
His fortunes turned around when Vitalik handed him the Ethereum white paper.	͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏	View in browser

December 02, 2025

Rising hockey star's new life in Ethereum after devastating car crash: Trevor Koverko

A car accident left Trevor Koverko with a brain injury. But his fortunes turned around when Vitalik handed him the Ethereum white paper.

Not everyone can say they were there when history was being made. But former ice hockey star Trevor Koverko, on the mend from a serious car accident, witnessed it firsthand in his hometown.

"I was at a meet-up in Toronto and this guy named Vitalik was handing out documents, which turned out to be the Ethereum whitepaper. We had a cluster of really important high-profile people that came out of that time in Toronto. Vitalik, Joe Lubin and Charles Hoskinson, for example."

In Canada, ice hockey is its own kind of subculture. Koverko had fallen in love with the sport at a young age, and by the time he was a teen, he was competing at the semi-pro level and moved away from home, playing to crowds of 10,000.

Landing your dream job before graduating from high school felt too good to be true. At 18, Koverko was an NHL draft pick for the New York Rangers. He had his whole life ahead of him. Until he didn't.

When he was 24, Koverko was in a serious car accident. He suffered a catastrophic brain injury and was paralyzed on his left side for weeks. It abruptly ended his career as an athlete and nearly ended his life.

Six years later, in 2017, Koverko founded a security token project – well before tokenization was a thing – that raised $75 million and reached a $1 billion market cap. His journey into crypto was a combination of good luck and good management.

When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects' impossible choice

Lawyers say privacy laws and AML laws sometimes conflict and there's no clear path to compliance for decentralized blockchain projects.

Crypto was originally most closely associated with anonymity, but in 2025, the crypto ecosystem has changed.

User privacy is diminishing, as new laws in different jurisdictions across the globe require Know Your Customer and ID checks for wallets or exchange accounts to combat money laundering. The increasing sophistication of blockchain analysis tools means that every transaction has a transparent trail that can be traced back to its source.

As a result, onchain privacy has become a major theme. In October, the Ethereum Foundation announced the formation of its "Privacy Cluster," a group of some 47 researchers, engineers and cryptographers who are working to make the base layer of Ethereum private.

This takes the form of Kohaku, a modular framework for the network that allows senders and receivers to hide their real wallet address, among other functions. It claims to be compliant, but Signal, from ZK privacy solution Onflow, argued that "from a legality perspective, in ~0% of the large jurisdictions would view keys be considered compliance."

It turns out crypto platforms face a seemingly impossible task in complying with opaque rules designed for centralized entities to protect the data privacy of individuals, while still being compliant with financial rules around transparency.

To better understand these complexities, Magazine spoke with Charlyn Ho, CEO of Rikka — a law and consulting firm specializing in privacy, technology transactions and cybersecurity.

Web3 Gamer : Crypto gaming's mainstream moment hinges on CLARITY Act: Web3 Gamer

Crypto gaming could thrive if the US Clarity Act passes Congress, but the sector should broaden beyond crypto-only models: Web3 Gamer.

Crypto will start to become adopted by multibillion-dollar gaming giants after the CLARITY Act advances through US Congress, according to Robbie Ferguson, founder of Immutable.

"I expect to see a ton of companies to come out of the woodwork with ultimately programmable loyalty and incentive schemes that are far more efficient than whatever their existing system is using," Ferguson said during an interview on TradeTalks on Wednesday.

"We're already in conversation with mult-billion dollar public gaming companies who are considering launching tokens as incentives for their end players, but what they need is complete clarity and certainty on how they can do that in a lawful way,' Ferguson said.

The CLARITY Act aims to create a clearer, more defined regulatory framework for the crypto industry, including a more straightforward understanding of oversight between the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Asia Express: Koreans 'pump' alts after Upbit hack, China BTC mining surge

How the $36 million hack of Upbit led to surging altcoin prices, China's mining ban less effective than ever, Thailand vs WRLD: Asia Express

Korean crypto traders are having an outsize effect on local altcoin prices following a major hack at South Korean exchange Upbit, according to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju.

"Upbit got hacked and paused withdrawals, but Koreans are pumping alts since arbitrage bots are no longer running," Ju said in an X post on Thursday, shortly after the exchange halted transaction activity after detecting an "abnormal transaction" with a value of around $36 million.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining activity in China is picking up again despite a nationwide ban, driven by cheap electricity and a significant data-center expansion in power-heavy regions, according to a recent report.

China has gradually regained its position as the world's third-largest Bitcoin mining hub, after its share of global mining briefly dropped to zero following the ban in 2021, Reuters reported on Thursday.