SEC Staff: Token Buybacks and Continued Development of Functional Crypto Networks May Not Trigger Howey Test The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued new FAQs clarifying its March 17 crypto guidance. Staff said Staking Receipt Tokens may qualify as “digital tools” or “digital commodities,” depending on their structure. For already functional crypto systems, continued maintenance, improvements, network development and non-security token buybacks generally do not constitute “essential managerial efforts” under the Howey test. However, buybacks promoted as generating returns before a system becomes functional may constitute such efforts. The FAQs represent staff views and have no legal force or effect.

Bitget CEO: A Fake Interview Cost Me $80,000 On September 24, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen @GracyBitget shared her experience of being targeted by the Lazarus Group. The attackers first compromised the official Twitter account of a major crypto media outlet, then impersonated a journalist to contact her and communicated with her assistant and PR team via Telegram, gradually building credibility. She said the attackers ultimately carried out the attack through a Zoom “interview,” highlighting how social engineering and identity impersonation continue to pose threats to the crypto industry.

CZ: Binance, BNB Chain Ecosystem and Community Will Do Everything Possible to Help Bitget CZ said it was a “tough day for Bitget” and that he expects and knows Binance, the BNB Chain ecosystem, and the community will do everything possible to help, adding, “Stay SAFU!” On the same day, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, MEXC CEO Vugar Usi, and CoinDCX co-founder Sumit Gupta also publicly offered assistance.

Bitget Raises Confirmed Incident Amount to $387.5M, Withdrawal Resumption Plan Due by Sept. 26 Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said in a post that the security incident has been contained and that no further unauthorized asset transfers are possible. Bitget will announce its withdrawal resumption plan by 4:00 AM UTC on September 26. Chen said Bitget has confirmed that approximately $387.5 million in assets were transferred to attacker-controlled addresses, up from the initial estimate of $351.6 million. The higher figure reflects additional Zcash and TRON assets identified during tracing and does not represent new theft. Bitget has also launched a recovery bounty program offering 5% of successfully frozen or recovered funds to eligible participants who directly contribute to those efforts.

Ethena Expands USDe Basis Strategy Into Tokenized Stocks With Binance Ethena is partnering with Binance as the first venue to extend USDe’s basis-trade strategy into equity perpetuals, with allocations beginning today. Binance bStocks will serve as tokenized spot collateral, while corresponding exposure is hedged through USDT-denominated equity perpetuals. The move extends USDe’s existing delta-neutral strategy beyond crypto-native assets into tokenized equities.

Bitget CEO: If Bybit Can Withstand a $1.5B Loss, We Can Withstand a $300M+ Loss On September 24, roughly $350 million was stolen from Bitget. CEO Gracy Chen @GracyBitget said the exchange could absorb the loss and handle a potential bank run when withdrawals resume. She said Bitget's retail trading volume is comparable to Bybit's, arguing that if Bybit could absorb a $1.5 billion loss, Bitget could absorb a $300 million-plus loss. Some public chains have frozen stolen funds, and recovery efforts are underway, though Chen does not expect a full recovery.

Bitget CEO: After FTX, I Don’t Think Major Exchanges Would Comingle User Funds On September 24, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen @GracyBitget said the collapse of FTX was a hard lesson for the entire industry, and that she does not believe major exchanges today would intentionally comingle customer funds. The exchange has a publicly verifiable protection fund of about $460 million, as well as more than $1 billion in Bitget-owned assets, separate from customer funds. She said user assets are backed 1:1 and can be checked through proof-of-reserves and Merkle Tree data.

Evercrest (KelpDAO) Files Civil Claim Against LayerZero and CEO Bryan Pellegrino in Canada LayerZero co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino said Evercrest (KelpDAO) filed a notice of civil claim in British Columbia against LayerZero and Pellegrino personally. He called the claims meritless and said he would defend the case in Vancouver. KelpDAO said the lawsuit concerns the rsETH bridge exploit earlier this year. The complaint alleges that LayerZero failed to disclose risks in its technology or prevent its security infrastructure from being compromised, despite having reviewed and approved KelpDAO’s deployment and configuration in writing. In April 2026, KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge, built on LayerZero, was exploited, resulting in the theft of approximately 116,500 rsETH, then worth about $292 million. The two sides subsequently disputed responsibility for the incident.

Galaxy Adds $100 Million in sUSDS to Corporate Treasury and Acquires SKY Galaxy Digital has purchased $100 million of Sky Protocol’s yield-bearing stablecoin sUSDS using its own balance sheet and approved it as collateral across its institutional trading business, which has a $1.4 billion average loan book and serves more than 1,600 counterparties. Clients can continue earning the Sky Savings Rate on their full sUSDS positions while using them as loan collateral. Galaxy also acquired an undisclosed amount of SKY, while the two firms are discussing an expansion of their existing $500 million warehouse facility.

Binance Enters the Pre-IPO Subscription Market Binance Wallet announced the launch of Pre-Access campaigns hosted by PancakeSwap, allowing users to gain indirect tokenized exposure to companies that may go public. Participation quotas can be increased through Alpha Points, onchain bStocks trading volume and holdings, while assets remain self-custodied in users’ wallets. The first project has not yet been announced.

Bybit CEO : Bitcoin Is Still Some Way From Becoming Mature “Digital Gold” On April 15, 2026, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou @benbybit said in a Cointelegraph @Cointelegraph interview at Paris Blockchain Week that Bitcoin is still some way from becoming mature “digital gold.” He said its recent volatility remains too high for traditional financial institutions to treat it as a reliable store of value. Meanwhile, Zhou said stablecoins are better suited for everyday payments, without changing Bitcoin’s long-term role as digital gold.

Robinhood Chain Collected $4.5M in Daily Fees, Paid Ethereum Just $400 An analysis published by South Korean outlet Digital Asset highlights the gap between Robinhood Chain’s growth and the economic value captured by Ethereum. According to Bitquery, Robinhood Chain collected approximately $4.5 million in transaction fees on September 3 while paying Ethereum just $398 in data posting and proof costs. The analysis argues that growing Layer 2 activity does not necessarily translate into proportional revenue for Ethereum, as much of the fee revenue remains within the L2 ecosystem.

Interpol Expands Silver Notice System, Identifies at Least €36M in Criminal Assets According to AP, Interpol is expanding its Silver Notice system, which allows its 196 member countries to share information and assist in tracing and seizing cross-border criminal assets, including cash, cryptocurrency, vehicles and real estate. Trialed since January 2025, the system has involved 82 countries and identified at least €36 million in criminal assets. Interpol says criminals generally retain around 99% of their illicit proceeds. The first Silver Notice was requested by Italy for a senior mafia member, after which Brazil identified multiple properties and other assets linked to the suspect and his associates. Interpol members are expected to vote on the system’s full adoption at the General Assembly in Hong Kong in November 2026.

SlowMist: Hackers Implement Full-Chain iOS Exploit to Steal Private Keys and Mnemonic Phrases Across Versions 13 to 26.5 SlowMist Chief Information Security Officer 23pds has issued an urgent security warning advising all iOS users to update their devices immediately. He disclosed that cybercriminals have actively operationalized a full-chain exploit framework capable of silently exfiltrating private keys and mnemonic seed phrases directly from iOS devices. The attack execution pathway involves: luring targets to a malicious webpage via Safari through social engineering or watering-hole tactics, triggering memory corruption in WebKit/JavaScriptCore (JSC) to secure arbitrary read/write access at the JavaScript layer, subsequently bypassing Pointer Authentication Codes (PAC) to achieve native code execution, escaping the WebContent sandbox, and completing kernel privilege escalation to root to drain device Keychains and local crypto wallet application data. The potentially affected versions are reported to span iOS 13 through iOS 26.5 (pending final confirmation).

Circle CPTO: If Hundreds of Millions in USDC Are Stolen, Would Arc Be Rolled Back? Circle Chief Product and Technology Officer Nikhil Chandhok @chandhok said in a September 16 interview with Bankless @Bankless that, when asked whether Circle would roll back Arc if a lending protocol such as Aave were exploited by the Lazarus Group and tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in USDC were stolen, he could not commit to a specific response.Instead, Chandhok emphasized that Arc is immutable public financial infrastructure supported by more than 20 validators. He said rolling back a blockchain would be an extremely significant decision, and breaking its immutability could fundamentally undermine trust that would be difficult to rebuild. Source：

VerifiedX Joins Bitcoin For Corporations, Becomes Exclusive Custody-Category Partner for Bitcoin Magazine TV VerifiedX has joined Bitcoin For Corporations as an Executive member and vendor to advance Bitcoin as programmable financial infrastructure. Additionally, VerifiedX has also become the exclusive custody-category partner for the newly launched Bitcoin Magazine TV (BMTV). VFX is a financial operating system designed to turn Bitcoin into programmable financial infrastructure for payments, settlement, treasury management, lending and liquidity. Its core asset, Verified Bitcoin (vBTC), is a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed evergreen asset built on the VerifiedX network and redeemable to native BTC at all times without intermediaries or third-parties. The alignment with BFC and BMTV comes on the heels of recent partnerships with BitGo, Kraken, and Cantor Fitzgerald.

Hyperliquid Launches Native Borrowing and Lending, With $269M Borrowed on Day One Hyperliquid announced the launch of manual borrowing and lending, allowing users to collateralize HYPE and BTC to borrow assets including USDC and USDT. Borrowers pay interest, while suppliers earn interest at rates determined by utilization. The feature shares HyperCore infrastructure with portfolio margin, with $269 million in assets borrowed on its first day. Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan said the platform first built a standalone lending protocol on HyperCore, then integrated it with perpetual futures, spot trading, and other trading functions through portfolio margin. He said this modular architecture isolates lending risks, enables idle stablecoin collateral to earn interest, and makes system-wide risk easier to assess.