XRP Ledger developers said Friday that a bug in the network’s payment engine could have let an attacker create XRP out of nothing. The critical-severity flaw had been in the code since 2015, according to a disclosure report, which said there was “no evidence that this issue was exploited on any public network.”

The bug affected how the engine totals a payment that fills many order book offers at once. Those sums had no overflow check, so a large enough total wrapped around to a small number.

An attacker could have set up a few hundred accounts, have each of them list a tiny fraction of a token for sale in exchange for an enormous amount of XRP, then close all of the sales with one payment, per the report. Each seller wallet would have gotten paid in full, while the buyer wallet would’ve been charged “only a few hundred drops plus the fee.” The network’s check against newly created XRP had a similar issue adding the balances, and thus would fail to prevent the minting.

“The attack could not be triggered by accident,” the report states. “It required hundreds of offers priced in a way no real trader would use, followed by a payment built specifically to consume them all at once.”

One transaction, 18 trillion XRP

Cayden Liao, security co-founder at Veria Labs, wrote on X Saturday that the firm’s AI agent found the bug and built a working exploit. By his count, just one exploit transaction on the XRP Ledger could have created about 18 trillion XRP, 184 times the token’s total supply, which was capped at 100 billion XRP at launch and shrinks slightly as transaction fees are burned.

“We suspect one reason nobody caught this vulnerability is that it chains together two bugs that would be low severity on their own,” Liao wrote.

Liao said Ripple paid Veria the program’s top $250,000 bounty. “To our knowledge, that’s the largest ever paid out for a vulnerability discovered entirely by an AI agent,” Liao added.

Skipping the amendment vote

Veria reported the bug on Sept. 22, and RippleX shipped a fix in xrpld version 3.4.1 three days later. More than 80% of validators on the default Unique Node List were running it that day, the report said.

Rule changes on the XRP Ledger normally go through an amendment process, with each proposed change requiring support from more than 80% of the network’s trusted validators over a period of two weeks. However, this bug fix took effect as each server upgraded, which the report said was a first in more than 10 years of amendments. Because xrpld is open source, a normal release would have shown attackers where the bug was for weeks before the fix switched on, the report said.

The release also patched a separate bug in Batch, a feature that had not gone live when the flaw was found, which the report said could have stalled the network. Batch and its fix both activated Friday, and servers on older versions can no longer stay in sync.

For the Batch bug, a potential attacker “does not gain anything on-chain,” the report said. “The payoff is a permanently malformed record and the chance to break off-chain indexers, explorers, and SDKs.”

Closed-source criticism

The source code for xrpld’s 3.4.1 update was published about two weeks after the binaries. Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons wrote on X Thursday that “XRP has been running closed-source code for the last two weeks.”

“AI has changed things,” RippleX engineer Mayukha Vadari replied on Saturday. “You can’t sneak a critical bug patch into a routine public release process, it’ll get spotted and reverse-engineered immediately.”

RippleX Head of Engineering J. Ayo Akinyele said in a separate X post on Saturday that the team would expand AI-assisted bug hunting and formal verification. “AI is fundamentally changing how quickly vulnerabilities can be discovered,” he wrote.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#XRP #XRPL #Ripple #XRPledger #BlockchainSecurity #CryptoVulnerability #SecurityPatch #AIAgents #BugBounty #CryptoNews

Spot ether ETFs shed $542.1 million last week, their worst week since January, while Solana funds posted the largest weekly outflow since they launched. Bitcoin funds also snapped a 3-week inflow run.

ETFs ended a record 14-week inflow streak, according to The Block’s analysis of SoSoValue data.
The ether funds have now posted outflows for nine consecutive trading days, a run worth $697.2 million that began on Sept. 29.

Spot Solana ETFs lost $24.8 million over the week, the largest weekly outflow since the products launched in late October 2025.

Combined with bitcoin ETF redemptions, the three categories lost about $1.25 billion last week.

Ether funds post second straight losing week

BlackRock’s ETHA, the largest ether fund by assets under management, lost $477.0 million over the week, about 88% of the category’s total, per SoSoValue data. It was the fund’s largest weekly outflow since mid-December 2025 and its third-largest since launching in July 2024. Grayscale’s ETHE had the second-largest weekly outflow among ether funds, at $31.9 million.

Tuesday was the heaviest single trading day for the ether products, with $201.9 million in redemptions, all from ETHA. That was the fund’s largest single-day outflow since Jan. 21 of this year. Tuesday’s outflow came on the day ETHA’s 1-for-3 reverse share split took effect.

ETHA posted outflows in all five sessions. The fund holds $8.64 billion in net assets, about $4.15 billion less than its $12.79 billion in cumulative net inflows.

The category’s weekly total outflows were the largest since the week ending Jan. 23, when the funds lost $611.2 million. It was also the second straight negative week for ether ETFs, after $138.0 million left the funds the week before. Fidelity’s FETH accounted for $74.1 million of that prior-week total, per the data.

Daily ether ETF flows have been negative in every session since Sept. 28, when the funds took in $17.1 million. The ether outflows began on Sept. 29, one day before bitcoin ETFs ended a nine-day, $3.1 billion inflow streak. ETHA accounted for $506.1 million of the nine-day streak’s outflows.

The run ties a June 17-30 streak as the third-longest in the funds’ history. The record is a 17-day stretch from May 11 to June 3 of this year, which pulled about $900.1 million from the products.

Spot Ethereum ETF Total Net Flows, via The Block’s data
Spot ether ETF net assets fell 10% over the week to $15.71 billion. Cumulative net inflows since launch stand at $13.26 billion. The funds are still positive for 2026, with $931.8 million in net inflows year to date, down from $1.47 billion a week earlier.

Trading volume rose to $5.18 billion from $3.57 billion the previous week.

Solana funds end record inflow run

The Solana products recorded outflows in all five sessions last week, their longest daily outflow streak on record, per SoSoValue’s data. Their previous longest outflow streak was three days.

Bitwise’s BSOL, the largest Solana fund with $1.20 billion in net assets, lost $20.9 million over the week, about 84% of the category’s outflows, per the data. It was BSOL’s largest weekly outflow on record, topping a $17.0 million outflow in the week ending July 31.

Monday’s $9.2 million outflow was the largest of the week. Morgan Stanley’s MSOL and Invesco’s QSOL were the only Solana funds to post weekly inflows, taking in a combined $2.0 million.

The $24.8 million weekly outflow is roughly three times the previous record of $8.9 million, set in the week ending Feb. 6. The funds had not posted a negative week since the week ending June 26, when they lost $1.8 million. The 14-week inflow streak topped a 13-week run that started at launch and ended in late January.

The reversal comes two weeks after the Solana funds drew a record $188.2 million in weekly inflows.

Spot Solana ETF net assets fell to $1.73 billion from $1.90 billion a week earlier. The funds held a record $1.96 billion on Sept. 25. Cumulative net inflows stand at $1.58 billion, including $816.8 million so far in 2026.

Bitcoin funds snap three-week inflow streak

ETFs lost $681.1 million last week, ending three straight weeks of inflows, per SoSoValue data. It was their worst week since the week ending June 26, when they shed $1.79 billion.
Wednesday accounted for most of the outflows, with $487.1 million leaving the funds. The products returned to inflows on Friday with $21.1 million.

The bitcoin funds’ 2026 net inflows fell to $494.1 million from $1.18 billion a week earlier. The category turned positive for the year in late September.

Bitcoin ETFs hold $105.84 billion in net assets and have drawn $57.11 billion in cumulative net inflows since launch.

Ether traded near $2,506 on Saturday morning, while SOL changed hands around $110.50 and bitcoin sat near $82,900.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Ethereum #ETH #Solana #SOL #Bitcoin #BTC #CryptoETF #ETFOutflows #InstitutionalInvestors #CryptoNews

Former FTX COO Constance Wang criticized Netflix’s upcoming FTX series “The Altruists,” saying its portrayal of Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison and the exchange’s collapse is inaccurate.

The full-length trailer for Netflix’s FTX-inspired series “The Altruists” dropped this week, drawing criticism over its portrayal of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison. But former FTX executive Constance Wang said the trailer’s depiction of the company’s collapse hit much closer to home.

“So many people have DM’d me about this trailer and I’ll be honest, watching it made me physically throw up,” Waing said Friday in a post on X.

Wang served as FTX’s COO beginning in early 2019 before becoming co-CEO in its final months, until the exchange collapsed in November 2022. She said the trailer’s depiction of the company bore little resemblance to her experience working there.

“I was the last one out of the Bahamas after Sam got extradited,” Wang said. “I lost everything I had on it and it took me a long time to get over, so I have zero interest in defending the people who caused this. The media loves the story that FTX blew up because we were all partying in the Bahamas, but the place I worked looked nothing like that.”

Wang said FTX had fewer than 200 employees, many of whom worked 16- to 18-hour days with “barely” any time to sleep.

The exchange’s collapse followed a liquidity crisis that exposed its close financial ties to Alameda and the misuse of customer funds. Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven fraud and conspiracy counts in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ellison pleaded guilty, cooperated with prosecutors, and testified against him before receiving a two-year prison sentence in September 2024.

Wang also took issue with the trailer’s portrayal of Ellison and Bankman-Fried’s relationship. Much of the trailer focuses on their romance alongside the familiar rise-and-fall narrative, with Anthony Boyle portraying SBF and Emmy-winning actor Julia Garner portraying Ellison.

“I worked with Caroline and never once saw her get aggressive like she does in this trailer,” Wang said. “She’s quiet and mild, and often lost in her own thoughts. Most of us didn’t even know she and Sam were dating until we read about it after the bankruptcy, and I never saw him so much as put an arm around anyone.”

The eight-episode limited series premieres on Netflix on Nov. 19.

“FTX’s collapse ruined so many people’s lives, including ours, and Netflix decided to make it a love story,” Wang concluded. “Shame on you.”

Wang co-founded trading platform Pacifica in early 2025, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#FTX #SamBankmanFried #CarolineEllison #ConstanceWang #Netflix #TheAltruists #AlamedaResearch #CryptoScandal #CryptoFraud #CryptoNews

Crypto ETF flows and futures positions rose in Q3, pointing to more retail and institutional participation after corporate treasuries and VC funding led the first half, JPMorgan analysts said.

Around $50 billion has flowed into digital assets so far this year, with stronger ETF flows and futures positions creating positive momentum heading into the fourth quarter, according to JPMorgan analysts.

The current inflows equal an annualized pace of about $66 billion, the JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a Wednesday report, noting that that’s higher than the $52 billion annualized pace recorded in May, but still around half of last year’s pace.

The analysts usually estimate flows by aggregating crypto fund flows, the flow impulse implied by CME futures, crypto VC fundraising, and publicly listed miners and corporate treasury purchases of digital assets. Now the analysts said they have expanded the estimate to include purchases by private corporate treasuries, private miners and government-related entities.

ETF and futures flows improve

During the first half of the year, digital asset inflows came mainly from Strategy’s bitcoin purchases and crypto venture funding, the analysts noted.

Crypto ETF flows were a headwind during that period, with heavy outflows in May and June. ETF flows have improved since August and are now positive for the year.

However, cumulative ETF flows remain negative when measured from the crypto market downturn that started on Oct. 10, 2025, the analysts said.

Institutional positions in bitcoin and ether futures on CME have also increased over the past two months after a slow start to the year. Bitcoin positioning moved above its previous peak, while ether positioning came close to its October 2025 high.

The analysts also looked at perpetual futures on offshore exchanges by comparing their open interest with the market value of bitcoin and ether. Those measures of leverage have fallen from their peaks since the Oct. 10 correction, but remain above their historical averages, the analysts said.

The analysts’ momentum signals also show that trend-following traders, including commodity trading advisors, have started rebuilding long positions in bitcoin and ether.

As for crypto venture funding, it has been improving since 2024, but more of the capital is going into fewer and larger rounds led by established companies, the analysts noted.

The analysts also noted a shift from equity funding toward debt financing for infrastructure businesses with clearer cash flows. Tokenization is also gaining more attention in venture funding, mainly for business-to-business uses, they said.

Miners remain net sellers

Bitcoin miners have been net sellers this year, but total net selling remains modest at around $1.8 billion, according to the analysts. Most of that shift has come from publicly listed miners. They have moved from accumulating bitcoin toward selling newly mined coins and, in some cases, reducing their existing holdings to fund spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Corporate treasury purchases have mainly come from publicly listed companies. Strategy bought bitcoin at a fast pace early in the year and accounted for a large share of total digital asset inflows, the analysts noted.

Private corporate treasuries bought smaller amounts, likely because they have less flexible funding options and a lower tolerance for bitcoin’s price swings.

Public treasury companies have funded their purchases through common share sales, debt and preferred shares. The analysts said the mix has gradually shifted from debt toward preferred shares, increasing the need for interest and dividend payments.

“In all, while during the first half of the year the capital flow picture was dominated by corporate treasury buying and venture capital funding, in Q3 both ETF flows and futures positioning have increased pointing to greater participation by both retail and institutional investors, thus creating a positive flow momentum into Q4,” the analysts concluded.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#JPMorgan #CryptoInflows #Bitcoin #Ethereum #CryptoETF #InstitutionalInvestors #DigitalAssets #CryptoMarket #BitcoinETF #CryptoNews

The tokens are backed 1:1 by real shares with dividends and shareholder rights, settle in USDC, and will expand from extended U.S. hours toward 24/7 trading.

Securitize (SECZ) has launched tokenized U.S. stocks on its platform, initially offering tokens tied to companies including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Tesla, Meta, and Amazon. The launch is also expected to include SpaceX and Palantir, along with crypto bellwethers Circle and Strategy.

The launch comes as tokenized stocks surpassed $3 billion in onchain value, with Securitize accounting for much of the recent capital growth.

The tokens are backed 1:1 by underlying shares held through Securitize Markets’ regulated brokerage infrastructure called Convertible Entitlement Token, or CET, with holders receiving applicable shareholder rights, dividends, and corporate-action entitlements.

“CETs are also designed to provide a bridge between today’s securities markets and Securitize’s long-term vision for issuer-sponsored tokenization: if an issuer subsequently adopts an issuer-sponsored tokenized share structure with Securitize, CET positions can transition into that model,” the firm said.

The offering will launch on Solana with settlement in USDC and initially support extended U.S. market hours, with Securitize planning to expand toward 24/7 trading.

“Tokenized stocks should give investors more than a price that happens to track a stock,” Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said in a statement. “Our goal is to bring the actual ownership experience onchain — with the underlying shares, shareholder rights, regulated market infrastructure and the ability to move toward an issuer-sponsored model as companies embrace tokenization themselves.”

Earlier this year, Securitize tapped Jump and Jupiter to provide liquidity and access for this stock tokenization effort.

For its part, Securitize became the first company to debut shares both onchain and on the NYSE, when it launched its own SECZ shares on Solana and Avalanche. Securitize President Brett Redfearn told The Block at the time that Securitize was talking with major investment banks about bringing other IPOs onchain.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Securitize #TokenizedStocks #Tokenization #RWA #Solana #USDC #Apple #Nvidia #OnChainFinance #CryptoNews

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that the crypto industry should take risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that the crypto industry should take risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously, but cautioned against rushing to move funds to new wallets.

In a Wednesday post on X, Buterin said he does not recommend scrambling to move funds to new wallets. While keeping assets in addresses that have never signed a transaction is a good precaution if the move is easy, he noted that botched migrations have cost him more than hacks.

Buterin’s comments came in response to an earlier post from Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, who called on the industry to start planning for what he described as “bunker mode.”

Drake said that the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) could potentially be broken before “q-day,” when quantum computers become powerful enough to break widely used public-key cryptography. In a worst-case scenario, he said, such a breakthrough could occur within months rather than years.

Drake recommended moving funds in a controlled way to fresh addresses that keep their public keys hidden, while warning holders not to panic or rush.

Rising threat

Buterin noted that AI-accelerated math is a key reason ECDSA could fall faster than expected. Most planning, he said, has assumed “elliptic curves broken, hashes safe, lattices safe.”

The Ethereum founder said there is a good chance the concrete security of lattices “will take serious hits from the next two years of AI math.” He named ML-DSA, fully homomorphic encryption, and lattice schemes as the core area of risk.

The warnings come amid rapid advances in AI-generated mathematics. On Tuesday, OpenAI published hundreds of mathematical manuscripts produced by an internal model — a development Drake described as evidence that “mathematical superintelligence is upon us.”

Buterin said that the industry should be more conservative on lattice parameters and prefer hash-based constructions where they are possible.

“For privacy protocols, strongly favor not putting encrypted notes onchain. Instead, send them offchain through some third-party mechanism,” Buterin said.

Despite the potential risks, Buterin reiterated that holders should avoid making hasty moves.

“[It’s] very easy to lose funds from a misconfigured rushed upgrade, so … don’t rush anything,” he added.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#VitalikButerin #Ethereum #ETH #ArtificialIntelligence #CryptoSecurity #QuantumComputing #Cryptography #CryptoWallet #BlockchainSecurity #CryptoNews

Users must bridge assets off Abstract before the Dec. 15 shutdown. CEO Luca Netz said Igloo decided against launching a token to keep the network alive.

Abstract, a consumer-focused Ethereum Layer 2 network, said it will wind down operations and shut down the chain on Dec. 15, 2026, citing stagnant growth, thin liquidity, a restricted DeFi ecosystem and limited institutional adoption.

Abstract said more than 144 apps were deployed on the chain and more than 400,000 users were onboarded through consumer-focused partnerships with brands including Red Bull Racing and Disney.

“But the industry has evolved considerably since Abstract was first conceived, and operating a chain focused exclusively on consumer crypto has ultimately proven to be unsustainable as a standalone model,” Abstract said Tuesday in a post on X.

The project said users must bridge their assets off Abstract before the shutdown date or risk losing access to their funds.

Igloo Inc., the parent company behind Pudgy Penguins, had been funding Abstract for the past 18 months and lost “tens of millions of dollars,” according to CEO Luca Netz. Igloo will now redirect its resources toward Pudgy Penguins and PENGU

In July 2024, Igloo raised more than $11 million, led by Founders Fund, to develop Abstract as a consumer-focused L2 and leverage Pudgy Penguins’ distribution to bring consumers onchain. Abstract launched its mainnet in January 2025.

Netz said Igloo ultimately decided against launching an Abstract token or continuing to fund the network at the expense of the Pudgy Penguins business.

“Even after losing 8 figures, we could have launched a token or pursued an ICO. Ultimately we decided against this,” Netz said Tuesday in a post on X. “A token only works if there is something driving demand to it, and launching a token that we don’t have conviction in would have been a disservice to our community.”

Over the past few weeks, speculation was circulating that Abstract was winding down, fueled by reduced activity on its official account, the reported departures of two senior team members in August, and scrutiny of developer wallet activity.

“There will be many that will find satisfaction in seeing this shut down, and that is fine,” Netz continued. “I take a great amount of pride in having the ambition to venture into the chain business, notoriously one of the most difficult to make work, and the only regret I have is not being able to celebrate a win alongside the Abstract community.”

The shutdown comes less than a week after Paradigm-backed Layer 2 Blast said it will wind down as costs exceed revenue.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#AbstractChain #Abstract #PudgyPenguins #Ethereum #Layer2 #LucaNetz #PENGU #CryptoNews #Blockchain #CryptoMarket

Posing as a client, the onchain sleuth said he gathered intelligence that helped action freezes tied to the $1.5 billion Bybit hack and attribute illicit activity onchain.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT said he infiltrated a Chinese organized crime network and gathered intelligence that helped action freezes tied to the 2025 Bybit hack.

In a detailed thread on X, ZachXBT alleged that the Chinese crime syndicate laundered over $1 billion across multiple exploits for North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

The onchain sleuth said he began investigating after he noticed a pattern involving more than 15 accounts in Telegram and Discord groups seeking help with orders tied to stolen funds following the Bybit exploit in February 2025.

Posing as a client, ZachXBT funded a new address with 349,700 USDC on Ethereum to conduct multiple transactions with a vendor who went by the pseudonym “Jimmy Green.”

In March 2025, Jimmy provided ZachXBT with the receiving address “0xbaa5” to exchange USDC for USDT on Tron. The sleuth said that Jimmy’s receiving address was gas-funded by a wallet that was “directly traceable to Bybit exploit funds” and appeared on Bybit’s public exploit blacklist.

ZachXBT also said that Jimmy discussed plans to move Bybit funds for North Korea before the transactions occurred and shared details about the group’s operation in Hong Kong and mainland China.

“One day prior, he stated funds would be moved to Solana and the next day they were,” ZachXBT said. “He stated his team laundered most of the $1.5 billion from Bybit, which was consistent with the laundering patterns I observed.”

Repeated pattern

ZachXBT said other claims made by Jimmy showed similar ties to illicit funds.

Among those operations, a March 12 bridge screenshot shared by Jimmy matched a THORChain order created within minutes, according to ZachXBT. Three Solana addresses Jimmy shared also helped identify a cluster of over $12 million in Bybit exploit funds that had been swapped across BTC, ETH, SOL, and Tron, he said. Tether later froze 442,000 USDT linked to the cluster.

Two other claims in their conversations were also checkable, he said. Jimmy’s mention of roughly $300,000 frozen in 2024 matched 332,000 USDC from the Poloniex exploit.

Jimmy also claimed to have laundered $3 million in fraud proceeds for another client. ZachXBT said he traced those funds to a hot wallet of Huione Guarantee, which has been sanctioned.

“Throughout our conversations, Jimmy and I had a lot of small talk in between discussing laundering for DPRK,” said ZachXBT. “He talked about playing mahjong, hunting wild rabbits, food, his fat-reducing meal, family life, and vacations at Disney.”

ZachXBT noted that he ultimately fronted $349,700 and lost about 5% per order, “with no guarantee Jimmy wouldn’t disappear with the funds.” He said he continued trading with the group in an effort to “gamble on capturing as much actionable intel as quickly as possible.”

The investigator said he immediately shared his findings with law enforcement but was unable to disclose details sooner due to sensitivity around the investigation. He added that he has helped facilitate the freezing of $75 million in funds related to North Korean incidents since 2022.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#ZachXBT #Bybit #LazarusGroup #CryptoHack #CryptoCrime #NorthKorea #BlockchainSecurity #OnChain #CryptoNews #CyberSecurity

Galaxy Ventures, DCG and other investors joined the UMIA token auction, which sold 34.6% of its supply at an $18 million FDV.

Umia, a platform that helps crypto projects launch and govern tokens, has raised $6.11 million through the sale of its own UMIA token.

The seven-day auction valued Umia at a fully diluted valuation of $18 million and sold 17.3 million tokens, or 34.6% of the total supply, Umia co-founder and CEO Francesco Mosterts told The Block. All tokens sold in the auction were liquid at launch, with no lockup.

UMIA is currently trading at around $0.68, giving the token a fully diluted valuation of about $34 million, according to CoinGecko.

Mosterts said Umia intentionally sold a large share of the supply to give early backers a meaningful stake and avoid a small circulating supply followed by large future unlocks.

Around 45% of the money came from institutional investors, Mosterts said. Ten funds participated, including Galaxy Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Draper Associates, RenGen, Alpha EV, Maven 11 and Eon Capital. Nearly 700 individual bidders also took part.

The funds participated on the same terms as other bidders and received no discounts, Umia said. None of the investors received a board seat, observer role or advisory position, Mosterts noted.

The raise comes during a difficult period for new token projects. Investors have shown a preference for equity deals and tokens linked to revenue, as The Block has previously reported.

Last month, GSR, Ink Foundation and several legal and audit firms also launched Charter Foundation to help reduce token launch costs.

Asked how Umia differs, Mosterts pointed to its combination of a legal wrapper, decision markets, onchain auctions and a supported onboarding process. He said its auction also uses eligibility checks and technical measures intended to reduce activity from bots and traders trying to exploit transaction ordering.

Umia said it structures each project so its intellectual property, operating team and treasury sit under one legal wrapper linked to the token, rather than being divided among a company, foundation and decentralized autonomous organization.

This structure is meant to ensure value generated by a project goes to the token rather than remaining with founders, equity holders or a separate foundation, Mosterts said.

Umia earns a 0.5% fee on spot trades across the decentralized exchange pools it manages and a 1% fee on decision-market trades.

For the UMIA token sale, 20% of the proceeds were used to create a protocol-owned UMIA-USDC liquidity pool on Uniswap v4 at the auction’s closing price. The rest went into the treasury.

Smart contracts release $120,000 each month for development costs. Spending above that amount, or any change to the monthly allowance, must pass through a UMIA decision market.

Decision markets replace a standard token vote. Traders take positions based on how they expect the token price to perform under different proposals. The option with the highest time-weighted average price can then execute onchain.

Mosterts acknowledged that giving token holders control over board-level decisions could leave founders with less control. He also said a liquid token can push teams toward short-term decisions aimed at increasing its price.

However, he said these risks are preferable to standard token voting, which he believes does not work, or equity financing that gives board seats to venture firms with their own conflicts.

The UMIA sale ran on Base from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2 using Umia’s version of Uniswap’s Continuous Clearing Auction. It had a minimum target of $2 million and a maximum token price of $0.36, equal to an $18 million FDV.

First external launches

Umia’s curation committee has selected three external projects to launch through the platform. The first is Slop.cash, a project from Shaw, who started ai16z, now known as ElizaOS. It is expected to launch later in the fourth quarter, Mosterts said. The other two projects are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Umia has received more than 200 applications across AI infrastructure, AI apps, decentralized finance, tokenized funds, real-world assets and fintech, Mosterts said. Projects can build on any Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchain.

Applicants first go through internal due diligence before presenting to a curation committee that includes investors from Maven 11 and RenGen and representatives from analytics platform 01resolved.

Selected projects receive help with technology, finance, design, tax, legal work, and public relations, according to Mosterts.

Umia was incubated by Ethereum research and development firm Chainbound, which has worked with Flashbots and Ethereum Foundation. Mosterts previously worked at Point72, while co-founder and CTO Nicolas Racchi previously developed DeFi protocols and Ethereum infrastructure.

Umia currently has seven employees and is hiring business development staff to support the due diligence process, though Mosterts did not specify how many people it plans to add.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Umia #UMIA #TokenLaunch #Crypto #CryptoNews #GalaxyVentures #DCG #DeFi #Uniswap #Base

Do Kwon & The Korean Comeback Cycle is the first feature documentary from The Block’s new travel and business series, Around the Block.
South Korea sits at number five on Chainalysis’ 2026 global adoption index — second for onchain balances, behind only the United States.
Through on-the-ground research and interviews, The Block’s Kelvin Sparks tracks the story of the country’s blockchain revolution through the lens of its unique culture and history.
Since crypto’s inception, South Korea has been one of the powerhouses of global adoption. Last month, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis placed the country fifth on its latest worldwide adoption rankings and second for total onchain balances.
Some 16.3 million of the country’s people, or around 30% of the population, hold accounts with its five largest crypto exchanges. Meanwhile, its financial services firms are pushing to integrate stablecoins into existing financial systems.
South Korea has also seen some of the worst that crypto has to offer: the 2022 collapse of Terra (LUNA), founded by Korean national Do Kwon, threw the entire industry into a crisis. But economic catastrophe is nothing new to a country whose modern history has been defined by repeated cycles of destruction and reconstruction.
The Block’s new feature documentary, Do Kwon & The Korean Comeback Cycle, asks what these cycles tell us about Korea’s people, as well as the future of its ongoing blockchain revolution.
“Korea continually crafts its future using remnants from its past.”
Produced in partnership with BNB Chain, the film traces Korea’s history through successive periods of crisis, from the Japanese occupation and Korean War to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when the won lost over 50% of its value against the dollar in less than three months.
The Block’s Kelvin Sparks spoke to Koreans who lived through that crisis and witnessed its economic devastation firsthand, as well as the younger generations still living with its aftermath. For some, crypto speculation has emerged as an avenue for social mobility in a country increasingly stratified by socioeconomic status.
“Korean people are strong in a crisis — that DNA has been flowing continually until now, forming Korea’s identity.” — Youngtae Choi
The journey took the team to the DMZ, where Wildcat Labs founder Laurence Day unpacked the hacking methods used by North Korea’s Lazarus Group; to the headquarters of MapleStory Universe developer Nexpace, where COO Jeongheon “Keith” Kim discussed Korea’s pioneering culture of digital ownership; and into conversations with Hashed and Wintermute on the economic forces behind Korean crypto culture.
Each gives a unique perspective on Korea’s transformation from one of the world’s poorest countries to an economic and cultural powerhouse, and on how its domestic blockchain industry has evolved beyond the speculative free-for-all of the Terra era.
From crypto speculation to national strategy
That latest comeback has been defined by an institutional push to integrate blockchain with Korea’s existing financial infrastructure. The film features an interview with one of the leading figures shaping this movement, Democratic Party lawmaker Min Byeoung-Duk, a major advocate for won-denominated stablecoins.
He described the country’s blockchain revolution as a matter of securing economic sovereignty and expanding its global influence.
“Korea’s physical territory is small. Korea’s digital territory will become much larger.” — Min Byeoung-Duk
Far from a speculative tool for young traders, blockchain is emerging as a potential pillar of South Korea’s broader financial strategy.
This is apparent now more than ever. Last month, the country’s Financial Services Commission revealed a roadmap outlining plans to bring “all types” of securities onchain, beginning in February 2027. Meanwhile, major Korean financial services firms, including Shinhan Financial Group, are exploring payments and remittances on stablecoin rails.
For anyone tracking the trajectory of this digital transformation, the film offers a unique window into the forces that brought South Korea to the forefront of global blockchain adoption — and those shaping where it goes next

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#DoKwon #SouthKorea #Crypto #Blockchain #CryptoAdoption #TerraLuna #Stablecoins #DigitalAssets #CryptoNews #Web3

Ethereum Layer 2 Blast said it will wind down its network because operating costs exceed revenue and it sees no credible path to economic sustainability.

The project now has a little over $32 million in total value locked, according to DeFiLlama, down sharply from more than $2 billion in TVL ahead of its February 2024 mainnet launch.

“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers. Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense,” the project wrote Friday in a post on X. “The ongoing costs of maintaining Blast exceed the revenue generated by the L2, and we do not see a credible path to making the chain economically sustainable.”

Blast aimed to provide native yield for ETH and stablecoins, with returns generated through ETH staking and real-world asset protocols and automatically distributed to users.

The project is asking users to withdraw their assets to Ethereum mainnet. Blast said it will first begin withdrawing its Lido assets, a process expected to take about a week, during which withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable. Once that process is complete, withdrawals will resume with a 24-hour delay, and users will be able to withdraw through Blast’s normal interface until Oct. 26. After that date, users will need to interact directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum.

Blast went live in November 2023 following a $20 million funding round led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto. The project exceeded $2 billion in TVL from nearly 200,000 early-access users ahead of its mainnet launch.

The BLAST token fell 17% on Friday, reducing its market capitalization to around $23 million.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Blast #BLAST #Ethereum #Layer2 #Crypto #CryptoNews #DeFi #Paradigm #Blockchain #CryptoMarket

Something feels increasingly uncomfortable around Abstract Chain.

No, Abstract has not officially announced that it is shutting down. There is currently no confirmed statement saying the blockchain is being discontinued.

But crypto investors have learned this lesson many times before:

A blockchain rarely dies with one dramatic announcement.

Sometimes it happens slowly.

The builders leave.
Important people become quiet.
Liquidity disappears.
Projects start moving elsewhere.
Communication slows down.

And eventually, users wake up to discover that the ecosystem they were farming, building, or investing in has become a shadow of what it once promised to be.

Right now, several warning signs surrounding Abstract are beginning to appear at the same time.

That does not prove the chain is dying.

But it is enough to justify serious caution.

⸻

🚨 RED FLAG #1: Luca Netz Removed the Abstract Identifier From His X Name

One of the developments triggering the latest wave of FUD involves Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins and one of the most recognizable figures associated with the Abstract ecosystem.

Reports circulated on October 1 that Netz had removed the Abstract identifier from his X account name.

Importantly, this point needs context.

His profile has continued to reference @abstractchain in his bio, so claims that he completely removed Abstract from his profile appear to exaggerate what happened.

Still, in crypto, symbolism matters.

Founders understand that even the smallest social-media change can trigger speculation, especially when confidence in an ecosystem is already weakening.

By itself?

Probably nothing.

Combined with everything else happening?

People are paying attention.

⸻

🚨 RED FLAG #2: Key People Have Already Left Abstract

This is where the situation becomes more difficult to dismiss.

In August 2026, Mason, who served as Abstract’s Head of Ecosystem, announced that his time at Abstract had ended.

Mason had been deeply involved with builders even before the chain launched.

His departure was therefore significant.

However, there is important context: Abstract did not simply eliminate the ecosystem role. Raj Patel subsequently announced that he was becoming the new Head of Ecosystem, while Abstract introduced its Builder XP program.

Then there is 0xBeans.

The former Head of Protocol at Abstract also wrapped up his time at the project in August 2026 to focus on other on-chain protocols and experiments.

One senior departure can happen anywhere.

Two departures do not automatically mean disaster.

But when several important people leave within a relatively short period, investors are justified in asking:

What exactly is changing behind the scenes?

⸻

🚨 RED FLAG #3: Cygaar Has Gone Extremely Quiet

Another name attracting attention is Cygaar, one of the developers strongly associated with Abstract.

Reports circulating this week noted that his X account has been largely inactive since June 2026.

Even more concerning, community posts have claimed that a wallet associated with Cygaar moved assets away from Abstract.

One report puts the movement at approximately 1.34 million PENGU, although the wallet attribution itself should be treated as a community claim rather than definitive proof of Cygaar’s intentions.

Again:

Moving assets does not mean abandoning a blockchain.

Silence does not mean a shutdown.

But crypto markets do not operate purely on confirmed facts.

They operate on confidence.

And confidence becomes fragile when influential developers suddenly disappear from public view while rumors about capital leaving the ecosystem begin spreading.

⸻

🔥 RED FLAG #4: YGG Is Removing Its YGG/ETH Liquidity From Abstract

This may be the most concrete development of all.

Yield Guild Games is removing its YGG/ETH liquidity pair from Abstract Chain on October 9, 2026.

Users have been advised to swap or bridge their tokens from Abstract before the liquidity pair is removed.

That sounds alarming.

But there is a crucial detail:

The move follows the shutdown of YGG Play, meaning YGG’s withdrawal from Abstract should not automatically be interpreted as YGG declaring that Abstract itself is failing.

Even so, from the perspective of an Abstract user, the result is the same:

Liquidity is leaving.

And liquidity is the bloodstream of every blockchain ecosystem.

When meaningful liquidity disappears, users should pay attention.

⸻

🧟 Is Abstract Becoming a “Zombie Chain”?

This is the question circulating through parts of the community.

A “Zombie Chain” doesn’t necessarily mean a blockchain literally stops producing blocks.

The infrastructure can continue running.

Transactions can continue working.

Wallets can continue connecting.

The website can remain online.

But the ecosystem can slowly lose the things that actually make a blockchain valuable:

Developers. Users. Liquidity. Applications. Attention. Capital. Momentum.

That is the real danger.

A chain does not need to technically shut down to become economically irrelevant.

And this is why the current situation around Abstract deserves attention.

⸻

⚠️ But Don’t Confuse FUD With Confirmed Collapse

There is another side to this story that should not be ignored.

Abstract is still operating.

In August, it launched Builder XP, designed to reward projects contributing to the ecosystem.

Raj Patel stepped into the Head of Ecosystem position after Mason’s departure.

And reports discussing the shutdown rumors themselves acknowledge that Abstract was still publishing XP-related updates as recently as September 29.

These are not the actions you would normally expect from a network that has publicly decided to shut down tomorrow.

Therefore:

There is currently no solid evidence that Abstract Chain is about to close.

The shutdown narrative remains speculation.

But there is also a dangerous mistake investors make repeatedly:

Waiting for official confirmation after the market has already reacted.

⸻

🚨 The Biggest Risk Right Now Isn’t Technology — It’s Uncertainty

Crypto markets can survive bad news.

What they struggle with is uncertainty.

If Abstract publicly explains its direction, updates its roadmap, clarifies the status of key developers, demonstrates meaningful ecosystem growth, and reassures developers about its long-term strategy, much of this FUD could disappear quickly.

But until that happens, unanswered questions remain.

Why have multiple important people left?

Why has Cygaar become so quiet?

What is Abstract’s next major growth catalyst?

Which major applications are committed to staying?

Where is new liquidity coming from?

What does the next 12 months of Abstract actually look like?

Those are the questions that matter.

Not memes.

Not XP.

Not speculation about an airdrop.

Execution.

⸻

🔥 Staying on the Sidelines May Be the Safer Position Until We Get Answers

There is an old rule in crypto:

You don’t have to participate in every opportunity.

Sometimes protecting capital is more important than chasing the next reward.

That doesn’t mean everyone needs to panic, dump assets, or immediately bridge everything away from Abstract.

But anyone holding significant assets on the chain, providing liquidity, buying ecosystem tokens, or farming purely in expectation of future incentives should understand that the risk profile has changed.

This is no longer just another quiet week.

There are now enough warning signals to justify watching Abstract much more carefully.

Personally, I would want to see stronger confirmation of the project’s long-term direction before taking additional risk.

Until Abstract provides clearer answers, staying cautious — and possibly staying on the sidelines — is not unreasonable.

Because in crypto, sometimes the most expensive mistake isn’t selling too early.

It’s ignoring warning signs until everyone else sees them too.

Abstract isn’t dead.

Abstract hasn’t announced a shutdown.

But right now, the ecosystem is facing a confidence test.

And the next few weeks could tell us whether this is simply another wave of FUD…

or the beginning of something much more serious.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#AbstractChain #Abstract #CryptoWarning #ZombieChain #CryptoNews #Blockchain #Web3 #PudgyPenguins #CryptoRisk #CryptoFUD

The proposal would let advisers and funds self-custody crypto in some cases and use state trust companies, as regulators push ahead after the Clarity Act’s Senate defeat.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday proposed a new regulatory framework for the custody of crypto assets by investment advisers and regulated funds. The framework aims to provide a “compliant pathway” for holding digital assets under rules that largely predate the internet.

“Since the advent of Bitcoin in 2008, the crypto asset market has grown from a niche curiosity into a multi-trillion-dollar asset class to which investors actively seek exposure,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a release. “Unfortunately, our rules and regulations have not kept pace.”

The proposal would address a key gap for institutional investors, where qualified custodial infrastructure for some crypto assets may not yet exist. It would also permit crypto assets to be held in self-custody under certain circumstances and allow state trust companies to serve as custodians for client and regulated fund crypto assets. This is important for asset managers, hedge funds, and others who want to hold bitcoin and other crypto assets directly rather than through an ETF or another intermediary.

The proposal would also allow advisers to “self-custody” client and regulated fund crypto assets under limited circumstances, including when the adviser determines that no permitted custodian is available. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce clarified that the term refers to advisers acting as custodians for client assets, rather than investors directly controlling their own crypto.

“True self-custody is not the right choice for everyone, but many crypto owners prize being able to custody their own assets,” Peirce said in a statement. “Regulators should zealously protect investors’ right to self-custody and not attempt to force investors to custody their assets with someone else. But I digress.”

The public comment period will remain open for 60 days.

“More regulatory proposals are on the horizon, and I look forward to continuing to help President Trump cement the United States as the crypto capital of the world,” Atkins said.

The announcement comes as both the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have accelerated efforts to establish crypto regulations after the Clarity Act failed to pass the Senate. In the days that followed, the SEC released its long-awaited innovation exemption while the CFTC filed crypto asset rulemaking with White House.

“Moving quickly & aggressively,” NovaDius President Nate Geraci wrote Thursday in a post on X. “Some politicians are going to wish they passed the Clarity Act.”

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#SEC #Crypto #SelfCustody #CryptoRegulation #DigitalAssets #Bitcoin #InvestmentFunds #PaulAtkins #HesterPeirce #CryptoNews

The seven-day trial used USDC purchased through Archax, with funds reaching Visa in under an hour, including over the weekend.

Lloyds and Visa completed a seven-day live pilot using stablecoins to settle $750,000 of payment obligations, in what Lloyds described as the first stablecoin settlement trial between Visa and a major UK banking group.

Lloyds purchased USDC through UK-regulated digital asset exchange Archax for the series of U.S. dollar settlements. The volume was booked through Lloyds’ Corporate Markets branch in Jersey and transferred to Visa in the U.S. Funds reached Visa in under an hour, including during the weekend, the bank said Wednesday.

The pilot dealt with settlement between the financial institutions rather than the payments made by customers. Lloyds said traditional cross-border settlement can take a day or more when initiated outside banking hours. “Settling $750,000 of live payment obligations between Lloyds and Visa using stablecoins has allowed us to move beyond theory and test these capabilities in a real-world setting,” Lloyds Head of Digital Assets Peter Left said.

Testing settlement across blockchains

Lloyds also ran its own node on the Canton Network during the trial, while Visa supported settlement on a separate, unnamed, public blockchain.

Visa’s stablecoin settlement volume surpassed a $20 billion annualized run rate last month. In April, Visa added Canton and four other blockchains to its settlement pilot, taking the total to nine.

Lloyds was among six major UK banks that began a live pilot of tokenized sterling deposits last year.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Lloyds #Visa #USDC #Stablecoin #CrossBorderPayments #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #CryptoPayments #CantonNetwork #Fintech

MetaMask is “proactively exiting” affected validators within its non-custodial staking operations as a precaution.

#MetaMask #SecurityIncident #CryptoSecurity #CyberSecurity #Ethereum #Staking #Validators #CryptoWallet #Web3 #CryptoNews

Firms intending to continue operating in the UK should apply by Feb. 28, 2027, ahead of the new regime coming into force on Oct. 25, 2027, it said.

#FCA #UKCrypto #Crypto #CryptoNews #CryptoRegulation #DigitalAssets #ConsumerProtection #MarketIntegrity #CryptoFirms #UnitedKingdom

Bitwise has launched the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR), the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product providing direct exposure to NEAR, with trading beginning today, Sept. 29, on NYSE Arca.

The fund carries a 0.75% management fee, and the asset manager intends to stake its NEAR holdings in-house, with the staking rewards accruing to shareholders through the fund’s NAV.

The launch expands Bitwise’s lineup of single-asset crypto ETFs into NEAR, which the firm is positioning as infrastructure for an emerging AI-powered economy.

“AI is fundamentally changing how we access information and how economic activity happens,” Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said in a release. “We’re moving toward a world in which AI agents increasingly act on our behalf, coordinate with one another, and participate in the economy. We believe this shift—to an agentic economy where more and more happens through AI agents—could unlock an enormous new frontier for the global economy. NEAR is building a platform for that future.”

NRR joins Bitwise’s lineup of single-asset crypto ETPs, including the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), Bitwise Solana ETF (BSOL), Bitwise XRP ETF (XRP) and Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP).

NEAR Protocol is a decentralized blockchain platform designed to simplify the creation and deployment of decentralized applications, or dapps. It offers scalable, developer-friendly infrastructure, with a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that ensures energy-efficient, secure transactions.

token trades around $4.93 and has a market capitalization of around $6.5 billion at the time of writing, making it a top-20 non-stablecoin cryptocurrency.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#NEAR #NEARProtocol #Bitwise #NEARETF #CryptoETF #Staking #Crypto #CryptoNews #Blockchain #ArtificialIntelligence

The Ethereum co-founder says the Hegota upgrade planned for next year is likely the network’s last ‘normal’ fork before recursive STARKs, formal verification, and quantum safety take over.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin laid out how Ethereum’s
architecture will change by 2030 in a blog post published Sunday, describing a network that combines blockchain design with modern cryptography.
“It’s really not just a blockchain anymore,” Buterin wrote in an X post sharing the essay, titled “The cryptographic world computer.” He called Ethereum “a hybrid architecture that combines together blockchains and modern cryptography, to enable much more powerful properties.”

Buterin said the essay explains “basically everything planned to happen to Ethereum starting from the fork after Hegota,” a forthcoming network upgrade. Hegota, like earlier Ethereum upgrades, was named by combining a Devcon host city (Bogotá), representing the execution layer, with the name of a star (Heze), representing the consensus layer.

In the post, Buterin wrote that a modern cryptographic network like the post-Lean-upgrade Ethereum “is called a ‘blockchain’ to a large extent for historical reasons.” It merges “core Satoshian ideas” with powerful new cryptographic machinery that “did not even exist (or was not mature) in 2009,” he wrote.

“Lean Ethereum” refers to a series of upgrades spanning multiple years that Buterin said in July would replace almost every major piece of the protocol and rival the Merge, Ethereum’s 2022 switch to proof-of-stake, in scope.

Hegota and beyond

Citing the Ethereum Foundation’s technical “strawmap” roadmap, Buterin wrote that Hegota, “the fork planned for next year,” is likely to be Ethereum’s last “normal” fork. Everything after it “involves recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, highly optimized consensus algorithms, and making it all quantum-safe,” he wrote.

STARKs, or scalable transparent arguments of knowledge, are cryptographic proofs that a computation was performed correctly, with recursive STARKs proving the validity of other proofs. Automated formal verification uses mathematical proofs to check that code does what it is designed to do, and quantum-safe cryptography is designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers.

Glamsterdam, the upgrade before Hegota, is expected to ship in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to an Ethereum Foundation post The Block reported on earlier this month. Initially, Glamsterdam (Gloas plus Amsterdam) was projected to land in the first half of 2026.

Annotating the Bitcoin whitepaper

Buterin, in his post, marked up five sections of the Bitcoin whitepaper to show how Ethereum’s design has changed and will change by 2030.

Instead of downloading and re-executing every block, for example, nodes would sample data through PeerDAS and verify a SNARK, or a succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge, a short cryptographic proof that a computation was done correctly, according to the post. PeerDAS, which shipped in Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade in December 2025, lets validators sample blob data rather than download it in full. Buterin wrote that it “later will cover full block contents.”

Buterin wrote that signatures “will be aggregated offchain, a single one onchain per block.” Under EIP-8288, a draft proposal he co-authored with Thomas Coratger in June, “only entry nodes see individual signatures and proofs,” according to one annotation.

He wrote that the whitepaper’s “hidden assumption” that one participant makes each block is “already heavily degraded in reality.” FOCIL “and possible later extensions will much more deeply enshrine multi-participant split-authority block construction,” Buterin wrote. FOCIL, or fork-choice enforced inclusion lists, is a Hegota feature that lets multiple validators, rather than a single block builder, force valid transactions into blocks.

Privacy protocols that use ZK-SNARKs, zero-knowledge versions of SNARKs that also keep the underlying data hidden, already break the whitepaper’s requirement that all transactions be announced publicly. “FOCIL and EIP-8288 will make such transactions much more first-class citizens,” Buterin wrote.

Buterin projected slots, the intervals in which new blocks are proposed, of 4 to 8 seconds by 2030, and finality, the point after which a block cannot be reversed, in 8 to 32 seconds.

“Ethereum itself will never have latency that competes with servers, but infrastructure built around it could,” he wrote.

Decentralization to boost performance

Buterin wrote that decentralization, long “a burden incurred in the name of safety and robustness,” can in “a few limited cases” be a strength for performance.

“The decentralized network allows larger volumes of data to be stored in parallel. It allows a high volume of computation to happen in parallel, in many cases inside the mempool,” Buterin wrote. “In a few cases, it increases privacy, because only decentralized networks can effectively hide metadata (eg. where data and requests are coming from).” (Emphasis in original.)

Early Ethereum designs tried to split work across committees made up of randomly selected participants but the network had no good way to verify that work, according to the post. “Now, with modern cryptography, this problem is solved, and the overhead factor of that solution is decreasing month by month,” Buterin wrote.

Open problems

Buterin wrote that managing and parallelizing access to very large amounts of Ethereum’s state, or the running record of every account balance and smart contract’s data, will likely be harder than making zero-knowledge proofs efficient and safe.

He said Ethereum could later go through “one further shift” if indistinguishability obfuscation, a technique for scrambling a program so it can run without revealing its code, becomes practical. Buterin called obfuscation cryptography’s “final boss” in June, and wrote Sunday that “all of the conclusions in this post will apply long before any of that becomes available.”

ETH traded near $2,700 on Sunday, roughly flat over 24 hours, according to The Block’s Ethereum Price page.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Ethereum #VitalikButerin #ETH #Ethereum2030 #Blockchain #STARKs #ZeroKnowledge #QuantumSafe #Crypto #CryptoNews

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that token buybacks, network upgrades and marketing claims don’t automatically turn a crypto asset into a security.

In an updated Frequently Asked Questions release, the Division of Corporation Finance said that announcing a buyback program for an already functioning crypto network would not, by itself, make the associated token subject to an investment contract. However, this would not necessarily apply to a network that is not yet functional where the issuers are pitching the buyback as a source of returns for its holders.

It also addressed questions on crypto projects that keep developing after launch.

“Once a crypto system is functional, services to secure, maintain, improve, or enhance such a system or its functionality, or to facilitate network effects,” would not count as the kind of managerial effort under the Howey test, the FAQ stated.

Marketing a network’s existing uses also generally would not create that expectation either, nor would statements about future features, so long as they don’t promote the potential for profit.

The update reiterated that the answer will still heavily depend on the specifics of each case.

The FAQ builds on the SEC’s March “Interpretive Release” of how securities laws apply to crypto assets. It comes just weeks after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate, leaving regulators to continue working under its existing laws.

Separately, the CFTC updated its own crypto FAQ on Thursday. The newest updates say futures firms and clearinghouses are allowed to invest customer funds in tokenized versions of previously permitted assets, as long as they meet investment and custody requirements.

CFTC staff also said regulated firms can use blockchains for their recordkeeping, but they must be able to produce the records even in the event that a blockchain or its block explorer is not functioning.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#SEC #Crypto #CryptoNews #TokenBuyback #HoweyTest #CryptoRegulation #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #CFTC #CryptoPolicy

More than $170 million in crypto appears to have been moved from wallets labeled as belonging to crypto exchange Bitget to a single fresh address over roughly the past hour, according to onchain data examined by The Block.

The transfers came from several Bitget-labeled hot and cold wallets and include ether, USDT, USDC, AVAX and BNB. The receiving address has begun swapping the assets onchain.

The activity has prompted speculation of a potential security breach, though it remains unclear whether the wallets were compromised or whether the transfers were initiated by Bitget as part of an internal operation.

Some users have also reported problems with withdrawals, according to social media posts and other online reports.

Transfers of crypto from Bitget hot and cold wallets. Source: Arkham Intelligence.
The Block has reached out to Bitget to confirm whether the transfers are related to a security incident and whether withdrawals have been paused.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitget #Crypto #CryptoNews #SecurityAlert #CryptoExchange #OnChain #Ethereum #USDT #USDC #CyberSecurity

Crypto venture capital firm Hashed has anchored a new digital asset private credit fund that is targeting $300 million.

The fund was founded by Abu Dhabi-based investor Mohamed Hamdy, co-founder of Further Ventures, and is managed by Thoro Capital Management, where Hamdy serves as managing partner. Thoro will lend U.S. dollars settled via stablecoins directly to digital asset institutions, while Hashed will be the fund’s primary backer.

Hashed said the new credit fund aims to address a “critical financing bottleneck” in the institutional digital asset sector, where traditional banks remain buffered by regulatory capital requirements and existing crypto lenders underwrite against asset-backed collateral.

“As a result, even profitable, audited market infrastructure firms are forced to rely on expensive, short-term collateralized borrowing rather than credit based on business fundamentals,” Hashed wrote in a press release.

Covenant-based underwriting

Thoro Capital’s fund aims to fill this gap by introducing “covenant-based” underwriting. This mirrors the rise of traditional private credit following the 2008 global financial crisis, when specialized fund managers emerged to replace retrenching banks.

“Instead of lending purely against collateral, we assess the borrower as an operating business, looking at its financials, cash flow and management, and we agree on covenants, meaning financial conditions the borrower commits to maintaining for the life of the loan,” Thoro explained.

Thoro said it set the $300 million target for the fund based on the market fit and executability of its private credit strategy.

Meanwhile, Hashed said tokenized private credit has become the largest real-world asset (RWA) category by cumulative onchain origination, exceeding $14 billion in total loans. However, this remains a small fraction of the traditional private credit market, which is worth more than $3 trillion.

Hashed’s participation in the fund comes after the VC firm gained a financial services permission from the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the financial hub of the United Arab Emirates. Last week, Hashed signed a memorandum of understanding with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to support South Korean institutions and investors seeking to expand to the UAE capital.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Hashed #Crypto #PrivateCredit #DigitalAssets #RWA #Stablecoins #CryptoLending #InstitutionalCrypto #DeFi #Tokenization

US spot bitcoin ETFs saw $999 million in net inflows on Monday, the largest single-day amount the funds have attracted since Oct. 6, 2025.

U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $998.95 million in net inflows on Monday, their largest daily inflow in 11 months, as bitcoin briefly surged above $87,000 amid renewed risk appetite.

BlackRock’s IBIT led the inflows with $381.4 million, followed by Ark & 21Shares’ ARKB with $289.1 million and Fidelity’s FBTC with $238.8 million, according to SoSoValue data. Funds from Grayscale, Bitwise, and Morgan Stanley also logged positive flows.

Monday’s inflow was the largest since Oct. 6, 2025, when inflows reached $1.2 billion.

Spot Ethereum ETFs also recorded $269.98 million in net inflows on Monday, their largest single-day inflow since Oct. 7, 2025, per SoSoValue data.

“While there is no single clear catalyst, the move appears to reflect a combination of renewed risk appetite, strong spot ETF demand and some short covering after bitcoin broke above key technical levels,” said Min Jung, research associate of Presto Research.

“Monday’s unusually large ETF inflows likely added momentum by signaling renewed institutional demand,” Jung added.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #BTC #BitcoinETF #SpotBitcoinETF #BlackRock #IBIT #Crypto #CryptoNews #InstitutionalInvestors #ETFInflows

Kristalina Gorgiava, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), revealed that the global economy still faces the risk of chronic inflation. Including higher repayment costs and investing in artificial intelligence (AI), although in the past, the economy was able to recover better than many parties worried.

Gorgiava said during the Qatar Economic Forum, which was held in New York on Sunday (20 Kor. Y.) “Inflation is a chronic problem. We don’t expect a quick fix, and that means that many central banks continue to use strict monetary policies.”

Gorgiawa pointed out that the implementation of strict control policies to stabilize prices has also resulted in increased costs and difficulties in debt repayment. In addition, she also added that although the IMF understands the need to create fiscal strength. But practical action is still insufficient.

In addition, Gorkiva has also highlighted the potential risks of using leverage and working capital in AI investments, stating that this is “something we must be careful of”.

Gorkiawa warned, “If AI technology creates disappointment because we have very high expectations and if those things do not happen Such disappointment can lead to effects that shake the system.”

Gorkiva added that the risk of financing in AI is “mainly concentrated in the United States” while many other players in Asia and Europe are also included in the AI supply chain.

Gorjiawa said that the IMF’s new global economic forecast, which is scheduled to be released in October. C. It will reflect the fact that the risks will remain high.

“KEEPING THE GROWTH RATE AT ABOUT 3% IS A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT, CONSIDERING ALL THE IMPACT WE HAVE FACED,” GEORGIA SAID.

Gorkiva also said she saw positive signs from the rapid action to deal with the energy supply shock.

“Even though it is said that the world is polarized and of course the world is less unified. But our world depends on each other and cooperates,” Gorgia said and added that “We must be careful and careful because the risk is still high and uncertainty has become a new normal (new normal)”

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#IMF #Inflation #Economy #GlobalEconomy #AI #InterestRates #CentralBanks #Markets #Finance #EconomicOutlook

ZetaChain (ZETA) token holders voted Sunday to shut down the project’s Layer 1 blockchain, approving a move to Solana for a project that raised $27 million three years ago to help connect competing networks.

The vote on Proposal 68 ended at 10:58 a.m. ET with 99.4% in favor, according to the project’s governance portal. Participation was 58%, exceeding the 40% quorum. Opposition and abstentions were 0.3% apiece.

ZetaChain’s developers have been working on Anuma, an AI app launched in February, and now say they don’t need their own blockchain to pursue it, instead moving it to Solana with the ZETA token.

The project counts more than 300,000 Anuma users, per its self-reported numbers, and a million requests across 35 AI models. The app’s memory system is encrypted and works across models; ZETA holders can lock up tokens in return for credits to spend on AI.

“What Solana’s AI stack still lacks is the application layer: an app people use every day, with memory that belongs to them and travels across models, apps, and agents,” the ZetaChain team wrote in their post about the vote.

In its proposal, the team points to the work involved in maintaining a Cosmos SDK chain. “As a Cosmos SDK chain, ZetaChain inherits every upstream advisory and patch, and each one has to be coordinated across dozens of independent validators,” the migration proposal states. “AI tooling is making such vulnerabilities easier to find, as the August 25 patch showed, so there will be more.”

Last month, Cosmos Labs disclosed attacks against six Cosmos EVM chains, though not ZetaChain. The attackers sold stolen funds for about $5.7 million. A researcher had reported the flaw months earlier, but testers mistakenly believed it couldn’t be exploited on live networks, The Block reported at the time.

No shutdown date, yet

Though the vote passed, the proposal leaves ZetaChain running while its contributors work out the full details of the conversion. The ZETA token is to become a native Solana SPL token at a one-for-one rate, retaining its ticker and total supply. Vesting schedules remain unchanged, per the proposal, which excludes ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain.

A second, forthcoming proposal will specify the block height for a balance snapshot and determine the shutdown block, along with instructions for claiming tokens and withdrawing connected-chain assets. ZetaChain says it won’t put that to a vote until exchanges have confirmed their swap arrangements, and hasn’t given a firm date.

ZETA staking continues in the meantime, and the Sept. 17 announcement was less specific about what happens afterward: the team said it was still exploring how to handle staking and rewards on Solana.

Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital were among the investors in ZetaChain’s August 2023 funding round. Back then, the project was preparing a network on which developers could use assets from chains as different as Bitcoin and Ethereum in the same application. Its mainnet launch was announced the following January.

The price of ZETA has fallen about 2.5% in the past 24 hours, per The Block’s ZetaChain Price page.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#ZetaChain #ZETA #Solana #SOL #Crypto #Blockchain #Layer1 #Web3 #CryptoNews #AI

Details funds weren’t as fortunate, however, snapping a four-week inflow streak.
Investors added $433 million to the publicly traded bitcoin products on Friday, leaving an overall $6.2 million net inflow for the week ending Sept. 18, according to The Block’s analysis of SoSoValue data. The net inflow amount is modest, but large in comparison to the $462.7 million in outflows the funds had logged the week before.

Spot ether ETFs, meanwhile, posted a $140 million weekly outflow despite taking in $143.8 million on Friday. The result ended a streak of four positive net inflow weeks during which the funds collected a combined $1.94 billion.

Fidelity’s FBTC drives Friday’s recovery

Bitcoin ETFs managed to make up a large deficit caused by outflows on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday’s $160 million inflow was followed by withdrawals of $450.3 million on Tuesday and $296 million on Wednesday. Even after $159.5 million came in on Thursday, the funds were down $426.8 million for the week.

Friday’s buying covered that shortfall with little to spare. The $433.0 million in inflows was the funds’ largest daily inflow since Sept. 3, when they drew $730.9 million.

Fidelity’s FBTC, the second-largest such fund by both assets under management (AUM) and trading volume per The Block’s data, accounted for $310.7 million of Friday’s total, with BlackRock’s IBIT adding $108.4 million. Bitwise, VanEck, and Ark and 21Shares’ funds brought in relatively smaller amounts.

Though Fidelity’s FBTC is the second-largest fund by AUM, BlackRock’s IBIT has a commanding lead in trading volume via The Block.
Over the full week, however, IBIT took in $120.7 million, ahead of FBTC’s $79.9 million. The other bitcoin funds together lost approximately $194.4 million, leaving the category barely above zero with just $6.2 million in net inflows.

Bitcoin ETFs are still down about $1.45 billion in net flows this year. Their cumulative inflows since launch stand at $55.16 billion, while net assets totaled $102.53 billion on Friday.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the resilience of bitcoin ETF investors in a Thursday post on X, remarking that cumulative inflows remained around $55 billion after peaking near $63 billion. He described their staying power as “incredible intestinal fortitude from the Boomers given they saw a 50% drawdown,” while noting that rising stock prices may have helped investors hold on.

Ether funds snap four-week inflow streak

For ether ETFs, three consecutive negative sessions from Tuesday through Thursday, which drained $404.8 million, led to the products’ four-week inflow streak ending last week.

Inflows to the funds on Monday and Friday weren’t enough to recover those losses. BlackRock’s ETHA drew $114.3 million on Friday but ended the week with $56.1 million in outflows. Fidelity’s FETH also finished lower for the week, losing $25.8 million despite a $26.2 million addition on Friday, per The Block’s analysis of SoSoValue data.

The weekly outflow was ether ETFs’ first since the week ending Aug. 14. The funds remain positive for the year, though, with approximately $922 million in net inflows. They held $16.72 billion in net assets as of Friday, against $13.25 billion in cumulative inflows since launch.

Trading volume picked up across both categories. Bitcoin ETF volume reached $16.17 billion, up from $8.77 billion the week before, while ether ETF volume rose to $6.82 billion from $5.14 billion. Last week also had an extra trading day: the previous week’s session count was cut to four by Labor Day.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #BTC #BitcoinETF #ETF #Ethereum #ETH #EtherETF #BlackRock #Fidelity #CryptoFunds

Visa is moving to stop crypto payment processors from categorizing memecoin purchases under a “digital media” category, which allowed users to buy memecoins with credit cards and earn ordinary points or cash back on the purchases, per a Friday report from the newsletter Crypto in America.

The move follows The Block’s Sep. 1 investigation into Crossmint, the firm powering such transactions for the popular apps Fomo and Robinhood Wallet, and its payment processor Checkout.com, which was told directly that the category is no longer appropriate for memecoin purchases, per the report.

Crossmint’s memecoin checkout remains available on both apps as of publication time per The Block’s review. Crypto in America reported that Visa has given the processors a grace period expected to end next week, after which the purchases will need to be processed as typical cryptocurrency transactions subject to Visa’s restrictions.

The Block’s investigation found that memecoin purchases on the apps were categorized under the merchant category code (MCC) 5815, typically intended for digital media purchases like streaming movies or audiobooks, and lacked special flags that indicate the transactions involved crypto assets.

Crossmint told The Block that it believed the category was appropriate given the SEC’s guidance that some memecoins can be considered akin to collectibles in a securities context, though payments experts told The Block that the SEC’s opinions do not typically determine how purchases should be categorized under card-network classification rules.

Chase told The Block at the time that it believed the category was inappropriate for the memecoin purchases and referred the matter to Visa. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office also told The Block that it was aware of Crossmint’s product and was looking into the matter.

Some tokens that Crossmint was offering through its Token Checkout product also appeared to stretch the boundaries of being “memecoins” under Crossmint’s own guidance, such as Genius Terminal’s GENIUS, the native token of a non-custodial trading platform that has no apparent origin as an internet meme or cultural trend. GENIUS and another token, DEGEN, were made unavailable to buy through Crossmint’s Apple Pay checkout after The Block asked the firm about its classification of those tokens.

“Complying with regulation, especially now that we’re a regulated financial entity, is super important, but we’re always going to have a little bit of tension between the business and the law that is healthy,” Crossmint Head of Strategy Fonz Olvera told The Block in an interview for the original report.

Mastercard, meanwhile, has not publicly disclosed whether it has issued similar instructions to payment processing firms. Mastercard, Crossmint, and Checkout.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Block. Visa declined to comment on an earlier inquiry from The Block asking if the payments giant planned to restrict the use of the digital media category for memecoin purchases.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Visa #Crossmint #Memecoin #Crypto #CryptoNews #CryptoPayments #CreditCard #Web3 #Fintech #DigitalAssets