Authorities in Ghana and Nigeria arrested 28 people in a crackdown on West African scam networks, including cryptocurrency investment fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Private-sector partners flagged $11 million in funds that could be frozen, a figure not yet confirmed as recovered, while some crypto seizures were reported without values. Coinbase and Binance joined blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis, Elliptic and TRM Labs, and Coinbase said it prevented more than $415,000 in potential losses. Meta removed more than 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups, and participants provided leads on more than 30 suspected scam centers. The operation, hosted by the UK's National Crime Agency, was the first joint effort focused on West Africa, and 117 trafficking victims in Ghana were awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Read the original on CoinDesk ↗
Keywords
Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.
Related tickers and likely impact
BNB/USDT
▼ Likely negativeBNB
Relevance: low
| Market | Crypto |
|---|---|
| Exchange | Binance |
| Sector | Exchange tokens |
| Market cap | $95.8B |
| Close on 10/17/2026 | 718.02 |
| Change that session | -0.49% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
Related news
- Crypto Market Ends Week Under Pressure from Inflation and Capital Outflows Fixygen Review
Crypto markets ended the week under pressure from hotter U.S. inflation data and outflows from spot ETFs. Bitcoin traded near $82,000 and Ethereum around $2,450 after U.S. CPI rose 0.6% month over month and 3.7% year over year, with PPI up 1.3%. Over four sessions, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of about $146 million and spot Ethereum ETFs lost about $250.4 million, a combined total of roughly $396.4 million. MSCI will change its rules to exclude companies whose financial characteristics resemble investment funds, effective after the November review, with the final list due November 11. Strategy and Metaplanet are among the affected firms, and Strategy shares fell more than 4% on October 16. Meanwhile, Strive Inc. reported Bitcoin reserves estimated at about 35,595 BTC after two announced purchases.
- Ethereum, Altcoins See 'Outsized Drawdowns' Due to Macro Pressures
Ethereum, XRP and Solana fell more sharply than Bitcoin on the day, cutting total crypto market cap 2.5% to $2.8 trillion. Ethereum dropped 5.5% to $289 billion, XRP fell 5.1% to $82.4 billion, Solana slipped 3.8% to $60.6 billion, and Bitcoin lost 3.1% to $1.6 trillion. Experts cite macro pressure, including 3.7% annual consumer inflation and a 28% chance of an October rate hike on the Myriad prediction market. Derive.xyz's Nick Forster said hedging on his platform doubled as whales pulled back from spring bets, while Bitwise's Max Shannon noted $8 billion less altcoin futures open interest since early October as traders took profits. CoinShares' Luke Nolan said altcoins are most sensitive to tighter liquidity and a strong dollar, and a Bitcoin move above 80k could spark a sharp altcoin rebound.
- Why Is Crypto Down Today ? Nearly $1 Billion in Leveraged Positions Just Got Wiped Out .
Nearly $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and most of the 26 largest cryptocurrencies tracked fell sharply. Bitcoin dropped 3.2% to $80,957, Ethereum fell 5.8%, Solana 4.9%, and total market capitalization fell 5.5%, with smaller coins such as Zcash down 12.6%. The article links the forced selling, a liquidation cascade, to broader pressures including an 8% drop in South Korea's KOSPI, U.S. inflation at 3.7%, and net outflows of $261.46 million from spot Bitcoin funds on October 14. Bitcoin is hovering near the $80,000–$81,000 support zone, and the article flags the 50-week moving average at $76,618 as the next level to watch if prices fall further.
- Bitcoin holds above $80,000 as Asian stock rout drags altcoins lower
Bitcoin dipped to just above $80,000 around 02:30 UTC, near its Oct. 8 low, before recovering to about $81,200, down roughly 0.5% since midnight UTC. A sharp selloff in Asian equities, with South Korea's Kospi plunging 8% and triggering circuit breakers, and a roughly 1% drop in Nasdaq 100 futures weighed on the market after a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report. The odds of an October Fed rate hike jumped to nearly 47% before easing to about 26%. Altcoins fell harder: the CoinDesk 80 slid 2.2% versus 0.7% for the CoinDesk 5, ether dropped 2.0% to near $2,370, and pump.fun lost 9.4%. Nearly $1 billion in crypto futures positions were liquidated over 24 hours, up from about $136 million a day earlier, with ether longs worth $200 million liquidated versus $115 million in bitcoin.
- Bitcoin Spooked? Crypto Fear and Greed Index Drops to Pre-Rally August Lows
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to 56 (neutral) on Monday from 67 a week earlier, down from an Aug. 26 peak of 82, its highest of the year. Bitcoin dropped about 6%, from $86,978 to a low of $81,749.83 on Oct. 8, as Brent crude topped $101 and the 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.70%, its highest since 2002. Spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $484.9 million on a Wednesday last week and are down a net $386.3 million for October, while Ethereum funds extended outflows to nine straight days. Myriad traders put 56% odds on Bitcoin falling to $80,000 in October. The article attributes the pressure mainly to macro factors such as oil, yields and rate-hike expectations rather than a crypto-specific problem.
- Altcoins rally on thin trading as bitcoin holds below $83,500
The CoinDesk 80, a basket of smaller tokens, rose about 3% over 24 hours, more than double the 1.2% gain of the CoinDesk 5, while bitcoin traded below $83,500 and ether was at $2,560. CoinDesk research shows bitcoin and ether order-book depth has recovered to pre-crash levels in dollar terms since the Oct. 10, 2025 flash crash, while altcoin liquidity has kept thinning. Institutional money moved the other way, with U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recording $681 million of net outflows last week, the most since June, and spot ether ETFs not logging an inflow day since late September. WTI crude fell about 2% to $90 per barrel after President Donald Trump said Russia would supply 300,000 metric tons of diesel to global markets, a partial easing of sanctions. The article also notes that Starknet rose 76% over the past week, partly on leverage.
Related markets
Latest news
- JPMorgan's JPM Coin, representing dollar deposits, is coming to Ethereum: Bloomberg
JPMorgan will make JPM Coin, a token representing its dollar deposits, available to institutional clients on Ethereum, according to Bloomberg. The bank says Ethereum's liquidity makes it attractive to crypto companies seeking blockchain payments and to financial firms settling trades or backing tokenized assets. The move extends JPMorgan's blockchain work beyond Base and its private Kinexys network, which processes more than $7 billion daily. The bank did not say when the token will go live on Ethereum. Meanwhile, JPMorgan is among US banks planning a shared tokenized deposit network, but it was not on Swift's list of 17 banks preparing live transactions on its blockchain ledger in July.
- Cerrado Gold Reports 21% Year-Over-Year Increase in Q3 2026 Production Results at Minera Don Nicolas
Cerrado Gold reported Q3 2026 production of 16,685 GEO at the Minera Don Nicolas (MDN) mine in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, up 21% from 13,832 GEO in Q3 2025. Year-to-date output reached 44,942 GEO, up 23% from 36,432 GEO in the comparable 2025 period. Heap leach output held steady at 9,649 GEO, while CIL output rose to 7,036 GEO as higher-grade Calandrias material, generally above 2.5 g/t gold, was routed to the Martinetas mill. Laboratory tests on selected material showed gold recoveries of up to 95%, versus about 60% expected from heap leaching, and the company now expects full-year 2026 production at the upper end of its 50,000 to 60,000 GEO guidance while targeting a new PEA by late Q1 2027.
- Is Visa Stock Still a Buy After Gaining 14% This Year?
Visa shares hit an all-time high of $401, up about 12% over the past two weeks from $359 at the end of September and up 14% year to date. Key catalysts include approval from the People's Bank of China to set up a bankcard clearing institution in China and the move of Visa Direct's stablecoin to commercial deployment on Oct. 15. Baird and BMO Capital both raised their price targets. Visa reports fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Oct. 27 and has raised its dividend every year since 2009, last year by 14% to $0.67 per share. The author still considers the stock a buy ahead of earnings, citing a forward P/E of 24.
- Five things to watch in markets in the week ahead
Markets start the week with AI stocks under pressure after hotter-than-expected September inflation raised expectations of higher US rates and fed worries about debt-funded AI spending. Last week the Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 11.41% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 4.48%, with CoreWeave shedding about a quarter of its value and Oracle down 9.31%. Earnings are in focus, with SpaceX and Netflix reporting on Tuesday and Meta and Tesla on Wednesday after the close. Netflix reportedly plans to cut around 6% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 roles, its biggest reduction since 2022. SpaceX has also agreed to buy spectrum licenses from Grain Management for about $8 billion, a move into the wireless market.
- eMemory/PUFsecurity Showcases OCP S.A.F.E.-Approved PUFrt at OCP Global Summit, Strengthening AI Data Center Security with Caliptra
PUFsecurity, a subsidiary of eMemory Technology, was featured at Microsoft's Caliptra Workshop on Oct. 12, the opening day of the 2026 OCP Global Summit, which drew nearly 400 attendees. Its PUFrt received OCP S.A.F.E. Scope 3 approval after an independent assessment of its resistance to physical attacks such as fault injection and side-channel attacks, and is now listed on the OCP Marketplace. PUFrt provides the physical security foundation for Caliptra, an open-source hardware Root-of-Trust architecture, from key generation to chip mass-production testing. It has already been integrated into Caliptra products from ASPEED and security systems from several memory makers and networking chip vendors. The company says the milestone advances hardware security for cloud and AI infrastructure.
- Crypto vault deposits top $10 billion as lending risks draw regulatory scrutiny
Deposits into crypto lending vaults have risen from $4 billion at the start of last year to more than $10 billion, according to the Financial Times. Each vault is run by a 'curator' who selects lending strategies through smart contracts on DeFi platforms, sets risk limits and collects fees, with typical returns of 3% to 10% and riskier strategies reaching 20% or more. Risks include illiquid or hard-to-sell collateral, automatic liquidations, hacks and coding errors, while investors may focus on headline yields. Fintechs, digital asset treasury firms and hedge funds are among the main depositors, and Bitcoin lender Two Prime launched a vault on Pareto targeting 1.5% to 2% yields, with a minimum deposit of 5 WBTC and about $10 million of its own capital absorbing initial losses. U.S. and European regulators are examining whether existing rules should apply, and the SEC has questioned vaults that hold securities.
Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo
Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.