Guilty Pleas, Ghost Protocols, and Greedy Hackers
With a mountain of news to report on in the cryptoverse, these were what caught my eye in August 2025
Crypto’s been busy this week with courtrooms heating up, projects ghosting harder than bad Tinder dates, and hackers out here phishing like it’s their day job.
From billion-dollar ETF moves to billion-dollar collapses finally catching up with their creators, it’s been a ride.
Here is my take on the chaos, the drama, and the sparkle of innovation.
😵 Legal Heat and Global Scrutiny for the Dev Community
In a case that has been closely followed by the DeFi community, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm was found guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter, while the jury was unable to decide on the other charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit sanctions evasion.
Privacy advocates believe that developers’ should be able to write open-source software and be free from fear of persecution.
Storms legal team argued that he did not develop the platform to help criminals hide their ill gotten gains, even though, unfortunately it has been used for these purposes by a number of organisations, most notably by the North Korean Lazarus group.
The case against him was shaky to say the least, with testimony, that was clearly false, coming from a witness that said they had lost 250k through Tornado Cash. It could be proved with blockchain evidence that this was not the case.
The Ethereum Foundation quickly stepped in, pledging to match up to $500,000 in donations for his legal defense, which was hit quickly as another Ethereum builder, known as “Fede's Intern,” who was detained for 24 hours in Turkey over allegations that they’d helped others misuse Ethereum.
Storm’s co-founders, Alexey Pertsev was held without charge in the Netherlands for many months and is facing charges there. While Roman Semenov is on a wanted list and in hiding.
This all is concerning that those who right code are being held to levels of responsibility that is not seen in any other industry. It doesn’t seem like society is doing much for those who make weapons…
😶🌫️Vanishing Acts Commence as CrediX and TradeOgre Disappear
As the pressure mounts after the Storm trial and conviction, a number of other high profile businesses have had some serious connectivity issues over the last couple of weeks, leading to speculation that they might have done a Houdini.
The team behind CrediX has gone full Houdini after losing $4.5 million in an August exploit.
Initially there were promises of reimbursements and the call of “stay calm, we’ve got this.”
But following this there has been silence, deleted socials, and a dead website.
At this point, all that’s left is a Discord graveyard and a lot of angry lenders.
In addition to this, TradeOgre, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) that specialised in smaller, lesser-known, or privacy-focused digital assets and had no Know Your Customer (KYC) verification has also been offline since July.
With a strong following with privacy advocates, this loss is being felt widely in that community and looks like the spook of criminal charges may have finally got too much for them.
On the other hand, they have gone down in the past only to come back with a brand new website with zero communication to their community.
Will they be back?
My satoshi is on no, but time will tell.
Now let’s remember the basic laws of crypto: Not your keys, not your coins (NYKNYC).
⚖️The Terra Tumble Comes Full Circle as Do Kwon Pleads Guilty
Finally Do Kwon, the co-founder of Singapore-based Terraform Labs, which developed the TerraUSD (UST) and Luna currencies, has faced his day in court after the 2022 $40 billion implosion that shook crypto to its core.
After being chased around the world, from South Korea to Montenegro, where he was caught using a fake passport, he’s pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy, skipping the trial and faces up to 25 years in prison.
This all stems from the spectacular 2022 collapse of TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA, which if you’ve following me for long enough you’ll remember that I refer to it as the clusterfuk.
It was one of those situations that just kept getting worse and worse as people poured money in to try and catch the falling knife.
The algorithmic stablecoin system ran on trust and a clever swap trick between UST and LUNA, which was strange to say the lease but meant that one LUNA was always meant to be worth one US dollar. This is called pegged to a currency, just like USDT and USDC are to the US dollar and AUDD is to the Australian dollar.
But when people lost confidence, everyone tried to get out at the same time. The system was forced to make so many LUNA coins that both coins became almost worthless super fast, a bit like unlimited play money that nobody wants anymore!
This hopefully serves as a cautionary tale of where there is smoke, there is fire as one year before the collapse, concerns were raised and Do Kwon really ramped up his deceit game.
Stay sharp out there, and if it doesn’t make sense, don’t do it!
✨ LayerZero Bids $110 Million for Stargate
In a bold move, the LayerZero Foundation has put $110 million on the table to buy the Stargate bridge and its STG tokens.
LayerZero is like a “universal translator” for blockchains.
Normally, different blockchains, like Ethereum and Solana, can’t easily talk to each other or share information.
LayerZero’s technology lets them send messages, coins, or data back and forth securely and efficiently, even if they “speak” different blockchain languages.
While Stargate is a liquidity transfer protocol built on top of LayerZero. While LayerZero handles the messaging, Stargate specifically focuses on transferring native tokens (assets) across multiple blockchains instantly. Stargate enables users to move tokens like USDC, ETH, or others directly across blockchains without using wrapped or synthetic versions.
If the deal goes through, STG token holders will swap their bags for shiny new ZRO tokens, effectively retiring STG from existence.
The reason to fold Stargate into the LayerZero ecosystem is to speed up innovation and expand way beyond simple bridging.
The market impact of this announcement was that both STG and ZRO prices jumped about 14%, nothing sparks joy in crypto quite like a fat acquisition and a token swap.
🎣 Russian Hackers Go Phishing With Fake Wallets
A Russian group charmingly named “GreedyBear” has stolen over $1 million in the past month by rolling out fake versions of wallets like MetaMask, Exodus, and TronLink.
Hundreds of malicious browser extensions, booby-trapped Windows files, and phishing sites that could fool even the paranoid and been rolled out.
How does it work?
Click a dirty link, upload something that looks harmless, then they quietly swap in the malware later and it even comes with fake five-star reviews.
These hackers are slick and nasty, and it’s a reminder to only ever download wallets from the official site, not a sketchy link your cousin’s friend DM’d you or even from a Google search, as often the top suggested options are sponsored posts, paid for by…. you guessed it, the nasty hackers!
Once again, this week proves crypto is never boring, it’s volatile, unpredictable, and paving it’s own path to the future.
Just remember, the smartest players stay skeptical, double-check their sources, and never forget the golden rule: not your keys, not your coins.
Be kind. Be careful. Be curious. 💚💚💚