Bitmine Immersion Technologies added to its Ether holdings last week while projecting hundreds of millions of dollars in annual staking revenue, highlighting how its massive ETH treasury could generate income even during volatile market conditions.

In a Monday announcement, Bitmine said it acquired 27,180 ETH last week, bringing its holdings to more than 5.95 million ETH, worth roughly $15.4 billion and representing about 4.9% of Ether’s circulating supply. Including cash and other crypto assets, Bitmine reported total holdings of approximately $15.8 billion.

Bitmine said more than 5.06 million ETH is now staked, generating an estimated $334 million in annualized staking revenue at current rates.

With roughly 85% of its ETH now staked, Bitmine is turning its crypto treasury into a potentially significant source of recurring revenue. For comparison, Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE), the first spot Ether US exchange-traded product, has 84.6% of its Ether holdings staked, according to the fund’s webpage.

The company’s strategy also offers a key advantage over Bitcoin treasury companies, whose core BTC holdings do not generate native staking yield.

Bitmine shares were little changed on Monday, trading just below $25 in morning trading. The stock has gained nearly 38% over the past month but remains down year to date, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Related: Bitmine buys 28k ETH, completes 97% of treasury accumulation goal

Strategy skipped Bitcoin purchases last week

While Bitmine continued adding to its Ether treasury, Michael Saylor’s Strategy went a second consecutive week without buying Bitcoin (BTC), directing capital toward its preferred stock instead.

Strategy repurchased about 1.42 million shares of its STRC preferred stock for $139.3 million between Sept. 8 and Sept. 13. The company also bought back $176.3 million worth of STRC the previous week, according to a Monday filing.

Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings remained unchanged at 845,050 BTC as of Sept. 13. Its last purchase came in late August, when the company acquired 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million.

In the final week of August, Strategy purchased 4,603 BTC for roughly $370 million, marking its first Bitcoin purchase since June. The subsequent pause, alongside the significant STRC buybacks in recent weeks, shows how the company is balancing Bitcoin accumulation with support for its preferred stock.

Related: Crypto Biz: AI took a back seat when Bitcoin started climbing

S&P Global has led a strategic investment in Kaiko, extending the Paris-based crypto market data provider’s Series B funding to $110 million as it expands its data infrastructure for tokenized financial markets.

The round also included BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Canton Foundation, Coinbase Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, Stellar and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments.

Kaiko said the funding will support its core digital asset market data business and its push into onchain financial infrastructure, including data services for tokenized Treasury bills, money market funds, equities and bonds.

The participating investors will also join a Kaiko-led industry working group focused on developing data and infrastructure for tokenized financial products.

Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran said the investors span several key areas of digital asset markets, including pricing, trading, capital allocation and blockchain development, and would serve as partners in building infrastructure for institutional onchain finance.

The funding follows a series of moves by Kaiko to expand its institutional data business. The company acquired MiCA-regulated onchain infrastructure provider Cometh in May and US digital asset data provider Amberdata in June, after partnering with Bloomberg in February to bring licensed financial data onchain.

Related: Kaiko flags possible front-running before Robinhood token listings

Wall Street moves closer to tokenization

Kaiko’s funding comes as major US market operators and financial infrastructure firms expand their use of blockchain technology for trading, settlement and collateral management.

In March, New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) signed an agreement with Securitize to develop infrastructure and standards for tokenized securities. The agreement builds on ICE’s January plan for a tokenized securities trading platform designed to support 24/7 trading and instant settlement.

That same month, Nasdaq received SEC approval to pilot trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs alongside traditional securities. Nasdaq also partnered with Kraken parent Payward to develop infrastructure connecting regulated equity markets with onchain tokenized equities.

In July, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) conducted production trades using DTC-tokenized assets with more than 30 financial firms ahead of a planned October launch of its tokenization service. DTC, a DTCC subsidiary, provides custody and asset servicing for $114 trillion in securities.

The push toward round-the-clock markets has drawn attention from US regulators. The SEC is scheduled to hold a roundtable on Sept. 17 on preparations for 24-hour trading in US equities, including market readiness, operational resilience, investor protections and potential future expansion toward 24/7 trading.

One of three SEC panels scheduled for Sept. 17. Source: SEC

S&P Global has led a strategic investment in crypto data provider Kaiko that has expanded the company’s Series B funding round to $110 million as it builds data infrastructure for tokenized capital markets.

Kaiko said Monday that BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Canton Foundation, Coinbase Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, Stellar and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments participated in the investment.

Existing shareholders Anthemis, Point Nine and Revaia took part in the financing as well. Kaiko did not disclose its valuation or specify how much S&P Global and the other investors contributed individually.

The funding gives Kaiko fresh capital to develop its market data business while extending its infrastructure into onchain financial markets, where banks and other financial firms have been testing tokenized securities, settlement systems and blockchain-based financial products.

Kaiko funding reaches $110 million

The expanded Series B builds on the $53 million Kaiko raised in June 2022, when Eight Roads led a funding round involving Revaia and existing investors Alven, Point Nine, Anthemis and Underscore.

Crypto.news previously reported that Kaiko secured the $53 million investment during a period of falling digital asset prices and stress across the crypto market.

The latest financing brings a different set of financial institutions into Kaiko’s shareholder base. Several of the new investors have businesses spanning market data, banking, exchanges, blockchain infrastructure and capital markets.

Kaiko said the new investors have joined a Strategic Industry Working Group chaired by the company. The group will concentrate on data and infrastructure needed for tokenized markets as financial assets increasingly move onto blockchain networks.

Fresh capital will be directed toward Kaiko’s existing digital asset market data operation and its infrastructure for onchain capital markets. The company currently provides data covering more than 150 exchanges and protocols.

Kaiko has spent several years building products around institutional crypto pricing, liquidity, indices and market information. Its expansion has included acquisitions as well as integrations with companies that provide digital asset infrastructure to banks and other financial institutions.

In November 2024, Kaiko acquired index provider Vinter as part of its expansion into digital asset indices and European exchange-traded products. The transaction was described at the time as Kaiko’s third and largest acquisition, though financial terms were not disclosed.

Kaiko had previously bought quantitative data firm Kesitys in April 2022 and Napoleon Index from CoinShares later that year.

More recently, the company acquired DeFi infrastructure provider Cometh and U.S. digital asset data company Amberdata, extending the areas covered by its data and technology business.

S&P Global deepens work with Kaiko

S&P Global’s investment follows existing work between Kaiko and S&P Dow Jones Indices on blockchain-based benchmarks and crypto indices.

“As digital assets accelerate, S&P Global is investing for the future, and this investment underscores that conviction,” S&P Dow Jones Indices CEO Cathy Clay said.

Earlier this month, the two companies launched the S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices, bringing their crypto index products into a single co-branded suite.

Their relationship had already extended into tokenized traditional financial benchmarks. In April, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kaiko unveiled plans to tokenize the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries index on Canton Network.

Under that project, the index was designed to operate through smart-contract infrastructure carrying index data, intellectual property rights, licensing conditions, fees and access controls. The arrangement was intended to let developers use the benchmark in blockchain-based financial products while retaining the controls required by institutional market participants.

The project placed the iBoxx benchmark on the same network where other financial firms have been working with tokenized government securities and institutional settlement infrastructure.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has continued building digital asset benchmarks outside its work with Kaiko. In August, S&P and Pantera Capital introduced a crypto index built around protocol revenue, liquidity and market capitalization, with ETH, BNB, SOL, TRX and HYPE among its largest constituents at launch.

Tokenized markets draw institutional infrastructure

Kaiko’s new Strategic Industry Working Group brings together several companies that already have exposure to digital asset or tokenized financial infrastructure.

Canton Foundation’s participation connects the group with Canton Network, where Kaiko and S&P have worked on the tokenized iBoxx Treasury index. Financial institutions have been testing the network for use cases involving securities, collateral, repo markets and settlement.

Activity on Canton has extended into government bond markets. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has been involved in work examining Japanese government bond repo transactions on the network, while another industry group has been studying tokenized JGBs, stablecoin settlement, T+0 processing and round-the-clock market access.

The network has attracted capital from large financial institutions as well. Digital Asset, the company behind Canton, raised $355 million in June in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participants including Citadel Securities, Apollo, BNP Paribas, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, Optiver and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

BNP Paribas and Coinbase Ventures now appear among the investors in Kaiko’s expanded Series B as well.

Institutional products have started using Kaiko data as their underlying pricing source. Bitwise’s Canton Coin ETP, launched on Deutsche Börse Xetra in May, tracks the Kaiko CANTO Reference Rate LDNLF index and carries an annual expense ratio of 0.85%.

Kaiko has worked with institutional digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus as well. A 2025 integration made Kaiko’s pricing and liquidity information available through the Taurus platform, extending access to clients using its digital asset infrastructure.

Taurus has since continued expanding the blockchain networks available to financial institutions through its technology. In August, the company completed an 18-month Hedera integration covering custody, staking, token issuance, node infrastructure and smart contract deployment for banks and regulated institutions.

Kaiko said its latest investment will support the core market data operation while financing further development of data infrastructure designed for onchain capital markets. The company has not disclosed a timetable for deploying the new capital or the valuation attached to the expanded Series B round.

Fragmented regulatory regimes are limiting stablecoin adoption in international trade, according to Juan Marchetti, director of the trade in services and investment division at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“The constraint is not technology. It is actually regulation and the lack of development of regulatory frameworks,” said Marchetti during a Monday speech in Geneva, at the launch of WTO’s study on stablecoins in world trade.

He cited an October 2025 report from the Financial Stability Board which found that only 39%, or 11 out of 28 surveyed jurisdictions, have finalized their stablecoin regulatory frameworks.

Marchetti added that stablecoins may improve some of the main friction points of trade finance, but currently only account for 3% of total international payments due to fragmented regulatory regimes. 

The WTO’s report identified five friction points that may be improved by stablecoin adoption, including high costs, low speed, limited access, insufficient transparency and foreign exchange limitations.

Stablecoins ability to ease friction in international payments. Source: Cointelegraph/WTO

The report also revealed that stablecoin payments in cross-border payments grew 35-fold between 2020 and mid-2024.

Related: Metaplanet cuts Series 10 stock pool by 41%, plans Hong Kong subsidiary

Emerging economies stand to gain most from stablecoin adoption: WTO

Developing economies stand to benefit most from stablecoin adoption due to their ability to reduce remittance fees. However, these same countries have the least developed regulatory regimes to facilitate adoption, according to the WTO’s director. He said:

“Contribution to trade will depend far less on the technology than on regulatory convergence, interoperability and the surrounding financial infrastructure, especially in developing economies that stand to gain.”

Some of the largest global payment processors are exploring stablecoins to improve cross-border payments.

In August, Mastercard partnered with stablecoin orchestration network Borderless to pilot how to bring more trust into cross-border stablecoin transfers through the payment processing giant’s Crypto Credential framework. In June, it announced plans to expand its settlement capabilities to include intraday, weekend and holiday card settlement, including settlement through stablecoins.

Also in August, Western Union said it partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain to launch a digital wallet and Visa-branded card that enables users to hold and spend a US dollar-backed stablecoin in 37 markets, planning to expand it to more than 60 markets by the end of the year.

Magazine: Why Australia’s $17B crypto opportunity depends on regulation

China has pushed back against a proposal to slow advanced artificial intelligence development, turning a debate over AI safety into a wider dispute over technology and national competition. The response followed an essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who called for tighter safeguards and slower progress in frontier AI systems. China’s state-backed Global Times described the proposal as a “Cold War playbook” targeting the country’s technological development.

The dispute also drew attention after the Coin Bureau account shared the development on X. Its post said Beijing had criticized Amodei’s position and linked the debate to U.S. efforts to restrict advanced AI technology exports to China.

Key Takeaways

• China has condemned the AI slowdown proposal made by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, considering it as a “Cold War” approach to technological rivalry.
• Dario Amodei advocates the need for slower advancement in frontier AI technologies to ensure sufficient time for safety research to be in sync with the development of more potent AI.
• Amodei has advocated for stringent measures on AI chips supplied to China, arguing that access to advanced computing hardware plays an important role in the advancement of frontier AI.
• China has rejected the idea of geopolitical AI rivalry and insisted on international cooperation in AI policy.
• Donald Trump has taken a different view and said there is no need for any slowdown in AI technologies in the United States compared to China.
• The discussion links AI safety and semiconductor policies because advanced AI requires substantial computational capability.

Amodei Calls for Slower Frontier AI Development

Amodei published an essay outlining a framework he calls “pacing the frontier.” He argued that AI capabilities are advancing faster than safety research can keep up. He pointed to recursive self-improvement as one reason for caution, referring to AI systems becoming capable of helping develop more advanced AI systems.

His proposal does not call for stopping AI development altogether. Instead, it seeks to slow the rate at which frontier models gain new capabilities. Amodei proposed independent safety evaluators, cooperation among AI companies, and common safety standards among democratic countries. He also called for international coordination on AI risks.

Amodei also addressed China directly. He urged the United States to maintain restrictions on advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplied to China, arguing that access to computing hardware will shape China’s ability to develop increasingly capable AI systems.

Beijing Rejects the AI Containment Argument

China’s response focused on the technology restrictions within Amodei’s proposal. Global Times argued that the measures could restrict China’s AI development through technology barriers. It also accused Washington of seeking to maintain an advantage in advanced technology.

China’s Foreign Ministry took a broader position on the dispute. Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said confrontation and aggressive competition could disrupt international efforts to establish AI governance. Beijing has also called for greater international cooperation on artificial intelligence.

The disagreement reflects a technical divide in AI development. Advanced models require large amounts of computing power, which depends heavily on high-end chips and data-center infrastructure. Restrictions on those resources can therefore affect how quickly companies train and deploy increasingly capable models.

Trump Rejects Calls to Slow the AI Race

The debate has also exposed differences within the United States. President Donald Trump rejected calls for Washington to slow AI development because of safety concerns. During a visit to Ireland, Trump said the United States should maintain its lead over China and stated that “whoever wins AI, wins.”

Trump’s position contrasts with Amodei’s proposal for a slower pace. Other technology leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, have expressed support for pacing frontier AI development. Altman has also said that pacing does not mean stopping AI progress.

AI Safety and US-China Competition Converge

The disagreement now combines two separate questions: how quickly advanced AI should develop and how much access China should have to the technology behind it. Amodei has argued that both issues need to be addressed as AI capabilities advance.

China, meanwhile, has rejected the framing of tighter restrictions as a neutral safety measure. Global Times has linked those policies to broader efforts to limit China’s technological progress. The debate is expected to remain part of wider discussions over AI governance, semiconductor controls, and competition between Washington and Beijing.

Accepting crypto has become easier for online businesses, but managing what happens before and after a customer sends a payment can still involve several moving parts.

A merchant needs to generate the payment, confirm that the correct amount has arrived and connect the transaction with an order. Depending on the business, the received crypto may then need to be converted into another asset, transferred to an external wallet or distributed through payouts.

Heleket has built its crypto payment processing platform around bringing those processes into a single system. Businesses can accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and other popular cryptocurrencies, while tools for conversion, automated withdrawals and mass payouts handle different stages of the payment flow.

Heleket at a glance

• Incoming payment fees start from 0.4%
• Withdrawal fees are 0%
• API and ready-made plugin integrations are available
• Project moderation takes up to 24 hours
• Each project receives a personal account manager

The combination gives Heleket room to serve different types of businesses. An online store may only need a straightforward checkout integration, while a SaaS company, gaming platform or digital service could require more control over how payments interact with its existing product.

Crypto payments without rebuilding the checkout

Businesses with their own technical infrastructure can connect Heleket directly through its API.

Developers control how the payment process fits into the product instead of working around a fixed checkout format. Heleket provides SDKs, code examples and documentation for the integration, including material designed to be accessible to developers with limited experience working with crypto payment systems.

Testing takes place before real funds need to move.

Through test webhooks, developers can simulate payment events and check how their application responds at different stages of a transaction. A team can test whether its system recognizes a payment correctly and whether subsequent actions work as expected before enabling the integration for customers.

The integration work happens on the merchant’s side, but the checkout itself is what determines whether a customer completes the payment. Heleket’s checkout does not require the customer to register an account, and a payment can be completed in two clicks, the customer scans a QR code with their mobile wallet, and the exact amount and address are filled in automatically. For a merchant, a simpler checkout is also a practical detail: less friction at the point of payment usually means fewer abandoned transactions.

Two ways to integrate Heleket

API: Built for businesses that want more control over the payment experience and how it connects with their existing product.

Plugins: Designed for businesses already running on supported e-commerce, billing, exchange, management or gaming platforms.

For companies without the need for a custom implementation, Heleket offers plugins for WooCommerce, WHMCS and XenForo. PremiumExchanger, BoxExchanger, iexExchanger and Money-top are among the supported exchange and processing platforms.

Its integrations extend to management systems including PerfectPanel, socpanel, rootpanel and BillManager. MenuBuilderBot and Bot-t cover Telegram and social tools, while Seller.games provides an integration route for gaming projects using Digiseller.

A plugin can handle a more standardized implementation, while the API gives developers room to build the payment flow around an existing service.

What happens after the customer pays?

Receiving crypto creates another decision for merchants: what should happen to the assets once they arrive?

Some businesses may want to hold the cryptocurrency they receive. Others may prefer to move funds directly to their own wallet or maintain balances in a particular asset.

Heleket’s auto-withdrawal feature handles one of those scenarios by automatically sending funds to an external wallet. Once configured, withdrawals can take place without a merchant manually initiating every transfer.

For businesses accepting several cryptocurrencies, the converter allows one supported asset to be exchanged for another from the Heleket dashboard.

The auto-converter automates the process. A merchant that accepts payments in several cryptocurrencies, for example, can configure incoming assets to be converted into a preferred stablecoin.

A possible automated payment flow

Customer pays in BTC or ETH
↓
Heleket processes the payment
↓
Incoming crypto is automatically converted
↓
Funds are held in the selected asset or sent to an external wallet

The exact flow can be configured around how a business wants to manage its crypto payments.

Transaction fees and rounding create another consideration when processing cryptocurrency payments. Small differences between the requested payment and the completed transaction can accumulate when a business handles a large number of payments.

Heleket uses what it calls its Accurate Payment Fee system to calculate payment amounts. The company says its calculation logic accounts for rounding and fluctuating fees to reduce the risk of merchants losing money through payment discrepancies.

Key payment management tools

• Acquiring: Accept BTC, ETH, USDT and other supported cryptocurrencies
• Auto-withdrawal: Move received funds automatically to an external wallet
• Converter: Exchange supported cryptocurrencies from the dashboard
• Auto-converter: Automatically convert incoming payments into a selected asset
• Accurate Payment Fee: Calculate payments while accounting for rounding and changing fees

Businesses can use only the functions they need instead of configuring every feature available on the platform.

Heleket covers outgoing crypto payments too

For some online businesses, accepting money from customers represents only one side of the transaction flow.

Freelance marketplaces, online services and other platforms may regularly need to send cryptocurrency to users. Processing transfers individually becomes increasingly cumbersome as the number of recipients increases.

Heleket provides mass payouts for projects handling high volumes of outgoing payments. Businesses can process multiple crypto payouts through the platform instead of preparing each transaction separately.

Combined with the other automation tools, this creates several possible setups.

An e-commerce merchant could accept Bitcoin and automatically move it to an external wallet. Another business could accept multiple cryptocurrencies and convert each payment into USDT. A platform with users or contractors could combine incoming payments with mass payouts.

Where the features can fit

E-commerce: Crypto checkout, conversion and automatic withdrawals

SaaS: API-based recurring payment flows and account management

Freelance platforms: Crypto payments combined with mass payouts

Gaming: Payment processing and user payouts

Online services: Custom API integrations with automated fund management

The setup can therefore remain relatively small for a merchant that simply wants another checkout option or become more automated for a platform processing a larger number of transactions.

Integration does not always follow a template

Even with APIs and ready-made plugins, payment integrations can become more complicated when an existing business has its own technical requirements.

Heleket handles non-standard setups and edge cases through direct support. Each project receives a personal account manager who can assist during onboarding, answer technical questions and help configure payment processes.

Projects pass through moderation before they begin using the service, with Heleket putting the review period at up to 24 hours.

From setup to live payments

1. Submit the project for moderation
2. Select an API or supported plugin integration
3. Configure the required payment and fund management features
4. Test the transaction flow when using the API
5. Enable live crypto payments

Developers taking the API route can use test webhooks before moving to real transactions. Businesses running supported software can choose the corresponding plugin where available.

For more unusual configurations, technical support and the assigned account manager provide a route for working through requirements that do not fit a standard integration.

A WooCommerce store, for instance, may use Heleket primarily to give customers another way to pay. A digital platform could use the same infrastructure to accept several cryptocurrencies, convert incoming funds, automate transfers to its own wallet and process payouts to users.

Heleket keeps those functions within the same payment environment, leaving businesses to select the tools that fit how they receive, manage and distribute cryptocurrency.