Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

Celsius co-founders Shlomi Daniel Leon and Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein have been ordered to pay over $6 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges alleging they misrepresented the safety of the Celsius platform before the company collapsed. Goldstein, Celsius’ former chief technology officer, was ordered to pay $2.014 million under an order signed Monday by US District Judge Denise Cote. Leon, the firm’s former chief strategy officer, was ordered to pay $4.1 million under a separate order entered on June 29. The settlements extend the fallout from the 2022 collapse of Celsius beyond its former CEO Alex Mashinsky. The crypto lending platform, which held $25 billion in assets at its peak, owed its users $4.7 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in July 2022. The order also bars Leon from marketing or selling products or services that can be used to deposit, exchange, invest or withdraw assets, the FTC said in a statement Monday. “Similarly, Goldstein has agreed to a ban on marketing or selling retail products or services that can be used to buy, sell, deposit, withdraw, distribute or trade cryptocurrency.”Related: Celsius’ Mashinsky gets permanent trading ban in CFTC settlementFTC allegations against Celsius co-founders The FTC alleged that Celsius falsely told customers it held sufficient reserves to meet withdrawal demands, maintained a $750 million insurance policy covering customer deposits and did not issue unsecured loans. “The FTC, however, alleged that the promises were false and that its top executives continued to claim that customers’ deposits were safe days before the company filed for bankruptcy,” it said. Mashinsky settles FTC case for $10 millionIn April, Mashinsky agreed to an FTC settlement that permanently bars him from promoting asset-related products and required him to pay $10 million as part of a broader, partially suspended $4.72 billion judgment. The $2.014 million and $4.1 million payments from Goldstein and Leon, respectively, will also be credited against the $4.72 billion judgment. The judgments reflect the consumer harm alleged by the FTC. Separately, Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to commodities and securities fraud charges, with prosecutors saying he misled Celsius customers about the company’s profitability, investment risks and the safety of customer funds. Magazine: Binance & OKX users face $1900 fines in Vietnam, Coinbase in China? Asia Express

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The White House’s top crypto adviser Patrick Witt said he will no longer take a leave of absence at the end of the month for military training, allowing him to remain at the White House to help advance the CLARITY Act in the Senate.“Last week, it was reported that I was set to leave for mandatory training as part of my service in the Georgia Army National Guard, right before Clarity hits the Senate floor,” Witt said in an X post on Monday. “While I remain committed to fulfilling my service obligation, I am grateful to report that my training has been deferred, and that I will be able to see this effort through to the end,” he added. Source: Patrick WittThe CLARITY Act, which would create the first comprehensive US regulatory framework for the crypto market, faces a make-or-break deadline to pass the Senate before the Aug. 8 recess. Witt is the White House’s lead negotiator on the legislation. Witt, who has served as the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets since August, had been expected to report for Judge Advocate General (JAG) training with the Georgia Army National Guard on July 27. The training will qualify him to serve as a legal officer in the Guard. Related: Democrats added certain consumer protection rules to CLARITY: Coinbase execAccording to a report from Crypto In America on Tuesday, Witt had already deferred his mandatory military training in April to remain at the White House to work on CLARITY Act negotiations, which stretched on longer than expected. This is the second time Witt has deferred his training.Harry Jung to leave White House Crypto CouncilWitt staying at the White House comes as Harry Jung, the Deputy Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, announced he will leave his post. “In two weeks, I will leave government service with immense gratitude,” said Jung in a post to X on Monday. “These past two years transformed America’s position on crypto. I’m proud of all we accomplished.” Jung was originally slated to take over Witt’s responsibilities in the crypto council while he was on military leave, according to Crypto In America. Magazine: Peter Brandt predicts the exact day Bitcoin’s bear market will be over

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Allbridge, the company behind cross-chain stablecoin bridge Allbridge Core, said it has paused the protocol as a precaution after a “security incident” that reportedly saw $1.65 million drained on Sunday.The incident affected Allbridge Core’s Solana deployment, with the attacker having already bridged the stolen funds from Solana to Ethereum before moving them into privacy pools. “Allbridge Core is experiencing a security incident,” it said in a post on X on Sunday. “We have paused the protocol as a precaution while we investigate. If you have liquidity in affected pools, please withdraw now.” The Allbridge Core exploit is at least the sixth attack targeting a cross-chain bridge since May. Bridges are attractive targets for attackers because they often hold large pools of funds that back bridged assets on the destination blockchain. Source: LookonchainOnchain Lens reported the attacker made a $1.12 million USDC (USDC) flash loan from Kamino, before rapid USDC/USDT swaps that distorted the Allbridge Core stablecoin pool’s exchange rate. Related: Taiko reopens bridge after $1.7M exploit, says users made whole The attacker then withdrew liquidity at manipulated rates, repaying the $1.12 million USDC loan and keeping the difference. “The resulting pool imbalance created a temporary positive arbitrage window. If you took advantage of it, please consider returning funds… this will go directly toward compensating affected LPs,” it added.This wasn’t the first time Allbridge Core was hit by a flash loan attack. In April 2023, Allbridge was exploited for $573,000 through a flash loan attack on Allbridge’s pool on the BNB Chain. The attacker acted as both liquidity provider and swapper, and exploited a flaw in a smart contract that allowed them to manipulate swap prices, which led to $289,900 drained in Binance USD (BUSD) and $290,900 in USDt (USDT). Warning posted to the Allbridge Core website. Source: Allbridge CoreCross-chain bridges targeted since May In June, Taiko, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, urged its users to withdraw assets from the network’s bridges after attackers exploited one of its bridge protocols and stole $1.7 million. Taiko reopened its bridge 11 days later after completing a four-step recovery plan. Weeks before the Taiko incident, Secret Network was exploited through an “infinite mint” bug on a vulnerable smart contract, which created unbacked versions of Axelar-wrapped assets, resulting in a $4.67 million exploit.  Other recent bridge exploits included the Gravity Bridge, Verus Bridge and the Butter Network. Magazine: The British Virgin Islands are a top crypto hub no one ever talks about: Here’s why