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Public Keys: Robinhood Takes Flight, GM to Walmart, and Never Not Trading

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In brief

  • Robinhood stock surges nearly 47% in a month, approaching $150 as it explores expanding prediction markets to the U.K.
  • Walmart’s OnePay payment app adds Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for its 3+ million monthly users.
  • CME Group plans 24/7 trading for crypto futures and options starting early 2026 in response to record volumes.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies. In this week’s roundup, we’ve got the latest on CME, Walmart’s crypto play (for real this time), and Robinhood flying high:

All-time highs for HOOD

Stock and crypto trading app Robinhood saw a new all-time high this week on reports that it’ll extend its prediction market offerings outside of the United States.

Reports surfaced this week that the company has been speaking with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct authority about expanding there, but the company didn’t immediately respond to confirm or deny the news.

There have been projections that the prediction market space could eventually account for more than $82 billion, according to Grand View Research.



But things move fast. At the start of the week, a new all-time high for Robinhood meant the company’s shares had breached $140. But the gains have kept rolling in. Robinhood’s stock is now closing in on $150 with more than an hour left before the closing bell on Friday.

The company, which trades under the HOOD ticker on the Nasdaq, has gained 21.69% in the past five days and nearly 47% in the past month.

The latest news from CEO Vlad Tenev is that Strategy preferred stock offerings, like Stretch (STRC) and Strike (STRK), are now available on its platform.

“We’ve heard from many Strategy investors that this was an important factor before moving their accounts to Robinhood, and we’re excited to unlock this for them,” Tenev said on X.

Meanwhile, Strategy had its own bullish news this week, but hasn’t gotten anywhere near its all-time high of $473.83. The company had been bracing for a hefty 15% tax bill on the unrealized gains of its hulking Bitcoin treasury. But now, the company thinks it has dodged that bullet.

Big box embrace

Walmart’s Apple and Google Pay contender, OnePay, has added crypto trading and custody to its mobile app.

The news, first told to CNBC by unnamed sources, will bring BTC and ETH trading to the platform’s more than 3 million monthly active users. But Walmart has been aggressive about trying to funnel more users into the app.

The retailer doesn’t allow Apple or Google Pay in its brick and mortar stores—just OnePay and WalmartPay, a feature of its own app.

Don’t worry, so far this hasn’t gone the way of the Litecoin news that got debunked in 2021.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Walmart-owned firm is opening its app to crypto. Parent company Walmart has signaled it’s interested in trying out a stablecoin.

Another all nighter

CME said it’s looking to move to “24/7” trading for its crypto futures and options—right now Bitcoin and Ethereum. But Solana and XRP options will soon join them.

The change would take place in early 2026.

CME framed the move as a response to record 2025 volumes and client demand. Right now crypto assets can be traded all the time. And there are plenty of crypto derivatives exchanges—Deribit being the largest—that offer the same always-on hours.

But CME said clients have said they want around-the-clock risk management on a regulated venue.

CME said it’s officially planning to make the move—but it all depends on regulatory review. There’s already been signs that regulators are on board with allowing certain assets to be tradeable all the time.

In fact, the SEC and CFTC said as much a month ago—but that was about making securities tradeable all the time.

In the 154 years since continuous trading debuted on Wall Street, such markets have always followed a strict schedule, which since 1985 has kept markets open only during certain business hours on weekdays.

Other Keys

In a Galaxy not far away… Samsung is integrating Coinbase access within its wallet app for U.S. users, which means crypto holdings could now be used through Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay. That’s 75 million Samsung device users who now have easier access to crypto.

Call it a comeBAKKT Securities research firm Benchmark has more than tripled its price target for Bakkt Holdings. The company has been many things over the years—including almost broke. But now analysts are keen on the addition of crypto industry investor Mike Alfred to its board.

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Helldivers 2 Dev Explains Why The Game Takes Up So Much Space On PC
Game Updates

Helldivers 2 Dev Explains Why The Game Takes Up So Much Space On PC

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Have you ever noticed that Helldivers 2 takes up a lot more room on PC than it does on either Xbox Series X|S or PlayStation 5? At 150GB, the game is roughly three times bigger on PC than on consoles. According to Arrowhead game studio deputy technical director Brendan Armstrong, the reason why is that Helldivers 2 is still catering to a small segment of PC users.

In a lengthy post on Steam, Armstrong wrote that Helldivers 2’s install footprint is so large because most of it is duplicated for the benefit of players who still use mechanical hard disk drives. It’s an antiquated process that features duplicate data grouped close together in order to reduce loading times. Armstrong notes that the duplication is not necessary for players who have long since upgraded to solid state drives, but Arrowhead has had difficulty determining how many players remain on mechanical HDDs.

“How many Helldivers 2 players are still using mechanical HDD? The truth is that we don’t currently know,” Armstrong wrote. “Even the Steam user surveys are unable to give us data on mechanical HDD use in the overall gamer population. Our best estimates put it at around 12% of all PC gamers, but the data is very unreliable and relies on a lot of extrapolations. Until we can more accurately determine the number of mechanical HDDs that Helldivers 2 is installed on, it is difficult to know how many players will be impacted by reducing the amount of data duplication. Even if that number is small, keep in mind that the load time for each player dropping into a mission is determined by the slowest member of the squad.”

Armstrong laid out some potential solutions and noted that the next update will make some progress towards shrinking the file size. However, he warns that players may not notice the difference “because the new stuff we’ve added will eat those gains.” For a medium-term solution, Arrowhead plans to bundle common assets together rather than featuring so many duplicate files. The downside is that it will make the game slightly slower for mechanical HDD users, but he hopes to keep the load times to “less than 30 seconds.”

Going forward, Arrowhead will also work to improve its engine and improve compression techniques that reduce the need for duplication. However, Armstrong added that the studio doesn’t know yet if the impact on load times will make this an infeasible solution.

Arrowhead Game Studio CEO Shams Jorjani recently stated that the team’s goal for Helldivers 2 is to keep it going forever, rather than moving on to Helldivers 3. The studio also released a patch that tackled cave crashes and audio bugs. More recently, Arrowhead acknowledged a long list of problems to address, including “issues including performance drops, stability hiccups, freezes, and the annoying audio bugs.” An update is planned for later this month, but many of those issues may take more time to fix.



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Brian Quintenz (Senate Agriculture Committee, screen capture)
GameFi Guides

U.S. SEC Takes Preliminary Step to Expand Universe of Crypto Custody to State Trusts

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has cracked the door to welcome crypto custody at a wide range of firms who’ve earned state charters as trust companies — a list that would include the trust affiliates of Coinbase, Kraken and other high-profile names in crypto.

The SEC’s Division of Investment Management issued a so-called no-action letter on Tuesday, a document that assures that the regulator doesn’t intend to pursue any enforcement actions by those engaging in the specific activity — in this case, that SEC-registered advisers and funds can park digital assets in state trusts.

Such qualified-custodian questions had represented a policy battleground during the tenure of former SEC chairs Gary Gensler and Jay Clayton, the former having led the agency to introduce a later-abandoned proposal that would have constrained what kinds of companies could handle the crypto of regulated investment advisers. Gensler made it clear he specifically meant to muscle out exchanges such as Coinbase.

But the SEC’s new management — most notably Chairman Paul Atkins — is pursuing a crypto-forward campaign, with Atkins saying earlier this week that establishing industry policies is the agency’s top priority (as assigned by pro-crypto President Donald Trump).

While Tuesday’s no-action letter isn’t a formal agency rule, it carries enough weight to free firms from short-term compliance worries. Specifically, the document said the SEC “would not recommend enforcement action to the commission under the custody provisions against a registered adviser or regulated fund for treating a state trust company as a ‘bank’ with respect to the placement and maintenance of crypto assets.”

The earlier argument from Gensler was that crypto firms weren’t safe and sufficiently regulated to qualify as risk-free enough for registered investment advisers to keep their customers’ assets.

“Even though it was never adopted, the proposal has created problems for investment advisers through its assertion that most crypto assets are likely to be funds or crypto asset securities covered by the current rule, and thus must be maintained with a qualified custodian,” Commissioner Hester Peirce said in a speech in Singapore on Tuesday.

She argued that the agency “should consider updating the rules governing permissible custodians for registered investment advisers and investment companies,” adding that maybe technologically adept companies should be permitted to custody assets themselves.

But Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, who was allied with Gensler on this point two years ago, issued a statement opposing the no-action treatment, saying the SEC is effectively treating crypto as something apart from the rest of the financial sector. And it’s ignoring the efforts of firms pursuing federal chartering from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

“Rather than create a level playing field, we leave investors and the markets to gamble in an unnecessary game of 50-state regulatory roulette – just to accommodate crypto,” she said. “Executing a shift of this magnitude via no-action relief without public comment and without any economic analysis is ill-advised for many reasons, not least of which because it likely violates the Administrative Procedure Act, though this has become commonplace by this commission.”

The SEC has been pursuing a number of crypto policies under Atkin’s recent Project Crypto, and the chairman has set an agenda to issue formal crypto rules in the coming months. Meanwhile, Congress has made extensive progress on legislation to more completely regulate the U.S. digital assets markets.



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Former TT Games head takes on Peter Pan
Esports

Former TT Games head takes on Peter Pan

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Back in 2020, UK games industry veteran Tom Stone stepped down from his position as managing director at the Lego games maker TT Games.

Having spent almost 18 years at the helm of the studio – and before that, working at Lego Interactive, Electronic Arts, and Giant Interactive (which merged with Traveller’s Tales to form TT Games) – he departed to do something new.

To start with, this took the form of becoming the chair of FuturLab (the maker of Powerwash Simulator) and acting as managing director for the venture capital firm Juno Capital Partners.

Tom Stone, Second Star Games

Then, in Christmas 2024, Stone had a conversation with The Blair Partnership and Great Ormond Street Hospital. The former is a media agency that manages franchises such as Harry Potter; it had been appointed by the latter to develop the Peter Pan and Neverland IP in the video games space.

Back in 1929, author JM Barrie granted the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street. Although the IP is now in the public domain, the hospital receives royalties from its commercial use.

Thus, Second Star Games was born. The name itself, for those who know, is a telltale sign of what IP the studio is working on. In the Disney animated movie, Peter gives Wendy the directions to Neverland with the famous line: “Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning.”

Let’s go round again

The venture is staffed by some of Stone’s former colleagues from TT Games, including lead game designer Andrew Holt, art director Nicola Daly and head of engineering Chris Stanforth. The last piece of the puzzle was funding: Stone is putting some of his own money into the venture, but the majority of the investment has come from Grahame Chilton, who helped fund 2005’s Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. The company is still weighing up whether to partner with a publisher or go it alone.

“We could have made fewer games slightly better”

Tom Stone, Second Star Games

While Second Star Games definitely has an element of bringing the band back together, Stone wants to do things slightly differently this time.

“I think we’re going to take a breath and look up occasionally,” he says. “When we were making the Lego games, it was intense. It was blood, sweat and tears. I loved every single moment of it, but upon reflection, we could have made fewer games slightly better and sold probably the same number of units that we sold.”

Though TT Games saw wild success with its series of Lego games, there were some at the studio who were unhappy with its culture. An investigation by Polygon in 2022 painted a picture of a workforce under relentless pressure and crunch, at least on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. To his credit, Stone is reported to have held meetings to find out how staff felt and tried to rectify the situation before he departed the company.

“It was a pretty tough 15, 16, 17 years we had at TT. We were on a mission. We were focused. We achieved incredible things,” Stone says.

“Everything in life is a trade; people worked incredibly hard and the games were phenomenally successful. I don’t think everyone complained that it was a tough culture. As happens, there were a number of people who justifiably and rightly said it was a tough environment; their voices were louder than the people who were saying they enjoyed working there and loved making Lego games. Their voices weren’t heard so much.”

Concept art for Second Star’s Peter Pan game | Image credit: Second Star Games

Despite his earlier reflection that he wants his new studio to make fewer games slightly better, Stone says that in order to do extraordinary things, developers must be open to tough and challenging work.

“We’re currently a team of 18 full-time employees. Everyone’s the same. We’re all in this boat together. Everyone knows each other. We don’t want an HR department. Everyone is there to support one another in building this game together,” Stone says.

“It’s going to be tough and challenging because we’re setting ourselves incredibly high goals. We had a meeting last week in the studio, where we agreed on a particular design feature, which is going to be very, very challenging to achieve.

“If we are not going to do stuff like that, what’s the point of doing it? If we aren’t going to break through and make this game truly memorable, then why bother? Everyone is on board. Everyone knows we are going to set ourselves some really, really high bar challenges, and everyone wants to do it.”

A changed world

At last official count back in 2019, the Lego games made by TT had sold north of 200 million copies (Stone reckons now it’s closer to 380 or 390 million). There’s no denying that the franchise has been hugely successful. But Stone and co are mindful of the fact that the games industry has changed wildly since 2005, especially when it comes to younger audiences.

More concept art depicting Neverland | Image credit: Second Star Games

“We want to do something really special. We’re aware that we’re launching into an entirely different market now. In 2005, there was no Roblox, no Minecraft, no Rocket League, no Fortnite,” he says.

“We know that the age group we are aiming at – five through 13 years old – is engaged in one of those games. Obviously, it’s going to be a challenge to have them look up and turn their head and say: ‘There’s a game over there I’d really love to play,’ because they are so engaged in those other games.

“Back in 2005, we were releasing into a physical goods, console-led market, but with no backdrop of people being absorbed by other games that they are playing. Now that’s different. That’s the key change. The other major change is discoverability – there are so many games being released. Unless you have an IP, it’s quite hard for people to discover your game.”

Working on licensed IP has also changed a great deal in the last 20 years. Companies appear to be more relaxed than they were in the past when it comes to their intellectual property and are more open to video games in general.

“Licensors now realise the power of video games and that we can actually enhance and grow and build the intellectual property by making an amazing game,” Stone explains.

“The magic of Lego added to any one of the franchises that we made helped give that other franchise a slight lift. It’s a symbiotic relationship, right? As Harry Potter gave Lego a lift, Lego gave Harry Potter a lift. It just expressed it in new, different, and interesting ways.

“Consumers who love those intellectual properties are always ready for a new treatment and a new way of looking at Harry, a new way of looking at Lord of the Rings, whatever the franchise might be.”

Thoroughbred stable

Across its history, TT Games worked on everything from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings to Marvel and DC properties. Stone has similar aims for Second Star; he wants the studio to have a range of intellectual properties in its repertoire.

Neverland concept art | Image credit: Second Star Games

“The first is Neverland and the adventures of Peter Pan. Once we announced the studio, we actually had quite a lot of inbound interest, asking whether we’d be interested in working on this IP or that piece of IP. Obviously, we will be selective and thoughtful. We have to be mindful that we can’t do it all at the same time, but the goal is to build out a stable of expertise in this young gamer space.

“I imagine 100 years ago, the family would gather around the fire and share stories. They would have that shared moment of family community. What I’m imagining now is the family gathering around a screen in co-op mode, playing a game together, watching it being played and Peter Pan is that magnet.

“Peter Pan is the fire that everyone is watching, while they all gather around the television together. The vision is to build a stable, bring the thoroughbreds in, and have everyone playing together around a screen.”

He concludes: “When we introduced co-op play into the first Lego Star Wars game, it made such a difference. It was such a breakthrough moment; people were able to play together in a social cooperative way. We are going to build on that.”



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Zenless Zone Zero 2.3 takes full advantage of the new Spook Shack faction for its Halloween season
Game Updates

Zenless Zone Zero 2.3 takes full advantage of the new Spook Shack faction for its Halloween season

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If you’ve been enjoying the politics-filled 2.2 update for Zenless Zone Zero, which came out earlier this month, you’re probably on your way to finishing the new content. Which means, of course, it’s time for the next update to reveal itself.

Version 2.3, Memories of Dreams Bygone, was officially unveiled today, and it’s going to arrive on October 15 – so in about two weeks from now.

Zenless Zone Zero’s Version 2.3 immediately addresses one of the criticisms players had with earlier installments of Version 2, which revolved around the lack of the lack of Rupture characters in its banner events. 2.3 is adding three new Agents to the roster: Lucia, Yidhari, and Komano Manato.

Lucia is an S-Rank Ether Support Agent, who’s very much into the Ethereal. Her kit reflects that, too, because she can recreate Ethereals in combat. She calls on Dream Points to enter a Dream state and unleash Ether Veil: Wellspring, which boosts the max HP of all allies, and increases the team’s Sheer Force and Aftershock frequency.

Yidhari is another S-Rank Agent, only she’s the Rupture one fans have been missing. Her Ice attacks always deal Sheer damage, and she gains Sheer Force based on her max HP. Interestingly, however, Yidhari deals more damage the lower her HP is, which adds an element of risk/reward to her kit.

Komano Manato is the only A-Rank addition, joining as a Fire Rupture Agent. Likewise, his Sheer damage scales with his max HP. As far as returning favourites, Version 2.3 will bring back Vivian (S-Rank, Ether – Anomaly), as well as Ju Fufu (S-Rank, Fire – Stun) as part of its banners.

Watch on YouTube

In this chapter, you’ll get to visit Timesworn Hills, and team up with Spook Shack. The new region – and the update itself – very much share the spooky theme of abandoned research facilities where tales of experiments going awry are buried.

The narrative kicks off like a few good Halloween mysteries: a missing person’s case. Some miners and Porcelumex employees have gone missing, and you’re being sent in to investigate. Timesworn Hills is also rich in Lumite ore.

Memories of Dreams Bygone is bringing some gameplay changes to Soldier 0 – Anby, who’s getting a buff alongside some tweaks to her combat. You can also look forward to Threshold Simulation as a new challenge activity that tests your stamina by throwing you in back-to-back battles.

Zenless Zone Zero is getting a hint of turn-based combat in this update, too, with the arrival of the When Dreams Remain Unfinished event. In it, you’ll get to play as monsters with unique abilities. You’d want to play it, too, because completing the event guarantees getting Agent Komano Manato.

Image credit: MiHoYo.

Photography event SNAP! Shining Strike returns as well, and it now offers more camera controls, filters, and frames.

As part of today’s news, we also got a glimpse at future Agents Banyue, Dialyn, Zhao, and Ye Shunguang, who HoYoverse said will be joining the game in “the near future.” Finally, if you log in during 2.3, you’ll get 600 Polychromes alongside 10 Encrypted Master Tapes, and 10 Boopons.

Before you go, it’s always a good idea to catch up on our updated Zenless Zone Zero codes. If you’re in a fighting mode, you may also jump into the comments of our Zenless Zone Zero character tier list and argue your case.



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The campaign against predatory in-game practices takes a step forward in Brazil, as President Lula bans loot boxes targeted at under-18s
Game Reviews

The campaign against predatory in-game practices takes a step forward in Brazil, as President Lula bans loot boxes targeted at under-18s

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The president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) has signed a ban on loot boxes for under 18s into law. This ban is set to go into effect in March 2026.

This ban comes as part of a wider digital protection law aimed at protecting young people from abuse and exploitation online. Chapter seven of the law focused on electronic games prohibits loot boxes aimed at children or adolescents for games without an 18+ age rating.

In addition, the law requires games that are likely to have adolescents interact with other people through text, audio, or video messages to adhere to legal safeguards. These include a report system, information on the progress of said reports, and instruments to request review and reconsideration of imposed penalties.

Debates surrounding a loot box ban have been widespread and global for years now. Back in 2022 Dutch political parties backed a loot box ban, however after some deliberation there was no outright ban. Loot boxes were declared illegal in Belgium back in 2018, though in the following years it’s become clear this hasn’t been strictly enforced. The UK has slapped some game companies on the wrist due to not declaring loot boxes in advertisements, but a ban has been far from reach.

As such, this Brazilian ban for under 18s is a big step forward for those against loot boxes, putting up barriers between what many consider gambling mechanics and younger people. It’s been a long time coming, with investigations into loot boxes starting in 2021. There remain two larger questions: will clear age ratings for games actually prevent young people from buying loot boxes in games they want, and will this law’s implementation in a strong market for video games influence change in the industry at large?



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Forza Horizon 6 Takes Players To Japan Next Year
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Forza Horizon 6 Takes Players To Japan Next Year

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Forza Horizon 6 was the main headliner of Xbox’s Tokyo Game Show broadcast, which served as a fitting venue given that the next entry brings the Horizon Festival to Japan. 

Developer Playground Games released a short teaser trailer and is keeping gameplay details to a minimum; don’t expect to see Forza Horizon 6 in action until early next year, according to an Xbox Wire developer interview. In the meantime, the studio teases locations such as Tokyo and Mt. Fuji, as some of the recognizable spots players will race in and around. 

 

Although we don’t know what the vehicle roster looks like, expect Japanese car culture to play a prominent role in this entry. In Horizon tradition, seasonal weather changes will shake up the visuals while also affecting how players drive. 

Forza Horizon 6 will launch first on Xbox Series X/S (including day one on Game Pass) and PC via Windows and Steam in 2026. The game will also be released on PlayStation 5 sometime post-launch. You can read our review of the series’ previous entry, 2021’s Forza Horizon 5, here. 



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hacker hands at work with interface around
Gaming Gear

“It could be catastrophic to the city” – US Secret Service takes down massive million-dollar network of SIM cards it says was capable of taking down comms across New York

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  • A massive communications network was uncovered in New York
  • The network is made of 300 servers containing 100,000 SIM cards
  • Only part of the network was deployed, with more equipment discovered ready to be added to the network

The US Secret Service has uncovered and dismantled a telecommunications network in New York which may have been used by organized criminals to communicate with foreign state-sponsored actors.

The enormous network was made up of over 300 servers that housed a combined 100,000 SIM cards, and allegedly had the potential to disrupt phone networks across the tristate area and facilitate encrypted communications.

The United Nations General Assembly is currently ongoing in New York, and the Secret Service has suggested the network could have been used “to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials.”


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Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit

The 300 co-located servers were all within 35 miles of the United Nations and could have been involved in “disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.”

An investigation is currently ongoing and is being conducted by the Secret Service’s new Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, which is “dedicated to disrupting the most significant and imminent threats to our protectees.”

While the network included 100,000 active SIM cards being used in encrypted communications, the Secret Service also said that there were many more waiting to be deployed.

Image 1 of 5

A photo provided by the US Secret Service showing a modular server box containing 512 SIM cards.(Image credit: US Secret Service)A photo provided by the US Secret Service showing a collection of SIM servers containing thousands of SIM cards.(Image credit: US Secret Service)A photo provided by the US Secret Service showing a room of confiscated communications equipment.(Image credit: US Secret Service)A photo provided by the US Secret Service showing a desk with a collection of confiscted communications equipment.(Image credit: US Secret Service)A photo provided by the US Secret Service showing a wall of confiscated SIM servers, with tens of thousands of SIM cards visible.(Image credit: US Secret Service)

Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office said, “It can’t be understated what this system is capable of doing. It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? … You can’t text message, you can’t use your cellphone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with [the UN general assembly], you know, use your imagination there – it could be catastrophic to the city.”

The Secret Service has been investigating threats against senior US officials from telecommunications networks, which led to the discovery of the SIM cache network.

Multiple US officials have been targeted in impersonation and ‘smishing’ attacks in recent months.

The SIM cards will be analyzed for phone calls and text messages, with the network capable of sending upwards of 30 million messages in a single minute, McCool said, stating the network was highly organized and would have cost millions of dollars to construct.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” added Sean Curran, director of the Secret Service.

“The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled.”

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Steam game removed after cryptostealer takes over $150K
Gaming Gear

Steam game removed after cryptostealer takes over $150K

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Steam has taken down a game containing malware that drained the cryptocurrency wallets belonging to hundreds of players, as reported earlier by Bleeping Computer. The free-to-play 2D platformer, titled BlockBlasters, took more than $150,000 from victims, including $32,000 from a streamer raising funds for their cancer treatment.

In a post on X, malware tracker vx-underground revealed that bad actors targeted some streamers with a spearphishing campaign that attempted to lure victims into promoting the game in exchange for compensation. “Unfortunately, the Steam game was actually a cryptodrainer masquerading as a legitimate video game,” vx-underground wrote in a post on X.

As noted by Bleeping Computer, BlockBlasters first appeared on Steam on July 30th, but the game quietly added a cryptodrainer on August 30th. It was published by developer Genesis Interactive and garnered more than 200 “very positive” reviews. The malicious title mostly flew under the radar until Latvian streamer Raivo Plavnieks (Rastaland.TV), who has stage 4 cancer, said that they lost $32,000 after downloading BlockBlasters over the weekend.

Steam has removed a flurry of games that have infected Windows computers with malware, including PirateFi, Sniper: Phantom’s Resolution, and Chemia. Steam removed BlockBlasters on September 21st. The Verge reached out to Valve with a request for comment, but didn’t immediately hear back.



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Crypto Trends

X Takes Legal Action Against Crypto Scamming Network’s Bribery Scheme

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In brief

  • Social media platform X says it’s taking legal action against some banned accounts.
  • The accounts in question allegedly bribed X employees to regain access to the platform.
  • Some of the accounts in question were crypto scammers, X said.

Social media platform X is taking legal action against banned users, including crypto scammers, who have tried to bribe the company’s employees to regain access to the website, the company said in an announcement Friday.

The platform, formerly known as Twitter, said that the bribery network was linked to wider criminal organizations. 

X added that it was working with law enforcement. The company did not reveal much else about the nature of the banned accounts. Decrypt reached out to X for comment. 

“X has exposed and is taking strong action against a bribery network targeting our platform,” read the announcement. “Suspended accounts involved in crypto scams and platform manipulation paid middlemen to attempt to bribe employees to reinstate their suspended accounts.”

It added: “These perpetrators exploit social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Minecraft, and Roblox and are linked to wider criminal organizations, including ‘The Com.'”

X has exposed and is taking strong action against a bribery network targeting our platform. Suspended accounts involved in crypto scams and platform manipulation paid middlemen to attempt to bribe employees to reinstate their suspended accounts. These perpetrators exploit social…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) September 19, 2025

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in July warned of “a growing and evolving online threat group known as The Com,” adding that the network was mainly made up of minors and worked to commit cyber crimes. 

“The sophistication of The Com criminal activity has grown over the last four years, with subjects employing increasingly complex methods to mask their identities, hide financial transactions, and launder money,” the FBI’s statement said. 



Social media platform X is no stranger to crypto scammers. In 2020, when it was Twitter and owned by Jack Dorsey, criminals hacked a number of celebrity and brand accounts—including former President Barack Obama, Apple, Uber, and rapper Kanye West—to push a Bitcoin scam.

Last year, hackers targeted high-profile accounts to push a Solana-based meme token, compromising the accounts of computer brand Lenovo’s India division, film director Oliver Stone, and Brazilian soccer player Neymar Jr. 

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