News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News - Nomura Holdings' digital asset company Laser Digital Japan announced this week that it has completed registration as a crypto asset trading service provider under Japan's Payment Services Act, with registration number 00032, and has joined the Japan Virtual and Crypto asset Trading Association, bringing an end to Japan's nearly 4-year period without new industry participants.The license covers six crypto assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu, all of which are listed on the industry association's "green list." Laser Digital Japan will initially provide liquidity to licensed crypto asset companies in Japan, while the launch date for trading services targeting professional investors has not yet been announced.Japanese regulators require the segregation of customer assets from company assets, with at least 95% of customer crypto assets stored in offline cold wallets, subject to verification through annual audits. The license does not cover crypto asset derivatives, nor does it permit Laser Digital Japan to launch exchange-traded funds; major adjustments to Japan's crypto asset regulatory framework are expected to be implemented in fiscal year 2027. (Bitcoin.com News)
The Sandbox has officially confirmed and fully secured the recent SAND cross-chain bridge vulnerability affecting the Base and BNB Smart Chain (BSC) networks. Attackers exploited the flaw to mint uncollateralized SAND tokens across both networks, but the impact remains limited, accounting for less than 0.01% of the total SAND supply. SAND on Ethereum and Polygon, along with user wallets, remain unaffected. The Sandbox has since disabled cross-chain functionality on both networks. SAND on Base and BSC has been isolated and is temporarily non-transferable and non-redeemable. The official team advises users to avoid buying, selling, or trading SAND on the aforementioned networks.
Odaily News: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published his latest article "Obfuscation (Part 3): Local Mixing," providing an in-depth introduction to an emerging cryptographic obfuscation approach — "Local Mixing" — and describing it as a potential new fundamental cryptographic tool following elliptic curves, RSA, and lattice-based cryptography.Vitalik noted that current mainstream obfuscation techniques primarily rely on complex mathematical assumptions but often incur extremely high computational costs. Local mixing, by contrast, takes a completely different approach. Rather than depending on elliptic curves, large integer factorization, or lattice cryptography, it draws on design principles from symmetric cryptography and hash functions, continuously shuffling, restructuring, and hiding circuit architecture to eliminate information leakage while preserving functionality.He explained that the local mixing technique mainly involves steps such as reversibility, hardening, mixing, splitting, crossing walk, and "gadgetization." By introducing random structures into circuits, rearranging logic gates, and employing nonlinear hiding mechanisms, it makes it difficult for attackers to recover the original computational logic.Vitalik pointed out that the technique remains in its early stages, with security not yet subject to long-term validation, and it still faces challenges such as random attacks and linear analysis. Nevertheless, he believes local mixing represents an entirely new path of cryptographic exploration aimed at building more efficient indistinguishability obfuscation (iO) schemes.He stated that if local mixing achieves a breakthrough, it could lead to new quantum-resistant public-key encryption schemes and advance the development of general-purpose obfuscation techniques. While the field still requires years of cryptanalysis and optimization validation, AI-assisted research could significantly accelerate this maturation process.Vitalik described obfuscation as the "final frontier" of cryptography, as theoretically all other cryptographic primitives can be constructed from obfuscation and one-way functions. Local mixing not only has the potential to reduce the cost of traditional obfuscation schemes but could also become an important direction for future cryptographic infrastructure.
According to reports, Bybit has recently launched a USDT mainnet trading ecosystem incentive program with a total prize pool of 100,000 USDT. During the campaign, users can participate in the reward distribution by trading designated USDT pairs. This initiative will further enrich USDT trading scenarios, boosting market liquidity and user engagement for related trading pairs including BTC and ETH.
Odaily News According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, "Set 10 Big Goals First" has added another 1,000 BTC to its position, bringing the total position to $218 million, with a current floating loss of $877,000. The entity holds a 5x short position of 2,449.968 BTC, valued at $183 million, with an entry price of $74,746.1; it also holds a 7x short position of 15,000 ETH, valued at $35.21 million, with an entry price of $2,347.89.
Odaily News: GnosisDAO has approved the transition of the blockchain network Gnosis Chain from a standalone Layer 1 network to a zero-knowledge proof-based Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) Rollup. The network will eliminate its independent validator set and instead rely on Ethereum validators to settle transactions.The proposal received 123,158 GNO in favor, 115 against, and 151 abstentions, involving 54 participants with a total participation of 123,425 GNO, exceeding the quorum threshold of 75,000 GNO. The upgrade is initially planned to launch in late 2026 or early 2027, depending on the technical readiness of the EEZ.After the upgrade, Gnosis Chain's native smart contracts will be able to call Ethereum and use the returned results within the same transaction, while also accessing Ethereum mainnet assets and liquidity. Gnosis Chain will become the first deployed EEZ instance, retaining its existing applications, balances, and xDAI fuel token. (Cointelegraph)
According to CryptoSlate, Nasdaq-listed company AIxCrypto Holdings announced plans to orderly sell all its crypto assets. As of June 30, the company held 46 BTC, 616 ETH, 6,659 SOL, 1,308 BNB, and small amounts of ADA, LINK, TRX, USDT, and XRP, with a total cost basis of $10.43 million, fair value of only $5.21 million, an unrealized loss of approximately $5.22 million, representing a drop of about 50% from cost. Meanwhile, the company's operating cash consumption in the first half of the year reached $7.94 million, with accumulated losses as high as $150.3 million, raising doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern. The company is shifting its business focus to its RoboShare robot rental platform and completed its first commercial order on August 15, deploying 6 robots at a Malibu event, but specific revenue and subsequent demand have not yet been disclosed.
According to Decrypt, Coinbase announced the official launch of perpetual futures trading in the Base App via Hyperliquid integration. Eligible users can access up to 50x leverage across over 290 perpetual contract markets, including BTC, ETH, tokenized stocks, and commodities. Coinbase Head of Engineering Chintan Turakhia noted that perpetual contracts constitute approximately 75% of current crypto trading volume and are the most requested feature among high-frequency Base App users.
Odaily News: Blockchain data analytics platform Nansen released its "Starknet H1 2026 Report," stating that in the first half of 2026, Starknet completed its strategic transformation from a high-performance Layer 2 network to a "privacy-preserving execution layer." The launch of the STRK20 privacy framework and the Bitcoin asset strkBTC became the ecosystem's most significant upgrades.The report notes that as an Ethereum-based ZK-Rollup network, Starknet generates STARK proofs off-chain and verifies them on-chain, achieving high throughput and low transaction costs. Its smart contracts use the Cairo language, specifically designed for verifiable computation, and support native account abstraction functionality.In the first half of this year, Starknet launched the v0.14.2 upgrade, introducing the SNIP-36 protocol to lay the technical foundation for private transactions. This upgrade allows the network to directly verify off-chain execution proofs, enabling confidential state transitions without exposing account balances or counterparty information. Additionally, SNIP-37 adjusted the network's economic model, increasing storage costs while lowering base gas fees to optimize incentives for long-term state growth.In terms of privacy applications, Starknet launched the STRK20 privacy framework, which allows users to convert any ERC-20 asset into encrypted balances and conduct private transfers, trades, and DeFi interactions. The system is built on zero-knowledge proof technology and implements compliant auditing through an encrypted viewing key mechanism, protecting user privacy while supporting targeted information disclosure in regulatory scenarios.On-chain data shows that in Q2 2026, Starknet recorded an average daily transaction volume of approximately 239,000 and an average of about 50,000 daily active addresses. During the period, a total of 22.5 million transactions were completed, involving approximately 71,000 users. Among these, DEX aggregator AVNU contributed roughly 14 million transactions, accounting for 62.2% of total volume; gaming infrastructure Cartridge contributed 6.57 million transactions, with the two combined accounting for approximately 91% of transaction activity.
Odaily News: The KITE Foundation has provided an update on the handling of a token security incident. A new KITE ERC-20 contract has been deployed on the Ethereum mainnet, with the total token supply remaining unchanged. Old KITE tokens will be migrated to the new contract at a 1:1 ratio. Addresses confirmed to be controlled by the attacker will be excluded and will not receive new tokens.The migration snapshot is based on Ethereum mainnet block height 25,692,498. Regular self-custody wallet users will receive the new tokens directly without needing to redeem or authorize anything. Exchange users will have their migration coordinated between the exchange and the KITE team. Cross-chain channels will remain paused until migration and verification are complete.Previously, KITE detected abnormal transfers on August 6 and confirmed it had been attacked by hackers. The team stated that this incident did not result in any asset losses for users or the project, and the impact is currently under control.
Odaily News: Cryptocurrency platform Bitcoin.com has announced the integration of USDU into its self-custody Bitcoin.com Wallet, serving millions of wallet users. USDU, issued by Universal Digital Intl Limited (Universal), is the first USD stablecoin registered as a foreign payment token by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). USDU is an Ethereum ERC-20 token, with each token backed 1:1 by liquid USD reserves held by regulated banks in the UAE. The reserves are independently attested monthly by a third-party accounting firm, with reports published on Universal's official website. Bitcoin.com Wallet's web and mobile versions will support self-custody holding, sending, and receiving of USDU. Bitcoin.com will accept USDU as payment for designated services and plans to enable its use for payments between users and merchants within its products. The wallet will also offer stablecoin education and Learn-to-Earn content. Exchange and buy/sell functionalities will be launched after support from third-party service providers, with availability varying by jurisdiction. (Bitcoin.com News)
According to CoinDesk, Cash App has integrated with crypto payment platform MoonPay, expanding its cryptocurrency services from previously primarily supporting Bitcoin and the USD stablecoin USDC to various digital assets including Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and USDT.
Odaily News: Payment app Cash App is expanding its cryptocurrency services through crypto payment platform MoonPay, allowing 50 million users to purchase tokens such as ETH, SOL, XRP, and USDT. Additionally, users can top up major wallets like Ledger, BitPay, Trust Wallet, MetaMask, and Uniswap through Cash App. Previously, Cash App's crypto services only supported Bitcoin, with USDC support added earlier this year. (CoinDesk)
Bitget launches a VIP Simple Earn bonus interest event. The first phase runs from August 19 to August 26. VIP users who meet the net deposit threshold and subscribe to the corresponding ETH Simple Earn products can receive annualized bonus interest rewards distributed in the form of DOS, with a combined APR of up to 8% after stacking.
According to Cointelegraph, the Ethereum Foundation Protocol DevOps team issued a warning that due to significant adjustments to the Ethereum gas model in the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, some wallets, indexers, and gas estimators may experience malfunctions. Any tools relying on hardcoded maximum Gas limits will face the risk of becoming non-functional and need to be updated as soon as possible. EIP-8037 will introduce an independent "state Gas dimension" to handle operations that create new state—transfers to existing accounts will still be 21,000 Gas, but transfers to new accounts will incur additional state Gas fees. The Foundation recommends developers complete system testing on the public testnet Plataberget (launched on August 13) as soon as possible. The Glamsterdam fork is scheduled to activate on this testnet this Thursday, subsequently deployed to the Sepolia and Hoodi testnets, and finally launched on the mainnet. This upgrade also covers the Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) mechanism, block-level access lists, as well as increases in contract and initialization code size limits.
Odaily News: The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has warned that the Gas model changes in the Glamsterdam upgrade may cause some wallets, indexers, and gas estimation tools to malfunction. The EF Protocol DevOps team stated that tools relying on hardcoded maximum gas limits will fail, and developers need to update their systems and test on the Plataberget public testnet. Plataberget went live on August 13 and is expected to run for several months. The Glamsterdam fork is scheduled to activate on the Ethereum network on Thursday, followed by deployment to the Sepolia and Hoodi testnets. EIP-8037 will introduce a separate state gas dimension for operations that create new state. Transferring ETH to an existing account will still require 21,000 gas, while transfers to new accounts will incur additional state gas; developers should also re-examine software that treats 21,000 gas as the cost for all ETH transfers, or that estimates transaction fees using only a single gas dimension. (Cointelegraph)
According to Russian crypto media Bits.media, Maria Patrikeyeva, Managing Director of the Derivatives Market at Moscow Exchange, stated that the exchange plans to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual futures contracts for professional investors and plans to gradually expand the tradable cryptocurrency varieties to 10. Perpetual futures are contracts with no fixed expiration date that are automatically rolled over daily, offering greater flexibility compared to traditional quarterly/monthly contracts. Currently, Moscow Exchange has already launched quarterly and monthly futures for five cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, and Tron, in the summer of 2025. In addition, the Russian Central Bank has recently included BTC, ETH, and USDT in the list of crypto assets allowed for trading by non-professional investors. It is worth noting that Moscow Exchange is currently on the U.S. sanctions list, with restricted access to international settlement infrastructure, and the exchange is also preparing to establish a digital settlement depository system independent of the National Settlement Depository.
According to PRNewswire, Cannan Technology released its Bitcoin production and mining operations update for July 2026. In July, the company mined a total of 46 Bitcoins and held 1,917 BTC and 3,952 ETH on its balance sheet at the end of the month. Its non-joint venture business installed hashrate at month-end was 10.05 EH/s, joint venture business installed hashrate was 4.85 EH/s; joint venture business operating hashrate rose to 4.20 EH/s.
Odaily News Ethereum developer Toni Wahrstätter stated on the X platform that Ethereum core developers are planning the next annual upgrade, "Hegotá", with 66 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) currently on the candidate list. In the coming core developer meetings, these proposals will be filtered to ultimately determine the upgrade contents that can complete implementation, devnet testing, testnet deployment, and have the potential to launch in 2027. Proposals that fail to be included in Hegotá will be postponed to the next hard fork, making the current screening process highly significant for the future direction of Ethereum's development.Currently, FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists) has been confirmed as one of the key upgrade components of Hegotá. Developers believe that combining it with scoped transactions (EIP-8141), keyed nonces (EIP-8250), and root references (EIP-8272) could help build native privacy capabilities, enabling privacy applications to operate without relying on third-party intermediaries.Additionally, enhancing scalability is also a key direction for Hegotá. Developers have proposed repricing data resources (EIP-8131, EIP-8279) and state growth costs (EIP-8368) to prepare for a future increase of the Gas limit to 600 million. While these improvements are less intuitive than privacy features, they are considered critical work for advancing Ethereum's scaling in the short term.Other candidate upgrades include shorter block times (EIP-8198), issuance mechanism adjustments (EIP-8363), anti-correlation penalty mechanisms (EIP-7716), EVM optimization and simplification, as well as the first round of EIP discussions related to zkEVM and quantum-resistant cryptography.It is noted that Hegotá cannot include all features expected by the community. The core team will need to strike a balance between the "future vision" and "near-term deliverable upgrades," and most candidate EIPs may ultimately not make it into this upgrade.Currently, 256 days have passed since the launch of the current Glamsterdam upgrade, with the goal of completing deployment by the end of this year. Hegotá is planned to launch in 2027, and in the coming months, core developers and the community will engage in discussions around the prioritization of various EIPs. Community feedback will still play a role in the selection process, and participants who support or oppose a particular EIP's inclusion in Hegotá can voice their opinions to the core development team through public discussions.
Odaily News: Coinbase has announced that it will stop supporting USDC deposits and withdrawals on the Noble network as of August 17. USDC deposits and withdrawals on other supported networks, including Ethereum, Base, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon, remain unaffected. Coinbase reminds users not to transfer funds to its Noble network USDC deposit address after August 17, as such funds may be irretrievable.