Tampered Hardware Wallets Drain Millions, XRP Ledger Patches a Supply Bug, and Leverage Bites

Cold storage is meant to be the boring part, which makes it an unusually good place to hide something. Somewhere else entirely, a trader worked out that a price is only as solid as the market somebody else is quoting it from.

This Month’s Watchlist (Sponsored)

7 Stocks That Are Ready to Pop

A newly released report highlights seven stocks chosen for their near-term potential.

Selections are based on a mix of technical and fundamental indicators.

While past picks have performed well, future results are uncertain.

The report is available for a limited time.

Access the free report.

*This free resource is being sent by Zacks. We identify investment resources you may choose to use in making your own decisions. Use of this resource is subject to the Zacks Terms of Service.
*Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk. This material does not constitute investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Zacks Investment Research is not a licensed dealer, broker, or investment adviser.

Market-Moving News

Three things landed since your last edition, each exposing a different weak point.

One is a hardware implant that beat self-custody before the box was opened. One is a decade-old bug in a chain whose entire pitch is a fixed supply. And one is a trader who found the cheapest number on an exchange to push.

Stablecoins

Standard Chartered Takes Ripple’s RLUSD Into Institutional Custody

Standard Chartered has launched institutional custody for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin through its regulated Dubai International Financial Centre branch, bringing another major bank directly into stablecoin infrastructure.

The service is already live on the XRP Ledger, giving eligible institutional clients regulated custody for RLUSD.

Standard Chartered is also working with Ripple and LMAX Group on a separate integration that could eventually let clients use those holdings as collateral across selected trading products.

RLUSD Moves Beyond Simple Custody

The planned LMAX setup would allow the value of RLUSD held at Standard Chartered to be reflected on the trading platform without requiring the underlying stablecoins to move every time they are used as collateral.

That could reduce operational friction while letting institutions keep their assets inside regulated bank custody.

The collateral functionality is still being developed and remains subject to testing, approvals, documentation, and regulatory requirements.

Banks Move Deeper Into Stablecoins

Standard Chartered has already been expanding digital-asset custody across regulated markets, including Luxembourg and Dubai.

Adding RLUSD pushes that strategy further by connecting traditional bank custody with stablecoin-based trading infrastructure rather than treating digital assets as something institutions simply hold.

Take: Bank custody gives RLUSD a stronger institutional foundation, but collateral use would take the model further. You start seeing the bigger shift when stablecoins can stay inside regulated custody while still being put to work elsewhere.

If the LMAX integration goes live, RLUSD moves closer to functioning as financial infrastructure rather than just another digital dollar.

Security

Ledger Finds Hardware Implant as CryptoBilis Theft Estimate Nears $93M

Ledger has confirmed an unauthorized hardware implant inside at least one device linked to the CryptoBilis theft investigation, exposing a supply-chain weakness that can compromise self-custody before a wallet is even activated.

Blockchain investigators have traced roughly $93.2 million in suspected losses across hundreds of wallets, while Ledger says every confirmed case so far involves devices sold through Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis. Ledger has not confirmed the final loss total.

The Attack Started Before Setup

Hardware wallets are designed to isolate private keys from internet-connected devices, but physical tampering changes the threat entirely.

An implant placed inside a wallet before purchase can undermine normal security practices even if the buyer follows standard setup procedures. 

Ledger says its internal systems and direct sales channels remain unaffected, and confirmed cases are currently limited to CryptoBilis-linked devices.

Millions Are Still Being Traced

Tether has frozen about $10 million in USDT connected to the theft, while investigators continue tracking funds across multiple blockchains. Some assets have already moved through privacy tools and other services.

Ledger has advised affected customers to stop using CryptoBilis devices and move funds to wallets generated with completely new recovery phrases.

Take: A hardware wallet stops being a safe harbor if the compromise happens before it reaches you. The roughly $93 million estimate shows how costly a trusted distribution channel can become when physical security breaks down.

Supply-chain integrity is now part of the self-custody equation, not an issue that ends once private keys stay offline.

Standout Picks Now (Sponsored)

Searching for the Next Double? These 5 Stand Out

Every market cycle produces a handful of companies that dramatically outperform the rest.

Our latest screening has identified the 5 Stocks Set to Double — companies showing rare early-stage momentum traits.

These picks carry the same indicators that historically precede strong rallies.

Past reports highlighted stocks that surged +175%, +498%, and +673%.

Get the Free 5 Stocks Set to Double Report.

*This free resource is being sent by Zacks. We identify investment resources you may choose to use in making your own decisions. Use of this resource is subject to the Zacks Terms of Service.
*Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk. This material does not constitute investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Zacks Investment Research is not a licensed dealer, broker, or investment adviser.

Banking

South Korean Bank Makes Country’s First Bitcoin-Backed Business Loan

South Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank has completed the country’s first traditional bank loan secured by Bitcoin, giving a corporate borrower access to won-denominated working capital without selling its BTC.

The bank does not hold the Bitcoin directly. A specialist third-party custodian manages the pledged assets while Jeonbuk Bank provides the fiat loan, separating crypto custody from the lending operation.

Bitcoin Moves Into Commercial Lending

The structure brings Bitcoin into a part of finance normally dominated by property, securities, and other conventional collateral. If the borrower defaults, the bank cannot simply take possession of the BTC.

Recovery would happen through a court-supervised sale process, with the resulting cash used to repay the outstanding loan.

Recent changes to South Korea’s civil-enforcement framework have made that type of digital-asset liquidation easier to handle through established legal procedures.

The First Program Is Deliberately Narrow

Jeonbuk Bank currently accepts only Bitcoin, limits the service to corporate borrowers, and requires loan proceeds to be used for business operating capital.

The bank has not disclosed the size of the first loan, its interest rate, or the loan-to-value ratio. Expansion will depend on demand and how the regulatory framework develops.

Take: Bitcoin-backed borrowing is not new, but seeing it enter ordinary commercial banking is. A company can now unlock working capital without forcing you to treat a BTC sale as the only path to liquidity.

Keeping custody and liquidation outside the bank also shows how traditional lenders may adopt crypto exposure without becoming crypto custodians themselves.

The Grid Trade (Sponsored)

Berkeley Lab: data centers projected at up to 12% by 2028

One chatbot question, and a server warehouse somewhere in America draws on the grid. Scale that across hundreds of millions of people daily.

Name the stock by text.

Data centers used 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023, per Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Its 2028 projection: up to 12%.

Send the ticker and story.

Close to a tripling in five years, on a grid that was not built for it. One company sits right where that power comes from.

Which energy company is it?

*This ad is sent on behalf of Guardian Financial Publishing LLC, doing business as Stable Financial Publishing, 1013 Centre Road Suite 403-D, Wilmington, DE 19805. Nothing here is investment, financial, legal, or tax advice, and it is not a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Investing involves substantial risk, including loss of principal; past performance does not guarantee future results. Data-center electricity figures are third-party estimates and projections, and AI IPO timing reflects investor expectations, not company guidance. References to OpenAI, Anthropic and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are for informational purposes only; Stable Financial Publishing is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI, Anthropic or Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Stable Financial Publishing, its owners, employees and contributors may hold positions in securities mentioned and may trade them at any time. Privacy: https://guardian.pub/privacy-policy/ · Terms: https://guardian.pub/terms-of-service/

Future Forward

Rulebooks first, then the loudest number of the week.

Regulation:

🏛️ CFTC prediction market proposal (30-day comment period, from Federal Register publication): The agency wants event contracts on sports, politics, culture, and weather folded into the swap definition. A separate interim final rule keeps casino games and conventional sportsbook wagers outside it.

Macro Events:

📊 US inflation (Wednesday) The week’s main event, and the one that decides how much room the doves have left.

📊 Producer prices, retail sales and jobless claims (Thursday) Three releases in the same half hour, which is usually where the week’s second surprise comes from.

Crypto Know-How: Why a Price Feed Is the Softest Part of Any Exchange

Every derivatives venue needs a number. Something has to say what ETH is worth right now, so positions can be marked, margin calculated, and liquidations fired. That number is the reference price, and it is almost never produced by the venue itself.

Most venues borrow it, and the methods vary enormously. The careful ones pull from several exchanges at once, throw out the outlier, take a median rather than an average, and smooth the result over a few seconds.

Papertrade launched reading a single input: the midpoint between the best bid and the best offer on Hyperliquid. One market, one number, nothing filtering it.

That is the whole attack. You take a position on the venue reading the feed, then go and trade on the venue producing it.

If moving the source costs less than what your position gains, you have found a machine rather than a trade. Leverage decides whether it is worth the effort. At 10x, a favorable 10% move doubles your margin before fees.

At 1,000x, a tenth of a percent does the same job, and a tenth of a percent is a handful of ETH in a thin book. The identical move against you empties the account, and in practice the liquidation lands before it gets that far.

All that filtering costs latency, which is exactly what a new venue competing on speed does not want to spend. So the corner gets cut at launch, when the venue is smallest, and the pool backing it is thinnest, which is also the worst possible moment for it.

So when you are sizing up somewhere new, the leverage number is marketing.

The question worth asking is where its prices come from, how many sources feed it, and whether those sources are deep enough that moving them costs more than the position pays.

Everything Else

• A documentary library trading at $3.55 is paying a near 10% yield with 73% gross margins, 48% revenue growth, and record quarterly net income of $8.9 million, and it is one of five sub-$5 dividend stocks named in a free report.

• BTC became loan collateral at a traditional Korean bank for the first time, with Jeonbuk Bank lending won to corporate clients against bitcoin held by a registered custodian, and recovery on default running through a court-ordered sale. 

• RLUSD picked up a bank, with Standard Chartered launching custody for Ripple’s stablecoin on the XRP Ledger and working toward a collateral arrangement with LMAX. 

• SOL gets a Hong Kong listing tomorrow as Pando Finance’s spot fund debuts on the exchange, with a ChinaAMC product cleared behind it and due before month end, that one holding its SOL unstaked. 

• SUI is picking up a protocol and a chain’s worth of activity, with DATA Network moving its AI training data registry over and retiring its own blockchain once the migration is done, backed by $30 million from the Sui Foundation. The existing chain keeps running until then. 

• COTI pushed privacy into the product itself, letting supported ERC-20 assets convert into private tokens with balances and amounts encrypted on-chain, alongside a cross-chain settlement layer still rolling out.