Arbitrum Perp DEX AFX Trade Drained of $24M, Offers Hacker 30% to Return It

AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum that settles in the stablecoin USDC, was drained of $24.15 million on Wednesday in an exploit that hit a bridge the protocol operates, security firm Blockaid said. In a tweet, AFX said the exact attack vector remains under investigation. The on-chain money trail shows that the attacker bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped it for 12,468 ETH, now sitting in a single wallet, PeckShield said. AFX is aware of an incident involving...

AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum that settles in the stablecoin USDC, was drained of $24.15 million on Wednesday in an exploit that hit a bridge the protocol operates, security firm Blockaid said. In a tweet, AFX said the exact attack vector remains under investigation. The on-chain money trail shows that the attacker bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped it for 12,468 ETH, now sitting in a single wallet, PeckShield said. AFX is aware of an incident involving...

BitMEX to Close on September 23, Halts New Sign-Ups

BitMEX, one of crypto's oldest derivatives venues, is shutting down. The platform will cease operations on September 23 at 04:00 UTC, its operator, HDR Global Trading, said Thursday, pinning the decision on a “strategic review of the business and the broader industry.” New account sign-ups have already been halted. The move, BitMEX said, "comes with a heavy heart." Dear BitMEX Users, Today, we share with a very heavy heart that BitMEX exchange will shut down its operations, effective 23 Septemb...

BitMEX, one of crypto's oldest derivatives venues, is shutting down. The platform will cease operations on September 23 at 04:00 UTC, its operator, HDR Global Trading, said Thursday, pinning the decision on a “strategic review of the business and the broader industry.” New account sign-ups have already been halted. The move, BitMEX said, "comes with a heavy heart." Dear BitMEX Users, Today, we share with a very heavy heart that BitMEX exchange will shut down its operations, effective 23 Septemb...

Coinbase Wants to Be Canada's One-Stop Shop for Stocks, Crypto and Prediction Markets

Coinbase has a new pitch for Canada: stop thinking of the company as just a crypto exchange, and start seeing it as the only financial app the country needs. Eric Richmond, CEO of Coinbase Canada, told BNN Bloomberg this week that the company is pushing its "Everything Exchange" north of the border—a single platform where crypto, stocks, ETFs (funds that track a basket of assets like the S&P 500), and prediction markets (platforms where users bet real money on the outcome of real-world events, l...

Coinbase has a new pitch for Canada: stop thinking of the company as just a crypto exchange, and start seeing it as the only financial app the country needs. Eric Richmond, CEO of Coinbase Canada, told BNN Bloomberg this week that the company is pushing its "Everything Exchange" north of the border—a single platform where crypto, stocks, ETFs (funds that track a basket of assets like the S&P 500), and prediction markets (platforms where users bet real money on the outcome of real-world events, l...

Kraken Parent Company Makes Moves to Offer xStocks From Global Markets

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, teamed up with global fintech GTN on Wednesday to push xStocks outside the U.S. market for the first time. At the moment, xStocks only come in the form of U.S. equities, but are only available for trading to investors outside the United States. This move would expand the offering to equities from other markets around the world. Kraken’s xStocks are blockchain-based tokens, each backed one-to-one by a real company share held in regulated cus...

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, teamed up with global fintech GTN on Wednesday to push xStocks outside the U.S. market for the first time. At the moment, xStocks only come in the form of U.S. equities, but are only available for trading to investors outside the United States. This move would expand the offering to equities from other markets around the world. Kraken’s xStocks are blockchain-based tokens, each backed one-to-one by a real company share held in regulated cus...

Alibaba's New Qwen Image 3 AI Wants to Be Useful, Not Just Pretty

Alibaba's Qwen team launched Qwen Image 3.0 on Tuesday, and the pitch has nothing to do with how beautiful the output looks. It's about whether the output can actually be used at work. Most AI image tools—Reve, Nano Banana, Seedream—are designed to excel at specific areas: creativity, realism, editing capabilities, and so on. Qwen Image 3.0 is going in a different direction. "Qwen-Image-3.0 is not just pursuing 'good-looking'—it is pursuing 'useful,’ making image generation a truly deployable pr...

Alibaba's Qwen team launched Qwen Image 3.0 on Tuesday, and the pitch has nothing to do with how beautiful the output looks. It's about whether the output can actually be used at work. Most AI image tools—Reve, Nano Banana, Seedream—are designed to excel at specific areas: creativity, realism, editing capabilities, and so on. Qwen Image 3.0 is going in a different direction. "Qwen-Image-3.0 is not just pursuing 'good-looking'—it is pursuing 'useful,’ making image generation a truly deployable pr...

Franklin Templeton Says Agentic AI Is Crypto's 'Killer Use Case'

Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton, has a message for anyone who thinks buying Nvidia stock covers their AI exposure: It doesn't. Kaul published a paper Tuesday arguing that agentic AI—software that acts, pays, and decides on your behalf without checking with you at every step—will run on crypto rails, not Wall Street ones. Franklin Templeton manages nearly $1.8 trillion in assets.  "Blockchain will be pivotal in allowing agentic AI to realize its potential...

Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton, has a message for anyone who thinks buying Nvidia stock covers their AI exposure: It doesn't. Kaul published a paper Tuesday arguing that agentic AI—software that acts, pays, and decides on your behalf without checking with you at every step—will run on crypto rails, not Wall Street ones. Franklin Templeton manages nearly $1.8 trillion in assets.  "Blockchain will be pivotal in allowing agentic AI to realize its potential...

Bitcoin Is Bouncing: Here’s the Bull and Bear Case for Its Next Move

The crypto market has been watching Bitcoin very carefully this week, and for once, what it found on the chart was at least partly reassuring. Bitcoin has clawed back to $66,347 as of Wednesday afternoon after testing lows near $58,000 in recent weeks. The 200-period exponential moving average held as support and the so-called death cross on the chart that traders have been watching seems to be getting just a bit thinner, sparking hopes of a crossover into a golden cross in the upcoming months....

The crypto market has been watching Bitcoin very carefully this week, and for once, what it found on the chart was at least partly reassuring. Bitcoin has clawed back to $66,347 as of Wednesday afternoon after testing lows near $58,000 in recent weeks. The 200-period exponential moving average held as support and the so-called death cross on the chart that traders have been watching seems to be getting just a bit thinner, sparking hopes of a crossover into a golden cross in the upcoming months....

Clarity Act Latest Draft Bars Trump From Crypto Ventures—But Only Until 2029

The latest, and potentially final, version of the long-awaited Clarity Act is circulating in the U.S. Senate, and it now includes the hotly debated ethics provision Democrats have been asking for: restrictions on the president and his family from engaging in cryptocurrency business activities. The ban, however, is written to expire—and wouldn’t place restrictions on President Donald Trump’s sons. According to the 616-page draft text, the ethics provision would block public officials and employee...

The latest, and potentially final, version of the long-awaited Clarity Act is circulating in the U.S. Senate, and it now includes the hotly debated ethics provision Democrats have been asking for: restrictions on the president and his family from engaging in cryptocurrency business activities. The ban, however, is written to expire—and wouldn’t place restrictions on President Donald Trump’s sons. According to the 616-page draft text, the ethics provision would block public officials and employee...

Hugging Face CEO Thanks Chinese AI for Saving the Day After OpenAI Hack

Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue just sent the most pointed thank-you note in AI right now—to a Chinese startup—the day after OpenAI confirmed its own models broke into Hugging Face's servers. Z.ai, the Beijing-based lab that released GLM 5.2 as open weights last month, got a public shoutout from Delangue on X.  “Also massively grateful to z.AI. They shared GLM5.2 as open weights (for free!) with the world and it became a key part of our defense,” he said in a retweet of Hugging Face's Head of...

Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue just sent the most pointed thank-you note in AI right now—to a Chinese startup—the day after OpenAI confirmed its own models broke into Hugging Face's servers. Z.ai, the Beijing-based lab that released GLM 5.2 as open weights last month, got a public shoutout from Delangue on X.  “Also massively grateful to z.AI. They shared GLM5.2 as open weights (for free!) with the world and it became a key part of our defense,” he said in a retweet of Hugging Face's Head of...

US Seizes More Than $25M in Crypto Tied to Investment and Romance Scams

U.S. prosecutors have seized more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to international scams that defrauded thousands of victims across the United States and Canada, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, working with the Secret Service's Washington Field Office, filed five civil forfeiture complaints on Tuesday, each tied to a separate investigation into fraudulent crypto investment platforms and online romance schemes. Agents said they...

U.S. prosecutors have seized more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to international scams that defrauded thousands of victims across the United States and Canada, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, working with the Secret Service's Washington Field Office, filed five civil forfeiture complaints on Tuesday, each tied to a separate investigation into fraudulent crypto investment platforms and online romance schemes. Agents said they...

Centralized Elements 'Frequently Persist' in DeFi and Should Be Regulated: FATF

Much of decentralized finance is not as decentralized as it looks, and the platforms behind it should be regulated like other financial businesses, the world's main anti-money-laundering body said in a new report. In a report published Tuesday, the Financial Action Task Force said its rules already apply to any DeFi arrangement where an identifiable person keeps "control or sufficient influence," regardless of how decentralized a project claims to be. The Paris-based body, whose standards are us...

Much of decentralized finance is not as decentralized as it looks, and the platforms behind it should be regulated like other financial businesses, the world's main anti-money-laundering body said in a new report. In a report published Tuesday, the Financial Action Task Force said its rules already apply to any DeFi arrangement where an identifiable person keeps "control or sufficient influence," regardless of how decentralized a project claims to be. The Paris-based body, whose standards are us...

Justin Sun's HTX 'Rotating' On-Chain Wallets Amid UK Sanctions: TRM Labs

Crypto exchange HTX has rebuilt its underlying wallet infrastructure in the weeks since the UK sanctioned it, rotating deposit and hot wallets on a rapid cycle, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said in a report Tuesday. The exchange has “rebuilt its on-chain plumbing,” TRM Labs said, with the result that address-list screening “cannot keep pace” The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation designated Huobi Global S.A., the entity behind HTX, on May 26, the first time the UK applied the...

Crypto exchange HTX has rebuilt its underlying wallet infrastructure in the weeks since the UK sanctioned it, rotating deposit and hot wallets on a rapid cycle, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said in a report Tuesday. The exchange has “rebuilt its on-chain plumbing,” TRM Labs said, with the result that address-list screening “cannot keep pace” The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation designated Huobi Global S.A., the entity behind HTX, on May 26, the first time the UK applied the...

Morning Minute: OpenAI Model Escapes Containment, Hacks Hugging Face

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors mostly flat, HYPE falls 6%; BTC even at $66k BTC ETFs see another $203M in net inflows, $930M over past 6 sessions Jack Mallers steps down from Twenty One Capital with stock down 90% Telegram announces new non-custodial wallet, calls it largest rollout in history Senate Democrats balk at latest Clarity...

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors mostly flat, HYPE falls 6%; BTC even at $66k BTC ETFs see another $203M in net inflows, $930M over past 6 sessions Jack Mallers steps down from Twenty One Capital with stock down 90% Telegram announces new non-custodial wallet, calls it largest rollout in history Senate Democrats balk at latest Clarity...

Jack Dorsey's Block Launches Buzz, a Nostr-Based Slack and GitHub Rival for AI Agents

Jack Dorsey's Block has launched Buzz, a free, open source platform where employees and AI agents work side by side in a shared workspace, the company said Tuesday. "we're launching BUZZ," Dorsey tweeted, describing "a new groupchat platform for teams of people and agents of all sizes" built to reduce the company's dependency on Slack and GitHub. He called it "model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source." we're launching BUZZ! a new groupchat platform for teams of people and...

Jack Dorsey's Block has launched Buzz, a free, open source platform where employees and AI agents work side by side in a shared workspace, the company said Tuesday. "we're launching BUZZ," Dorsey tweeted, describing "a new groupchat platform for teams of people and agents of all sizes" built to reduce the company's dependency on Slack and GitHub. He called it "model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source." we're launching BUZZ! a new groupchat platform for teams of people and...

DAT Went Wrong: Satsuma to Unwind Bitcoin Treasury, Sell Off $43 Million in BTC

The shareholders of Satsuma Technology, a U.K.-based Bitcoin treasury company, have voted to liquidate the company's entire Bitcoin position and shut down the business, overruling four of its six board members. More than 90% of votes cast backed the dual resolutions to sell 668 BTC—worth roughly $43.5 million—and cancel the company's London Stock Exchange listing, per a Monday filing. The move unwinds the digital asset treasury, or DAT for short—the latest such company to call it a day after the...

The shareholders of Satsuma Technology, a U.K.-based Bitcoin treasury company, have voted to liquidate the company's entire Bitcoin position and shut down the business, overruling four of its six board members. More than 90% of votes cast backed the dual resolutions to sell 668 BTC—worth roughly $43.5 million—and cancel the company's London Stock Exchange listing, per a Monday filing. The move unwinds the digital asset treasury, or DAT for short—the latest such company to call it a day after the...

OpenAI Models Escaped Locked Test Environment, Hacked Hugging Face to Cheat on Benchmark

If you thought Chinese AI models were the ones you had to worry about, here's a fun update: OpenAI's own models just broke out of a locked testing environment, hacked Hugging Face's production servers, and had to be cleaned up by a Chinese AI—because American commercial models were too restricted to help investigate. According to OpenAI, GPT-5.6 Sol and an unnamed, “even more powerful pre-release model” were being internally evaluated on ExploitGym—a publicly available cybersecurity benchmark th...

If you thought Chinese AI models were the ones you had to worry about, here's a fun update: OpenAI's own models just broke out of a locked testing environment, hacked Hugging Face's production servers, and had to be cleaned up by a Chinese AI—because American commercial models were too restricted to help investigate. According to OpenAI, GPT-5.6 Sol and an unnamed, “even more powerful pre-release model” were being internally evaluated on ExploitGym—a publicly available cybersecurity benchmark th...

Pavel Durov Wants to Give a Billion Telegram Users a Crypto Wallet

Pavel Durov has a big promise to keep before summer ends. Telegram's founder announced on Tuesday that the messaging app—think WhatsApp but larger, with over 1 billion monthly active users—will roll out a native non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet across every version of the app, offering instant, zero-fee crypto transactions to all of them. The crypto wallet is being built to support Telegram’s native crypto, Gram—formerly known as Toncoin. A non-custodial wallet means users hold the keys to th...

Pavel Durov has a big promise to keep before summer ends. Telegram's founder announced on Tuesday that the messaging app—think WhatsApp but larger, with over 1 billion monthly active users—will roll out a native non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet across every version of the app, offering instant, zero-fee crypto transactions to all of them. The crypto wallet is being built to support Telegram’s native crypto, Gram—formerly known as Toncoin. A non-custodial wallet means users hold the keys to th...

Google Ships New Gemini Flash Models, But Pro Is Still Missing

Google launched three new AI models today: Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber. That wasn't what most people expected. After unveiling Gemini 3.5 Flash at Google I/O 2026 in May and promising a Pro version within a month, Google quietly missed its own deadline. Gemini 3.5 Pro was held back because it fell short of internal targets, per Bloomberg, particularly on coding tasks. A late-June attempt to fix it by updating the training data—the massive datasets a model learns from—pr...

Google launched three new AI models today: Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber. That wasn't what most people expected. After unveiling Gemini 3.5 Flash at Google I/O 2026 in May and promising a Pro version within a month, Google quietly missed its own deadline. Gemini 3.5 Pro was held back because it fell short of internal targets, per Bloomberg, particularly on coding tasks. A late-June attempt to fix it by updating the training data—the massive datasets a model learns from—pr...

Augustus Raises $180 Million to Build a Stablecoin-Ready 'Global Dollar Bank'

Augustus, a startup building a federally chartered clearing bank designed around stablecoins and programmable money, said Tuesday it raised $180 million in a Series B round that values the company at $1 billion. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Hummingbird, QED, and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel. A roster of fintech and crypto figures also backed the deal, including Circle co-founder Sean Neville, former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivas...

Augustus, a startup building a federally chartered clearing bank designed around stablecoins and programmable money, said Tuesday it raised $180 million in a Series B round that values the company at $1 billion. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Hummingbird, QED, and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel. A roster of fintech and crypto figures also backed the deal, including Circle co-founder Sean Neville, former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivas...

Google Is Building an AI Chip Just for Gemini—And Investors Already Moved On It

Google is building a chip designed for one job: running Gemini faster and cheaper. The chip, codenamed Frozen v2, was reported by The Information on Monday and gives Google a potential answer to a problem it can't spend its way out of fast enough: It is running out of capacity to serve the AI demand it has already generated.  In March, Google told Meta it couldn't fill the volume of Gemini compute Meta wanted to purchase. Meta had to instruct employees to ration their AI usage. Google—spending...

Google is building a chip designed for one job: running Gemini faster and cheaper. The chip, codenamed Frozen v2, was reported by The Information on Monday and gives Google a potential answer to a problem it can't spend its way out of fast enough: It is running out of capacity to serve the AI demand it has already generated.  In March, Google told Meta it couldn't fill the volume of Gemini compute Meta wanted to purchase. Meta had to instruct employees to ration their AI usage. Google—spending...