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The United States is offering rewards totaling as much as $15 million for information on the Russia-based Conti ransomware group, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Friday.

The rewards include $10 million for “identification and/or location” of key leaders of the group, and $5 million for information leading to the arrest of anyone participating in a “Conti variant ransomware incident.”

Price said: “In offering this reward, the United States demonstrates its commitment to protecting potential ransomware victims around the world from exploitation by cyber criminals.” The reward is offered under the Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program.

The FBI estimates more than 1,000 victims have made in excess of $150 million in ransomware payments to the Conti group, making its ransomware variant the costliest ever documented. 

Last month, CNBC reported that the Conti group had been damaged by leaks detailing its size, leadership and business operations, as well as the source code of its ransomware. The leaks appeared to be an act of revenge prompted by Conti’s support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Also in April, Bleeping Computer reported that a new malware loader called Bumblebee was probably the latest development of the Conti group, replacing the BazarLoader backdoor used to deliver ransomware payloads.

The emergence of Bumblebee in phishing campaigns coincided with a drop in using BazarLoader for delivering file-encrypting malware, according to researchers.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin mining companies were down in the stock market on Friday afternoon, notably with Riot dropping 6.87%  and Marathon 5.97% on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Contrary to other miners, Argo’s stock went up 3.33% on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday. However, the company ended the day on a 1.95% drop on NASDAQ. This week, Argo announced that it secured $70.6 million in loans for its new Texas mining facility, which was energized on Thursday and is expected to start mining next week.

Here is a brief look at how some of the major crypto mining companies faired in the markets on Friday, May 6:

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Legislation filed earlier this year in Colorado would, if passed, approve a study into the potential use of security tokens to raise state capital.

Colorado Senate Bill 25 was first introduced in February and ultimately passed that chamber in mid-March. It was then sent to the House of Representatives. Two committees have since amended and advanced the measure, including actions on May 5 by the House Appropriations Committee, according to public records. 

According to an official summary and text of the bill, it “requires the state treasurer to study the feasibility of using security token offerings for state capital financing and determine the extent to which the use of security token offerings of state capital financing would be in the best interest of the state.”

The bill goes on to state:

“The state treasurer is required to complete the study and report the study findings to the finance committees and joint budget committee of the general assembly by March 1, 2023, and to post the study findings on the department of the treasury’s website. If the state treasurer determines that the use of security token offerings for state capital financing is feasible and in the best interest of the state, the state treasurer may use security token offerings for any state capital financing managed by the state treasurer.”

The legislation also outlines definitional terms for security tokens, and includes appropriations of $389,285 and $49,285, separately, to fund the study and cover associated legal costs. 

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick Take

• This weekly series explores the most interesting insights in NFTs, blockchain gaming, and virtual worlds
• This week’s issue focuses exclusively on unpacking the meteoric rise of Yuga Labs
• The Otherdeeds launch caused a tremendous ripple effect that temporarily congested the entire Ethereum network
• Despite its astronomical growth over the last year, first signs of an increasing polarization within Yuga’s community are starting to surface

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Quick take

• Composability continues to be the main differentiator between on-chain derivatives protocols and their centralized counterparts. 
• Use cases have been largely limited to vaults for automated option selling and basis trading. 
• As derivatives protocols continue to grow in sophistication, the design space for decentralized structured products also expands considerably and will be explored here.

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Quick Take

• A failsafe reserve used by high-yield lending protocol Anchor Protocol has declined by over 43% in the last month.
• The protocol is hoping to try to find an equilibrium to stay afloat but it may need another influx of cash.

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Julian Holguin, former executive at Billboard, is the new CEO of Doodles, a community and collection of 10,000 NFTs.

“Julian will work alongside the founders of expand Doodles IP through music, gaming, and entertainment, while deeply integrating culture into the product,” Doodles tweeted on Friday afternoon.

“In the coming weeks, we will introduce you to the next phase of Doodles — Groundbreaking projects, transformative partnerships and a full reveal of our vision & roadmap,” the tweets continue.

Holguin also confirmed the news on his own Twitter account.

Last night, Billboard officially announced that Holguin would be stepping down as president. Holguin joined the company in 2012 as Vice President of Brand Partnerships, after previous stints at BBC, NBC, and New York Daily News, according to his LinkedIn.  

Prior to Holguin’s promotion as president of Billboard in January of last year, he was head of sales and partnerships for MRC Entertainment.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Google is reportedly putting together a web3 team that will build services for developers running blockchain applications, according to CNBC.

In an email sent to employees Friday, Google Cloud vice president Amit Zavery said that while Web3 was still in its early stages, the market “is already demonstrating tremendous potential with many customers asking us to increase our support for Web3 and Crypto related technologies,” per the report.

The company is looking to be the number one choice for developers in that space, but doesn’t want to “​​ to be part of that cryptocurrency wave directly,” Zavery also told CNBC.

Instead, Google will support developers who want to build Web3 software, by offering back-end services.

The team will fall under Google’s cloud computing unit, which last month inked a deal with Aptos Labs to allow companies and developers to build more easily on Google’s network.

One of the key concepts of Web3 centers around the idea of decentralization, via the use of blockchain technologies — a progression from web 2.0 which was mostly dominated by major tech companies, including Google itself.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Department of Justice is levying a case against the CEO of Mining Capital Coin (MCC) for allegedly running a $62 million global fraud scheme.

Luiz Capuci, Jr. was indicted for allegedly misleading investors about MCC’s mining and investing program. Capuci and his team allegedly claimed the firm’s international network of mining machines could generate large profits and guaranteed returns if investors’ bought into the so-called “Mining Packages.”

Capuci allegedly told investors their funds would be used to mine new cryptocurrency. 

He also allegedly touted MCC’s own token, Capital Coin, as linked to a decentralized autonomous organization that he said was “stabilized by revenue from the biggest cryptocurrency mining operation in the world,” according to the DOJ’s findings. 

In addition to the mining packages and token sale, Capuci also allegedly marketed his own trading bots to investors, claiming they could achieve daily returns utilizing a never-before-seen technology. 

In all these cases, the DOJ contends that Capuci did not use the funds to mine crypto or deliver returns from trading bots, but diverted them to his own wallets.

The DOJ also alleges Capuci ran MCC as a pyramid scheme, promising promoters and affiliates gifts and rewards for luring other investors. 

Capuci is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit international money laundering, which all together reached a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison. 

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control added the crypto mixer Blender.io to its list of organizations sanctioned for dealing with North Korea.

In a press release on Friday, the US government linked the site to use by groups in North Korea to launder stolen cryptocurrency, including in the attack against Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge in March. It says North Koreans used Blender.io to process $20.5 million out of the almost $620 million stolen. 

“Today, for the first time ever, [the] Treasury is sanctioning a virtual currency mixer,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson in the statement.

“Virtual currency mixers that assist illicit transactions pose a threat to U.S. national security interests. We are taking action against illicit financial activity by the DPRK and will not allow state-sponsored thievery and its money-laundering enablers to go unanswered.”

Along with listing 46 addresses linked to Blender.io, the Treasury also added four new wallet addresses used by North Korea’s Lazarus Group, which has been sanctioned since 2019.

According to the Treasury, Blender.io has facilitated the transfer of over $500 million in bitcoin since its launch in 2017. The investigation has also linked it to money-laundering transactions by Russian-linked ransomware groups Trickbot, Conti, Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Gandcrab.

The Treasury said it will continue to investigate the use of mixers for illicit purposes and consider the range of authorities it has to respond to crypto financing risks.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.