GM. The Litecoin Foundation executed a massive three-hour chain reorg today to patch a critical MimbleWimble privacy exploit that allowed hackers to perform coordinated double-spend attacks.

Meanwhile, Brazil blocked prediction platforms over gambling risks, BitMine purchased 10,000 ETH from the Ethereum Foundation, and Pavel Durov linked recent kidnappings to tax leaks.

Here are the details on network rollbacks, regulatory bans, and treasury deals. 👇

Litecoin Rewrites 3 Hours After Critical Privacy Exploit

The Litecoin Foundation executed a massive three-hour chain reorganization to mitigate a critical zero-day vulnerability. This emergency measure occurred after attackers exploited the MimbleWimble privacy layer to generate invalid transactions and bypass base chain validation protocols while simultaneously targeting major mining pools with denial-of-service attacks.

Hackers utilized the three-hour fork window to perform coordinated double-spend attacks against multiple cross-chain swap protocols across the ecosystem. These malicious actors moved Litecoin onto the main chain through unauthorized peg-outs before honest nodes could identify the offending blocks and reject the invalid transactions permanently.

Aurora Labs CEO Alex Shevchenko reported that the NEAR Intents platform lost roughly $600,000 during this sophisticated security event. Several trading venues currently audit their holdings to determine the full extent of the financial damage caused by these fraudulent transactions before the network reverted to a safe state.

Foundation developers successfully deployed a full patch to eliminate the zero-day flaw and restore integrity to the MimbleWimble extension. Valid transactions remain unaffected by the deep reorg even as decentralized finance protocols face over $750 million in total exploit losses throughout the early months of 2026.

Brazil Blocks Prediction Platforms Over Gambling Risks

Brazil’s Finance Ministry issued a sudden ban on prediction platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi due to social harm concerns. Minister Dario Durigan blocked access this month to protect citizens’ savings from unregulated betting operations. Officials claim this curbs addiction and prevents families from suffering massive financial losses through illegal offshore contracts.

The central bank prohibited derivatives based on non-economic benchmarks to maintain market integrity for all Brazilian investors. This regulatory sweep occurred after Finance Ministry leaders observed countless families losing income to unsafe digital practices. Authorities now coordinate with local internet providers to ensure prediction market sites remain inaccessible for residents.

BitMine Buys 10,000 ETH From Ethereum Foundation

The Ethereum Foundation finalized a private agreement to sell 10,000 ETH to treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies this month. Chairman Tom Lee orchestrated the purchase at an average price of $2,387 per token to strengthen the company’s digital portfolio. This over-the-counter transaction took place recently to fund core protocol research and diverse community grant activities.

BitMine now holds over $11 billion in Ethereum despite sitting on unrealized losses from recent market volatility. The foundation previously sold similar tranches to other treasury firms to maintain steady operations during the ongoing crypto winter. This strategic accumulation highlights Lee’s conviction that digital assets will eventually lead a recovery in the global economy.

Telegram's Durov Links France Kidnappings to Tax Leaks

Telegram founder Pavel Durov linked the surge in French crypto kidnappings to massive tax database leaks involving sensitive investor information. Criminals in France targeted 41 victims this year after allegedly purchasing private financial data from a corrupt former tax official. These violent attacks occurred across various regions to extort digital assets from wealthy entrepreneurs through physical coercion and brutal home invasions.

Interior Minister Jean-Didier Berger recently announced new protective measures to shield vulnerable cryptocurrency holders from these disturbing wrench attacks. Law enforcement agencies coordinate with blockchain investigators like ZachXBT to track stolen funds and identify suspects behind the extortion rings. Officials hope these unified efforts will discourage further violence as digital asset ownership becomes a primary target for syndicates.

Data of the day

Researchers from London Business School found that just 3% of traders drive price accuracy on the Polymarket prediction platform. This elite group of informed participants moved prices toward correct outcomes while 97% of retail accounts lost money in aggregate. The study analyzed $13 billion in volume from 2023 to evaluate how specialized knowledge outperforms the uneducated crowd in real-time.

Skilled traders react first to Federal Reserve announcements and other significant events to shift market sentiment before resolution. This concentration of influence raises difficult questions regarding whether price discovery depends on genuine expertise or unfair access to non-public information. Academic experts conclude that informed minorities generate the most profit by consistently taking the correct side of every high-stakes betting contract.

More breaking news

• President Trump criticized prediction markets as a global casino after a soldier was charged with using classified intel to net $400,000 in Maduro-related betting profits.

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is suing New York to prevent state gambling laws from interfering with federal authority over registered prediction market platforms and event contracts.

• Bybit CEO Ben Zhou warns that Markets in Crypto Assets licenses are insufficient for profitability without additional authorizations covering derivatives and electronic money for major European operations.

• United States Treasury officials sanctioned multiple cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran after Tether froze $344 million in stablecoins that were allegedly fueling Tehran’s sanctioned financial activities.

• Institutional open interest in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange traded fund options recently topped $27 billion on Nasdaq, successfully rivaling offshore giant Deribit in scale and professional market participation.

• Tennessee officially became the second American state to outlaw Bitcoin kiosks after data revealed that citizens over sixty lost $257 million to fraudulent crypto scams last year.

• Jane Street filed a motion to dismiss the Terraform Labs lawsuit, arguing the quant firm had no involvement in the multi-billion dollar fraud that collapsed the ecosystem.

• Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz expects the United States CLARITY Act to be finalized next month, providing much needed regulatory certainty for five billion global financial participants.

For the latest updates on digital asset markets, follow us on X @Datawalletcom.

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