Today in crypto, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood says crypto ETFs are here to stay, crypto industry executive and users report scam Ledger phishing letters sent by physical mail. Meanwhile, a judge has vacated key fraud and manipulation convictions against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg.
Crypto ETFs won’t lose ‘their luster’ as wallet adoption grows — Cathie Wood
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood says crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will likely maintain their place in the economy no matter how big crypto wallet adoption becomes over the next decade.
“I think ETFs are an important stepping stone because, you know, wallets seem so complicated, so much friction for consumers, they just wanna push a button,” Wood said at the Solana Accelerate event in New York on May 23.
“So ETFs for those who want the convenience, I don’t think, will lose a lot of their luster,” she said. “But they will be a stepping stone into wallet-based.”
Bitbo data suggests that there are around 200 million active Bitcoin wallets worldwide. Meanwhile, the trading week ending May 23 saw approximately $2.75 billion inflows into US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, coinciding with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22.
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.