Important news from last night to this morning (September 18 - September 19)

Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants: Expected to launch accounting and auditing guidelines for virtual assets in the first half of 2026.

According to Aastocks, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants responded to Chief Executive John Lee's Policy Address, stating that Hong Kong will launch diversified measures to promote economic development, with innovation and technology becoming a new driving force for economic growth. The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as the standard setter for the accounting profession in Hong Kong, is developing appropriate guidelines regarding the accounting and auditing work related to virtual assets and related matters, and expects to launch them in the first half of next year. Additionally, it recommends launching measures to complement the existing patent box mechanism, including the introduction of a knowledge property financing sandbox and promoting intellectual property transactions to encourage local innovation and technology activities, enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness in related fields. Further development of the digital asset market.

The Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund will start trading today under a new name that includes “ETF”.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that the “Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF” launched in partnership with CoinDesk is the new name for the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), which is set to begin trading on September 19. Previously, it was reported that the SEC approved options linked to the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund and the Cboe Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index.

Pendle's multi-signature wallet has transferred 1.2 million PENDLE back to Binance, worth approximately $6.44 million.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, 10 minutes ago, the Pendle multi-signature wallet (0x811) transferred 1.2 million PENDLE (worth approximately 6.44 million USD) to Binance again.

A certain whale redeemed its staked ETH and stETH from a year and transferred 4,412 ETH to Binance.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a whale that has gained over $12 million on Blast continues to take profit: today at dawn, it redeemed the ETH it deposited in StakeStone and AOProtocol a year ago, transferring 4,412 ETH (worth about $20.24 million) to Binance. This whale deposited 4,412 ETH in StakeStone and 8,168 stETH in AOProtocol last year, when the price of ETH was around $3,800. Today, it withdrew all ETH and stETH, with ETH being transferred directly to Binance, while stETH is in the process of being redeemed for ETH, which is expected to also be transferred to Binance after a successful redemption. In this operation, these ETH have realized a profit of $10 million compared to when they were deposited (not including the airdrop earnings from staking).

The REX-Osprey XRP ETF achieved a trading volume of $37.7 million on its first day, making it the largest listed fund by first-day trading volume this year.

According to a report by Cryptobriefing, the REX-Osprey XRP ETF (ticker: XRPR) achieved a trading volume of $37.7 million on its first day. The fund is listed in the United States and provides exposure to XRP spot. According to a post by Eric Balchunas on X, its first-day trading volume surpassed that of IVES, making it the largest first-day trading volume among funds listed in 2025; meanwhile, the REX-Osprey Dogecoin (Doge) ETF, which launched on the same day as the XRP fund, had a first-day trading volume of $17 million, ranking among the top five of this year's 710 listed funds.

Consensys CEO: The MetaMask token is coming soon and may arrive “faster than you expect”.

According to a report by The Block, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin stated in an interview that the MetaMask token is coming soon and may arrive “sooner than you expect.” Previously, in May, news indicated that a co-founder of MetaMask mentioned the team is still considering launching a native token.

The Bank of Canada calls for the establishment of a stablecoin framework in the country to avoid falling behind other countries.

According to Cointelegraph, the Bank of Canada has called for the establishment of a regulatory framework for stablecoins to modernize the payment system and avoid falling behind other countries in advancing related policies. On Thursday, Ron Morrow, Executive Director of Payments and Related Services at the Bank of Canada, stated during a speech at the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ottawa conference: “Even if you are on the right path, stagnation can lead to being surpassed. For stablecoins to be regarded as currency, they must be as secure and stable as a bank account balance. Governments around the world are tightening regulations on stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies to benefit consumers and mitigate credit and liquidity risks. In fact, many jurisdictions globally have already implemented or are about to implement regulatory frameworks for crypto assets.”

EU Commissioner promises to advance pension and cryptocurrency reforms within the year

According to Jinshi reports, the EU has set a year-end target to take further measures by the end of the year to promote pension investment and simplify transaction processes, striving to inject momentum into the revitalization of European capital markets. EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness announced the relevant plan on Thursday. She also stated that the European Commission is considering granting direct supervisory powers to its highest market regulatory authority located in Paris—the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She indicated that as regulatory powers are transferred to ESMA, the EU Commission will consider the feasibility of implementing centralized oversight over certain market infrastructures, such as central counterparties, central securities depositories, and trading venues. She added that emerging areas like crypto asset service providers will also benefit from more centralized regulation, emphasizing that this move will not undermine the role of national regulators.

Due to the obstruction of Brian Quintenz's nomination, the White House is considering more candidates for the CFTC chair.

According to Bloomberg, informed sources say that due to the stalled confirmation process for Brian Quintenz as head of the regulatory agency, the White House is selecting more candidates for the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with recent discussions heating up, and potential candidates include government officials focused on cryptocurrency policy. The Trump administration has not announced the abandonment of Quintenz, and both Quintenz and the CFTC declined to comment, while White House officials stated that the process is still in the preliminary stages. Additionally, it has been reported that Michael Selig, chief adviser to the Securities and Exchange Commission's cryptocurrency task force, is also among the candidates; he previously served as a partner in the asset management practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Tyler Williams, digital asset policy advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is also seen as a candidate; he worked at Galaxy Digital before joining the Treasury. The CFTC is supposed to be composed of five members with party balance, but due to a series of resignations, only acting chair Caroline Pham, appointed by former President Biden, remains.

Kalshi's trading volume this month has reached $1.3 billion, surpassing Polymarket.

According to The Block, the prediction platform Kalshi is experiencing its best month in nearly a year. The company stated on Thursday that it currently accounts for “62.2% of the global prediction market trading volume, a stark contrast to a year ago when Kalshi only accounted for 3.1% of the global volume.” Kalshi also emphasized that its services are only available to consumers in the United States. Data shows that as of this month, Kalshi's monthly trading volume has reached $1.3 billion, far exceeding its competitor Polymarket's $773 million. The last time Kalshi's monthly trading volume surpassed $1 billion was during the 2024 U.S. presidential election in November. Although the month is not over yet, Polymarket could still potentially overtake, but Kalshi's performance in recent months indicates that the platform is becoming increasingly popular.

PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD expands to blockchains such as Tron, Avalanche, and Sei through LayerZero.

According to The Block, PayPal's stablecoin PayPal USD (abbreviated as PYUSD) is expanding to several new blockchain networks, including Tron, Avalanche, and Sei, through integration with LayerZero's StarGate Hydra cross-chain bridge. PYUSD is issued by Paxos Trust Company and was initially launched natively on Ethereum, later expanding to Solana and Arbitrum, and just yesterday added the Stellar network. LayerZero announced on Thursday that with this expansion, a permissionless version of the token called “PYUSD0” will be introduced to an additional seven blockchain networks, namely Abstract, Aptos, Avalanche, Ink, Sei, Stable, and Tron. Furthermore, the existing cross-chain versions of PYUSD on Berachain and Flow will also be upgraded to PYUSD0.

The hybrid cryptocurrency exchange GRVT has completed a $19 million Series A financing, led by ZKsync and Further Ventures.

According to The Block, the hybrid decentralized exchange GRVT based on the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution ZKsync has completed a $19 million Series A funding round, led by ZKsync and Further Ventures, with EigenCloud and 500 Global participating. The new funds will help GRVT expand its product range, covering cross-exchange vaults, cross-chain interoperability, and plans to utilize the programmable privacy features of EigenDA. GRVT combines the user experience and compliance of CEX with features such as self-custody found in DEX. Its mainnet Alpha version is set to launch on ZKsync by the end of 2024, with trading categories expanding from cryptocurrency perpetual contracts to spot and options. Currently, GRVT is applying for operational licenses in multiple regions, having already obtained a VASP license in Lithuania as early as 2023. Previously, GRVT raised approximately $14.3 million through multiple rounds of funding and secured $2.2 million through a private token sale in March 2024. Earlier news on September 16 indicated that Grvt will conduct its TGE in Q1 2026, with community rewards accounting for 20% of the total token supply.

Coinbase will launch Lombard (BARD) spot.

According to Coinbase Markets, Lombard (BARD) spot trading will go live on September 18, and the BARD-USD trading pair will be opened once liquidity conditions are met, and it will be available for trading in supported regions. BARD can be accessed through coinbase.com, the Coinbase App, and Coinbase Advanced, and institutions can trade directly on Coinbase Exchange.

The Canadian police seized over $56 million in cryptocurrency and closed the TradeOgre platform.

According to the RCMP official website, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducted the largest cryptocurrency seizure operation in the country's history in the eastern region, seizing over $56 million and shutting down the cryptocurrency trading platform TradeOgre for the first time. The investigation began in June 2024, stemming from a tip-off from Europol, which discovered that the platform was not registered as a financial services business with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) and had not conducted customer identity verification. Police believe that most of the funds on the platform originated from criminal activities, and relevant transaction data will be further analyzed, with possible charges to follow.

BounceBit intends to use platform fees for BB repurchase.

The BounceBit Foundation is considering enabling a fee distribution mechanism for BounceBit Trade. The fees generated by the platform will be directly used for the ongoing repurchase of BB tokens, which has received support from $12 million in revenue from other products. Currently, the foundation is evaluating the fee distribution plan and more execution channels.

PayPal stablecoin PYUSD is now live on the Stellar network.

According to CoinDesk, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD has officially launched on the Stellar network.

SBF's X account showed unusual activity, and FTT subsequently surged.

The monitoring of X account shows that SBF's X account seems to have unusual activity, attracting a large number of users. As a result, FTT has broken through 1 USDT, currently reported at 1.05 USDT, with a 32% increase in the last hour.

The Solana Foundation and Ark Invest participate in a $300 million financing for Solmate.

According to The Block, Brera Holdings will be renamed Solmate and has secured $300 million through private financing, with investors including the Solana Foundation, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, Pulsar Group, and RockawayX. Solmate will acquire Solana (SOL) at a discounted price and plans to dual-list on NASDAQ and in the UAE. The company's CEO is former Kraken Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori, and board members include Arthur Laffer and RockawayX CEO Viktor Fischer. Solmate will continue to operate Brera Holdings' sports club business.

The first Bitcoin ETF saw a net outflow of 209 BTC in a single day, while the Ethereum ETF experienced a net outflow of 2430 ETH.

According to Lookonchain, today 10 Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of 209 BTC (approximately $24.59 million) in a single day, with Fidelity reducing its holdings by 1,003 BTC, currently holding 206,541 BTC (approximately $24.33 billion). 9 Ethereum ETFs experienced a net outflow of 2,430 ETH (approximately $1.123 million), with Fidelity reducing its holdings by 6,488 ETH, now holding 782,446 ETH (approximately $3.61 billion).

The Nasdaq rose by 1% intra-day, setting a new historical high.

The Nasdaq is up 1% for the day, reaching a new all-time high. The S&P 500 index is currently up 0.67%, and the Dow Jones is up 0.35%.

The Bhutanese government has transferred 570 bitcoins again, which may be deposited back into CEX.

On-chain data shows that the government of the Kingdom of Bhutan has transferred 570 bitcoins (approximately $66.85 million) into a new wallet again, expected to operate as before by depositing the funds into a centralized exchange (CEX). 5 hours ago, the Bhutanese government transferred 343.1 bitcoins.

Brera Holdings, which completed a $300 million private placement financing, has been renamed Solmate and launched the SOL vault in the UAE.

According to AggrNews, former Pantera partner leads Solmate in the UAE and manages a $300 million Solana digital asset treasury (DAT). The press release shows that Brera Holdings (NASDAQ: BREA) will be renamed Solmate and has completed a $300 million private placement led by UAE's Pulsar Group, with participation from ARK Invest and others. Solmate will focus on Solana, establishing a digital asset treasury and laying out blockchain infrastructure, with plans to deploy high-performance Solana validator nodes in Abu Dhabi to encourage regional investors to participate in SOL staking. Marco Santori will serve as CEO, and the Solana Foundation has the right to appoint additional board members. The company will continue to operate its existing multi-club sports business.

Plasma will launch its TGE on September 25.

The Plasma project supported by Tether will launch its TGE (Token Generation Event) on September 25th at 8 PM (UTC+8), along with the release of the native token XPL. The Plasma team claims that the total locked value (TVL) of stablecoins will exceed $2 billion at the time of the mainnet launch, integrating over 100 DeFi protocols including Aave and Ethena. Users can transfer USDT on the Plasma network with zero fees. XPL will be distributed to community members and the Stablecoin Collective, and the mainnet will adopt the PlasmaBFT high-performance consensus mechanism, supporting global digital dollar payments and distribution.

Trust Wallet releases a new economic model for TWT, promoting multiple ecological incentives.

According to the official blog of Trust Wallet, Trust Wallet has announced a new economic model for TWT (Trust Wallet Token), proposing to enhance user activity and loyalty through a tiered incentive system. TWT will be used in various scenarios such as staking rewards, DeFi staking, fee discounts, Gas fee payments, exclusive services, and community governance. The total supply of TWT is fixed, with over 40% already in circulation, and the remaining portion will be used for ecosystem development, liquidity, partnerships, and team incentives. The new incentive measures will be launched in phases over the next six months.

NVIDIA invested $5 billion in Intel and reached a chip collaboration.

NVIDIA ( NVDA.O ) announced on Thursday that it will invest $5 billion in Intel ( INTC.O ) to support the struggling American chip foundry, but did not grant Intel key chip manufacturing orders. The agreement also includes plans for Intel to jointly develop personal computer and data center chips with NVIDIA, which could pose a potential risk to TSMC ( TSM.N ). Currently, TSMC is responsible for producing NVIDIA's flagship processors; as the highest-valued company in the world, NVIDIA may potentially move this part of its business to Intel in the future. Meanwhile, AMD, which competes with Intel in the data center chip supply sector, may also suffer losses due to NVIDIA's support for Intel.

Upbit will launch the LA Korean Won trading pair.

Upbit will launch the digital asset Lagrange (token abbreviation LA) on the KRW market at 19:30 local time on September 18, supporting the Ethereum network.

Upbit will launch Lombard (BARD)

The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will launch Lombard (BARD) in the KRW, BTC, and USDT markets, supporting deposits and withdrawals on the Ethereum network.

The Bhutanese government transfers 343.1 Bitcoins or may deposit again into CEX.

According to Onchain Lens, the government of the Kingdom of Bhutan has transferred 343.1 Bitcoins (approximately 40.18 million USD) into a new wallet, and it is expected to operate as before by depositing the funds into a centralized exchange (CEX).

The first phase of the TGE for the Binance Aspecta BuildKey model is the project River (RIVER).

Binance Wallet will exclusively launch the Aspecta BuildKey mode TGE, with the first phase going live on River (RIVER). Users need to participate in the BuildKey subscription using Binance Alpha points, with the subscription period from September 19, 15:00 to 17:00, and trading period from September 19, 17:00 to September 22, 17:00. The TGE and BuildKey redemption time is September 22, 17:00 (UTC+8). The token price will fluctuate dynamically based on the Bonding Curve, and the liquidity pool will be maintained for a period after the TGE, with liquidity potentially decreasing, and the redemption function will be available at any time.