Autor Cointelegraph By Turner Wright

Federal law enforcement officials, working with cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike, announced action against entities behind malware that enabled the theft of $150,000 in cryptocurrency.In a Tuesday notice, the US Justice Department said it had disrupted the Sality botnet and malware in an international effort with Bulgarian, Hungarian and Romanian officials, as well as private sector partners CrowdStrike and the Shadowserver Foundation. US officials said that Sality was responsible for installing malware on compromised devices since 2003, resulting in crypto theft and cyberattacks. CrowdStrike reported that in the previous eight years, the entities behind Sality used EggJagger, a “clipjacking tool that monitors the clipboard for cryptocurrency wallet addresses and silently replaces them with addresses controlled by the operator,” to steal at least 12.1 million rubles, or about $150,000, in cryptocurrency. According to the company, the value of the “never-spent” digital assets peaked at about $1.5 million in January 2025.“When a victim copies a Bitcoin or Ethereum address to make a payment, the funds are redirected,” said CrowdStrike, explaining the technique behind the theft.According to CrowdStrike, the criminals behind Sality “lost the ability to communicate with infected machines” as a result of authorities’ efforts to disrupt the network. US officials and the company said Sality was used to steal crypto, while about 15,000 infected computers formed part of a peer-to-peer botnet that checked whether its systems were online every 40 minutes.Related: A fake crypto job interview nearly installed malware on my computerCointelegraph 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.

New Jersey’s Attorney General and the state’s interim director for the Division of Gaming Enforcement have officially petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear a case aimed at resolving whether state authorities or federal agencies have jurisdiction over prediction market companies.On Wednesday, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and gaming enforcement interim director Mary Jo Flaherty filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court over New Jersey’s enforcement against prediction market platform Kalshi over sporting event contracts. Officials cited civil cases brought by gaming authorities in “at least 20 states,” seeking the highest court in the US to decide whether prediction market companies could be in compliance with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) while violating state laws.“Companies like Kalshi claim to offer legal sports betting in all 50 States, but they refuse to follow the gambling laws of any State,” said Davenport. “These companies have no right to offer their sports bets without following state law, which is why dozens of States across the ideological spectrum have opposed them […] We’re calling on the Supreme Court to resolve this issue and recognize that Congress did not silently make the sports-betting industry immune from state law.”Source: New Jersey Attorney GeneralCiting New Jersey’s enforcement against Kalshi, the petition presented the Supreme Court with the question of “whether the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act preempted States from regulating sports bets that occur within their jurisdictions if those bets are offered on markets registered with the [CFTC].” Cointelegraph reached out to the CFTC for comment but did not receive an immediate response.Related: Kalshi issues first lifetime ban for Republican politician over insider betsThe petition challenges an April opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in which judges ruled 2-1 against New Jersey’s gaming authorities, saying Kalshi’s argument that the company had a ”reasonable chance of success” in claiming that the CFTC’s Commodity Exchange Act preempted state law. The petition specifically challenged the CFTC’s claim that sports bets on prediction market platforms amount to “swaps” under the agency’s purview and stated, “federal law does not preempt state sports-gambling laws regardless.”What are the potential consequences for Kalshi and other prediction markets?“Because federal law prohibits trading swaps off CFTC-registered markets, a victory for Kalshi would mean that all sports gambling off such CFTC-registered markets would seemingly become illegal even if state law allows it,” said the New Jersey AG’s announcement on the petition.Kalshi spokesperson Dani Lever told Cointelegraph that the company disagreed with New Jersey’s decision to appeal to the Supreme Court, saying that it could not be “regulated by 50 different regulators.“ ”We remain confident in the lower courts’ rulings, and nothing in New Jersey’s filing today changes our view,” said Lever. Event contract on when the US Supreme Court will hear a prediction markets case. Source: PolymarketWhether the Supreme Court justices will take up the issue of prediction markets is unclear. Many experts have been speculating that the justices could weigh in on a case that went to the appellate court in Nevada. Whether the court chooses the Kalshi case in Nevada, the one in New Jersey or an enforcement action against a different company down the line, any potential decision could decide which authorities can regulate prediction markets.Magazine: Who is legally liable when an AI agent goes rogue?

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

An affiliate of the political action committee (PAC) Fairshake, which was responsible for pouring more than $130 million in ads and media in the 2024 election cycle, is supporting at least one candidate in Tuesday’s primary in Massachusetts.According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records as of Tuesday, the Protect Progress PAC, a Fairshake affiliate, spent just over $189,000 on media to support Representative Jake Auchincloss running for reelection in Massachusetts’ 4th congressional district. Some of the funds, according to Democratic candidate Jason Poulos, were used to create “AI-generated slop mailers” supporting Auchincloss ahead of the Massachusetts primary, scheduled for Tuesday.In an Aug. 16 letter, Poulos called on the Democratic lawmaker to “publicly renounce” Protect Progress’ efforts to potentially influence the primary and general election. The candidate claimed Auchincloss had accepted $77,500 directly from “crypto-industry sources” since 2020, pointing to the Massachusetts lawmaker’s record in voting for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in July 2025 — a market structure bill not signed into law as it awaits consideration in the Senate.Protect Progress PAC mailer supporting Jake Auchincloss. Source: Jason PoulosThe $189,000 in spending marked Fairshake’s latest attempt to influence the 2026 elections through media and ads unrelated to candidates’ positions on crypto and blockchain. After the PAC and its affiliates spent about $3.6 million on House and Senate races in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming in August, Fairshake reported having $122 million cash on hand ahead of the 2026 midterms.“With dozens of wins in House and Senate races across the country, and $122 million ready for the fall, we’re not slowing down heading into November,“ Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter said in August.Massachusetts will be one of the last US states to hold primaries, with just over two months until the general election. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware are all scheduled to hold primaries in September.Related: Kalshi issues first lifetime ban for Republican politician over insider betsCointelegraph 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.

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.