Search warrants were executed across multiple states in a "gold bar scam" investigation targeting businesses linked to defrauding seniors through money laundering.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is urging the Ethereum ecosystem to treat oracle design and decentralization as a priority security problem, warning that key parts of DeFi’s stack still hide uncomfortable fragilities behind the industry’s recent growth. In a post outlining how the Ethereum Foundation is thinking about DeFi, Buterin framed decentralized finance as “a central part of the value that Ethereum provides” and argued that its next phase must pair renewed innovation with a harder line on security and centralization risks. “Defi is a central part of the value that Ethereum provides. Financial empowerment is a central part of what it means to have agency and freedom in our current world. Finance is far from the only thing that Ethereum is good for, but it is an important thing,” Buterin wrote, positioning DeFi not as a side quest, but as one of Ethereum’s flagship deliverables. Related Reading: Ethereum’s Legal Status Gains Clarity After SEC Leadership Signal Ethereum Foundation’s DeFi Crackdown: No Centralized Shortcuts Buterin’s thesis has two edges. The first is aspirational: DeFi should return to the early-era willingness to invent new primitives rather than iterating on the same product shapes. He pointed to AMMs as an example of the kind of paradigm shift he wants developers to chase again, arguing that teams should “dig a layer deeper” than surface-level improvements like “make a better stablecoin” and instead attack the underlying financial problems: risk management and hedging future expenses with new mechanisms. The second edge is a filter. Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation is not looking to support “onchain finance” or “defi” indiscriminately, but to push toward a narrower vision: “permissionless, open-source, private, security-first global finance that maximizes people’s control over their own assets, minimizes centralized chokepoints and trusted third parties, and democratizes risk management and wealth building ... as well as payments.” A key standard in that vision is operational resilience. Buterin said the ecosystem should prefer protocols that “pass the walkaway test”: systems that keep functioning even if the founding team disappears overnight or worse, “becomes hostile / compromised without warning.” It’s a stark yardstick in a sector where governance keys, upgrade mechanisms, and offchain dependencies often concentrate power long after a protocol looks “decentralized” in marketing. Related Reading: Ethereum Price Holds Key 5-Year Demand Area Amid Heavy Whale Transfers Where the alarm bell rings loudest is oracles: the bridge between onchain logic and offchain reality. In a list of priority areas, Buterin singled out “oracle security and decentralization,” adding a blunt aside: “there’s A LOT of skeletons in the closet here, we as an ecosystem really need to point a big eye of sauron at it for a while.” The line is telling: it implies risks that are known, tolerated, or under-discussed, despite oracles sitting on the critical path for lending, stablecoins, derivatives, and liquidations. Buterin framed DeFi as a “complex toolchain” that mixes onchain components with user-side and other offchain pieces — wallets, local agents, and more. His roadmap-like list reflects that breadth: classic security work such as audits, standards, and wallet-side safeguards; newer approaches like “AI-assisted formal verification” and “user-side agents as safeguards”; privacy for both payments and more complex positions, including the question of what a “maximally privacy-preserving CDP” would look like; and renewed emphasis on open source licensing and forkability. The closing message is permissive but not passive. Ethereum will always allow people to deploy “insecure protocols” or systems that embed “ultimately unneeded centralized trust in the name of convenience,” Buterin wrote, as well as what he called “dopamine-maximizing gambleslop.” But he signaled the Foundation’s intent to actively collaborate with builders aligned around minimizing intermediaries and maximizing user agency, with the aim of making that version of DeFi not just Ethereum’s best option, but “a globally compelling way to manage funds” for anyone who values those properties. At press time, ETH traded at $1,912. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Taiwan's car market showed strong resilience in 2025 against headwinds ranging from inventory adjustments, interest rate fluctuations, and geopolitical uncertainties, with total sales for the year reaching 414,000 units. Although slightly down from previous peaks, this figure nevertheless reflects steady demand in the domestic market. As macroeconomic factors and policies stabilize in 2026, the industry expects Taiwan's car market to return to its usual levels, while competition will shift from sales volume toward enhancing value chains and integrating services.
Coretronic Corp. has accelerated its transformation from a traditional backlight module supplier into a diversified technology group spanning AI sensing, drones, and automated logistics. This strategic pivot is now delivering tangible results, with two key subsidiaries — Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corp. (CIRC) and Coretronic MEMS Corp. (CMC) — returning to profitability in 2025.
Exploring the design of the Boeing 747-400F.
Netopia AI, a pioneering behavioral AI startup behind Predikta, becomes the pioneer startup to formally join Velocity by 917Ventures, the venture building arm of Globe. Netopia AI will integrate with the Globe ecosystem through its omnitech subsidiary, Brave Connective Holdings, to validate and scale Predikta. Predikta addresses the “invisible risk” of traditional marketing—the millions spent [...]
Bitcoin spot trading volume plunges to a two-year low, signaling major liquidity contraction and shifting investor sentiment in cryptocurrency markets.
Large language models, such as ChatGPT, can consume notable amounts of power not just when answering queries but also during its training phase.
Stripe’s valuation has surged 74% to $159 billion, marking a significant milestone for the fintech company.
Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran have pushed oil prices to seven-month highs, as markets factor in a sizable risk premium ahead of critical negotiations. Despite heavy sanctions by the West, Iran’s oil output has recovered to near pre-sanctions levels thanks to the OPEC producer offering discounted crude and having a ready market by Chinese independent refiners. According to energy market consultancy FGE NexantECA, oil prices could spike to $100 per barrel if Washington declares war on Tehran, good for nearly ~45% upside...
Here's why more and more Canadians are turning to this simple investing method to put their hard-earned savings to work.The post The “All-in-One” Investment Taking Over Canadian Portfolios appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.
Here's the difference between gold and silver ETFs versus CEFs, and why I like the former more.The post Canadian Investors: Read This Warning Before Investing in a Gold or Silver Fund appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.