Tanim Rasul, chief operating officer at Canadian crypto exchange NDAX, said Canada “got it wrong” categorizing stablecoins as securities in 2022, and the country needs to realize that every other regulatory regime is looking at stablecoins as payment instruments.

Rasul made the remarks during a panel on May 13 at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, pointing to Europe’s crypto regulatory framework as a model for Canada to consider:

“I’m sure the regulators are wondering if this was the right choice to approach stablecoins as a security. […] I would just say, look at MiCA, look at the way they’re approaching stablecoins. It’s a payment instrument. It should be regulated as such.”

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) classified stablecoins as “securities and/or derivatives” in December 2022, following “recent events in the crypto market,” such as the dramatic collapse of crypto exchange FTX just a month before.

Related: What Canada’s new Liberal PM Mark Carney means for crypto

Canadian Web3 Regulation panel at Blockchain Futurist Conference. Source: Cointelegraph

The agency elaborated on stablecoin rules in February and October of 2023, placing such tokens under the umbrella of “value-referenced crypto assets.”

Canada’s stance on digital assets led many top crypto companies, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, and Paxos, to scale back operations in the local market. Crypto exchange Gemini also announced exit plans in September 2024.

The regulatory setback, however, hasn’t stopped Canada’s digital asset market from flourishing. According to Grand View Research, the local crypto industry posted revenue of $224 million in 2024, higher than in previous years. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.6% until 2030, when it is forecast to reach $617.5 million in annual revenue.

Related: Bitstamp’s departure from Canada is ‘timing issue,’ says CEO

Stablecoins have emerged as key crypto use case

Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to a fiat currency, have emerged as a key use case for digital assets. According to DefiLlama, the current market capitalization for all stablecoins is at $242.8 billion as of May 14, up 51.9% in the past 12 months.

Stablecoin market cap. Source: DefiLlama

Nation-states and economic blocs are increasingly working on stablecoin regulations to tackle the rising usage across the world. While the most used stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar, there is demand for stablecoins pegged to other fiat currencies.

Magazine: Legal Panel: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin’s realized cap has grown by $30 billion since April 20, reflecting steady investor confidence and new capital inflows.

A Bitcoin price consolidation pattern forecasts a potential 10% breakout by next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to show strong bullish momentum as fresh capital inflows signal potential new price highs in the coming week. In an X post, Glassnode reported that Bitcoin’s Realized Cap, which measures the total value of BTC based on the price at which each coin last moved, grew by $30 billion since April 20, growing at a 3% monthly rate in May. The current realized cap is $900 billion.

Bitcoin Realize cap. Source: Glassnode

Though slower than the 8% spike in late 2024 when BTC hit $93,000, this growth reflects steady investor confidence and new capital entering the market.

Adding to the optimism, Glassnode revealed a significant shift in market dynamics. The 7-day simple moving average (SMA) of Bitcoin’s Spot Volume Delta flipped positive, peaking near $5 billion on May 13.

Bitcoin spot volume delta. Source: Glassnode

This aggressive net spot buyer demand, seen only a few times this year as highlighted, confirms strong spot market conviction behind Bitcoin’s recent push above the $100,000 psychological resistance. The surge in spot buying pressure suggests institutional and retail investors drive the rally, not just leveraged trading.

Despite the slower Realized Cap growth compared to late 2024’s $50 billion spike, the current market sentiment remains positive.

Related: Strategy will beat all public equities with Bitcoin, analyst says

Will Bitcoin gain 10% by next week?

Bitcoin has shown a steady consolidation and expansion trend since forming a bottom around $74,500 in early April. Over the past four weeks, a pattern has emerged where each time Bitcoin hits a key level, it moves sideways before breaking out to a higher range. This pattern has repeated twice, with a third consolidation currently underway.

Bitcoin 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Each phase has followed a similar setup, forming higher upper and lower ranges. The bottom range is typically tested at least once before Bitcoin pushes to new highs. The relative strength index (RSI) has complemented this price action, reaching overbought levels during new highs and dropping to around 50 during sideways movement.

Currently, Bitcoin is consolidating between an upper range of $105,700 and a lower range of $100,678. If the pattern holds, Bitcoin might retest the $100,000-$102,000 level before potentially breaking above $110,000. However, a bearish invalidation could occur if prices fall below $102,000 and fail to recover swiftly.

Related: Market volatility indicator still points to $135K Bitcoin within 100 days — Analyst

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Zerebro developer Jeffy Yu has been found alive at his parents’ home in San Francisco, days after faking his suicide on a livestream that launched a supposed posthumous memecoin past $100 million.

Yu’s case isn’t the first time crypto has blurred the line between real death, faked death and something in between. 

From missing founders to sealed caskets, the industry has a long history of exits that left behind more questions than closure.

Here are five unsettling cases — real, staged or unresolved — that continue to haunt the crypto world.

1. Jeffy Yu faked his death, then his crypto pumped

A clip of Yu broadcasting his “suicide” circulated on May 4. The video showed him smoking a cigarette before pulling the trigger, then the camera dropped.

Hours later, a scheduled social media post announced the posthumous launch of LLJEFFY, a memecoin described as his “final art piece.” The coin surged to nearly $105 million in market cap.

LLJEFFY’s market fell to $5.63 million from its $105 million peak. Source: DEX Screener

But Yu wasn’t dead. Blockchain wallets tied to him kept moving. A copy of a letter — allegedly written by Yu — described the exit design as a response to ongoing harassment and blackmail.

Yu’s obituary on online memorial site Legacy.com has now been removed. Source: Vee/Legacy.com

Reporters from The San Francisco Standard eventually found Yu at his parents’ home. He refused to comment on the suicide stunt or whether he profited from it.

In the world of memecoins, this kind of spectacle isn’t new. In late 2024, Pump.fun’s livestream feature triggered a wave of stunts — suicide threats, animal abuse and other shocking acts — to pump token prices. The company shut it down and later relaunched a toned-down version.

2. A crypto whistleblower’s descent into paranoia and possible death

In February 2025, a suspected Chinese programmer who called themselves Hu Lezhi burned 500 Ether (ETH) (worth around $1.3 million at the time) and donated another 1,950 ETH (over $5 million) to various groups like WikiLeaks and the Ethereum Foundation. 

All of it came with onchain messages alleging that a hedge fund called WizardQuant (aka Kuande Investment) was using “brain-computer weapons” to control its employees — including Hu.

Related: 4chan rises from the dead: How the imageboard moves crypto markets

The messages read like sci-fi horror. Hu claimed he’d been a mind-control test subject since childhood and warned of a future where humans were nothing more than “puppets or complete slaves to the digital machine.”

Hu Lezhi’s final messages before disappearing. Source: Etherscan

In one of his last messages, Hu said they would “leave the world” if they reached the final stage of becoming a “complete slave to the digital machine.” Some translated the series of messages as an onchain suicide note.

To date, they haven’t re-emerged. And unlike Yu, Hu’s wallet hasn’t moved.

3. The crypto whiz and the cryptic tweet before his death

On Oct. 28, 2022, DeFi developer Nikolai Mushegian posted a chilling tweet: “CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring… they are going to torture me to death.”

By the next morning, he was found face-down in the surf near his beach house in Puerto Rico.

A final tweet, a washed-up body, and silence louder than truth. Source: Nikolai Mushegian/fucnti0nZer0

Mushegian wasn’t a random crypto kid. He was an early developer at MakerDAO and a key architect of the stablecoin ecosystem. 

He was also increasingly paranoid — or, depending on who you ask, increasingly aware. Critics dismissed the tweet as a mental health crisis, but others weren’t so quick to look away.

Related: 8 major crypto firms announce US expansion this year

The timing of his death sparked a wave of theories: assassination, targeted silencing or even MKUltra-style mind control.

Officially, it was ruled an accidental drowning.

4. Crypto investors can’t believe QuadrigaCX founder’s death

In December 2018, Gerald Cotten, the 30-year-old founder of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, reportedly died in India from Crohn’s disease. 

But there was one massive problem: He was the only person with access to $190 million in crypto.

Cotten’s case was so high-profile that it became the subject of a Netflix documentary. Source: Netflix/YouTube

As news of his death spread, so did the questions. There was no public autopsy, his death certificate misspelled his name (spelling Cotten as Cottan), the casket was sealed, and a growing army of investors wanted his body exhumed for DNA testing.

Quadriga officially declared bankruptcy in 2019. Thousands of clients were locked out of their funds. Eventually, investigators discovered the cold wallets were empty, prompting auditor EY to begin recovery efforts.

Some suspected Cotten had run a Ponzi scheme for years and used his death as the ultimate escape plan. The rumors have not been confirmed, but the official story remains that he died a tragic death, as confirmed by Indian authorities. 

5. Reports of Cryptoqueen’s death are greatly exaggerated

Self-styled “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova, co-founder of the $4-billion OneCoin scam, hasn’t been seen since she boarded a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens in October 2017.

Cotten left no access. Ignatova left no trace.

Since then, rumors have swirled. Some say that she underwent plastic surgery and lives under a new identity or that she’s being protected by the Bulgarian mafia. 

A Bulgarian investigative outlet claims Ignatova was allegedly murdered in November 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea and that her body was dismembered and dumped overboard under the orders of Bulgarian crime boss Christophoros Amanatidis to cover his ties to OneCoin.

More recently, German officials reportedly assumed that Ignatova is in a South African suburb living with private security.

Ignatova has been on the US FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list since 2022.

 The US Federal Bureau of Investigation raised Ignatova’s bounty to $5 million in June 2024. Source: FBI

Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’