Bitcoin ETFs shed $463M in weekly reversal as Ether ETFs gain $197M

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted $462.7 million in net outflows last week, reversing after three consecutive weeks of inflows, while Ether ETFs moved the other way with nearly $197 million in net inflows.  According to Farside Investors, the withdrawals ran across all four trading sessions from Tuesday to Friday. The outflows followed the strongest three-week inflow run of 2026, which ended after the funds shed $166.8 million in the first two days of the holiday-shortened week.  The selling deepened on Thursday, when US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $282.7 million, their largest daily withdrawal since July. Fridays outflow slowed to $13.2 million, but still extended the negative streak to four trading days, according to SoSoValue.  Related: Bitcoin fails to reclaim $80K as Bessent fuels yen strength around 153 per dollar  ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF led weekly withdrawals with $234.2 million in net outflows, followed by Grayscale‘s Bitcoin Trust ETF with $129.1 million. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF recorded $52.5 million in net outflows over the week, while Fidelitys Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund lost $50.7 million.  Despite the weekly reversal, spot Bitcoin ETFs remain in positive flow territory for September, with about $307.3 million in net inflows through Friday.  Ether ETFs record weekly

09-14Industry

Japan finance firms add AI translation and QR payments

PayPay has added UnionPay QR payments across participating Japanese merchants while SMBC has begun deploying an OpenAI-powered interpreter to bank employees.  PayPay said in a Sept. 3 release that UnionPay App users can now pay through its merchant network using the HIVEX payment platform. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation announced its separate SMBC-Interpreter rollout on Sept. 11.  The two companies have not announced a partnership between the products. PayPay‘s expansion concerns payments made by overseas visitors, while SMBC’s application handles spoken communication between bank employees and customers.  Japanese Financial Sector Enhances Cross-Border Services via AI Translation and Expanded QR Payments  PayPay Corporation expanded its cross-border infrastructure by integrating the “UnionPay App” (UnionPay QR) into its nationwide merchant network through the HIVEX® platform. The… pic.twitter.com/Fuf5SVvNm1  — Norbert Gehrke (@norbertgehrke) September 14, 2026  PayPay brings UnionPay QR into its merchant network  Travelers can register UnionPay cards issued in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau within the UnionPay App. At participating PayPay merchants, they can scan or present a payment code to complete purchases through the HIVEX network.  PayPay said the service can be used for purchases such as meals, accommodations and souvenirs. Prices appear in Japanese yen at the merchant, while the customers application calculates the amount in their home currency.  HIVEX

09-14Industry

South Korea CBDC plan draws warning over privacy risks

South Koreas People Power Party has opposed any central bank digital currency rollout without legal safeguards covering privacy, spending controls and consumer choice.  SummarySouth Koreas opposition People Power Party has opposed CBDC issuance without prior legal and institutional safeguards.Leader Jang Dong-hyeok questioned transaction tracking, spending controls, expiration limits and currency choice protections publicly.Project Hangang uses wholesale central-bank money beneath commercial banks tokenized customer deposits during trials nationwide.Phase two expands participating banks from seven to nine while adding peer-to-peer deposit-token transfer functions.Bank of Korea materials distinguish Project Hangang from a publicly issued retail CBDC system explicitly.  Digital Asset reported on Sept. 14 that party leader Jang Dong-hyeok published the position on Facebook one day earlier. His statement arrived as the Bank of Korea advanced the second phase of Project Hangang, its digital-currency and tokenized-deposit testing program.  “I strongly oppose the introduction of CBDC until legal and institutional safeguards are perfectly established so that the public can feel safe,” Jang said.  The conservative People Power Party sits in opposition to President Lee Jae Myung‘s Democratic Party government. Jang took control of the party in August 2025 following its defeat in that year’s presidential election.  You might also like:  South Korea sees sharp rise in crypto gifts to children

09-14Industry

WikiBit Exchange Exit Risk Ranking #24 Hotcoin: Compliance, User Withdrawals, Team, and More — A Minefield of Hidden Risks!

Introduction: An Exchange with a Seriously Split Personality When It Comes to Ratings  In the first 23 editions, we dug into a series of exchanges ranging from HashKey to Zoomex. For the 24th edition, we are taking on one with an extreme “split personality” when it comes to its ratings — Hotcoin.  On paper, Hotcoin looks pretty impressive: “Founded in 2017,” “9 years in operation,” “serving 8M+ users across 120+ countries,” “registered with Australia‘s AUSTRAC + U.S. FinCEN MSB,” “a member of Korea’s CODE-VASP alliance,” “regularly publishing PoR with reserve coverage above 100%,” “99.99% system availability throughout 2025,” and “eight years with zero security incidents.”  Sounds like a stable, established major exchange, right?  But on the other hand, TradersUnion gives it a 9.8/10 safety score and a Tier-1 rating, claiming that it is “regulated by top-tier financial authorities.” Meanwhile, CashbackForex and FXVerify both state that “the company currently appears to be unregulated by any government authority.”  Its Trustpilot rating stands at 3.5/5, yet 63% of reviews are one-star, with users openly calling it a “scam.” There are also numerous complaints alleging that accounts were frozen after users made profits, profits were retroactively deducted, and withdrawals were suspended for six months.  One exchange, with regulatory ratings swinging

09-14Deep Dive

Metaplanet launches $1M Hong Kong Bitcoin unit

Metaplanet has approved a wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary with $1 million in planned capital to manage Bitcoin-linked investments during Asian market hours.  SummaryMetaplanet approved a wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary with $1 million in planned initial capital.The new unit will execute Bitcoin-related investment strategies and monitor positions during Asian trading hours.Simon Gerovich, Darren Winia and Kelvin Lee will serve as directors of the subsidiary initially.Metaplanet says the Hong Kong operation will complement its existing Miami asset-management companys capabilities globally.The company expects the subsidiary to have minimal effect on its consolidated 2026 financial results.  Metaplanet said in a Sept. 11 disclosure that its board had authorized the creation of Metaplanet Asset Management Asia Limited. The company expects to incorporate the business in Hong Kong during September 2026.  The planned operation will invest client funds and Metaplanets own capital across Bitcoin, listed equities, preferred securities, credit products and other liquid instruments. Directors Simon Gerovich, Darren Winia and Kelvin Lee will oversee the new company.  Metaplanet described the subsidiary as an operating platform within Project Nova, its plan to develop financial services tied to Bitcoin. The company expects the unit to handle trading, position monitoring and risk controls when U.S. markets are closed.  Metaplanet Expands Bitcoin-Focused Financial

09-14Industry

CLARITY Act gets final GOP offer before Senate vote

Senate Democrats have met to assess a final 635-page Republican CLARITY Act proposal before a Sept. 15 procedural vote requiring 60 senators to begin debate.  Politico reported that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer convened the Democratic caucus on Sunday evening after Republicans released the revised text. No Democratic leader had announced the caucuss position on the motion as of Sept. 14.  Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis released the proposal with Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott and Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman. Their statement called the draft the product of more than one year of negotiations and said it incorporated 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats.  A Republican aide described the proposal to Politico as the party‘s “last, best and final” offer before Tuesday’s vote. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, so at least seven members of the Democratic caucus must support cloture if every Republican votes yes.  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer convened a Democratic caucus meeting Sunday evening (tonight) to discuss the CLARITY Act ahead of Tuesdays procedural vote. https://t.co/yH4jmEi5Ss  — James Rule XRP ⟐ ???????? (@allthemoney) September 14, 2026  CLARITY Act ethics text puts pressure on Democrats  Government ethics rules have remained the main obstacle in negotiations. Democratic senators have sought

09-14Industry

King Charles to host AI chiefs amid industry call to slow development

Leaders of the world‘s most powerful AI firms are set to convene in Scotland this week at a summit hosted by Britain’s King Charles III to discuss responsible AI development, amid industry fears that the technology could outpace human control.  The event will be held this week at Dumfries House and overseen by the Ditchley Foundation, according to The Sunday Times. Leaders from companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, IonQ and Google DeepMind have been invited to discuss how AI could be developed “for the good of humanity.”  The summit would come a week after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk called for greater restraint in frontier AI development.  In an open letter on Friday, Amodei warned that the technology had been “advancing drastically faster” since the summer, driven by AIs ability to improve itself, a process known as recursive self-improvement.  He said a “swarm” of AI agents, like those that attacked Hugging Face in July, could be capable of “taking over the entire internet” in the next six to 12 months. Altman agreed that the firms “need to pace the frontier.”  Sources close to Charles said he had taken an interest in AI development and its potential risks,

09-14Industry

Robinhood CEO says issuers should not have veto over tokenized stocks

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said companies should not have veto power over tokenized stock products that do not change shareholder rights, issuer obligations or a companys official stock ledger.  In a post on X on Friday, Tenev said the question of issuer consent depends on whether a tokenized product changes the rights attached to the underlying shares or creates new obligations for the company or its transfer agent. If it does, he said the issuer should be involved.  However, Tenev said if the product creates a separate financial instrument that holds or references freely transferable shares without changing the issuers rights, obligations, or shareholder record, issuer consent should not be required.  The comments came after AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron criticized Robinhoods tokenized stock offerings on Sept. 4, saying AMC had no affiliation with the products and would ask securities counsel to review them.  Tenev said Robinhood Stock Tokens use a third-party structure, with separately issued instruments backed 1:1 by underlying shares. The products provide economic exposure to stocks and exchange-traded funds without changing an issuers cap table or rights attached to its shares.  “Going onchain shouldnt give the issuer a veto it never had offchain,” Tenev said.

09-14Industry

Bitcoins Biggest Week of 2026 Is Here: Fed and CLARITY Vote Take Center Stage

Bitcoin investors are approaching what is likely to become the crypto industrys most important week so far this year.  Although there are several major economic events taking place in the following five business days, the reality is that only a handful of them could (and most likely will) impact the cryptocurrency market. That impact, though, is expected to be quite vicious in either direction.  The Kobeissi Letter highlighted an auction of 20-year securities, August retail sales, and, most importantly, the Federal Reserves September interest rate decision on Wednesday. The latest data shows that markets assign an 85%-90% probability that the central bank will hike rates by 25 basis points, following contrasting economic data.  Fed in Focus  The Fed setup has changed dramatically in just a few weeks, starting with the August employment data from early September, which showed that the US economy had added 162,000 jobs last month, triple expectations. Later on, the PPI numbers indicated that the annual producer inflation had accelerated to 5.4%. Last Fridays CPI report subsequently confirmed headline inflation at 3.4%, with monthly core CPI slightly hotter than expected.  This combination, plus the fact that oil prices remain above $100 and diesel hit a new record in the States, has strengthened

09-14Industry

U.S. House weighs two crypto tax bills on Sept. 16

House tax writers have reportedly scheduled a Sept. 16 review of two bills that could change how U.S. miners, stakers and traders calculate federal taxes.  The House Ways and Means Committee plans to consider H.R. 9175 and H.R. 9172 on Wednesday. The committees public calendar had not posted a markup notice as of Sept. 14, leaving the meeting time and final bill list unconfirmed in official records.  The introduced bills address separate parts of the tax code. H.R. 9175 would create an optional income-deferral system for qualifying mining and staking rewards. H.R. 9172 would apply existing wash-sale and constructive-sale restrictions to covered digital assets.  A committee markup would allow lawmakers to debate, amend and vote on the legislation. Reports that Republicans may remove the mining deferral or limit it to five years have not been confirmed through a published committee amendment or substitute text.  The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee plans to review two crypto tax bills on Sept. 16.  The Mining and Staking Tax Clarity Act would defer taxes on newly generated tokens until disposal, while treating the income as ordinary income. Republicans are reportedly considering… pic.twitter.com/nOeoYRuT1R  — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 14, 2026  Reported crypto tax markup remains off the calendar  Representatives Mike Carey and

09-14Industry
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