The SEC introduced a five-year exemption for trading tokenized U.S. stocks, while Coinbase filed with the CFTC to launch single-stock perpetual futures. On the infrastructure side, dtcpay secured $25 million in funding, even as Robinhood Chain saw fee income collapse 97 percent despite high transaction volumes. Meanwhile, security challenges persisted as Cardano developer IOG suffered a YouTube channel hack used to push fake giveaways.
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Cardano Developer IOG Warns Users After YouTube Channel Hijack
Social media hijackings leveraging fake giveaways expose how open-governance ecosystems like Cardano rely on centralized web2 distribution channels, creating brand-level single points of failure without compromising core protocol security.
Input Output Global warned users to avoid its official YouTube channel after an apparent account takeover began broadcasting a fraudulent livestream. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson posted the warning on X on September 18, urging the community not to click links or trust videos on the platform. The compromised channel hosted a stream featuring a suspected -manipulated video of Hoskinson using Project Catalyst branding to promote a giveaway. The broadcast promised viewers that they could double their wealth by following instructions tied to a QR code. IOG stated that the team was working directly with YouTube to remove the unauthorized content and reset account credentials. Security warnings emphasized that the core Cardano network remained uncompromised, as the threat was strictly confined to the platform's social media presence. No official wallet addresses or verified loss totals were published in connection with the incident.
SEC Introduces Innovation Exemption for Tokenized Securities
Conditioning regulatory relief on full voting and dividend rights while barring synthetics anchors tokenized assets to actual corporate equity rather than parallel derivative markets.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a five-year innovation exemption allowing limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on venues. Chairman Paul Atkins announced the temporary framework on Thursday to give tokenized securities a regulated path without immediate formal rule changes. The policy applies only to tokens representing actual shares with full shareholder rights, such as voting and . Synthetic products that only offer price exposure fall outside the exemption and may require restructuring to enter U.S. markets. Qualified platforms must also implement KYC checks, trading limits, and volume caps while allowing corporate issuers to veto unauthorized tokenization of their shares.
Coinbase Files to Launch Single-Stock Perpetual Futures in US Market
Translating crypto's native perpetual futures contract into SEC-regulated equity markets threatens to shift US retail stock speculation away from traditional options exchanges.
Cointelegraph.com reports that Coinbase has filed with the Trading Commission to list single-stock perpetual futures in the United States. The proposed would provide traders with 24/5 exposure to individual without requiring ownership of the underlying shares. Unlike traditional contracts, these perpetual futures feature no expiration date. Coinbase plans to initially offer contracts tied to roughly 50 to 60 stocks, including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia. The filing builds on an earlier Form 1-N submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 1 to register Coinbase Derivatives as a national securities exchange. The contracts remain pending regulatory approval.
Ripple Says Asset Managers Prepare for XRP Ledger Payments Upgrade
Atomic batching provides the all-or-nothing settlement guarantee required for institutional delivery-versus-payment workflows, removing principal risk when moving commercial assets on the XRP Ledger.
coindesk.com reports that managers and other commercial projects are preparing to use the Batch V1.1 upgrade on the XRP Ledger. The feature groups up to eight transactions into a single operation to ensure they all settle or all fail together. Ayo Akinyele, head of engineering at RippleX, stated that the upgrade supports delivery-versus-payment transactions where assets and payments must move atomically. The amendment has secured support from 30 of the 35 tracked validators, exceeding the 28 votes required to enter an activation countdown. That countdown began on September 15 at 14:06:41 UTC and is projected to conclude shortly after September 29, provided validator support stays at or above 80 percent. The current version follows a redesign prompted by a critical signature-validation flaw found in Batch V1.0 during February. The replacement shipped in xrpld version 3.3.0 on August 6 following adversarial testing and security reviews by Halborn and Common Prefix.
S&P Global Acquires OpenZeppelin to Expand Tokenized Finance Risk Capabilities
Integrating smart-contract code auditing into traditional ratings frameworks establishes software security as a baseline prerequisite for institutional underwriting of tokenized financial assets.
Global agreed to acquire smart contract security firm OpenZeppelin for an undisclosed sum, bringing code auditing into the institutional ratings business. The transaction places OpenZeppelin as an independent unit inside S&P Global Ratings under co-founder and chief executive Demian Brener, who will report to ratings president Yann Le Pallec. S&P stated that the deal will not materially affect its financial results. OpenZeppelin's code libraries have underpinned more than $37 trillion in cumulative value transfers across , tokenized funds, and protocols since 2015. The firm has completed more than 900 security engagements and surfaced over 10,000 vulnerabilities before code deployment. S&P is buying the audit record and monitoring engine to establish a formal risk standard as traditional banks and managers migrate financial products onto networks. OpenZeppelin will maintain its brand, team, and open-source commitment, while its core libraries will remain permanently free and publicly available. Jefferies acted as financial advisor and Clifford Chance served as legal counsel to S&P Global, while FT Partners advised OpenZeppelin with Cooley as legal counsel.
Robinhood Chain Fees Collapse 97% as Transactions Remain Near Record Highs
Decoupling network gas revenue from underlying application volume shifts a blockchain's economic value capture from the layer-one protocol directly to the decentralized exchanges operating on top.
coindesk.com reports that Robinhood Chain fee income collapsed 97 percent after a memecoin trading rush cooled, even as daily transactions remained near record highs. Network fee collections fell from roughly $8 million on 13.1 million transactions in early September to about $230,000 across 8.9 million transactions by Sept. 16, according to growthepie data. That divergence occurred because average transaction costs dropped from 64 cents to 2.6 cents. Decentralized exchanges on Robinhood handled about $13 billion in the seven days through Sept. 16, up 5 percent from the prior week. Meanwhile, applications built on the network generated about $8 million in fees over a 24-hour window, retaining $1.5 million as .
SBI Group Backs dtcpay in $25 Million Funding Round
Securing traditional bank-backed venture capital allows Singapore-licensed payment providers to bridge stablecoin settlement directly into mainstream merchant acquiring networks.
coindesk.com reports that dtcpay completed a $25 million Series A funding round backed by Japan's SBI Group. The Singapore-licensed payments company secured the strategic investment through SBI Ventures and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India anchored the raise earlier this year, alongside returning participants Genedant and Kwee Liong Tek. Dtcpay holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and provides digital-asset conversion, custody, and Visa-linked card services. The firm will deploy the capital to build an enterprise portal, upgrade its application, and grow its merchant network. Management withheld the company and details.
Broader institutional adoption and regulatory frameworks for tokenized equities are advancing alongside fresh infrastructure funding. However, severe fee compression on high-volume chains and recurring security vulnerabilities leave unresolved how platforms will sustain protocol revenues while protecting retail users.
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