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22 May 2026, 18:30
Squid Raises $6M in Strategic Funding With Ripple Backing Cross-Chain Platform
BitcoinWorld Squid Raises $6M in Strategic Funding With Ripple Backing Cross-Chain Platform Cross-chain infrastructure platform Squid has secured $6 million in a strategic funding round, with participation from Ripple, signaling growing institutional interest in blockchain interoperability solutions. The round was led by North Island Ventures, with additional backing from Dialectic and Borderless. Funding Details and Growth Trajectory This latest injection brings Squid’s total funding to $13.5 million since its launch in 2023. The platform has already processed over $6 billion in transaction volume, supporting asset transfers across more than 100 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The company plans to use the new capital to accelerate development of a consumer-facing product designed to simplify how users access and manage their crypto assets across different networks. Strategic Significance of Ripple’s Involvement Ripple’s participation in this round is noteworthy, as it marks continued investment in cross-chain infrastructure by one of the industry’s established payment-focused blockchain companies. Ripple has been expanding its ecosystem beyond its core payment network, and backing Squid aligns with broader industry efforts to improve interoperability between disparate blockchain networks. The investment also signals confidence in Squid’s technology and its potential to address fragmentation in the crypto asset management space. What This Means for Cross-Chain Usability The cross-chain sector has become increasingly competitive as developers and users demand seamless movement of assets between blockchains. Squid’s approach focuses on reducing friction for end users, a critical factor for mainstream adoption. With over $6 billion in volume already processed, the platform has demonstrated meaningful traction in a market where user experience often remains a barrier. The new consumer product could help bridge the gap between complex DeFi infrastructure and everyday crypto users. Conclusion Squid’s $6 million raise, particularly with Ripple’s backing, underscores the growing importance of cross-chain infrastructure in the evolving crypto landscape. As the platform develops its consumer-facing product, it may play a key role in making multi-chain asset management more accessible. The funding also reflects sustained investor interest in solving interoperability challenges, even amid broader market fluctuations. FAQs Q1: What is Squid? Squid is a cross-chain infrastructure platform launched in 2023 that enables asset transfers across more than 100 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Q2: How much funding has Squid raised in total? With the latest $6 million strategic round, Squid’s total funding now stands at $13.5 million. Q3: What will Squid use the new funding for? The company plans to accelerate development of a new consumer product aimed at helping users access and manage their crypto assets across multiple blockchains. This post Squid Raises $6M in Strategic Funding With Ripple Backing Cross-Chain Platform first appeared on BitcoinWorld .
22 May 2026, 18:21
Hackathon Champion To Failed Project In 10 Days! GSD Founder Allegedly Rugs Just After Receiving his $100K Grant
What started as a landmark moment for an upstart AI-centric crypto project quickly descended into one of the more baffling incidents in hackathon history. A project called GSD, a recent winner of the $100K prize for first place at the Bags Hackathon, which took place just days ago, has been now accused of purposely pulling off a rug pull that destroyed confidence overnight. The project’s founder, known online as official_taches, took to the internet to announce proudly that they had taken first prize at the event on May 11, 2026. Pioneering projects were funded with grants between $10,000 to $100,000 in The Bags Hackathon, a grassroots initiative that recently included a fundraising milestone with approximately 1 million prize pool. GSD positions itself as an “agentic operating system for AI from the start,” a description that grabbed headlines almost immediately alongside the rapid blurring between artificial intelligence and real compute blockchain infrastructure. The project also boasted significant adoption with more than 62,900 GitHub stars, which gave the project seemingly legitimate credibility within developer circles. BAGS hackathon winner with the $100k grant just rugged, only 10 days after winning. They took the treasury, deleted everything, and blamed AI. “GSD Cloud is obsolete. Everything I’ve worked on for months has now been absorbed directly into tools like the Codex and Claude Code… pic.twitter.com/x33MjDwHJK — Crypto Banter (@crypto_banter) May 22, 2026 A Shocking Departure Raises Eyebrows Just ten days after the christening of their issue, the hideous and alarming turn of events. Reports surfaced on May 22, alleging that the founder had arguably sold most of his tokens in regards to GSD holdings and emptied project-controlled cash. Several sources report that close to $500,000 was siphoned off using a combination of treasury requests and the sale of tokens. It was this sudden movement that triggered a protracted sale of the token which is alleged to have wiped out as much as 90% of the value for GSD in just two days. Compounding the concern, the founder had his social media accounts and profiles deleted or placed in private immediately after these transactions. That sequence of events has led a number of observers to characterize the episode as one of those familiar “rug pulls,” in which insiders take off for greener pastures at their community’s expense. NEW: @official_taches , winner of the @BagsApp hackathon and founder of $GSD , allegedly rugged the project after pulling nearly $500K from liquidity and selling his holdings. The token later crashed 90%, while his X account was deleted shortly after. pic.twitter.com/EbNzdvwr9i — SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) May 22, 2026 Developer Attributes Collapse To AI Disruption The founder reportedly tried to explain the sudden closure by citing fast-moving advances in AI, an unexpected turn of events. A statement made by a representative of the developer claims that GSD is now outdated due to the arrival of OpenAI Codex and Claude Code. “GSD Cloud is obsolete. Months of effort on my part has gone directly into the Codex and Claude Code apps. The statement said, “You can’t beat multi billion dollar ais software co? This reasoning is met with almost universal disbelief. But critics say that this lack of competitive pressure does not justify the slaughtering of treasury assets or the flight of leadership from a project. This has garnered many readers, who see it as an attempt to distance the regime from culpability where actions seem premeditated. Timeline Shows Fast Transition From Expanding To Exiting A timeline provides an in-depth account of how quickly things turned south. May 11, GSD was capitalizing on its hackathon win and marketing the project, launching token contracts on Solana & publishing strategic accomplishments. But just days later, there were signs of instability. Then, by May 22nd things changed utterly: the founder was said to start dumping holdings, draining liquidity and cancelling online presence for the project. The rapid shift from all the celebratory public attention to blatantly disregarding their plans questions if the rug pull was planned or an attempt at reaction management. So you’re telling me that GSD May 11, 2026 – wins first prize at the Bags Hackathon – founder publicly celebrates it – posts the Solana CA for the token GSD – project claims 62.9K+ GitHub stars marketed as “agentic operating systems for AI development” Bags Hackathon ~$1M… pic.twitter.com/4UpkKJkuK0 — StarPlatinum (@StarPlatinum_) May 22, 2026 Implications For Hackathons And Pre-Seed/Seed Stage Fundraising The GSD incident is about to have serious consequences throughout the whole hackathon ecosystem. Initiatives like the Bags Hackathon seek to discover, support and reward promising ideas at very early stages of development with significant funding. However this model is fraught with risk. Projects with funding links to potential, versus proven execution, may not be invested in the governance and accountability structures needed for investor and user protection. The interaction of grant funding, token issuance and rapid market exposure led to a situation where a single person could leverage the projected risk/reward by being able to strongly influence not only the future direction of the project but also the financial resources it had at its disposal. As a result, there could be increased pressure on organizers and participants to adopt stricter vetting processes, greater transparency requirements, and more rigorous post-grant oversight. Community Response And Erosion Of Confidence The incident has drawn a furious reaction from the crypto community. The founder’s actions drew ire, but many users expressed being frustrated with the broader ecosystem that continues to allow this. The losses are financial and mental, especially for investors who joined the GSD ecosystem after it excelled at a recent hackathon. The rapid downfall bolsters an enduring worry in crypto: that even projects with the strongest foundations are far more tenuous than they may seem. Simultaneously, the event has highlighted the vital role of due diligence, even more so for early-stage businesses where there is much information asymmetry and little accountability. In either case, the GSD is not only a series of discussions-ends in themselves today; they are likely to warn people about both what works at the intersection of AI innovation and decentralized finance. A Harsh Reminder Of Market Realities The GSD’s rise and fall is a love letter to the deep-fried landscape of modern crypto. In just ten days a project had turned from triumph and fundraising to scandal and wreckage, with might-have-beens hanging in the air, weighed down by a high toll. The founder’s justification cites external pressures from the rapid pace of AI make-up, but going about this in the fashion that they did has pushed any technical resolution right into the shadows. The incident offers a very simple character for many onlookers: that in quick-moving markets belief may be constructed through the years, and destroyed simply as fast. The challenge now is to sustain this linguistic ecosystem by allowing innovative start-ups to flourish but with the risk mitigation safeguards that can support them. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on Twitter @nulltxnews to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, Distributed Computing, and Metaverse news !
22 May 2026, 18:21
Verus Bridge Exploiter Returns $8.5M, Keeps $2.8M as Bounty Reward
The exploiter who drained the Verus-Ethereum bridge of over $11 million has returned $8.5 million to the project’s team, while keeping $2.8 million as a white-hat bounty. This comes barely a day after the Verus community and its developers offered the reward in exchange for the hacker meeting a set of terms. Hacker Accepts $2.8 Million Bounty The incident took place on May 17, with the hacker taking advantage of a missing validation step on one of its cross-chain bridge contracts, which allowed them to drain approximately 103.6 tBTC, 1,625 ETH, and 147,000 USDC. Following the hack, the project’s team decided to stop its block-producing nodes to prevent further transfers and issued an emergency patch. Verus later said on social media that it was offering the Ethereum bridge exploiter a 1,350 ETH bounty in exchange for returning 4,052 ETH within 24 hours, adding that it would stop any investigations and not pursue charges if the conditions were met. “If you return a total of 4052.4 ETH to the address 0xF9AB…C1A74 within 24 hours specified above, we will understand that as your agreement to these terms, and we will uphold our stated agreement to cease further investigation of you,” wrote the team. Blockchain security firm PeckShieldAlerts has since reported that the hacker transferred 4,052 ETH back to the team’s address, recovering 75% of the stolen funds while retaining a 25% bounty of 1.350 ETH. However, Verus has yet to issue a formal acknowledgment of the recovery on their platforms as stipulated in their initial statement. Developer Flags Possible AI Use in Hack The update comes as the crypto sector is dealing with a rise in the number of bridge exploits, with the Verus incident being the eighth of this kind this year. According to PeckShield, attackers have made off with a total of $328.6 million from several cross-chain protocols like THORchain, ZetaChain, KelpDAO, HyperBridge, CrossCurve, Squid Router, and IoTeX.io as of Mid-May. But the Verus case is notable because the complexity of the exploit suggests hackers are using AI to help execute it. The protocol’s lead developer, Mike Toutonghi, explained in an article how the technology might have helped them understand the system’s rules closely enough to design transactions that bypassed checks and tricked the Ethereum contract into accepting the malicious cross-chain transfer. Elsewhere, Vitalik Buterin shared insights on how AI can still be used to strengthen security instead of breaking it. Responding to community concerns about the technology creating non-stop exploitation opportunities, the Ethereum co-founder countered by saying that AI-assisted formal verification could be used as a strong defense against security failures in the crypto industry. The post Verus Bridge Exploiter Returns $8.5M, Keeps $2.8M as Bounty Reward appeared first on CryptoPotato .
22 May 2026, 18:20
SEC Commissioner Peirce counters views that crypto rule will foster synthetic tokens
Hester Peirce, the commissioner behind the SEC's Crypto Task Force, made statements on the unreleased proposal, perhaps tamping down mistaken beliefs.
22 May 2026, 18:17
XRP Ledger Explodes Into Top 4 RWA Chains — Becoming One of Crypto’s Fastest-Growing Hubs
XRP Ledger Enters Overdrive Mode as RWA Adoption Skyrockets The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is steadily evolving from a payments-centric blockchain into a leading contender in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization space. Notably, its recent rise, from the top 10 to fourth on the RWA.xyz league table, signals more than momentum because it reflects a structural shift in how traditional finance is moving onchain. XRPL’s expansion is being driven by practical institutional use cases. Over the past year, it has drawn increasing attention from fintech firms, liquidity providers, and asset issuers seeking faster settlement, lower costs, and more efficient capital flows than legacy financial systems can offer. There is More Than Meets the Eye in XRPL’s Growth The XRPL network now supports a growing portfolio of tokenized instruments, including U.S. Treasuries, money market funds, commercial paper, and structured credit products. These are not experimental crypto assets, but regulated, yield-bearing financial products bridging traditional markets with blockchain infrastructure. The real significance lies in what this enables next. Once tokenized, these assets can move beyond static representation and become programmable financial tools, usable as collateral in lending markets, transferable across borders in real time, integrated into automated settlement systems, and plugged into liquidity networks that reduce friction in global finance. XRPL’s design continues to support this shift. Its fast settlement times, low transaction costs, and built-in tokenization features make it attractive for institutions that need scalability without the congestion and high fees seen on other networks. Momentum around the XRP Ledger ecosystem is also broadening. Ripple’s involvement in initiatives like SwissHacks 2026 is encouraging developers to build applications spanning payments, FX, lending, credit markets, and AI-driven financial agents. Furthermore, RLUSD recently recorded its largest mint on the XRP Ledger, highlighting growing demand for stable liquidity within the ecosystem. XRPL network activity reflects this acceleration, with usage hitting a 2-month high as new tokenization projects, including energy-backed and other emerging real-world assets, gain traction. As global markets move toward tokenization at scale, XRPL is increasingly positioning itself not at the margins, but at the center of institutional blockchain finance.
22 May 2026, 18:15
U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is probing Polymarket and Kalshi over suspected insider trading
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is probing Polymarket and Kalshi over alleged insider trading. Committee Chair James Comer notes that internal records held by prediction markets are the only means to identify and determine platform compliance. The congressional probe focuses on whether traders on prediction markets exploit nonpublic, classified government data to profit from event contracts. Chairman Comer announced the investigation on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He also revealed that formal information request letters have been sent to Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour. The House Oversight Committee has mentioned several suspicious trading incidents, including allegations that a U.S. Army sergeant used classified information to earn $409,000 in profits on Polymarket. Additionally, Kalshi recently penalized three congressional candidates for betting on their own electoral races. Mark Moran, Matt Klein, and Ezekiel Enriquez were slapped with 5-year bans and fines. Kalshi’s move is proof that prediction markets can regulate their own platforms. However, the committee demands that both Kalshi and Polymarket submit internal documents and compliance data regarding user verification, geographic restrictions, and surveillance systems to help detect insider trading. Kalshi supports ban on Congress members from trading Kalshi explained in a May 20 statement that it had taken the enforcement action after launching new safety measures. Kalshi executives and board members have publicly supported legislation that would ban members of Congress from trading. The move aligns the platform with the Oversight Committee’s objectives rather than fighting them. Kalshi also emphasizes that it employs a dedicated surveillance team of about 20 people to monitor for manipulation. It also employs “Know Your Customer” (KYC) checks to screen out government officials. The platform is likely to present these data points in its June 5 submission. Polymarket is also responding by using technology to promise sweeping transparency that traditional markets cannot match. The platform recently partnered with Chainalysis to directly counter claims of insider trading. The partnership aims to scan transactions in real time and flag potential insider activity (especially from whales). Polymarket creates a digital paper trail that can be shared with regulators. Polymarket’s response to the House Oversight Committee’s document request also emphasizes that all its transactions are publicly available on the blockchain. However, although the platform may lack the traditional internal memos Comer requested, it can offer a complete ledger of every trade ever made. That offers more visibility than traditional finance. Comer emphasizes that Congressional action may be necessary House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer emphasizes that Congressional action may be necessary due to increasing insider trading activity on prediction markets. Elizabeth Diana, Kalshi’s head of communications, recently stated that prediction platforms are looking forward to engaging with the Committee and its members about systems and processes that have been built over the years. “Specifically, we are examining the adequacy of company safeguards to prevent access to offshore sites to circumvent compliance with applicable U.S. federal regulations governing prediction market platforms…The Committee requests documents and information to better understand how [Polymarket and Kalshi] implement identity verification for domestic and international account holders…” James Comer , Chairman of the House Oversight Committee A recent investigation by the New York Times has revealed that over 80 Polymarket users placed suspiciously timed wagers. There are also rumors of exact betting ahead of military strikes. Some of the bets were made hours before the U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran happened. These bets are worrying because safety across prediction markets may not be sufficient. Chairman Comer has also noted that the growth of these platforms may have accidentally created conditions that bad actors can exploit. The focus is on individuals with national security clearance. The rapid global expansion of these prediction markets is also concerning because internationally placed event contracts may not be subject to the same identity verification and insider trading bans as domestic event contracts. Comer points out that bipartisan members of Congress have introduced bills that they intend to use to rein in prediction markets. A letter from seven Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, also calls on the Oversight Committee chair to subpoena the prediction platforms. The American public has a legitimate interest in knowing whether individuals entrusted with classified national security information can use that access for personal financial gain. 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