Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream said it will not pay a ransom to recover funds still held by the Liquid Network hackers.

“Taking assets without authorization and withholding their return is a crime, not responsible disclosure,” Blockstream said Friday. “It is not white-hat activity. It is theft.”

The company said it had engaged with the hackers in good faith to recover user funds but would not accept their demands.

The hackers demanded that Blockstream pay a 10% bounty from its own funds in an onchain message shared by Jan3 CEO and former Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow on Wednesday. They warned that Liquid holders would otherwise face a 15% loss.

Blockstream urged the hackers to return the remaining Bitcoin voluntarily. If not, it said it would work with law enforcement, exchanges, service providers and forensic specialists to trace the assets and identify those responsible. 

On Sept. 6, Liquid, a Bitcoin sidechain, paused operations after self-described white-hat hackers withdrew about 4,000 Bitcoin, then worth about $320 million, from its federation wallet.

The actors subsequently returned 3,400 BTC after Blockstream said that affected bridge nodes had been patched, leaving about 598 BTC outstanding.

Liquid resumed block production on Thursday, producing empty blocks following emergency software updates. Transactions and Bitcoin transfers into and out of the network remained suspended.

Related: ‘White hats’ take 4000 BTC from Liquid, ETFs see best inflows of 2026: Hodler’s Digest

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

A revised version of the CLARITY Act would create a regulatory path in the United States for certain crypto trading protocols that are not “decentralized finance” in the strict sense. The updated draft directs the SEC and CFTC to write rules for how qualifying protocol controllers should handle core obligations such as registration, market conduct, disclosures, recordkeeping, and supervision—while the Treasury outlines how existing Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements apply.

The measure’s immediate momentum depends on a key procedural step in the Senate. The revised text was posted by Senator Cynthia Lummis ahead of a Senate procedure slated for Sept. 15, and advancing the bill requires 60 votes—an arithmetic that effectively forces Republicans to win at least some Democratic support despite lingering disagreements over ethics provisions, anti-money laundering protections, and stablecoin-related rewards.

Key takeaways

• The revised CLARITY Act would define “non-decentralized finance trading protocols” by focusing on whether control can materially change functionality, rules, or transaction governance.
• The SEC and CFTC would develop activity-based rules covering registration, conduct, disclosure, recordkeeping, and supervision, while the Treasury would address BSA applicability.
• Distributed ledger software itself would not need to register solely because it powers a protocol.
• Participation in an incident-response or security council would not, by itself, be treated as “control” over a protocol.
• Senate action is scheduled for Sept. 15, but the bill needs 60 votes to move forward.

What the revised bill targets: “control” rather than code alone

In the new version posted on Senator Lummis’ website, a “non-decentralized finance trading protocol” is tied to the practical power to alter how a protocol operates. The text defines such protocols as those whose functionality, operation, or rules can be materially altered by a person or a coordinated group.

The definition goes beyond simple administrator roles. It also covers protocols whose controllers can restrict user access, or where transactions are not governed solely by transparent, pre-established code. In other words, the bill’s regulatory focus is on whether there is meaningful discretion or governance that can change user experience or transaction outcomes—rather than treating all on-chain activity as automatically decentralized.

How regulators would implement the framework

Under the proposal, the SEC and the CFTC would be tasked with building activity-based rules for affected controllers. The categories of obligations specified in the bill include:

• Registration requirements, where applicable
• Conduct standards for those operating or controlling qualifying protocols
• Disclosure duties
• Recordkeeping requirements
• Supervision expectations

The bill also assigns a different role to the Treasury. It would establish how existing Bank Secrecy Act obligations would apply to controllers identified under the proposed definition, ensuring that anti-money laundering compliance is addressed within the broader regulatory scheme rather than left entirely to existing agency interpretations.

Limits built into the proposal: software won’t automatically register

A notable aspect of the revised draft is what it does not require. The text states that software and distributed ledger systems would not be required to register in their own capacity simply for being part of a protocol. That distinction matters for builders and operators, because it separates the underlying technology from the question of who can exercise control over protocol behavior.

The bill also includes a guardrail aimed at common operational practices. It says participation in an incident-response or security council would not, by itself, establish control over a protocol. That could be relevant for organizations that coordinate response efforts after security events without necessarily being treated as protocol controllers for regulatory purposes.

Why the vote is difficult—and what could still stall

The revised CLARITY Act arrived ahead of a procedural Senate vote scheduled for Sept. 15. According to coverage of the measure, advancing the bill requires 60 votes, meaning Republicans would still need Democratic support despite ongoing disagreements on ethics, anti-money laundering protections, and stablecoin rewards. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that these issues have been central obstacles to consensus (including on stablecoin yield and related ethics restrictions).

Industry reaction has been broadly supportive, even as some stakeholders acknowledge that key disputes are not fully settled. In a statement shared with Cointelegraph, Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Hun Kim called the vote a “pivotal moment” for digital assets, innovation, and American leadership. Kim emphasized the need for a framework that balances consumer protections with standards for business conduct.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC that the CLARITY Act was “ready to get a yes vote.” He said Coinbase’s previously raised “must-have issues” have been resolved, while negotiations over ethics restrictions remained active and appeared close to a solution—though Armstrong did not specify which provisions changed.

Still, Cointelegraph reports that the ethics section in the revised text remained largely unchanged from the prior version, even though the ethics component has been one of the main points of contention in negotiations. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego previously warned against rushing the Senate vote before lawmakers resolve disputes involving ethics and stablecoin yield, arguing that a fast vote could produce the wrong outcome.

Armstrong also suggested that if the legislation does not advance, regulators could instead pursue rulemaking and innovation exemptions using existing authority—an outcome that would likely keep uncertainty alive for protocol operators in the near term.

The open question for market participants is whether the latest changes are enough to attract the additional votes required to reach 60. If the procedural vote fails, the industry may end up relying on agency-driven rulemaking rather than a clearer statutory framework—an approach that can be slower, more uneven across regulators, and more dependent on shifting enforcement priorities.

As Sept. 15 approaches, readers should watch how lawmakers characterize the “control” definition in the ethics and stablecoin-related debates, and whether negotiators can convert statements of readiness into the specific legislative support needed to clear the procedural threshold.

On 3 September, OpenAI unveiled its new flagship GPT-6 Astra model, which became available to Microsoft Foundry customers. Microsoft positions the model as a system designed to handle complex, multi-step tasks, including planning sequences of actions, working with documents and spreadsheets, and interacting with applications and interfaces, including scenarios where specialised API capabilities are limited. The expansion of the AI model range available through Microsoft Foundry strengthens Azure’s capabilities for enterprise AI adoption. For Microsoft shares, such product announcements provide an additional positive fundamental backdrop, reflecting the company’s continued development of its AI business.

Microsoft Technical Analysis

On Microsoft’s four-hour chart, a pattern resembling a rising wedge has formed near the top of a pronounced uptrend that began in late June. A breakout attempt is now underway: alongside the pattern’s lower boundary, the price has also broken below the lower boundary of the current market profile at $497.50 and is attempting to establish itself below both levels. If the downside scenario develops, market participants could look towards the green support level around $478.50.

The red resistance level is located around $517.50 at the top of the wedge and is very close to the profile’s upper boundary at $515.50. Meanwhile, the Point of Control (POC) is at $505.00 and should be taken into account when assessing the current setup from a bullish perspective. The RSI + MAs indicator shows readings of 46, 51 and 56, with the oscillator and both moving averages remaining in the neutral zone. It is therefore too early to consider the downside breakout of the pattern confirmed.

Key Takeaways

The attempt to establish the price below both the wedge and the lower boundary of the profile has yet to receive confirmation from the oscillator. The neutral RSI + MAs picture leaves the breakout scenario unresolved. The continued expansion of Microsoft’s AI product offering provides an additional positive backdrop for the shares.

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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.

Thrilled to announce that Warren Jenson is joining Polymarket as our first CFO.

Warren was:
– CFO of @amazon, where he worked directly with Bezos and leadership to pioneer the financial framework for modern marketplaces.
– CFO of @EA
– CFO of @Delta
– President and CFO of…

— Shayne Coplan 🦅 (@shayne_coplan) September 10, 2026

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.