A U.S. tourist was drugged and robbed in London by an Uber driver who made off with $123,000 in cryptocurrency. According to local media, the victim, 30-year-old Jacob Irwin-Cline, was visiting the UK on a short layover when the incident…

London Uber Driver steals $123k in crypto after drugging American Tourist

Bitcoin broke all previous records over the past 24 hours, hitting a new all- 
time high of $111K. This is particularly remarkable if we remember that $BTC 
was still languishing around $75K in early April. This marks a 50% increase in 
under two months. $BTC’s newfound momentum seems to have rubbed off on other 
top cryptos as well, including Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Solana: $ETH is already 
up 45% in May, currently trading at around $2,570. $SOL is trading at around 
$177 after a +20% bump this month. $DOGE isn’t far behind, with gains of over 
30%; the coin is now trading at $0.2328. In this article, we’ll go over why 
Ethereum is at the helm of the current altcoin rally. We’ll also cover the 
best crypto to buy now to help you make the most of the new altcoin season. 
Ethereum Leading the Pack Bitcoin briefly brushed past the $109K mark after 
Trump was announced president. Soon after, though, the excitement died down, 
tariffs entered the chat, and the broader crypto market went into a sharp 
downtrend. By early April, Bitcoin plummeted to $75K. However, Christmas came 
early in May, with a sharp crypto reversal and no signs of stopping anytime 
soon. Ethereum, not Bitcoin, is at the forefront of this crypto rally, though. 
$ETH&#8217;s daily gains have beaten $BTC&#8217;s recently. The number of active daily 
users on Ethereum DEX has also jumped to 64,000, the highest in three months. 
What&#8217;s more, $ETH&#8217;s current DEX volumes of around $15B suggest increasing 
market participation in the coming months. The Ethereum Foundation has also 
launched the Trillion Dollar Security initiative, which aims to build a 
civilization-scale infrastructure. It plans to onboard billions of people, 
letting them store more than $1,000 on-chain. Institutions and governments 
could also store up to $1 trillion on a single contract. Security is at the 
forefront here; the 1TS project will analyze vulnerabilities in Ethereum’s 
security architecture and build an overview report. High-priority security 
issues will be addressed to make the security more transparent, further 
enhancing communication across the Ethereum blockchain. Increasing crypto 
prices and higher DEX participation are classic indicators of strong bull 
runs. We might still be sitting at the beginning of what could be a once-in-a- 
lifetime surge in the crypto market. If you don&#8217;t want to sit this one out, 
here are a few altcoins you can invest in right now to ride the wave. 1. MIND 
of Pepe ($MIND) – Best Crypto to Buy Now for Real-Time Crypto Investment 
Advice MIND of Pepe ($MIND) aims to make profitable crypto investing 
accessible to everyone. It plans to do so with its own AI agent, which is 
programmed to identify the best cryptos to invest in on your behalf. The $MIND 
AI agent is both autonomous and self-evolving, and it works by interacting 
with the crypto community on X. It first listens to all the unique biases and 
insights into crypto floating online. Then, it uses AI to join the dots 
between social trends, market sentiment, and on-chain activity to find out the 
next cryptos to explode. In addition to $MIND&#8217;s real-time, actionable crypto 
trading plays, you&#8217;ll also get early-bird access to the new crypto tokens it 
creates firsthand. It&#8217;s worth noting that time is running out. The presale 
already surpassed $10M and will be ending in just seven days. Now&#8217;s the moment 
to buy $MIND and grab the next big crypto coin for a low price of $0.0037515. 
Learn how to buy $MIND now to benefit from a potential 800% growth in its 
price in the next five years. 2. BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) – Best Bitcoin- 
Inspired Crypto to Buy in 2025 BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) has completely 
redefined what a Bitcoin-themed meme coin is. Unlike other cryptos that are 
Bitcoin lovers in name only, $BTCBULL wants to follow the king cryptocurrency 
through hell and high water. This new crypto is perfect for Bitcoin 
maximalists who&#8217;d like to make the most of the &#8216;digital gold rush.&#8217; That&#8217;s 
because in addition to seeing your $BTCBULL investment swell up with rising 
Bitcoin prices, you&#8217;ll also benefit from free $BTC airdrops. Each time Bitcoin 
crosses a new milestone for the first time (such as $150K or $200K), $BTCBULL 
holders who have stored their tokens in Best Wallet will automatically receive 
real $BTC rewards. Additionally, the developers have also planned to scrape 
off a part of the total BTC Bull Token supply with rising Bitcoin prices. So, 
every time Bitcoin sees a $50K gain in its price, a $BTCBULL token burn event 
will occur. Doing so will rapidly reduce the total number of available 
$BTCBULL tokens in a Bitcoin bull run, which would massively boost its demand 
and price as investors flock to purchase an altcoin that gives them free $BTC. 
Luckily for you, BTC Bull Token is currently in presale. It has raised over 
$6.2M at the time of writing, and you can buy each token for just $0.002525. 
Here&#8217;s how to buy $BTCBULL. 3. Trump Dinner ($DINNER) – Latest Trump-Centric 
Meme Coin Babe, wake up! Another Trump-based meme coin just launched! Trump 
Dinner ($DINNER) is the latest example of why betting on Donald Trump&#8217;s 
popularity among crypto degens could be a rather smart financial decision. 
This top trending crypto is based on a recent announcement on $TRUMP&#8217;s 
official website. It read that the top 220 $TRUMP token holders will be 
invited to an exclusive dinner gala with the president himself, and that, too, 
at his private Virginia golf club. What&#8217;s more, the top 25 $TRUMP holders will 
also be invited to an even more exclusive event. They&#8217;ll get a &#8216;special tour&#8217; 
and &#8216;private VIP reception with the President.&#8217; As the anticipation for this 
event builds, the crypto community has responded with $DINNER. This token is 
fresh off the oven; it launched just a couple of days ago but has already 
posted brain-melting gains. $DINNER is up over 15,000% since its launch, 
including a 1,000% gain in just the last 24 hours. This is $TRUMP all over 
again. The Best Crypto to Buy Now to Ride the Market’s Newfound Enthusiasm The 
rise of major cryptos like $ETH, $BTC, $SOL, and $DOGE is a telling sign that 
the coming weeks and months could be prosperous for crypto investors. To make 
the most of the upcoming rally, consider top altcoins like MIND of Pepe 
($MIND) and BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL). Bear in mind that the crypto market is 
highly volatile and unpredictable. One wrong world event could send everything 
crashing down. We urge you to do your own research before investing. This 
article is not financial advice.

Ethereum Leads Altcoin Rally with Solana and Dogecoin – Best Crypto to Buy Now

U.S. stocks shed gains in early trading on Friday as investors sharply reacted 
to President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff threats against the European Union. 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 480 points, and the benchmark 
index S&amp;P 500…

Dow slips 400 points after Trump’s 50% tariff threat on EU

The bounty offer to recover stolen funds from Sui-based decentralized exchange 
(DEX) Cetus closely resembles a successful strategy used by a Solana project 
three years ago.
It turns out that Cetus shares the same development team as Crema Finance, a 
Solana-based DeFi project that suffered a $9-million hack in 2022 but 
recovered most of the funds by negotiating with its hacker. Now, Cetus is 
relying on the same strategy.
Cetus is asking the hacker to return all but $6 million, or 2,324 Ether (ETH), 
of the stolen funds in exchange for a promise not to pursue legal action. The 
protocol lost $223 million to an exploit on May 22.
The size of the bounty has sparked backlash from users, with many calling for 
a formal compensation plan instead. Several community members argue that even 
if funds are recovered, most of the damage has already been done &#8212; especially 
to holders of the CETUS token, which plummeted in value following the 
incident.
Meanwhile, Sui validators are also under fire for their role in freezing the 
funds. The move is aimed at aiding recovery, yet critics say it exposes 
centralization risks in the network.
_CETUS immediately dropped around 35% following the hack. Source:__CoinGecko_
## Sui&#8217;s Cetus devs have a phantom exchange on Solana
A similar negotiation strategy used by the Cetus team on Sui was successfully 
employed years ago to recover funds for Crema. The Solana project hasn&#8217;t 
posted on its X account since March 2023, and its trading platform now sees 
negligible volume, but it still didn&#8217;t end well for the hacker.
Crema suffered an approximately $9-million hack in 2022. Much like the Cetus 
case, the Crema hacker was offered a deal to return the funds while keeping 
$1.6 million in exchange for not reporting the attack to law enforcement.
_Cetus offers a $6-million reward and exemption from further legal action from 
the project if the remaining funds are returned. Source:__SuiVision_
The hacker is believed to have been caught and sent to prison. In April 2024, 
the US Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Southern District of New York sentenced 
Shakeeb Ahmed to three years in prison for hacking two separate cryptocurrency 
exchanges. One was identified as Nirvana Finance, while the other was not 
named.
_**Related:**__**Which senators invest in crypto? 11 lawmakers have 
blockchain-related investments**_
The details of the unnamed exchange&#8217;s case match Crema&#8217;s hack, including the 
exact date of the exploit and the terms of the agreement.
Norbert Bodziony, founder of Nightly App, claims the Cetus team was behind 
Crema Finance.
_Crema Finance suffered a hack in July 2022. Source:__Norbert Bodziony_
Bodziony declined to disclose how he learned of the relationship to 
Cointelegraph but added that the connection is &#8220;commonly known&#8221; in Sui&#8217;s 
developer circles.
Cointelegraph reached out to Cetus to confirm the connection between the two 
projects, but the team had not responded by publication.
Cointelegraph has separately learned that both projects are founded by Henry 
Du.
## Save Cetus; centralize Sui
Sui&#8217;s validators have collectively blocked transactions from the hacker&#8217;s 
addresses, effectively freezing $162 million of the stolen funds on Sui. 
Around $63 million had already been bridged to Ethereum before these controls 
were implemented.
Although the coordinated effort has been effective in preventing the funds 
from being laundered, the cryptocurrency community has criticized Sui for 
being too centralized.
&#8220;SUI&#8217;s validators are colluding to CENSOR the hacker&#8217;s TXs right now! Does 
that make SUI centralized? The short answer is YES; what matters more is why? 
The &#8216;founders&#8217; own the majority of supply &amp; there are only 114 validators!&#8221; 
Justin Bons, founder of Cyber Capital, wrote on X.
_Some users challenge Bons &#8216; claim, arguing that decentralization doesn&#8217;t mean 
a free-for-all. Source: __Squatch/Justin Bons_ 
As Bons pointed out, Sui has just 114 validators &#8212; far fewer than its more 
established smart contract peers. Ethereum has over 1 million validators, 
while Solana has 1,157.
Meanwhile, members of the Sui community defended the move, arguing that this 
is how real-world decentralized chains should function.
&#8220;Decentralization isn&#8217;t about standing by while people get hurt, it&#8217;s about 
the power to act together, without needing permission,&#8221; said one member of the 
Sui community.
_**Related:**__**WLFI &#8216;s DeFi credentials under fire after Sui partnership**_
Following the hack, Sui developers committed code for a proposed function that 
would have allowed specific transactions to bypass all signing and safety 
checks by adding them to a whitelist.
While the function could have been used to help recover stolen funds, it also 
raised concerns about centralized control and the erosion of decentralization. 
The code was ultimately not merged and is not live on the network.
_SUI &#8216;s price has also been damaged by the Cetus exploit. Source: __CoinGecko_
## Sui and Cetus backlash contrasts recent hacks
The Cetus exploit has spotlighted the persistent security challenges in DeFi 
while raising deeper questions around who holds the reins in supposedly 
decentralized networks like Sui.
The team&#8217;s $6-million offer to the hacker mirrors the playbook it used with 
Crema &#8212; but this time, the crypto community isn&#8217;t as forgiving. With CETUS 
tanking, trust fractured and validators freezing funds, critics are asking 
whether Sui&#8217;s decentralization is more appearance than reality.
The debate over decentralization isn&#8217;t unique to Sui. When Bybit lost $1.4 
billion in a February hack linked to North Korean state actors, security 
experts and users urged platforms like THORChain and eXch to block the funds.
In that case, THORChain received some backlash for not stepping in, which is 
the exact opposite of what Sui is being criticized for now.
As of now, the hacker hasn&#8217;t accepted Cetus&#8217; offer. Two Ethereum wallets tied 
to the exploiter still hold over $60 million in ETH, with no movement at the 
time of writing. The Sui addresses remain paralyzed.
_**Magazine:**__**TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in 
RWAs: Inside story**_

Twice lucky? Cetus’ recovery plan on Sui mirrors a Solana blueprint

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token jumped to a record high of $37 on Friday, May 23, 
continuing a trend that started on April 4 when it bottomed at $9. Hyperliquid 
(HYPE) was trading at $35.50 at press time, up by 285% from…

HYPE price eyes $47 as rare pattern forms, Hyperliquid volume surges

PRESS RELEASE. The cryptocurrency space is shifting fast, and the landscape is 
never short of groundbreaking developments. While Solana ( SOL) has enjoyed 
explosive growth in the past, the cracks are starting to show. Solana’s lack 
of utility beyond meme coins is raising concerns among seasoned investors, and 
its trajectory seems increasingly uncertain. Meanwhile, an […]