Mt. Gox's former CEO floats hard fork to recover 80K hacked Bitcoin

The cryptocurrency market faced a series of challenges this week, with Bitcoin's price experiencing a significant slide, ransomware attacks on the rise, and Ethereum's co-founder outlining a roadmap for quantum resistance.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin's price retreated to around $65,700 after a brief attempt to reclaim $70,000, as deteriorating risk sentiment in U.S. equity markets weighed on crypto prices. Altcoins fell more sharply than Bitcoin, with major tokens like Solana and Ether dropping more than 6%. The pullback erased most of Wednesday's push toward $70,000, as hot producer-price data and a post-earnings Nvidia decline dragged risk assets lower heading into the weekend.

Meanwhile, a new report by Chainalysis suggests that ransomware attackers are "working harder for diminishing returns" as regulatory pressure and refusals to pay have hurt ransom proceeds. Ransomware attacks surged 50% in 2025, but ransom payments declined, indicating that attackers are facing increasing challenges in extracting payments from their victims.

In a separate development, Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of Mt. Gox, floated a hard fork to recover 80,000 hacked Bitcoin. Karpelès stated that it has been 12 years since the start of Mt. Gox's bankruptcy proceedings and "this is probably the last sore point on this whole case."

On a more positive note, an AI tool caught a critical bug in the XRP Ledger's pending Batch amendment, which could have allowed attackers to steal funds from any account without accessing private keys. The vulnerability was discovered by researcher Pranamya Keshkamat and Cantina AI's Apex tool, and prompted validators to reject the amendment.

Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, outlined a roadmap for quantum resistance, stating that validator signatures, data storage, accounts, and proofs must change to prepare for quantum threats. Buterin's roadmap provides a clear path forward for Ethereum to address the potential risks posed by quantum computing.

In conclusion, the cryptocurrency market faced a series of challenges this week, from Bitcoin's price slide to the rise of ransomware attacks. However, the discovery of a critical bug in the XRP Ledger and Ethereum's roadmap for quantum resistance demonstrate the industry's commitment to security and innovation.

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