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Neutrl has suspended minting, redemptions, and other protocol functions while it assesses an unspecified reserve issue affecting roughly $53.7 million of NUSD in circulation.

Neutrl pauses redemptions during reserve assessment

Neutrl said in an Aug. 13 X post that it had temporarily paused minting, redemptions, and other protocol functions following circumstances that affected the protocol’s reserves.

Acting on advice from legal counsel, the team said it imposed the restrictions to protect users’ interests and maintain an orderly process while assessing the impact. Neutrl did not provide an expected date for restoring the affected functions.

Users will receive a “clear and orderly process” at the appropriate time, according to the announcement. Details covering the timeline and next steps will be published once they become available.

No reserve asset, custodian, trading venue, or counterparty was identified in the post. Neutrl also did not disclose the value of the affected reserves or state whether the matter involves a realized loss, unavailable liquidity, an inaccurate valuation, or an operational issue.

Without those details, the announcement does not establish whether NUSD remains fully backed. It also provides no basis for identifying a specific reserve strategy or external company as the source of the problem.

NUSD reserve figures await recalculation

Neutrl’s reserve dashboard previously reported $91 million in assets against $90 million of outstanding NUSD as of June 21. The figures represented reserve coverage of 101.12% and a surplus of about $1 million.

At present, the dashboard no longer provides a detailed allocation across assets or venues. Sections covering reserve deployment, capital allocation, and solvency instead state that the figures are “being recalibrated” and will be updated soon.

According to the protocol’s documentation, NUSD is not backed only by cash or short-dated government securities. Neutrl allocates capital among liquid stablecoin holdings, yield-bearing assets, bilateral OTC positions, and market-neutral trading strategies.

OTC assets may be acquired at discounted prices and hedged when the positions are opened, the documentation states. Other returns can come from funding-rate or basis trades structured to reduce exposure to the direction of the underlying crypto market.

Custody, trading and settlement may take place across custodians, centralized venues and smart contracts. Neutrl lists Fireblocks and Ceffu among its custody and key-management partners, while its security page names Cantina, Spearbit, Sherlock, and Hypernative as audit or monitoring providers. The company does not claim that any of the named firms caused the present reserve issue.

In June, a crypto.news guide explained that synthetic dollars using hedged trading strategies carry different risks from fiat-backed payment stablecoins. Returns may depend on funding rates, basis spreads, or asset hedges, leaving holders exposed to market, protocol, liquidity, and counterparty conditions.

Neutrl’s model also relies on a liquid reserve buffer to process withdrawals. A January risk assessment by BA Labs said redemptions falling within the available buffer could normally be completed immediately, while larger requests could depend on the protocol converting or releasing less-liquid positions.

NUSD holds near $1 as liquidity remains limited

NUSD has remained close to its intended dollar value following the suspension. RWA.xyz placed the token at approximately $0.9984, while other available market feeds showed a 24-hour range of about $0.9981 to $0.9991.

Daily trading activity remained thin. Bybit showed approximately $23,000 in 24-hour volume, meaning the quoted price came from a relatively small amount of secondary-market trading.

A stablecoin depeg guide published in July noted that reserve backing can support a dollar peg only when holders can reach those reserves through functioning redemption channels. Neutrl’s direct redemption route is currently unavailable, although NUSD can still trade through decentralized liquidity pools.

Curve’s main NUSD-USDC pool held approximately $3.54 million at the latest available reading. Its balance consisted of about $1.83 million in NUSD and $1.71 million in USDC, leaving the pool split at roughly 52% and 48%.

Earlier liquidity was higher. BA Labs placed the same pool at about $5.2 million in January, with enough USDC at the time to exchange approximately 2.3 million NUSD within a 2% slippage range.

RWA.xyz reported about 53.7 million NUSD in circulation, down 18.4% over the preceding 30 days. Current supply is also well below the $90 million shown on Neutrl’s June reserve snapshot, but neither Neutrl nor the data provider has attributed the decrease to the newly disclosed reserve situation.

The same dashboard counted 615 NUSD holders and 347 active addresses over the previous 30 days. Monthly transfer volume stood near $71.4 million, down about 72% from the preceding period.

Strata restricts products built on Neutrl

Strata Markets also suspended minting and redemptions for structured products tied to Neutrl’s staked NUSD. The restrictions apply to srNUSD and jrNUSD, while Strata said its other markets continue to operate normally.

Under normal conditions, users can deposit sNUSD into Strata and receive either a senior or junior tranche. The senior token, srNUSD, receives a more stable share of the underlying return, while jrNUSD takes the first losses and receives leveraged exposure to yield after the senior allocation is paid.

Strata’s documentation lists a standard redemption fee of 0.05% for the senior tranche and 0.20% for the junior tranche. Fees and withdrawal conditions can change according to the market’s senior-coverage ratio.

CoinGecko placed the displayed market capitalization of srNUSD at about $1.4 million, based on roughly 1.3 million tokens. The tracker said srNUSD had not recorded active exchange trading for 18 days, with its quoted value of about $1.04 taken from the token contract rather than an active market.

Available snapshots placed the junior tranche between approximately $308,000 and $407,000 in on-chain value. Because jrNUSD is designed as the first-loss layer, its treatment will depend on the size and nature of any reserve impact disclosed by Neutrl or Strata.

U.S. rules exclude NUSD from payment stablecoin protections

RWA.xyz categorizes NUSD as a non-regulated synthetic dollar offered to non-U.S. investors. The platform lists Panama as its dispute-resolution jurisdiction and does not identify deposit insurance, a bankruptcy-remote structure, or a U.S. regulatory framework covering the token.

For American users who may have obtained NUSD through decentralized markets, the product does not carry the reserve rules applied to permitted U.S. payment stablecoins. The GENIUS Act framework requires covered issuers to maintain one-to-one backing in assets such as cash, insured deposits, short-dated Treasury bills, and Treasury-backed repurchase agreements.

The law also bars permitted payment-stablecoin issuers from paying yield directly to holders. Synthetic and yield-bearing tokens do not automatically receive payment-stablecoin status, particularly when their returns come from trading strategies or crypto collateral rather than the liquid reserve assets allowed under the statute.

GENIUS Act implementation is scheduled for the earlier of Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days after regulators finalize the required rules. NUSD’s current product page identifies it as available to non-U.S. investors and lists USDC, USDT, and USDe among the assets accepted through its primary minting process.

Conflux Network has scheduled its v3.1.0 hard fork for Aug. 25, requiring node operators to install the update before seven network proposals and a private security fix take effect.

Conflux v3.1.0 requires a mandatory update

Conflux Network said in an Aug. 3 announcement that all nodes must install version 3.1.0 before the blockchain reaches epoch 155140000, which is expected on Aug. 25.

An epoch is a numbered stage in a blockchain’s operation. Conflux has used the target number to set the official deadline because the precise activation time can change depending on how quickly the network produces blocks.

Node operators who update before the deadline can install the new software and restart their systems. Conflux advised operators to complete the process within two days of beginning the update.

Operators who wait until after the target epoch will face a more difficult process. According to the announcement, they will have to remove their existing blockchain data, install the latest version, and download the network records again.

Nodes that remain on older software will no longer be fully compatible with the upgraded blockchain. Conflux warned that affected operators may be unable to download new blocks, process transactions, or continue mining.

The update also requires operators to replace an important settings file with the new copy included in the release. Using the old file will prevent a node from starting because version 3.1.0 applies stricter checks to its settings.

Operators who previously changed where their node stores data or records activity can transfer those choices to the replacement file. Conflux has also provided an updated list of entry points that nodes use when first connecting to other participants on the network.

A separate optional setting can reduce the amount of storage used by a node. Activating it will make the first restart take longer while the software rebuilds a current record of account balances and other network information, but later restarts should return to their normal duration.

Seven Conflux proposals will change network rules

Conflux plans to activate CIP-166, CIP-167, CIP-172, CIP-173, CIP-174, CIP-175 and CIP-176. A CIP, or Conflux Improvement Proposal, describes a planned change to the network’s rules or features.

Three proposals will make Conflux eSpace work more closely with applications built for Ethereum. eSpace is the part of Conflux that supports Ethereum-based smart contracts, wallets, and development tools.

CIP-166 adds a new operation that allows applications to count the empty digits at the start of a computer value. While mainly useful to developers, the change keeps Conflux aligned with a recent Ethereum network standard.

Under CIP-167, Conflux will add direct support for checking a type of digital signature commonly used by passkeys and online identity systems. Passkeys allow users to sign in through methods such as a fingerprint, facial scan, or device security code instead of entering a traditional password.

The proposal may help developers create wallets and applications with more familiar login systems. According to Conflux, the same signature method is already used by WebAuthn, the online authentication standard that supports passkeys.

For U.S.-based developers, the update provides a technical route for building applications that work with passkey systems already available on widely used devices and browsers. The Conflux announcement does not introduce separate trading, tax, or regulatory rules for American CFX holders.

CIP-174 will limit the size of information sent to a calculation-heavy network feature and increase the transaction fee charged for using it. Conflux linked the proposal to two Ethereum changes designed to prevent unusually large requests from consuming too many network resources.

Conflux previously expanded its Ethereum-compatible environment to support wallets, applications, and token transfers built around Ethereum standards. That design recently gained more importance for CFX traders after Upbit restricted deposits and withdrawals to Conflux eSpace.

As crypto.news previously reported, the South Korean exchange warned users that CFX sent through Core Space or another unsupported network could require a lengthy recovery process. Core Space is Conflux’s original operating environment, while eSpace supports Ethereum-compatible tools.

Transaction and staking problems will be corrected

Four proposals focus on flaws found in existing network behavior. CIP-172 will require every transaction added to a block to follow one approved format.

Conflux said the current issue can allow the same transaction to receive more than one identifying code. Since blockchain services use those codes to locate and verify transfers, the update will require a single standard format.

Nodes running the new software will begin rejecting incorrectly formatted transactions before the full hard fork takes effect. The early protection will apply as soon as an operator installs version 3.1.0.

CIP-173 addresses problems in the network’s process for reviewing disputes involving proof-of-stake validators. Validators lock CFX to help confirm network activity and can face penalties when they break the rules.

The proposal will also extend an existing lock on staked CFX to validators who have already started withdrawing their entire deposit. Conflux expects CIP-173 to activate at proof-of-stake block 3749400 on Aug. 26.

CIP-175 corrects a problem affecting certain calls between Core Space and eSpace. In some cases, the network did not properly recognize the permission that one account had given another account to act on its behalf.

CIP-176 fixes how the network prepares stored information for use during a transaction. When the same account appeared several times in a transaction’s access list, Conflux prepared only the information attached to its final appearance. Version 3.1.0 will process all relevant entries.

The software release also improves how the proof-of-stake system handles pending transactions and new block proposals. Conflux said existing nodes will not need to download the entire blockchain again solely because of the internal storage changes included in the release.

Major Conflux upgrades have previously drawn attention to CFX. In July 2025, coverage of Conflux 3.0 recorded a roughly 70% rally from $0.1450 to $0.2416 after the earlier update was announced.

Trading volume and open positions in the derivatives market also rose sharply during that period. The v3.1.0 announcement, however, provides no CFX price forecast and focuses on the steps required from network operators.

Security fix will remain private until the hard fork

Conflux said version 3.1.0 contains a fix for a security weakness but will not publish the related technical details until the network upgrade has been completed.

According to the project, an early disclosure could give attackers enough information to target nodes that have not yet installed the update. Conflux will therefore delay publishing the affected sections of its software until operators have had time to move to the protected version.

The team also warned operators against building their own version from the project’s latest unfinished software. Such copies may not match the official mainnet release and could cause an operator to follow a different version of the blockchain.

Conflux used a similar coordinated process in March 2025 when it repaired a flaw affecting how contracts were placed at blockchain addresses. Earlier security coverage reported that the problem could allow a contract to replace another contract already stored at the same address and return its settings to their original state.

The project said version 2.5 corrected the flaw after the ecosystem team, GraFun, privately reported it. GraFun received 60,000 CFX, including 50,000 CFX for finding the problem and 10,000 CFX for reporting it quickly enough to reduce the risk of exploitation.

Beyond the private security patch, version 3.1.0 repairs several crashes that could be caused by damaged messages from other nodes, incorrect requests sent to the network, or unusual information recorded on-chain.

The update also adds two new tools for eSpace services, improves controls that limit excessive requests, and corrects several errors in transaction records. Conflux has removed an older connection method while keeping the commonly used web and live connection options unchanged.

Additional maintenance work covers a crash during shutdown, excessive activity records during periods of heavy network use, and several outdated software parts. Version 3.1.0 also adds a meter that allows operators to monitor the number of transactions their nodes process in real time.

The CEO of Delio, identified only as Mr. Jeong, received a 15-year prison sentence in South Korea after being found guilty in a $50 million fraud case that affected more than 1,100 people, local news outlet Newsis reported Thursday.

Delio, which went bankrupt in November 2024, accepted bitcoin BTC$63,445.98 and ether ETH$1,885.37 deposits, promised high yields and then locked customers out of their funds overnight on June 14, 2023. It

“While operating Delio, the defendant falsely obtained a virtual asset trading license and defrauded victims of approximately 70 billion won in virtual assets,” the Seoul Southern District Court said when handing down the sentence against Mr. Jeong.

Prosecutors initially sought a 20-year prison sentence for Mr. Jeong, but the court threw out a lot of the evidence due to procedural deficiencies, which were brought forward by Mr. Jeong’s lawyers. He was initially accused of defrauding 2,800 victims. The defense lawyers are expected to appeal the sentence.

The ruling against Delio is just one more in a series of crypto-related fraud cases in South Korea. Do Kwon, the South Korean co-founder of Terraform Labs behind the TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin and Luna token, orchestrated one of the largest frauds in financial history when the ecosystem collapsed in May 2022, wiping out roughly $40 billion in investor funds. In 2022, seven executives of the crypto exchange V Global were sentenced to prison for a $1.7 billion fraud, with former CEO Lee Byung-gul receiving 22 years.

Ether.fi has upgraded its non-custodial neobank with tokenized stocks and metals, portfolio-backed loans near 4%, payments in over 30 currencies, and programmatic ETHFI buybacks.

Ether.fi neobank combines trading, loans, and payments

According to Ether.fi’s Thursday announcement, the “Summer” release places crypto trading, tokenized real-world assets, portfolio borrowing, and global payments inside one app designed as an alternative to a traditional bank account.

Through an integration with xStocks, eligible users can buy tokenized equities and commodities alongside their crypto holdings. The assets remain in self-custodial vaults rather than accounts controlled by a centralized exchange, while a social recovery feature gives users a way to restore access if they lose their usual credentials.

Ether.fi said the updated interface uses less crypto-focused language as the project seeks users who may want blockchain-based financial services without navigating several decentralized applications. Instead of moving assets between a wallet, lending protocol, trading platform, and payment provider, customers can access the functions through one app.

Borrowing is handled through a new Aave market running on Optimism. Users can provide assets from their portfolios as collateral and obtain loans at standard decentralized finance rates, which Ether.fi said were around 4% at the time of the announcement.

Borrowed funds can be transferred or spent through the Ether.fi Cash card, allowing customers to access money without first selling the assets held in their portfolios. Users can also spend supported assets directly or continue holding yield-bearing positions as collateral.

“With ether.fi, we’re bridging the gap between decentralized finance and everyday financial needs,” Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze said.

Silagadze added that the project wants to replace a conventional bank for many users by offering financial tools that have often been limited to institutions and wealthy clients. According to the chief executive, self-custody and decentralized finance make it possible to provide such services without requiring customers to hand over direct control of their assets to the platform.

Card benefits extend across more than 30 currencies

Under the upgraded service, Ether.fi Cash cardholders will receive 3% cashback on purchases. The company has also removed top-up charges, while customers at higher membership levels can make payments without the foreign-exchange fees normally charged by the platform.

Ether.fi said the new deposit and withdrawal connections support more than 30 currencies and payment methods. Apple Pay and Cash App are included among the supported options, giving eligible customers additional ways to move between fiat money and assets held through the app.

Card availability still depends on a user’s country. Silagadze told The Block that people in places where Ether.fi cannot issue its payment card can use the platform’s staking products or fiat deposit and withdrawal connections instead.

The app builds on a card business that already serves about 500,000 users and has issued roughly 150,000 cards, according to figures Silagadze gave to the publication. Ether.fi previously moved the card from Scroll to Optimism, placing the payment product on the same Ethereum scaling network that now hosts its Aave lending market.

Alongside the customer-facing services, the Summer release introduces programmatic purchases of ETHFI, Ether.fi’s governance token. The announcement said the buybacks will be integrated into the app’s financial model, although it did not provide the purchase schedule, funding formula, or volume expected under the program.

Tokenized stocks remain restricted for U.S. users

American customers will not have access to the tokenized stock trading feature at launch. Ether.fi said the service will also remain unavailable in certain other jurisdictions, while access to cards, fiat connections, and other products will depend on local rules.

The restriction is relevant because xStocks products track shares of publicly traded companies but do not necessarily give holders the same legal position as investors who buy stock through a regulated broker. The exact ownership rights, dividend treatment, collateral structure, and redemption terms depend on how each token is issued.

In July, crypto.news previously reported that tokenized equity ownership across five large platforms had climbed 92% in 30 days to 752,000 holders. Robinhood accounted for 328,000 holders, while xStocks ranked second by asset value at $487 million at the time.

Newer data shows competition in the sector has continued to rise. Binance’s bStocks reached $610.6 million and moved ahead of xStocks less than two months after launching, while Token Terminal data placed the tokenized stock market at approximately $2.7 billion.

U.S. access remains tied to an unresolved regulatory debate. In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission was reportedly considering an exemption that could permit some blockchain platforms to offer tokenized public shares in the country.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce later indicated that any such framework would probably cover digital versions of existing equities that preserve the rights attached to conventional shares. Synthetic products that only follow a company’s stock price without providing shareholder rights were not expected to qualify under the approach she described.

For American investors, Ether.fi’s geographic restriction means the new app does not yet create a direct route to tokenized equities. U.S. users must rely on whichever staking, payment, borrowing, or fiat services Ether.fi is legally able to offer in their location.

Ether.fi expands beyond its restaking roots

Once centered mainly on Ethereum restaking, Ether.fi has spent 2026 adding payment products and other sources of on-chain income. The protocol lets users stake ETH and receive liquid assets such as eETH and weETH, which can then be used in decentralized finance without requiring holders to withdraw the underlying stake first.

Earlier in August, Ether.fi began removing its weETH restaking exposure from EigenLayer and moving toward Symbiotic infrastructure. Symbiotic permits a range of ERC-20 assets to serve as collateral and separates functions such as operator management, reward distribution, and penalty conditions into modules that individual services can configure.

Real-world assets have become another part of Ether.fi’s product set. In June, the protocol allocated $100 million to a Plume vault containing income strategies linked to institutional assets.

Plume said the vault included overcollateralized credit pools, highly rated collateralized loan obligations, and bond exchange-traded funds. Ether.fi ecosystem head Charles Mountain said the capital included managed funds from the protocol’s liquid ETH, liquid USD, and liquid BTC vaults, which held about $300 million in combined value at the time.

In a separate three-year agreement, Ether.fi committed $3 billion in ETH as validator liquidity to ETHGas, an Ethereum platform that operates markets linked to future blockspace. The protocol’s latest product update allows users to keep staked and yield-bearing assets as collateral while accessing loans, transfers, or card spending from the same portfolio.

We worked with a team of labor law scholars, former federal labor officials, worker advocates, and union leaders to develop a Model State Sectoral Bargaining Law to meet this need. The model law would give workers the right to petition a State Labor Standards Board for recognition of a bargaining sector, grant organizing and access rights once minimum support thresholds are met, and create a process through which workers and employers can negotiate sector-wide agreements covering wages, benefits, working conditions, and the use of artificial intelligence and other workplace technology. Every employer in a covered sector would be bound by the resulting agreement, and workplace-level collective bargaining agreements may exceed—but never fall below—the sector-wide standards.

States that act now could immediately ensure that workers ignored by federal law can raise standards for themselves. More broadly, states have an opportunity to build the infrastructure of worker power that this country will need in the years ahead.

Swiss banking firm Swissquote Group (SQN) cut full-year revenue and profit forecasts after first-half net crypto income fell 66.2% to 14.6 million Swiss francs ($18 million).

Crypto trading volume at the Gland, Switzerland-based fintech dropped 63.5% to 2.58 billion Swiss francs, according to its results presentation. The company cut its net revenue outlook for the year by around 30 million francs to 730 million francs.

Swissquote said price declines across most cryptocurrencies caused the business to miss its initial assumptions. Bitcoin BTC$63,414.52, the largest cryptocurrency, fell 33% in the six months ended June 30. Ether ETH$1,883.79, the second-largest, dropped 47% and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) lost 40%.

“The revised guidance now reflects a weaker-than-expected crypto environment,” Swissquote wrote.

Swissquote also booked a 5.3 million-franc loss on the crypto inventory it holds to support trading on its SQX exchange.

Growth in areas such as non-crypto trading and interest income helped keep revenue broadly level and limited the decline in profit. Client assets rose nearly 20% to 96.3 billion francs.

The company’s shares plunged 14% after the announcement.

UPDATE (Aug. 13, 14:05 UTC): Adds areas of growth in penultimate paragraph.