What to Know: The 20-year sentence in a $73M pig butchering case highlights 
how sophisticated social engineering now underpins major crypto theft 
operations. DOJ- and FBI-linked reporting shows crypto investment fraud losses 
reached billions, reinforcing that scam pressure is structural—not a one-off 
cycle event. BMIC’s quantum-security narrative targets long-horizon risk: 
reducing key exposure while adding AI threat detection to limit behavioral 
attack success. The crypto world was rocked this week by a landmark legal 
victory against one of the industry&#8217;s most predatory scams. In a press 
release, it was revealed that Daren Li, a 42-year-old dual national, was 
sentenced to the statutory maximum of 20 years in U.S. federal prison for 
orchestrating a global &#8216;pig butchering&#8217; scheme that defrauded American 
investors of over $73M. Li, who had been a fugitive since December 2025 after 
cutting his electronic ankle monitor, was caught leading a sophisticated ring 
that used spoofed domains and fake trading platforms to lure victims through 
social media and dating apps. According to the Department of Justice, the 
group laundered nearly $60M through U.S. shell companies. This sentencing 
comes as a stark warning during a particularly dark period for crypto 
security; data from CertiK reveals that January 2026 alone saw $370M stolen in 
phishing and social engineering attacks, the highest monthly figure in nearly 
a year. As scammers refine their psychological tactics, the industry is 
reaching a consensus: protecting assets requires more than just caution—it 
requires a fundamental upgrade to the underlying hardware and wallet 
architecture we use to interact with the blockchain. BMIC ($BMIC): The 
Quantum-Resistant Shield for a New Era In a market increasingly defined by 
these multi-million dollar exploits, BMIC ($BMIC) has emerged as a high- 
conviction &#8216;infrastructure-first&#8217; project. While traditional security focuses 
on reacting to yesterday&#8217;s scams, BMIC is building the first Quantum-Secure 
Finance Stack designed to neutralize the next generation of threats. The 
project has already gained significant traction, raising over $445K in its 
ongoing presale from investors who recognize that today’s encryption standards 
(like RSA and ECC) are effectively ticking time bombs. The core innovation 
behind BMIC is its &#8216;Zero Public-Key Exposure&#8217; architecture. Most legacy 
wallets reveal a user’s public key the moment a transaction is signed, leaving 
a permanent trail on the blockchain. This data is currently being targeted by 
state actors in &#8216;Harvest Now, Decrypt Later&#8217; (HNDL) attacks, where encrypted 
data is stolen today to be cracked once quantum computing matures. BMIC 
utilizes ERC-4337 Smart Accounts and signature-hiding technology to ensure 
that sensitive cryptographic data never touches the public network in a 
vulnerable state. By pairing this with AI-enhanced threat detection, BMIC 
creates a proactive defense layer that identifies malicious patterns before 
they can drain a user’s funds. CHECK OUT THE QUANTUM STACK SECURITY Tokenomics 
and the &#8216;Burn-to-Compute&#8217; Economy The $BMIC token is more than a speculative 
asset; it is the utility engine for a decentralized quantum ecosystem. Unlike 
many 2026 launches that rely on inflationary rewards, BMIC has implemented a 
fixed supply of 1.5B tokens, with a massive 50% allocated to the public 
presale to ensure community-driven decentralization. Beyond its role in 
securing the wallet, $BMIC introduces a novel &#8216;Burn-to-Compute&#8217; mechanism. 
This allows token holders to access the Quantum Meta-Cloud, a decentralized 
network that provides high-performance compute credits for AI training and 
complex cryptographic workloads. This creates a natural deflationary pressure: 
as more institutions and enterprises adopt BMIC’s &#8216;Security-as-a-Service&#8217; 
(QSaaS) APIs for their own custody needs, the circulating supply of $BMIC is 
systematically reduced. As the market pivots from the &#8216;meme coin&#8217; mania of 
previous years toward &#8216;hard utility,&#8217; BMIC is positioning itself as the 
essential bedrock for institutional and retail users alike. With its roadmap 
targeting a full Mainnet launch and expansion into quantum-secure payments, 
$BMIC represents a rare opportunity to invest in the security standards of the 
next decade at a fraction of the cost. GET YOUR $BMIC FOR $0.049474 This is 
not financial advice, and you should always conduct your own research before 
making investments.

Scammer Sentenced to 20 years for $73M Scheme as Investors look to BMIC’s Verifiable Protection

MegaETH launched its public mainnet this week, positioning itself as a 
performance-first blockchain designed to deliver real-time execution rather 
than fit neatly into existing layer one (L1) or layer two ( L2) labels. 
MegaETH Launches Mainnet, Targeting High-Frequency DeFi and Gaming The MegaETH 
project frames its approach around ultra-low latency and high throughput, 
aiming to […]

MegaETH Goes Live, Challenging Layer 2 Norms With Real-Time Design

Chainlink price continued its downward trend on Tuesday, February 10, 
continuing a downward trajectory that started in August when it peaked at 
$27.8.

LINK price slips as Bank of England selects Chainlink for its Synchronization Lab

Sam Bankman-Fried seeks a new trial over failed crypto exchange FTX, 
contesting evidence and prosecutor claims in the appeal process.
The post Sam Bankman-Fried files motion for new trial in FTX fraud case 
appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Sam Bankman-Fried files motion for new trial in FTX fraud case

What to Know: Blockchain.com has successfully registered with the UK&#8217;s FCA 
after a four-year effort, signaling growing regulatory clarity in the region. 
Increased regulatory approval builds institutional confidence and shifts focus 
toward solving core crypto challenges like fragmented liquidity. LiquidChain 
is a Layer 3 protocol designed to unify liquidity from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 
Solana into a single execution layer. After a protracted four-year process, 
crypto exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com has officially secured 
registration as a cryptoasset business with the UK’s Financial Conduct 
Authority (FCA). The development marks a significant milestone, not just for 
the London-based company, but for the broader UK digital asset landscape. It 
signals a move toward greater regulatory clarity in a key global financial 
hub. That kind of clarity breeds confidence. And it lays the trust foundation 
needed for the next wave of innovation to actually ship, not just get pitched. 
The road to approval was anything but smooth. Blockchain.com initially 
withdrew its application in March 2022, facing an impending deadline without a 
clear path to licensing. Its return and subsequent success underscore a 
thawing in the relationship between crypto firms and UK regulators. This 
approval allows the firm to offer digital asset services to its UK customers 
in full compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing 
regulations. In practical terms, it helps normalize crypto operations, moving 
them from a regulatory grey zone into the mainstream financial ecosystem. What 
changes on day one? Not much. The signal to larger pools of capital? Huge, 
because institutions track these green lights closely. As institutional 
players and cautious capital observe these developments, the demand for 
robust, transparent, and scalable on-chain infrastructure is exploding. The 
market is maturing beyond isolated ecosystems, and the next frontier is 
unifying them. That’s exactly where new protocols built for a regulated, 
cross-chain world are starting to find their footing. Projects like 
LiquidChain ($LIQUID). LiquidChain Fuses $BTC, $ETH, and $SOL Liquidity As 
regulatory frameworks solidify, the focus shifts to solving crypto&#8217;s core 
technical challenge: fragmented liquidity. Billions of dollars are locked in 
separate, siloed ecosystems like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, creating 
inefficiency and poor user experiences. LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is a new Layer 3 
protocol engineered to dismantle these walls. It’s building a unified 
liquidity layer that fuses the three largest crypto ecosystems into a single, 
cohesive execution environment. This isn&#8217;t just another bridge. LiquidChain&#8217;s 
architecture lets developers deploy an application once and gain native access 
to the liquidity and user bases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana 
simultaneously. The second-order effect is a sharp drop in complexity for both 
builders and users. No more juggling risky wrapped assets or multi-step cross- 
chain swaps. Instead, the protocol offers Single-Step Execution, where complex 
operations across chains are settled verifiably in one go. Ambitious? 
Absolutely, but it’s already resonating with early backers. The project&#8217;s 
presale has drawn notable interest, raising over $533K with its $LIQUID token 
priced at just $0.0136. That early momentum suggests a strong appetite for 
solutions that tackle DeFi&#8217;s most persistent pain points. BUY YOUR $LIQUID 
FROM ITS OFFICIAL PRESALE PAGE A New Infrastructure for a Maturing Market The 
timing for a protocol like LiquidChain couldn’t be better. With institutional- 
grade regulatory clarity on the horizon, the demand for equally professional 
infrastructure is paramount. Institutions don’t want to deal with fragmented 
systems; they need seamless, efficient, and verifiable platforms for capital 
allocation. LiquidChain’s Cross-Chain VM (Virtual Machine) aims to provide 
precisely this, an environment where assets from disparate chains can interact 
without custodial risk. In previous cycles, we’ve seen regulatory green lights 
precede infrastructure buildouts; this pattern feels familiar, and the timing 
is punchy. The risk, of course, is that building such a complex L3 is a 
monumental technical challenge, and adoption will take time. Still, the value 
proposition is clear. By creating a shared liquidity and execution layer, 
LiquidChain aims to become the foundational plumbing for the next generation 
of DeFi applications. Its native token, $LIQUID, serves multiple functions 
within this ecosystem, including powering transactions (as gas), rewarding 
liquidity providers through staking, and funding developer grants to expand 
the network. For a market that’s finally growing up, infrastructure that 
abstracts away the complexity of a multi-chain world isn’t just a convenience, 
it’s a necessity. LEARN MORE ABOUT LIQUIDCHAIN This article is for 
informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. All 
investments carry risk, especially in the volatile crypto market.

Cryptocurrency price in GBP