Moonwell freezes borrowing after $8.7M Base exploit Moonwell cut borrow caps across all Base Core Markets to 1 wei after an attacker manipulated the price of thinly traded MAMO collateral and borrowed out real assets including cbBTC and USDC. Blockaid first estimated 50.6 cbBTC, worth more than $4 million, was drained from the mCBTC market, while PeckShield later put total losses at $8.7 million.
Bitfinex Securities completes record $50M tokenized raise for Alkemya Bitfinex Securities said it has closed a record $50 million raise for Alkemya through ALKN, a tokenized security representing limited partnership interests in Luxembourg-based Alkemya Metacore SCSp, which holds about 7 million meters of 99.99% pure nickel wire valued independently at about $1.64 billion. Alkemya plans to use the proceeds to commercialize engineered nickel products, including for semiconductors, while additional ALKN tokens will remain available to eligible investors until Oct. 15.
UK judge clears next step in Saitama executive’s extradition to the US Manpreet Kohli, a former Saitama executive, moved closer to extradition from the UK after Judge Samuel Goozee on Aug. 19 rejected his challenge over US fraud and market-manipulation charges and referred the case to British ministers. US prosecutors allege Kohli secretly sold Saitama tokens while publicly claiming to hold and buy them, making about $20 million; he can still appeal.
RWA trading volumes rose 220% in a year, CoinShares says RWA spot trading volumes jumped about 220% from Q2 2025 to Q2 2026, while decentralized exchange spot volumes fell roughly 70%, CoinShares and Token Terminal found. RWA deposits climbed from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion even as total DeFi deposits dropped about 15%, with nearly 70% of those deposits sitting on Ethereum-based lending venues as investors increasingly use yield-bearing tokenized assets as collateral.
CFTC warns on crypto ATM scams after FBI logged $388M in 2025 losses The CFTC warned U.S. consumers on Aug. 26 that scammers are using crypto ATMs, apps, gift cards and couriers to extract payments that are hard to reverse, after FBI data showed more than 13,400 cryptocurrency kiosk complaints and over $388 million in reported 2025 losses. More than half of kiosk complaints involved people over 50, who accounted for $302 million lost.
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin tops $2 billion market cap Ripple’s RLUSD has crossed $2 billion in market value less than two years after its December 2024 launch, with issuance split at roughly $963 million on the XRP Ledger and about $1.05 billion on Ethereum. The token is issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company under a limited-purpose New York charter, and Ripple reported $1.981 billion in reserves against $1.866 billion in circulating RLUSD on Aug. 20, 2026, just before the milestone.
Revolut starts EURR stablecoin rollout in three EU markets Revolut has begun rolling out EURR, its first euro-pegged stablecoin, to eligible customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal, with a wider EEA launch planned later this year. The €1 token is issued by Bridge Building S.A. under Luxembourg MiCA authorisation and distributed by Revolut’s licensed crypto arm, as the fintech prepares to remove Tether’s USDt from its European retail offering by August 31.
Solana voters weigh faster SOL disinflation and expanded fee burns Solana validators and delegators are voting through epoch 1023, expected to end around 15:30 UTC on Aug. 27, on two proposals that would speed SOL’s path to its 1.5% inflation floor and burn more transaction resource fees. SIMD-0550 would raise annual disinflation from 15% to 30%, with authors projecting 18.9 million fewer SOL issued over six years, while SIMD-0553 could lift daily burns to 7,500-9,000 SOL at current activity; neither change would take effect immediately after the vote.
UK to give Bank of England innovation mandate for payments The UK Treasury plans to add “promoting innovation” as a secondary objective to the Bank of England’s regulation of payment systems, while keeping financial stability as its primary goal. The move is aimed at boosting the UK’s competitiveness in digital finance, with tokenization and distributed ledger technology highlighted as priority areas, and comes as the BoE softens its stance on stablecoin rules.
FBI seizes domains tied to alleged Chinese state-backed hacking tools U.S. authorities on Aug. 26 took offline QScan and QTRouter by seizing three domains hard-coded into the platforms, which the Justice Department said were used to target networks at NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Energy Department, HHS, NIH and the U.S. Senate. Court records attribute the tools to QTFY, a group allegedly linked to Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, and say the platforms helped find vulnerable devices and mask the origin of attacks.
Core Lightning urges node operators to shut down ahead of emergency fix Core Lightning maintainers said several vulnerabilities were found in Blockstream’s CLN implementation after AI-based CVE reports disclosed the issues, and urged node runners to take current versions offline and install an emergency update when signed binaries are released. The team said it aims to ship a fix within 48 hours and make full disclosure within two weeks, adding there were no reports of fund losses or active exploitation at the time.
Gold and Bitcoin ETFs pull in $7B in five days amid US fiscal worries Gold- and Bitcoin-linked ETFs drew a combined $7 billion over the past five trading days, with SPDR Gold Shares taking in about $3.4 billion and BlackRock’s spot-Bitcoin ETF IBIT adding $1.5 billion, Bloomberg data show. The parallel inflows came as long-dated Treasury yields and the dollar fell after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would at least double long-term Treasury buybacks, reviving the “debasement trade” in scarce assets.
Binance to suspend ETH transfers on Aug. 27, delist ICX, SCRT and STORJ Binance said it will pause deposits and withdrawals on the Ethereum network for about one hour on Aug. 27 to support wallet maintenance, while trading of ETH-based tokens will continue as normal. Separately, the exchange said it will delist ICON (ICX), Secret (SCRT) and Storj (STORJ) on Sept. 3 by removing all spot trading pairs; SCRT has fallen 25% in the past 24 hours since the announcement.
UK judge clears path for ex-Saitama CEO’s extradition to the US A British judge has rejected former Saitama CEO Manpreet Kohli’s bid to block extradition to the US, where he faces wire fraud, market manipulation, conspiracy and unlicensed money-transmitting charges tied to an alleged scheme involving the Ethereum-based token. US prosecutors claim Kohli helped coordinate wash trading and insider sales while denying executives were selling, and made about $20 million.
SEC sends crypto custody rule overhaul to White House for review The SEC has sent proposed changes to crypto custody rules for investment advisers and investment companies to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which received the package on Aug. 25. The overhaul would update how client digital assets can be held under existing SEC custody rules, with full details to come only after executive review, a commission vote, and public comment.
Federal jury convicts Block Bits Capital founder in $1M crypto fraud case A federal jury convicted Block Bits Capital founder Japheth Dillman of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud after prosecutors said he raised nearly $1 million from more than 20 investors in 2017-2018 by falsely claiming the fund had a working proprietary “Autotrader.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the software was not working, while investor money was used to pay Dillman and others and fund speculative crypto bets that produced major losses.
Solana spot ETFs hit record $1.22B in cumulative inflows US spot Solana ETFs have now taken in a record $1.22 billion, with $33.5 million added on Monday alone, the biggest single day of 2026 and the fifth straight session of net inflows. The move came as Solana’s network also set a record 4.2 billion transactions in July, but SOL still trades near $96, about 67% below its $293.31 all-time high.
Revolut starts limited rollout of euro stablecoin EURR in three EEA markets Revolut has begun rolling out its first stablecoin, the euro-pegged EURR, to selected customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal, with wider EEA availability planned later this year if product, operational and regulatory conditions are met. Issued by Bridge Building S.A. in Luxembourg, the MiCA-compliant token will launch first on Ethereum, support external wallet transfers for some users, and comes as Revolut withdraws Tether’s USDt from the EEA and Switzerland.
TokenLogic proposes phased Aave stablecoin rate changes Aave service provider TokenLogic has proposed raising Slope1 by 50 bps on 22 stablecoin reserves, lifting Base USDC by 25 bps, and increasing the USDe base borrowing rate toward 5.25% to align it with Ethena staking yields. To absorb debt migrating out of USDe, it also proposes a temporary 2% increase in optimal utilization for Ethereum Core and Plasma USDC/USDT, freeing about $116M in extra borrowing capacity, with changes executed in 10 bps steps via Risk Stewards.
Russia’s top telecoms ready digital ruble payments for Sept. 1 rollout MTS, Rostelecom and MegaFon are preparing to accept digital ruble payments from Sept. 1, as Russia starts the first mandatory phase of its CBDC rollout. MTS will enable payments in the My MTS app, online store and services using MTS Pay, while Rostelecom will begin with one-time payments on its website. The same deadline also applies to eligible large merchants and major banks, with Wildberries and Ozon also preparing support.
Judge delays Roman Storm retrial to April 2027 A U.S. federal judge moved Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s retrial from October 2026 to April 26, 2027, adopting the defense’s request over prosecutors’ push for an earlier schedule. Storm’s motion to overturn his existing 2025 money transmission conviction is still pending, while he still faces unresolved money laundering and sanctions charges after the first jury deadlocked on both counts.
South Korea lawmakers move toward hearing on Digital Asset Framework Act National Assembly Political Affairs Committee chair Yoo Dong-soo said Aug. 26 that senior members from the two main parties should work out plans for a public hearing on the Digital Asset Framework Act, after Democratic Party lawmaker Min Byung-duk urged faster action on stablecoin and digital finance legislation. The government’s draft could reach the Assembly in September, and Yoo said he plans to submit a new framework bill once he receives it.
LayerZero unveils ATLAS exchange infrastructure for institutions LayerZero introduced ATLAS, a “headless exchange” backend that lets trading platforms and financial institutions launch their own branded venues without building matching, clearing, settlement and risk systems from scratch. The system runs on LayerZero’s Zero blockchain and is slated to launch later this year, with Citadel Securities, DTCC, ARK Invest and Intercontinental Exchange named as collaborators; ZRO rose as much as 30% after the announcement.
BlackRock cuts minimum for direct Bitcoin-to-IBIT swaps to $1 million BlackRock lowered the minimum Bitcoin needed for in-kind creation into its spot BTC ETF, IBIT, to $1 million in July from $25 million, making it easier for large holders to swap self-custodied BTC for ETF shares without selling first and potentially triggering capital gains taxes. Bitwise also cut its threshold to $3 million from $100 million, as demand rises amid crypto crime and custody concerns.
Kraken restores accounts hit by HTX-linked microtransfer reviews Kraken restored customer accounts it had temporarily restricted after nearly 12,000 unsolicited crypto transfers hit addresses linked to the exchange between Aug. 17 and 24. The disputed funds remain segregated due to their reported ties to sanctioned wallets; Arkham Intelligence labeled the sending wallet as connected to HTX, while HTX denied involvement and said it is investigating possible labeling errors or third-party actions.
Grayscale’s Zcash ETF starts trading on NYSE Arca Grayscale’s Zcash fund began trading on NYSE Arca on Aug. 25 as ZCSH, which the firm says is the world’s first exchange-traded product offering spot exposure to Zcash (ZEC). The converted fund charges a 2.5% annual sponsor fee; its registration became effective on Aug. 24, and it dropped the Grayscale Zcash Trust name ahead of the listing. Shares’ discount to NAV had narrowed to 1% by Aug. 20 from 17% on June 30.
HashKey to list Franklin Templeton tokenized U.S. money market fund in Asia HashKey Exchange will start offering Franklin Templeton’s tokenized U.S. government money market fund, grBENJI, to eligible investors in Asia on August 24 under its Earn channel, the companies said. The product invests mainly in U.S. government money market instruments and U.S. dollar cash assets, and will be limited to professional investors rather than the Hong Kong public.
Operation Lighthouse generates 14,300 crypto crime leads in CSAM probe A Chainalysis-led Operation Lighthouse sprint traced 29,120 cryptocurrency addresses and digital identifiers linked to child sexual abuse material platforms and forums, generating 14,300 investigative leads, flagging more than 7,700 suspect accounts, and identifying suspects in 125 countries. The New York operation brought together law enforcement, nonprofits and private firms; the figures reflect leads and accounts, not arrests or convictions.
US Treasury widens sanctions risk for Iran-linked crypto activity The US Treasury on Aug. 24 expanded sanctions exposure across Iran’s digital asset sector under Operation Economic Outcast and sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels tied to Iranian nuclear, missile, cyber and oil networks. It also targeted UAE-based broker Ivan Obukhov, accused of processing more than $100 million in crypto since 2023 for oil sales supporting the IRGC-Qods Force and its proxies.
Japan sets timeline for blockchain-based bond and stock settlement Japan is preparing a national blockchain rollout for stocks and Japanese government bonds, with the FSA, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan starting work this summer, Nikkei reported. A development plan is due by early 2027 and the system could go live in the early 2030s, aiming to cut stock settlement from two days and JGB settlement from one day to near-instant, 24/7 processing.
South Korea reviews bill to let crypto exchanges partner with multiple banks South Korea’s National Assembly is set to take up an amendment that would let crypto exchanges obtain real-name deposit and withdrawal accounts from multiple banks, potentially replacing the current de facto one-exchange, one-bank model. The Financial Services Commission urged caution, saying the impact on anti-money-laundering and market competition is not yet clear, and the bill now goes to a subcommittee for detailed review.
Ripple USD tops $2 billion market cap Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD has crossed $2 billion in market capitalization, with about $962.8 million issued on the XRP Ledger and $1.05 billion on Ethereum. Over the past 30 days, RLUSD transfers reached $11.81 billion across 1.39 million transactions, as the token expanded dollar liquidity across both networks.
Thailand SEC opens consultation on spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF rules Thailand’s SEC has launched public consultations on draft rules for bitcoin and ethereum ETFs, outlining that any fund must be run by a licensed asset manager, follow ETF and digital-asset fund rules, and trade only on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. BTC and ETH funds would be eligible first, while wrapped-style funds are barred at launch and foreign custody solutions may be considered under amended criteria.
Cosmos Labs urges affected EVM chains to halt over security incident Cosmos Labs has told affected networks in contact with its team to suspend operations during an ongoing Cosmos EVM security incident, after KiiChain, TAC and MANTRA linked recent attacks to shared EVM infrastructure flaws. KiiChain said 148,326,583.15 KII was drained on Aug. 22 before it halted the chain, while TAC said an exploit moved 2,985,651,403 TAC; Cosmos Labs has not publicly confirmed whether all incidents came from one flaw.
World Liberty launches USD1 stablecoin natively on Canton Network World Liberty Financial has deployed its $4.05 billion USD1 stablecoin natively on the Canton Network, adding a dollar settlement asset for tokenized securities and other real-world assets. The company said institutions can use USD1 for collateral, lending, issuance, redemptions and 24/7 cross-border payments, while Canton’s synchronized settlement model lets the asset and payment move at the same time under the network’s privacy controls.
Bitdeer to deploy 1.93 EH/s at Soluna’s Texas wind-powered data center Bitdeer Technologies Group signed a 28 MW co-mining deal with Soluna Holdings to install about 1.93 EH/s of company-owned miners at Soluna’s Kati 1 wind-powered site in Willacy County, Texas, starting in September 2026. Under the shared-mining model, Soluna will provide the site, power and daily operations, while Bitdeer supplies Sealminer A2 Pro Air machines and the two companies split bitcoin mining proceeds.
Ethereum warns Glamsterdam gas repricing may break some L1 contracts Ethereum said the Glamsterdam upgrade’s gas repricing under EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 could break or degrade a small set of L1 smart contracts that rely on hardcoded gas assumptions. Replaying historical mainnet transactions under the new schedule found most contracts are unaffected, while many issues can be fixed by raising gas limits; direct outreach to the most-affected teams is underway, and testing is live on the Platåberget testnet.
Kraken restores accounts after alleged HTX-linked dust attack Kraken said it briefly locked some customer accounts after wallets it identified as linked to HTX sent about 12,000 tiny transfers to Kraken-related addresses between Aug. 17 and Aug. 24. The exchange called it a dust attack aimed at tripping AML controls by placing U.K.- and EU-sanctioned funds into user accounts; access has since been restored, while the sanctioned funds remain frozen and Kraken says it is working with authorities.
Socket links 77 Firefox add-ons to crypto wallet theft campaign Security firm Socket says a campaign it calls the Offside Wallet Theft Factory used 77 Firefox extension identities, with 40 confirmed malicious, to impersonate OKX, Rabby Wallet, TronLink and other Web3 tools and steal recovery phrases or private keys. Some were modified Rabby builds that exfiltrated stored data, credentials and clipboard contents, while nine sports-score apps were later updated into wallet stealers to exploit existing installs.
Aave proposal seeks to add BTC.b to V4 Core on Ethereum Aave Labs has submitted a Direct-to-AIP proposal to onboard BTC.b to the Aave V4 Core Instance on Ethereum, extending the bridged Bitcoin asset beyond its existing listings on Aave V3 Core and Aave V4 Core on Avalanche. Risk parameters and the final configuration are still pending from Aave’s Risk Service Providers before the proposal moves to an AIP vote for onchain confirmation.
Chainalysis-led CSAM crypto sweep identifies suspects in 125 countries Chainalysis said its multi-day Operation Lighthouse sprint with more than nine law enforcement agencies, 13 private-sector partners and non-profits generated 14,300 investigative leads, flagged 7,700+ suspect accounts, and identified CSAM-linked suspects in 125 countries. The operation reviewed 29,120 crypto addresses and digital identifiers tied to more than 100 suspected CSAM platforms and networks.
Lisk moves to shut down blockchain and burn 100M LSK Lisk plans to exit blockchain infrastructure and pivot to a business finance platform, with a proposal before the Lisk DAO to burn 100 million LSK from the treasury and dissolve the DAO. If approved, total supply will fall from 400 million to 300 million, while users holding or staking on Lisk Chain must bridge to Ethereum before Oct. 31; LSK on Ethereum or exchanges is unaffected.
YT-reUSD trade triggers $36.4M in Morpho liquidations About $36.4 million in liquidations hit Morpho early Tuesday after one wallet heavily bought YT-reUSD on Pendle, pushing the paired PT-reUSD down roughly 3% and wiping out borrowers who had used PT-reUSD as collateral with less than 3% headroom. Pendle said the price feed worked as designed, while Steakhouse Financial said lenders took no losses, no bad debt was created, and reUSD itself was unaffected.
Thailand SEC moves spot Bitcoin and Ether ETF rules to draft stage Thailand’s SEC has opened public consultations on draft rules for locally listed spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, advancing the framework to the next regulatory stage. The proposal would require each fund to keep average net exposure of at least 80% of NAV to a single underlying asset, limit the first phase to BTC or ETH, and keep domestic digital asset custodians as the primary custody option. Comments are open until Sept. 20.
TON to shut legacy bridge on September 1 TON Foundation said its legacy bridge at bridge-v3.ton.org will be permanently decommissioned on September 1, giving users a deadline to move affected assets back to native form. The notice covers Wrapped TON held as an ERC-20 on Ethereum or BNB Chain, as well as j-tokens on TON such as jUSDT; after the cutoff, access through the legacy route may be limited or impossible. The shutdown is a planned infrastructure transition, not a hack.
Strategy raises $2 billion but skips Bitcoin buys again Strategy sold 18.26 million MSTR shares for $2.01 billion net last week and used none of the proceeds to buy Bitcoin, according to an August 24 SEC filing. Instead, it put $136.4 million into STRC preferred stock repurchases, $300 million into its USD Reserve, and the rest into a new “USD Cash” pool that can be used for bitcoin buys, debt repayment, dividends, interest, or further buybacks. Holdings stayed at 840,447 BTC.
Korea opens path for offshore tokenized MMFs backed by domestic assets South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has concluded that issuing and selling tokenized securities overseas backed by domestic assets such as money market funds does not clearly violate the Electronic Securities Act, as long as issuance and sales stay outside Korea and do not affect the domestic market. The structure allows offshore funds to hold Korean MMFs and sell tokenized shares to overseas investors via private placements, giving Korean asset managers a new channel to tap on-chain capital while keeping Korean residents out of the market.
Term Labs governance takeover drains $8.5M from strategy vaults An attacker spent about $951 to buy a controlling stake in Term Labs’ governance token, passed malicious proposals on Aug. 23, 2026, and drained roughly $8.5 million from strategy vaults. The haul included 2,843 ETH and 1.68 million USDC, later swapped for about 1.6 million DAI. Term Labs shut all Meta Vault deposits and revoked DAO governance roles, while keeping withdrawals open.
CITI Protocol raises $11 million for on-chain structured products CITI Protocol said Aug. 25 it raised $11 million across seed and pre-Series A rounds from Dragonfly, Jump Crypto, CMT Digital, Stratified Capital, Adaverse and Mirana to expand infrastructure for issuing and operating on-chain structured financial products. Its first platform, Benzo, currently runs four vaults with $30 million in TVL, and the company said it plans to launch thematic portfolio products next.
SEC proposes crypto offering rule with $5M and $75M exemptions The SEC has proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a 402-page framework for crypto asset investment contracts that would create two Securities Act exemptions: up to $5 million over four years for startups and up to $75 million in a rolling 12 months for larger fundraising, with a conditional safe harbor that could let qualifying tokens shed the “investment contract” label once issuer managerial efforts permanently cease. Comments will be open for 60 days after publication.
