A fake staking site stole 3.4 million XRP worth about $8.5 million from 71 investors during an eight-day operation last October before vanishing. Police say the operators impersonated Flare Network and FXRP, promised guaranteed returns, and built a fabricated trail to appear legitimate to researchers. Investigators traced $18.8 million, froze 17.
The U.S. PCE inflation, the Fed's favorite inflation gauge, cooled in June, representing a huge positive for the markets. The Bitcoin price has rebounded amid this development, with the leading crypto rallying to the psychological $65,000 level.
Fraudsters have been posing as reporters and representatives of the China Business Journal, a well-known state-affiliated business newspaper in China, to demand ransom payments in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin price moved back toward $65,000 on Thursday after softer U.S. inflation data eased fears of another Federal Reserve rate hike, although renewed U.S.–Iran fighting kept traders cautious.