Uniswap Labs has purchased PONS, the token of a Robinhood Chain launchpad generating $5.95 million in daily fees, as PONS climbed to a new all-time high above $0.52.

Pons said Thursday that Uniswap Labs had “purchased $PONS for long-term alignment,” describing the transaction as a deepening of the relationship between the two projects.

Chainlink Data Feeds went live on Tempo on Sept. 3, providing the payments-focused blockchain with onchain market data for stablecoin and financial applications.

The integration allows businesses, institutions and developers to access supported price feeds without building independent oracle infrastructure. Applications can use the data for collateral valuation, foreign exchange comparisons, treasury management and automated risk controls.

Chainlink Data Feeds support financial applications

Blockchains cannot independently obtain market information from external exchanges and financial data providers. Oracle networks deliver that information to smart contracts, allowing applications to respond to price changes and other offchain events.

Chainlink aggregates observations from multiple data providers. Independent node operators collect the information before publishing reports that smart contracts can verify on Tempo.

Tempo provides the execution and settlement layer, while developers decide how applications use the information. A lending application, for example, can reference a feed when calculating collateral values, borrowing limits and the health of open positions.

Developers can review the available feeds and contract addresses through Chainlink’s documentation. The companies did not state how many applications currently use the feeds.

Tempo targets stablecoin payment infrastructure

Tempo is a layer-1 blockchain designed for stablecoin payments and financial settlement. Stripe and crypto investment company Paradigm incubated the project before its mainnet launch in March 2026.

The network is intended to support uses such as business payments, payroll, remittances and machine-generated transactions. As previously reported, Tempo launched its mainnet and machine-payment protocol to process stablecoin transfers for businesses and artificial intelligence agents.

Market data expands the functions applications can build around those payments. A business could compare a foreign exchange quote with an external reference rate before approving a conversion. Treasury software could also rebalance positions when an asset moves outside a predefined range.

Tempo said applications could use stablecoin balances as collateral for working capital and other liquidity products. These remain potential applications rather than evidence that specific products have launched.

“Financial applications built around those payments need dependable market data to value collateral, compare exchange rates, and manage risk,” Tempo’s Eric Kang said.

Chainlink data can automate collateral controls

The feeds can allow lending applications to monitor collateral without relying on a single exchange or data provider. Developers can program borrowing limits, liquidation thresholds and collateral top-up requirements around the incoming reference prices.

Tempo applications can also use the feeds to value different assets in one reporting currency. This could support accounting, position reconciliation and exposure monitoring across stablecoins or tokenized assets.

The integration follows Tempo’s expansion beyond basic payments. In May, the network integrated Morpho’s lending infrastructure, adding decentralized credit markets to the chain. The rollout brought fixed and variable lending tools to Tempo while preserving its payments-focused design.

Chainlink has also extended its data services across other tokenized markets. In August, it introduced price feeds for four Coinbase-issued tokenized U.S. stocks on Base, allowing supported applications to assess tokenized equities for lending and collateral.

Meanwhile, Chainlink Data Feeds provide reference prices rather than executing transactions themselves. Tempo applications remain responsible for selecting feeds, setting risk limits and determining how they respond when prices move. Developers must also account for update frequency, deviation thresholds and periods when market data becomes unavailable.

LINK rises as Chainlink integrations expand

Chainlink traded near $11.84 when checked, up approximately 5.6% over the previous session. It reached an intraday high near $12 after trading as low as $11.13.

No verified evidence directly connected the price increase to the Tempo announcement. LINK traded within a broader crypto market advance, making attribution to one integration unreliable.

Chainlink has secured several institutional and public-sector integrations in recent months. Wyoming recently adopted its Proof of Reserve system to publish near-real-time backing data for the state-issued FRNT stable token. The system adds onchain reserve verification to Wyoming’s daily attestations.

The next measure of the Tempo integration will be developer adoption. Tempo has not announced a deadline for additional feeds or named applications preparing to launch with the data. Supported contracts are already available for developers to integrate.

El Salvador used no public resources to accumulate Bitcoin after the first review of its International Monetary Fund (IMF) financing program in June 2025, according to the lender. 

In a Thursday statement, the IMF said documents supplied by Salvadoran authorities verified that the accumulation came from private donations. According to the lender, the increase in El Salvador’s holdings therefore did not reflect additional Bitcoin purchases financed with government resources. 

The IMF also said majority ownership and operational control of the Chivo wallet had been transferred to a private operator, while the government retained a minority stake and custodial responsibilities. It said no further accumulation beyond documented donations is expected. 

The explanation addresses how El Salvador’s holdings grew after the first review, after the country said in November 2025 that it had acquired 1,090 BTC worth $100 million, renewing questions about compliance with its $1.4 billion IMF program. 

Bitcoin additions repeatedly raised questions

In December 2024, El Salvador agreed to limit public-sector involvement in Bitcoin under the IMF package. The agreement made private-sector Bitcoin acceptance voluntary, required taxes to be paid in US dollars and called for government involvement in Chivo to be unwound. 

In March 2025, the IMF issued new documents barring “voluntary accumulation” of Bitcoin by the public sector. President Nayib Bukele responded that the purchases were “not stopping” and said El Salvador would keep adding at least one BTC daily.

Related: IMF says El Salvador in talks to sell state-run Chivo Bitcoin wallet

Since then, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office has often posted that it has continued to accumulate Bitcoin. In July 2025, the IMF offered an initial explanation, saying no new Bitcoin had been purchased since the December agreement. It attributed increases to consolidation among government wallets. 

The November announcement reopened the issue. An IMF representative previously told Cointelegraph that the lender would not provide “running commentary” on announcements and would assess compliance in due course.

According to the National Bitcoin Office’s official reserve tracker, El Salvador currently holds about 7,764 Bitcoin. At BTC’s current price of $80,900, according to CoinGecko, the stockpile is worth about $628 million. The balance remains higher than before the IMF agreement, reflecting additions attributed by the IMF to private donations. 

Magazine: El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment turns 5: ‘It was for us, not them’

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said on Sept. 3 that making the United States the global center of the cryptocurrency industry remains “within reach,” while urging policymakers to complete the country’s regulatory framework.

Garlinghouse made the statement after Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig discussed an August White House gathering involving executives from cryptocurrency, finance and technology companies.

“Making America the crypto capital of the world is within reach — let’s finish the job,” Garlinghouse said.

The comment represents Garlinghouse’s policy position rather than confirmation that the United States has achieved the administration’s stated objective.

The United States and the United Kingdom have announced a new joint law-enforcement effort aimed at dismantling “scam centers” that fuel crypto-related and cyber-enabled investment fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice says the initiative is structured as a first-of-its-kind international cooperation agreement designed to disable organized scam operations that move victims’ funds across borders.

In a statement released Thursday, the DOJ said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales, and the UK’s National Crime Agency signed a memorandum of understanding outlining how the two countries will coordinate investigations. The agencies expect to identify shared targets, align investigative work, and determine which jurisdictions should prosecute specific cases.

Key takeaways

• The U.S. and UK signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate investigations into crypto and cyber-enabled investment fraud run from scam centers.
• Agencies will conduct parallel investigations, share intelligence on organized crime groups, and discuss jurisdiction-specific prosecution strategy.
• The DOJ says overlapping cases have already been identified, with plans for an in-person disruption operation in London in early October.
• The announcement highlights rising U.S. losses tied to crypto investment fraud as reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
• The joint pact builds on the U.S. Scam Center Strike Force launched in late 2025 to target Chinese organized crime networks operating primarily in Southeast Asia.

U.S. and UK coordinate parallel investigations

According to the DOJ, the memorandum of understanding sets out a practical framework for cross-border cooperation. The partners plan to pursue common targets through parallel investigations, exchange information about organized crime syndicates, and coordinate which legal jurisdictions will take the lead on prosecutions.

The DOJ also linked the announcement to existing investigative overlap, stating that authorities have already identified common cases. As part of the next phase, the agencies plan an in-person “disruption operation” with private-sector partners in London scheduled for early October.

Crypto investment fraud losses keep climbing

The new cooperation comes as reported U.S. harm from crypto investment fraud continues to rise. The DOJ cited data indicating that losses reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center increased by 89% in 2025 to $8.65 billion, up from $4.57 billion in 2023.

That escalation matters for how law enforcement allocates resources. While scams can vary in their methods—sometimes using fake investment platforms and other times employing more direct criminal coercion—the scale of victim losses increases the urgency to disrupt the criminal infrastructure behind them, including money flows, recruitment networks, and the operational hubs that process or redirect funds.

Expanding the U.S. “Scam Center Strike Force”

The joint U.S.-UK pact expands the scope of the Scam Center Strike Force, a U.S. initiative launched in November 2025 by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. The DOJ described the effort as focused on Chinese organized crime networks operating scam centers primarily in Southeast Asia, where schemes can include crypto investment fraud.

In the DOJ’s account, these operations are frequently intertwined with other serious crimes, including human trafficking and money laundering. The force is therefore not limited to prosecuting individual fraudsters; it is also aimed at dismantling the broader systems that enable recruitment, victim control, and financial movement.

The Strike Force includes a multi-agency set of U.S. partners: the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations, alongside Justice Department components. The DOJ added that the initiative also works with the U.S. Treasury and State Department and with private-sector partners to disrupt scam operations and pursue victim fund recovery.

Other international raids show the pattern

The alliance is part of a wider enforcement trend in which agencies coordinate across jurisdictions to target scam center networks and the infrastructure around them. For example, the DOJ previously reported a Dubai police-led operation conducted with the FBI and China’s Ministry of Public Security. That action, announced on April 29, resulted in 276 arrests and the closure of at least nine crypto scam centers, according to the DOJ. The DOJ also said six people were charged over schemes that allegedly used fake crypto investment platforms to solicit deposits.

These cross-border actions reflect an operational reality: scam networks often rely on fragmented control across countries—where perpetrators, intermediaries, and the mechanisms used to receive or transfer illicit payments may not all sit in a single legal jurisdiction. Coordinated enforcement can therefore reduce the time criminals have to adjust or move operations after early disruptions.

In Southeast Asia, policymakers have also moved toward harsher criminal penalties. On May 15, the Myanmar military government released draft legislation proposing sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison for digital currency fraud, with the death penalty possible in cases involving coercion at scam centers where coerced workers were killed. Later, on July 28, Parliament approved the bill, though presidential assent was not confirmed at the time of reporting.

Elsewhere, the scam ecosystem continues to evolve in ways that increase the complexity of enforcement. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted a Bitcoin extortion scam that used the name of a Chinese newspaper, underscoring how criminals may rely on branding, impersonation, and attention-grabbing tactics to draw victims into payment or disclosure schemes.

What to watch next from the London operation

For investors, traders, and everyday users, the practical value of agreements like this is not in public statements alone, but in operational follow-through—especially when authorities plan disruption actions that bring together multiple investigative and prosecutorial systems. With the DOJ saying overlapping cases have already been identified and an in-person disruption operation is planned in London in early October, the next sign readers should look for is whether authorities announce specific arrests, charges, or confirmed closures of targeted scam centers as the cooperation moves from paperwork to courtroom and enforcement outcomes.