Harmony has proposed retiring its seven-year-old layer-1 blockchain and moving ONE to Ethereum, with validators able to begin shutting down nodes from Sept. 10 as the project prepares a new AI video business.

Harmony said Sunday that it wants to take a final snapshot of the network, issue ONE as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and move exchange listings to the new token. The proposal remains non-binding, and the project has not given a date for the final block.

Raydium has expanded LaunchLab to support trading between any token pair, with LaunchOnSF’s StonkFun becoming the first integration to use the new system on Solana.

According to Raydium’s Sept. 7 announcement on X, LaunchLab can now pair a newly launched token with any quote token supported through Raydium, removing the fixed pairing structure used by many token launch platforms. Raydium said the upgrade brings more flexible token pairing, deeper liquidity and lower fees for memecoin trading.

LaunchOnSF confirmed that its StonkFun platform is the first integration partner to bring the feature live. Its team spent the previous week preparing the integration, which required changes across Raydium’s programs, trading terminals and aggregators before custom quote tokens could be supported.

Raydium LaunchLab now supports custom token pairs

Under the new system, creators can select the quote token used for a LaunchLab deployment, allowing communities to build markets around assets other than the standard quote tokens commonly used for new Solana launches.

Raydium described the feature as the ability to launch “any token, paired with any quote token.” LaunchOnSF said Raydium updated its programs to accommodate custom quote and reward tokens, while aggregators and trading terminals needed to support routing for the resulting pairs.

The integration covers permissionless deployments, bonding curves and constant product market maker pools. LaunchOnSF said deployment costs through StonkFun have been reduced to 0.03 SOL from 0.29 SOL, while liquidity provider fees can be directed back into liquidity.

Developers do not have to use the StonkFun API to deploy tokens and can construct transactions themselves. LaunchOnSF said the system was built to reduce problems it had encountered with snipers and launches concentrated in a single wallet.

Ahead of the integration, StonkFun reported more than $392 million in total trading volume, including roughly $219 million routed through Raydium. The platform had generated $1.21 million in revenue and distributed more than $5.35 million in rewards to ecosystem holders.

More than $705,000 had been spent on buybacks and burns of its ecosystem token, while another $68,000 went toward buying and burning tokens from its 10 largest ecosystem projects, according to figures published by LaunchOnSF.

LaunchLab followed Pump.fun’s move away from Raydium

Raydium first disclosed LaunchLab in March 2025 after Pump.fun began working on its own automated market maker. The platform offered creators different pricing curves and allowed third party interfaces to build on the underlying infrastructure and set their own transaction fees.

Crypto.news previously reported on Raydium’s LaunchLab plans in March 2025. An anonymous Raydium developer said at the time that the product had been under development for several months but had initially been kept on the sidelines while Pump.fun continued using Raydium for liquidity.

LaunchLab officially went live in April 2025, allowing users to create, customize and trade tokens through Raydium. Projects crossing the original 85 SOL threshold were automatically moved into Raydium’s automated market maker.

Raydium introduced customizable bonding curves, no migration cost and a 1% trading fee under the initial model. The protocol said 25% of trading fees collected through LaunchLab would be used to buy back RAY.

More than 10 projects had passed the 85 SOL threshold shortly after LaunchLab opened, while RAY rose roughly 13% following the launch before giving back part of the move.

LaunchLab arrived after Pump.fun changed a relationship that had directed a steady flow of newly created memecoins toward Raydium.

Tokens launched through Pump.fun had historically moved into Raydium liquidity pools after completing their bonding curves. Pump.fun began testing its own automated market maker in February 2025, opening a path for graduated tokens to remain inside its own trading infrastructure.

PumpSwap ended Pump.fun’s reliance on Raydium

Pump.fun formally moved away from the previous setup when it launched the PumpSwap DEX in March 2025.

Built around a constant product automated market maker similar to Raydium v4 and Uniswap v2, PumpSwap allowed tokens completing Pump.fun bonding curves to migrate directly to its own liquidity pools. Users could create pools, provide liquidity and trade tokens without sending graduated launches to Raydium.

PumpSwap introduced instant migrations and removed the six SOL migration fee previously associated with the process. The platform initially charged 0.25% on trades, allocating 0.20% to liquidity providers and 0.05% to the protocol.

Trading activity climbed quickly. PumpSwap captured 21% of Solana DEX trading about a week after launch, with cumulative volume exceeding $1.2 billion. Raydium remained ahead with a 57.4% share at the time.

By March 30, PumpSwap had recorded $2.43 billion in volume, alongside $5.4 million in protocol fees, around 700,000 active wallets and 30.59 million swaps. Raydium accounted for 74% of Solana DEX volume on that date, compared with PumpSwap’s 8%.

Raydium had entered the contest from a strong position in memecoin trading. A CEX.io report showed its memecoin volume share rising from 77% to 83% during the first quarter of 2025.

Pump.fun was responsible for more than half of daily SPL token creation at the time, with tokens previously flowing into Raydium after meeting Pump.fun’s graduation requirements. That pipeline changed once PumpSwap began taking the migrations directly.

Raydium remains a major Solana trading venue

Despite heavier competition among Solana exchanges and launchpads, Raydium has remained one of the network’s largest execution venues.

Across 2025, the protocol processed $352.8 billion in execution layer DEX volume. Meteora followed with $113.7 billion, while Orca and SolFi recorded $103.9 billion and $97.9 billion, respectively.

More recent activity has remained spread across several Solana venues. On Aug. 21, 2026, Solana generated approximately $2.8 billion in daily decentralized exchange spot volume. PumpSwap processed roughly $485 million, followed by BisonFi at $466 million, Orca at $307 million, Raydium at $260 million and Manifest at $218 million.

The five platforms together accounted for approximately $1.74 billion of the network’s daily total.

LaunchLab’s latest update changes the type of markets that can be created through Raydium’s launch infrastructure. Instead of requiring creators to launch against a predetermined quote asset, StonkFun deployments can select another supported token and carry that pairing through the bonding curve and subsequent liquidity setup.

Raydium ecosystem contributor Infra said the structure lets a community pair a meme token with another asset its users already follow and use the same asset for rewards. LaunchOnSF became the first partner to put that model into production through StonkFun following the Sept. 7 rollout.

South Korea’s National Tax Service ruled on Aug. 28 that residents must continue reporting qualifying cryptocurrency accounts held with bankrupt overseas exchanges, even when trading and withdrawals are unavailable.

The National Tax Service issued its interpretation after a Korean resident asked whether an inaccessible exchange balance still qualified as an overseas financial account.

The taxpayer was a creditor of an overseas cryptocurrency exchange that entered bankruptcy in November 2022. The account holder could no longer trade or withdraw the assets and had entered the exchange’s distribution process.

The taxpayer was receiving partial bankruptcy distributions through a domestic foreign-currency account. However, the NTS concluded that the original overseas account remained subject to reporting because it had been opened with a foreign virtual asset service provider to trade digital assets.

The decision concerns disclosure obligations rather than whether the inaccessible assets generate taxable income. Reporting an account does not by itself establish that tax is owed on its entire balance.

The 500 million won threshold applies across accounts

Korean residents and domestic corporations generally must report when their combined overseas financial account balances exceed 500 million won, approximately $350,000, at the end of any month during the relevant calendar year.

Balances across qualifying foreign accounts are aggregated when applying the threshold. The rule can therefore apply even when no single account independently exceeds 500 million won.

Taxpayers must submit the report during June of the following year. The filing identifies the foreign financial institution, account information and reportable balance.

Digital assets were added to the foreign financial account regime beginning with the 2023 reporting cycle. Accounts held through overseas cryptocurrency exchanges can therefore qualify alongside foreign deposits, securities, funds and other covered financial assets.

Self-custody wallets are treated differently because they are not accounts opened with overseas virtual asset service providers. Crypto.news previously reported that decentralized wallets were excluded from overseas account declarations under the NTS interpretation.

The latest ruling clarifies that an exchange’s insolvency does not produce the same result. A customer can retain a reportable account or claim against the exchange even after losing normal control over the assets.

Bankruptcy creates a difficult valuation question

The NTS interpretation confirms that the account must be reported, but the publicly available summary does not fully explain how taxpayers should value a disputed or partially recoverable bankruptcy claim.

An exchange interface might display the customer’s original token balance even when the bankruptcy estate cannot return all assets. The value eventually distributed may differ substantially from that displayed balance.

The legal interpretation arose from a taxpayer already receiving partial distributions. It does not establish that every reported account balance will equal the amount recovered through bankruptcy.

Affected account holders may need records showing monthly balances, exchange statements, bankruptcy claims and distributions. Those documents can help establish what existed in the account and what was later recovered.

Exchange bankruptcy can leave customers waiting years for repayment. The FTX estate, for example, began a multibillion-dollar creditor repayment process after customers lost access to funds held on the platform.

The NTS ruling means Korean creditors cannot assume that frozen balances disappear from their disclosure obligations while those proceedings continue.

Overseas crypto disclosures fell to 10.5 trillion won

Korean taxpayers reported 10.5 trillion won in overseas digital assets during the 2026 disclosure cycle, according to figures attributed to the National Tax Service. The total declined 5.4% from the previous year.

Individual holdings increased 5.4% to 9.8 trillion won. Corporate holdings dropped 61.1% to approximately 700 billion won, producing the decline in the combined total.

The NTS attributed the overall reduction to a broad fall in asset prices. The figures represent balances disclosed through overseas financial account reports, not the full cryptocurrency holdings of every Korean resident.

South Korea’s total reported overseas financial accounts reached 107.1 trillion won in the latest cycle. The number of reporting individuals and companies rose 9.1% to 7,484, according to the published results.

The disclosure requirement is separate from South Korea’s planned tax on cryptocurrency gains. The country currently plans to apply a combined 22% tax to qualifying digital asset income from Jan. 1, 2027.

That future tax will also cover activity on overseas exchanges and private wallets. As crypto.news reported, annual gains above the 2.5 million won deduction would face a 20% national tax and 2% local income tax.

What affected account holders must do next

Residents whose combined overseas account balances exceeded the threshold during 2026 will generally need to file their disclosures in June 2027.

Customers of bankrupt exchanges should retain account records even if the platform no longer provides normal access. Bankruptcy notices, claim approvals and payment records may also be required to explain differences between reported balances and recovered funds.

The NTS is preparing broader enforcement tools ahead of the 2027 crypto income tax. In related coverage, the agency was reported to be developing wallet-tracing capabilities for overseas transactions.

South Korea also plans to exchange crypto transaction information with participating jurisdictions through the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. The new data channels could make previously undisclosed overseas exchange accounts easier to identify.

Ripple has expanded XRP’s presence in major U.S. college sports through a multi-year sponsorship with the University of Florida that will put the token’s logo on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Florida Athletics said Friday that XRP branding will appear on the football field at the 88,548-seat stadium beginning this season, while the partnership will extend to digital properties and event signage across Gainesville.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Ripple has committed to supporting financial and technology education for student-athletes and the university community, covering subjects across traditional finance and digital assets.

The agreement gives Ripple another major college athletics sponsorship only two months after it signed a similar deal with the University of Kansas.

XRP branding is coming to the Swamp

At Florida, Ripple is pairing XRP marketing with educational programs designed for students and athletes. The arrangement places the cryptocurrency inside one of the largest college sports programs in the Southeastern Conference.

University of Florida Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said the school has a history of adopting technology to improve its programs and fan experience.

“Ripple has established itself as an innovative leader in financial technology, and we’re excited to welcome XRP to Gator Nation,” Stricklin said.

The field placement will give XRP exposure during Florida Gators home football games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, commonly known as the Swamp. Digital placements and event signage will keep the branding visible outside football games during the multi-year agreement.

Ripple has already tested the college sports strategy at another major NCAA program. As crypto.news previously reported, the company signed a five-year sponsorship with the University of Kansas in July that put XRP branding on Jayhawks athletics uniforms.

The Kansas agreement covered football, basketball and other university teams, making XRP the first cryptocurrency to appear on the jerseys of a major NCAA Division I athletics program. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, a University of Kansas alumnus, publicly promoted the partnership after it was announced.

Education was part of that agreement as well, with Ripple extending its existing relationship with the university into athletics, financial education and blockchain research.

Ripple expands its XRP college sports strategy

Ripple’s move into college athletics has drawn attention beyond the two university partnerships.

After the Kansas deal, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz defended XRP advertising in college sports after critics questioned whether cryptocurrency promotion should face tighter restrictions.

Schwartz argued in July that truthful advertising for XRP receives commercial speech protections under the First Amendment, citing previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings involving advertising for lawful products. Commercial speech can still be regulated under U.S. law, meaning those protections do not prevent every potential restriction on advertising.

The Florida agreement takes the strategy from uniforms to the playing field itself. Ripple has not disclosed whether more college programs are being considered for similar partnerships.

The sponsorship campaign is running alongside a much larger expansion of Ripple’s financial infrastructure businesses, including payments, custody, corporate treasury services and its Ripple USD stablecoin.

RLUSD crossed $2 billion in market capitalization in August, less than two years after its December 2024 launch, according to Ripple. Nearly $1 billion of the stablecoin had been issued on the XRP Ledger when the company announced the milestone.

Standard Custody issues RLUSD under New York regulatory oversight, while Ripple has been building stablecoin settlement and treasury products around the asset.

XRP price holds near $1.41

XRP’s market reaction has been limited despite the new Florida sponsorship.

The token traded near $1.41 on Friday, gaining 0.6% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data cited in the original report. XRP was up roughly 34.9% over the past 30 days but remained approximately 49.8% lower over the past year.

Institutional demand through U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds has cooled after becoming a major source of inflows earlier in 2026.

ETF flows were essentially flat on Sept. 4 after the funds recently ended an inflow streak. Cumulative net inflows remained close to $1.6 billion, while Decrypt’s XRP ETF tracker classified market sentiment as neutral.

The slowdown had already become visible in August. Weekly U.S. spot XRP ETF net inflows fell 93% from $14.86 million to $1.01 million during the week ending Aug. 8.

Regulated XRP products have continued appearing in U.S. fund filings despite the weaker pace of fresh capital. SEC filings dated Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 listed three XRP-linked ETFs, including ProShares products and a Cyber Hornet strategy fund combining S&P 500 equities with XRP exposure.

Seven U.S. spot XRP ETFs had accumulated $1.57 billion in net inflows by Aug. 24.

Ripple builds visibility outside crypto markets

The Florida and Kansas agreements put XRP branding in front of college sports audiences while Ripple continues developing businesses that do not depend exclusively on the token.

Over the past several years, the company has moved into custody, stablecoin payments, prime brokerage and corporate treasury management through product launches and acquisitions. RLUSD has become part of that strategy as Ripple develops payment and settlement services for institutions.

Ripple launched enterprise tools earlier this year that allow corporate finance teams to manage fiat currencies, RLUSD, XRP and other digital assets within existing treasury workflows. The platform builds on the company’s acquisition of treasury management software provider GTreasury.

XRP remains closely associated with Ripple’s public identity despite the company’s expansion into other financial products. The Florida partnership continues that association by promoting XRP itself, not Ripple’s stablecoin or one of its institutional services.

The University of Kansas agreement followed the same approach, placing XRP branding directly on athletic uniforms while combining the sponsorship with blockchain and financial education programs.

At Florida, the logo will move onto the football field this season, accompanied by digital branding and event signage throughout the multi-year partnership.

Liquid, the Bitcoin sidechain operated by Blockstream, has paused operations after actors who claim they are “white-hat” hackers withdrew roughly 4,000 BTC from Liquid’s federation wallet—an amount the report describes as worth about $320 million. The move has triggered a wider shutdown of bridge activity, with Liquid saying new transactions are currently blocked.

On Sunday, Liquid said it disabled bridge nodes, halting activity that would otherwise allow users to move funds between Bitcoin and Liquid’s network. Exchanges, meanwhile, were either already stopping deposits and withdrawals of L-BTC or preparing to do so, according to Liquid’s public statements.

Key takeaways

• Liquid disabled bridge nodes after actors withdrew about 4,000 BTC from the federation wallet, leaving the sidechain in a paused state.
• Liquid and Blockstream say they contacted the actors through signed on-chain messages seeking a remediation and coordinated return of funds.
• Liquid estimates the withdrawn BTC represented about 95% of the wallet’s roughly 4,200 BTC balance at the time of the incident.
• L-BTC bridge-related activity was stopped, while Liquid says other issued assets on the network—including USDT—were not affected.
• SideSwap says its peg-out service processed a withdrawal order using its PAK and that the key was not compromised, attributing the source of the L-BTC to a bug in Elements.

Bridge nodes disabled as federation wallet is emptied

Liquid’s response centers on preventing further bridge transactions while the federation works through the situation. Liquid stated that bridge nodes were turned off, which stops new transactions from being created or relayed through the bridge.

The immediate market-facing impact was felt by custodians and exchanges supporting L-BTC. Liquid said exchanges had halted or were in the process of halting L-BTC deposits and withdrawals—effectively reducing the risk of users interacting with a bridge that is no longer operating normally.

Liquid said the seized Bitcoin amount was taken from its federation wallet. The report notes that the withdrawn BTC accounted for approximately 95% of a federation balance that was around 4,200 BTC prior to the incident.

On-chain messages and a demand to patch before funds return

Blockstream, Liquid’s technology provider, reportedly began contacting the actors directly using signed on-chain messages. Subsequent messages, as described in the reporting, show the actors telling Blockstream to patch the vulnerability and ensure that every node is updated before they would return most of the Bitcoin.

The actors also reportedly provided encrypted technical details to Blockstream. According to Galaxy Digital research head Alex Thorn, those details were shared through the same channel of communications.

As of the time of writing, the funds had not been returned, leaving the sidechain paused and raising an open question for Liquid users: even if the actors’ stated intent is to improve security, the operational downtime could persist until updates are verified across the network.

Other Liquid-issued assets reportedly unaffected

Liquid said other assets issued on the network were unaffected. That includes tokens and instruments such as USDT, DePix, and real-world assets (as referenced in the report). The sidechain’s pause appears focused on bridge functionality and the federation wallet state, rather than a broader halt of every on-chain activity.

For traders and integrators, this distinction matters. When a sidechain pauses because of bridge-layer issues, it can limit the ability to move assets in or out, but it may still allow certain on-network transfers—depending on the specific operational constraints put in place by the federation and bridge nodes.

SideSwap attributes peg-out details to Elements, not its system

One of the most specific parts of the incident response came from SideSwap, which said the withdrawal passed through its peg-out service as a customer order using its Peg-out Authorization Key (PAK). SideSwap emphasized that the PAK was not compromised.

The company’s statement further claims that the L-BTC used in the transaction originated from a bug in Elements—the open-source software that underpins Liquid—rather than from a compromise or failure within SideSwap’s systems.

That framing is significant because it shifts attention from custodian or peg-out authorization credentials toward the base protocol layer. If the vulnerability truly stems from Elements behavior, the remediation would likely require coordinated updates not only on the bridge or federation components, but also across the surrounding software stack that interfaces with Liquid nodes.

What to watch next for Liquid users and integrators

Until Liquid and Blockstream complete the patching and federation-wide node updates demanded in the messages, the bridge will remain paused and L-BTC flows are likely to stay constrained. Users should monitor further public updates from Liquid and Blockstream—especially any confirmation that the patched version is fully propagated across nodes and that exchanges resume deposits and withdrawals safely.