Here’s what happened in crypto today
Indian court hands life sentences in Bitcoin extortion case
An Indian anti-corruption court convicted 14 people, including 11 police officers and a former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, and sentenced them to life imprisonment for their roles in the 2018 kidnapping and extortion of a businessman in Surat. The group was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, illegal detention and assault. The case involved recovery of cryptocurrency that the victim had reclaimed after earlier losses related to an investment in BitConnect.
El Salvador redistributes Bitcoin holdings to limit quantum risk
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office moved portions of the country’s BTC reserves into 14 new addresses as a precaution against future quantum-computing threats. The government said the redistribution reduces the potential damage a successful quantum attack could cause, because public keys revealed after spending from an address could be more vulnerable if quantum advances allow cracking of current elliptic curve cryptography. Officials noted each new address holds up to 500 BTC and described the step as risk mitigation rather than a response to an immediate threat.
Ethereum Foundation pauses open grant applications
The Ethereum Foundation announced a temporary pause to open applications for its Ecosystem Support Program (ESP). After funding hundreds of projects through open calls, the foundation said it needs time to shift toward a more proactive, strategy-aligned grantmaking process that can better target ecosystem priorities. The ESP will continue to fund projects, but the foundation plans to refine how it evaluates and selects recipients and expects to share more details on the updated approach later in the year.
