1. Bitget: Plans to resume withdrawals in stages starting September 28, with related vulnerabilities already fixed.
Bitget announced that the vulnerabilities involved in the September 24 security incident have been confirmed and fixed. The platform plans to resume withdrawals in stages after completing security checks. According to Beijing time, BTC withdrawals are scheduled to resume at 16:00 on September 28, ETH at 16:00 on September 29, USDT at 16:00 on September 30, and other tokens, fiat currencies, and P2P services at 16:00 on October 2. Bitget stated that users’ account balances were not affected. The platform’s protection fund will cover any financial losses caused by this incident, and trading and deposits are currently operating normally. Mandiant and SlowMist continue to assist with the investigation.
2. Vitalik: Ethereum node synchronization can be done in half a day; disk usage can be below 0.5TB
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that currently Ethereum nodes can complete synchronization within half a day; with more aggressive settings, disk usage can be below 0.5 TB. Optimizations to snapshot synchronization by EIP-4444 and client teams have significantly improved the synchronization experience. The Glamsterdam upgrade will further improve synchronization performance. He said that some browser-side DApps have poor support for local nodes, while others pin the RPC to their own servers, so he’s increasingly inclined to do things via the command line. He has used a local Python script and successfully updated ENS records via a local node; next he will work to better integrate privacy protocols into kohaku-cli, after completing some early development work.
3. Kazakhstan pushes crypto mining companies to generate electricity using associated gas from oil fields
Kazakhstan is pushing crypto mining companies to generate electricity using leftover associated gas from oil fields to power mining sites, reducing gas flaring, easing pressure on the power grid, and attracting miners to return. Mining companies will fund related infrastructure investments, while oil fields can earn revenue by selling the natural gas that would otherwise be burned, and ease constraints on increasing crude oil production caused by associated gas disposal. The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan said there are currently about 40 to 60 oil fields burning associated gas, and the ministry is working with the Ministry of Digital Development and Artificial Intelligence to develop related legal frameworks.
4. A Vietnamese man is charged with laundering money in a crypto pig butchering scheme; wallets saw inflows of about $53.28 million
In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, federal prosecutors charged a 37-year-old Vietnamese man, Trung Nguyen Van, with allegedly participating in a crypto “pig butchering” scam and brought two counts of money laundering. Prosecutors said that between June and August 2024, a victim believed they were investing in a crypto investment platform called Triangle and transferred approximately $16 million in crypto assets in total, some of which could be directly traced to Van’s wallet. From February 2018 to December 2024, Van’s crypto wallets received approximately $53.28 million in crypto assets related to telecommunication scams targeting U.S. citizens, and transferred about $53.19 million of that to other accounts. In addition, multiple other U.S. victims collectively lost millions of dollars in different pig butchering scams, and funds from several suspicious wallets flowed into Van’s crypto wallet.
5. Autopsy rules Hack VC’s former partner Hsin-Ju Chuang died by suicide
The autopsy results concluded that Hack VC’s former partner Hsin-Ju Chuang died by suicide on August 24 at age 37. California Highway Patrol said its investigation into circumstances related to her death is still ongoing. Previously, Chuang had publicly accused that she was mistreated during her time at Hack VC, and said she would not accept a settlement that included confidentiality requirements and instead planned to disclose related evidence. Hack VC previously said there were major disagreements between its account of the matter and Chuang’s.
6. Wu Shuo Weekly Highlights: North Korean hackers stole $380 million from the Bitget wallet backend; Binance takes equity in Circle; News Top 10
Top 10 news this week
1. Bitget confirms the security incident involves about $387.5 million, has completed damage control and paused withdrawals (link)
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said that at 02:31 on September 25 (UTC+8), Bitget’s security system detected unauthorized transfers from some hot wallets, and it is estimated that about $351.6 million in affected funds is involved. Bitget said cold wallets remain safe; the incident only involves certain hot wallets and warm wallet layers, and users’ funds are covered by the user protection fund, which currently exceeds $464 million. The platform has identified and tagged abnormal transfer addresses, notified law enforcement and on-chain security organizations, and temporarily paused withdrawals; deposits and trading are still operating normally.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the security team has initially confirmed that the key back-end system involved in the hacker’s compromise of the wallet service was used to forge transfer information and call an authorized signature process to move funds out. The team has ruled out any private key leak. Multiple technical teams are working in parallel to patch the system, harden security, and prepare for withdrawal restoration. The restoration time has not yet been determined.
According to monitoring by Specter, after cross-chain transfer, the stolen XRP from Bitget can be directly linked to the $24 million funds that were stolen in the AFX attack in July of this year. The AFX attack had previously been attributed to TraderTraitor, so it believes this attack was orchestrated by the Lazarus Group.
In a livestream, Bitget CEO said that they cannot yet fully confirm the attacker’s identity, but some IP characteristics strongly match those used by a North Korea-linked group. She said the attackers’ methods are professional and may have been monitoring Bitget for a long time. The damaged assets mainly came from hot wallets: a wallet that looks like a cold wallet is actually a warm wallet, and the cold wallet was unaffected. She said Bitget’s protection fund of over $464 million can cover the losses, and the platform also has more than $1 billion in its own funds. Pausing withdrawals may last from several hours to one or two days. She said Bitget is “absolutely not another FTX,” and it can handle concentrated withdrawals after withdrawals are restored. Bitget’s retail business scale is close to Bybit’s: if Bybit can withstand $1.5 billion in losses, Bitget can withstand losses of more than $300 million.
Bitget is working with independent third-party experts Mandiant and SlowMist to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the incident. Chen reiterated that Bitget’s top priority is to protect users: user balances will remain intact, and the Bitget User Protection Fund will cover the impact caused by the platform-level incident. Bitget Wallet uses a self-custody infrastructure that is independent from Bitget Exchange and has been unaffected. Bitget Exchange’s functions—including deposits, trading, and rewards—are operating normally. The withdrawal function has been temporarily paused while additional security checks are completed, and will be restored as soon as safety is confirmed.
Bitget released the latest update on the security incident, saying its security team has identified the attack path and how the attackers bypassed existing security controls. Relevant underlying vulnerabilities have been patched, and the incident is now under control. The latest on-chain tracking shows that about $387.5 million in assets have been transferred to the attacker-controlled address, higher than the previously estimated $351.6 million. The increase is mainly due to additional inclusion of Zcash and TRON assets that had not been previously counted, and there was no new theft. Bitget has also launched an asset-recovery bounty program, offering a 5% bounty to participants who directly facilitate freezing or recovering the stolen funds, and plans to announce the withdrawal-restoration plan no later than 12:00 Beijing time on September 26.
CZ said that Bitget has had a tough day today. He expects that the Binance, BNB Chain ecosystem and community will do their best to help, and reminded users to stay safe. On the same day, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, MEXC CEO Vugar Usi, and CoinDCX co-founder Sumit Gupta also publicly said they are willing to assist.
2. Trump discloses purchases of Coinbase and Strategy stocks, and sales of CleanSpark and MARA (link)
Periodic transaction reports disclosed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) show that Trump reported buying shares of Coinbase Class A valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on July 24, and also bought shares of Strategy Class A valued between $1,001 and $15,000 and between $50,000 and $100,000 on July 24 and July 27, respectively. Previously, he sold Strategy Class A shares valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on July 8. The report also shows that on July 29 he sold shares of Bitcoin mining companies CleanSpark and MARA valued between $15,000 and $50,000. The White House has previously responded multiple times that Trump’s stock and bond investment portfolios are independently managed by third-party financial institutions, and Trump and his family members cannot provide input or influence specific investments or the timing of trades.
3. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticizes the KYC/AML model and calls for embracing zero-knowledge proofs (link)
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said in a recent speech that, regarding the “Innovation Exemption” introduced by the SEC last week, she believes the exemption provides a phased path for tokenizing securities via AMM trading. It aims to prevent overseas markets from monopolizing U.S. tokenized exposure and serves as a bridge to long-term, written rules. She also sharply criticized the current KYC/AML anti–money laundering regulatory model, saying that simply expanding the “data haystack” to find a criminal “needle” is a high-cost approach with little effect, and instead turns the financial system into a “panoramic surveillance prison” that violates privacy. She called on regulators to embrace cryptographic tools such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and attribute credentials to enable compliant attribute verification without collecting or redundantly storing users’ sensitive original data, while maximizing protection of citizens’ personal privacy.
4. The European Central Bank officially launches Pontes, supporting tokenized assets for settlement using central bank money (link)
On September 21, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched its blockchain settlement service Pontes, connecting existing payment systems with blockchain financial markets. It supports banks and investors in using ECB currency settlement blockchain transactions rather than relying on private currencies such as stablecoins. Deutsche Bank, Santander Bank, and securities settlement organization Clearstream are among the first participants that have completed integration. The service runs initially from 08:00 to 16:00 Central European Time on weekdays. In addition, the ECB plans to allocate a very small portion of its own funds to invest in high-rated tokenized debt securities denominated in euros issued by public institutions.
5. ESMA lists AI and tokenization as core EU-wide regulatory priorities starting in 2027 (link)
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released a report announcing that starting in 2027, artificial intelligence (AI), tokenization (Tokenization), and other emerging financial technologies will be listed as core regulatory priorities across the EU. Under the regulatory plan titled “Innovation with investor safeguards,” ESMA will coordinate with regulators in EU member states to focus on how licensed financial institutions apply AI and tokenized financial products in core customer-facing business processes (not just back-office operations), and will assess risks related to data governance compliance and governance frameworks. In addition, EU regulators will conduct a full review next year of the current state of financial institutions’ related applications in customer-interaction products, and will launch the first round of targeted inspections of the most affected business institutions.
6. Multiple large banks in the UK complete the first-ever tokenized cross-bank transfer transactions for deposits worldwide (link)
Large UK banks including Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, and HSBC have completed the first global cross-bank fund transfer transactions using tokenized deposits. Test scenarios included two mortgage loan transactions and one simulated P2P payment for online shopping. Programmable deposits can automatically release funds once conditions such as delivery of goods or completion of real-estate transactions are met. The Bank of England previously said it prefers tokenized deposits with the same legal status as traditional bank deposits, compared with privately issued stablecoins.
7. The U.S. is considering promoting the overseas use of dollar stablecoins to strengthen the dollar reserve position (link)
The U.S. government is considering promoting the overseas use of dollar-denominated stablecoins to strengthen the dollar’s position as a global reserve currency and increase demand for U.S. Treasuries. According to people familiar with the matter, the U.S. government is considering supporting stablecoin-related business through arrangements such as setting up joint ventures with private companies. Institutions that may participate include the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
8. Binance invests $100 million to take an equity stake in Circle; both sides sign a five-year USDC cooperation agreement (link)
An 8-K filing submitted by Circle (CRCL) on September 22 shows that its subsidiary entered into a new five-year cooperation agreement with Binance on September 17. This expands the USDC promotion partnership and replaces the agreements signed between both parties in November 2024 and August 2025. Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee based on the amount of USDC held under its modular smart contract wallet infrastructure services. On the same day, Binance subscribed for 1,237,011 Class A common shares of Circle at a discounted price of $80.84 per share, totaling $100 million; the transaction has been completed. In principle, the related shares are subject to a two-year transfer restriction, though there are provisions for early termination and other exceptions.
9. Coinbase opens IPO stock subscription to U.S. retail investors, with the first batch supporting the Oura IPO (link)
Coinbase announces it will open IPO stock subscription functionality to U.S. retail investors, with the first batch supporting this week’s Oura IPO. Eligible users can apply via the Coinbase App to receive shares at the offering price before public trading; final allocation may be fully, partially, or not met. Coinbase says that if users sell the IPO shares within 30 days after they begin trading, they may be suspended from participating in subsequent IPO subscriptions for 60 days. The service is provided by FINRA-registered broker Coinbase Capital Markets and clears and holds via Apex Clearing.
10. The first tokenized-stock trading platforms under the SEC innovation exemption, or operating plans to be announced next quarter (link)
SEC Crypto Task Force Chief Legal Counsel Taylor Lindman said that under the newly introduced innovation exemption, the first batch of tokenized-stock trading platforms could begin publishing operating plans as early as next quarter. The SEC has already received expressions of interest from multiple companies. The exemption lasts for 5 years and allows qualified platforms to trade tokenized U.S. exchange-listed stocks on public, permissionless blockchains via permissioned AMMs and liquidity pools. The relevant tokens must preserve traditional shareholder rights such as dividends and voting. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said the existing trading size caps are sufficient to support commercial operations rather than only small-scale trials, and she views the exemption as a transition arrangement ahead of setting long-term rules.
Key funding events
HIFI completes a $37 million Series A round, with Left Lane Capital leading the investment (link)
DeFi project infiniFi completes a seed round of over $3 million, plans to hold its TGE in Q4 (link)
Stablecoin payments network Atum completes a $13.5 million funding round, with Variant leading the investment (link)
Stablecoin payment platform Infini completes a $6 million seed round (link)
XStable completes a new round of funding, with YZi Labs, Sui Foundation, and others participating (link)
For more industry fundraising events, please visit crypto-fundraising.info.