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Cardano’s scalability upgrade Leios delivered roughly six times the throughput of Ouroboros Praos on its first public testnet, but filling that added capacity with real user transactions remains a long-term challenge for sustaining staking rewards, CryptoSlate reported. According to developer Input Output, the 41-day test showed Leios processing 26.8 transaction-kilobytes per second, compared with 4.51 TxkB/s for Praos. The report noted the test traffic was generated artificially to verify system performance. Cardano’s staking rewards are currently paid from transaction fees and ADA reserves, while the reserve portion is gradually shrinking. Under the analysis scenario, maintaining rewards through transaction fees alone would require about 36 transactions per second on a sustained basis by 2029.

Italy has proposed waiving all merchant fees for digital euro payments under €10 during EU trilogue talks on the European Central Bank’s planned central bank digital currency, according to Crypto Briefing. Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance submitted an amendment to the European Parliament that would fully exempt merchant fees and inter-PSP fees on small transactions under €10 for three years after launch, Crypto Briefing reported. The digital euro is moving toward an official launch in 2028 or 2029 after pilot testing.

South Korean exchange Upbit said it has canceled trading support for HEMI after signs emerged that tokens were stolen in a security vulnerability attack that occurred yesterday. The exchange said it decided not to begin HEMI trading in order to protect users.

Major crypto exchanges in Brazil are suspending retail trading services or overhauling their business models as the Central Bank of Brazil, or BCB, sharply tightens approval reviews and regulation for virtual asset service providers, Cryptonoticas reported. Digitra withdrew its application for PSAV authorization and fully halted trading services as of Sept. 8. Coinext also decided to end services after failing to meet the central bank’s minimum capital requirement. Bitso plans to transfer its retail trading business for Brazilian customers to Mercado Bitcoin.

Strive said it bought 1,375 BTC last week at an average purchase price of $79,281, raising its total holdings to 24,531 BTC.

Strategy said it did not buy additional Bitcoin last week and repurchased $176 million of its perpetual preferred stock STRC, while expanding its digital credit securities repurchase program from $1 billion to $2 billion.

Robinhood has signed a major multiyear agreement with Crypto.com to expand its prediction markets offering and will acquire minority stakes in Crypto.com’s exchange and prediction markets entity, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal will bring yes-or-no event contracts based on OG.com, Crypto.com’s prediction markets subsidiary, into the Robinhood app. The two companies have now finalized talks that had been underway since July and formally announced the partnership.

The Sandbox has begun accepting SAND compensation claims for users affected by last month’s bridge hack. Users with personal wallets can file claims through a dedicated page until 4:00 p.m. UTC on Sept. 22. Eligible wallets are those that held properly bridged SAND on Base and BNB Chain immediately before the hack. The Sandbox said it will provide Ethereum-based SAND on a one-to-one basis matching the amount held at the time. Users who held SAND on centralized exchanges do not need to take separate action, as The Sandbox is working with exchanges on the compensation process. Users who miss the deadline can submit additional claims through individual reviews until the end of October. The Sandbox previously suffered the theft of around 14.7 million SAND in the bridge hack.

Collateral posted for loans on DeFi protocol Curve Finance (CRV) is not always sold off immediately in full when it enters the liquidation zone, CoinDesk reported. According to the outlet, there were 704 such cases. The median time a loan position remained in the liquidation zone was 14.5 days, while 25% stayed there for more than 38.9 days. Some lasted for months. Curve handles such cases through what it calls a 'soft liquidation' mechanism. As collateral prices fall, the collateral is gradually converted into the borrowed asset, and if prices later recover, some or all of the converted collateral can be shifted back into the original collateral asset. In other words, entering the liquidation zone does not automatically mean a loan will be fully liquidated right away. Losses can still occur through fees, interest and asset conversions, and if prices keep falling, the position can still end in full liquidation.

XRPL Labs, a core developer of the XRP Ledger, said it has raised the processing capacity of its RPC nodes to 30,000 messages per second, according to Crypto Briefing. The outlet said that is well above the mainnet’s current average transaction throughput of about 1,500 transactions per second, while noting views that there is a significant gap between the headline figure and actual performance metrics in a live operating infrastructure.

Some money leaving stocks is moving into cryptocurrencies as crypto has held up better than equities despite rising expectations of a U.S. rate hike, Wintermute said in an X post. Wintermute said stronger-than-expected August U.S. jobs data pushed BTC down from $82,400 to below $80,000, but the token still rose 3.45% on the week and spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $987 million in net inflows. It added that cryptocurrencies usually weaken when expectations for rate hikes increase, but last week they outperformed major assets other than oil. Wintermute said it would revise that view if BTC falls decisively below $72,000 and ETF flows turn into clear net outflows.

Crypto industry-backed political action committee Fairshake is launching a nationwide TV and digital ad campaign urging passage of the CLARITY Act ahead of a full Senate vote, Crypto Briefing reported.

Bonk community member and crypto influencer Unipcs said USELESS is showing a pattern very similar to PEPE just before its 2023 surge. In a post on X, Unipcs said the resemblance spans trading volume trends, rising open interest, standout strength from the outset, and market timing, adding that after reviewing the charts, USELESS looked almost identical to PEPE right before its rally began. Unipcs added that history does not repeat exactly, but similar patterns do emerge.

Republican U.S. senators warned the CLARITY Act could be voted down next week, Semafor reported. According to two Democratic aides, there has been little progress in talks over ethics rules for the president and the president’s family, a key Democratic demand. Sen. Thom Tillis said the bill would fail unless the White House works to resolve differences over the ethics provisions. Sen. Mike Rounds also said the current situation does not look good.

Solana accounted for 67% of total blockchain memecoin spot decentralized exchange trading volume on Sept. 7, SolanaFloor reported. Robinhood’s share stood at 23%, putting Solana at roughly three times that level, while BNB Chain recorded 9%.

Some users in India have been using overseas platforms to convert cryptocurrencies such as USDT into local gift cards to buy groceries, airline tickets and gold, The Economic Times reported. According to the outlet, the platforms operate by accepting crypto, selling it overseas and then settling with Indian gift card providers. Local experts said the practice takes place outside existing banking payment networks and warrants further review from the standpoint of cross-border payments, foreign exchange and taxation rules.

An anonymous whale bought 285,503 SOL worth $28.82 million on Hyperliquid over the past three weeks, according to Lookonchain.

Circle plans to acquire Singapore-based payments company Tazapay for about $400 million, Wu Blockchain reported. The purchase price is expected to be paid in Circle Class A common stock.

South Korean exchange Upbit announced the addition of HEMI and USELESS for BTC and USDT trading at 12:30 p.m. UTC today.

South Korea’s People Power Party is seeking a meeting with the country’s five largest won-based crypto exchanges to discuss possible improvements to the virtual asset tax system ahead of its planned January implementation next year, Dailian reported. The party is coordinating with the industry on holding a seminar on crypto taxation at 5:00 a.m. UTC on Sept. 21. If the seminar goes ahead, key agenda items are expected to include whether to further delay the virtual asset tax set to take effect next January and problems with the current tax framework. The People Power Party has previously indicated the current crypto tax regime would be difficult to implement as is.

Uzbekistan has launched a pilot project to introduce a stablecoin pegged to the som, the country’s local currency, for real-world goods and services payments, Cointelegraph reported. Humo Digital has been registered as a special regulatory participant and will test the full cycle of issuing, distributing and redeeming the HUMO stablecoin. More than 20 local stores and companies have completed preparations to test accepting the HUMO token as a payment method for physical products and services. The initial pilot will run for 12 months, while the project’s overall special-regime period can last up to three years.

Binance announced the delisting of the OPEN/FDUSD, SAGA/FDUSD and VELODROME/USDC spot trading pairs at 3:00 a.m. UTC on Sept. 11.

South Korea’s National Assembly Budget Office said in a report released today that if won-denominated stablecoins are introduced, interest payments for simple holding should be restricted while rewards tied to actual use, including payments and trading, could be considered. The report said interest payments are banned in both the U.S. and Europe, while discussions have recently emerged around allowing use-based rewards as an incentive to expand adoption. It added that regulators need to review caps on reward rates and the scope of rewards, citing competition with the existing financial industry and the risk of excessive stablecoin issuance.

Hunter Biden, son of former U.S. President Joe Biden, plans to airdrop part of his memecoin LAPTOP to investors who lost money trading President Donald Trump’s memecoin TRUMP, The Crypto Basic reported. The airdrop allocation totals 20%, or 200 million tokens, and is set to go to wallet users who incurred losses trading TRUMP after the token fell more than 97% from its peak, as well as subscribers to Hunter Biden’s Substack and people on journalist Andrew Callaghan’s mailing list, according to the report. The report added that investors should watch for copycat coins. More than 14 tokens with the same name appeared across Solana, TON, BNB Chain and Robinhood Chain immediately after the surprise announcement, generating millions of dollars in trading volume. As of the announcement, the official smart contract address had not been disclosed, so extra caution is warranted when buying LAPTOP tokens trading on chains other than Base.

Global cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has released its August Proof of Reserves report, which was audited by blockchain security firm Hacken. The report showed reserve ratios of 288% for Bitcoin (BTC), 115% for Tether (USDT), 114% for USDC, and 113% for Ethereum (ETH) in August. It also indicated all major cryptocurrencies remained fully overcollateralized, with reserve levels above the industry-standard 1:1 benchmark.