Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Payward-owned payments firm Reap launched a Virtual Asset Ledger letting users of exchanges, wallets, neobanks and fintech platforms spend BTC and other crypto balances directly through Reap-issued Visa cards, with conversion at real-time rates and no pre-conversion to stablecoins. Reap said card spending funded by virtual assets reached $1.04 billion in July 2026.

TREE NEWS update: Grayscale renamed its Grayscale Bitcoin Miners ETF as the Grayscale AI Compute ETF, changing its NYSE ticker from MNRS to GCPU and its tracking index from the Indxx Bitcoin Miners Index to the Indxx High Performance Computing Index. The fund will invest in companies building and operating AI infrastructure, with roughly half its holdings in native AI compute firms and the rest in digital infrastructure operators that have publicly committed to moving into AI, including bitcoin miners pivoting to that business.

TREE NEWS reports: Address “0xA799” bought 788,000 UNI at $6.26 about six days ago, a position worth roughly $4.93 million, then sold the entire holding at $8.85 for about $6.97 million, Lookonchain monitoring shows. The round trip produced a profit of roughly $2.04 million within six days.

TREE NEWS update: Hong Kong lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong said the city’s new licensing regime covering virtual asset trading and custody services is expected to be submitted to the Legislative Council in the second half of this year and could pass by the end of 2026 or early 2027, which would largely clarify digital asset licensing requirements. He added that the two licensed stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong are currently testing different use cases.

TREE NEWS update: Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission added Vebit to its list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms on September 23, naming five related websites. The regulator said Vebit claims to offer spot, futures and futures copy-trading of digital assets on those sites but is not licensed by the SFC and is suspected of conducting unlicensed activities.

TREE NEWS reports: SlowMist said malicious versions of the iOS app FomoPeek, distributed through Apple’s App Store, were linked to $580,000 in crypto theft. The app used iOS kernel exploits to escape the sandbox and access sensitive data from other apps, the security firm said.

TREE NEWS update: The CFTC issued a warning over risky prediction market ‘mention’ contracts, weeks after fining a former White House teleprompter operator who made more than $107,000 trading prediction contracts tied to President Trump’s speeches. The regulator flagged the contracts as a compliance concern for traders.

TREE NEWS reports: The number of commodity futures contracts in China with more than 10 billion yuan in open interest has risen to 16. Precious metals drew the most capital of any sector over the past week, with Shanghai gold’s settled funds rising more than 2.5 billion yuan to top 130 billion yuan.

TREE NEWS reports: Two wallets suspected of being controlled by the same entity have staked a combined 212,590 HYPE tokens worth $20.49 million, on-chain tracker Onchain Lens said. One wallet staked 106,410 HYPE, valued at $10.25 million, while the other staked 106,180 HYPE, valued at $10.24 million. The wallets are identified as 0x8bdd…6aec and 0x1ca9…5120.

TREE NEWS update: The CFTC is warning that prediction-market contracts tied to whether someone will “mention” specific words carry heightened manipulation risk. The agency flagged the betting category as vulnerable to attempts to influence the outcome. No enforcement action or rule change was announced.

TREE NEWS reports: Four long-dormant Bitcoin wallets moved a combined 1,971 BTC between Sept. 6 and Sept. 22, including a 600 BTC transfer worth $51.9 million hours before the report. Three of the four wallets carry “Noah Doe” lawsuit tags, linking the coins to that litigation. The transfers mark a rare burst of activity from decade-old addresses.

TREE NEWS update: Utah Republican Senator John Curtis sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking member Dick Durbin urging an investigation into whether Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden used family ties to the presidency for private gain, and requesting subpoenas for both. Curtis cited Trump Jr.’s promotion of family-backed crypto ventures, a prediction-market advisory role at a CFTC-regulated firm, and a wedding gift from Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, which Donald Trump said his son returned. The call comes a week after Senate Republicans failed to win enough Democratic support to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin perpetual futures open interest has climbed back above $62 billion, returning to July levels, even after recent violent price swings wiped out billions of dollars in derivatives positions. Traders are piling back into leveraged bets, adding fuel and fresh risk to the crypto rally. Monday’s latest large-scale leverage flush pushed prices higher before total derivatives contracts rebuilt past the $62 billion mark.

TREE NEWS update: A Republican senator is calling for an investigation into the crypto ventures of US presidents’ sons, citing their ties to the presidency. The request marks a shift, as Democrats had previously led calls to examine the Trump family’s crypto dealings. The senator did not specify which individuals or ventures would be covered by the proposed inquiry.

TREE NEWS reports: The total value of digital assets climbed back above $3 trillion for the first time since January, driven by a sharp bitcoin rally. CoinGecko data shows crypto market cap has risen by more than $740 billion since the US Treasury announced it would increase long-term bond buybacks last month. Leverage has built up alongside the gains, with Coinglass putting total perpetual futures open interest near $160 billion, the highest since late October.

TREE NEWS update: CME is expanding its crypto futures lineup with standard and micro contracts for bitcoin cash (BCH) and uniswap (UNI). The additions extend the exchange operator’s pattern of altcoin rollouts, which already covers Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar, Avalanche and Sui.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC has advanced its crypto asset custody rule, sending the proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, according to the agency’s crypto working group chief legal counsel Taylor Lindman. The rule would clarify that broker-dealers holding non-security crypto assets need no special registration and would let investment advisers place client assets with state-chartered trusts. After review, the SEC will formally propose the rule and seek public comment.

TREE NEWS update: Binance has invested $100 million in Circle Internet Group, buying about 1.237 million Class A shares at $80.84 each; the deal closed September 17. The shares carry a lock-up of up to two years, with Binance retaining voting rights. The two firms also signed a five-year USDC cooperation agreement, under which Circle will pay Binance monthly incentives proportional to USDC held via its Modular Smart Contract Wallet infrastructure, and Binance will further promote USDC on its platform.