Flash News

TREE NEWS update: The Independent Community Bankers of America is suing to block the OCC’s national trust charters for crypto firms, arguing they create a “side door into the banking system” without the safeguards that bind traditional banks. The banking group contends the charters let crypto companies operate inside the banking system while sidestepping rules applied to conventional lenders.

TREE NEWS update: A crypto vault on Base was drained of about 1,783 wstETH on October 4, with losses exceeding $6 million. On-chain records show the vault was controlled by a 3-of-7 Safe whose seven signers have not been publicly identified. Security firms said the attacker borrowed aBaswstETH from the vault and swapped it for wstETH via Aave; neither the Base chain nor Aave’s core contracts were implicated, and the specific authorization flaw remains unconfirmed.

TREE NEWS reports: Spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $134.4 million over the first two trading days of October, rebounding from a Sept. 30 outflow. The inflows came as a weak jobs report cooled bets on further Federal Reserve rate hikes, giving the new month a green start.

TREE NEWS reports: A trader bought 3.8 million SI tokens on Robinhood Chain for $5,670 at an average market cap of $1.48 million, then sold 2.3 million SI for $42,200 while retaining 1.6 million SI worth about $31,000. The trader’s total profit stands at $67,600, a 1,190% return, including $27,700 in unrealized gains.

TREE NEWS update: Near Intents said the roughly $3.8 million drained in an exploit on Thursday was returned in full, a day after the team said it had identified the attacker and gave them 48 hours to return the funds. The protocol confirmed the full recovery of the stolen amount.

TREE NEWS update: Japan has added Garantex, a crypto exchange linked to Russia, to its list of sanctions tied to the war in Ukraine. Garantex had previously been sanctioned by the US, the EU and other jurisdictions for helping Russian entities evade financial restrictions.

TREE NEWS update: Changpeng Zhao pushed back on a New York Times report by journalist David Yaffe-Bellany that portrayed his gifting of Binance merchandise as bribery. In a social media response, CZ said the reporter held clear skepticism toward him and mischaracterized the practice, explaining the giveaways were meant to turn users into “walking billboards.” He added that despite the bias, he still thanked the article.

TREE NEWS reports: A user lost about $305,000 in DAI to an address-poisoning attack, GoPlus Security said in a monitoring alert. The attacker generated a fake address matching the prefix and suffix of the victim’s intended transfer address and sent small dust amounts to lure the user into copying it from transaction history. GoPlus said such attacks are now fully automated, from target discovery to address spoofing and laundering through mixers, and urged users to verify full addresses and send test transfers.

TREE NEWS reports: Hyperliquid will unlock about 3.75 million HYPE tokens at 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on October 6, roughly 1.69% of circulating supply and worth about $339 million. Ethena releases about 172 million ENA at 3:00 p.m. on October 5, about 1.88% of supply and worth roughly $41 million. Babylon unlocks about 136 million BABY on October 10 and Movement about 165 million MOVE on October 9.

TREE NEWS reports: A large holder who recently sold ETH at an average price of $2,709 has rebuilt a position after the price fell to $2,695, withdrawing 3,283.56 ETH worth about $8.85 million from OKX four hours ago. The buyback is roughly three times the 1,099 ETH sold in the prior transaction.

TREE NEWS reports: Strategy founder Michael Saylor said AI agents will become core participants in the digital economy and will favor native digital assets such as bitcoin for round-the-clock automated transactions, because the traditional financial system is frictional and unfriendly to AI. He urged US policymakers to shift from restricting to supporting digital assets through modernized regulation, including self-custody rights and allowing banks to custody bitcoin and extend credit against it.

TREE NEWS update: Bitget’s latest proof-of-reserves shows a 131% reserve ratio across 19 major assets, Greater China head Xie Jiayin disclosed on October 4. The exchange’s user protection fund, backed by its own capital, has been topped up to 3,705 BTC, worth about $316 million. Bitget also launched a “Peer Program” letting trading and asset clients share 30% of platform revenue over four consecutive weeks, excluding the institutional portion.

TREE NEWS reports: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose wealth Forbes estimates at over $100 billion, is living in Abu Dhabi after serving four months in a California prison for Bank Secrecy Act violations tied to Binance’s lack of KYC controls. Binance paid a $4.3 billion fine and CZ stepped down as CEO; he was pardoned by President Trump in October. MGX invested $2 billion in Binance at a $75 billion valuation, paid in World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin.

TREE NEWS reports: A Bitcoin address dormant for 13 years activated on October 4, sending a 0.001 BTC test transfer. The wallet holds 1,346 BTC worth about $115 million at current prices. The coins were received in 2013 from platforms including Multibit and BTC-e at a cost of roughly $178, an initial value of about $240,000 — a gain of 478x.

TREE NEWS reports: An address that has booked $17 million in profits trading NEAR and INJ since mid-August has opened a 94,700-token CBRS long on Hyperliquid worth about $17.4 million since Friday’s market close. The position was funded by trimming existing long positions in MU, INTC and DRAM, with the reduction roughly matching the size of the new CBRS long.

TREE NEWS update: Bitget has topped up its user protection fund to 3,705 BTC, currently worth $316 million, using the exchange’s own capital. The exchange’s latest proof of reserves for 19 major assets stands at 131%.

TREE NEWS reports: A wallet opened a 94,700-token CBRS long on decentralized perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid worth about $17.4 million, pushing CBRS up nearly 11% over the weekend before a 3% pullback after the wallet stopped adding four hours ago. The position was funded by cutting long exposure to MU, INTC and DRAM in roughly equal size. The wallet now holds close to $50 million in longs across the four assets and has booked $17 million in profit from NEAR and INJ trades since mid-August.

TREE NEWS reports: Only 25 users have paid Hyperliquid read priority fees, with cumulative spending reaching $5.3 million. The two highest spenders paid a combined 63,200 HYPE, worth $4.4 million, accounting for 81.6% of the total. The top five users account for 99.8% of all read priority fees.

TREE NEWS reports: Losses from an exploit on a Base chain vault have grown to about $6 million, involving roughly 1,783 wstETH. The attacker added a new contract to the vault’s whitelist, borrowed aBaswstETH from the vault and moved the funds to an attacker-controlled contract.

TREE NEWS reports: A Bitcoin whale address dormant for more than 13 years became active on Wednesday, moving $43 worth of BTC at 17:43:54 Beijing time in what appears to be a test transaction. The address accumulated 801 BTC when Bitcoin traded between $124.86 and $411.75, and now holds an unrealized profit of roughly $67.82 million.