custodia

Circle's public chain Arc has officially announced that it has launched proxy payments.Its Facilitator Service provides a hosted access path for x402 developers, allowing the acceptance of USDC and supporting on-chain settlements on Arc, Base, and Polygon; this path does not require a Relayer key or a separate Gas fee wallet.

On September 14, Aave Labs released an ARFC on the Aave governance forum, seeking approval to deploy a new Aave V4 Isolated Hub and Spoke to integrate institutional custody collateral as collateral for stablecoin loans. Institutional borrowers will deposit collateral with Anchorage and maintain custody during the loan period, with the custody balance represented on-chain by non-transferable custody collateral tokens CoCT, minted and burned by CustodySync designed by Chainlink.Borrowers will stake CoCT on the Spoke and withdraw stablecoins from the Isolated Hub. The entire loan lifecycle, including liquidation, is synchronized between the custodian and Aave through Chainlink infrastructure. The proposal is limited to a single Isolated Hub and a single Spoke governed by the Aave DAO, without altering existing Hubs, Spokes, or reserves. The underlying assets will always remain in custody, with Anchorage holding the assets as the custodian and acting as the counterparty for account control protocols; Chainlink does not hold the assets.CoCT is a restricted transfer ERC-20, only allowing Hub, Spoke, and CustodySync, with minting and burning exclusive to CustodySync, and each borrower's position corresponding to a contract. The initial plan is to launch a CoCT for BTC held in custody by Anchorage. The next steps involve ARFC discussions, and if supported, it will proceed to Snapshot, followed by submitting the final parameters for AIP.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced that kHYPE is now live. kHYPE is a wrapped version of HYPE, fully backed by Kraken at a 1:1 ratio and can be verified on-chain.This asset can be used in DeFi on the Ink chain and can be redeemed back to the original asset at any time.

The privacy public chain Zano activated its sixth hard fork (HF6) at block height 3,833,000. The upgrade has been launched on the mainnet, completing the largest upgrade in the network's seven-year history. HF6 introduces Gateway Addresses, providing a directly traceable single balance and instant synchronization for centralized exchanges, DEX, and cross-chain bridges, while retaining existing addresses and their privacy models.Native ZANO can now be cross-chain transferred to Ethereum, Solana, and TON without custody, publicly on external networks, and privacy protection is restored after crossing back to Zano. The upgrade also tightens consensus validation rules and strengthens wallet encryption, mining pool fault tolerance, payment IDs, anti-DoS restrictions, SOCKS5 proxies, and RPC interfaces. HF6 is a prerequisite for the development of the EVM-compatible chain Zano Execution Layer, which currently has no fixed launch date; the next-generation consensus protocol Zenith has been included in the 2027 roadmap.

According to official news, Mantle Vault has officially expanded from CeFi to DeFi, collaborating with Grove, CIAN, and Fluxion to launch a non-custodial yield vault aimed at stablecoin holders. Users can deposit USDC/USDT into Mantle to obtain institutional-level floating yields through the underlying strategy of sUSDS, along with incentives of Fluxion Points and 5.14 million GROVE tokens (with a target APY of up to 6.5%).The vault adopts a conservative non-leveraged structure, with strategies built by CIAN, capital base provided by Grove's Sky Savings Rate, and liquidity entry managed by Fluxion. Previously, Mantle Vault's AUM on Bybit had exceeded $200 million, and Mantle RWA TVL increased from $22 million to $257 million within the year, with DeFi TVL surpassing $755 million.Mantle stated that by expanding into the DeFi space through Mantle Vault, Mantle and its collaborators are committed to enabling all stablecoin holders to access institutional-level yields without borders, free from geographical restrictions and without the need for intermediary access, and all these components can be combined within Mantle's open financial network.

The cryptocurrency industry organization BlockchainAssn has submitted an amicus brief in support of Custodia Bank's application to the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the Court to review whether regional Federal Reserve Banks have the authority to deny access to master accounts for qualified state-chartered banks. The organization warns that lower court support for the Federal Reserve's ruling grants the central bank broad powers to disqualify industries or companies it does not recognize from receiving banking services, effectively vetoing which state-chartered banks can operate.Meanwhile, the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank has been granted an extension until September 11 to respond to Custodia's application.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) will conduct on-site inspections and off-site reviews of authorized crypto asset service providers from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027, with a focus on institutions providing digital asset custody services.This action is part of the 2026 joint supervisory action coordinated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which aims to assess areas such as institutional governance and control frameworks, key and storage management, private key security, wallet storage, and access controls.The review will also cover trading controls, monitoring and incident response, smart contract security, and third-party risk management. CySEC stated that the relevant standards are mandatory, and the institutions' compliance readiness will be used as a selection criterion for subsequent inspections.

According to Cryptopolitan, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has released a draft of regulatory rules for the cryptocurrency market, covering the registration and operational requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges, digital custodians, and token issuers. The draft stipulates that the minimum net assets for digital custodians must be between 50 million and 250 million rubles (approximately 600,000 to 3 million USD), with the specific amount depending on the nature of the business.These rules will complement the "Digital Currency and Digital Rights Law" passed by the State Duma of Russia earlier this month, which is expected to officially take effect on September 1, 2026. Under the new framework, non-qualified investors can only purchase mainstream assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT up to a limit of 4,000 USD per year; industry participants will have a transition period until March 1, 2027, to complete compliance and approval procedures.

Fox Business crypto reporter posted on the X platform stating that the bill outlines the rules for handling digital assets in the event of bankruptcy of exchanges or custodians.The bill helps ensure that customer assets receive the same protection as traditional financial assets and remain the property of the customers, rather than becoming part of the company's bankruptcy estate. This could help prevent a situation similar to FTX from occurring again.

According to monitoring by The Bitcoin Historian, the CEO of Telegram announced that a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet will be launched for all users this summer, with Telegram having over 1 billion active users.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated in a post on his personal channel that this summer will see "the largest deployment of non-custodial crypto wallets in human history." Telegram plans to integrate a native non-custodial Gram wallet into all its applications.Pavel Durov mentioned that the wallet will provide over 1 billion Telegram users with an instant, zero-fee cryptocurrency trading experience, further popularizing on-chain payments. He stated, "We are bringing the native non-custodial Gram wallet to every Telegram application."

Custodia Bank has submitted a petition for rehearing to the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting confirmation on whether the president of the regional Federal Reserve Bank has the authority to refuse to provide master account services to institutions. Custodia Bank has applied for a Federal Reserve master account multiple times and was denied by the Federal Reserve in 2023, citing significant safety and soundness risks associated with its new business model and its intended focus on digital assets.Custodia Bank subsequently appealed to the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in favor of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in October whether to hear the case.

According to Bloomberg, the crypto bank Custodia Bank has submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting a review of its case regarding "being unlawfully denied access to the Federal Reserve payment system." Custodia applied for a master account access with the Kansas City Fed in 2020, but the Federal Reserve denied it in 2023 on the grounds that its "business model focuses on activities related to crypto assets."Custodia filed a lawsuit, but the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Reserve's decision. In the petition, Custodia stated that the case raises "extremely important questions"—whether regional Federal Reserve banks can veto state bank charter decisions by denying access to central bank payment services.Custodia founder and CEO Caitlin Long stated that Wyoming has created a crypto-friendly environment through dozens of laws, but the Kansas City Fed chair "disagrees with Wyoming's policy choices." The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case after the October recess.

According to DigitalAsset, Upbit operator Dunamu has been selected as the first priority candidate for the "Management of Seized Digital Asset Custody Business" by the Korean National Police Agency. According to data from the Korean government procurement portal (KONEPS), Dunamu ranked first with a comprehensive score of 94.73 (technical score 84.73, bid price score 10), surpassing the Korea Digital Asset Custody Company (KDAC, 91.29) and Hecto Wallet One (87.27).The project budget is 267 million won, with a contract period of 1 year, aimed at entrusting the digital assets seized by the police during investigations to external professional institutions for secure custody. Previously, there were cases in the Korean judicial system where seized bitcoins were lost, raising concerns about the need for external custody of digital assets.

Tether's investment in Hyperliquid's mobile interface and the non-custodial trading platform Dreamcash announced that it will gradually shut down its CASH perpetual contract market based on Hyperliquid HIP-3, while retaining the non-custodial trading application.All CASH markets will be settled sequentially according to a preset schedule from June 30 to July 2, and positions will be automatically closed at settlement based on external oracle prices, with the funding rate set to 0 during this period.

Morpho officially released the "Morpho Midnight White Paper," announcing the launch of a new non-custodial protocol designed specifically for the fixed-rate, fixed-term credit market. At the same time, the complete codebase of Midnight has been open-sourced, and developers can access it directly through GitHub.

According to Bits.media, Ivan Chebeskov, the Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia, stated that the final version of the government's cryptocurrency market regulation bill will retain the ban on transfers from Russian custodial wallets to non-custodial foreign wallets. More lenient conditions will only apply to participants in foreign trade activities, namely importers. Chebeskov mentioned that after the law comes into effect, the effectiveness of the new regulatory system will be analyzed, and in the future, the use of non-custodial wallets may be allowed in an experimental mode. The final version of the bill will be ready next week, and the Deputy Minister hopes it can be passed before the end of the State Duma's spring session.Previously, the Duma's Financial Market Committee opposed the central bank's stance on banning transfers to non-custodial wallets and proposed providing judicial protection for all cryptocurrency asset holders. The bill was passed in the first reading on April 21, stipulating that starting July 1, Russians and companies can only purchase digital assets through licensed intermediaries, and access to foreign cryptocurrency platforms must go through a list approved by the central bank, prohibiting access to exchanges that impose sanctions on Russia.

According to News1, the Korean National Tax Service is piloting the custody and management of seized virtual assets by entrusting them to private cryptocurrency custody institutions for the first time, with plans to run a trial until the end of this year.Major custody institutions in Korea, such as KODA, KDAC, Hecto WalletOne, BDACS, and InfiniteBlock, are all prepared to participate. Although the budget for this pilot project is only about $5,800, the industry believes that obtaining a reference case from the "Korean National Tax Service project" is of symbolic significance.

According to The Block, the cryptocurrency custody company Taurus has obtained a MiFID II investment license granted by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, allowing it to provide MiFID-regulated investment services for tokenized financial instruments to banks and asset management companies across the EU, as well as secondary trading of tokenized bonds, fund shares, stocks, and structured products.

According to The Block, Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that the CFTC is considering establishing rules to solidify its protective stance towards non-custodial software developers. In March of this year, the CFTC issued a no-action letter regarding the cryptocurrency wallet Phantom, indicating that it would not take enforcement action for not being registered as a broker and clarified that eligible self-custody wallet software developers do not need to register as brokers. Selig mentioned that the CFTC is seeking to formally incorporate this stance into rulemaking.Additionally, Selig reiterated that prediction markets fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC and that it will continue to sue states that violate federal jurisdiction. The CFTC has previously sued Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, Connecticut, and New York.