Crypto World
Solana AMM Aquifer hit by $2.5 million exploit, offers 20% bounty
Solana-based automated market maker Aquifer has lost roughly $2.5 million in an exploit involving wallets on Solana and Ethereum, with the protocol offering the attacker a 20% bounty for returning most of the funds.
Summary
- Solana based AMM Aquifer lost roughly $2.5 million in an exploit involving attacker addresses on Solana and Ethereum.
- Aquifer offered the attacker a 20% whitehat bounty if at least 80% of the assets are returned by Sept. 3.
- The exact point of compromise remains unclear, with no technical post mortem yet establishing how access to the affected wallets was obtained.
- Available information has not established that Aquifer’s smart contracts were exploited, leaving compromised wallet access as the main focus of the incident so far.
Blockchain security monitoring service Defimon reported the attack on Aug. 31, identifying separate Solana and Ethereum addresses controlled by the suspected exploiter. Aquifer later sent an on-chain whitehat offer seeking the return of at least 80% of the assets linked to the incident.
The offer gives the attacker until Sept. 3 at 14:00 UTC to transfer the assets, or their equivalent value, to recovery addresses provided by Aquifer. The person controlling the wallets may retain up to 20% of the funds as a whitehat bounty if the conditions are met.
Aquifer said it would not pursue civil claims arising from the exploit if the attacker complies with the terms, subject to applicable law. The agreement would not bind law enforcement agencies, regulators, sanctions authorities or other government bodies.
Aquifer exploit involves wallets on two chains
Aquifer operates as a proprietary automated market maker on Solana, where its liquidity is used to facilitate token swaps. DefiLlama describes the protocol as a prop AMM and currently lists its total value locked at around $2.8 million.
The addresses identified after the exploit show activity spanning Solana and Ethereum. Defimon linked the Solana address 7fTe9pvrwXJRBHq9MaSyVPR4PgEuhqLiA93Dxf4gRk7J and Ethereum address 0x2Dfe9e969796e2797278b02761dd9Ad6aE922746 to the attacker.
Aquifer’s whitehat message was authorized through the protocol’s Solana upgrade authority and published on-chain. The project supplied separate recovery addresses for Solana and Ethereum, allowing assets associated with the attack to be returned on either network.
Public information has not yet established exactly how the wallets were compromised. No technical post-mortem has been released explaining whether private keys, administrator credentials or another part of Aquifer’s operational infrastructure was exposed.
Available information similarly does not establish that Aquifer’s smart contract code was exploited. The use of addresses across Ethereum and Solana provides a trail for investigators tracking the assets, but does not by itself identify how access to the affected funds was obtained.
The incident follows several Solana-related attacks this year where the point of compromise was outside the underlying blockchain.
Solana protocols have faced different attack methods
In June, crypto.news previously reported that five legacy liquidity pools belonging to Raydium lost roughly $1.3 million after an attacker targeted retired AMM infrastructure.
On-chain investigator Specter said the Raydium attacker used a fake mint address to bypass validation checks in an older AMM program. The stolen assets included roughly 150,177 RAY, 5,603 SOL and 893,700 USDC.
Raydium said its active pools and current users were unaffected because the vulnerable infrastructure had already been phased out. The protocol committed to reimbursing the affected assets from its treasury.
A separate July incident involving Across Protocol produced losses of less than $4 million after an attacker fabricated Solana deposit events. The attacker created 1,627 fake deposits with a combined stated value of $41.7 million and requested payouts across 18 destination chains.
Risk Labs’ relayer processed 581 of the fraudulent requests before Solana operations were suspended, advancing approximately $4.5 million of its own capital. Around $500,000 belonging to the attacker remained trapped, bringing the net loss below $4 million.
Across later said the Solana attack stemmed from a flaw in Risk Labs’ off-chain event-reading software and not a vulnerability in its smart contracts or the Solana network. Legitimate user transfers were completed or refunded.
Operational security failures have produced losses elsewhere without attackers needing to exploit smart contract logic.
Wallet access has become a major attack route
Stablecoin payments company Triple-A confirmed in July that unauthorized access to its treasury wallets resulted in the theft of company-owned digital assets. On-chain researchers initially tracked suspicious withdrawals across Ethereum, Solana, TRON and TON, with some reports identifying activity on Polygon and Arbitrum.
Triple-A later said client funds remained unaffected because customer assets were segregated from the compromised treasury infrastructure. Researchers had estimated the loss at roughly $11.8 million before the company confirmed the breach.
The company did not disclose whether the attacker obtained private keys, credentials or another form of access. Triple-A said cybersecurity specialists and Singapore police were working on the investigation and asset tracing.
Private key and wallet compromises have accounted for a substantial portion of crypto thefts in 2026. CertiK reported in July that digital asset losses reached $1.32 billion during the first half of the year, down 46.8% from the same period in 2025.
Despite the lower total, the security firm said wallet compromises became the largest attack method during the second quarter, replacing phishing as the main source of losses.
Another Solana project, Step Finance, ultimately shut down its operations after an attack earlier this year targeted devices used by members of its executive team. Attackers gained access to treasury and fee wallets and moved approximately 261,854 SOL, while later estimates placed total losses across affected assets near $40 million.
Investigators determined that Step Finance’s smart contracts were not the point of entry. Compromised endpoints allowed the attackers to access wallets used by the project, and the financial damage later contributed to the decision to wind down the platform.
A similar distinction will depend on Aquifer publishing more details about its own breach. The protocol has not released a post-mortem identifying the initial point of access, the specific credentials involved or whether one compromised account provided control over multiple wallets.
For now, Aquifer’s recovery process centers on its whitehat proposal. The attacker has been offered the right to retain up to 20% of the assets associated with the exploit if at least 80% is returned to the designated recovery addresses by Sept. 3 at 14:00 UTC.
The Microduck robot is set to come with a range of pre-installed actions, according to its developers HuggingFace and Pollen Robotics.
Pollen Robotics
BEIJING — A popular new programmable personal robot from a French-American company is powered by a chip from Shanghai-listed Rockchip which in turn uses British company ARM’s tech, reflecting how intertwined global tech supply chains remain.
The colorful “Microduck” robot from Hugging Face’s French subsidiary Pollen Robotics has sold more than 10,000 units since its launch on Thursday — earning over $4 million based on the $399 unit price. That’s quickly delayed delivery times for new orders past the initial promise of Christmas 2026.
The duck-shaped robots contain their own set of sensors, motors and on-device computing power from Rockchip’s RK3566. The chip incorporates technology licensed from British semiconductor company ARM, according to Rockchip.
The Chinese company is a “key vendor” for AI that operates on devices, rather than in the cloud, said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia. He noted the company’s chips are commonly used for machine vision involving object detection and image recognition.
“While it has massive footprint, the company chips are not designed for complex edge AI devices as they lack the compute resources,” Su said. Such computing capabilities can allow smartphones, robots and other electronic devices to run generative AI tools securely without sharing data on the internet.
Rockchip last month reported a 40% year-on-year increase in operating revenue in the first half of the year to 2.88 billion yuan ($428 million), while net profit excluding one-time items surged by more than 60%.
The 1.76 pound (800g) Microduck is both an interactive consumer toy and a development platform. Using open-source software, it can supposedly learn from virtual simulations and goal-driven directions.
The product is the second robot from France-based startup Pollen Robotics, which was acquired by Hugging Face last year. The first robot by Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics, launched last spring, sold more than 10,000 units, Pollen Robotics said.
Just before Microduck’s release, The Information reported that Nvidia had agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. Neither company responded to a request for comment.
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf said in a social media post Monday that people were starting to monitor the Microduck supply chain, as the company sees a strong rush for orders.
Other companies are rolling out similar personal robots at premium-end consumer prices.
Startup Zeroth this summer launched a child-sized humanoid robot for 8,888 yuan that claims to offer similar virtual simulation learning capabilities. It lists 247 pre-orders on JD.com in China. The company plans to reveal its open source robotics system on Wednesday.
Meanwhile a Wall-E-type cameraman robot from Mondo Robotics has raised more than 80 times its initial goal of $50,000 on Kickstarter ahead of the Sept. 6 deadline. Early bird prices for the device, which resembles a GoPro on wheels, start at $549, with shipping scheduled to begin in October.
—CNBC’s April Roach and Kai Nicol-Schwarz contributed to this report.
Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP on Sept. 1 through three transactions involving 500 million, 400 million and 100 million tokens.
Summary
- Ripple released one billion XRP through three escrow transactions on September 1, blockchain data showed.
- The releases comprised 500 million, 400 million, and 100 million XRP from Ripple-controlled escrow accounts.
- Approximately 31.28 billion XRP remained locked afterward, according to a tracker reading active on-ledger escrows.
- An escrow unlock makes XRP available to Ripple but does not prove any market sale.
- Ripple historically re-escrows unused tokens, but September’s returned amount was not yet independently confirmed publicly.
Blockchain monitoring account Whale Alert reported the transfers from Ripple-controlled escrow accounts.
The release formed part of Ripple’s programmed monthly XRP escrow schedule. It did not show that the company sold the tokens or transferred the entire amount to exchanges. The XRP became available to Ripple after the underlying time locks expired.
Ripple’s XRP unlock leaves 31.28B in escrow
Approximately 31.28 billion XRP remained inside active on-ledger escrow objects after the September release, according to an independent tracker that queries validated XRP Ledger data. The figure represented about 31.28% of XRP’s original 100 billion supply.
The tracker recorded approximately 32.28 billion XRP in escrow before the three September transactions. Completing escrow objects containing a combined 1 billion XRP reduced that balance to 31.28 billion.
This figure should still be attributed to the tracker rather than presented as a new company disclosure. Ripple had not published an updated official escrow balance at the time of reporting. Different data services can also show temporary discrepancies when they rely on cached figures instead of active ledger objects.
The remaining balance does not represent Ripple’s entire XRP position. Ripple also controls operational wallets containing previously released XRP. Those holdings are separate from tokens still restricted by active time-based escrow contracts.
The 1 billion XRP release was not a market sale
Ripple originally placed 55 billion XRP into escrow in December 2017. The company said the arrangement would make its supply schedule more predictable by allowing up to 1 billion XRP to become available each month.
The escrow restrictions operate through the XRP Ledger rather than through an informal company commitment. Ripple’s original explanation said ledger mechanics enforced each release date through consensus.
An EscrowFinish transaction delivers the locked XRP to its designated account once its release conditions are satisfied. It does not automatically send the tokens to an exchange, buyer or liquidity provider. The transaction therefore cannot establish how much XRP will ultimately reach the broader market.
The XRP Ledger’s technical documentation also distinguishes between creating, finishing and cancelling an escrow. A completed escrow removes the time restriction, but subsequent wallet activity determines the tokens’ eventual use.
That distinction matters because headlines describing a 1 billion XRP unlock can imply an immediate increase of the same size in tradable supply. In practice, Ripple has regularly returned unused tokens to new escrows with later release dates.
Re-escrow transactions will determine the net release
Ripple’s historical pattern has been to use part of each monthly release for operations, institutional transactions and other corporate purposes, while locking the unused portion again. The company said from the beginning that unused XRP would enter new escrows at the end of the existing release schedule.
As crypto.news previously explained in its guide to Ripple’s monthly XRP escrow process, the company has often returned between 600 million and 800 million XRP after monthly unlocks. The historical range does not confirm what Ripple will do with September’s tokens.
No independently verified re-escrow total for the September release was available when this report was prepared. New EscrowCreate transactions would provide on-chain evidence of how much XRP Ripple returned to time locks.
The net supply change can only be calculated after those transactions and any transfers from Ripple’s operational wallets are reviewed. Even XRP that remains outside escrow does not necessarily enter public trading markets immediately.
Ripple’s next scheduled XRP unlock arrives in October
The next monthly release window is scheduled for Oct. 1. Up to another 1 billion XRP could become available, although the exact structure will depend on the escrow objects reaching their programmed release dates.
Ripple cannot bring forward the release dates of XRP held in its existing time-based escrows. The ledger rejects attempts to finish an escrow before its specified date. This issue previously surfaced when an XRP ETF filing raised questions about Ripple’s escrow restrictions.
Future re-escrow transactions will also extend the schedule. When Ripple locks unused XRP again, the company generally places it behind the escrows already waiting in the release queue.
XRP traded near $1.39 around the reporting period and was higher over the preceding 24 hours. However, the scheduled unlock alone does not establish the reason for that movement. XRP prices also respond to broader crypto markets, liquidity, institutional activity and developments affecting Ripple or the XRP Ledger.
Gold has fallen 5.5% from the 4,697 three-month high it reached on August 25, trading near 4,436 at press time. Goldman Sachs still expects 4,900 by year-end.
The slide has pushed the metal under its 200-day moving average. Barchart said gold has now recorded multiple closes below the line, the first since early June.
Gold Rally Stalls at a Level Traders Watch Closely
The 200-day moving average tracks an asset’s average closing price over the previous 200 sessions. Gold now sits under that line, which stood near 4,529. The metal briefly traded below 4,400 on Monday, its weakest level since August 19.
Barchart noted that the SPDR Gold Shares fund entered a technical correction the last time gold logged multiple closes below the average. That precedent covers one prior episode, not a pattern.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Renewed bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike have driven the latest leg down. Higher rates weigh on gold because the metal pays no yield.
Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Still Point Higher
Nonetheless, Goldman Sachs Research reaffirmed its 4,900 target for the end of 2026 in a note published August 28. From the press-time price, that implies roughly 10% upside.
The bank had cut that target by $500 in June as bets on 2026 rate cuts faded. The reduced figure still indicated gains, just smaller ones.
Senior commodities analyst Lina Thomas and Global Commodities Research co-head Daan Struyven anchored the call on official buying.
“We continue to see elevated central bank gold accumulation as a multi-year trend, as central banks diversify their reserves to hedge geopolitical and financial risks, consistent with recent survey evidence,” they wrote.
The bank expects central banks to buy an average of 50 tonnes per month in 2026, up from 17 tonnes before 2022.
Meanwhile, Fidelity’s analysis valued gold around 5,000 against the global M2 money supply, about 13% above the press-time price.
The near-term risk is one Goldman already named. It’s June note put gold at 4,400 by year-end if the Fed hikes, and the metal traded there on Monday. A sustained break would also test the debasement trade, which ties gold and Bitcoin (BTC) demand to currency erosion
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights
The post Gold Drops 5.5% From 3-Month High but Goldman Sachs Still Sees 10% Upside appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Russia’s first comprehensive legal framework for cryptocurrency trading, custody and cross-border settlements has taken effect on Sept. 1, opening regulated market access to retail and qualified investors under Bank of Russia supervision.
Summary
- Russia’s crypto law took effect Sept. 1, bringing trading, custody and cross border settlements under a regulated framework.
- Non qualified investors can buy up to 300,000 rubles of eligible cryptocurrencies annually through each intermediary after passing a suitability test.
- Qualified investors can trade cryptocurrencies without the same purchase limit, although testing requirements still apply.
- Bitcoin, Ether and USDT were among the cryptocurrencies proposed by the Bank of Russia for regulated trading.
- Crypto can be used for cross border settlements, while payments for ordinary goods and services inside Russia remain prohibited.
The Bank of Russia said the rules allow both investor groups to conduct cryptocurrency transactions through regulated intermediaries, while access levels depend on investor status and mandatory testing.
Non-qualified investors can buy up to 300,000 rubles worth of eligible cryptocurrencies each year through each intermediary, while qualified investors can trade without an amount limit.
Russia crypto law opens regulated trading from Sept. 1
President Vladimir Putin signed the legislation on Aug. 4 after the State Duma passed the framework in its second and third readings in July. The law covers cryptocurrency exchanges, digital depositories, brokers, management companies, organized trading platforms and other financial institutions involved in digital asset transactions.
As crypto.news previously reported, the framework keeps separate conditions for non-qualified and qualified investors. Retail investors without qualified status must complete a suitability test before purchasing cryptocurrencies and can access only assets that meet liquidity requirements set by the regulator.
Qualified investors must complete testing as well but can buy and sell any cryptocurrency without the same annual purchase ceiling.
The Bank of Russia has been developing the secondary rules needed to operate the market. Its criteria for cryptocurrencies available to non-qualified investors consider market capitalization, average daily trading volume and pricing history on foreign platforms, with an asset required to have at least five years of price history.
Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s USDT were among the assets the regulator proposed for regulated trading in August. The final range available to retail investors will depend on the Bank of Russia’s eligibility requirements and the products offered by regulated intermediaries.
Russia changed its qualified investor rules shortly before the framework took effect. From Aug. 31, investors can gain qualified status by passing an approved domestic financial knowledge test and presenting an accepted Russian certificate.
The new qualification route includes certificates issued by the National Finance Association, Moscow Exchange and the National Association of Securities Market Participants. Existing qualification routes based on income, assets, relevant work experience, investing experience or education remain available.
Crypto exchanges and custodians enter a regulated system
The law creates dedicated roles for cryptocurrency exchanges and digital depositories, bringing trading and custody services under a formal regulatory structure.
Crypto exchanges will handle purchases and sales, while digital depositories will record rights to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Brokers and management companies can facilitate transactions, including through organized trading platforms.
Under rules outlined during the legislative process, cryptocurrency exchange providers must enter a special register, hold at least 15 million rubles in equity and become members of an approved financial-market self-regulatory organization.
The Bank of Russia will maintain registers of regulated market participants and has prepared operating requirements for exchanges, depositories and digital currency accounts. Exchanges can set trading procedures through their own rules and will be responsible for calculating market and weighted average prices for listed instruments.
Digital depositories face separate capital standards. Draft regulations published in July set minimum equity between 50 million and 250 million rubles depending on the services offered, including whether a depository works with open distributed ledgers or provides post-trade settlement services.
The draft operating standards cover record keeping, information about clients with access to the system, recorded assets and the opening and maintenance of digital accounts.
Market participants do not have to complete the entire licensing transition immediately. The Bank of Russia has provided a transition period until July 1, 2027, for affected businesses to obtain licenses and bring their operations into line with the new requirements.
Financial institutions have already started preparing services around the regulated structure. Sberbank plans to have cryptocurrency trading infrastructure and a digital depository ready by Dec. 1, with services expected to cover trading, custody, settlement and depository functions for eligible customers.
Its planned crypto trading infrastructure forms part of preparations by major Russian financial companies for the regulated market. Alfa-Bank has tested cryptocurrency trading through its Alfa-Investments brokerage application with a limited group of qualified investors, while other institutions have worked on custody infrastructure.
Cross-border crypto settlements receive a legal route
The framework keeps Russia’s prohibition on cryptocurrency payments for ordinary goods and services inside the country, meaning digital currencies do not become legal payment instruments for domestic commerce.
Foreign trade receives different treatment. Exporters and importers can use cryptocurrency for cross-border settlements without an amount limit under the new framework, according to the Bank of Russia.
Companies can conduct eligible transactions through intermediaries or directly using different cryptocurrency wallets and digital currencies. The rules formalize a route for cross-border crypto settlements after Russia had previously tested such transactions under an experimental legal regime.
The State Duma’s final approval of the framework in July covered trading, custody and foreign trade while maintaining restrictions on domestic cryptocurrency payments.
Russian residents can conduct cryptocurrency transactions abroad using foreign bank accounts. Crypto purchased domestically can be transferred overseas through regulated intermediaries, while cryptocurrency holdings recorded abroad must be reported to Russian tax authorities.
The law extends beyond purchases and foreign trade. Investors can exchange cryptocurrencies for securities and digital instruments issued under Russian law, while requirements applying to cryptocurrencies will cover foreign stablecoins as well.
During the bill’s passage, lawmakers removed a proposed requirement for cryptocurrency holders to disclose their wallet addresses. The revised version instead retained reporting requirements involving information such as balances and transaction volumes while introducing rules for certain transfers.
Some crypto rules will take effect later
Sept. 1 brings the core provisions into force, but several parts of the framework follow separate implementation schedules.
Rules involving certain transfer restrictions and the operation of nonresident digital depositories are scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2027. Technical provisions governing the issuance and circulation of digital financial assets, nominal holders and depositories are set to follow on Sept. 1, 2027.
The Bank of Russia has continued drafting secondary regulations while the main law moves into force. In August, the regulator proposed including cryptocurrencies in calculations used to measure the financial resilience of professional market participants.
Under the proposal, brokers, trustees, forex dealers and cryptocurrency exchange providers would be able to include only exchange-listed cryptocurrencies when calculating equity. Eligible crypto could account for no more than 25% of assets included in the calculation and would have to be registered with a crypto depository.
Russia is beginning another digital asset rollout on the same date. Major banks are required from Sept. 1 to give clients access to digital ruble transactions, while large retailers that meet the applicable revenue threshold must support payments using the central bank digital currency.
The digital ruble rollout will proceed in stages through 2028, when the remaining covered banks are scheduled to join the system.
A new House Intelligence Committee report calls artificial intelligence (AI) one of the most significant emerging challenges facing US national security.
The warning appears in the committee’s 25-year review of the 9/11 Commission Report, posted ahead of the anniversary.
Why the 9/11 Framework Has Aged
The 2004 commission built its recommendations around foreign terrorist networks. Those recommendations led to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center.
The new review says the intelligence challenge has since expanded beyond counterterrorism coordination. It says threats often overlap as adversaries combine cyber operations, influence campaigns, and economic pressure.
Benjamin Buchanan teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In his testimony, he said AI poses a familiar problem.
“T]he 9/11 Commission famously concluded that the attacks revealed a failure of imagination. The government’s inability to take seriously a threat that did not fit existing categories and to connect information scattered across institutional seams led to devastating strategic surprise. Twenty-five years later, AI presents, in its own way, a similar kind of challenge,” he said.
Buchanan added that technological progress is outpacing institutions’ ability to adapt.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Where the Report Sees AI Risk
The report says cyberattacks will likely accelerate as AI improves. Buchanan testified that AI sharpens both offensive and defensive cyber tools.
Private industry issued a similar warning days earlier. OpenAI and over 100 companies signed an open letter warning that AI-enabled attacks will spread within months. Five Eyes agencies said the same in a June statement.
Biotechnology raises separate concerns. Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster warned that AI paired with biological research carries dual-use risk.
Foreign influence is a third area. Review co-chair Rep. Josh Gottheimer named Iran, China, and Russia. He said they have run covert operations against the United States since 2023.
“AI super charges all of it. A single adversary can now generate fake voices and fake videos and millions of fake messages,” he added.
The report also cites public reporting on AI data centers. China and Russia may be working to inflame existing US debates over new sites, it says, exploiting legitimate concerns about cost.
The committee wants the Intelligence Community, the network of US agencies that collect and analyze intelligence, to adopt advanced AI itself, since adversaries already are.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights
The post Is AI America's Next 9/11-Scale Blind Spot? House Intel Thinks It Might Be appeared first on BeInCrypto.
The magazine-cover indicator has a messy record, but TIME’s OpenAI cover checks the classic boxes: a mainstream publication, a widely understood theme and a multiyear run-up in investor enthusiasm.
CME Group has launched two multi-asset cryptocurrency benchmarks, including a 10-token index that leaves out Bitcoin and Ether and tracks assets such as BNB, XRP, Solana and Hyperliquid.
Summary
- CME launched two crypto benchmarks, including a 10 token index that excludes Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- The Emerging Crypto Index tracks BNB, XRP, SOL, HYPE, LINK, XLM, SUI, UNI, AVAX and AAVE.
- Both indexes use free float market cap weighting and are reviewed twice a year in June and December.
- Real time index values are calculated every second, while daily settlement versions are published across three regions.
- The benchmarks can be licensed for investment funds and derivatives, extending CME’s push into multi asset crypto products.
According to CME Group’s index documentation, the CME CF Emerging Crypto Index and CME CF Crypto Market Index went live Monday, giving market participants separate measures for large crypto assets outside Bitcoin and Ether and for the crypto market including the two largest cryptocurrencies.
The Emerging Crypto Index contains BNB, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid, Chainlink, Stellar Lumens, Sui, Uniswap, Avalanche and Aave. Bitcoin and Ether are excluded by design, leaving the index focused on 10 of the largest qualifying crypto assets outside the two market leaders.
Its companion Crypto Market Index tracks 12 assets. It uses the same 10 tokens but includes Bitcoin and Ether, creating a separate benchmark for measuring the large-cap crypto market with BTC and ETH included.
CME crypto indexes provide real-time and daily benchmarks
CME calculates real-time versions of both indexes every second and operates them 24 hours a day, according to the exchange’s FAQ. Separate settlement versions are calculated once each day and published at 4 p.m. in London, New York and Singapore/Hong Kong.
Both benchmarks use free-float market capitalization to determine constituent weights. Under the system, cryptocurrencies with a higher market value of tokens considered available for trading receive a larger share of the index.
CME plans to review the baskets twice a year. Reconstitution and rebalancing take place on the first business day of June and December, allowing the constituent lists and their weights to change as qualifying assets move in market value.
The Emerging Crypto Index specifically seeks the 10 largest assets that meet its requirements after Bitcoin and Ether are removed from consideration. The Crypto Market Index targets 12 qualifying cryptocurrencies while keeping BTC and ETH eligible.
Eligibility goes further than market capitalization. Under the emerging index methodology, an asset must meet custody requirements, while meme coins are excluded. CME applies a protocol-use test based on total value locked relative to fully diluted market capitalization.
The methodology contains a separate provision for newly eligible assets when an index is first created. Cryptocurrencies that do not yet qualify under U.S. national stock exchange generic listing standards for crypto exchange-traded products can still enter if they are expected to comply within 30 days.
Such assets are limited to a combined maximum weight of 10% at inception. During later scheduled reviews, constituents are required to meet the generic listing standards in force at the time.
Emerging Crypto Index is designed for financial products
The Emerging Crypto Index was built to be investible and capable of supporting passive replication by funds, according to its methodology. It can serve as a settlement benchmark for derivatives, giving the index a potential role beyond measuring spot crypto prices.
CF Benchmarks lists the emerging index as available for licensing for financial products, investment funds and derivatives. The Crypto Market Index carries the same licensing option.
CME has already used a multi-token benchmark as the settlement basis for listed crypto derivatives.
As crypto.news previously reported, the exchange launched crypto index futures in June that give traders exposure to eight cryptocurrencies through a single cash-settled contract.
Trading in the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures began June 8. The underlying basket contained Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar Lumens when the contracts were introduced.
The standard futures contract trades under the NCI ticker and represents $10 multiplied by the index value, while the micro MCI contract is sized at $1 times the index. Both settle against the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index instead of requiring delivery of the underlying cryptocurrencies.
Before trading began, CME described the product as its first market-cap-weighted cryptocurrency futures contract when it announced the planned June launch in May.
The two benchmarks introduced Monday are separate index families from the Nasdaq CME benchmark used by those futures. Their methodologies and constituent baskets differ, with the Emerging Crypto Index specifically removing Bitcoin and Ether from its eligible universe.
CME has expanded regulated altcoin products in 2026
CME’s crypto derivatives lineup has moved further into individual altcoins during 2026, placing several assets now represented in the new indexes within its existing regulated market infrastructure.
In May, the exchange introduced Avalanche and Sui futures, adding two assets that now sit inside both of the new CME CF index baskets.
Standard Avalanche futures were launched with a contract size of 5,000 AVAX, accompanied by micro contracts representing 500 AVAX. Sui contracts were sized at 50,000 SUI, while their micro versions represented 5,000 tokens.
Those products joined existing CME futures tied to Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar. The exchange had progressively added single-asset contracts as its cryptocurrency derivatives business moved past its original Bitcoin and Ether products.
Access to the crypto derivatives market changed again at the end of May when CME moved crypto trading to 24/7 on its regulated platform.
More than 7,200 cryptocurrency futures and options contracts changed hands during the first weekend after continuous trading started May 29, generating roughly $50 million in notional volume.
The schedule covers CME’s cryptocurrency futures and options while retaining brief maintenance periods. The change brought trading hours closer to the continuous operation of underlying crypto spot markets and removed the regular weekend closure that had previously separated CME trading from round-the-clock cryptocurrency markets.
CME’s two new index families operate continuously as well, with their real-time benchmarks updating once per second across the full 24-hour day. Their settlement versions provide fixed daily reference points across London, New York and Singapore/Hong Kong, while constituent eligibility and weighting are reassessed during the June and December reviews.
Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital has agreed to lead a $1 billion Polymarket funding round with roughly $300 million that would value the prediction market platform at $21 billion.
Summary
- 1789 Capital is leading Polymarket’s $1 billion funding round with a planned investment of roughly $300 million.
- The financing would value Polymarket at $21 billion, up from its current valuation of close to $15 billion.
- 1789 Capital previously invested approximately $200 million in Polymarket, taking its disclosed commitments to roughly $500 million with the new round.
- Donald Trump Jr. advises Polymarket and rival Kalshi as prediction markets expand their regulated operations in the US.
- Polymarket returned to the US market through its acquisition of CFTC licensed QCEX after restricting American users under a 2022 settlement.
Bloomberg first reported the new financing, while 1789 Capital spokeswoman Alexa Henning confirmed the investment details on Monday. The venture capital firm previously put approximately $200 million into Polymarket, which is currently valued at close to $15 billion.
The proposed financing would give Polymarket another sharp valuation increase after the company spent the past year raising capital from investors ranging from venture firms to established financial market operators.
1789 Capital deepens its investment in Polymarket
The new $300 million commitment would take 1789 Capital’s total disclosed investment in Polymarket to roughly $500 million across its funding rounds.
Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 Capital and joined Polymarket’s advisory board last year following the firm’s earlier investment. At the time, crypto.news reported that the appointment came as Polymarket was working to restore access to the U.S. market after years of regulatory restrictions.
His involvement extends across competing prediction market companies. Trump Jr. joined Kalshi as an adviser last year and received company shares worth more than $300,000, according to the New York Times.
Speaking to the Times this year about his investments, Trump Jr. said he was acting as a private citizen and had “no policy position and no role within the administration whatsoever.”
1789 Capital itself has expanded quickly. The investment firm managed a few hundred million dollars two years ago but now oversees more than $3 billion.
Its portfolio has included private companies such as SpaceX, defense technology company Anduril, AI chipmaker Cerebras and artificial intelligence startup Reflection AI. Some companies backed by the firm hold large U.S. government contracts, while Polymarket has operated during a period of major changes in the federal approach to prediction markets.
Polymarket valuation has climbed above $20 billion
The $21 billion valuation attached to the planned round comes less than two weeks after reports that Polymarket was seeking capital at a valuation exceeding $20 billion.
Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher said in August that the New York Stock Exchange parent could consider joining another Polymarket financing. ICE had accumulated a $1.64 billion stake in the company by March, while Sprecher said its relationship with Polymarket involved exchanging information and expertise.
The potential new ICE investment followed several large commitments from the exchange operator.
ICE announced an investment of up to $2 billion in October 2025, initially valuing Polymarket at $8 billion before the investment. The agreement gave ICE rights to distribute Polymarket’s event-driven data to institutional clients around the world.
In March, the NYSE parent invested another $600 million as part of that commitment. ICE said at the time that the funding formed part of Polymarket’s fundraising round and would not have a material effect on the exchange operator’s financial results or capital return plans.
Polymarket’s latest proposed valuation would be more than twice the $9 billion post-money valuation attached to the ICE transaction announced in October 2025.
Rival Kalshi has attracted large amounts of capital during the same period. The company raised $1 billion earlier this year at a $22 billion valuation as trading activity across event contracts expanded into sports, politics and other categories.
Prediction markets allow traders to take positions on whether specified events will occur. Contracts can cover elections and economic decisions as well as sports, entertainment and statements made by public figures.
Trump administration backs federal prediction market oversight
The new Polymarket financing comes while federal and state authorities continue to contest how prediction markets should be regulated in the United States.
President Donald Trump has backed federal oversight through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and said prediction markets would “thrive” under his administration.
Michael S. Selig, appointed by Trump to lead the CFTC, has supported the industry while the regulator has challenged attempts by states to impose their own restrictions on federally regulated prediction markets.
In May, crypto.news reported that a proposed CFTC rule covering prediction-market event contracts had entered White House review as federal and state officials disputed which authorities should police the sector.
Kalshi and other operators have argued that event contracts offered through CFTC-regulated exchanges fall under the Commodity Exchange Act. Several states have disputed that position and pursued enforcement under their gambling laws.
The disagreement has reached federal courts, where judges have issued differing decisions over whether CFTC jurisdiction prevents states from enforcing gaming laws against prediction market operators.
Trump Jr.’s financial connections to the industry extend to both sides of the main competitive pairing. Along with his investment and advisory role at Polymarket, he serves as a strategic adviser to Kalshi.
Polymarket built a regulated route back into the US
Polymarket’s fundraising has accelerated after the company spent several years working to restore U.S. operations.
The platform stopped serving U.S. users following a 2022 settlement with the CFTC over allegations that it offered unregistered event-based binary options. Polymarket paid a $1.4 million civil penalty and agreed to restrict domestic access.
Its route back into the market began with the $112 million acquisition of QCEX in July 2025. The transaction gave Polymarket control of a CFTC-licensed designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization, providing regulated infrastructure for U.S. operations.
The CFTC later issued a no-action letter covering QCX and QC Clearing, giving Polymarket regulatory relief involving certain reporting and recordkeeping requirements for event contracts.
Polymarket subsequently began rebuilding its domestic business, initially through a separate regulated operation. The company now runs an international blockchain-based venue alongside its regulated U.S. exchange, which operates through the infrastructure acquired from QCEX.
The international platform settles markets using USDC on Polygon, while the U.S. operation requires identity verification and settles in dollars through approved intermediaries.
Competition with Kalshi has intensified as both companies have expanded their event-contract businesses. Polymarket once controlled more than 90% of monthly prediction-market notional volume in November 2024, though its share declined as Kalshi gained ground from September 2025 onward.
1789 Capital, meanwhile, has continued building its investment portfolio as its assets under management climbed above $3 billion. Trump Jr. told the Times that his investment activities were separate from the administration and that he held no government policy role.
Chainalysis Government Solutions has expanded its legal challenge against a $94.66 million blockchain analytics contract that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded to TRM Labs.
Summary
- Chainalysis filed seven claims challenging ICE’s $94.66 million sole-source blockchain analytics award to TRM Labs.
- Seven claims challenge ICE’s evaluation, restrictive criteria, acquisition planning, and reliance on sole-source procurement authority.
- ICE gave interested vendors three days and one page to explain their relevant capabilities fully.
- Chainalysis alleges several requirements tracked TRM products but were omitted from the final needs statement.
- Oral argument is scheduled September 2, while the government has requested judgment by September 10.
A redacted complaint made public on Aug. 28 details seven claims against the U.S. government. Chainalysis alleges that ICE improperly avoided an open competition and evaluated potential suppliers against requirements that it did not fully disclose.
The filing represents Chainalysis’s account of the procurement. ICE and TRM Labs are contesting the case, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has not found that either party acted improperly.
Chainalysis says ICE changed its evaluation criteria
ICE awarded contract 70CMSD26C00000005 to TRM Labs on July 1. The one-year agreement runs through June 30, 2027 and covers forensic software and support for Homeland Security Task Force investigations.
The work includes blockchain tracing, scam disruption, cybercrime investigations and support for sextortion cases. TRM Labs later joined the lawsuit as a defendant-intervenor, allowing it to defend the award alongside the government.
Chainalysis’s first three claims focus on how ICE defined and evaluated its requirements. The company argues that its capability statement addressed every requirement in ICE’s final Statement of Need. It therefore disputes ICE’s determination that TRM was the only responsible source able to perform the work.
Chainalysis also alleges that ICE relied on an earlier Request for Information when deciding whether another supplier could qualify. The company says several requirements from that document did not appear in the final Statement of Need against which vendors were told to prepare their submissions.
Those disputed requirements included access to a proprietary scam-reporting database containing more than one million records, automated notifications to virtual asset service providers and operational partnerships with stablecoin issuers.
The seven claims target ICE’s sole-source process
The fourth claim alleges that ICE failed to give Chainalysis’s capability statement meaningful consideration. ICE published its notice of intent on June 8 and required responses by June 11.
Interested suppliers could submit only one page, although the Statement of Need itself ran for roughly one and a half pages and covered three operational areas. Chainalysis says ICE asked no follow-up questions before completing its market research report the following day.
The complaint states that ICE’s report recognized both companies as having mature investigative platforms and artificial intelligence integration. It also allegedly recognized that both could deploy cleared personnel. However, ICE concluded that Chainalysis lacked other capabilities needed for the program.
Chainalysis disputes that assessment. It argues that the short response period, one-page restriction and absence of follow-up questions turned the capability review into a “mere formality.” That wording reflects the company’s allegation, not a court finding.
The fifth claim concerns allegedly restrictive specifications. Chainalysis says questions about automated asset freezes, stablecoin partnerships and the size of a victim-reporting database closely matched TRM products or commercial arrangements.
Chainalysis claims it offered alternative methods that could achieve the same investigative goals. The complaint says ICE’s justification did not explain why those alternatives were insufficient.
Chainalysis challenges ICE’s legal authority
The sixth claim addresses ICE’s use of the federal government’s Revolutionary FAR Overhaul rules. Chainalysis argues that ICE relied on a “unique capabilities” rationale found in an older version of federal acquisition regulations but omitted from the rules governing this procurement.
Current acquisition rules allow an agency to avoid full and open competition when only one responsible source can meet its needs. They also require consideration of capability statements and prohibit agencies from using inadequate planning to justify limited competition.
Chainalysis’s seventh claim focuses on that planning requirement. The company notes that ICE issued its information request on May 28, received a 20-page response from Chainalysis on June 2 and announced its planned sole-source award six days later.
ICE then closed the capability-statement period on June 11 and completed its market research report on June 12. Chainalysis argues that this timetable left too little time to reconcile the different requirements or assess alternative suppliers.
The government may argue that ICE reasonably concluded TRM alone could meet its operational requirements. The merits of that position remain for the court to decide.
The September 2 hearing could determine the contract
Chainalysis wants the court to declare the award unlawful, permanently stop performance and direct ICE to conduct a full and open competition. It also seeks legal costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act.
A successful challenge would not automatically transfer the contract to Chainalysis. The court could instead require ICE to reconsider its analysis, reopen competition or prepare a legally sufficient sole-source justification. It could also deny the requested injunction and leave the TRM contract in place.
Judge Stephen S. Schwartz has placed the case on an expedited schedule. Oral argument is set for Sept. 2 at 10 a.m. EDT in Washington, D.C. The government has asked for a ruling by Sept. 10, although the court is not bound by that requested date.
As crypto.news previously reported, the contract supports a growing federal reliance on private blockchain-intelligence providers. Both companies have worked with law-enforcement agencies, and both contributed tracing support to a $701 million international asset-freezing operation.
In related coverage, Chainalysis recently produced 14,300 investigative leads from cryptocurrency activity connected to suspected child-abuse networks. The ICE dispute now asks the court to decide whether the government followed procurement law when choosing which provider would support another major investigative program.
Crypto hacks increased sharply in August, although the estimated value stolen fell by nearly half compared with July, according to blockchain security company PeckShield.
Summary
- 50 major crypto hacks caused an estimated $136.3 million in losses during August, PeckShield reported.
- August’s incident count increased 67% from July, while estimated losses declined 49.5% month over month.
- Tectonic accounted for approximately $74 million, more than half of PeckShield’s estimated monthly losses overall.
- Cronos validators halted production before the attacker could move most identified assets onto Ethereum successfully.
- Cronos later resumed blocks after validators restored network state to before the Tectonic exploit occurred.
PeckShield eported on Sept. 1 that it recorded 50 major incidents during August. That was a 67% increase from the 30 incidents counted in July.
Estimated losses reached $136.3 million, down 49.5% from approximately $270 million in July. The figures represent PeckShield’s estimates and may change as affected projects investigate transactions, freeze assets or recover funds.
The Tectonic lending incident dominated the month, accounting for approximately $74 million, or more than half of PeckShield’s total.
Crypto hacks became more frequent but less costly
The August figures show a growing number of attacks with losses concentrated in one large incident. Excluding Tectonic, the remaining 49 incidents generated estimated combined losses of about $62.3 million.
PeckShield identified Moonwell as the second-largest incident at $8.7 million. Term Labs followed at $8.5 million, while Coinsbuy and TAC recorded estimated losses of $7.9 million and $7.5 million, respectively.
Other named incidents included Injective at $4.8 million, MANTRA at $3.6 million, BounceBit at $3 million and Cosmos Labs at $2.87 million. Aquifer completed PeckShield’s top ten with an estimated $2.47 million loss.
These figures should not be treated as final net losses. Security firms can classify incidents differently, particularly when funds remain traceable, frozen or recoverable. Projects may also revise their estimates after completing technical reviews.
A recent CoinGecko study found that crypto platforms lost $3.63 billion across 245 incidents between January 2025 and July 2026. The ten largest incidents accounted for more than 72.5% of that estimate, showing how a few major attacks can shape monthly totals.
Tectonic represented more than half of August losses
Tectonic disclosed an incident affecting its Cronos-based lending protocol on Aug. 30 and warned users not to interact with the platform while its team investigated.
Security researchers estimated that an attacker manipulated collateral pricing and borrowed assets worth approximately $74 million. Tectonic has not published a final loss figure or complete technical report, meaning the estimate remains subject to revision.
PeckShield classified the Tectonic incident as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency theft recorded during 2026. It ranked behind attacks involving Drift, KelpDAO and LayerZero, and hardware-wallet provider Coldcard.
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek confirmed that the incident affected Tectonic rather than Crypto.com’s centralized exchange or app. He said the company’s security team was assisting the Cronos investigation.
As crypto.news previously reported, Crypto.com customer funds remained unaffected because the breach concerned a separate decentralized protocol operating on Cronos.
Cronos halted before most assets left the network
Cronos validators stopped block production after detecting the active exploit. Independent address analysis and PeckShield’s tracking indicated that the attacker moved approximately $6 million to Ethereum before the halt.
Most of the remaining identified assets stayed on Cronos. Funds remaining on the affected network were not necessarily recovered at that point, but the halt prevented additional transactions from receiving confirmation.
Cronos later resumed block production after validators restored the network to a state preceding the exploit. Blocks restarted at 23:49:01 UTC from block 90,896,189, according to the network’s update.
Node operators were directed to install Cronos version 1.7.8 and use a mainnet snapshot taken before the incident. The decision effectively removed transactions included during the discarded section of the chain.
The rollback raises questions about transactions made by unrelated users during that period. Cronos has not yet provided a complete accounting of which transfers, trades or liquidations were reversed.
PeckShield said the attacker had started moving part of the assets that reached other networks. The security company reported an initial conversion toward Bitcoin, but the amount remains small compared with the funds originally associated with the attack.
Investigations and recovery efforts remain open
Cronos and Tectonic are expected to publish a full post-incident report explaining the exploit, validator response and network restoration. Neither project has provided a publication date.
Tectonic has also not announced a repayment or compensation plan for affected depositors. Any recoverable amount will depend on the status of assets remaining on Cronos and whether exchanges or bridge operators can restrict funds moved elsewhere.
August also included network disruptions unrelated to Tectonic. MANTRA resumed block production after deploying a software update addressing a Cosmos-EVM vulnerability. The project said two team-managed wallets were affected while user balances remained unchanged.
PeckShield’s next monthly calculation could change if protocols recover assets or revise their reported exposure. For now, its dataset shows that attacks became more frequent in August even as the estimated amount lost declined sharply.
Asian currencies mixed as dollar steadies, yen remains near 160
Hugging Face’s new duck robot is selling fast. A Chinese chip powers it
Chi Onwurah MP: ‘My bill will ban tech companies from turning you into an algorithm’
-
Crypto World6 days agoSpaceX stock could rise 75% to $240, JPMorgan says
-
Fashion4 days agoWeekend Open Thread: Maeve – Corporette.com
-
Crypto World4 days agoBitcoin’s 22% rally now needs real demand to outlast Treasury liquidity boost
-
Crypto World6 days agoWarsh Jackson Hole keynote puts financial innovation first
-
Business4 days agoSalesforce Stock Soars 19% as Blowout Earnings and Agentforce AI Growth Silence Software Skeptics
-
Crypto World5 days agoElon Musk Grok Bot Promise: We Will Make You Whole if AI Loses Your Money
-
Crypto World6 days agoDid Trump Just Move SpaceX Stock With One Truth Social Post?
-
Business4 days agoApple Confirms September 9 Keynote and Reveals Its Full Pre-Order Schedule
-
Business3 days agoOnto Innovation Stock: AI’s Next Bottleneck Is Yield (NYSE:ONTO)
-
NewsBeat5 days agoLindsay Clancy jury braces for closing arguments as judge tells court: ‘You’ve heard all the evidence’ – Live updates
-
Business6 days agoWalmart takes aim at younger shoppers with new fashion brand
-
Crypto World3 days agoBitcoin price tests $82K resistance as Brandt stays long
-
Business6 days agoThailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor Capital City (EECiti): Key Developments and Investment Opportunities
-
Crypto World5 days agoNVIDIA revenue hits $96.2B as AI demand doubles
-
Business4 days agoiPhone 18 Pro Pre-Orders Could Shift to Saturday as Apple Reportedly Avoids September 11 Anniversary
-
NewsBeat6 days agoTrump’s trade truce with China faces test with Iran effort
-
Crypto World5 days agoNvidia Q2 Earnings Reveal $96.2 Billion Beat, So Why Is NVDA Falling?
-
Tech5 days agoClaude Cowork gets its own browser that doesn’t touch your tabs, bookmarks, or saved passwords
-
Tech2 days agoHugging Face built a $4.5 billion empire on free AI models. Now Nvidia is buying it for $12.9 billion
-
Crypto World4 days agoTruflation calls for Fed rate cut after PCE forecast
You must be logged in to post a comment Login