Crypto World
The CLARITY Act vote lands September 15. Everything crypto has been waiting for comes down to two weeks.
The cloture vote, the CPI print, the FOMC decision, and the SEC’s 24-hour trading roundtable all fall in the same 10-day window. The outcome will shape crypto regulation for the rest of the decade.
Summary
- The U.S. Senate returns from recess on September 14 and holds a cloture vote on the CLARITY Act at 2:15 p.m. ET on September 15, needing 60 votes to proceed to a full floor debate.
- Polymarket odds for the bill becoming law in 2026 have collapsed from 82% in February to 16% as of September 6, while Galaxy Research pegs the probability at just 10%.
- Three unresolved disputes block passage: ethics rules targeting President Trump’s $1.4 billion in crypto income, DeFi developer liability under Section 604, and a stablecoin yield provision that threatens $1.35 billion in annual Coinbase USDC rewards revenue.
- The CPI report on September 11, the FOMC rate decision on September 16, and the SEC’s 24-hour trading roundtable on September 17 all land in the same compressed window, creating a volatility corridor unlike anything crypto has faced in 2026.
- If the bill fails, regulation defaults to a patchwork of agency rulemaking that can be reversed by any future administration, leaving the industry without a durable federal framework until at least 2028.
The United States Senate has 14 working days left in its legislative calendar before midterm campaigning shuts down the floor. Fourteen days to pass or kill the most ambitious piece of crypto legislation ever written. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a 309-page bill that would draw permanent jurisdictional lines between the SEC and the CFTC, faces its make-or-break procedural vote on September 15. And it does not face that vote alone. A CPI inflation report, a Federal Reserve rate decision, and an SEC roundtable on 24-hour trading all land in the same 10-day stretch, stacking catalysts in a way that makes the first half of September the most consequential period for digital assets since Bitcoin’s spot ETF approvals in January 2024.
The stakes are not abstract. If the CLARITY Act clears cloture, it opens the door to a unified regulatory framework that sorts every digital asset into one of three categories, securities, digital commodities, or stablecoins, and assigns each to a specific federal regulator. If it does not clear cloture, the crypto industry reverts to a regulatory patchwork held together by enforcement actions and agency guidance that any successor administration can undo with a memo.
This is the window. Two weeks. Everything in it matters.
What the CLARITY Act actually does
The bill is 309 pages of statutory text divided into six titles, and it does something no previous crypto legislation has managed: it draws a clear line between the SEC and the CFTC.
Under the CLARITY Act, a digital asset is classified as either a security, a digital commodity, or a stablecoin. The classification depends on decentralization. If a blockchain network’s insiders control less than 20% of the circulating supply and governance, the token qualifies as a digital commodity and falls under CFTC jurisdiction. If insiders retain more than 20%, the token is treated as a security and stays under SEC oversight. Stablecoins are carved out entirely and governed by the GENIUS Act framework signed into law in July 2025.
The practical effect is enormous. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and 12 other major tokens would be formally classified as digital commodities. Spot trading platforms for those assets would register with the CFTC, not the SEC. Initial token offerings that fail the decentralization threshold would remain SEC-regulated, preserving investor protections for new launches while freeing mature networks from securities law constraints that were never designed for them.
The bill also creates a DeFi framework under Section 604. Non-custodial software developers who write open-source code and never take custody of user funds would be exempt from money-transmitter registration and Bank Secrecy Act obligations. The Lummis-Grassley amendment preserves criminal liability for anyone who “knowingly” facilitates illicit transactions, drawing a line between publishing code and operating an illicit service.
The bill also imposes registration requirements and operational standards for digital asset intermediaries, including exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Every platform that lists a digital commodity would need to register with the CFTC, maintain customer asset segregation, and comply with anti-money-laundering rules. The framework is modeled on existing commodity market regulation, which means the CFTC does not have to build from scratch. It can extend proven systems to a new asset class.
For an industry that has spent the last three years navigating regulation-by-enforcement, this is not incremental. It is structural. And the timing matters. The SEC and CFTC jointly published a 68-page interpretive release in March 2026 that sorted crypto assets into five categories and designated 16 major tokens as digital commodities. That release was always meant to be a bridge to legislation. Without the CLARITY Act, the bridge leads nowhere.
The three fights that could kill the bill
Three disputes have blocked the CLARITY Act for months. None of them are about the core market-structure framework. All of them are about politics.
The ethics provision. Seven Democratic senators have said the current draft “falls short” on ethics, consumer protection, and illicit finance rules. The core demand: an enforceable ban on presidents and senior government officials issuing or profiting from crypto. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a longtime crypto-market-structure negotiator, said on August 24 that she will not support the legislation without that ban. The target is obvious. President Trump has earned an estimated $1.4 billion in crypto income, and Democrats want a firewall between the Oval Office and the token market.
Senator Cynthia Lummis pushed back, arguing that Trump has agreed to implement ethics standards banning all federal officials from certain crypto activity. But the gap between “agreed to implement” and “written into enforceable statute” is exactly where the negotiation has stalled.
DeFi developer liability. Section 604’s exemption for non-custodial developers is one of the bill’s most consequential provisions, and one of its most controversial. Critics argue it creates a loophole for money laundering. Supporters argue it is the only way to keep DeFi development in the United States. The Blockchain Association sent a letter cosigned by 160 former national security and law enforcement officials supporting the exemption, calling it “narrowly tailored” and consistent with existing legal precedent for software publishers.
Stablecoin yield. The bill bans stablecoin yield that functions like bank deposit interest but permits rewards tied to transactions, payments, and liquidity provision. This distinction matters because Coinbase generates roughly $1.35 billion annually from USDC rewards programs that the provision would legalize. Traditional banks, which lobbied aggressively against the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin framework, see this as crypto eating their deposit business under a different label. The banking lobby wants the yield ban extended to exchanges and affiliates, which would gut Coinbase’s revenue model.
Each of these fights has its own constituency, its own lobbying apparatus, and its own set of senators who have drawn lines in the sand. The ethics provision is personal, tied to a sitting president’s finances. The DeFi exemption is ideological, touching the boundary between software freedom and financial regulation. The stablecoin yield fight is economic, pitting Silicon Valley against Wall Street in a battle over $1.35 billion in annual revenue.
Any one of these fights could bleed enough Democratic votes to kill cloture. Together, they explain why Polymarket odds sit at 16%.
The cloture math
Cloture requires 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a full Senate vote. Republicans hold 53 seats. That means supporters need at least seven Democrats or independents.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill 15-9 in May, with all 13 Republicans joined by two Democrats. But both Democrats said their committee votes did not guarantee floor support without progress on the ethics provision. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called the bill “a bill written by the crypto industry for the crypto industry” and declared it “dead on arrival,” is leading the opposition.
The math is brutal. Even if every Republican votes yes, and that is not guaranteed given some senators’ concerns about the DeFi exemption, supporters need seven crossover votes from a caucus whose most vocal members have spent months publicly opposing the bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed the cloture motion on August 8, the last day before the August recess, specifically to lock in the September 15 date. The vote is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. ET, less than 24 hours after senators return to Washington. That timing is deliberate. Thune wants to force the vote before opponents can organize amendments or procedural delays.
“I personally am a bit pessimistic about the Clarity Act being passed,” John Darsie, CEO of SALT, told CNBC at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in August. “Leading into the midterms, you do not often pass legislation of this magnitude.”
He is right about history. He may be wrong about this particular moment. The crypto industry has never had a bill this far along the legislative pipeline. The House passed it 294 to 134, a margin that would be extraordinary for any financial regulation bill, let alone one touching digital assets. The Senate Banking Committee advanced it 15 to 9 with bipartisan support. No previous crypto bill has cleared both of those hurdles. The GENIUS Act, the stablecoin bill signed into law in July 2025, is the only comparable precedent, and it was narrower in scope by an order of magnitude.
The question is not whether the CLARITY Act has support. It does. The question is whether that support translates into 60 floor votes in a chamber that treats 60 as a near-impossible threshold for anything controversial.
Polymarket and Galaxy: reading the odds
The prediction markets tell a stark story. Polymarket’s CLARITY Act contract has crashed from 82% in February to 16% as of September 6, with over $14 million traded on the outcome. Galaxy Research, which tracks legislative probabilities with institutional rigor, has dropped its estimate even further, to 10%.
Galaxy’s probability peaked at 75% after the Senate Banking Committee markup in May, then declined steadily: 60% in early June, 50% by late June, 30% after the combined legislative text dropped on July 24, and 10% in mid-August when the Senate left for recess without voting.
But prediction markets measure the probability of the bill becoming signed law in 2026, not the probability of clearing cloture on September 15. Those are different questions. If the bill clears cloture, it still needs a full floor vote, a conference committee to reconcile House and Senate versions, another vote in both chambers, and a presidential signature. Each step carries its own risk. The low odds reflect the full gauntlet, not just the first hurdle.
Here is what the odds do not capture: the political cost of failure. If the CLARITY Act dies, crypto regulation defaults to agency rulemaking. The SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets on August 19, creating an offering framework that does not require congressional action. The CFTC is writing its own rules regardless of the bill. These agency rules can be reversed by any future administration, reproducing the regulatory instability the bill was drafted to end.
For the 160 million Americans who own crypto, the difference between legislation and rulemaking is the difference between permanence and a coin flip every four years.
There is also a less obvious dynamic in the prediction market data. The volume itself tells a story. Over $14 million has traded on the Polymarket contract, making it one of the platform’s most active political markets in 2026. That volume means institutional and sophisticated traders are actively pricing the risk. When that much money moves to 16%, it is not panic selling. It is informed pessimism. But informed pessimism has been wrong before, and it has been wrong about crypto legislation specifically. The GENIUS Act traded at 22% on Polymarket three weeks before it passed.
The September gauntlet: CPI, the Fed, and the SEC
The CLARITY Act vote does not exist in a vacuum. It sits inside a 10-day gauntlet of market-moving events that will stress-test every assumption about crypto’s near-term trajectory.
September 11: CPI inflation report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases August CPI data at 8:30 a.m. ET. This print lands during the Fed’s quiet period, making it the last major data point before the rate decision. If inflation comes in hot, it strengthens the case for a September hike and pressures risk assets, including crypto. If it comes in cool, it gives the Fed room to hold and gives markets a relief rally.
September 15: CLARITY Act cloture vote. At 2:15 p.m. ET, less than 24 hours after senators return from recess. The vote happens during the first day of the two-day FOMC meeting, meaning the crypto market will be processing legislative and monetary policy signals simultaneously.
September 16: FOMC rate decision. The Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision at 2:00 p.m. ET, followed by Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference at 2:30 p.m. Market-implied probability of a 25-basis-point hike stands at 58% as of September 6. Strong August payroll data (162,000 jobs added, 4.1% unemployment) and persistent inflation above the 2% target have split forecasters. J.P. Morgan expects a hike. Goldman Sachs expects a hold. The updated dot plot and economic projections will tell the market which camp was right.
September 17: SEC 24-hour trading roundtable. The SEC hosts a full-day session on extending U.S. equity trading hours, with 27 panelists from firms including BlackRock, Nasdaq, and Citadel. Eighteen of those 27 firms already have crypto operations. While the roundtable targets equities, it validates crypto’s always-on trading model and signals that traditional finance is converging on the 24/7 standard that digital assets pioneered.
Four events. Seven days. Each one moves markets independently. Together, they create a volatility corridor that will reward preparation and punish complacency.
Think about the sequencing. The CPI print on Thursday, September 11, sets the macro tone. A hot number pressures crypto into the weekend. A cool number lifts it. Then the Senate reconvenes on Sunday, September 14, and the cloture vote happens Monday afternoon while the FOMC meeting is already in session behind closed doors. By Tuesday afternoon, the Fed announces its rate decision, and markets have to process whether crypto got its regulatory framework and whether borrowing costs just went up, all within 24 hours. Then on Wednesday morning, the SEC opens a roundtable that implicitly acknowledges crypto has been right about 24/7 markets all along.
No one designed this calendar to stress-test the crypto market. But that is exactly what it does.
What passage looks like
If the CLARITY Act clears cloture, passes the Senate, survives conference, and reaches the president’s desk, the crypto industry gets something it has never had: a permanent federal framework.
Every digital asset gets classified. Exchanges know which regulator to register with. DeFi developers know where the legal lines are. Institutional capital, which has been waiting on the sidelines for exactly this kind of clarity, gets a green light to deploy. Bernstein estimates that regulatory clarity could unlock $50 billion to $100 billion in institutional inflows over 24 months.
The CFTC becomes the primary regulator for most of the crypto market. The agency already has a framework for derivatives, futures, and spot commodity markets. Extending that framework to digital commodities is a natural fit, though the CFTC will need resources. Its staffing fell from 708 employees in fiscal 2024 to 556 in fiscal 2025, a 21.5% reduction. Congress would need to fund the mandate it is creating.
The SEC retains authority over initial token offerings, digital securities, and any asset that fails the decentralization threshold. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has said he expects the CLARITY Act to “move forward” and has aligned the agency’s own rulemaking, Regulation Crypto Assets, with the bill’s framework.
The GENIUS Act’s stablecoin rules, already signed into law, would operate alongside the CLARITY Act’s market-structure provisions, creating a complete regulatory architecture for the first time. The United States would go from having no crypto-specific federal law (before 2025), to having a stablecoin law (2025), to having a complete market-structure framework (2026) in the span of 18 months. No other major economy has moved that fast. The EU’s MiCA regulation took four years from proposal to implementation.
For builders, the signal is even more direct. A startup launching a token would know on day one whether it is a security or a commodity, which regulator it answers to, and what compliance obligations apply. That clarity is what turns “maybe we build in the U.S.” into “we are building in the U.S.”
What failure looks like
If cloture fails, the bill is dead for 2026. The Senate’s legislative calendar after September is consumed by midterm campaigning, appropriations fights, and the debt ceiling. A new Congress would not take up crypto legislation until 2027 at the earliest, and more realistically 2028.
In the meantime, regulation defaults to a patchwork of agency actions. The SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets would proceed on its own timeline. The CFTC would continue writing rules under existing authority. The OCC would finalize GENIUS Act stablecoin regulations by November. FASB’s proposed accounting rules for stablecoins would move forward with a November 19 comment deadline.
None of this is catastrophic. The sky does not fall. But the patchwork approach has a fatal flaw: it is reversible. Agency rules issued under existing authority can be revised or revoked by any successor administration. A future SEC chair could reclassify digital commodities as securities. A future CFTC chair could narrow the commodity definition. The regulatory instability that the CLARITY Act was designed to end would persist indefinitely.
Bernstein expects bitcoin to test the $55,000 to $60,000 range if the bill fails, a 10% to 25% pullback from current levels near $65,000. Altcoins would face steeper drawdowns of 15% to 30%, with exchange tokens and DeFi governance tokens bearing the heaviest losses. The market has partially priced in failure, given the 16% Polymarket odds, but “partially priced in” and “fully priced in” are not the same thing.
The deeper risk is narrative. If the most pro-crypto Congress in history, working with a president who calls himself the “crypto president,” cannot pass a market-structure bill, then the political argument for crypto regulation loses credibility for years. Lobbyists who spent $100 million in the 2024 election cycle backing pro-crypto candidates would have to explain why that investment did not produce results. And the industry’s opponents would argue, with some justification, that if crypto cannot get a bill through when every political condition is favorable, it will not get one through at all.
What to watch
The next 10 days will produce more signal than any comparable period in crypto’s regulatory history. Here is what matters most.
September 11, 8:30 a.m. ET: August CPI print. A reading above 3.2% year-over-year strengthens the rate hike case and pressures risk assets. A reading below 3.0% gives markets breathing room.
September 14: Senate returns from recess. Watch for last-minute negotiations on the ethics provision. If Gillibrand or another swing Democrat signals movement, cloture odds shift immediately.
September 15, 2:15 p.m. ET: Cloture vote. The binary outcome. Sixty votes means the bill lives. Anything less means it dies for 2026. The vote count itself will matter: a narrow miss (57 to 59) signals a bill that could pass with minor amendments in 2027. A wide miss (below 55) signals deep structural opposition.
September 16, 2:00 p.m. ET: FOMC rate decision and dot plot. A 25-basis-point hike is the base case at 58% probability. The dot plot and Warsh’s press conference will matter more than the rate itself. Forward guidance indicating a pause after September would be bullish for risk assets.
September 17, 10:00 a.m. ET: SEC 24-hour trading roundtable. Not a market-moving event on its own, but a signal of where traditional finance is headed. If the SEC signals openness to extended hours, it validates crypto’s operating model and narrows the gap between digital and traditional markets.
The two-week window after the vote. If cloture passes, watch the amendment process. The ethics provision, DeFi liability language, and stablecoin yield rules will all be subject to floor amendments. Each amendment vote is a potential kill shot.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
What is the CLARITY Act?
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is a 309-page bill that creates the first full U.S. federal regulatory framework for digital assets. It classifies every crypto token as either a security, a digital commodity, or a stablecoin, and assigns regulatory jurisdiction to the SEC or the CFTC accordingly. The House passed it in summer 2025 by a 294-to-134 bipartisan vote.
What happens on September 15?
The Senate holds a cloture vote at 2:15 p.m. ET, which is a procedural vote requiring 60 senators to agree to end debate and proceed to a full floor vote. If it passes, the bill moves to open debate and amendment. If it fails, the bill is effectively dead for 2026.
Why did Polymarket odds drop so much?
Polymarket odds fell from 82% in February to 16% in September because the Senate left for its August recess without voting, three major disputes remain unresolved (ethics, DeFi liability, stablecoin yield), and the remaining legislative calendar is too short for extended negotiations.
Who supports the CLARITY Act?
Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott and Senator Cynthia Lummis are the bill’s lead champions. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has aligned the SEC’s own rulemaking with the bill. The Blockchain Association and 160 former national security officials have endorsed it. Goldman Sachs has publicly backed the framework. Two Democrats voted for it in committee, though their floor support remains conditional.
Who opposes the CLARITY Act?
Senator Elizabeth Warren has called it “dead on arrival” and “a bill written by the crypto industry for the crypto industry.” Seven Democratic senators have said the draft falls short on ethics, consumer protection, and illicit finance. Traditional banks oppose the stablecoin yield provision. Some DeFi critics argue Section 604 creates a money-laundering loophole.
What happens if the CLARITY Act fails?
Crypto regulation defaults to agency rulemaking: the SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets framework, the CFTC’s existing commodity rules, and the OCC’s GENIUS Act stablecoin regulations. These provide some structure but can be reversed by any future administration, leaving the industry without permanent legal certainty until at least 2028.
How does the CLARITY Act relate to the GENIUS Act?
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, covers only payment stablecoins. The CLARITY Act is broader, covering market structure, exchange registration, DeFi, and the SEC/CFTC jurisdictional split. The two laws are designed to work together: the GENIUS Act handles stablecoins, and the CLARITY Act handles everything else.
Will the CLARITY Act affect crypto prices?
Bernstein expects bitcoin to test $55,000 to $60,000 if the bill fails, representing a 10% to 25% pullback. If it passes, regulatory clarity could unlock $50 billion to $100 billion in institutional inflows over 24 months. Altcoins and DeFi governance tokens face the widest price swings in either direction. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Will the CLARITY Act affect crypto prices?
Bernstein expects bitcoin to test $55,000 to $60,000 if the bill fails, representing a 10% to 25% pullback. If it passes, regulatory clarity could unlock $50 billion to $100 billion in institutional inflows over 24 months. Altcoins and DeFi governance tokens face the widest price swings in either direction. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.
The key catalyst for the Australian dollar remains the July inflation data released on 26 August. The figure came in at 3.5% year-on-year, versus expectations of 3.2%, while the Trimmed Mean increased by 0.5% month-on-month, compared with a forecast of 0.3%. The following day, 27 August, NAB revised its forecast for the RBA’s next policy decision. The bank now expects a 25-basis-point rate hike at the September meeting, taking the rate to 4.6%, with the risk of another increase in November.
For the Canadian dollar, the key factor was the Bank of Canada’s decision. On 2 September, the central bank left its policy rate unchanged at 2.25% for the seventh consecutive meeting, highlighting economic uncertainty stemming from US tariffs and Canada’s retaliatory trade measures.
Technical Analysis of AUD/CAD
The four-hour AUD/CAD chart shows a pronounced uptrend that has lifted the pair towards the current resistance level at 0.9985. A pattern resembling a converging triangle formed near the top of this advance, with price fluctuations gradually narrowing within the formation. However, volume dynamics during the second half of the pattern’s formation have been atypical, casting doubt on its reliability.
Nevertheless, the price has broken out of the pattern while also moving above the upper boundary of the current market profile at 0.9950, and is attempting to establish itself above this level. If the advance continues, the red resistance level around 0.9985 is the next key obstacle on the upside.
In the event of a false breakout, the price could return to the profile. If the scenario turns bearish, the pair would need to break not only the upper boundary of the profile but also the Point of Control (POC) at 0.9935 and the lower boundary at 0.9910. Below the market density, a green support level is located around 0.9895.
The RSI + MAs indicator is showing readings of 59, 52 and 54. The RSI has moved above the neutral zone, while both the fast and slow moving averages remain below its upper boundary.
Key Takeaways
The atypical volume dynamics during the formation of the triangle leave the reliability of the breakout uncertain, while the price’s attempt to establish itself above the market profile has yet to receive confirmation from the RSI + MAs indicator. The pair’s further direction could depend largely on whether the expected tightening of RBA policy materialises against the backdrop of the Bank of Canada’s wait-and-see stance.
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Harmony is moving toward a full shutdown of its blockchain and a migration of its ONE token to Ethereum, according to a proposal shared by the network. The plan would culminate in a final network snapshot, followed by an airdrop of ERC-20 ONE tokens to the same addresses on Ethereum and steps to transition validator operations.
The announcement arrives after a recent Harmony exploit that involved the minting of unauthorized ONE tokens and raised the prospect of a rollback. With the latest proposal, Harmony’s approach appears to shift from repairing a compromised chain to ending the network as a standalone platform.
Key takeaways
- Harmony’s proposal targets a final block snapshot and issuance of ERC-20 ONE tokens on Ethereum, with holders receiving the new tokens to the same addresses.
- Harmony says the snapshot would include wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchanges, with “no claims required.”
- The migration is not presented as binding, and the proposal does not specify when the final block would be produced or whether shutdown timing depends on a full on-chain governance vote.
- Users are told to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10 because “multisig safes, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be migrated.”
- Validators may choose to stop nodes, remain as governors, or join Harmony’s “AI-video initiative,” with a $1.372 million pool set aside for compensation for validators who exit on time and agree to serve as governors.
A planned end to Harmony’s mainnet—followed by an ERC-20 migration
In its Sunday proposal, Harmony outlined a transition designed to preserve token balances while discontinuing the underlying chain. The network stated it would take a final network snapshot and then issue ERC-20 ONE tokens on Ethereum, allocating the new tokens to the same addresses that held ONE at the time of the final block.
Harmony further described the snapshot scope as broad. It would record ONE balances across wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchanges. The network also emphasized that holders would not need to take action to receive the new ERC-20 tokens—an important detail for retail participants and custodians alike.
Still, the proposal draws a clear boundary around what can and cannot be migrated. Harmony said multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications cannot be transferred, warning participants to unwind any smart-contract positions before Sept. 10. That requirement effectively shifts risk management onto users and protocol operators, particularly where liquidity or contract-based funds are involved.
Validator options, governance mechanics, and the open question of timing
Harmony’s transition plan is centered on validator decisions. The network said validators would receive options: stop their nodes, continue operating as governors, or participate in Harmony’s new AI-video initiative.
Harmony also referenced a governance framework consistent with its published network governance rules. According to Harmony’s governance documentation, elected validators can create proposals, while unelected validators may vote with voting power proportional to total stake. Under those rules, a proposal must reach participation threshold first: 51% of total stake weight must participate. Then it requires 66.7% support after a seven-day introduction period and a 14-day voting period.
However, Harmony described the Sunday proposal itself as “non-binding,” and it did not clarify whether the shutdown is guaranteed to follow the full validator-governance voting cycle or how precisely the final block timing would be determined. For investors and market participants, that uncertainty matters: the practical mechanics of when balances become fixed for snapshot purposes—and how orderly exchanges and custodians can coordinate—depend on the final execution plan.
Harmony also mentioned a compensation pool of $1.372 million for validators who shut down on time, keep their stakes, and agree to serve as governors. That figure indicates Harmony expects to retain some validator participation even after the main chain ceases producing blocks, but it does not specify how long governors would remain active in that role.
Recent exploit pressures: from rollback plans to a system-wide exit
The migration proposal comes less than four weeks after an exploit that created forged ONE tokens. Harmony said earlier it was considering a rollback after reports that an attacker had minted nearly 4 billion unauthorized ONE, an amount characterized at the time as roughly 26% of the token supply. Harmony later said it planned to revert the blockchain to an Aug. 11 checkpoint, discarding 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions.
According to Harmony’s earlier statements, investigators traced nearly all forged tokens to specific wallets or service boundaries and said they were working with exchanges, bridges, and law enforcement. While the rollback narrative focused on restoring the chain by undoing affected transactions, the new proposal effectively reframes the endgame: rather than continuing to operate Harmony’s blockchain and maintain state updates, Harmony is proposing a migration that relocates token ownership onto Ethereum.
For holders, this is a meaningful shift. A rollback aims to correct the ledger while preserving the chain’s continuity; a shutdown-and-migrate approach focuses on stabilizing token ownership by anchoring balances to an Ethereum-issued standard. The trade-off is that the ecosystem built atop Harmony—especially DeFi liquidity and onchain application state—may not survive in the same form because Harmony has said those components cannot be migrated.
What users should do before the September deadline
Harmony’s most urgent operational message is directed at smart-contract participants. By Sept. 10, Harmony urged users to exit all smart contracts, citing the inability to migrate multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications. That means users relying on staking-related smart-contract interactions, liquidity positions, or complex contract mechanisms may need to ensure they are fully withdrawn before migration-related execution begins.
While Harmony indicated that smart-contract-related ONE balances would be recorded at the final snapshot and ERC-20 tokens would be issued accordingly, the network’s warning suggests token balances alone may not capture the full value of positions that depend on liquidity pools or application-specific states. In other words, the migration can preserve ONE ownership, but it may not preserve the surrounding infrastructure in which ONE is locked or used.
Traders and long-term holders should also watch for how exchanges and custodians handle the ERC-20 distribution process. Harmony said the snapshot would include centralized exchange holdings, but the operational steps—such as whether exchanges require internal mapping from Harmony addresses to Ethereum accounts—are not detailed in the proposal text provided.
With Harmony moving toward an end-of-chain event and a token migration, market participants should track: whether validators ultimately ratify the shutdown through the governance thresholds described by Harmony’s framework, how Harmony confirms the snapshot and final block timing, and how DeFi and other onchain users unwind positions ahead of Sept. 10. The answers will determine how smoothly ONE holders can transition—and how much of the broader Harmony ecosystem can be meaningfully preserved.
President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself day trading Intel (INTC) stock from $20 to $95, paired with a Truth Social boast about making “Hundreds of Billions of Dollars” on stocks.
It is the second time Trump has shared this exact image style. A nearly identical post last September showed Intel rising from $20 to $30, after the government took a 9.9% stake in the chipmaker.
Trump’s Intel Stock Pattern
This time, the numbers track reality closely. Intel Corporation (INTC) shares closed at $95.80 on September 4, then touched $95.89 two days later, nearly quadrupling off their 52-week low of $24.05.
The repeat post also fits a wider habit. A CNN investigation found Trump bought stock in 21 companies shortly before posting favorable messages about them on Truth Social.
Ethics filings with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) show accounts tied to Trump built Intel and Dell Technologies (DELL) positions before he publicly praised both. Dell stock has since climbed more than 300% this year.
A similar post about SpaceX (SPCX) in August drew comparable scrutiny, though later data showed that stock’s gain had begun in premarket trading before Trump posted, undercutting a direct link.
Presidential Stock Social Posting
Presidents are not barred from trading stocks while in office, unlike most other federal officials. Trump also has not placed his assets in a blind trust, so he can see what his managers buy or sell. Ethics experts say that setup leaves room for conflicts other officials do not face.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley joined Democrats last year on a bill to ban both congressional and presidential stock trading. Trump pushed back hard, framing it as an attack from a junior senator rather than a genuine ethics fix.
A CNN review found the reverse pattern is rare, however. Most of Trump’s thousands of disclosed trades were never followed by a related Truth Social post. There were also no direct evidence ties the posts to his trading decisions.
The government’s 9.9% Intel stake, bought at $20.47 per share in August 2025, is now worth several times its original value on paper. Meanwhile, the pattern of presidential posts near stock gains keeps drawing scrutiny from ethics watchdogs.
The post Trump Again Touts Intel Stock Gains in AI Image, Claims He Made ‘Hundreds of Billions' appeared first on BeInCrypto.
What the results mean for the AfD
While the election delivered the AfD a commanding victory, the party still lacks enough votes to govern alone. With 39 seats in the 83-member legislature, the party remains three short of an outright majority, and faces no obvious path to obtaining it.
Germany’s established parties have refused to work with the AfD, continuing their “firewall” against cooperating with the far-right. State premier Sven Schulze acknowledged defeat but his party, the CDU, said it would explore talks with other parties about forming a multiparty coalition.
The AfD could find unlikely support in the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, which scraped into parliament with 5.3% of the vote. BSW has rejected the firewall and expressed a willingness to speak with the AfD, although it said it would not elect either Siegmund or Schulze as premier.
Siegmund has thus far ruled out leading a minority government or adopting an informal arrangement that would leave his government depending on unsteady support. “If necessary there’ll just be new elections, then we’d just get 50 or 55%,” he told ZDF on election night. He said, however, that he would be willing to work with individual lawmakers or parliamentary groups.
Hanwha Investment & Securities has reportedly completed a tokenized securities platform supporting Avalanche as South Korea prepares to bring blockchain-based securities into its regulated capital markets system in February 2027.
Summary
- Hanwha has reportedly built a tokenized securities platform supporting Avalanche and Hyperledger Besu.
- South Korea’s tokenized securities amendments are scheduled to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027.
- The FSC plans to initially allow tokenization of certain funds, bonds, unlisted stocks and fractional securities.
- Hanwha has expanded its tokenization investments through stakes in Securitize and Digital Asset.
Seoul Economic Daily reported Sunday that the South Korean brokerage began developing the platform with blockchain technology firm FairSquare Lab in 2025. The system was built to operate across multiple networks, including Avalanche and enterprise Ethereum client Hyperledger Besu.
Development has come ahead of amendments to South Korea’s Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act taking effect on Feb. 4, 2027. The changes will legally recognize distributed ledgers as securities registers and allow tokenized securities to operate within the country’s existing capital markets framework.
The Korea Securities Depository is preparing infrastructure capable of connecting with Avalanche, Hyperledger Besu and Hyperledger Fabric, giving securities companies several blockchain options as they build systems for the incoming framework.
Hanwha tokenized securities platform supports Avalanche
Hanwha started work on the platform last year and has since completed development, Seoul Economic Daily reported, citing blockchain industry sources.
FairSquare Lab developed the system with support for more than one distributed ledger. Alongside Avalanche, Hanwha can use Hyperledger Besu, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain designed for enterprise deployments.
Several South Korean financial firms have already used enterprise networks such as Hyperledger Besu for token securities infrastructure. Hanwha’s system extends that approach to Avalanche, where institutions can establish dedicated networks with controls over participation and validators.
The Korea Securities Depository is preparing its own token securities infrastructure to communicate with different blockchain technologies. Its published distributed-ledger requirements cover Avalanche, Hyperledger Besu and Hyperledger Fabric.
Participation in connected distributed ledgers will remain limited to approved institutions, including securities companies and the depository. The KSD would participate directly in the networks to oversee total issuance and electronic registration information.
Demand from financial companies influenced the inclusion of Avalanche, according to Seoul Economic Daily. A KSD official told the publication that several companies had requested support through industry consultations and existing projects.
Avalanche has already been used for regulated tokenized securities infrastructure in Japan. In July, Progmat moved its tokenized securities platform from Corda 5 to a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1, transferring every active security token project managed through its system.
Those projects represented more than 452 billion yen in underlying assets and issued securities at the time of the migration. Progmat said the change made the securities compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine while retaining existing institutional controls.
The Japanese platform redesigned its architecture so business functions were no longer tied to a single blockchain, using a separate layer between its applications and underlying ledger. Progmat said the structure would allow other networks to be connected later.
South Korea tokenized securities rules start in February
Hanwha’s platform arrives as South Korea finalizes the operating structure for tokenized securities before the February rollout.
The Financial Services Commission unveiled a three-stage implementation roadmap on Sept. 4, covering the types of securities that can initially be tokenized and how the market could expand after the amended laws take effect.
Crypto.news previously reported that South Korea’s tokenized securities roadmap will initially cover privately pooled money market funds and bonds reserved for institutional investors.
Unlisted shares issued through a trust structure and publicly offered fractional investment securities will qualify during the first stage as well.
The second phase would extend tokenization to all publicly offered securities. Regulators have not set a fixed date for that stage, with implementation depending on the results of the initial rollout and adoption of the required technology among market participants.
Under the final phase, the FSC plans to build onchain payment infrastructure linked to stablecoins, allowing the payment side of tokenized securities transactions to move onto blockchain rails.
Timing for the settlement system will depend partly on pending South Korean stablecoin legislation.
The roadmap follows amendments approved by the National Assembly in January that established a legal basis for distributed ledgers to serve as securities registers. Tokenized instruments will remain securities under existing financial laws instead of being treated as a separate asset class.
Regulators had been preparing the implementation details for months. In May, the FSC outlined its rulemaking schedule while studying how stocks, bonds and money market funds could be incorporated into the system.
The FSC said at the time that South Korea would not move its entire electronic securities market onto blockchain infrastructure at once. Authorities instead planned staged tests covering securities rights, trading, settlement and onchain payments.
Securities firms face infrastructure requirements
Financial companies connecting their distributed ledgers to the Korea Securities Depository will have to pass screening and operating tests under the KSD’s technical guidelines.
Reviews will cover issuance and circulation functions alongside contingency measures for system errors and other disruptions. The FSC has said securities firms must maintain operational stability comparable to the existing electronic securities system while using distributed ledgers.
Existing financial investment companies will not need a separate license solely for handling tokenized securities. Firms can conduct tokenized securities activities falling within their current licensed business areas.
Companies seeking to intermediate tokenized securities transactions on over-the-counter markets will need prior consultation with the Financial Supervisory Service.
Retail investors will face separate limits. The FSC has proposed capping individual subscriptions to non-monetary trust beneficiary certificates at the lower of 30 million won or 5% of the total issuance.
Annual net purchases by retail investors on each OTC exchange will be capped at 100 million won.
South Korea is preparing central market infrastructure at the same time. Samsung SDS has been developing a token securities platform for the Korea Securities Depository designed to connect blockchain records with the country’s existing electronic securities account infrastructure.
The platform is expected to support issuance, circulation checks, rights management and monitoring when the new system begins operating.
Hanwha expands its tokenization investments
Hanwha has spent several years building positions across companies involved in tokenization and blockchain infrastructure.
The conglomerate became Securitize’s largest shareholder after holdings spread across three affiliated entities reached a combined 9.6%, according to U.S. regulatory filings.
As reported in July, entities linked to Hanwha collectively held 15.69 million Securitize shares, putting the group ahead of Blockchain Capital and Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo.
A private equity fund managed by Hanwha Asset Management accounted for a 5.9% stake. H Foundation, a Hanwha Systems subsidiary, held 3.1%, while Hanwha Investment & Securities controlled roughly 0.6%.
Hanwha Investment & Securities described its own purchase as a financial investment through a pre-IPO financing round. The brokerage left open the possibility of using the investment in its digital asset and real-world asset tokenization businesses.
Securitize provides tokenized asset infrastructure for financial institutions including BlackRock, Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR and VanEck. Its platform managed more than $4 billion in onchain assets and supported more than 650 tokenized funds earlier this year.
The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ in July and issued blockchain-based versions of its common shares on Solana and Avalanche on the same day. The tokens represent the same NYSE-listed shares instead of a separate security class.
Hanwha Investment & Securities has put money into several other blockchain companies this year, including blockchain research and data company Xangle and Web3 infrastructure provider Kresus.
In July, the brokerage disclosed a 30 billion won, or roughly $22.3 million, investment in Digital Asset, the operator of the institutional-focused Canton Network.
Hanwha Investment & Securities has increased its position in South Korea’s crypto sector as well, investing another 597.8 billion won in Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, and raising its ownership stake to 9.84%.
The crypto market will welcome tokens worth roughly $325.6 million in the second week of September 2026. Major projects, including Aptos (APT), Linea (LINEA), and Cheelee (CHEEL), will release new token supplies.
These unlocks could introduce market volatility and influence short-term price movements. So, here’s a breakdown of what to watch.
1. Aptos (APT)
- Unlock Date: September 11
- Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 11.31 million APT
- Released Supply: 1.74 billion APT
- Total supply: 2.09 billion APT (Y2035)
Aptos is a Layer-1 blockchain platform designed for scalability, security, and efficiency in decentralized applications (dApps) and Web3 ecosystems. It utilizes the Move programming language to enable high-throughput transactions and smart contract execution.
Aptos will release 11.31 million tokens on September 11. The tokens are worth $7.09 million. It represents 0.65% of the released supply.
The team will award 3.96 million APT to core contributors. The community and investors will get 3.21 million and 2.81 million tokens, respectively. Additionally, Aptos will allocate 1.33 million tokens to the foundation.
2. Linea (LINEA)
- Unlock Date: September 10
- Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 960.13 million LINEA
- Released Supply: 31.92 billion LINEA
- Total supply: 72.01 billion LINEA
Linea is a zkEVM Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum (ETH). The network provides fast, low-cost transactions while maintaining compatibility with Ethereum tools and security.
The network will unlock 960.13 million tokens, valued at approximately $2.75 million, on September 10. The upcoming unlock represents 3% of the released supply
Linea will keep 480.07 million tokens for Linea Consortium (long-term alignment), and 480.07 million LINEA for Linea Consortium (Ignition).
3. Cheelee (CHEEL)
- Unlock Date: September 13
- Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 6.42 million CHEEL
- Released Supply: 813.4 million CHEEL
- Total supply: 1 billion CHEEL
Cheelee is a SocialFi hybrid platform that rewards users with LEE tokens for watching short videos. It blends familiar social media mechanics with blockchain-based incentives. The platform utilizes its token, CHEEL, for governance, content promotion, and advertising.
The team will release 6.42 million tokens on September 13. The tokens are worth around $2.24 million and represent 0.79% of the current released supply.
Cheelee will keep 3.4 million tokens for the reserve fund. Furthermore, it will assign 2.78 million tokens to the team. Advisors will get around 208,330 altcoins. Lastly, the team will direct 27,780 tokens to a private round.
In addition to these, other prominent unlocks that investors can look out for in the second week of September include peaq (PEAQ), Babylon (BABY), Movement (MOVE), and more.
The post 3 Token Unlocks to Watch in the Second Week of September 2026 appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Harmony has proposed retiring its seven-year-old layer-1 blockchain and moving ONE to Ethereum, with validators able to begin shutting down nodes from Sept. 10 as the project prepares a new AI video business.
Summary
- Harmony has proposed retiring its layer 1 and issuing ONE as an ERC 20 token on Ethereum after taking a final network snapshot.
- Users have been asked to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10, while eligible validators can begin shutting down nodes and receive compensation from a $1.372 million pool.
- The proposal comes weeks after an exploit created forged ONE tokens and prompted Harmony to plan a rollback removing more than 109,000 transactions.
- Harmony plans to give validators the option to remain as governors or participate in its new AI video initiative after the blockchain is retired.
Harmony said Sunday that it wants to take a final snapshot of the network, issue ONE as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and move exchange listings to the new token. The proposal remains non-binding, and the project has not given a date for the final block.
The plan would end Harmony’s run as an independent blockchain after launching its mainnet in 2019. The project cited security threats from state actors and AI agents when announcing the proposed shutdown.
Harmony has not said whether the plan will be put through its existing validator-led governance process. Under the network’s published governance rules, elected validators can submit proposals and unelected validators can vote, with voting power determined by stake. A proposal requires participation representing 51% of total stake weight and 66.7% support after a seven-day introduction period and 14-day voting period.
Harmony proposes moving ONE balances to Ethereum
At the final Harmony block, the project plans to record ONE held in wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts and centralized exchanges before distributing replacement tokens on Ethereum.
Users would not have to file claims for the new tokens. Harmony said ERC-20 ONE would be sent to the same addresses recorded in the final snapshot, while delegated stakes and unclaimed validator rewards would be distributed to individual governor vaults.
The token’s total supply and emission rate would remain unchanged under the proposal. Harmony plans to make the Ethereum token contract, snapshot calculations and airdrop scripts public so they can be audited.
Not every asset or application can make the move. Multisig safes, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be transferred through the proposed migration, according to the project, which has asked users to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10.
Exchange-held ONE is included in the planned snapshot, with Harmony proposing to coordinate the migration of centralized exchange listings to the Ethereum version of the token.
Validators face a separate transition process. Node operators can begin shutting down from Sept. 10, while Harmony has set aside $1.372 million for validators and delegators who stop their nodes on time, sign an agreement, retain their stakes and continue as governors.
The compensation would be distributed over four quarters. Harmony said it would cover the difference in emission rewards between a validator’s last block and the network’s final block for eligible operators.
Validators could move into Harmony’s AI video project
Harmony has proposed moving its work toward an AI video “remix economy” once the blockchain is retired, offering existing validators the option of remaining as governors or becoming operators or affiliates in the new project.
Under the model described by the team, a small group of video creators would publish prompts and other assets that fans could fork or remix. AI agents would then be used to turn the resulting branches into more video clips.
Operators would handle video generation, distribution and content moderation, with staking and service uptime tied to rewards. Harmony plans to subsidize GPU hardware during the first year and said operators could generate up to $1 million in combined revenue during that period, subject to the proposed staking and uptime requirements.
The project has floated a $10 monthly subscription for the service, with promoters receiving a continuing 30% commission from subscriptions they refer. Harmony said advertising could generate tens of millions of dollars if the platform reached 1 million users.
Future ONE emissions would be directed toward the new initiative, although the team said the arrangements would remain subject to feedback from governors.
Harmony shutdown proposal follows August ONE exploit
The proposed shutdown follows an August security incident that forced Harmony to consider reversing days of blockchain activity after unauthorized ONE entered circulation.
On Aug. 12, crypto.news previously reported that Harmony was investigating an unauthorized mint after an outside researcher claimed nearly 4 billion ONE had been created and approximately 2.8 billion had reached centralized exchanges. Harmony had not confirmed either figure at that stage and said it was working with exchanges while examining recovery options.
A later reconstruction by the project identified more than 3 trillion ONE created across six transactions. Harmony traced the incident to a flaw in cross-shard receipt verification that allowed valid receipts to be processed more than once, creating ONE without a corresponding debit elsewhere.
By Aug. 17, the project had settled on a much more disruptive response. Harmony proposed rolling back its two shards to checkpoints recorded at 11:25:37 p.m. UTC on Aug. 11, before the forged mint activity.
For shard 0, validators were instructed to retain block 92,730,034 and restart from 92,730,035. Shard 1 would return to block 94,978,278 and resume from the following block, even though the forged mint did not originate on that shard.
The recovery would remove 141,628 consecutive shard 0 blocks containing 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions. Harmony’s analysis classified 104,545 of the regular transactions, or 95.8%, as automated activity, including nearly 100,000 transactions linked to decentralized exchange automation.
One wallet connected to the forged mint attempted 534 transfers of 5 billion ONE each within 106 seconds. Of those, 477 succeeded, moving 2.385 trillion ONE, according to Harmony’s investigation.
Investigators traced the tokens into standalone wallets, exchange accounts, decentralized exchange routers and pools, liquidity provider positions, bridge contracts, wrapped ONE and staking wallets. Harmony said it was working with exchanges, bridges and law enforcement as it tried to identify where the forged assets had moved.
Token migration was among the recovery options examined during that process, but Harmony said at the time that moving ONE would cause substantially more disruption than the rollback. Less than a month later, migration to Ethereum has become part of the project’s proposed plan to retire the network entirely.
Harmony has faced repeated token and bridge security incidents
The August exploit was not Harmony’s first incident involving unauthorized ONE creation. In December 2023, the project disclosed that a staking logic flaw had resulted in 146.28 million ONE being minted across 74 delegator addresses before an emergency hard fork was deployed.
Harmony’s most prominent security breach came in June 2022, when attackers stole close to $100 million from its Horizon cross-chain bridge after compromising keys used to control the bridge.
The project worked with exchanges, blockchain analytics companies and law enforcement following the attack and raised its hacker bounty to $10 million in an attempt to recover the assets.
Harmony initially considered creating billions of ONE to reimburse users affected by the Horizon attack. A proposal published the following month included an option to mint 4.97 billion ONE for compensation, drawing opposition from community members concerned about dilution.
By September 2022, Harmony had changed course and said its revised recovery plan would not mint additional ONE or alter the token’s economics through a hard fork. The project instead proposed using treasury funds for recovery and ecosystem development.
Raydium has expanded LaunchLab to support trading between any token pair, with LaunchOnSF’s StonkFun becoming the first integration to use the new system on Solana.
Summary
- Raydium LaunchLab now allows newly launched tokens to be paired with any supported quote token on the platform.
- StonkFun has become the first integration to use the new model after changes to Raydium programs, aggregators and trading terminals.
- StonkFun said deployment costs have fallen to 0.03 SOL from 0.29 SOL, while liquidity fees can be directed back into liquidity.
- The upgrade expands LaunchLab more than a year after Raydium introduced the platform following Pump.fun’s move to its own PumpSwap exchange.
According to Raydium’s Sept. 7 announcement on X, LaunchLab can now pair a newly launched token with any quote token supported through Raydium, removing the fixed pairing structure used by many token launch platforms. Raydium said the upgrade brings more flexible token pairing, deeper liquidity and lower fees for memecoin trading.
LaunchOnSF confirmed that its StonkFun platform is the first integration partner to bring the feature live. Its team spent the previous week preparing the integration, which required changes across Raydium’s programs, trading terminals and aggregators before custom quote tokens could be supported.
Raydium LaunchLab now supports custom token pairs
Under the new system, creators can select the quote token used for a LaunchLab deployment, allowing communities to build markets around assets other than the standard quote tokens commonly used for new Solana launches.
Raydium described the feature as the ability to launch “any token, paired with any quote token.” LaunchOnSF said Raydium updated its programs to accommodate custom quote and reward tokens, while aggregators and trading terminals needed to support routing for the resulting pairs.
The integration covers permissionless deployments, bonding curves and constant product market maker pools. LaunchOnSF said deployment costs through StonkFun have been reduced to 0.03 SOL from 0.29 SOL, while liquidity provider fees can be directed back into liquidity.
Developers do not have to use the StonkFun API to deploy tokens and can construct transactions themselves. LaunchOnSF said the system was built to reduce problems it had encountered with snipers and launches concentrated in a single wallet.
Ahead of the integration, StonkFun reported more than $392 million in total trading volume, including roughly $219 million routed through Raydium. The platform had generated $1.21 million in revenue and distributed more than $5.35 million in rewards to ecosystem holders.
More than $705,000 had been spent on buybacks and burns of its ecosystem token, while another $68,000 went toward buying and burning tokens from its 10 largest ecosystem projects, according to figures published by LaunchOnSF.
LaunchLab followed Pump.fun’s move away from Raydium
Raydium first disclosed LaunchLab in March 2025 after Pump.fun began working on its own automated market maker. The platform offered creators different pricing curves and allowed third party interfaces to build on the underlying infrastructure and set their own transaction fees.
Crypto.news previously reported on Raydium’s LaunchLab plans in March 2025. An anonymous Raydium developer said at the time that the product had been under development for several months but had initially been kept on the sidelines while Pump.fun continued using Raydium for liquidity.
LaunchLab officially went live in April 2025, allowing users to create, customize and trade tokens through Raydium. Projects crossing the original 85 SOL threshold were automatically moved into Raydium’s automated market maker.
Raydium introduced customizable bonding curves, no migration cost and a 1% trading fee under the initial model. The protocol said 25% of trading fees collected through LaunchLab would be used to buy back RAY.
More than 10 projects had passed the 85 SOL threshold shortly after LaunchLab opened, while RAY rose roughly 13% following the launch before giving back part of the move.
LaunchLab arrived after Pump.fun changed a relationship that had directed a steady flow of newly created memecoins toward Raydium.
Tokens launched through Pump.fun had historically moved into Raydium liquidity pools after completing their bonding curves. Pump.fun began testing its own automated market maker in February 2025, opening a path for graduated tokens to remain inside its own trading infrastructure.
PumpSwap ended Pump.fun’s reliance on Raydium
Pump.fun formally moved away from the previous setup when it launched the PumpSwap DEX in March 2025.
Built around a constant product automated market maker similar to Raydium v4 and Uniswap v2, PumpSwap allowed tokens completing Pump.fun bonding curves to migrate directly to its own liquidity pools. Users could create pools, provide liquidity and trade tokens without sending graduated launches to Raydium.
PumpSwap introduced instant migrations and removed the six SOL migration fee previously associated with the process. The platform initially charged 0.25% on trades, allocating 0.20% to liquidity providers and 0.05% to the protocol.
Trading activity climbed quickly. PumpSwap captured 21% of Solana DEX trading about a week after launch, with cumulative volume exceeding $1.2 billion. Raydium remained ahead with a 57.4% share at the time.
By March 30, PumpSwap had recorded $2.43 billion in volume, alongside $5.4 million in protocol fees, around 700,000 active wallets and 30.59 million swaps. Raydium accounted for 74% of Solana DEX volume on that date, compared with PumpSwap’s 8%.
Raydium had entered the contest from a strong position in memecoin trading. A CEX.io report showed its memecoin volume share rising from 77% to 83% during the first quarter of 2025.
Pump.fun was responsible for more than half of daily SPL token creation at the time, with tokens previously flowing into Raydium after meeting Pump.fun’s graduation requirements. That pipeline changed once PumpSwap began taking the migrations directly.
Raydium remains a major Solana trading venue
Despite heavier competition among Solana exchanges and launchpads, Raydium has remained one of the network’s largest execution venues.
Across 2025, the protocol processed $352.8 billion in execution layer DEX volume. Meteora followed with $113.7 billion, while Orca and SolFi recorded $103.9 billion and $97.9 billion, respectively.
More recent activity has remained spread across several Solana venues. On Aug. 21, 2026, Solana generated approximately $2.8 billion in daily decentralized exchange spot volume. PumpSwap processed roughly $485 million, followed by BisonFi at $466 million, Orca at $307 million, Raydium at $260 million and Manifest at $218 million.
The five platforms together accounted for approximately $1.74 billion of the network’s daily total.
LaunchLab’s latest update changes the type of markets that can be created through Raydium’s launch infrastructure. Instead of requiring creators to launch against a predetermined quote asset, StonkFun deployments can select another supported token and carry that pairing through the bonding curve and subsequent liquidity setup.
Raydium ecosystem contributor Infra said the structure lets a community pair a meme token with another asset its users already follow and use the same asset for rewards. LaunchOnSF became the first partner to put that model into production through StonkFun following the Sept. 7 rollout.
South Korea’s National Tax Service ruled on Aug. 28 that residents must continue reporting qualifying cryptocurrency accounts held with bankrupt overseas exchanges, even when trading and withdrawals are unavailable.
Summary
- Korean residents must report qualifying overseas crypto accounts even when bankrupt exchanges block withdrawals entirely.
- Reporting applies when combined foreign account balances exceed 500 million won at any month-end annually.
- Affected taxpayers must submit declarations during June of the following calendar year to Korean authorities.
- Digital assets have been included in South Korea’s foreign account reporting regime since 2023 filings.
- Reported overseas digital asset holdings fell 5.4% to 10.5 trillion won in the 2026 disclosure cycle.
The National Tax Service issued its interpretation after a Korean resident asked whether an inaccessible exchange balance still qualified as an overseas financial account.
The taxpayer was a creditor of an overseas cryptocurrency exchange that entered bankruptcy in November 2022. The account holder could no longer trade or withdraw the assets and had entered the exchange’s distribution process.
The taxpayer was receiving partial bankruptcy distributions through a domestic foreign-currency account. However, the NTS concluded that the original overseas account remained subject to reporting because it had been opened with a foreign virtual asset service provider to trade digital assets.
The decision concerns disclosure obligations rather than whether the inaccessible assets generate taxable income. Reporting an account does not by itself establish that tax is owed on its entire balance.
The 500 million won threshold applies across accounts
Korean residents and domestic corporations generally must report when their combined overseas financial account balances exceed 500 million won, approximately $350,000, at the end of any month during the relevant calendar year.
Balances across qualifying foreign accounts are aggregated when applying the threshold. The rule can therefore apply even when no single account independently exceeds 500 million won.
Taxpayers must submit the report during June of the following year. The filing identifies the foreign financial institution, account information and reportable balance.
Digital assets were added to the foreign financial account regime beginning with the 2023 reporting cycle. Accounts held through overseas cryptocurrency exchanges can therefore qualify alongside foreign deposits, securities, funds and other covered financial assets.
Self-custody wallets are treated differently because they are not accounts opened with overseas virtual asset service providers. Crypto.news previously reported that decentralized wallets were excluded from overseas account declarations under the NTS interpretation.
The latest ruling clarifies that an exchange’s insolvency does not produce the same result. A customer can retain a reportable account or claim against the exchange even after losing normal control over the assets.
Bankruptcy creates a difficult valuation question
The NTS interpretation confirms that the account must be reported, but the publicly available summary does not fully explain how taxpayers should value a disputed or partially recoverable bankruptcy claim.
An exchange interface might display the customer’s original token balance even when the bankruptcy estate cannot return all assets. The value eventually distributed may differ substantially from that displayed balance.
The legal interpretation arose from a taxpayer already receiving partial distributions. It does not establish that every reported account balance will equal the amount recovered through bankruptcy.
Affected account holders may need records showing monthly balances, exchange statements, bankruptcy claims and distributions. Those documents can help establish what existed in the account and what was later recovered.
Exchange bankruptcy can leave customers waiting years for repayment. The FTX estate, for example, began a multibillion-dollar creditor repayment process after customers lost access to funds held on the platform.
The NTS ruling means Korean creditors cannot assume that frozen balances disappear from their disclosure obligations while those proceedings continue.
Overseas crypto disclosures fell to 10.5 trillion won
Korean taxpayers reported 10.5 trillion won in overseas digital assets during the 2026 disclosure cycle, according to figures attributed to the National Tax Service. The total declined 5.4% from the previous year.
Individual holdings increased 5.4% to 9.8 trillion won. Corporate holdings dropped 61.1% to approximately 700 billion won, producing the decline in the combined total.
The NTS attributed the overall reduction to a broad fall in asset prices. The figures represent balances disclosed through overseas financial account reports, not the full cryptocurrency holdings of every Korean resident.
South Korea’s total reported overseas financial accounts reached 107.1 trillion won in the latest cycle. The number of reporting individuals and companies rose 9.1% to 7,484, according to the published results.
The disclosure requirement is separate from South Korea’s planned tax on cryptocurrency gains. The country currently plans to apply a combined 22% tax to qualifying digital asset income from Jan. 1, 2027.
That future tax will also cover activity on overseas exchanges and private wallets. As crypto.news reported, annual gains above the 2.5 million won deduction would face a 20% national tax and 2% local income tax.
What affected account holders must do next
Residents whose combined overseas account balances exceeded the threshold during 2026 will generally need to file their disclosures in June 2027.
Customers of bankrupt exchanges should retain account records even if the platform no longer provides normal access. Bankruptcy notices, claim approvals and payment records may also be required to explain differences between reported balances and recovered funds.
The NTS is preparing broader enforcement tools ahead of the 2027 crypto income tax. In related coverage, the agency was reported to be developing wallet-tracing capabilities for overseas transactions.
South Korea also plans to exchange crypto transaction information with participating jurisdictions through the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. The new data channels could make previously undisclosed overseas exchange accounts easier to identify.
Ripple has expanded XRP’s presence in major U.S. college sports through a multi-year sponsorship with the University of Florida that will put the token’s logo on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Summary
- Ripple has signed a multi year partnership with the University of Florida that will put XRP branding on the football field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
- The deal covers digital properties and event signage, while Ripple will support financial and technology education for student athletes and the campus community.
- Florida becomes Ripple’s latest major college sports partner after the company put XRP branding on University of Kansas athletics uniforms earlier this year.
- XRP traded near $1.41 on Friday as spot XRP ETF demand cooled, with cumulative net inflows remaining around $1.6 billion.
Florida Athletics said Friday that XRP branding will appear on the football field at the 88,548-seat stadium beginning this season, while the partnership will extend to digital properties and event signage across Gainesville.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Ripple has committed to supporting financial and technology education for student-athletes and the university community, covering subjects across traditional finance and digital assets.
The agreement gives Ripple another major college athletics sponsorship only two months after it signed a similar deal with the University of Kansas.
XRP branding is coming to the Swamp
At Florida, Ripple is pairing XRP marketing with educational programs designed for students and athletes. The arrangement places the cryptocurrency inside one of the largest college sports programs in the Southeastern Conference.
University of Florida Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said the school has a history of adopting technology to improve its programs and fan experience.
“Ripple has established itself as an innovative leader in financial technology, and we’re excited to welcome XRP to Gator Nation,” Stricklin said.
The field placement will give XRP exposure during Florida Gators home football games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, commonly known as the Swamp. Digital placements and event signage will keep the branding visible outside football games during the multi-year agreement.
Ripple has already tested the college sports strategy at another major NCAA program. As crypto.news previously reported, the company signed a five-year sponsorship with the University of Kansas in July that put XRP branding on Jayhawks athletics uniforms.
The Kansas agreement covered football, basketball and other university teams, making XRP the first cryptocurrency to appear on the jerseys of a major NCAA Division I athletics program. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, a University of Kansas alumnus, publicly promoted the partnership after it was announced.
Education was part of that agreement as well, with Ripple extending its existing relationship with the university into athletics, financial education and blockchain research.
Ripple expands its XRP college sports strategy
Ripple’s move into college athletics has drawn attention beyond the two university partnerships.
After the Kansas deal, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz defended XRP advertising in college sports after critics questioned whether cryptocurrency promotion should face tighter restrictions.
Schwartz argued in July that truthful advertising for XRP receives commercial speech protections under the First Amendment, citing previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings involving advertising for lawful products. Commercial speech can still be regulated under U.S. law, meaning those protections do not prevent every potential restriction on advertising.
The Florida agreement takes the strategy from uniforms to the playing field itself. Ripple has not disclosed whether more college programs are being considered for similar partnerships.
The sponsorship campaign is running alongside a much larger expansion of Ripple’s financial infrastructure businesses, including payments, custody, corporate treasury services and its Ripple USD stablecoin.
RLUSD crossed $2 billion in market capitalization in August, less than two years after its December 2024 launch, according to Ripple. Nearly $1 billion of the stablecoin had been issued on the XRP Ledger when the company announced the milestone.
Standard Custody issues RLUSD under New York regulatory oversight, while Ripple has been building stablecoin settlement and treasury products around the asset.
XRP price holds near $1.41
XRP’s market reaction has been limited despite the new Florida sponsorship.
The token traded near $1.41 on Friday, gaining 0.6% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data cited in the original report. XRP was up roughly 34.9% over the past 30 days but remained approximately 49.8% lower over the past year.
Institutional demand through U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds has cooled after becoming a major source of inflows earlier in 2026.
ETF flows were essentially flat on Sept. 4 after the funds recently ended an inflow streak. Cumulative net inflows remained close to $1.6 billion, while Decrypt’s XRP ETF tracker classified market sentiment as neutral.
The slowdown had already become visible in August. Weekly U.S. spot XRP ETF net inflows fell 93% from $14.86 million to $1.01 million during the week ending Aug. 8.
Regulated XRP products have continued appearing in U.S. fund filings despite the weaker pace of fresh capital. SEC filings dated Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 listed three XRP-linked ETFs, including ProShares products and a Cyber Hornet strategy fund combining S&P 500 equities with XRP exposure.
Seven U.S. spot XRP ETFs had accumulated $1.57 billion in net inflows by Aug. 24.
Ripple builds visibility outside crypto markets
The Florida and Kansas agreements put XRP branding in front of college sports audiences while Ripple continues developing businesses that do not depend exclusively on the token.
Over the past several years, the company has moved into custody, stablecoin payments, prime brokerage and corporate treasury management through product launches and acquisitions. RLUSD has become part of that strategy as Ripple develops payment and settlement services for institutions.
Ripple launched enterprise tools earlier this year that allow corporate finance teams to manage fiat currencies, RLUSD, XRP and other digital assets within existing treasury workflows. The platform builds on the company’s acquisition of treasury management software provider GTreasury.
XRP remains closely associated with Ripple’s public identity despite the company’s expansion into other financial products. The Florida partnership continues that association by promoting XRP itself, not Ripple’s stablecoin or one of its institutional services.
The University of Kansas agreement followed the same approach, placing XRP branding directly on athletic uniforms while combining the sponsorship with blockchain and financial education programs.
At Florida, the logo will move onto the football field this season, accompanied by digital branding and event signage throughout the multi-year partnership.
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