Autor Cointelegraph By Felix Ng

Coinbase has received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch Coinbase Clearing LLC, its own US-based derivatives clearing organization. The registration became effective Monday, permitting the clearinghouse to clear fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps, though the registration does not permit the clearinghouse to clear its leveraged products. “Today’s CFTC approval completes Coinbase’s end-to-end derivatives infrastructure, enabling us to bring more regulated derivatives products to market with native USDC collateral and 24/7 settlement,” said Molly Abraham, Coinbase’s general counsel.The approval gives Coinbase control over another key part of its derivatives business, alongside its existing futures broker, Coinbase Financial Markets Inc., and exchange, Coinbase Derivatives LLC. It also marks another step in Coinbase’s expansion from a crypto trading platform into a provider of financial market infrastructure. A derivatives clearing organization stands between the buyer and seller in a derivatives trade, and helps manage settlement and counterparty risk, including if one party defaults. Through its derivatives exchange, Coinbase lists US-regulated futures tied to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, alongside commodity and equity-index futures. It also provides long-dated perpetual-style crypto futures. Other crypto companies have also moved to bring US derivatives infrastructure in-house. Kraken parent Payward completed its acquisition of Bitnomial in May, gaining a CFTC-regulated exchange, clearinghouse and futures brokerage.Related: Kalshi joins Coinbase with own filing for US stock perpetual futuresCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

NEAR Intents said it blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the Bitget hack. Attackers stole $387.5 million from Bitget on Thursday. A significant portion of these funds moved across chains to Ethereum, according to Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, a protocol that lets users swap crypto assets across blockchains. Shevchenko said its SHIELD system detected and blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers, which subsequently went to other providers. It managed to freeze $503,000 in funds during execution, while around $166,000 in suspected stolen funds passed through.The post came as THORChain faced calls to block addresses linked to the attack, underscoring a tension that permissionless crypto protocols face — offering open access while seeking to curb illicit activity. Shevchenko argued that permissionless systems do not necessarily have to be neutral. “The people who build these systems make choices about what those protocols enable. Refusing to help launder stolen assets is one of ours,” Shevchenko said.“Property rights are fundamental to functioning markets. A financial system where stealing an asset gives you an unrestricted right to monetize it isn’t a freer system. It is simply a system that protects the thief. Such systems cannot become the economic backbone of the future,” he added.NEAR Intents said it will forego the 5% bounty offered by Bitget for freezing attacker funds and an additional 5% for their recovery, allowing more funds to be returned to Bitget. Shevchenko said the frozen funds would be returned through an appropriate legal process. Related: Bitget CEO says $388M hack exploited third-party security vulnerabilityThe move comes after Circle and Tether blacklisted a wallet linked to the Bitget exploiter on Friday, freezing $318,013 of USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), according to onchain data.Source: Gracy ChenBitget CEO Gracy Chen on Friday also called on THORChain, a decentralized protocol for swapping assets between blockchains, to refuse services to addresses linked to the attack. THORChain, however, said it doesn’t censor by design, and that while it has halted the network in the past, this is an emergency security mechanism that affects the protocol broadly and “is not a selective freeze of specific funds or an individual swap.” Shevchenko said NEAR Intents would actively fight the laundering of hacked funds. “Crypto cannot simultaneously demand recognition of digital property rights and build infrastructure optimized for monetizing stolen property,” he said.Magazine: Asia dominates Crypto Adoption Index, Bitget’s $352M hack: Asia Express

South 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 at a conference in Seoul on Monday, Digital Asset reported. “There were also criticisms that user losses occurred from the price surge after the JPYC listing, so demands for discipline in this area are expanding.”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 crypto markets. The latest comments from Yoo suggest the FSC could be reconsidering this decision. South Korean academics have debated the market-maker carve-out before. In a 2024 peer-reviewed paper from Seoul Law Review, KB Securities researcher Lee Min Jung said regulators at the time did not allow crypto market making as it could amount to market manipulation. While Lee argued that introducing market makers would be premature due to manipulation concerns, she said regulators could consider a carve-out once the market becomes more stable. Researchers had called for a formal market-making framework long before the recent JPYC episode. A paper by Yoonyoung Choi from the Korbit Research Center argued that the domestic crypto market has been experiencing “serious liquidity problems” due to the absence of a formal market maker system, leading to price discrepancies and high volatility. The paper cited the Kimchi premium as an example of inefficiency in South Korea’s crypto market.Related: South Korea drops Travel Rule threshold for crypto transfersThe potential introduction of a market-making system comes as South Korea works to establish a broader regulatory framework for its crypto industry. The FSC said in July that it planned to introduce a consolidated Digital Asset Basic Act covering stablecoins and the broader crypto market, including rules for digital asset businesses, exchanges, disclosures and internal controls.However, lawmakers have yet to settle several key aspects of the legislation, including rules governing won-denominated stablecoin issuers.Magazine: THORChain under fire over Bitget, ETH evolves beyond blockchain: Hodler’s Digest

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.