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The Travel Rule, formally known as Recommendation 16 (R16) by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has emerged as a focal point in the ongoing debate around regulating digital assets. Originally developed for traditional financial institutions to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, the rule mandates that Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) share personally identifiable information (PII) about the sender and receiver for transactions above a set threshold (typically $1,000 or €1,000).

In crypto, wallet infrastructure isn’t just a technical decision; it’s a security and compliance imperative. Understanding the difference between hosted (custodial) and unhosted (self-custody) wallets is crucial for anyone operating in Web3, DeFi, or crypto payments. This isn’t just theory; it’s where hundreds of millions in losses originate.

In late July 2025, a defining moment hit the crypto privacy space. William Lonergan Hill and Keonne Rodriguez, the founders of Samourai Wallet, a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet known for its privacy features, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

In Nigeria’s northeast, a silent financial shift is taking place. While headlines focus on the violence of Boko Haram and offshoot ISWAP’s territorial gains, the group’s financial architecture is undergoing a quieter transformation. This financial shift will move the groups off the banking grid, allowing them to move funds, reward fighters and sustain control over entire communities via the blockchain.

The dark web has a new tool fueling the surge in digital deception: FraudGPT, a malicious twist on generative AI, weaponized for crime. Unlike conventional language models designed for productivity and research, FraudGPT is a premium large language model (LLM) marketed specifically to cybercriminals. Its purpose? Enabling fraud at scale with alarming sophistication.

July 2025 was marked by a series of high-profile security breaches across both centralized and decentralized crypto platforms. From sophisticated backend compromises to smart contract exploits and phishing attacks, the month exposed critical vulnerabilities in the digital asset ecosystem.

A growing trend in the Web3 landscape involves fundraising through Instant Community Monetization (ICM). Projects are rapidly developed using AI-powered coding tools (e.g., Cursor), then deployed and publicised on social platforms like X (formerly Twitter). Visibility is often amplified by tagging platforms such as @launchcoin, which may automatically create tokens tied to the project.

As regulators sharpen their focus on cross-border financial crime, a quiet but potent threat has been steadily gaining traction, MIR Pay, Russia’s national payment system, is becoming an increasingly common fiat gateway into the crypto world.

The recent decision by Lebanon’s central bank to prohibit all interactions with Al-Qard-Al-Hassan, the financial arm of Hezbollah, marks a significant regulatory milestone. While the move tightens the net on Hezbollah’s presence in formal finance, it is unfortunately unlikely to slow the group down. In fact it’s likely to push the group further in their acceleration which is already in motion, towards a deep reliance on crypto-currency.