CTO

highgo1

If it's the CEO, CTO rumor it'll be hard for them. If it's north Korea they won't care as China will take of it for them

BassIs4StringDrum

Blockchain can’t replace SWIFT because the valuable part of SWIFT is not the technology, the valuable parts are infrastructure/clients/trust. There absolutely no reason for SWIFT to be replaced by blockchain they are not even solving the same issue in the same solution level. What you are talking about is settlements, SWIFT can use it but not be replaced by it, it is independent from blockchains. See Ripple they are not selling XRP to replace SWIFT, they are selling infrastructure/clients/trust, XRP is useless here as you can replace that with anything similar even their CTO said this.

stacktoshi21

Or maybe just being aware that Coinkite only had a single FT software dev (who doubled as CTO) at the time the RNG was last touched.

PaperPigGolf

I think there is reason to believe that the "bug" was not accidental. They were informed about the screwy ghost library revealed to have been developed by the CTO under a psuedonym.

TheresNoSecondBest

>it was only about 20% of the network It wasn't even 20% of nodes. According to Ocean (yes, the only pool signaling for BIP110) CTO and many others, it was about 6% of nodes. The rest were just Sybil nodes. >btc is compromised by pedos That's what a scammer, trying to sell a shitcoin would say. >the flipside is that BIP110 was just a sizable minority that wanted this change (and the emphasis is minority). That's the thing. If **a minority** could change the most decentralized monetary network in the world, than it would be dead years ago. A small minority would be capable of increasing the total supply, block size or block reward. **Bitcoin being and to stay decentralized means the vast majority of the whole network has to agree with the changes you are presenting.**

mightyroy

New evidence shows that their CTO DrHex deliberately introduced the bug

AcademicMovie1724

Yikes that letter is trying way too hard to look official with the CTO’s name slapped on there, like scammers always do. The crumple gives it a nice touch though, almost like they want you to think it barely survived the journey just to save your wallet My grandma nearly fell for something similar last year, a fake bank notice with a deadline that made her panic. I had to sit her down and explain that if it has a QR code and a sense of urgency, it’s almost always garbage. The August 8th deadline is the real tell, they want you to act before your brain catches up Glad you caught your brother in time, it’s scary how convincing these can look at a glance. I keep my family on a strict “no clicking, no scanning” rule unless they verify through the actual website first. Saved my uncle from a phishing email just last month using that same rule

ineedanamegenerator

Completely agree. I was just pointing out the issue was way more subtle than "flag set wrong". There is no excuse that this passed tests for years. It was the library that did the fallback. I understand not wanting to fork the library, but this library was (allegedly) a side project of the CTO. So they could have easily fixed it upstream to have a flag to completely disable the RNG code and demand the user provided their own.

v1t0z

Reddit Executive Leadership: Steve Huffman — Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and President. Jen Wong — Chief Operating Officer (COO). Drew Vollero — Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Christopher Slowe — Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Ownership Structure and Major Shareholders The company has a two-class share system: Class A (1 vote per share, publicly traded) and Class B (10 votes per share, held by insiders and early investors). This ensures control is concentrated in the hands of the founders and the Advance Fund. Shareholder / Investor Stake / Voting Power Category Advance Magazine Publishers (Newhouse Family / Condé Nast) \~25–30% of shares (\~62% of votes) Majority Investor / Media Conglomerate Steve Huffman \~3–4% of shares (high % of votes via Class B) Insider / Co-Founder and CEO Sam Altman (Sam Altman entities) \~7–9% of votes Early Venture Investor Tencent Holdings \~4–6% of shares (\~8% of votes) Strategic Investor Institutional (Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, Vanguard) \~5–10% of Class A shares each Public Funds Board of Directors: David Habiger Habiger — Chairman of the Board, Independent Director. Steve Huffman — Member of the Board of Directors, CEO. Sarah Farrell — Independent Director (Waygrove Partnership). Patricia Fili-Krushel — Independent Director (former NBCUniversal/Time Warner executive). Porter Gale — Independent Director (marketing expert, former Virgin America). Steven Newhouse / Advance Publications representatives — Directors representing the key shareholder.

spx

i love how all these slop articles attack Bitcoin instead of CoinKite and his CEO\CTO.  Quite telling. 

BlazingPalm

I haven’t seen much commentary on the fact that CTO Peter Grey allegedly personally changed the code that introduced the flaw several years ago. If corroborated, well then he’s got some splaining to do

Few_Response_7028

Just don't. After seeing some of the decisions the CTO made, he seems like he might have been insane or something

Special-Rub-5694

yeah with my conspiracy hat on, in 2021 march was the same time when coldcard introduced that bug, the CTO talked about the retirement hack, and fidelity had their ETF.

Shadowrak

Dude the CTO implemented the change which made the random not secure. Almost certainly cold card is an inside job.

ineedanamegenerator

The stories are there, from the other side (original wallet owners who got their funds drained inexplicably). Last year the CTO of Coinkite was warned (alledgedly). In both cased it was waved off. https://www.cryptopolitan.com/coinkite-cto-peter-gray-linked-coldcard-hack/

PeachScary413

I think you might need to hurry up before the CEO/CTO goes to prison lmao

BigDik6355

Geez, this is unfolding like a classic murder story. Was it the butler? The CEO? Or was it the CTO under another name? Or someone else entirely? The intrigue! Peter would be very high on the suspect list, that is for sure.

Few_Response_7028

Have you seen some of the commit history on the CTO and how he was talking to him self on a Cryptographically verifiable second account? I could never trust this guys code

GeneralZex

Why was the CTO of the company developing the firmware his company would use under a pseudonym?

DackNBills878

Can I be honest? It sucks extremely for the victims but you’re implying all bitcoin custody set ups are not safe. This is not true. This is a coldcard issue that generated poor entropy after a weird code change passed by their CTO.

slvbtc

The bug fixes mean nothing. When you find out the CTO was an absolute incompetant moron and the company pushed security critical code with zero review processes, you never use their devices or trust that company again. Anything coinkite has ever touched is now a dead project.

Carbonaraficionada

Safe to say the CTO is in deep shit

slvbtc

What if they are not. Havent you seen the posts showcasing why the CTO of coinkite may have planted the bug on purpose in order to steal user funds himself.

Ok-Concept-7924

Nothing wrong with pseudonyms on their own. We're all using them here on Reddit after all. It becomes serious when they're used deliberately and dishonesty. He was concealing a massive conflict of interest, as CTO he was reviewing and approving his own unaudited library using two pseudonyms designed to appear like separate people. And when we consider this library contained the fatal vulnerability, dishonestly presenting this as independent, third-party code diverts attention away from the real source - the CTO himself. Now if it turns out that this vulnerability was deliberate (no evidence of this - this is theoretic), then the whole pseduonym thing becomes a material part of a scheme to defraud, potentially even obstruction if it amounts to fabricating evidence to mislead an investigation.

frozen_pipe77

Fun story: sounds like the hackers were CEO and CTO

burusai

No. Their CTO inserted the bug into their code. This was a planned rugpull from the beginning.

BigDik6355

CEO or the CTO are indeed prime suspects.

dm8try

I respectfully disagree. Don’t want to go deep into the weeds ‘though. I think I’m getting close to my ideal multisig setup, thanks to the essay from Ledger’s Charles the CTO on MuSig2 and Miniscript, which is simple, manageable yet secure enough. Btw, Nunchuk for MacBook M5 platform and Ledger - nightmare and only marginal improvements on the Nunchuk side for almost 6+ months, absolute negligence from the Nunchuk side to non-paying users. Disgusting. Contrary, Liana and Ledger work like charm, right out of the box. Nunchuk turned to be such a waiste of time to me.

flesjewater

The dude is CTO, not an intern

Prior_Parsley3960

summary for those of us with adhd brains Researchers now say they've identified the developer responsible for the flawed randomness code behind the ongoing **Coldcard seed-generation vulnerability**. The report claims: * The vulnerable `libngu` code was authored by **Coinkite CTO and co-founder Peter Gray**, based on cryptographic GPG commit signatures. * Bitcoin developer **James O'Beirne** says he warned Coinkite about the randomness issue in **May 2025**, but the warning was allegedly dismissed. * Coinkite has **not publicly responded** to the identity allegations or the claim that it ignored the warning. # The vulnerability * A **single code change in March 2021** accidentally replaced the hardware random number generator with a weaker software source when creating wallet seeds. * The result was **far less entropy** than intended, allowing attackers to regenerate affected wallet seeds offline. * **No phishing, malware, or physical device theft** was required. # Current impact * Approximately **$114 million (≈1,800 BTC)** has reportedly been stolen. * More than **5,200 Bitcoin addresses** have been compromised across four attack waves. * Coinkite says the exploit **is still active**. # Who is affected? **At risk:** * Mk3 wallets initialized on firmware **4.0.1 or later**. * Mk4/Mk5/Q wallets that generated seeds **before** the patched firmware releases. **Not affected (based on current reporting):** * Wallets created using the **dice-roll seed generation** method. * Wallets protected with a **strong BIP-39 passphrase** (risk significantly reduced). * **Multisig** wallets where the affected Coldcard is only one signer. # Bottom line This is becoming one of the **largest hardware wallet security failures** in Bitcoin's history. The immediate risk remains the flawed seed generation—not the hardware itself. If you ever generated a Coldcard seed on affected firmware and haven't migrated, **move your funds to a newly generated wallet immediately.**

-3229

A CTO for a Bitcoin hardware wallet company needs to be a coding wizard, no excuses.

neverpersonal

CEO AND CTO had a product that the CTO coded and then audited himself under an alias. He also created the RNG through his own fake name on github. 2 different people pointed out the RNG issue, one in 2021 and the other in 2025. Both were dismissed. CEO said at one point, use a random dice roll if you do not trust the RNG due to a retirement hack. What's a retirement hack? Someone finding a mistake in changed code that had bugs and some people who set up a wallet during the time of this bug would be vulnerable. Extra note: Coinkite would not have been able to publicly announce this bug as it would just lead to instant h acks. However, here is the biggest issue: If they knew, then they knew they had access to 1000s of keys. They also had all the information of the people they sold it too. A cold wallet owners worse nightmare, the creators knowing you, your keys, and lying about this. Even the most reliable company, you still don't want anyone knowing your key, because you never know if they have a bad day, week, or just POS in general. Well, this company knew. Lied about keeping emails and contact information, said they deleted all information in 90 days, kept all information. This would be a legal issue for users that have a 'cold wallet' but didn't want the world or their government to know this. Well, coinkite lied and kept all information, to make sure anyone whoever bought one, was on a list. This post loops a bit and circles around various facts. You could just copy and paste the whole conversation in AI and it would summarize for you in 1 sentence.

tidder_mac

TLDR (thanks AI): The author argues that this compiled timeline, public dismissals, and code links provide enough probable cause to demand formal investigations and criminal prosecution of company leadership. **Core Focus:** The post discusses new evidence surrounding the recent $114 million Coldcard hardware wallet hack, arguing that it points directly to Coinkite's leadership (CEO Rodolfo Novak/NVK and CTO Peter Gray). **The "Retirement Attack" Context:** It highlights historical comments and tweets from Coinkite leadership dating back to 2020–2021 where they publicly dismissed the threat of "retirement attacks" (a scenario where wallet makers manipulate randomness/entropy generation to steal funds later). **The Code & Timeline:** Researchers and community members tied GitHub commits from 2021—allegedly authored under a pseudonym linked to the CTO—directly to the faulty pseudorandom number generator code that caused the vulnerability, noting it was left active for years despite warnings.

SeriousGains

Summary courtesy of ChatGPT: The account argues that Coinkite repeatedly downplayed, overlooked, or dismissed warnings about the exact entropy failure that later endangered Coldcard users. In December 2020, CEO Rodolfo Novak publicly suggested that users were more likely to lose their own bitcoin than a hardware-wallet vendor was to conduct a “retirement attack,” while joking that users could always add their own randomness with dice. Ten weeks later, according to the account, CTO Peter Gray introduced a change that routed seed generation through software pseudorandom generators rather than genuine hardware entropy. Months later, Coldcard was still marketing itself as resistant to retirement attacks while treating dice-generated entropy as an optional safeguard rather than a default requirement. A central allegation concerns the pseudonymous GitHub developer “switck,” who maintained the little-known libngu cryptographic library incorporated into Coldcard’s firmware. Subsequent analysis of signed commits reportedly showed that “switck” was actually Peter Gray, Coinkite’s CTO and co-founder. The author argues that this obscured accountability: outside reviewers saw what appeared to be a lightly scrutinized third-party dependency, while people inside Coinkite would have known it was internally written. The firmware change was also questioned almost immediately. In April 2021, only weeks after release, someone in a Coldcard Telegram group warned that replacing heavily reviewed cryptographic code with libngu was a significant and poorly scrutinized change. A second, more detailed warning allegedly arrived in May 2025, when Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne audited the firmware, questioned whether the true hardware RNG was actually being used, specifically flagged hardcoded constants in libngu, and recommended removing the library. Coinkite’s reported response was essentially that, if anything were wrong, they would already know. A Signal group called “LNGU Clean up” was subsequently created, but no fix was released for roughly fourteen months. Coinkite’s later postmortem reportedly acknowledged that its developers had misunderstood how the RNG configuration worked and that seed generation had effectively depended on deterministic software randomness rather than physical entropy. The emergency firmware fix released after the thefts then introduced another RNG-related failure that required further patches. Taken together, the author interprets the timeline as more than ordinary incompetence: a CEO publicly dismissed the threat, his CTO allegedly introduced the vulnerable design under a pseudonym, warnings came in both 2021 and 2025, and the company’s response to the later warning was confidence that it would already have detected any problem. The author therefore suspects that someone inside Coinkite may have knowingly understood the vulnerability before funds were stolen, while acknowledging that the available evidence does not conclusively prove an inside job. The broader indictment is that a company selling protection against compromised randomness failed for years to understand or adequately audit its own seed-generation path—and that customers who independently added dice entropy, strong passphrases, or multisig were the ones most protected from the consequences.

Bred_Slippy

I think more likely is the CTO wasn't as "Wizard" a coder as he thought and struggled to understand why his attempt to remove/replace the Trezor-derived firmware wasn't compiling successfully due to a conflict in that fateful line of code . In desperation /exasperation he changed the variable to "0" so it compiled, without realising the repercussions (the simple comment "runs" against it is telling). I can well believe they knew there was an issue after reports of wallets being drained started to come in, but realised they were kinda stuck at that point (telling many of their customers that the firmware was unsafe, needed patching, and, worst of all, that many would need to set up new keys and transfer their coins, would have ruined their reputation as being so safe and tech savvy). If one of more of them decided to raid the affected wallets is unknown at this point, but I think them introducing the bug intentionally for this purpose five years ago is unlikely. 

Insight_Outlook

Unless the CEO and CTO have fled to Russia or North Korea or somewhere where the USA authorities can't get to them, it is a safe bet it wasn't them who stole the money.

username12435687

The person who discovered the connection? Or the CTO of coin kite? I really hope you mean the people investigating 😂

ammo_john

CTO, not CEO, two different people.

sassa4ras

And the CTO wrote the buggy software in the first place!

slvbtc

When you find out the CTO and main programmer of a hardware wallet is dumber than Homer Simpson, you never use anything made by that company again.

sassa4ras

Looking more and more like an inside job. The guy who wrote the faulty RNG code was a sock puppet alias for Peter Gray, CTO. See here: https://x.com/jamesob/status/2084627798086279459?s=46

slvbtc

Good luck with homer simpson as your CTO writing code that you will use to interact with your life savings. Im sure he will never make another mistake.

slvbtc

No, the more important code is in the hardware wallet where your private keys are stored and interacted with, thats why it is protected and not internet connected. How will you use ian colemans website to check that there are no bugs in the signing process? If there are stupidly moronic bugs in entropy generation then there are likely stupidly moronic bugs everywhere in every part of the devices code for every part of every process. If homer simpson is the CTO and the main person pushing code then the wallet is not safe to use.

slvbtc

If devs are so incompetent they can write bugs into entropy generation then they can also write bugs into how dice rolls are translated into a seed, they can write bugs into how a private key is interacted with and signed, they can write bugs into eo many different aspects of a signing devices purpose. If a HW wallet has homer simpson as their CTO then it is not a safe wallet to use.

Donkeydonkeydonk

The dev that made the commit and the CTO of coinkite are the same person. Peter Gray @DocHex

slvbtc

Its wild some people think its still ok to use a coldcard because the bug was fixed. Once you find out the CTO of your HW wallet is homer simpson you stop using it completely. Fixing a bug doesnt change the fact the CTO is still homer simpson.

slvbtc

Imagine finding out the CTO of your HW wallet was homer simpson and then continuing to use it.

slvbtc

No, once you find out the CTO of your HW wallet is homer simpson you never use that device again. Your HW wallet is only as safe as the team and processes behind the code and if the CTO is honer simpson then it will never be safe to use.

slvbtc

Brand and trust is everything. How can anyone ever trust a CTO and dev team that can make a mistake like not turning on the TRNG before shipping their product. If the team is that incompetent then the product is not safe and will never be safe. Just because they fixed the issue doesnt mean their dev team magically stopped being incompetent. Once you find out the CTO of your hardware wallet is homer simpson you never trust that wallet again. Coldcard is completely finished.

Mental-Health-Crisis

It wasn't a "stupid bug". The hardware RNG was deliberately disabled and set to a software RNG because the now and then idiot CTO didn't know how to script and run into errors so he thought by himself why not setting it to 0 - and voila, problem solved. Ergo, it was stupidity, arrogance, incompetence and laziness. And they never bothered to double-check or check again in all these years...

cienfuegos__

We know how ir was done because devs have analysed the code associated with that batch of cards, and found the critical issue. A human coder (the CTO of coldcard) wrote messy, rushed, buggy code which deliberately committed code changes that overrode the firmware for random number generation in that code release. As a result, the code defaulted to a much less robust method of random number generating, and the resulting seed phrase were generated based on more easily-bruted processes. The inelegance of the code and its blatantly stupid notes, along with the fact that the coder at the time is a co founder and CTO (who has made no efforts to "cover up" the shitty code) means most of the community following this think it was an error, not a deliberate hack planted years ago. The whole internal QA and code review processes were clearly fucked.

mgorhaak

It’s the CTO’s code. Perhaps it was a straight commit to main or not a PR anyone else had to review.

riverguardian

He’s the CTO lol

octopus_limbs

#2 IMO, AI is relevant but not in the way that you think. I have a feeling the CTO introduced the bug in the code by vibe-coding. Pushing code that he hasn't verified or checked, caused the bug

SanoKei

This is always the case, the CTO always pushes tons of code and then a third of it is in triage

mew900

Somewhere was info that the one who committed that change was the co-founder / CTO

OnePay622

The Coinkite software CTO himself commited the coding mistake to the software. This cannot be falsified. If that was malicious your biggest supporters are your biggest enemies

systemsweird

Excellent write up. And HOLY SHIT, the level of gross negligence is 100x worse than I could have ever imagined. Their business is fucked and honestly the CEO and CTO should be doing jail time for this. Absolutely wild someone could commit changes haphazardly when touching the code of one of the most important parts of a hardware wallet that may store millions of dollars.

Zippy149

In this case it was the CTO/co-founder who made the actual code change that introduced the issue

Zippy149

Interesting that the developer that introduced the bug is "doc-hex" the CTO and co-founder of Coinkite Peter Gray

masterctrlprogram-

Leave them - it's an inside job. Peter Gray (CTO & Co-Founder) authored and committed the integration change according to Git metadata: [https://github.com/Coldcard/firmware/commit/b18723dd.patch](https://github.com/Coldcard/firmware/commit/b18723dd.patch) [https://github.com/Coldcard/firmware/commit/b18723dd](https://github.com/Coldcard/firmware/commit/b18723dd)

CoffeeAlternative647

Yeah. Chainalysis regularly email Bitcoin's CTO for him to turn tainted UTXOs unspendeable.

HammerMikk

Their CTO explains it here [https://x.com/bitfinex/status/2061743608714141759](https://x.com/bitfinex/status/2061743608714141759)

Andre_ev

Not your keys not your coins, so Michael Saylor or his CTO own those BTCs

ConcentrateJolly5461

Imagine writing a whole essay just to defend your favorite corporate database token. You can call it an escrow restriction all you want, but a company unlocking and selling billions of tokens into the market every month is the literal definition of programmed sell pressure. It’s cool that the CTO said it’s totally fine, though..I'm sure he has your best interest at heart. Enjoy the utility, I'll stick to actual fixed supply

Ok-Suit541

Escrow doesn’t suppress price, it caps how much Ripple can sell. Before 2017 they could dump unlimited. The escrow was the restriction, not the mechanism. Ripple’s CTO has said this. Also XRPL isn’t a centralized database. It’s been running since 2012 with over 150 independent validators. Ripple runs less than 5% of them. Easy to verify on xrpscan. No new ATH in a decade… ok fine. But in that same decade Ripple won the SEC case, got 7 spot ETFs approved, and just had its commodity status written into the Securities Act via Section 105(b) of the CLARITY Act. Price always lags utility. That’s why I’m holding. Your talking points you’re using are just outdated

MinimalGravitas

> Which is not the case at all https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-developers-propose-freezing-coins-that-skip-quantum-safe-migration-under-bip-361/ > * BIP-361, co-authored by Casa CTO Jameson Lopp, proposes freezing Bitcoin in legacy addresses... > * Over 34% of all Bitcoin has an exposed public key onchain... Do you think Coinbase and Blackrock will choose a vulnerable fork or the quantum secure fork? Their choice determines which one ends up having value. So anyone who has been holding for a long time and doesn't move their coins when told to do so will lose access to their BTC... and you don't see that as a problem to the 'store of value' narrative?

Romanizer

The people behind XRP are really wealthy and earn money through consulting services, mostly. That's usually where you hear "Country/Company X is using XRP". They are only using XRP for promo at best. They appear to be very active in social media acquiring new investors as XRPs only use is being exit liquidity for the owners. The CTO recently sold $26 million to buy Bitcoin with that.

Silasurf

Im currently te CTO of bitcoin circa June 2018. If there is anyone who can decide is me, or our CEO Mr. Craig Wilson. Say no more

CoopMemeGuy

The only way I see that happening is if the dev ditches it and we properly CTO it on coop meme FR

not420guilty

I hope you are joking. Chokepoint 2.0 During the Biden administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) significantly expanded its enforcement to target privacy-focused cryptocurrency tools, specifically mixers and non-custodial wallets. These cases have sparked intense debate over whether writing and maintaining open-source code can be criminalized as "money transmission." ## Tornado Cash: Roman Storm & [Alexey Pertsev](https://www.google.com/search?q=alexey+pertsev&kgmid=/g/11s9bw7_dd#sv=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_Cw) [1] Tornado Cash, a decentralized mixing protocol on Ethereum, was a primary target for allegedly facilitating over $1 billion in money laundering, including for the North Korean Lazarus Group. [2, 3] * Roman Storm: Arrested in Washington state in August 2023. In August 2025, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. However, the jury deadlocked on more serious charges of money laundering and sanctions violations, leading to a partial mistrial on those counts. * [Alexey Pertsev](https://www.google.com/search?q=alexey+pertsev&kgmid=/g/11s9bw7_dd#sv=CBwS9QMKugMStwMK9wJBTW4zLXlRX3FYbjVSYTAyeUNQOUJnTnRuVXc1c0V0dDFsSDVrQmR1VmJ2ckhLdENPbWlPUVk2dEliSEY0MG5RYU5BQk9jam1idGJ0RkhnUzV4RG5VM1ZtMGEtQ2Q5dkpMamRPcHIwOFRVYW5HQXFId0xUaWlfMzVwaDg2ZzlLYXNlcFpUeFNMZlRDUzFBTXozOHdYZW9EdmZVckp1eUp5QVlRdDRmd3ViaWVkQ1hDcVdRMFNwZEVfQmh2aktnbWxHb3lHRTNqRnhwV1E3dnpiR3NTZGtwS3dJby1IVndsdlRmZlVqZk9wSjgyWm10QWl5QXBMMVFpTXpVd1FwSjVWRmoxbDNQSXdlNkVzbGZsSm5TTno5ZUUxaDFmNS1LTVB0b0E0WTd5aS1BZ2hWdm15Z2hQcmJFTGVEak5ySUxXOTkzUTRHWTBEYzZROUxLcjBXMVFCS0dtRUVuUWF6ZTBVNmkxYndwdWpySnhmY3BObEVwN3E5RjQSF2lMdmRhWXZYSXB5ZzBQRVBuYm5Oa1FnGiJBSktMRm1MOUFPTmpvSHBJVDFlbjRnOHhTWHV4UEVjNXR3EgQ3ODU0GgEzIhMKAXESDmFsZXhleSBwZXJ0c2V2IhYKBWtnbWlkEg0vZy8xMXM5Ync3X2RkKAAYRSCAh4P1Dg): While the Biden administration's DOJ pursued charges in the U.S., Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands in 2022 and sentenced to 64 months (5 years and 4 months) in prison in May 2024 for money laundering related to the protocol. * Roman Semenov: A third co-founder who was indicted alongside Storm but currently remains at large. [2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] ## Samourai Wallet & Whirlpool: Keonne Rodriguez & William Hill In April 2024, the DOJ arrested the founders of Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin-focused privacy application. This case was notable because it targeted a non-custodial wallet—where users keep their own private keys—for its built-in mixing features, Whirlpool and Ricochet. [10, 11, 12] * Keonne Rodriguez (CEO): Arrested in Pennsylvania and pleaded guilty in 2025 to conspiracy to operate a money-transmitting business. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison in November 2025. * William Lonergan Hill (CTO): Arrested in Portugal and extradited to the U.S.. He also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4 years in prison in November 2025. * Allegations: Prosecutors argued that despite being "non-custodial," the developers actively marketed the service as "money laundering for bitcoin" and charged fees to facilitate the obscuring of over $2 billion in transactions. [10, 12, 13, 14, 15] ## Other Privacy-Related Arrests * Roman Sterlingov (Bitcoin Fog): The operator of one of the longest-running Bitcoin mixers was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to 150 months (12.5 years) for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars from darknet markets. [16] Would you like to know more about the legal defense funds for these developers or the appeals currently moving through the courts? [1] [https://www.wired.com](https://www.wired.com/story/tornado-cash-money-laundering-case-crypto-privacy/) [2] [https://www.justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founder-tornado-cash-crypto-mixing-service-convicted-knowingly-transmitting-criminal) [3] [https://www.fbi.gov](https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/tornado-cash-co-founders-accused-of-helping-cybercriminals-launder-stolen-crypto) [4] [https://www.justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/tornado-cash-founders-charged-money-laundering-and-sanctions-violations) [5] [https://www.venable.com](https://www.venable.com/insights/publications/2025/09/cryptocurrency-victory-amid-a-shifting-political) [6] [https://www.mayerbrown.com](https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/08/the-tornado-cash-trials-mixed-verdict-implications-for-developer-liability) [7] [https://www.reuters.com](https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-scraps-sanctions-tornado-cash-crypto-mixer-accused-laundering-north-korea-2025-03-21/) [8] [https://www.asisonline.org](https://www.asisonline.org/security-management-magazine/articles/2024/06/legal-report/) [9] [https://therecord.media](https://therecord.media/tornado-cash-money-laundering-conviction) [10] [https://www.justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-samourai-wallet-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-sentenced-five-and-four-years) [11] [https://www.moneylaunderingnews.com](https://www.moneylaunderingnews.com/2025/12/the-prosecution-of-samourai-wallet-developers-expanding-the-reach-of-crypto-enforcement/) [12] [https://finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-confirms-samourai-bitcoin-wasn-064035236.html) [13] [https://www.justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering) [14] [https://www.irs.gov](https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/founders-of-samourai-wallet-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-plead-guilty#:~:text=Rodriguez%2C%20of%20Harmony%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20and%20Hill%2C%20a,Rodriguez%20and%20Hill%20agreed%20to%20forfeit%20$237%2C832%2C360.55.) [15] [https://www.justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/media/1349321/dl) [16] [https://globalinvestigationsreview.com](https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/guide/the-guide-anti-money-laundering/third-edition/article/us-government-cracks-down-money-laundering-through-digital-assets)

holdthefridge

You gotta see if its PVP or PVE ... devs mean PVP which means its essentially a rug. After that filter, check for whether it's CTO'd or not and if it reached at least 10M mcap+. Don't listen to anyone who's telling you 50k mcap is a runner. A runner reaches 30M mcap minimum and upto 14 billion mcap (since dx days). Right now , if you want CTO coop meme is the way.. if you want rugs then pump fun which has deployer farms to max extract lol.

XysterU

Yo look into World Liberty Financial. It was some bullshit company started by Trump and his cronies. The CTO of WLF, Corey Caplan, co-founded Dolomite. I bet they're all in on it. I bet the Corey and the other people involved with Dolomite (some of who also got involved with WLF) made a lot of money

coinfeeds-bot

tldr; Bitcoin developers unveiled two prototype quantum-resistant wallet recovery methods: Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun proposed a zk-STARK-based recovery path for BIP-86 Taproot wallets, while StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy outlined a no-softfork scheme that may fit within Bitcoin’s current script limits. The prototypes offer concrete migration options for existing wallets amid rising concern after Google warned quantum attacks on secp256k1 may be easier than thought, though they are not yet deployed solutions. *This summary is auto generated by a bot and not meant to replace reading the original article. As always, DYOR.

veni_vedi_vinnie

CTO Emeritus, not day to day CTO. Wouldnt this be a CFO decision anyway

veni_vedi_vinnie

CTO Emiratis, not actual cto

JustStopppingBye

According to their EX-CTO David Schwartz, Ripple selling XRP is good for retail because they can buy in lower. Yes he actually said this on twitter.

coinfeeds-bot

tldr; The feud between XRP and Chainlink communities reignited after Chainlink liaison Zach Rynes labeled the XRP Ledger a 'ghost chain,' criticizing its relevance in tokenized finance and its limited market share. Ripple CTO David Schwartz and XRP supporters defended XRP's utility in payments, while Chainlink advocates highlighted their network's focus on oracle services and partnerships with major institutions. The debate centered on utility, adoption, and institutional ties, reflecting the networks' differing roles in the crypto ecosystem. *This summary is auto generated by a bot and not meant to replace reading the original article. As always, DYOR.

Willing_Cap_665

$X $X $X on eth CTO

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Post is by: Sad-Employ1054 and the url/text [ ](https://goo.gl/GP6ppk)is: /r/CryptoMarkets/comments/1rt4z7r/scam_alert_blockdag_misrepresentation_locked/ Investors demand $0.40 per coin compensation from BlockDAG. Evidence sequence: 1. Tickets acknowledged (e.g., #2381) but closed with template replies. 2. Hype emails promised $0.20–$0.45 listing prices and even $0.40 peak compensation. 3. Dashboard manipulation: claim option appeared briefly, then disappeared. 4. Deposits blocked, liquidity disabled, swaps gray. 5. Leadership accountability: Gurhan Kiziloz (Founder), Nicolaas van den Bergh (CEO), Mohammed (Founder), Antony Turner (former CEO), Jeremy Harkness (CTO), Dr. Youssef Khaoulaj (CSO). Demands: \- Compensation in USDT at $0.40 per coin. \- Immediate activation of deposits and unrestricted liquidity. \- Formal acknowledgment of contradictions. Escalation path: If unresolved, evidence will continue to be published daily across X/Twitter, Telegram, regulators, exchanges, and international authorities. Full dossier + attachments available here: 👉 [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3750464;sa=showPosts](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3750464;sa=showPosts) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CryptoMarkets) if you have any questions or concerns.*

FrankSlipHelp

I invite you to share some of these ways you believe volatility is a problem for Ripple’s use case for remittance. But first I invite you to exercise some critical thinking before you do that. Based on what you’ve said, you believe one of the creators of the XRPL and XRP who recently retired as CTO of Ripple helped write and oversaw enterprise remittance software for a multi-billion dollar company, and you believe volatility is an issue both him and Ripple didn’t consider…… as in you think volatility matters and can share with me your knowledge of how the XRPL and RipplePaymemts work, and why David Schwartz got it all wrong. Well, again, you don’t know what you don’t know and your presumptions on how things work, politely said, is very ignorant. The subject on why volatility of XRP is a moot point has been gone over thoroughly for over a decade, spoken on in great detail and length at dozens of speaking engagements, with over a billion transactions closed over a decade, and you think volatility matters, most likely because you read or heard someone say it does. Ok. Go ahead and share some of these ways and I will be here to inform you of your errors.

FrankSlipHelp

>\\\*\\\*Consider what we know:\\\*\\\* Ok I’ll expect credible sources then. >1. How it’s used to conduct cross-border payments Plenty of info direct from Ripple on this. >2. Ripple owns the majority of shares, primarily (IMO) so they can control the price Coins, not shares. XRP is not a share of stock of Ripple, Ripple did not issue XRP, XRP ownership does not transfer to Ripple ownership. How would owning a majority of coins control price? Look at the daily, weekly and monthly trading volume and explain what price control Ripple’s monthly escrow or other OTC sales could possibly happen. The math doesn’t math. Ask your favorite AI agent to do the math for you. >3. The goal is worldwide adoption/to replace SWIFT Credible source on this? Ripple has stated that they expect to take some marketshare from Swift due to the nature of the technology and banks wanting to have faster cheaper payments without holding nostro vostro accounts, but nowhere have I ever read that the software RipplePayment’s was intended to replace swift. Swift is a secure messaging platform, Swift does not move value, RipplePayments moves value, it is also a secure messaging platform. >How will smaller and mid-size banks adopt the technology if they can’t afford to buy the large amount of xrp needed in their reserve to conduct transactions? They don’t need to hold XRP in reserve, RipplePayment’s is a software suite and when ODL (on demand liquidity) is used no nostro / vostro accounts are needed. >XRP is intended to represent an amount, the amount of money being sent, as I understand it. It would be stupid if it was worth $50 where the dollar is worth $1, right? No. This post is from David Schwartz. >It can’t be dirt cheap. That doesn’t make any sense. If XRP costs $1, they’d need a million XRP which would cost $1 million. If XRP cost a million dollars, they’d need one XRP which would, again, cost $1 million. >Except that higher prices make payments cheaper. Right now, you can buy a million dollar house with bitcoins. When bitcoins where $300, it would move the market too much and be too expensive to be practical. So higher prices make payments cheaper. ~ David Schwartz recently retired CTO of Ripple and co-creator of the XRPL and XRP ~ https://x.com/joelkatz/status/932748963526066178?s=61 Slippage is real, and why moving the market makes payments more expensive, in order to not do that a higher value coin helps with keeping payments cheaper. >Does ripple control the price because THEY HAVE TO in order to KEEP IT LOW to operate as intended? Ripple does not control the price. Let’s use critical thinking here. If this was the case, wouldn’t that have been discovered during the 5 years that the SEC had full access to every financial document Ripple had? Wouldn’t that have been a ‘gotcha’ for the SEC? No, and they know what you don’t, Ripple does not control the price, has no means to control the price, and there is no evidence they have controlled the price. >Is xrp essentially a “hybrid” version of a stable coin (I know it’s not one technically). But it just seems like it has to remain stable or it can’t function as it’s intended. Your logic used here is false, it may ‘seem’ this way to you, but I don’t know where you derive your assumptions from, but from what I have read from you i’d say you need to get info from the source and not 3rd party. XRP is a country neutral crypto currency that has no central authority, stable coins are issued by companies and under regulation by the jurisdictions they are used in. >CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME IM AN IDIOT AND EXPLAIN WHAT IM MISSING? Not an idiot, but you don’t know what you don’t know. Same for everyone until due diligence is done and even then there is always more to discover about what you don’t know and learn.

Sassy_Allen

"Today I had an hour-long discussion with Dennis Platzl, CEO of the u/SwissSubnet What’s coming next will be far bigger and far more meaningful than anything else we have seen so far on $ICP, but it’s important to remember that it’s the result of years of real work and real development. Everything has been built with intention, for specific reasons, and with clearly defined use cases in mind. Their existing client base is very interesting & meaningful. I expect more usage & adoption in the next 3-6 months. If you have any questions, please let me know. I am planning to organize an Interview with the CEO &/or the CTO of the Swiss Subnet in the following weeks. Stay tuned for the next parts of the series." https://x.com/Zero2HeroZombie/status/2027351508648366095

Extra_Treacle_4601

Speaking about the value or money. I've tried a bunch of paid programs and Ivan's is genuinely the best one I've come across. CTO Larsson? His indicator is basically just moving average crossovers - I rebuilt it myself in like an hour and that was that. Benjamin Cowen's site is a bunch of macro indicators that don't really help you make actual decisions. A nd Real Vision was pumping everything at the absolute top, still shilling suey and other alts that are down 80%+. Meanwhile Bullmania and Ivan have been consistently solid, the tools, the community, the weekly reports from Ivan and daily market analysis his team produces is insanely valueable, I get real trade setups DAILY. I'd recommend them to anyone. As for the actual post - it's mostly just complaining about affiliate links and a free webinar, and that Ivan doesn't talk about tech as much anymore. Ok cool, then let the man do what he wants. Tens of thousands of people watch him daily, hundreds of thousands monthly, millions yearly. That kind of audience doesn't stick around if you're not delivering value. He's clearly doing something right. To each their own...

Warm-Ebb-3180

for real its Ivan, Ben and maybe CTO Larsson that called the top, everyone else was yelling "BUY THE DIP" when bitcoin was $120,000 ahah

KenduGNX

Essentially yeah, the hope with any investment. Buy low and hope the price goes up! But the mechanism that will drive the price up is the important part. Hope alone won’t get you there. Regarding distribution, Kendu has probably the best distribution of any project in the memecoin space. I don’t know if you are familiar with the Herfindahl–Hirschman index, but it’s basically a way to calculate market concentration. 0 is perfect and 10,000 is a monopoly. Kendu has an HHI score of 25. This means the supply is extremely well distributed across a range of holders and very very few whales dominate the supply. Aka, no need to worry about the creators (who don’t exist as Kendu is a CTO) or early whales with controlling stakes.

Shoddy_Trifle_9251

Even a quick ChatGPT will tell you Algorand is not Quantum Resistant. You have to be quantum secure from genesis or you run into all kinds of problems. 'Algorand’s CTO has publicly stated that while history protection is done, **accounts and consensus are still vulnerable** and need quantum-safe upgrades — estimating they are roughly *one-third* of the way to full quantum security.' There are tons of blockchains coming out claiming they are Quantum Resistant almost none of them are. QRL has been the leader in this space since 2018. Lockheed Martin even filed a patent using QRL for secure communications.

OregonBroncoNix

Ben is a pure fundamentals kind of guy. His videos can be very informative, but also dry as concrete. He is far than a shit coin enthusiast and pretty much a BTC maxi. I'd say give his videos a few views and decide on your own. I have followed Ben for about 5 years now and he is solid. Also, you might also like to check out CTO Larsen. Another fundamentals kind of guy, but he is seldom off the mark.

northernedge24

A true CTO. All metrics are moving up. Price is down because of current crypto sentiment The Repricing will be monumental 401jk. Resist and Retire

coinfeeds-bot

tldr; Ripple's CTO, David Schwartz, criticized Bitcoin as a technological 'dead end,' claiming its dominance relies on brand trust rather than innovation. He highlighted potential risks like quantum computing, which could necessitate significant updates to Bitcoin's code. Meanwhile, JPMorgan analysts predict a recovery in the crypto market, driven by institutional investments. They note Bitcoin's production costs and regulatory developments as key factors influencing its future. The market remains divided on Bitcoin's long-term prospects. *This summary is auto generated by a bot and not meant to replace reading the original article. As always, DYOR.

ironman123420

Fed didn't cut rates + everyone wants in on spacex IPO, robinhood CTO even sold shares so they could compete with wall street, selloffs result because Robinhood dropped 3% and others want to save for spacex

aaxn

I'm the person currently leading the CTO. We've got a solid community going and more people joining. I'm being completely transparent with screenshots and verifiable proof the funds are going to the right place, and I'm community first. Of course with any coin people are trying to make profit. But if we can do a good thing and raise money for Alex's family and awareness for his murder, profit is an afterthought. I've put my own funds into this and don't hold much of the coin. It's good to see that there are still people with a conscience in this space.

Xescure

As a fellow developer I recommend taking a look at Keeta. It brings some principles that we take for granted in web2 into the blockchain world, such as horizontal scalability. The CTO at his previous position has architected the Department of Defense’s identity system. You might also be familiar with the project’s angel investor. He was the mentor of Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But even more importantly Keeta solves really financial problems, while also offering great developer experience. I think it has a lot of staying power

CHARLIEFORTHEBOYS

A) Why are you so angry? B) Cults are bullish. C) Rugging infers to liquidity being pulled which was not the case. He did dump massive amounts relentlessly and the community (aka CULT) called him out for this and lying about the NFT marketplace he was fraudulently promoting and the community CTO'd, which I'd say it quite a good sign to see. D) Thank you for reading this and best wishes to you and yours.

Expert-Detective-525

Kendu has been a CTO for a year

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E-money420

I hear dev is doxxed and there's a solid CTO forming. Guaranteed 10,000x from here

Frequent_Sky7259

join the OG $HODL CTO 13sZphUksVH32haU5zrZ32y5qrPXskchSNz1T8eKbonk

Xescure

Google’s Office of the CTO was involved in the development of the database module of KeetaNet at the request of former CEO and executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, with involvement from Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. The Google Spanner team was also helping out with the 10,000,000 TPS stress test, as it was also a test on Google’s infrastructure