Cryptocurrency
Nigeria Arrests 792 in Landmark Crypto-Romance Scam Raid

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 10 arrested 792 people linked to a massive crypto-romance scam operating out of Lagos.
The suspects, who included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, and several other foreign nationals, were caught during a surprise raid at an imposing seven-story structure known as Big Leaf in the affluent Victoria Island neighborhood.
Sophisticated Scam Network Unveiled
According to information shared by the agency, the operation followed intelligence reports, which indicated that Big Leaf was a hub for fraudulent activities targeting victims around the globe.
Investigations revealed a highly organized network where foreign operatives collaborated with local accomplices to swindle unwitting individuals through romance and investment hoaxes.
The Nigerian recruits, chosen for their proficiency with computers, were reportedly trained for at least two weeks on how to impersonate foreign women and engage victims in romantic and business conversations.
They then created fake profiles on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram, which they used to lure targets to invest in bogus crypto schemes hosted on a platform called Yooto[.]com. The website required users to pay an activation fee starting from $35, with promises of high returns.
Per investigators, after the Nigerians initiated contact with potential victims and built their confidence, they handed over communication to the foreign operatives who then executed the scams. This division of labor ensured that the local accomplices were kept in the dark about the full extent of the criminal enterprise.
During their inquiries, authorities found at least 500 SIM cards and high-end computers on the premises, which were presumably used to maintain anonymity and target individuals primarily from North America and Europe.
Further, they stated that the Nigerian recruits received cash payments for their part in the con, with no documentation, helping to obscure the identity of the operation’s masterminds, who remain at large.
The agency is working with international partners to uncover the full extent of the scheme and any connections it may have to organized crime networks.
Large-Scale Crypto Fraud Schemes
Crypto scams have been on the rise recently, with a study by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) revealing that Australians had lost nearly $270 million to fake investments.
Elsewhere, South Korean law enforcement apprehended 215 people accused of perpetrating a $232 million crypto rip-off. Among those arrested was a popular YouTuber with more than 600,000 followers who allegedly ran a phony investment consulting firm pushing a purported digital asset product promising 20-fold returns.
Also, in October, Hong Kong police dismantled a huge cross-border fraud operation that used deepfakes to lure men into deceptive crypto investments.
Like in the Nigerian case, the Hong Kong group, consisting of at least 27 individuals, operated from a building in the city’s Hung Hom area. Upon raiding the facility, authorities recovered computers, mobile phones, and about $25,000 in suspected criminal proceeds.
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Cryptocurrency
Avail Goes Full Stack to Capture $300bn Global Blockchain Infra Market

[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, June 17th, 2025]
The only stack that delivers horizontal scalability, cross-chain connectivity, and unified liquidity, without compromising on decentralization.
Avail, backed by Founders Fund, Dragonfly, and other top VCs, is powering some of Web3’s most forward-looking projects, including Lens, Sophon, Space & Time, Lumia, Skate, and leading institutional tokenization platforms. The rollout of the full Avail Stack enables seamless connections between chains to build a scalable and interoperable blockchain in the future.
Avail is focused on building an interconnected Web3 that allows networks to move assets and communicate while abstracting away user complexities to create a unified in-app experience. The Avail Stack, a full-scale blockchain infrastructure solution, comprises Avail Nexus, Avail Fusion and Avail DA as well as a suite of products and functionality upgrades, including Turbo DA, Enigma DA upgrade, Light Clients, catering to a range of audiences; both Web3 native startups and traditional Web2 giants.
Blockchain Infrastructure: A $300B Market
According to Grand View Research, the global blockchain market is projected to grow from $31.3 billion in 2024 to $1.43 trillion by 2030, with infrastructure alone expected to reach $306 billion, driven by modularity, institutional demand, scalable tech, and tokenization.
When Avail launched its purpose-built data availability (DA) layer on mainnet in July 2024, it set out to revamp the concept of blockchain scalability. The founding team was clear in its vision of broadening the scope of functionality so that blockchain could reach mass adoption.
As Ethereum doubled down on its rollup-centric roadmap, the limitations of the current blockchain models became clear; bridges were brittle, liquidity fragmented, and developers faced friction rewriting logic across chains. Innovation slowed, and VC investment declined, as noted in S&P Global’s 2024 report.
Despite market headwinds, Avail raised $75 million in 2024 from top investors under the leadership of Anurag Arjun (former Polygon co-founder) and Prabal Banerjee (former Polygon research lead), to build their vision of how blockchain experiences should be.
The Avail Stack
The Avail Stack comprises Avail DA for scalable, verifiable data availability, including Turbo DA, Enigma Upgrade, Avail Light Clients, and Avail’s 10 GB Infinity Blocks. Avail supports any execution environment with native ZK verification on the base layer. However, the most powerful upgrade is Avail Nexus.
The Avail Nexus upgrade is a permissionless crosschain layer enabling connectivity between different chains. Avail Nexus unlocks liquidity and user access with a seamless in-app experience across multiple ecosystems, enabling a true crosschain economy. No network switches, no bridges, no leaving the app. Nexus fully abstracts convoluted flows and back-end processes, delivering a simplified, intuitive experience. With Nexus, the typical 12+ click, crosschain process is reduced to just a couple of simple approvals, all behind the scenes, allowing users to stay in the app.
If one chain in the Avail Stack has access to key infrastructure, for example, Uniswap or Aave, every other connected chain can use it too, without needing to redeploy it. This borrowed infrastructure model allows new chains to bootstrap with shared liquidity and shared apps, accelerating ecosystem growth.
For developers, Nexus unlocks a powerful new era of multichain applications that coordinate state and logic across environments without replicating contracts. Connectors for EVM, ZK, Optimistic, and sovereign chains make integration seamless for any environment. To complement this is the Avail Fusion upgrade that creates a diverse security model. Apps gain access to pooled crypto-economic security while maintaining decentralization.
“With Avail, we were clear that developers no longer rebuild core infrastructure per chain. We wanted to give one integration that connects logic, assets, and users across all ecosystems. This is the foundation of Avail’s horizontal scalability vision: modular infrastructure, interoperable chains, and unified UX.” – Prabal Banerjee, co‑founder, Avail.
Confidence in Avail’s capability is reflected in the top-tier integrations. Lens Protocol, with over 650K user profiles and 28M+ social connections, launched Lens Chain using Avail DA. Sophon, a zk-validium, raised $60M in a node sale supported via Avail Light Clients. Space & Time, which has partnered with Microsoft and Google Cloud BigQuery, will use Avail to anchor ZK query proofs. Leading players in tokenization and RWAs like Lumia and rootVX are on the Avail testnet. Other projects powered by Avail include Rooch, Odysphere, and Eternal, with 50 more partnerships in the pipeline.
“We built Avail for a world where new chains can launch fast, can communicate and scale instantly. That’s the promise of horizontal scalability, and it’s how blockchain technology can reach population scale.” – Anurag Arjun, co-founder, Avail.
Avail is building the foundation for a crosschain economy, shared liquidity, and composability, all while staying true to the core principles of decentralization and permissionlessness.
About Avail
Avail is designed to connect and scale blockchains with the Avail Stack. Avail Nexus connects and powers crosschain messaging. Avail DA foundation powers horizontal scalability with its 10GB infinity blocks roadmap and functionality upgrades, while Avail Fusion will enable crypto-economic security for the Avail economy. With Avail Stack, developers get a future-proof foundation where apps and assets move freely across chains.
Users can learn more about Avail on Discord, Twitter, Blog
Media Contact:
Shailey Singh shailey@availproject.org
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Cryptocurrency
Ripple (XRP) Rocketed to All-Time High Levels Last Time This Happened: Will History Repeat?

TL;DR
- XRP’s Bollinger Bands have tightened recently, which may be a precursor to a significant price swing in either direction.
- Investor behavior appears bullish, with more XRP being moved to self-custody and active addresses reaching a multi-month high of over 1.12 million, suggesting a potential move to the upside.
The Calm Before the Storm?
The price of Ripple’s cross-border token is currently far from the peak level of almost $3.40 witnessed in January, and over the past month, it has been hovering in the $2.08-$2.47 range. Currently, it trades at roughly $2.22 (according to CoinGecko’s data), but the tightening Bollinger Bands imply that a significant move could be on the way, as xoom recently posted about.
XRP Bollinger bands tightening.
Every time we’ve seen this happen, you know what happens next 😉 pic.twitter.com/1wzH9Kc9rp
— xoom (@Mr_Xoom) June 16, 2025
Developed by John Bollinger in the 1980s, the technical tool helps identify overbought or oversold conditions, indicating possible trend reversals. When the bands tighten, it signals low volatility – a sign that a big move may be approaching soon.
As CryptoPotato reported, the bands squeezed substantially towards the end of 2024 when XRP was worth approximately $2.10. In the weeks ahead, the token experienced a major bull run, almost matching its all-time high.
The bands tightened again in April this year when Ripple’s native cryptocurrency was trading at around $2.13. Several days later, the price soared above $2.60.
However, the indicator isn’t a guaranteed signal for a rally – at times, the price may stay flat or even drop sharply. On that note, some users on X speculated in the comments whether a pullback to $2 could be next.
Something Entirely for the Bulls
CoinGlass’ data shows that it has been rare for exchange inflows to surpass outflows over the past several weeks. This suggests that many investors have opted to move their holdings off centralized platforms toward self-custody methods, which reduces the immediate selling pressure.
Another element that could be seen as a positive sign from the bulls is the increasing number of active XRP addresses. Earlier this week, the popular X user Ali Martinez revealed that the figure jumped to a multi-month high of over 1.12 million, which reflects increased adoption or utility of the network.
Meanwhile, if you want to explore some optimistic price predictions involving Ripple’s cryptocurrency, feel free to take a look at our dedicated article here.
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Cryptocurrency
Whales Move Big: Binance Sees 4,500 BTC Withdrawn and $400M Stablecoin Inflows

The Bitcoin and broader crypto markets are facing another decline as Middle East tensions rise. This follows President Trump’s abrupt departure from the annual G7 meeting in Canada and a warning aimed at Tehran.
Despite this, a shift in market behavior has been detected on Binance, which points to a potential return of bullish sentiment, especially among large investors.
Imminent Bitcoin Breakout
On June 16, Binance recorded a single-day outflow of nearly 4,500 BTC, which, according to CryptoQuant, is one of the largest such events this month. Historically, such large-scale withdrawals are interpreted as a sign of accumulation, which often preceded upward price movement due to reduced supply pressure on exchanges.
At the same time, Binance witnessed two major stablecoin inflows – each exceeding $400 million – on June 13 and June 15. These back-to-back capital movements are among the strongest inflow surges seen in recent months.
Large stablecoin deposits are commonly viewed as a precursor to market activity and imply that significant capital is being positioned for potential asset purchases. In this context, the synchronized timing of stablecoin inflows with the large Bitcoin withdrawal points to strategic buy-side readiness among whales or institutional players.
The combined behavior creates a notable on-chain pattern: while Bitcoin is being pulled from circulation on exchanges, the influx of stablecoins reflects growing liquidity aimed at entering the market. This divergence between diminishing sell-side pressure and increasing buy-side potential establishes a bullish supply-demand setup.
If historical trends hold, this positioning could serve as a catalyst for a fresh price breakout in Bitcoin. The aggressive movement of capital suggests renewed risk appetite and a broader market optimism heading into the second half of June.
While on-chain data signals accumulation, derivatives market trends point to rising bearish exposure, which has created conditions ripe for a sharp reversal if sentiment shifts.
BTC’s Two Key Pressure-Release Valves
Crypto analytics firm, Swissblock, pointed to two potential catalysts that could trigger a sharp move in Bitcoin’s price: a de-escalation of geopolitical tensions and a dovish outcome from Wednesday’s FOMC meeting.
The firm noted that the BTC perpetual futures funding rate has turned negative, which means that short sellers are currently paying to maintain their positions. This is an imbalance that indicates bearish overcrowding. This setup raises the risk of a short squeeze if sentiment shifts.
According to Swissblock, even a single positive geopolitical headline could cause BTC to rally quickly, targeting bear liquidation zones.
Should Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell deliver a dovish message midweek, it would add bullish momentum. With funding deeply negative and short positions piling up, the market appears to be primed for a sharp reversal if either of these pressure-release valves is triggered.
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