Crypto exchange Binance says its artificial intelligence-based security tools helped prevent the loss of more than $10 billion worth of user funds from scams and fraud between 2025 to March 2026.Binance said in a blog post on Monday that it had protected more than 5.4 million users from fraud between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 after rolling out over 24 AI-driven initiatives and more than 100 models.“AI-powered scams and exploits are accelerating,” Binance said. “The barrier to entry for scam perpetrators is falling fast, with AI accelerating the drop. What once required technical expertise can now be executed for next to nothing and at scale.”Scams and exploits have plagued crypto as highly organized threat actors have adopted AI to create more sophisticated attacks. The FBI reported in April that US citizens lost $11 billion worth of crypto to scams, with the impersonation of government officials or crypto companies being a key avenue used to dupe victims.“AI is amplifying social engineering at an unprecedented level, powering deepfakes, phishing bots, fake platforms, voice cloning and impersonation across chat applications, exploiting trust and urgency,” Binance said.Binance said that over the 15 months to March, it prevented $10.53 billion worth of user funds and blacklisted 36,000 malicious addresses via the integration of AI with its security protocols.Related: DeFi can freeze stolen funds, but not everyone agrees it shouldIn the first quarter of 2026 alone, the exchange said it “intercepted 22.9 million scam and phishing attempts,” saving $1.98 billion worth of user funds. Binance’s efforts to stop AI scams. Source: BinanceBinance said it has implemented computer vision to detect fake payment proofs and real-time language analysis to detect scam patterns, while also integrating the technology on the identity verification side to counter “increasingly sophisticated deepfakes and synthetic identities.””AI-driven decisioning now powers 57% of fraud controls, contributing to a 60-70% reduction in card fraud rates compared to industry benchmarks,” Binance said.Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act nowCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

US authorities have unsealed an indictment against three men accused of stealing at least $6.5 million in a “violent robbery spree targeting cryptocurrency owners.”The Justice Department said in a statement Monday that a federal grand jury indicted three men for allegedly planning to kidnap and rob four people around San Francisco and Los Angeles for their crypto.The trio, Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh and Jayden Rucker, are alleged to have posed as delivery drivers to force their way into residences and use threats of violence to extract crypto seed phrases.So-called wrench attacks, where crypto owners are subject to physical threats, have increased globally since 2025. French authorities charged 88 people in April with committing attacks against local crypto owners.US prosecutors claimed they identified at least four people the trio targeted from Nov. 22 until Dec. 31. One of the people was allegedly forced to transfer $6.5 million in crypto to a wallet controlled by the trio, according to an unsealed indictment filed in a San Francisco federal court.One of the victims was allegedly forced to transfer $6.5 million in crypto to the attackers. Source: PACER “These individuals, as alleged, terrorized their victims in the hopes of stealing vast sums of cryptocurrency,” Craig Missakian, the US Attorney for the Northern District of California, said in a statement Monday. “The scheme was not only sophisticated, it was brazen, violent, and dangerous.”Related: Law enforcement freezes $41M connected to $150M crypto Ponzi collapse Source: FBI San FranciscoThe three men were arrested in December last year and face charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, attempted robbery, and attempted kidnapping.Armstrong and Rucker are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. Chindavanh is scheduled to appear in court on June 26.Blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs reported in May last year that wrench attacks have been on the rise because of the ease with which bad actors can gather personal data online, the perceived pseudonymity of crypto transactions and the public visibility of wealth in the crypto sector.Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026 

The Ethereum Foundation has reached several progress milestones on the next Ethereum upgrade called “Glamsterdam” and has named three new leads for its Protocol team.The Ethereum Foundation said in a blog post on Monday that it had achieved a “credible post-Glamsterdam target,” establishing a 200 million gas limit floor, giving the network a major post-upgrade speed boost from its current gas limit of around 60 million.“The immediate focus is shipping Glamsterdam,” the Ethereum Foundation said, which had originally scheduled the upgrade for June, but is now likely to be sometime in the third quarter of 2026.Glamsterdam focuses on scaling the layer-1 chain by reorganizing how the network processes transactions and manages its growing database, “fundamentally updating how Ethereum creates and verifies blocks,” according to the Ethereum website. The Ethereum Foundation is also continuing preparations for Hegotà, the next major upgrade, and advancing the Strawmap, its quantum-ready roadmap.“Glamsterdam devnets are now live, and scoping for Hegotà is well underway,” it stated during an interop event in Svalbard, Norway. Finalizing ePBS and smarter data storageThe EF also confirmed the stabilization of enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), a system that allows validators to outsource their block-building duties to a set of specialized builders.The new enshrined version builds this separation directly into Ethereum’s rules with less reliance on outside relays, giving the network more time to handle bigger blocks safely.Related: AI ‘vibe coding’ could put Ethereum roadmap ahead of schedule: Vitalik ButerinEIP-8037 has also been finalized, which enables smarter pricing for storing data. The proposal increases the cost of state creation operations, avoiding excessive state growth under increased block gas limits. Glamsterdam is the first upgrade on Ethereum’s long-term roadmap. Source: Strawmap.orgChanges in EF Protocol leadership The Foundation also announced the “start of a leadership transition” for the Ethereum Foundation Protocol cluster with Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik as the new leads. Ethereum developers Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko are moving on from the Foundation, while Alex Stokes will be on sabbatical, it said.“There’s a new chapter starting for the Protocol cluster. We’re welcoming new leads and coordinators, and continuing our work toward Glamsterdam, Hegotà, and the Strawmap,” said Corcoran on X on Monday. “Making Ethereum’s unique features more available to users today is on my mind; so is participating in the plurality of ways that Ethereum gets built,” said Monnot.Magazine: Strategy reveals why they would sell BTC, Trump Media posts loss: Hodler’s Digest