Autor Cointelegraph By Andrew Fenton

Trump taps intel chief Jay Clayton to lead new Super Intelligence ForcePresident Donald Trump has named Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, to lead the country’s new Super Intelligence Force, according to a post on Truth Social on Sunday.The announcement followed media reports on Friday of the appointment. Cointelegraph reported Sept. 20 that Trump planned to create an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and appoint an artificial intelligence czar.“The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” Trump wrote in his post.Source: Made with Google AIClayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term and launched a prosecution against Ripple for selling securities on his last day in office, and as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York led the criminal trial against Roman Storm for his involvement in Tornado Cash. Storm commented:“It doesn’t look like we’re headed toward a future that supports open-source AI.”Trump’s good buddy Elon Musk is renaming SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI to honor the President’s directive renaming “artificial intelligence” to “superintelligence.”Source: Roman StormNEAR Intents hack has a happy endingNEAR has been riding a wave of positive sentiment lately and has more than doubled in price over the past month. This week it received praise in some quarters — and criticism in others — after its SHIELD AI system blocked Bitget’s hacked funds from its INTENTS cross chain swaps platform. Its Bitwise ETF debuted this week with almost $60 million of inflows.SHEILD also helped to halt a $3.8 million exploit of NEAR Intents due to a “bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract.”Sentiment flipped bearish for about seven and a half minutes, until NEAR Intents general manager Alex Shevchenko posted like a boss “we have identified you, sir” and issued a 48 hour ultimatum to return the funds or to presumably face the full force of the law. “You know better than most how responsible disclosure works — this is the last window to use it. After 48 hours, that window closes.”The funds were duly returned, and Shevchenko urged other exploiters thinking of LARPing as white hat hackers to “use bug bounties instead of disrupting the services.”The move to block Bitget’s stolen funds was controversial however and in stark contract to THORChain which has refused to block swaps on its platform, pointing to ideals around decentralization. There is also a live debate over whether SHIELD blocking funds leaves it legally liable for everything that happens on the platform in future.NEAR is down 11% this week. Arthur Hayes says money printing is inevitableMoney printing is coming due to the AI revolution, the United State’s debt crisis, and increasing financial stress in France, says Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom fund.AI companies need trillions of dollars to finance data centers even as the prices of their services fall, Hayes said at a fireside chat at CONNECT by Cointelegraph: Seoul Edition, on Tuesday during Korea Blockchain Week.“They’ve not really given themselves a lot of options other than print money and make it less bad,” he said.Hayes also discussed China potentially moving to monetary stimulus along with increasing financial stress in France, including credit-default swaps tied to BNP Paribas and French government bond spreads. I think the money printing will essentially happen at some point, but that’s sort of a slow motion train wreck happening underneath the surface.”BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes speaking at CONNECT by Cointelegraph: Seoul Edition.Blast to wind down Ethereum L2 after costs outpace revenueEthereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down after its operating costs exceeded the revenue generated by the chain.In a Friday post on X, Blast said it sees no “credible path” to making the network economically sustainable and asked users to withdraw their assets to Ethereum mainnet.“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers,” the team said. “Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense.”Blast was founded by Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre, the founder of NFT marketplace Blur, in November 2023 with native yield on Ether (ETH) and stablecoins and a points program tied to an anticipated token airdrop. The strategy helped attract more than $2 billion in deposits before its mainnet launched in February 2024.  Its DeFi total value locked has fallen by more than 98% since its June 2024 peak, according to DeFiLlama data.Ethereum schedules Glamsterdam upgrade on Sepolia for Oct. 6Ethereum developers have scheduled the network’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6.Sepolia node operators must update both their execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before the activation, the Ethereum Foundation said.One of Glamsterdam’s changes is enshrined proposer-builder separation. It will move the handoff between specialized block builders and validators into Ethereum’s protocol, reducing reliance on outside middleware.Glamsterdam will introduce block-level access lists, which record the accounts and storage locations used during each block, and will enable parallel processing by clients to speed up throughput.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1.4% to trade at $85,821, Ethereum (ETH) is up 0.6% to trade at $2,701 and XRP (XRP) is down 0.8% to $1.50. The total market cap is at $2.92 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are Midnight (NIGHT) with a 60.6% gain, StarkNet (SRK) on 14.5%, and Pump.fun (PUMP) on 26.3%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Lighter (LIT) which was down 22.2%, Zcash (SEC) down 16.4% and Ethena (ENA) down 14%.Prediction of the WeekPeter Brandt says Bitcoin may hit $600K by 2029Veteran trader Peter Brandt has flipped bullish, after warning in Julyt that prices could fall into the high $40K zone. “There’s a good possibility we have seen the low and now are entering a new bull market cycle in Bitcoin,” Brandt told Cointelegraph on the latest episode of Trade Secrets.Brandt has also raised his sights for Bitcoin’s next peak, putting a late-2029 high of between $300,000 and $600,000, up from the $250,000 to $300,000 range he outlined in July.“The bull market cycle this time has a very good chance of reaching half a million,” he said.Top FUD of the WeekCrypto hacks top $768M in September, worst month of 2026Crypto suffered its worst month of the year for hacks and exploits in September, with two blockchain security firms estimating losses at more than $766 million.PeckShield counted 55 major incidents resulting in $766.5 million in stolen funds, while CertiK recorded 97 incidents and estimated losses at $768.4 million.The month included the $388 million Bitget hack and a $320 million hack of the Liquid Network. More than $270 million was later returned, according to reports. “September was a stark reminder of how quickly the threat landscape can shift,” CertiK said.Other crypto hacks in the month included Safe Wallet, DCENT, and Duelbits, which lost $7.8 million, $6 million and $5.9 million, respectively.Largest incidents in September. Source: CertiKAave founder says V3 unaffected after third-party adapter exploit drains $305KAave founder Stani Kulechov said Aave v3 was unaffected by an exploit that drained roughly $305,000 from two Safe multisig wallets through a third-party adapter built on top of the lending protocol.“This is not Aave v3 contract, it’s third party external adapter built on top of Aave, zero effect on Aave v3,” Kulechov said on X.Tether says it helped freeze $550M in Iran-linked USDT this yearStablecoin issuer Tether said it helped authorities freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026,The company said it has been working closely with international law enforcement for years. This year alone, it froze more than $130 million in USDT across four wallets, and in April, it froze more than $344 million linked to the Central Bank of Iran.The statement from Tether came as Democratic investigators on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report alleging USDT had become a key channel for Iran to evade sanctions. Investigators found that 84% of 846 crypto wallets sanctioned over ties to Iran had transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in USDT. The findings prompted US Senator Richard Blumenthal to call on the Treasury and Justice departments to investigate potential sanctions violations.Top Magazine Features of the WeekThe furious debate over Bitget’s $387.7M of hacked funds comes down to whether ideals around “permissionless and decentralized” tech means never intervening — even if you could.THORChain will not — or can not — block addresses linked to the $387.5 million Bitget hack. Can the devs be prosecuted for money laundering? It’s complicated, says crypto lawyer Yuriy Brisov.Highly liquid and settling 24/7, stablecoins can leave banks and countries at lightning speed. But whether stablecoins are a risk — or an opportunity — depends on your perspective.Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

CHINABeijing claims cryptocurrencies are ‘accomplices’ in espionageChina’s Ministry of State Security has toughened its rhetoric on the risks of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their role in crime and stressing transactions are not really anonymous.According to the South China Morning Post the spooks published an article on social media stating cryptocurrencies are used to facilitate money laundering and cyberattacks and serve as “accomplices” in espionage. The MSS stated that crypto is often used by “overseas anti-China hostile forces” to disrupt financial order and harm national security.The warning that crypto isn’t as anonymous as most people assume, seemed to be a coded warning aimed at would-be foreign spies who mistakenly believe they could send or receive payments without the authorities knowing:“Overseas intelligence agencies would try to dispel the concerns of people they were trying to recruit as spies by claiming that the circulation of virtual currencies was hard to verify, according to the Ministry.”‘We’re watching the blockchain’ was the message. While the warning holds true for most cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Monero or Zcash are totally private when used correctly.China banned crypto a number of times, before a comprehensive ban on exchanges in 2017 and a later ban on mining in 2021. It has also declared all crypto businesses illegal.SINGAPORESingapore crypto activity grows 55% as broader region contractsSingapore’s crypto activity rose 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, bucking a regional contraction and regaining its position as the largest crypto economy in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO), according to Chainalysis.Much of the growth came from institutional platform activity, which increased 94% to $60 billion, concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms, and institutional brokerages. Chainalysis said the broader CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8% over the same period. “The growth in Singapore’s institutional platform ecosystem was very concentrated and marked by mostly high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than the dynamic entry of new services,” Chainalysis told Cointelegraph. Total crypto economic activity in CSAO. Source: ChainalysisSOUTH KOREASouth Korea may finally allow crypto market makers to operateSouth Korea’s Financial Services Commission said it is considering a market-making system for digital assets, after a stablecoin linked to the value of the Japanese yen traded for as much as four times its peg on a major South Korean crypto exchange earlier this month. Crypto exchange Upbit opened trading of JPYC, a yen-backed stablecoin, on Sept. 17, with the market opening at 12 Korean won per JPYC before reaching a high of 37.6 Korean won just an hour later, more than four times its market value. The spike was attributed to limited liquidity on Upbit. “We will also review the need to introduce systems such as market-making activities to increase the efficiency and stability of the digital asset landscape,” Yoo Young-joon, director of digital finance policy at the FSC, said.South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act currently does not contain an exemption for market-making from its market manipulation provisions, preventing market makers from providing liquidity in the country’s crypto markets.MoonPay launches Korea operationsUnited States payments and infrastructure firm MoonPay has launched a South Korean subsidiary. It will work with local financial institutions on remittances, payments, settlements and digital asset distribution. It has yet to receive the required approvals however. JAPANBinance Pay lets visitors spend crypto at PayPay merchants in JapanBinance Pay will allow eligible overseas users visiting Japan to spend more than 100 cryptocurrencies at the vast majority of PayPay-supported merchants starting Wednesday.The service will run through HIVEX, a payment interoperability framework that connects overseas QR payment services to PayPay-supported merchants in Japan. Binance Pay uses Tether USDt (USDT) as its backend settlement layer, while HIVEX settles with PayPay and PayPay settles merchants in yen.Binance told Cointelegraph it is the first crypto payment service to access PayPay-supported merchants through HIVEX. Merchants will not need to opt in separately, it said.PayPay is a Japanese cashless payment service accepted at millions of locations nationwide, including major chains, smaller retailers, vending machines, taxis and public transportation. It lists nine other overseas payment services supported through HIVEX, mainly from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.Shibuya Crossing. Source: Jezael MelgozaHONG KONGHong Kong regulators expand financial reporting oversight to licensed crypto firmsHong Kong regulators have signed an agreement to expand their cooperation on financial reporting and audits of licensed crypto firms. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC) agreed to work togethere on audit and assurance work and establishes a framework for information sharing, case referrals, mutual assistance and coordinated inspections and investigations for licensed crypto firms. HSBC’s new Hong Kong dollar stablecoin is called RedCoin HSBC plans a phased rollout of RedCoin, its new Hong Kong dollar based stablecoin beginning with person to person and merchant payments, before expanding into corporate and institutional use cases. It’s also launching an education campaign so the public doesn’t get scammed out of their coins.Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

After suspected North Korean hackers exploited crypto exchange Bitget for $387.5 million last week, investigators were able to quickly flag and trace the recipient addresses. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen then controversially demanded that decentralized cross-chain swaps platform THORChain “refuse service to these addresses.”THORChain responded: “THORChain is decentralized and permissionless like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain. What responsibility should Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain bear when handling known stolen funds?”The move was controversial, especially given the protocol was halted immediately in May when $10.7 million of its own funds were exploited. Complicating matters, THORChain has retired its admin key and doesn’t have an easy way to censor addresses, even if it wanted to.Source: THORChainThis exact controversy has come up before, as THORChain was used to swap around $1.2 billion of the funds stolen in the $1.46 billion hack of Bybit. It just so happened that THORChain’s admin key had been retired just 11 days earlier.NEAR Intents took the opposite approach to THORChain. Its automated SHIELD program blocked addresses linked to the hack from swapping $50 million on the platform, and even turned down the 5% bounty Bitget was offering for doing so.Now NEAR Intents is under fire from decentralization maxis for not being permissionless enough. To discuss the legal issues involved in the case, Magazine spoke with Yuriy Brisov from D&A Partners. This is an edited version of the conversation.Magazine: Bitget asked THORChain to block funds tied to the hack, and it responded saying it’s decentralized and permissionless. Is that a legal defense? Do they have an obligation to block those addresses?Brisov: It depends on the level of decentralization. So when they do this — when they block some addresses — they show that their nodes aren’t truly decentralized. It’s good for the community, when they can use this power to prevent some malicious activities. However, at the same time, they open themselves to any other legal claim. Their only protection is “we are decentralized.” In the Uniswap case, they said ‘we are truly decentralized and there is nothing we can do.’ [Investors sued Uniswap after buying 38 rugpull and scam tokens, but a judge dismissed the case in March —Ed.] And this is the strongest defense for any DeFi protocol. If they show that they can block, control, or somehow interfere — even in a good faith attempt to prevent fraud — they still open themselves for these kinds of claims. That if you have control, then maybe your control shouldn’t be limited to only obvious fraud cases. You should imply [control over] due diligence matters. You should apply KYC and AML protective measures.Related: Uniswap beats class action alleging it assisted crypto ‘rug pulls’Magazine: NEAR Intents blocked those addresses, and Bitget thanked them for doing so. Does that mean NEAR has shown Intents is not decentralized and will therefore need to interfere in lots of other situations?If you show that you have control over assets, then you potentially open yourself to all potential claims regarding pump-and-dump schemes, volatility, or any other potential claims of any investors who somehow have been damaged and harmed. And they can now say that you have control. Why do you use it in one case and not use it in another case? Why don’t you check all your token issuers on your platform? Why don’t they provide KYC forms like on any centralized exchange? Source: Gracy ChenMagazine: THORChain argues the protocol halt in May initially triggered by an automated system and that they don’t have the ability to block certain addresses. If true, is that a defense?Brisov: It might be. We don’t know yet, because it hasn’t been challenged yet. But any amount of control makes any DeFi project weaker vis-à-vis any claimant.Magazine: On the other hand, the protocol could upgrade the software if it wished to block certain addresses. Could a project get in legal trouble for being reckless or negligent if they don’t impose something like that?It depends on how it’s been done from the technical side. Say there is an oracle that can detect any North Korean IP and block it automatically, and there is no person who sits and presses a button — “there’s a North Korean hacker, let’s block him.” Then it’s okay. If there is a team that oversees the situation and says, “Okay, we can see this is an illicit activity, we block these addresses, we press the button manually.” From the legal point of view, even though it’s a good act and it benefits the community, it still makes the project not fully decentralized from the legal perspective, and it strips you of the protection that regulations like MiCA [EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets laws] or the general understanding the SEC and CFTC provide that if you’re fully decentralized, you cannot be liable for the actions of the participants in your ecosystem.Source: Alex ShevchenkoMagazine: NEAR’s technology is called SHIELD and it’s an automated process that identifies addresses associated with known hacks on public blockchains and then blocks them from accessing Intents automatically. Does that mean it’s more likely to be seen as decentralized?Brisov: Definitely. They show that they are good-faith actors trying to [add] protective measures into their protocols. There is no compliance team, people who sit there and control the operation manually. This is a smart solution, and that’s what we recommend to all the DeFi companies. Magazine: In February 2025, THORChain retired the admin key which would allow them to make those sorts of unilateral changes. With the lack of an admin key and the fact they’ve got a hundred validators, does that make them sufficiently decentralized?Brisov: More likely than not, but we can’t say that for sure. I would say yes.Magazine: THORChain is not a mixer. You can take stolen Bitget funds and swap them on THORChain, but when it comes out the other end, it will still be transparently linked to the Bitget hackers. How does that fit the definition of money laundering? Or is it receiving stolen goods?Brisov: I don’t see how they can be liable for money laundering because even Tornado Cash, that was, to a certain extent, made to launder money [avoided US sanctions as immutable smart contracts are not sanctionable property in terms of money laundering—Ed]. American law treats something as either property or not property. And money laundering is illegally moving property through the legal channels. You make proceeds of illicit activity, and it’s property, and then you move it through some channels and try to make it legal. But smart contracts are not property at all. You don’t control them. You don’t own them. That’s how Tornado Cash won their case in court vis-à-vis OFAC sanctions. They just proved that they don’t have any control over their smart contracts.Magazine: The Bybit hack happened 18 months ago. Does that mean that no legal action is going to be taken against THORChain, or do these cases just take a long time?Brisov: It might happen in the future, definitely. After the Bybit case, they seriously opened themselves for potential claims. Magazine: Big Questions: Does Satoshi actually own 1.1 million Bitcoin?Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

ThorChain under fire because it won’t blacklist stolen Bitget fundsStop me if you’ve heard this before: A centralized exchange with lax security gets hacked by the North Koreans for $387.5 million, and then somehow shifts the blame game onto a decentralized exchange for not blacklisting the addresses.The drama began on September 25 when the Asian focused exchange Bitget revealed $351.6 million in “unauthorized transfers” but it later upgraded the tally to $387.5 million. It said a preliminary investigation had linked the IP addressees to VPN services used by a North Korean hacking group. While that isn’t firm proof, CEO Gracy Chen said its investigators had flagged other similarities with previous thefts.North Korean hackers were believed to be behind the $1.5 billion Bybit exchange hack, and much of the funds from that attack were then swapped on the decentralized exchange THORChain (which is not a mixer and funds can still be traced after being swapped). Chen then publicly called on THORChain to block the addresses linked to the attack. “Decentralization is a design principle, not a shield for facilitating known stolen funds,” she thundered. Thorchain politely said no dice, which has set off a massive debate over whether they can or should comply with Chen’s request. Decentralization maxis like Joel Valenzuela said doing so would undermine crypto’s cypherpunk ethos. “If we let decentralized protocols to be bullied into setting a censorship precedent, or make it toxic to interact with permissionless protocols, then we lose to tyranny. Full stop.” But THORChain isn’t anywhere near as decentralized as Bitcoin or Ethereum, and it coordinated to quickly pause the chain very quickly when it was itself hacked for $10.7 million in May. “Thorchain is like 5 retards in a discord coordinating secret updates in between talking about the stolen funds they’re profiting from and lying about the admin functionality they abuse regularly to rug their users and NO’s,” said cybersecurity expert Tay Vano. THORChain’s ability to blacklist particular addresses is unclear. Back in February 2025 it revealed it had retired the admin key which would give it the power to do so.All publicity is good publicity though and THORChain’s native token RUNE has surged 50% in a week.Where we’re going we won’t NEED blockchain says VitalikEthereum creator Vitalik Buterin has rallied the troops with an inspiring post outlining how Ethereum is being rebuilt from the ground up to integrate zero knowledge proofs, parallel processing, privacy and post quantum technology to genuinely become “the cryptographic world computer.” “It’s really not just a blockchain anymore. It’s a hybrid architecture that combines together blockchains and modern cryptography, to enable much more powerful properties,” he wrote, describing “an architecture that combines blockchains with cryptographic privacy and verification, and powerful decentralized off-chain components.” The Hegota fork, which is planned for next year, would likely Ethereum’s last “normal” fork he said.Source: Brian ArmstrongCoinbase founder Brian Armstrong — a man who rarely utters the word “Ethereum” — reposted an analysis of the blog from a small account named “Cryptographic” and said their analysis was “interesting.” Cryptographic summed up the thrust of Buterin’s post by saying it changed the whole meaning of “onchain” and the ramifications meant Ethereum really was becoming a “world computer.” “Instead of every part of an app having to execute inside a smart contract you can push a huge amount of complexity elsewhere and still inherit Ethereum’s guarantees.” Aave founder Stani Kulechov made a similar point, arguing: “There are countless of use-cases where Ethereum verifiability would be useful beyond smart contact execution environment for finance to expand what we can actually do in DeFi while minimizing trust. Quite excited for the potential here.”Crypto Mom retires, suggests ZK proofs for KYCSEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has submitted her formal resignation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, effective Oct. 2.Peirce, affectionately known as “Crypto Mom” amid her advocacy of clear, rules-based regulation of the crypto industry, posted a copy of her resignation letter on her X account Friday.Cointelegraph reported in May that Peirce planned to join the law school of Regent University in Virginia as an associate professor in November.On her way out the door she criticized excessive KYC data storage, saying that storing IDs online created large numbers of databases vulnerable to hacks without improving enforcement. Instead, she advocated using zero knowledge proofs, which are able to verify eligibility without sending ID documents through.  “One can prove that you qualify without that counterparty knowing your name, income, or address,” she said. Magazine covered this very subject earlier this month.  OpenAI called to Australian Senate inquiry following rogue AI hackThe CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have reportedly been summoned to appear at an Australian Senate inquiry into AI, just days after news broke that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country’s health data.The Australian Medicare breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the US, according to a Sunday Business World report.Cointelegraph reported last Thursday that the OpenAI research agent had bypassed blocks on the Australian government health data portal and accessed non-public files in June. It somehow didn’t get around telling the Australians until September 10.Michael Saylor outlines ‘bill of digital rights’Michael Saylor, co-founder of Strategy, said that an age of digital assets and intelligence needs a “bill of digital rights,” rather than restrictions.These rights include (1) the freedom to create new digital assets and (2) to issue them to the market to finance business and productivity. They also include (3) the right to hold them or choose a custodian, as well as (4) to transfer them, to move the assets among people, companies, wallets and service providers. Finally, (5) to use them, to spend, invest, earn income and borrow against digital assets.This week the Strategy board announced it would seek shareholder approval to move its four preferred stocks, including STRC, to daily dividend payments without changing their dividend rates or the total amount paid.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 3.8% to trade at $84,222, Ethereum (ETH) is up 3.7% to trade at $2,674 and XRP (XRP) is up 7% to $1.50. The total market cap is at $2.88 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are Quant (QNT) with a 435% gain, Sei (SEI) on 44%, and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FED) on 41%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Falcon Finance (FF) which was down 25.3%, MemeCore (M) down 20.3% and Avalanche (AVAX) down 4.5%.Top Prediction of the WeekBitwise says NEAR could be headed to $562Bitwise’s new NEAR ETF is about to launch, and its chief investment officer Matt Houghan has jumped into promotion duties by co-authoring some of the most optimistic predictions you’re likely to see this month. The new fund, called the Bitwise NEAR ETF, is expected to list on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR.Bitwise’s 39-page investment report NEAR states the “base case” is a price target of $155 by 2030 while the bull case is $562.  The bearish case suggests a price of $1.63.Last week Near Protocol’s native token surged 80% to be the top performer in the Top 100. The surge came after Near unveiled private Hyperliquid perps trading.Source: VadimTop FUD of the WeekKalshi loses appeal, setting up potential Supreme Court casePrediction market Kalshi lost on appeal when a court ruled that Ohio and Tennessee can regulate sports-event contracts under their state gambling laws.The ruling followed a similar finding from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month, which broke from an April decision by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the company to do business in New Jersey as its appeal process proceeds.The April ruling said Kalshi was likely to succeed with its argument that federal law preempts New Jersey’s regulations, all of which has set up a potential Supreme Court case.Tether says it had ‘limited’ exposure to bank linked to $84M US seizureStablecoin issuer Tether said that it had a very small amount of assets at a bank that had $84 million in assets frozen by US prosecutors. In response to reports linking Tether and Bitfinex to a Montana-based payments business named in a civil forfeiture complaint, a company spokesperson told Cointelegraph that it had “no knowledge” of any of the alleged conduct. Tether confirmed it was a customer of EQIBank, but the amount held at the bank represented 0.034% of the group’s total assets.Magic Eden scare puts 3,832 NFTs in whitehat protective custodyA whitehat moved 3,832 non-fungible tokens from hundreds of wallets on Friday amid concerns about a vulnerability involving NFT marketplace Magic Eden. NFT community member who goes by Cirrus on X flagged the activity on Friday, saying a single wallet moved 3,832 NFTs from hundreds of wallets. Cirrus said the transactions appeared as sales through Magic Eden and advised NFT holders to revoke permissions as a precaution.Shortly afterward, Yuga Labs’ pseudonymous vice president of blockchain, 0xQuit, said the transfers were part of a white-hat operation. He said the NFTs held in the receiving wallet are safe and “will be returned once they are no longer at risk.” Top Magazine Features of the WeekThe SEC has opened a five-year path for tokenized stocks, but only some products and venues fit the model. Will Uniswap, Robinhood, Coinbase or Kraken come out on top?The IRS can now see your crypto gains, but has no idea about the cost-basis. That’s proving to be a big headache for some cryptocurrency investors.The APAC region accounts for half of the Global Crypto Adoption Index. Bitget suffers massive $352M loss and OpenAI forgets to mention its agents hacked the Australian Government.Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Some articles contain affiliate links, from which Cointelegraph may earn a commission. These relationships do not influence which products we review or our editorial conclusions. Content published in here does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence.

Asian countries account for almost half of Adoption IndexAlmost half of the top 20 nations in terms of grassroots crypto adoption are in the Asia Pacific region. According to Chainalysis’s newly released 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index, Japan ranks at number 4, followed by South Korea (5), India (6), Thailand (8), China (12), Indonesia (14), Australia (15), Vietnam (18) and the Philippines (19), which totals nine countries out of 20 on the index.A big growth area in the APAC region is cross border stablecoin transfers.Tianwei Liu, co-founder and CEO of StraitsX, told Cointelegraph that in Asia, fragmented currencies and payment systems have created demand for stablecoin settlement. “That demand is also extending into everyday spending, with stablecoins sitting behind payment methods people already use,” Liu said.Bitget confirms $351M security breach, suspends withdrawalsCrypto exchange Bitget has confirmed unauthorized transfers affecting approximately $351.6 million in assets and temporarily suspended withdrawals as it investigates.The CEO of the Asia-focused exchange, Gracy Chen, said the breach was contained to a portion of the exchange’s hot and warm wallet layers, while its cold wallets remained secure. Bitget said it has flagged addresses associated with the transfers and contacted law enforcement and onchain security firms. The amount affected falls within Bitget’s User Protection Fund, which currently holds more than $464 million. Source: Gracy ChenBinance takes $100M stake in Circle under expanded USDC dealBinance has invested $100 million in stablecoin issuer Circle as part of an expanded five-year agreement to promote USDC on the crypto exchange. Under the agreement, Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee based on the amount of USDC held through Circle’s Modular Smart Contract Wallet infrastructure. Binance also agreed to undertake additional activities promoting USDC on its platform.AUSTRALIAAustralian 40-year economic outlook recognizes ‘AI revolution,’ omits cryptoAustralia’s new 40-year economic outlook has identified artificial intelligence as one of five major transitions expected to have a profound effect on the economy, while leaving out any mention of crypto. Coinbase Australia country director John O’Loghlen told Cointelegraph the report was a missed opportunity. “While the report focuses heavily on artificial intelligence, it completely misses the financial infrastructure those agents will need,” he said.In related news, OpenAI agents hacked the Australian government’s Medicare system, and the firm forgot to mention the incident until three months later when it fired an email to a public email address.KOREABank of Korea launches 24-hour won settlement pilot for foreign investorsThe 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, 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 holidaysHana Bank taps Euroclear blockchain for $100M bond issuance: ReportSouth Korea’s Hana Bank has issued a five-year, $100 million digital bond using Euroclear’s blockchain-based platform. Using the technology for bond allocation and payment settlement reportedly shortened the process from three to five business days to the same day. Kakao Pay, KakaoBank to explore stablecoin opportunities with FireblocksSouth Korean financial companies Kakao Pay and KakaoBank have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks to explore digital asset opportunities, including stablecoins. North Korean fake recruiters infect 30K devices, steal $10.7M in cryptoNorth 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.HONG KONGAnimoca puts Currenc merger on ice, delaying its Nasdaq debutAnimoca Brands has suspended plans to take the company public through a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed Currenc Group. Animoca is a Hong Kong-headquartered investment and gaming company whose portfolio includes The Sandbox, Moca Network and Open Campus.Both parties mutually agreed on the decision after reviewing market conditions and the deal’s projected closing timelines. Animoca said the companies may resume discussions if conditions permit.Hong Kong jails ex-banker over $1.6B false credit, cryptocurrency bribesA 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.HKMA announces plans for on-chain settlementThe Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is upgrading its main debt securities settlement system, the Central Moneymarkets Unit, to run on blockchain 24/7. The upgraded platform is designed to handle CBDCs, tokenized deposits and stablecoins.Boyaa Interactive adds 152 Bitcoin, holds 4,468 BTCHong Kong-listed online gaming company Boyaa Interactive has bought another 152 Bitcoin to bring its total holdings to 4,468 BTCSAUDI ARABIA/CHINASaudi Arabia exits China-backed mBridge CBDC project: FTSaudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-backed cross-border digital currency project designed to enable direct transactions between central banks, according to the Financial Times.SAMA, Saudi Arabia’s central bank, joined mBridge as a full participant in June 2024 and ended its participation after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, FT reported, citing a statement from the central bank.SINGAPORESingapore tops crypto wealth migration rankings for 4th yearSingapore ranked No. 1 for a fourth straight year on the Henley Crypto Adoption Index which assesses 36 countries based on which offers the best conditions for cryptocurrency investors to relocate and settle.VIETNAM56 crypto scammers arrestedBilyonaryo reports that 56 alleged scammers working in crypto fraud ring that stole millions from Vietnamese investors have been arrested in Cambodia and Vietnam.Cointelegraph publishes long-form journalism, analysis and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. 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