According to Odaily Planet Daily, federal prosecutors have arrested three Silicon Valley engineers accused of stealing sensitive chip security trade secrets from companies like Google and transferring them to unauthorized locations, including Iran. A federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has indicted Samaneh Ghandali, Soroor Ghandali, and Mohammadjavad Khosravi. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), while working at Google, Samaneh Ghandali allegedly transferred hundreds of documents, including Google's trade secrets, to a third-party communications platform. The stolen materials involved trade secrets related to processor security and cryptography. The defendants are accused of attempting to cover up their actions by deleting files, destroying electronic records, and submitting false affidavits to the victim companies. The indictment describes that in December 2023, the night before traveling to Iran, Samaneh Ghandali photographed about twenty images of trade secret information displayed on a work computer screen at another company. While in Iran, a device associated with her accessed these photos, and Khosravi accessed other trade secret materials. Google's internal security system detected suspicious activity in August 2023 and revoked Samaneh Ghandali's access. All three defendants were charged with conspiracy and theft of trade secrets, as well as obstruction of justice. The statutory maximum penalty for obstruction of justice is 20 years imprisonment. Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, stated that employees with legitimate access, even under existing controls, can quietly extract highly sensitive intellectual property over time. The risks faced by semiconductor and cryptography companies often come from "trusted insiders, not hackers." Dan Dadybayo, head of strategy at Horizontal Systems, stated that the "boundary" breaks down when engineers are able to move architecture, key management logic, or hardware security designs out of a controlled environment. Dyma Budorin, executive chairman of Hacken, stated that certification frameworks such as SOC 2 and ISO typically measure compliance maturity, not actual resilience against specific attackers, especially insiders. These certifications demonstrate the existence of controls at the time of auditing, but do not prove that sensitive data cannot be stolen.

Huoxun Finance News, February 20th - According to an official announcement, Binance Alpha has launched the second round of the Swarm Network (TRUTH) airdrop. Users with at least 251 Binance Alpha points can claim an airdrop of 3,333 TRUTH tokens on a first-come, first-served basis. If the rewards are not fully distributed, the point threshold will automatically decrease by 5 points every 5 minutes. Claiming this airdrop will cost 15 Binance Alpha points. Users must confirm their claim on the Alpha event page within 24 hours; otherwise, they will be considered to have forfeited their claim.

Huoxun Finance reported on February 20th that, according to an article posted on the X platform by Artemis, Hyperliquid has been selected as one of Forbes magazine's top 50 fintech companies, with zero reported funding and only undergoing liquidation. Furthermore, community members in the comments section added that only two of the top 50 fintech companies rely on self-financing, with zero external funding: Hyperliquid and Increase, a US B2B company.

According to Odaily Planet Daily, at the Hong Kong Gold Exchange's Lunar New Year Gold Opening Ceremony and 2026 Spring Festival Opening Ceremony, Chan Ho-lim, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, stated that the SAR government is fully committed to promoting Hong Kong as an international gold trading center to further diversify Hong Kong's international financial business. Chan said the goal is to expand gold storage in Hong Kong to over 2,000 tons within three years, making Hong Kong a regional gold reserve hub. Regarding the promotion of commodity trading, 15 London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses are currently operating in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange will also deepen its connectivity with the Guangzhou Futures Exchange and other commodity markets in mainland China. (Xinhua News Agency)

According to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement on February 20, Delin Holdings announced that its subsidiary, Delin Securities, has officially opened virtual asset trading services to qualified investors. All trading orders are processed through the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) licensed platform, and fund clearing, asset custody, and compliance monitoring are all conducted under the SFC's regulatory framework.