News linked to this event type.
According to The Defiant, Arbitrum officially activated the ArbOS 61 Elara upgrade on August 20, which was approved for deployment via an ArbitrumDAO governance vote. The core features of this upgrade include: introducing an optional protocol-level transaction filtering mechanism for Dedicated Chains, allowing chain owners to independently select external compliance service providers such as TRM Labs and Chainalysis to configure restricted address rules; the filter is disabled by default and does not affect existing Arbitrum One users; adding Priority Fee support, also disabled by default, with its activation on Arbitrum One still requiring a separate DAO constitutional vote; introducing the BaseFeeManager contract, which authorizes Offchain Labs to adjust the L2 minimum Gas fee within a DAO-approved range of 0.01 to 0.10 gwei over a two-year authorization period; additionally, the maximum code size limit for Stylus contracts has been increased from 24 KB to 96 KB, though this does not apply to Solidity contracts.
According to Upbit's official announcement, the exchange will officially launch BTC and USDT trading pairs for four tokens BICO (Biconomy), BMT (Bubblemaps), NIL (Nillion), and GWEI (ETHGas) on August 21 at 13:00. Deposit services will open within two hours after the announcement.
The official X account of XCAD Network announced that the project has officially ceased operations. The announcement stated that the company has halted updates since April, all funds are now fully depleted, maintenance for all products and services has been suspended, and it can no longer afford the costs of maintaining its exchange listings. Operating for five years since its founding, XCAD Network previously attempted to pivot from the fan token sector to AI virtual influencers, but the transition was unsuccessful, and there are now no remaining funds to support continued operations.
According to CryptoSlate, researchers from USENIX Security publicly disclosed a clock attack vulnerability against Solana’s Proof of History (PoH) mechanism on August 12. The vulnerability had been privately reported to the Solana development team as early as December 2025. Research indicates that a malicious scheduler leader could manipulate the PoH logical clock through "re-anchoring," slowing the progression of logical time. This would yield a longer transaction selection window within physical time, allowing the attacker to isolate honest leaders' blocks via the TowerBFT fork-choice mechanism, with the required stake for the attack falling below 33%. The Alpenglow security contest hosted by Anza, which offered a 50,000 SOL prize pool, concluded on August 19. However, the vulnerability was excluded from the evaluation scope because the contest rules explicitly excluded "behaviors that can only be triggered when Alpenglow is inactive." The Solana development team confirmed awareness of the issue, stating that the probability of the worst-case scenario occurring under current conditions is low. They expect the Alpenglow upgrade to fundamentally eliminate the attack's prerequisites. The Alpenglow code is already integrated into the Agave 4.2 client but remains inactive on the mainnet, with full deployment expected alongside Agave 4.3. Until then, the transitional risks associated with this vulnerability have yet to receive public implementation-level analysis or official responses.
According to a Grayscale research report, as AI-driven financial monitoring capabilities continue to expand, the demand for financial privacy is experiencing a third wave of renewed interest, potentially benefiting Zcash (ZEC). The report notes that Zcash’s zero-knowledge proof-based shielded transaction technology conceals the sender, recipient, and transaction amount, establishing a differentiated positioning compared to Bitcoin’s transparent on-chain records. Current on-chain data shows that shielded transactions now account for approximately 90% of Zcash’s total network transaction volume, while shielded supply has reached around 4.2 million ZEC, representing 25% of the circulating supply, with both figures hitting all-time highs. In terms of valuation, ZEC holds a market capitalization of approximately $8 billion, accounting for only 0.6% of the total market cap within Grayscale's "Cryptocurrency Monetary Sector". If its market share increases to 5%, the theoretical valuation space would be roughly nine times the current level. The report also cautions that Zcash faces multiple risks, including regulatory compliance, legacy issues from historical trusted setups, quantum computing threats, and protocol upgrade execution challenges, requiring investors to conduct prudent assessments.
Odaily News: The inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was held this morning. Tushar Jain, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, put forward three proposals at the meeting: First, establish a safe harbor or innovation exemption mechanism for emerging markets such as computing power derivatives, allowing developers to test new products and business models within a compliant framework; Second, support the adoption of compliant privacy and confidentiality tools in DeFi, ensuring transaction privacy for institutional investors while providing regulators with sufficient transparency to identify and manage systemic risks; Third, support the launch of Pre-IPO perpetual futures, enabling ordinary US investors to participate in the wealth growth of emerging industries such as AI, preventing them from being excluded due to private market access restrictions, or being forced to participate indirectly through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) that lack transparency.Tushar Jain also stated that he had exchanges with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins on the same day, expressing optimism about regulators driving financial innovation and the future development of the United States.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Lorenzo Valente, Head of Digital Asset Research at investment firm ARK Invest, stated that Hyperliquid is in discussions with the CFTC and SEC to facilitate the offering of perpetual futures on its public chain by U.S.-regulated companies. He suggested that Hyperliquid acquire Gemini to position it as a U.S.-regulated HIP-3/4 deployer. He noted that Gemini's current market value is approximately $450 million, representing a decline of over 85% from its $3.3 billion valuation at the time of its 2025 IPO. Hyperliquid could obtain Gemini's entire U.S. regulatory infrastructure—including the NYDFS Trust Charter, DCM, DCO, FCM, MTLs, and Broker-dealer—for approximately $450 million.He further proposed that Hyperliquid could use approximately 7.9 million HYPE tokens from its community reserve, valued at around $550 million at $70 per token, to complete the acquisition at a premium of roughly 20% over Gemini's current market value. Following the transaction, Gemini would handle KYC, custody, fiat on/off ramps, brokerage, clearing, and compliance for the U.S. market, while Hyperliquid L1 would provide the underlying market infrastructure, liquidity, and on-chain settlement. He cited Polymarket's acquisition of QCEX as a similar precedent for re-entering the U.S. market, and stated that the core of this potential deal is not acquiring an exchange, but rather securing the regulatory bridge for HIP-3/4 to enter the U.S. market.
CZ posted on X, stating that tokenization is one of the best methods for countries to "raise capital" or attract foreign direct investment (FDI), and allowing global investors to purchase tokenized stocks presents strong appeal to both nations and businesses. He voiced support for advancing tokenization across all blockchains. While this may result in "liquidity fragmentation," collaborative efforts from various participants remain the fastest path to accelerating industry growth, and high interoperability among different issuers will help alleviate the fragmentation challenge.
Odaily News: On August 20 local time, the White House announced that U.S. President Trump has signed a memorandum proposing that by 2030, U.S. space transportation ranges and related facilities should be capable of supporting more than 1,000 launch and reentry missions annually. The memorandum states that the U.S. will expand and improve space launch and reentry infrastructure, requiring relevant agencies to promote the opening of federal launch sites to commercial users, encourage commercial investment, public-private partnerships, and joint infrastructure development, while accelerating facility permitting and environmental reviews. NASA has also been tasked with developing a commercial lunar logistics architecture, exploring commercial robotic Mars landings, and related architectures for commercial crewed round-trip missions to Mars. (CCTV News)
A senior Iranian official has stated that Tehran is planning to wage an economic war, including attacks on oil bypass export facilities in the Gulf region, with the aim of driving up U.S. gasoline prices and undermining the support rate of Trump's party ahead of the U.S. November midterm elections. According to the official's description, the targets of this plan will include two major alternative routes used by shippers to avoid the Strait of Hormuz: Saudi Arabia's Yanbu oil pipeline and the UAE's Fujairah oil terminal. Together, these two facilities handle approximately 5.5 million barrels of oil per day. If Iran simultaneously cuts off the roughly 5 million barrels per day of oil supply that the U.S.-backed "shadow fleet" currently transports through the Strait of Hormuz, a successful operation would weaken a significant portion of the alternative transport capacity—the very channels that have sustained some Gulf oil exports amid broader blockade conditions. Given that Brent crude prices are already near $93 per barrel under the current tense situation, any credible action targeting Yanbu or Fujairah could be perceived by traders as a shock far larger than previous supply disruptions. (Jinshi)
Odaily News: Brian Armstrong posted on X platform stating that another feature for AI agents has been launched. The first use case is Travala, where users can use common large language models to book over 2 million properties on Base using USDC. He expressed excitement to see more enterprises building on this foundation with AWS AgentCore and opening their services to the newest and fastest-growing consumer segment.
Binance has launched a new feature that allows AI agents to directly access crypto markets and execute trades within the scope of user-authorized API permissions, thereby resolving the asset management pain points for AI agents.
Odaily reports: Sui posted on X platform, noting that it is easy to ask a model to analyze the market, but the real challenge is getting the model to execute trades with your funds. @0xbeepit now supports writing strategies into text files and handing them over to agents for execution. Sui can execute independent transactions in parallel, so agents do not need to wait behind others' transactions.
Odaily News: Sui announced on the X platform that AftermathFi's Perpetual Contracts V2 has been launched, featuring a rebuilt perpetual contract engine. Two audit reports have been made public, and 15 markets are currently open.
Odaily News: Cybersecurity firm Check Point Research has discovered that the StopAndProtect ransomware operation has been using nearly 2,000 compromised WordPress websites to spread malware, steal data, monitor victims, and deploy ransomware. The operation was first identified in mid-May.As of July 24, the operation had compromised more than 6,000 unique IP addresses, with 1,852 in the United States, and 630 each in Russia and India. The compromised websites were also used to host malware, relay commands, and store stolen files, screenshots, and activity logs.Attackers lured Windows users into running PowerShell commands through fake CAPTCHA prompts, enabling them to steal credentials and cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases, and spread further across networks and USB devices. Researchers collected more than 31,000 screenshots and over 700 compressed data archives, and believe the attackers may have accidentally infected themselves at some point. (Decrypt)
Odaily News Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that Citi plans to offer bitcoin custody services to institutional clients through its Custody+ platform later this year. The service will bring bitcoin into the same custody framework as traditional assets such as stocks and bonds, allowing clients to access custody, settlement, foreign exchange, cash, and liquidity services through a single system. Bitcoin will be the first digital asset supported by Citi's new custody service, and Citi has not yet announced a specific launch date or its initial client list.Custody+ was launched by Citi Investor Services, with Citi's custody business covering over 100 markets and operating its own custody network in 62 markets. Citi stated that its goal is for the bank to self-custody native digital assets, rather than relying solely on external exchanges or other digital asset firms. The project has been in development for approximately two to three years, and Citi first disclosed related plans in 2025.Citi stated that Custody+ will provide real-time settlement, foreign exchange services, automated hedging, cash management, and liquidity tools. Its Single Event Processing system within the custody platform currently handles more than 80% of event volumes in real time; in the United States, the system reduces processing time for certain voluntary corporate actions by up to 92%, with 96% of related events completed within two hours. Chris Cox, Head of Citi Investor Services, said that Citi invests more than $2 billion annually in its Services platform.
Coldcard has released the latest firmware 5.6.1 (Mk4/Mk5) and 1.5.1Q (Q). This update is based on a three-week security review following the emergency fix on July 31, addressing security risks brought by the previous mnemonic generation attack. Each newly generated mnemonic must now include at least one source of user entropy, including at least 65 irregular keystrokes, 50 physical dice throws, or 128 physical coin flips, combined with fresh entropy provided by STM32 TRNG, SE1, and SE2. The new firmware also adds instant staged PSBT verification before signing, strengthens USB connection and firmware update boundaries, improves Delta Mode isolation mechanisms, fixes active wallet backup issues, enhances random number generator initialization and fault checking, adjusts SIGHASH default settings, and includes multiple security and correctness improvements. Coldcard stated that this update aims to further reduce the risk of device attacks. The official reminder notes that updating the firmware cannot fix existing mnemonics generated by previously affected firmware. If users' mnemonics fall within the scope of this security advisory, they should first update the device, then generate and verify a completely new mnemonic, and migrate funds to the new wallet. Coldcard recommends that all Mk4, Mk5, and Q users update their devices promptly and verify the signature of the downloaded firmware.
According to official announcements, Ondo Perps has added $CRCLon, $SPCXon, and $SNDKon as collateral, enabling traders to directly use Ondo Stocks' tokenized stocks as margin to provide collateral support for perpetual contract positions without needing to convert funds into stablecoins or sell held assets.
Odaily News: Neutrl, the decentralized yield protocol that previously suspended its protocol functions, stated in a post on X: "Due to the current complex situation, Neutrl services remain suspended. Our top priority is to strive for the best possible outcome for users. We are assessing available reserves and developing a plan for an orderly recovery process. Once next steps are determined, we will release more information immediately."Previously, Neutrl, a decentralized yield protocol, announced last week that it had temporarily halted minting, redemptions, and other protocol functions due to impacts on its protocol reserves. Neutrl stated that this measure was taken after consulting legal counsel to protect user interests and maintain orderly processes while assessing the impact. The team will provide users with a detailed explanation of the handling process in due course, and more information regarding the timeline and next steps will be announced as soon as it is confirmed.
Odaily News: BounceBit announced that the team has identified an issue affecting BounceBit Chain and has temporarily paused node operations to deploy fixes. BB trading and exchange deposits/withdrawals are temporarily unavailable. The team emphasized that the issue is limited to the chain itself, and CeDeFi applications, smart contracts, and vaults remain unaffected, with no private key leaks or user wallet compromises. The chain upgrade is scheduled for August 23 at 17:00 UTC+8.