TON Foundation Promises UAE Golden Visa for $100,000 Stake, Regulators Disagree Ethereum Proposes 16.77 Million Gas Cap to Prevent DoS Attacks US Secret Service Trains 60 Countries to Combat Crypto Scams, Seizes $400 Million

The TON Foundation has announced a program claiming investors could secure a UAE Golden Visa by staking $100,000 worth of the cryptocurrency. However, regulators have clarified that crypto holdings do not qualify for residency. TON Foundation CEO Max Crown stated that staking toncoin along with a $35,000 fee would grant applicants a 10-year visa for themselves and their families. This offer promised a faster route to residency compared to traditional paths, which often require investments exceeding $500,000. Toncoin briefly climbed above $3.06 before settling near $2.81. However, the Emirates News Agency reported that three federal regulators jointly denied that the UAE offers Golden Visas in exchange for crypto holdings. Officials insisted that visas remain tied to established categories, such as business investment or specialized talent, and not token staking.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a gas cap to protect the network from potential denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Buterin, along with Ethereum researcher Toni Wahrstätter, has proposed EIP-7983, which would cap the gas any single transaction can consume at 16.77 million. Currently, one transaction could theoretically consume the entire block’s gas allowance, leaving the network vulnerable to DoS attacks and unpredictable performance. The proposed cap aims to bolster security and ease Ethereum’s transition toward zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs). These systems rely on concise proofs and efficient computation, and the proposed cap would encourage splitting big tasks into smaller chunks compatible with zkVM processing. Under the plan, any transaction attempting to use more than 16.77 million gas would be rejected before it enters the network. The cap is separate from the overall block gas limit, which miners and validators still control. Buterin and Wahrstätter chose the 16.77 million threshold to support advanced DeFi operations and contract deployments without burdening the network.

The US Secret Service is expanding its global efforts to combat crypto scams. The agency’s Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) has trained law enforcement in over 60 countries to trace funds across the blockchain and recover stolen crypto. Secret Service teams recently visited Bermuda, teaching local officers how to investigate digital trails hidden behind investment sites and anonymous wallets. The agency has seized nearly $400 million in digital assets over the past decade, with much of it now stored in a cold-storage wallet among the largest in the world.