mantle

According to Hong Kong media Ming Pao, the Hong Kong police dismantled a cross-border criminal group that used virtual currency over-the-counter (OTC) channels for money laundering, arresting 22 people, including 21 men and 1 woman, aged between 21 and 54.The police investigation revealed that the group had been active since August this year, recruiting mainland individuals to come to Hong Kong to open puppet bank accounts, withdraw cash from criminal proceeds, and then transfer the funds to virtual currency OTC shops operated by the group. They laundered the money through buying and selling virtual currencies, with the police estimating that the group laundered over 150 million Hong Kong dollars from August to October this year alone.It is reported that the group had clear divisions of labor, first arranging for mainland individuals holding two-way permits to come to Hong Kong to open online bank accounts for receiving criminal proceeds. They then recruited cash withdrawal personnel who used bank cards distributed by the group to withdraw cash from ATMs at different locations and banks, which was then collected and transported by runners to the OTC shops to complete the money laundering.

According to the New Straits Times citing Bernama, Malaysian police dismantled a gang suspected of conducting romance scams and fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange schemes in Malacca on November 4, arresting 13 suspects aged between 24 and 36.The police stated that the gang contacted Chinese victims through applications such as Telegram, QQ, and Soul, luring them into transferring money to participate in fake cryptocurrency transactions with promises of emotional relationships and high returns. They began operating at the location involved about three months ago. The total losses incurred by the victims are still under investigation, and the police have seized 12 laptops, 1 desktop computer, and 26 mobile phones among other devices.

Anthropic recently released the latest research on verifiable AI outputs and introduced the new system FlashProve.When explaining how related capabilities can be implemented in real production environments, the document references the Ethereum ecosystem L2 Mantle as a use case, and in the public research of leading AI laboratories, Mantle is regarded as one of the on-chain production practices that can be referenced.

The marketing head of mETH Protocol, Jowella Lim (X account speicherx), announced that she has rejoined the Ethereum Layer 2 network Mantle, responsible for product marketing. She stated that Mantle has the opportunity to bring global stock exposure on-chain, and the product mStocks is in progress. The official Mantle account responded by welcoming her back.Jowella Lim mentioned that she has made a clear choice regarding her career direction. She noted that this year, areas such as tokenization, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, payments, and stablecoins are developing rapidly, making the team's direction more attractive to her. Her goal is to enhance the visibility of products and assets currently on Mantle and collaborate with ecosystem partners Bybit and Byreal. She also expressed confidence that Mantle will continue to grow among projects built for on-chain adoption.According to her personal website, Jowella Lim has been engaged in marketing at Mantle since April 2024 and has served as the marketing head of the mETH Protocol, incubated by Mantle, since January 2025, being the first marketing employee. The website states that the protocol's peak locked value is $2.19 billion. On the same day, a discussion on the MIP-36 draft appeared in the Mantle forum, proposing to confirm Halo Prime Limited as a strategic partner and issuer of mStocks, describing mStocks as tokenized certificates based on Mantle and linked to listed stocks, with the discussion not involving treasury funds. According to RootData, Mantle originated from BitDAO, completing $230 million in financing in June 2021 and $356 million through an IDO in August of the same year.

According to Bitcoin.com, the Colombian Attorney General's Office announced on Wednesday that, in coordination with U.S. intelligence agencies, it has arrested 8 individuals suspected of using cryptocurrency to launder money for drug trafficking organizations. Police and military conducted simultaneous operations in four locations: Cúcuta, Maicao, Barranquilla, and Bogotá.Among those arrested were 7 individuals, including the gang leader Guillermo Carpio Cárdenas (nicknamed "Gallo"). The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has charged that the gang used deposit networks, cryptocurrency tokens, and small transaction splitting (smurfing) to conceal the source of drug money and evade monitoring by financial intelligence agencies.Another suspect, Nassim Orfale Vasquez, was arrested in Barranquilla and has been indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the IRS, he has handled over $42 million in suspicious cryptocurrency transactions since 2018, and authorities are investigating whether there are larger money laundering organizations in Colombia's coastal regions.

Recently, the Qingshanqiao Police Station of the Xiangtan County Public Security Bureau in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, with the support of the county bureau, went to Loudi and successfully dismantled a fraud den that used malicious links to steal virtual currency, arresting 3 criminal suspects.Upon investigation, on September 4, a local resident reported that after clicking on a strange link in a virtual currency QQ group, 6814 yuan worth of USDT was stolen from their account. Since August, three individuals, Zhou, Chen, and Liang, have been seeking illegal profits by obtaining malicious virus links through the Telegram app, specifically searching for virtual currency exchange groups in QQ and WeChat, sending malicious links in the groups, and waiting to steal the virtual currency from the accounts of those who clicked. Currently, all three suspects have been criminally detained in accordance with the law on suspicion of theft, and the case is under further investigation.

According to CryptoSlate, Microsoft and the cybersecurity organization Health-ISAC have obtained a court order in the United States to seize and redirect the domains supporting three services: YAM Store, CoGUI, and Iron Man. These three services sell stolen accounts and phishing tools to fraudsters. Since January of this year, they have assisted in sending over 1 billion phishing messages, targeting more than 75,000 institutions across over 150 countries, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the operators.Microsoft has disabled over 20,000 accounts associated with YAM Store and continues to block more than 100,000 counterfeit and fraudulent domains. According to Microsoft's investigation, these services accept payments in USDT (Tron network) and ETH, and Cloudflare stated that buyers can also use USDC for payments. Blockchain analytics company TRM Labs assisted investigators in locating and freezing related assets, but the amount frozen has not been disclosed.

The Sharjah Police in the United Arab Emirates, in conjunction with the Ministry of Interior, launched an operation codenamed "End of Battle," successfully dismantling four interconnected transnational crime networks and arresting 33 suspects from 12 nationalities, including key leaders.Investigations revealed that the crime networks were involved in illegal activities such as cyber infiltration, money laundering, digital wallet theft, fraud, extortion, and illegal data trading. During the operation, the police protected over 30 businesses and institutions worldwide, ensuring the safety of assets exceeding $17.7 billion (approximately 65 billion UAE Dirhams), confiscated assets worth over $54.4 million (approximately 200 million UAE Dirhams), and conducted in-depth examinations and evidence collection on more than 3,000 digital wallets.

According to Decrypt, the Virtual Currency Unit of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in New York, in collaboration with the FBI, successfully dismantled a multinational cryptocurrency investment scam network targeting the Russian-speaking community across the United States, seizing and shutting down 112 servers and 241 associated website domains. The involved servers were primarily hosted in Eastern Europe and the United States, with the core infrastructure and IP nodes distributed in places like Ukraine.Forensic evidence from the servers also indicated that the scammers would strike again weeks later, disguising themselves as "asset recovery service providers" to conduct secondary harvesting of victims, with the total amount involved reaching tens of millions of dollars. The prosecution had previously shut down 400 associated domain names, and this time directly seized the underlying servers to completely deprive the gang of the ability to quickly set up websites and contact victims. Law enforcement has currently seized approximately $300,000 in stolen funds, and the recovery efforts are ongoing.

According to the Gulf Times, Sharjah police have dismantled four interconnected cross-border crime gangs, involving 33 individuals and enterprises.The four gangs are suspected of network attacks and data theft, money laundering using virtual assets, stealing digital wallets through social engineering attacks, and violently coercing victims to hand over wallet passwords. After reviewing hundreds of pieces of digital evidence, the police identified the suspects and launched raids.

According to Bloomberg, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office successfully dismantled a multinational cryptocurrency fraud network centered in Eastern Europe, which had long targeted users in the United States, stealing tens of millions of dollars in total.This operation shut down 241 websites related to cryptocurrency fraud and seized 112 servers hosted by companies in Eastern Europe and the United States.

Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou stated in the keynote speech "Make Your Move" that Bybit is collaborating with Mantle to develop a tokenized stock product called mStocks, which is set to launch next month. According to him, mStocks will be backed 1:1 by real stocks, and users will be able to convert between real stocks and mStocks on the Bybit platform around the clock, with DEX trading supported on Mantle through AMM liquidity pools.The converted mStocks can enter the Bybit Unified Trading Account (UTA) as collateral for other trades, although the specific collateral conversion ratio has not been disclosed. Ben Zhou also mentioned that the recently launched Bybit Stocks has supported over 1,000 U.S. market stocks and assets, with stocks being custodied by partners, and there are plans to support stock lending and transfers from other brokerages in the future.

Greek police dismantled a cryptocurrency investment fraud gang and arrested 17 people, including 9 military personnel. Preliminary investigations by the police show that about 10,000 people participated in the investment, with an average investment of around 800 euros per person, and the amount involved is estimated to exceed 8 million euros.The gang operated by recruiting new members to obtain higher returns, exhibiting clear "pyramid" characteristics. In addition, the gang recently froze the withdrawal function and claimed that investors could receive double their principal back after 50 days if they doubled their investment. The police have currently seized about 280,000 euros, and the investigation is ongoing.

Research institution Castle Labs released a report stating that over 38 billion dollars in assets have been tokenized on-chain. Among them, U.S. Treasury bonds exceed 15.9 billion dollars, commodities 4.9 billion dollars, active strategies 3.6 billion dollars, asset-backed credit 2.56 billion dollars, and stocks 2.52 billion dollars.The report uses the Ethereum Layer 2 network Mantle as an example, stating that the Mantle ecosystem currently hosts over 225 million dollars in assets, of which over 60% is in the active RWA strategy Mantle Index Four Fund, 21% is in syrupUSDT, 15% is in Ondo USDY, and 2% is in xStocks. Of the RWA value, 96% is in income-generating assets, and xStocks has grown to over 4.4 million dollars since its launch in March.Castle Labs: Listed assets are relatively easy, but the challenge lies in whether assets can become effective capital after being on-chain. Tokenized assets need to be able to trade in deep liquidity, be used as collateral, be combined across venues, and be widely used; otherwise, it will exacerbate liquidity fragmentation. For RWA to gain widespread adoption, it must provide additional utility compared to traditional finance in terms of accessibility and combinability. Early tokenization rewards the ability to bring assets on-chain, while the next phase will reward the ability to make these assets useful.

The Ukrainian police and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) recently dismantled a scam network that used a fake investment platform to steal cryptocurrency. This network disguised itself as an investment platform website, luring users to connect their main cryptocurrency wallets and approve a small test transaction when withdrawing funds. Subsequently, it used a "wallet stealer" hidden within the website to automatically transfer user funds to wallets controlled by the operators, kicking victims off the platform. Investigators have currently confirmed 62 victims, with over 46 Ukrainian citizens involved, and the network could steal up to $1 million per month.The police stated that the false profits displayed on the platform are part of the scam, with operators manually creating transactions and adjusting user account balances to create the illusion of investment growth. In addition to cryptocurrency, the platform also collected victims' passport information, phone numbers, email addresses, login credentials, and photos during the registration and identity verification process. The main organizer of the network is a 25-year-old IT expert who recruited over 46 Ukrainian citizens and operated multiple offices in Kyiv and surrounding areas, with members responsible for building and maintaining fake websites, contacting potential victims, and providing security.Victims come from multiple countries, including Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel. The police traced the gang's server equipment located in the Netherlands and obtained a database stored there, which included a list of victims, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, suspected stolen amounts, internal communications, and platform operation information. The Ukrainian police and SBU subsequently executed 34 searches in Kyiv and surrounding areas, seizing over 100 computers, more than 100 mobile phones, 79 SIM cards, documents, cash, and 15 vehicles.

The stablecoin USDG issued by Paxos has officially launched on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Mantle, which has also announced its partnership with the Global Dollar Network. This integration makes USDG one of the first natively minted stablecoins on Mantle, allowing Mantle to enter the USDG reward-sharing system and receive a share of the revenue generated from USDG activities.According to DefiLlama data, USDG currently has a market capitalization of approximately $3.18 billion, making it the seventh largest stablecoin by size. This stablecoin is issued by Paxos and is subject to regulatory frameworks in Singapore and the European Union, with Paxos publishing reserve reports monthly. As a partner, Mantle has joined the Global Dollar Network, which includes over 150 members, with other members including Kraken and Robinhood.Currently, there are multiple stablecoins on Mantle, including Agora's AUSD, Ethena's USDe, and Tether's USDT0. Mantle states that USDG will be used for DeFi applications and institutional capital allocation within its ecosystem. Additionally, Mantle has recently seen significant growth in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), with its distributed RWA value reaching $234.2 million as of this Wednesday, a 19% increase over the past 30 days.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian National Police and Security Service announced the dismantling of a fake investment platform network based in Kyiv. This gang stole cryptocurrency from users in over 20 countries through built-in wallet theft tools. Investigators have currently confirmed 62 victims, including citizens from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, France, the UK, Canada, and Israel. The organizers recruited more than 46 Ukrainians, operating multiple offices in Kyiv and surrounding areas, where developers were responsible for building the fake platform and resisting bans, while other members handled customer service and security.According to the Ukrainian Security Service, the organizer is a 25-year-old IT expert, and the gang's peak monthly revenue reached up to $1 million. The scam began with advertisements for cryptocurrency investment projects on Telegram. After users registered, they connected their wallets and invested funds, while gang members manually forged transactions to show a continuously increasing balance in the user backend. When users requested withdrawals, the platform required them to connect their main wallet and approve a small "test" transaction under the pretext of verification. This authorization immediately triggered the built-in theft tool on the website, transferring assets to wallets controlled by the gang and locking the victims' accounts.Investigators tracked down server equipment storing the gang's database in the Netherlands, which recorded victim information, wallet addresses, stolen amounts, internal communications, and platform operation data, as well as user passports, phone numbers, emails, login passwords, and photos. Police executed 34 searches in Kyiv and surrounding areas, seizing over 100 computers, more than 100 mobile phones, 79 SIM cards, one GSM gateway, cash, and 15 vehicles.

According to Decrypt, CrowdStrike and the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that they have dismantled the Sality peer-to-peer botnet, which has been active since 2003.This botnet primarily hijacked cryptocurrency payments through the EggJagger malware over the past eight years, which monitored the cryptocurrency wallet addresses in victims' clipboards and replaced them with the operator's own address, causing victims to send funds to strangers.CrowdStrike estimates that the operator has stolen at least 12.1 million rubles (approximately $150,000) solely through the EggJagger payload. Most of the stolen cryptocurrency has not been spent, and CrowdStrike assesses that these unspent assets were worth about 147 million rubles (nominally around $1.35 million) at their peak in January 2025. The reason Sality has survived to this day is that it does not have a central server that can be seized; infected machines communicate directly with each other.This multinational operation involved the United States, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. The U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and Defense Criminal Investigative Service seized Sality-related domains within the United States, and police from multiple European countries also seized other domains.CrowdStrike isolated more than 15,000 infected machines to its controlled honeypot by exploiting its architectural vulnerabilities. The operator has been tracked as SALTY SPIDER, which launched a denial-of-service attack against the Russian cryptocurrency exchange AvanChange in September 2023.

According to official news, Mantle Vault has officially expanded from CeFi to DeFi, collaborating with Grove, CIAN, and Fluxion to launch a non-custodial yield vault aimed at stablecoin holders. Users can deposit USDC/USDT into Mantle to obtain institutional-level floating yields through the underlying strategy of sUSDS, along with incentives of Fluxion Points and 5.14 million GROVE tokens (with a target APY of up to 6.5%).The vault adopts a conservative non-leveraged structure, with strategies built by CIAN, capital base provided by Grove's Sky Savings Rate, and liquidity entry managed by Fluxion. Previously, Mantle Vault's AUM on Bybit had exceeded $200 million, and Mantle RWA TVL increased from $22 million to $257 million within the year, with DeFi TVL surpassing $755 million.Mantle stated that by expanding into the DeFi space through Mantle Vault, Mantle and its collaborators are committed to enabling all stablecoin holders to access institutional-level yields without borders, free from geographical restrictions and without the need for intermediary access, and all these components can be combined within Mantle's open financial network.

According to the Associated Press, drug enforcement agencies from Cambodia and the United States announced on Friday that they have dismantled a cryptocurrency money laundering network utilized by the Sinaloa drug cartel from Mexico.The operation was conducted in collaboration between Cambodian drug enforcement police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, seizing approximately $7 million in cryptocurrency related to the Sinaloa drug cartel, arresting multiple individuals, and confiscating assets, drug production laboratories, and storage facilities.