Why truly decentralized DeFi needs no legal exemption according to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce

Why truly decentralized DeFi needs no legal exemption according to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce drew a sharp line around decentralized finance on Sept. 17. She said investors need no exemption to use permissionless smart contracts for peer-to-peer trading. The SEC and CFTC actions examined here set separate limits on intermediary control. The unresolved question is how much control a software provider can retain before it … Read more

Bitcoin faces an October 18 test as Trump prepares new Russia tariffs

Bitcoin faces an October 18 test as Trump prepares new Russia tariffs
President Donald Trump’s new Russia sanctions law gives Bitcoin traders another macro deadline to watch: Oct. 18. On Sept. 18, Trump signed H.R. 5334, starting a 30-day clock for his administration to determine tariffs that could disrupt Russian energy trade and potentially feed into inflation, Treasury yields, and the dollar. Those channels matter for Bitcoin … Read more

Exchanges lower token risk values, leaving leveraged traders with less breathing room

Exchanges lower token risk values, leaving leveraged traders with less breathing room
Binance lowered the collateral ratio for six tokens on Sept. 18, while Coinbase International Exchange says 29 assets will leave its eligible-collateral list on Sept. 29. That ratio determines how much of an asset’s market value an exchange recognizes for borrowing or margin calculations. The exchanges operate separate products and account systems, but both changes … Read more

Hyperliquid opens native lending as HYPE hits new ATH above $90

Hyperliquid opens native lending as HYPE hits new ATH above $90
Hyperliquid has launched native manual borrowing, extending its trading infrastructure into credit as HYPE climbed to a fresh all-time high above $90. The Sept. 18 rollout lets users pledge HYPE or Bitcoin as collateral to borrow USDC or USDT directly through HyperCore. Hyperliquid said $269 million in assets were borrowed Friday, giving the new product … Read more

Fake AI crypto software is secretly replacing browser wallet extensions

Fake AI crypto software is secretly replacing browser wallet extensions
HP Wolf Security, the company’s threat-research team, said a fake AI crypto-trading assistant distributed malware that could replace browser crypto wallet extensions on an infected Windows computer and turn the familiar wallet interface into a credential trap. The campaign appeared in HP’s September threat report, published Sept. 17 and based on threats observed from April … Read more

Offshore Bitcoin futures crash 97% as traders abandon traditional risk

Offshore Bitcoin futures crash 97% as traders abandon traditional risk
A strange thing has happened to Bitcoin’s derivatives market over the past five years. The market is larger, institutions play a much bigger role, exchanges offer more sophisticated products, and traders have become far better at moving risk around. At the same time, one of the products that helped build that market has almost disappeared … Read more

X brings crypto trading closer to your social feed

X brings crypto trading closer to your social feed
Crypto Twitter (now X) has always been a place where someone with an illustrated animal for a profile picture can explain why your financial future depends on a token you just learned about. Now X’s Cashtag links are shortening the route from that conversation to a crypto exchange. Kraken joined X’s US Cashtag partner program … Read more