📊 Middle East crypto volume triples to $350B amid conflict

The Bitcoin Policy Institute reports that crypto activity across the Middle East has tripled to $350 billion, driven largely by the Iran conflict pushing demand for digital assets as wealth preservation and transfer tools. Gulf crypto businesses, meanwhile, have kept operating through the disruption without significant interruption.

War is, apparently, a remarkably effective crypto adoption campaign.

Source

Trade on Binance

⚖️ Sweden Hits Six Crypto Miners With $56M Tax Bill

Sweden's Tax Agency has ordered six crypto mining firms in Boden to pay 540 million kronor (~$56M) in back taxes and penalties, after auditors found the companies used business structures to claim tax benefits they weren't entitled to. The move signals regulators are scrutinizing the structural arrangements miners use to minimize costs — not just their revenue.

Source

Trade on Binance

⚖️ U.S. court seizes $212K in DPRK IT worker crypto

A U.S. federal court has ordered the forfeiture of ~$212,700 in stablecoins tied to wages paid to North Korean IT workers — a partial win for the Justice Department, which is pursuing over $7.74 million in total digital assets connected to the scheme.

North Korea's remote-worker operation has become one of the more creative sanctions evasion plays in recent memory: place IT workers at Western companies, collect salaries, funnel crypto back to Pyongyang. The court's ruling chips away at the haul, but with $7.5M+ still in play, this one is far from over.

Source

Trade on Binance

🔷 Bitmine Holds 4.9% of All ETH — and Is Underwater by $5.1B

Tom Lee's Bitmine added 28,086 ETH for $70 million, pushing its treasury to 5.93 million tokens — worth $14.8 billion and representing 4.9% of Ethereum's entire supply. The company is 97% of the way to its stated goal of controlling 5% of ETH. Most of the holdings are staked to generate yield.

The catch: Bitmine is sitting on a $5.1 billion unrealized loss on its primary treasury asset. Accumulating nearly 5% of a network is an audacious bet — though the P&L suggests the timing could have been better.

Source

Trade on Binance

🚨 Liquid Network drained: $320M bug lets attacker mint fake BTC

A range-proof cache bug in the Elements codebase allowed an unknown attacker to mint unbacked L-BTC and drain roughly 95% of Liquid's federation reserve — around 598.5 BTC — through SideSwap. The network remains frozen. In a move straight out of a heist film, the attacker then opened negotiations via on-chain OP_RETURN messages.

A sidechain built on cryptographic trust, apparently trusting the wrong cache. Blockstream will have some explaining to do.

Source

Trade on Binance

🏛 Gemini Lands Full Singapore MPI License from MAS

Gemini has secured a Major Payment Institution license from Singapore's Monetary Authority, authorizing its local entity to offer digital payment token services and cross-border money transfers — without the standard transaction-volume limits that constrain smaller operators.

For an exchange that's been quietly expanding its regulated footprint, Singapore's stamp of approval is a meaningful one. MAS doesn't hand these out lightly.

Source

Trade on Binance

🪂 Bitcoin Base is giving away up to 100 $BCB with no deposit

Bitcoin Base has launched Community Airdrop Round 1 with a pool of 721,600 $BCB.

🎁 Reward: 30–100 $BCB
💰 Up to ~$10 based on the project's official valuation
⏰ Deadline: September 10
⚡️ Rewards are stated to be claimable instantly

What you need to do:
• Create a Web Wallet
• Join Telegram
• Follow Bitcoin Base on X and repost
• Complete additional tasks

Due to detected bot farms, the project moved participation to Gleam and is manually reviewing entries.

👉 Join

Official website

₿ Bitcoin Hits $79,700 as Iran Strikes Rattle Markets

While European equities sold off and Brent crude blew past $100 on the back of Iranian strikes, Bitcoin climbed to $79,700 — moving in lockstep with gold rather than stocks. The old "risk-on asset" narrative takes another hit. Maybe the digital gold crowd had a point all along.

Source

Trade on Binance

🚨 Critical Alby Hub Flaw Could Drain Lightning Wallets

Bitcoin Lightning wallet provider Alby has disclosed a critical security vulnerability in older versions of Alby Hub — the kind that lets attackers take over internet-exposed wallets and move funds without permission.

The flaw affects versions v1.7.0 through an unspecified later release, and only applies where users had made their self-hosted Hub reachable from the internet. Alby disclosed the issue on September 9, 2026. If you're running an older version with public internet exposure, the advice is obvious — update immediately.

Source

Trade on Binance

₿ Family Killed in Mexico Over Bitcoin Cold Wallet

Mexican prosecutors allege that Camilo Séptimo keyboardist Jonathan Meléndez and his family were murdered by suspects hunting for a cold wallet believed to hold millions in Bitcoin.

The case is a grim reminder that self-custody of Bitcoin, while sound in principle, can become a physical security liability when word gets out. The most dangerous vulnerability in crypto isn't always on-chain.

Source

Trade on Binance

🚨 $245M Crypto Heist: Online Scams Met Real-World Break-Ins

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean national, has pleaded guilty to leading a criminal network that stole and laundered over $245 million in cryptocurrency. The operation blended online impersonation schemes with physical home invasions, targeting victims before funneling proceeds into exotic cars, private jets, and nightlife.

The case is a stark reminder that crypto theft isn't always a remote keyboard affair — sometimes it literally comes to your door.

Source

Trade on Binance

🏦 Nasdaq Puts $100M into Kraken at $21B Valuation

Nasdaq's venture arm is investing $100 million in Payward, Kraken's parent company, valuing it at $21 billion — a sharp jump from the $13.3 billion implied by Deutsche Börse's stake just five months ago in April.

The deal deepens a strategic partnership first struck in March, with both firms targeting next-generation infrastructure for trading, settlement, and custody — plus tokenized, voting-enabled equities for Kraken's users. Traditional finance isn't just watching crypto anymore; it's writing nine-figure checks to own a piece of it.

Source

Trade on Binance

⚖️ US Sanctions $24B Crypto Black Market Xinbi

The DOJ and OFAC have moved against Xinbi, a crypto black market that processed $24 billion in transactions. DOJ seized its Telegram channels and two wallets, while OFAC sanctioned Xinbi alongside the developers behind SafeW and XinbiPay.

The crackdown apparently had an immediate chilling effect — rival money launderers reportedly headed for the exits as soon as the action dropped. When your competitors' shutdown makes you nervous, perhaps it's time to reconsider your career choices.

Source

Trade on Binance

🚨 Nomic Bug Drained 36% of Alloyed BTC Backing — for 74 Days

A software flaw on Nomic quietly carved a 36% hole in the backing of Alloyed BTC, and nobody caught it for 74 days. The bug was flagged by decentralized exchange platform Osmosis — meaning the people running the affected fund weren't the ones who noticed.

A third of a bitcoin fund's collateral, silently missing for over two months. In an ecosystem that prides itself on transparency and on-chain verifiability, that's a uncomfortable headline to sit with.

Source

Trade on Binance

₿ Bitcoin Clings to $76,500 as CPI Looms

Bitcoin is holding the $76,500–$77,000 support zone — but "holding" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The level is described as increasingly fragile ahead of Friday's CPI print, forecast at 3.4%. A hotter-than-expected reading could pile pressure on the Fed before next Wednesday's FOMC meeting, and elevated August oil prices aren't helping the inflation outlook.

For BTC, the math is simple: a hawkish CPI surprise = more Fed uncertainty = more pain for risk assets. That support zone may be working overtime by the weekend.

Source

Trade on Binance