Violent wrench attacks against wealthy crypto holders have spiked in the first four months of 2026, with more than $101 million stolen. Europe leads the way with this type of theft, with France the epicenter of these attacks. Of the 34 wrench attacks documented by crypto security firm CertiK so far this year, 28 were in Europe and 24 in France. If the trend continues, CertiK said the total could reach 130 incidents this year, compared to 81 with a total of $52 million stolen in 2025. Wrench attacks generally consist of home invasions or kidnappings in which violence or the threat of violence is used to force victims to…
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Morgan Stanley Jumps Into Low-Fee Crypto Trading
50 basis point fees would undercut competitors
Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade discount brokerage division is jumping into the digital asset arena with a pilot program allowing low-fee cryptocurrency trading. The Wall Street bank’s emphasis is on the “discount” part of discount brokerage, offering trades for just 50 basis points on the dollar, or 0.5%. The launch is Morgan Stanley’s attempt to gain a share of an asset class that was until recently untouchable by banks, according to Bloomberg. The firm is anticipating that decentralized finance, or DeFi, will merge with traditional finance, underpinning a strategy of creating crypto-related offerings on many of its business lines to attract customers. The plan is to roll crypto trading out to all…
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Virginia Will No Longer Sell Off Abandoned Crypto
Escheated tokens will be held in-kind for owners
Did you know that many states will seize your crypto if you leave it untouched for too long? It’s called escheat, and the same thing can happen to bank account balances and unspent gift card balances left untouched long enough to be considered abandoned. It’s not exactly expropriation, as the states generally hold escheated funds for consumers to claim. But in the case of crypto, states usually sell off the crypto upon receiving it and keep the fiat funds for owners to claim. Which means two things. One, you lose any potential upside as the price of cryptocurrencies rises over time. And two, the sale may trigger a tax liability…
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The January Crypto Crash
Why is it happening?
Massive selloff Since 2022 started, the total crypto market cap has seen a decline of nearly 600 billion dollars. The last week in particular has been extremely volatile. Bitcoin is down over 16 percent over the last 7 days, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum is down over 24 percent, and nearly every other top digital asset is down over 10percent. A big factor of the selloff comes from stocks dropping and inflation continuing to rise. Everything from groceries to housing is getting more expensive, and there is fear in the air among retail investors. An additional part of this selloff comes from Russia’s announcement for a possible ban on cryptocurrency trading…
