Bitget Wallet has joined Japan’s Blockchain Collaborative Consortium as the country develops new rules for crypto services and regulators examine how self-custodial platforms should be treated.

In a statement shared with crypto.news, Bitget Wallet said its membership in the Blockchain Collaborative Consortium, or BCCC, will give the company a place in Japanese industry discussions covering wallet standards, decentralized finance, stablecoins and the treatment of services where users control their own private keys.

The self-custodial wallet serves more than 100 million users and supports integrations with over 130 blockchains. Its entry into BCCC brings the wallet into formal industry policy discussions in Japan for the first time.

BCCC was founded in 2016 as Japan’s first blockchain industry association and now represents more than 270 companies and organizations. The consortium operates committees covering areas such as blockchain technology, financial services, DeFi and stablecoins, where members discuss use cases and regulatory issues and engage with policymakers.

Bitget Wallet enters Japan’s self-custody discussions

The membership comes after new Japanese rules for cryptocurrency service intermediaries took effect in June, putting more attention on the regulatory distinction between custodial businesses and platforms that do not take control of customer assets.

A custodial service holds assets or private keys on behalf of its customers. With a self-custody wallet, users retain their private keys and are responsible for authorizing transactions themselves.

Bitget Wallet plans to use its BCCC membership to share experience gained from operating across international markets while taking part in discussions about how self-custodial services should work under Japan’s developing framework.

“Japan is one of the few markets where technology development and regulatory clarity are advancing in parallel,” Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan said.

Kan said self-custody is becoming part of the country’s formal policy debate, creating a need for standards that protect users while taking account of how self-custodial products operate.

“We want to bring practical experience from global markets into that conversation and help build frameworks that are useful for users and workable for the industry,” he added.

Bitget Wallet has been expanding its products beyond basic token storage and on-chain transfers. In July, the company introduced Assetback, a feature allowing eligible card users to automatically convert purchase rewards into assets including Bitcoin, tokenized gold, tokenized U.S. equities and USDC.

At the time, Bitget Wallet said it had more than 100 million users and that spending through its card had nearly tripled during the first half of 2026. The company reported monthly crypto card payment volume of $656 million in May, compared with $271 million a year earlier, though the figures were company-provided and had not been independently audited.

Japan has expanded its crypto regulatory framework

Japan has been changing several parts of its digital asset rules during 2026, covering taxation, market regulation and the government structure responsible for supervising the sector.

The Financial Services Agency established a dedicated Cryptocurrency and Stablecoin Division in August, placing crypto supervision, digital payment planning and related innovation work under a standalone department.

The restructuring followed legislative work to move cryptocurrencies into the framework used for financial instruments. Japan’s lower house in June advanced a crypto bill that would classify digital assets as financial instruments under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

The legislation provides a route toward regulated crypto exchange-traded funds and introduces insider trading and compliance provisions for the sector. It is tied to plans to eventually apply a 20% tax rate to crypto gains, replacing a system under which some investors have faced substantially higher rates.

Japan’s regulatory work has run alongside enforcement against companies providing services in the country without the required authorization.

Bitget exchange is withdrawing from Japan

The BCCC membership involves Bitget Wallet, a self-custodial product, while the Bitget centralized cryptocurrency exchange has faced a different regulatory position in Japan.

As crypto.news previously reported, Bitget began withdrawing exchange services from Japan in August after repeated warnings from local regulators.

The exchange stopped accepting new registrations from Japanese residents and set Nov. 1 as the date when restrictions would begin applying to existing resident accounts. Positions still open on Dec. 31 are scheduled to be closed automatically.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency had warned Bitget in March 2023 over allegations that it provided cryptocurrency services to residents without registration. A second FSA warning followed in November 2024.

Regulatory action continued in June 2025 when the Kanto Local Finance Bureau issued a warning to BTG Technology Holdings Limited, which it identified as operating under the Bitget name. The bureau said the company had solicited online over-the-counter derivatives transactions without the necessary registration.

Bitget Wallet, by comparison, does not take custody of users’ private keys. Its BCCC participation will focus partly on how Japanese rules distinguish services built around direct user control of assets from businesses that hold assets for customers.

BCCC membership opens wallet standards discussions

Through BCCC’s committees, Bitget Wallet plans to participate in work covering DeFi regulation, wallet standards and consumer understanding of self-custody.

The consortium’s membership spans companies and organizations from different parts of Japan’s blockchain industry, giving participants a common forum to discuss technical and regulatory issues with other businesses and policymakers.

For Bitget Wallet, the discussions come as its product has increasingly combined self-custodial asset management with payment functions. The company previously integrated Solana Pay to support direct USDC and SOL transactions and has developed card and merchant payment services across several international markets.

Its BCCC work will draw on that operating experience as Japanese policymakers continue considering rules for crypto intermediaries and the regulatory treatment of services where customers retain control over their private keys.

Polymarket has appointed former Amazon finance chief Warren Jenson as its first chief financial officer on Sept. 10, placing him in charge of finance and capital strategy during the company’s U.S. expansion.

Polymarket’s Sept. 10 announcement said Jenson will report directly to founder and CEO Shayne Coplan. His responsibilities include leading the finance organization, setting capital strategy, strengthening long-range planning and building financial infrastructure.

The company linked the appointment to two business lines. Polymarket is developing its Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated U.S. exchange while continuing to operate its international prediction market platform.

No financial terms for Jenson’s appointment were disclosed. Polymarket did not announce a start date separate from the appointment date or provide details about other planned changes to its executive team.

Polymarket CFO brings experience from large public companies

Jenson previously served as chief financial officer of Amazon, Electronic Arts, Delta Air Lines and NBC. His career gives Polymarket a finance leader who has worked across technology, media, aviation and public-company operations.

At Nielsen, Jenson held the roles of president and CFO. His responsibilities covered finance, strategy, technology, corporate development and the company’s analytics business. He previously served as president of data connectivity company LiveRamp, where he managed finance and international operations.

Jenson currently serves on the boards of Ripple, Dropbox and DigitalOcean. Polymarket identified those positions in its announcement but did not say whether his board responsibilities would change following the appointment.

Speaking about the role, Jenson said he would establish the capital strategy and operating systems needed to help the company “move quickly at scale.” Polymarket described that growth plan as covering both its regulated U.S. exchange and international operations.

“The opportunity ahead of us is enormous,” Jenson said, presenting his assessment of Polymarket’s potential.

The description remains a company projection. Polymarket did not provide audited revenue, profit, cash-flow or user-growth figures with the CFO announcement.

U.S. expansion follows the QCEX acquisition

Polymarket’s U.S. strategy relies on regulated infrastructure acquired through its $112 million purchase of QCEX and QC Clearing in July 2025. QCX was registered with the CFTC as a designated contract market, while the affiliated clearing organization provided the structure needed to clear transactions.

In September 2025, CFTC staff granted QCX and QC Clearing no-action relief covering specified reporting and recordkeeping requirements. The relief supported Polymarket’s route back into the U.S. market through regulated entities.

American users had been blocked from Polymarket’s international platform after a January 2022 CFTC enforcement case. The regulator found that the company had offered off-exchange event-based binary options without obtaining the required registration.

Polymarket agreed to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty, wind down contracts that did not comply with the Commodity Exchange Act and restrict access for U.S. customers. The settlement did not provide Polymarket with authorization to operate a domestic exchange at the time.

Acquiring QCEX created a separate regulatory path. The international platform uses USDC and records transactions through smart contracts on Polygon, while regulated U.S. operations sit within the CFTC-supervised derivatives framework.

The company’s announcement did not identify new contracts, launch dates or geographic availability tied to Jenson’s appointment. His immediate work will center on financial planning and infrastructure as the U.S. business develops.

Capital strategy becomes central to Polymarket’s growth

Jenson joins after Polymarket attracted funding from large financial and political investors. Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, agreed in October 2025 to invest up to $2 billion in the company.

The agreement initially valued Polymarket at $8 billion before the investment. ICE received rights to distribute Polymarket’s event-driven data to institutional customers and agreed to work with the company on tokenization projects.

As crypto.news reported, the NYSE parent committed $2 billion to Polymarket as part of a relationship extending beyond an equity investment. ICE planned to package probability data produced by Polymarket’s event contracts for professional financial clients.

By March 2026, ICE had built a reported $1.64 billion position. ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher said in August that the exchange operator could consider joining another financing if its participation helped Polymarket complete the round.

Separate reporting in September said Donald Trump Jr.-linked 1789 Capital had agreed to lead a $1 billion funding round. Under the reported proposal, 1789 Capital would invest roughly $300 million at a $21 billion valuation.

The financing remained a reported transaction when crypto.news covered how the proposed round valued Polymarket at $21 billion. Polymarket did not confirm the round’s closing in its CFO announcement.

Managing existing investor relationships, future fundraising and spending controls falls within the finance functions assigned to Jenson. Polymarket did not disclose whether it is preparing an initial public offering or another public-market transaction.

Warren Jenson will report directly to Shayne Coplan

Coplan said Jenson’s experience would support the products and infrastructure Polymarket plans to build. In a separate post, the CEO described Jenson as a “true legend” and welcomed him to the company.

The formal announcement gave Jenson authority over finance, capital allocation and long-range planning. It did not identify a previous executive who handled those duties before Polymarket created the CFO position.

Hiring a first finance chief places one executive over functions that can include budgeting, treasury management, financial reporting, investor relations and capital planning. Polymarket specified only the responsibilities listed in its release, leaving the final structure of Jenson’s organization undisclosed.

Regulatory matters remain separate from the stated CFO mandate. Polymarket’s U.S. exchange must continue operating through CFTC-regulated infrastructure, while individual states have pursued their own challenges involving sports-related event contracts.

Jenson holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Brigham Young University. Polymarket did not announce further senior appointments or give a timetable for the next phase of its U.S. product rollout.

Circle has announced that it will discontinue USDC and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V1 support on Noble, with new minting ending Oct. 13, 2026, and the final contract pause scheduled for Jan. 12, 2027.

Circle’s Sept. 10 notice instructed Circle Mint customers, institutions, retail holders and application developers to move their USDC or remove Noble routes before the final deadline.

USDC will remain transferable on Noble during the exit period. Circle Mint customers can redeem Noble-based USDC until Jan. 12, while holders outside Circle Mint can use supporting exchanges, decentralized exchanges or CCTP V1 routes to leave the network.

Noble will not receive CCTP V2, Circle’s current cross-chain protocol. Once the legacy contracts are paused, users will no longer be able to move USDC to or from Noble through CCTP.

Circle has divided the Noble exit into three stages

Circle Mint will continue offering its existing Noble services through Oct. 12. Customers can use withdrawals, express routes and redemptions without changes during this initial period.

New USDC minting through Circle Mint will stop on Oct. 13. Redemptions will remain available until Jan. 12, 2027, giving customers three months to remove or redeem their balances after issuance ends.

During the same window, the USDC token will remain transferable between Noble addresses. Circle is not immediately freezing balances or stopping ordinary on-chain transfers when minting ends.

CCTP V1 capacity will become more limited before the final pause. Circle plans to start reducing burn limits on Oct. 31, eventually taking the available limit to zero.

After Dec. 1, Noble users may only be able to send CCTP transfers to networks that still accept CCTP V1 burns. Circle advised holders to consult its documentation before selecting a destination chain.

All Noble CCTP routes and the USDC contract are scheduled to pause on Jan. 12. Noble will then disappear from Circle Mint and CCTP access beginning Jan. 13.

USDC on Noble holders have three exit routes

Institutional and self-custody holders can deposit Noble USDC into a centralized exchange that supports the network. Each holder must verify that the selected exchange still accepts Noble deposits before initiating a transfer.

A decentralized exchange operating on Noble provides another option. Holders can swap USDC for an available asset and move the replacement asset through a supported route, subject to the liquidity and pricing offered by the relevant platform.

The third route uses CCTP V1 to burn USDC on Noble and mint an equivalent amount on another supported blockchain. Circle’s protocol transfers native USDC through a burn-and-mint process without requiring a traditional bridge liquidity pool.

CCTP V1 currently supports Noble alongside Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Solana, Sui and Unichain. Continued destination availability may change as Circle retires the legacy protocol.

Circle said it would publish a shortlist of known exit venues but had not released the list with its initial announcement. The company stressed that it will not operate an exit interface for holders.

Users will therefore need to interact with an exchange, decentralized trading platform or compatible CCTP application. Circle warned users to rely on its official blog and Help Center because the migration process could attract scams.

CCTP V1 integrators must remove Noble routes

Applications that have integrated CCTP V1 must remove Noble as a supported route before Jan. 12. Any application still pointing to Noble’s legacy contracts after the pause will no longer be able to process transfers.

Circle’s developer documentation describes CCTP as a permissionless utility that moves native USDC between networks through burning and minting. Circle does not take custody of assets transferred through the protocol.

The Noble withdrawal schedule forms part of Circle’s network-wide retirement of CCTP V1. In an Aug. 27 update, the company said general V1 deprecation would begin Oct. 31 and finish Dec. 1.

CCTP V2 uses separate smart contracts and application programming interfaces. It is not backward compatible with V1, meaning integrators must change their contracts, APIs and supported route configurations.

The current version offers standard and fast transfer modes, programmable hooks and support for 27 blockchains, according to Circle. Noble is excluded from that list and will not be upgraded from V1.

Circle did not provide a technical or commercial reason for excluding Noble from CCTP V2. Its announcement described the withdrawal as part of the transition away from the legacy protocol.

Manual redemptions begin after the final snapshot

At the Jan. 12 pause, Circle will take a snapshot of every remaining USDC balance on Noble. The snapshot will establish which wallet addresses may qualify for manual redemption after normal access ends.

Manual redemptions are scheduled to begin Jan. 13 through Circle’s Help Center. Holders will not be able to use Noble through Circle Mint or CCTP from that date.

Eligibility will depend on three conditions. The claimant must meet Circle’s compliance and security requirements, control the wallet holding the tokens and have an address recorded in the pause-day snapshot.

Circle has not published the full manual redemption procedure or its expected processing time. The company said detailed instructions would appear in its Help Center when the process opens.

No automatic conversion will occur for tokens left on Noble. Holders seeking payment after the pause must contact Circle and complete its manual review process.

Circle said its work within the Cosmos ecosystem would continue through Injective and other networks connected through the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol. The company did not announce a replacement native issuance partner for Noble.

Blockstream has refused to pay a ransom for roughly 598.5 BTC that remains under the control of the actors behind the Liquid Network exploit after 3,400 BTC was returned earlier this week.

Blockstream said in an X post on Sept. 11 that taking assets without authorization and withholding their return amounts to theft, rejecting the actors’ description of their actions as responsible disclosure or white-hat activity.

“We will not pay a ransom for the return of stolen funds,” the company said. “Taking assets without authorization and withholding their return is a crime, not responsible disclosure. It is not white-hat activity. It is theft.”

The statement follows several days of communication between Blockstream and the unidentified actors after nearly 4,000 BTC was withdrawn from Liquid’s federation wallet on Sept. 6.

Blockstream rejects ransom for remaining Bitcoin

Blockstream said it had engaged with the actors in good faith to recover funds belonging to users and protect the Bitcoin community, but said the talks did not amount to acceptance of either the withdrawal or the terms later demanded.

The company argued that developers of open-source Bitcoin software should not be forced to pay a ransom that exceeds their economic participation in a project after someone exploits the code.

“Bitcoin is hard money and can’t be minted without costs, Bitcoin doesn’t haircut users to pay a ransom,” Blockstream said.

The dispute centers on approximately 598.5 BTC that remains outstanding following the return of 3,400 BTC to Liquid’s federation wallet on Sept. 7. The repayment recovered roughly 85% of the Bitcoin withdrawn during the incident.

The remaining Bitcoin was worth close to $47 million when the larger repayment was completed. No publicly disclosed agreement had authorized the actors to retain the coins as a bounty.

The actors had initially described themselves as “whitehats” and communicated with Blockstream through messages embedded in Bitcoin transactions. Before returning the 3,400 BTC, they told the company to fix the vulnerability and ensure that every affected node had been patched.

Blockstream later confirmed through a signed message that its bridge nodes had been patched and that the funds were safe to return.

As crypto.news previously reported, the actors had offered to return most of the withdrawn Bitcoin after the vulnerability was fixed, without committing to return the entire amount.

Subsequent on-chain messages changed the terms of the dispute. The actors demanded that Blockstream pay a 10% bounty using its own money or leave Liquid holders facing a loss, according to messages published as negotiations continued.

Blockstream has now rejected any payment tied to the return of the remaining coins.

Liquid exploit left nearly 600 BTC outstanding

The Sept. 6 incident involved a vulnerability affecting Liquid, the Bitcoin sidechain developed by Blockstream. Nearly 4,000 BTC left the federation wallet, representing most of the Bitcoin held in the reserve at the time.

A later examination of the Liquid Network exploit found that the incident stemmed from a cache-key collision in confidential transaction verification logic. Blockstream said federation keys were not compromised.

The actors used the flaw to obtain Bitcoin from the federation reserve before beginning an on-chain exchange with Blockstream. Liquid halted block production during the incident, while exchanges were asked to suspend L-BTC deposits and withdrawals.

After Blockstream patched the affected bridge nodes, the actors transferred 3,400 BTC back to the federation address. Approximately 598.5 BTC remained at an address controlled by the actors.

Blockstream’s latest statement draws a line between its earlier effort to negotiate the return and any agreement to reward the people responsible.

The company said paying the demand would establish a precedent in which open-source developers could be forced to fund large payments after unauthorized withdrawals from systems using their software.

Blockstream told the Bitcoin community that it was continuing to work for users whose funds were taken and thanked engineers, cryptographers and security researchers who had helped identify and patch vulnerabilities across Bitcoin-related software.

The company linked part of the security pressure facing open-source projects to advances in artificial intelligence, saying teams across the Bitcoin ecosystem have been dedicating time to finding and fixing weaknesses in one another’s products and systems.

Security problems involving Bitcoin software have surfaced elsewhere in recent months. In August, BTCPay Server supporters backed a recovery bounty equal to 10% of funds retrieved after an exploit exposed LND admin macaroon credentials. That bounty was capped at 3 BTC if all stolen assets were recovered.

The arrangement followed an active exploit that prompted BTCPay Server to tell operators to install version 2.4.2 or shut down affected servers until they could update.

Blockstream plans to pursue remaining funds

With negotiations failing to produce a complete return, Blockstream said the people controlling the remaining Bitcoin still have an opportunity to send it back and return to what the company called standard white-hat principles.

If the funds remain outstanding, the company said it plans to work with law enforcement agencies, exchanges, service providers, forensic specialists and other parties to trace the Bitcoin and identify those responsible.

Bitcoin transactions leave a public on-chain record, giving investigators a continuing view of movements from addresses associated with the incident even if the coins are later split between multiple wallets.

A similar tracing process has been used following other major Bitcoin thefts. Galaxy Research, for example, found in August that 1,561 BTC remained unmoved after researchers attributed 1,789.28 BTC in losses to the Coldcard exploit. Identified attacker addresses were shared with exchanges, compliance companies and law enforcement.

Blockstream said the transparency of Bitcoin would allow the community and investigators to continue following evidence left by transactions involving the Liquid funds.

“Transactions do not disappear, and neither does the evidence they leave behind,” the company said.

The company maintained that it would neither pay for the return of stolen property nor stop pursuing the outstanding Bitcoin.

“Return the bitcoin,” Blockstream said.