US and UK authorities launched historic sanctions against the Cambodian-based Prince Group TCO and its chairman, Chen Zhi, seizing an alleged $15 billion in Bitcoin. The transnational criminal organization is accused of operating global "pig butchering" crypto scams built on forced labor and human trafficking. In separate news, the crypto art and Web3 community mourned the sudden death of Benoît Pagotto, a visionary co-founder of the influential NFT fashion studio RTFKT. Lastly, Aptos co-founder Mo Shaikh and former colleagues raised a $50 million fund, Maximum Frequency Ventures, to invest hands-on in early-stage crypto infrastructure and AI networks, particularly focusing on Asia.