Several investors in a non-fungible token (NFT) project, Hashling NFT, have accused its founder of misappropriating millions of dollars in profits from the project and a closely tied Bitcoin mining operation.

According to the May 14 court filing in Illinois, the plaintiffs allege that their former business partner, Jonathan Mills, lied about transferring assets from Hashling NFT and at least $3 million from the Bitcoin mining project to a holding company — Satoshi Labs LLC (formerly known as Proof of Work Labs LLC), which Mills is the founder and CEO of.

The plaintiffs have sued Mills for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, claiming that they have not received any of the equity returns that he supposedly promised. 

They also claim to have raised a combined $1.46 million from two NFT drops on the Solana and Bitcoin blockchains, but didn’t receive any returns from their investment. 

Excerpt of the plaintiffs’ claims made against Joshua Mills in an Illinois district court. Source: PACER

Mills allegedly began ghosting them shortly afterward, according to the plaintiffs, adding that he created a flawed shareholder agreement to falsely support his claim that the holding company controlled the project’s assets.

This was “rife with errors” to support his lie, the plaintiffs said.

According to the supposedly flawed shareholder agreement, Mills was to receive a 67% equity share in Proof of Work Labs (before he later renamed it to Satoshi Labs) while several other investors contributed up to $20,000 into the company in exchange for just 2% equity.

He allegedly assured them that their equity stakes would remain unchanged despite the name change.

Mills also held a 67% voting stake on all matters related to Proof of Work Labs (at the time) while no other partner held more than 2%.

Cointelegraph reached out to Mills but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Mills supposedly didn’t know much about NFTs

The Hashling NFT project was born from a different idea that Mills had initially discussed with one of the plaintiffs, Dustin Steerman, who initially established rapport with Mills from earlier collaborations.

They followed through with the Hashling NFT project despite Mills initially telling Steerman that he had no money and no NFT-related experience to contribute to the project.

Related: Bitcoin NFTs surpass Ronin in all-time sales

“[Mills] had a willingness to help push the project forward, and he did have an idea at the start,” the investor’s attorney, Clinton Ind of Ind Legal Group LLC told Law360.

“Even though that wasn’t the final idea, it did embolden it, and … everyone kind of enjoyed working together in those early stages.”

To ensure the Hashling NFT project’s success, Mills and Steerman recruited other investors, now also plaintiffs, to assist with everything from the NFT art and social media marketing to even attending NFT conferences in New York.

Mills even got his girlfriend to invest in the Hashling NFTs project, the plaintiffs claimed.

In addition to the fraud and breach of fiduciary actions, the plaintiffs also requested a constructive trust over the project’s assets and full legal restitution.

Magazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions: Sky Wee

A Singapore High Court has ruled in favor of Sonic Labs’ motion to force the Multichain Foundation to wind up in an effort to recover funds stolen during a 2023 hack.

In the May 9 judgment in the Singapore Supreme Court, Justice Kwek Mean Luck granted a request from Sonic Labs, formerly the Fantom Foundation, to declare Multichain bankrupt and appoint liquidators from global audit, tax and advisory service KPMG.

Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong said in a May 14 statement to X that the team behind the layer 1 Sonic blockchain felt it had no choice but to file a lawsuit to forcibly wind up Multichain because its former employees were being “completely uncooperative” and “hid from victims.”

“Going forward, the liquidators can now start working with other parties to initiate the process of trying to acquire funds that should eventually be returned to users if those legal proceedings are successful,” Kong said.

Source: Michael Kong

In July 2023, the Multichain Foundation experienced abnormally large outflows, later confirmed as a hack, leading to the loss of assets across multiple chains, including Fantom, Ethereum, BNB, Cronos and Polygon.

Blockchain security firm Beosin and Fantom estimated in an August 2023 report that the total losses for all chains were at least $210 million.

Wind up action followed legal win 

The High Court of Singapore granted a default judgment ruling in January 2024 as part of Sonic Labs’ legal action against Multichain for breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentations and claims the crosschain protocol had lost $122 million of its funds.

Related: Multichain’s ‘mysterious withdrawals’ have whiffs of a ‘rug pull’ — Chainalysis

Following the ruling, Sonic Labs said in March 2024 it would leverage the legal win to petition the court to wind up the Multichain Foundation and appoint a liquidator, equivalent to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the US, to help recover and distribute missing or frozen assets.

Previously, Sonic Labs indicated it planned to use the legal win to forge a path for other victims of the Multichain hack to lodge claims for their losses as well.

Multichain shut down in July 2024 due to a lack of operational funds, and after its CEO, known as Zhaojun, was detained by Chinese police.

Magazine: Bitcoin eyes ‘crazy numbers,’ JD Vance set for Bitcoin talk: Hodler’s Digest, May 4 – 10

A Singapore High Court has ruled in favor of Sonic Labs’ motion to force the Multichain Foundation to wind up in an effort to recover funds stolen during a 2023 hack.

In the May 9 judgment in the Singapore Supreme Court, Justice Kwek Mean Luck granted a request from Sonic Labs, formerly the Fantom Foundation, to declare Multichain bankrupt and appoint liquidators from global audit, tax and advisory service KPMG.

Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong said in a May 14 statement to X that the team behind the layer 1 Sonic blockchain felt it had no choice but to file a lawsuit to forcibly wind up Multichain because its former employees were being “completely uncooperative” and “hid from victims.”

“Going forward, the liquidators can now start working with other parties to initiate the process of trying to acquire funds that should eventually be returned to users if those legal proceedings are successful,” Kong said.

Source: Michael Kong

In July 2023, the Multichain Foundation experienced abnormally large outflows, later confirmed as a hack, leading to the loss of assets across multiple chains, including Fantom, Ethereum, BNB, Cronos and Polygon.

Blockchain security firm Beosin and Fantom estimated in an August 2023 report that the total losses for all chains were at least $210 million.

Wind up action followed legal win 

The High Court of Singapore granted a default judgment ruling in January 2024 as part of Sonic Labs’ legal action against Multichain for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentations after Fantom claimed the crosschain protocol had lost $122 million of its funds.

Related: Multichain’s ‘mysterious withdrawals’ have whiffs of a ‘rug pull’ — Chainalysis

Following the ruling, Sonic Labs said in March 2024 it would leverage the legal win to petition the court to wind up the Multichain Foundation and appoint a liquidator, equivalent to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the US, to help recover and distribute missing or frozen assets.

Previously, Sonic Labs indicated it planned to use the legal win to forge a path for other victims of the Multichain hack to lodge claims for their losses as well.

Multichain shut down in July 2024 due to a lack of operational funds, and after its CEO, known as Zhaojun, was detained by Chinese police.

Magazine: Bitcoin eyes ‘crazy numbers,’ JD Vance set for Bitcoin talk: Hodler’s Digest, May 4 – 10

A Singapore High Court has ruled in favor of Sonic Labs’ motion to force the Multichain Foundation to wind up in an effort to recover funds stolen during a 2023 hack.

In the May 9 judgment in the Singapore Supreme Court, Justice Kwek Mean Luck granted a request from Sonic Labs, formerly the Fantom Foundation, to declare Multichain bankrupt and appoint liquidators from global audit, tax and advisory service KPMG.

Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong said in a May 14 statement to X that the team behind the layer 1 Sonic blockchain felt it had no choice but to file a lawsuit to forcibly wind up Multichain because its former employees were being “completely uncooperative” and “hid from victims.”

“Going forward, the liquidators can now start working with other parties to initiate the process of trying to acquire funds that should eventually be returned to users if those legal proceedings are successful,” Kong said.

Source: Michael Kong

In July 2023, the Multichain Foundation experienced abnormally large outflows, later confirmed as a hack, leading to the loss of assets across multiple chains, including Fantom, Ethereum, BNB, Cronos and Polygon.

Blockchain security firm Beosin and Fantom estimated in an August 2023 report that the total losses for all chains were at least $210 million.

Wind up action followed legal win 

The High Court of Singapore granted a default judgment ruling in January 2024 as part of Sonic Labs’ legal action against Multichain for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentations after Fantom claimed the crosschain protocol had lost $122 million of its funds.

Related: Multichain’s ‘mysterious withdrawals’ have whiffs of a ‘rug pull’ — Chainalysis

Following the ruling, Sonic Labs said in March 2024 it would leverage the legal win to petition the court to wind up the Multichain Foundation and appoint a liquidator, equivalent to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the US, to help recover and distribute missing or frozen assets.

Previously, Sonic Labs indicated it planned to use the legal win to forge a path for other victims of the Multichain hack to lodge claims for their losses as well.

Multichain shut down in July 2024 due to a lack of operational funds, and after its CEO, known as Zhaojun, was detained by Chinese police.

Magazine: Bitcoin eyes ‘crazy numbers,’ JD Vance set for Bitcoin talk: Hodler’s Digest, May 4 – 10

A major Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been shut down by the Telegram messaging service, upon which it operated.

The internet’s largest illicit marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it will shut down following Telegram’s ban of thousands of associated accounts on May 13. 

“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from now on,” read the notice on the marketplace website.

A report from Wired said that this involved banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served as the infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its vendors.

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told the outlet, “communities previously reported to us by WIRED or included in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down,” before adding that “criminal activities like scamming or money laundering are forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and are always removed whenever discovered.” 

Closure notice on Haowang Guarantee website. Source: Haowang Guarantee

The Chinese language black marketplace facilitated an estimated $27 billion in illicit transactions, predominantly using the Tether stablecoin (USDT), according to blockchain security firm Elliptic. 

Elliptic researchers also found that the wider Huione Group of companies had facilitated over $98 billion in crypto transactions.

Related: Largest ‘illicit online marketplace’ has grown 51% in 6 months: Elliptic

The marketplace provided services to crypto scammers, including money laundering, stolen personal data used for pig butchering scams, telecommunications infrastructure and equipment, deepfake software and IDs, and even physical restraint devices used in scam call center compounds across Southeast Asia. 

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said it was a “huge win” as the “largest darknet marketplace to have ever existed has been shut down.” 

“It’s a game-changer in terms of overall online criminal markets, and it’s huge for victims of online fraud. This marketplace was a key enabler of the global scam epidemic, and I think this will put a real dent in the ability of online scammers to do what they do.”

In early May, the platform was designated as a money laundering operation by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It was to be severed from the US banking system. 

Xinbi Guarantee growing

However, another Telegram-based illicit marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee has been identified by Elliptic, which discovered thousands of crypto addresses used by the merchants on it. 

On May 13, the firm said that it has seen $8.4 billion in transactions so far, but that should be considered as “lower bounds of the true volume of transactions on the platform.”

Xinbi was linked to a Colorado-based company that was incorporated in 2022 but listed as delinquent in January 2025.

Black marketplaces such as these have unveiled a “China-based underground banking system,” based around stablecoins and crypto payments, which is being leveraged for money laundering on a “significant scale,” Elliptic stated.

 Magazine: Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is ‘best case,’ SOL, HYPE tipped for gains: Trade Secrets

A major Chinese darknet marketplace suspected of facilitating crypto scams and cybercrime has been shut down by the Telegram messaging service, upon which it operated.

The internet’s largest illicit marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, said it will shut down following Telegram’s ban of thousands of associated accounts on May 13. 

“Since all our NFTs, channels and groups were blocked by Telegram on May 13, 2025, Haowang Guarantee will cease operations from now on,” read the notice on the marketplace website.

A report from Wired said that this involved banning thousands of accounts and usernames that served as the infrastructure for the crypto crime marketplace and its vendors.

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told the outlet, “communities previously reported to us by WIRED or included in reports published by Elliptic have all been taken down,” before adding that “criminal activities like scamming or money laundering are forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service and are always removed whenever discovered.” 

Closure notice on Haowang Guarantee website. Source: Haowang Guarantee

The Chinese language black marketplace facilitated an estimated $27 billion in illicit transactions, predominantly using the Tether stablecoin (USDT), according to blockchain security firm Elliptic. 

Elliptic researchers also found that the wider Huione Group of companies had facilitated over $98 billion in crypto transactions.

Related: Largest ‘illicit online marketplace’ has grown 51% in 6 months: Elliptic

The marketplace provided services to crypto scammers, including money laundering, stolen personal data used for pig butchering scams, telecommunications infrastructure and equipment, deepfake software and IDs, and even physical restraint devices used in scam call center compounds across Southeast Asia. 

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said it was a “huge win” as the “largest darknet marketplace to have ever existed has been shut down.” 

“It’s a game-changer in terms of overall online criminal markets, and it’s huge for victims of online fraud. This marketplace was a key enabler of the global scam epidemic, and I think this will put a real dent in the ability of online scammers to do what they do.”

In early May, the platform was designated as a money laundering operation by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It was to be severed from the US banking system. 

Xinbi Guarantee growing

However, another Telegram-based illicit marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee has been identified by Elliptic, which discovered thousands of crypto addresses used by the merchants on it. 

On May 13, the firm said that it has seen $8.4 billion in transactions so far, but that should be considered as “lower bounds of the true volume of transactions on the platform.”

Xinbi was linked to a Colorado-based company that was incorporated in 2022 but listed as delinquent in January 2025.

Black marketplaces such as these have unveiled a “China-based underground banking system,” based around stablecoins and crypto payments, which is being leveraged for money laundering on a “significant scale,” Elliptic stated.

 Magazine: Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is ‘best case,’ SOL, HYPE tipped for gains: Trade Secrets

Some criminal organizations are yet to receive the memo — crypto is traceable — and could explain the recent string of crypto-related kidnappings, says Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin. 

Law enforcement has been increasingly successful at tracing stolen funds and crypto ransom payments, resulting in a “lot of arrests,” Levin said during the 2025 Consensus crypto conference, covered by Cointelegraph.

“For whatever reason, there is a perception that’s out there that crypto is an asset that is untraceable, and that really lends itself to criminals acting in a certain way,” he said. 

“Apparently, the know that crypto is not untraceable hasn’t been received by some of the organized crime groups that are actually perpetrating these attacks, and some of them are concentrated in, you know, France, but not exclusively.” 

Jonathan Levin (left) says criminals targeting the crypto industry should know that the funds are traceable and law enforcement can track them. Source: Cointelegraph

There have been two serious crypto-related attacks in Paris so far this month. On May 13, three assailants attempted to kidnap the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium. 

Earlier in the month, on May 3, Paris police freed the father of a crypto entrepreneur who was held for several days as part of a 7 million euro ($7.8 million) kidnapping plot. The attacks have prompted France’s interior minister to meet with crypto professionals and address rising security concerns. 

Last year, blockchain investigator ZachXBT sounded the alarm in October that he’d been receiving messages from multiple victims of crypto home invasion thefts in Western Europe at a much higher rate than other regions.

“The message needs to get out there that these payments are traceable and that these units within the law enforcement agencies have actually been very successful at holding some of those people to account in those kidnapping cases,” Levin said.

“And even if it’s not the people that are kidnapping those people, but actually going upstream to the organized crime groups that are orchestrating these,” he added.

Online streamer Amouranth was the victim of a home invasion in March 2025 when several armed assailants held her at gunpoint and demanded the keys to her crypto wallet, four suspects were charged in connection with the incident and arrested by law enforcement.

Crypto kidnapping “not such a profitable business”

Levin says he hopes organized crime takes a message from crypto robbers being arrested, specifically, that it’s “not such a profitable business to be in,” and in some instances, the ransom payments might even be recoverable.

“There is the ability to potentially recover some of those payments as well. I think that in general, the goal here is not necessarily the recovery of the money, but it’s holding those people to account,” he said.

However, despite law enforcement having some success in tracking down criminals targeting the crypto industry, Levin says the spate of offline robberies is still a “bleak” situation, and the industry should be taking extra steps to stifle theft as well. 

“People need to be very careful about what information is shared about them online,” he said.

Related: Teens kidnap Las Vegas man at gunpoint, stealing $4M in crypto

This year, there have been 22 recorded incidents of in-person crypto-related theft compared to 28 in 2024, according to a GitHub list created by cypherpunk and co-founder of self-custodial firm Casa, Jameson Lopp.

However, the number could be higher. A University of Cambridge study released in September last year found these so-called “wrench attacks” are often underreported due to revictimization fears. 

Additional reporting by Vince Quill.

Magazine: Bitcoiner sex trap extortion? BTS firm’s blockchain disaster: Asia Express

Some criminal organizations are yet to receive the memo — crypto is traceable — and could explain the recent string of crypto-related kidnappings, says Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin. 

Law enforcement has been increasingly successful at tracing stolen funds and crypto ransom payments, resulting in a “lot of arrests,” Levin said during the 2025 Consensus crypto conference, covered by Cointelegraph.

“For whatever reason, there is a perception that’s out there that crypto is an asset that is untraceable, and that really lends itself to criminals acting in a certain way,” he said. 

“Apparently, the know that crypto is not untraceable hasn’t been received by some of the organized crime groups that are actually perpetrating these attacks, and some of them are concentrated in, you know, France, but not exclusively.” 

Jonathan Levin (left) says criminals targeting the crypto industry should know that the funds are traceable and law enforcement can track them. Source: Cointelegraph

There have been two serious crypto-related attacks in Paris so far this month. On May 13, three assailants attempted to kidnap the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium. 

Earlier in the month, on May 3, Paris police freed the father of a crypto entrepreneur who was held for several days as part of a 7 million euro ($7.8 million) kidnapping plot. The attacks have prompted France’s interior minister to meet with crypto professionals and address rising security concerns. 

Last year, blockchain investigator ZachXBT sounded the alarm in October that he’d been receiving messages from multiple victims of crypto home invasion thefts in Western Europe at a much higher rate than other regions.

“The message needs to get out there that these payments are traceable and that these units within the law enforcement agencies have actually been very successful at holding some of those people to account in those kidnapping cases,” Levin said.

“And even if it’s not the people that are kidnapping those people, but actually going upstream to the organized crime groups that are orchestrating these,” he added.

Online streamer Amouranth was the victim of a home invasion in March 2025 when several armed assailants held her at gunpoint and demanded the keys to her crypto wallet, four suspects were charged in connection with the incident and arrested by law enforcement.

Crypto kidnapping “not such a profitable business”

Levin says he hopes organized crime takes a message from crypto robbers being arrested, specifically, that it’s “not such a profitable business to be in,” and in some instances, the ransom payments might even be recoverable.

“There is the ability to potentially recover some of those payments as well. I think that in general, the goal here is not necessarily the recovery of the money, but it’s holding those people to account,” he said.

However, despite law enforcement having some success in tracking down criminals targeting the crypto industry, Levin says the spate of offline robberies is still a “bleak” situation, and the industry should be taking extra steps to stifle theft as well. 

“People need to be very careful about what information is shared about them online,” he said.

Related: Teens kidnap Las Vegas man at gunpoint, stealing $4M in crypto

This year, there have been 22 recorded incidents of in-person crypto-related theft compared to 28 in 2024, according to a GitHub list created by cypherpunk and co-founder of self-custodial firm Casa, Jameson Lopp.

However, the number could be higher. A University of Cambridge study released in September last year found these so-called “wrench attacks” are often underreported due to revictimization fears. 

Additional reporting by Vince Quill.

Magazine: Bitcoiner sex trap extortion? BTS firm’s blockchain disaster: Asia Express

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says his firm will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit.

“We are always looking at M&A opportunities,” said Armstrong on Bloomberg Television on May 14.

He added that the firm has a large balance sheet that can be put to use.

The firm revealed in its latest revenue report that its balance sheet has strengthened, ending the first quarter with $9.9 billion in US dollar resources.

“Part of the benefit of being a public company is, you have a liquid currency to do that,” he said, adding: “We are looking at acquisition opportunities; doesn’t mean we swing at every pitch. We want it to be the right opportunity.”

On May 8, the firm announced that it agreed to acquire crypto options trading platform Deribit in a transaction worth $2.9 billion that consisted of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase stock

The acquisition, the largest in the crypto industry so far, will allow Coinbase to expand into the profitable crypto derivatives market and continue scaling the platform’s global growth.

Armstrong told the outlet that he is looking particularly at international opportunities, “companies that think similar,” and can accelerate Coinbase’s product development and growth. 

Related: Coinbase’s Deribit buy shows growing derivatives market

However, the crypto executive said he had nothing to announce when asked about a potential acquisition of stablecoin issuer and Coinbase partner, Circle, which has filed to go public. 

In late April, US fintech firm Ripple bid up to $5 billion in an effort to acquire the stablecoin issuer, but the offer was rejected, reported Bloomberg. 

Coinbase stock surges

Coinbase will become the first crypto firm to join the coveted S&P 500 index on May 19.  

The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the US, and potentially opens up their stock to a broader investor base and exposure to passive funds that track the benchmark.

Coinbase shares ended the day up 2.5% to reach $263 in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance. Company stock (COIN) has skyrocketed more than 30% since the beginning of May, and the two big announcements, and almost 50% over the past month. 

Coinbase shares 1 month. Source: Google Finance

Magazine: Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is ‘best case,’ SOL, HYPE tipped for gains: Trade Secrets

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says his firm will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit.

“We are always looking at M&A opportunities,” said Armstrong on Bloomberg Television on May 14.

He added that the firm has a large balance sheet that can be put to use.

The firm revealed in its latest revenue report that its balance sheet has strengthened, ending the first quarter with $9.9 billion in US dollar resources.

“Part of the benefit of being a public company is, you have a liquid currency to do that,” he said, adding: “We are looking at acquisition opportunities; doesn’t mean we swing at every pitch. We want it to be the right opportunity.”

On May 8, the firm announced that it agreed to acquire crypto options trading platform Deribit in a transaction worth $2.9 billion that consisted of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase stock

The acquisition, the largest in the crypto industry so far, will allow Coinbase to expand into the profitable crypto derivatives market and continue scaling the platform’s global growth.

Armstrong told the outlet that he is looking particularly at international opportunities, “companies that think similar,” and can accelerate Coinbase’s product development and growth. 

Related: Coinbase’s Deribit buy shows growing derivatives market

However, the crypto executive said he had nothing to announce when asked about a potential acquisition of stablecoin issuer and Coinbase partner, Circle, which has filed to go public. 

In late April, US fintech firm Ripple bid up to $5 billion in an effort to acquire the stablecoin issuer, but the offer was rejected, reported Bloomberg. 

Coinbase stock surges

Coinbase will become the first crypto firm to join the coveted S&P 500 index on May 19.  

The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the US, and potentially opens up their stock to a broader investor base and exposure to passive funds that track the benchmark.

Coinbase shares closed the day up 2.5%, reaching $263 in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance. The company’s stock (COIN) has surged more than 30% since the start of May, buoyed by two major announcements, and is up nearly 50% over the past month.

Coinbase shares 1 month. Source: Google Finance

Magazine: Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is ‘best case,’ SOL, HYPE tipped for gains: Trade Secrets