victims lost funds without ever approving a transaction.
One important caution: Ledger has not confirmed that the implant caused the thefts, and the exact mechanism is still under investigation. The attack technique has been reported by researchers rather than confirmed by Ledger.
A Question About CryptoBilis
A statement shared with researcher Mark Karpelès and published by Tibane Labs said CryptoBilis completed a management transition in March and that the authors no longer control the company’s systems or customer databases. The statement does not establish who tampered with the devices or when, and that question remains open.
Why This Is a Different Kind of Attack
Most crypto thefts this year involved exchange hacks, smart contract exploits, or phishing. This one targets the hardware itself, before the user ever touches it. It is a supply-chain attack: the product is altered somewhere between the factory and your desk, which is why it can defeat even careful users who do everything right on their side.
It also targets the most trusted category of self-custody. Hardware wallets are marketed as the safest way to hold crypto because private keys stay offline. A tampered device undermines that promise if it is bought from an unverified or altered source.
What Ledger Users Should Do
Following Ledger’s guidance and standard security practice:
– If you bought from CryptoBilis in the last 90 days and have not set up the device: do not turn it on or initialize it. – If you already use a CryptoBilis-bought device: replace both the device and the recovery phrase, and move your funds to a new wallet created on a trusted device. – For everyone else: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer or an officially verified channel, never use a device that arrives pre-initialized or with a recovery phrase already written down, and make sure the packaging seals are intact. – If you have information about the case: Ledger asks you to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.
What Comes Next
The investigation is ongoing and Ledger says it is working with law enforcement. Key questions remain: how many devices were tampered with, where in the supply chain the implants were added, and whether the final loss total will match or exceed the current $86 million to $93 million estimates. Expect further technical findings from Tibane Labs and other researchers, a possible forensic report from Ledger, and tougher scrutiny of how hardware wallet makers vet and monitor their resellers.
741
Article
CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds By Animoca Brands Convene Regional Tech Leaders for ‘Scale: ...The curated, high-impact gathering brings together top AI founders, investors, developers, and ecosystem builders across the MENA region to discuss the future of Web3 and Artificial Intelligence.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – October 8, 2026 – CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands today announced Scale: Intelligence | The AI Frontier, an exclusive event designed to unite artificial intelligence (AI) innovators, Web3 builders, venture capitalists, and industry visionaries.
Scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the event will be held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai.
Presented in partnership with Ghaf Labs, Enya Labs, CryptoMondays, Nadmah, and Rox Custody, with collaboration from Salad Labs and Minds by Animoca Brands, the gathering serves as a strategic catalyst for AI expansion and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Exploring the Convergence of AI, Capital, and Decentralized Tech
“Scale: Intelligence” marks a dedicated edition of the Scale event series focusing on artificial intelligence and its synergistic role alongside Web3 and emerging technologies. Attendees will gain direct access to capital, high-level strategic panel discussions, and curated networking opportunities aimed at fostering partnerships across the local and global tech ecosystems.
Event Agenda & Details
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GSTLocation: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAERegistration: https://luma.com/t07y5voi (Space is strictly limited)Event Schedule: 3:00 PM: Arrivals & Curated Networking 4:00 PM: Keynote & AI Panel Discussion (Featuring industry leaders on the AI frontier) 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM: VIP Networking & Hospitality (Food and beverages provided)
Participating Event Partners
The event brings together leading global and regional partners, media networks, and technology enablers:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs. – Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, and DATS Awards.
About Scale
Scale (Dubai) is a premium event and platform designed to unite founders, investors, and pioneers at the intersection of emerging technologies, capital, and regional innovation. Focusing on high-value networking and actionable insights, Scale bridges global tech leaders with local ecosystems in the MENA region to accelerate growth, investment, and market expansion.
About CryptoMondays MENA
CryptoMondays MENA is part of the global CryptoMondays network, Worlds largest and Oldest Web3 community initiatives worldwide. Dedicated to educating, inspiring, and connecting passion-driven leaders, developers, and investors in the crypto and blockchain space, CryptoMondays MENA regularly hosts premier gatherings across key hub cities in the Middle East to foster community engagement and industry advancement.
About Minds by Animoca Brands
Minds by Animoca Brands – Minds by Animoca Brands is a persistent AI agent platform that removes complexity while preserving full control and customization for both builders and general users. It enables anyone to deploy and direct sovereign, always-on AI agents, called Minds, without having to operate local servers or manage any hardware or software.
Media Contact & Registration: To request press credentials, interview availability with speakers, or register for the event, please visit the official page at https://luma.com/t07y5voi.
CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds By Animoca Brands Convene Regional Tech Leaders for ‘Scale: ...
The curated, high-impact gathering brings together top AI founders, investors, developers, and ecosystem builders across the MENA region to discuss the future of Web3 and Artificial Intelligence.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – October 8, 2026 – CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands today announced Scale: Intelligence | The AI Frontier, an exclusive event designed to unite artificial intelligence (AI) innovators, Web3 builders, venture capitalists, and industry visionaries.
Scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the event will be held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai.
Presented in partnership with Ghaf Labs, Enya Labs, CryptoMondays, Nadmah, and Rox Custody, with collaboration from Salad Labs and Minds by Animoca Brands, the gathering serves as a strategic catalyst for AI expansion and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Exploring the Convergence of AI, Capital, and Decentralized Tech
“Scale: Intelligence” marks a dedicated edition of the Scale event series focusing on artificial intelligence and its synergistic role alongside Web3 and emerging technologies. Attendees will gain direct access to capital, high-level strategic panel discussions, and curated networking opportunities aimed at fostering partnerships across the local and global tech ecosystems.
Event Agenda & Details
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GSTLocation: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAERegistration: https://luma.com/t07y5voi (Space is strictly limited)Event Schedule: 3:00 PM: Arrivals & Curated Networking 4:00 PM: Keynote & AI Panel Discussion (Featuring industry leaders on the AI frontier) 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM: VIP Networking & Hospitality (Food and beverages provided)
Participating Event Partners
The event brings together leading global and regional partners, media networks, and technology enablers:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs. – Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, and DATS Awards.
About Scale
Scale (Dubai) is a premium event and platform designed to unite founders, investors, and pioneers at the intersection of emerging technologies, capital, and regional innovation. Focusing on high-value networking and actionable insights, Scale bridges global tech leaders with local ecosystems in the MENA region to accelerate growth, investment, and market expansion.
About CryptoMondays MENA
CryptoMondays MENA is part of the global CryptoMondays network, Worlds largest and Oldest Web3 community initiatives worldwide. Dedicated to educating, inspiring, and connecting passion-driven leaders, developers, and investors in the crypto and blockchain space, CryptoMondays MENA regularly hosts premier gatherings across key hub cities in the Middle East to foster community engagement and industry advancement.
About Minds by Animoca Brands
Minds by Animoca Brands – Minds by Animoca Brands is a persistent AI agent platform that removes complexity while preserving full control and customization for both builders and general users. It enables anyone to deploy and direct sovereign, always-on AI agents, called Minds, without having to operate local servers or manage any hardware or software.
Media Contact & Registration: To request press credentials, interview availability with speakers, or register for the event, please visit the official page at https://luma.com/t07y5voi.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – October 8, 2026 – CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands today announced Scale: Intelligence | The AI Frontier, an exclusive event designed to unite artificial intelligence (AI) innovators, Web3 builders, venture capitalists, and industry visionaries.
Scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the event will be held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai.
Presented in partnership with Ghaf Labs, Enya Labs, CryptoMondays, Nadmah, and Rox Custody, with collaboration from Salad Labs and Minds by Animoca Brands, the gathering serves as a strategic catalyst for AI expansion and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Exploring the Convergence of AI, Capital, and Decentralized Tech
“Scale: Intelligence” marks a dedicated edition of the Scale event series focusing on artificial intelligence and its synergistic role alongside Web3 and emerging technologies. Attendees will gain direct access to capital, high-level strategic panel discussions, and curated networking opportunities aimed at fostering partnerships across the local and global tech ecosystems.
Event Agenda & Details
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GSTLocation: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAERegistration: https://luma.com/t07y5voi (Space is strictly limited)Event Schedule: 3:00 PM: Arrivals & Curated Networking 4:00 PM: Keynote & AI Panel Discussion (Featuring industry leaders on the AI frontier) 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM: VIP Networking & Hospitality (Food and beverages provided)
Participating Event Partners
The event brings together leading global and regional partners, media networks, and technology enablers:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs. – Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, and DATS Awards.
About Scale
Scale (Dubai) is a premium event and platform designed to unite founders, investors, and pioneers at the intersection of emerging technologies, capital, and regional innovation. Focusing on high-value networking and actionable insights, Scale bridges global tech leaders with local ecosystems in the MENA region to accelerate growth, investment, and market expansion.
About CryptoMondays MENA
CryptoMondays MENA is part of the global CryptoMondays network, Worlds largest and Oldest Web3 community initiatives worldwide. Dedicated to educating, inspiring, and connecting passion-driven leaders, developers, and investors in the crypto and blockchain space, CryptoMondays MENA regularly hosts premier gatherings across key hub cities in the Middle East to foster community engagement and industry advancement.
About Minds by Animoca Brands
Minds by Animoca Brands – Minds by Animoca Brands is a persistent AI agent platform that removes complexity while preserving full control and customization for both builders and general users. It enables anyone to deploy and direct sovereign, always-on AI agents, called Minds, without having to operate local servers or manage any hardware or software.
Media Contact & Registration: To request press credentials, interview availability with speakers, or register for the event, please visit the official page at https://luma.com/t07y5voi.
86
Article
$54.7M DeFi Hacker Convicted After Spending Stolen Millions on Pokémon Cards and a Black LotusA Manhattan federal jury has convicted Jonathan Spalletta, a Maryland cybersecurity consultant, for draining roughly $54.7 million from the decentralized exchange Uranium Finance in two April 2021 hacks.
The case reads like a crypto-meets-collectibles fever dream: stolen funds ran through Tornado Cash, then went into one of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence, a first-edition Pokémon set, a Roman coin, and a scrap of fabric that traveled to the moon.
The Verdict
On Wednesday, October 7, a jury found Spalletta, 36, of Rockville, Maryland, guilty on both counts of computer fraud and money laundering after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Computer fraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and money laundering up to 20. Online, Spalletta went by “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said:
“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money, over $50 million dollars, and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.” The Southern District of New York added that its prosecutors and agency partners had ensured his “virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”
Hack One: A Bug and a “Bounty”
Uranium Finance was a decentralized exchange where users swapped tokens through liquidity pools. According to prosecutors, Spalletta struck on April 8, 2021, by repeating a series of transactions against Uranium’s smart contract to pull out far more rewards than he was owed, taking about $1.4 million.
He then pressed the team to let him keep roughly $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the rest. Prosecutors called that bounty a sham. Two weeks later, he wrote to another person:
“I did a crypto heist of $1.5MM a couple of weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is all fake internet money anyway.”
Hack Two: The $53.3 Million Strike
Just 20 days after the first attack, on April 28, 2021, he hit again. This time he exploited an error in how the contract calculated withdrawals across several liquidity pools, taking about $53.3 million. Uranium could not survive the loss and shut down for lack of funds.
“Code Is Law” Didn’t Work
Spalletta’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove “whose fingers were on the keyboard,” that he did not write Uranium’s faulty code, and that Tornado Cash is simply a privacy tool. The jury rejected those arguments. Cryptopolitan reported the verdict came after roughly two hours of deliberation. After the verdict, prosecutors asked for GPS monitoring of Spalletta.
Laundering Through Tornado Cash
Prosecutors said Spalletta moved the proceeds through a chain of transactions that included Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service designed to obscure where funds come from and where they go. Reporting on the trial put about $26 million of it through the mixer between April 2021 and November 2023.
The Shopping List
What turned this into a headline-grabber is where the money went. According to the Justice Department and trial evidence:
– Magic: The Gathering: a Black Lotus card for about $500,000, plus 18 sealed Alpha Booster packs for roughly $1.5 million – Pokémon: a complete first-edition base set for about $750,000 and a sealed first-edition booster box for about $257,500 – Ancient history: an Eid Mar denarius, the Roman coin commemorating Julius Caesar’s assassination, for about $601,545 – Space memorabilia: a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original airplane, carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong, for about $137,500
That is a lot of cardboard and fabric, and it happens to rhyme with a trend crypto readers have noticed lately: Pokémon cards have been outperforming Bitcoin in 2026, and Coinbase recently announced a Pokémon pack product.
What the Government Got Back
Investigators seized the Black Lotus, the Wright brothers fabric and some of the coins from Spalletta’s home under a court-authorized search warrant. In February 2025, authorities also seized cryptocurrency from the Uranium hacks worth about $31 million at the time. Prosecutors have asked anyone who believes they were a victim of the Uranium hacks to contact Homeland Security Investigations.
Why Crypto Users Should Care
This case lands in a year when DeFi security has been brutal, with hundreds of millions lost to exploits across exchanges and protocols. It is a reminder of three things:
1. Exploits are prosecutable. The “the code allowed it” argument failed in front of a jury, even though the contract’s logic really was flawed.
2. A “bug bounty” is not a free pass. Returning part of the loot after taking it did not shield him. 3. Mixers don’t erase the trail. The money moved through Tornado Cash, yet investigators still traced it to assets sitting in his home and to $31 million in seized crypto.
For Uranium’s users and team, the damage was permanent: the exchange never recovered.
What Comes Next
Spalletta’s sentencing date has not been reported in the coverage I found. With convictions on both counts, he faces a potential total of 30 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically lower. For now, the case stands as a cautionary tale in the “what happens after the hack” chapter of DeFi: the code was exploited in minutes, but the consequences took more than five years to arrive.
$54.7M DeFi Hacker Convicted After Spending Stolen Millions on Pokémon Cards and a Black Lotus
A Manhattan federal jury has convicted Jonathan Spalletta, a Maryland cybersecurity consultant, for draining roughly $54.7 million from the decentralized exchange Uranium Finance in two April 2021 hacks.
The case reads like a crypto-meets-collectibles fever dream: stolen funds ran through Tornado Cash, then went into one of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence, a first-edition Pokémon set, a Roman coin, and a scrap of fabric that traveled to the moon.
The Verdict
On Wednesday, October 7, a jury found Spalletta, 36, of Rockville, Maryland, guilty on both counts of computer fraud and money laundering after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Computer fraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and money laundering up to 20. Online, Spalletta went by “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said:
“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money, over $50 million dollars, and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.” The Southern District of New York added that its prosecutors and agency partners had ensured his “virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”
Hack One: A Bug and a “Bounty”
Uranium Finance was a decentralized exchange where users swapped tokens through liquidity pools. According to prosecutors, Spalletta struck on April 8, 2021, by repeating a series of transactions against Uranium’s smart contract to pull out far more rewards than he was owed, taking about $1.4 million.
He then pressed the team to let him keep roughly $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the rest. Prosecutors called that bounty a sham. Two weeks later, he wrote to another person:
“I did a crypto heist of $1.5MM a couple of weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is all fake internet money anyway.”
Hack Two: The $53.3 Million Strike
Just 20 days after the first attack, on April 28, 2021, he hit again. This time he exploited an error in how the contract calculated withdrawals across several liquidity pools, taking about $53.3 million. Uranium could not survive the loss and shut down for lack of funds.
“Code Is Law” Didn’t Work
Spalletta’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove “whose fingers were on the keyboard,” that he did not write Uranium’s faulty code, and that Tornado Cash is simply a privacy tool. The jury rejected those arguments. Cryptopolitan reported the verdict came after roughly two hours of deliberation. After the verdict, prosecutors asked for GPS monitoring of Spalletta.
Laundering Through Tornado Cash
Prosecutors said Spalletta moved the proceeds through a chain of transactions that included Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service designed to obscure where funds come from and where they go. Reporting on the trial put about $26 million of it through the mixer between April 2021 and November 2023.
The Shopping List
What turned this into a headline-grabber is where the money went. According to the Justice Department and trial evidence:
– Magic: The Gathering: a Black Lotus card for about $500,000, plus 18 sealed Alpha Booster packs for roughly $1.5 million – Pokémon: a complete first-edition base set for about $750,000 and a sealed first-edition booster box for about $257,500 – Ancient history: an Eid Mar denarius, the Roman coin commemorating Julius Caesar’s assassination, for about $601,545 – Space memorabilia: a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original airplane, carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong, for about $137,500
That is a lot of cardboard and fabric, and it happens to rhyme with a trend crypto readers have noticed lately: Pokémon cards have been outperforming Bitcoin in 2026, and Coinbase recently announced a Pokémon pack product.
What the Government Got Back
Investigators seized the Black Lotus, the Wright brothers fabric and some of the coins from Spalletta’s home under a court-authorized search warrant. In February 2025, authorities also seized cryptocurrency from the Uranium hacks worth about $31 million at the time. Prosecutors have asked anyone who believes they were a victim of the Uranium hacks to contact Homeland Security Investigations.
Why Crypto Users Should Care
This case lands in a year when DeFi security has been brutal, with hundreds of millions lost to exploits across exchanges and protocols. It is a reminder of three things:
1. Exploits are prosecutable. The “the code allowed it” argument failed in front of a jury, even though the contract’s logic really was flawed.
2. A “bug bounty” is not a free pass. Returning part of the loot after taking it did not shield him. 3. Mixers don’t erase the trail. The money moved through Tornado Cash, yet investigators still traced it to assets sitting in his home and to $31 million in seized crypto.
For Uranium’s users and team, the damage was permanent: the exchange never recovered.
What Comes Next
Spalletta’s sentencing date has not been reported in the coverage I found. With convictions on both counts, he faces a potential total of 30 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically lower. For now, the case stands as a cautionary tale in the “what happens after the hack” chapter of DeFi: the code was exploited in minutes, but the consequences took more than five years to arrive.
The case reads like a crypto-meets-collectibles fever dream: stolen funds ran through Tornado Cash, then went into one of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence, a first-edition Pokémon set, a Roman coin, and a scrap of fabric that traveled to the moon.
The Verdict
On Wednesday, October 7, a jury found Spalletta, 36, of Rockville, Maryland, guilty on both counts of computer fraud and money laundering after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Computer fraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and money laundering up to 20. Online, Spalletta went by “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said:
“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money, over $50 million dollars, and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.” The Southern District of New York added that its prosecutors and agency partners had ensured his “virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”
Hack One: A Bug and a “Bounty”
Uranium Finance was a decentralized exchange where users swapped tokens through liquidity pools. According to prosecutors, Spalletta struck on April 8, 2021, by repeating a series of transactions against Uranium’s smart contract to pull out far more rewards than he was owed, taking about $1.4 million.
He then pressed the team to let him keep roughly $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the rest. Prosecutors called that bounty a sham. Two weeks later, he wrote to another person:
“I did a crypto heist of $1.5MM a couple of weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is all fake internet money anyway.”
Hack Two: The $53.3 Million Strike
Just 20 days after the first attack, on April 28, 2021, he hit again. This time he exploited an error in how the contract calculated withdrawals across several liquidity pools, taking about $53.3 million. Uranium could not survive the loss and shut down for lack of funds.
“Code Is Law” Didn’t Work
Spalletta’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove “whose fingers were on the keyboard,” that he did not write Uranium’s faulty code, and that Tornado Cash is simply a privacy tool. The jury rejected those arguments. Cryptopolitan reported the verdict came after roughly two hours of deliberation. After the verdict, prosecutors asked for GPS monitoring of Spalletta.
Laundering Through Tornado Cash
Prosecutors said Spalletta moved the proceeds through a chain of transactions that included Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service designed to obscure where funds come from and where they go. Reporting on the trial put about $26 million of it through the mixer between April 2021 and November 2023.
The Shopping List
What turned this into a headline-grabber is where the money went. According to the Justice Department and trial evidence:
– Magic: The Gathering: a Black Lotus card for about $500,000, plus 18 sealed Alpha Booster packs for roughly $1.5 million – Pokémon: a complete first-edition base set for about $750,000 and a sealed first-edition booster box for about $257,500 – Ancient history: an Eid Mar denarius, the Roman coin commemorating Julius Caesar’s assassination, for about $601,545 – Space memorabilia: a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original airplane, carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong, for about $137,500
That is a lot of cardboard and fabric, and it happens to rhyme with a trend crypto readers have noticed lately: Pokémon cards have been outperforming Bitcoin in 2026, and Coinbase recently announced a Pokémon pack product.
What the Government Got Back
Investigators seized the Black Lotus, the Wright brothers fabric and some of the coins from Spalletta’s home under a court-authorized search warrant. In February 2025, authorities also seized cryptocurrency from the Uranium hacks worth about $31 million at the time. Prosecutors have asked anyone who believes they were a victim of the Uranium hacks to contact Homeland Security Investigations.
Why Crypto Users Should Care
This case lands in a year when DeFi security has been brutal, with hundreds of millions lost to exploits across exchanges and protocols. It is a reminder of three things:
1. Exploits are prosecutable. The “the code allowed it” argument failed in front of a jury, even though the contract’s logic really was flawed.
2. A “bug bounty” is not a free pass. Returning part of the loot after taking it did not shield him. 3. Mixers don’t erase the trail. The money moved through Tornado Cash, yet investigators still traced it to assets sitting in his home and to $31 million in seized crypto.
For Uranium’s users and team, the damage was permanent: the exchange never recovered.
What Comes Next
Spalletta’s sentencing date has not been reported in the coverage I found. With convictions on both counts, he faces a potential total of 30 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically lower. For now, the case stands as a cautionary tale in the “what happens after the hack” chapter of DeFi: the code was exploited in minutes, but the consequences took more than five years to arrive.
85
$54.7M DeFi Hacker Convicted After Spending Stolen Millions on Pokémon Cards and a Black LotusA Manhattan federal jury has convicted Jonathan Spalletta, a Maryland cybersecurity consultant, for draining roughly $54.7 million from the decentralized exchange Uranium Finance in two April 2021 hacks.
The case reads like a crypto-meets-collectibles fever dream: stolen funds ran through Tornado Cash, then went into one of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence, a first-edition Pokémon set, a Roman coin, and a scrap of fabric that traveled to the moon.
The Verdict
On Wednesday, October 7, a jury found Spalletta, 36, of Rockville, Maryland, guilty on both counts of computer fraud and money laundering after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Computer fraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and money laundering up to 20. Online, Spalletta went by “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said:
“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money, over $50 million dollars, and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.” The Southern District of New York added that its prosecutors and agency partners had ensured his “virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”
Hack One: A Bug and a “Bounty”
Uranium Finance was a decentralized exchange where users swapped tokens through liquidity pools. According to prosecutors, Spalletta struck on April 8, 2021, by repeating a series of transactions against Uranium’s smart contract to pull out far more rewards than he was owed, taking about $1.4 million.
He then pressed the team to let him keep roughly $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the rest. Prosecutors called that bounty a sham. Two weeks later, he wrote to another person:
“I did a crypto heist of $1.5MM a couple of weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is all fake internet money anyway.”
Hack Two: The $53.3 Million Strike
Just 20 days after the first attack, on April 28, 2021, he hit again. This time he exploited an error in how the contract calculated withdrawals across several liquidity pools, taking about $53.3 million. Uranium could not survive the loss and shut down for lack of funds.
“Code Is Law” Didn’t Work
Spalletta’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove “whose fingers were on the keyboard,” that he did not write Uranium’s faulty code, and that Tornado Cash is simply a privacy tool. The jury rejected those arguments. Cryptopolitan reported the verdict came after roughly two hours of deliberation. After the verdict, prosecutors asked for GPS monitoring of Spalletta.
Laundering Through Tornado Cash
Prosecutors said Spalletta moved the proceeds through a chain of transactions that included Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service designed to obscure where funds come from and where they go. Reporting on the trial put about $26 million of it through the mixer between April 2021 and November 2023.
The Shopping List
What turned this into a headline-grabber is where the money went. According to the Justice Department and trial evidence:
– Magic: The Gathering: a Black Lotus card for about $500,000, plus 18 sealed Alpha Booster packs for roughly $1.5 million
– Pokémon: a complete first-edition base set for about $750,000 and a sealed first-edition booster box for about $257,500
– Ancient history: an Eid Mar denarius, the Roman coin commemorating Julius Caesar’s assassination, for about $601,545
– Space memorabilia: a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original airplane, carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong, for about $137,500
That is a lot of cardboard and fabric, and it happens to rhyme with a trend crypto readers have noticed lately: Pokémon cards have been outperforming Bitcoin in 2026, and Coinbase recently announced a Pokémon pack product.
What the Government Got Back
Investigators seized the Black Lotus, the Wright brothers fabric and some of the coins from Spalletta’s home under a court-authorized search warrant. In February 2025, authorities also seized cryptocurrency from the Uranium hacks worth about $31 million at the time. Prosecutors have asked anyone who believes they were a victim of the Uranium hacks to contact Homeland Security Investigations.
Why Crypto Users Should Care
This case lands in a year when DeFi security has been brutal, with hundreds of millions lost to exploits across exchanges and protocols. It is a reminder of three things:
1. Exploits are prosecutable. The “the code allowed it” argument failed in front of a jury, even though the contract’s logic really was flawed.
2. A “bug bounty” is not a free pass. Returning part of the loot after taking it did not shield him.
3. Mixers don’t erase the trail. The money moved through Tornado Cash, yet investigators still traced it to assets sitting in his home and to $31 million in seized crypto.
For Uranium’s users and team, the damage was permanent: the exchange never recovered.
What Comes Next
Spalletta’s sentencing date has not been reported in the coverage I found. With convictions on both counts, he faces a potential total of 30 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically lower. For now, the case stands as a cautionary tale in the “what happens after the hack” chapter of DeFi: the code was exploited in minutes, but the consequences took more than five years to arrive.
$54.7M DeFi Hacker Convicted After Spending Stolen Millions on Pokémon Cards and a Black Lotus
A Manhattan federal jury has convicted Jonathan Spalletta, a Maryland cybersecurity consultant, for draining roughly $54.7 million from the decentralized exchange Uranium Finance in two April 2021 hacks.
The case reads like a crypto-meets-collectibles fever dream: stolen funds ran through Tornado Cash, then went into one of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence, a first-edition Pokémon set, a Roman coin, and a scrap of fabric that traveled to the moon.
The Verdict
On Wednesday, October 7, a jury found Spalletta, 36, of Rockville, Maryland, guilty on both counts of computer fraud and money laundering after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Computer fraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and money laundering up to 20. Online, Spalletta went by “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said:
“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money, over $50 million dollars, and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.” The Southern District of New York added that its prosecutors and agency partners had ensured his “virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”
Hack One: A Bug and a “Bounty”
Uranium Finance was a decentralized exchange where users swapped tokens through liquidity pools. According to prosecutors, Spalletta struck on April 8, 2021, by repeating a series of transactions against Uranium’s smart contract to pull out far more rewards than he was owed, taking about $1.4 million.
He then pressed the team to let him keep roughly $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the rest. Prosecutors called that bounty a sham. Two weeks later, he wrote to another person:
“I did a crypto heist of $1.5MM a couple of weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is all fake internet money anyway.”
Hack Two: The $53.3 Million Strike
Just 20 days after the first attack, on April 28, 2021, he hit again. This time he exploited an error in how the contract calculated withdrawals across several liquidity pools, taking about $53.3 million. Uranium could not survive the loss and shut down for lack of funds.
“Code Is Law” Didn’t Work
Spalletta’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove “whose fingers were on the keyboard,” that he did not write Uranium’s faulty code, and that Tornado Cash is simply a privacy tool. The jury rejected those arguments. Cryptopolitan reported the verdict came after roughly two hours of deliberation. After the verdict, prosecutors asked for GPS monitoring of Spalletta.
Laundering Through Tornado Cash
Prosecutors said Spalletta moved the proceeds through a chain of transactions that included Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service designed to obscure where funds come from and where they go. Reporting on the trial put about $26 million of it through the mixer between April 2021 and November 2023.
The Shopping List
What turned this into a headline-grabber is where the money went. According to the Justice Department and trial evidence:
– Magic: The Gathering: a Black Lotus card for about $500,000, plus 18 sealed Alpha Booster packs for roughly $1.5 million
– Pokémon: a complete first-edition base set for about $750,000 and a sealed first-edition booster box for about $257,500
– Ancient history: an Eid Mar denarius, the Roman coin commemorating Julius Caesar’s assassination, for about $601,545
– Space memorabilia: a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original airplane, carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong, for about $137,500
That is a lot of cardboard and fabric, and it happens to rhyme with a trend crypto readers have noticed lately: Pokémon cards have been outperforming Bitcoin in 2026, and Coinbase recently announced a Pokémon pack product.
What the Government Got Back
Investigators seized the Black Lotus, the Wright brothers fabric and some of the coins from Spalletta’s home under a court-authorized search warrant. In February 2025, authorities also seized cryptocurrency from the Uranium hacks worth about $31 million at the time. Prosecutors have asked anyone who believes they were a victim of the Uranium hacks to contact Homeland Security Investigations.
Why Crypto Users Should Care
This case lands in a year when DeFi security has been brutal, with hundreds of millions lost to exploits across exchanges and protocols. It is a reminder of three things:
1. Exploits are prosecutable. The “the code allowed it” argument failed in front of a jury, even though the contract’s logic really was flawed.
2. A “bug bounty” is not a free pass. Returning part of the loot after taking it did not shield him.
3. Mixers don’t erase the trail. The money moved through Tornado Cash, yet investigators still traced it to assets sitting in his home and to $31 million in seized crypto.
For Uranium’s users and team, the damage was permanent: the exchange never recovered.
What Comes Next
Spalletta’s sentencing date has not been reported in the coverage I found. With convictions on both counts, he faces a potential total of 30 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically lower. For now, the case stands as a cautionary tale in the “what happens after the hack” chapter of DeFi: the code was exploited in minutes, but the consequences took more than five years to arrive.
The case reads like a crypto-meets-collectibles fever dream: stolen funds ran through Tornado Cash, then went into one of the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence, a first-edition Pokémon set, a Roman coin, and a scrap of fabric that traveled to the moon.
The Verdict
On Wednesday, October 7, a jury found Spalletta, 36, of Rockville, Maryland, guilty on both counts of computer fraud and money laundering after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Computer fraud carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and money laundering up to 20. Online, Spalletta went by “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said:
“Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money, over $50 million dollars, and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.” The Southern District of New York added that its prosecutors and agency partners had ensured his “virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”
Hack One: A Bug and a “Bounty”
Uranium Finance was a decentralized exchange where users swapped tokens through liquidity pools. According to prosecutors, Spalletta struck on April 8, 2021, by repeating a series of transactions against Uranium’s smart contract to pull out far more rewards than he was owed, taking about $1.4 million.
He then pressed the team to let him keep roughly $386,000 as a “bug bounty” in exchange for returning the rest. Prosecutors called that bounty a sham. Two weeks later, he wrote to another person:
“I did a crypto heist of $1.5MM a couple of weeks ago… There was a bug in a smart contract, and I exploited it… Crypto is all fake internet money anyway.”
Hack Two: The $53.3 Million Strike
Just 20 days after the first attack, on April 28, 2021, he hit again. This time he exploited an error in how the contract calculated withdrawals across several liquidity pools, taking about $53.3 million. Uranium could not survive the loss and shut down for lack of funds.
“Code Is Law” Didn’t Work
Spalletta’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove “whose fingers were on the keyboard,” that he did not write Uranium’s faulty code, and that Tornado Cash is simply a privacy tool. The jury rejected those arguments. Cryptopolitan reported the verdict came after roughly two hours of deliberation. After the verdict, prosecutors asked for GPS monitoring of Spalletta.
Laundering Through Tornado Cash
Prosecutors said Spalletta moved the proceeds through a chain of transactions that included Tornado Cash, the Ethereum mixing service designed to obscure where funds come from and where they go. Reporting on the trial put about $26 million of it through the mixer between April 2021 and November 2023.
The Shopping List
What turned this into a headline-grabber is where the money went. According to the Justice Department and trial evidence:
– Magic: The Gathering: a Black Lotus card for about $500,000, plus 18 sealed Alpha Booster packs for roughly $1.5 million
– Pokémon: a complete first-edition base set for about $750,000 and a sealed first-edition booster box for about $257,500
– Ancient history: an Eid Mar denarius, the Roman coin commemorating Julius Caesar’s assassination, for about $601,545
– Space memorabilia: a piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ original airplane, carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong, for about $137,500
That is a lot of cardboard and fabric, and it happens to rhyme with a trend crypto readers have noticed lately: Pokémon cards have been outperforming Bitcoin in 2026, and Coinbase recently announced a Pokémon pack product.
What the Government Got Back
Investigators seized the Black Lotus, the Wright brothers fabric and some of the coins from Spalletta’s home under a court-authorized search warrant. In February 2025, authorities also seized cryptocurrency from the Uranium hacks worth about $31 million at the time. Prosecutors have asked anyone who believes they were a victim of the Uranium hacks to contact Homeland Security Investigations.
Why Crypto Users Should Care
This case lands in a year when DeFi security has been brutal, with hundreds of millions lost to exploits across exchanges and protocols. It is a reminder of three things:
1. Exploits are prosecutable. The “the code allowed it” argument failed in front of a jury, even though the contract’s logic really was flawed.
2. A “bug bounty” is not a free pass. Returning part of the loot after taking it did not shield him.
3. Mixers don’t erase the trail. The money moved through Tornado Cash, yet investigators still traced it to assets sitting in his home and to $31 million in seized crypto.
For Uranium’s users and team, the damage was permanent: the exchange never recovered.
What Comes Next
Spalletta’s sentencing date has not been reported in the coverage I found. With convictions on both counts, he faces a potential total of 30 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically lower. For now, the case stands as a cautionary tale in the “what happens after the hack” chapter of DeFi: the code was exploited in minutes, but the consequences took more than five years to arrive.
512
Article
CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands Convene Regional Tech Leaders for ‘Scale: ...The curated, high-impact gathering brings together top AI founders, investors, developers, and ecosystem builders across the MENA region to discuss the future of Web3 and Artificial Intelligence.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – October 8, 2026 – CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands today announced Scale: Intelligence | The AI Frontier, an exclusive event designed to unite artificial intelligence (AI) innovators, Web3 builders, venture capitalists, and industry visionaries.
Scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the event will be held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai.
Presented in partnership with Ghaf Labs, Enya Labs, CryptoMondays, Nadmah, and Rox Custody, with collaboration from Salad Labs and Minds by Animoca Brands, the gathering serves as a strategic catalyst for AI expansion and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Exploring the Convergence of AI, Capital, and Decentralized Tech
“Scale: Intelligence” marks a dedicated edition of the Scale event series focusing on artificial intelligence and its synergistic role alongside Web3 and emerging technologies. Attendees will gain direct access to capital, high-level strategic panel discussions, and curated networking opportunities aimed at fostering partnerships across the local and global tech ecosystems.
Event Agenda & Details
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST
Location: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE
Registration: https://luma.com/t07y5voi (Space is strictly limited)
Event Schedule:
3:00 PM: Arrivals & Curated Networking
4:00 PM: Keynote & AI Panel Discussion (Featuring industry leaders on the AI frontier)
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM: VIP Networking & Hospitality (Food and beverages provided)
Participating Event Partners
The event brings together leading global and regional partners, media networks, and technology enablers:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, and DATS Awards.
About Scale
Scale (Dubai) is a premium event and platform designed to unite founders, investors, and pioneers at the intersection of emerging technologies, capital, and regional innovation. Focusing on high-value networking and actionable insights, Scale bridges global tech leaders with local ecosystems in the MENA region to accelerate growth, investment, and market expansion.
About CryptoMondays MENA
CryptoMondays MENA is part of the global CryptoMondays network, Worlds largest and Oldest Web3 community initiatives worldwide. Dedicated to educating, inspiring, and connecting passion-driven leaders, developers, and investors in the crypto and blockchain space, CryptoMondays MENA regularly hosts premier gatherings across key hub cities in the Middle East to foster community engagement and industry advancement.
About Minds by Animoca Brands
Minds by Animoca Brands – Minds by Animoca Brands is a persistent AI agent platform that removes complexity while preserving full control and customization for both builders and general users. It enables anyone to deploy and direct sovereign, always-on AI agents, called Minds, without having to operate local servers or manage any hardware or software.
Media Contact & Registration: To request press credentials, interview availability with speakers, or register for the event, please visit the official page at https://luma.com/t07y5voi.
CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands Convene Regional Tech Leaders for ‘Scale: ...
The curated, high-impact gathering brings together top AI founders, investors, developers, and ecosystem builders across the MENA region to discuss the future of Web3 and Artificial Intelligence.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – October 8, 2026 – CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands today announced Scale: Intelligence | The AI Frontier, an exclusive event designed to unite artificial intelligence (AI) innovators, Web3 builders, venture capitalists, and industry visionaries.
Scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the event will be held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai.
Presented in partnership with Ghaf Labs, Enya Labs, CryptoMondays, Nadmah, and Rox Custody, with collaboration from Salad Labs and Minds by Animoca Brands, the gathering serves as a strategic catalyst for AI expansion and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Exploring the Convergence of AI, Capital, and Decentralized Tech
“Scale: Intelligence” marks a dedicated edition of the Scale event series focusing on artificial intelligence and its synergistic role alongside Web3 and emerging technologies. Attendees will gain direct access to capital, high-level strategic panel discussions, and curated networking opportunities aimed at fostering partnerships across the local and global tech ecosystems.
Event Agenda & Details
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST
Location: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE
Registration: https://luma.com/t07y5voi (Space is strictly limited)
Event Schedule:
3:00 PM: Arrivals & Curated Networking
4:00 PM: Keynote & AI Panel Discussion (Featuring industry leaders on the AI frontier)
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM: VIP Networking & Hospitality (Food and beverages provided)
Participating Event Partners
The event brings together leading global and regional partners, media networks, and technology enablers:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, and DATS Awards.
About Scale
Scale (Dubai) is a premium event and platform designed to unite founders, investors, and pioneers at the intersection of emerging technologies, capital, and regional innovation. Focusing on high-value networking and actionable insights, Scale bridges global tech leaders with local ecosystems in the MENA region to accelerate growth, investment, and market expansion.
About CryptoMondays MENA
CryptoMondays MENA is part of the global CryptoMondays network, Worlds largest and Oldest Web3 community initiatives worldwide. Dedicated to educating, inspiring, and connecting passion-driven leaders, developers, and investors in the crypto and blockchain space, CryptoMondays MENA regularly hosts premier gatherings across key hub cities in the Middle East to foster community engagement and industry advancement.
About Minds by Animoca Brands
Minds by Animoca Brands – Minds by Animoca Brands is a persistent AI agent platform that removes complexity while preserving full control and customization for both builders and general users. It enables anyone to deploy and direct sovereign, always-on AI agents, called Minds, without having to operate local servers or manage any hardware or software.
Media Contact & Registration: To request press credentials, interview availability with speakers, or register for the event, please visit the official page at https://luma.com/t07y5voi.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – October 8, 2026 – CryptoMondays MENA, Scale, and Minds by Animoca Brands today announced Scale: Intelligence | The AI Frontier, an exclusive event designed to unite artificial intelligence (AI) innovators, Web3 builders, venture capitalists, and industry visionaries.
Scheduled for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the event will be held on the 12th Floor of the Grand Millennium in Barsha Heights, Dubai.
Presented in partnership with Ghaf Labs, Enya Labs, CryptoMondays, Nadmah, and Rox Custody, with collaboration from Salad Labs and Minds by Animoca Brands, the gathering serves as a strategic catalyst for AI expansion and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Exploring the Convergence of AI, Capital, and Decentralized Tech
“Scale: Intelligence” marks a dedicated edition of the Scale event series focusing on artificial intelligence and its synergistic role alongside Web3 and emerging technologies. Attendees will gain direct access to capital, high-level strategic panel discussions, and curated networking opportunities aimed at fostering partnerships across the local and global tech ecosystems.
Event Agenda & Details
Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM GST
Location: 12th Floor, Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights, Dubai, UAE
Registration: https://luma.com/t07y5voi (Space is strictly limited)
Event Schedule:
3:00 PM: Arrivals & Curated Networking
4:00 PM: Keynote & AI Panel Discussion (Featuring industry leaders on the AI frontier)
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM: VIP Networking & Hospitality (Food and beverages provided)
Participating Event Partners
The event brings together leading global and regional partners, media networks, and technology enablers:
– Presenting & Core Partners: Ghaf Labs, CryptoMondays MENA, Nadmah, Rox Custody, Salad Labs, Minds by Animoca Brands, Boba Network, and Enya Labs.
– Ecosystem & Media Partners: D2A2, CoinNewsExtra, AURA8, DSRPTD, ACCESS Blockchain Association, Asia Token Fund, Liberland, Washington Elite, Dats Awards , BitAngels, CoinTelegram, OffChain Global , Block Tides, CryptoniteUAE, CoinEasy, Proof of Collabs, Singapore Blockchain Week 2026, Coin Edition, Coin Gabbar, Venture Week, and DATS Awards.
About Scale
Scale (Dubai) is a premium event and platform designed to unite founders, investors, and pioneers at the intersection of emerging technologies, capital, and regional innovation. Focusing on high-value networking and actionable insights, Scale bridges global tech leaders with local ecosystems in the MENA region to accelerate growth, investment, and market expansion.
About CryptoMondays MENA
CryptoMondays MENA is part of the global CryptoMondays network, Worlds largest and Oldest Web3 community initiatives worldwide. Dedicated to educating, inspiring, and connecting passion-driven leaders, developers, and investors in the crypto and blockchain space, CryptoMondays MENA regularly hosts premier gatherings across key hub cities in the Middle East to foster community engagement and industry advancement.
About Minds by Animoca Brands
Minds by Animoca Brands – Minds by Animoca Brands is a persistent AI agent platform that removes complexity while preserving full control and customization for both builders and general users. It enables anyone to deploy and direct sovereign, always-on AI agents, called Minds, without having to operate local servers or manage any hardware or software.
Media Contact & Registration: To request press credentials, interview availability with speakers, or register for the event, please visit the official page at https://luma.com/t07y5voi.
197
Article
Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 to Bring Together Fintech Leaders, Innovators and Investors in PaphosPAPHOS, CYPRUS | May 5, 2027 Cypria Maris Paphos
Cyprus is set to welcome leading professionals, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and technology experts for Cyprus Fintech Week 2027, taking place on May 5, 2027, at Cypria Maris Paphos.
The event will bring together key voices from the financial technology ecosystem to explore the latest developments shaping the future of finance. Building on Cyprus Fintech Week’s focus on financial technology, trading, digital innovation, banking, payments, digital assets, artificial intelligence, security, and financial infrastructure, the event aims to create a platform for knowledge exchange, business connections, and new opportunities.
A Platform for the Future of Finance
As financial services continue to evolve through technology and digital transformation, Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 will provide an opportunity for industry professionals to discuss emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities across the fintech landscape. The event will bring together representatives from financial institutions, fintech companies, technology providers, startups, investment firms, entrepreneurs, and other professionals working across the financial and technology sectors.
Key areas of interest will include Fintech, Banking, Payments, Trading, Digital Assets, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, and Digital Financial Infrastructure.
Connecting Industry Leaders and Innovators
Cyprus Fintech Week aims to encourage meaningful connections between established businesses and emerging companies while creating opportunities for collaboration, investment, and knowledge sharing.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet industry experts, founders, investors, executives, technology professionals, and other decision-makers while gaining insights into the technologies and developments shaping the future of financial services. The event also supports the continued growth of Cyprus as a destination for fintech, innovation, and international business. The wider Cyprus fintech ecosystem continues to develop through the growth of startups, digital payment solutions, blockchain applications, and technology-driven financial services.
An Opportunity for Businesses and Media Partners
Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 will provide businesses with opportunities to increase their visibility, connect with relevant decision-makers, and participate in conversations surrounding the future of financial technology.
Media partners will play an important role in helping bring the event and its industry discussions to a wider audience, supporting greater awareness of Cyprus’ growing fintech ecosystem and its international potential.
The event is expected to attract professionals interested in discovering new technologies, exploring business opportunities, building partnerships, and staying informed about developments across the fintech industry.
Event Details
Event: Cyprus Fintech Week 2027Date: May 5, 2027Venue: Cypria Maris Paphos, CyprusWebsite: cyprusfintechweek.com
For event information, partnership opportunities, media enquiries, and participation details, please visit the official Cyprus Fintech Week website.
About Cyprus Fintech Week
Cyprus Fintech Week is an industry-focused event designed to connect professionals across financial technology, trading, digital innovation, banking, payments, digital assets, AI, security, and infrastructure. The event provides a platform for industry leaders, innovators, startups, investors, and professionals to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and explore opportunities within the evolving fintech ecosystem.
Media & Partnership Enquiries: info@cyprusfintechweek.com
Website: cyprusfintechweek.com
Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 to Bring Together Fintech Leaders, Innovators and Investors in Paphos
PAPHOS, CYPRUS | May 5, 2027 Cypria Maris Paphos
Cyprus is set to welcome leading professionals, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and technology experts for Cyprus Fintech Week 2027, taking place on May 5, 2027, at Cypria Maris Paphos.
The event will bring together key voices from the financial technology ecosystem to explore the latest developments shaping the future of finance. Building on Cyprus Fintech Week’s focus on financial technology, trading, digital innovation, banking, payments, digital assets, artificial intelligence, security, and financial infrastructure, the event aims to create a platform for knowledge exchange, business connections, and new opportunities.
A Platform for the Future of Finance
As financial services continue to evolve through technology and digital transformation, Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 will provide an opportunity for industry professionals to discuss emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities across the fintech landscape. The event will bring together representatives from financial institutions, fintech companies, technology providers, startups, investment firms, entrepreneurs, and other professionals working across the financial and technology sectors.
Key areas of interest will include Fintech, Banking, Payments, Trading, Digital Assets, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, and Digital Financial Infrastructure.
Connecting Industry Leaders and Innovators
Cyprus Fintech Week aims to encourage meaningful connections between established businesses and emerging companies while creating opportunities for collaboration, investment, and knowledge sharing.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet industry experts, founders, investors, executives, technology professionals, and other decision-makers while gaining insights into the technologies and developments shaping the future of financial services. The event also supports the continued growth of Cyprus as a destination for fintech, innovation, and international business. The wider Cyprus fintech ecosystem continues to develop through the growth of startups, digital payment solutions, blockchain applications, and technology-driven financial services.
An Opportunity for Businesses and Media Partners
Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 will provide businesses with opportunities to increase their visibility, connect with relevant decision-makers, and participate in conversations surrounding the future of financial technology.
Media partners will play an important role in helping bring the event and its industry discussions to a wider audience, supporting greater awareness of Cyprus’ growing fintech ecosystem and its international potential.
The event is expected to attract professionals interested in discovering new technologies, exploring business opportunities, building partnerships, and staying informed about developments across the fintech industry.
Event Details
Event: Cyprus Fintech Week 2027Date: May 5, 2027Venue: Cypria Maris Paphos, CyprusWebsite: cyprusfintechweek.com
For event information, partnership opportunities, media enquiries, and participation details, please visit the official Cyprus Fintech Week website.
About Cyprus Fintech Week
Cyprus Fintech Week is an industry-focused event designed to connect professionals across financial technology, trading, digital innovation, banking, payments, digital assets, AI, security, and infrastructure. The event provides a platform for industry leaders, innovators, startups, investors, and professionals to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and explore opportunities within the evolving fintech ecosystem.
Media & Partnership Enquiries: info@cyprusfintechweek.com
Website: cyprusfintechweek.com
Cyprus is set to welcome leading professionals, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and technology experts for Cyprus Fintech Week 2027, taking place on May 5, 2027, at Cypria Maris Paphos.
The event will bring together key voices from the financial technology ecosystem to explore the latest developments shaping the future of finance. Building on Cyprus Fintech Week’s focus on financial technology, trading, digital innovation, banking, payments, digital assets, artificial intelligence, security, and financial infrastructure, the event aims to create a platform for knowledge exchange, business connections, and new opportunities.
A Platform for the Future of Finance
As financial services continue to evolve through technology and digital transformation, Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 will provide an opportunity for industry professionals to discuss emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities across the fintech landscape. The event will bring together representatives from financial institutions, fintech companies, technology providers, startups, investment firms, entrepreneurs, and other professionals working across the financial and technology sectors.
Key areas of interest will include Fintech, Banking, Payments, Trading, Digital Assets, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, and Digital Financial Infrastructure.
Connecting Industry Leaders and Innovators
Cyprus Fintech Week aims to encourage meaningful connections between established businesses and emerging companies while creating opportunities for collaboration, investment, and knowledge sharing.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet industry experts, founders, investors, executives, technology professionals, and other decision-makers while gaining insights into the technologies and developments shaping the future of financial services. The event also supports the continued growth of Cyprus as a destination for fintech, innovation, and international business. The wider Cyprus fintech ecosystem continues to develop through the growth of startups, digital payment solutions, blockchain applications, and technology-driven financial services.
An Opportunity for Businesses and Media Partners
Cyprus Fintech Week 2027 will provide businesses with opportunities to increase their visibility, connect with relevant decision-makers, and participate in conversations surrounding the future of financial technology.
Media partners will play an important role in helping bring the event and its industry discussions to a wider audience, supporting greater awareness of Cyprus’ growing fintech ecosystem and its international potential.
The event is expected to attract professionals interested in discovering new technologies, exploring business opportunities, building partnerships, and staying informed about developments across the fintech industry.
Event Details
Event: Cyprus Fintech Week 2027Date: May 5, 2027Venue: Cypria Maris Paphos, CyprusWebsite: cyprusfintechweek.com
For event information, partnership opportunities, media enquiries, and participation details, please visit the official Cyprus Fintech Week website.
About Cyprus Fintech Week
Cyprus Fintech Week is an industry-focused event designed to connect professionals across financial technology, trading, digital innovation, banking, payments, digital assets, AI, security, and infrastructure. The event provides a platform for industry leaders, innovators, startups, investors, and professionals to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and explore opportunities within the evolving fintech ecosystem.
Media & Partnership Enquiries: info@cyprusfintechweek.com
Website: cyprusfintechweek.com
47
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