Oleg Korniev, a leader of Your Mule Cashout, pleaded guilty to money laundering for a ring that has used more than 15,000 US money mules since 2007. Stolen funds landed first in the mules' own US bank accounts, so banks saw the money long before prosecutors reached Korniev.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence60
Anchorage Digital has bought Routable, a payouts platform that more than doubled in each of the last two years, without disclosing a price. The crypto bank is buying corporate payout customers now and betting they will later settle in stablecoins.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives65
- Confidence60
Anchorage Digital, the first crypto firm with a national trust charter, has cut 17% of its staff, according to people familiar with internal discussions. It is shrinking while it holds new investor capital and competes with rivals that have since won similar charters.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence35
The first gate delivers about a tenth of that saving and only on testnet, and because the deposit was always refundable, what issuers actually gain is the carry on money the network gave back anyway.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption25
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives75
- Confidence55
An ECB survey of 8,205 firms found crypto acceptance flat since 2024 while mobile payments nearly doubled. The money in payments is in settlement, not the checkout button.
Reality
- Evidence78
- Adoption6
- Hype gap+24
- Incentives55
- Confidence74