Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: Chainalysis reports a 420% increase in blockchain dead drop attacks, in which state-linked hackers hide command data in public blockchains. North Korean operators use Tron, Aptos and BNB Smart Chain as redundant command paths, while suspected Iranian actors encode routing data in Bitcoin transactions.

TREE NEWS update: Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said the Fed will finalize a reform plan within the coming weeks to raise the transparency and accountability of bank stress tests. The changes are intended to make the tests more reliable and reduce volatility in bank capital requirements. Under the plan, the Fed will set a bank’s stress capital buffer using the average of its two most recent stress test results.

TREE NEWS update: People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Lu Lei said new-generation AI tools such as large models and agents bring novel risks including algorithmic black boxes and model hallucinations, speaking at the China-ASEAN Financial Cooperation and Development Forum. He said AI can learn the underlying logic of human behavior while humans cannot penetrate its internal decision-making, an ‘asymmetric understanding’ that may pose deep challenges for the financial industry and underscores the importance of safety governance.

TREE NEWS update: The European Commission on September 17 published the text of its proposed EU Children’s Act, which would bar under-13s from social media and require users to be at least 15 to open an independent account. The proposal still faces multiple challenges, including age verification and how responsibility would be enforced.

TREE NEWS update: Beijing’s economy and information technology bureau and its development and reform commission issued an action plan for the city’s token economy covering 2026-2028. The plan sets tiered evaluation standards for ‘token factories’ covering model compatibility, token throughput, first-token latency, cache hit rate and power usage effectiveness, and backs inference-specific chips, model lightweighting and edge deployment to lift token production capacity.

TREE NEWS update: The CFTC has submitted a prerule on crypto asset transactions and markets to the White House for review, moving ahead with a derivatives framework under its own authority. The step follows the collapse of the Clarity Act, which had left Congress stalled on crypto market structure legislation.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said the crypto market can continue to rise even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass, arguing market demand matters more than any single bill. The legislation would have established a clearer regulatory framework for the crypto industry and given the CFTC more explicit oversight. Lee noted the SEC and CFTC would remain the primary federal regulators, and cited prediction and sports markets growing despite regulatory uncertainty.

TREE NEWS update: The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has submitted a new crypto market regulatory action to the White House for review. The filing comes days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, leaving the market-structure bill stalled in Congress. The submission places the proposal under executive branch examination before any formal adoption.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said in an interview that the crypto market can continue to rise even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass, arguing market demand matters more than any single bill. The legislation would have established a clearer regulatory framework for the crypto industry and given the CFTC more explicit oversight duties. Lee noted that even without it, the SEC and CFTC remain the main federal regulators, and cited prediction and sports markets as sectors that kept growing amid regulatory uncertainty.

TREE NEWS update: Beijing’s economy and information technology bureau and development and reform commission issued an action plan to accelerate the development of the token economy for 2026-2028. The plan supports financial institutions in creating specialized financial products for computing infrastructure and token consumption, offering mid- and long-term credit to enterprises, and launching token engineer reskilling programs covering model tuning, inference acceleration, platform operations and security compliance.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin climbed back above $80,000, with Solana and Hyperliquid also rallying, even as the Clarity Act stalls in the Senate. The SEC and CFTC are continuing to advance crypto-related rulemaking despite the legislative holdup, a factor markets appeared to shrug off.

TREE NEWS update: Samsung Electronics’ US arm is recruiting a senior manager in New York to lead business development for Samsung Wallet payments. The role covers the wallet’s vision, strategy and execution, and lists payment partnerships spanning card issuers, general payment services and fintech partners, explicitly including stablecoins and buy-now-pay-later services. Duties include negotiating and closing partner contracts on commercial terms, data use and product requirements, and working with product teams on new features.

TREE NEWS update: California Governor Gavin Newsom said he signed an executive order to sharply accelerate independent oversight of artificial intelligence companies and to push for the creation of an “AI kill switch.” Newsom said California is acting because President Trump and Congress have failed to lead, adding that the move is meant to safeguard all Americans.

TREE NEWS update: The Federal Reserve Board announced the termination of its enforcement action with SNB Bancshares and Bank of Eufaula. The order, issued by the central bank, lifts the previous supervisory measures imposed on the two institutions. No further details on the original action or its terms were disclosed in the announcement.

TREE NEWS update: People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Lu Lei said new-generation AI technologies such as large models and agents are bringing new types of risk to financial services. Speaking Friday at the China-ASEAN Financial Cooperation and Development Forum, Lu said the central bank is willing to work with ASEAN countries to jointly assess these emerging AI-driven financial risks and to deepen cooperation on shared AI financial application infrastructure.

TREE NEWS update: UK Chancellor John Healey travels to Ireland on the 18th to meet economic and finance ministers of EU member states, discussing deeper UK-EU economic and security cooperation. Healey will use the meeting to press the EU to include Britain in its ‘Made in EU’ policy, giving UK firms treatment similar to that of member states.

TREE NEWS update: Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on September 18 that it has expanded its list of European nationals barred from entering Russia, in retaliation for the EU’s 21st sanctions package against Moscow adopted on July 23. The ministry announced the countermeasure on its website, without specifying how many people were added or naming those affected.

TREE NEWS update: The US Treasury Department has issued Russia-related General License 131J, permitting operations involving oil company LukOil to continue until October 22. The authorization extends the window for transactions tied to the Russian energy firm under the sanctions framework.

TREE NEWS reports: Banks have roughly doubled their presence on the European Securities and Markets Authority’s MiCA register since late June and now account for nearly one in four crypto providers on the list, or about 23%. The shift marks a growing bank footprint in the EU’s newly licensed crypto sector.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has filed and investigated 29,000 illegal cases since launching a special campaign in May against low-quality, low-price practices, the regulator said. The cases span pricing, competition, quality and certification, with 280 million yuan in fines and confiscations and more than 16 million yuan returned to consumers.