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According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin software provider Breez announced that applications built on its Breez SDK now support users receiving stablecoin payments from over 30 networks using their Bitcoin balance.Breez stated that after the recipient selects the network and amount of the payer, the SDK generates a deposit address and displays the amount received, while the payer pays from their wallet as usual; Flashnet completes the exchange in the background, and the funds ultimately enter the recipient's non-custodial wallet in the form of Bitcoin, or in the form of USD if the stable balance feature is used.In June of this year, Breez launched the ability to send USDT/USDC, allowing a single Breez-powered balance to transfer stablecoins bi-directionally across almost all networks. This update is the latest in a series of usability upgrades, following the rollout of features such as Passkey login, Cash App instant account opening, and stable balance. Breez also launched a reference application called Glow in August to showcase the capabilities of the SDK.The Breez SDK is a developer toolkit that allows applications to add Bitcoin payments without having to build their own payment infrastructure, covering wallet creation, sending and receiving, and Lightning Network payments. Developers can provide Bitcoin functionality with minimal code, without needing to run nodes or manage liquidity.In July of this year, Breez announced a partnership with Turnkey, allowing developers to add non-custodial Bitcoin support to wallet applications running on their own servers.

The issuer of the stablecoin USDT, Tether, stated on September 28 that actions involving USDT in 2026 have frozen approximately $550 million, with the related wallets identified by U.S. authorities as being associated with the Central Bank of Iran and the Iranian sanctions network. Tether claimed that its cooperation with U.S. and international authorities has supported over 2,900 investigations globally, with more than 1,600 involving U.S. law enforcement agencies.According to Tether, in April 2026, it assisted in freezing over $344 million USDT across two addresses based on information provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. law enforcement agencies. The next day, OFAC listed these addresses as digital currency identifiers of the Central Bank of Iran, with the sanctions entry associated with the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. In July 2026, the Treasury expanded the designated scope to four additional TRON addresses, with over $130 million USDT frozen across the four wallets.Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that USDT is not a safe haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations, or criminal networks, and that public blockchains allow authorities to see the flow of funds, enabling Tether to take action when law enforcement provides credible information. Tether also mentioned that it collaborates with over 340 law enforcement agencies in 67 countries, and its wallet freezing policy has been aligned with the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list.

The cross-chain liquidity protocol ThorChain's official announcement states that the network interruption is an emergency security mechanism aimed at protecting the protocol's security. The suspension is not a selective freeze of specific funds, nor is it a targeted exchange against individuals.The announcement mentioned that in the security incident in May 2026, 10.7 million dollars were stolen from the liquidity pool. At that time, the attacker's address was not blacklisted, so it could still trade on ThorChain. ThorChain stated that it is a permissionless blockchain platform designed with the intention of not conducting any censorship.

Recently, the Beijing Shijingshan police successfully intercepted a new type of cross-border telecom fraud case, freezing 780,000 yuan in involved funds and returning it to the victims. In this case, 53-year-old Mr. Liu received a fraudulent call from abroad while accompanying his child studying overseas. The scammer impersonated domestic police, fabricated false allegations of money laundering, and induced him to urgently request money transfers from his family in China.The funds were subsequently transferred into the accounts of two other Chinese students studying abroad. Upon investigation, it was found that these three individuals were all victims of the same fraud gang, exhibiting characteristics of "multiple scams in one case, with victims serving as money laundering tools for each other." The scammers first transferred funds into the accounts of some victims, then coerced them into exchanging for U currency to assist in the transfer, which was highly concealed and involved complex cross-border links. The police successfully "awakened" the victims through patient persuasion, preventing greater losses.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated on the X platform that the Bitget bounty recovery program has been launched: a 5% reward for facilitating the freezing of the attackers' funds, and an additional 5% reward for successfully recovering the funds. She called on exchanges, security researchers, and on-chain investigators to participate in tracking and recovery, and thanked Circle and Tether for their swift freezing actions.According to previous reports, Circle and Tether have frozen 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC in addresses related to the Bitget attack, totaling approximately $318,000. Bitget stated that the attack resulted in losses of about $351.6 million, with the attackers breaching the wallet service backend system, forging transfer information, and triggering the authorization signature process, ruling out private key leakage.

According to on-chain data, Tether has successfully frozen 218,000 USDT in the stolen address from Bitget, which is a "three-hop" associated address of the initial stolen address from Bitget. This address remained inactive for over 2.5 hours after being discovered.Crypto KOL tanuki42 initiated a tracking of "Circle vs Tether" at that time and asked which of the two companies would freeze the related assets first.Currently, Circle has frozen the related stolen assets 7 hours and 18 minutes earlier than Tether.

During an interview with The Block at the New York Avalanche Summit, Bart Smith, CEO of Avalanche Treasury Co., stated that the view that block space is not infinite will be tested as AI agents enter the financial market. He pointed out that as long as AI agent activities reach the lower end of market expectations, relevant activities will occur on the blockchain, "there is not enough block space, and block space is no longer infinite."Smith believes that the expected demand for block space will make the technical differences between Layer 1 networks like Avalanche, Solana, and Ethereum even more important. He stated that theoretically, there are many subtle differences between these L1s, which users currently do not need to pay much attention to due to sufficient capacity, but "these differences will become important." The former executive, who worked at Susquehanna for nearly 14 years, also believes that Avalanche is best suited for business applications involving privacy and security.Smith expects that by mid-2027, traditional financial markets will shift to trading five days a week, 24 hours a day, and existing financial infrastructure will be unable to cope with round-the-clock trading. He stated that new infrastructure must be created, and it will not be built in the old way, "but rather built on the blockchain."

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis stated that the recent lawsuit against Tether for freezing $42.4 million in USDT highlights the regulatory gaps in the current crackdown on illegal financial activities in the cryptocurrency industry. She pointed out that stablecoin issuers and trading platforms may face civil litigation risks if they freeze related assets due to suspicions of illegal activities.Lummis indicated that Section 305 of the "Digital Asset Market Structure Clear Act" would grant stablecoin issuers and trading platforms the necessary authority to promptly freeze stablecoins suspected of being involved in illegal activities while avoiding civil liability as a result.She believes that this provision can help the cryptocurrency industry more effectively prevent the flow of illegal funds and address the legal risks faced by issuers and trading platforms when taking compliance measures.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. stated that short-term holders of Bitcoin, holding for no more than 6 months, have transferred a total of 549,300 BTC to exchanges.During the same period, the price of Bitcoin rose from $64,000 to $78,000, an increase of about 21%; after reaching a local high of $81,800, it fell by about 4.1%, but still retained most of the gains.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has released a proposed announcement to suspend the acceptance of new applications for registration of payment system operators (OPS) for 12 months and to implement stricter controls on payment arrangements involving virtual asset service providers (VASP). The BSP stated that this move aims to conduct a comprehensive review of its classification and licensing framework.According to the draft, during the suspension period, the BSP will stop accepting and processing OPS applications. Applications submitted prior to the suspension can continue to be evaluated, but will not be approved or rejected until the suspension ends. Relevant entities are prohibited from conducting business activities that require OPS registration unless they obtain special authorization from the regulatory agency. In addition, BSP-regulated entities providing merchant acquiring services must connect licensed VASPs through direct merchant arrangements, and such relationships will be subject to enhanced due diligence, transaction and settlement limits, and other risk control measures.This requirement applies to virtual asset enterprises licensed, registered, or authorized by the BSP, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines, or other regulatory agencies, with VASPs being categorized alongside betting, gaming, adult industry, and money service businesses. If the draft is ultimately approved, it will take effect 15 days after publication, and the BSP is currently seeking public comments.

According to BeInCrypto, two Thai merchants have sued Tether, claiming that their $42.4 million USDT wallet was blacklisted at the informal request of U.S. government agents without a search warrant or court order.The plaintiffs are seeking to lift the freeze and are claiming damages from Tether for the profits generated from investing the corresponding reserves during the freeze period.

Protocol Watch founder Christine D. Kim stated that Bitcoin Core v32 has completed feature freeze on August 20, and developers are currently focusing on bug fixes and small optimizations, with the official version expected to be released in October this year.The main updates in v32 include increasing block validation speed by up to approximately 3 times through multi-CPU core parallel processing; introducing a global transaction queue and rate limiting to improve node stability during sudden surges in transaction volume; and adding a fee estimation mechanism based on Mempool status to reduce overestimation of fees. This update does not involve changes to the protocol rules at the Bitcoin network level.

The Irish National Police (An Garda Síochána) reported that during a special operation against organized crime in the Galway area, police searched two properties and froze two cryptocurrency accounts worth approximately $900,000 in total. In addition, the police also froze a bank account containing €25,000 (approximately $29,100), and seized €9,300 in cash and drugs valued at approximately €18,300 (including amphetamines and cannabis).A man in his 40s involved in the case has been arrested and charged, and the investigation is ongoing.

Renowned trader Killa stated that from a high time frame structure perspective, there is about an 80% confidence that the bottom for Bitcoin has formed. However, strictly according to technical confirmation standards, the current trend has not yet completed its reversal, as BTC has not yet reclaimed and stabilized above the $83,000 high on a weekly basis.$83,000 is a key position for confirming a substantial trend change. If Bitcoin breaks through and gains market recognition above this range, traders should be cautious about blindly shorting subsequent rises, as shorts may face strong squeezes, pushing the price towards around $95,000. In the short term, he expects the market to remain volatile.

According to Fortune, Bitcoin surged significantly this week, breaking through the previous range of $62,000 to $67,000 that lasted for several weeks, and rising above $77,000 on Friday. The important turning point in the market occurred after the U.S. Treasury announced an expansion of its long-term Treasury bond repurchase program, leading to a decline in long-term U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar, while alternative assets like Bitcoin and gold strengthened simultaneously.The U.S. Treasury stated that it would at least double the scale of long-term Treasury bond repurchases to alleviate the ongoing selling pressure in the bond market. Meanwhile, the total amount of U.S. Treasury debt surpassed $40 trillion, combined with inflation and energy price pressures, raising concerns in the market about the purchasing power of the dollar and long-term fiscal conditions. Funds began to flow into the so-called "debasement trade," with Bitcoin accumulating a rise of over 20% this week.Previously, many traders bet that BTC would continue to be constrained around $67,000, but after the Treasury's actions pushed yields and the dollar down, Bitcoin broke through that price level, forcing short sellers to cover. Since covering positions requires buying BTC, this further drove up the price and triggered more liquidations. According to CoinGlass data, over $4 billion in cryptocurrency short positions have been liquidated during this rally as of Friday.Additionally, Trump urged Congress to advance the CLARITY Act at a cryptocurrency conference held at the White House this week. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig subsequently stated that he would use existing authority to promote the government's cryptocurrency policy agenda, which also provided a policy-level catalyst for this market rally.

According to Coinglass data, the "8.19" surge resulted in a cumulative liquidation of $2.739 billion in short positions and $248 million in long positions. The total liquidation amount in a single day ranks eighth in crypto history, with the single-day short position liquidation amount being the highest ever.It is worth noting that among the top 10 and even the top 30 liquidation events in crypto history, "8.19" is the only event dominated by short position liquidations, while the others were all caused by declines in crypto leading to long position liquidations.

Arthur Hayes reposted his interview video on the X platform, stating that the Ethena (ENA) ecosystem is currently facing a downturn, but as the market environment improves, its yield mechanism may restart. The ENA price has dropped about 99% from its historical high, with pressure from venture capital firms and a sluggish crypto market leading to a decline in yields, causing the entire mechanism to stagnate.Arthur Hayes indicated that if Bitcoin rises and triggers a massive short squeeze, the market basis may quickly widen, and a higher basis would drive Ethena's yield from the current approximately 4% up to 8%-9%. Once yields rebound, Ethena's yield-driven mechanism may re-establish a positive cycle, revitalizing the ecosystem.

CryptoQuant analyst BorisD stated that the main driving force behind this round of Bitcoin's rise is not spot buying, but rather passive buying triggered by the concentrated liquidation of short positions in the Binance futures market.Data shows that Binance's short squeeze value reached 6.94 this week, higher than the 5.38 in November 2024, marking the highest level since then. If there is a lack of sustained spot demand to support it, the futures-driven rebound may still face the risk of a pullback after the momentum weakens.

"BTC OG insider whale" agent Garrett Jin analyzed that Bitcoin's recent breakthrough of $70,000 was driven by multiple positive factors, including the expansion of the U.S. Treasury's bond buyback, the SEC's proposed regulatory framework for crypto assets, and the White House crypto summit. The current price has entered a dense area of trapped positions between the latter half of $60,000 and the lower range of $80,000, with the first resistance level showing signs of loosening.Garrett Jin pointed out that over the past two months, a large amount of new holding costs has accumulated in the area just above $60,000, providing bottom support for this breakthrough. Although the short squeeze triggered by short liquidations may push Bitcoin above $80,000 in the short term, the $80,000 to $82,500 range is a key resistance area to watch, and the short squeeze momentum is difficult to sustain in the long term. If effective absorption of chips can occur below $80,000 before the breakthrough, it would be more beneficial for the healthy development of subsequent trends.On the same day, SK Hynix announced the largest stock buyback and cancellation plan in South Korea's history, committing to return at least 50% of the expected free cash flow before 2027 to shareholders. The stock price surged more than 10% at one point, triggering the buyer's circuit breaker mechanism for the KOSPI index. Analysts believe this move can alleviate market concerns about the declining risk appetite for South Korean semiconductor stocks, but it cannot change the cyclical trend of the memory industry itself.

GnosisDAO approved the transformation of the blockchain network Gnosis Chain from an independent Layer 1 network to a zero-knowledge proof Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) Rollup. The network will eliminate the independent validator set and instead have Ethereum validators complete transaction settlements.The proposal received support from 123,158 GNO, 115 against, and 151 abstentions, with voting involving 54 participants and a total participation of 123,425 GNO, exceeding the quorum threshold of 75,000 GNO. The upgrade is tentatively planned to start at the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, depending on the readiness of EEZ technology.After the upgrade, Gnosis Chain's native smart contracts can call Ethereum in the same transaction and use the returned results, while also accessing Ethereum mainnet assets and liquidity. Gnosis Chain will become the first deployed EEZ instance and will retain existing applications, balances, and xDAI fuel tokens.