Cointelegraph

U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States, has completed a live cross-border payment using its proprietary USBDC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain.
The pilot moved funds between U.S. Bank entities in North America and Europe, with USBDC issued and transferred on the public Stellar network. It also tested the stablecoin’s minting, redemption, freezing and clawback functions while integrating with the bank’s existing risk, compliance and operations systems.
The transaction validated U.S. Bank’s internally developed Digital Asset Platform, which connects tokenized assets with its traditional banking infrastructure, the bank said Wednesday. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based bank is exploring additional uses including cross-border treasury operations, liquidity management and moving collateral onchain.
The pilot builds on U.S. Bank’s broader push into digital assets. In October 2025, the bank established a dedicated Digital Assets and Money Movement unit focused on stablecoin issuance, crypto custody, asset tokenization and digital money movement.
The country’s sixth-largest financial institution by assets, U.S. Bank has been testing custom stablecoin issuance on Stellar since at least November 2025, working alongside PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation.
Related: Jack Dorsey’s Block seeks US trust bank charter for Bitcoin, stablecoin
Banks deepen stablecoin push
While American banks have pushed back against allowing stablecoin issuers and crypto platforms to offer yield or rewards, some of the industry’s largest lenders are moving ahead with stablecoin projects of their own.
On Sept. 1, 21 major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and UBS, announced plans to form a company to issue stablecoins.
The group plans to launch a US dollar-denominated stablecoin in the first half of 2027 before expanding to other G7 currencies. The token is expected to target wholesale, institutional and retail markets, including cross-border payments and digital asset settlement.
Fidelity also entered the market in February with its Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), issued through Fidelity Digital Assets, its national trust bank, and available to retail and institutional investors. FIDD had about $50 million in circulation at the time of writing, according to DefiLlama data.
FIDD market cap. Source: DefiLlama

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled below $80,000 on Wednesday as attention refocused on the Japanese yen.
Key points:
Bitcoin saw further macro headwinds as US-Iran strikes pushed Brent crude oil above $100 per barrel.
The Japanese yen continued to trade around 153 per dollar, its highest levels since February as yen shorts stayed near record highs.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at further interventions in yen currency markets to come.
Bitcoin lacks momentum as Iran strikes sour risk-asset mood
Data from TradingView showed the local upside in the BTC/USD pair reversing as it attempted to revisit the $80,000 mark. BTC is currently down by around 0.4% on the day.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
US stocks also drifted lower at the Wall Street open, fueled by fresh US strikes on Iranian oil tankers. The tensions helped send oil prices to new three-month highs, building on gains from the day prior.
At the time of writing, WTI crude traded above $96 per barrel, while Brent crude surged above $101 per barrel for the first time since late July.
CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Traders also eyed fresh developments in the yen as Japan’s currency hit its highest levels against the dollar since February. It is currently at $0.0065, up 6.5% since the start of August.
JPY/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Previously, Cointelegraph reported on repeated joint interventions in foreign exchange markets by Japan and the US, which resulted in the rapid strengthening. The yen’s gains continued despite speculation that Washington may keep Japan from selling US Treasuries as part of future interventions.
Yen short interest lingers near record highs
Citing data from Bloomberg on Wednesday, Barchart flagged record yen short positioning at the start of September, with the total hovering above 5 trillion yen.
Japanese yen short positioning. Source: Barchart on X.com
In subsequent commentary, Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, told Reuters that the yen’s continued strength would have implications for these shorts as part of an unwinding of the yen carry trade. The USD/JPY pair is key for liquidity conditions that could ultimately impact crypto markets.
“The carry trade is vulnerable because this unwind is happening before the BOJ has even delivered its expected hike,” she said.
“Some yen shorts have already been cut, but positioning still looks sizeable, so further yen strength can turn a gradual reduction in leverage into a much faster, self-reinforcing unwind.”
The risk was exacerbated by the Bank of Japan’s anticipated 0.25% interest-rate hike at its next meeting on Sept. 28.
Last month, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the door was open to future yen intervention operations. This week, he doubled down on those hints, appearing to dare short traders to bet against central banks.
“When we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Bank of Japan is going to do, what Japanese policymakers are going to do. I have asymmetric information. I am the house now,” he said in an event at Southern Methodist University in Texas on Tuesday, quoted by the Financial Times.

The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) and Blockchain Association (BA) are seeking to block Illinois from enforcing a 0.2% tax on cryptocurrency transactions before it takes effect in January 2027.
The trade groups said Wednesday that they have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County, Illinois to protect digital asset firms from suffering irreparable harm.
“Companies are being asked to spend millions to build systems for a tax that violates their constitutional rights without answers to basic questions about what is taxed and when, all under the threat of criminal penalties,” said Ji Hun Kim, CCI CEO, in a statement. “These costs are being borne right now, against a Jan. 1 deadline, forcing companies to divert key resources and employees to a clearly unlawful tax.”
The two groups last month filed a lawsuit challenging Illinois’ digital asset tax on the grounds it violated the US Constitution, the state’s constitution, federal and state due process laws and the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the measure into law as a “privilege tax” in June as part of the state’s fiscal year 2027 budget, requiring crypto users to be taxed as applied to transaction volume rather than income. Another trade group, the Digital Chamber, filed a similar suit days earlier.
The Midwestern state was the first in the nation to single out crypto transactions.
“The state loses very little by waiting. Everyone else loses a great deal by forging ahead. And if this Act stands, Illinois will not be the last state to try it,” said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association.
Separately, Illinois is also targeting prediction markets. Kalshi’s has filed a lawsuit against Illinois officials over a law that went into effect on July 1 that “expressly bans sports event contracts,” which the company said is in violation of federal law by requiring state licensing.
Separately, Pritzker signed an executive order banning state employees from betting on the platforms in April in an effort to ”prevent insider trading amid the rapid growth of online prediction markets and event-based gambling contracts.”
Magazine: Crypto industry ties were a liability in Illinois primary

Tether and Fasanara Capital have launched a private credit fund backed by $400 million from the two firms that aims to raise as much as $3 billion from institutional investors.
The evergreen fund, called StableFund, will use Tether’s USDT (USDt) as settlement infrastructure for short-duration, asset-backed lending to businesses and consumers through fintech platforms in more than 60 countries, the companies said Wednesday.
Fasanara will manage the fund’s investments, while Tether will source USDT-linked financing opportunities and provide the infrastructure for moving funds on- and offchain. The fund will focus on small and medium-sized businesses and consumer lending, including trade receivables and supply chain finance.
Fasanara, a London-based asset manager with more than $6 billion under management, will deploy the capital through its network of fintech lenders.
Tether has emerged as one of the crypto industry’s most profitable companies, generating about $1.5 billion in net operating profit in the second quarter, largely from its US Treasury and repo holdings. The USDT issuer reported $187.8 billion in assets and a $4.11 billion reserve buffer at the end of June.
The company has increasingly deployed that capital beyond its core stablecoin business, including a $20 million investment in Argentine neobank Ualá and investments in Mercado Bitcoin and Italian football club Juventus. Tether also led a $50 million funding round for AI sleep technology company Eight Sleep in March.
Top five stablecoins by market cap. Source: DefiLlama

The German Federal Ministry of Finance reportedly issued a draft proposal to transition cryptocurrency trading profits to the standard 25% flat-rate tax starting in 2028.
The ministry’s proposal would apply to all crypto assets acquired after Jan. 1, 2027, according to a draft proposal seen by local news outlet Die Welt on Wednesday.
The draft also proposes grandfathering protections, meaning that digital assets bought before this deadline may be treated under the old taxation rules.
Under current law, profits from crypto assets become entirely tax-free if held for over 12 months, making Germany a favorable tax destination for long-term crypto holders.
Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil first revealed the country’s plans for a crypto tax overhaul at the end of April and said that Germany expects an additional 2 billion euros (about $2.3 billion) in revenue from crypto taxation.
Cointelegraph has approached the Finance ministry for more details on the draft law.

BitMart appointed Alvarez & Marsal as its financial adviser on Wednesday, its self-imposed Sept. 9 deadline for an update, but did not publish the restructuring and business resumption roadmap it said it was developing.
Alvarez & Marsal will work with BitMart’s legal advisers to evaluate the exchange’s assets, financial position, stakeholder issues and possible paths forward, according to Wednesday’s announcement. The review will also consider proposals from unidentified third parties, BitMart said on X.
BitMart said it will deploy a dedicated web portal within five working days to collect user feedback on its action plan and future direction. It said further updates on the feedback process and action plan would follow on a rolling basis over the next three weeks.
Echo Base, which organized an ad hoc committee of BitMart claimholders, called the appointment “the most encouraging step BitMart has taken since July.”
“What arrived was an advisor appointment and two new deadlines, with no reserve position, no asset inventory, no recovery estimate and no withdrawal timetable,” Roshan Dharia, CEO of Echo Base, told Cointelegraph.
BitMart has faced scrutiny over its financial position and handling of customer assets since its July 26 wind-down announcement, after users reported withdrawal delays.
Neither BitMart nor Alvarez & Marsal responded to Cointelegraph’s requests for comment on this story.

Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP memecoin fell 86.5% in its first 30 minutes of trading on Wednesday, as the son of former US President Joe Biden officially entered the market for politically themed cryptocurrencies.
The token, issued on Ethereum layer-2 network Base, traded at $26.88 at 12:30 pm UTC, after opening at $199.50, according to CoinGecko data. It recorded more than $2.5 million in trading volume.
“The symbol they used to try to end me is now a symbol of resilience, redemption and recovery,” Biden said in an X post on Wednesday, responding to public backlash.
Biden also said he understood the cynicism around memecoins, called President Donald Trump’s token a “grift” and warned buyers not to expect him or anyone else to make LAPTOP more valuable.
The memecoin is promoted as an attempt to reclaim the “laptop narrative,” which centers on a MacBook that Biden reportedly left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019. The New York Post published emails and other files purported to have come from the device before the 2020 presidential election. Trump allies used the material against Hunter Biden and his father, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
On Monday, Biden teased LAPTOP on X with a post showing the token’s ticker, accompanied by a montage of media coverage of the laptop.
The announcement drew criticism from the likes of digital investigator Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla, who called LAPTOP a “shitcoin” and urged his followers not to buy it. X account “scupytrooples” told Biden there was “still time to walk this back.”
Base founder Jesse Pollak said in an X post that the project had contacted his team, but Base made a “conscious decision” not to help with the token’s design or promotion.
Biden did not respond to Cointelegraph’s query before publication.
LAPTOP disclosures set 2% of token supply for TRUMP token losers
Biden’s earlier criticism of the Trump family’s crypto ventures also gave traders a ready-made hypocrisy argument.
In an Aug. 21 post, Biden accused World Liberty Financial of using political influence, centralized controls and leverage to benefit its founders, while saying the crypto industry deserved better.
He has now launched a memecoin built around his own political identity, with founders allocated a chunk of the supply.
The project’s disclosures describe LAPTOP as a digital collectible with no utility, ownership rights, voting rights, yield or profit-sharing rights. The token has a fixed supply of 1 billion, with 350 million tokens circulating at launch.
Founders, including Biden, are allocated 300 million tokens, or 30% of the supply. Those tokens are locked for six months and then vested monthly over the following 24 months. Another 30% is tied to political, cultural and crypto predictions, with tokens burned when specified outcomes occur and released to charity if they do not.
The disclosures also outline airdrop figures, with the initial round representing 10% of the total supply. Of those, 2% is reserved for wallets that lost money on TRUMP and 8% for eligible subscribers to Biden’s “Where’s Hunter” Substack newsletter.
A separate 10% future airdrop is to be distributed at the foundation’s discretion. That means 20% is allocated to airdrops overall, while the specific TRUMP-loss allocation is capped at 2%.
Magazine: Is Bitcoin too volatile to risk your retirement on?

With lawmakers in the US Senate set to consider legislation pushed by many in the cryptocurrency industry for regulatory clarity, there’s a limited window for the bill to become law, potentially delaying it into the next session of Congress with different politics in play.
The US Senate is scheduled to return to session on Monday after more than a month in which lawmakers were on state work periods. Senator John Thune, the Republican majority leader in the chamber, has scheduled a cloture vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act for Tuesday, in which his compatriots will need support from a handful of Democrats to meet the 60-vote threshold and overcome a filibuster.
Should the bill fail to advance with a three-fifths supermajority, the Senate will have less than 36 days of business before 2027, when a new session of Congress is scheduled to be sworn in, one where Democrats could be in control, depending on the outcome of November’s midterm elections.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of CLARITY’s biggest supporters, warned on Sept. 6 that the “next real opportunity” for the bill to pass might not be until 2030 if lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement and send it to the president’s desk. She is also not running for reelection in 2026.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 in the Senate are up for grabs in the midterm elections . Event contracts on prediction market platforms currently give Democrats the odds on retaking a majority in the House, while the party’s chances in the Senate are basically a coin flip.
When Republicans took the Senate from Democrats following the 2024 elections, this left the party with a legislative trifecta — control of the Senate, House and the presidency — giving it exceptional influence over passing laws favorable to the crypto industry, including the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. A reversal of this party control could likewise leave Republicans approaching bills on Democrats’ terms beginning next year.
Crypto money potentially swaying voters in 2026
Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democratic lawmaker who previously chaired the Senate Banking committee, was voted out in 2024 in a race that saw cryptocurrency-backed political action committee (PAC) Fairshake and many others pouring millions of dollars into ads supporting his opponent, Republican Bernie Moreno.
Now, Brown is back, running in a special election against Republican Jon Husted to complete the term won in 2022 by now-Vice President JD Vance.
A PAC like Fairshake, backed by crypto exchange Coinbase and Ripple Labs, is just one way the industry is pushing to get what it calls more “pro-crypto” lawmakers in Congress. Although many candidates, both Democrat and Republican, supported by Fairshake-backed ads, have gone on to win their 2026 primaries, the PAC hasn’t always been successful.
In March, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton won the Democratic primary for one of the state’s US Senate seats despite being the target of industry-funded attack ads. Many incumbents who have voted in favor of bills like GENIUS or CLARITY while in office have found support from crypto PACs, while challengers or those critical of digital assets are sometimes named in negative ads.
“Rep. Auchincloss voted for the CLARITY ACT, which explains why the crypto industry is heavily supportive of his reelection,” said Jason Poulos, a Democratic candidate who ran against Massachusetts Representative Jake Auchincloss in the primary for the state’s 4th congressional district. A Fairshake-affiliated PAC spent about $189,000 on ads supporting Auchincloss. Poulos added:
“The influx of outside crypto industry cash means that these oligarchs have an outsized influence on our representation and federal policies. It is why we need to get big money out of politics [...]”
Presidency, regulators unlikely to change before 2029
Whether Democrats retake both chambers of Congress in November, neither, or just one, the result will not change Republican control of the White House until January 2029 and maintaining the power to veto legislation. For example, if the president chooses to veto a Democrat-backed crypto bill, both the House and the Senate would need a two-thirds supermajority vote to override his actions.
In addition, the heads of two of the major financial agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), are unlikely to change while Trump remains in office. The president nominated Paul Atkins to chair the SEC and Michael Selig the CFTC, both of whom have signaled plans to proceed with digital asset regulation if Congress fails to advance CLARITY this year.
Magazine: Is Bitcoin too volatile to risk your retirement on?

Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet’s executive stock pool continues to draw shareholder backlash over stock dilution concerns.
Multiple shareholders objected across social media to Metaplanet’s 10th Series executive option pool, which was designed as 20% of fully diluted shares and automatically expanded as the company issued new shares to fund its Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation.
Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey defended Metaplanet’s executive stock model, saying that giving the team 20% of the cap table over five years “isn’t some crazy number” and that his company has been invested in Metaplanet since “day zero,” in a Tuesday X post.
Source: David Bailey
Some shareholders are now asking Metaplanet to cancel the additional 273 million shares created from the changes and to provide more transparency on future decisions. Metaplanet said it froze the pool at 319.5 million shares on Aug. 18, but critics contend this magnified dilution for existing shareholders, as the pool grew from 46 million shares to 319.5 million.
Pseudonymous Metaplanet shareholder Bitcoin Pharaoh claimed that Bailey personally benefited from Metaplanet’s stock options and received 300,000 options at a 105 Japanese yen strike price, when the stock was trading at 510 yen, as compensation for his role as a strategic board advisor at Metaplanet.
“Set the pool against what the shareholders contributed and the cut is 26% of the bitcoin: of every four coins the shareholders’ money bought, management took one,” wrote Bitcoin Pharaoh in a Wednesday X reply to Bailey.
Metaplanet CEO addresses MMXX ties
Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich pledged to review the company’s governance and compensation policies and sought to distance himself from Metaplanet shareholder MMXX Ventures, explaining that he is a significant but non-majority shareholder in MMXX’s parent company and holds no executive role.
“We are continuing to review our governance and compensation policies and will share any updates when that work is complete,” wrote Gerovich in a Sunday X post.
On Aug. 31, Metaplanet revealed that its CEO exercised 92,000 shares from the 10th Series executive options pool.
VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, said that Metaplanet should “freeze” further exercise rights from the 10th Series option pool, have holders voluntarily surrender the excess rights and weigh additional options related to the shares that have already been exercised.
“Finally, replace Series 10 with a shareholder-approved, five-year incentive plan tied primarily to BTC per fully diluted share,” wrote Sigel in a Wednesday X post.
In an Aug. 18 notice, Metaplanet acknowledged that the decision to expand the share pool “amplifies the dilution borne by existing shareholders.”
Cointelegraph has request comment from Metaplanet on whether it would consider freezing the remaining shares in the executive pool.
Metaplanet stock price, five-day chart. Source: Yahoo Finance
Metaplanet’s shares closed up in Wednesday’s Tokyo trading, trimming their five-day decline to roughly 16.3%, according to Yahoo Finance.
Magazine: Bitcoin adoption metrics say one thing, price action says another

Bitcoin (BTC) is breaking with typical bear-market behavior as a classic onchain metric puts in its longest bullish streak of 2026.
Key points:
Bitcoin’s SOPR metric has stayed above its breakeven point of 1 for three full weeks, its longest stint in 2026.
Analysis suggests that UTXO profitability is reflecting a return to bull-market conditions.
David Puell says SOPR must stay bullish for longer, seeing more BTC price downside to come.
SOPR data repeats early bull-market activity
Data from crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant shows that the spent output profit ratio (SOPR) has now been above its breakeven level of 1 since Aug. 19. SOPR measures the extent to which coins moving onchain do so at a higher or lower price compared to the previous transaction.
The metric, which generally moves in a tight range around 1, currently measures 1.002. Values above 1 indicate that coins are mostly being moved in profit — a sign of overall bullish market momentum. This signal has now endured for three weeks, marking the longest stretch of bullish SOPR of 2026 so far.
Bitcoin SOPR chart. Source: CryptoQuant
SOPR can be broken down by wallet cohort to differentiate profitability between newer and older investors. Commenting on SOPR readings for short-term holders (STHs), wallets holding a UTXO without selling for up to six months, onchain analytics suite Checkonchain added to hopes that Bitcoin is staging a long-term bullish recovery.
“In bear markets, rallies back into profit tend to get sold. In bull markets, short sharp moves below break-even tend to become buy-the-dip setups. The current structure is starting to look more like those early bull-market recoveries,” it told X followers at the weekend.
Bitcoin STH-SOPR data. Source: Checkonchain on X.com
Puell retains Bitcoin price “downside risk” despite SOPR recovery
Despite BTC/USD holding a local range around $80,000 while the SOPR profitability streak continues, the pair could still hit new macro lows this cycle, one of the industry’s best-known analysts warns.
In an interview with CryptoQuant on Sept. 4, ARK Invest portfolio manager David Puell, creator of the Puell multiple BTC price indicator, said that more evidence was needed to assume that the next bear-market floor is already in.
Asked about how Bitcoin’s 25% August upside could play out going into Q4, Puell suggested that further upside was the less likely outcome.
“In our view, as of now, we leave it as a downside risk,” he said.
Puell singled out SOPR signals as a key prerequisite for changing his long-term bias, stating that the metric needs to remain above 1 for an extended period, with investors “realizing profits consistently without price going back to a new low.”
Bitcoin must also start putting in series of higher highs and higher lows — a pattern that Cointelegraph reported is still absent on weekly time frames.
In late August, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju described the bear market as already “over” on the back of the latest readings from its proprietary Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator.

Former Silvergate Bank CEO Alan Lane said political and regulatory pressure from the Biden administration drove the crypto-focused lender’s voluntary wind-down in 2023, arguing that the bank remained solvent after weathering a deposit run.
In an inaugural Substack post on Tuesday, Lane said Silvergate could have continued operating after satisfying withdrawals equivalent to 70% of its demand deposits during the fourth quarter of 2022. He argued that a “coordinated attack by the Biden Administration” ultimately led to the wind-down, saying the bank chose liquidation “in the face of political pressure.”
Lane said Silvergate had held liquid assets that could be sold or pledged as collateral during periods of heavy withdrawals. In a January 2023 business update, the bank reported that digital asset deposits fell 68% from $11.9 billion to $3.8 billion during the quarter. Silvergate sold $5.2 billion of debt securities, recording a $718 million loss. The bank said it had $4.6 billion in cash and equivalents at year-end.
Lane’s account adds a firsthand claim to the debate over whether US agencies sought to restrict crypto companies’ access to banking. However, it differs from federal findings that attributed the bank’s liquidation to its concentrated deposit base, funding risks and weaknesses in governance and compliance.
Regulators cited risk management, compliance failures
A September 2023 review by the Federal Reserve Board’s Office of Inspector General said Silvergate’s dependence on crypto depositors, rapid growth and multilayered funding risks led to its liquidation. It also cited significant weaknesses in corporate governance and risk management and said examiners could have acted more aggressively and decisively.
Lane said no regulator had proven that Silvergate’s anti-money laundering (AML) controls failed. In July 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Silvergate Capital, Lane and former chief risk officer Kathleen Fraher with misleading investors about the bank’s AML program and monitoring of crypto customers.
The regulator alleged that Silvergate’s automated system failed to monitor more than $1 trillion in transactions and that the bank failed to detect nearly $9 billion in suspicious transfers among FTX entities.
Lane settled the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations, agreeing to a $1 million penalty and a five-year officer-and-director bar. Separately, the Federal Reserve fined Silvergate $43 million over transaction-monitoring deficiencies.
Lane also cited interagency crypto-risk statements issued in early 2023 as evidence of pressure against the industry. The statements urged banks to take a cautious approach to crypto-related activities, although the Fed said institutions were neither prohibited nor discouraged from serving any specific customer class. In April 2025, government agencies withdrew the statements.
Magazine: Is Bitcoin too volatile to risk your retirement on?

Iran’s central bank has reportedly eased foreign currency controls to encourage businesses to bring overseas earnings home, including through cryptocurrency, amid tightening US sanctions.
This includes using Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC) to settle cross-border transactions through Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Exporters can also use their earnings to finance imports directly without first selling their foreign currency through the government’s exchange platform at official rates, the report said.
The Central Bank of Iran did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
In June, blockchain analytics company TRM Labs reported more than $3.8 billion in flows between crypto exchange CoinEx and sanctioned Iranian entities over more than seven years. CoinEx denied having any commercial relationship with the Iranian government or domestic Iranian exchanges and said it had never provided funding channels to sanctioned parties.
In early June, the US Treasury sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges as part of its “Economic Fury” campaign. Days before the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US had seized about $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets.
On July 14, Bessent said US authorities had directed a freeze of more than $130 million in crypto held in wallets linked to Iran’s central bank.

Jack Dorsey’s payments company Block seeks to establish a federally regulated trust bank to provide custody services for Bitcoin and stablecoins.
Block said Tuesday it had submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to create Builders Bank & Trust, an uninsured national trust bank. If approved, the bank would operate under OCC supervision and offer custody and related fiduciary services.
Block said the charter would give its custody operations a consistent national framework as the business expands. The proposed bank would not accept deposits or make loans, separating it from a conventional commercial bank.
Lee Woolley, Block’s digital asset strategy lead, would serve as Builders Bank’s president and CEO. Woolley said the proposed institution would draw on Block’s digital asset operations and its experience with Square Financial Services, the company’s existing industrial bank.
Block joins other financial technology and crypto companies pursuing national trust bank charters. Ripple has received conditional approval for a similar charter, while Circle and BitGo have received final approval. Kraken parent Payward and crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash have also submitted applications.

Crypto exchange Gemini has received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), completing its transition from in-principle approval granted nearly two years ago.
On Wednesday, Gemini said the license was awarded to Gemini Digital Payments Singapore, its local entity. The MAS Financial Institutions Directory lists the company as authorized to provide digital payment token services and cross-border money transfers.
MPI license holders can provide regulated payment services without being subject to the transaction-volume limits imposed on standard payment institutions. However, MAS said major payment institutions face more comprehensive regulation because their operations’ scale poses greater risks.
Gemini President and co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said the exchange has served customers in Singapore since 2020, while CEO Tyler Winklevoss described the country as a strategic hub for serving retail and institutional clients. Gemini offers spot crypto trading, digital asset custody and over-the-counter services in Singapore.
The full license follows MAS’ in-principle approval of Gemini’s application in October 2024. In April 2025, Gemini moved its Singapore customers from Gemini Trust Company, which operated under an exemption, to its locally incorporated entity while it worked toward securing final approval.

Singaporean national Malone Lam pleaded guilty to participating in a racketeering conspiracy that US prosecutors say used social engineering and home break-ins to steal and launder more than $245 million in cryptocurrency.
On Tuesday, the US Justice Department said that Lam organized the international operation, identified prospective victims and coordinated other conspirators. The enterprise was formed through connections on online gaming platforms and operated from no later than October 2023 through at least May 2025, according to court documents.
The plea establishes criminal responsibility nearly two years after Lam was charged over the theft of more than 4,100 Bitcoin, worth over $230 at the time, from a Washington, DC resident.
Lam pleaded guilty before US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to one count of participating in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy. The judge scheduled a status hearing for Dec. 8, but the Justice Department did not announce a sentencing date.
From a 4,100 Bitcoin theft to a RICO case
Initially, prosecutors accused Lam and Jeandiel Serrano of fraudulently obtaining more than 4,100 Bitcoin from a single victim on Aug. 18, 2024.
In 2024, blockchain investigator ZachXBT identified the victim as a Genesis creditor. The attackers allegedly posed as Google support staff to compromise the victim’s accounts before impersonating Gemini support to persuade the victim to reset two-factor authentication and use screen-sharing software that exposed private keys.
Lam and Serrano were arrested on Sept. 18, 2024, and prosecutors unsealed their indictment the following day. Prosecutors alleged that the pair laundered the proceeds through crypto mixers, exchanges, pass-through wallets and virtual private networks.
On May 15, 2025, prosecutors announced a superseding indictment charging 12 additional defendants and expanding the case into an alleged RICO conspiracy involving more than $263 million in crypto thefts. It included a separate $14 million theft in July 2024 and an alleged home break-in targeting a hardware wallet.
Prosecutors also alleged that Lam continued directing associates from pretrial detention, including arranging delivery of luxury items to his girlfriend. The group’s members allegedly spent stolen funds on private jets, rental properties, watches and at least 28 exotic cars, while nightclub bills reached $500,000 per evening.
Magazine: Is Bitcoin too volatile to risk your retirement on?

The town of Plattsburgh in New York state held a public hearing to discuss a temporary land use moratorium for operations including AI data centers and crypto mining.
In a Thursday hearing, Plattsburgh Mayor Wendell Hughes and the common council heard from members of the public about a law proposed to impose a short-term ban on land use related to “certain high energy computing facilities,” including cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence. The moratorium, if passed, would halt approvals for operations requiring 300 or more kilowatts (kW) for 12 months.
As of Tuesday, reports signaled that the mayor had not approved the moratorium. The council is scheduled to hold another meeting on Sept. 17.
Plattsburgh was one of the first jurisdictions in the United States to outright ban Bitcoin (BTC) mining in response to residents’ concerns about the cost of electricity. Passed in 2018, the moratorium lasted 18 months.
Many crypto mining companies have pivoted their operations to focus on AI and high-performance computing amid difficulty, rising power costs and falling token prices.

StablecoinX appointed former Franklin Templeton digital asset executive Christopher Jensen as CEO, putting him in charge of the largest corporate holder of Ethena’s ENA token.
Jensen succeeds Ted Chen, who led StablecoinX through its public listing in June and will remain chairman of the company’s board.
StablecoinX, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker USDE, is a publicly listed company focused on the Ethena ecosystem. Ethena issues USDe, a synthetic dollar that ranks as the fifth-largest stablecoin with nearly $4.4 billion in circulation, according to DefiLlama data. ENA, Ethena’s governance token, gives holders voting rights over changes to the protocol.
StablecoinX holds about 3.03 billion ENA tokens, roughly 20% of the token’s total supply, which the company says makes it ENA’s largest corporate holder.
Before joining StablecoinX, Jensen was a portfolio manager and director of digital asset research at Franklin Templeton, where he helped build the firm’s digital asset group after its launch in 2018. The asset manager’s blockchain venture fund participated in Ethena’s seed round, giving Jensen exposure to the protocol from its early stages.
The appointment comes about a week after Ethena launched Ethena Pay, a self-custodial app that lets users spend, save and transfer its USDe synthetic dollar.
The ENA token remains down about 20% year to date but has rebounded sharply in recent weeks, gaining more than 80% over the past month to trade around $0.16, according to CoinGecko.
ENA token price over the past month. Source: CoinGecko

Robinhood has taken equity stakes in Crypto.com and its newly spun-off prediction market platform OG.com as part of a multi-year deal to use OG.com’s regulated infrastructure for event contracts.
Under the agreement, Robinhood will route retail event contracts through OG.com’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated derivatives exchange and clearinghouse, with the rollout beginning Tuesday for eligible US customers.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the online brokerage will receive initial equity stakes in both Crypto.com and OG.com, with the stakes priced at the valuations established by an earlier Citadel Securities investment in the platforms. The companies did not disclose the size or value of Robinhood’s holdings.
The deal follows OG.com’s spin-off from Crypto.com at a $5 billion valuation and comes less than two months after reports that Robinhood was in talks with Crypto.com to expand its prediction markets offering.
OG.com will operate independently from the crypto exchange, with CEO Kris Marszalek saying the platform plans to expand beyond prediction markets into futures and perpetual contracts.
Latest move expands prediction market partnerships
Robinhood launched its prediction markets hub in March 2025 with CFTC-regulated exchange Kalshi and later expanded its prediction market infrastructure.
The business has grown rapidly. Event contracts generated $156 million in revenue for Robinhood in the second quarter, up more than tenfold from a year earlier and surpassing its $129 million in equities transaction revenue and $100 million from crypto.
Bernstein analysts estimated in July that Robinhood’s revenue, including prediction markets, could reach $1.7 billion by 2028.
To be sure, prediction market operators have also faced a growing number of legal challenges from US states seeking to apply their gambling laws to sports event contracts.
In April, a Nevada judge extended a ban preventing Kalshi from offering event contracts in the state without a gaming license, finding that the products were effectively indistinguishable from traditional betting. The ruling rejected Kalshi’s argument that the contracts are swaps subject exclusively to CFTC oversight.
The legal wrangling escalated last week with New Jersey petitioning the US Supreme Court to weigh in on whether states can regulate sports contracts offered on CFTC-regulated prediction markets.
In a post announcing the move, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said companies such as Kalshi claim to offer legal sports betting nationwide while refusing to comply with state gambling laws, calling on the Supreme Court to resolve the jurisdictional dispute.
Source: Jennifer Davenport

You stack sats. You farm yield, and you’d rather sell your car than part with your BTC. But does that mean you should bank your golden years on Bitcoin?
Many retirement industry professional such as MIT finance professor Jonathan Parker say there is a sweet spot level for crypto exposure in a diversified retirement portfolio:
“Yes, zero.”
Parker, whose research spans portfolio choice, personal finance, retirement finance and Bitcoin, is unusually blunt about where the cryptocurrency belongs. But it’s a view shared by the average citizen.
A recent survey by the National Institute on Retirement Security found that 77% of Americans consider cryptocurrency in workplace retirement plans as risky.
But regulators and investment firms alike have been steadily opening the door to greater crypto exposure in retirement savings in recent years.
BlackRock, for example, says a 1%-2% Bitcoin allocation can be reasonable for a diversified portfolio, where investors can tolerate the risk, while Fidelity says allocations of 2%-5% could improve retirement outcomes. A smaller position allows investors to benefit from Bitcoin’s volatility while limiting the downside.
But there’s a more interesting question than whether crypto is too risky in the abstract.
Can you be a passionate believer that Bitcoin is the ultimate in sound money, or that Ether will be the future of finance — and still decide your retirement savings are better off without it?
Bitcoin is already creeping into retirement portfolios
Ryan Firth is the founder of Mercer Street Personal Financial Services, a financial planner who specializes in digital assets. He views Bitcoin as something that can sit within a conventional portfolio rather than a stand-alone retirement bet. He says BTC can potentially replace some stock exposure rather than simply being piled on top of it. He tells Magazine:
“Bitcoin offers higher return potential than stocks but with more volatility.”
Americans have mixed views on cryptocurrency in retirement plans. Source: National Institute on Retirement Security
He says his general rule of thumb is that crypto assets shouldn’t make up more than 5% of your investable assets, adding:
“The conservative approach is to invest only what you are willing to potentially lose.”
Retirement funds are taking positions themselves
The average person might think the crypto industry is too risky, but institutional investors see it as an opportunity.
Public filings show pension funds and other large investors holding regulated spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), while others have gained exposure through publicly traded companies closely tied to the sector.
CalPERS, for example, the largest public pension fund in the United States, has disclosed an investment in Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury holder, as part of its index-oriented public equity portfolio.
CalSTRS, is the largest educator-only pension fund. While it tells Magazine it has not made direct investments in cryptocurrency it has invested in firms that “some might consider crypto companies,” such as Coinbase, “a publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform.”
The difference here is that institutional investors are trying to gain exposure to the growth of the crypto industry, rather than just making Bitcoin a core retirement asset.
Your retirement portfolio has one job Bitcoin doesn’t
Bitcoin’s frequent drawdowns and year long bear markets make it a tricky asset to hold for those nearing or in their retirement years.
BlackRock recommends up to a 2% Bitcoin allocation, where investors can tolerate risk. Source: BlackRock
When you’re young a drawdown is just a blip among a wider uptrend. When you are retired, spending retirement savings that have fallen significantly in value magnifies the damage considerably.
Bill Bengen, the financial planner and researcher whose work gave rise to the widely cited 4% retirement withdrawal rule, says capital preservation should be the “primary priority” for retirement portfolios.
He tells Magazine that although volatile assets like Bitcoin “can be useful,” he recommends limiting them to no more than 5% of a retirement portfolio to “help prevent a disaster.”
Firth says the question is not simply whether Bitcoin will recover, but if investors can afford to wait that long:
“Will they stay invested and avoid a knee-jerk reaction when prices inevitably fall? [...] What if crypto goes to zero? How would that disrupt their plans and what’s their backup plan?”
What if your investment thesis is wrong?
This question has crossed the mind of even the staunchest Bitcoin HODLer: how much of your future should depend on one investment thesis being right?
A hypothetical allocation framework for those who want to invest in Bitcoin. Source: Fidelity
What happens if you haven’t just wasted your life’s work but your retirement fund, if Bitcoin falls victim to quantum attackers, or if something better than Bitcoin is invented.
Bengen says many people believe AI is in a bubble.
“Bubbles eventually pop. The same could be said for Bitcoin.”
That problem rings true for anyone building a retirement portfolio around a high-conviction investment, since conviction does not eliminate the possibility of being wrong.
Parker says investors shouldn’t hold cash in retirement accounts and shouldn’t hold peer-to-peer digital cash either.
“Currencies are for transacting, not investing. Bitcoin is no different. People should invest in real assets that pay interest, coupon payments, or dividends.”
He says investors who want exposure to the success or failure of the crypto industry should own the equity or debt of companies that generate revenue from it, rather than holding Bitcoin itself.
You can believe in crypto without betting your retirement on it
If your retirement savings aren’t in Bitcoin, that doesn’t make you any less committed to its long-term growth.
You don’t have to choose between believing crypto is the future and casting it as a speculative gamble with no place in a serious portfolio, as Firth advises:
“It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition.”
You can still believe crypto will change the world — without making your retirement depend on being right.
Magazine: Recovery specialists crack $1B crypto wallet... but find just $10

Payment giant Visa is connecting its settlement network with onchain lending, giving stablecoin-linked card programs another way to access working capital, potentially expanding the role of onchain lending from crypto markets into payment settlement.
The company announced Tuesday that settlement data from VisaNet will be combined with blockchain-based lending infrastructure, allowing lenders to finance payment obligations using data from the Visa network. The initiative enables lenders to use Visa settlement records alongside onchain transaction data to assess borrowers and finance their settlement obligations.
Visa highlighted Credit Coop, a blockchain-based protocol that extends credit lines to businesses, as an early example of the model. Credit Coop has financed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume since 2023 across participating facilities, involving more than 3,000 borrowing events and 9,000 repayments.
Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and partnerships, said stablecoins are “changing how money moves” and creating opportunities to rethink the financial infrastructure supporting payments.
The initiative comes as Visa’s stablecoin-related payment business expands. More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs now operate on its network, with payment volume up nearly 200% year over year. Visa also said its stablecoin settlement volume has surpassed a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times year-ago levels.
Visa deepens its stablecoin push
Visa has made stablecoins a growing part of its payments strategy, with management saying during its fiscal third-quarter earnings call in July that the company is “investing in each layer of the stablecoin stack,” including blockchains, wallets, infrastructure and applications.
The push includes joining the OpenStandard consortium, which plans to issue the OpenUSD stablecoin and counts Stripe among more than 140 participating businesses.
Visa’s expansion also comes as stablecoin activity continues to grow. Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached a record $1.79 trillion in June, while volume over the past 30 days stands at roughly $1.2 trillion, according to Visa’s analytics dashboard.
Source: Visa Onchain Analytics