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Today's Top Crypto Headlines:
Aussie Police Seize Mansion | Blum Founder Arrested | Artist Got Scammed For $2M and more...
King Fatrick Gil Añasco
May 19, 2025
Good Morning Crypto Enthusiasts!
Glad to have you back for another edition of the UseTheBitcoin.com newsletter.
Aussie Police Seize Bitcoin, Mansion: Australian police seized 25 BTC, a luxury home, and a Mercedes tied to a 2013 crypto hack linked to Shane Stephen Duffy.
Blum Co-Founder Arrested: Blum’s ex-CMO Vladimir Smerkis was arrested in Russia over alleged fraud tied to his earlier ventures, which reportedly lost investors $15M.
💡Feature of the Day - Artist Loses $2M in Phishing Scam: Retired artist Ed Suman lost $2M in BTC and ETH after being tricked into entering his Trezor seed phrase on a fake Coinbase site.
All this and more in today’s headlines!
📰 News Highlights:
Australian Federal Police seized nearly 25 Bitcoin, a luxury waterfront mansion, and a Mercedes-Benz allegedly tied to a 2013 crypto exchange hack.
The total haul, worth around $2.88 million, was linked to Queensland resident Shane Stephen Duffy, who had a past conviction for fraud and computer hacking involving League of Legends data.
The AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) has secured the forfeiture of more than $4.5 million worth of assets, including a Queensland waterfront mansion, luxury car and Bitcoin, after identifying them as suspected proceeds of crime.
— AFP (@AusFedPolice)
9:48 PM • May 17, 2025
While no criminal charges were filed regarding the stolen Bitcoin, a court forfeiture order was issued due to the assets being unlinked to legitimate income sources.
Duffy was previously convicted for selling player data and allegedly hacked the X account of Riot Games’ president to promote his illegal business.
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Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder of Telegram-based crypto project Blum, has been arrested in Moscow for alleged large-scale fraud tied to past ventures.
We would like to inform our community that Vladimir Smerkis has stepped down from his role as CMO and is no longer involved in the development of the project or in any co-founder capacity.
— Blum (@blumcrypto)
6:00 PM • May 17, 2025
Russian media connects the case to Tokenbox and The Token Fund, both co-founded by Smerkis in 2017, where investors reportedly lost around $15 million.
Nothing against Mr. Smerkis. I hope he gets his day in court.
However @blumcrypto owes its users a clarification on the planned #airdrop.
#Web3#altcoins#crypto#DeFi#RWA#DePIN
— Den P (@denposadas1)
9:57 PM • May 18, 2025
Though he’s no longer involved with Blum, the arrest has cast a shadow over the project and its upcoming plans.
🚨 Blum co-founder arrested in Russia 🚨
We tapped every day for that airdrop. Now the co-founder is gone?Vladimir Smerkis was arrested for fraud.
The team says he’s no longer part of $BLUM.
No airdrop. No updates. Just silence.
Was it all for nothing?
#BLUM#Crypto
— RK Gupta (EarnWithRK) (@earnwithrk)
7:31 AM • May 18, 2025
💡 Feature of the Day:
Artist Scammed $2M [Source]
Retired artist Ed Suman lost over $2 million in crypto after falling for a phishing scam posing as Coinbase support.
1/ A few hours ago I hacked a group of crypto scammers impersonating @coinbase Support.
These scammers drain most of their victims out of thousands of dollars!
This thread will show you how the scam works and the methods I used to trace their exact location!👇
— NanoBaiter (@NanoBaiter)
5:07 PM • Apr 11, 2025
Suman, who had stored his 17.5 BTC and 225 ETH in a Trezor hardware wallet, was tricked into entering his seed phrase on a fake Coinbase site after receiving a convincing phone call.
5/ After the so called "Coinbase rep" gained full remote access to my virtual machine. I immediately showed him a fake Coinbase account.
Quote:
"All of the funds in that account are at risk of being stolen by hackers and you need to move ALL the funds to a "new secure wallet"— NanoBaiter (@NanoBaiter)
5:07 PM • Apr 11, 2025
A second follow-up call finalized the theft, wiping out his entire crypto portfolio.
8/ I have full access to the scammers computer and hard drive. This is what I found ↓
1. Spreadsheets that contained personal details of over 100,000 thousand victims.
2. Lead lists that included full names, phone numbers, and personal email addresses.
3. Previous scam calls
— NanoBaiter (@NanoBaiter)
5:07 PM • Apr 11, 2025
😂 Crypto Meme of the Day:
Meme of the day provided by @btcmemes
And that’s it for this today.
See you all tomorrow’s edition!
Jonathan Gibson
UseTheBitcoin.com