Abstract Hit by Shutdown Rumors, Team Stays Silent
Rumors that Abstract is winding down spread after core dev Cygaar went quiet. He hasn't posted since June and on Sep 28 moved about 1.34M PENGU ($12.8K) off the chain.
The team has made no official statement, so the shutdown talk remains unconfirmed for now.
Rumors that Abstract is winding down spread after core dev Cygaar went quiet. He hasn't posted since June and on Sep 28 moved about 1.34M PENGU ($12.8K) off the chain.
Posts also claim founder Luca Netz removed Abstract's badge from his X name and that the chain lost out to Robinhood Chain. Neither is confirmed: Netz still lists Abstract in his X bio, and Abstract posted its weekly XP update on Sep 29.
The team has made no official statement, so the shutdown talk remains unconfirmed for now.
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DogeOS Opens Testnet for EVM Apps on Dogecoin
DogeOS opened its public testnet, a zero-knowledge rollup that brings EVM smart contracts to Dogecoin, with DOGE used to pay gas fees.
DogeOS says it has no token and warns users to avoid scams claiming otherwise.
DogeOS opened its public testnet, a zero-knowledge rollup that brings EVM smart contracts to Dogecoin, with DOGE used to pay gas fees.
DogeOS comes from the founders of the MyDoge wallet. Teams are already deploying on testnet across payments, DeFi, games and markets. Dogecoin Foundation director Timothy Stebbing said he hopes it becomes "the springboard for a wave of new utility engineering."
DogeOS says it has no token and warns users to avoid scams claiming otherwise.
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Zcash Holders Approve $8.4M in Retro Grants
Zcash coinholders approved $8.4M in Q3 retroactive grants, funding 17 of 37 proposals. About 2.18M ZEC ($3.1B) took part in the vote.
The next round opens for proposals on Oct 30, with coinholder voting set for Dec 17-29.
Zcash coinholders approved $8.4M in Q3 retroactive grants, funding 17 of 37 proposals. About 2.18M ZEC ($3.1B) took part in the vote.
Most of the money went to security work after the critical Orchard bug, which could have allowed unlimited ZEC minting in a pool holding about 4.2M ZEC ($2.3B at the time). Taylor Hornby, who found it, gets $1.5M across two bounties. Ironwood upgrade work and audits get $2.8M, and ZODL gets $1.95M for core protocol development.
The next round opens for proposals on Oct 30, with coinholder voting set for Dec 17-29.
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Mapping September Gainers. Coins That Actually Grew
By price, September belonged to small caps: STONK +1,070%, Rhea +863% and Quant +400%, the only multi-billion name in the top three. Rank by dollars added to FDV and the board flips to Bitcoin (+$121B), Ethereum (+$31.7B) and XRP (+$12.9B).
No coin made both lists this month. Bitway came closest, +248% in price and +$9.4B in FDV, just outside the top eight by percentage. Zcash added $9.8B on a +68% move.
By price, September belonged to small caps: STONK +1,070%, Rhea +863% and Quant +400%, the only multi-billion name in the top three. Rank by dollars added to FDV and the board flips to Bitcoin (+$121B), Ethereum (+$31.7B) and XRP (+$12.9B).
No coin made both lists this month. Bitway came closest, +248% in price and +$9.4B in FDV, just outside the top eight by percentage. Zcash added $9.8B on a +68% move.
Google Unveils Gemini 4 Argon for Coding and Cyber
Google unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, its new frontier model for coding, enterprise work and cyber defense. It launches at $2 per 1M input tokens and $10 per 1M output tokens.
Access starts with cyber defenders in Google's Fairwind Program, then paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers.
Google unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, its new frontier model for coding, enterprise work and cyber defense. It launches at $2 per 1M input tokens and $10 per 1M output tokens.
The output limit jumps to 1M tokens from 64K, so the model can work through long tasks in one go. Argon sets a new high of 77.9% on DeepSWE v1.1 and ranks first on the Vals Index and Zapier's AutomationBench. Trusted defenders get a version without cyber guardrails, and Wiz already used it to find a critical flaw in hospital software.
Access starts with cyber defenders in Google's Fairwind Program, then paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers.
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The Biggest Crypto Fundraising Rounds in Q3 2026
Polymarket topped Q3's funding rounds with $1B at a $21B valuation, led by 1789 Capital. Jeeves followed with $110M, then Circle and Kraken's parent Payward raised $100M each.
Stablecoins are the clear theme: Jeeves, HIFI, Latitude, Cari, OpenReserve, Fin.com and Limited all build banking or payment rails on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
Polymarket topped Q3's funding rounds with $1B at a $21B valuation, led by 1789 Capital. Jeeves followed with $110M, then Circle and Kraken's parent Payward raised $100M each.
Polymarket: $1B at a $21B valuation, led by 1789 Capital
Jeeves: $110M Series C led by CoinFund, with a16z, Coinbase Ventures and YC
Circle: $100M PIPE from Binance, tied to a 5-year USDC distribution deal
Payward: $100M from Nasdaq at a $21B valuation
RQD Clearing: $74M led by Bain Capital, with ABN AMRO and Nyca
HIFI: $37M Series A led by Left Lane Capital
Latitude: $35M Series A led by Oak HC/FT, with NEA and Coinbase Ventures
Cari: $32.5M from seven US banks, including KeyBank, M&T and Huntington
OpenReserve: $25M seed led by a16z crypto, with Coinbase Ventures and Jump
Fin.com: $20M seed led by Expa
Limited: $18.5M seed led by Third Prime, with North Island Ventures and Collab+Currency
Hivemind Digital Group: $17M strategic round led by M&G Investments, with FalconX and ZA Bank
Stablecoins are the clear theme: Jeeves, HIFI, Latitude, Cari, OpenReserve, Fin.com and Limited all build banking or payment rails on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
NEAR Intents Confirms $3.8M Exploit, Promises Full Compensation
NEAR Intents says a bug in how its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interacted with its smart contract led to a preliminary loss of about $3.8 million. The team says it will compensate users in full and has patched the contract vulnerability.
Users holding assets from those networks in NEAR Intents, including through HOT Wallet or near.com, will be able to swap them into other assets once services resume.
NEAR says it has reported the incident to law enforcement and is working with security and blockchain analytics partners to trace the funds and pursue recovery. A detailed report is expected in the coming days.
NEAR Intents says a bug in how its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interacted with its smart contract led to a preliminary loss of about $3.8 million. The team says it will compensate users in full and has patched the contract vulnerability.
NEAR Intents and near.com services are expected to resume within an hour. Deposits and withdrawals on BSC, Polygon, TON, Optimism, Avalanche, Stellar, Monad, LayerX, Adi, Scroll and Plasma will remain paused for about 12 more hours as Omni infrastructure fixes are completed.
Users holding assets from those networks in NEAR Intents, including through HOT Wallet or near.com, will be able to swap them into other assets once services resume.
NEAR says it has reported the incident to law enforcement and is working with security and blockchain analytics partners to trace the funds and pursue recovery. A detailed report is expected in the coming days.
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Drift Opens DFX Claims and Redemptions for April Exploit Victims
Drift says users with verified losses from the April 1 exploit can claim 1 DFX for every 1 USDT lost. The claim window closes at 00:00 UTC on January 1, 2028; unclaimed DFX will be burned.
DFX can be redeemed for USDT based on the Recovery Pool balance divided by the outstanding DFX supply. Redeemed DFX is burned, and redemptions are final.
Drift says recovery efforts continue with zeroShadow and law enforcement, with recovered funds going to the pool.
Drift says users with verified losses from the April 1 exploit can claim 1 DFX for every 1 USDT lost. The claim window closes at 00:00 UTC on January 1, 2028; unclaimed DFX will be burned.
Each DFX represents a claim on Drift’s Recovery Pool, which holds about 3.11 million USDT. The pool is funded by a share of Velocity’s net protocol revenue, Tether’s matched deployment of up to 127.5 million USDT, contributions from strategic partners of up to 20 million USDT, and recovered funds.
DFX can be redeemed for USDT based on the Recovery Pool balance divided by the outstanding DFX supply. Redeemed DFX is burned, and redemptions are final.
Drift says recovery efforts continue with zeroShadow and law enforcement, with recovered funds going to the pool.
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Robinhood Wallet Adds Arcus Routing for Stock Token Swaps
Robinhood Wallet has integrated Arcus’ API, adding it as one of several routing providers for spot swaps of more than 190 stock tokens. Eligible users in supported jurisdictions can access Arcus’ liquidity and execution infrastructure through the wallet.
Arcus, built by the team behind dYdX, launched on Robinhood Chain in July. It says it has processed more than $5 billion in cumulative volume and has over 15,000 traders, with total value locked above $28 million.
Robinhood Wallet has integrated Arcus’ API, adding it as one of several routing providers for spot swaps of more than 190 stock tokens. Eligible users in supported jurisdictions can access Arcus’ liquidity and execution infrastructure through the wallet.
Arcus uses a request-for-quote model, where professional market makers compete to price each swap. Users whose trades route through Arcus may be eligible for Arcus Points, and limit orders are also planned through Robinhood Wallet’s dapp browser.
Arcus, built by the team behind dYdX, launched on Robinhood Chain in July. It says it has processed more than $5 billion in cumulative volume and has over 15,000 traders, with total value locked above $28 million.
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Cryptomarket Check-In. Major Events & Headlines
Wallets and apps kept moving onchain: Phantom added BNB Chain, Base shipped Cobalt, and NEAR Intents halted after a $3.8M bug and pledged repayment. Google unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, OpenAI introduced Dots, and Drift opened claims for its April losses.
Five that actually mattered:
— NEAR Intents halts after a $3.8M exploit, pledges full compensation
— Phantom adds BNB Chain Support
— Google introduces Gemini 4 Argon
— OpenAI introduces Dots
— Drift Foundation recovery update
Wallets and apps kept moving onchain: Phantom added BNB Chain, Base shipped Cobalt, and NEAR Intents halted after a $3.8M bug and pledged repayment. Google unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, OpenAI introduced Dots, and Drift opened claims for its April losses.
Five that actually mattered:
— NEAR Intents halts after a $3.8M exploit, pledges full compensation
— Phantom adds BNB Chain Support
— Google introduces Gemini 4 Argon
— OpenAI introduces Dots
— Drift Foundation recovery update
Worth a look | Base update · Zcash grants results · First U.S. spot NEAR ETP launches · Robinhood Wallet integrates Arcus · Cboe and Robinhood plan KPI contracts
Phantom Adds BNB Chain Support for Trading
BNB Chain went live on Phantom on October 1. Users can trade on the network once they update to the latest version of the app.
BNB Chain went live on Phantom on October 1. Users can trade on the network once they update to the latest version of the app.
BNB Chain joins Solana, Ethereum, Base, Polygon and Bitcoin in the wallet. The addition comes after Phantom dropped Monad support in August. Both teams teased the launch shortly before with a "hello" post in Chinese.
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Ostium Rebuilds Its RWA Perps Stack as Gateway
Ostium unveiled Gateway, a whitelisted API and liquidity layer for venues, family offices and pro traders. It follows the $23.75M hack of its LP vault in July.
Beta opens to design partners in Q4. Kaledora and Marco will run Ostium as co-CEOs, and the current app keeps working for existing users.
Ostium unveiled Gateway, a whitelisted API and liquidity layer for venues, family offices and pro traders. It follows the $23.75M hack of its LP vault in July.
Pricing moves off-chain, and Ostium targets execution under 100ms, down from more than a second. Traders get one stablecoin margin account with cross-margin and sub-accounts. Access is whitelisted, and withdrawals pass an anomaly check instead of being instant. Ostium says RWAs now make up over 50% of perps volume on many venues, and its own open interest peaked above $370M.
Beta opens to design partners in Q4. Kaledora and Marco will run Ostium as co-CEOs, and the current app keeps working for existing users.
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Ethereum Foundation Launches zkAPI for Private AI Payments
The Ethereum Foundation launched zkAPI on mainnet with the Open Anonymity Project. Users pay for AI APIs with zero-knowledge proofs, so no account is tied to their prompts.
The same setup can also cover RPC queries, VPNs and payments between AI agents. zkAPI does not hide IP addresses, so the team suggests Tor for stronger privacy.
The Ethereum Foundation launched zkAPI on mainnet with the Open Anonymity Project. Users pay for AI APIs with zero-knowledge proofs, so no account is tied to their prompts.
Credits go into an Ethereum vault in a single deposit. After that, each session is paid with a ZK proof: the AI provider sees the prompts but not the payer, and the payment server sees the spend but not the prompts. Funds can be withdrawn onchain even if every zkAPI server goes offline.
The same setup can also cover RPC queries, VPNs and payments between AI agents. zkAPI does not hide IP addresses, so the team suggests Tor for stronger privacy.
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Aave V3 Loop Safe Module Exploit Drains $114K in ETH
Aave V3’s Loop Safe Module was exploited, with losses of about 114.09 ETH across two Safe multisigs. The attacker reportedly repaid roughly 1,300 WETH in debt to unlock and withdraw collateral.
The reported attacker address is 0x42c2…F9353. The vulnerable contract is 0x16bb…283d8.
Aave V3’s Loop Safe Module was exploited, with losses of about 114.09 ETH across two Safe multisigs. The attacker reportedly repaid roughly 1,300 WETH in debt to unlock and withdraw collateral.
SlowMist says the attacker spoofed Safe authentication with a fake Safe that returned true when asked whether the module was enabled. The vulnerable adapter then made an unrestricted call using attacker-controlled router and calldata, allowing the attacker to execute transactions through the victim Safes and drain WETH and Aave collateral.
The reported attacker address is 0x42c2…F9353. The vulnerable contract is 0x16bb…283d8.
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Blast to Wind Down Its Layer 2 Network as Users Face Withdrawal Deadline
Blast says it will shut down its Layer 2 network, citing operating costs that exceed revenue and no credible path to economic sustainability. The team is asking users to withdraw assets to Ethereum mainnet, including funds held in the Blast PWA.
Users can withdraw through Blast’s interface until October 26, 2026. Assets will remain withdrawable after that date through direct interaction with the Blast bridge contracts on Ethereum L1; Blast says it will publish instructions before the deadline.
Blast says it will shut down its Layer 2 network, citing operating costs that exceed revenue and no credible path to economic sustainability. The team is asking users to withdraw assets to Ethereum mainnet, including funds held in the Blast PWA.
Blast plans to reduce the withdrawal delay to 24 hours. Withdrawals will first pause for about a week while the team withdraws the network’s Lido assets. After that process, withdrawals will resume with the shorter delay.
Users can withdraw through Blast’s interface until October 26, 2026. Assets will remain withdrawable after that date through direct interaction with the Blast bridge contracts on Ethereum L1; Blast says it will publish instructions before the deadline.
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Volantis Gets $88M to Speed Up AI With Light
Volantis raised an $88M Series A led by Lachy Groom and Abstract, bringing its total funding to $97M. Sam Altman, Jeff Dean, Dylan Patel and John Doerr also backed the startup.
The team previously shipped first-of-their-kind products at NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom and Ayar Labs. Its next chip iteration is already taped out.
Volantis raised an $88M Series A led by Lachy Groom and Abstract, bringing its total funding to $97M. Sam Altman, Jeff Dean, Dylan Patel and John Doerr also backed the startup.
Volantis builds AI inference systems that use light instead of wires to connect chips to memory. It says this lifts both memory capacity and bandwidth by over 10x, so models with 10T+ parameters can run at up to 10,000 tokens per second per user. The first target is coding agents that finish a task in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.
The team previously shipped first-of-their-kind products at NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom and Ayar Labs. Its next chip iteration is already taped out.
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MAJOR UPCOMING EVENTS IN OCTOBER!
A full list of Major Upcoming Events, to be updated
👉 https://cryptodiffer.com/events
A full list of Major Upcoming Events, to be updated
👉 https://cryptodiffer.com/events
Tether-Backed Utexo to Launch USDT on Bitcoin in October
Tether-backed Utexo will issue USDT on Bitcoin this month, co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk. The company has secured a commercial license to issue the stablecoin there.
USDT, now a nearly $190B stablecoin, debuted on Bitcoin via Omni in 2014 before moving to Ethereum and Tron. Utexo raised a $7.5M seed round backed by Tether this year.
Tether-backed Utexo will issue USDT on Bitcoin this month, co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk. The company has secured a commercial license to issue the stablecoin there.
Built on the RGB protocol and Bitcoin's UTXO model, Utexo will offer private USDT transfers, native BTC-USDT swaps and BTC-backed lending without wrapping Bitcoin. Instead of freezing addresses, Utexo will blacklist UTXOs tied to illicit activity. Lightning support is planned after launch.
USDT, now a nearly $190B stablecoin, debuted on Bitcoin via Omni in 2014 before moving to Ethereum and Tron. Utexo raised a $7.5M seed round backed by Tether this year.
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Plume Puts Fidelity’s Bond ETF Onchain via nBND
Plume launched the nBND vault, backed by the Fidelity Total Bond ETF (FBND), an actively managed fund of investment-grade, high-yield and emerging-market debt.
Onchain yield began with short-term Treasuries, and allocators now want longer-duration, actively managed products, Plume said.
Plume launched the nBND vault, backed by the Fidelity Total Bond ETF (FBND), an actively managed fund of investment-grade, high-yield and emerging-market debt.
nBND runs on Nest, Plume's RWA vault protocol: allocators deposit stablecoins and get a token tracking their share of FBND. The fund launched in 2014, manages $27.9B, yields about 4.9% with monthly payouts and charges a 0.36% expense ratio. FBND already sits in the ether.fi Liquid RWA vault built with Plume.
Onchain yield began with short-term Treasuries, and allocators now want longer-duration, actively managed products, Plume said.
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Zcash Tests 25-Second Blocks on Public Testnet
Zcash activated NU7 on testnet, cutting the target block time from 75 seconds to 25 ahead of a planned November 5 mainnet launch.
Developers will decide on mainnet activation on October 20. Anyone still holding funds in Sprout should move them before the upgrade.
Zcash activated NU7 on testnet, cutting the target block time from 75 seconds to 25 ahead of a planned November 5 mainnet launch.
NU7 went live at testnet block 4,465,026, and both major node clients, Zakura and the Zcash Foundation's Zebra, now support it. Miners will get 40% of transaction fees, while 60% goes to a reserve for future mining rewards. The block reward drops to a third, so ZEC issuance stays on schedule. The upgrade also disables the old Sprout privacy pool.
Developers will decide on mainnet activation on October 20. Anyone still holding funds in Sprout should move them before the upgrade.
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