Today in crypto, crypto industry executive and users report scam Ledger phishing letters sent by physical mail, a judge has vacated key fraud and manipulation convictions against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg, and US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs posted a significant amount of inflows this week.
Crypto community sounds alarm about Ledger phishing letter scam
Industry executives and crypto community members are raising the alarm about a new phishing scam in the form of physical letters sent to crypto holders made to look like communication from the Ledger hardware wallet company.
The letter instructs recipients to “validate” their wallets and provides a QR code that likely links to a malicious phishing site that steals private keys and other sensitive user data.
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe shared a copy of the letter on X and confirmed that it was delivered via the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The incident reflects the increasingly sophisticated and novel forms of phishing attempts and scams targeting the crypto community and serves as a reminder for crypto holders to take proactive safety measures to protect sensitive data from social engineering attempts.
Judge overturns fraud convictions in Mango Markets exploit case
A US federal judge has vacated key fraud and manipulation convictions against Avraham Eisenberg, the trader at the center of the case involving a $110 million exploit of the decentralized exchange Mango Markets.
On Friday, US District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that the evidence presented at trial failed to support the jury’s conclusion that Eisenberg made materially false representations to Mango Markets.
The decision vacates Eisenberg’s convictions for commodities fraud and market manipulation and acquits him of a third charge, significantly weakening the government’s case.
Eisenberg, a self-proclaimed “applied game theorist,” was convicted in 2024 for artificially inflating the price of Mango’s MNGO token by over 1,300% in a matter of minutes and using the resulting gains as collateral to withdraw $110 million in crypto assets from the platform.
Bitcoin ETFs post $2.75B in weekly inflows as price sits above $108K
US-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) have recorded a total of $2.75 billion in inflows this week amid Bitcoin surpassing its January all-time high of $109,000.
The $2.75 billion inflow total was nearly 4.5 times larger than the spot Bitcoin ETF’s previous week’s $608 million in inflows, according to Farside data.
On May 23, the final day of the trading week, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $211.7 million in inflows. However, BlackRock’s IBIT was the only fund to post gains in the trading day, adding $430.8 million and extending its inflow streak to eight consecutive days.
Grayscale’s GBTC led outflows with $89.2 million, followed by ARK 21Shares’ ARKB with $73.9 million.