Autor Cointelegraph by Amin Haqshanas

Decentralized exchange edgeX has attributed a more than 40% collapse in its EDGE token to ‘deliberate’ market manipulation by an unnamed external party, a claim that onchain investigator ZachXBT has dismissed.Data from CoinMarketCap shows edgeX (EDGE) plunged from roughly $1.20 to an intra-day low of $0.3663 on Tuesday, a drop of around 70%. The token is currently trading at $0.6474, down by around 45% over the past day.In a post on X, the edgeX team acknowledged the sudden collapse in its native token, telling its community it had “observed a sudden and irregular price movement” and was actively investigating.In response, ZachXBT claimed edgeX’s supply had been controlled by a small number of insiders operating with a low float, making the token inherently vulnerable to these types of events. He also demanded that the project publicly disclose the counterparties and market-maker agreements that contributed to the crash.Only 350 million EDGE tokens are currently in circulation out of a maximum supply of 1 billion, meaning more than two-thirds of the total supply has yet to hit the market. A low circulating float can make a token more vulnerable to sharp price moves, especially if liquidity is concentrated or large holders sell into thin order books.Related: Verus bridge exploiter returns $8.5M after bounty offerEdgeX says project not hackedIn a follow-up statement, edgeX said the platform had not been compromised in any way. “What we have identified so far suggests deliberate attempts by certain external party to manipulate the market price of EDGE,” the project wrote, calling it a market integrity issue.However, ZachXBT was unconvinced. “We investigated ourselves and did not find ourselves guilty even though we control nearly the entire supply,” he sarcastically wrote.Source: CoinMarketCapEdgeX is the 16th largest DEX in terms of trade volume over the past day, according to data from DefiLlama. The project has a total value locked (TVL) of $137 million.Related: Recovery hopes fade as Kelp DAO hacker launders nearly all $220M in stolen fundsDEX trading volume declinesDEX trading volume across all chains has also pulled back sharply from its peak levels.The broader pullback in DEX activity can make thinly traded tokens more vulnerable to sharp moves, though EDGE’s crash also involved project-specific questions over supply, market makers and insider control.After hitting a spike close to $45 billion in early 2025, aggregate decentralized exchange volume has trended lower and largely stabilized in the $5 billion to $20 billion daily range through the first half of 2026, with a secondary peak around $30 billion in October 2025 before fading again, according to data from DefiLlama.DEX trade volume. Source: DefiLlamaThe cooling activity reflects a broader retreat in onchain trading appetite following the frenzy of early 2025, leaving DEX markets thinner and more vulnerable to outsized price impacts.Magazine: The legal battle over who can claim DeFi’s stolen millions

Defunct Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox moved roughly $739 million worth of Bitcoin from its cold wallets early Tuesday, its first onchain movement in over two months, according to Arkham Intelligence data.Blockchain data shows the exchange transferred 10,306 Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $730.8 million, from its cold wallet to an unmarked address at 4:47 am UTC. The transferred Bitcoin is currently marked as “unspent” by Arkham. The exchange also made a separate transfer of 116.3 BTC, worth around $8.25 million, to its hot wallet at the same time, which is marked as “spent.”The transferred Bitcoin being marked “unspent” means the funds are sitting in the new address and have not yet been sent anywhere further. On the other hand, “spent” means those funds have already been moved on again to another address.Source: ArkhamThe large movement has raised questions about whether creditor distributions are imminent, which could weigh on markets, as creditors who have waited over a decade to recover their funds may choose to sell once they receive their Bitcoin.Related: Bitcoin falls to 2-month low as divergence from equities widensMt. Gox holds another $2.4 billion in BitcoinMt. Gox still holds 34,504 BTC worth roughly $2.41 billion across its wallets, according to Arkham data. The exchange began repaying creditors in July 2024 through partner exchanges Kraken and Bitstamp, but the process has moved slowly, with the rehabilitation trustee repeatedly pushing back the deadline.Mt. Gox was once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, handling roughly 70% of global BTC trades. The Tokyo-based platform collapsed in 2014 after reporting that about 850,000 BTC were missing, though roughly 200,000 BTC were later found.In 2025, the exchange’s rehabilitation trustee set October 31, 2026, as the deadline for completing creditor repayments, the third extension since the original October 2023 deadline.Related: Bitcoin bulls consider fresh positions after BTC price drops under $71KBitcoin drops as corporate sellers emergeIn the broader market, Bitcoin slipped below $70,000 after Strategy disclosed it had sold 32 BTC for $2.5 million, its first reported Bitcoin sale since a 2022 tax-loss transaction, to fund distributions on its preferred stock. The sale reduced Strategy’s holdings from 843,738 BTC to 843,706 BTC.Nasdaq-listed ProCap Financial also announced Monday it had sold roughly 52 Bitcoin to fund a buyback of 2 million shares at approximately a 50% discount to net asset value.Magazine: Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies?

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has proposed letting small and medium-sized enterprises use digital assets, virtual assets and intellectual property as collateral for bank loans.The proposal is part of a draft revised Law on Support for SMEs, which is open for public consultation, according to a Friday report by Vietnam News. Under the framework, businesses could secure loans using future-formed assets, property rights, intangible assets and digital or virtual assets.SMEs and household businesses account for more than 98% of all enterprises in Vietnam, yet outstanding loans to the segment represent only around 20% of total bank credit in the economy, per the report. The Ministry attributed the imbalance to a lack of eligible collateral, limited financial transparency and the small capital base of most SMEs.Many startups and technology-driven companies hold valuable software, patents or intellectual property but have no land or physical assets to pledge, the report claimed. The new proposal marks a policy shift that could open up credit access for thousands of startups and tech companies currently locked out of the formal lending system.Related: Bithumb enters Vietnam crypto license race with SSI Digital dealVietnam wants banks to lend on business plansThe draft also pushes credit institutions to expand lending based on credit ratings, business plans, cash flows and market potential, rather than fixed assets alone.Beyond collateral reform, the draft law outlines incentives for green and sustainable businesses, including preferential access to credit guarantees, concessional financing and interest-rate support for circular economy and energy-saving projects. Tax incentives and support for ESG compliance reporting are also included.The draft is currently open for public consultation.Vietnam has become one of the most active crypto markets in the world, ranking fourth in Chainalysis’ 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index behind India, the United States and Pakistan.Global cryptocurrency adoption index. Source: ChainalysisRelated: Vietnam arrests ONUS-linked suspects in alleged crypto fraud caseVietnam eyes Q3 launch of regulated crypto marketAs Cointelegraph reported, Vietnam could see its first regulated crypto market activity as early as the third quarter of 2026, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said at the Digital Trust in Finance 2026 forum.In March, regulators opened a licensing pathway for domestic crypto trading platforms earlier this year, with five companies, including affiliates of Techcombank, VPBank and LPBank, having already passed an initial qualification round to launch the country’s first regulated exchange.Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026

Gravity Bridge, a decentralized blockchain facilitating cross-chain transfers between Ethereum and Cosmos, was reportedly drained of roughly $5.4 million, prompting validators to halt the bridge.Onchain analyst Specter first flagged the unusual outflows in a Saturday post on X, revealing that the bridge contract key may have been compromised. “It appears the Gravity Bridge contract key may have been compromised, resulting in the theft of $5.4M,” Specter wrote.Security firm PeckShield also confirmed the exploit in a post, breaking down the stolen assets as approximately $4.3 million in USDC (USDC), 274 Wrapped Ether (WETH) worth roughly $553,000, $434,000 in USDt (USDT) and 14.164 PAX Gold (PAXG) tokens worth about $64,000.Source: PeckShieldPeckShield reported that a portion of the haul had already been laundered through instant-swap service ChangeNow and through Binance, while the theft wallet was still holding around 2,102 ETH worth approximately $4.23 million at the time of its report.Related: StakeDAO exploit creates 5.4 trillion vsdCRV but nets only $91KGravity Bridge acknowledges attackGravity Bridge acknowledged the incident on X without detailing what went wrong. “There was an unfortunate incident on Gravity,” the team wrote, adding that validators “should halt their validators and orchestrators while this incident is being investigated.” In a follow-up post, the team confirmed the bridge had been halted.Gravity Bridge allows tokens to move freely in both directions, from Ethereum to Cosmos wallets and DEXs like Osmosis, and from Cosmos-based blockchains back to Ethereum platforms like Uniswap. Unlike bridges that rely on centralized multi-signatures or private node groups, it uses its full validator set to authorize transfers, making it one of the more decentralized bridge designs in the space, according to its website.Gravity Bridge’s native token is Graviton (GRAV), used by validators to secure the bridge. The token is currently trading at $0.0007053, down 4% over the past day, according to data from CoinMarketCap.Related: ‘All DeFi unsafe’ claim sparks AI security debate after April hack surgeBridge exploits are spooking institutionsAs Cointelegraph reported, JPMorgan analysts have flagged bridge security as a major challenge in an April research note, questioning whether DeFi can scale to meet institutional demand. The concern comes amid the recent Versus-Ethereum bridge attack, which was the eighth major bridge exploit of 2026, with cumulative losses across those incidents reaching $328.6 million.Following the KelpDAO breach in April, which drained roughly $290 million and was attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, total value locked across DeFi fell from nearly $100 billion to around $86 billion in just two days, with outflows hitting pools that had no direct exposure to the compromised assets.Asia Express: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Texas man with running a crypto fraud scheme that raised $12.3 million from roughly 150 investors by falsely claiming to use AI-powered trading bots to generate guaranteed returns.Nathan Fuller, a resident of Cypress, Texas, operated the scheme through his company Privvy Investments, LLC, and under the assumed business name Gateway Digital Investments between at least October 2022 and mid-2024, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.Fuller allegedly promised investors returns of 40% to 50% within 30 to 45 days, with some told they could make guaranteed profits exceeding 100% in as little as 21 days. To back up the pitch, he claimed investor funds were secured by a surety bond, insured by the  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and protected by a professional liability insurance policy. None of it was true, the SEC alleges.Source: SECAt the center of the scheme were proprietary AI-based trading bots that Fuller claimed would conduct high-frequency arbitrage trading across crypto platforms. “Fuller’s bots did not function as represented,” according to the complaint.Related: SEC Commissioner Peirce defends crypto privacy tools against surveillance pushHalf of raised money went to personal expensesOf the $12.3 million raised, Fuller allegedly misappropriated at least $6.2 million for personal expenses and used roughly $5.5 million to make Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors. To keep the scheme going, he sent investors fake account statements and fabricated correspondence from fictitious entities.The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and civil penalties.The Fuller case comes as the combination of AI and crypto has opened new frontiers for bad actors. Last year, the agency charged multiple crypto platforms and investment clubs in a separate $14 million scheme that also leaned on AI branding to lure retail investors, with fraudsters posing as financial professionals in WhatsApp groups and promising profits from AI-generated trading tips.Related: SEC approves Paxos as ‘blockchain-native’ clearing agencySEC charges Donald Basile in $16 million crypto schemeLast month, the SEC charged crypto executive Donald Basile and two companies he controlled with raising roughly $16 million from hundreds of investors through false claims tied to a crypto token called Bitcoin Latinum.Despite recent moves, the agency has acknowledged that some of its past enforcement actions against crypto companies lacked clear investor benefit and misinterpreted federal securities laws. In a statement on its 2025 enforcement results, the regulator said that since fiscal year 2022, it brought 95 actions and imposed $2.3 billion in penalties for book-and-record violations that “identified no direct investor harm” and “produced no investor benefit or protection.”Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now