Trade certainty for curiosity

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has appointed longtime ecosystem contributor pcaversaccio (known as “pc”) to its board, expanding the group’s leadership as it continues to refine the governance of the organization behind the world’s second-largest blockchain.

pc, a security researcher and co-founder of the emergency response initiative SEAL 911, joins the board for an initial one-year voluntary term. He has also served on the EF’s Silviculture Society, an advisory group that provides informal guidance on preserving the foundation’s core principles, including censorship resistance, open source development, privacy and security.

The appointment brings the Ethereum Foundation’s board to four members: President Aya Miyaguchi, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Swiss legal counsel Patrick Storchenegger and pcaversaccio.

The board is responsible for setting the EF’s strategic vision and ensuring management’s decisions remain aligned with the organization’s values, accordinfg to the Foundation. It also serves as a “security council” tasked with safeguarding the foundation’s mission and ensuring compliance with the laws of Switzerland, where it is currently based.

BNY has expanded its blockchain strategy by bringing the ownership records behind investment funds onchain through a new digital transfer agency platform for institutional clients.

The Financial Times reported that the New York-based custodian bank will launch a blockchain-enabled version of its transfer agency business, allowing fund ownership records and investor transactions to be maintained on a shared digital ledger while continuing to operate its existing transfer agency services.

BNY has moved fund ownership records onto blockchain

Rather than tokenizing only investment products, BNY is applying blockchain technology to the record-keeping infrastructure that supports fund operations. According to the Financial Times, the platform will keep official ownership records onchain, creating a shared source of information for participants involved in fund administration.

Carolyn Weinberg, BNY’s chief product and innovation officer, told the publication that the project modernizes the books and records supporting fund transactions by moving them onto blockchain infrastructure.

Transfer agents maintain official records of fund investors, process subscriptions and redemptions, update shareholder registers and support communications between funds and investors. Those records are usually spread across systems operated by fund managers, custodians and administrators, making regular reconciliation necessary.

By placing the records on a shared ledger, BNY intends to reduce the need for separate databases while giving authorized participants access to the same source of ownership information.

According to the report, BNY’s transfer agency business supports approximately $8.6 trillion in assets across 7.6 million investor accounts. The bank separately oversees more than $59 trillion in assets under custody and administration.

Early tokenized funds are already using the platform

Among the first institutions adopting the platform is Edinburgh-based asset manager Baillie Gifford, which plans to use it for what the firm described as the United Kingdom’s first fully native regulated tokenized fund.

“What we have in the blockchain is a shared source of record-keeping between the participants. We agree that this is the source of truth when people are dealing with the asset that this is monitoring,” Theo Golden, Baillie Gifford’s head of digital assets, said. 

The report also said BlackRock and BNY Dreyfus’ money market fund and cash management business are expected to use the platform for future tokenized fund offerings.

According to Baillie Gifford’s website, the firm manages roughly $261 billion in assets.

BNY has not identified the blockchain network that will power the new platform. Cointelegraph said it contacted the bank for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

Digital asset work has continued across custody and regulation

The transfer agency launch builds on several digital asset initiatives introduced by BNY over recent months.

In June, the bank added USDC minting, redemption, custody and transfer capabilities to its Digital Asset Custody platform, giving institutional clients direct access to Circle’s stablecoin through BNY’s infrastructure. 

The bank already serves as the primary custodian for the assets backing USDC, and the rollout extended its role beyond reserve custody into operational stablecoin services.

At the time, BNY said USDC was the first stablecoin supported on its custody platform and that additional stablecoins and digital cash workflows would follow. 

The announcement also came after the bank partnered with Abu Dhabi-based Finstreet and the ADI Foundation to develop institutional custody services for Bitcoin and Ether, with plans to later include stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.

MiCA approval has added another regulated digital asset business

The latest blockchain initiative also follows BNY’s regulatory expansion in Europe.

Earlier in the week, the European Securities and Markets Authority added BNY SA/NV, the bank’s Belgian subsidiary, to its interim Markets in Crypto-Assets register after authorization from the National Bank of Belgium. The approval allows the subsidiary to provide crypto-asset custody and transfer services under the European Union’s MiCA framework.

The authorization placed BNY alongside other banks and financial institutions expanding regulated digital asset operations across Europe as more firms complete the licensing process following MiCA’s transition deadline.

BNY’s recent announcements show the bank extending blockchain technology across several layers of institutional financial infrastructure, including regulated crypto custody, stablecoin services and the operational record-keeping systems that support tokenized investment funds.

Hungary is easing part of its previously strict crypto framework, repealing a requirement that forced certain transactions to pass through an additional validator. The move comes as crypto services in the country restart under the European Union’s MiCA regime, with CoinCash preparing to resume operations after receiving MiCA authorization.

According to Hungarian tax and legal outlet Ado.hu, Parliament voted to remove the crypto validator obligation, eliminating mandatory third-party approval for specific crypto transaction flows. Finance Minister Kármán András said the government rolled back the rule because earlier regulations disrupted Hungary’s crypto market and led some providers to stop operating locally.

Key takeaways

• Hungary has repealed its crypto validator requirement, removing an extra transaction-level approval step for certain crypto conversions.
• The change is expected to reduce friction for compliant service providers while MiCA licensing and broader compliance duties remain in force.
• CoinCash is positioned to restart services after the National Bank of Hungary authorized its operator under MiCA on July 20.
• Hungary previously introduced a validator process via a 2024 crypto assets law, with requirements taking effect on July 1, 2025.

What Hungary’s validator rule required—and why it mattered

Hungary’s validator requirement was introduced through the country’s 2024 crypto assets law, creating a separate validation process alongside the EU framework. As described by the Hungarian legal database, the rule took effect on July 1, 2025 and required a licensed validator to verify details before issuing a compliance declaration for certain crypto conversions.

Those checks included information tied to the origin of crypto assets, wallet ownership, and customer data. In practical terms, the validator step added another hurdle for crypto service providers operating in Hungary—on top of MiCA obligations already covering authorization and ongoing compliance.

Industry implications were significant: the extra approval layer increased operational complexity and compliance costs, and some platforms chose to suspend services rather than continue under the combined set of rules.

MiCA still sets the baseline, but the approval step is being reduced

The validator repeal does not remove MiCA as the governing structure for crypto-asset service providers. Hungary’s broader approach has been to align its national rules with EU requirements while tightening implementation timelines.

Notably, earlier reporting highlighted that Hungary applied a shortened MiCA transition period for crypto asset service providers (CASPs), requiring compliance by July 1, 2025 rather than the EU’s maximum transition deadline of July 1, 2026. That accelerated schedule, combined with Hungary’s additional transaction-level validator process, left less room for gradual operational adjustment.

Minister Kármán framed the repeal as a response to market disruption. In a Tuesday Facebook post, he argued that “many players” had terminated Hungary-related crypto services due to the “negative and market-shaking regulations,” while he also suggested the market is now showing signs of recovery.

CoinCash gets MiCA authorization as it prepares to restart

While Hungary removed the validator requirement, MiCA authorization remains the key gateway for resuming compliant operations. CoinCash’s path illustrates how companies are adapting to the EU framework.

CoinCash’s operator, Tiwala Solutions, received authorization from the National Bank of Hungary under MiCA on July 20, according to a company announcement reviewed by Cointelegraph. CoinCash said it is the first and only Hungarian company authorized directly by the National Bank under the EU framework.

CoinCash co-founder Gábor Galántai stated this in a LinkedIn post on Friday. The authorization covers a broad set of regulated activities, including custody, crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto exchange, transfers, investment advice, and portfolio management.

The company also indicated it completed a months-long compliance review before obtaining approval. CoinCash had voluntarily paused operations in December 2025 while preparing to meet MiCA requirements, and it now plans to gradually resume services. The company added that it intends to expand beyond trading into additional MiCA-regulated offerings.

What changes now—and what investors should watch

From a market-structure perspective, Hungary’s validator repeal reduces an additional layer of friction for certain crypto transactions. For users, that can mean smoother processing by authorized providers; for operators, it can lower operational complexity by removing an extra transaction checkpoint.

However, the repeal leaves open the bigger question of how quickly the local market will normalize after a period of provider retrenchment. CoinCash’s restart plan is a tangible indicator of compliance momentum under MiCA, but other firms may move more slowly depending on their own licensing status and operational readiness.

Readers should watch for whether more Hungary-based or Hungary-serving platforms resume activity, and whether regulators continue to refine how MiCA transition and national requirements interact—especially as the removed validator step no longer offsets, or compensates for, the accelerated compliance expectations that previously shaped the market.

As Hungary continues recalibrating its crypto rulebook, the key uncertainty is speed: how quickly the compliance ecosystem can translate licensing into fully operational services, and whether additional rule adjustments follow the validator repeal once the market stabilizes under MiCA.

Trade.xyz, the operator of onchain perpetual markets on Hyperliquid, says it will reimburse eligible users for liquidation losses tied to a sudden “price anomaly” affecting its SK Hynix-linked contract. The announcement follows a sharp drop in the contract’s mark price after an off-chain trade was relayed through multiple independent data providers.

In a post on X, Trade.xyz stated that the SKHYNIX contract’s mark price fell to $917.25 from $1,127.90 at 23:01 UTC on Monday. It attributed the move to the way its oracle processes an external venue’s executed transaction, noting that eligibility requirements and details of the reimbursement are expected shortly.

Key takeaways

• Trade.xyz will cover eligible liquidation losses after a mark-price drop in its SK HynIX perpetual contract triggered liquidations.
• Trade.xyz said its oracle was “tracking” an external venue used as the primary South Korean pre-market and that it behaved according to specification.
• The affected contract is among Hyperliquid’s most active, with the platform reporting over $1.5 billion in 24-hour volume and nearly $600 million in open interest at the time of writing.
• Trade.xyz described reimbursement as a one-time discretionary decision and said it will review how prices are formed during extreme events.
• Hyperliquid/Trade.xyz is reportedly considering increasing the weight given to prices derived from its own order books during market stress.

Reimbursement after a mark-price break

The reimbursement plan centers on a specific event: Trade.xyz’s SKHYNIX contract mark price reportedly plunged within minutes, dropping from $1,127.90 to $917.25. According to Trade.xyz, the move was linked to an executed transaction on an external venue rather than a sudden distortion inside Hyperliquid’s own trading order book.

Trade.xyz did not disclose the number of users likely to qualify or the total amount it expects to distribute. It also said it would “announce soon” the eligibility requirements, with distributions expected “in the coming days.”

While the operator acknowledged the frustration traders can feel when liquidations occur during unusual market conditions, it framed the reimbursement as a “one-time discretionary decision.” It also signaled that the company plans to examine how its system handles price formation during extreme market events.

Why Hyperliquid’s mark price matters

On Hyperliquid, the mark price is not just a reference—it is a core input for risk controls. Trade.xyz said Hyperliquid uses mark prices to value positions for margin purposes and to determine when leveraged positions should be liquidated.

That design makes the accuracy and responsiveness of the mark-price mechanism critical. Even if the anomaly originates elsewhere, its impact can propagate quickly to trader margin calculations, particularly in highly leveraged perpetual markets.

Hyperliquid data cited by Trade.xyz indicates the SK Hynix contract is deeply liquid. On Wednesday, Hyperliquid’s interface showed the contract had produced over $1.5 billion in 24-hour volume and held nearly $600 million in open interest at the time of writing—figures that underscore why an oracle-driven disruption can quickly become a large-scale trader event.

How the anomaly appears to have transferred on-chain

Trade.xyz said the sharp move began with an executed transaction on an external market, not with trades on Hyperliquid itself. Its oracle tracks the US dollar value of one SKHX common share. The mechanism, according to Trade.xyz’s documentation, converts the underlying South Korean won price using the prevailing exchange rate.

In this case, Trade.xyz said the external print was processed by the oracle and contributed to the contract’s mark-price shift. It added that the oracle “worked as intended according to its specification,” a detail that helps clarify what the operator believes went wrong: not the system failing technically, but the market-data input producing a sudden reference-price dislocation.

The operator also suggested that Hyperliquid may adapt its approach for future stress periods. Trade.xyz said it is considering giving more weight to prices formed on Hyperliquid’s own order books, arguing that Hyperliquid’s internal liquidity and market signals may better reflect tradable conditions during volatility.

Perpetuals with external feeds under HIP-3

Trade.xyz’s SK Hynix market runs under Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 framework. HIP-3 enables perpetual contracts tied to assets with external price feeds, allowing builders to launch products when the primary pricing reference comes from venues outside the on-chain trading system.

Trade.xyz previously accounted for more than $22 billion of HIP-3’s first $25 billion in cumulative volume, according to coverage referenced in the source material. It has also launched an officially licensed S&P 500 perpetual using S&P Dow Jones Indices data, illustrating how HIP-3 has been used to bring traditional benchmark feeds into onchain perpetual trading.

This case highlights a central trade-off of external-feed perpetuals: while they expand asset coverage, they can also import volatility or idiosyncratic prints from other venues into margin and liquidation machinery. In moments when an off-chain venue’s execution data diverges sharply from the prevailing onchain trading picture, mark-price-based liquidation thresholds can behave abruptly.

What traders should watch next

For now, the key uncertainties are operational: how Trade.xyz will define eligibility for reimbursement and how it will adjust the balance between external feeds and Hyperliquid order-book prices going forward. Traders in external-feed perpetuals may want to pay close attention to any announced changes to oracle weighting and to monitoring around mark-price calculations during extreme events.

BNY, one of the world’s largest custodian banks, is taking a major step toward blockchain-based financial infrastructure by moving fund ownership records onchain.

The New York-based institution will launch a blockchain-based version of its transfer agency business, which manages fund ownership records and investor transactions, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

“We think of BNY as modernizing a function that sits behind every single fund transaction by bringing the books and records on-chain,” Carolyn Weinberg, BNY’s chief product and innovation officer, reportedly said.

The move follows BNY’s broader digital asset expansion, including its European regulatory progress under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, as the bank positions itself for the next phase of institutional blockchain adoption.

What are transfer agency records?

Transfer agents are financial service providers that maintain official records of who owns shares in investment funds. They handle tasks such as processing investor transactions, issuing and redeeming fund shares, updating ownership records and supporting communication between funds and investors.

These records form part of the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that allows investment funds to operate. Traditionally, ownership information is stored across multiple systems used by fund managers, custodians and other market participants, requiring frequent reconciliation.

Related: USDC issuer Circle to acquire nearly 1,000 IBM blockchain patents

According to the report, BNY’s transfer agent services cover roughly $8.6 trillion in assets across 7.6 million accounts. The company, which oversees more than $59 trillion in assets under custody and administration, will reportedly maintain its traditional transfer agency operations alongside the new digital platform.

Baillie Gifford among early users for tokenized funds

By moving transfer agency records onchain, BNY aims to create a shared source of information for market participants, reducing reliance on separate databases and manual reconciliation processes.

Early users of BNY’s digital transfer agency reportedly include Edinburgh, Scotland-based asset manager Baillie Gifford, which plans to use the platform for what it described as the first “fully native” United Kingdom-regulated tokenized fund. BlackRock and BNY Dreyfus money market fund and cash management business are also expected to use the service for upcoming tokenized funds.

The firm has roughly $261 billion in assets under management, according to its website.

Related: Hong Kong prepares banks for quantum threats amid tokenization push

“What we have in the blockchain is a shared source of record-keeping between the participants,” Theo Golden, Baillie Gifford’s head of digital assets, said. “We agree that this is the source of truth when people are dealing with the asset that this is monitoring,” the executive said.

BNY has not disclosed which blockchain network will support the new platform. Cointelegraph approached the company for comment regarding the report but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

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