Zero-click browser vulnerability drains millions from unpatched devices by targeting stored recovery phrases.

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Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade reportedly cut transaction finality to roughly 400 milliseconds, but still can't pick SOL's price up.

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South Korean financial institutions have signed agreements with Ripple, testifying to a growing interest in digital-asset custody.

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A mass bank-account freeze in Paraguay have renewed discussion of XRP and self-custody.

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A larger token supply complicates any recovery, making a return to its former price a much bigger valuation hurdle.

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The post UK drone mapping project to identify priority use cases following November workshops first appeared on Unmanned airspace.

Massive liquidations shake digital assets as growing fears over AI spending ripple through global markets.

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Ukraine has carried out a large-scale electronic warfare (EW) operation to protect Kyiv against Russian Shahed drones equipped with remote-control capabilities, according to Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian president on defence technology.

In a Facebook post, Beskrestnov said the operation involved creating a protective electronic warfare “cylinder” over the capital to disrupt Mesh radio communications between Russian operators and the drones. Radio modems installed on the Shaheds allow operators based in Russia to control the aircraft remotely and search for targets during flight.

The operation required equipment to be installed at hundreds of locations across Kyiv within a few weeks. According to Beskrestnov, all major Ukrainian EW manufacturers were involved, producing and assembling equipment around the clock. The operation was carried out under the supervision of the president.

Beskrestnov said the effort had forced Russian forces to pause their use of the remote-control approach, upgrade their Shahed drones and seek alternative technical solutions.

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A New York man who served as caretaker for his elderly neighbor has admitted to stealing nearly $142,000 in pension payments that kept flowing after the neighbor died.

Danilo Pesce, 60, of Pelham pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny in Albany County Court, New York Attorney General Letitia James says.

The neighbor, Jack Lee Morgan, was a retired Pelham school district teacher who collected a pension from the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Morgan died in 2020 with no living beneficiary, so the payments should have stopped.

But nobody told the retirement system about the death, and it kept sending $3,497 a month into Morgan’s bank account.

While working as Morgan’s caretaker, Pesce had been added to the bank account and to the deed of Morgan’s Pelham home.

Starting on March 17th, 2020, less than a month after Morgan died, Pesce regularly pulled money out of the account, the attorney general’s office says.

He used the cash on upkeep and renovations at Morgan’s home, where he and his wife were living part-time.

In total, Pesce took $141,968.

He has paid $147,000 back to the retirement system, which includes $6,000 in interest.

Says James,

“Danilo Pesce took advantage of the retirement system that thousands of hard-working New York teachers rely on… This heartless theft should serve as a reminder that my office will not tolerate anyone who breaks the law to steal from their neighbors.”

Pesce was arrested on July 30th of this year.

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A Connecticut woman has lost over $7,000 after scammers spoofed her credit union’s real phone number and talked her into sending her savings through Apple Cash.

The 45-year-old Windsor resident, who asked not to be named, says the caller claimed to work in the fraud department at 360 Federal Credit Union, reports NBC Connecticut.

She says her caller ID showed the credit union’s name, and the caller told her that her banking information had been compromised and her accounts needed to be secured.

Because her credit union is small, she says the fact that he knew where she banked made him seem like someone trying to help.

The report says that over a weekend in August, she sent more than $7,000 through Apple Cash to an unknown account, believing she was following her credit union’s instructions.

A fraud warning appeared while she was making the payment, but she says the caller told her the alert was a good sign.

“He goes, ‘Good, good. That’s what we want to see. We’re locking everything down.'”

By the following Monday, her account balance had gone negative.

Says the woman,

“All of a sudden it’s just like, whoa, where’s my money?… This person was very calculated. This definitely was not their first time at all.”

360 Federal Credit Union says it has found no sign that the transaction came from a breach of its systems.

She reached out to Apple and Green Dot Bank, which provides Apple Cash services, but has not been able to recover the money.

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Crypto exchange giant Binance and prediction markets platform Polymarket want the Polygon (POL) network to move about 70 million tokens out of the hands of the hackers who stole them late last month.

The two firms have filed a Polygon Improvement Proposal for a one-time hard fork that would set the POL balances in five attacker-controlled addresses to zero and credit the same amounts to recovery wallets the companies control, the proposal says.

The five addresses hold about 70.49 million POL, worth roughly $6.5 million at the October 29th price used in the proposal.

About 23.86 million POL sits in four addresses tied to the Polymarket hack on October 29th, while about 46.63 million POL sits in one address tied to the Binance hack that hit late the same day.

Polygon’s block producers have already added the addresses to a block list, so the funds cannot move.

But the companies say that is only a stopgap.

“The funds cannot move, but nothing in the current setup lets them be returned either.”

The proposal says the attacker has kept trying to get the funds out, including by offering validators cash to help unblock a transaction.

The fork would leave Polygon’s total supply unchanged.

It would only go live after approval through Polygon’s governance process, a test run on the Amoy testnet and proof that Binance and Polymarket control the recovery wallets.

The firms call it an extreme action that should not be reproduced commonly.

The plan is set to be presented at the Polygon Protocol Governance Call on November 5th at 14:30 UTC, with rollout expected to take about two weeks after approval.

Binance says it has already replaced most of the roughly $6.3 billion stolen from its hot wallets in the October 29th attack.

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Global central banks have added more gold to their reserves in the third quarter than in any quarter since late 2024, according to the World Gold Council, an industry body.

Central banks and other official institutions bought a net 321 tonnes of gold from July through September, up 42% from a year earlier, the World Gold Council says.

The council says portfolio diversification and risk management remain the main reasons behind the buying.

Central bank purchases so far this year stand at 675 tonnes, 6% higher than over the same stretch last year.

Gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also returned to inflows, adding 211 tonnes and lifting total holdings to a record 4,256 tonnes.

Total gold demand slipped 1% from a year earlier to 1,369 tonnes, but its value jumped 22% to $188 billion as the gold price averaged $4,262 per ounce.

Demand for gold bars and coins fell 19% to 268 tonnes, while jewelry demand dropped 17% to 313 tonnes, the weakest third quarter in the council’s records.

Technology demand rose 3% to 85 tonnes, its highest quarterly total since late 2021, as AI-related manufacturing lifted electronics demand.

Says Louise Street, senior markets analyst at the World Gold Council,

“The third quarter was a mixed bag for gold demand. Gold ETF inflows came roaring back, with geopolitical risk and concerns around fiscal discipline driving institutional interest, in contrast to retail investors who held back amid uncertainty over the gold price outlook. Central Banks remained an important pillar of demand as pronounced buying continued from the official sector…

The outlook for gold looks finely balanced through to the end of the year. While rising interest rates and mixed inflation expectations present potential headwinds, the combined shadows of geopolitical risk and financial market stress may cause participants to seek stability in gold.”

Gold is trading at $4,130 an ounce at time of writing.

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A former Indiana letter carrier has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for stealing checks from the mail in a $34 million bank fraud scheme that hit about 6,500 victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana says Destinee Ruffin, 29, of Indianapolis also got two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail.

Ruffin worked at the Bacon Station Post Office in Indianapolis, where she took checks from incoming and outgoing mail between April of 2020 and May of 2022 and sold them to co-conspirators.

The buyers changed the payee names and ran the checks through the bank accounts of people who handed over debit cards, PINs or online banking logins.

Ruffin supplied John Young, 24, with more than $12 million in stolen checks and sold Tony McMullen, 36, more than $235,000 worth.

The case began in the spring of 2020 when a Bacon Station customer complained that an Economic Impact Payment check never arrived, and more complaints led agents to Ruffin’s route.

Investigators later mailed controlled Treasury checks with recorded serial numbers and traced them back to her.

A search of her home, vehicle and devices in April of 2024 turned up thousands of unsold stolen checks worth more than $20 million, with stolen mail piled in closets, in corners and even in the bathroom.

One victim found out her $1,618 payment to keep her retired husband’s health insurance never arrived when she showed up for surgery and was told her coverage had been terminated, forcing the procedure to be canceled.

Says U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler,

“Destinee Ruffin’s crimes were not isolated acts of theft; they represented a sweeping scheme that touched thousands of households and eroded a fundamental public trust. By stealing millions of dollars’ worth of checks from the mail, Ruffin and her co-conspirators disrupted critical benefits, jeopardized family finances, and caused real harm to individuals who depended on timely delivery for essential needs.”

Ruffin was also ordered to pay $121,270.30 in restitution.

Three of her co-conspirators have already been sentenced, and Young is set to be sentenced on December 3rd.

The Daily Hodl reported on Ruffin’s guilty plea in October.

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A Wisconsin school district has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bank impersonation scam.

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) initially lost $450,000 but has recovered $255,000 and is working to get back the remaining $195,000, reports FOX6 Milwaukee.

The district says it learned it was the victim of bank impersonation fraud and notified authorities on Monday.

MPS has not released details on how or when the fraud happened.

Says MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius,

“This is a sobering reminder of the sophisticated financial scams that occur every day across the country. We are taking swift and immediate action to strengthen our internal procedures to prevent this from happening…

We also are working with our partners at US Bank to recover the remainder of the funds.”

The district says it is putting short-term and long-term controls in place to protect its finances, but it has not said what those controls include.

Along with the criminal investigation, MPS is running its own internal probe.

Deputy chief financial officer Jennifer Buros will serve as acting chief financial officer, with help from Charles Burbridge of the Council of the Great City Schools.

The $450,000 loss is less than one-tenth of one percent of the $1.6 billion budget the Milwaukee Board of School Directors approved in May for the 2026-27 school year.

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Manufacturing giant 3M has agreed to pay billions of dollars to resolve most of the personal injury claims tied to “forever chemicals” in firefighting foam.

The company says it will make a $7.35 billion commitment over nine years, with a present value of $5.8 billion, to settle claims in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) multidistrict litigation in South Carolina federal court.

Forever chemicals, known as PFAS, linger in the environment instead of breaking down and have been linked to health problems including cancer, reports The Hill.

3M says the deal addresses about 99% of current personal injury claims inside and outside the multidistrict litigation and involves about 115,000 to 120,000 eligible plaintiffs.

The company will pay $50 million in 2026 and nothing in 2027, with about 20% of the payments due in the final two years.

The total also includes a $680 million reserve fund for remaining and future claims.

Says 3M chairman and CEO William Brown,

“This settlement is a significant milestone for 3M and substantially reduces litigation uncertainty. Following our 2023 resolution with U.S. public water suppliers and our more recent settlement with the State of New Jersey, this is another important step in managing legacy PFAS matters.”

3M denies liability for the PFAS claims and says the agreement is not an admission of liability.

Attorneys Fred Thompson and David Hoyle of the law firm Motley Rice say in a statement,

“For the thousands of victims who have sought answers and accountability for nearly a decade, 3M’s $7.35 billion settlement is welcome news.”

3M separately settled claims from public water systems for more than $10 billion in 2023.

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Federal prosecutors have secured a guilty plea from a Washington resident accused of running a years-long romance scam that drained over $333,000 from a Portland victim.

Rithy Ham, 45, of Vancouver, Washington, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

The scheme ran from September 2020 through May 2024 and relied on invented identities of two women who supposedly needed cash for daily bills, nursing school costs and escape from sex trafficking.

“Believing the women were real and in danger, the victim sent money on multiple occasions.”

The victim sent repeated payments after receiving messages from both Ham and the fabricated profiles.

One transfer of $36,872.35 occurred in November 2022, and another $20,922 came from a retirement account in March 2023.

Ham and his wife controlled the accounts that received the funds, and part of the proceeds paid for an $18,500 check to his wife.

“In total, Ham stole $333,249.52 from the victim, much of it from the victim’s retirement savings.”

Under the plea deal, Ham must repay the full amount and faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and up to 10 years on the money laundering count.

The FBI conducted the investigation.

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The company behind Cash App is set to pay $764 million to end a federal investigation into its anti-money laundering program.

Jack Dorsey’s Block disclosed the deal in its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Block says it reached an agreement in principle with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in October to settle the matter through a deferred prosecution agreement.

Under the deal, the DOJ will put off for three years a charge that Block failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.

If Block meets the terms during that time, the DOJ will move to dismiss the charge.

The agreement is expected to carry a gross penalty of about $964 million, which drops to about $764 million after credit for earlier regulatory settlements.

The deal still needs a final agreement and court approval. Block had already set aside the full $764 million as of September 30th.

The payment is larger than the $565 million in net income Block reported for the third quarter.

The DOJ and SEC began looking into Block shortly after short seller Hindenburg Research published a report in March of 2023.

Hindenburg alleged that Cash App inflated its user numbers by counting duplicate and fake accounts and that weak identity checks let criminals use the app, reports Yahoo Finance. Block disputed the findings.

The SEC closed its own investigation in March of this year without recommending enforcement action.

Block posted $3.2 billion in gross profit for the quarter. Cash App gross profit rose 27% to $2.07 billion, while Square gross profit rose 14% to $1.16 billion.

Gross profit from Block’s Bitcoin business fell 50% to $52 million after the company cut fees on some Bitcoin transactions on Cash App, Yahoo Finance reports.

Block paid $40 million to New York’s financial regulator in April of 2025 over alleged anti-money laundering lapses at Cash App.

Block runs the Cash App payment app and the Square platform for merchants.

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A crypto analyst known for timely Bitcoin calls believes BTC’s price action following the US midterm election suggests that the flagship digital asset is gearing up for an all-time high (ATH) rally.

Pseudonymous analyst DonAlt tells his 797,800 followers on X that Bitcoin’s monthly chart turned green after it dropped to the $75,000 level on November 4th.

“Good start; the monthly looks like it just wants to go straight back to ATH.  Would be fun if it did. Fingers crossed we continue being this strong.”

The crypto strategist appears to suggest that BTC continues to respect its support level at $70,000 while potentially carving a higher low on the monthly chart.

Bitcoin rallied to an all-time high of $126,000 in October of last year.

The analyst also counters the prevailing narrative that crypto will be bearish if Democrats win.

“>’Crypto bearish if Republicans lose’
>Republicans lose
>Daily green

I don’t know man; the more the Democrats win, the less grifting is gonna be allowed. And I think that’s a good thing; s**t got disgusting over the last two years.”

Earlier this month, DonAlt said Bitcoin flashed signs of strength as BTC barely flinched following the $6.34 Binance hack.

“Last time the market didn’t properly sell off after a huge event like this was the FTX collapse.

When I saw the lack of follow-through, then I got giga bullish. And we subsequently went from $16,000 to $100,000.

Hard to be bearish here after having been given the same setup yet again.”

The Democrats won a majority in the House and Senate in the midterm election, reports the Associated Press. Democrats won 54 seats in the Senate, compared with 44 for Republicans. In the House, Democrats secured 237 seats, while Republicans won 147.

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A New York healthcare technology company has disclosed a data breach that exposed the medical information of nearly 50,000 people.

In its latest bulletin, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights says Cognitive Health Technologies suffered a hacking/IT incident impacting 49,467 individuals.

In a notice, Cognitive Health, which offers healthcare technology and IT consulting services, says it spotted suspicious activity on its network in late April of this year.

The firm also says the files taken include names, dates of birth, health insurance information, medical histories and treatment information.

“On April 27, 2026, Cognitive Health became aware of suspicious activity related to its network environment. We immediately took steps to secure our environment and launched an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the event. The investigation determined there was unauthorized access and/or acquisition of certain files and folders within Cognitive Health’s network between February 5, 2026, and April 28, 2026. As a result, Cognitive Health began an extensive review of these files and folders to determine whether sensitive information may be impacted. Our review determined that information related to certain individuals was present in the impacted data.”

The company says it has not found any misuse of the data so far.

It also says it has reviewed its security policies and added new measures to guard against similar attacks.

Cognitive Health urges impacted individuals to keep a close watch on incidents of identity theft and fraud, review account statements and monitor credit reports and explanation of benefits forms for suspicious activity.

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Berkshire Hathaway has eliminated its Amazon position and grown its Alphabet stake more than sixfold under new CEO Greg Abel.

Abel moved quickly on the conglomerate’s roughly $358 billion investment portfolio after Warren Buffett retired as CEO on December 31st, 2025.

In the first quarter, Berkshire trimmed six holdings and sent 16 others packing, including Amazon, which the firm first bought in early 2019 and which had advanced roughly 150% to 200% over the holding period.

The sales followed the December exit of longtime portfolio manager Todd Combs for JPMorgan Chase, and Abel cut predominantly non-core positions Combs had overseen.

Between December 31st, 2025, and September 25th, Berkshire’s Alphabet stake grew from $5.59 billion to $36.37 billion as Abel treated Google’s parent much as Buffett once treated Apple.

Alphabet benefits from Google’s greater-than-91% share of global internet search and YouTube advertising revenue.

Google Cloud, the world’s No. 3 cloud infrastructure platform, delivered an 82% year-over-year sales jump in the June-ended quarter on artificial intelligence demand.

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NVIDIA, Tesla, SpaceX, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are among more than 60 prominent US stocks that could soon be available for 24/7 tokenized trading.

OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sunday, notifying the regulator of plans to launch a marketplace for investors to buy tokenized stocks.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, OKXICE’s co-chair, says the firms plan to launch the trading venue under the SEC’s new “innovation exemption.”

“This is a landmark step toward a truly global, 24/7 Wall Street — and toward keeping the future of digital finance anchored here in the United States.

The digital asset revolution is already transforming our financial system. Tokenized securities are part of what comes next.”

Cuomo has advised OKX on policy matters since 2022, including during the exchange’s $504 million settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over anti-money-laundering violations.

ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has made a broad push into crypto infrastructure, including investments in OKX and the prediction market Polymarket, as well as its participation in stablecoin platform Circle’s $222 million Arc presale alongside BlackRock and Apollo.

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is proposing new crypto market regulations after the Clarity Act detonated in the Senate.

The regulator’s proposed rules would establish requirements for CFTC-registered crypto exchanges, though CFTC Chairman Michael Selig notes in a new Wall Street Journal Op-Ed that these regulations wouldn’t have the same impact as the Clarity Act.

“Unlike the Clarity Act, these regulations wouldn’t require crypto assets to trade on CFTC-registered platforms. We don’t have the authority to impose such a requirement without Congressional action. However, the rules would establish a purpose-fit option for crypto-asset exchanges that wish to operate under a single federal market-regulatory scheme. Unlike state-licensed exchanges, these exchanges would be permitted to allow retail customers to trade on a margined, leveraged or financed basis. Such platforms are distinct from ordinary spot-trading venues and are squarely within the CFTC’s regulatory jurisdiction.”

The CFTC says it is asking for public comment on ways to prevent abusive practices in crypto asset markets.

The Clarity Act would have largely placed digital assets under the regulatory purview of the CFTC, an agency industry stakeholders believe is friendlier to the sector than the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In September, the bill failed to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold on a cloture motion that would have allowed debate on the legislation to move forward.

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Community bankers are suing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) over approvals of national trust bank charters for cryptocurrency companies.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed the lawsuit on October 2nd, 2026, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The suit challenges a March 2nd, 2026, final rule and related guidance that the group says improperly expands the OCC’s power to charter national trust banks for non-fiduciary activities, including substantial crypto operations.

The complaint seeks to overturn the rule and vacate the conditional approval granted to at least one crypto firm, Protego Holdings Corp.

The OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 such charters, with at least 13 going to crypto companies.

“These approvals violate the law because they exceed the OCC’s statutory authority. They are also arbitrary and capricious because the OCC ignored warnings from commenters, including ICBA, that Protego and other crypto companies had severely flawed risk and control functions and governance structures that lack independent oversight. They are thus at serious risk of failure if the volatile cryptocurrency market crashes.”

According to the ICBA, the OCC’s decision to allow companies to obtain national trust bank charters to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities exceeds the authority Congress granted the agency.

Says ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey,

“Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance that apply to insured depository institutions.”

The OCC’s final rule and Interpretive Letter No. 1176 “perversely regulate trust banks far more lightly than traditional banks, allowing entities engaged in highly risky cryptocurrency and digital assets activities to enter the banking system under the national trust charter rather than the more rigorously regulated traditional bank charter,” the lawsuit states.

Prior to the recent approvals, the OCC had never chartered a national bank that neither took deposits nor engaged in fiduciary activities.

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Cryptocurrency thefts are surging dramatically with two massive incidents pushing total losses to record levels for the month.

Security firm PeckShieldAlert says the industry experienced 55 major hacks resulting in $766.49 million in losses.

That figure represents a roughly 462% month-over-month increase from August’s $136.3 million.

The Bitget incident at about $387 million and the Liquid Network theft of about $320 million, with $285 million returned, have jumped to the top spots among the largest crypto thefts of the year to date.

Other notable incidents included an MEV bot yoink front-run at $7.81 million that was returned, along with Duelbits at $7 million and several smaller exploits with partial recoveries.

The top 10 list also featured Payment Processor V2 at $6.6 million with $3.4 million returned, DCENT Wallet at $6.57 million Astroport at $4.9 million Drop at $4.4 million NostraFinance at $3.5 million and Nomic nBTC Bridge at $3.15 million.

Earlier this month, PeckShield cited on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, saying Near (NEAR) Intents was hacked to the tune of $3.865M after its Binance Smart Chain (BSC) hot wallet witnessed multiple irregular outflows.

The exploiter has transferred the stolen funds to KuCoin and bridged them to BTC. The exploiter’s address has interacted with an address labeled NorthKorea LazarusGroup (0x098B7…E2f96)

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Banks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were used to deposit stolen checks, or to try to, and two more men have pleaded guilty.

Raymond Wade, 43, of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Dwayne Reddon, 40, of Trenton, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, reports News12 New Jersey.

The operation ran from March 2023 through June 2025.

Participants held themselves out as the people or businesses the checks named, often after obtaining business documents in those names or opening accounts that were not the real payees’, then split the proceeds.

The crew deposited or attempted to deposit more than 100 Treasury and commercial checks worth over $11 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said on August 11th when it announced the first eight guilty pleas.

Many of the Treasury checks, not the full set, were Employee Retention Credit refunds, a pandemic-era IRS credit meant to help businesses keep workers.

Eight other defendants had already pleaded guilty.

Wayne Bessant, 45, of Hamilton, and Ryan Small, 33, of Ewing, are still charged, and those counts remain pending.

Wade is scheduled to be sentenced on December 17th, and Reddon on February 9th, 2027.

The conspiracy charge carries up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, which can be higher depending on the financial gain or loss.

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A New Jersey woman and her Colombian husband have been convicted of running a fake transit company that sought more than $13 million in federal funds meant for elderly, disabled and homeless Americans.

A federal jury in Utica, New York, found Jael Watts, 45, of Alloway, and Luis Pino-Copete, 42, of Bogota, Colombia, guilty in the scheme, says the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prosecutors say the pair operated Pearl Transit Corporation, a New Jersey shell company that claimed to employ drivers nationwide for medical rides and homeless outreach while delivering no real services.

Between July 2019 and October 2025, they sought more than $13 million through false claims and took in more than $1.6 million from agencies in Georgia, California and North Carolina, according to the DOJ.

Trial evidence showed they built fake payrolls and client lists with stolen identities, including people who were already dead, and listed “drivers” who lacked licenses or had never driven a car.

Says Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division,

“The defendants fabricated payrolls and client lists, even using the identities of deceased individuals, to siphon millions meant for the most vulnerable Americans.”

Bank records showed more than $100,000 on Porsche rentals, more than $100,000 at luxury retailer Loro Piana in Manhattan and months of travel across Colombia, Aruba and Europe, the DOJ says.

Watts was convicted of false statement, aggravated identity theft and five counts of wire fraud, while both were also convicted of wire fraud conspiracy, false document and aggravated identity theft. At a January 21st, 2027 sentencing, each faces up to 20 years in prison, fines of up to $250,000 and at least $1.9 million in restitution, and Pino-Copete faces deportation after any prison term.

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A West Virginia woman has been charged with multiple felony fraud counts after she allegedly spent more than $50,000 using someone else’s debit card and transferring funds to Cash App.

The case involves $52,928.33 in 204 approved charges plus 219 attempted charges on a Mountain Valley Bank card, reports The Inter-Mountain.

According to a criminal complaint filed by West Virginia State Police, Jessica Fay Michaletz, 36, of Elkins faces 10 counts of fraudulent use of an access device.

Investigators say a replacement debit card mailed to an outdated address was used for a wave of Cash App transfers, and the bank had flagged about $40,000 when it called troopers.

Search warrant records allegedly linked one Cash App account to Michaletz through her West Virginia operator’s license, home address, Social Security number and IP address, while a second account used another person’s details on the same device.

Says Michaletz,

“What did I do? I used it. I did. I used it.”

Michaletz allegedly told troopers she found the card on the ground next to a mailbox and told friends the money came from gambling winnings.

She is being held at Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a cash-only bond matching the alleged loss, with a preliminary hearing set for October 5th.

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Lyft has agreed to hand hundreds of millions of dollars to California drivers who say the company treated them as contractors instead of employees.

The settlement totals $272.5 million, including fees and costs, and resolves claims from the state attorney general, city attorneys, the labor commissioner and private plaintiffs covering April 5th, 2016, through December 15th, 2020.

At least $237,075,000 is reserved for drivers based on hours and miles driven, with payments allowed over four years plus up to $12.4 million in interest. Lyft booked a $210 million accrual in the fourth quarter of 2025.

“The lawsuit followed the introduction of the ‘ABC test:’ the groundbreaking legal test used to analyze the misclassification of workers, which was first adopted by the California Supreme Court in 2018 in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court and then codified into law under AB5. In the midst of litigation, Proposition 22 altered how the ABC test is applied to certain app-based drivers. Despite several appeals and changes in the law, the Attorney General and his partners remained resilient, winning every legal challenge in court and remaining steadfast in their demands for drivers’ deserved wages and protections.”

Says California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower,

“This settlement is about the workers who came forward and spoke up. Their voices made this outcome possible.”

In an SEC filing dated September 30th, Lyft says the deal is not an admission of liability and that resolving the matter now lets it avoid the costs and distraction of drawn-out litigation and keep management focused on its business goals. The attorney general announced the agreement today. The deal is still subject to court approval.

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Hundreds of thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries in the District of Columbia now face fraud risk after its Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) potentially exposed sensitive member data.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights says the District of Columbia’s DHCF experienced unauthorized access/disclosure that could affect 399,086 individuals.

According to DHCF, members of its Medicaid and DC Health Care Alliance (Alliance) enrolled between 2023 and July 2026 could have been impacted, as unauthorized entities may have accessed sensitive data hidden on its website.

“On July 21, 2026, DHCF learned that two reports on DHCF’s website contained hidden personal information that could be accessed by people who did not have permission to view it. These reports were intended to display only summary information about groups of people, such as enrollment counts and other statistics, and did not show anyone’s personal details on the screen. However, underlying personal information that supported these reports may have been reachable
by unauthorized users between 2023 and July 2026.

The information that could be seen may have included personal information, such as your, your child’s, or your family member’s Medicaid ID, date of birth, provider name, race gender, ward, or ethnicity. The information did not include Social Security numbers or financial account information.”

The DHCF says it abruptly removed the reports from the website while checking that its systems are safe and member information is protected. The agency also tells its members to ask a credit company to place a free alert on their credit report.

“DHCF has not learned that anyone looked at or used any of this information in the wrong way, but we are contacting you so you can understand what happened.”

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Cardano’s (ADA) recent price surge is running into fresh headwinds from fading trader interest and large-holder exits.

Futures open interest for ADA has dropped 9% over the past week, sliding from $1.99 billion to $1.81 billion as traders cut back on leveraged bets, says Ali Charts on X.

Whales also appear to be taking profits.

“Since September 20, large holders have offloaded roughly 90 million ADA, worth approximately $22.5 million, adding to the recent selling pressure.”

This decline in demand aligns with a Tom DeMark Sequential sell signal that appeared on Cardano’s daily chart.

“Since then, ADA has fallen 10%, and the correction may not be over yet.”

According to the analyst, a parallel channel on the daily chart points to $0.24 as the key mid-range support.

“If ADA loses that level, a move toward the channel’s lower boundary near $0.21 becomes likely.”

If $0.21 holds, it could present the next buying opportunity, targeting the channel top near $0.28.

Looking at Bitcoin, Ali says whales have cut their BTC holdings significantly over the last seven days.

“Most of the market has moved sideways over the past week. So what have whales been doing during the lull?

Bitcoin whale holdings have fallen by roughly 30,000 BTC, worth about $2.52 billion.

Large holders appear to be reducing their exposure.”

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Federal prosecutors have secured a guilty plea from a Boston man accused of using fake identification to drain hundreds of thousands of dollars from customer accounts.

William Shaw, 68, admitted to four counts of bank fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft in federal court, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The defendant posed as at least 13 account holders from late 2022 into early 2025 by presenting forged driver’s licenses that carried the victims’ details alongside his own photograph.

He also submitted withdrawal forms listing the customers’ names and account numbers to obtain cashier’s checks and cash totaling more than $900,000.

Judge Julia E. Kobick set sentencing for January 6th, 2027, after Shaw was charged in January 2026.

Separately, authorities charged six additional men in July 2025 as part of a larger multi-state bank fraud investigation covering Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Three of those defendants have already entered guilty pleas and await sentencing, while another received a sentence in a connected case.

A bank fraud conviction carries up to 30 years in prison along with fines reaching $1 million or twice the amount gained or lost.

Each aggravated identity theft count requires at least two years in prison served consecutively to any other term.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Kearney is handling the prosecution.

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A Wyoming orthopedic practice has disclosed a cyberattack that put the personal, financial and medical records of tens of thousands of people at risk.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says Casper Orthopedic Associates PC suffered a hacking/IT incident on July 23rd, impacting 56,197 people.

In a notice to impacted individuals, the healthcare firm says an unauthorized entity accessed its systems and stole files that may include patients’ first names, last names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, financial account records, and medical information.

“On or about May 23, 2026, Casper discovered it was the victim of a cyberattack by an unauthorized third party. Immediately upon identifying the incident, Casper engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to assess, contain, and remediate the incident. Law enforcement was also notified.

Casper’s investigation, which concluded on June 11, 2026, determined that the unauthorized party may have acquired sensitive information from Casper’s systems. Casper then undertook an in-depth review process of the impacted information to determine the impacted individuals and their address information, which was completed on September 2, 2026. As such, Casper notified those who are believed to be impacted on September 8, 2026.”

Casper says it has found no evidence that anyone’s information was specifically misused.

The practice has added safeguards and tightened physical security while urging affected patients to reach out to credit reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Casper Orthopedic Associates PC is an orthopedic practice based in Casper, Wyoming.

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An armored truck driver hired to load cash into ATMs has been accused of stealing $259,574 from the machines and spending the money on cars, a cruise and other purchases.

Federal prosecutors say Christopher Skinner, 41, formerly of Milford, New Hampshire, worked alone at ATM locations across the state and removed cash bundles before servicing the machines between February 2nd and February 26th of 2024.

A federal indictment charges Skinner with 18 counts of bank theft plus money laundering and conspiracy counts tied to two FDIC-insured banks. His partner, Amee Skinner, 37, formerly of Conway, faces related laundering counts. Both pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire and are presumed innocent.

Prosecutors say cash deposits into the couple’s accounts rose sharply afterward, and funded the purchase of cars, a luxury cruise and other purchases.

“The defendants allegedly used the stolen funds to make substantial personal purchases, including $40,000 in cash for a 2019 GMC Sierra and $28,814 in cash for a 2019 Lincoln Nautilus. According to the indictment, the defendants also used stolen funds to pay for additional travel, retail, and online purchases.”

If convicted, the Skinners face years in prison.

“The bank theft counts each carry a maximum prison term of 10 years. The money laundering counts carry a maximum prison term of 10 years, and the money laundering conspiracy count carries a maximum term of 20 years.”

The indictment was filed August 5th of 2026.

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U.S. prosecutors have seized nearly $84 million from bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets tied to a Montana payments firm linked to Tether.

The civil forfeiture targets Capstone, a money services business that allegedly posed as an information technology company to open accounts at major banks while moving money for crypto firms, reports Reuters.

Court filings say Capstone, registered in Montana, processed payments for two crypto companies through a bank in Dominica. Prosecutors say the firm also ran a scheme that converted fraud proceeds into crypto by posing as FBI agents.

Nearly $81 million was seized from Capstone accounts at Wells Fargo and about $2 million from an account at JPMorgan Chase. Roughly $1.2 million worth of Tether’s dollar-pegged token was taken as well, according to the July filing first reported by The Information.

Tether said it was a customer of the Dominica bank and that its assets there were limited. A spokesperson addressed Capstone’s alleged conduct.

“Tether had no knowledge of the conduct by Capstone alleged by the Department of Justice.”

The Justice Department did not allege wrongdoing by Tether or the other firms involved. Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and JPMorgan declined to comment.

A lawyer for Capstone told Reuters the firm denies wrongdoing and plans to challenge the complaint.

Tether issues USDT, a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency used to move value on crypto networks.

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Banks risk losing $230 billion in payments revenue as stablecoins, tokenized deposits and central bank digital currencies move into wider use, according to a survey conducted by IT services and consulting firm Capgemini.

Capgemini’s World Payments Report 2027 projects those instruments will make up about 4% of global payments volume by 2030, pressuring foreign exchange spreads, correspondent banking, float income and transaction fees that banks thrive on, says Capgemini.

The study says about $4 trillion sits trapped in accounts used to fund cross-border settlement. Nearly 60% of large corporates would take stablecoin services from non-banks if their banks fall behind, even though 71% still prefer banks for tokenized payments when cost and quality are equal.

Only 21% of banks are actively scaling at least one of these tools. Tokenized deposits ranked as banks’ top near-term priority because they stay on balance sheets and fit existing rules. Leaders that are already scaling are three times more likely to find new revenue streams and expect to offset losses in 15 months versus 25 months for other banks.

Capgemini’s global head of payment services Jeroen Hölscher framed the stakes for lenders.

“With $230 billion at stake, banks must decide what role they want to play in this emerging ecosystem.”

The report surveyed 1,110 corporates with more than $1 billion in revenue and 300 banking executives across nine markets. Capgemini is a global consulting and technology firm headquartered in Paris, France.

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The City of Sacramento is launching an $8 million guaranteed income program that will pay eligible foster youth $900 a month with no strings attached.

The city and United Way California Capital Region say the Foster Youth Guaranteed Income Program will send the money for up to two years, or until a recipient turns 25, whichever comes first.

Applications open October 1st of 2026 and close at 11:59 p.m. on October 31st of 2026. One hundred eligible applicants will be chosen by lottery, with notices starting the first week of November. Payments are set to begin January 15th of 2027.

Applicants must be ages 16 to 23 when payments start, live in the city or county of Sacramento, or be receiving homeless services there. They must be former foster youth who left care after age 16, or current foster youth within 90 days of leaving when payments start. Household income has to sit at or below 300% of the federal poverty level. Immigration status does not affect eligibility.

Recipients do not have to join any other services to keep the checks. They can spend the money as they choose.

The city is paying for the program with Measure L, the 2022 Sacramento Children’s Fund that requires the equivalent of 40% of local cannabis tax revenue to go to child and youth services.

United Way California Capital Region will run the program. The nonprofit has administered guaranteed-income pilots in the region since 2021.

Mayor Kevin McCarty addressed the funding.

“Supporting former foster youth as they transition into adulthood is an investment in their future and our community’s future. We’re putting our Measure L funding where it can have the greatest impact.”

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Bitcoin Magazine

Republican Senator Steve Daines Releases Text of Proposed Crypto Tax Plan

Republican senator Steve Daines has released a new proposal to update the tax code with regards to digital assets. 

The senator for Montana released the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act — or ADAPT Act — sponsored by Sen. Daines with Sens. Lummis, Moreno, and Tim Scott on Wednesday, aiming to draft rules for assets like stablecoins. 

Lawmakers and regulators are fast trying to draft rules for digital assets since U.S. President Trump took office on a pro-crypto platform. The Clarity Act collapsed in the Senate last month; one day after, the House Ways and Means Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation that would revamp the tax treatment of cryptocurrency. 

“Digital assets have moved into the mainstream, but the tax code hasn’t kept up,” Senator Daines wrote on X. 

Digital assets have moved into the mainstream, but the tax code hasn’t kept up. My bill would create clearer rules for stablecoins, network fees, staking and lending—while extending familiar tax rules like wash sales and constructive sales to digital assets. pic.twitter.com/W6nXSsTgvX

— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) September 30, 2026

“My bill would create clearer rules for stablecoins, network fees, staking and lending — while extending familiar tax rules like wash sales and constructive sales to digital assets.”

The bill proposes that everyday users of stablecoins get tax relief for everyday uses. Spending a qualifying dollar stablecoin on goods or services wouldn’t trigger gain or loss, and brokers wouldn’t have to report those transactions. 

To qualify, the stablecoin must be issued under the GENIUS Act framework, appear on a quarterly Treasury list of coins that have held within 3% of $1.00, and have been bought by you within 3% of $1.00. 

Separately, network or gas fees paid in crypto would be tax-free dispositions as long as the fees for a given transaction total $10 or less, with anti-structuring rules. 

The bill would also apply wash sale rules to crypto for the first time. The rules bar investors from claiming a tax loss if they sell an asset and buy it back within 30 days. Stock investors have long been bound by them, while crypto traders could sell at a loss and immediately rebuy. 

The rules would cover traded digital assets other than qualified stablecoins. Assets bought before the bill becomes law would be grandfathered, and staking rewards, mining rewards and regular recurring purchases would be exempt. 

Tokenized versions of stocks would count as “substantially identical” to the underlying shares.

The ADAPT Act now heads to committee, which would need to approve it before it could reach a vote by the full Senate.

This post Republican Senator Steve Daines Releases Text of Proposed Crypto Tax Plan first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

The Justice Department says UCLA’s law school discriminated against white and Asian applicants in its 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes.

The findings say the school violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on race in admissions.

The department says the school rejected white and Asian applicants who had the same LSAT scores as admitted black and Hispanic applicants.

In 2024 and 2025 combined, half of the admitted black applicants had LSAT scores at or below 90 percent of the admitted white applicants.

Investigators say the application still uses essays that draw out race, and staff told applicants how to reveal it at a “Diversity Admissions Open House.”

Says Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon,

“Like many of its peer institutions, UCLA Law School runs a two-tiered admissions system whose academic bar for acceptance shifts up or down depending on the color of your skin.

The use of race as a thumb on the scale that helps or disadvantages any student is illegal. The Department will continue to enforce equal treatment under the law everywhere — including in our nation’s law schools.”

UCLA Law is the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles. It takes federal money, which puts it under the civil rights rule.

The department says it will try to settle. If that fails, it will sue.

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US President Donald Trump has indicated that the government could acquire a stake in OpenAI and Anthropic, mirroring its strategy with Intel. In a TIME interview, Trump said “I might” about possible investments in the AI firms. His comments bring to light a proposal that was first raised this year as Washington deepens its engagement

The post Donald Trump Says US Government Might Take Stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic appeared first on CoinGape.

Public infrastructure for charging an EV in America is a mess. Executives have all been vocal and up front about it. So much so that seven of the world’s largest automakers formed a joint venture called Ionna to tackle the issue and stand up a nationwide charging network. Toyota joined the party a year later to bring the count to eight. But this isn’t just about selling EVs, it’s an entirely new form of business diversification.

During an interview on The Drivecast Ionna CEO Seth Cutler said, “This is a for-profit business.” That business is EV charging.

Listen to the entire conversation starting at the moment Cutler discuses Ionna needing to turn a profit below.

“We know the company has to get to financial independence and profitability over time,” Cutler said. Currently Ionna exists off an undisclosed amount of money invested into the joint venture by BMW, Mercedes, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Stellantis along with Toyota joining a year later.

At some point the faucet will be turned off, and Cutler, who has spent most of his career in the EV charging and energy vertical, knows it.

Cutler said, “Infrastructure has to be for-profit or it’ll never survive, and if it never survives, EVs will never survive.”

The approach to profitability and scale has been multi-pronged including various partnerships with Circle K, Wawa, Sheetz, and Casey’s.

Beyond partnerships, Cutler said, “Very early on, we said let’s make some bets and plant some seeds for future trees. We’ve bought land at several dozen sites; we’ve built our own amenities where you’ve got buildings that we operate with vending machines, bathrooms, and other technology inside, like Amazon Just Walk Out; we’ve taken a piece of land, have a ground lease, and can come back later to add to it, add a building, or find a co-tenant. These things are all sitting there underground as seeds, but we’ve not focused time on that because it’s easy for an organization to get distracted and not have everybody working on driver quality and charging quality at scale. But we know that in 2027, 2028, or beyond, we’ll start to invest resources in terms of other ways to monetize or provide value to drivers with these things that we’ve developed that are different in the marketplace. But it is definitively not a focus right now.”

Ionna isn’t alone in trying to build out a nationwide network of EV fast chargers to rival Tesla’s Supercharger network. Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is making similar bets, though his focus is a bit more spread out than Cutler’s. Despite launching the R2 and being keenly aware everyone has ants in their pants for the R3X, a large focus is being put on building the Rivian Adventure Network (RAN). As of the summer the Rivian Adventure Network was a hair smaller than Ionna’s network today, and about 4% of Tesla’s Supercharger network.

For now, Cutler was up front about the path forward, “My goal is to triple the size of the network this year from where we started at 80 at the beginning of the year. That scale isn’t baked into a lot of what people are seeing because we’re moving so fast right now,” he said.

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The post EVs ‘Will Never Survive’ If Charging Doesn’t Make Money, Ionna CEO Says appeared first on The Drive.

Hyperliquid's policy group wants perps under MiFID II, while Circle targets MiCA's bank deposit floor in filings to the European Commission's MiCA review.

Crypto may have benefited from the failure of the US CLARITY Act, according to Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan.

The CLARITY Act failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward in the US Senate after years of negotiations. But instead of hurting the crypto market, its failure was followed by a strong rally across several digital assets.

Unexpected Wins in Washington

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum rose about 11% after the vote. Some other tokens posted much bigger gains. NEAR jumped 125%, Uniswap rose 49%, and Avalanche gained 44%, according to Hougan. The reaction may seem surprising because the crypto industry had strongly supported the bill. Hougan said the industry wanted the legal certainty that CLARITY promised. But added that the final version also included several compromises that could have created new restrictions for crypto companies.

One major area is stablecoins. The exec explained that the proposed legislation would have restricted platforms from paying customers interest or rewards on stablecoin balances. With the bill now stalled, existing stablecoin rules remain in place. Hougan said this could benefit companies such as Coinbase, which use stablecoin rewards to attract users.

CLARITY would have created a national licensing system for spot crypto exchanges. It also could have placed limits on the way exchanges combine trading and brokerage services. With the bill gone, established exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken avoid those changes for now.

Instead of waiting for new legislation and lengthy studies, the SEC recently allowed certain tokenized US stocks to trade through blockchain-based systems under temporary rules, which, according to Hougan, could give tokenization companies a chance to test the technology in real markets sooner.

Revenue-generating tokens are another area that has benefited from clearer regulatory guidance. Several tokens, including NEAR and Uniswap, have gained strongly while using protocol revenue for token buybacks. The SEC has also clarified that, once a blockchain network is functional, announcing a buyback program does not by itself turn a token into a security.

There is still a major risk as regulation can change when a new administration takes office. A future SEC or CFTC leadership could take a tougher approach to crypto. Despite this, Hougan expects “crypto to be too big to crush.”

Progress Under Existing Rules

Michael Saylor, co-founder and former CEO of Strategy, also sees the failure differently. He recently argued that crypto may be better served by working with supportive regulators at the SEC, CFTC, Treasury, and banking agencies than accepting the restrictions included in the bill’s final version.

Saylor believes the sector should use the next few years to build compliant crypto products under existing rules instead of rushing to accept a compromise simply to get legislation passed. His focus is on products that can lower costs, expand access, and give users more control over their money.

The post Crypto May Be Better Off Without CLARITY Act, Says Bitwise CIO: ‘Too Big to Crush’ appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Philip Jefferson has suggested that the FOMC is likely to hold rates steady at the October meeting. This comes as crypto traders continue to price in a hold following the latest macro data point, with the odds of an October Fed rate hike sharply declining this week. Ad Ad Jefferson Hints

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Standard Chartered's DeFi research expansion signals a shift towards institutional-grade analysis, potentially accelerating DeFi's mainstream adoption.

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A 50,000-letter campaign is pressing Brussels to rethink stablecoin rewards as EU central banks seek broader changes to MiCA’s stablecoin rules.

Circle has called on EU policymakers to adjust certain provisions in MiCA, noting that the majority of the largest global stablecoins are not included. According to Patrick Hansen, EU strategy and policy director at Circle, only three of the world’s top 30 stablecoins are MiCA-compliant. Ad Ad Circle Pushes for Wider Stablecoin Recognition According to

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What happens when you mix sky-high fuel prices with a rollback of EV incentives? A boom in hybrid sales, as it turns out. A year after Congress officially ended America’s electric vehicle subsidies, we’ve seen an unsurprising decline in EV sales. But as the stagnant and unfavorable geopolitical climate continues to put pressure on global fuel prices, Many (though clearly not all) buyers are turning to hybrids for their new-car purchases, and companies like Toyota are reaping the benefits. But with hybrid sales exploding, why the heck is no one buying the Prius?

Let me give you some context. At this point last year, automakers with deep EV portfolios were doing everything they could to blow out their inventory while they could still send customers home with some cash in their pockets. Toyota would have been pushing its U.S.-built plug-in hybrid models hard, while the Prius languished despite a strong start to 2025. Toyota sold only 2,011 of them last September. This year, without that same EV pressure, that number fell again—to just 1,897.

Toyota moved more than 25,000 Camry Hybrids and more than 28,000 RAV4 Hybrids in the same period. In fact, the only hybrids in the Toyota lineup that sold worse than the Prius last month were the Corolla Cross (1,821), Tacoma (1,705), the Highlander (1,088), and the Crown (406). Toyota sold more BZ EVs in September than regular Prius hybrids; you have to throw in the plug-in variant just to sneak past the EV. Consequently, in a year when hybrids are taking market share left and right, the industry’s best-known model is headed in the opposite direction. Year to date, Prius sales are down 51%, to just 16,731.

Are Toyota buyers spoiled for choice, or is America just over the Prius?

Plenty of support backs the former argument. Toyota sells multiple hybrids in its own showroom that compete with the Prius, including the Corolla and Corolla Cross; even the Camry and RAV4 overlap in price. Like the Prius, the hybrid Corollas move in modest numbers, especially compared with their gas-powered sibling. Toyota has sold nearly 200,000 ICE Corollas so far in 2025, to just over 34,000 hybrids. Not even close.

But even if there’s a case for cannibalization, there’s still one more factor to consider: the Prius is actually kind of cool now. I’d certainly rather drive this than any Corolla short of a GR. Clearly, many Toyota buyers feel differently. Bummer.

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SRC has received an order from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for two AN/TPQ-49A (Q49A) radar systems configured with Air Surveillance software to support unmanned aircraft testing and ground-based sense-and-avoid (GBSAA) operations.

The radars will be deployed at GA-ASI flight operations sites in El Mirage and Gray Butte, California, providing detection and tracking of cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft operating near uncrewed aerial system (UAS) testing areas. Delivery is expected by the end of October 2026.

The Q49A systems will provide the surveillance sensor component of a broader GBSAA system, giving UAS operators airspace situational awareness for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. The ground-based configuration allows surveillance capabilities to be used for UAS that cannot accommodate onboard radar.

SRC said the Q49A provides 3-D target position data and can operate remotely over an IP network, with detection data fed to a central fusion processor. The radar can be installed on tripods, rooftops, towers or vehicles and is designed to operate in low-visibility and night-time conditions.

The company is also advancing FCC Part 87 certification for the Q49A, following completion of the required compliance testing. SRC said certification would support broader use of the radar for civil air surveillance and integration into GBSAA and detect-and-avoid (DAA) architectures for UAS and BVLOS operations.

For more information

https://www.srcinc.com/news-and-events/press/2026/20260929-contract-air-surveillance-radar-uas-operations.html

Image: SRC

The post SRC supplies radars to General Atomics for UAS airspace surveillance first appeared on Unmanned airspace.

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