blockchain

a16z crypto stated that one of the core values of blockchain is "creating entirely new markets." By enabling permissionless issuance and global distribution, it breaks through the long-standing limitations of traditional financial markets, which are constrained by listing committees, legal frameworks, and geographic segmentation, allowing market supply to better match global potential demand.a16z crypto believes that almost all representative markets in the crypto industry benefit from this mechanism, ranging from perpetual contracts, spot DEX, prediction markets to lending, meme coins, NFTs, and the tokenization of real-world assets. Among these, perpetual contracts are the most direct manifestation of this trend. In July of this year, the on-chain RWA perpetual contract trading volume reached an annualized scale of $1.4 trillion, accounting for about half of Hyperliquid's trading volume. With mechanisms like HIP-3 and HIP-4 lowering market issuance thresholds, a16z crypto expects that on-chain markets will continue to expand into commodities, foreign exchange, indices, 24/7 stock exposure, as well as risk assets such as CPI, computing power, music, social trends, and sports, which previously lacked mature financial expressions.

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, the cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service provider Blockchain.com plans to complete its initial public offering (IPO) this year, aiming to raise approximately $500 million, with a target valuation range of $4 billion to $6 billion.Informed sources stated that if the listing process requires it, the company is also willing to accept a smaller issuance plan. Blockchain.com reached a valuation of $14 billion during the last peak of the cryptocurrency market, and this target valuation is significantly lower than that level. In May of this year, the company secretly submitted a draft registration document to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pave the way for a potential IPO, at that time not disclosing the number of shares to be issued or the price range.This listing plan comes as the capital market environment for cryptocurrency companies is reopening. Since mid-August, when the U.S. Treasury announced a significant increase in long-term Treasury bond repurchases, the price of Bitcoin has risen by more than 30%, driving an overall rebound in the cryptocurrency market. However, market conditions remain challenging; according to Bloomberg data, the stock prices of recently listed companies Gemini, BitGo, and eToro have fallen by about 50% to 80% from their post-listing highs.

According to PR Newswire, Brazilian fintech company NG.CASH has completed a strategic financing of 15 million dollars, led by Blockchain Capital. Since its establishment in 2021, the company's total financing has exceeded 65 million dollars.It is reported that NG.CASH holds two licenses issued by the Central Bank of Brazil for direct credit companies and payment institutions, and is applying for a virtual asset service provider license. Since its establishment in 2021, NG.CASH has surpassed 10 million accounts, with platform transaction volume reaching several billion dollars.

Bitget has officially opened BTC withdrawal services today at 16:00 (UTC+8). Bitget CEO Gracy shared the latest progress on the recovery during a community live stream: currently, the BTC withdrawal channel is running smoothly, and the first batch of applications has been processed and credited.According to real-time data disclosed during the live stream, as of 16:50 (UTC+8), the platform has processed approximately 7,683 BTC withdrawal applications, with a total amount processed of about 3,609 BTC, and there are no order backlogs. Among them, the first batch of about 6,946 withdrawal applications has received blockchain confirmation, and the related applications are still being processed in an orderly manner.According to the previously announced timeline, the ETH-related network will open for withdrawals on September 29 at 16:00 (UTC+8), and the USDT-related network will open for withdrawals on September 30 at 16:00 (UTC+8); withdrawals for other tokens, fiat, and C2C services will gradually resume starting from October 2 at 16:00 (UTC+8).

Zano, the privacy blockchain, announced a network update stating that the core team discovered a serious vulnerability in the Gateway Address, allowing unauthorized ZANO and fUSD to enter circulation. Investigations show that the wallet's payment keys or the privacy of ordinary transactions were not compromised, and Zano's core consensus mechanism was also unaffected.The team has developed a solution to clear all unauthorized activities by coordinating a network upgrade. To ensure network integrity, the Zano blockchain has been restarted from block height 3,833,000 (i.e., before the 6th hard fork), affecting approximately one month of on-chain historical records. Nodes, miners, stakers, and related services need to adopt the emergency update as soon as possible.The team stated that they will work with affected projects to address the losses and will announce compensation and claims processes, striving to compensate the community. Technical reasons and related code review results will be disclosed in the follow-up.

Vitalik posted on the X platform, stating that he attempted to briefly explain the true meaning of the plans for Ethereum that forked after Hegota. Ethereum is no longer just a blockchain; it is a hybrid architecture that combines blockchain with modern cryptography, enabling more powerful features.Related plans include FOCIL, EIP-8288, streamlined consensus, state management, formal verification, memory pool improvements with privacy features, and long-term obfuscation techniques.

Yuga Labs' Vice President of Blockchain, Quit, posted on the X platform stating that the claims portal for the NFT theft incident currently under construction is expected to go live in the next few hours, and a dedicated address nftsaresafu.eth has been created to accept ETH and other token donations.Quit mentioned that in addition to spending a significant amount of time, he paid approximately $7,500 in gas fees last night to handle related matters and thanked the community for their support through channels like X Money.Previously, it was reported that the NFT marketplace Magic Eden appeared to have a security vulnerability, with white hat hackers transferring 3,832 NFTs from hundreds of wallets, valued at approximately $1.5 million.

Summer Mersinger, former commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will step down as CEO of the industry advocacy organization Blockchain Association at the end of the year and leave the organization. The organization announced on Friday that Mersinger will officially resign on October 16, and her predecessor, Kristin Smith, will return as interim CEO. Mersinger joined Blockchain Association in June 2025, after leaving the CFTC three years before the end of her second commissioner term.When discussing her departure, Mersinger stated that she came here from the CFTC because she believes the industry deserves clear rules and a credible and unified representative to speak for it in Washington. The Blockchain Association highlighted Mersinger's work in promoting the GENIUS Act and helping to achieve regulatory clarity at the SEC and CFTC in its statement.Notably, the organization did not mention the Digital Asset Market Clear Act currently under consideration in the Senate. This bill failed to gain enough support from Democratic and Republican lawmakers in a procedural vote earlier this month, and many experts expect the legislation to be shelved until 2027. The Blockchain Association did not immediately respond to inquiries about Mersinger's plans for 2027.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has made it clear that commodity companies will not be penalized for allocating investor funds to tokenized assets. The CFTC also pointed out that the current regulatory framework allows institutions to use blockchain technology to maintain official records.

Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stated at the SIFMA Digital Assets Conference that regulators should reconsider traditional financial monitoring methods, shifting from "collecting more data" to utilizing new technologies for more precise verification.Peirce mentioned that technologies like zero-knowledge proofs can verify whether users meet requirements such as age, citizenship, accredited investor status, or sanctions lists without disclosing underlying personal information like names, income, or addresses.Hester Peirce suggested that the federal government and regulatory agencies adopt attribute-based verification when technically feasible and allow registered entities to rely more on third-party identity verification to reduce the redundant collection and storage of sensitive information.Peirce also stated that public blockchains have permanent, public, and auditable transaction records, and combined with blockchain forensic tools, they are expected to enhance the ability to track illegal activities while reducing unnecessary data collection.

According to GMGN data monitoring, the market capitalization of the Meme coin RuneScape Gold (GP) on the Solana chain briefly surpassed 30 million USD, reaching a historic high, currently reported at 27.4 million USD, with a 24-hour increase of over 101%. GP is themed around the classic game "RuneScape" gold and is paired with tokenized gold GLDx. A 3% tax is charged on each transfer of GP, and the accumulated fees are periodically converted by StonkFun and distributed in GLDx form to eligible holders proportionally, forming a mechanism of "holding coins to earn exposure rewards to gold prices." It is a highly volatile Meme asset that integrates nostalgic gaming narratives, trading tax dividends, and the concept of tokenized gold.ChainCatcher reminds users that Meme coins generally have no practical use cases, and price fluctuations are significant, so investment should be approached with caution.

According to PR Newswire, Blockchain.com and the New York Stock Exchange Group (NYSE Group) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), planning to provide Blockchain.com’s global users with trading access to tokenized U.S. listed stocks and ETFs through the digital ATS platform previously announced by NYSE, with the implementation still pending regulatory approval.The cooperation includes two-way market data distribution: ICE Data Services, a subsidiary of NYSE, plans to distribute Blockchain.com’s cryptocurrency market data and analysis to its subscription clients; Blockchain.com will integrate data sources from ICE and NYSE to provide real-time stock quotes for over 44 million registered accounts.Citi Institute predicts that the market size of tokenized assets will reach $5.5 trillion in the baseline scenario by 2030. Tokenized stocks offer advantages such as fragmented ownership, round-the-clock trading, access for global investors, and faster on-chain settlement.

According to Cointelegraph, the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) stated in a joint risk update that advancements in quantum computing could undermine the cryptographic systems that secure blockchain transactions, communications, and databases.Google Quantum AI researchers estimated in March that the number of physical quantum bits required to break the cryptographic techniques used by many cryptocurrencies is about 20 times less than previously estimated. There currently exists no computer capable of executing such an attack.Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp and others proposed in February to gradually phase out the current signature scheme and to restrict the usage of untransferred funds five years after the proposal is activated; this proposal has not yet been adopted. The Ethereum Foundation plans to enable Ethereum's execution, consensus, and data layers to be resistant to quantum attacks by December 2029.

The WeChat Security Center has released a governance announcement regarding the crackdown on organizers and promoters of illegal activities such as pyramid schemes and fraud. Recently, some black and gray market accounts have falsely claimed to be "national projects," "ethnic asset unfreezing," and "blockchain virtual currencies, stablecoins," using high returns as bait to lure users into groups and implement pyramid-style "referral" schemes. Subsequently, they induce users to input their account passwords and download fraudulent imitation apps through forged links, ultimately committing property fraud or account theft.WeChat officials stated that once verified, they will take tiered penalties against violating accounts based on the severity of the circumstances, in accordance with relevant laws and platform regulations. This includes banning community functions, restricting feature usage, and permanently banning accounts. They also remind users to be wary of Ponzi schemes that claim to be associated with blockchain but lack substantive technology and applications, and to avoid participating in paying entry fees, developing downlines, and downloading applications from unofficial channels.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, delivered a keynote speech at the 12th Global Blockchain Summit, stating that the blockchain was initially a primary tool. Although it has characteristics such as openness, neutrality, and security, it is not scalable and is completely transparent, lacking privacy protection mechanisms.Subsequently, privacy transactions and scalable verification brought by zero-knowledge proofs have changed this situation and have been transformed from planning into actual EIPs, included in the Ethereum roadmap. Technologies such as fully homomorphic encryption are also beginning to be applied, and indistinguishable obfuscation may also be applied on-chain in the future. Beyond privacy, the parallel construction and proof of blocks can make extreme scalability possible, and industry thinking has shifted from digital assets to digital assets plus information, from purely on-chain to user-end, transaction memory pools, a complete pipeline on-chain, and from who can send what to who can see what.Currently, blockchain has gradually evolved from a simple ledger to a cryptography-based secure computing network. With the development of AI, providing cryptographic rules to AI for automated formal verification can significantly enhance verification efficiency, allowing the chain to carry more possibilities.

The public chain Arc officially announced that Circle's on-chain foreign exchange engine StableFX has now launched on the Arc mainnet. Arc is the public chain launched by Circle, aimed at stablecoins and payment scenarios.The global foreign exchange market has a daily trading volume of nearly 10 trillion USD, most of which still relies on traditional trading hours. StableFX supports round-the-clock settlement, allowing for near-instant or delayed settlement, where both parties can either receive funds simultaneously or not at all to reduce settlement risk. A single contract can trade with multiple vetted counterparties and obtain pricing through a unified RFQ model.