Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

South Korea’s financial authorities investigated more than 40 cases of unfair trading, including market manipulation and fraudulent crypto trading, in the last two years. According to an X post by Financial Services Commission Chair Lee Eog-won, 30 of them reported or referred to investigative agencies, identifying 25 suspects since the Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect in July 2024.Lee said the average unlawful gains were around 1.4 billion Korean won ($940,000).“Today marks the second anniversary of the enactment of the ‘Virtual Asset User Protection Act…’ It was a meaningful time that brought the virtual asset market, which was outside the institutional framework at the time, into the fold of the law and created an opportunity to establish a user protection system for virtual assets,” said Lee. Related: South Korea to bring digital assets under new state asset management systemThe Virtual Asset User Protection Act is designed to protect users who buy and store crypto assets with virtual asset service providers. VASPs are legally required to separate user deposits and virtual assets from their own corporate holdings, holding client deposits in banks. The legislation also targets illicit activities such as insider trading, wash trading and market manipulation, enhancing the Financial Services Commission (FSC) authority to supervise and inspect VASPs. “We will continue to enhance market surveillance investigation and monitoring systems based on AI, and proactively respond to high-risk areas,” Lee added. Cointelegraph 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.

Bitcoin Ordinals advocate Leonidas has proposed developing a new open-source Bitcoin client, aimed at removing restrictions affecting Runes and Ordinals transactions. In a post to X on Friday, Leonidas called the proposed client “Bitcoin $DOG Mode,” which would lift the maximum individual transaction size to 3.9 million weight units (WU), compared to Bitcoin Core’s 400,000 WU, and lower the dust limit to 1 satoshi (sats) from 294-546 sats.The changes would make it easier to send Ordinals inscriptions and Runes, which have been described as Bitcoin’s take on fungible and non-fungible tokens. Both have been controversial within the Bitcoin community, with critics arguing they amount to “spam” on the Bitcoin network. “Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots have spent years enforcing rules that Bitcoin itself does not have,” Leonidas said in a statement. “The $DOG Army is done asking for permission. It is time to remove even more of these frivolous restrictions.”Source: LeonidasIncreasing the maximum transaction size would make it easier for Ordinals users to place much larger files or collections into one transaction, even ones that take up nearly an entire block. Meanwhile, the dust limit is a rule on the Bitcoin network defining the smallest transaction amount, or UTXO, that can be economically sent. Lowering the dust limit would stop users from having to “pad” outputs to get their transaction broadcast on default Bitcoin Core nodes.Related: Bitcoin bulls Michael Saylor, Adam Back slam BIP-110 Ordinals proposalBitcoin $DOG Mode would be an alternative to Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots, the two most widely used Bitcoin clients.Leonidas said the goal is to attract enough users to the new client that Bitcoin Core would eventually have to loosen its own policy restrictions.Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real VisionCointelegraph 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.

Crypto exchange Bybit announced Thursday it has launched a locally operated platform in Indonesia after acquiring a majority stake in digital asset firm PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal, formerly known as NOBI. The deal saw NOBI rebranded as Bybit Indonesia. The crypto exchange said it plans to introduce its services in phases, starting with 500 cryptocurrency trading pairs. The exchange will be led by Lawrence Samantha, who will serve as CEO and Dionisius Evan, who serves as chief operating officer, both formerly senior executives at NOBI. “This acquisition allows us to combine Bybit’s global capabilities with an experienced local team that understands Indonesia’s market and regulatory environment,” Samantha said in a statement. As of February 2026, Indonesia had 21.07 million registered crypto asset users, according to the Indonesia Financial Services Authority, with total crypto transaction value reaching $26.85 billion (482 trillion Indonesian rupiah) in 2025.As of April, Indonesia had licensed 31 crypto-related entities, including two crypto exchanges, two clearing institutions, two custodians, and 25 digital asset traders, one of which is PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal.Cointelegraph 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.

Trump Media, the company that operates the Truth Social network, said Thursday it was launching a new paid-for API that gives Wall Street firms “the fastest” access to posts from the most influential Truth Social accounts, including US President Donald Trump.The API is targeted to be available to institutional customers from Aug. 1, 2026, and is aimed at high-frequency and algorithmic trading firms that require a low-latency, machine-readable feed, said the company on Thursday. “Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” said Kevin McGurn, interim CEO of TMTG in a statement. “Truth API delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths while advancing our strategy to monetize proprietary assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue stream.”Posts from Trump’s Truth Social account have moved markets, with the most recent examples being his posts relating to the ongoing conflict between Iran and the US. Other major accounts on Truth Social include Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel. “Companies have previously tried to scrape data from Truth Social, which is in violation of its terms of service,” McGurn said, according to CNN. “We’re going to create a lot of friction for those folks that aren’t coming to us directly,” he added. Cointelegraph 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.

Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan is seeking a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia after authorities probed his Forest City tech community over allegations it was hosting Israeli citizens using second passports. Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry said Tuesday it was investigating Srinivasan’s start-up community in Johor following claims it included Israelis in violation of immigration laws. Initial checks found all 266 foreigners held valid documents. Srinivasan said the agreement would give Network School legal certainty to continue investing in Malaysia. Without it, he said, the community could take its capital to countries that are more welcoming. “I’d like to have a document which says not just abstractly that tech is welcome … but rather that we’re personally welcome,” Srinivasan said in a video directed at Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday. The episode highlights a tension faced by many crypto utopias, which aspire to build digital-native communities with their own institutions and economies, but still depend on conventional states for legal certainty. Balaji, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, launched his Network School in August 2024 in Johor’s Forest City, which is located about an hour from Singapore. It is marketed as a physical community of tech builders, creators and founders. Srinivasan did not give the specifics of what a deal with Malaysia could include, but suggested it could be a memorandum of understanding or a modification of a special economic zone provision. Related: Balaji calls for more ‘crypto tools’ for refugees amid Middle East tensions“If not, then we will readily go somewhere else because I don’t want to be where we’re not welcome,” he said.  Srinivasan also announced that he is putting any further investment in Malaysia, including a $122 million plan to expand its community, on hold until it gets “sufficient assurance” that such issues don’t recur. Instagram post led to immigration probeClaims that the Network School was harboring Israeli citizens have been traced back to a social media post on Friday from activist group “Malaysian Protest 4 Palestine,” which accused the school of becoming a “gathering place for Israeli entrepreneurs.” Israeli passport holders are forbidden from entering Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, without written permission from the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs, as Malaysia does not recognize Israel and does not have any diplomatic relations with the country. Magazine: Gambling on random Pokémon cards: Onchain gagcha hits record high as crypto sinks