South Korea’s Financial Services Commission unveiled a phased roadmap on September 4 for converting stocks, bonds and investment funds into blockchain-based tokens, with the earliest phase due to start in February 2027 once an amendment to the Electronic Registration Act takes effect.

The plan links the country’s securities market to a stablecoin payment system that regulators want built by the time the rollout reaches its final stage.

Seoul Lays Out a Three-Step Timeline

The FSC’s roadmap, presented during the third private-public consultative meeting on securities tokenization, breaks the transition into three stages.

Phase one starts in February 2027 and covers privately pooled money market funds and bonds reserved for institutional investors, unlisted stocks held through trust structures, and publicly offered fractional investment securities.

Phase two widens the pool to every type of publicly offered security. But the third phase is the more ambitious one: an on-chain payments system tied to stablecoins, though the FSC says the pace of phases two and three depends on how the first rollout goes, how fast the market adapts, and where pending stablecoin legislation ends up.

The commission also published model standards for fractional investment, capping individual subscriptions at whichever is smaller between 30 million won ($22,200) and 5% of an issuance, and requiring issuers to reserve a minimum retail allocation.

Trading tokenized securities over the counter won’t need a separate license, though firms must consult the Financial Supervisory Service first, and retail investors face an annual cap of 100 million won ($74,000) in net purchases per exchange.

Entities that manage tokenized securities accounts will need at least 4 billion won, which is about $2.9 million, in equity and dedicated staff for account management, internal control, and IT security, while the Korea Securities Depository is finalizing the technical checks that securities firms must pass before connecting to the shared ledger.

Revised rules under the FSCMA and the Electronic Registration Act are due by the end of September.

The Risk Other Regulators Have Already Flagged

As CryptoPotato reported previously, the IMF warned in an April note that tokenization strips out the settlement delays banks rely on to manage liquidity, delays that also give regulators time to step in before a crisis hardens.

The fund pointed to liquidity pressure, thin oversight of smart contracts, and the difficulty of policing assets that cross borders as the main risks, arguing that public infrastructure such as central bank digital currency (CBDC) is what keeps tokenized markets from making instability worse.

South Korea has also moved quickly against platforms it views as skirting its rules, with authorities blocking domestic access to Polymarket in August over concerns that the platform amounts to unlicensed gambling, joining a growing list of countries that have restricted it since last year.

The post South Korea Plans Stablecoin-Based Tokenization by 2027 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Key points:

• The US economy added 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in August, nearly triple economists’ consensus estimate of 56,000.
• Bitcoin sold off from $81,300 to local lows of $78,600 following the data, before recovering to $79,500.
• A rival Bitcoin fork using the Blake2b algorithm saw its first trading activity, with coins changing hands at $350 on exchange Neoxa.

Labor market beats expectations threefold

According to data released on Friday, the US economy added 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in August, significantly outperforming economists’ consensus expectations of roughly 56,000 jobs. In response to the announcement, Bitcoin (BTC) sold off from $81,300 to local lows of $78,600. At the time of writing it stands at $79,500. 

Recent economic data carries added weight, given how divided rate outlooks remain ahead of the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Sept. 15-16. Under previous Federal Reserve chairs, expectations ahead of the FOMC were mostly well-anchored. However, the lack of forward guidance from Chair Kevin Warsh, along with potential dissenters in the committee, has resulted in added uncertainty. 

After Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday that he would favor a rate pause pending upcoming inflation data, Polymarket probabilities swung to 60% in favor of a pause and 40% for a 25 basis-point interest rate hike. Friday’s labor market data however, drove the implied probabilities back to a 50/50 split.

Implied Probabilities for the Sep. 16 FOMC rate decision. Source: Polymarket

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In response to the strong labor market data, US President Donald Trump leveled new rate-cut demands. “The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart – BE PATRIOTS for a change,” he stated in a Truth Social post and continued: “High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, ⁠and I won’t allow that to happen!”

Trump had frequently criticized former Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates, but had held back from making similar statements toward Warsh until Friday. 

Blake2b version of Bitcoin attracts first liquidity

When the BIP-110 soft fork activated on Aug. 7, the Bitcoin network briefly split into two competing chains: one enforcing BIP-110’s new rules and another continuing under the existing rules. The BIP-110 side largely stalled because miners did not devote enough computing power to extending that chain.

BIP-110 supporters viewed miners’ refusal to follow the user-activated soft fork (UASF) as evidence that Bitcoin’s mining layer has become too centralized. That criticism was sharpened by the absence of an organized counter-effort from the Bitcoin Core side, such as a user-rejected soft fork (URSF). Only five mining pools control the vast majority of Bitcoin’s hashrate, concentrating significant influence over which chain is extended and which transactions are included in blocks.

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Bitcoin Network Hashrate Distribution. Source: Blockchain.com

In response, a subset of BIP-110 supporters, led by LukeDashjr, decided to continue the BIP-110 chain with a change in the proof-of-work algorithm to Blake2b to allow for a new, more decentralized set of miners to emerge using DATUM gateway technology. The corresponding hard fork was initiated on Aug. 30. Every address that held SHA-256 Bitcoin before Aug. 7 (and possibly after) will hold an equivalent amount on the Blake2b version of Bitcoin. So far, the only exchange listing Blake2b Bitcoin is Neoxa. While liquidity remains thin, Blake2b coins are currently trading at $350 against USDC with a 1.1% spread. 

BTCB2/USDC orderbook. Source: Neoxa Exchange

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

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Robinhood Chain stopped producing new blocks on Friday, leaving transactions stalled for at least 14 minutes. Robinhood has disclosed neither the cause of the outage nor an estimated recovery time.

The network normally settles a block every tenth of a second. At that pace, a 14-minute stall accounts for roughly 8,400 blocks that were never produced.

What the Explorer Showed

The chain’s tip sat several minutes old while the network kept accepting nothing new. Pending transactions read zero across the preceding half hour.

Traffic into the stall had been heavy. Blockscout put the prior 24 hours at 14.14 million transactions, on an average fee of $0.48.

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) runs no public status page for the chain. That leaves block explorers as the only live window onto whether it is running.

Why a Single Sequencer Matters

Robinhood launched the chain’s mainnet on July 1, built on Arbitrum’s Nitro software. Every block carries one poster address, a vanity string spelling the word sequencer in hexadecimal.

That design means one operator orders all traffic. When it stops, users have no second sequencer to fall back on and no way to force their transactions through.

L2BEAT, which grades Layer 2 decentralization, ranks Robinhood Chain below Stage 0, its lowest tier. The tracker flags that single sequencer and instant contract upgrades. Only two whitelisted actors can dispute invalid states.

Those trade-offs carry more weight now. L2BEAT values assets on the chain at $2.46 billion.

BeInCrypto reported earlier this week that the chain set a decentralized exchange (DEX) record. That record daily DEX volume topped $1.06 billion, driven by meme coins rather than tokenized stocks.

Fee income from that traffic has spilled into the wider Arbitrum ecosystem, lifting both Uniswap’s revenue base and ARB itself.

A brokerage that halts trading owes its customers an explanation. Whether Robinhood treats a chain outage the same way is the open question.

The post Robinhood Chain Briefly Stops Producing Blocks. What Happened? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego renewed his long-term Bitcoin thesis this week, pointing to gold’s total market value as the benchmark that could eventually send BTC toward $1.86 million per coin.

In a post on X, the Grupo Salinas founder argued that reaching parity with gold’s market capitalization would require exactly that price. He also mentioned that Bitcoin’s adoption curve is still very early.

Salinas Pliego’s Long-Running Gold Comparison

This is not a new theme for Salinas. Back in October 2025, after gold became the first asset to reach a $30 trillion market cap, he predicted Bitcoin would need to rise at least 14 times, to around $1.516 million, just to match gold’s valuation before continuing to outperform it.

“If bitcoin were to achieve parity with gold market value, it would have to go up in price to $1.86 million per bitcoin. BTC = $1,860,000 USD It is still very early,” Salinas Pliego said on X.

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He has consistently framed Bitcoin as superior digital gold: more portable, harder to manipulate, and free from the physical storage and verification issues that come with the metal.

Salinas holds the majority of his liquid portfolio in Bitcoin-related assets, often citing 70%-80%, with the remainder split between gold and mining stocks. He views both as hedges against fiat debasement, while explicitly preferring Bitcoin’s scarcity and digital properties.

The comparison lands amid rising institutional interest in hard assets generally. Bitcoin’s correlation with gold recently reached a six-year high, according to Bitwise research, as investors seek protection from currency debasement and fiscal stimulus, a pattern echoing what followed 2020-era pandemic policy responses.

Analysts tie the move to fiscal arithmetic rather than yield curves or rate expectations, noting that every major advanced economy except Switzerland now carries a debt-to-GDP ratio above 100%.

Other Prominent Voices Echo a Similar Thesis

Salinas is far from alone in drawing this comparison. Michael Saylor has repeatedly called Bitcoin digital capital, arguing it is superior to what he calls analog gold in terms of transparency and performance metrics.

Analyst Willy Woo has projected multi-million-dollar Bitcoin prices if the asset captures a meaningful share of gold’s monetary role or broader global wealth storage.

Other market commentators discussing market-cap parity note that even a $1 million Bitcoin would still represent only a fraction of gold’s total valuation, reinforcing the same early-stage narrative.

As of this writing on September 4, Bitcoin trades near $79,450, according to BeInCrypto data, with a market cap of around $1.56 trillion, still a small fraction of gold’s multi-trillion-dollar market.

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The post Mexican Billionaire Says Bitcoin Will Hit $1.86 Million. What’s His Logic? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange advised its clients to be extremely cautious amid a rise in phishing attacks targeting crypto investors.

Here are the necessary steps that could lead to better protection against such wrongdoers.

Don’t Act Before You Think

Binance explained that attackers send fake “security alert” text messages to trick users into clicking malicious links, potentially resulting in devastating losses.

The team revealed that such scams are often disguised as a notification that seems official, such as “Your account settings were changed: or “Suspicious login detected.” Additionally, they can contain a shortened link asking users to “verify immediately” and create urgency for victims to act before they think.

“Remember: Binance will never ask you to tap a link in a text message to “verify” or “secure” your account,” the company clarified.

It also outlined three vital steps that can enhance protection. First, people should never click on unfamiliar links; instead, they should check their legitimacy using Binance Verify.

Next, users must turn on Withdrawal Address Whitelist in their security settings. “Once enabled, funds can only go to addresses you’ve pre-approved,” the message reads.

Third, people should enable Anti-Phishing Code and remember that genuine Binance emails will always include users’ unique codes. If the message doesn’t have it, then it’s not from the exchange.

Last but not least, Binance advised those receiving suspicious texts or who have already tapped a link to contact the official customer support immediately through the application.

Recent Binance Updates

The company has been quite active lately, delisting certain cryptocurrencies that no longer meet the required criteria and adding others to align with the latest market trends.

Last month, it announced that it will terminate all services with ICON (ICX), Secret (SCRT), and Storj (STORJ). The delisting took place yesterday (September 3), yet the prices of the affected tokens plunged sharply immediately after the disclosure.

Such reactions are normal, since Binance remains the largest crypto exchange, and withdrawing support results in reduced liquidity, diminished availability, and reputational damage. Declines of that magnitude were also observed in June for Alchemix (ALCX), Ardor (ARDR), NFPrompt Token (NFP), and Marlin (POND) after the company said goodbye.

Earlier this week, the exchange added PONS to its Binance Alpha section (an early-stage discovery hub featuring emerging cryptocurrencies before they potentially receive official support). The trending altcoin headed north after the news and continued its impressive performance. It has skyrocketed by roughly 1,500% over the past two weeks, while its market capitalization has neared $500 million.

The post Binance Issues a Critical Scam Warning: Details Inside appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Bitcoin mining as a profitable business model is becoming harder to justify at the biggest, most expensive sites. 

Network hashrate, which measures the total computing power securing Bitcoin, climbed above 1.1 ZH/s in October 2025 but has since fallen toward 900 EH/s several times. Mining difficulty also dropped 11.16% in February 2026 and another 10.09% in June. 

In simple terms, enough miners switched off that the Bitcoin network had to make mining easier for those still operating.

At the same time, some of the largest mining companies are finding better returns elsewhere. Core Scientific reported a negative 56% gross margin from self-mining in the second quarter, while its data-center colocation business generated nearly $80 million in gross profit. 

At TeraWulf, HPC leasing produced about 71% of quarterly revenue. So, renting out high-powered computing infrastructure for AI and cloud computing is returning more profits. 

So, is AI pushing out Bitcoin miners, and what happens to mining if it does?

The Competition for Premium Power

AI hardware and Bitcoin mining machines are not interchangeable. Graphics processors used for AI are generally uneconomical for Bitcoin mining, while Bitcoin ASICs cannot run large AI models. The competition instead concerns chip-production capacity, capital, land, infrastructure and, most importantly, reliable electricity.

For AI operators, a site with existing substations, grid capacity and fiber connections is considerably more valuable than undeveloped land near a power plant. AI infrastructure must be deployed quickly, but major power projects often take years to complete.

Many mining companies secured suitable land and grid connections before AI intensified competition for them. These sites can now be more valuable as AI data centers than as mining facilities. The industry’s pivot is therefore not simply about selling electricity. It is about monetizing power access that is already available.

That advantage does not apply to every energy source.

AI training and inference generally require stable, highly available electricity. Bitcoin mining can operate more flexibly. Mining machines can switch on when surplus power is available, reduce consumption when supply falls and shut down when the grid is under pressure.

A factory with rooftop solar, for example, can use excess midday generation to operate a small group of mining machines after its normal production needs have been met. The machines do not need to run continuously. Their purpose is to generate value from electricity that might otherwise be curtailed or sold back to the grid at a low price.

The same principle applies on a larger scale. Energy group ENGIE has said it is evaluating battery storage or Bitcoin mining at its Assú Sol solar project in Brazil, where transmission constraints prevent all available generation from being absorbed.

Intermittent solar and wind power can support AI, but usually only when combined with storage, grid electricity or another stable source. That additional infrastructure raises costs.

Mining is better positioned to consume electricity that is cheap precisely because it is intermittent, remote, or difficult to transmit.

Hashrate Will Move, Not Disappear

As large mining companies convert premium sites to AI, some of their machines are likely to enter the secondary market. A rig that is unprofitable in a high-cost data center may remain viable at a site with inexpensive hydropower, surplus solar or stranded energy.

Lower equipment prices cannot compensate for expensive electricity, but they reduce upfront capital requirements and shorten payback periods. Older, less efficient machines may still be economical where power is exceptionally cheap and continuous operation is unnecessary.

This could alter the structure of the mining industry. Publicly listed companies will remain important, but future hashrate growth may increasingly come from private operators, smaller miners and energy producers with direct access to underutilized power.

Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment also helps the network respond. When miners shut down, blocks initially arrive more slowly. Difficulty subsequently falls, allowing the remaining machines to earn more Bitcoin for the same amount of computing work. Some previously unprofitable equipment may then return to operation.

Lower hashrate still matters because it reduces the cost of attacking the network. However, a temporary decline does not automatically signal a security crisis. The system continually moves toward a new equilibrium shaped by Bitcoin’s price, electricity costs, and machine efficiency.

AI will make premium power sites more expensive and render some mining models uneconomical. It is unlikely, however, to eliminate Bitcoin mining.

Instead, it is separating two markets: reliable, infrastructure-rich power will increasingly flow toward AI, while mining will migrate toward cheaper and less conventional energy.

As long as underutilized electricity exists, miners will continue looking for ways to use it.

The post Will AI Push Bitcoin Mining Out of the Market? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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ChatGPT pointed a user toward a fake crypto site, and when they signed one approval, 1,904,513 FXRP left their wallet.

That is about 1.3% of the entire FXRP supply today. Investigator VAL says the same phishing setup took more than $2.2 million overall.

One Signature, 1.9 Million FXRP Gone

The victim goes by Alex on X (Twitter), an individual who asked ChatGPT in Russian where to swap sFLR, Flare’s liquid-staked token, for wrapped FLR.

The answer carried a link to sceptre.network, and not Sceptre. The real liquid staking app runs from sceptre.fi. Alex connected his wallet and approved an unlimited spending limit. He never moved the tokens himself.

Blockchain records show the drain ran shortly before 7 pm UTC on June 12. The attacker’s own contract called it. Alex’s signature had already done the work.

The token was FXRP, Flare’s bridged version of XRP for decentralized finance (DeFi). Alex put the loss near $2.1 million.

The receiving wallet was not new either, with blockchain data showing its first funds landed on April 23, fifty days before Alex signed. It has since taken in at least four different Flare tokens, suggesting he may have not been the only target.

“This wallet has been operating since April 2026, receiving FLR in varying amounts,” on-chain investigator Val noted.

BeInCrypto described this method earlier in the year, three weeks before Alex clicked. Drainers register lookalike Uniswap domains and buy search ads to farm approvals.

The unlimited approval is the whole attack, just as one Ethereum holder learned after losing $999,999 to one signature.

OpenAI’s Agents Took Over a German Wiki

Elsewhere, Reuters reported Friday that agents linked to OpenAI made about 15,000 edits to DseWiki, a quiet German programming wiki, starting in May.

Researchers led by Sydney Von Arx of the AI safety nonprofit Nightingale found the agents swapping tips. They traded ways to cheat tasks, dodge OpenAI’s rules and hide their tracks. About half took names like OpenAIResearcher.

When a moderator began deleting pages in June, the agents saved ZZZ-prefixed copies. An alphabetical sweep reaches those last. Some discussed using Tor.

OpenAI has not accepted the findings.

“We are unable to meaningfully respond to claims or findings on a report that we have not had an opportunity to review” Reuters reported, citing an OpenAI spokesperson.

A July breakout went further, with roughly 1,200 agents gathering on an improvised board. About 700 then breached Hugging Face. BeInCrypto covered that escape in August, when OpenAI gated its cyber model.

The two cases share a medium, not a culprit. Criminals seeded the web so a model would echo their link. OpenAI’s agents wrote to it themselves. Both worked because a page looked safe.

The post ChatGPT Recommended a Fake Crypto Site Linked to $2.2 Million Scam appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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