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According to CoinDesk, Franklin Templeton has expanded its "Over-the-Counter Collateral Program" to Bybit, allowing users of the exchange to use their tokenized money market fund shares for cryptocurrency trading. Users can use the shares as collateral to borrow stablecoins USDT or USDC, while the underlying assets continue to generate returns. The relevant shares represent approximately $686 million in net assets.The underlying assets will not be transferred to Bybit but will be held off-chain by the regulated custody platform ByCustody, with their value mirrored in the Bybit trading environment, thereby generating returns while releasing trading liquidity. The shares are issued through the Benji technology platform, which is Franklin Templeton's proprietary blockchain-integrated record-keeping and transfer agency infrastructure, currently paying an annualized return of 3.7% based on the latest 7-day interest rate.This is not Franklin Templeton's first foray into over-the-counter collateral partnerships, as it has previously offered tokenized money market funds to Binance and OKX clients. Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton, stated that investors can now use collateral more efficiently across major exchanges and earn returns from it, which is crucial for ecosystem growth. This expansion also reflects industry trends, with platforms like Crypto.com and Deribit allowing qualified users to use BlackRock's BUIDL fund as trading collateral.

Bitget has officially opened the phased withdrawal feature as scheduled, and BTC withdrawal services are now available. According to the previously announced timeline, ETH-related networks will open for withdrawals on September 29 at 16:00, and USDT-related networks will open for withdrawals on September 30 at 16:00.Withdrawals for other tokens, fiat currency, and C2C services will gradually resume starting from October 2 at 16:00. Currently, Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen and the head of the Greater China region, Xie Jiayin, are reviewing and explaining this security incident through a public live broadcast, updating on the latest developments, and answering user questions on-site.

BIT announces that the Hong Kong stock trading feature will enter internal testing starting today, with a targeted public beta launch on October 5 and trading opening on October 12. Users can directly participate in trading using stablecoins.The first phase supports full trading of all stocks on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's main board and the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), IPO subscriptions, and financing trading. Hong Kong stocks and U.S. stocks share the same account system, allowing users with a BIT U.S. stock account to directly enable Hong Kong stock trading. During the public beta period, priority experience slots will be granted to invited users; from the start of the public beta until the first month after the official launch (ending November 11), all users can enjoy zero-commission trading, zero interest and zero subscription fees for financing new shares, a HK$100 Hong Kong stock platform fee deduction card, and a Hong Kong stock L2 market data card. Specific qualifications and rules are subject to BIT's official announcement.Elio Cui, head of BIT's brokerage business, stated: "The launch of BIT's Hong Kong stock trading provides customers with a more comprehensive cross-market investment tool. As a key hub connecting domestic and foreign liquidity, the Hong Kong capital market concentrates scarce high-growth and high-dividend quality targets, making it a core channel for investors to conduct cross-regional asset allocation and share regional growth dividends. Relying on the BIT account system, investors can flexibly allocate global mainstream quality assets such as U.S. stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and digital assets, truly achieving 'one account, global allocation' investment efficiency."

The Hong Kong Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC) announced the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, expanding regulatory cooperation beyond the oversight of financial reporting and related auditing work of listed entities.This includes the financial and compliance reporting of licensed corporations, SFC-licensed virtual asset service providers, SFC-recognized funds, and registered open-ended fund companies, as well as the related auditing and assurance work conducted by their auditors.

According to Digital Asset, Yoon Jong-joon, the digital financial policy officer of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea, stated that they are considering introducing a market maker system for the virtual asset market to enhance market efficiency and stability. Although the current "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" prohibits market-making activities, this move indicates that the FSC intends to revisit and consider the introduction of this mechanism in the second phase of the legislative process.Yoon Jong-joon also mentioned that exchanges need to have sufficient capital and operational capabilities, and core functions (such as transaction execution, trading support, and abnormal trading monitoring) may shift from self-regulatory oversight to public regulation; governance rules related to major shareholders and management are expected to be strengthened; after the bill is enacted, it is expected to promote business diversification, the establishment of a trustworthy trading environment, a digital asset issuance and disclosure system, a Korean won stablecoin, and enhanced user protection, among other things.

According to CoinDesk, French Hill, the chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, stated that tokenization has shifted from being viewed as a "futuristic" concept during the discussions of FIT21 and the CLARITY Act to a reality that is happening in real-time.He said, "We may really be tokenizing an asset like a real security— in fact, we are doing that right now."

Bitget CEO stated that the attacker's address has been publicly listed and is under continuous tracking. Bitget calls on THORChain to refuse service to these addresses. Decentralization is a design principle and should not serve as a shield to facilitate known stolen funds.

According to Crowdfund Insider, SoFi Bank announced that it has used its own stablecoin SoFiUSD for transaction settlement across the entire Mastercard card business network, claiming to be the first national bank in the United States to achieve this model. SoFi previously estimated that after migrating all its debit and credit card operations to stablecoin settlement, the annual transaction volume would exceed $25 billion.SoFi launched SoFiUSD in December 2025 and opened it to users in the SoFi app in May of this year; the two parties announced their partnership in March of this year. RS2 CEO Radi El Haj stated that stablecoin settlement has moved from the previous pilot phase to actual operational phase covering the entire Mastercard network, with related settlements occurring at the underlying level of the existing card payment system, requiring no changes to the current payment methods for consumers and merchants.

Goldman Sachs expects that the five largest hyperscale cloud service providers in the United States will increase their spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure by 54% by 2027, reaching $1.2 trillion, exceeding Wall Street's expectations.

The Central Bank of Brazil issued resolutions No. 588 and No. 589, requiring virtual asset service providers (VASP) to report self-custody wallet transactions that amount to or exceed $10,000, and to strengthen anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations.Resolution No. 588 stipulates that relevant transaction data will be submitted to the Financial Activities Control Council (COAF). This agency may compile transactions based on this data and establish a self-custody address database to record the asset status of Brazilian users holding cryptocurrencies through authorized centralized exchanges. Resolution No. 589 prohibits conducting business with virtual asset service institutions or entities operating in Brazil without authorization. The new regulations will take effect on October 1, 2026, and currently, only 5 VASPs have applied for licenses to operate in Brazil.

The cryptocurrency payment card service Gnosis Pay announced that it will close its card business on December 20 and shift its focus to a B2B model.Gnosis Pay stated that funds in users' Safe accounts will still be accessible after the service ends, but if users wish to continue using a card for spending, they will need to open a partner account and switch to a new card.

According to The Block, Bitcoin mining service company Luxor is expanding its business into the AI infrastructure sector and extending its operations in energy, hardware, software, and computing power trading to this sector.Luxor's hardware brokerage has previously traded over 1 billion dollars in Bitcoin mining ASICs.

According to Reuters, the European Central Bank has launched the Pontes service, connecting its payment system with blockchain-based financial markets, allowing banks and investors to complete on-chain transaction settlements using euros supported by the European Central Bank, rather than relying on stablecoins or other private currencies.The first batch of participating institutions includes Deutsche Bank, Santander Bank, and the clearing institution Clearstream Bank, with the service operating during weekdays from 8:00 to 16:00 Central European Time.

According to Bitcoin News, attackers accessed a small number of Blink hosted accounts and withdrew funds.Blink stated that the vast majority of funds remain secure, and non-custodial wallets were unaffected; the Bitcoin payment protocol Spark it uses supports multiple Lightning Network wallets, but it has not yet been confirmed that Spark is the source of this security incident.

Vietnam plans to issue licenses to the first batch of cryptocurrency service providers under a pilot legal framework in 2026, allowing the first digital asset platforms to begin operations. Nguyen Duc Chi, Deputy Minister of Finance of Vietnam, met with Mariana Kuhnel, Executive Director of the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), in Vienna to discuss bilateral cooperation and the exchange of financial regulatory experiences.Vu Thi Chan Phuong, Chairwoman of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, stated that the regulatory mechanism will cover service providers and investor transactions, focusing on risk management, investor asset protection, and anti-money laundering. Kuhnel proposed that both parties hold an online technical seminar and strengthen coordination through the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that Deutsche Bank plans to offer Bitcoin and digital asset custody services for European institutions and enterprises by the end of 2026, pending regulatory review approval.Corporate Bank Co-Head Gerald Podobnik stated that this service will run parallel to the existing system, with specific configurations determined by client needs, regulatory requirements, and the bank's risk appetite.

PonyGo, a global one-stop Web3 financial ecosystem aggregation service provider, announced that it has received strategic investment from Pantera Capital. According to the introduction, this investment will be used to support the in-depth layout of multi-track applications in the crypto ecosystem and to build four core business matrices: AI gun pool asset management, RWA independent station service providers, Meme aggregation launch pads, crypto travel OTA, ecological liquidity, community networks, and long-term development in global market construction.The two parties will engage in deep collaboration in areas such as AI, Web3.0, RWA independent stations, and crypto travel OTA, jointly promoting the comprehensive and real implementation of financial ecosystem aggregation, and building a stable, trustworthy, and sustainable global Web3 ecosystem.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee advanced the American Reserve Modernization Act (H.R. 8957) with a vote of 28 in favor and 21 against. All 28 votes in favor came from Republicans, while all 21 votes against came from Democrats. The bill requires the Treasury Department to establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve and digital asset reserve within 180 days and mandates federal agencies to report their held assets within 60 days.The Bitcoin included in the reserve cannot be sold, exchanged, auctioned, or mortgaged for 20 years. The revised text removes provisions for purchasing more Bitcoin using Federal Reserve funds, gold certificates revaluation, and tariff revenue, adjusting the frequency of reserve proof reporting from quarterly to annually. The bill does not authorize the purchase of Bitcoin but only requires the Treasury and Commerce Departments to study acquisition plans with no cost to taxpayers.

According to the official announcement, Bitget has now completed the integration of USD Coin (USDC) on the Arc network and has simultaneously opened deposit and withdrawal services.

Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire posted on the X platform that the Circle x402 Facilitator service has launched on Arc, which supports the settlement of USDC on Arc, Base, and Polygon PoS through EIP-3009.In addition, with the launch of Arc, the market demand for cirBTC is increasing. Currently, Circle Mint customers can directly mint and redeem cirBTC natively within the app, with each cirBTC backed 1:1 by 1 native BTC and redeemable for native BTC at a 1:1 ratio.