Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: Hunter Biden-themed LAPTOP tokens airdropped to Substack subscribers briefly traded above $1 million each before crashing 99%. Recipients could claim 4,276 tokens each, with some selling quickly. The extreme volatility highlights the speculative nature of meme coin airdrops.

TREE NEWS reports: Two Republican senators told Semafor that the Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill, is likely heading for defeat in a Sept. 15 vote, even if it passes, due to Trump family ethics rules. The senators’ comments suggest the bill faces insurmountable opposition, potentially derailing the legislation.

TREE NEWS update: Eric Trump, son of former US President Donald Trump, mocked Hunter Biden on X on September 9, saying he should return to painting. This follows the launch of the LAPTOP meme coin by Hunter Biden on Base, which crashed up to 99% shortly after listing.

TREE NEWS update: A memecoin named LAPTOP, inspired by Hunter Biden’s laptop controversy, has launched. The project’s disclosures state LAPTOP has no utility, locks founder tokens for six months, and reserves 2% of tokens for wallets that lost money on TRUMP memecoin.

TREE NEWS update: The Chamber of Digital Commerce and Blockchain Association are seeking to block Illinois’ 0.2% crypto tax, arguing it is unconstitutional and would impose costly compliance burdens. Their legal action follows an earlier lawsuit and aims to prevent the tax from taking effect in January.

TREE NEWS update: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled EIP-8288 on Sept 9, proposing a recursive STARK mempool in the I-star upgrade post-Hegota. The mechanism moves signature verification and proof generation off the main execution path, slashing on-chain overhead. It could cut privacy transaction gas from tens of millions to tens of thousands, support quantum-safe signatures like Falcon and ML-DSA without EVM changes, and enable private account abstraction.

TREE NEWS update: The meme coin LAPTOP crashed roughly 99% within minutes of launching on the Base network, after briefly peaking at $190.81. Thin liquidity met a wave of selling, erasing nearly all value. The token, inspired by Hunter Biden’s laptop, saw a dramatic debut collapse.

TREE NEWS reports: The Hunter Biden-themed LAPTOP token, launched on Base at 12:00 UTC Wednesday, fell 99% from its opening price within three hours. It opened at $247.55 in the first five minutes and traded at $1.90 by 15:00 UTC. With a one billion supply, LAPTOP’s market cap now exceeds that of the TRUMP token, which also trades near a $2 billion fully diluted valuation.

TREE NEWS update: a16z Crypto announced the release of Lattice Jolt, a new version of its open-source zero-knowledge virtual machine Jolt, replacing elliptic curve cryptography with lattice-based cryptography for quantum resistance. The upgrade delivers 2-3x faster prover and verifier speeds and generates proofs under 100KB, the smallest among quantum-resistant zkVMs. Based on the standard Module-SIS assumption, it aligns with global post-quantum standards. The new polynomial commitment scheme Akita was developed by LayerZero with Carnegie Mellon, USC, and a16z.

TREE NEWS reports: Crypto liquidations totaled $231 million across exchanges in the past 24 hours, with longs at $120 million and shorts at $111 million. Bitcoin accounted for $60.27 million and Ethereum $36.86 million in liquidations. The largest single liquidation order was $3.95 million on HTX’s BTC-USDT pair.

TREE NEWS reports: IOST jumped over 70% in the past 24 hours, reaching a high of $0.00156 today. The move comes amid heightened trading activity for the token.

TREE NEWS update: Consensys Software Inc. is splitting into two companies, with MetaMask becoming an independent entity and a new Consensys retaining Ethereum protocol and institutional infrastructure businesses. The restructuring aims to sharpen focus on consumer and institutional markets.

TREE NEWS update: The Blockchain Association and the Crypto Innovation Council filed for a preliminary injunction in Illinois court to block a 0.2% digital asset transaction tax scheduled to take effect in January 2027. In a 34-page motion, the groups argue the tax is unprecedented, causes irreparable harm, and violates the Illinois Constitution and the Internet Tax Freedom Act. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

TREE NEWS update: Crypto industry groups representing digital asset firms are escalating their legal battle in Illinois, asking a court to block the state’s controversial crypto tax. The move intensifies the industry’s opposition to the measure, which they argue is unfair or burdensome.

TREE NEWS update: world.xyz has launched a fully on-chain prediction market platform on Solana, with over one million users already on the waitlist. Chainlink supports market settlement, and contracts settle in Phantom’s CASH stablecoin, as reported on September 9.

TREE NEWS reports: Robinhood Chain has surpassed Solana and BNB Chain in trading fees, driven by memecoin activity. Franklin Crypto’s Chris Perkins called the network an ‘incredible unlock’ on Monday’s Bits + Bips, while Bernstein noted the memecoin activity is ‘not an investment.’ The network has become a source of earnings for Robinhood.

TREE NEWS update: Consensys Software Inc. is splitting into two companies, with the MetaMask wallet business rebranding as MetaMask and retaining Joe Lubin as CEO. The institutional infrastructure arm, including Linea and Besu, will operate under a new entity carrying the Consensys name. The restructuring is expected to complete by the end of 2026.

TREE NEWS update: Kuaishou held an online protection salon for minors in China, themed ‘Co-Exploring Governance, Co-Protecting the Future,’ under the guidance of the China Federation of Internet Societies. The event gathered over ten guests from industry organizations, universities, research institutions, legal media, and platforms to discuss multi-stakeholder governance approaches for minors’ online protection.

TREE NEWS update: Kuaishou held a salon on minors’ online protection in Beijing, under the guidance of the China Federation of Internet Societies. The event, themed ‘Co-governance and Protection for the Future,’ gathered over ten guests from industry organizations, universities, research institutions, legal media, and platforms to discuss multi-party governance approaches.