Crypto exec warns of ‘ELUSIVE COMET’ threat after losing 75% of assets
The chief executive of non-fungible token platform Emblem Vault is warning X users to be wary of the video meeting app Zoom after a nefarious threat actor known as “ELUSIVE COMET” recently stole over $100,000 of his personal assets. On April 11, Emblem Vault CEO, podcaster and NFT collector Jake Gallen said on X that he had been battling a “complete computer compromise” that ended up with a loss of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) assets from different wallets. “Unfortunately, this led to $100k+ in purchased digital assets being lost,” he said. Days later, Gallen said he had been working with cybersecurity firm The Security Alliance (SEAL) to track an ongoing campaign against crypto users by a threat actor identified as “ELUSIVE COMET.”Gallen said the scam was facilitated over the video conference platform Zoom, which resulted in his crypto wallet being drained. “We were able to retrieve a malware file that was installed on my computer during a Zoom call with a YouTube personality of over 90k subs,” said Gallen on April 14. The malicious actor “employs sophisticated social engineering tactics with the goal of inducing victims into installing malware and ultimately stealing their crypto,” SEAL reported in late March.Source: Jake GallenGallen said he’d arranged an interview after being contacted by a verified X account with 26,000 followers that claims to be the founder and CEO of a crypto mining platform. However, during the interview, the X user left their screen switched off while Gallen’s was on. During the call, Gallen was tricked into enabling the installation of malware called “GOOPDATE,” which stole credentials and accessed his crypto wallets. Cointelegraph reached out to the X account for comment. Zoom remote access threat“For this scam to take place, it’s said that the guest of the Zoom video call allows remote access to the host of the call, which is a requestable feature that is DEFAULT ON for every Zoom account,” said Gallen.NFT collector Leonidas confirmed the default settings and advised those in the crypto industry to prevent remote access. “If you don’t do this, anybody who is on a Zoom call with your employees can take over their entire computer by default,” he said. Source: LeonidasSEAL security researcher Samczsun told Cointelegraph that Zoom, by default, allows meeting participants to request remote control access. “At this point in time we believe the victim still needs to be social engineered into granting access,” they said. Cointelegraph reached out to Zoom for comments but did not receive an immediate response. Related: Crypto founders report deluge of North Korean fake Zoom hacking attemptsGallen also stated that the hackers accessed his Ledger wallet even though he had only logged in a few times over the three years and had never written the password down anywhere digitally. They also hacked his X account in an attempt to lure in other victims through private messages. SEAL reported that ELUSIVE COMET is known to operate Aureon Capital, which claims to be a legitimate venture capital firm. The threat actor is responsible for “millions of dollars in stolen funds” and poses a significant risk to users due to their “carefully engineered backstory,” the firm noted. Samczsun advised users who have interacted with Aureon Capital to contact SEAL’s emergency hotline on Telegram. Magazine: Bitcoin eyes $100K by June, Shaq to settle NFT lawsuit, and more: Hodler’s Digest
Xapo Bank sees Bitcoin trading surge as wealthy investors bought the dip
Gibraltar-based Xapo Bank, a private bank and Bitcoin custodian, reported a surge in Bitcoin trading volumes in the first quarter as its high-net-worth members scooped up Bitcoin amid market turbulence. Xapo Bank said that Q1 trading volume grew 14.2% compared to the Q4 2024, as the Bitcoin (BTC) price drop helped drive trading volume growth on its platform. It said that during the decline, its high net-worth members “actively bought the dip,” reflecting these members’ “commitment to the long-term potential of Bitcoin.”In the first quarter of 2025, Bitcoin had its worst start to a year since 2018, closing the quarter down 13%. The crypto-friendly bank became the first licensed bank to launch interest-bearing Bitcoin and fiat banking accounts in the UK in 2025 and launched Bitcoin-backed USD loans of up to $1 million in March 2025.Xapo Bank’s self-selected poll on X showed respondents favored using Bitcoin for savings and investment. Source: Xapo Bank It also recorded a 50% quarter-on-quarter jump in euro deposits. “This rapid increase in volume came amidst mounting concern about the future of US dollar primacy and the threat of a US recession as markets braced for Trump’s planned ‘Liberation Day’ in April,” the bank said.There were also significant shifts in Xapo members’ stablecoin deposit patterns, with USDC deposits up 19.8% in Q1 and Tether (USDT) deposits down 13.4%. This shift comes as European cryptocurrency exchanges moved to delist Tether in order to comply with Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation regulations.“Xapo Bank member data shows that despite short-term headwinds, the bigger picture for Bitcoin remains strong and current volatility does not diminish Bitcoin’s importance,” said Gadi Chait, Xapo Bank’s head of investment. Chait added that “while global events painted an erratic picture, the opportunity for Bitcoin has always been in its long-term performance, not its short-term volatility.”Related: Exclusive: Inside a Swiss nuclear bunker’s secret Bitcoin vaultCrypto exchange Bitget also sees Q1 trading volumes surgeMarket turmoil also prompted a flurry of activity on digital currency exchange Bitget, according to its Q1 2025 Transparency Report. Bitget’s total trading volume hit $2.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2025, as spot trading volume saw a quarter-on-quarter increase of 159%, rising to $387 billion.This surge in trading volume came as Bitget’s total user base grew by almost 20%, with the exchange adding an additional 4.89 million users on its centralized exchange and 15 million users on its Bitget Wallet app — bringing its total global user count to over 120 million.Bitget’s CEO, Gracy Chen, said the exchange will continue to “focus on institutional-grade infrastructure and double down on expanding its Web3 presence through our ecosystem.”In February, Bitget loaned rival exchange Bybit 40,000 ETH, valued at approximately $100 million, after Bybit suffered a major hack. The loan has since been fully repaid by Bybit.“No interest, no collateral — this was simply about supporting a peer in need. Great to see Bybit fully recovered, and we never doubted the return of the loan,” Chen said. Magazine: Bitcoin eyes $100K by June, Shaq to settle NFT lawsuit, and more: Hodler’s Digest, April 6 – 12
Bitcoin held by publicly listed firms climbs 16% in Q1: Bitwise
The amount of Bitcoin held on the books of publicly traded companies rose by 16.1% in the first quarter of 2025, according to crypto fund issuer Bitwise.Total company Bitcoin (BTC) holdings rose to around 688,000 BTC by the end of Q1, with firms adding 95,431 BTC over the quarter, Bitwise reported in an April 14 X post.The value of the combined Bitcoin stacks rose around 2.2%, reaching a total combined value of $56.7 billion with a price per BTC of $82,445, the firm added.Source: BitwiseBitwise noted that the number of public companies holding Bitcoin rose to 79, with 12 firms buying the cryptocurrency for the first time in Q1.The largest first-time Bitcoin buyer was the Hong Kong construction firm Ming Shing, whose subsidiary Lead Benefit bought a total of 833 BTC over the quarter, with an initial 500 BTC buy in January and a follow-up 333 BTC buy in February.The next largest maiden Bitcoin holder was the far-right favored YouTube alternative Rumble, which bought 188 BTC in mid-March.One notable debut Bitcoin buyer was the Hong Kong investment firm HK Asia Holdings Limited, which only purchased a single Bitcoin in February, but the announcement caused its share price to nearly double in value in a single trading day.Metaplanet buys the dip with 319 Bitcoin scoopMeanwhile, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet said in an April 14 note that it purchased another 319 Bitcoin for an average price of 11.8 million yen ($82,770) per coin, bringing its total holdings to 4,525 Bitcoin, currently worth $383.2 million.However, the company has spent a total of 58.145 billion yen, nearly $406 million, buying up its current Bitcoin stack.Metaplanet (3350) was down 0.5% by the April 15 lunch break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after closing trading on April 14 up 3.71%, according to Google Finance.Metaplanet opened the April 15 trading day flat after disclosing a Bitcoin buy the day before. Source: Google FinanceThe Tokyo-based firm’s latest Bitcoin buy puts it firmly in tenth place among the world’s largest public companies holding Bitcoin, trailing behind Jack Dorsey’s Block, Inc., which holds 8,485 BTC, according to Coinkite data.Bitcoin is trading around $84,440 and has traded flat over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. It’s up around 2.3% since the end of Q1 on March 31, having clawed back from a low of under $75,000 on April 7 after a wider market drop due to a round of fresh global tariffs imposed by the US.Asia Express: Bitcoiner sex trap extortion? BTS firm’s blockchain disaster
Decentralized exchange KiloEx says $7.5M exploit has been contained
Decentralized exchange KiloEX has confirmed it has suspended usage of its platform and is tracing stolen funds after suffering a $7.5 million exploit. The exploit has been contained, with use of the platform suspended and an investigation underway, the KiloEX team said in an April 14 statement to X.“The team has immediately suspended platform usage and is working with security partners to trace the flow of funds,” KiloEX said. “We are analyzing the attack vector and affected assets. We are collaborating with ecosystem partners to trace and recover funds where possible.” Source: KiloEXA bounty program and a full report on how the exploit occurred is also in the works, according to KiloEX. In an update, the KiloEX team said it was collaborating with BNB Chain, Manta Network, and cybersecurity firms Seal-911, SlowMist and Sherlock in an effort spanning “multiple ecosystems.” “Our investigation has confirmed that the stolen assets are currently being routed through zkBridge and Meson,” KiloEX said. “We are urgently attempting to engage with both protocols to halt ongoing transactions and prevent additional losses.” KiloEX attacker exploited price oracle issue, say analysts Cybersecurity firm PeckShield said in an April 14 post to X the exploiter looted $7.5 million in total, $3.3 million Base, $3.1m opBNB and $1m BSC. The firm has speculated the exploit is likely a “price oracle issue,” where the information used by a smart contract to determine the price of an asset is manipulated or inaccurate, leading to the exploit. “Our initial analysis on one transaction exploit indicates a price oracle issue,” PeckShield said. Source: PeckShield“The hacker exploits it to create a new position with initial given ETH/USD price of 100 and then immediately close the position with inflated ETH/USD price of 10000, netting the $3.12m profit in one single transaction.” Chaofan Shou, co-founder of blockchain analytics firm Fuzzland, also weighed in, speculating the exploit was likely due to a price oracle issue.“Anyone can change the Kilo’s price oracle. They did verify that the caller shall be a trusted forwarder, though, but didn’t verify the forwarded caller,” Shou said. Shou added it was a “very simple vulnerability” when a user asked about the complexity of the exploit. Source: Chaofan ShouThe news has sent the KiloEX’s native token, Kilo, plunging over 27% to trade at $0.03596, according to CoinGecko. It’s still down over 78% from its all-time high of $0.1648, which it hit on March 27.Related: Mantra CEO says OM token recovery ‘primary concern’ but in early stagesKiloEx was established in 2023 and is backed by Binance Labs, which is a lead investor and strategic partner. This exploit comes just days after the exchange announced a partnership with Dubai-based Web3 venture capitalist firm DWF Labs on April 13, which promised to expand KiloEx’s market presence and accelerate growth. On March 25, DWF Labs launched a $250 million Liquid Fund to accelerate the growth of mid- and large-cap blockchain projects and drive real-world adoption of Web3 technologies.Magazine: Bitcoin eyes $100K by June, Shaq to settle NFT lawsuit, and more: Hodler’s Digest, April 6–12
Tether partners with OCEAN mining pool to decentralize Bitcoin block-building
Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced it intends to deploy its existing and future Bitcoin hashrate to OCEAN’s Bitcoin mining pool in an effort to strengthen the network’s decentralization.“Deploying hashrate to OCEAN aligns with both our mining investments and our broader mission to fortify Bitcoin against centralizing forces,” Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an April 15 statement.Source: OCEAN MiningWhile Bitcoin hashrate is decentralized, the block-building process conducted by mining pools is mostly centralized by a few dominant actors — most notably Foundry USA, AntPool and ViaBTC.The OCEAN protocol attempts to decentralize this process by empowering miners to build their own block templates using their open-source DATUM protocol, reducing dependency on centralized intermediaries and enhancing censorship resistance, Tether said.Tether’s deployment would leverage OCEAN’s DATUM software across all of its mining operations worldwide, including in rural areas in Africa. “By enabling on-site generation of unique block templates and aggregating thousands of rig connections with low-latency performance, DATUM ensures global competitiveness while promoting geographic and operational diversity,” Tether said.Related: Inside the Trump-backed Bitcoin mining mega-deal with Hut 8Tether currently deploys Bitcoin hashrate at sites in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador, where the $144 billion stablecoin issuer is also headquartered.Those initiatives emerged around the time Tether announced it would invest $500 million into Bitcoin mining in late 2023.OCEAN was created by Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr in 2023 and has been backed by the likes of Block CEO Jack Dorsey. OCEAN also relocated its headquarters to El Salvador in May 2024.Dashjr sparked controversy in December 2023 when he slammed Bitcoin Ordinals users for clogging the network with “spam.” However, he refuted claims that OCEAN censored the non-fungible token-like transactions.OCEAN still has a lot of market share to captureThe OCEAN protocol currently mines between 0.2% to 1% of Bitcoin blocks, according to mempool.space data.It has mined nine blocks over the last week, including two in a row at 892342 and 892343 on April 14.However, OCEAN’s output remains a fraction of that seen by Foundry USA, AntPool and ViaBTC, which have mined 331, 199 and 161 Bitcoin blocks, respectively, over the same timeframe — accounting for over 66% of all blocks.The Tether partnership would likely provide a much-needed boost to OCEAN’s hashrate, which has amounted to 18.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) over the last 24 hours.OCEAN protocol’s Bitcoin mining statistics. Source: mempool.spaceBy comparison, Foundry USA’s hashrate over the same timeframe has exceeded 298 EH/s, leveraging hashrate from the likes of Bitcoin mining firms Hut 8, Bitdeer and Bitfarms.Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again
Bitcoin takes back seat as Trump, Bukele focus on trade and immigration
US President Donald Trump hosted El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele at the White House on April 14, with talks centered on trade and immigration, excluding Bitcoin from the public agenda.Pressing issues of migration and bilateral security cooperation set the tone of Bukele’s first official meeting at the White House during Trump’s second term. According to a livestream shared by Bukele’s office on X, Trump raised the possibility of transferring US citizens convicted of crimes to prisons in El Salvador, urging Bukele to expand the country’s prison system to house more prisoners. “I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places.” Source: Nayib BukeleSince taking office, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of alleged foreign criminal individuals to El Salvador under a $6 million deal between the countries.Trump also addressed the ongoing trade war unleashed by his administration on April 2, suggesting a potential temporary exemption for automakers aimed at easing the transition of their supply chains.“I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies with it,” Trump told reporters present at the meeting, adding that the US auto industry “need[s] a little bit of time” to relocate production to the country. The meeting did not touch on digital assets and Bitcoin (BTC) policy — a flagship initiative of both presidents’ administrations. El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, pioneering the Bitcoin strategic reserve approach later followed by Trump. The US president positioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate during the 2024 election. On March 6, Trump signed an executive order to create a Bitcoin strategic reserve and digital asset stockpile in the United States. The US holds nearly 198,000 BTC, valued at over $17 billion as of March. The reserve is primarily formed of Bitcoin seized in criminal and civil cases, including significant amounts from the Silk Road and Bitfinex hack cases.Related: How much Bitcoin does the US hold, and where did it come from?El Salvador’s BTC plans face IMF oppositionEl Salvador signed off in December a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which included commitments to unwind Bitcoin-related initiatives and reduce public sector involvement with digital assets.While the Salvadoran Congress amended its Bitcoin laws in January to comply with the deal, the government has continued its daily purchases of BTC. The country’s National Bitcoin Office’s tracker shows it currently holds 6,147.18 BTC, worth about $520.7 million at this writing. Related: Tether will relocate HQ to El Salvador after securing license
Trade wars could spur governments to embrace Web3 — Truebit
Escalating trade wars are rattling cryptocurrency markets — but they are also creating new use cases for blockchain networks, Truebit executives told Cointelegraph. On April 2, President Donald Trump announced plans to charge sweeping tariffs on US imports, prompting other nations to threaten retaliatory measures. Trump later paused the tariff rollout for certain countries — but the possibility of a global trade war still looms, especially after Trump reiterated his commitment to taxing Chinese goods. If high tariffs materialize, blockchain technology can play an important role in ensuring governments apply them fairly, according to the executives. Blockchain can “really help you prove provenance […] proving the chain of custody,” Federico Kattan, Truebit’s chief technology officer, told Cointelegraph. Trump’s proposed tariffs would transform global trade. Source: StatistaFor example, a company might “assemble or do some packaging in a low-tariff country and then import into the US at 10% instead of 58%… [but] blockchain can help establish where the product actually came from,” Kattan said.Blockchain networks can enhance supply chain transparency by recording every transaction on an immutable public ledger, greatly limiting the scope for fraud across trillions of dollars worth of imported goods. Trump’s proposed tariffs would impact $2.4 trillion worth of imports, according to a report by the Tax Foundation. Retaliatory measures by other countries could add to that figure. Truebit is a blockchain network specializing in helping users add trustless verification to a wide variety of applications. It is already in talks with software vendors servicing the US government and has been working on a European Union-funded project exploring Web3’s potential role in global supply chains, the executives said. “We’re not yet talking directly to governments, but to the software vendors trying to interface with them — because that’s where we want to be,” Jason Teutsch, Truebit’s CEO, said.Truebit’s native token has struggled since launching in 2021. Source: CoinGeckoRelated: Trade tensions to speed institutional crypto adoption — ExecsTruebit was launched in 2017 and launched its TRU token in 2021. The token has a fully diluted market capitalization of $20 million, according to CoinGecko.Trade war risksHowever, several other crypto executives cautioned that tariffs pose serious risks to blockchain networks’ integrity and accessibility to users. Worsening trade wars threaten to disrupt networks’ physical infrastructure, fragment regulatory regimes, and censor users, they said. “Aggressive tariffs and retaliatory trade policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators, and other core participants in blockchain networks,” Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, CEO of Concrete & Glow Finance, told Cointelegraph.Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again
Spot Solana ETFs to launch in Canada this week
Spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are set to launch in Canada on April 16, according to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas. In an X post on April 14, the analyst shared a private client note from TD Bank, a Canadian financial institution, claiming the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) greenlighted asset managers Purpose, Evolve, CI and 3iQ to issue ETFs holding Solana (SOL). The OSC did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. Canada does not have a federal securities agency, with its territories and provinces applying their own securities laws. Toronto’s securities exchange is regulated by Ontario’s OSC. The ETFs are permitted to stake a portion of the SOL holdings for added yield, Balchunas said, adding that the upcoming listings are “our first look at the alt coin race.” Source: Eric BalchunasRelated: SEC approves options on spot Ether ETFsWaiting on US approvalThe US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged dozens of applications to list ETFs holding alternative cryptocurrencies, or “altcoins,” but so far has only approved funds holding spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) for trading. Staking is still off limits for US crypto ETFs. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said Ether ETFs could be greenlighted to start staking as soon as May, but the process may take months longer. However, investors’ demand for altcoin ETFs may be weaker than for funds holding core cryptocurrencies, Katalin Tischhauser, crypto bank Sygnum’s research head, told Cointelegraph in August.“[T]here is all this frothy excitement in the market about these ETFs coming, and no one can point to where substantial demand is going to come from,” Tischhauser told Cointelegraph. Volatility Shares’ SOL futures ETF has roughly $5 million in net assets. Source: Volatility SharesIn March, asset manager Volatility Shares launched the first ETFs to track Solana’s performance using financial derivatives. Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) has seen a lukewarm reception, attracting only around $5 million in net assets as of April 14, according to its website. “FWIW, the 2 solana ETFs in US (which track futures so not a perfect guinea pig) haven’t done much. Very little in aum. The 2x XRP already has more aum than both the solana ETFs and it came out after,” Balchunas said. Balchunas added that he “[w]ouldn’t read a ton into it” as a predictor for spot SOL ETFs. Magazine: Bitcoin eyes $100K by June, Shaq to settle NFT lawsuit, and more: Hodler’s Digest, April 6–12