Cointelegraph

US Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said that his agency would have final rules related to the implementation of a payment stablecoin law out by November.
Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Wednesday, the regulator said that following the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC’s) proposal to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, OCC would release finalized rules ahead of the law’s scheduled January 2027 enactment.
Gould said that the OCC “will have a final rule out by November” as the agency considered feedback from the crypto industry following the release of its proposed rules in February. He added that he expects the regulator could begin processing applications related to stablecoin issuers starting in 2027.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, aims to create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the US, requiring rules from the government agencies overseeing the products, including the OCC, Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board.
Although the OCC moved forward with a 376‑page proposal to implement GENIUS in February, government agencies have only until Jan. 18 to finalize regulations as the law goes into effect. Several regulators have already published proposals and collected public feedback related to the implementation of GENIUS, but did not release finalized rules by July, potentially resulting in regulatory uncertainty for stablecoin issuers.

Standard Chartered and HSBC have completed the first live cross-border transaction on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, demonstrating interoperability between the banks’ tokenized deposit systems a month after the ledger’s launch.
The transaction involved payment messages exchanged between the two through Swift’s ledger, with the resulting obligations recorded on HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service and StanChart’s tokenized deposit infrastructure.
Swift’s ledger acted as an orchestration layer, matching and netting the obligations between the banks before final settlement through existing payment systems.
The transaction follows a July announcement from Swift, the world’s largest financial messaging network, that its blockchain-based ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks across six continents preparing to pilot live transactions using tokenized deposits.
Other banks in the pilot group Citi, BNP Paribas, BNY, Wells Fargo, UBS, MUFG, DBS and ANZ.
The ledger is designed to connect tokenized deposits issued on separate bank infrastructure, enabling 24/7 cross-border payments while retaining existing settlement, compliance and risk controls.
Banks push toward interoperable tokenized deposits
Banks are increasingly testing tokenized deposits across institutions and jurisdictions as efforts shift toward interoperability and 24/7 settlement.
In November 2025, HSBC said it planned to expand its Tokenised Deposit Service to corporate clients in the US and UAE in the first half of 2026, adding to deployments in Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Luxembourg. The bank launched the service in the US in April, offering eligible corporate and institutional clients 24/7 domestic and cross-border transfers using tokenized deposits.
Standard Chartered has also participated in broader efforts to test tokenized bank money across institutions. In July, it was among 28 financial institutions and central banks involved in real-value settlement trials under the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agorá, which settled about $1 million across six currencies using tokenized commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves.
Banks are also developing infrastructure specifically intended to connect tokenized deposits across institutions. The Clearing House, a payments operator owned by some of America’s biggest banks, reportedly plans to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027, connecting traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure for round-the-clock settlement.
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Bitcoin could be poised for a run toward $100,000 by year-end as the US Treasury ramps up support for the long end of the government bond market in an effort to rein in surging interest rates, according to Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick.
In a recent client note shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick said Bitcoin’s (BTC) key technical level is $65,500, with a break above that threshold potentially confirming that the cycle low is already in.
“Investors should now be positioning for a move ot USD $100,000 by year-end 2026,” he wrote.
Beyond Bitcoin’s four-year cycle dynamics, which Kendrick said point to an imminent low, he highlighted Wednesday’s announcement from the Treasury Department that it will at least double the maximum size of certain liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated government bonds.
Treasury will increase the maximum size of buyback operations targeting 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year nominal coupon securities from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The expanded program is scheduled to run from Sept. 9 through Nov. 4.
The announcement sent long-dated Treasury yields sharply lower, easing some of the pressure that had built across financial markets following a steep bond selloff.
Wednesday’s Treasury announcement “is exactly the type of thing Bitcoin loves,” Kendrick wrote, pointing to the digital asset’s historical tendency to benefit from government liquidity interventions and its fixed supply, which makes it resistant to monetary debasement.
Early signs appear to support Kendrick’s thesis, with Bitcoin surging more than 6% to nearly $69,000 in Wednesday’s late morning US trading, its highest level since early June, according to CoinMarketCap.

Injective Institutional Services, an entity affiliated with the Injective blockchain ecosystem, said its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a transfer agent is now effective, adding a regulated securities recordkeeping function to Injective’s tokenization infrastructure.
Wednesday’s announcement said that the registration allows the affiliate to maintain securities ownership records and process ownership changes, an important function in traditional securities markets that could also support tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
The company plans to pair the transfer agent function with Injective Mint, its platform for issuing and managing tokenized assets.
The registration follows Injective’s expansion of its tokenization efforts in recent months, including markets offering exposure to digital asset treasury companies, equities and shares in pre-IPO companies.
As Cointelegraph reported, Injective Institutional Services filed its application to register as a transfer agent with the SEC in July.
Transfer agents are part of the regulated infrastructure underpinning US securities markets. They maintain records of who owns securities and process ownership changes, a function that becomes particularly relevant when securities are issued or transferred onchain.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new regulatory proposal marks a significant step forward from a set of “inapt” crypto rules to clearer and more enforceable digital asset regulations, according to Commissioner Hester M. Peirce.
A “whole generation has struggled with the SEC’s insistence” and the application of “a set of inapt rules to crypto,” but the SEC’s new crypto guidelines mark an important step toward “putting clear, sensible, enforceable rules in place for crypto offerings,” said Peirce in a statement released on Tuesday.
SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins also praised the initiative and said that the agency’s prior enforcement-heavy approach has “driven investment offshore, limiting the type of protections that we can provide investors here,” according to a separate statement.
In a Tuesday notice, the SEC proposed new rules to create a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets,” allowing entities to raise capital while preserving investor protections.
The proposal came days after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which would provide a comprehensive framework for financial regulators overseeing the crypto industry.
On July 27, Atkins told CNBC the agency was “ready, willing, and able to come out with rules“ on digital assets if the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital has cut its odds on the CLARITY Act’s chances of passing in 2026 to 10%, warning that multiple political issues remain unresolved and the Senate will have only about two to three weeks to pass it when it reconvenes on Sept. 14.
Magazine: Why Meta is choosing partners over power in its 2026 stablecoin push

Centrifuge has added Symbiotic’s liquidity network across three tokenized funds that represent about $1.6 billion in assets under management, giving eligible holders another route to exchange their positions for USDC.
The integration covers Janus Henderson’s JAAA, an AAA-rated collateralized loan obligation strategy, JTRSY, a short-duration US Treasury strategy and New York Life Investment Management’s HYB, a US high-yield corporate bond strategy.
Symbiotic’s Liquid Lane uses an onchain request-for-quote (RFQ) marketplace where market makers can tap liquidity from vaults to fill redemption requests. Market makers can then redeem the acquired fund tokens through the issuer or sell them through another RFQ transaction.
The arrangement allows investors to receive USDC immediately while the funds’ normal redemption can take place separately.
Centrifuge is an asset tokenization and vault platform where asset managers issue and manage tokenized funds. Janus Henderson, a global asset manager with about $500 billion in assets under management, has been a significant contributor to the platform’s growth through its JAAA and JTRSY products.
By December 2025, Centrifuge had attracted about $1.3 billion in new inflows, driven primarily by the two Janus Henderson funds, according to Token Terminal. JAAA alone had contributed about $1 billion in total value locked and was one of the largest tokenized funds in the market.
Symbiotic joins existing liquidity routes
Liquid Lane is not the first liquidity route available for Centrifuge’s tokenized funds, Felix Lutsch, Symbiotic’s head of ecosystem, told Cointelegraph.
“We’re not claiming to be first, and other liquidity routes exist. That’s healthy for the market,” Lutsch said.
Centrifuge announced a partnership with Wintermute in February 2025 to provide 24/7 instant redemptions for JTRSY. HYB launched in June with a separate liquidity arrangement for near-instant redemptions.
Lutsch said the distinction with Liquid Lane is the capital structure behind the transactions rather than their speed. Its marketplace allows multiple market makers and curators to participate without market makers having to pre-fund and carry inventory for individual assets, he said.
“The bigger constraint has been flow,” Lutsch said, adding that low trading volumes in tokenized assets have historically given market makers little incentive to commit capital.
He said aggregating redemption demand across issuers and asset classes could improve those economics as tokenized funds are increasingly used as collateral and financing assets in onchain markets.
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Sweden-listed health-tech and Bitcoin treasury company H100 Group reported a pre-tax loss of 98 million Swedish kronor ($10.3 million) for the second quarter and a loss of 253 million kronor for the first half of 2026.
H100 also reported 3 million kronor in operating income, flat with Q2 2025, and 6.1 million kronor for H1 2026, up from 5.8 million kronor for H1 2025, according to its interim report published on Wednesday.
Nearly all of the Q2 loss was a non-cash write-down attributed to Bitcoin’s (BTC) price decline during the period, the company said in a Wednesday X post.
H100 became Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company earlier in August, after acquiring two smaller Norwegian Bitcoin treasury firms along with their cryptocurrency holdings.
The deal brought H100’s Bitcoin holdings to 3,506 BTC, or about $226 million, making it Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury company by holdings, behind Germany’s Bitcoin Group with 3,605 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.
H100 Group’s share price fell 4.2% on Tuesday, extending its 24% year-to-date decline, according to StockAnalysis data.
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Ripple raised $275 million in a senior note offering that closed on Tuesday to support blockchain enterprise solutions provider’s ongoing US business expansion into financial services.
The senior unsecured notes were issued in a private placement by the company’s non-bank prime brokerage, Ripple Prime, the company announced on Tuesday. Ripple said the note offering attracted a diverse base of institutional investors from financial markets.
Ripple Prime President Noel Kimmel said that the support received during the note offering is a signal of “confidence in our long-term vision for the growing intersection of traditional and digital asset financial infrastructure.”
Ripple said the proceeds of the offering will be used to support its expansion into financial services including prime brokerage, financing and multi-asset clearing.
The company acquired Hidden Road last year in a roughly $1.25 billion deal. That acquisition allowed the Ripple to launch its institutional prime brokerage business, which was later rebranded as Ripple Prime.
In May, Ripple secured a $200 million credit facility from funds managed by Neuberger Berman to expand the lending capacity of its institutional prime brokerage business.
In July, it launched Ripple Mint, a platform that gives institutions new ways to access, mint, redeem and manage its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). At last look, RLUSD has a market cap of $1.76 billion, according to Coingecko data.
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Bitcoin (BTC) falling more than 50% from its $126,200 all-time high was a “positioning correction,” BlackRock says.
Key points:
A BlackRock report attributes Bitcoin’s decline below $60,000 to cascading liquidations as leverage was purged from the market.
The long-term BTC investment thesis as a “low-correlation diversifier” remains intact, analysts confirm.
BlackRock sees Bitcoin’s risk-asset correlation declining as time goes on.
BlackRock predicts falling correlation of BTC with risk assets
In a report published this week, the world’s largest asset manager preserved its bull thesis despite waves of outflows from its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in 2026.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw net outflows of $78.9 million in the week through Aug. 14. Across all ETF products, outflows totaled $267.2 million.
“We view bitcoin’s ~50% pullback from October 2025 highs as a positioning correction rather than a change in its investment case. A historically overleveraged market, enabled by perpetual futures, suffered cascading liquidations compounded by slowing ETP outflows and digital asset treasury demand,” the report states.
US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors
During last year’s peak, Bitcoin experienced a surge in speculative positioning. BlackRock pointed to open interest on Bitcoin derivatives markets passing $90 billion in early October amid heavy use of leverage. The unwinding of these positions increased the correlation between BTC/USD and risk assets more broadly.
“A macro-driven risk-off catalyst (China tariff headlines) triggered large-scale deleveraging across precious metals and crypto markets. The resulting liquidation waves drove prices down to cycle lows below $60,000 per bitcoin by June 2026,” it explained.

Bitcoin futures open interest data (screenshot). Source: BlackRock
Institutional Bitcoin demand has suffered this year as a combination of geopolitical uncertainty and growing inflation pressures saw capital flowing into established risk-asset classes, among them US equities, with the S&P 500 hitting record highs last week. Bitcoin has failed to follow suit, but BlackRock forecasts that this may change.
“With speculative excess now largely purged, we believe bitcoin’s recent episodes of elevated risk correlation should normalize lower, consistent with its longer-term record as a low-correlation diversifier,” it continued.
Longer-term resilience of BTC stands out
The report highlights that long-term BTC investment returns follow key political and macro events. These include the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, the US presidential election the same year, as well as the regional banking crisis and president Donald Trump’s multiple international trade-tariff declarations.
While it initially struggled following some of these events, Bitcoin produced solid returns on a 60-day basis. In the case of the 2020 election, these hit as high as 113%.
“Through multiple shocks in recent years, bitcoin often outperformed both the S&P 500 and gold in the weeks and months following the onset of disruptions,” BlackRock commented.
“This pattern has held true thus far in 2026 amid ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran, with bitcoin delivering positive returns and outperforming equities and gold following the onset of hostilities in February and the end of the ceasefire agreement in July.”
Macro asset returns comparison (screenshot). Source: BlackRock
Further data puts Bitcoin’s 12-month realized volatility at 40% compared to 26% for gold and 12% for the S&P 500. The rolling six-month correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P, presented as a 10-year average, is now 0.18 — still notably higher than gold’s 0.06 reading.
“Bitcoin’s underlying investment case aligns more closely with that of gold — as a global monetary alternative and a hedge against inflation, global disorder, and declining trust in fiat currencies. Even for gold, which tends to be viewed as a standard uncorrelated, store-of-value asset, brief periods of high equity correlation exist, including COVID in 2020-2021 and the monetary easing cycle in 2023,” the report added.
Bitcoin vs. S&P 500 correlation data (screenshot). Source: BlackRock
Since October 2025, BTC price performance has led some to question its role as a form of “digital gold.” In a Q1 report, asset manager Grayscale described short-term behavior as being more like a growth stock than gold, noting its low correlation to the latter.

Nexo Australia launched crypto-backed credit lines after becoming a credit representative under Australia’s National Consumer Credit Protection Act, the company said in a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
The new credit lines allow eligible clients to borrow Australian dollars or stablecoins by using their cryptocurrencies as collateral without having to sell them.
Funds are generally available within 24 hours with flexible repayments, with no fixed term or origination fees. Interest rates range from 0.9% to 21.9%, depending on the credit line and the client’s loyalty tier.
Clients can choose between Smart and Standard credit lines, Peter Stanhope, general manager at Nexo Australia, told Cointelegraph.
“The main differences are in rates, asset selection, and how client collateral is managed if their [loan-to-value ratio] rises,” Stanhope said.
Nexo said borrowing against digital assets carries margin-call and liquidation risks, meaning clients could lose some or all of their collateral if its value falls.
The milestone makes Nexo one of the few crypto platforms to offer regulated crypto-backed credit lines to Australian users. In May 2026, Block Earner became the first crypto company in Australia to secure its own Australian Credit License from ASIC.
Nexo Australia is registered with the country’s anti-money laundering watchdog, AUSTRAC, as a virtual asset service provider and is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
Magazine: Why Australia’s $17B crypto opportunity depends on regulation

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he would lead Flop Labs and updated his X profile to identify himself as the company’s CEO. Flop Labs is developing a proposed network through which AI agents would pay for computing and other services.
“I’m coming out of retirement to lead @flop_labs,” Hayes said in a Tuesday X post.
Cointelegraph has approached Hayes for comment and asked whether this position would affect his existing role as chief investment officer of Maelstrom Fund.
Hayes said Flop plans a “massive airdrop” in the fourth quarter of 2026, before the network’s genesis block launches in early 2027. Further details will be announced later.
Flop brands itself as a “proof-of-useful-inference protocol founded by Arthur Hayes,” in which AI agents spend the protocol’s native Flop (FLOP) token for inference and decentralized memory services.
Hayes co-founded cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX in 2014 but stepped down from his role as CEO in October 2020. In July 2026, BitMEX announced that it would shut down its exchange on Sept. 23.
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US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds drew $189.3 million in net inflows on Tuesday, lifting August net inflows to about $951 million.
The latest gains followed $297.6 million in net inflows on Monday, bringing the two-day total to $487 million, or more than half of the funds’ net inflows so far this month, according to SoSoValue data.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust led the day’s inflows with $143.6 million, while Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund added $23.9 million.
The rebound followed three consecutive sessions of net outflows from Aug. 12 through Aug. 14, when the funds shed about $250 million.
Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at about $52.28 billion, while total net assets reached roughly $79.3 billion.
Meanwhile, spot Ether ETFs recorded $71.5 million in net inflows on Tuesday, bringing August net inflows to about $345 million.
Bitcoin traded at $64,234 at the time of writing, while Ether was priced at $1,914, according to CoinGecko.

Cross-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) Maya Protocol halted its network after an attacker exploited a series of software flaws to obtain an estimated $1.7 million in crypto.
On Wednesday, Maya Protocol’s pseudonymous co-founder Aalux said the attacker stole about 20 Bitcoin, valued at $1.4 million and another $300,000 in assets. He said the protocol implemented a global halt, contained further damage and started working on a fix to resume swaps.
A preliminary technical analysis shared by Aalux attributed the incident to six chained bugs involving trade accounts, outbound transaction handling and liquidity pool calculations. It said the attacker used a single transaction containing 23 messages to trigger a false theft detection, artificially inflate a low-liquidity pool and withdraw 48.87 million CACAO tokens from Maya’s Asgard module.
The report calculated that about $1.36 million was transferred to external blockchains, while the attacker retained about $291,000 in CACAO and trade-account positions on MAYAChain.
Independent blockchain security researcher Vini Barbosa summarized the findings and noted that CACAO fell by 88.7%, from approximately $0.115 to $0.013 during the incident.
The analysis estimated a wider $10.9 million decline in pool value, but said that figure included arbitrage activity and CACAO’s devaluation rather than assets stolen solely by the attacker.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has proposed guidance outlining when companies may classify certain stablecoins as cash equivalents under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.
On Tuesday, the FASB said the proposed Accounting Standards Update would add illustrative examples to the current definition, addressing inconsistent treatment of digital assets such as stablecoins. The definition itself would remain unchanged.
The proposal says a qualifying digital asset would need an on-demand contractual redemption right, a direct redemption right with its issuer for a known cash amount and at least one-to-one segregated reserves held in short-term, highly liquid assets.
One example said active secondary markets would not be enough if the holder lacks a direct issuer redemption right. Another example said reserves comprising crypto assets and gold would disqualify a token due to valuation risks.
Companies would retain the choice of whether to present qualifying assets as cash equivalents and would need to consider relevant laws and regulations.
FASB is accepting public comments on the proposed update until Nov. 19. The organization will set an effective date after reviewing stakeholder feedback.

BitMart account demands founder explain funds status, Xia calls claims ‘fabricated’
BitMart’s official Chinese-language X account has publicly demanded that founder Sheldon Xia explain the whereabouts of user funds and produce a repayment plan.
It said some users were unable to withdraw funds and some employees have not received their final salary or compensation and threatened Xia that if he does not provide a verifiable asset disclosure and repayment plan by the deadline, it would continue to submit evidence to regulators, law enforcement, lawyers and the media.
Xia called the claims in the post “fabricated rumors” and promised a counter-attack.
“We have collected full evidence of the content on X, all of which is fabricated rumors. During daytime US time, we will file a police report and send a lawyer’s letter to X, demanding technical and data forensics,” Xia said.
Binance bStocks pass xStocks as second-largest tokenized stock issuer
Binance bStocks have overtaken xStocks to become the second-largest tokenized stock issuer by value less than two months after launch.
BStocks reached about $624 million on Aug. 3, surpassing xStocks at roughly $579 million but trailing Ondo Finance at about $927 million, according to Token Terminal data.
The issuer landscape has shifted sharply as the tokenized stock market has grown. A year earlier, xStocks led with $40.7 million, followed by Robinhood at $37.2 million, while Ondo held about $65,000. The total value tracked by Token Terminal has since surged from roughly $80 million to about $2.7 billion.
NORTH KOREA
Inside the fake crypto startup that fooled North Korean IT workers
Suspected North Korean IT workers joined a fake crypto startup — without realizing their every move was being tracked to extract valuable intel. Cointelegraph came along for the ride.
Suspected DPRK IT workers pitch for venture capital backing from the fictitious Definitive Communications, played by Cointelegraph. Source: ANY.RUN
ISRAEL
Israel’s largest bank taps Galaxy to offer Bitcoin, Ether, Solana trading
Israel’s Bank Leumi will become the first local bank to offer crypto trading, after partnering with Galaxy Digital to let customers trade Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through the bank’s investment platform from early 2027.
The companies said Friday that customers of Leumi and Pepper, its mobile banking arm, will be able to buy, hold and sell the three cryptocurrencies through a dedicated section of the Leumi Trade app.
JAPAN
Metaplanet CEO shuts down Bitcoin sale speculation after $322M transfer
Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich has shut down speculation that the Japanese Bitcoin treasury company is selling its holdings after the company transferred 5,014 BTC ($322 million) over a 24-hour span last week.
“This was a routine custody operation. No Bitcoin was sold, and our holdings remain 43,000 BTC,” Gerovich said.
Metaplanet is the third-largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company and the largest in Asia. According to Arkham data, it is sitting on an unrealized loss of about $1.4 billion.
MUFG PoC to bring Japanese government bond repo transactions onchain
Four MUFG companies plan to bring Japanese government bond repo transactions onchain using the Canton Network, as part of a new proof of concept (PoC).
The companies said they seek to improve operational efficiency through automation of the transaction lifecycle, enable real-time intraday settlement 24/7, as well as enhance funding and capital efficiency.
SINGAPORE
Singapore introduces mandatory tax reporting
Singapore has finalized regulations that require crypto firms to report user transactions to the tax department. The rules implement the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework into Singapore domestic law and take effect from January 1, 2027 for new users, while existing users can tarry until December 31, 2027.
Singapore. Source: Pexels
Binance and RedotPay stoush heats up
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 it expects Binance to discontinue the Singapore proceedings and will seek legal costs.
Binance said that’s not going to happen and it “is not abandoning its claims and has informed both the court and RedotPay accordingly.”
The plaintiffs previously alleged in a Hong Kong court that 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.
Meanwhile RedotPay’s US IPO has reportedly been delayed as it seeks regulatory approvals.
KOREA
Shinhan Asset Management partners with Plume on tokenized fund pilot
South Korea’s Shinhan Asset Management signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with tokenization-focused blockchain network Plume to develop a proof of concept for a Korean won-denominated tokenized fund.
The pilot is intended to test the overseas use of won-denominated financial products in onchain markets that have largely developed around dollar-denominated assets.
HONG KONG
HashKey begins beta distribution of Hong Kong-regulated HKDAP stablecoin
The Standard Chartered-led Anchorpoint Financial has started to rollout the first regulated Hong Kong dollar backed stablecoin called HKDAP. HashKey Exchange will be an authorized distributor, potentially expanding access to the fiat-backed asset as the territory’s stablecoin market takes shape. Retail access will be limited initially, with the focus on institutions.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Futures Commission reportedly identified 65 fraudulent websites impersonating HashKey.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new rules that could affect the cryptocurrency industry after lawmakers in Congress failed to pass a market structure bill before breaking for a month-long recess.
In a Tuesday notice, the SEC said that the agency proposed rules to create a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.” According to the regulator, the “tailored securities offering regime” would allow entities to raise capital while preserving investor protections.
The agency’s rules did not include an “innovation exemption” for crypto-based stocks, which had also been expected to be announced. Notably, the proposed rules came just days after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a bill expected to clarify the roles federal agencies would have in overseeing and regulating crypto.
“[L]egislation remains indispensable to enacting ‘future-proofed’ rules of the road that are durable enough to protect the work we are undertaking today from being unwound by a future rogue regulator,” said SEC Chair Paul Atkins. “The SEC has and will continue to support Congress in delivering the CLARITY Act to President Trump’s desk.”
According to the proposed rules, crypto companies would be offered exemptions allowing the issuance of up to $5 million in tokens during a four-year period and up to $75 million during a 12-month period, as well as a safe harbor exempting cryptocurrencies from being treated as ”investment contracts.” Token issuers would be required to make financial statements and “would be subject to ongoing reporting requirements.“
The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal after publication in the Federal Register.
The SEC’s proposed rules in the absence of legislation from Congress came ahead of a scheduled Thursday meeting of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto, AI and prediction markets. The commodities regulator said it planned to address “areas where regulatory action can complement future congressional legislation.”
Atkins had been scheduled to speak at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Tuesday, but canceled amid the SEC announcement. White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said at the event that US regulators would “let loose” on crypto regulation if Congress was unable to move forward on the CLARITY Act.
CLARITY’s chances before a new Congress is sworn in?
Before the Senate broke for its August state work periods, Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on a motion to take up the CLARITY crypto bill when lawmakers return in mid-September.
Following the August recess, senators only have 14 days in session before breaking again ahead of the November election. If Thune and Republican lawmakers can’t get a floor vote before then, the Senate has another 22 days in session before 2027, when new members of Congress will be sworn in.
Magazine: Will the crypto lobby’s $189M campaign get CLARITY over the line?

Interstice Digital has launched a cross-chain swap engine with FalconX connecting the Canton Network with Ethereum, Solana and Robinhood Chain.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the non-custodial engine allows assets to be swapped across the four networks without Interstice taking custody or executing transactions on users’ behalf.
FalconX, a digital asset prime brokerage serving institutional investors, provides liquidity for the engine, which is designed to connect Canton’s institutional markets with assets and trading activity on public blockchains, giving users a route between tokenized assets on Canton and liquidity on networks such as Ethereum and Solana.
Canton is a public blockchain built for institutional finance, with privacy and permissioning controls designed for regulated transactions and tokenized assets. Its ecosystem includes major financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.
Interstice is a wholly owned subsidiary of Everyrealm and is backed by investors including a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy and Brevan Howard. The company did not disclose which assets are initially supported or provide transaction volume figures for the swap engine.
Canton expands institutional tokenization activity
The integration comes as more traditional financial institutions use Canton for tokenized assets and blockchain-based settlement.
In July, electronic trading platform Tradeweb executed an onchain US Treasury trade in which Franklin Templeton transferred a tokenized Treasury security to Virtu Financial in exchange for tokenized cash.
Tradeweb provided execution and price discovery, while Canton synchronized settlement between the two assets in real time. Tradeweb said it was the first real-time purchase and sale of a tokenized US Treasury settled against USDCx, a USDC-backed stablecoin issued on Canton, with other participants including Societe Generale, Digital Asset and Blockdaemon.
Societe Generale has also deployed its euro- and dollar-denominated stablecoins on Canton for tokenized collateral, repo financing and institutional settlement, while Visa has tested private stablecoin settlement on the network.
Other initiatives include a Japanese government bond collateral pilot involving Mizuho and Nomura and S&P Dow Jones Indices placing its iBoxx US Treasuries Index on Canton.
PoC trial for digital collateral management using Japanese government bonds. Source: JPX
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An affiliate of political action committee (PAC) Fairshake, funded primarily by Coinbase and Ripple Labs, has poured more than $2 million into media opposing a Democratic candidate who did not appear to have taken any prominent position on digital assets before the ads were released.
According to records with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Tuesday, the Protect Progress PAC had spent more than $2 million on ads opposing Democratic candidate Oliver Gilbert in Florida’s 24th congressional district. Notably, no candidate in the Democratic primary appeared to have taken a strong position on digital assets as part of their campaigns before the PAC’s involvement.
The Democratic candidate is running for the seat currently occupied by Representative Frederica Wilson, who, in addition to voting against the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act and Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act while serving in Congress, endorsed Gilbert. Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator and Democratic candidate who was ahead of Gilbert in an early August poll, has completed a questionnaire with Stand With Crypto, earning him a “strongly supports” rating from the advocacy organization.
Gilbert reportedly said “[Donald] Trump’s tech billionaire buddies” were behind the “crypto con artists trying to buy a Democratic primary” through the ads, which included fake Miami Herald headlines unrelated to digital asset policy. Wilson endorsed Gilbert at a June 22 event. Cointelegraph reached out to Gilbert’s campaign and a Fairshake spokesperson for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Fairshake reported holding a $193 million war chest as of January, which it has used through affiliates like Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs to support Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively, for races in the 2026 midterm elections. As of June, the PAC had already poured more than $82 million into primaries and special elections to influence voters through ads.
Primary races to impact party control in 2027
On Tuesday, voters in Alaska, California, Florida and Wyoming will decide on congressional candidates to face off in the general election in November.
The Protect Progress PAC has also spent more than $150,000 on media supporting the re-election of Lois Frankel in Florida’s 23rd district. Defend American Jobs reported a combined $1.5 million on ads in favor of Representative Nick Begich in Alaska’s at-large congressional district, Republican candidate Sydney Gruters in Florida’s 16th district and Representative Harriet Hageman for one of the US Senate seats representing Wyoming.
The primary races will determine whether Democrats retake control of the US House of Representatives and Senate starting in the next session of Congress in January, or Republicans remain the majority. Both chambers are on recess until September, when the Senate is expected to hold a vote on the CLARITY Act.
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Cypherpunk Technologies is expanding its footprint in the Zcash ecosystem, launching what it says is the world’s largest Zcash mining operation after acquiring a mining fleet from Winklevoss Capital, signaling growing institutional interest in the privacy-focused network.
Cypherpunk said Tuesday that it acquired the fleet through an equity-based transaction valued at $33.33 million. The mining operation is already online at facilities across the United States, producing roughly 4.2 GSol/s, or about 18% of the Zcash network’s current hashrate.
If the company’s figures are accurate, the transaction gives a single publicly traded company a significant share of Zcash’s mining capacity.
The expansion adds mining to Cypherpunk’s existing Zcash holdings, which currently stand at 323,394 ZEC, representing about 1.9% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. The company has set a target of eventually holding 5% of the ZEC supply.
Cypherpunk has pitched Zcash mining as offering more attractive economics than Bitcoin mining or AI data center workloads at current market conditions. However, those economics depend heavily on factors including ZEC’s price, network hashrate, mining difficulty and operating costs.
The push follows a sharp rise in ZEC during the second half of 2025, when renewed interest in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies helped propel the asset higher. The rally brought greater attention to Zcash and other privacy-preserving technologies after years of comparatively muted market interest.
Despite its correction, Zcash (ZEC) is up more than 1,300% over the past 12 months. Source: CoinMarketCap
Ironwood upgrade addresses risk in Zcash shielded pool
The Zcash network underwent its Ironwood upgrade on July 28, introducing a new shielded transaction protocol to replace the Orchard pool and improve the network’s security architecture.
The upgrade followed the discovery of a flaw affecting Orchard that, under certain conditions, could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC within the shielded pool without immediate detection.
While there was no evidence the vulnerability had been exploited, the potential for undetected ZEC creation posed a risk to the integrity of the cryptocurrency’s supply and highlighted the security challenges associated with privacy-preserving transactions.

An effort by Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, to convince a federal court to vacate his 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation faces pushback from US prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
In a Friday filing, SDNY Attorney James McDonald and Assistant US Attorney Allison Nichols said that the court should deny Mashinsky’s petition to vacate his conviction and sentence, saying that many of his legal arguments were “without merit” and pushing back against claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.
The former Celsius CEO informed the court in May that he would be proceeding pro se — that is, representing himself in the case — and filed a motion to vacate, including claims about cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his former colleague, the company’s chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon.
“Mashinsky has not even submitted a sworn declaration in support of these baseless allegations, and his petition should be denied without a hearing or further fact-finding,” said prosecutors, adding:
“[...] He presents a litany of complaints, blaming others for problems at Celsius and rehashing the evidence presented at his sentencing hearing. Though Mashinsky stops short of claiming that he is factually innocent, he blames his lawyers for failing to press certain arguments on his behalf.”
As of Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case had not responded to the federal prosecutors’ filing. Mashinsky was sentenced in May 2025 to 144 months in prison, having pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud related to “manipulative and deceptive devices” at Celsius. Cohen-Pavon, who according to the government provided “substantial assistance” to the prosecutors case again Mashinsky, was sentenced to time served in May.
Celsius was one of a slew of crypto companies to file for bankruptcy in 2022 amid a market downturn starting with the collapse of Terraform Labs. Authorities indicted Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon in 2023 and both subsequently pleaded guilty. The former CEO was ordered to pay $48 million in forfeiture at sentencing and agreed to pay $10 million as part of a separate settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission.
Mashinsky banned from commodities markets trading
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced in June that the former Celsius CEO was permanently banned from trading in markets within the commodities regulator’s purview.
The CFTC case was one of the last against Mashinsky and Celsius to be resolved following the company’s collapse in 2022. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil action against the co-founder, first filed in 2023, was still ongoing despite the court reaching a judgment against the platform months after the initial complaint.
As of July 30, the SEC reported that its attorneys and Mashinsky were “engaged in settlement discussions.“ The regulator asked the court for 60 days to file a status report on the matter, pushing any potential resolution to the end of September.
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