A fake crypto academy targeted cancer patients and pensioners in Ukraine. A Brazilian cartel laundered billions through crypto brokers. Hackers shut down water treatment plants across Minnesota. Here's what happened in crypto crime this week.

Kansai Electric's rewards platform, MOACT, has partnered with HashPort to let users convert loyalty points into the yen-backed stablecoin JPYC on the Polygon blockchain.

Cryptocurrency ownership in Canada has more than doubled over the past three years, with one in four Canadians now holding digital assets, according to new research from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). But while adoption is accelerating, regulators say investor understanding of the industry continues to lag behind.

Coinkite warned that some Coldcard Mk3 hardware wallets may generate weak Bitcoin seed phrases, putting users' funds at risk. The warning came as hackers drained about 594 BTC worth around $38.3 million from roughly 500 wallets, although no confirmed link has been established.

The IRS has warned crypto holders about fake tax letters that lead victims to a fraudulent website designed to steal personal information and cryptocurrency. Separately, Senator Cynthia Lummis' X account was briefly hacked to promote a fake Solana meme coin before the post was removed with no reported losses.

Strategy reported an $8.22 billion net loss in the second quarter after Bitcoin's decline triggered an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on its massive cryptocurrency holdings, but the company also revealed a significant shift in how it plans to manage its Bitcoin treasury going forward.

Chainalysis found that the 2026 FIFA World Cup generated $20 billion in blockchain prediction market trading, with more than 400,000 wallets taking part. The report also traced $5.4 million in betting funds to a sanctioned crypto exchange, while FIFA Collect recorded very little illicit activity thanks to identity checks.

Hawkins County, Tennessee, has unanimously approved a second ban on crypto mining facilities and data centers in unincorporated parts of the county, reinforcing its effort to block large-scale digital infrastructure despite an ongoing legal dispute with Bitcoin mining company ExoticRidge.

Anthropic reviewed its cybersecurity tests after OpenAI's breach disclosure — and found that three of its own Claude models had already hacked real organisations using weak password exploits, with no one detecting the intrusions at the time.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has just retaliated against the Russian government, accusing Kremlin of trying silence him after he had refused to hand over Telegram to government surveillance and censorship. He claimed that because of his refusal to cooperate, he was branded as a terrorist as an attempt to smear his reputation.

U.S. stocks gave back part of their gains, and the Nasdaq 100 Index briefly turned lower. According to Jin10, the Nasdaq 100 Index once fell into negative territory.

According to Jin10, Baker Hughes said the impact of the Iran conflict on some projects and supply chains is expected to be offset by strong performance in other regions.

Anthropic nearly tripled its federal lobbying spend to $3.53 million, outpacing OpenAI by more than $1 million in the first half of 2026. According to BeInCrypto, federal disclosures show Anthropic added the Treasury Department to its list of lobbied agencies for the first time this quarter, while OpenAI nearly doubled spending to a record $2.22 million. Issue One counted $41 million in combined spending from January to June across 11 major technology, social media and AI companies and their trade associations, with Kalshi also spending $990,000 on lobbying in the first half of 2026.

Lido has started consolidating 8 million ETH in staked ether and will cut its validator count by a third as part of a broader node-operator overhaul. According to CoinDesk, the liquid staking protocol is also requiring its professional node operators to post bonds for the first time.

According to Jin10, Baker Hughes said regional facilities are expected to face higher logistics and inflation pressure due to the Middle East conflict.

Blueway Photoelectric said on July 27 that it is planning to issue shares and pay cash to buy assets while raising matching funds, with Suzhou Lancan Technology Co. as the target. The company's shares were suspended from the start of trading on July 27, 2026, because the transaction remains uncertain, and Blueway Photoelectric expects to disclose the deal plan within no more than 10 trading days, according to Jiemian News.