Crypto World
Crypto Providers See Share Jump to 23%
European banks are stepping up their footprint in the region’s regulated crypto market under MiCA, and the shift is showing up clearly in the official ESMA provider register. In a short period ending Sept. 16, banks moved from being a minor share of MiCA-registered crypto service activity to one of the most visible categories of new entrants.
According to an analysis by Cointelegraph of data published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the number of banks listed as crypto-asset service providers under MiCA doubled to around 80 from roughly 40 between June 26 and Sept. 16. Over the same window, the total number of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) on the register rose from 243 to 349, but non-bank providers declined in relative terms.
Key takeaways
- Banks nearly doubled on ESMA’s MiCA register, rising to about 80 from roughly 40 between June 26 and Sept. 16.
- The total CASP count increased from 243 to 349, but banks gained share as the market expanded.
- Banks’ share climbed from about 17% in late June to nearly 23% by September, while non-bank providers fell from about 84% to 77%.
- Germany accounted for much of the banking expansion, with both large lenders and regional cooperative banks adding MiCA-related entries.
Banking growth outpaces other CASP categories
The MiCA provider landscape expanded quickly in the second half of 2024, but not all categories grew at the same pace. ESMA’s MiCA register shows that while the overall number of listed CASPs grew substantially, banks added entries faster than non-bank providers, which translated into a noticeable change in market composition.
Cointelegraph’s analysis indicates that non-bank firms still represent the majority of the register in absolute terms and continued to grow numerically. However, their proportion dropped from around 84% to 77% as banks increased their presence. That divergence matters for investors and industry participants because it suggests that regulated access to crypto services is increasingly being pursued through traditional financial rails rather than solely through native crypto companies.
Germany leads the push, from big banks to local cooperatives
Germany appears to be the main driver behind the rapid bank-led expansion. ESMA’s MiCA register additions include dozens of cooperative and commercial banks, indicating that MiCA-compliant crypto activity is reaching beyond a narrow group of international institutions.
One of the most prominent examples is Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender. Cointelegraph reported that Deutsche Bank announced plans to launch digital asset custody services for institutional and corporate clients in Europe. In comments relayed to Cointelegraph, a Deutsche Bank spokesperson said the bank expects to receive regulatory approval for the offering under MiCA in October.
Beyond Deutsche Bank, Germany’s increase also includes multiple Volksbank, Raiffeisenbank, and VR Bank institutions. The presence of these regional cooperative networks underscores that MiCA adoption is not limited to a handful of large investment banks; instead, regulated crypto services are spreading through a broader set of established banking structures.
MiCA’s “bank route” differs from standard CASP authorization
Part of the reason banks can expand quickly lies in how MiCA treats credit institutions. Unlike crypto companies that must go through a formal CASP authorization process, banks can provide crypto-asset services using a separate notification procedure.
ESMA’s MiCA framework outlines that, under Article 60, a credit institution may offer crypto-asset services if it submits the required information to its home regulator at least 40 working days before starting to provide those services for the first time. ESMA’s interactive single rulebook includes the specific application and authorization rules for CASPs and the different approach for credit institutions.
This route effectively allows banks to enter the MiCA-regulated environment without the same authorization steps required of non-bank providers. For the market, that difference can influence the speed at which firms become visible on the ESMA register and can help explain why banks’ share increased even as the number of CASPs overall climbed.
Still, the practical impact of these notifications—such as what specific services are offered, how quickly institutions move from notification to full rollout, and what oversight looks like across jurisdictions—remains something readers should watch as more banks publish their plans.
What to watch next
The next phase of MiCA implementation is likely to be defined less by whether banks can enter the register and more by how quickly they translate notifications into operational services and compliant offerings. As ESMA data continues to update, investors and users will want to monitor which banks move beyond announcements and what kinds of crypto-asset services become most common in the regulated pipeline.
Warren Buffett stepped down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman on Friday and handed the seat to his son, Howard Buffett. The board named him chairman emeritus, a title that keeps him on the board without running it.
Greg Abel remains chief executive. He continues to make the day-to-day calls and decide where Berkshire’s money goes.
Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman After 56 Years
Howard Buffett has sat on the board since 1993, longer than his father spent in business before taking over Berkshire at 34. Susan Decker stays lead independent director. Chairman emeritus is an honorary title. It carries no command over the company.
The elder Buffett, who turned 96 last month, framed the change as a formality in a letter to shareholders.
“He has been making the decisions that matter for some time now, and I have not had to think twice about any of them,” the announcement stated, citing Warren Buffet, now Berkshire Hathaway chairman emeritus.
Class A shares closed Thursday at $763,936, down 2.10%. The Class B shares finished at $509.20, a 2.04% drop. That selling ran ahead of the announcement, and in Friday pre-market trade the B shares sat at $509.24, barely moved.
BeInCrypto flagged the fading Buffett premium last October, well before this year’s slide.
What Howard Buffett Has Said About Bitcoin
Nothing on the record. The new chairman built his public profile around farming, food security, and landmine clearance in Ukraine, not markets.
He has run the Howard G. Buffett Foundation since 1999 and served nearly a decade as a United Nations goodwill ambassador against hunger.
Fortune reported last year that he was on track to send about $1 billion in aid to Ukraine. He has never stated a position on Bitcoin or digital assets.
His father did, repeatedly, calling Bitcoin “rat poison squared” and later a gambling token.
The job Howard inherits is non-executive anyway. He guards culture. Abel writes the checks, and already kept the anti-Bitcoin stance when Berkshire’s cash pile hit a record $397 billion.
Whether Abel ever embraces Bitcoin remains the open question for crypto investors watching that balance sheet.
Friday’s opening bell will show whether shareholders read the handover as closure or as loss.
The post Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman. How Will Stock React? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Christine Lagarde personally asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to block Binance’s bid for a license to operate across the European Union, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the discussions.
The intervention came after Greek regulators had all but signed off on the application, raising an obvious question about how much sway the ECB president can exert over a process she has no formal authority over.
What Lagarde Reportedly Knew, and When She Acted
Binance had applied through Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) for a license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, the kind of approval that, once granted by one country, covers the entire bloc.
By early June, the application had cleared its technical review. The mandatory 40-day assessment period ended without objections, the HCMC’s anti-money laundering officer had signed off favorably, and notifications to other member states were reportedly already being prepared.
Then, sometime between June 7 and June 15, that changed. An HCMC official later told Binance that Lagarde opposed the license, and the Journal reported she had signaled as much to Mitsotakis directly during a May meeting, a position that overrode Greece’s own finance minister.
Some of that willingness to go along, the report suggested, may have had as much to do with Greek election timing as Binance’s case itself.
Her stated reasoning traced back to two things: Binance’s earlier guilty plea to US money laundering and sanctions violations, and a fear that letting the exchange into Europe would push more people toward dollar stablecoins right as the ECB was trying to get its own digital euro off the ground.
One legal expert described the episode as “political interference” in a licensing decision that legally belongs to an independent national regulator, since the ECB has no formal say over MiCA approvals at all.
A Retreat That Ended in France
Reuters first surfaced the Greek rejection risk in mid-June, and Binance pushed back hard at the time, insisting that HCMC’s review had found its application compliant and pointing to a compliance team that has grown to roughly 1,500 people since its 2023 US settlement.
That pushback did not hold. The firm later issued a statement indicating that it had decided to stop the license application process in Greece and was looking for authorization from other member states.
According to reports at the time, regulators in Ireland and Latvia had also turned the exchange down, citing its past penalties and complex structure.
Coinbase had already picked Luxembourg as its home base, and Kraken already held EU approval, with Binance leaning on France, where it holds a smaller registration and is in talks with the country’s financial markets regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), as its remaining shot at a MiCA license covering all 27 member states.
The post Report: ECB President Personally Blocked Binance’s EU License appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Robinhood’s default route for crypto orders costs close to 2% to buy and then sell Bitcoin (BTC). The company’s own disclosures show the charge sits inside the price rather than arriving as a fee.
Delphi Digital co-founder Tommy Shaughnessy surfaced the figure this week. He posted a screenshot showing a Bitcoin spread of $1,426.03, then asked Robinhood’s chief executive to explain it.
Where the 2% Cost Comes From
The spread is the gap between the price to buy an asset and the price to sell it. That gap is where Robinhood gets paid.
The default setting, called market maker routing, sends crypto orders to an outside trading firm instead of an exchange. Robinhood Crypto receives $0.95 for every $100 of volume routed that way.
That payment sits inside the quoted prices. Buyers pay the higher number and sellers receive the lower one. A round trip therefore costs close to 2% before the market moves.
What the Screenshot Showed
Shaughnessy’s agent quoted a bid of $75,361.72 against an ask of $76,787.76 on Thursday. That gap came to 1.87%, which he called criminal for an asset this size.
“for anyone doing agentic crypto trades on Robinhood from the jump you are using the default market making approach so you are going to effectively pay 1% to buy and 1% to sell…,” wrote Shaughnessy.
Robinhood Says a Cheaper Route Exists
Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of crypto at Robinhood pointed to a second option, Smart Exchange Routing, which charges a disclosed fee ranging from 0% to 0.95%.
That fee drops as a trader’s 30-day volume climbs. Kerbrat also rejected a separate claim that customers must sell their coins before moving them off the platform.
“withdrawals to an external wallet don’t require selling first. You can transfer BTC (or any supported crypto asset) directly out of your Robinhood Crypto account,” wrote Kerbrat.
Robinhood also bars agents from transferring, staking, or lending crypto. Two company engineers were charged in an insider trading case tied to Hyperliquid this month.
Robinhood opened agentic trading to crypto earlier this year, letting outside AI agents trade through a separate account. How much traders will pay for that convenience remains unsettled.
The post Trading Bitcoin on Robinhood? Why 2% Spread Has Traders Worried appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Ethereum’s push to speed up block production is gaining sharper backing from within the institutional community, as Ethereum Institutional (a non-profit) publicly endorsed Ethlabs’ effort to reduce Ethereum block times. The group argued that faster blocks are increasingly necessary as more institutional activity moves onchain.
The momentum also comes amid broader industry experimentation: other networks have already moved to shorten their slot or block targets, framing the changes around latency, confirmations, and competitiveness.
Key takeaways
- Ethereum Institutional backed Ethlabs’ motion to reduce Ethereum block times, saying “more institutional activity moves onchain” and requires Ethereum to be faster.
- Ethlabs points to support from 20 DeFi founders for EIP-8198 (“Quick Slots”), targeting an initial reduction in block time from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Network-level speed initiatives are underway elsewhere, including Zcash’s approval for a faster target block time and Solana’s ongoing slot-time reductions.
- EIP-8198 is connected to Ethereum’s Hegotá upgrade path, with Ethlabs working to merge the proposal’s specifications into the main codebase and identify downstream dependencies.
Ethereum Institutional endorses faster blocks
On Friday, Ethereum Institutional posted on X urging the community to “make Ethereum faster.” The non-profit linked the case for quicker blocks to rising onchain usage by institutional participants, framing block-time reductions as a practical step rather than a purely technical optimization.
The statement aligns with Ethlabs’ broader push around EIP-8198, a proposal designed to shorten Ethereum’s initial block time. According to Ethlabs, the intent is to improve responsiveness and network performance in a competitive environment where other chains are actively adjusting their block or slot schedules.
Ethlabs’ “Quick Slots” gains DeFi backing
Earlier this week, Ethlabs published an article citing support from 20 decentralized finance (DeFi) founders for EIP-8198, also known as “Quick Slots.” The proposal’s stated goal is an initial reduction in Ethereum’s block time target to 10 seconds, down from 12 seconds.
While the initiative is ultimately a protocol-layer change, Ethlabs’ emphasis on DeFi founders is telling: DeFi relies heavily on predictable execution timing for activities such as swaps, lending, and liquidations. For users and developers, even modest changes in block intervals can influence how quickly transactions clear and how often protocols face edge-case timing issues.
Ethlabs also described its development plan: it said it is merging the proposal’s specifications with the main codebase and investigating potential downstream dependencies. That matters because implementation details—what components depend on current timing assumptions—can determine how disruptive or straightforward a protocol upgrade becomes.
Hegotá upgrade path and implementation uncertainty
EIP-8198 was authored in March and later proposed for inclusion in the Hegotá upgrade at the Ethereum core developers meeting on Aug. 6. Ethlabs’ work suggests the proposal is being treated as more than an idea: the organization is actively preparing it for integration into Ethereum’s broader upgrade roadmap.
The article further indicates that Ethereum developers could begin implementing Hegotá in late 2026, following “Glamsterdam,” described as one of the most consequential upgrades of the year, built to improve scalability and harden the mainnet.
Even with this timeline framing, readers should treat the schedule as contingent. Ethereum upgrade sequences depend on engineering readiness, testing outcomes, and consensus priorities among core developers. The key point for observers is that EIP-8198 is already moving through the “proposal-to-integration” pipeline, and Ethlabs is taking steps to handle compatibility considerations early.
Speed competition: Zcash and Solana accelerate their blocks
Ethereum’s faster-block push is unfolding alongside similar efforts in other ecosystems.
On Monday, a majority of Zcash token holders backed a change to cut the network’s target block time to 25 seconds from 75 seconds, as previously reported in coverage of Zcash’s community decision-making around faster blocks and its broader protocol schedule. The relevance for investors and users is straightforward: shorter target intervals can reduce waiting time and improve the real-world responsiveness of onchain settlement.
Solana has also been actively adjusting timing parameters. In August, Solana reduced its slot time from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds, according to earlier reporting. And in June, the Solana Foundation shared plans to further reduce slot times from 400ms to 200ms, arguing that the change would improve latency and speed confirmations across the network.
These changes show a common industry pattern: chain designers are treating time-to-finality and execution responsiveness as competitive features, not just internal performance metrics. For Ethereum, where institutions and DeFi users care deeply about predictable execution windows, block-time reductions can improve user experience and potentially reduce friction in time-sensitive flows.
Why the block-time debate matters now
Block-time reductions are often discussed as a tradeoff between speed and stability, because faster cadence can increase pressure on infrastructure and sequencing assumptions. In this case, Ethlabs’ framing—coupled with Ethereum Institutional’s call for faster execution as institutional onchain activity grows—suggests the community is prioritizing timeliness as a practical necessity.
At the same time, the initiatives across Zcash and Solana underscore a strategic tension. If other networks continue to shorten their block or slot targets, they may capture users who prioritize low-latency interactions, particularly in trading and DeFi contexts. Ethereum’s move toward EIP-8198 and its pathway into Hegotá can be read as a response to that competitive dynamic.
What remains uncertain is how quickly and smoothly these protocol-level changes can be introduced, and what the final performance and operational impacts will be under mainnet conditions. The next signals to watch are concrete implementation updates from core developers after the relevant upgrade stages, along with ongoing analysis of dependencies and risks tied to shorter block targets.
JPMorgan has abandoned its baseline view of the war in Iran, telling clients it can no longer model the endgame.
Natasha Kaneva, the bank’s head of global commodities strategy, noted that many of the economic redlines it once trusted have been crossed.
The Thresholds JPMorgan Thought Would Hold
The war began on February 28 and has now run into its seventh month. JPMorgan assumed that pain in oil, fuel, and bond markets would push President Donald Trump to strike a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The bank had several thresholds in mind. Oil above $100, gasoline close to $5 a gallon, and the 10-year Treasury yield above 5%.
Those thresholds have since gone. The 10-year Treasury yield crossed 5% this week, its highest in three years. US diesel hit a record $6.31 a gallon with inventories at all-time lows, Kaneva said.
An interim agreement did arrive in June. Fighting resumed within weeks, and escalation has continued since.
“For the first time since the start of the Iran conflict, we don’t have a baseline view,” Kaneva wrote. “We simply don’t know how to model the endgame.”
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
The Bill Lands at the Pump
JPMorgan sees Brent’s fair value near $90, compared with its current price of around $105. According to Kaneva, each 1 million bpd of lost supply could add roughly $4 to futures prices.
Current prices, therefore, imply about 4 million bpd in additional losses beyond the 10 million bpd already disrupted.
Still, oil inventories may cushion the impact of a prolonged disruption. Stocks have fallen 555 million barrels, far below JPMorgan’s earlier 1.6 billion-barrel estimate.
“In short, there is still enough dry powder to keep prices contained — for now,” Kaneva said.
Meanwhile, the consumer burden has continued to increase. A Brown University tracker measuring pump prices against a no-war baseline puts the extra US fuel burden at $109.1 billion, or $832.48 per household. Gasoline has climbed 48.9% and diesel 74.3% since February.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights
The post The Assumption Behind JPMorgan's Iran War Forecast Is Gone appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Game Changer 5.0 Zagreb, powered by A1, takes place at Zagreb’s Z Centar on Oct. 14. Now in its fifth edition, the conference shifts focus from what AI can do to what businesses will do with it.
That makes this year’s conference relevant far beyond the tech industry. The questions now being asked about artificial intelligence, automation, data, mobility, commerce and human behaviour are no longer niche technology issues. They are business and societal questions.
Who Makes the Final Call: Humans or Machines?
On the AI Transformation stage, Dejan Turk, CEO of A1 Croatia & Slovenia, and Siniša Krajnović, CEO of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, will discuss what a CEO can and cannot delegate to AI, as automation increasingly blurs the line with human responsibility. Josip Ćesić, CEO of Gideon Brothers, will explore AI’s role in reshaping mobility.
Could Humanoid Robots Become Part of Critical Human Situations?
Dr Bruna Gerardi, a robotics expert from Sheffield Hallam University, will join legal experts to discuss the role humanoid robots could play in sensitive, real-world situations, and the questions of responsibility and trust that raises.
From the Internet We Know to Networks That Can Make Decisions
Web3 and next-generation infrastructure will be another major theme, as the central question shifts from who controls the data to who controls the infrastructure behind it.
Speakers include Joško Mrndže, former Google Regional Director, among many others.
What Happens When AI Becomes the Customer?
Few industries are likely to feel the impact of AI as directly as commerce.On the E-commerce / SmartCommerce / AdTech stage, Game Changer 5.0 asks who is the customer when an AI agent makes the purchase. Consumers may increasingly rely on digital agents rather than buying themselves, reshaping the relationship between consumers, retailers and brands.
Nikola Jovanović, Managing Director of Havas, and Kristijan Gregorić, CEO of Valicon, will explore what the Croatian consumer could look like in 2027.
Gamification, Hyperpersonalisation and the Question of Who Shapes Our Behaviour
The Gamify & Hyperpersonalisation stage examines how algorithms already shape what we watch, buy and see next, and what it means to live in an algorithmic world.
Speakers include Andrej Levenski of Gamepires and John Newbigin OBE, a creative-industries adviser and former adviser to the Mayor of London. More speakers will be announced in the run-up to the conference.
Where Are the Next Game Changers Being Built?
The Foundry Club – Investor & Startup Stage will spotlight the next generation of companies, featuring Alexander May of AWS, among others.
Game Changer 5.0 Zagreb is the fifth edition of a conference that began in Zagreb and has since expanded to Slovenia, Italy, Montenegro, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
On Oct. 14, CEOs, investors, entrepreneurs and technology leaders will come together in Zagreb.
The goal is to ask the questions that matter before the future becomes everyday reality.
More information is available on the official Game Changer 5.0 Zagreb website.
About Game Changer 5.0 Zagreb
Game Changer 5.0 Zagreb is a one-day, five-stage conference on AI, business and technology, held at Zagreb’s Z Centar and powered by A1. Since launching in Zagreb, the event has expanded to Slovenia, Italy, Montenegro, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More information: www.game-changer.tech
The post Game Changer 5.0 Zagreb: Full Agenda And Speakers Revealed For Oct. 14 appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Binance is extending its derivatives lineup into foreign exchange with the launch of 24/7 perpetual futures, starting with a U.S. dollar–Brazilian real contract. The new product, the USDBRLUSDT perpetual, begins trading on Monday, according to a Binance announcement published Friday.
Unlike traditional FX venues that pause over weekends, Binance says the contract will trade continuously using a dual-mode pricing approach. During standard FX hours, the contract’s pricing will reference a weighted index compiled from third-party data providers, while on weekends and public holidays Binance will switch to an orderbook-based method designed to keep prices aligned with on-exchange supply and demand.
Key takeaways
- Binance will launch 24/7 FX perpetual futures with a US dollar–Brazilian real contract (USDBRLUSDT), starting Monday, with settlement in USDT.
- The contract uses a dual pricing system: an indexed feed during regular FX hours, and an orderbook-based mechanism over weekends and public holidays.
- Binance advertises the weekend pricing method as relying on an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) of orderbook prices rather than external price feeds.
- The product offers up to 100x leverage, with continuous trading intended to expand price discovery beyond traditional FX market hours.
- The move follows fast-paced competition in “tradfi-like” perpetuals, including Bybit’s earlier 24/7 FX perpetual rollout and Kraken’s 2025 FX perpetual launch.
24/7 FX trading and Binance’s two-part pricing design
Binance’s new perpetual is built to keep exposure to currency moves accessible even when traditional FX markets are closed. The key differentiator is how the exchange intends to form a reference price when FX markets are active versus when they are not.
During regular FX trading hours, the USDBRLUSDT contract will track a weighted index from third-party data providers. When weekend and holiday sessions arrive—periods when conventional FX trading typically halts—Binance will instead rely on an orderbook-based pricing mechanism.
In its announcement, Binance specifically described the weekend approach as using an exponentially weighted moving average of orderbook prices. The intent is to reduce dependence on external data during periods when liquidity and reference benchmarks can be more fragmented, while still allowing the contract to reflect real-time trading pressure from market participants.
What the contract offers traders
Binance stated that the USDBRLUSDT perpetual futures will go live on Sept. 21 and settle in USDT. The exchange also said the contract offers up to 100x leverage.
Binance trading head Shunyet Jan said the purpose of the 24/7 format is to extend price discovery beyond traditional FX trading hours. In practice, that means traders can hedge or take directional positions on currency movements around the clock, rather than waiting for the next open of the underlying FX market.
The launch also reflects a broader shift in how crypto derivatives platforms package currency risk. By offering perpetual futures that reference FX pairs but settle in stablecoin terms, exchanges aim to give crypto-native traders a way to express views on macro moves without directly holding the underlying currencies.
A crowded push into FX derivatives
Binance’s decision to enter 24/7 FX perpetuals comes amid rapid expansion by other exchanges. The rollout arrives less than two weeks after Bybit introduced 24/7 perpetuals for major currency pairs, including EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY, also settled in USDT and offering up to 100x leverage. As with Binance’s approach, Bybit’s product was positioned as a way to bring continuous trading to markets that normally close.
Earlier in the cycle, Kraken launched FX perpetuals in April 2025. Kraken’s offering tracked multiple currency pairs—euro, British pound, Australian dollar, Japanese yen, and Swiss franc—and also settled in a stablecoin context with up to 50x leverage, according to the exchange’s published materials.
Kraken had already been active in spot FX trading since 2020, and it reported $5.7 billion in FX spot volume in the first part of 2025. That background matters because it suggests some exchanges are not starting from scratch; rather, they are extending existing currency-market infrastructure and user demand into perpetual derivatives.
Why FX exposure is attractive in crypto
The appeal of FX-linked derivatives in crypto is straightforward: currency markets are among the most heavily traded financial arenas globally, and they offer constant drivers—from interest rate differentials to macro news—to which traders want leveraged exposure.
According to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report cited in the announcement, global OTC FX turnover averaged $9.6 trillion a day in April 2025. That scale dwarfs many other market categories and underscores why currency risk continues to attract derivatives demand even from outside traditional FX institutions.
For crypto participants, perpetual futures can also simplify access. Instead of navigating FX settlement mechanics or holding non-stablecoin assets, traders can typically gain exposure via margin and leverage while settling in stablecoins. That structure is especially aligned with the 24/7 nature of crypto markets, which often overlap imperfectly with traditional global market hours.
At the same time, Binance’s weekend pricing choice highlights an ongoing challenge for continuous FX trading: reference pricing. When third-party feeds or benchmark-style indices become less representative (or simply unavailable in the same way) during closures, exchanges must decide how to price the contract—either by extrapolating from external data, or by anchoring pricing to internal liquidity signals like the orderbook.
Binance’s described use of an EWMA over orderbook prices suggests it is opting for the second path during weekends and holidays. Investors and traders should watch how that design behaves in practice, particularly during periods of high volatility when the orderbook may reprice quickly, and when liquidity depth changes as traditional FX markets reopen.
What to monitor after the launch
With the USDBRLUSDT contract set to begin trading on Sept. 21, market participants will likely focus on two things: whether weekend/holiday pricing stays stable relative to indexed references once FX markets reopen, and how spreads, liquidity, and execution quality develop as traders learn the new 24/7 product. Those dynamics will determine whether continuous FX perpetuals remain a useful hedge tool—or primarily a speculative venue—once real trading volume builds.
Crypto World
Major Binance Warning: The Exchange Will Briefly Suspend Deposits and Withdrawals Next Week
Binance users should prepare for a temporary interruption to some main services at the start of next week due to scheduled maintenance.
On the bright side, the disruption is expected to last only about an hour, after which all operations should return to normal.
Cause for Concern?
Binance announced it will perform an infrastructure wallet upgrade on September 22 and, to support the process, will temporarily stop deposits and withdrawals. The company said token trading will not be impacted during the maintenance. It also assured that everything will return to normal once the system is deemed stable.
Such endeavors are quite frequent and shouldn’t trigger panic across the community. Earlier this summer, for example, Binance briefly halted deposits and withdrawals on the Bitcoin (BTC) network to perform wallet maintenance.
Before that, it temporarily paused such operations on the Ethereum blockchain; other ecosystems affected by support for certain improvements include Cardano, BNB Chain, Tron, and others.
The outages have lasted from minutes to a few hours, with no reports of major issues or user complaints.
The Previous Updates
Just a few days ago, Binance disclosed that it will remove the following cross-margin pairs: ENJ/USDC, GENIUS/USDC, CVX/USDC, and VANA/USDC, as well as the isolated-margin pair GENIUS/USDC. It also vowed to terminate access to the BREV/USDC, COOKIE/USDC, LA/USDC, and QNT/USDC spot trading pairs. The delistings are scheduled for today (September 18).
The announcement caused little to no volatility for the involved cryptocurrencies. However, when Binance disallows all trading services for certain tokens, it is usually a completely different story. This August, for instance, Across Protocol (ACX), Hashflow (HFT), PIVX (PIVX), Vulcan Forged PYR (PYR), Vanar (VANRY), and Viction (VIC) collapsed by double digits after the exchange waved them goodbye.
On the other hand, backing has the opposite effect. The latest example is PONS, whose price spiked substantially after the company added it to its Binance Alpha section.
Besides its listings and delistings, the company issued a scam alert about phishing attacks targeting crypto investors. It warned that attackers send fake text messages that seem official, such as “Your account settings were changed:” or “Suspicious login detected,” to trick users into clicking malicious links that could result in painful losses.
“Remember: Binance will never ask you to tap a link in a text message to “verify” or “secure” your account,” the alert reads.
The post Major Binance Warning: The Exchange Will Briefly Suspend Deposits and Withdrawals Next Week appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Ciena (CIEN) stock climbed on Thursday after the optical gear maker announced new financial targets at an investor briefing. The company said it expects a compound annual growth rate of approximately 30% from 2026 through 2029 with adjusted gross margin of about 50%. At the investor day on Wednesday, management also said supply constraints are continuing. “Management introduced a long-term…
Copyright ©2026 Investor’s Business Daily, LLC. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
A North Korea-backed hacking group infected more than 30,000 computers in over 100 countries. It also stole data from more than 7,000 crypto wallets, Japan’s National Police Agency and the FBI said Friday.
Wallets the group controls received at least $10.71 million in digital assets between December 2025 and July 2026. The agencies call the group WaterPlum, also tracked as Contagious Interview.
How Fake Recruiters Reached 7,000 Crypto Wallets
WaterPlum poses as a headhunter for artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and non-fungible token firms. It approaches developers on social media, job boards and freelance marketplaces.
“WaterPlum actors pose as prospective employers to target software developers and IT professionals worldwide under the pretext of attractive job opportunities,” Japan’s National Police Agency and the FBI said in the joint advisory.
Applicants are then asked to sit a technical interview or finish a coding test. The group tells them to download files from code-sharing sites. The pretext is a broken video call or the assignment itself.
Those files carry malware. The programs hunt for browser passwords, screenshots and keystrokes. They also take the secret keys that control a crypto wallet, the software people use to hold digital money.
BeInCrypto reported in August on a researcher who spent 22 months inside the group’s servers. He mapped 1,640 victims in 57 countries. Friday’s official tally is roughly 18 times larger.
Japan Dismantles Its First Laptop Farm
Police also shut down the country’s first known laptop farm. Local helpers kept the computers in their homes. North Korean workers abroad controlled them remotely and posed as Japanese residents to win freelance contracts.
Those workers sent several hundred million yen worth of crypto overseas, investigators said. The same internet addresses linked the farm to the hackers.
“The NPA and the FBI assess both WaterPlum cyber actors and some North Korean IT workers operate under the 313 General Bureau of the Munitions Industry Department subordinate to the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea.”
One suspected North Korean applied for an engineering role at Japanese exchange bitFlyer in May 2025 using a stolen resume. Interviewers noticed he refused to relocate and demanded payment in crypto. He appeared to read answers off a second screen, and he was not hired.
Earlier campaigns leaned on deepfake recruitment video calls to reach senior staff. Investigators now tell engineers to run recruiter code inside a sandbox, a sealed test area walled off from real files.
The post Hackers Infect 30,000 Devices, Drain $11 Million From Crypto Wallets appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Who is Jaime Winstone? All to know about actress on Strictly
China and ASEAN trade deal speeds up business exchanges
Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman. How Will Stock React?
-
Tech5 days agoThe Latest Weird Thing to Play Doom Is the Mapped-Out Brain of a Fruit Fly
-
Crypto World4 days agoKraken Lets xStocks Holders Earn Yield Through DeFi
-
Entertainment7 days agoNews Specials, Movies, Shows, More
-
Crypto World2 days agoUS Charges Robinhood Engineers Over Crypto Listing Trades
-
Crypto World6 days agoCan AI Build a Startup in 72 Hours? Elon Musk's Team Will Livestream the Test
-
Crypto World4 days agoElon Musk Drops a Bombshell: Grok 5 Could Be the AGI Breakthrough
-
Crypto World3 days agoWhat Is the Status of the U.S.-Iran Peace Talks? Here's What Both Sides Are Saying
-
Business6 days agoRivals Sam Altman and Elon Musk Rally Behind Dario Amodei’s Call for a Slowdown in AI Development
-
Crypto World7 days agoRobinhood Chain Never Stopped But its Blobs Did Stop Reaching Ethereum For 14 Minutes
-
Crypto World5 days agoNew Tesla Roadster Uses SpaceX Tech. Will It Impact the Stock Price?
-
NewsBeat4 days ago‘Sick conspiracy’: Trump says only guardrails AI needs is ‘a strong and smart (High IQ!) president’ in all-caps rant
-
Crypto World4 days agoNVIDIA Analysis: Attempted Rising Wedge Breakout Amid Pressure on the AI Sector
-
Entertainment7 days agoNew Horror Movie Officially Earns a Rare Stephen King Recommendation
-
Business7 days agoMarvell: Most Potent Setup Of The AI Factory Decade
-
Crypto World4 days agoRevolut Attackers Warn of Ongoing Daily Customer Data Leaks
-
Crypto World4 days agoDOJ Seeks to Seize $61M in Iran Oil Funds From Binance Accounts It Vouched For
-
Crypto World7 days agoBitcoin ETFs lose $462.7M as Ethereum funds gain $196.9M
-
Crypto World5 days ago3 Token Unlocks to Watch in the Third Week of September 2026
-
Crypto World4 days ago
Can Circle’s Arc Repeat Robinhood Chain’s Meme Coin Boom?
-
Business4 days ago
SK Hynix ADRs Fall More Than 6% as Memory Rally Breaks on Fears of Slower AI Spending
You must be logged in to post a comment Login