suspension

According to official news, the smart contract auditing platform Code4rena has announced that it will gradually cease operations, and the Web3 security company Immunefi will take over its clients and security researchers. Code4rena posted on social media that it has made the decision to shut down and stated that all ongoing competitions and bounty activities will be completed as usual, and existing collaborations will be "properly concluded." Immunefi stated that it will assist in migrating Code4rena's bounty projects, reward structures, and researchers to its platform.Code4rena is known for its "competitive auditing" model, where independent researchers compete to find vulnerabilities in smart contracts for rewards. This shutdown comes less than two years after blockchain security company Zellic acquired Code4rena in 2024. Previously, Code4rena raised $6 million from Paradigm in 2023 for auditing incentives and platform expansion.This shutdown comes at a difficult time for DeFi protocols and the security sector. Data from DefiLlama shows that there were over 20 crypto vulnerability incidents in April alone, setting a monthly record. JPMorgan analysts believe that ongoing DeFi security incidents are limiting major institutional investors from entering the market. Meanwhile, the total value locked in DeFi has decreased from about $160 billion in October to approximately $83 billion currently.

According to market news, the Seoul Administrative Court accepted Bithumb's application for a stay of execution against the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea on April 30, ruling to suspend the 6-month "partial business suspension" sanction imposed on it until the final judgment of the case.Previously, the FIU accused Bithumb of violating the Specific Financial Information Act, involving approximately 6.65 million violations, including failure to fulfill customer verification obligations and trading with unreported cryptocurrency operators, resulting in a fine of 36.8 billion won. The sanction was originally intended to restrict new users from transferring cryptocurrency assets to external addresses. Due to the court's latest ruling, Bithumb will be able to continue its existing business operations during the litigation period.

The Seoul Administrative Court in South Korea accepted Bithumb's application to suspend the enforcement of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)'s decision to partially suspend its operations for 6 months, which has been put on hold before a formal ruling.Previously, the FIU accused Bithumb of violating 6.65 million obligations related to the prohibition of transactions with unreported virtual asset operators, customer verification obligations, and transaction restriction obligations under the Specific Financial Information Act, resulting in a 6-month partial business suspension and a fine of 36.8 billion won in March this year. The partial business suspension prohibits new customers from making external virtual asset deposits and withdrawals, and a 6-month suspension is the harshest sanction faced by domestic won market trading platforms in South Korea. The suspension was originally set to take effect on March 27, but Bithumb filed an administrative lawsuit on March 23 before it took effect and requested a suspension of enforcement. After the court's approval, the effect of the sanction has been suspended until now.

Ethena stated that it has not yet received a satisfactory root cause analysis of the rsETH incident and will extend the temporary suspension period of the OFT bridge. While this may be frustrating, it is a prudent measure to ensure the safe cross-chain transfer of user assets.Ethena has released a new proof of reserves, verified by independent third-party verification agencies (Chainlink, Chaos Labs, LlamaRisk, and Harris & Trotter), confirming that the collateral support ratio for USDe remains above 100%.

The South Korean court ruled on the administrative lawsuit filed by Upbit operator Dunamu against the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), deciding to revoke the previous three-month partial business suspension. The court stated that, in the absence of clear enforcement guidelines from the regulatory agency, Dunamu had taken measures, including customer commitment letters and internal monitoring, to fulfill its reasonable obligations.Although there is still controversy over whether the relevant measures are sufficient to completely block transactions with unreported operators, they are not enough to support the previous penalty decision.

The Bitfinex analysis report points out that as Trump announced a five-day delay in plans to strike Iranian power facilities and stated that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are "very smooth and constructive," the market reacted quickly. Bitcoin has maintained its opening position of $67,035 at the beginning of the month this week and is once again under pressure at the lower edge of the $72,000 to $82,000 "vacuum zone." The flow of ETFs further verifies the sensitivity of the market response: on the day the U.S. paused actions, the net inflow of ETFs reached $167.2 million, with IBIT absorbing $160.8 million, marking the largest single-day inflow since March 17, while ending three consecutive days of net outflows after the FOMC.Analysis suggests that the capital flow in the next two to three days will determine whether this rebound is a short-term "relief trade" or the starting point of a new accumulation phase. If the daily inflow of ETFs remains above $100 million, the conditions for supporting the "vacuum zone" may be reestablished; if the pullback deepens, Bitcoin may return to the previous consolidation range.

According to CoinDesk, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea has fined the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb 36.8 billion won (approximately 24.6 million USD) for violating anti-money laundering regulations and has ordered a partial business suspension for six months.According to the Financial Services Commission, this penalty is based on the Act on Reporting and Using Specific Financial Transaction Information, stemming from approximately 6.65 million violations by Bithumb, of which about 3.55 million involved failure to fulfill customer identity verification (KYC) obligations, and about 3.04 million involved failure to effectively intercept transactions that should have been restricted.Regulators also imposed penalties on responsible individuals: the CEO of Bithumb received a warning, and the head of compliance reporting was suspended for six months.The aforementioned violations arose from on-site inspections conducted by South Korean regulatory authorities on the five major exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax, between 2024 and 2025.

According to News1, the South Korean FIU has preemptively notified of a "6-month partial suspension" and accountability for the person in charge due to Bithumb's suspected violations of the Special Financial Transactions Information Act, trading with unreported overseas virtual asset service providers, and lax KYC reviews.The restrictions mainly target the withdrawal of virtual assets for new users, while existing users' deposits and withdrawals of Korean won and cryptocurrency, as well as trading, are currently unaffected.

The Solana ecosystem project SOON announced on the X platform that its soonBase L3 network will officially shut down on March 26. The team stated that as the SOON ecosystem develops, resources will be focused on advancing the AI capital market and related AI-driven products and infrastructure. The SOON mainnet and svmBNB network will not be affected and will remain fully operational.All users must withdraw their assets on soonBase L3 using the official bridging tool before March 26. After the shutdown, any remaining assets will be transferred to a contract controlled by the team on Base for safekeeping, and subsequent withdrawals will need to be handled manually by the team.

According to market news, due to the conflict in the Middle East, most air traffic in and out of Dubai has been disrupted, severely affecting the flow of gold and silver globally.Traders indicate that this could trigger further volatility in metal prices, which have already been significantly fluctuating this year. Dubai is a key hub for precious metal transportation, accounting for about 20% of the global gold flow last year. Traders and analysts point out that if the transportation of gold and silver goods is hindered for an extended period, it may drive up regional prices in the Asian market.John Reade, senior market strategist at the World Gold Council, stated, "With flights in the Middle East suspended, the availability of gold has become a concerning issue." A gold trader mentioned, "Currently, no goods are moving by air." Typically, gold is transported as cargo on passenger planes, with a single flight capable of carrying up to 5 tons, valued at approximately $830 million at current prices.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen issued an internal letter stating, "We are closely monitoring the current security situation in the Middle East and understand that everyone may feel anxious and concerned at this moment. We have activated our emergency mechanism and will accompany and support every colleague during this special period.Please temporarily set aside concerns about work and income, and prioritize the safety of yourself and your family; salaries will be fully paid, unaffected by work stoppages or remote work; all expenses incurred for safety reasons will be fully covered by the company, including but not limited to: temporary accommodation, transportation, emergency supplies, and medical expenses. If evacuation is necessary, the company will cover all airfare and transportation costs."

According to a report by Hong Kong media Orange News, the President of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association, Chen Zhi-hua, disclosed that the Hong Kong virtual asset industry is facing a sudden "compliance storm." Practitioners in related businesses have reported encountering bewildering regulatory requirements during the application process for virtual asset-related business qualifications. The existing written policy requires an additional 5 hours of Continuing Professional Training (CPT).However, the latest requirements were not issued through formal written documents or public guidelines, but were communicated "quietly" to license upgrade applicants in the form of verbal notifications or individual emails, stating that all responsible officers (RO) for relevant license upgrades, including those who have already obtained upgrade qualifications, must pass a virtual asset regulation exam conducted by a designated single institution. This nearly "invisible" directive undermines the transparency and fairness that regulatory agencies should uphold.Chen Zhi-hua suggested maintaining the original requirement of an additional 5 hours of Continuing Professional Training (CPT) and urged regulatory agencies to immediately suspend the enforcement of exam requirements through invisible policies.

The multi-chain lending protocol ZeroLend has officially announced:After three years of building and operating the protocol, the team has made the difficult decision to gradually cease operations. Despite the team's ongoing efforts, the current form of the protocol is no longer sustainable.In recent times, several chains that ZeroLend initially supported have become inactive or experienced a significant decline in liquidity. In some cases, oracle providers have also stopped their support, making it increasingly difficult to reliably operate the market or generate sustainable income. Meanwhile, as the scale of the protocol expanded, it attracted more malicious actors, including hackers and scammers. Combined with the inherently low-profit and high-risk nature of lending protocols, this has led to the protocol being in a state of long-term losses.The team's current top priority is to ensure that users can safely withdraw their assets. All users are strongly advised to withdraw any remaining funds from the platform as soon as possible.

The Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Paul Atkins, was questioned by Democratic lawmakers during a House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing regarding the suspension of enforcement actions against Tron Foundation founder Justin Sun.Senior Democratic lawmaker Maxine Waters emphasized that the SEC has abandoned nearly all previous cryptocurrency enforcement cases since Trump took office and questioned whether Sun's relationship with Trump influenced this. Atkins stated that he could not discuss individual cases but was willing to provide confidential briefings within the limits of the rules. At the same time, Atkins confirmed that the SEC is working with the CFTC to develop cryptocurrency regulatory rules consistent with the Clarity Act to clarify the jurisdiction of the two agencies.

According to Newspim, Lee Chan-jin, the head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea, stated that the "Bitcoin misdelivery incident" at Bithumb is a serious event that undermines the credibility of cryptocurrency exchanges. He pointed out that Bithumb actually holds only about 42,000 bitcoins, and this misdelivery exposed the severe risks of "bookkeeping transactions" trading fictitious assets without security guarantees.He emphasized that if the investigation confirms illegal negligence, the highest level of sanctions will be imposed, including fines and business suspensions. He also suggested adding provisions for revocable or restricted access licenses in the future "Basic Law on Digital Assets" to strengthen the regulation of internal controls at exchanges.The incident occurred on February 6, when Bithumb mistakenly distributed 2,000 bitcoins to each of 249 customers as rewards (originally intended to be 2,000 Korean won), totaling 620,000 bitcoins, which was valued at approximately 61 trillion won (about 45 billion USD) at the time. Bithumb intercepted the transactions within 20 minutes, but 125 bitcoins were still sold.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on the X platform that due to funding expiration and the partial shutdown of the U.S. government, the SEC is currently operating according to the agency's plan during the shutdown. Starting from January 31, 2026, until further notice, only a very small number of staff will continue to work.

The South Korean financial authorities are studying the introduction of a "payment suspension" system in cases of virtual asset price manipulation to prevent suspects from transferring or hiding illicit gains during the investigation phase.According to reports, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea proposed during a regular meeting last November to consider practices in the capital market regarding stock price manipulation, taking preemptive freezing measures on accounts suspected of manipulating virtual asset prices to restrict withdrawals, transfers, and payment outflows. The report pointed out that under the current system, the confiscation or recovery of illicit gains from virtual assets usually requires a prosecutor's investigation and a court warrant, which poses a risk of assets being transferred during this period. Internally, the Financial Services Commission believes that a payment suspension mechanism similar to that in capital market law could be introduced in the proposed "second phase of virtual asset legislation" to more effectively prevent unrealized gains from being disposed of prematurely. Relevant officials from the financial authorities stated that since virtual assets are easier to conceal once transferred to personal wallets, such a system may help strengthen regulation and asset preservation in the early stages.

According to CriptoNoticias, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has decided to suspend its local services in Argentina. The company notified users on December 31, 2025, that it will stop supporting the purchase and sale of the USDC stablecoin using the Argentine peso starting January 31, 2026.Coinbase stated that this move is a "strategic pause" rather than a permanent exit, aimed at reassessing and strengthening its market strategy. During the pause, other cryptocurrency operations (including sending and receiving) will continue to operate normally.

Binance has suspended Ukrainian users from using fiat payment service provider Bifinity UAB for withdrawals via Visa and Mastercard due to changes in regulatory policies. A Binance spokesperson confirmed this news and added that the announcement regarding the change in payment methods only applies to Ukrainian users who have previously used Bifinity services.This change will affect some fiat deposit and withdrawal methods for Ukrainian users, but the functions for depositing, withdrawing, and trading cryptocurrencies will remain unaffected. Users can still use Visa and Mastercard for deposits and purchasing cryptocurrencies, Apple Pay and Google Pay are still available for account top-ups, and Swift transfers continue to support deposits and withdrawals.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded on the X platform to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal to pause the construction of large AI data centers.Vitalik believes that the truly effective approach should be to prepare the capability to "cut 90-99% of computing power" at critical moments in the future, rather than just slowing down immediately; he also supports distinguishing between "super-large clusters" and consumer-grade AI hardware, and advocates for decentralized development.