Autor Cointelegraph By Andrew Fenton

Major irony alert as scammer falls victim to Ledger supply chain attackLedger was forced to suspend its reseller network across South East Asia this week, after thieves stole more than $103.4 million from 530 addresses via tampered Ledgers inserted into the supply chain. But in a small measure of poetic justice, one of the “victims” was a scammer themselves according to Chainalysis. The blockchain monitoring firm reports that the scammer lost 60 Bitcoin, worth about $4.8 million, from three newly purchased Ledgers containing spyware that records seed phrases. The Ledger thieves drained all three of their funds into the same wallet. In a further irony, the scammer had operated a “task scam” where people were paid to fake sales and reviews of real items. So depending on how much they knew, their victims in turn may not have been entirely honest either. “Then a “negative balance” appeared, and they were told to add their own money in order to get paid,” Chainalysis reports. So it’s possible that a scammer of scammers has just got scammed. In crypto it’s sometimes turtles all the way down. Despite reports of tampered Ledgers showing up in Europe forcing electronics retailer MediaMarkt to suspend sales, Ledger insists that all of the confirmed thefts to date are from Asia. It has asked resellers in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong to remove Ledgers from sale. Trezor too, has decided to shutter some of the more far flung resellers in its network from Jan.1, as it can’t guarantee it can perform the same level of vigilance as it performs on resellers closer to home. There are no reports of tampered Trezors however.In the midst of the worst hardware wallet scandal since the Coldcard seed phrase debacle at the end of July, Ledger decided it was the ideal moment to launch its latest device. Called Atom, the $849 device combines a crypto wallet with Android apps, which are kept separated from sensitive wallet operations. The device includes protections Ledger says would block the implants used in the Asian thefts and claims it can detect tampering even when switched off.A first look at Ledger Atom. Source: LedgerSOUTH KOREASouth Korea moves to block 27 overseas crypto exchangesSouth Korean authorities have approved measures to block domestic access to 27 websites operated by unregistered crypto exchanges and other virtual asset service providers, including KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex and Bitrue. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) said in a statement: “With this decision, blocking measures against illegal virtual asset operators will also apply to internet websites, following apps such as those on Apple and Google,” the FIU said, according to a translation. The list also includes CoinW, BTCC, BitMart, BingX, DigiFinex and others. South Korea plans cybersecurity overhaul after attacks hit banks, crypto firmsSouth Korea will tighten cybersecurity requirements for financial institutions after an investigation into earlier security incidents involving 16 companies including crypto exchanges found some big holes. The Financial Services Commission said it would pursue improved threat monitoring, more frequent security assessments and stronger accountability for executives after an industry-wide review found cybersecurity deficiencies at 130 of 555 financial companies. South Korean bank launches Bitcoin-backed business loans: ReportJeonbuk Bank reportedly began offering Bitcoin-backed loans to corporate customers, with a third-party custodian holding the cryptocurrency used as collateral.THAILANDThailand’s Bitcoin, Ether ETFs launch tradingThailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has finalized rules that go into effect Friday allowing crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to list on Thailand’s main stock exchange.Kicking off with Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, the products must list exclusively on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Products linked to foreign crypto ETFs will not be permitted initially, and Thai brokers are barred from facilitating investments in overseas crypto ETFs for anyone except institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.However, James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset investment firm CoinShares, told Cointelegraph not to get too excited.“I would expect modest inflows initially, with tens of millions of US dollars across the first products a more realistic starting expectation than billions,” he said.AUSTRALIASource: CointelegraphAustralia seeks feedback on crypto platform rules ahead of 2027 rolloutAustralia’s securities regulator opened consultation Thursday on proposed capital, custody and trading requirements for crypto platforms, as it prepares to implement legislation passed in April that expands oversight of the industry. The proposals include three alternative capital models, restrictions on platforms trading for their own account and quarterly reporting of wallets holding customer assets. ASIC also proposes allowing offshore custody while seeking feedback on safeguards if an overseas parent or related company fails. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) also proposed expanding the rules for contracts for difference (CFDs) to crypto. CFDs let traders bet on price movements without owning the underlying asset.CHINAChinese fraud victims lose key court battle over 61,000 BitcoinChinese fraud victims seeking to recover 61,000 Bitcoin seized by the British government have lost a key legal battle after London’s High Court ruled that Chinese law, rather than English law, should govern claims to the assets.“The relevant damage occurred in China. The Applicants parted with their money in China,” Justice Mark Turner wrote. “The contractual relationships thereby induced were entered into in China.”The dispute stems from an investment fraud scheme orchestrated by Zhimin Qian between 2014 and 2017, with British authorities seizing the assets during a money-laundering investigation. The claimants will appeal the ruling in British courts. THE PHILIPPINESCoins.ph says it still has a Philippine central bank license intact despite reportsCoins.ph said it is still licensed by the country’s central bank despite reports that it could face license revocation over alleged transactions involving restricted offshore gambling operators. Coins.ph is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the Philippines, and the reported license risk follows restrictions imposed by the central bank on some incoming transfers involving DCPay Philippines which operates Coins.ph’s peso e-wallet services.“Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators,” the company said. “Our users’ funds are safe; we continue to operate as a BSP-licensed institution,” it added.HONG KONGBinance may add Asian stocks to the platformBinance co-CEO Richard Teng said during Token2049 the exchange may add Hong Kong, Korean, Taiwanese and Brazilian equities to its platform.Second Solana ETF lists in Hong KongPando Finance’s Solana ETF has launched in Hong Kong’s HKEX under the ticker 2831.hk. It’s the second such fund and has a 0.6% fee, undercutting the first fund from ChinaAMC which charges 0.99% annually. SINGAPORESingapore crypto scam losses fall by 43%A crackdown by Singapore Police in partnership with local crypto exchanges helped contribute to a 43% fall in reported losses from crypto scams year over year. Revolut to open new Singapore officeRevolut has announced it will open a new Singapore office, invest S$350 million (US$273M) over the next five years, and expand its local workforce from 170 to 300Cointelegraph 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.

In the wake of the failed CLARITY cloture vote in the Senate, the SEC and CFTC immediately moved to issue their own rules for crypto markets. Two days after the vote, the SEC unveiled a five-year exemption that permits the issuing and trading of stock tokens. OXK has since teamed up with ICE to launch trading in 63 NYSE-listed stocks and Securitize launched 12 Securitize Stocks, including Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft.  The SEC has also issued guidance clarifying that a crypto token doesn’t become a security just because a project is buying back its own tokens, and stated that liquid staking tokens are not securities. It has also proposed new rules for the custody of crypto assets. The CFTC, meanwhile, moved to exempt some crypto software providers from registration requirements. It has proposed a new “crypto asset market” registration category and intends to allow registered exchanges to offer leveraged trading.But the concern among some in the industry is that these rules could be built on shifting sands. TD Cowen has cautioned that agency rules “are the easiest to rescind” — which was demonstrated when Trump-appointed commissioners wiped away all traces of the Gary Gensler era.A 2024 Supreme Court decision also means agency rules can more easily be overturned by the courts. The durability of regulator rulemaking is currently being tested in court, with a community bank group suing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for exceeding its authority by allowing crypto firms to obtain national trust bank charters.To discuss the legal issues involved, Magazine spoke with Yuriy Brisov from D&A Partners. This is an edited version of the conversation.Magazine: SEC Chair Paul Atkins said after the CLARITY vote failed that the agency was releasing rules because Congress didn’t. Are agencies like the SEC supposed to create rules, or are they just supposed to interpret rules that already exist?Brisov: They are supposed to create rules. They have this power under the Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC was created as a result of the major meltdown in the US markets in the end of the 1920s. From the moment of creation, the SEC had the power to create rules and regulations on how the laws should apply. American legislation works by creating general rules, like a frame, and then it has a watchdog watching over these regulations. There was a reason why it was created like this — so that when, say, blockchain tokens came along, the US legislation would be ready to accommodate new technology. That’s what the Commission has been doing for ages now, and it’s obviously within their powers.Magazine: Can they interpret the rules in the opposite way to an SEC appointed by a previous administration?Brisov: There should be a reason for that. They can, in theory, do that, but it should be all within the formation of the body of law. Under Gary Gensler, the Commission tried to apply these rules to tokens. It turns out that it failed because there is still vagueness, and many companies left the US market for good.This is the opening for the new Commission to oversee these rules and say, “You tried, but we can see that it’s not working. So we’ll offer our own rules.” But the power to offer rules is limited. If they offer some regulations that would lay an unbearable economic burden on companies, or something bizarre, there are also laws that allow companies or any damaged party to challenge this regulation in court and say, “We don’t like what the SEC has been doing because it’s damaging the market.”In 2011, there was a case when the SEC applied new rules on how shareholders vote through a proxy. And the business community said, “it’s bizarre, it’s burdensome, and we don’t like it.” There was a case, Business Roundtable vs SEC, and [business] won.Magazine: What was the Chevron decision by the Supreme Court and how does its overturning in 2024 impact court cases about rulemaking by agencies like the SEC and CFTC?Brisov: Chevron was a famous case of 1984. The court basically said that if the law is vague or there are uncertainties and ambiguities in the statute, then we should use the agency’s interpretation as the law. In June 2024, Loper Bright was a new precedent that overruled Chevron. It’s now saying that we don’t have to. Of course, [the SEC is] a strong authority: Who knows securities laws better than the SEC? But the court should use its own brains and apply the Howey case itself.Magazine: So that makes it more likely that SEC rules could be overturned?Brisov: In some cases, the courts can come up with a different conclusion.You cannot just come and say “we don’t like this regulation.” For instance, if you’re a traditional broker-dealer or traditional participant of the investment market in the United States and you say, ‘Look, I’m suffering because of this new regulation’ they should be able to prove that there was not enough research and that it’s burdensome for the business, and it’s not profitable for the US market. If they prove damages and if they prove a lack of research, then the court can overrule this regulation.From what I can see, Paul Atkins and the SEC have been consulting with many crypto firms, with VCs. They’ve been doing their research, so it’s not something they just came up with within a day.Related: OKX, NYSE parent file to launch tokenized US stock platformMagazine: Let’s assume the SEC and CFTC rules survive for the next two years, and businesses invest a lot of money into infrastructure around tokenized stocks based on the new rules. Could a new SEC unilaterally reverse the rules or do they have to take into account the businesses built on top of the old interpretation?Brisov: They have to take them into account. If there is the potential for the US market to grow and to benefit from this regulation, they won’t be able to just overrule it. There is the same thought process that either an agency or a court goes through. It’s called IRAC: issue, rule, analysis, conclusion. They would have to apply understandable, transparent logic.They can’t just say we don’t like it. They have to explain. They have to bring up an economic background for it. They have to bring up research, and they have to prove that it’s insufficient. And only then can they come to a different conclusion. For the sake of argument, we could say that Paul Atkins hates the Howey test, and he would have been happy just to abandon it — but he can’t do it. In every note, he keeps repeating that the Howey case still works, it’s still a valid regulation in the United States. However, we can interpret it in this case, and this case, differently — and this is our logic. This is what allows us to do that, and he explains it transparently. Magazine: The SEC appears to have been working on the innovation exemption for years. But the SEC more recently came up with an FAQ saying that a crypto company buying back its own token does not make a commodity token a security. Could I be secure and comfortable launching a token buyback scheme on the basis of an FAQ by the SEC?Brisov: If you follow it, and it’s created by the people who know what they’re saying, probably you will be in the clear. But it’s not legislation. An FAQ is just like a manual. It doesn’t have any authority, even for the staff.Magazine: So the FAQ isn’t saying they changed the rules; it is just saying this is what the rules are?Brisov: It’s just some extra explanation, like a casebook in the university. They are staff notes. A manual that explains for the staff how they should work and how they should understand this. They rewrite them quite often.Magazine: They rewrote the FAQ after a week because a16z’s legal counsel said it left a massive loophole.Brisov: Exactly, and that’s how it should be done. It’s not regulation or legislation, they can change them every week.Magazine: Could THORChain face prosecution over stolen Bitget funds? Legal opinionCointelegraph 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.

Ledger implant exploit reportedly spreads to Europe after $93.4 million in losses from Asian resellerA tampered Ledger attack that has already seen an estimated $93.4 million taken from Asian hardware wallet users, has reportedly spread to Europe. X user Johannes has presented photographs of a tampered Ledger he said he purchased two weeks ago from the European consumer electronics chain MediaMarkt. The implant inside appears to be an earlier version of the one found linked to CryptoBilis shipped devices in Asia, and no funds have been taken. “Either the device didn’t work, or they were waiting for a more widespread usage of the compromised devices,” he said. Former Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, whose investigations into the tampered Asian Ledgers helped bring the problem to light, said the antenna in the device says it is the “Eurasian version” suggesting separate versions of the implant have been sent to regions that use different mobile frequencies. Ledger has not confirmed the reported European device is part of the same attack.“PSA the ledger incident isn’t limited to Asia,” wrote European X user Johannes. Source: Johannes.The sophisticated attack hit Ledger devices in Asia late last week, after devices from the official reseller CryptoBilis — which had recently been sold to a new owner — were found to be modified in a way that apparently enable attackers to read the seed phrase and steal funds even as though the device is still able to pass authenticity checks. Ledger has asked CryptoBilis to suspend sales and shipments of its devices as a precaution and advised customers who had purchased devices from the reseller within the past 90 days to consider transferring their assets to a new Ledger. “The volume of impacted devices is limited,” it said in its most recent update today. CryptoBilis is listed as an authorized Ledger reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Cybersecurity outlet Yfarmx estimated the losses at $93.4 million across 471 addresses, but this figure has not been confirmed by Ledger.Security firm uncovers XRP minting bugSecurity firm Veria Labs has been paid a $250,000 bug bounty for uncovering an overflow bug hidden in XRP’s code since 2015. It claims that a single transaction could have printed trillions of XRP out of thin air.  The bug has been patched and there is no evidence it had ever been exploited. Cayden Liao, Veria Labs security co-founder, wrote on X that its AI agent had combed through rippled, the software that runs the XRP Ledger and found two low severity bugs. It worked out how to create a much larger exploit by using them in conjunction. Liao said that just one exploit transaction could have created more than 18 trillion XRP, which is 184 times greater than the total supply. “This puts the full $94B at risk, more than 60 times the largest crypto hack on record,” he wrote, referring to XRP’s entire market cap. “We suspect one reason nobody caught this vulnerability is that it chains together two bugs that would be low severity on their own.”  The bugs were reported on September 22 and RippleX patched them three days later. Source: Cayden LiaoVitalik Buterin backs crypto ‘bunker mode’ amid rapid AI math advancesEthereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has backed researcher Justin Drake’s warning that advances in artificial intelligence could undermine the cryptography used in today’s blockchains before quantum computers do. “I don’t recommend anyone scramble to move their funds to new wallets today,” Buterin wrote. “But we should take the risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously.”Drake urged the industry to prepare for “bunker mode” in light of OpenAI releasing hundreds of new mathematical findings that humans have been unable to solve. None of the findings related to cryptography, but the potential for AI agents to uncover new insights into the mathematical structure behind elliptic curve cryptography or lattice based cryptography has the core Ethereum team worried. The concerns have been criticized by other projects and analysts as fear mongering, with critics saying there is no evidence AI agents are anywhere near breaking cryptography. But then again, there wasn’t a lot of evidence a new AI model was about to one shot the solution to hundreds of other unsolvable problems either.Source: Made with Google AISamsung Wallet to add USDC transfers for US Galaxy users in OctoberSamsung plans to introduce USDC transfers to the Samsung Wallet payment app for 82 million eligible US Galaxy users in the last week of October.The feature will let users send USDC to compatible crypto wallets internationally and transfer money to eligible bank accounts in more than 60 countries, where recipients can receive funds in their local currency. Users must complete identity verification to access the service.Bastion will provide stablecoin account and payment infrastructure, with Coinbase serving as a sub-custodian through Coinbase Prime Vault. Solana and Sui were named as technical partners.Crypto’s heavy backing of Republicans alienated Democrats: CuomoThe crypto industry’s heavy backing of US Republicans has alienated Democrats whose support is needed to pass federal crypto legislation, says former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.Kalshi prediction markets put the probability of Democrats winning both chambers of Congress at about 61%. Cuomo said a Democratic-controlled Congress could either seek to roll back the SEC and CFTC’s crypto initiatives, or it could work with the Trump administration to pass the full CLARITY Act. “You need Democrats to pass the bill. You need Republicans. You have to be more balanced,” he said.While he conceded there is a perception that Democrats are “anti-crypto” he says the technology fits in well with the party’s goals and beliefs. “It’s empowering people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to financial products, and the Democratic Party has been working to do that all its life,” he said.Source: Made with Google AIWinners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is down 2.8% to trade at $83,435, Ethereum (ETH) is down 6.5% to trade at $2,562 and XRP (XRP) is down 7% to $1.40. The total market cap is at $2.82 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are StarkNet (STRK) with a 91% gain (after announcing it would become a post-quantum L1), Binance Life (币安人生) on 25.4%, and Celestia (TIA) on 20.8%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Venice Token (VVV) which was down 18.5%, Sky (SKY) down 16.2% and Uniswap (UNI) down 15.4%.Prediction of the WeekEthereum will hit $25,000 to $50,000 this cycle says Tom LeeBitmine chair Tom Lee told Token2049 on Friday that ETH will top $5000 by the end of the year and by the end of the cycle Ethereum “could easily be 25,000 or 50,000 per token,” he said.Lee also revealed Bitmine is nearing its 5% target after accumulating roughly 6 million Ether. The firm will only need to buy about 100,000 ETH more to reach that percentage.“That’s a hard cap. We’re not gonna be accumulating past 5%,” Lee said. “We’re not gonna own more than 5% of Ethereum.”Top FUD of the WeekColdcard says it’s investigating how phishing link appeared on its X account  Bitcoin-only hardware wallet Coldcard said an unauthorized phishing link appeared Sunday on its official X account, despite the company using offline two-factor authentication.The post has since been deleted, and the firm said the only official website is https://coldcard.com. DefiLlama’s hack tracker estimated losses tied to July’s Coldcard exploit at $115 million.THORChain dev accuses Tether of temporarily freezing USDT vaultsTHORChain technical co-founder Chad Barraford accused stablecoin issuer Tether of blacklisting the network’s USDt (USDT) vaults without explanation, then unfreezing them hours later. In a Friday X post, Barraford said that Tether had blacklisted THORChain vault addresses, freezing about a combined 1.45 million USDT in the network’s funds across four wallets. He reported about two hours later than trading would resume after Tether unfroze all the addresses.New York permanently bars Celsius founder Mashinsky in $35M fraud settlementFormer Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky has been permanently barred from the cryptocurrency, securities and commodities industries under a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James that includes up to $35 million in conditional payments.The New York agreement, announced Friday, settles a 2023 civil lawsuit accusing Mashinsky of misleading hundreds of thousands of investors about the safety of Celsius before its collapse in 2022.Mashinsky is serving a 12-year federal prison sentence for fraud and was separately ordered to forfeit more than $48 million.Top Magazine Features of the WeekFrench authorities recorded 90 crypto-related cases involving kidnapping, extortion, threats and violent theft in seven months. What makes France such a hotspot?Crypto lending has risen by 55% since July, but now has to deal with the dangers of AI assisted hacks, and risks cascading through interlinked protocols. Here’s how to stay safe.Real Vision founder Raoul Pal says a pause in the AI stock rally could help crypto attract capital, while AI agents are likely to boost Ethereum and Solana adoption.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.

China P2P stablecoin wallets grew 43x despite crypto restrictions: ChainalysisThe number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis.The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026.Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.Chainalysis’s new report estimated that China’s crypto economy is worth at least $176 billion. Domestic P2P activity accounted for 59.1% of the total, 3.5 times its share in the 2025 reporting period.China’s domestic stablecoin transfer volume added $4.9 billion in March 2026, the largest monthly increase shown. Source: ChainalysisKOREASouth Korea is East Asia’s largest crypto-economy despite 78% fall in exchange profitsChainalysis ranked South Korea as East Asia’s largest crypto economy at $449.1 billion. Activity grew 12.3% in the year to June 2026, from the previous year, with retail traders showing a strong preference for AI-linked tokens.  However, the first half of 2026 has not been kind to South Korean crypto exchanges, which saw operating profits fall 78% as trading activity, market valuations and customer deposits declined. The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) said average daily trading volume at domestic virtual asset exchanges fell 44% from the previous six months, while market capitalization dropped 33% and won-denominated deposits fell 35%. Exchange sales declined 41% over the same period, even as the number of accounts eligible to trade rose slightly by 0.4%.Securitize stock jumps 8% amid South Korea tokenization pushShares of tokenization platform Securitize rallied sharply on Tuesday after the company announced a partnership with South Korean technology company LG CNS.Securitize and LG CNS signed a memorandum of understanding to develop tokenized assets and digital asset infrastructure for South Korean financial institutions.The partnership gives Securitize an early foothold in South Korea as the country prepares to implement a new framework for tokenized securities. Last week, the country’s Financial Services Commission proposed rules governing the issuance and circulation of tokenized stocks, bonds, funds and other securities, with the framework set to take effect in February 2027.SINGAPOREStandard Chartered plans institutional crypto custody in SingaporeLondon headquartered multinational bank Standard Chartered has announced plans to launch digital asset custody services for institutional clients in Singapore.The firm will custody select cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets for institutional clients and corporate clients qualifying as accredited investors.Standard Chartered said Singapore’s role as a “leading financial and innovation hub” is an important part of its “global strategy.”Independent Reserve adds cross border payments, subsidiary offers derivatives tradingSingapore-licensed crypto exchange Independent Reserve has added cross border payment tools enabling businesses to make fiat and stablecoin payouts. Accounts can be funded in Singapore or US dollars to make payments to suppliers or employees in more than 20 currencies. USDC and USDT are also options. The exchange has also just launched crypto derivatives trading for sophisticated investors via subsidiary ReserveX.Payward partners with Singapore Gulf Bank for crypto settlementPayward, the parent company of Kraken, and Singapore Gulf Bank have announced a partnership to enable round-the-clock institutional crypto settlement.Cointlegraph’s Longtitude event in Singapore this week. Source: CointelegraphHONG KONGHong Kong officials double down on end-2026 deadline for crypto licensing billThe Hong Kong government reaffirmed its plans to submit an amendment bill before the end of 2026 to establish licensing regimes for digital asset trading, custody, advisory and management services as part of its broader crypto licensing bill.Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Christopher Hui, told a Monday policy briefing that the government will submit an amendment bill “within this year” to establish a broader framework for digital asset activities, according to a statement released by the Hong Kong government.Hong Kong tops East Asia region for institutional activityHong Kong stood out in Chainalysis’s Geography of Cryptocurrency report for institutional activity. The data firm said institutional platforms accounted for 16% of service inflows, nearly three times the share in any regional neighbor. The city received almost $24 billion in inbound business-to-business flows. Hong Kong issued its first stablecoin licenses in April.  JAPANJapanese DEX use rises 200% since 2022The Chainalysis report showed that in Japan, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) account for nearly 35% of service activity, the highest share among mature East Asian markets. Chainalysis said 65.7% of DEX swaps were between $10 and $1,000, and DEX activity had risen more than 200% since 2022.Japanese lawmakers passed revisions in July that bring digital assets under the country’s financial-markets framework.Japan adds Garantex to list of Russia sanctions over Ukraine warThe Japanese government has added Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex to its expanded list of sanctions against Russia, citing the continuing war in Ukraine.Officials added 33 organizations and nine individuals linked to Russia to its asset-freeze list that restricts payments and capital transactions with the targeted parties, according to a joint statement issued on Friday by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.Garantex was previously sanctioned by the US, the EU and other jurisdictions for helping Russian entities evade financial restrictions.INDIAIndia-based scam targets US seniors via Bitcoin ATMsIndia’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested four people in an alleged international tech-support fraud and extortion racket targeting US nationals. The scam used fake computer pop ups displaying toll free “Microsoft” numbers. Victims who called were told their computers had been compromised, or connected to illegal activity like child porn, as part of a scheme to extort money from them. One Florida resident lost $440,000 to the scammers.THAILANDMeatspace attack forces victim to transfer $820K in cryptoThree armed assailants robbed a home in Bang Lamung, forcing a foreign resident to transfer crypto worth $820,000. They also took cash and three Rolex watches. Police suspect the robbers may be Chinese nationals.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.

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.