Australia Cracks Down on Crypto ATMs as Scams, Fraud Uncovered
Australia's financial crimes agency placed curbs on cryptocurrency automatic teller machines as the surging number of kiosks increasingly attract fraudsters and scammers.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, known as Austrac, placed a A$5,000 ($3,250) limit on cash deposits and withdrawals as part of new measures to safeguard consumers, according to a statement Tuesday. It's also refused to renew the registration of one crypto ATM provider.
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WIRED
26 minutes ago
- WIRED
Trumpworld Is Fighting Over 'Official' Crypto Wallet
Jun 4, 2025 1:27 PM The President's sons are feuding with the organization behind the TRUMP memecoin, as both parties claim to be involved in launching Trump-affiliated crypto wallets. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images As Donald Trump and his family stretch into nearly every corner of the cryptocurrency sector, a dispute has broken out over which corporate entities are permitted to wield the Trump brand to promote the crypto products they launch. On Tuesday, the X account for the US president's TRUMP memecoin—which is administered by Fight Fight Fight LLC, formed by longtime Trump ally Bill Zanker—announced plans to launch a crypto wallet and trading platform in partnership with NFT marketplace Magic Eden. The corresponding website, first identified by independent crypto researcher Molly White, pitches the product as 'the official $TRUMP wallet by President Trump.' However, in X posts of their own, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. later repudiated the announcement, which they claimed had not been greenlit by the family. Eric Trump implied that The Trump Organization, the holding company for many of the family's business ventures and intellectual property, could take action against Magic Eden. 'This project is not authorized by [The Trump Organization],' wrote Eric on X. 'I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization,' he added, tagging the Magic Eden handle. In a separate post, Donald Trump Jr. revealed that a separate crypto wallet is under development at World Liberty Financial, a crypto company that he and Eric helped to launch in September last year. 'Stay tuned—World Liberty Financial, which we have been working tirelessly on, will be launching our official wallet soon,' he wrote. World Liberty Financial and Fight Fight Fight did not respond immediately to requests for comment. The White House and Magic Eden declined to comment. Eric Trump did not respond directly to questions from WIRED, saying only, 'I know nothing about this project nor is there any contractual relationship.' To some cryptowatchers, the initial wallet announcement made by Fight Fight Fight had the ring of truth about it, not least because it was coming from the organization behind the TRUMP memecoin. In the last year, despite a chorus of complaints relating to alleged abuses of office and conflicts of interest, the Trump family has forged into almost every segment of the crypto market, from stablecoins, to memecoins, crypto investment products, and bitcoin mining. To launch a crypto wallet appeared to some as a plausible next step: 'It makes perfect sense for anyone who has their eye on where the puck is going,' says Brad Harrison, head of crypto platform Venus Labs. The dispute over the wallets soon to be launched by World Liberty Financial and Fight Fight Fight, though, marks the second time in as many weeks that Trump-affilitated entities have thrown themselves into competition with one another as expansion on multiple fronts complicates the family's crypto empire. On May 27, Trump Media and Technology Group, a publicly traded company in which the Trump family owns a majority stake, announced it had raised $2.5 billion to accumulate a 'bitcoin treasury.' The deal puts the conglomerate in competition with a growing stable of bitcoin accumulation stocks, which act as a substitute of sorts for investing in bitcoin—among them American Bitcoin, the crypto mining firm launched recently by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., which is pursuing a similar strategy. The wallet conflict also underlines the inscrutability of the relationships and interplay between The Trump Organization, Trump Media and Technology Group, World Liberty Financial, American Bitcoin, Fight Fight Fight, and the Trump family. The full ownership structure of Fight Fight Fight is obfuscated by layers of corporate filings unavailable to the public. The X posts by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday appear to allege that, as the leaders of The Trump Organization, they reserve the right to limit the company's use of their family name to the TRUMP memecoin. Meanwhile, though World Liberty Financial has sought to underline its independence from Donald Trump's political affairs—'We're a private company having private-sector conversations,' wrote World Liberty Financial cofounder Zak Folkman in a recent statement—the wallet dispute has underscored its entanglement with the president's family brand. In his X post on Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. appeared to present the crypto wallet soon to be issued by World Liberty Financial as the real Trump family wallet, as set against what he alleges is the unauthorized Trump-branded wallet backed by Magic Eden. In cryptoland, confusion reigns: 'Not really sure what's real and what's not,' says Tom, the pseudonymous leader of peer-to-peer crypto exchange Raydium. In the wider crypto industry, the ease with which anybody can put any name to an undifferentiated crypto product has long created problems, claims Cory Klippsten, CEO at bitcoin services company Swan Bitcoin. 'In crypto, it's far too easy to spin up scams masquerading as innovation,' alleges Klippsten, 'especially when you can hijack a brand and pump a token before anyone asks who's behind it.'
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Suspected crypto kidnapping mastermind detained in Morocco
One of the suspected masterminds behind a string of violent kidnappings in France of people linked to the cryptocurrency trade was detained Tuesday in Morocco, France's justice minister said. Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, a 24-year-old French-Moroccan citizen from just outside Paris, was wanted by France for several crimes, including armed extortion and kidnapping as part of a criminal gang, according to the 'red notice' for him published by Interpol and Moroccan state media. French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin thanked Morocco on X for detaining the man, citing the 'excellent judicial cooperation' between the two countries. Bajjou had 'multiple bladed weapons of different sizes' in his possession when he was taken into custody, as well as 'dozens of mobile phones and communication devices' and a sum of money allegedly related to criminal activities, Moroccan state media reported. The man was apprehended, weeks after the latest kidnapping attempt in Paris, near Tangier in northern Morocco, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. He is allegedly linked to a string of violent crimes related to crypto funds dating back to at least January 21 of this year. In January, David Balland, cofounder of a crypto wallet company, and his partner, were kidnapped in central France with their attackers cutting off one of Balland's fingers as part of a 10-million euro ($11,430,000) ransom demand. The couple were later freed by elite French policemen, according to BFMTV. Bajjou is also suspected of involvement in the May kidnapping of another man working in the crypto industry, who also had one of his fingers cut off before his release, per BFMTV. Later that month, the daughter of the CEO of French cryptocurrency platform Paymium was saved by passers-by from a daylight kidnapping attempt in Paris, with Bajjou suspected to have been involved, BFMTV reported. On May 30, 25 people aged between 16 and 23 were put under official investigation in Paris, suspected of involvement in a kidnapping in May in Paris and an attempted kidnapping in the western French city of Nantes.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Suspected crypto kidnapping mastermind detained in Morocco
One of the suspected masterminds behind a string of violent kidnappings in France of people linked to the cryptocurrency trade was detained Tuesday in Morocco, France's justice minister said. Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, a 24-year-old French-Moroccan citizen from just outside Paris, was wanted by France for several crimes, including armed extortion and kidnapping as part of a criminal gang, according to the 'red notice' for him published by Interpol and Moroccan state media. French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin thanked Morocco on X for detaining the man, citing the 'excellent judicial cooperation' between the two countries. Bajjou had 'multiple bladed weapons of different sizes' in his possession when he was taken into custody, as well as 'dozens of mobile phones and communication devices' and a sum of money allegedly related to criminal activities, Moroccan state media reported. The man was apprehended, weeks after the latest kidnapping attempt in Paris, near Tangier in northern Morocco, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. He is allegedly linked to a string of violent crimes related to crypto funds dating back to at least January 21 of this year. In January, David Balland, cofounder of a crypto wallet company, and his partner, were kidnapped in central France with their attackers cutting off one of Balland's fingers as part of a 10-million euro ($11,430,000) ransom demand. The couple were later freed by elite French policemen, according to BFMTV. Bajjou is also suspected of involvement in the May kidnapping of another man working in the crypto industry, who also had one of his fingers cut off before his release, per BFMTV. Later that month, the daughter of the CEO of French cryptocurrency platform Paymium was saved by passers-by from a daylight kidnapping attempt in Paris, with Bajjou suspected to have been involved, BFMTV reported. On May 30, 25 people aged between 16 and 23 were put under official investigation in Paris, suspected of involvement in a kidnapping in May in Paris and an attempted kidnapping in the western French city of Nantes.
