Vanuatu passes long-awaited crypto laws that won’t be ‘light touch’

Vanuatu has passed laws to regulate digital assets and provide a licensing regime for crypto companies wanting to operate in the Pacific island nation, which a government regulatory consultant has called “very stringent.”  The local parliament passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act on March 26, giving crypto licensing authority to the Vanuatu Financial Services …

zkLend hacker claims losing stolen ETH to Tornado Cash phishing site

The hacker behind the $9.6 million exploit of the decentralized money-lending protocol zkLend in February claims they’ve just fallen victim to a phishing website impersonating Tornado Cash, resulting in the loss of a significant portion of the stolen funds. In a message sent to zkLend through Etherscan on March 31, the hacker claimed to have …

SIR.trading begs hacker to return $255K or ‘no chance for us to survive’

The founder of the recently hacked decentralized finance protocol SIR.trading has made an emotional plea to the attacker, asking them to return around 70% of the stolen customer funds otherwise, the protocol will not survive. “Here is my proposal, keep $100k as a fair share for your critical bug find, and return the remaining,” SIR.trading’s …

Coinbase CEO calls for change in stablecoin laws to enable ‘onchain interest’

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is calling for legislative changes in the US to allow stablecoin holders to earn “onchain interest” on their holdings. In a March 31 post on X, Armstrong argued that crypto companies should be treated similarly to banks and be “allowed to, and incentivized to, share interest with consumers.” He added that …

Privacy Pools launch on Ethereum, with Vitalik demoing the feature

A new semi-permissionless privacy tool, Privacy Pools, has launched on Ethereum, allowing users to transact privately while proving their funds aren’t linked to illicit activities. The privacy tool, launched by Ethereum builders 0xbow.io on March 31, earned support from the likes of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who not only backed the privacy project but made …