September 12, 2025

Crypto

Gemini has successfully raised $425 million in its IPO, sticking to its hard cap despite being oversubscribed 20 times. The company sold approximately 15.2 million shares at $24 to $26 per piece, with the IPO now closed. Setting a hard cap created scarcity ahead of Nasdaq debut, potentially sacrificing capital for this purpose.

Epic Games is introducing a new feature in Fortnite's item shop, allowing players to "top up" their V-Buck balance and make exact purchases without buying in bulk or waiting for sufficient balance. This change aims to ease transactions for players with insufficient funds, providing more flexibility and convenience in the game.

A regulated tokenization platform has been launched to automate on-chain fund management in China's Real-World Asset market. Chainlink and UBS partner with DigiFT, utilizing Chainlink's Digital Transfer Agent technology to reduce errors and costs for the $132 trillion global asset management industry. The platform targets Asian investors and establishes Hong Kong as a hub for tokenized finance.

Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is set to appeal his 25-year prison sentence for seven felony counts. He'll argue that customer funds were not fully lost and prosecutors presented a false narrative about permanently lost funds. The November 4, 2025, hearing will determine the outcome of his appeal.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have reported strong daily and weekly inflows, with Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund leading single-day gains of 2,638 BTC valued at $302.23 million. In contrast, Ethereum ETFs faced significant outflows, while Bitcoin ETFs collectively hold over 1.3 million BTC and gain consistent allocations, indicating changing institutional demand between the two assets.

A recent transfer of 200 million Dogecoin worth over $50 million occurred on the blockchain within an hour, involving US broker Robinhood. The coins were transferred between wallets controlled by Robinhood, not through a third-party investor, and didn't affect available DOGE amounts. This transfer coincides with the launch of a U.S. Dogecoin fund due to regulatory hurdles.

Paraguay is leveraging Bitcoin technology to transform its energy surplus into a strategic national asset and economic sovereignty. By converting local energy output into Bitcoin, the nation aims to unlock technological advancement and lasting prosperity, positioning itself as a global Bitcoin mining hub with vast potential for sustainable growth.

Ethereum Core Devs discussed several updates during their September 11 call, including the handover of Ansgar to ACDE protocol calls starting October 9, and planned deployments for devnet-3 and devnet-5. Progress was also made on BAL spec discussions, EPBS breakout, and Weld EL specs merging, with Q&A sessions dominating EIPs discussed during the call.

A new, undetectable malware called ModStealer has been identified, targeting cryptocurrency wallets on Windows, Linux, and macOS via fake job recruiter ads. The malware extracts private keys, sensitive information, and data from affected systems using heavily obfuscated JavaScript files within Node.js environments to evade detection and achieve nearly complete control over infected devices.

Safe Research's Secret Harbour introduces end-to-end encryption to its decentralized transaction queue, ensuring sensitive details remain secret until execution onchain. This permissionless approach allows secure exchange of session keys, authenticating registrations onchain to prevent interception by malicious actors. It also encrypts Safe transactions for multiple recipients using public keys registered on Secret Harbour.