Crypto Markets & On-Chain Ecosystem Developments

According to Odaily, predict.fun launched a new prediction market allowing users to forecast box office revenue for films through September 2026. The market was announced on August 18.

Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov criticized Pump.fun on August 17, 2026, calling it “a casino filled with scams known as memecoins.” A report released by Solidus Labs in May 2025 showed that 98.6% of the Pump.fun tokens it analyzed exhibited pump-and-dump or rug-pull characteristics. 98.6% of Pump.fun Tokens Are Pump-and-Dump Schemes, 68% Stop Trading on the Day of Issuance Token quality data is at the core of the controversy. A report released by Solidus Labs in May 2025 showed that 98.6% o

According to CoinDesk, on Aug. 17, Payward (the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken) joined Anthropic's Project Glasswing to use Claude Mythos 5 AI to scan its systems for software vulnerabilities. Initial Glasswing partners have found more than 10,000 high- or critical-severity flaws, and Payw

Cybersecurity company Bitdefender discovered multiple files online masquerading as pirated copies of Christopher Nolan’s new film, The Odyssey. In reality, they contain the Lumma Stealer (also known as LummaC2) trojan, which can steal browser-stored account passwords, payment information, cryptocurrency wallet data, and authentication cookies. How Fake Pirated Copies of The Odyssey Are Disguised According to Bitdefender’s research, the malicious files use multiple disguises to lower users’ guard

According to ChainCatcher, Harmony Protocol announced on August 18 that attackers exploited cross-shard receipt verification and quorum validation vulnerabilities to illegally mint and transfer 2.385 trillion ONE tokens on August 11. A single wallet initiated 534 fraudulent transactions within 106 s

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced on August 18 that Fijian authorities, in coordination with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of State, deported Edward Zimbardi last Friday. Zimbardi fled to Fiji after learning of the FBI investigation and remained there for more than a year. The indictment was filed on July 8 and contains 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit mon

According to Foresight News, Ripple has partnered with Jeonbuk Bank to enable near real-time cross-border remittances using Ripple Payments, making the bank the first regional financial institution in South Korea to deploy the service. The collaboration replaces traditional multi-intermediary

According to Foresight News, Morpho has launched Morpho Midnight, an open-source quoter bot that enables two-sided market quotations around a reference rate. Users can fork, configure, and enhance the bot according to their own quoting strategies, with the code repository now publicly

Edward Zimbardi, the alleged mastermind behind a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, was deported from Fiji on Friday and returned to the United States to face federal fraud and money laundering charges. The US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced Monday that

According to the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Edward Zimbardi, the alleged mastermind of a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, was deported from Fiji on Friday and returned to the United States on Monday to face federal fraud and money laundering

According to Odaily, Asseto Finance deployed PGNGI+ on the Pharos chain today, bringing the first on-chain exposure linked to global private infrastructure investments to the network's RealFi ecosystem. PGNGI+ is anchored to Partners

Gate News reports that, according to an official Gate announcement, Gate ETF will launch four trading pairs: WDC3L/USDT, WDC3S/USDT, AXTI3L/USDT, and AXTI3S/USDT. WDC3L/USDT and WDC3S/USDT are 3x long and 3x short products for WDC, respectively, while AXTI3L/USDT and AXTI3S/USDT are 3x long and 3x short products for AXTI, respectively. Trading will open on August 18, 2026, at 15:00 (UTC+8), with an initial NAV of 1 USDT. Gate ETF products feature an automatic rebalancing mechanism that adjusts t

Gate News reports that, based on publicly disclosed information as of August 19, 2026, UNITREE (Unitree Robotics, 688836.SH) will complete its initial public offering and listing on that date. Once the stock price stabilizes, Gate will migrate the UNITREEUSDT pre-market perpetual contract to the official UNITREEUSDT perpetual contract. Futures trading and existing positions will not be affected during the migration. The official UNITREEUSDT perpetual contract will support 1x–50x leverage for bot

According to SEC filings, Brevan Howard Capital Management reduced its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) position from 24.3 million shares to 7.21 million shares in Q2, a reduction of approximately 70.4%, with an ending value of about $240 million. Over the same period, Graham Capital Management cut its

According to Foresight News, Saturn Foundation will migrate USDat collateral to a new M0 issuer starting August 19 at 11 a.m. ET. Minting and redemptions are expected to pause for 3-5 hours during the migration, with a maximum possible duration of 24 hours. The overall migration is projected to

According to Arbitrum, Robinhood Chain accumulated $5 million in fees since launching over one month ago. Built on Arbitrum technology, the chain supports programmable finance applications and provides execution infrastructure for Robinhood's on-chain

World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm closely tied to the Trump family, partnered with Hong Kong-based startup WorldClaw, which provides AI models developed by Chinese companies on US government blacklists. The arrangement allows WorldClaw to accept World Liberty Financial's crypto tokens a

According to Binance's official announcement, the exchange will suspend Conflux Network (CFX) deposits and withdrawals starting August 25 at 07:00 UTC+8 to support the network's upgrade and hard fork. The network upgrade and hard fork are scheduled to occur at 08:00 UTC+8 on the same

According to RootData, ChainOpera (COAI) will unlock approximately 8.32 million tokens worth around $2.53 million on August 25 at 00:00 Beijing time.

Convano, the parent company of Japanese nail salon brand FASTNAIL, ended its Bitcoin reserve strategy at a loss. The company’s shares traded at 110 yen as of August 17, down 46.26% over the past year. They briefly fell below 100 yen to 99 yen during trading on August 13. Convano completed the sale of all its Bitcoin holdings on August 10, recognizing a loss of approximately 298 million yen on the sale. Convano’s Bitcoin Purchase Records Convano’s board of directors approved the launch of its Bit