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Category: Business

  • Neutrl pauses NUSD redemptions over undisclosed reserve issue

    Neutrl pauses NUSD redemptions over undisclosed reserve issue

    Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Neutrl has suspended minting and redemptions for its NUSD synthetic dollar after unspecified circumstances affected protocol reserves, leaving the cause and scale of any potential impairment unclear.

    On Thursday, Neutrl said it had also paused other protocol functions on legal advice while it assesses the impact. The protocol did not identify the affected asset or counterparty, say whether reserves suffered a realized loss or provide a timeline for resuming operations.

    Structured-yield protocol Strata later said it paused minting, redemptions and related functions for contracts in its Neutrl market, which supports several NUSD-linked products. Strata said its other markets remained operational.

    With about $53.6 million in NUSD in circulation, the suspension prevents approved counterparties from exchanging the token for its backing assets while Neutrl determines whether its reserves have been impaired. Neutrl said it would provide timing and next steps when available.

    Cointelegraph contacted Neutrl for comment but had not received a response by publication.

    NUSD supply falls 18% over 30 days

    According to RWA.xyz, NUSD had a market capitalization of about $53.6 million on Friday, down 18.4% over 30 days, while monthly transfer volume fell 72.4% to $71.4 million. However, the data does not establish that the earlier contraction was related to the reserve issue.

    The synthetic dollar is designed to track the US dollar using yield-bearing crypto assets and market-neutral strategies rather than deposits held in a bank. RWA.xyz showed NUSD trading at about $0.9984, with 615 holders and 347 active addresses over the preceding 30 days.

    On May 25, verification platform Accountable said its Neutrl dashboard provided continuous cryptographic proof that NUSD reserves matched the protocol’s liabilities.

    A February assessment by risk-advisory team BA Labs nevertheless classified a proposed Neutrl integration as higher risk because of counterparty, operational and liquidity exposure. It said direct redemptions were limited to KYC or KYB-approved counterparties and that requests exceeding the liquid buffer could enter a queue targeted for completion within 48 hours, without a guarantee.

    BA Labs estimated NUSD supply at $226 million and reserves at $233.7 million at the time, implying a 103.6% collateralization ratio. It said more than 87% of reserves were held through Fireblocks, while smaller amounts sat on centralized exchanges.

  • Anthropic Is Quietly Watermarking Every Claude AI Output. Builders Are Already Trying to Break It

    Anthropic Is Quietly Watermarking Every Claude AI Output. Builders Are Already Trying to Break It

    In brief

    • New Claude models launched in the EU on or after August 2, 2026 embed a machine-readable watermark in every piece of generated text, applied at the model level.
    • The markings apply worldwide across Claude, the API, Claude Code, and cloud partners.
    • Open-source projects to remove them appeared within days.

    Anthropic has begun embedding an imperceptible watermark in all text its newest Claude models generate. The change took effect for models launched in the EU on August 2, 2026, and Anthropic says it will apply worldwide.

    Anthropic laid out the plan in a support article after signing the EU AI Act’s Code of Practice on transparency. In other words, it’s not exactly volunteering to do this. The mark reaches every Claude surface, from the chatbot and API to Claude Code and cloud partners such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry.

    Myriad: When will OpenAI release GPT-6? Click to make your prediction.
    Myriad: When will OpenAI release GPT-6? Click to make your prediction.

    “When a supported Claude model generates text, it weaves an imperceptible watermark directly into the text itself. You won’t see it, and it doesn’t change the meaning, quality, or readability of Claude’s response,” Anthropic said. “Because the watermark is part of the text, it will travel with the text when it’s copied and pasted elsewhere, and may persist through some editing.”

    So it’s a bit more complex than the usual methods users tend to think about. When a supported Claude model writes text, it weaves an imperceptible watermark directly into the words, with no visible tag. Because the mark is part of the text, it survives copy-paste and, Anthropic admits, “may persist through some editing.” Files get a second layer: signed metadata under the C2PA open standard (think a digital shipping manifest that records who produced a file and whether anyone altered it afterward).

    The method stays secret

    Anthropic hasn’t said how the watermark is made. The support article calls it model-level (the model is trained with it) and text-native (it’s not an external tool like metadata generator, for example), but the detection documentation and the exact technique aren’t out yet.

    Researchers infer it’s a statistical signature: The model nudges its word choices toward a faint, detectable bias, the same family of approach Google uses in SynthID Text. That remains a guess until Anthropic publishes the detector.

    But that isn’t pushing privacy enthusiasts back, and some experts are already working on methods to break Anthropic’s secret watermarking. mikiane/claude-watermark-cleaner (106 stars on Github) scrubs invisible Unicode, then rewrites text with a non-Claude model to disturb the token pattern.

    A larger project, guillaumemeyer/watermarks-remover (4.6k stars on Githum), strips Claude text marks plus C2PA and SynthID-class signals across PNG, JPEG, SVG, PDF, and DOCX. The authors argue a statistical text mark is “not a reliable way to prove origin” and mostly pushes users to spend a second model pass cleaning their own writing. No removal can be guaranteed until Anthropic ships its detector and thresholds.

    Anthropic’s own history makes the privacy reaction sharper. The company removed a hidden Claude Code tracker in March after researchers found it tagging some users’ location and proxy use through undisclosed Unicode markers—the same quiet-marking technique now at the center of the watermark plan.

    The mark proves Claude had a hand in text, not that it wrote the whole thing, so it will treat an original writing with a small edit the same as a fully AI-generated text. Ask Claude to proofread or translate your paragraph and the output can still carry the signal. Anthropic is upfront that heavy editing can strip it, and that a missing mark doesn’t prove a human wrote something.

    A U.S. bill, the COPIED Act, pushes the same idea: a standardized way to watermark AI content so platforms can trace its origin. As Claude’s blackmail problem showed, the company’s models already draw intense scrutiny over what they do with the text they touch.

    Anthropic hasn’t said when it will publish the detection tools that would let anyone verify the mark.

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  • Market Experts: “85 Percent of the Bear Market in Bitcoin and Altcoins Is Over”

    Market Experts: “85 Percent of the Bear Market in Bitcoin and Altcoins Is Over”

    The DeFi Report, a cryptocurrency and macroeconomics analysis company, announced in its latest assessment of Bitcoin and the overall cryptocurrency market that the bear market has now entered its final phase. The analysis stated that approximately 85% of the bear cycle is behind us, and the remaining 15%, which will determine the market’s fate, largely depends on global macroeconomic developments.

    According to the company’s on-chain cost base analysis, the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin is exhibiting movements quite similar to previous cycle bases in terms of on-chain data. However, it was noted that spot and futures trading volumes have fallen to their lowest levels since the end of 2019, which was described as a clear indication of a “time-spread capitulation” process taking place on the chain. Furthermore, asset sales by miners, redirecting their energy capacity to AI firms, were also cited as factors increasing pressure on the market.

    The analysis stated that whether Bitcoin will fall to the “deep value” region of $55,000 and below will depend on macroeconomic liquidity conditions in the coming weeks. The fact that US 30-year Treasury yields have surpassed 5.2%, reaching a 20-year high, and the Fed’s move towards higher interest rates were highlighted as key factors putting pressure on risky assets.

    Another notable development in global markets was the covert liquidity measures implemented by the US Treasury Department and the Bank of Japan to strengthen the Yen. Analysts described this mechanism, which allows foreign institutions to provide liquidity by collateralizing US bonds instead of selling them, as “QE Light” (Quantitative Easing). The 15% increase in gold prices due to this covert liquidity injection and the impact of global risks suggests that investors are positioning themselves against inflationary pressures, and a similar liquidity flow could shift to Bitcoin in the future.

    Analysts evaluating technical levels and strategies consider the 200-week moving average, currently at $63,800, a critical threshold. If Bitcoin closes the month above the $68,700-$69,800 range, the scenario that the bottom has been reached will gain strength.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • 44 Billion SHIB in Hours: Shiba Inu May Head for Rebound

    44 Billion SHIB in Hours: Shiba Inu May Head for Rebound

    Shiba Inu has continued to trade on a downward trajectory amid prolonged broader market volatility. However, its exchange activity over the last 24 hours has provided a different signal.

    With its price still struggling to reclaim its recent high around the $0.000005 mark, the latest data from crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant has provided investors with a glimpse of hope for a possible price recovery soon.

    44 billion $SHIB in demand

    Per the data, the Shiba Inu exchange netflow has drawn attention amid the market downturn after projecting a negative balance of 44.1 billion $SHIB as of Thursday, August 13.

    While a netflow of 44 billion $SHIB may seem modest, its timing makes it significant as it shows a major divergence between the $SHIB trading price and its exchange activity.

    Notably, the metric shows that the amount of $SHIB tokens moved out of exchanges amid growing demand is significantly greater than the amount of $SHIB returned to exchanges for sell-off purposes over the last day.

    While the difference in both activities stands at -44 billion $SHIB, it means that the amount of $SHIB available for sale on exchanges has been reduced substantially, gradually cooling the intense sell pressure facing the Shiba Inu ecosystem.

    Where’s $SHIB headed?

    Although the Shiba Inu exchange flow provides a bullish outlook for $SHIB, the asset is still struggling to recover near its recent high, consistently trading in the red zone.

    However, analysts believe there is still a chance for a potential price reversal for $SHIB if investors remain resilient and it is able to sustain demand even amid such weak market conditions.

  • We found HTX’s reserves at Poloniex

    We found HTX’s reserves at Poloniex

    $HTX’s situation has appeared increasingly precarious as both the European Union Council and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office have chosen to sanction the exchange.

    Since then, it’s made some big changes to how it manages users’ reserves.

    Its June proof of reserves report was the first that acknowledged that it had moved huge swaths of its reserves to an undisclosed “ThirdParty.”

    $HTX moved $1.3 billion from reserves to undisclosed ‘ThirdParty’

    $HTX claims on its website that you can verify these balances by reaching out to the custodian; unfortunately, it doesn’t tell users who that custodian is. As a result, Protos has been unable to verify most of those balances.

    Further complicating this, TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm, released a report in which it detailed how $HTX has begun churning through its wallets at a prodigious rate.

    Ari Redboard, the global head of policy for TRM, described this behavior as an attempt “to stay a step ahead of screening built on static lists.”

    TRM claims $HTX is rotating wallets to ‘stay ahead of screening’

    $HTX, for its part, previously claimed that this was totally normal cybersecurity behavior.

    Since then, Protos was able to track a substantial portion of $HTX’s staked ETH (stETH) through Poloniex addresses.

    Now, we can add that various other $HTX assets have also recently passed into Poloniex.

    Is Justin Sun mixing $HTX’s reserves with Poloniex?

    First, $HTX distributes a tool that used to enable people to gain greater insight into its reserves, even including which addresses the reserves were held in.

    We can use these past reports to determine where certain assets were claimed to be at a certain time and can use the blockchain transactions to follow some portion of the reserves as they move.

    Consider 0x18709e89bd403f470088abdacebe86cc60dda12e, which was an address that $HTX used to hold many of the Ethereum-based DeFi positions it maintained, for some reason.

    On May 30, immediately before we get the transition to ThirdParty, we can watch the Sun-advised wrapped BTC (WBTC) move from this $HTX address to 0xeB245796376912af7Fadd4986f73743feEA61e6E.

    These funds were then transferred to 0x8fCA4adE3a517133fF23ca55CdAea29C78C990b8, an address that Etherscan labels as Poloniex 7.

    These funds were then quickly sent to 0x29065a4C1f2F20d1E263930088890d6F49Fe715a, an address that Etherscan labels as Poloniex 10.

    Finally, this WBTC was sent to 0x176F3DAb24a159341c0509bB36B833E7fdd0a132, an address that Etherscan labels as Poloniex 9.

    This WBTC which came from $HTX, is still stored in this Poloniex address.

    The $HTX to Poloniex pattern repeats

    The May PoR for $HTX had a problem. It claimed that it had a bunch of STEAK-$USDC, but it was wrong; there was no STEAK-$USDC in that address on that date.

    However, there was a matching amount of Sky Savings USDS (sUSDS) in that address, suggesting that while $HTX failed to accurately label its own reserves — troubling on its face — it did have another position that represented that value.

    We start with approximately $200 million worth of sUSDS moving to 0x7fed2E5e06CF7B8918bB93158C4E990794da33b8.

    These funds are then sent onward to Poloniex 7.

    These were then forwarded in three transactions to Poloniex 10.

    Finally, these funds were forwarded to Poloniex 9.

    Similar patterns can also be observed for various Spark positions, some of which may have been since redeemed.

    These related-party transactions, involving many hundreds of millions of dollars worth of value, raise serious questions about the internal controls and management of both of these Sun-owned exchanges.

    They furthermore raise questions about Poloniex’s role in interacting with this repeatedly sanctioned entity.

    Protos reached out to $HTX with questions about these transfers, but it didn’t respond before publication.

  • Tether Claims ‘Largest Inaugural Financial Audit’ as KPMG Signs Off on 2025 Statements

    Tether Claims ‘Largest Inaugural Financial Audit’ as KPMG Signs Off on 2025 Statements

    In brief

    • Tether said KPMG issued an unqualified opinion, the best outcome, on Tether International’s 2025 financial statements.
    • The company called it the “largest inaugural financial audit in history.”
    • The audit follows years of scrutiny over USDT’s backing and Tether’s push to expand in the U.S.

    Tether said Thursday that Big Four accounting firm KPMG issued an unqualified audit opinion—industry jargon for the best possible result—-on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT.

    In a post announcing the audit, Tether called the review the “largest inaugural financial audit in history,” saying KPMG examined Tether’s assets, liabilities, income, cash flows, internal systems, records, counterparties, and supporting documentation.

    Myriad: Bitcoin's next move? Click to make your prediction.
    Myriad: Bitcoin’s next move? Click to make your prediction.

    “Despite our company being subject to several years of detractors’ false claims, competitors’ lies, political attacks and misinformed coverage by several mainstream newspapers trying desperately to discredit us for the benefit of their friends in the tall ivory towers, Tether delivered what it promised,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote on X.

    An unqualified opinion means auditors found no major problems with the way the financial statements were presented. It does not, however, mean auditors are endorsing Tether’s business or guaranteeing it can meet its obligations.

    Tether’s reserves and disclosures have faced sustained scrutiny.

    In February 2021, Tether settled with the state of New York over a lawsuit, paying an $18.5 million fine, regarding a hole in its finances. In October of that same year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million over claims that USDT was fully backed by U.S. dollars.

    Earlier this year, in March, the company said it had hired a Big Four accounting firm but declined to name it at the time. Days later, KPMG was identified as the firm auditing USDT, while PwC helped prepare Tether’s internal systems.

    “As part of the process, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held by Tether, verifying the existence and identifying information of each bar rather than relying solely on reports from custodians or counterparties,” Tether wrote.

    Tether framed the audit as evidence that its governance and financial controls have kept pace with its growth.

    “Our company has evolved into one of the most financially significant and operationally sophisticated private companies in the world,” Ardoino wrote. “This audit demonstrates that our financial infrastructure and governance have evolved alongside that responsibility.”

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  • Crypto Group Warns Fed Could Use Banking Access to Squeeze Digital Asset Firms

    Crypto Group Warns Fed Could Use Banking Access to Squeeze Digital Asset Firms

    In brief

    • The Blockchain Association filed an amicus brief supporting Custodia Bank’s petition for Supreme Court review.
    • Custodia is challenging a ruling that upheld the Fed’s denial of its master account application.
    • The group says the case could shape how much power federal regulators have over state-chartered banks.

    The Blockchain Association is urging the Supreme Court to take up Custodia Bank’s fight with the Federal Reserve, arguing the central bank should not have the broad power to deny payment system access to eligible state-chartered banks.

    In the amicus brief filed on Wednesday supporting Custodia’s petition, the crypto trade group said a lower court ruling in favor of the Fed gives federal regulators a quiet way to cut lawful businesses out of the banking system.

    Myriad: Will the Clarity Act be signed into law in 2026? Click to make your prediction.
    Myriad: Will the Clarity Act be signed into law in 2026? Click to make your prediction.

    “The decision ratifies the Fed’s misuse of its payment services to further an impermissible policy goal—debanking the digital-asset industry,” the Blockchain Association wrote.

    An amicus brief is a legal filing from someone who is not a party to a case but wants to give the court additional arguments or context. Here, the Blockchain Association is supporting Custodia’s request that the Supreme Court review the dispute.

    At issue is Custodia’s bid for a Federal Reserve “master account.” Custodia is a so-called crypto bank based in Wyoming, offering services including digital-asset custody, payments and settlement infrastructure, and dollar-backed stablecoin-related products to institutional clients. It has spent years seeking a master account, which would allow it to settle payments directly with the central bank. In October, an appeals panel ruled that eligibility alone did not entitle Custodia to an account. In December, the bank asked the full Tenth Circuit to rehear the case.

    The Blockchain Association argues the Fed’s denial threatens the dual banking system, where both state and federal authorities can charter banks. If the ruling stands, the association says, federal regulators could override state banking decisions by denying access to the payments system.

    “Whether federal regulators, based on their own discretionary whims, can intrude on state prerogatives and debank lawful businesses is a question of exceptional importance with broad consequences for the national economy,” they wrote.

    The brief said Custodia’s fight is the latest phase of Operation Choke Point 2.0, invoking the Obama and Biden-era program critics said pressured banks to cut ties with unfavorable industries.

    “In a well-documented campaign termed Operation Choke Point 2.0, the federal government under the prior administration ‘used vague rules, excessive discretion, informal guidance, and aggressive enforcement actions to pressure banks away from serving digital asset clients’ and engaging with digital assets,” the brief said.

    While the Supreme Court has not agreed to hear the case, for now, the brief asks the justices to decide how much control the Fed should have over access to the U.S. payments system.

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  • Barça Mobile Adds Digital Wallet on Stellar

    Barça Mobile Adds Digital Wallet on Stellar

    Barça Mobile, the telecom platform linked to FC Barcelona, is adding a digital wallet to its mobile app through partnerships with Wirex, Crossmint and the Stellar Development Foundation. New Era Visionary Group, the official telecom operator and partner of FC Barcelona, is working with the three companies to build the wallet infrastructure. The new feature will combine mobile services with payments, rewards, travel and other digital services for users worldwide.

    Wirex will provide payment and card infrastructure for the wallet. Crossmint will provide wallet infrastructure and onboarding technology. Stellar will serve as the blockchain layer for the wallet. Its network will support digital transactions and cross-border value transfers, allowing Barça Mobile to build services for users in different markets.

    The wallet will not operate as a separate product. Instead, it will become part of the existing Barça Mobile app. The initiative is part of Barça Mobile’s broader plan to develop a global connectivity platform. The company says the service is aimed at FC Barcelona fans, travelers, and mobile subscribers looking for access to telecom and digital services through a single interface.

    Image: Magnific

  • Chiba Institute Joins Theta Academic Network

    Chiba Institute Joins Theta Academic Network

    Chiba Institute of Technology has joined Theta Network’s global academic network through a partnership with Theta EdgeCloud. The collaboration will give the university’s Takagi Laboratory and its Web3 club (which has more than 250 student members) access to decentralized computing resources for AI research, simulations, and student projects.

    Theta Network is a decentralized computing network. Its EdgeCloud platform provides access to distributed GPU capacity through more than 30,000 edge nodes, offering an alternative to traditional cloud infrastructure.

    The partnership includes Professor Toru Takagi and his laboratory, which researches systems using mathematical models that can be processed and simulated by computers. The lab also works on game theory, AI-based automated proving, and the modeling of cellular activity.

    Image: Magnific

  • There’s Significant Whale Activity in Two Altcoins Today—Here Are Those Altcoins

    There’s Significant Whale Activity in Two Altcoins Today—Here Are Those Altcoins

    The cryptocurrency market has seen a surge in on-chain activity from large investors. Recent data indicates strong accumulation and selling activity in Hyperliquid’s native token, $HYPE, while also showing millions of dollars in transfers in Chainlink ($LINK)-connected wallets.

    According to on-chain data, a crypto whale bought another 40,000 $HYPE from Coinbase today, worth approximately $2.3 million.

    It was stated that the wallet in question increased its total $HYPE holdings to 260,000 tokens through purchases made from Coinbase, Bybit, and other sources over the past two months. At current prices, the whale’s $HYPE position is worth approximately $15.1 million.

    Another Hype Whale Goes on Sale

    Another major investor reportedly invested 60,000 $HYPE in Hyperliquid and has begun selling.

    The whale has so far earned approximately $1.77 million in exchange for 31,560 $HYPE. Additionally, it’s noted that two TWAP orders for selling $HYPE are still active in the wallet.

    It was reported that one of the active orders is worth approximately 40,000 $HYPE, or $2.1 million, and has about 15 hours left to be completed.

    The same wallet also sent approximately 1.67 million USDC to Coinbase.

    On the Chainlink side, a different whale movement was observed. A large investor transferred approximately 213,810 $LINK, worth $1.87 million, to their Gnosis Safe wallet.

    The whale withdrew the aforementioned amount of $LINK from Binance approximately two weeks ago. The transfer of the tokens from the centralized exchange to a self-custody platform like Gnosis Safe could be interpreted as an indication that the assets are not being held for short-term sale on the exchange. However, wallet transfers alone do not provide a definitive signal regarding an investor’s future transactions.

    *This is not investment advice.