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Bitcoin company leaders and open-source developers are publicly stating that Chinese AI models are currently outperforming restricted American frontier systems in defensive cybersecurity work, forcing researchers to rely on them to secure critical Bitcoin infrastructure. Rob Hamilton, CEO of AnchorWatch, a Bitcoin self-custody insurance company, reported cripling American AI restrictions. After integrating OpenAI’s trusted cyber program (having already completed KYC months earlier), he was blocked from further analysis on a codebase he had already responsibly disclosed. “It absolutely guts me as a patriotic American to have to do this, but I will be going back to using Chinese open source…

In brief Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and HTX are in talks to settle the regulator’s claim that the exchange illegally promoted crypto services to UK consumers. The High Court has paused proceedings until late August to let the two sides reach a deal, Reuters reported from court filings. The FCA’s claim names a Panamanian company and four categories of “persons unknown,” including anyone who takes over the exchange before October 2028. The Financial Conduct Authority and HTX are “in talks” to negotiate a settlement in the regulator’s case over unlawful crypto promotions to UK consumers, with London’s High Court pausing…

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.GM!Today’s top news: Crypto majors mostly red, HYPE leads; BTC at $63.4k Bitcoin spot trading volume falls to 7-year low Goldman Sachs buys a BTC income ETF with $2.25B NEOS deal Solana came close to going down after routing bug Hyperliquid adds new function to handle tokenized stock functions like splits, dividends 🏛️ The SEC Moves to Bless the Onchain Stock Market Without CongressThe SEC is preparing to do on its own what Congress couldn’t.Per Bloomberg,…

Two New York men have been charged in an alleged synthetic identity scheme that used stolen Social Security numbers to obtain credit and debit cards and rack up roughly $2.3 million in losses. The father-and-son duo, Talib Hussain, 75, and Mirza Khan, 48, both of Pittsford, were named in a 19-count federal indictment accusing them of conspiracy to commit bank, wire and access device fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York. According to prosecutors, the scheme operated from around 2012 through July 23rd, 2024. Hussain, Khan…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure Xora Finance has enabled native Stellar settlement on the XRP Ledger, creating a new link between the XLM and XRPL ecosystems without relying on wrapped assets. The company describes itself as a custodial neobank built on the XRP Ledger. Its new integration is designed to allow Stellar value to settle through XRPL infrastructure, creating another route for cross-ecosystem movement. This should not be framed as an official Ripple-Stellar partnership. The announcement comes from Xora Finance, an independent third-party project. Ripple Labs and the Stellar Development Foundation should…

In brief Fidelity filed a pre-effective amendment on Aug. 11 to let its spot Ethereum ETF, FETH, stake the Ethereum it holds. The fund would stake up to 100% of its holdings and pay rewards to investors as quarterly cash distributions. It follows Grayscale and BlackRock, which moved first after a Treasury and IRS safe harbor cleared the path. Fidelity has asked the SEC for permission to turn its spot Ethereum ETF into a yield-bearing product. The Boston asset manager filed a pre-effective amendment to its registration statement on Aug. 11, adding disclosure that the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) will…

A former Indiana credit union manager has been sentenced to three years in federal prison after stealing more than $381,000 from customer accounts, including those belonging to elderly victims. Teresa Palmer, 55, of Columbus, Indiana, pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud after prosecutors said she abused her position at Credit Union 1 to carry out hundreds of unauthorized transactions, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana Palmer worked as a branch manager at a Credit Union 1 location in Columbus from 2014 until December 2022. Her position gave her access to customer accounts and…

In brief A security researcher found and exploited Zoom flaws using fewer than 20 AI prompts. The bugs affected Zoom’s annotation tool and could let an attacker run code on another participant’s device. Zoom fixed the vulnerabilities before they were publicly disclosed. AI is making it faster and easier to find serious security flaws. Now, a researcher says he used publicly available models to find vulnerabilities in the video chat platform Zoom and build a working attack in less than 24 hours.Calling it ‘Zoomsday’ in a report published Tuesday, Israeli cybersecurity firm A Security said a researcher used fewer than…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure BNB Chain has introduced BEP-675, a draft proposal aimed at improving network throughput by reducing block re-execution in the validator process. The proposal introduces blind signing for validator blocks, allowing builders to submit executed blocks directly. According to the proposal, the change can reduce validator execution time on the critical path from 125 milliseconds to 15 milliseconds, with testnet environments showing a potential doubling of throughput. That sounds technical, but the goal is simple: make block production more efficient without relying only on higher gas limits or…

In brief The Coldcard firmware exploit drained approximately 2,100 BTC, with losses estimated near $130 million across multiple attack waves. Onchain data from Checkonchain shows 233,000 BTC left long-term holder wallets in the days around the breach. Casa CEO Nick Neuman, citing actual customer conversations, says some of that 233,000 BTC came from Ledger and Trezor users—not Coldcard owners—who upgraded to multisig after watching the hack unfold. In the days after the worst hardware wallet exploit in Bitcoin’s recent history, Casa CEO Nick Neuman began counting more than just the BTC being drained from vulnerable Coldcard wallets.While attackers were draining…

In brief Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments in a deal worth up to $2.25 billion, adding about $30 billion in options-based income ETFs—including one of the market’s largest Bitcoin covered-call funds. The purchase gives Goldman a ready-made crypto income ETF business, a far faster path than its own April filing for a Bitcoin Premium ETF that some analysts saw as an attempt to leapfrog a similar BlackRock product. The move rides a boom in derivative-income ETFs—roughly $180 billion in assets and a 70%+ annual growth rate since 2021, per Morningstar—with crypto an increasingly prominent slice. Goldman Sachs is…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure National Bank of Canada has disclosed holdings in US-listed crypto investment products, including shares tied to an XRP ETF and several Bitcoin ETF positions. The disclosure came through a Form 13F filing covering holdings as of June 30, 2026. The bank reported 3,848 shares of Bitwise’s XRP ETF, valued at roughly $330,000, along with approximately $6.4 million in ProShares and Fidelity Bitcoin ETF exposure. The distinction here is important. This is ETF exposure, not direct custody of XRP or BTC. The bank is not being reported as…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared a comparison between Ethereum’s earlier roadmap and a newer L1 “Strawmap,” highlighting privacy and quantum safety as higher-priority research areas. The post points to several notable changes, including more emphasis on native privacy requirements, keyed nonces, shielded pools, quantum safety, and a move away from Verkle trees toward Poseidon binary trees. This should not be treated as a final Ethereum governance decision. The L1 Strawmap is a planning and research tool, not a hard fork commitment. Ethereum’s roadmap evolves through research,…

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) recorded $79,073 of realized gains and $265,776 of unrealized appreciation on written options in its first operating period, helping offset losses on its Bitcoin holdings and shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).BITA posted an $860,335 decrease in net assets from operations through June 30, its first quarterly filing shows. IBIT is BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin fund and one of BITA’s underlying investments. Related ReadingBlackRock’s new Bitcoin ETF offers monthly income, but caps gains when Bitcoin surgesThe Nasdaq-listed ETF offers monthly income potential through covered calls while capping part of the rally trade.…