Cointelegraph

Binance and RedotPay are disputing whether a Singapore case related to their nearly $473 million Hong Kong legal battle is coming to an end.
The stablecoin payments card issuer told Cointelegraph on Tuesday that it expects Binance to discontinue the Singapore proceedings following a hearing on Aug. 7. “RedotPay will be seeking legal costs arising from the discontinuance of the matter from the claimant,” a spokesperson for RedotPay said, adding that the parties would try to agree on costs.
However, Binance said it has no plans to abandon its claims. “Reports that Binance will be withdrawing its Singapore claims are false,” a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding that the company “is not abandoning its claims and has informed both the court and RedotPay accordingly.”
The disagreement marks the latest development in a broader legal fight between Binance-affiliated companies and RedotPay, which includes a separate Hong Kong case seeking nearly $473 million in damages.
Singapore case part of broader legal fight
Binance-linked legal action against RedotPay first made headlines on Aug. 5, when Bloomberg reported that Nest Trading, DistributedTechnologies and Chaintecs Consulting Singapore had filed a petition in Hong Kong against RedotPay’s co-founders.
The Hong Kong plaintiffs allege RedotPay diverted more than 470,000 Binance Card users by allowing Binance Pay funds to be used for stablecoin card top-ups outside the terms of a commercial agreement. They estimated damages at $472.8 million, based on a claimed lifetime customer value of $925 per user.
Chaintecs also brought related proceedings against RedotPay affiliates in Singapore, where a hearing was scheduled for Aug. 7.
RedotPay rejected what it called “unfounded allegations” against the company and its co-founders at the time, telling Cointelegraph it would defend the claims through the legal process.
RedotPay announced its Binance Pay partnership in December 2023, allowing Binance Pay users to make direct deposits to RedotPay cards. Binance ended support for the integration as of April 3, 2026, citing a review of its merchant partners, months before the legal dispute became public.
Magazine: Fierce backlash to Ethereum’s EIP-8363 staking proposal

Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees now account for just 0.69% of miner revenue as major players pivot to AI.
Key points:
Bitcoin miners now rely on block subsidies more than at any time in the past decade, data shows.
Bitcoin hash rate has declined by 33% since October 2025.
Analysts warn that miners switching to AI could affect the network.
Bitcoin miner fee revenue share returns to 2016 levels
Data from onchain analytics platform Glassnode shows that fees as a proportion of miner revenue remain near decade lows after falling to just 0.52% in April.
Miners face ongoing pressure as declining Bitcoin prices and rising electricity costs squeeze profits and force smaller players out of the market. Glassnode co-founder Rafael Schultze-Kraft noted that fees had made up less than 1% of miner revenue for almost a year.
“Bitcoin was below $400 the last time fee share was this low,” he said on X.
Bitcoin fees as a portion of miner revenue. Source: Rafael Schultze-Kraft on X.com
When transaction fee revenue drops, miners increasingly depend on the fixed block subsidy for income — the amount of newly minted BTC awarded for each mined block, currently 3.125 BTC. Bitcoin’s value has fallen nearly 50% since its October 2025 all-time high, dragging down the US dollar value of the block subsidy and further squeezing miners’ profit margins.
The latest data from onchain analytics resource Checkonchain puts the estimated average cost of producing one Bitcoin at $78,254 as of Tuesday — almost 23% above the current spot price.
Bitcoin estimated average production cost. Source: Checkonchain
Bitcoin’s network hash rate, an estimated measure of the computing power securing the network, reflects a mining sector in flux. Hash rate has declined from its October 2025 peak of 1.3 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) to 861 exahashes per second (EH/s), Checkonchain shows — a drop of 33%.
Bitcoin hash rate net position change. Source: Checkonchain
Analyst: AI pivot is “concerning development”
In analysis published at the weekend, independent analyst William Clemente acknowledged the downturn, while noting that miners would have been incentivized to boost activity through automated difficulty readjustments. With difficulty itself now rising again, miners’ shift toward more lucrative AI computing has become conspicuous.
“There is no other way to slice it, hash rate has been in a decline. This has taken place as miner margins got squeezed post 2022 from more competition are higher energy prices, but more importantly the pivot of many into AI/HPC, which so far have shown to be prudent business decisions for the public names that have done it,” he wrote.
As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin miner CleanSpark recently refocused on AI, switching to operating data centers after missing profit targets. Another miner, Keel Infrastructure, shut down all its US mining operations after revenue fell 50% in the second quarter.
“This dynamic has been reinforced as Bitcoin has underperformed AI related assets & the rate of change in demand for compute,” Clemente added.
Charles Edwards, founder of hedge fund and AI platform Capriole Investments, directly linked the drop in hash rate to public miners’ AI pivot.
“This is the least talked about, concerning Bitcoin development in 2026,” he argued on X, noting that the trend had accelerated since April.

It isn’t often that a reporter gets asked to pose as a venture capitalist to fool suspected North Korean IT workers.
But in June, I found myself joining a Zoom call as “Aelin Ashriver,” an investor from the fictitious Definitive Communications, to meet the development team of crypto startup Ballena Azul.
The IT workers on the call believed they were pitching for VC backing for their startup. In reality they had spent weeks working inside a fake crypto company set up purely to study their methods and infrastructure by Mauro Eldritch, founder of cybersecurity firm BCA LTD, and Heiner García, a cyber threat intelligence analyst at Telefónica Tech and founder of NorthScane.
Cointelegraph tagged along for one stage of the investigation.
During the call, I played up the ruse by suggesting I might even be able to land Ballena Azul some coverage in Cointelegraph.
So at least someone was telling the truth.
Suspected DPRK IT workers pitch for venture capital backing from the fictitious Definitive Communications, played by Cointelegraph. Source: ANY.RUN
Building a company for suspected North Korean IT workers
Eldritch and García built the fictitious Ballena Azul with infrastructure provided by cybersecurity platform ANY.RUN. An existing UK registration for an unrelated company of the same name, which was dissolved in 2022, added legitimacy to the project.
Eldritch assumed the identity of co-founder “Leonardo Nelson,” while García took on the alias “Andy Jones” and posed as the company’s team lead.
One of the most valuable pieces of intel that the five-week ruse exposed were the external servers the workers used as intermediary points before connecting to Ballena Azul’s controlled virtual desktops.
Exposed servers were particularly valuable because such infrastructure is often recycled across operations and can remain active for long periods.
García tells Magazine the servers were associated with malware families linked to North Korean campaigns that steal credentials, crypto wallet data and other sensitive information.
“Some of the servers we found were tied back to distributing InvisibleFerret and BeaverTail/OtterCookie in prior years and were active to this day,” he says.
But some others were totally new and had zero intelligence about them, looking clean and keeping outside of mainstream block lists or threat feeds.”
He adds that the infrastructure could serve multiple purposes, with servers previously used for malware distribution also acting as command-and-control infrastructure, and as proxies for operators carrying out their day-to-day work.
The suspected workers do not need to deploy malware to pose a threat, according to the researchers. Once hired, they can gain legitimate access to a company’s internal systems, source code and other sensitive information. The longer they remain undetected, the longer they can continue drawing salaries that researchers say ultimately help fund the North Korean regime.
The operation also showed the group relied on artificial intelligence tools to help compensate for gaps in their technical knowledge. They used ChatGPT for writing and coding, including to answer basic questions and complete assignments they struggled with themselves. They preferred Google Gemini for image alteration and document forgery.
A suspected DPRK IT worker and ChatGPT team up in an attempt to obtain testnet crypto during the Ballena Azul operation. Source: ANY.RUN
Other tools employed included remote desktop software, crypto wallets and a service for sharing two-factor authentication codes.
North Korean IT workers have become a growing cybersecurity threat to the cryptocurrency industry. Consensys said in July that it had engaged a North Korea-linked developer through a third-party service provider before identifying the threat and cutting off access.
In another case, US prosecutors charged four North Korean nationals in 2025 with using false identities to obtain remote IT jobs and allegedly stealing more than $900,000 in cryptocurrency from two companies, including a US blockchain research and development firm.
The US Treasury said in March that North Korean IT worker schemes generated nearly $800 million in 2024 to help fund the Pyongyang regime’s weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.
Inside fake crypto company Ballena Azul
The ruse began when García connected with a recruiter via GitHub, who had been linked to Famous Chollima, a threat group associated with North Korean IT worker operations.
García said that Ballena Azul needed to hire software developers and the recruiter offered up “Jack Anderson,” “Angelo Espree” and “Lucas Theo.” At least two of them presented US identification.
The trio were given various programming assignments inside controlled virtual desktop environments, which allowed García and Eldritch to observe how they worked.
Angelo Espree was one of the developers onboarded through a recruiter associated with DPRK operations. Source: ANY.RUN
The researchers also deliberately introduced technical problems, including selective network outages and disappearing mouse cursors, to see how the suspected workers reacted and which tools they turned to when things went wrong.
“Honestly, the biggest surprise was how much of it ran on improvisation,” García says. “There was no rigid playbook, no polished corporate process behind them.”
During their many weeks working inside the controlled environments, the suspected North Koreans left behind a treasure trove for the researchers, including chat logs, AI conversations, crypto wallet information, VPN exit nodes and hours of live video footage. Their connections also exposed the servers that became one of the investigation’s most valuable findings.
To be sure, the heavy AI reliance isn’t unique to the workers hoodwinked in Ballena Azul’s operation.
Ballena Azul workers generally used AI as a crutch for coding and technical tasks they struggled with. Reuters reported Monday that another North Korean hacking group, Kimsuky, was using AI for a more offensive purpose. The group was reportedly running AI tools locally to help automate cyberattacks, analyze stolen data and produce more convincing phishing campaigns.
Evolving playbook of remote DPRK IT workers
This was not the first time Cointelegraph has played a minor role in exposing suspected North Korean workers.
In February 2025, García and Cointelegraph conducted a job interview for a suspected operative calling himself “Motoki.” The developer claimed to be Japanese but ragequit the interview after being asked to introduce himself in his mother tongue.
Still, García kept communicating with him. Motoki eventually offered to send García money to buy a computer that he could access remotely, allowing him to work through a local machine instead of connecting through a VPN to bypass restrictions used by employers and freelance platforms.
García later documented suspected North Korean operatives recruiting freelancers to provide verified accounts, identities and remote access to their computers. In one version of the scheme, operatives could work through machines physically located in the US, making them appear to employers and freelance platforms as US-based contractors.
In May, two US “laptop farmers” — people who hosted a cluster of computers that North Koreans could remotely access — were sentenced to 18 months in prison for helping DPRK IT workers pose as US-based employees in schemes that generated more than $1.2 million and affected nearly 70 companies.
Taking Ballena Azul down
All fake things must come to an end, so the researchers introduced “Benito Camella,” Ballena Azul’s co-founder, who had supposedly been focused on other business in Milan while the company expanded.
When he returned, Camella confronted the workers over discrepancies in their identities and documents. The confrontation quickly began to clear the chat room. Espree left the video call first, while Anderson stayed longer before realizing the scheme was unraveling.
“Are you living two lives, Mr. Anderson?” Camella asks Jack Anderson during the confrontation. Source: ANY.RUN
But the researchers kept the deception going even after the meeting ended. In the company’s Telegram channel, the “CEO” accused “Andy Jones” of bringing in “illegal workers” and putting the company at risk. “Jones” responded that he had been under pressure to build a team quickly and was not being paid enough to do it. He maintained that he had done the best he could with what he had.
The staged argument ended with the fake CEO terminating both their working relationship and friendship, keeping up the appearance that Ballena Azul had collapsed because of a disastrous hiring decision.
One of the suspected North Koreans later contacted García privately to apologize for what had happened and ask whether he was all right.
According to the researchers, they never heard from the rest of the group again.
To this day, they say, the suspected workers do not know they wasted weeks working inside an environment built to extract intelligence from them.
Magazine: Do the Coldcard attacks mean all hardware wallets are now insecure?
Editor’s note: Cointelegraph could not independently confirm the nationality or affiliation of the suspected DPRK IT workers, and no government agency has publicly identified them.

A group of cryptocurrency companies has urged frontier artificial intelligence (AI) labs to give Bitcoin developers early access to their most capable models.
The letter, published by the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) on Monday, said many digital asset defenders, including Bitcoin Core developers, lack access to lab cyber programs and can be blocked by guardrails on publicly available frontier systems, leaving them to rely on less capable open-weight models.
The signatories urged frontier AI labs to “establish or expand standing trusted-access programs for qualified defenders of open-source financial infrastructure.”
The letter said open-source software supports critical digital and financial infrastructure, while Bitcoin (BTC) alone secures more than $1 trillion in value. It added that a vulnerability in open-source infrastructure can place life savings at risk.
The open letter was co-signed by multiple crypto companies and organizations, including the African Bitcoin Institute, Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Bitwise, Blockstream, Bull Bitcoin, MARA, Kraken, Ledger and Trezor, among others.
Open-source defenders need access to frontier AI
The letter said frontier AI is changing the economics of security research and cyber operations because advanced models can search large codebases, identify potential weaknesses and accelerate complex technical work for both defenders and adversaries.
It said frontier AI could become one of the “most powerful defensive technologies ever developed,” adding:
“Without dedicated access programs, defenders may lack the tools needed to keep pace with evolving threats to the infrastructure they maintain.”
The BPI said it received multiple independent reports from open-source maintainers describing sophisticated actors, including potential foreign adversaries, using advanced AI capabilities to sustain attacks.
Total crypto hacks by monthly sum, all-time chart. Source: DefiLlama
Hacking activity across the industry surged in April 2026, as malicious actors stole over $634 million from cryptocurrency platforms, the highest monthly total since the Bybit hack, which helped drive losses to roughly $1.4 billion in February 2025, according to DefiLlama data.
Advances in AI-assisted vulnerability discovery have raised concerns across the crypto security industry. New models such as Claude Opus 4.8 and ChatGPT 5.5 have contributed to what Mitchell Amador, CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi, described as a “vulnerability apocalypse” for the crypto industry.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s quantum upgrade path: What BIP-360 changes and what it does not

Harmony is considering rolling back its blockchain after claims that an attacker exploited the network to mint nearly 4 billion ONE tokens, equivalent to about 26% of the token’s supply.
On Tuesday, Harmony said it was working with exchanges to stop and freeze funds. The layer-1 blockchain said it was preparing a patch and evaluating rollback options. It did not confirm the cause, the number of tokens created, or the amount sent to exchanges.
Cointelegraph contacted Harmony for comment but had not received a response by publication.
Harmony’s post was in response to an X account called “Juiceberg,” which claimed the unauthorized ONE tokens were minted through empty blocks and that approximately 2.8 billion tokens were quickly funneled to exchanges as ONE’s price fell.
Juiceberg estimated the attacker had about 115 million ONE remaining onchain, or 2.9% of the amount allegedly minted, with the remainder either sold or held in exchange deposit wallets. Cointelegraph could not independently verify the claims.
At the time of writing, CoinGecko showed ONE fell 33.9% over the past 24 hours.
The incident follows Harmony’s June 2022 Horizon Bridge hack, which led to the theft of about $100 million in cryptocurrency. The FBI later attributed the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) invoked its emergency authority on Tuesday, ordering prediction market Kalshi to continue operating.
The CFTC said that New York’s enforcement action and request for a temporary restraining order themselves constituted a market emergency and directed Kalshi to continue operating in accordance with its normal practices and the Commodity Exchange Act’s Core Principles.
New York’s requested temporary restraining order would bar Kalshi from operating a business offering contracts tied to sports, culture, elections and other events in or from New York or to people in the state. The CFTC said the order could prevent Kalshi from offering all event contracts nationwide because it is based in New York. According to the CFTC, New York is seeking at least $36 billion in compensatory damages pending an accounting.
The CFTC said the Commodity Exchange Act requires the commission to provide a uniform national derivatives market and that major disruptions threaten orderly trading and price discovery. CFTC Chair Michael Selig said Congress did not intend derivatives exchanges to face a “patchwork of state gaming laws.”
The confrontation is part of a broader national fight over whether the Commodity Exchange Act preempts state gambling laws as applied to event contracts traded on federally regulated exchanges.
CFTC challenges state oversight of prediction markets
In the lawsuit filed on July 31, New York alleges Kalshi runs an illegal, unlicensed gambling business by offering contracts tied to sports, elections, culture and other events. The state is seeking restitution, disgorgement, damages and penalties, including a penalty equal to three times Kalshi’s alleged gains and $100,000 for each unauthorized sports wagering offer or attempt in New York.
Kalshi says states cannot shut down a federally licensed exchange, while the CFTC argues that the Commodity Exchange Act gives it exclusive jurisdiction over transactions involving swaps traded on designated contract markets, including event contracts Kalshi lists as swaps.
A federal judge in a separate New York case denied Kalshi’s request for a preliminary injunction on July 7, finding at that stage that New York gambling laws were not preempted by the Commodity Exchange Act as applied to Kalshi’s sports-event contracts.
In a separate federal case, the CFTC sued New York in federal court in April to block the state from applying its gambling laws to CFTC-registered contract markets. Judge Jed Rakoff denied without prejudice the agency’s emergency request for a temporary restraining order, finding that the CFTC had not established a high likelihood of success on the merits or a likelihood of irreparable harm.
The latest CFTC order directs Kalshi to continue operating but does not end New York’s lawsuit or resolve the underlying jurisdictional dispute. It is not a judicial ruling on whether federal law preempts state gambling enforcement.
The dispute extends beyond New York. The CFTC said it has sued eight other states, along with New York, to defend its congressionally granted jurisdiction.
Magazine: The 100x obsession: Fundamentals grow in importance as crypto matures

Ravencoin dropped to an all-time low on Wednesday as an exploited consensus vulnerability left several days of transactions at risk and prompted exchanges to suspend RVN transfers.
According to CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency dropped to $0.002754, about 22% below its 24-hour high of $0.003529. Trading volume climbed above $18 million during the sell-off before easing to about $9.6 million, while RVN recovered to around $0.00284, at the time of writing.
On Tuesday, Ravencoin said the exploit caused vulnerable nodes to accept invalid blocks, with the first known instance appearing at height 4,487,776 on Friday. Similar invalid blocks appeared after the flaw was demonstrated on the mainnet, it added.
Mining pools 2Miners and RavenMiner, which Ravencoin said control a majority of the network’s hash rate, are building a competing chain that excludes the exploited branch from that block onward.
If the miners’ chain becomes dominant, the network could undergo a reorganization spanning approximately three days. Ravencoin warned that transactions confirmed after block 4,487,775 could be reversed and may not automatically return to the mempool or be mined again.
The project recommended that exchanges halt deposits and withdrawals until the chain stabilizes. Upbit and Bitget suspended RVN transfers, although Upbit left trading available.

Ravencoin dropped to a new all-time low on Wednesday as an exploited consensus vulnerability left several days of transactions at risk and prompted exchanges to suspend RVN transfers.
According to CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency dropped to $0.002754, about 22% below its 24-hour high of $0.003529. Trading volume climbed above $18 million during the sell-off before easing to about $9.6 million, while RVN recovered to around $0.00284, at the time of writing.
On Tuesday, Ravencoin said the exploit caused vulnerable nodes to accept invalid blocks, with the first known instance appearing at height 4,487,776 on Friday. Similar invalid blocks appeared after the flaw was demonstrated on the mainnet, it added.
Mining pools 2Miners and RavenMiner, which Ravencoin said control a majority of the network’s hash rate, are building a competing chain that excludes the exploited branch from that block onward.
If the miners’ chain becomes dominant, the network could undergo a reorganization spanning approximately three days. Ravencoin warned that transactions confirmed after block 4,487,775 could be reversed and may not automatically return to the mempool or be mined again.
The project recommended that exchanges halt deposits and withdrawals until the chain stabilizes. Upbit and Bitget suspended RVN transfers, although Upbit left trading available.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed separate civil lawsuits against Goliath Ventures and founder Christopher Delgado over an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme that raised about $400 million.
The SEC said Goliath raised at least $425 million from more than 1,300 investors through an unregistered securities offering. Investors were told their money would be placed in crypto liquidity pools, but the agency alleged none of the funds or crypto assets were invested and Delgado diverted at least $51 million for personal use.
In a separate action, the CFTC said approximately 1,600 customers contributed at least $397 million after Goliath solicited funds for crypto trading in Bitcoin and Ether. The agency is seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction.
The actions add securities and commodities-law consequences to a criminal case that has already produced a guilty plea, allowing the agencies to seek investor compensation, penalties and market bans beyond the consequences available through Delgado’s plea.
Delgado agrees to settle SEC case
According to the SEC, Goliath promised monthly returns of 3% to 10%, generated from fees paid by traders using its liquidity pools, while guaranteeing investors’ principal. The complaint alleges the company instead used funds and crypto assets from new and existing investors to pay earlier investors and fabricated account balances and performance metrics.
The SEC said Goliath paid commissions to sales agents who recruited investors. By November 2025, the company could no longer raise money quickly enough to meet obligations, stopped making monthly distributions and collapsed, according to the agency.
Delgado agreed to a bifurcated settlement, subject to court approval, that would permanently bar him from violating the securities-law provisions charged in the complaint. He would also be barred from participating in securities transactions outside personal-account activity and from associating with a broker or dealer. The court will determine disgorgement, prejudgment interest and a civil penalty.
Delgado previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. On June 30, the US Department of Justice said at least $400 million was paid to Goliath and that Delgado admitted causing at least $250 million in investor losses. He also agreed to forfeit properties, vehicles, luxury goods, bank accounts and crypto wallets traceable to the scheme.
Magazine: Japanese pension fund tips 1% in crypto, G7 urges action on NK hackers: Asia Express

THAILAND
Thailand introduces 0% capital gains tax on crypto
For the next few years crypto investors in Thailand won’t have to pay any capital gains taxes on sales made via platforms licensed by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission. The exemption is for five years and covers the period of Jan. 1, 2025, through to Dec. 31, 2029.
The scheme aims to boost Thailand’s attractiveness as a regional crypto hub, and it’s already home to a growing community of crypto digital nomads
However, trades on unlicensed or overseas exchanges will still face standard personal tax rates as high as 38%. The exemption aligns the tax treatment of crypto with capital gains from traditional securities in the country.
Thailand previously waved 7% value added tax on crypto gains in early 2024.
CHINA
Bitcoin Red Team founder turns to Chinese AI
Bitcoin Red Team founder Rob Hamilton has been forced to rely on open-source Chinese AI models after finding himself restricted from analyzing codebases by OpenAI, highlighting a growing concern that the most capable AI tools aren’t being made available to defenders.
“It absolutely guts me as a patriotic American to have to do this, but I will be going back to using Chinese open source models to conduct my research to protect Bitcoin infrastructure,” he said.
“Black hats will not hit these issues. The white hats will. We’ve hit a local minima in policy,” said Hamilton. “Intelligence is unrestricted for those who don’t follow rules, and those who engage in harm reduction are left on the sidelines.”
The Bitcoin Policy Institute and an alliance of blockchain firms subsequently issued a call to “frontier AI labs to establish a clear, trusted pathway for qualified open-source and digital asset defenders to access their strongest capabilities.”
Source: Rob Hamilton
CHINA NEWS IN BRIEF
— A man in Shenzen was convicted of attempted extortion after he stole confidential R&D data from his company and then posed as an overseas hacker to demand a ransom paid in Bitcoin.
ASIA PACIFIC
APAC region sees big jump in onchain transactions year-on-year
A new report from Hashed Open Research and SCBX found that onchain transaction volume across the Asia-Pacific region grew by 68% year-on-year, from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion. It was the fastest growth of any region globally, driven mainly by countries in South East Asia.
The report found that consumers in the region had skipped straight from cash, over cards and bank transactions, and went directly to mobile payments. Digital payments now account for 60% of all payments in the region.
CLARITY Act delay gives Asian financial hubs an opening: First Digital CEO
The US Senate’s delay of a vote on crypto market structure legislation to mid-September could give Hong Kong and Singapore more time to strengthen their positions as digital asset hubs, according to First Digital founder and CEO Vincent Chok.
Chok, whose company issues the FDUSD stablecoin, said the delay could give jurisdictions with clearer regulatory frameworks an advantage in attracting capital and talent as US uncertainty weighs on institutional adoption.
“For Asia, this delay gives regional financial hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore additional time to demonstrate that clear regulation can coexist with innovation.”
NORTH KOREA
US court backs Bybit’s bid to trace funds from $1.5B North Korea hack
A US federal judge backed crypto exchange Bybit’s effort to trace assets stolen in the infamous $1.5 billion North Korea-linked hack in February 2025.
According to newly revealed records, Bybit filed the lawsuit under seal on June 18 against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau, the Lazarus Group and 20 unidentified defendants. The court granted Bybit’s request for expedited discovery on June 19.
The discovery authority gives Bybit a practical route to identify alleged intermediaries and pursue a small portion of stolen assets that remains traceable, rather than relying solely on a judgment against North Korea.
Unfortunately, Bybit told the court that 90.2% of the stolen assets had become untraceable after passing through mixers, cross-chain bridges and over-the-counter dealers. The remaining 9.8% had been traced to identifiable wallets, including 5.3% of the total, about $75.5 million, that had been frozen or recovered.
Bybit is seeking the return of the stolen assets and approximately $1.5 billion in damages.
SOUTH KOREA NEWS IN BRIEF
— Dunamu, which operates Upbit, has been selected by the National Police Agency to custody seized crypto assets for the next year after it obtained the highest technical evaluation score of 94.14 points.
JAPAN
Japan FSA asks crypto exchanges to impose withdrawal delays to fight scams
Japan’s financial regulator has asked crypto exchanges to introduce withdrawal delays and other safeguards as authorities respond to increasingly sophisticated scams involving digital assets.
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it had jointly requested the measures with the National Police Agency amid growing losses among crypto exchange users and cases where funds obtained through fraudulent schemes are being transferred to exchange accounts.
The request calls on exchanges to restrict crypto withdrawals for a specified period after customers deposit fiat currency or purchase digital assets. Platforms were also asked to require users to pre-register crypto withdrawal addresses and impose a waiting period before newly added addresses can be used.
JAPAN NEWS IN BRIEF
— Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to introduce a re‑examination regime for companies that undergo a major business pivot. The TSE didn’t name digital asset treasuries but logic suggests they may well fall within the scope of the new rules.
TAIWAN
Taiwan plans Travel Rule for domestic crypto transfers from October
Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission will require crypto platforms to transmit customer information on all domestic platform-to-platform transfers starting in October.
The rules would apply regardless of value, but transfers exceeding 30,000 New Taiwan dollars (about $930) would trigger additional data requirements, including an individual sender’s date of birth and residential address, or a corporate sender’s official identification number and registered address.
Receiving VASPs would also be required to compare beneficiary information supplied by the originating platform with their own records.
The FSC plans to extend the framework to transfers between domestic and overseas VASPs by the end of 2027.
SINGAPORE
Bitdeer increased Bitcoin mining output by nearly fivefold in Q2
Singapore headquartered Bitcoin miner Bitdeer mined 2,694 Bitcoin during the second quarter of 2026, up nearly fivefold from 565 BTC a year earlier.
The miner closed the quarter with 150 BTC held on its balance sheet, down 90% from 1,502 BTC a year earlier, according to the company’s Q2 report published Monday.
Bitdeer liquidated its entire 943 BTC treasury in February, citing liquidity decisions rather than a shift away from its core Bitcoin mining business.
SINGAPORE NEWS IN BRIEF
—UBS is sharpening its focus on wealthy Singapore residents. Over the past 25 years the number of Singapore residents who have between $5 million to $10 million compounded at an annual growth rate of 8 percent. In total there are 27,000 residents with between $5 million and $100 million.
HONG KONG
Binance sues RedotPay over alleged $473 million user losses: Report
Binance-affiliated companies have sued the founders of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency payments company RedotPay, alleging it diverted more than 470,000 users from Binance Card in breach of their commercial agreement.
The plaintiffs seek nearly $473 million in damages, alleging the conduct contributed to RedotPay’s valuation as the company considers a potential initial public offering.
RedotPay said it is defending the proceedings and rejected what it described as “unfounded allegations” against the company and its co-founders. “RedotPay is strenuously defending the proceedings,” a RedotPay spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding that it will respond through the appropriate legal process.
HONG KONG NEWS IN BRIEF
— Hong Kong police have arrested a 67-year-old woman accused of posing as a prospective tenant to scam property owners out of $510,000. She offered to pay rent in advance, then gave them a mobile phone with a genuine crypto app on it. However, the app had malware giving control over the wallet to the scammers, allowing them to steal funds once it had been funded.
VIETNAM NEWS IN BRIEF
— The Vietnam RWA Summit heard about how the country is developing groundwork for tokenizing RWAs from the securities regulator and Vietnam Blockchain Association.
— Vietnam’s central bank governor presented a draft law to the National Assembly to make crypto asset services reporting entities under the country’s anti money laundering regulations. It also highlights suspicious transaction indicators specifically tailored to crypto asset activities.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced a meeting to consider “new rules to create a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.”
According to the SEC’s agenda, the commission will hold an open meeting on Friday that has the potential to address policies and regulations affecting the crypto industry in the absence of action from US Congress. Last week, lawmakers in the Senate failed to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, also known as CLARITY, which was expected to provide a comprehensive framework for financial regulators on the oversight of cryptocurrencies.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins said before the recess that the agency was “ready, willing, and able to come out with rules“ on digital assets if the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY bill, but it’s unclear how much authority the commission has without congressional action. Cointelegraph reached out to the SEC for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The bill still has the potential to be signed into law despite the setback last week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a motion for cloture for the CLARITY Act when lawmakers return from recess on Sept. 14, but the legislation would likely face significant hurdles to pass on the Senate floor, return to the House of Representatives and make it to US President Donald Trump’s desk. The president faces scrutiny and criticism from many lawmakers over his family’s crypto ventures, which many have called to be addressed under ethics provisions in the market structure bill.

Itaú, Latin America’s largest private sector bank, has partnered with digital asset infrastructure provider OpenAssets to participate in an industry-led pilot testing the tokenization of fixed-income securities and investment funds in Brazil.
The initiative is led by the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association (ANBIMA), which is testing the issuance, trading and settlement of capital markets instruments using distributed ledger technology (DLT).
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the companies will develop technical proofs of concept and assess the operational, compliance and technology requirements for tokenized assets, with debentures and investment funds among the use cases being explored.
OpenAssets will provide its tokenization infrastructure, while Itaú will contribute capital markets expertise as the companies test how tokenized assets could operate within institutional frameworks.
In April, ANBIMA selected 20 use cases for the pilot from 39 proposals submitted by more than 50 banks, asset managers and technology companies. The tests are being conducted on a private, permissioned DLT network in a simulated environment without real financial transactions.
The value of tokenized real-world assets distributed on public blockchains has more than doubled over the past year, rising from around $18.9 billion in August 2025 to $38.3 billion today, according to RWA.xyz data. US Treasury debt is the largest category, accounting for more than $16 billion.
Tokenized real-world assets. Source: RWA.xyz
Magazine: BIP-110 ends with a whimper, CLARITY vote punted: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 9

Global remittance company MoneyGram has expanded its Ramps service to Solana, allowing wallets, exchanges and developers on the network to offer cash-to-crypto and crypto-to-cash conversions through its payments network.
Ramps previously operated on Stellar, making Solana its second supported blockchain. Rift is the first Solana (SOL) wallet to integrate the service, allowing users to move between crypto and local currencies through MoneyGram.
In an X post announcing the launch, Solana said MoneyGram serves more than 60 million customers through nearly 500,000 retail locations across more than 170 countries, with the network now accessible to Solana developers through a single API.
Source: Solana
Ramps supports cash deposits in more than 25 countries and withdrawals in more than 170 countries and territories, according to MoneyGram. The service, also integrated into the Solana Developer Platform’s payments module, lets developers add MoneyGram’s fiat on- and off-ramp infrastructure without building their own banking integrations.
The company said the Solana launch is part of a broader effort to make Ramps available across multiple blockchain ecosystems. In June, MoneyGram became a Solana validator, staking SOL and processing transactions on the network. It also joined the Solana Developer Platform as part of that expansion.
Magazine: Bitcoin will never fall below $60K again: Nansen founder

The Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act is expected to be held for a cloture vote in September upon the US Senate’s return, but it still faces significant hurdles on the path to becoming law.
Just before the Senate broke for a month-long recess last week, Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture for the crypto market structure bill to go to the floor for consideration. Lawmakers will return from recess on Sept. 14, but only have 14 days scheduled to be in session before breaking for a recess before the November election and another 22 days before the end of the year.
This 36-day window for the CLARITY Act still has many crypto industry advocates publicly expressing their optimism for the bill’s chances in Congress, but lawmakers had not announced any deal on many of the provisions still at issue. These included ethics language affecting US President Donald Trump’s ties to digital assets and additional restrictions for crypto companies offering stablecoin rewards.
The Senate had 13 months to consider the CLARITY Act after it was passed by the House of Representatives last year. In that time, the chamber faced more than one government shutdown, pushback from industry leaders and opposition from many Democrats saying that the then-version of the bill would enable what they called Trump’s “crypto corruption.”
Should the Senate hold a cloture vote in September, lawmakers would still have only a matter of days to address issues in the bill before a potential floor vote and breaking for the pre-election recess. After November, when 33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats would be up for grabs, the midterm election results could complicate discussions on the legislation, with many members of Congress potentially leaving in 2027.
US regulators to step up amid uncertain legislation?
With the market structure bill once again in limbo for at least a month, many experts are looking to financial agencies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for regulatory clarity. The legislation is expected to give the CFTC more authority to oversee and enforce regulations affecting digital assets, but with the law still under consideration, agencies have signaled they will act if Congress won’t.
In a July interview, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that the agency was “ready, willing, and able to come out with rules“ to address crypto if Congress failed to pass CLARITY. Similarly, CFTC Chair Michael Selig said in April that the commission was “ready to take responsibility” to oversee crypto markets, but in reference to lawmakers passing the market structure bill. Both agencies have taken steps to coordinate oversight of financial markets.
Magazine: BIP-110 ends with a whimper, CLARITY vote punted: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 9

Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company plans to resume accumulating Bitcoin later this year, even after shifting business priorities prompted it to sell portions of its holdings in moves that drew scrutiny from the market.
In a Monday interview with FOX Business, Le said Strategy had purchased around 175,000 Bitcoin since the beginning of the year while selling roughly 7,000 BTC, making the company a significant net buyer.
That’s “about 25 times more” buying than selling, Le said. He added that Strategy has gone from the world’s second-largest institutional Bitcoin holder to the largest.
“We’ll get back to buying more Bitcoin throughout the course of the year,” Le said.
Strategy CEO Phong Le appears on FOX Business. Source: FOX
While Strategy has accumulated more than 840,000 BTC, it has sold Bitcoin on four occasions since May, with the most recent sale totaling 1,690 BTC. The company has used proceeds from its recent sales to support preferred stock dividends, share repurchases and its US dollar reserve.
Despite the relatively small size of the sales compared with its overall holdings, Strategy has faced scrutiny for departing from its long-standing “never sell” approach to Bitcoin. The shift highlights the competing demands facing Strategy as a public company, including obligations to common and preferred shareholders alongside its Bitcoin accumulation strategy.
BTC treasury model faces pressure amid bear market
The corporate Bitcoin treasury model has come under pressure as weaker market conditions challenge the economics that helped fuel its rapid expansion. Public companies hold more than 1.26 million BTC, trailing exchange-traded funds and other funds, which hold more than 1.6 million BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
The model has historically benefited from a financing cycle in which Bitcoin treasury companies traded at premiums to the value of their BTC holdings, allowing them to raise capital through equity or debt and use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin, according to Novaque Research.
However, that cycle becomes more difficult to sustain when companies trade below the net asset value of their Bitcoin holdings because raising new capital becomes increasingly dilutive to shareholders.
Magazine: Sorry everyone, Bitcoin is headed down to $43,500: Michael Terpin

ARP Digital, an institutional digital asset infrastructure provider, has secured a broker-dealer license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, allowing the Bahrain-based firm to offer regulated conversions between digital assets and the UAE dirham.
According to ARP Digital, the license covers United Arab Emirates-based corporates, capital markets participants and qualified investors, including conversions between stablecoins and dirhams. The company said it will also provide institutions with a regulated route to convert digital asset capital for deployment into local UAE assets.
The approval marks ARP Digital’s second regulated Gulf market. The firm is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, where it says it has processed more than $3.5 billion in volume for over 450 institutional and corporate counterparties, with fourfold year-over-year growth in 2025.
ARP Digital offers institutional services including over-the-counter liquidity, cross-border settlement, fiat on- and off-ramps and wealth management.
The approval comes as Dubai continues to expand its regulated digital asset sector. In July, VARA issued its 50th virtual asset service provider license. The regulator, established in 2022, oversees the provision, use and exchange of virtual assets in and from Dubai.
Flowdesk, a crypto market maker backed by Coinbase Ventures and BlackRock, also received a full VARA broker-dealer license on Tuesday, allowing it to serve qualified and institutional investors in and from the emirate.
Magazine: Thailand’s 0% crypto tax. Bitcoin Red Team forced to use Chinese AI: Asia Express

FlightAware, a company that offers real-time status and information about flights globally, filed a lawsuit against Kalshi in a New York federal court over the prediction markets platform using its “data and name to run gambling markets on flight cancellations.”
In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said that despite repeated demands for Kalshi to stop using its registered trademark and offering bets “verified by FlightAware’s data,” the prediction market has continued to list event contracts based on flight cancellations.
The lawsuit cited authorities’ claims that event contracts on prediction market platforms like Kalshi were “wagers” in violation of state laws, adding that the company’s expansion to trading on commercial flights starting in July was associating FlightAware with activities potentially harming its reputation. FlightAware sought to “stop Kalshi’s illicit behavior before there is any harm to public safety.”
“[T]here was widespread outrage and concern that the markets would incentivize unsafe tactics to impact cancellations, threatening public safety and creating the potential for massive disruption of air travel. Airlines condemned the markets,” said the lawsuit. “And due to Kalshi’s unauthorized use of FlightAware’s data and mark, customers immediately assumed that FlightAware was involved in the scheme.”
Example of flight cancellation event contract citing FlightAware data. Source: Kalshi
The FlightAware lawsuit, while based on trademark infringement, breach of contract, injury to its reputation and unfair competition, is just the latest legal entanglement prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket face. Many gaming authorities have petitioned courts to block the companies’ event contracts for residents in what is expected to become a showdown between federal regulators and state officials over alleged illegal gambling practices, usually focused on sports betting.
Cointelegraph reached out to Kalshi for comment on the lawsuit but did not receive an immediate response.
Lawsuit highlights ’incentives for manipulation’ on prediction markets
The FlightAware lawsuit included language pointing out the potential for manipulation among prediction market contracts in which participants have knowledge about events before they become public. Some examples in the news include US President Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator reportedly making $100,000 in Kalshi bets tied to words in his speeches and a US soldier allegedly betting on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, having been given nonpublic information about the military operation ousting him.
FlightAware said that by Kalshi allowing event contracts on flight cancellations, there was not only the potential for manipulation, but also threats to passenger safety.
“A market that allows the public to wager on whether flights will be delayed or cancelled creates an incentive for participants to interfere with air travel—including by causing or contributing to flight cancellations—to profit from their wagers,“ said the lawsuit. “Worse, wagers on flights being timely may incentivize airline, airport, or other aviation workers to cut corners to keep a flight on time.“
Newsletter Predicted’s “State of Prediction Markets - Q2 2026” report said Kalshi and Polymarket collectively controlled more than 90% of all prediction market volume, with the two companies having more than $90 billion in second-quarter notional volume.
Magazine: 10 weirdest things ever tokenized... including farts

Flowdesk, an institutional crypto market maker backed by Coinbase Ventures and BlackRock, has received a full broker-dealer license in Dubai, expanding its ability to serve institutional investors in the emirate.
On Tuesday, Flowdesk said Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority granted the license to its local entity, Flowdesk Omega FZE, allowing it to provide regulated broker-dealer services to qualified and institutional investors in and from Dubai.
The approval follows Flowdesk’s broader regulatory expansion, with the company receiving authorization in France as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework.
Broker-dealers are playing an increasingly important role in the cryptocurrency market, bridging traditional finance and digital assets while providing liquidity, custody services and regulatory compliance. Earlier this month, crypto market maker Wintermute launched a US broker-dealer, allowing it to trade stocks and options.
Digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo and securities marketplace operator OTC Markets announced in July that they plan to provide digital asset trading and custody infrastructure for more than 150 broker-dealers using OTS Link ATS, an alternative trading system.

Nasdaq has agreed to acquire LeveL Markets, the third-largest alternative trading system in the US by trading volume, as part of its push into tokenized and always-on markets.
According to Nasdaq, LeveL Markets processes hundreds of millions of shares daily and serves more than 2,500 buy- and sell-side clients. The venue will operate within Nasdaq’s new Digital Liquidity Networks unit, led by Roland Chai, who has overseen the company’s digital assets strategy since earlier this year.
Nasdaq first invested in LeveL Markets in 2021. The platform has since grown to execute trades across more than 7,000 symbols daily and serves more than 300 institutional buy-side firms, with average daily trading volume increasing 56% in 2025.
Tuesday’s announcement said LeveL Markets will remain a FINRA-regulated ATS with its own management team following the acquisition. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal remains subject to regulatory approval.
Nasdaq said the acquisition will add LeveL’s institutional execution network to its broader push toward programmable, “always-on” markets. The Digital Liquidity Networks unit combines liquidity platforms, tokenization capabilities and digital asset technology.
Nasdaq expands push into tokenized, always-on markets
Nasdaq first proposed allowing tokenized securities to trade on its exchange in September 2025. A January 2026 SEC filing updating the proposal said eligible stocks and exchange-traded products could trade in tokenized form alongside traditional shares, with Depository Trust Company handling tokenization and blockchain-based settlement through a three-year pilot program.
In March, Nasdaq expanded its efforts with a partnership with Kraken and tokenization firm Backed to develop infrastructure linking traditional equities with blockchain networks.
Other exchange operators are also moving toward longer trading hours. Cboe and the London Stock Exchange are pursuing similar plans, while the New York Stock Exchange is developing a separate platform for 24/7 trading and onchain settlement of tokenized securities.
In July, the SEC announced a Sept. 17 roundtable on the shift toward 24-hour US equity trading, with US Securities and Exchange Commission hair Paul Atkins saying, “We are moving towards a new day – and night – in the US equity markets.”
Over the past year, the tokenized equities market has grown more than sixfold, with distributed value rising to nearly $2.5 billion today from around $381 million in August 2025, according to RWA.xyz data.
Tokenized equities. Souce: RWA.xyz
Magazine: Thailand’s 0% crypto tax. Bitcoin Red Team forced to use Chinese AI: Asia Express

Bitcoin (BTC) headed lower around Tuesday’s Wall Street open as investors’ appetite for gold sent the precious metal to nine-week highs.
Key points:
Bitcoin takes a backseat as gold steals the limelight climbing to $4,435 per ounce.
Analysis eyes the Bitcoin-gold positive correlation still in place.
Key resistance near $66,000 keeps BTC price action in check ahead of the US CPI inflation print.
Retail investors pile into gold ETFs
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD abandoning a low-timeframe rebound to drop back below $64,000.
BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The pair finished down 1.5% on Monday thanks to concerns over the US-Iran war and the latest impasse over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz oil route. US stocks tracked sideways amid a fresh 5% surge in oil prices.
As uncertainty grew, new data showed increasing demand for safe haven gold, which hit $4,435 per ounce on Tuesday, its highest level since June 5. Chinese appetites for the precious metal were already on the radar in August.
XAU/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Trading resource The Kobeissi Letter highlighted particular interest from the retail sector — currently a key missing component in crypto markets. NYSE ARCA-traded SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) exchange-traded fund attracted daily retail inflows of $50 million on Aug. 5 — the highest single-day tally since mid-March for the largest US physical gold-backed ETF product. The day’s total inflow was $637 million, while the US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a combined inflow of $244.4 million.
“So far in August, investors have added +$1.4 billion to $GLD , putting the ETF on track for its first monthly inflow since February. Investor appetite for gold is back,” Kobeissi Letter said in a post on X.
GLD retail-investor netflows data. Source: The Kobeissi Letter on X.com
Despite lackluster August BTC price performance, the biggest crypto retained its positive correlation to gold on a 90-day rolling basis, data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant showed. “Bitcoin–gold correlation is back to digital-gold-era levels,” CEO Ki Young Ju wrote as an annotation to his data infographics on X.
Bitcoin-gold 90-day correlation data. Source: Ki Young Ju on X.com
Familiar BTC price resistance in place as CPI nears
Within low time frames, BTC/USD continued to be contained by a long-term trend line, the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA) at $65,827.
As Cointelegraph reported, this coincided with an area of potential short liquidations. Since the start of June, the pair has managed just three daily closes above the 50-month EMA.
BTC/USD one-day chart with 50-month EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
That’s leading market participants to maintain their monitoring of the zone below $66,000 as rangebound behavior continued.
“It’s still stuck in this range, meaning that this recent correction was most likely just a liquidity grab from leveraged longs being positioned in the markets. Consolidation here, and preferably a slight bounce upwards to $64,500 would trigger that we’re not continuing the cascade,” trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe told X followers on Tuesday.
“If there’s a breakout above $65,800, the likelihood of running to $73,000 is there.”
BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe on X.com
Wednesday sees the first of this week’s key risk-asset volatility catalysts in the form of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for July. Crypto markets have historically weakened into major US inflation data releases, while July’s soft print sparked daily gains of over 4%.