Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Aave’s GHO Risk Council raised the core GHO borrow rate to 4.5% and also lifted Prime’s base rate, citing thin redemption reserves. The Ethereum USDC conversion module remained nearly empty, leaving limited capacity to absorb GHO redemptions.

TREE NEWS update: Crypto investigator ZachXBT said he fronted $349,700 of his own money to infiltrate an alleged laundering ring, work he links to a 442,000 USDT freeze. He said he identified a cluster tied to Bybit and valued at more than $12 million.

TREE NEWS update: The U.S. Treasury’s FinCEN withdrew a 2020 proposal that would have required banks and crypto firms to track transactions involving self-custodial wallets, along with a 2023 plan to designate crypto mixing as a primary money laundering concern. The two rules were scrapped together, ending the surveillance measures before either took effect.

TREE NEWS reports: US stocks closed higher, with the Dow up 0.20%, the Nasdaq up 0.92% and the S&P 500 up 0.71%. SPCX rose 7.60%, PayPal (PYPL) gained 2.91%, Strategy (MSTR) added 2.85%, Circle (CRCL) climbed 2.79% and Block (XYZ) rose 2.56%, while Intel (INTC) fell 2.68%.

TREE NEWS update: Modern Treasury is seeking federal approval to operate a limited-purpose national trust bank, which would let the payments infrastructure company offer stablecoin custody and related fiat services. The application places the firm among payments and crypto companies pursuing federal trust charters to custody digital assets under US banking supervision.

TREE NEWS update: Aave has activated LlamaRisk agents to manage Pendle collateral on Plasma, allowing automated adjustments to pricing and borrowing parameters for a principal token with $36.72 million supplied. The agents operate under fixed step limits and cooldowns, capping how far and how fast parameters can move.

TREE NEWS reports: Ethereum’s validator exit queue has eased to 767,000 ETH following validator exits tied to MetaMask, while nearly 1.44 million ETH is waiting to begin staking. The entry backlog is down 31% from Sept. 1 but still implies a wait of roughly 25 days to start staking.

TREE NEWS update: The Crypto Council for Innovation said it remains confident in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s approval of charters for crypto companies, pushing back on a lawsuit filed by banks and criticism from some lawmakers. CEO Ji Hun Kim said the organization stands behind the OCC’s decision. The advocacy group’s response follows the banking industry’s legal challenge to the charter approvals.

TREE NEWS reports: Flying Tulip’s ftPUT NFT options market has surpassed $5 million in trading volume. Buying an ftPUT NFT transfers its remaining FT tokens and redemption rights to the buyer, while spot FT purchases carry no such protection. The mechanism gives NFT holders a claim on the underlying tokens and their redemption terms.

TREE NEWS reports: On-chain sleuth ZachXBT said he posed as a customer of a Chinese crime syndicate tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, fronting $349,700 and paying a 5% fee on each order to trace the group’s Bybit loot in real time. He disclosed the operation publicly, describing the outlay as the cost of infiltrating the laundering network.

TREE NEWS update: About $6 million in Aave deposit tokens were drained from a vault on Base in six outflows that followed a borrower-whitelist change. The proceeds were redeemed for wstETH, with some of the funds later moved into bridge withdrawals toward Ethereum.

TREE NEWS update: Compound is voting on Proposal 612, which would extend treasury delays from two days to ten. A wallet linked to Humpy has cast 1.75 million COMP votes in support of the measure, which would give governance power to cancel treasury operations.

TREE NEWS reports: Anchorage Digital has cut 17% of its staff, a reduction that follows a $100 million investment from Tether and an expansion of the custodian’s institutional settlement business. The workforce reduction at the crypto custodian was reported on the basis of information from The Information.

TREE NEWS reports: Blockchain investigator ZachXBT said he posed as a client to infiltrate a Chinese money-laundering syndicate handling funds from the Bybit hack, fronting 349,700 USDC and paying a 5% fee on every order. The broker, he said, told him in advance where North Korea’s stolen funds were headed next.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC has cleared 3x leveraged Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded products for listing on Cboe, under proposed tickers BITH and ETHK. The products use futures and reset leverage daily, exposing longer-term holders to compounding losses. A listing date was not disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX is seeking to build a natural gas pipeline in the US state of Florida. The company has filed a request for the project. No further details on the pipeline’s capacity, cost or timeline were provided.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC approved a Cboe rule change allowing six Volatility Shares funds that seek triple the daily moves of Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, silver, oil and natural gas to list on a U.S. exchange. The approval clears the leveraged products for trading, expanding access to 3x exposure across crypto and commodity markets.

TREE NEWS update: S&P Global has introduced a new framework that assesses digital asset lending vaults across six risk categories, as deposits in the sector climb to about $10 billion. The ratings provider’s move brings a structured risk-evaluation standard to a fast-growing corner of crypto lending.

TREE NEWS update: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering retail crypto trading on margin, leverage or financing, along with a new exchange registration category built for it. Chairman Michael Selig called the framework a federal option rather than a mandate, leaving spot exchanges to the states.