Illicit crypto riches

Hi, it’s Drake in New York. It’s apparently hard to keep a successful crypto heist secret. But first...Three things you need to know today:• [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Drake in New York. It’s apparently hard to keep a successful crypto heist secret. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Apple’s iPhone sales [were sluggish]( • Amazon issued a [positive outlook]( • Infineon shares [dropped the most in three years]( Decentralized one-upsmanship Part of the promise of cryptocurrency, along with whatever else it is supposed to eventually allow us to do, is anonymity. Whoever possesses the private keys to a cryptocurrency token owns it. Everyone can see where that token lives on the blockchain, but, in theory, no one can see who it belongs to. Over time, however, that promise has gotten weaker. The large crypto exchanges that many owners use to keep track of and transfer their coins typically require government identification to open an account. Software created by firms like Chainalysis have gotten better and better at tracing the path of transactions through the public ledger. There’s a third factor, too, and it drives much of the action in the feature story Margi Murphy and I wrote in this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek. That factor is the incorrigible human need for attention. Our piece is about a $24 million cryptocurrency heist that a group of hackers, led by a then 15-year-old named Ellis Pinsky, pulled off, using a remarkably simple identity theft technique called SIM swapping. Their victim was Michael Terpin, a longtime tech PR impresario and prominent crypto investor. Pinsky and his co-conspirators targeted Terpin because he made it his business to be a public booster for crypto — organizing conferences, giving interviews and TED talks and posting on social media, all of which publicly marked him as someone with a lot of crypto to steal. After the theft, one of the participants, Nicholas Truglia, boasted about it to friends and tweeted about it. He also made a habit of posting images to social media of himself in private jets, wearing watches that cost as much as a luxury car. Other SIM swappers’ social media accounts were similarly full of images of extreme conspicuous consumption. All of that made the work of law enforcement and prosecutors more straightforward. Indeed, the hacks themselves, while obviously about money, seem to have also been about impressing other teen gamers in a constant game of online one-upmanship. There was no way they were ever going to keep it a secret. That would have spoiled it. Crypto was designed in part to serve our need for privacy, but it’s hard for hackers to be anonymous when they make a public spectacle of themselves. —[Drake Bennett](mailto:dbennett35@bloomberg.net) The big story Gary Gensler would like to talk about something other than crypto. After two years of battling an industry that he says is riddled with scams and fraud, the head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission is focused on a different technology that has all of finance buzzing: [artificial intelligence](. One to watch [Watch the Bloomberg Technology TV interview]( with Founders Fund’s Ryan Petersen. Get fully charged As investor interest in AI sends shares of technology giants soaring, a little-known circuit board maker in South Korea is [cashing in big](. Nintendo hit a new high for first-quarter profit after the successful launch of its latest Legend of Zelda game [propped up sales]( of its Switch console. A trio of researchers say companies with workforces ripest for AI streamlining are doing something interesting in the market: [beating it](v). Warner Bros. Discovery is close to offering an [expanded slate of live sports]( on its Max streaming service and will probably require subscribers to pay extra to watch basketball, hockey and other events. More from Bloomberg Get Bloomberg Tech newsletters in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends - [Hyperdrive]( for expert insight into the future of cars Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Tech Daily newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](