News linked to both this project and an event.
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.
Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) award of an approximately $94.6 million blockchain forensics software and support services contract to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract term is from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, for investigations related to the Homeland Security Special Operations Group.
blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, opposing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) decision to award a contract worth approximately $94.6 million to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract, covering the period from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, involves blockchain forensics software and support services for Homeland Security task forces investigating fraud, cybercrime, and sextortion cases. Chainalysis argues that ICE's decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. TRM Labs joined the case as an intervenor-defendant on July 28, defending the contract alongside the U.S. government. The court has allowed Chainalysis to temporarily seal its complaint, with oral arguments scheduled for September 2. ICE stated that after approximately six days of market research, it determined that none of the eight responding companies could meet the requirements. (Decrypt)
Odaily News – French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot submitted Bill No. 921 to the Senate on July 17, proposing to incorporate the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) into French law, and to automatically exchange crypto data with 48 countries that have signed related agreements. The exchanged information includes specific transactions, user names, addresses, tax identification numbers, place of residence, and cumulative transaction value during the reporting period. EU member states are already preparing for relevant data exchanges under the DAC-8 directive, which will take effect on September 30, 2027. Once the bill is approved, the French government will accelerate crypto data collection. A Chainalysis report shows that as of 2026, France has recorded 30 publicly known violent robberies of crypto assets; the report also states that a tax official in the Paris region is suspected of selling data on high-net-worth crypto holders.
Odaily News, according to Bitcoin News monitoring, Chainalysis analysis of the Coldcard exploit involving over $38 million shows that the attacker deliberately targeted the highest-value wallets first, including one holding $1.8 million, indicating that victims had already been profiled before asset transfers began. Approximately $30 million was stolen in the initial 10 minutes, followed by around 500 wallets being drained within 25 minutes. Block's Clay Garrett stated that investigators also confirmed the attacker used a paid account with a well-known blockchain service provider to query victim addresses during the operation. The provider's internal logs match the request timestamps and sequence, but Block stated that no evidence was found suggesting the company knowingly assisted in the theft. Relevant information has been shared with authorities.
the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have jointly announced sanctions against a group of individuals involved in state-sponsored hacking organizations, cybercriminal groups, and their infrastructure providers. The targets are accused of causing billions of dollars in losses to global enterprises, critical infrastructure, and government agencies. Among them, the most notable is the EU's sanction against Russian cybercriminal Vitaly Nikolayevich Kovalev, also known as "Stern." The EU identified Stern as one of the core managers of the notorious Trickbot Group ransomware syndicate, which is behind high-risk ransomware variants such as Conti ransomware and Ryuk.On-chain analysis shows that wallet addresses linked to Stern have collectively received over $300 million in ransom payments, potentially making him the most prolific ransomware operator ever identified.According to the analysis, the $300 million figure represents only Stern's personal gains, while the total illicit income of the Trickbot Group could be significantly higher. On-chain fund flows indicate that Stern had transactional ties with multiple ransomware ecosystems, including Ryuk, Conti, Diavol, Karakurt, Royal, and Quantum.The investigation reveals that Stern played a role similar to a "CEO" within the Trickbot organization, responsible for budget management, personnel recruitment, infrastructure procurement, and attack planning. (Chainalysis)
The Singapore Police Force's Anti-Scam Centre and Cybercrime Department, in a six-week joint anti-scam operation from April 16 to May 31, 2026, collaborated with Coinbase, Coinhako, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX, StraitsX, and Upbit. Using blockchain analysis tools from Chainalysis and TRM Labs, they identified potential scam victims and conducted over 145 targeted interventions via phone and in-person visits, preventing potential losses exceeding $4.2 million. Coinbase Singapore stated in a post on X on July 10 that it worked with the Singapore police to prevent over 145 individuals from losing a combined total of more than $4.2 million due to scams. The Singapore Police Force stated that it will continue to work with cryptocurrency exchanges and other private sector entities to combat cybercrime. (Bitcoin.com News).
amid growing insider trading concerns surrounding prediction markets, Goldman Sachs has prohibited its employees from trading prediction market contracts related to the bank's own events, elections, financial markets, macroeconomic data, and geopolitics. Financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America are also formulating or updating relevant policies. Bank of America, in particular, has begun clarifying prohibited practices in prediction market trading to its employees.Previously, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice accused a Google employee of using non-public information to trade "Search of the Year" related contracts on Polymarket, profiting approximately $1.2 million. Legal experts note that the CFTC still lacks well-established case law in enforcing insider trading rules for prediction markets, and the wide variety of prediction market contracts further complicates regulatory oversight.Currently, Kalshi and Polymarket have respectively launched employment verification tools and collaborated with Chainalysis and Palantir to monitor suspicious trading activities. (CNBC)
the Brazilian Association of Crypto-Economics (ABcripto) has requested the Brazilian Central Bank to suspend a proposal that would introduce a 24-hour delay for large stablecoin transfers. The association opposes the Central Bank's previous recommendation to impose a 24-hour lockup window for stablecoin transfers exceeding $10,000, stating that the measure would impact transparent market participants using regulated entities, while illicit actors would remain unaffected. ABcripto's members include Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Tether.The Brazilian Central Bank cited Chainalysis' crypto crime report, noting that illegal transaction volumes reached an all-time high in 2025. ABcripto President Julia Rosin stated that illegal actors typically avoid regulated institutions, preferring platforms that do not require identity verification, mixers, cross-chain bridges, and other less transparent structures.ABcripto also stated that the lockup measure could undermine the near-instant settlement use case for stablecoins and push users towards unregulated service providers. Currently, the Brazilian Congress is discussing specific regulations for stablecoins, and the Brazilian Central Bank plans to classify stablecoins as electronic money, rather than under the current digital asset classification. (Bitcoin.com News).
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis has released a new methodological proposal aimed at establishing a unified on-chain fund tracking standard framework for law enforcement agencies and investigators to identify address clusters and determine their probable control relationships.The proposal defines the on-chain analysis structure in the form of an "ontology," centralizing the systematic decomposition of the currently industry-wide non-standardized concept of "cluster" (address clustering) into wallet segments and functional roles. It describes on-chain relationships through a two-tier structure: the first layer defines the transaction graph structure, and the second layer assesses the inferred confidence level.Chainalysis states that the framework aims to enhance the interpretability and legal applicability of on-chain forensic methods and has been validated through its practical experience in cases related to the U.S. Department of Justice, including analysis applied in the Bitcoin Fog mixing service case. The company's Chief Scientist, Jacob Illum, noted that the proposal's goal is to answer "on what evidentiary basis can these addresses be considered to belong to the same entity," but emphasized that on-chain analysis alone cannot directly identify end-user identities and must still be combined with legal investigative methods involving centralized entities such as exchanges.Chainalysis stated that the standard proposal is currently open for industry discussion, aiming to promote a more unified technical standard for on-chain analysis methods in the fields of law enforcement and compliance. (CoinDesk)
According to The Block, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis’ latest report states that as the gray-market peptide industry’s scale exceeds an annualized $100 million, leading suppliers are accelerating adoption of Bitcoin and stablecoins as primary settlement instruments. In Q1 2026, cryptocurrency inflows into this industry reached $32 million—a 159% quarter-on-quarter surge. Due to widespread bans imposed by traditional banks and credit card payment channels on prescription-grade compounds and unregulated substances, numerous Chinese chemical manufacturers have turned to cryptocurrencies for transactions, with high-value orders especially favoring stablecoins to hedge against price volatility risk.
Chainalysis has released a report stating that as demand for gray market peptide products (such as weight loss drugs like semaglutide) grows rapidly, related suppliers and buyers are increasingly using cryptocurrencies for transactions, with leading suppliers primarily relying on Bitcoin and stablecoins.The report shows that crypto funds flowing into this sector reached $32 million in the first quarter of 2026, a 159% increase from $12 million in the previous quarter, with the annualized scale already exceeding $100 million.Chainalysis points out that demand for peptide products is driven by trends in medical aesthetics, health and wellness, and the popularity of GLP-1 drugs. However, since these products often involve prescription-grade compounds or unregulated substances, traditional banks and credit card processors typically restrict their transactions, prompting the market to shift towards crypto payments.The agency also noted that some leading suppliers have adopted more professional on-chain fund management methods. Particularly among suppliers with average single deposits exceeding $1,000, the proportion of stablecoins has significantly increased, likely to mitigate the risk of large supply chain orders being affected by crypto market volatility.
Chainalysis has released a report indicating that overall compliance standards in the crypto industry are improving, but significant deficiencies remain in the monitoring of indirect fund flows.The report shows that among new institutions entering the crypto industry in 2026, approximately 47% adopted alert standards that would have ranked among the strictest top 10% in the industry five years ago. Chainalysis states that while industry standards for "direct monitoring" (funds coming directly from known illicit sources) have become largely unified, gaps remain in "indirect monitoring" (funds flowing through intermediate addresses).Data indicates that in 2020, only about 10% of institutions met top-tier industry compliance requirements. However, since 2023, this proportion has significantly increased, with newcomers generally adopting stricter monitoring standards. Nevertheless, for risk categories such as ransomware, scam shops, and darknet markets, industry thresholds for indirect monitoring are still commonly 10 to 20 times higher than those for direct monitoring. (Cointelegraph)
Although the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act are pushing for stablecoin compliance, stablecoins remain essentially "private money" and could introduce structural risks to the financial system.The article points out that stablecoins aim to combine the stability of the US dollar with the payment efficiency of blockchain, but because they operate on fragmented, privatized infrastructure, they lack the uniformity of the traditional dollar system. While USDT and USDC are pegged to the US dollar, their prices can still deviate from $1.Additionally, stablecoin issuers have incentives to boost yields by allocating capital to high-risk, low-liquidity assets. Should the value of these assets decline, it could trigger de-pegging and concentrated redemption risks. Citing Chainalysis data, the article states that stablecoins account for 84% of illicit crypto activity, primarily involving sanctions evasion and money laundering, while their use in real economy payments accounts for less than 1%.The Wall Street Journal argues that stablecoins are essentially repeating the path of the private money experiments seen during the "Free Banking Era" in 19th-century America. In the future, they may need to accept stricter regulation, similar to banks, and require deeper integration into the central banking system. (Wall Street Journal)
C1 Fund, a closed-end fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has released its Q4 and full-year financial reports for 2025. Its digital asset private investment strategy continues to expand, with portfolio optimization and liquidity events advancing simultaneously.As of the end of 2025, CFND's digital asset infrastructure investment portfolio includes industry-leading companies such as Alchemy, Blockchain.com, Chainalysis, Consensys, Figment, Kraken, and Ripple, covering core sectors including blockchain development, compliance analytics, trading platforms, and cross-border payments. In 2025, the fund made new investments exceeding $10.47 million in projects like BitGo, Fireblocks, and Polymarket (Blockratize Inc.), and completed additional allocations to holdings such as Ripple, further strengthening its deployment depth in the digital asset infrastructure space. (Businesswire)
Polymarket announced the launch of an on-chain market integrity monitoring system solution to monitor trading behavior and enforce platform market compliance rules. The system will be built in collaboration with blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis, covering the entire Polymarket DeFi transaction process, including real-time on-chain analysis of trading, positions, and settlement data, and identifying potential misconduct through multi-layered monitoring mechanisms, with a focus on insider trading and market manipulation.Polymarket stated that all its transactions are completed on a public blockchain. This collaboration will further amplify the advantages of on-chain transparency, enabling regulators and law enforcement agencies to obtain verifiable on-chain evidence, thereby establishing new compliance standards in the prediction market sector. Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan stated that the platform has emphasized transparency and traceability since its inception, and this collaboration will further solidify its positioning as a "trustworthy source of market information." (Businesswire)
According to the Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore’s Police Anti-Scam Centre and the Cybercrime Investigation Division collaborated with cryptocurrency platforms including Coinbase, Coinhako, StraitsX, and Upbit in a month-long targeted enforcement operation from March 16 to April 15 this year, successfully intercepting over S$2.86 million in scam proceeds. During the operation, authorities used analytical tools from blockchain intelligence firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis to identify victims involved in multiple scam categories—including impersonation of government officials, investment scams, job scams, and online romance scams—and carried out more than 90 direct interventions via telephone and in-person contact. The police stated that the operation’s success stemmed from a rapid information-sharing mechanism between law enforcement agencies and private-sector platforms, and emphasized their continued commitment to deepening public-private collaboration to counter increasingly sophisticated cryptocurrency scams.
According to Cointelegraph, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis released a report stating that stablecoin-adjusted transaction volume is projected to reach $719 trillion by 2035—marking a substantial increase from $28 trillion in 2025. If two major macro catalysts align, this figure could double further to $15 trillion, surpassing the current annual global cross-border payment volume of approximately $10 trillion. The two catalysts are: (1) the transfer of over $100 trillion in wealth from the Baby Boomer generation to younger, crypto-native generations; and (2) stablecoins fully replacing traditional payment rails as the default payment infrastructure. Rachael Lucas, an analyst at Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets, noted that strategic moves—including Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge and Mastercard’s partnership with BVNK—are concrete steps forward. Coupled with regulatory clarity provided by the GENIUS Act, institutional participation is expected to expand significantly.