Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: EU regulators are examining Binance’s use of a MiCA exemption to serve customers, with ESMA pushing for stronger enforcement powers. The review focuses on whether the exchange’s reliance on the licensing carve-out complies with the bloc’s new crypto rules. No outcome or timeline has been disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: A judge dismissed 15 claims against Chainalysis over its disputed $3.3 billion audit for Celsius, but allowed an aiding-and-abetting claim to proceed. The blockchain analytics firm still faces that remaining count tied to the collapsed lender’s audit.

TREE NEWS update: The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision met to advance regulatory initiatives and discuss risks and vulnerabilities in the global banking system. It approved the annual assessment of global systemically important banks and revised measures to reduce year-end window dressing, while adopting final standards for machine-readable Pillar 3 disclosures. The committee also agreed to consult on additional Pillar 2 guidance for interest rate risk in the banking book and will update its targeted review of prudential standards for banks’ crypto asset exposures by the end of this year.

TREE NEWS reports: European regulators are examining how Binance continues serving EU customers from Abu Dhabi, months after the exchange lost its MiCA registrations. The scrutiny centers on the ‘reverse solicitation’ exemption, which allows firms to serve EU clients who approach them on their own initiative without local authorization.

TREE NEWS update: Judge Jennifer Rochon dismissed the LIBRA and M3M3 memecoin class action with prejudice, ruling that six months of memecoin launches cannot sustain a RICO claim. The court also found that plaintiffs never pleaded Meteora as an entity capable of being sued. The dismissal with prejudice ends the case at the district level.

TREE NEWS update: SBI Holdings has completed its acquisition of Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank, making Bitbank a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal was executed through Bitbank’s buyback of its own shares from MIXI and Ceres. As part of the completion, SBI VC Trade president Tomohiko Kondo will join Bitbank’s board, while Bitbank CEO Noriyuki Hirosue is expected to become an outside director of SBI VC Trade.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Digital RMB International Operation Center said 39 more domestic and overseas financial institutions applied to join CBETS, its cross-border settlement platform, as direct participants as of the end of September, following the first batch of 26 signatories. The center said it has been upgrading CBETS through this year, supporting bilateral links with foreign central bank payment systems and CBDC systems as well as direct access by overseas institutions. The platform covers both trade settlement and cross-border personal travel.

TREE NEWS update: The Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog said in a report released September 30 that the central bank failed to properly oversee the renovation of its Washington headquarters, which ran far over budget, though no one committed a federal crime. The Fed board approved a $1.3 billion budget for the project in 2020; by December 2024 it had ballooned to $2.4 billion, with construction costs alone rising from $921 million to $2 billion. Inflation, insufficient bidding and design changes drove the increase.

TREE NEWS reports: The Bitcoin Policy Institute published a paper questioning MSCI’s proposed “non-operating company” rule, which could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its indexes. The think tank says the rule may have roots in an earlier crypto treasury review and takes aim at what it calls MSCI’s “invisible committee.”

TREE NEWS reports: Several Chinese brokerages in Hong Kong have tightened restrictions on existing mainland client accounts, allowing only sell and withdrawal orders while blocking deposits and purchases. The limit hinges on whether the IP address used to log in shows the investor is in mainland China. Xingzheng International and Guotai Junan International implemented the curbs on September 7 and September 26 respectively, while Orient Securities International notified clients that its restrictions take effect in October.

TREE NEWS update: Bitget’s September 24, 2026 breach saw losses revised from roughly $351.6 million to $387.5 million after abnormal transfers from hot and warm wallets. TRM Labs found the laundering path overlaps with prior North Korea-linked attacks including Bybit and AFX Bridge, and Elliptic assesses a North Korea link as “highly likely.” Including the Bitget incident, cumulative North Korea-related crypto thefts now approach $7.8 billion.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Finance Minister Lan Fo’an said the government will implement a more proactive fiscal policy with greater precision, including issuing 300 billion yuan in special treasury bonds to replenish the core tier-one capital of central financial enterprises. In an article in Qiushi, Lan said spending will be accelerated and ultra-long special treasury bonds and local government special bonds will be deployed to support the “Two Major” construction projects, while fiscal-financial coordination policies will be expanded to boost consumption and private investment.

TREE NEWS update: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking to define event contracts as swaps, a classification that could support its claim of exclusive federal jurisdiction over event contracts offered on regulated prediction markets. The move comes amid an ongoing fight over prediction market oversight.

TREE NEWS update: Wuhan’s housing, natural resources and local financial regulators issued implementation rules for a national notice on reforming commodity housing sales. Developers that sign a land transfer contract and obtain a pre-registration certificate for the parcel can first secure planning and construction permits; projects paying land fees on schedule may apply for pre-sale permits for the corresponding portion, with pre-registration of the land mortgage allowed under closed fund management.

TREE NEWS reports: Hunter Biden said the crypto market-structure Clarity Act failed because the Trump administration refused to compromise on ethics laws as they applied to Trump’s family personally. Speaking on Unchained, he predicted the bill faces a hard road over the next two years.

TREE NEWS update: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said the Federal Reserve’s currency swap lines are a monetary policy implementation tool, and that he has not learned of any reconsideration of the swap facilities. The remarks address the status of the central bank liquidity backstops used to supply dollar funding to other central banks.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said the failure of the Clarity Act left crypto with fewer restrictions and faster action from the SEC. Hougan argued the legislative defeat produced quicker regulatory wins for the industry than the bill would have delivered.

TREE NEWS update: US prosecutors said their antitrust case concerning Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery (PSKY-WBD) will not be delayed. The statement addresses the timing of the government’s antitrust action involving the two companies. No further details were provided.

TREE NEWS update: The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Tren de Aragua ATM network and designated seven Tron addresses, Chainalysis said. The wallets’ counterparties had exposure to laundering networks used by Mexican and Colombian cartels and Venezuelan launderers, the firm said. The designations freeze any U.S.-linked assets tied to the listed addresses.