[Coinbase hints at onchain features for new Pokémon card service]

Coinbase is preparing to launch a new Pokémon card service and has hinted it could include onchain features, BeInCrypto reported. After a user interpreted the offering as blockchain-based Pokémon card packs, Coinbase said that was correct.

According to the report, users who open card packs on mobile would receive cards linked to physical copies, which could either be held with a custodian or shipped directly. Coinbase did not disclose specific details including a launch date, pricing, supported countries, or the underlying blockchain.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170188

[UK-listed Smarter Web plans up to $10.6M in BTC purchases via preferred share sale]

UK-listed The Smarter Web Company, which has adopted a Bitcoin treasury strategy, said it plans to issue up to 277,777 shares of MORE, the UK’s first BTC-backed preferred stock, at £90 ($119.16) per share. The company is targeting about $17.34 million to $30.05 million in net proceeds and plans to allocate about $6.62 million to $10.59 million of that to additional BTC purchases.

MORE is a cumulative floating-rate preferred stock with an initial annual dividend rate of 12% based on a reference price of £100 ($132.40) per share. Dividends will be paid weekly, and the shares carry no voting rights. A London Stock Exchange listing for MORE is scheduled for Oct. 14.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170189

[Tokyo-listed Bitcoin Japan completes nearly $1M BTC purchase]

Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Bitcoin Japan, formerly Hotamaru Sho, bought 11.9188 BTC for $999,479 through its wholly owned subsidiary BTC JPN Ltd., CEO Phillip Lord said on X. The average purchase price was $83,857.

Lord said the purchase was not based on a short-term price outlook but marked the first step in the company’s long-term BTC accumulation strategy. Lord added the company plans to consider further purchases based on market conditions, available funds, liquidity, and risk management. The purchase follows the board’s earlier approval for BTC acquisitions of up to $1 million.

Note:
This is a separate legal entity from Metaplanet subsidiary Bitcoin Japan Inc.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170190

[Polymarket hires former Goldman Sachs executive for institutional growth]

Polymarket has hired Lisa Mantil, formerly of Goldman Sachs, as head of institutional growth as the prediction market platform looks to secure Wall Street institutional liquidity, CNBC reported.

Until recently, Mantil was a Goldman Sachs partner and global head of ETF Accelerator, an internal platform that supports clients launching investment products. At Polymarket, Mantil is expected to expand the institutional investor business and promote the use of prediction markets in investment and risk-management strategies.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170191

[BTC rises as open interest falls to lowest since March, easing liquidation risk]

BTC-denominated open interest has fallen about 20% to its lowest level since March even as Bitcoin has risen 35% from its August low, according to a CoinNess analysis of Glassnode data.

Glassnode said Bitcoin is climbing with less leverage in the market, which could relatively reduce the risk of a sharp drop driven by large-scale leveraged liquidations.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170192

[Benjamin Cowen rethinks Q4 bearish BTC view as price shows resilience]

Cryptocurrency analyst Benjamin Cowen said on X that Bitcoin closing above its May high is a technically positive sign for the bullish trend. Cowen said BTC rose 20% to 30% within one to two weeks after moving above its 50-week moving average in 2019 and 2023, but the gain has been relatively smaller this time.

He said seasonal weakness concerns and rising bond yields are weighing on long-duration assets, including cryptocurrencies. Cowen added that while he had expected BTC to turn weak as the fourth quarter began, it has so far been more resilient than expected, prompting him to revisit that outlook. He said past fourth-quarter weakness was preceded by signs of decline before the quarter began, but no clear signal has emerged this time, and the outlook may need to be adjusted flexibly depending on market conditions.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170193

[Anonymous whale deposits $54.7M in ETH to Bitget]

An anonymous whale deposited 20,000 ETH, worth about $54.66 million, into Bitget, according to Onchain Lens. Exchange deposits are typically interpreted as intended for selling.

According to Onchain Lens, the ETH came from swapping 20,040 stETH held by the address through 1inch (1INCH).
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170194

[Hong Kong prices HK$20B digital green bond sale, adds deposit token settlement]

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said it had priced about HK$20 billion worth of digital green bonds under its Government Sustainable Bond Programme. The bonds were issued in four currencies: the Hong Kong dollar, yuan, U.S. dollar and euro.

For this sale, the government newly introduced deposit tokens into the primary issuance settlement process for Hong Kong dollar-denominated bonds, alongside traditional settlement methods and a previously introduced tokenized central bank money settlement method.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170195

[Cboe, S&P Dow Jones explore cooperation on new products including tokenized options]

Cboe and S&P Dow Jones Indices said they are exploring cooperation on new products, including tokenized options, as they agreed to extend their exclusive licensing deal for S&P 500 index options by 25 years through 2051.

The two companies said on Sept. 29 that the extended agreement could support collaboration beyond existing index derivatives and into new product development. Under the extension, Cboe will retain exclusive rights to offer trading in S&P 500 index options.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170196

[ECB seeks participants to test AI agents for digital euro payments]

The European Central Bank is seeking fintech companies, payment firms and other participants to explore the use of AI agents in digital euro payments, Cointelegraph reported.

The experiment will run from January through June 2027, with participating organizations set to develop functions including electronic receipts, multilateral transactions and conditional payments. Workshops planned for the first half of 2027 will cover AI-based payments, micropayments and machine-to-machine interactions.

Separately, the ECB is preparing a digital euro pilot project that will run for 12 months starting in the second half of 2027. For that effort, it has already selected 36 banks and payment companies, including Revolut, Stripe and Deutsche Bank. However, issuing a digital euro would still require EU legislation and a final decision by the ECB.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170197

[CEA Industries changes name to BNB Standard Corporation]

Nasdaq-listed CEA Industries, which is focused on investing in BNB, said it will change its name to BNB Standard Corporation effective Sept. 29. The company’s stock ticker BNC and warrant tickers BNCWW and BNCWZ will remain unchanged.

The company had earlier held a public vote on X covering four candidate names, and BNB Standard received about 47% of 5,799 total votes. The board approved the new name after reviewing the voting results and community feedback.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170198

[BIT-linked address deposits 1,000 BTC to Binance]

A wallet linked to crypto options trading platform BIT, formerly Matrixport, deposited 1,000 BTC to Binance an hour ago, Lookonchain reported, citing Arkham data. Exchange deposits are typically interpreted as a sign of intent to sell.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170199

[Bloomberg: Adam Back-linked ventures hit by setbacks after $320M hack, legal disputes]

Several Bitcoin-related ventures linked to Blockstream CEO Adam Back have been hit by a string of setbacks, including a hack, legal disputes and a collapsed merger, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg said plans to list BSTR Holdings, a $4 billion Bitcoin treasury company promoted by Back, had fallen through. BSTR had been pursuing a merger with a special purpose acquisition company tied to Cantor Fitzgerald, but the deal was scrapped after the original terms were withdrawn. Cantor said in August that BSTR owed the SPAC $15 million.

Exacore, a partner of Blockstream Mining, which was spun off from Blockstream about two years ago, is also facing multiple legal disputes. According to court records and other documents, Exacore has been sued by several companies over mining equipment purchase contracts, electricity bills and construction payments.

Liquid Network, the Bitcoin-linked blockchain launched by Blockstream in 2018, recently suffered a security breach in which 4,000 BTC, worth about $320 million, was stolen. The attackers claimed it was a white hat action meant to disclose a security vulnerability and later returned 3,400 BTC, but BTC worth about $47 million has not been returned.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170200

[Strive CEO says amplification ratio is key to BTC treasury returns, targets 60% this year]

Matt Cole, CEO of Strive (ASST), said the most important variable determining the overall returns of a BTC treasury strategy is the amplification ratio. In a post on X, Cole said an analysis of the company’s internal model showed the amplification ratio explained more than 99% of changes in total returns, while the effect of capital costs was far more limited than the market assumes. Cole said Strive aims to deliver higher returns for common shareholders than holding BTC directly and plans to raise the amplification ratio to more than 60% by year-end. Cole added that doing so would require large-scale fundraising capacity, sufficient liquidity, and sustained investor confidence, while higher BTC prices could raise the amount of capital needed to reach the target and make it harder to achieve. The amplification ratio measures how much preferred stock and debt a company uses relative to the value of its BTC holdings.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170201

[Coinbase says fresh inflows are favoring BTC over gold despite rate pressure]

Bitcoin and gold’s 90-day correlation has approached a record high, but BTC has risen over the past month while gold has fallen, Coinbase Institutional said in an analysis. In a post on X, the firm said similar correlation does not mean similar returns and added it believes fresh buying interest is moving into BTC rather than gold despite interest-rate pressure.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170202

[a16z crypto says blockchain can lower barriers to entry in traditional finance]

a16z crypto said blockchain can lower barriers to entry in traditional financial markets by enabling permissionless issuance and global distribution, easing hurdles such as listing reviews, legal frameworks and regional market fragmentation.

The firm said perpetual futures, spot decentralized exchanges, prediction markets, lending, memecoins, NFTs and real-world asset tokenization are among the main markets that have grown by leveraging those features. It added that perpetual futures stand out in particular, noting that annualized on-chain RWA perpetual futures trading volume reached $1.4 trillion in July, accounting for about half of Hyperliquid's total volume. Looking ahead, a16z crypto said mechanisms such as HIP-3 and HIP-4, which lower the threshold for launching new markets, could help expand on-chain markets beyond commodities, foreign exchange, indices and 24-hour stock exposure into areas that have been difficult to commoditize in traditional finance, including CPI, computing power, music, social trends and sports.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170203

[Japan tax agency launches KSK2, eyes tighter scrutiny of crypto tax filings]

Japan’s National Tax Agency launched its next-generation integrated tax management system, KSK2, on Sept. 24, a move expected to tighten scrutiny of tax reporting tied to cryptocurrency transactions, CoinPost reported.

KSK2 integrates individual and corporate data based on My Number personal IDs and corporate numbers, and uses AI to detect improper filings. In that context, tax firm Progo said crypto transactions are increasingly becoming a key focus of AI-based reviews based on annual trading reports from cryptocurrency exchanges, bank deposit and withdrawal records, and CRS data shared with overseas tax authorities. Progo added social media posts about crypto profits could also be checked against actual tax filings.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170204

[Report says won accounts for 30% of global crypto spot trading]

The South Korean won is the second-most active fiat currency in the digital-asset market after the U.S. dollar, accounting for about 30% of global spot trading volume, Pinboard reported, citing a joint report by RedStone and Kaia.

The report said the institutional conditions needed to use South Korea’s deep won liquidity for on-chain lending or as collateral in decentralized finance remain insufficient. It added that net stablecoin outflows from South Korea’s five major won-based exchanges have stayed negative for 18 straight months, with cumulative net outflows reaching 14.92 trillion won ($10.4 billion). The report attributed that trend to delays in establishing a legal framework for won-denominated stablecoins, and said that if they are brought into the regulatory fold, their use could expand beyond payments to DeFi collateral and settlement assets for tokenized securities.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170205

[Lite Strategy held $57.2M in LTC as of June 30]

Nasdaq-listed Lite Strategy, formerly MEI Pharma, said it held 832,716 LTC worth $57.22 million as of June 30, the end of its fiscal 2026 year.

The company said it had purchased more than 900,000 LTC in total with a $100 million investment after adopting LTC as its primary reserve asset in August last year. Lite Strategy added that its end-June holdings accounted for more than 1% of all LTC mined to date.

It also said it has run a covered-call program alongside share repurchases using its LTC holdings, and had bought back 6.4 million shares, equal to about 17% of outstanding shares, as of Sept. 22. Since launching the covered-call program, options premium income totaled about $930,000 through Sept. 22. The company said it plans to focus on increasing LTC holdings per share through further buybacks and additional yield-generation strategies.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170206

[Bitwise’s spot NEAR ETF to begin trading on NYSE Arca today]

Bitwise’s spot NEAR ETF is set to begin trading on NYSE Arca today under the ticker NRR, according to the company. The global crypto asset manager said the fund carries a 0.75% management fee and plans to directly stake the NEAR it holds so staking rewards can also be reflected in ETF returns.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170208

[SharpLink receives 406 ETH in staking rewards this week]

Nasdaq-listed Ethereum treasury company SharpLink (SBET) said on X it received 406 ETH in staking rewards this week, bringing its cumulative ETH staking rewards to 28,351 ETH.
https://coinness.com/en/news/1170209