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It's your favorite crypto connoisseur, Mochi, back with another fresh serving of the hottest tech and Web3 news. Today we've got the DOJ snatching $580M from scammers, Paradigm chasing AI and robotics with a war chest of $1.5B, Mt. Gox's ex-CEO stirring up the Bitcoin community with a spicy hard fork proposal, and Elon Musk's deposition dropping like a bombshell in his ongoing OpenAI saga. It's a packed edition and trust me — you don't want to miss a single bite.

INTEL BRIEF

🟧 The US DOJ seized over $578M in crypto linked to Chinese transnational criminal organizations as part of a new task force targeting Southeast Asian fraud.

🟧 Crypto VC giant Paradigm is raising a $1.5B fund to expand beyond crypto into AI, robotics, and other frontier technologies.

🟧 Mt. Gox's former CEO Mark Karpelès is proposing a Bitcoin hard fork to recover nearly 80,000 BTC stolen over 15 years ago — and the crypto community is not happy about it.

🟧 Elon Musk's deposition in his lawsuit against OpenAI went public, revealing sharp attacks on ChatGPT's safety record while xAI's Grok faces its own growing safety investigations.

The DOJ Just Seized 580 Million Dollars in Crypto and Scammers Are Not Having a Good Day

The US Department of Justice just pulled off one of its biggest crypto heists — except, you know, the legal kind. Over the span of three months, the DOJ reported "freezing, seizing, and forfeiting" more than $578 million in digital assets believed to be tied to Chinese transnational criminal organizations. These groups are speculated to have used websites and social media platforms to target everyday US residents. Sneaky, sneaky.

The operation was run by the District of Columbia's Scam Center Strike Force, a task force established back in November by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro — yes, that Jeanine Pirro, former Fox News host turned crypto crime fighter. Honestly, a career arc nobody saw coming.

Pirro made it clear that the goal is to return these funds to the victims — not funnel them into Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which was established via executive order in March 2025. So if you were wondering whether your tax dollars would be indirectly backed by stolen pig-butchering money... probably not.

Speaking of pig butchering — crypto scams absolutely exploded in 2025. According to Chainalysis, impersonation scams tied to crypto surged by a jaw-dropping 1,400% year over year, with the average amount stolen jumping 600% in the same period. One individual was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this month for stealing over $73 million from victims.

The moral of the story? If someone on Instagram promises you 10x returns, they are not your friend. They are your financial predator.

The DOJ seized $578M+ in crypto tied to Chinese transnational criminal groups targeting US residents

Funds are expected to be returned to victims, not added to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

Crypto impersonation scams surged 1,400% in 2025, with one scammer landing 20 years behind bars

Paradigm Is Betting 1.5 Billion Dollars on AI and Robotics While Keeping One Foot in Crypto

Crypto's favorite venture capital firm is apparently tired of staying in its lane. According to the Wall Street Journal, Paradigm is seeking to raise $1.5 billion for a new fund that will stretch beyond crypto into AI, robotics, and other frontier technologies. Plot twist? They're not abandoning crypto. They just want more.

The San Francisco-based firm, which currently sits on a hefty $12.7 billion in assets under management, will reportedly use its existing technical investment team to scout deals in frontier tech. Sources familiar with the matter say the firm's managers simply didn't want to be boxed in and risk missing out on attractive opportunities. Honestly, fair enough.

This isn't exactly breaking news for those paying attention. Paradigm had already been speculated to be eyeing AI as far back as 2023, when the firm quietly scrubbed Web3-specific language from its website — sending crypto Twitter into a mild panic. Co-founder Matt Huang denied any pivot at the time, but did acknowledge the team had been "tinkering" with AI's convergence with crypto. Earlier this month, Paradigm and OpenAI jointly released EVMbench, a benchmark tool designed to test how well AI models can detect security vulnerabilities in smart contracts. So yeah, the overlap is very real.

Huang has previously said that framing crypto vs. AI as a zero-sum competition is a mistake — and the numbers seem to back that up. Per the OECD, AI accounted for a staggering 61% of all global VC funding in 2025, totaling $258.7 billion. You don't ignore a number like that. You raise $1.5 billion and chase it.

Paradigm is raising a $1.5B fund targeting AI, robotics, and frontier tech — while still investing in crypto

The firm sees significant overlap between crypto and AI, including agentic payments by autonomous AI agents

AI represented 61% of all VC funding in 2025, totaling $258.7 billion globally per the OECD

Mt. Gox's Former CEO Is Asking Bitcoin to Break Its Own Rules to Recover 5.2 Billion Dollars in Stolen Funds

Twelve years of bankruptcy proceedings, billions in stolen Bitcoin, and one very determined former CEO. Mark Karpelès, the ex-boss of the infamous Mt. Gox exchange, has submitted a proposal on GitHub that would add a consensus rule to Bitcoin — allowing nearly 79,956 BTC (worth roughly $5.2 billion) to be moved to a recovery address without the original private key. Yes, you read that right.

Karpelès argues the case is uniquely clear-cut: the stolen coins have not moved in over 15 years, are sitting in a single, publicly tracked wallet, and have both law enforcement and community recognition as stolen Mt. Gox funds. He also acknowledged this is creating a frustrating deadlock — the trustee won't act without certainty that the consensus change would be adopted, and the community can't evaluate it without a concrete proposal. So he wrote one. Bold move, Karpelès.

The crypto community, however, is treating this proposal like someone suggested putting pineapple on a pizza at a Michelin-star restaurant. Critics on Bitcointalk fired back hard, arguing the proposal threatens Bitcoin's core principle of immutability. One forum member warned that approving it would open the floodgates — every future hack could trigger calls for similar consensus changes, slowly dismantling what makes Bitcoin, well, Bitcoin.

Not everyone is opposed though. Some Mt. Gox creditors — who reportedly received only around 15% of their Bitcoin back through bankruptcy — expressed support, understandably wanting whatever scraps they can get after over a decade of waiting.

Mt. Gox once handled 70% of all global Bitcoin transactions before collapsing in February 2014 after losing 750,000 customer BTC. The wounds, clearly, are still very fresh.

Mt. Gox's former CEO proposed a Bitcoin consensus rule change to recover ~80,000 BTC without the original private key

Critics argue it sets a dangerous precedent against Bitcoin's immutability and decentralization

Mt. Gox creditors have only received roughly 15% of their Bitcoin back after over a decade of bankruptcy proceedings

Elon Musk's OpenAI Deposition Just Went Public and It Is Every Bit as Dramatic as You Expected

In what can only be described as the tech world's most dramatic legal saga since... well, the last Elon Musk drama — a newly released deposition from Musk's ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI has hit the internet, and it did not disappoint. Musk, never one to hold back, took direct aim at ChatGPT's safety record, boldly claiming that "nobody has committed suicide because of Grok" — a reference to lawsuits OpenAI currently faces alleging that ChatGPT's conversation tactics have contributed to serious mental health consequences, including deaths. Whether that becomes useful ammunition in his case remains to be seen, but Musk certainly isn't shy about loading the gun.

The core of Musk's lawsuit centers on OpenAI's transition from a nonprofit research lab to a for-profit company, which he claims violated the organization's founding agreements. He argues that commercial relationships with partners inevitably push speed and revenue above safety — a concern he says motivated him to co-found OpenAI in the first place as a counterweight to what he speculated was Google's alarming indifference to AI safety. He also clarified that his supposed $100 million donation to OpenAI was actually closer to $44.8 million, per the amended complaint. Oops.

Here's where it gets chef's kiss ironic though. Since recording this deposition back in September, xAI's Grok has been at the center of its own safety firestorm — with nonconsensual nude images, some believed to be of minors, flooding X. The California Attorney General has opened an investigation, the EU is running its own probe, and several governments have issued blocks and bans.

Glass houses, Elon. Very expensive, very public glass houses.

Musk's OpenAI deposition went public, with Musk attacking ChatGPT's safety record and doubling down on his for-profit pivot claims

Musk confirmed his OpenAI donation was ~$44.8M, not the previously speculated $100M

Ironically, xAI's Grok is now facing its own safety investigations across the US, EU, and beyond

And that's a wrap, my lovely PoI readers! I hope today's edition left you feeling informed, entertained, and just a little bit wiser about the wild world of crypto and tech. Whether you're here for the blockchain drama, the billion-dollar VC moves, or just Mochi's questionable sense of humor — I appreciate every single one of you.

P.S. Don't forget to share your thoughts, questions, and favorite crypto puns with us. very voice matters in the PoI community! 📣❤️ Share the newsletter

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