1. Bitget Confirms $351.6M Security Breach; Loss Contained, Withdrawals Suspended link
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that at 02:31 (UTC+8) on September 25, Bitget’s security system detected unauthorized transfers from some hot wallets, with an estimated affected fund amount of $351.6 million. Bitget said cold wallets remain secure, the incident only involves part of the hot and warm wallet layers, and user funds are covered by the user protection fund which currently exceeds $464 million. The platform has identified and flagged abnormal transfer addresses, notified law enforcement and on-chain security agencies, and temporarily suspended withdrawals; deposits and trading remain operational.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the security team has preliminarily confirmed that hackers breached key backend systems of the wallet service, forged transfer information and invoked authorized signature workflows to transfer out funds, ruling out private key leaks. Multiple technical teams are simultaneously advancing system repair, security hardening and preparations for withdrawal resumption, with the recovery timeline yet to be determined.
According to Specter monitoring, the stolen XRP from Bitget, after cross-chain bridging, can be directly linked to the $24 million stolen in the AFX hack in July this year. The AFX attack was previously attributed to TraderTraitor, leading Specter to believe Lazarus Group is behind this attack.
In a live stream, Bitget CEO said the attacker identity cannot be fully confirmed at present, but some IPs closely match VPN characteristics used by a North Korea-linked group. The attackers are highly professional and may have monitored Bitget for a long time. The compromised assets mainly came from hot wallets; one wallet that appeared to be a cold wallet was actually a warm wallet, and cold wallets were unaffected. She noted Bitget’s protection fund of over $465 million can cover the losses, and the platform holds more than $1 billion in its own capital. The withdrawal suspension may last from several hours to one or two days. She stated Bitget is “absolutely not another FTX” and can handle mass withdrawals after withdrawals resume. Bitget’s retail business scale is close to Bybit’s; if Bybit could withstand a $1.5 billion loss, Bitget can absorb losses exceeding $300 million.
Bitget is cooperating with independent third-party specialists Mandiant and SlowMist to conduct a full investigation into the incident. Chen reaffirmed that Bitget’s top priority is protecting users, user balances remain intact, and the Bitget User Protection Fund will cover impacts caused by this platform-level incident. Bitget Wallet uses self-custody infrastructure independent of Bitget Exchange and is unaffected. Deposit, trading, reward and other functions on Bitget Exchange are operating normally; withdrawals are temporarily suspended pending additional security reviews and will resume as soon as safety is confirmed.
Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng posted that following Bitget’s recent security incident, Binance’s security team has been working closely with the Bitget team since the incident was discovered, including sharing intelligence, tracking stolen funds and supporting asset recovery. Teng said the crypto industry unites to fight attackers in such incidents, and relevant work is ongoing.
2. Trump Discloses Coinbase & Strategy Buys, Sells CleanSpark and MARA link
Periodic transaction reports disclosed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) show that Trump reported purchasing Class A shares of Coinbase valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on July 24. He also bought Class A shares of Strategy valued between $1,001 and $15,000 on July 24 and between $50,000 and $100,000 on July 27. Previously, he sold Class A shares of Strategy worth $1,001 to $15,000 on July 8. In addition, the report indicates that on July 29, he sold stocks of Bitcoin mining firms CleanSpark and MARA, each valued at $15,000 to $50,000. The White House has repeatedly responded that Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by a third-party financial institution, and neither Trump nor his family can direct, influence, or provide input on specific investments or transaction timing.
3. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Criticizes KYC/AML, Advocates Zero-Knowledge Proofs link
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated in a recent speech regarding the “Innovation Exemption” rolled out by the SEC last week. She believes the exemption offers an interim pathway for trading tokenized securities via AMMs, designed to prevent overseas markets from monopolizing tokenized exposure to US stocks and serve as a bridge toward permanent long-term rules. Furthermore, she sharply criticized the existing KYC/AML anti-money laundering regulatory model. She pointed out that the costly approach of expanding the “data haystack” to find the criminal “needle” yields little effect, and instead turns the financial system into a privacy-invasive “panopticon”. She called on regulators to embrace cryptographic tools such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and attribute credentials to verify compliance attributes without collecting or repeatedly storing users’ sensitive raw data, while maximizing the protection of citizens’ personal privacy.
4. ECB Launches Pontes for Tokenized Asset Settlement in Central Bank Money link
The European Central Bank (ECB) launched its blockchain settlement service Pontes on September 21, connecting existing payment systems with blockchain financial markets. It enables banks and investors to settle blockchain transactions in euro central bank money instead of relying on private instruments such as stablecoins. First participants including Deutsche Bank, Santander and securities settlement provider Clearstream have completed onboarding. The service will initially run from 08:00 to 16:00 Central European Time on business days. In addition, the ECB plans to allocate a small portion of its own funds to invest in high-rated, euro-denominated tokenised debt securities issued by public institutions.
5. ESMA Prioritizes AI and Tokenization for EU Regulation Starting 2027 link
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released a report announcing that artificial intelligence (AI), tokenization and other emerging financial technologies will be designated core regulatory priorities across the EU starting from 2027. Under the regulatory programme titled “Innovation with investor safeguards”, ESMA will collaborate with national regulators of EU member states to focus on examining how licensed financial institutions deploy AI and tokenised financial products in customer-facing core business processes rather than only back-office and middle-office operations, and assess their data governance compliance and framework risks. In addition, EU regulators will conduct a comprehensive mapping next year of relevant applications by financial institutions in customer-facing products and launch the first round of targeted inspections for the most affected business entities.
6. Major UK Banks Complete World’s First Cross-Bank Tokenized Deposit Transfers link
Major UK banks including Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and HSBC have completed the world’s first cross-border fund transfers using tokenised deposits. The test scenarios covered two mortgage transactions and one P2P payment simulating online shopping. Programmable deposits can automatically release funds once conditions such as goods delivery or property transaction completion are met. The Bank of England has previously stated that it prefers banks to develop tokenised deposits carrying the same legal status as traditional bank deposits over privately issued stablecoins.
7. Binance Renames Funding Account; Crypto Assets Migrated to Spot Wallet link
Binance will gradually migrate crypto assets held in users’ Funding Accounts to Spot Accounts starting September 29, and the migration is expected to last until January 2027. Upon completion of the migration period, the Funding Account will be officially renamed the Stocks Account, which will be dedicated solely to trade settlement for stocks and stock options. Under the arrangement, Funding Accounts will no longer support on-chain deposits starting September 29. Going forward, six settlement assets (USD, USDC, USDT, USD1, U, BNB) will be available for stock trading, while deposits and withdrawals of other crypto assets will be consolidated and processed via Spot Accounts. The platform will provide a “One-Click Migration” function for users to manually migrate assets in advance. Assets left unmigrated will be automatically transferred to Spot Accounts in batches by the system starting January 2027, with total asset value and security unaffected.
8. Binance Invests $100M in Circle, Signs 5-Year USDC Partnership link
Circle (CRCL) disclosed in its 8-K filing submitted on September 22 that its subsidiary entered into a new five-year cooperation agreement with Binance on September 17 to expand USDC promotion, replacing the prior agreements signed between the two parties in November 2024 and August 2025. Circle will pay Binance monthly incentive fees proportionally based on the volume of USDC held via its modular smart contract wallet infrastructure service. On the same day, Binance subscribed to 1,237,011 shares of Circle’s Class A common stock at a discounted price of $80.84 per share, for a total amount of $100 million, and the transaction has been completed. The shares are subject to a two-year transfer restriction in principle, subject to early termination and other exceptions.
9. Coinbase Opens IPO Share Access to US Retail Users, Starting with Oura IPO link
Coinbase announced the launch of IPO share subscription for US retail investors, with the Oura IPO scheduled for this week as the first supported offering. Eligible users may apply to obtain shares at the offering price via the Coinbase App prior to public trading, and final allocations may be fulfilled in full, partially or not at all. Coinbase stated that users who sell IPO shares within 30 days after listing may face a 60-day suspension from participating in future IPO subscriptions. The service is provided by Coinbase Capital Markets, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer, with clearing and custody handled by Apex Clearing.
10. First SEC Innovation Exemption Tokenized Stock Platform Due Next Quarter link
Taylor Lindman, Chief Counsel of the SEC Crypto Task Force, stated that under the newly launched Innovation Exemption, the first batch of tokenized stock trading platforms may release operational plans as early as next quarter, and the SEC has received expressions of interest from multiple companies. Valid for five years, the exemption permits qualified platforms to trade tokenized US-listed stocks via permissioned AMMs and liquidity pools on public, permissionless blockchains; such tokens must preserve traditional shareholder rights including dividends and voting. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce remarked that the existing trading volume cap is sufficient to support commercial operations rather than merely small-scale trials, and regards the exemption as a transitional arrangement prior to establishing long-term rules.
Fundraising
HIFI has closed a $37 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. link
DeFi project infiniFi has secured over $3 million in seed funding and plans to conduct its TGE in Q4. link
Stablecoin payment network Atum has completed a $13.5 million financing round led by Variant. link
Stablecoin payment platform Infini has raised $6 million in seed funding. link
XStable has closed a new financing round with participation from YZi Labs, Sui Foundation and other investors. link
Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.
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