Firo is carrying out an urgent hard fork that activates at block 1,371,000 on September 4, 2024, requiring all node operators, miners, exchanges, and wallet users to upgrade to v0.14.18.0. The upgrade permanently repairs an August vulnerability in Spark that could, under specific conditions, allow forged coins and inflate FIRO's supply, and it restores normal multi-input Spark spending.

A proof-of-supply-inflation flaw in a privacy protocol is a serious security event because it directly threatens the token's scarcity and user trust. The fork also highlights how a small privacy coin must rapidly coordinate nodes, exchanges, and users to neutralize a critical vulnerability before it can be exploited.

The vulnerability was disclosed on August 13 and did not compromise wallets, keys, or single-input spends, though a researcher had minted about 200 FIRO on mainnet in a controlled test. As an interim defense, v0.14.17.2 restricted Spark spending to one input, which reduced privacy by making separate payment amounts easier to correlate, until v0.14.18.0 introduced a versioned Chaum V2 proof and transaction format to fix it.

On September 2, the OCC granted OpenReserve Bank preliminary conditional approval to charter a full-service national bank in Salt Lake City, Utah. OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million in capital and keep a 12% Tier 1 leverage ratio for three years before it can open.

This marks a significant regulatory milestone: unlike most crypto firms that hold national trust charters, OpenReserve would gain a full national bank charter allowing deposit-taking and lending. It signals that U.S. regulators are willing to bring blockchain-native, stablecoin-focused banking into the federally supervised system.

The preliminary approval expires if OpenReserve fails to raise the capital within 12 months or open within 18 months. A separate wholly owned subsidiary to issue dollar-backed stablecoins is planned but has not yet filed its own OCC application, and must comply with the GENIUS Act.

The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval for Revolut to establish a national bank in Connecticut and OpenReserve to establish one in Utah, according to decisions published Wednesday. Both companies plan to offer cryptocurrency custody, stablecoin-related services, and other digital asset banking services.

This marks a significant regulatory milestone that could integrate crypto-native services into the US federal banking system, offering institutional investors a regulated on-ramp for digital asset custody and stablecoin payments. It also signals that federal regulators are increasingly open to chartering banks with blockchain-based business models, potentially reshaping how crypto firms access traditional banking infrastructure.

Revolut currently relies on FDIC-insured partner banks and plans to offer digital asset custody, allow crypto asset transfers including stablecoins for cross-border payments, and offer Revolut-branded stablecoins issued by a third party. OpenReserve, founded in 2025 by MoneyLion founder Dee Choubey, plans tokenized deposits, digital asset custody, and a subsidiary to issue US dollar-backed stablecoins, though that subsidiary application has not yet been filed; both banks must satisfy OCC preopening requirements and receive final approval before opening.

Solana's v1 transaction format, which raises the maximum payload from 1,232 to 4,096 bytes, can freeze RPC readers that do not opt in and can silently disable ComputeBudget-based fee limits for indexers and sponsors. The format is active on testnet and devnet but not yet activated on mainnet as of September 4.

RPC clients, indexers, relayers, and fee sponsors that fail to update could experience hard outages or enforce incorrect resource and fee limits once the first v1 transaction appears. This makes the pre-activation window a compatibility deadline for nearly all Solana infrastructure operators.

Consumers must set maxSupportedTransactionVersion: 1 for getTransaction, getBlock, and blockSubscribe, otherwise v1 requests return error -32015, whole blocks fail, and subscriptions emit null. V1 moves compute-unit and priority-fee data into a transactionConfig object, so stale indexers may report zero compute budgets; Geyser/gRPC consumers must regenerate protobuf stubs and check field 7 before reading the version flag.

Coinbase has filed to list perpetual futures on domestic U.S. stocks as security futures, a product classification that brings it under securities and futures regulation. The launch is clouded by a CME lawsuit over the move.

The filing could bring crypto-style 24/7 perpetual trading to equities from a major U.S. exchange, potentially reshaping how investors access stock exposure. A legal challenge from CME adds regulatory and market-structure uncertainty that could delay or alter the product.

Stock perps are typically USDC-settled perpetual contracts whose prices track listed equities, allowing exposure without owning the underlying shares. Categorizing them as security futures would put the product under the joint oversight of the SEC and CFTC and may involve special margin and trading rules.

On September 3, Mina's Mesa hard fork halted transaction processing on mainnet for about eight hours, with block production pausing at roughly 15:00 UTC before the first Mesa slot at 18:00 UTC. Exchanges were instructed to suspend MINA deposits and withdrawals from the 10:00 UTC stop-transaction slot until the upgraded network became operational.

This is a high-severity protocol upgrade incident for Mina because it interrupted live transaction service, forced centralized exchanges to pause MINA transfers, and rendered deployed zkApps unable to process proof-authorized activity. It illustrates how core protocol changes, such as altered circuit constants, can directly affect application developers and users on layer-1 networks.

The upgrade halves slot time from three minutes to 90 seconds and temporarily caps zkApp transactions at 12 per block after stress tests found memory spikes when the soft limit was removed. zkApp developers must compile Mesa-compatible verification keys with o1js 3.0 and update the key stored on-chain; until then, proof-authorized activity remains paused, with no fixed migration deadline.

The UK's largest retail investment platform has opened access to cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes (ETNs), marking a reversal of its previous warnings about crypto assets. This move brings regulated, exchange-traded crypto products to a broad base of retail investors for the first time at this platform.

This development is a milestone for crypto adoption in the UK because it gives mainstream retail investors a familiar, regulated route to crypto exposure. It could set a precedent for other large wealth platforms and increase the perceived legitimacy of crypto assets in traditional retail finance.

Crypto ETNs are unsecured debt instruments that track an underlying cryptocurrency's price, so investors bear issuer credit risk in contrast to ETFs, which physically hold the underlying assets. The switch from prior warnings to listing suggests the platform now views these products as suitable for its clients while still acknowledging the risks inherent to crypto.

Coinbase has filed regulatory notices with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that could pave the way for offering 24/7 leveraged stock trading to American customers. The filings are a preliminary step and do not mean the product has been approved or launched yet.

If approved, this would mark a major US crypto exchange moving into around-the-clock, leverage-enabled equities trading, blurring the line between crypto and traditional markets. It could pressure legacy brokerages to offer similar 24/7 access and expand Coinbase's business beyond digital assets.

The notices are part of a regulatory process with the SEC, but no official confirmation or product details have been published. Leveraged stock trading involves borrowing capital to amplify both potential gains and losses, while 24/7 trading relies on electronic communication networks (ECNs) to match orders outside regular exchange hours.

The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, nearly triple the 53,000 economists expected, pushing the implied probability of a September Fed rate hike to 58% from 49.4%. Bitcoin slipped below $80,000 after touching a four-month high of $82,240 earlier on Friday.

The strong jobs report revived expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike at the September 15-16 meeting, tightening financial conditions just as risk assets had been rallying on hopes of a pause. This macro shift directly pressured Bitcoin, gold, and stocks, illustrating how U.S. labor data can ripple through crypto markets.

The unemployment rate held at 4.1%, while June and July payrolls were revised higher and the two-year Treasury yield reached its highest level since January 2025. Bitcoin traded near $79,300 within minutes of the release, even as spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $730.8 million in net inflows and CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed Index remained at 75 ("greed").

Trezor has revealed that last month's mailing partner breach at ShipMonk affected an additional 67,000 U.S. users, bringing the total number of affected users to over 80,000. It also admitted that its 90-day data deletion policy was never enforced during its relationship with ShipMonk.

This disclosure significantly expands a privacy breach involving users of Trezor's hardware wallet, exposing them to heightened phishing and targeted-scam risk. It also raises significant questions about Trezor's oversight of third-party data processors and the reliability of its stated data retention policy.

Initially, Trezor reported only 13,689 affected customers and downplayed the incident by citing its 90-day data deletion policy. ShipMonk informed Trezor on August 10 of the initial 90-day scope and then on September 2 revealed the breach actually dated back to 2019 and 2021, while Trezor claims repeated written assurances gave it no reason to expect further leaks.

Coinbase is reportedly bringing its stock perpetual futures product onshore to the United States, a move that could give American traders access to round-the-clock equity exposure. This signals a potential shift toward 24/7 stock trading in the U.S., mirroring crypto market conventions.

Stock perpetuals enable leveraged equity exposure without owning the underlying shares, and offering them onshore could expand retail access to sophisticated trading tools. The move also highlights the growing convergence between traditional equity markets and crypto-native derivatives infrastructure, potentially pressuring legacy exchanges to innovate.

Stock perpetual contracts track a stock's price without transferring share ownership and rely on funding rates to keep contract prices anchored to the spot market. These instruments are traded nearly 24/7 across crypto platforms, though specific regulatory approvals or launch timelines for Coinbase's onshore product were not included in the report.