From market winners and losers to major fraud cases, regulatory action, layoffs, and new Bitcoin investment products, this week delivered plenty of headlines across the crypto industry. Here's a quick look at the biggest stories.
Top gainers and losers of the week
- Velvet (VELVET) – erupted with massive buying pressure, surging by 126.56% over the last seven days to hit $1.08;
- Pump.fun (PUMP) – maintained a steady upward path, rising 22.07% across the week to reach a price of $0.002847;
- OKB (OKB) – posted strong, reliable growth, advancing 16.16% over the seven-day period to settle at $102.65.
- Uniswap (UNI) – took a significant hit, sliding 19.54% over the week to drop down to $3.24;
- Ethena (ENA) – experienced a sharp reversal from last week's gains, shedding 12.99% of its value to trade at $0.08351;
- Algorand (ALGO) – drifted lower under market pressure, falling 11.53% across the seven-day stretch to close at $0.07873.
Delio CEO gets 15 years for crypto fraud
A South Korean judge sentenced Delio CEO Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years in prison Thursday after he was found guilty of defrauding users out of roughly $49.3 million in crypto assets. The ruling came from the 11th Criminal Division of the Seoul Southern District Court, according to South Korean outlet Newsis.
Jeong was convicted on charges of embezzlement and use of a false trading license. The court stopped short of ordering detention related to a separate $175 million user fraud allegation.
"While operating Delio, he falsely obtained a virtual asset trading license and defrauded victims of approximately 70 billion won in virtual assets," the court said. "Numerous victims have suffered significant economic damage due to this case, which is difficult to recover."
Delio launched in 2022 and marketed itself as a digital asset bank that paid high interest on crypto deposits. It froze customer withdrawals in June 2023 and filed for bankruptcy in November 2024. Jeong faced formal fraud charges from April 2025.
The case follows a broader pattern in South Korea. Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon spent nearly a year as a fugitive after his company collapsed in May 2022, was extradited from Montenegro to the United States, and received a 15-year prison sentence in December 2025.
Arizona's crypto ATM refund law has returned $171,332 to 35 fraud victims
Thirty-five people got their money back. That is the first tangible count from Arizona's crypto ATM refund law since it took effect in September 2025, and the state attorney general's office released the figure Wednesday.
House Bill 2387 requires crypto kiosk operators to refund new customers who were fraudulently induced into a transaction, fees included. A new customer under the law is someone who has used an operator for fewer than 10 days. Those customers face a $2,000 daily transaction cap, compared with $10,500 for existing users. To qualify, victims must contact both the operator and the attorney general or another law enforcement agency within 30 days and submit an official report confirming the fraud.
That 30-day window is the part Attorney General Kris Mayes wants residents to remember.
"My office is happy to help any victim of crypto ATM fraud receive a refund they are entitled to under Arizona law," Mayes said.
The law took effect September 26, 2025. The $171,332 recovered so far covers only cases where victims reported in time and met the eligibility criteria. Cases reported after 30 days fall outside the law's reach entirely, regardless of circumstances.
Bitwise cuts 14% of staff amid 2026 crypto market slump
The headcount at Bitwise dropped from roughly 180 to 155 people this week. The San Francisco-based digital asset manager laid off about 25 employees, a reduction of 14%, as crypto markets remain under pressure.
CEO Hunter Horsley told Bloomberg the company still expects growth as crypto "further integrates into the global economy," despite the cuts. Bitwise had expanded earlier this year, acquiring staking infrastructure firm Chorus One in February.
Shares of the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund have fallen more than 30% since January. The fund tracks the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Bitcoin and Ether among them.
Bitwise is not alone. The crypto industry has seen a string of workforce reductions in 2026. Robinhood, Polygon and Pump.fun all announced cuts before Bitwise. BitGo co-founder and CEO Mike Belshe described his company's June reduction of 15% as a "one-time action" tied to a focus on AI and stablecoins. Coinbase made a similar pivot in May, cutting 14% of its workforce with AI strategy cited as the driver.
The Bitwise layoffs mark one of the more visible signs of how the 2026 market downturn has translated into operational decisions across the industry.
BlackRock Canada lists Bitcoin-equity ETF on Toronto exchange
BlackRock Canada brought two new exchange-traded funds to the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday, one of which gives investors a 3% slice of Bitcoin alongside a broad global equity portfolio.
The iShares Equity + Bitcoin ETF Portfolio, trading under the ticker IBQT, puts 97% of its assets into Canadian, US, international and emerging-market equities through other iShares ETFs, with the remaining 3% held through BlackRock's Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF on Cboe Canada. The second fund, the iShares Core MSCI All-International Equity Index ETF under ticker XINT, tracks the MSCI ACWI ex North America IMI Index and covers more than 5,000 companies across as many as 40 developed and emerging markets outside Canada and the United States.
Both funds are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada through the RBC iShares alliance. BlackRock said its iShares business managed roughly $6.2 trillion across more than 1,700 ETFs as of June 30.
The Canada launch extends a model already established in the US market. BlackRock's US-listed iShares Bitcoin Trust holds about $47.9 billion in assets under management, according to CoinMarketCap data, the largest position among US spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Gunel Ismayilova
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