A Wellington-based man was arrested in Auckland as part of an international investigation into a crypto scam operation allegedly stealing $265 million (NZD$450 million) from seven victims. New Zealand&#8217;s Financial Crime Group made the arrest following an FBI-led probe into…

$265m crypto scam: New Zealand man caught in FBI-led probe

In the first quarter of 2025, Solana’s blockchain protocol recorded its 
strongest performance in a year, with total application revenue rising to $1.2 
billion. January was particularly notable, accounting for nearly 60% of the 
quarter’s total revenue. Pump.fun Top Revenue Generator in Q1 for Solana Apps 
In the first quarter of 2025, the blockchain protocol […]

Pump.fun Leads Revenue Surge as Solana Has Best Quarter in 12 Months

Public internet infrastructure is the critical speed and performance 
constraint on high-throughput blockchain networks, according to Austin Federa, 
co-founder and CEO of DoubleZero, a project developing high-speed fiber optic 
communication rails for blockchains.
&#8220;The downside of the public internet is it was never built for high- 
performance systems. It was always built for this sort of relationship of one 
big server talking to one little server,&#8221; Federa told Cointelegraph in an 
interview at Consensus 2025. The executive explained:
&gt; &#8220;We have validators all around the world. Rotating leader schedules all the 
&gt; time. And then they switch from having to be massive consumers of data to 
&gt; extremely massive broadcasters of data. So that means that they need huge 
&gt; amounts of resources both on ingress and egress.&#8221;
The executive added that the constraint posed by public internet 
infrastructure is now the limiting factor in blockchain performance and not 
compute power or software development.
_Austin Federa giving a presentation on DoubleZero at Consensus 2025 in 
Toronto, Canada. Source: Cointelegraph/Vince Quill_
Networks like DoubleZero will make blockchains faster, decrease spreads in 
decentralized finance (DeFi) trades, lower transaction fees, and open up new 
use cases for blockchain networks that were previously unavailable due to 
communication infrastructure constraints.
_**Related:**__**Blockchains ready for institutions, lawyers hesitate: 
DoubleZero CEO**_
## DoubleZero co-founded by Austin Federa in 2024
Austin Federa left the Solana Foundation to establish the DoubleZero Protocol 
in December 2024. The goal of the project is to reduce latency, the time it 
takes for data to travel in a network, and bandwidth &#8212; the maximum data 
traffic a network can handle at once.
In April 2025, DoubleZero conducted a validator token sale to sell token 
purchase agreements to interested node operators seeking to become validators 
for the network.
The token sale was only available to accredited investors and already active 
validators on high-throughput blockchain networks including, Solana, Celestia, 
Sui, Aptos, and Avalanche.
_Cover page for the DoubleZero whitepaper. Source:__DoubleZero_
DoubleZero&#8217;s team is aiming to launch its public mainnet in the second half of 
2025, following a successful $28 million capital raise.
Federa told Cointelegraph that the increasingly high throughput of blockchain 
networks and the overall development of the industry has necessitated the 
building of dedicated, high-performance communication infrastructure to meet 
demand from increasingly sophisticated projects.
_**Magazine:**__**What are native rollups? Full guide to Ethereum &#8216;s latest 
innovation**_

The Public internet is a bottleneck for blockchain — DoubleZero CEO

Ethereum prices gained by over 4.6% in the past day to reach a peak of $2,634 
before experiencing a slight retracement. In line with the bullish rhythm of 
the crypto market, the prominent altcoin has recorded significant price leaps 
in the past month, resulting in a total gain of 61.92% in this period. 
However, price patterns indicate that Ethereum is headed for a major encounter 
at $4,000, a price level with potential to neutralize or validate the current 
price uptrend. Related Reading: Ethereum Multi-Year Consolidation Could Spark 
A Parabolic Move – Details ETH Must Surpass Long-Standing Resistance To Ignite 
Mega Rally In an X post on May 16, OKC partner and crypto analyst Ted Pillows 
highlighted an important price level for Ethereum amidst the ongoing bull 
trend. Notably, ETH has moved by over 60% in the past few weeks from $1400 to 
trade above $2,600. Based on the growing chart pattern and underlying market 
fundamentals, the altcoin is likely to maintain this uptrend in the short 
term. According to Ted Pillows, $4,000 can be described as a crucial price 
region for ETH bulls based on historical price data. Notably, Ethereum has 
been trading within a massive symmetrical triangle that began in Q3 2020 and 
has lasted over 1,500 days. The $4,000 price level currently sits just below 
the upper boundary of this triangle, representing a significant opposition to 
further price gains. In 2024, Ethereum popularly faced rejection thrice at the 
$4,000 price level, even amidst general market upswings, raising speculations 
over the altcoin’s long-term profitability. If the ETH bulls can sustain the 
current market demand, another encounter with this major resistance level is 
likely on the cards. To confirm the altcoin’s participation in a brewing 
crypto bull run and altseason, Ethereum must push past $4,000, flipping this 
price zone into an effective support level that could strengthen the current 
market structure with bullish targets set as high as $12,000. However, if ETH 
faces another rejection at this resistance zone, a price correction could 
occur with potential for price lows around $1,700 in line with the lower 
boundary of the symmetrical triangle. Related Reading: XRP Price Explosion To 
$5.9: Current Consolidation Won’t Stop XRP From Growing ETH Institutional 
Interest Waxes Strong In other news, the ETH market continues to see 
significant market interest from institutional investors. In a separate X 
post, Ted Pillows reports that UK-based investment manager Abraxas Capital now 
holds 257,165 ETH, valued at $655 million, following a continuous accumulation 
spree over the past few days. Institutional investments are strong bullish 
signals of long-term profitability for the ETH market as they indicate a 
strong demand from these traditional financial institutions with relatively 
high amounts of liquidity. At press time, crypto’s largest altcoin trades at 
$2,490, indicating a 6.95% gain in the past week. Featured image from iStock, 
chart from Tradingview

Ethereum Headed For Crucial Encounter At $4,000 – Here’s Why

Hong Kong police have dismantled a cross-border crime syndicate accused of 
laundering HK$118 million (US$15 million) through fraudulent bank accounts, 
arresting a total of 12 individuals in a citywide operation, the South China 
Morning Post (SCMP) first reported. Crime Syndicate Recruited Mainland Chinese 
to Launder Millions, Police Say SCMP reported that Hong Kong’s Commercial 
Crime […]

12 Arrested in HK as Officials Uncover $15M Cash, Crypto Laundering Operation: Report

Moody&#8217;s credit rating agency downgraded the credit rating of the United States 
government from Aaa to Aa1, citing the rising national debt as the primary 
driver behind the reduction in creditworthiness.
According to the May 16 announcement from the rating agency, US lawmakers have 
failed to stem annual deficits or reduce spending over the years, leading to a 
growing national debt. The rating agency wrote:
&gt; &#8220;We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending 
&gt; and deficits will result from the current fiscal proposals under 
&gt; consideration. Over the next decade, we expect larger deficits as 
&gt; entitlement spending rises while government revenue remains broadly flat.&#8221;
The credit downgrade is only one degree out of the 21-notch rating scale used 
by the company to assess the credit health of an entity.
_An overview of the US national debt. Source:__US National Debt Clock_
Despite the negative short to medium-term credit outlook, Moody&#8217;s maintained a 
positive outlook on the long-term health of the United States, citing its 
robust economy and the status of the US dollar as the global reserve currency 
as strengths, reflecting &#8220;balanced&#8221; lending risks.
_**Related:**__**Asia &#8216;s wealthy shifting from US dollar to crypto, gold, 
China: UBS**_
## Investors react to Moody&#8217;s US credit revision
Moody&#8217;s announcement drew mixed reactions from investors and market 
participants, leaving many unconvinced by the agency&#8217;s revised outlook.
Gabor Gurbacs, CEO and founder of crypto loyalty rewards company Pointsville, 
cited the rating agency&#8217;s previous credit assessments during times of 
financial stress as unreliable, signaling that the outlook was too optimistic.
&#8220;This is the same Moody&#8217;s that gave Aaa ratings to sub-prime mortgage-backed 
securities that led to the 2007-2008 financial crisis,&#8221; the executive wrote in 
a May 17 X post.
However, macroeconomic investor Jim Bianco argued that the recent Moody&#8217;s 
credit outlook does not reflect a real downgrade in the perception of US 
government creditworthiness and characterized the announcement as a &#8220;nothing 
burger.&#8221;
_Interest rates on the 30-year US Treasury Bond spiked to nearly 5% in May 
2025, signaling reduced long-term investor confidence in US debt. 
Source:__TradingView_
US government debt surpassed $36 trillion in January 2025 and shows no signs 
of slowing, despite recent efforts by Elon Musk and others to reduce federal 
spending and curtail the national debt.
As the debt climbs and investors lose faith in US government securities, bond 
yields will spike, causing the debt service payments to go up, further 
inflating the national debt.
This creates a vicious cycle as the government will have to entice investors 
with ever-greater yields to incentivize them to purchase government debt.
_**Magazine:**__**Elon Musk &#8216;s plan to run government on blockchain faces 
uphill battle**_