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According to The Block, Base has completed its third mainnet upgrade, Cobalt. The core of this upgrade is the Validity Transactions conditional transaction feature, allowing users to submit transactions with conditions that must be met before they are packaged on-chain; if the conditions are not met, the transaction will never be included.Base stated that this API is part of a neutral infrastructure, allowing advanced traders to keep their submissions confidential before they are finalized.Cobalt also enhances the B20 token standard launched with the Beryl upgrade in June, adding three new features. Composite Policies allow asset issuers to combine existing whitelists and blacklists using "or" and "and" logic, without the need to duplicate lists or maintain off-chain synchronization.The Schedule Multiplier upgrade aligns with the ERC-8056 standard, supporting issuers in changing the display method of asset balances, which can be used in scenarios such as stock splits.Base also revealed plans to shorten block time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds in the coming months, implement native smart accounts at the protocol layer, support Gas payment and transaction batching, and introduce some EVM improvements from the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on the ATM network associated with Tren de Aragua and has added seven Tron addresses to the sanctions list.Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis stated that the counterparties of the aforementioned wallets had interacted with money laundering networks used by drug trafficking groups in Mexico and Colombia, as well as money launderers in Venezuela.

Noah Shinn, founder of Personal AI Agent Instinct, stated that the company's user base has been growing by about 10% to 11% daily in recent weeks, leading to a corresponding demand for computing power that is close to doubling each week. He now spends about 40% of his time considering how much computing power to purchase in advance.Shinn indicated that computing power cannot be procured in sync with user growth. Purchasing only double the current computing power would be exhausted in about a week; buying five times would run out in less than three weeks; directly purchasing ten times would mean a significant upfront investment. Many resources need to be booked months in advance, and the price for temporarily supplementing computing power could be three to four times higher. He mentioned that purchasing too little makes it difficult to support growth, while purchasing too much would amplify costs when growth slows down.He estimates that even if the daily growth rate drops from 10% to 5% to 8%, after continuous growth for 3 to 4 months, it may still be necessary to prepare computing power for a scale of 100 million users, and the waiting time for new computing power to come online would be roughly the same. He believes that this is more challenging than scaling consumer internet products like Instagram and Facebook, because each new user of the personal agent continuously consumes a large amount of model inference. He stated that Instinct's current scaling speed is even faster than similar situations encountered by Claude Code and Codex in the past.

According to Saudi media outlet Hadass, sources say that Iran has agreed to stop uranium enrichment in exchange for the United States easing sanctions.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin software provider Breez announced that applications built on its Breez SDK now support users receiving stablecoin payments from over 30 networks using their Bitcoin balance.Breez stated that after the recipient selects the network and amount of the payer, the SDK generates a deposit address and displays the amount received, while the payer pays from their wallet as usual; Flashnet completes the exchange in the background, and the funds ultimately enter the recipient's non-custodial wallet in the form of Bitcoin, or in the form of USD if the stable balance feature is used.In June of this year, Breez launched the ability to send USDT/USDC, allowing a single Breez-powered balance to transfer stablecoins bi-directionally across almost all networks. This update is the latest in a series of usability upgrades, following the rollout of features such as Passkey login, Cash App instant account opening, and stable balance. Breez also launched a reference application called Glow in August to showcase the capabilities of the SDK.The Breez SDK is a developer toolkit that allows applications to add Bitcoin payments without having to build their own payment infrastructure, covering wallet creation, sending and receiving, and Lightning Network payments. Developers can provide Bitcoin functionality with minimal code, without needing to run nodes or manage liquidity.In July of this year, Breez announced a partnership with Turnkey, allowing developers to add non-custodial Bitcoin support to wallet applications running on their own servers.

Artificial intelligence company Instinct successfully raised $1 billion with a valuation of $10 billion.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Citigroup has reached a partnership with Coinbase, allowing Citigroup's institutional clients (including large multinational corporations) to accept customer stablecoin payments through Citigroup's merchant acquiring services. Coinbase will provide the stablecoin payment channel and underlying blockchain technology, automatically converting stablecoins into fiat currency, with Citigroup acting as the custodian bank to complete the funds settlement.At the same time, Coinbase's payment clients can leverage Citigroup's banking capabilities to receive, hold, and make payments using tools similar to bank accounts. The cash received will automatically be converted into stablecoins and stored in Coinbase, currently earning an annualized reward of 3.75% in interest-like benefits.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that Bitget is conducting a comprehensive investigation into the recent platform security incident in collaboration with independent third-party expert Mandiant and Slow Mist. The platform will continue to release the latest updates through official channels.He emphasized that ensuring user safety is Bitget's top priority at the moment, and user balances remain intact. The Bitget User Protection Fund will cover the impacts caused by this platform-level incident. The Bitget Wallet is a self-custody wallet, using infrastructure that is completely separate and independent from Bitget Exchange, and therefore was not affected by this incident.Currently, the recharge, trading, and reward functions of Bitget Exchange are still operating normally. The withdrawal function remains suspended during additional security checks and will be reopened as soon as the platform confirms it can be safely restored.

Market prediction protocol functionSPACE announced the completion of a $1.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, aimed at building economic primitives for pricing numerical outcomes. This round of financing was led by Maven 11 Capital and Blockwall, with participation from Smape Capital.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X stating that the U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Iran's BitBank, claiming that the exchange processed Bitcoin payments made by vessels under the Hormuz Security Insurance Program.The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control stated that as of June, these funds had been transferred to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Babak Zanjani's network had used the exchange to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Bitcoin payment channels are not exempt from regulation by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.

According to Bloomberg, sources have revealed that U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance Holdings Ltd. violated U.S. sanctions against Iran by failing to prevent certain transactions on its platform.The investigation into Binance's compliance is being handled by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office. One source also noted that the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington is involved in the case, and authorities are focusing on whether Binance knowingly allowed the relevant transactions to proceed.

Indian refiners are seeking crude oil purchases for delivery in November. Due to the sanctions bill signed by the United States last week, India may reduce its crude oil purchases from Russia.As the world's third-largest crude oil buyer, India has imported more than half of its total imports from Russia.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against the Tehran-based cryptocurrency exchange BitBank, stating that the platform transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran. OFAC stated that BitBank is controlled by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, who was designated in January of this year, and that he used the platform to complete transfers between June and July, with this designation made under Executive Order 13902.The sanctions also cover three executives from BitBank's software developer Pishtaz Simorgh and its parent company Dot One. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that using cryptocurrency to finance the Iranian regime is well within OFAC's jurisdiction. OFAC also mentioned that Hormuz Safe, an entity selling passage security in the Strait of Hormuz, has been receiving payments through BitBank since June; this entity was sanctioned in July. OFAC did not disclose the relevant wallet addresses.

The White House announced that Trump has signed the Russia sanctions bill, making it official law.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank, accusing it of helping to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the IRGC.The action also targeted the developers of the exchange and three associates of the Iranian financier Babak Zanjani.

According to Axios, U.S. President Trump stated that the Iran war is approaching a critical juncture, and he needs to decide whether to resume large-scale military operations to push for an end to the conflict.

According to The Block, World is launching World Money, a self-custody financial super app that encompasses stablecoins, investments, yield, and global payment features, covering over 150 countries.The app integrates with Stripe, Kalshi, and Morpho, allowing users to unlock higher rewards through World ID verification. World was previously known as Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others.

The Japanese yen stablecoin issuer JPYC has issued a malfunction notice, announcing the emergency suspension of the JPYC issuance reservation service on the Ethereum network.The official statement indicates that this function is currently in a suspended state, and the technical team is urgently investigating the specific cause of the malfunction. JPYC apologizes to the affected users regarding this matter and promises to release updates through official channels as soon as the details are confirmed.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom, in conjunction with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Metropolitan Police Service, conducted raids at multiple locations in London targeting three suspected illegal peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading venues, issuing cessation notices to the relevant operators, demanding an immediate halt to unregistered cryptocurrency activities.The FCA emphasized that any business engaging in peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading activities in the UK must complete anti-money laundering registration, and currently, there are no peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading businesses registered with the FCA within the UK.

On September 14, 2026, Judge Arun Subramanian of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion and order denying the plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. The case number is 1:26-cv-05474-AS, with the plaintiffs being market makers Susquehanna Securities, LLC and Susquehanna Investment Group, and the intervenor being market maker Citadel Securities LLC, while the defendants are John Does 1 through 100. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on June 29, 2026, claiming violations under Section 20A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and unjust enrichment claims.The plaintiffs allege that the defendants traded on significant non-public information, specifically an announcement on May 22, 2026, regarding "the Chinese government's crackdown on cross-border trading platforms," which led to a collapse of the relevant securities. The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to restrict the 40 defendants, as reduced, from transferring, encumbering, removing, or otherwise disposing of the profits obtained through the alleged insider trading activities in their accounts at third-party brokerage firms, or sought a seizure order. The court found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate the elements necessary to prove that they may suffer irreparable harm, and the motion was denied.