North Korea’s Lazarus Group named in crypto gift card breach exposing 18,500 records
Bitrefill says the attack originated from a compromised employee laptop, with forensic analysis by Zeroshadow, SEAL Org, and RecoverisTeam linking the malware and on-chain infrastructure to the state-sponsored collective. The company said it will cover all financial losses from its own capital. North Korea-linked groups stole more than an estimated $2 billion in crypto last year.
World and Coinbase launch toolkit to put a verified human behind every AI payment
AgentKit, now in beta, pairs Sam Altman’s World ID biometric verification with Coinbase’s x402 stablecoin payment protocol, allowing AI agents to carry cryptographic proof of human authorization without exposing personal data. The companies are targeting a projected $3 trillion to $5 trillion agentic commerce market by 2030, drawing on World’s network of nearly 18 million verified users across more than 160 countries.
OpenSea scraps its March 30 SEA token deadline as NFT market cap halves since January
The platform will end its current Treasure rewards campaign and offer optional fee refunds to users who traded during reward waves three through six, while cutting token trading fees to zero for 60 days from March 31. Total NFT market cap has fallen from roughly $3.2 billion in mid-January to around $1.6 billion, with monthly platform volumes now below $500 million.
Mastercard’s stablecoin focus continues with $1.8 billion BVNK deal
BVNK processes around $30 billion annually across more than 130 countries for enterprise clients including Worldpay, Deel, and Flywire, giving Mastercard direct ownership of blockchain-based rails it has until now only partnered around. William Blair analysts described the acquisition, which includes $300 million in contingent payments and is expected to close by year-end, as a validation of stablecoins in institutional commerce rather than consumer payments.
Arizona pursues criminal misdemeanor charges against Kalshi in first state-level action against a prediction market
The 20-count complaint alleges that Kalshi accepted unlicensed bets on state and federal elections, with potential penalties of $10,000 to $20,000 per count plus asset forfeiture. Kalshi is contesting the action, which comes just days after Kalshi sued the state of Arizona, seeking relief amid the potential of “irreparable harm from [Arizona’s] threats to enforce preempted state laws.”