South African crypto companies have put at least R2.2 billion in deals on hold as proposed exchange control rules threaten to restrict how digital assets can be used for cross border transactions, according to people familiar with the matter.

People familiar with the transactions said at least 3 deals have been paused directly because of the proposed regulatory changes. They include an investment from a private equity firm and transactions intended to support capital formation for small businesses and corporate treasury management.

Industry participants have warned that the proposed framework could push some legitimate digital asset activity offshore or into informal channels. Some executives are considering legal action if the rules are adopted without significant changes, the people said.

South Africa crypto rules have stalled R2.2 billion in deals

South Africa is the second largest crypto asset market in Africa, where stablecoins are increasingly used by companies moving funds between regional operations.

Businesses have used stablecoins to repatriate profits and receive dividends from subsidiaries in African markets where access to hard currencies can be limited. Tether’s USDT has become the preferred stablecoin for such activity in South Africa.

Onchain USDT transactions across 3 of the country’s largest licensed crypto exchanges approached R27 billion in the year through April, according to central bank data. The figure shows the scale of stablecoin activity already passing through regulated domestic platforms.

South Africa does not recognize crypto assets as legal tender. The South African Reserve Bank has previously identified digital assets as an emerging financial stability risk and has been monitoring activity as stablecoin use expands internationally.

Regulators are now seeking to bring crypto assets within a capital flow system built around the Currency and Exchanges Act, legislation that dates back roughly 9 decades.

The National Treasury first published its proposed framework in April as part of an overhaul of the country’s capital flow management regime. As crypto.news previously reported, the draft would formally classify crypto assets as capital under South Africa’s foreign exchange rules and extend declaration, approval and enforcement powers to digital asset transactions.

Officials said the framework is intended to improve oversight of cross border transactions, reduce opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and address illicit financial flows.

Cross border crypto transfers face tighter controls

More detailed rules released in August set out how digital asset transfers would operate under the proposed system.

Under the cross border crypto rules, transfers would generally need to pass through authorized providers and be reported to the South African Reserve Bank. Transactions involving offshore crypto providers or private wallets would fall within the regulated cross border category.

Individuals moving crypto outside South Africa would remain subject to the country’s existing foreign currency allowances. The annual single discretionary allowance permits transfers of up to R1 million without tax clearance, while the foreign capital allowance permits up to R10 million subject to tax compliance requirements.

Authorized crypto asset service providers would be required to collect information on cross border transfers, including the identities of the sender and recipient, the assets involved, transaction values and destination wallet details.

The National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank said in a joint statement that the detailed manual released last month does not yet incorporate feedback submitted during the earlier consultation.

Officials attributed that gap to the timing of the release and the volume of comments received after the government invited interested parties to respond to the April proposals.

Some digital asset executives have objected to the process, arguing that the current draft does not adequately account for industry submissions. People familiar with their concerns said executives view parts of the framework as unfavorable to technology being used to reduce transaction costs.

If the regulations proceed in their current form, companies believe they could affect billions of rand in tax revenue generated by the sector and potentially lead to legal challenges, according to the people.

Stablecoins remain part of South Africa’s regulatory focus

Stablecoin activity has become a particular area of attention as regulators assess how dollar linked tokens interact with domestic currency and capital controls.

An International Monetary Fund assessment published in August found that dollar stablecoins had gained only limited traction in South Africa, while rand denominated alternatives had attracted even less demand. The IMF cautioned that it was still too early to determine whether the pattern would persist. Dollar stablecoin adoption remains dominant globally, with nearly 99% of stablecoins denominated in U.S. dollars.

South Africa’s treatment of digital assets extends beyond capital controls. The South African Revenue Service published draft guidance in July explaining how existing tax rules apply to crypto transactions rather than proposing a separate tax regime.

Under the draft crypto tax guidance, SARS maintained that crypto assets are not currency for tax purposes. Buying, selling, swapping, spending, mining, staking or receiving digital assets can create tax consequences under existing income and capital gains rules, depending on the nature of the activity.

South Africa has separately begun implementing the OECD’s Crypto Asset Reporting Framework. Its first CARF reporting period runs from March 1, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2027, with crypto service providers required to collect information that will support automatic exchanges of tax data between participating jurisdictions.

The government has yet to finalize the proposed capital flow rules after receiving industry comments, leaving the detailed framework subject to further consideration by the National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank.

Covenergo and Delta Capacity have started construction on the AKKU One battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Lapinlahti, Finland.

The site will feature a stand-alone battery with a capacity of 125MW and an energy storage capability of 300MW-hours (MWh).

The companies expect to commission the facility in the fourth quarter of 2027 (Q4 2027).

The AKKU One project was acquired as a ready-to-build asset from Helios Nordic Energy.

Covenergo holds the majority ownership and expects to use its experience in renewable energy development, project finance and asset management to support the scheme.

Delta Capacity is responsible for securing offtake agreements, delivering construction and handling long-term management of the asset as the engineering, procurement and construction management contractor. It will work alongside Covenergo’s team.

According to Covenergo, the move supports the company’s strategy of expanding its flexible asset portfolio and increasing its involvement in the Nordic energy market.

Covenergo CEO František Kalivoda said: “This partnership and acquisition is an important step forward for Covenergo’s flexible asset portfolio and reinforces our growing footprint in the Nordic energy market. We remain fully committed to delivering high-quality, investment-ready projects that support Europe’s energy transition.”

For Delta Capacity, AKKU One is its second BESS storage project in Finland. Earlier this year, the company completed the 70MW/160MWh Ånge BESS in Sweden, reflecting its increased activity in the Nordic region.

Delta Capacity CEO Patrik Hes said: “AKKU One once again reaffirms our belief in the Nordic market and our expertise in delivering high-quality battery storage projects – including as a trusted partner for developers like Covenergo. We are proud to bring the same speed and execution that delivered Ånge to our new project in Finland.”

A Nordic team is providing support throughout construction and for future operations.

Rejlers, an engineering consultancy, is delivering technical project support. Sungrow will supply the battery system, following a 1GW-hour framework agreement with Delta Capacity signed earlier this year.

NYAB is conducting balance of plant works, and Ampner is responsible for grid connection studies and compliance.

GreenPowerMonitor will provide energy management and supervisory control and data acquisition systems for operational monitoring and control.

Once operational, the AKKU One project is expected to deliver flexibility services to the Finnish electricity network, including frequency regulation and balancing, as the country expands its wind and solar generation.

“Covenergo, Delta begin construction on AKKU One BESS in Finland” was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.

The European Central Bank (ECB) launched Pontes on Monday, a platform that enables banks and other eligible financial institutions to settle tokenized-asset transactions in central-bank money.

ECB President Christine Lagarde announced the go-live at a Eurogroup meeting on Friday.

“Now, Pontes is, to summarize it quickly for you, it’s a digital euro made available for banks so that they can transact amongst themselves using tokenized assets and distributed ledger technology,” said Lagarde during a Eurogroup summit on Friday.

Pontes links market distributed-ledger technology platforms to the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services, enabling participating banks to settle tokenized wholesale transactions in central-bank money. It will only be available to eligible financial institutions and market infrastructure providers.

Tokenized bonds, funds and other financial assets need a reliable way to settle the cash side of a trade. Pontes gives European institutions a central-bank-money option, rather than requiring them to rely solely on stablecoins or tokenized commercial-bank deposits.

The platform is part of the ECB’s broader effort to keep central-bank money at the core of Europe’s increasingly tokenized financial markets. The ECB has said Pontes will be developed in stages, alongside its longer-term Appia initiative for wholesale tokenization.

Elon Musk’s X has launched legal action in England and Wales against alleged operators of a network of Bitcoin-themed accounts, accusing them of manipulating engagement to collect payouts from the platform’s former creator revenue-sharing program. The lawsuit seeks to recover at least £207,384 (about $278,000) in creator earnings that X says were fraudulently obtained.

In a filing submitted to the High Court of England and Wales on Thursday, X named Vivek Kumar Sen, Zamyang Sherpa, and unidentified account operators as defendants. The complaint is posted on X’s Transparency Center here.

Key takeaways

• X claims the defendants coordinated multiple Bitcoin-focused accounts to artificially inflate engagement for creator payouts.
• The lawsuit targets at least six X profiles enrolled in the former creator revenue-sharing program and links them to two named individuals.
• X alleges the accounts used reposting, liking, and near-identical posts to create a “false appearance of genuine” interaction.
• The company also cites expected investigation and remediation costs, projecting losses of at least £282,384 before interest and legal expenses.
• X says it suspended the implicated accounts on Aug. 18 and later retired the revenue-sharing program on Sept. 7.

X ties six creator accounts to two defendants

According to the court filing, X identified six accounts that were enrolled in the platform’s creator revenue-sharing program. The profiles named are @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, and @PolyBackTest.

X’s complaint links Stripe account details associated with the first three profiles to Sen, and Stripe account details associated with the remaining three profiles to Sherpa. The filing states that these accounts joined the revenue-sharing program between August 2023 and February 2026.

Beyond those six, the lawsuit argues the coordination extended further. X also named additional accounts—@BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin, and @Laserlump—which X says repeatedly liked, replied to, and reposted content from the defendants’ accounts to help manufacture engagement.

Alleged engagement “loop” aimed at creator payouts

X’s complaint centers on how the former creator revenue-sharing program worked. Under that system, creators received a share of platform revenue based on engagement generated by their posts from other users.

The filing describes the alleged mechanism as coordinated interaction between multiple accounts—reposting and liking each other’s content, and publishing identical or substantially similar posts—to generate engagement that looked organic. X characterizes this behavior as fraudulent, saying it created what the company calls a false appearance of genuine human communication and interaction.

The court documents include an example dated Aug. 5, in which X alleges that @Vivek4real_ and @TrendingBitcoin posted substantially similar content within 11 seconds of each other.

To X, the pattern matters because engagement-based payout systems can be particularly vulnerable to coordinated amplification. When interaction appears broad and timely across multiple accounts, it can trigger revenue-sharing calculations even if the underlying activity is manufactured rather than community-driven.

Program changes and suspension raise the stakes

X says it suspended the implicated accounts on Aug. 18 over what it described as creator revenue-sharing fraud and platform manipulation. The lawsuit also comes in the context of a broader shift in X’s creator monetization approach.

In the filing, X notes that it retired the original creator revenue-sharing program on Sept. 7. It then began rolling out access to a replacement program called Original Content Rewards the following day.

While the company does not frame the litigation as a direct justification for program changes in the excerpted material, the timeline highlights a key sequence: enforcement against alleged manipulation in August, retirement of the engagement-based revenue share in early September, and transition toward a different rewards structure.

X’s complaint also seeks not only recovery of allegedly fraudulent creator earnings but money to cover what it describes as additional costs. It says it expects at least £75,000 (about $100,000) in investigation and remediation expenses, bringing its claimed and projected losses to at least £282,384 before interest and legal costs.

What to watch next for investors and builders

This case underscores a practical risk for creator-economy platforms: whenever payouts are tied to engagement, coordinated behaviors—especially in niche communities such as cryptocurrency—can blur the line between genuine audience interaction and orchestrated amplification. For investors, it’s a reminder that monetization schemes and their enforcement posture can affect platform trust and compliance risk, particularly as regulators globally focus more on misleading or fraudulent online behavior.

For builders and teams designing rewards systems, the lawsuit also points to the importance of robust detection and governance around account networks, timing similarities, and cross-engagement patterns. The alleged near-simultaneous posting described in the filing is an example of the kind of signals that can differentiate organic community activity from coordinated marketing.

As the case proceeds, readers should watch how the High Court handles questions of evidence—such as account-level linkage via payment records and the characterization of coordinated posting—and whether X’s enforcement changes (including the switch to Original Content Rewards) further reshape creator monetization on the platform.

Bitcoin extended its break above the top of its September range on Monday, trading at $84,984 in the late European morning, a gain of 5.4% over 24 hours that leaves it well clear of the $82,284 high of Sept. 4.

The move is being driven by forced buying more than fresh conviction, with $746 million of positions liquidated over 24 hours, of which $647.9 million were shorts, and a further $159.9 million in the past hour alone, 95% of that on the short side. Bitcoin shorts accounted for $277.5 million of the 24-hour total and ether shorts $122.8 million, on Coinglass figures.

Open interest across the market has risen 7.59% to $156 billion even as those shorts were closed out, and 24-hour volume is up 39% at $224 billion, a combination that suggests traders are replacing the positions being liquidated rather than stepping back.

Eugene Investment & Securities has signed an agreement with blockchain company BEATOZ to test stablecoin settlement for tokenized securities subscriptions, targeting an onchain process that covers subscription, payment and settlement.

According to Eugene Investment & Securities, the memorandum of understanding signed on Sept. 21 will initially focus on a proof of concept that applies stablecoins to subscription payments for tokenized securities. The firms will examine whether the payment leg can be moved onto blockchain infrastructure alongside securities records.

Current tokenized securities systems can record ownership and changes in investor rights onchain, while subscription funds continue to move through conventional bank accounts. Eugene and BEATOZ plan to test a structure in which stablecoins handle the payment side so that subscription, payment and settlement can operate through a single blockchain based flow.

Stablecoin settlement could bring payments onchain

Under the agreement, Eugene will contribute its securities operations experience and existing tokenized securities infrastructure, while BEATOZ will provide its hybrid blockchain technology. The companies will jointly review where stablecoins could be used across securities operations before deciding on potential infrastructure connections and subsequent cooperation based on the PoC results.

Eun Seok hoon, head of Eugene Investment & Securities’ AX innovation division, described the agreement as a “first step” toward infrastructure connecting tokenized securities and stablecoins.

“We will use our existing tokenized securities issuance platform to find concrete ways to apply it,” Eun said.

Eugene already has infrastructure that can be used for the trial. The brokerage built its tokenized securities platform in 2024 and participated in a tokenized securities pilot operated by the Korea Securities Depository in 2025. It is currently part of Hana Financial Group’s consortium working on a Korean won denominated stablecoin.

The trial comes as South Korea prepares to formally incorporate tokenized securities into its regulated capital markets system. Crypto.news previously reported that the country has laid out a three stage tokenization plan, with the first phase scheduled to begin when amendments to the Electronic Registration Act take effect on Feb. 4, 2027.

Selected privately pooled money market funds and institutional bonds are expected to become eligible for tokenization during the first phase, along with unlisted stocks issued through trust structures and publicly offered fractional investment securities. A later phase is expected to extend tokenization to publicly offered securities before the final stage introduces onchain payment infrastructure linked to stablecoins.

Existing licensed financial companies will be permitted to handle tokenized securities within the scope of their licenses. Qualifying issuers will be able to manage their own securities accounts, while distributed ledgers will serve as legally recognized records under the amended framework.

South Korea is building tokenized securities infrastructure

Technical work has been moving alongside the regulatory changes. Samsung SDS won a contract earlier this year to build the Korea Securities Depository platform that is expected to support tokenized securities when the new framework takes effect.

The system is expected to connect blockchain based distributed ledger records with KSD’s existing electronic securities account infrastructure. Planned functions include tokenized securities issuance, circulation checks, rights management and real time monitoring of issuance and circulation volumes. Samsung SDS previously conducted functional analysis for KSD in 2024 and built a test platform in 2025.

Private securities companies have been preparing their own systems ahead of the regulatory rollout. Hanwha Investment & Securities has completed a tokenized securities platform supporting Avalanche and Hyperledger Besu after beginning development with FairSquare Lab in 2025.

KSD’s infrastructure is being designed to connect with Avalanche, Hyperledger Besu and Hyperledger Fabric, giving participating securities companies multiple distributed ledger options as they prepare their systems for the incoming framework.

Institutional experiments are extending beyond the underlying securities records into the payment side of tokenized assets. South Korea has expanded deposit token trials to nine banks, with the tokens being examined for government payments, AI agent transactions and settlement of tokenized assets.

Financial firms test different tokenization models

Other South Korean financial companies are running separate trials before the 2027 framework takes effect. Shinhan Asset Management and Plume signed an agreement in August to test a won denominated tokenized fund backed by one of Shinhan’s ultra short term bond funds.

The proof of concept is being conducted offshore and excludes South Korean residents. No tokens will be issued or distributed as part of the test. Shinhan and Plume are examining investor whitelisting, know your customer checks, anti money laundering procedures and other onchain operating requirements.

BNK Investment & Securities has taken another route through a partnership with EverTreasure covering investment products backed by cultural content. BNK is responsible for arranging and distributing potential tokenized securities, recruiting investors and advising on regulatory requirements, while EverTreasure will identify underlying assets and connect blockchain technology to the products.

BNK is among the securities companies participating in Koscom’s joint tokenized securities issuance platform project. The companies plan to conduct due diligence on underlying assets and product structures before any potential offerings are made available to investors.

Eugene and BEATOZ have not disclosed a timetable for completing their stablecoin settlement PoC. The companies said the results will determine potential infrastructure integration and subsequent cooperation, while their initial work will focus on testing stablecoins for subscription payments and examining their possible use across other securities operations.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week at its highest levels in nearly eight months as bulls propel the market to $85,000.

Key points:

• Bitcoin hit $85,248 on Monday, marking its highest levels since Jan. 29.
• BTC price action is approaching the breakeven point for US spot Bitcoin ETF investors near $86,000.
• Markets eyed oil prices below $94 per barrel and bond yields amid talk of US-Iran war diplomacy.

Bitcoin passes $85,000 after weekly close

Bitcoin is facing a key breakout at the time of writing as it hits $85,000 and sets new 33-week highs. Data from TradingView shows BTC/USD advancing after setting a weekly close of $81,120 on Sunday, its highest since the week of May 4.

BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Crypto short liquidations spiked as a result, with CoinGlass putting the cross-crypto 24-hour total at over $600 million.

Crypto liquidation history (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

The latest move higher has implications for the views of many market participants on whether price will hold above the prior local high of $82,950 from May. Last week, trader and analyst Rekt Capital described Bitcoin as facing a “moment of truth” as it coiled up below this level.

BTC/USD one-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com

Rekt Capital warned that a bearish divergence was playing out on the relative strength index (RSI) indicator on daily time frames, where lower highs for the indicator came with higher highs for price. He stated that this indicates a lack of underlying momentum to support the highs, increasing the risk of a sudden reversal.

With the return to $84,000, the daily RSI is approaching “overbought” territory at 70 at the time of writing. Bitcoin has reclaimed its 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) at $77,769, previously marked as a key prerequisite for upside continuation. 

BTC/USD one-day chart with 50-week EMA; RSI data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin ETF investors near breakeven point

Various investor cohorts also returned to aggregate profit, including Bitcoin corporate treasuries, holdings of which have a cost basis of around $80,500. Now, price is approaching its cost basis for investors in US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Per data by onchain analytics platform Glassnode, this cost basis currently sits at $85,638.

Bitcoin cost-basis data. Source: Glassnode on X.com

Bitcoin exchange-traded products saw a strong finish to the week, as investors added BTC exposure during a rally to $81,000. US ETFs saw net inflows of $435 million on Friday, their largest daily tally since Sept. 3, per data from UK-based investment company Farside Investors.

Despite the CLARITY Act failing to advance in the Senate last week, Thursday saw two US regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — move ahead with crypto-related policies. This provided a boost to crypto stocks and appeared to lift the mood among investors, with $159 million in net crypto ETF inflows on the day.

US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Fidelity Investments 

In a departure from the norm, the largest Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), did not account for the lion’s share of inflows. Instead, most investors piled into Fidelity Investments’ Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which accounted for $310 million of the total. In their analysis of recent market developments, the onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant discussed this change in ETF netflow composition. 

“The key change is therefore not simply positive ETF activity, but a clear redistribution of flow leadership: IBIT went from dominating FBTC by nearly six times on September 3 to FBTC recording almost three times IBIT’s holdings netflow on September 18,” CryptoQuant stated in a blog post.

Oil falls as Trump hints at Iran dialogue

A comparatively quiet week for US macro data prints is shifting the focus firmly onto oil as inflation expectations for the remainder of 2026 are adjusting higher.

After spiking above $100 per barrel last week, WTI crude oil traded below $94 on Monday amid hopes of fresh diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation in the Middle East. 

CFDs on WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

On Sunday, Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said that attempts to restart talks between the US and Iran had been ongoing “for the past couple of weeks.”

“A lot of ideas have been thrown back and forth,” he told Bloomberg. 

“This is just one iteration of these documents going back and forth, and we’re trying to bridge the gap and find the right moment to move forward.”

In a telephone call with Fox News on Sunday, US president Donald Trump reportedly described his options in the Iran conflict as “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal.” Trump added that he would “probably be open” to meeting with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Markets see two more Fed rate hikes in 2026

As Cointelegraph reported, the shutdown of several oil-shipping routes has already had knock-on effects for fuel prices worldwide. Even as central banks are tightening policy by hiking interest rates, the full impact of the supply shock is yet to be felt. Last week, Saudi Arabia warned the EU that its refineries would not be receiving shipments in October. 

The latest data from the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows that markets now expect the US Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark rate by another 0.25% at its October meeting. The odds of this outcome sit at 53% as of Monday. The CME also shows a near 40% chance of a third 0.25% hike before the end of the year.

Fed target-rate probabilities (screenshot). Source: CME Group

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin will speak to the CFA Society Baltimore in an appearance that could shed further light on the Fed’s current inclination on future policy. Barkin is due to provide “insights on the current economic landscape, the latest monetary policy developments, and his outlook for the U.S. economy.”

Analysis sees stocks holding gains as yields cool

US bond yields continued to come down from multidecade highs on Monday as borrowing costs fell with oil’s retreat.

Related: Here’s what happened in crypto today

The US 30-year yield traded at 5.301% on Monday, having cooled from its highs of 5.425% seen on Sept. 11, with these marking its highest levels since June 2004.

US 30-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

After reacting positively to the announcement of US bond-market interventions in August, Bitcoin market participants continue to monitor any events surrounding yields. In a report for CME on Sept. 16, Jim Iuorio, CEO of JI Financial Strategies, argued that interventions may represent a liquidity tailwind for Bitcoin and crypto markets.

“Perhaps markets viewed these actions as being dollar-negative, pushing money back into dollar hedges like gold and Bitcoin,” he said.

In its latest analysis, Mosaic Asset Company saw the potential for stocks to preserve their own strength amid tightening macro conditions.

“While investors are wondering what the Fed’s rate hiking cycle means for the S&P 500, evidence of strong economic growth should help keep the earnings outlook in tact. As long as the Fed is hiking at a measured pace that doesn’t call into question the growth outlook, the rally in equities can persist,” it summarized at the weekend.