Crypto: 12th August 2025

• Donald Trump's wealth is now estimated to be 73% cryptocurrency, valued at $11.6 billion from tokens like $TRUMP memes and World Liberty Financial holdings.

• Major security operations this week included WhatsApp deleting over 6.8 million scam accounts linked to Southeast Asian criminal groups and researchers unmasking the Darcula SMS scam operation which led to new Magic Mouse phishing kits targeting 650,000 cards.

• US law enforcement confirmed the takedown of the BlackSuit ransomware gang, which had collected over $370 million in ransoms from 450 victims worldwide.

• Trump issued an executive order targeting 'debanking' practices by financial institutions, addressing alleged discrimination against conservatives in banking services.

• Security researchers revealed portable point-of-sale scam tactics involving stolen wallets and devices like SumUp Solo, with defenses including RFID wallets and smartphone NFC monitoring.

• A journalist's investigation into scammy online jobs uncovered fake recruiters using crypto payouts and global scam networks operating through platforms like Interleave.

Genesis Block Easter Egg (johndcook​.com). White House releases a position paper featuring a hex dump of the Bitcoin Genesis Block as an Easter Egg for crypto enthusiasts

Analysis of the 0G Project (AI + Web3) (en​.smallyu​.net). Analysis of the 0G Project incorporates AI, blockchain technology like Cosmos SDK, and fine-tuning models for decentralized data availability

Analysis of the Arcium Network Project (Privacy Computing) (en​.smallyu​.net). Arcium Network leverages privacy computing with MPC, uses Solana for decentralized transactions, and introduces a dynamic ARX token economic model

What I'm doing now - August 2025 (anitaposch​.com). Anita Posch reflects on settling down, hand surgery, running, Bitcoin education in Africa, and launching her new website

The best-performing stablecoin vaults, August (tradingstrategy​.ai). August's top-performing stablecoin vaults showcase DeFi strategies, including ERC-4626 standard benchmarking and developments from Keyring, cSigma, and Peapods

Taking Stock of Crypto Exchanges Pursuing an IPO (coinmetrics​.io). Crypto exchanges are gearing up for IPOs, focusing on key evaluation metrics while acknowledging data reporting limitations

Introducing the Chainlink Reserve: Creating a Strategic LINK Token Reserve (blog​.chain​.link). Chainlink introduces a strategic LINK token reserve, leveraging Payment Abstraction to accumulate revenue from enterprises and enhance long-term network sustainability

Celer Announces cBridge Support for Unichain (blog​.celer​.network). Celer's cBridge now supports Unichain, enabling seamless ETH bridging across 12 blockchain ecosystems, enhancing cross-chain liquidity with the xLiquidity model

Celer is Expanding cBridge Support for Base (blog​.celer​.network). Celer expands cBridge to support pool-based ETH bridging on Base, enhancing cross-chain transactions across multiple networks like Ethereum and Polygon

GitLab uncovers Bittensor theft campaign via PyPI (about​.gitlab​.com). GitLab's Vulnerability Research team uncovers a supply chain attack on Bittensor using typosquatted PyPI packages to hijack cryptocurrency staking operations

Solving the Nostr web clients attack vector (fiatjaf​.com). Discussion of Nostr web client vulnerabilities: domain dependence, Coracle.social, risk from shutdowns or tampering, client-side hosting (Blossom) by hash, subjective forks, and blackmail-driven forks emerging

Chia Network – Permuto (leastauthority​.com). Chia Network's Permuto undergoes security audits by Least Authority, focusing on various applications and tools related to cryptocurrency and digital assets

Samourai CEO Keonne Rodriguez and Samourai CTO William Lonergan Hill Pled Guilty to Operating a Money Transmitting Business, Samourai Wallet, That Transmitted Over $200 Million in Criminal Proceeds (databreaches​.net). Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill pled guilty for operating Samourai Wallet, transmitting over $200 million tied to criminal activities

Improving Geographical Resilience For Distributed Open Source Teams with FREON (soatok​.blog). FREON applies FROST threshold signing to Ed25519, enabling 3-of-7 distributed key generation, OpenSSH-compatible Git-signatures, SigStore workflows, age-encrypted shares, and defenses against rubber-hose cryptanalysis in practice

Making of SARE: How I Designed a File Format for Encrypted Data (zola​.ink). Zola Gonano discusses the design of SARE, an encrypted data file format featuring BSON metadata, hybrid crypto, and a simple self-contained structure

ML-KEM in WebCrypto API (dchest​.com). ML‑KEM integration in WebCrypto: implementing ML‑KEM‑768 via mlkem-wasm (WASM), TypeScript wrapper, WebCrypto-like API draft, benchmarks on M1 Mac, TLS, X25519, Ed25519, and CryptoKit hints ahead

Lessons from using FHE to build a Secure Consumer App (vishakh​.blog). FHE enhances privacy in apps, using tools like tfhe-rs; discusses key management, performance, hardware acceleration, and potential for consumer-focused applications

The Limits of the Network State (molodtsov​.me). Analyzes Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State concept, sovereignty limits, identity monopolies, taxation, and force, with crypto IDs, diplomatic recognition hurdles, seasteads, artificial islands, and border-control realities

A Crypto-fueled Crash, How Blockchain Blunts Sanctions & MBS’ Folly (codastory​.com). Blockchain's role in evading sanctions, the financial risks of crypto, and the implications of MBS's Neom project are critically examined

Cryptocurrencies and the Political Economy of Money (tompepinsky​.com). Analyzes cryptocurrency's implications on political economy, state sovereignty, and future scenarios for monetary systems in a blockchain-influenced world

On: Number Go Up (dominikhofer​.me). Dominik Hofer reviews Zeke Faux's Number Go Up, recounting the 2020–2022 crypto hype: Dogecoin, NFTs, Axie Infinity, SBF, Tether, with witty investigative framing and insights

Universal Patterns in the Blockchain: Analysis of EOAs and Smart Contracts in ERC20 Token Networks (arxiv:cs). Analysis of ERC20 token transfers reveals scaling laws, distinctive transaction patterns, and differences between EOA and SC interactions on the Ethereum blockchain

Secure and Scalable Blockchain Voting: A Comparative Framework and the Role of Large Language Models (arxiv:cs). Comparative framework analyzes blockchain-based E-Voting architectures, hybrid consensus, lightweight cryptography, and decentralized identity, plus LLM-assisted smart-contract generation, anomaly detection, user interaction, and national-scale deployment simulations

Understanding Inconsistent State Update Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts (arxiv:cs). Large-scale study identifies inconsistent state update vulnerabilities in 352 smart contract projects, detailing causes, fix strategies, exploitation methods; Researchers introduce a proof-of-concept checker for GitHub

DIMSEPP: A Decentralized Identity Management System with Enhanced Privacy Protection (eprint​.iacr​.org). DIMSEPP enhances privacy in decentralized identity management, using zero-knowledge proofs and on-chain attribute commitments while ensuring compliance with DID standards

4-Swap: Achieving Grief-Free and Bribery-Safe Atomic Swaps Using Four Transactions (arxiv:cs). 4-Swap is a cross-chain atomic swap protocol achieving grief-free, bribery-safe exchanges in four transactions, compatible with Bitcoin and reducing execution time

An Overlapping Coalition Game Approach for Collaborative Block Mining and Edge Task Offloading in MEC-assisted Blockchain Networks (arxiv:cs). MEC-enabled blockchain with overlapping coalitions, Stackelberg pricing, ERC Nash equilibrium, OCF algorithm, miners form multiple coalitions, edge resources priced by ECP, block mining efficiency boosted

Blockchain-Enabled Federated Learning (arxiv:cs). Analyzes BCFL architectures across coordination, consensus, storage, trust; compares centralized versus decentralized models; introduces Proof of Quality and Proof of Federated Learning; highlights TrustMesh scalability

Measuring DEX Efficiency and The Effect of an Enhanced Routing Method on Both DEX Efficiency and Stakeholders' Benefits (arxiv:q-fin). Introducing Standardized Total Arbitrage Profit (STAP) to measure DEX efficiency; exploring routing algorithms' effects on market performance and stakeholder benefits

A Game-Theoretic Foundation for Bitcoin's Price: A Security-Utility Equilibrium (arxiv:cs). Game-theoretic model evaluates Bitcoin price via Rational-Expectations Security-Utility Nash Equilibrium (RESUNE), linking price, hash rate, and security through mining, attacker coordination, and a structural VAR

Inequality in the Age of Pseudonymity (arxiv:cs). Analysis of inequality metrics like Gini coefficient in pseudonymous settings, addressing Sybils' impact and proposing Sybil-proof measures with identified limitations

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