Near expanded privacy features for traders as NEAR Intents recorded $29.3 billion in cumulative volume, including swaps involving Zcash. Near Protocol’s native token surged nearly 80% over the past week, outpacing the wider crypto market as the network expanded its privacy-focused trading services. On Monday, NEAR traded around $4.29, up about 78.2% over seven days and 22% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose about 6% over the same seven-day period. On Thursday, Near Protocol said deposits and withdrawals for perpetual futures trading through near.com were now confidential by default. Near said the feature obscures the link between a trader’s funding wallet and a dedicated Hyperliquid trading account.
Bitcoin hit $85,000 for the first time since January as markets focused on cooling oil prices. Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week at its highest levels in nearly eight months as bulls propel the market to $85,000. Key points:
X alleges six Bitcoin-focused accounts coordinated posts and engagement to inflate creator payouts, with claimed and projected losses of at least $378,000. Elon Musk-owned social media platform X has sued the alleged operators of a network of Bitcoin-focused accounts, seeking to recover at least $278,000 in creator payouts it says they obtained by manipulating engagement. X filed a lawsuit in the High Court of England and Wales on Thursday against Vivek Kumar Sen, Zamyang Sherpa and unidentified account operators, alleging they fraudulently obtained at least 207,384 British pounds ($278,000) from its creator revenue-sharing program. The court filing is available on X’s Transparency Center. The company claims the defendants coordinated multiple accounts to boost engagement by reposting and…
ZetaChain plans to wind down its Cosmos-based layer 1 and migrate ZETA to Solana, joining other crypto projects moving away from standalone chains. ZetaChain tokenholders have approved a plan to wind down the project’s layer-1 blockchain and migrate its native ZETA token to Solana. Governance proposal 68 passed Sunday with 99.4% support and 58% participation, exceeding the network’s 40% quorum requirement. Under the proposal, ZETA will become an SPL token on Solana through a 1:1 conversion, with the same ticker and total supply. According to the proposal, the vote does not immediately trigger ZetaChain’s shutdown or migration. Core contributors will submit a second proposal detailing the withdrawal window for assets linked to other blockchains, snapshot block height, shutdown timetable,…
The Bank of Korea’s new network will let foreign investors settle won transactions during business hours in their home countries. The Bank of Korea (BOK) launched a pilot of its first 24-hour won settlement network, aimed at allowing foreign investors to settle won transactions outside South Korea’s normal banking hours. On Monday, the central bank said its international wire network started trial operations with four domestic lenders: KB Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank and Shinhan Bank. Full operations are scheduled for January 2027, when participation is expected to expand to other institutions and foreign banks. The network will operate 24 hours a day, excluding weekends and public holidays. Foreign investors will be able to settle won transactions during business hours in their hom…
Bitcoin’s move above its 50-week moving average has historically marked the end of bear markets, but analysts say one weekly close isn’t enough to confirm a new bull run. Bitcoin has closed above its 50-week moving average for the first time in more than 10 months, a development some analysts said could signal the end of Bitcoin’s bear market. Bitcoin closed the week at $81,159 on Coinbase on Sunday, above its 50-week moving average of $78,788, according to TradingView. The last weekly close above the moving average was on Nov. 9, 2025. In August, Galaxy Research’s head of firmwide research Alex Thorn described the 50-week moving average as serving as a ceiling during bear markets.
The five-year digital bond reportedly shortened settlement from three to five business days to the same day using Euroclear’s blockchain infrastructure. South Korea’s Hana Bank has reportedly issued a five-year, $100 million digital bond using Euroclear’s blockchain-based platform. On Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported that the bank used Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure to issue the foreign-currency bond. The report described the transaction as the first digital bond issuance in South Korea to directly use Euroclear’s blockchain infrastructure. According to Yonhap, the bond’s issuance, registration and settlement were processed on a distributed ledger network. Using the technology for bond allocation and payment settlement reportedly shortened the process from three t…
North Korean cyber group WaterPlum targeted developers with fake jobs at crypto, AI and NFT companies, infecting at least 30,000 devices across more than 100 countries. North Korean hacking group WaterPlum stole at least $10.7 million by posing as recruiters for legitimate crypto and AI companies, attacking unsuspecting job seekers with malware. The group, also known as Contagious Interview, targets software developers and IT professionals worldwide, according to a joint advisory from Japan, Germany, Australia and the US. Authorities said the fake recruiters also impersonated non-fungible token (NFT) companies and used recruiting services. “The primary targets were individual web designers, engineers, and specialists in cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 technologies,” they added.
Crypto missed out CLARITY, but tokenized stocks were legalized and the Bitcoin Reserve advanced. Meanwhile Standard Chartered says Arbitrum’s price could increase 70 times by 2030. After a year’s buildup, the US Senate failed to pass a cloture motion on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The motion received just 49 votes in favor and 50 against, well short of the 60 votes required. However, Republican Senator Thom Tillis’s “no” vote was not all it seemed, and he confirmed he’d only switched sides at the last minute to enable him to call a new vote in future.
Trump posted on Truth Social that his new project would manage the fast-growing sector without adding regulations that could slow innovation. US President Donald Trump said that he plans to create an “AI Force” and appoint an artificial intelligence czar. Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday that his new project would manage the fast-growing sector without adding regulations that could slow innovation, according to Newsweek and other media. “For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term,” the president wrote. “To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI ‘Czar’ — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!”
At the close of trading on Sept. 28, shareholders will receive two extra shares for each one they hold. Grayscale’s Zcash ETF (ZCSH) plans a 3-for-1 forward share split, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At the close of trading on Sept. 28, shareholders will receive two extra shares for each one they hold, according to the filing. The forward split is expected to decrease the price per share of the fund, according to a Grayscale press release, with a proportionate increase in the number of shares outstanding.
The partnership is non-exclusive, and Anthropic expects to announce other evaluators in forthcoming weeks with which it will also work. Anthropic said it has chosen Accenture as its first embedded evaluator to help slow the pace of AI development as proposed last week by CEO Dario Amodei. Amodei published a three-step proposal on Sept. 12 to slow the development of AI and allow safeguards to be put in place amid warnings of a potential for catastrophic harm in the wake of swift, unchecked development.
The new ASSX fund offers 2x daily exposure to Strive shares, giving traders a leveraged way to bet on the Bitcoin treasury company. REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management launched a leveraged ETF that seeks to deliver twice the daily performance of Strive, a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company and asset manager. The T-REX 2X Long ASST Daily Target ETF began trading Friday under the ticker ASSX on Cboe and seeks to deliver 200% of Strive’s daily share-price performance before fees and expenses. The fund resets its leverage daily, meaning returns over periods longer than one trading day can differ significantly from twice the performance of Strive shares. Unlike spot Bitcoin ETFs, ASSX does not hold Bitcoin or seek to track its price, instead providing leveraged exposure to Strive sha…
Kalshi’s proposal would bring perpetual futures tied to individual stocks to US traders, as Coinbase and Bitnomial pursue similar products. Kalshi has filed to offer perpetual futures tied to individual US stocks, joining Coinbase in a push to bring crypto-style derivatives to traditional equity markets. The prediction market filed the proposed rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission and submitted it to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for approval on Friday. The CFTC has yet to approve the proposal. The proposed contracts would have no preset expiration date and would use periodic funding payments between long and short positions to keep their prices aligned with the underlying stocks. Kalshi said the contracts would be treated as security futures products a…
VanEck said Metaplanet’s executive equity exposure remains well above its digital asset treasury peers, even after the company cut its potential share pool by 41%. Asset manager VanEck has criticized Metaplanet’s executive compensation structure, arguing that recent efforts by the Bitcoin treasury company to curb shareholder dilution still fall short of adequately aligning management with investors. In a Friday report examining executive compensation across the 10 largest digital asset treasury companies, VanEck labeled Metaplanet’s compensation structure “Bad,” making it the only firm to fall into the lowest category. VanEck cited an equity plan equal to 14.7% of fully diluted shares and officer exposure of 8.2%. VanEck said Metaplanet’s officer exposure is roughly 10 times the 0.8% avera…
Bastion Platforms National Trust Company will offer stablecoin custody and wallets, payment infrastructure and white-label issuance from a single federally regulated entity. Stablecoin infrastructure provider Bastion said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had granted it preliminary conditional approval for a US trust bank charter. The charter adds federal supervision from the OCC to the state licenses Bastion already holds, according to a news release on Friday. Still, the proposed bank could not accept deposits or make loans, separating it from a conventional commercial bank. Licensed as Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, it will offer stablecoin custody and wallets, payment infrastructure and white-label issuance from a single federally regulated entity.
Former banking official gets four years in prison over false letters of credit and accepting $470,000 in cryptocurrency bribes. A former bank official in Hong Kong who falsely authenticated letters of credit for more than $1.6 billion was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $470,000 he received in cryptocurrency bribes. Lam Chun-yin, 32, who was a customer relationship manager at China Construction Bank (Asia), had previously pleaded guilty in District Court, The Standard reported on Saturday. Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung said deterrent sentences are necessary even for first-time offenders, especially in light of the grave nature of the crime and its impact on society. HashKey begins beta distribution of Hong Kong-regulated HKDAP stablecoin
Coinbase wants to bring 24/5 perpetual futures trading to individual US stocks, with its proposed contracts now awaiting regulatory approval. Coinbase has filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to list single-stock perpetual futures in the United States, seeking to bring a derivatives product widely used in crypto markets to individual US equities.
Binance is joining a growing number of crypto exchanges offering around-the-clock exposure to foreign exchange markets through perpetual futures. Binance is expanding its derivatives offering into foreign exchange with the launch of 24/7 perpetual futures, starting with a US dollar-Brazilian real contract on Monday. Unlike traditional FX markets, which close for the weekend, Binance’s contracts will trade continuously using a dual-mode pricing system. During regular FX trading hours, prices will track a weighted index from third-party data providers, while weekends and public holidays will use an orderbook-based pricing mechanism. The USDBRLUSDT contract will go live on Sept. 21, settle in USDT and offer up to 100x leverage, according to a Friday announcement. Binance said the weekend syst…
Coinbase, Strategy and other crypto-linked stocks rallied Friday as the CFTC and SEC moved ahead with crypto-related actions under existing authority. Crypto-linked stocks rebounded sharply on Friday, reversing losses that followed the Senate’s failure to advance the CLARITY Act earlier this week, as Bitcoin climbed back above $80,000. Strategy led the gains, rising more than 13%, while Coinbase and American Bitcoin climbed about 11% each. Robinhood gained nearly 9%, according to Yahoo Finance data. Source: Yahoo Finance
