Archives June 2025

In May 2025, an Italian crypto millionaire was allegedly tortured for weeks in a luxury Manhattan townhouse, hung from a roof ledge and attacked with a chain saw as his captors demanded his bitcoin password. Just months earlier, another crypto executive had his finger severed by kidnappers demanding millions in digital currency.

Crypto investors are waking up to how these aren’t isolated incidents—they’re part of a terrifying new wave of violent crimes that many worry has put a target on their backs. As Bitcoin and other digital assets have reached record highs, criminals are shifting from laborious online hacking to brutal, real-world extortion.

Digital Clues That Can Lead Crypto Criminals To You

Criminals are increasingly professional in their approach, leveraging a mix of digital sleuthing and real-world surveillance. Many victims are identified after flaunting their crypto wealth on social media or in public forums, despite the lessons many learned after the Kim Kardashian kidnapping saga.

Others are exposed through data breaches at exchanges. Each passing week, it seems, more of the private information of cryptocurrency users is leaked. For example, in May 2025, Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) announced that hackers had accessed home addresses and account balances of almost 70k customers in the previous months, putting thousands at risk of targeted extortion and physical threats.

Besides hacks, criminals have bribed insiders at crypto exchanges to leak sensitive customer data. This information can then be used to select and find high-value targets for kidnapping or home invasion.

Kidnapping, Mutilation, and Home Invasion Across 3 Continents

The luxury SoHo townhouse rented for up to $40,000 per month seemed like the perfect backdrop for crypto success. Instead, it became a torture chamber where 28-year-old Italian entrepreneur Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan was allegedly held for 17 days, his captors using increasingly brutal methods to crack his bitcoin wallet.

According to police, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, both of whom have a history in the crypto world, didn’t just threaten their victim—they hung him off the building’s roof ledge, shocked him with electrical wires, and menaced him with a chain saw. When all that failed, they allegedly forced him to smoke crack cocaine and took Polaroid photos of his bound and bloodied body as trophies of their work.

In the United States, a violent gang orchestrated a series of home invasions involving $3.5 million in stolen crypto between September 2022 and July 2023. Victims were threatened, tortured, and forced to transfer their digital assets under duress. The ringleader, Remy Ra St. Felix, was sentenced to 47 years in prison in 2024 after court documents revealed the gang’s use of extreme violence, including inserting sharp objects under fingernails. “The victims in this case suffered a horrible, painful experience that no citizen should have to endure,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina in a prepared statement. “The defendant and his co-conspirators acted purely out of greed and callously terrorized those they targeted.”

The attacks span continents. In France, the crypto world recoiled in early 2025 when attackers didn’t just kidnap the father of a prominent entrepreneur, but filmed themselves severing his finger and sent the video to his son, demanding €5 million (about $5.7 million) in crypto ransom.

David Balland, a co-founder of Ledger, the crypto security firm, endured similarly gruesome attacks during his January 2025 kidnapping. Balland’s finger, too, was cut off—a bloody calling card to prove the kidnappers’ seriousness to anyone considering non-payment.

Canada and Australia have also seen high-profile kidnappings, with crypto executives and traders abducted and forced to pay ransoms ranging from $40,000 to $1 million in digital assets.

Going Ghost: Lessons for Hodlers

For crypto holders, the message is clear: visibility is a liability. Security experts urge investors to avoid sharing details of their holdings online, even with friends, and to use pseudonyms and fresh digital wallet addresses for each transaction. Physical safety measures are just as important—avoid posting geotagged photos, flaunting luxury items, or revealing travel plans that could signal wealth.

Technical defenses matter, too. Store the bulk of your assets in multi-signature or cold wallets, which require multiple keys or are kept offline, making immediate transfers under duress impossible. Consider setting up decoy wallets with small amounts of crypto to surrender if threatened, while keeping the majority of your funds inaccessible in an emergency.

Finally, stay informed about the latest scams and extortion tactics.

The Bottom Line

The rise of crypto extortion is a stark reminder that digital wealth can bring very real-world dangers. As criminals become more brazen and sophisticated, crypto holders must balance the pursuit of financial freedom with a heightened sense of caution. Protecting your assets and, more importantly, yourself means you’ll need to give much more thought to security because in the new world of crypto riches, the risks are no longer just virtual.

Just a few days into June, the United States Mint launches its first products of the month, all featuring the new 2025 Dr. Vera Rubin quarter. Struck in circulation quality, the new coin is offered in 100-coin bags, two-roll sets, and three-roll sets, with options including quarters from the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints.

The Dr. Vera Rubin quarter is the eighteenth release in the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters™ Program. Launched in 2022, the series honors notable women in American history, with four new designs issued each year. It will conclude later this year with the twentieth and final coin.

Dr. Vera Rubin was an American astronomer born on July 23, 1928. Fascinated by astronomy from a young age, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in 1948, a master’s from Cornell in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1954. Among her many contributions to science, Rubin is best known for her groundbreaking research on the rotation curves of spiral galaxies. She observed that stars at the edges of galaxies were moving just as quickly as those near the center – a discovery that could not be explained by the visible matter alone. Her work provided compelling evidence for the existence of dark matter, reshaping our understanding of the universe.

Dr. Vera Rubin Quarter Designs

United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program artist Christina Hess designed the likeness of Dr. Vera Rubin that appears on the reverse (tails side) of each new quarter. Rubin is shown gazing upward, smiling as she contemplates the cosmos, surrounded by a spiral galaxy and other celestial bodies. Inscriptions on the reverse include “DR. VERA RUBIN,” “QUARTER DOLLAR,” “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” The phrase “DARK MATTER” – referencing the invisible mass believed to hold galaxies together – appears at the bottom. The design was sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw.

All coins in the series feature a portrait of George Washington on the obverse (heads side). This image of the first U.S. president was originally created by artist Laura Gardin Fraser to commemorate Washington’s 200th birthday in 1932, and includes the inscriptions “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and “2025.”

Coin Specifications

Quarter Products, Prices and Ordering

The Dr. Vera Rubin quarter is available in the following product options and prices:

• Two-Roll Sets – containing 40 quarters each from the Philadelphia and Denver Mints ($42).
• Three-Roll Sets – containing 40 quarters each from the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints ($63).
• 100-Coin Bags – containing 100 quarters from either the Philadelphia or Denver Mint ($47.25).

Product limits are set at 7,000 for the Two-Roll Sets, 18,625 for the Three-Roll Sets, and 8,250 for each of the 100-Coin Bags. Additionally, initial household order limits are three for any of the rolls and ten for the bags.

Of note, the Mint stated that “because of overwhelming demand, much of the production of the three-roll sets is accounted for through subscription,” with only “a limited quantity available for purchase beginning June 3 at noon ET.”

Quarter products may be ordered directly from the U.S. Mint’s online catalog.

American Women Quarters Program

Authorized by Congress under Public Law 116-330, the Mint’s American Women Quarters series launched in 2022 and will conclude this year with a total of twenty coins, each honoring the achievements and contributions of women in United States history.

2025 quarters recognize:

• Ida B. Wells – Investigative journalist, suffragist, and civil rights activist
• Juliette Gordon Low – Founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America
• Dr. Vera Rubin – Astronomer known for pioneering research on galaxy rotation
• Stacey Park Milbern – Disability rights activist
• Althea Gibson – Groundbreaking multi-sport athlete and the first Black player to break tennis’s color barrier

In addition to rolls and bags of circulation-quality coins, American Women quarters will also be included in U.S. Mint clad proof sets, silver proof sets, holiday ornaments, and uncirculated sets.

Dr. Vera Rubin quarters entered circulation on Monday, June 2, through the Federal Reserve Bank System. Only the Philadelphia and Denver Mint strikes were released, as San Francisco–minted quarters are produced exclusively for numismatic products.

The states with the cheapest 30-year new purchase mortgage rates Monday were New York, California, Hawaii, and Tennessee, followed by a large multi-state tie that includes Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The lowest-rate states registered averages between 6.86% and 6.97%.

Meanwhile, the states with Monday’s most expensive 30-year rates were Alaska, West Virginia, Mississippi, Montana, Maryland, South Dakota, and Vermont. The range of averages for these pricier states was 7.05% to 7.22%.

Mortgage rates vary by the state where they originate. Different lenders operate in different regions, and rates can be influenced by state-level variations in credit score, average loan size, and regulations. Lenders also have varying risk management strategies that influence the rates they offer.

Since rates vary widely across lenders, it’s always smart to shop around for your best mortgage option and compare rates regularly, no matter the type of home loan you seek.

National Mortgage Rate Averages

Rates on 30-year new purchase mortgages have been mildly bobbing after a multi-day decline of 16 points. The current 7.00% average is an improvement vs. the May 22 reading of 7.15%, which was the flagship average’s highest level in a year.

In March, however, 30-year rates sank to 6.50%, their cheapest average of 2025. And in September, 30-year rates plunged to a two-year low of 5.89%.

Editor’s Note: Every time the markets have plunged into chaos over the last 25 years – 2008, 2020, 2022, even 2025’s tariff shock – veteran trader Jeff Clark was one of the few to sound the alarm before it happened… and each time, he was right.

Now Jeff is issuing another urgent warning: A fresh wave of market volatility could be just weeks away. But here’s what most investors usually miss – volatility isn’t just risk. It’s also opportunity. And nobody has turned chaos into consistent profits quite like Jeff.

He’s closed over 1,000 winning trades amid turbulent markets using his proprietary “chaos pattern” strategy, a method based on divergence and mean reversion.

Together with TradeSmith, Jeff is debuting a groundbreaking tool that scans the market daily for these chaos patterns. It’s the same system Jeff already uses; but now, for the first time, you’ll be able to access it, too.

He’ll reveal all next week, Wednesday, June 11 at 10 am ET during his Countdown to Chaos event, including 10 real-time opportunities the screener is flagging right now.

Don’t miss this. If Jeff is right again – and history says he probably is – this could be your best shot to profit while others panic. Reserve your seat now.

Today, we’ve invited Jeff to share some insights about what’s building behind the scenes right now to help prepare you for what’s ahead.

If you’re looking for financial advice, seek out someone with wrinkles and gray hair.

Most folks under 50 years old have no idea what’s coming next. They’ve never experienced a rising interest rate environment.

Look at this chart of 30-year interest rates…

Long-term interest rates peaked in 1982, with the 30-year Treasury Bond yielding 14%.

Rates then declined for the next 40 years – hitting as low as 0.4% during the COVID crisis in 2020.

But, look at what has happened in the last three years. The 30-year Treasury yield broke out above a 40-year declining resistance line.

Rising Interest Rates, Soaring Debt, and a Looming Refinancing Crunch: What to Watch

Interest rates entered a new, long term bull market – meaning Treasury Bonds entered a bear market. Rates are 60% higher today than they were in 2022.

They’re 1,100% higher than they were at the bottom in 2020.

In other words, the cost of borrowing money is 11 times greater today than it was five years ago.

Most folks, most companies, and most governments manage their debt by taking out new loans to pay off older debt as it matures. And, for the past 40 years we’ve been able to do this at perpetually lower interest rates. This allowed us to borrow even more money without incurring larger debt payments.

People could buy bigger homes. Companies could pay premium prices to buy out competitors or buy back their own shares. Governments could spend money recklessly without feeling the pinch of fiscal budget restraints.

There were no consequences to borrowing money. Deficits didn’t matter.

Now though, with long-term interest rates recently hitting the highest level in 20 years, it costs more to borrow money. Any maturing debt must be refinanced at higher rates.

Nobody is refinancing their mortgage anymore and taking out a pile of cash to spend on their lavish lifestyles. Companies can’t borrow cheap money to buy back expensive shares.

U.S. equities rose at midday as the markets continued to wait for more information about possible U.S. trade deals. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq were slightly higher.

Dollar General (DG) was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 after the discount retailer beat profit and sales estimates and boosted its guidance as shoppers worried about economic uncertainty flocked to its stores.

Shares of Constellation Energy (CEG) gained when Meta Platforms (META) signed a 20-year deal to buy nuclear power from the firm to power its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

Hims & Hers Health (HIMS) shares rose when the health and wellness site purchased London-based digital healthcare provider ZAVA to expand its reach in Europe. The price of the all-cash deal was not disclosed.

FactSet Research Systems (FDS) shares fell when the financial data firm announced that CEO Phil Snow would be retiring in September. Snow will be replaced by former JPMorgan Chase (JPM) executive Sanoke Viswanathan.

After a big jump yesterday on President Trump’s announcement of 50% tariffs on imported steel, shares of Nucor (NUE) and rival steelmakers fell on concerns the new duties will lead to higher costs, supply chain issues, and retaliation.

Bumble (BMBL) shares tumbled on a downgrade from JPMorgan, which said the dating app is losing market share to competitor Hinge. 

Oil futures climbed. Gold prices declined. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticked higher. The U.S. dollar was up on the euro, pound, and yen. Most major cryptocurrencies traded higher. 

There’s a lot for investors to tune into at Netflix, Jefferies said.

Jefferies reiterated its “buy” rating of Netflix (NFLX) stock Tuesday, saying a solid release lineup, additional price increases and ad revenue are likely to bolster shares. 

Analysts raised their price target to $1,400, about 15% above where shares closed Monday. Jefferies’ target is well above the average analyst price target of $1,192 compiled by Visible Alpha that implies a roughly 2% loss.

“We continue to see a favorable catalyst path for NFLX over the short, medium, and long-term,” Jefferies said, adding: “Over the next 5 yrs, we believe NFLX should sustain 20%+ EPS.”

Netflix will likely be able to retain customers in 2025 while cracking down on password sharing and collecting recently raised subscription fees, thanks to “one of the best” release lineups in recent memory, Jefferies said. Anticipated releases include new episodes of Squid Game, Stranger Things and Wednesday, the research note said.

Ad revenue is poised to grow in the coming year, and potentially create a “$10B opportunity through 2030,” Jefferies said.

Netflix may also benefit from expanding live sports and entertainment offerings and future subscription fee increases, the note said.

Shares were down less than 1% in recent trading but have gained nearly 37% so far this year. 

Discount retailer Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings (OLLI) beat estimates for the first quarter on Tuesday and lifted its sales projections for the full year.

The retailer said Tuesday it generated $576.77 million in revenue for the quarter along with $0.75 in adjusted earnings per share, each better than analysts had expected. Comparable store sales also rose by 2.6%, a larger gain than the 1.54% analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha.

“As consumers seek out value and the current environment weighs on retailers and suppliers, we believe we are well positioned to benefit,” CEO Eric van der Valk said.

The company affirmed its full-year adjusted EPS outlook of $3.65 to $3.75, while lifting its sales outlook to a range of $2.58 billion to $2.60 billion, up from $2.56 billion to $2.59 billion previously.

Ollie’s opened 25 locations in the quarter, 18 of which were former Big Lots locations that the company acquired through auction after Big Lots went bankrupt last year. Last quarter, Ollie’s said it acquired 40 total locations through the auction, putting its target at opening 75 total locations this year.

Despite beating on the top and bottom lines, shares of Ollie’s were down slightly on Tuesday.