News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily reports: Aztec Network developer Aztec Labs has relaunched the self-custodial wallet zk.money. The wallet can conceal payment amounts, balances, and recipient information through Aztec Network, and supports transfers via readable names or links.Users can deposit DAI, USDC, or USDT from Ethereum, with USDC and USDT being converted to DAI. Deposit records remain publicly traceable, while subsequent transaction activity remains private.The early Alpha version limits individual deposits, payments, and withdrawals to under $2,500, and screens addresses in accordance with sanctions policy. The software has not yet undergone a full audit and carries security risks. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News: Circle Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Circle Internet Group, has announced the launch of two grant programs in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to explore the use of regulated stablecoins and digital financial infrastructure for international development and humanitarian aid payments.Circle Foundation will fund UNDP in establishing a Digital Asset Innovation Pool to support its country offices in scaling regulated stablecoin payments from local pilots to full project delivery. The mechanism is designed to complement traditional banking systems.Another grant awarded to World Food Program USA will support WFP in building governance, risk, compliance, and fund reconciliation frameworks for digital asset distribution. WFP plans to test stablecoin payment channels in 2 to 3 countries over the next three years and conduct independent research to establish benchmarks for speed, efficiency, and cost. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: Franklin Templeton has expanded its off-exchange collateral program to Bybit, allowing users to use their tokenized money market fund shares as collateral for crypto trading. These shares represent approximately $686 million in net assets and can be used to borrow USDT or USDC, while the underlying assets continue to generate yield.Users do not need to transfer the underlying assets to Bybit. The regulated custody platform ByCustody will hold the relevant assets off-exchange, with their value mirrored within Bybit's trading environment. Franklin Templeton has previously offered similar services to Binance and OKX users.
In an 8-K filing submitted on September 25, Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) disclosed that co-founder P. Sean Neville has resigned from the board of directors for personal reasons, effective immediately, reducing the board size from eight to seven members. On the same day, CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen notified the company of his intention to step down and will remain through the end of 2026 to assist with the transition; Circle has engaged executive search firms to find a successor. The company stated that neither departure was due to disagreements regarding the company's operations, policies, or practices.
Stablecoin issuer Circle is currently recruiting for the "Senior Director, Ecosystem Growth, South Korea" role in South Korea, responsible for developing market entry strategies, tracking regulatory developments, and establishing partnerships with domestic financial and digital asset industry players. The position requires candidates to possess over 13 years of business development experience, familiarity with stablecoins, DeFi, and institutional finance flows, as well as fluency in both Korean and English. Circle has previously indicated that its South Korea strategy does not involve directly issuing a KRW stablecoin, but instead focuses on partnering with local KRW stablecoin issuers to provide infrastructure linking to USD stablecoins.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen thanked Circle and Tether for their swift action. The Bitget Asset Recovery Bounty Program has now been launched, offering a 5% reward respectively to participants who assist in freezing the attacker's funds and recovering the assets, and calls on exchanges, security researchers, and on-chain investigators to participate.
Circle Foundation announced its support for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to advance digital payment infrastructure, exploring how to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and financial accessibility of funding disbursement for development projects and humanitarian aid through regulated stablecoins. Specifically, Circle Foundation will fund UNDP’s establishment and operation of the Digital Asset Innovation Pool, facilitating the deployment of regulated payment stablecoins from pilot projects into standard programs. Previously, UNDP has tested solutions such as digital cash payments, fund disbursement in low-connectivity environments, and mobile wallets in locations including Aleppo, Syria; Haiti; Guatemala; and Gambia. Circle Foundation will also provide an additional grant to World Food Program USA to support WFP in building the governance, risk management, fund management, reconciliation, and compliance systems required for stablecoin payments, alongside integration into local fintech and mobile payment networks. Over the next three years, WFP plans to pilot stablecoin payments across payment channels in two to three countries to evaluate their costs, speed, transparency, and operational feasibility.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen posted a 12-hour progress report on the security incident on X, including:1. Affected assets include ETH, XRP (largest single-chain loss), BNB, AVAX, USDT, USDC, and other tokens. Affected chains include: Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BSC, and Base. All on-chain cold wallets have been confirmed secure and unaffected.2. All foundations of the affected chains have been contacted, and some foundations have confirmed the freezing of the hacker's wallet addresses.3. Based on IP behavioral characteristics and on-chain analysis, the attack methodology is highly consistent with known patterns of North Korean hacker groups. Relevant authorities have been notified, and full cooperation is being provided for a global investigation.4. Bitget Wallet (decentralized wallet) operates completely independently from Bitget exchange infrastructure, and this incident has no impact on it. Bitget Wallet assets are completely safe.5. Transparent disclosure regarding the platform's financial status: In addition to over $464 million in protection funds (all held in publicly verifiable wallet addresses), Bitget's own assets exceed $1 billion. User funds are covered at a 1:1 ratio, and all data can be verified on-chain.6. Regarding withdrawal recovery timing: The goal is to achieve full recovery as soon as possible. Once a specific time window is confirmed, an announcement will be made immediately. No commitment will be made to timelines that cannot be fulfilled.
Privacy stablecoin payment network Payy Network has confirmed that its cross-chain contract on Ethereum was hacked, resulting in the theft of its entire balance. The investigation is ongoing, and all Payy Network transactions have been suspended, including deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and card transactions. Payy has notified law enforcement authorities and is collaborating with multiple incident response organizations. Previously reported, according to monitoring by Specter Investigation, Payy Network was suspected to have been hacked, with approximately 1.8 million USDC transferred out.
Odaily News: Visa has released its "Money Travels 2026" report, based on a survey of 2,192 U.S. adults, showing that if stablecoins were equipped with bank-grade fraud protection and deposit insurance, consumer willingness to use them would rise from 36% to 56%; if offered through existing financial institutions, willingness would also increase to 45%. The survey also found that 56% of respondents had never heard of stablecoins, and 64% of respondents had greater trust in payment providers than in the technology itself. Currently, the total global supply of USD-pegged stablecoins has exceeded $295 billion, with USDT at approximately $183.4 billion and USDC at approximately $76 billion; Visa's annualized stablecoin settlement volume has surpassed $20 billion, representing more than a 15-fold increase from a year ago. (The Block)
According to The Block, Visa released its Money Travels 2026 report. Based on a survey of 2,192 U.S. adults, consumer willingness to use stablecoins would rise from 36% to 56% if they feature bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance; if offered through existing financial institutions, willingness could also reach 45%. The survey also indicates that 56% of respondents had never heard of stablecoins, while 64% trust payment providers more than the technology itself. Currently, the global total supply of USD-pegged stablecoins exceeds $295 billion, comprising approximately $183.4 billion in USDT and around $76 billion in USDC. Visa's annualized stablecoin settlement volume has already surpassed $20 billion, representing an increase of over 15 times compared to a year ago.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov stated that Russia has approximately 20 million cryptocurrency users, with citizens holding cryptocurrencies and related financial products totaling around $44 billion, and daily trading volume of about $595 million.Russia is advancing comprehensive regulation to clarify the rights and responsibilities of service providers, intermediaries, and investors; it plans to pursue criminal liability for illegally organized cryptocurrency trading activities starting July 1, 2027, while ordinary individual transactions are excluded. The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank are studying the operational models and application scenarios of domestic stablecoins; if assets such as USDT and USDC are frozen due to actions by foreign issuers and Russian custodians are not at fault, related losses will in principle be borne by investors.
Arc officially announced that Circle's onchain FX engine StableFX is now live on the Arc mainnet. Arc is a public chain launched by Circle, designed for stablecoins and payment use cases; StableFX supports 24/7 settlement, enabling near-instant or delayed settlement, ensuring that both parties either receive funds simultaneously or neither receives funds, and supports trading with multiple vetted counterparties through a single contract, using a unified RFQ model for pricing. The global foreign exchange market has a daily trading volume of nearly $10 trillion, most of which still relies on traditional trading hours.
According to official reports, the NSTR oracle price was manipulated yesterday, causing a single account to use NSTR as collateral to borrow approximately $3.5 million in ETH, STRK, USDC, USDT, WBTC, and DAI v1 from the Nostra money market on Starknet. The market has currently suspended deposits, borrows, withdrawals, and liquidations. Nostra is currently assessing the impact on each asset and tracking the funds, with final losses and recoverable amounts yet to be determined.
According to Crypto Pulse Research, Bernstein's September 16, 2026, research report states that the procedural vote on the CLARITY Act has failed, and there should be no hope for a revote. Stablecoins, governed by the GENIUS Act, remain unaffected, while Circle’s ARC chain launched that same day. Robinhood's daily on-chain gross revenue is approximately $1 million. The bank recommends buying the recent weakness in crypto equities, favoring Robinhood (HOOD), Circle (CRCL), and Figure (FIGR), with target prices set at $160, $140, and $70, respectively. It sets a $330 price target for Coinbase, $350 for Strategy, and $24 for Sharplink. Bernstein believes that following legislative failure, regulatory clarity will pivot toward rulemaking by the CFTC and SEC. This rulemaking process will be aggressive and rapid, making product rollout schedules more predictable. Advancement of stablecoins, tokenization, perpetual futures, and prediction market-related products will continue, with crypto stock pullbacks offering buying opportunities.
The U.S. Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act due to insufficient votes, triggering a broad decline in crypto-linked stocks, with Coinbase and Circle each dropping over 10% intraday.
The U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on a 49-50 vote, causing crypto stocks such as Coinbase and Circle to collectively fall more than 8% that day. The legislative setback has temporarily stalled the industry's long-awaited federal market structure framework.
Odaily News: Carolyn Wilkins, a member of the Bank of England (BoE) Financial Policy Committee, said that the growth of dollar stablecoins could reinforce the dollar's global dominance and increase demand for US Treasuries. Speaking at Queen's University Belfast, she noted that dollar stablecoins can facilitate cross-border settlement and expand access to dollar-denominated assets outside the United States.Tether, the issuer of USDT, and fintech company Circle, the issuer of USDC, held nearly $150 billion in US Treasuries by the end of 2025 and bought about $33 billion that year. Wilkins pointed out that large-scale stablecoin redemptions could force issuers to sell Treasuries, thereby amplifying volatility in stressed markets.Total stablecoin circulation has now exceeded $300 billion, with 98% of that value pegged to the US dollar. Wilkins said this gives the dollar a significant first-mover advantage, and the development of the stablecoin market now has implications beyond the cryptocurrency sector.The development of pound sterling stablecoins has been relatively slow. The UK Financial Conduct Authority has tested potential issuers through a dedicated regulatory sandbox and finalized UK stablecoin issuance rules in June; the Bank of England has also tested the feasibility of using stablecoins in coordination with a simulated digital pound for cross-border trade payments. (Cointelegraph)
According to reports from Seoul Economic Daily, the overseas KRW-denominated stablecoin KRWQ has removed tokenized Korean Treasury Bonds (KTB) from its reserve assets, approximately six months after their inclusion. KRWQ's reserves currently consist only of two USD stablecoins: USDC and frxUSD. KTB was co-issued by Shinhan Securities and the RWA tokenization platform Etherfuse, with underlying assets comprising Korean government bonds with maturities of one year or less. Shinhan Securities stated that upon learning KTB was used as a reserve asset, it considered the move a compliance risk and directed Etherfuse to remove it, while emphasizing that there is no cooperative relationship between Shinhan Securities and KRWQ. Previously, KRWQ had promoted itself as "the first KRW stablecoin to adopt tokenized Korean government bonds as reserve assets," and the project continues to face scrutiny over money laundering allegations.
Odaily reports: Block, the payment company founded by Jack Dorsey, has submitted an application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish an uninsured national trust bank named Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. Proposed president and CEO Lee Woolley stated that the bank will leverage Block's experience in digital assets, the history of Square Financial Services, and the team's banking expertise to provide custody and other trust services including Bitcoin and stablecoins, and to establish a federal regulatory framework for some of Block's existing custody operations.This application joins the ranks of fintech and crypto companies seeking federal bank charters. Since 2025, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has received 40 applications for new bank charters, approved 21, and rejected only 2. Previously, Revolut received conditional approval, and Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle have also joined the related ranks.