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Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest retail investment platform, has opened crypto ETN trading to eligible investors, adding Bitcoin and Ethereum-linked exchange-traded notes to a platform used by millions of retail savers. The move, which took effect in early September 2026, comes nearly a year after the Financial Conduct Authority lifted its ban on retail crypto ETNs and roughly eleven months after the firm first signalled plans to enter the market. For Hargreaves Lansdown, the launch marks a significant step beyond its traditional funds, shares and pensions business into digital-asset exposure delivered through regulated stock-exchange instruments.

How the Crypto ETN Offering Works Unlike buying cryptocurrency directly, investors on the platform hold listed instruments that track the price of bitcoin or ether without needing a crypto wallet or private keys. The underlying assets are held by a regulated custodian, and the notes trade like ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange. Access is not universal: Hargreaves Lansdown restricts the product to certified high-net-worth individuals and restricted investors who intend to commit less than 10% of their net assets, and every buyer must first pass an appropriateness assessment. An FCA-required 24-hour cooling-off period also applies before any trade can be completed.

From Caution to Adoption The launch reverses a long-running cautionary stance. The platform had previously steered clients away from direct crypto exposure, but the regulator’s decision to permit crypto ETNs for professional and eligible investors cleared a path for established brokers to participate. Hargreaves Lansdown is not alone in treating these products as a bridge: 21Shares earlier brought the first crypto ETNs to the London Stock Exchange, laying the groundwork for mainstream platforms to follow. The firm’s own materials emphasise the risks, warning that the notes are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and that investors should be prepared to lose all of their money.

What It Signals for UK Crypto Access For British investors, the launch is the latest sign that regulated crypto exposure is moving from specialist exchanges toward familiar investment platforms. It follows broader efforts to give UK savers a compliant route into digital assets, even as policymakers continue to shape a new UK crypto framework and tax reporting requirements tighten. By making crypto ETNs available alongside its conventional offerings, Hargreaves Lansdown is betting that a custodial, stock-market wrapper will appeal to investors who want price exposure without the operational burden of managing keys.

AUTHOR

Jide Idowu is a skilled freelance writer with expertise in blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and digital finance. Known for his ability to break down complex topics into clear, engaging content, Jide crafts articles, blog posts, and analyses that resonate with both beginners and seasoned professionals. His work spans a wide range of subjects, from emerging crypto trends to in-depth explorations of blockchain innovations. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for educating readers, Jide is a reliable voice in the rapidly evolving world of digital assets.

Ethereum is getting a new transaction primitive that could reshape how wallets, dApps, and smart contracts interact with the network. EIP-8141 introduces what’s called a “Frame Transaction,” a single transaction that can be broken into up to 64 programmable sub-units called frames, each capable of performing distinct operations within one atomic execution.

The proposal, co-authored by Vitalik Buterin and several core contributors, was first put forward on January 29, 2026. It has since been moved to “Scheduled” status for inclusion in the 2027 Hegotá hard fork.

What frame transactions actually do The new transaction type, designated 0x06, lets each frame operate in one of three modes. DEFAULT handles standard transaction deployment. VERIFY runs read-only validation, useful for checking conditions without changing state. SENDER executes in the context of the transaction’s sender, enabling patterns that previously required deploying dedicated smart contract wallets.

Each frame carries an intrinsic cost of 12,000 gas plus 475 gas per frame. For context, a basic Ethereum transfer today costs 21,000 gas, so the overhead per frame is relatively modest considering the functionality it unlocks.

The proposal also introduces several new opcodes. The APPROVE opcode (0xaa) handles authorization logic, while a suite of TXPARAM, FRAME, and SIG opcodes give developers granular control over how frames reference each other, pass parameters, and verify signatures.

Why this matters: native account abstraction without the workarounds The ecosystem has been building toward account abstraction through proposals like ERC-4337, which created an “alternative mempool” for account-abstracted transactions without changing the protocol itself. EIP-7702 took a different approach, allowing EOAs to temporarily delegate to smart contract code. ERC-4337 adds infrastructure complexity with bundlers and paymasters. EIP-7702 requires persistent delegation setups.

EIP-8141 takes a third path by baking these capabilities directly into the transaction format. A single frame transaction can include a verification step, an approval, and an execution, all without requiring the user to deploy a smart contract wallet or rely on third-party bundler infrastructure.

The proposal explicitly complements rather than replaces EIP-7702 and ERC-4337. Developers who’ve already built on those standards won’t need to rip anything out.

Gas sponsorship and atomic batching With frame transactions, a third party can cover gas costs within the same transaction structure. A dApp could onboard new users who hold zero ETH by sponsoring their first interactions, all without external relayer networks or off-chain signature schemes.

Atomic batching allows bundling approve-and-swap into a single atomic operation: either everything executes or nothing does, eliminating the current risk where a successful approval and a failed swap leaves a contract authorized to spend tokens.

ERC-20 fee payment is another notable inclusion. Users could pay transaction fees in stablecoins or other tokens rather than ETH, with a frame handling the conversion or payment logic inline.

Users can also create temporary, purpose-specific accounts for individual transactions without deploying persistent smart accounts or setting up delegation.

Post-quantum implications and long-term positioning Frame transactions create a natural structure for introducing post-quantum signature schemes. Because each frame can carry its own signature verification logic, the network could support quantum-resistant algorithms alongside existing ECDSA signatures without requiring a hard switch.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

The token issued by Pons has accounted for 73.5% of the total trading volume across all of Robinhood’s issuance platforms.

Robinhood’s token launch platform Pons stated in a post that its pace is not slowing. Over the past 24 hours, tokens issued on Pons accounted for 73.5% of the total trading volume across all of Robinhood’s launch platforms. Separately, Dune data shows that among other token launch platforms in the Robinhood ecosystem, noxa.fun holds an approximately 18.2% share, followed by long.xyz and pool.trade.

9 minutes ago

Grok Video Agent upgraded to version 1.5: Integrated with Image 2.0, multi-shot continuity enhanced

Beating AI News Flash: Grok Imagine’s video creation agent has been upgraded to version 1.5. This update is often confused with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, which launched in June. The June update revised the underlying video model, while this upgrade targets the agent layer. Grok Imagine Video 1.5 was officially released in June. The new agent version integrates the latest Image 2.0, with key improvements to generation quality, narrative coherence, and multi-shot continuity. Grok states that it excels at connecting multiple shots to ensure more consistent frames. It is now available on Grok’s web platform, iOS, and Android. In Arena’s Text-to-Video leaderboard, grok-imagine-video-1.5-agent currently ranks 5th with a score of 1491, outperforming Seedance 2.5, Seedance 2.0, and MiniMax H3. However, the result remains preliminary, and the ranking may change.

9 minutes ago

Ansem has been repeatedly pumping ZCAT, the meme token linked to ZEC's dividend, whose market cap has surged past $92 million to a new all-time high.

Crypto trader Ansem has been repeatedly hyping Solana-based meme token ZCAT (Anonymous Cat). He stated: "Some say if it’s on Solana, its market cap will never reach $100 million. Well, just keep watching. Let’s win." According to GMGN data, ZCAT’s market cap briefly exceeded $92 million, hitting a new all-time high, surging over 330% in 24 hours, with 24-hour trading volume standing at $3.6 million. ZCAT is a cat-themed meme token built on Solana, inspired by Zcash (ZEC)’s privacy concepts, featuring an anonymous cat mascot wearing a brown paper bag on its head. It uses a ~3% transaction and transfer tax to purchase and airdrop bridged Zcash (ZEC) on Solana to its holders. BlockBeats reminds users that most meme coins lack practical use cases, are highly volatile, and investors should exercise caution.

9 minutes ago

Cathie Wood: Bitcoin is gradually decoupling from gold's price trend.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood (affectionately known as "Woodie" in financial circles) noted that August non-farm payroll data shows the U.S. economy remains highly resilient. Markets may interpret the strong jobs figures as a sign of rising inflationary pressure, leading to further bets on the Federal Reserve tightening policy, but they are overlooking more critical shifts. While the U.S. headline inflation rate still stands at 3.7%, other inflation metrics are closer to the 2% target, and oil prices could even fall to around $30 per barrel. U.S. stocks continue hitting record highs amid rising interest rates, corporate capital spending has broken through a growth bottleneck that has persisted for over two decades, and Bitcoin is gradually decoupling from gold’s price trends. These phenomena are not mutually independent. As more companies adopt artificial intelligence, AI-related firms are creating jobs at a faster pace, and technological advances could simultaneously boost productivity and reduce costs. These signals point to stronger real economic growth and the emergence of powerful "tech-driven deflation." Current markets are still pricing based on traditional economic models, but a new economic system driven by AI and emerging technologies is taking shape rapidly.

9 minutes ago

WLFI advisor Ogle is the actual top holder of PONS, holding 15.28 million PONS at an average price of $0.1.

According to EmberCN's monitoring, WLFI advisor ogle's PONS holdings are not the 10.96 million units shown on FOMO, but 15.28 million units valued at $13.92 million. He also holds 4.32 million PONS in another address, worth $3.86 million. Ogle is actually the top PONS whale, having accumulated a total of 15.28 million PONS at an average price of $0.1 per unit, with an unrealized profit of $13.77 million, marking an 87x gain. The relevant addresses are: 0x1Bcc5f67CD17e13770F199fA03bC043b0cde1143; 0x825F23921dCFf36944d8B0b0CA23ac7D05fB86cB

9 minutes ago

OpenAI Simultaneously Recruits Schumer’s Daughter and Veteran Republican Operative to Focus on U.S. State AI Policies

From Beating AI Express News: OpenAI has appointed three new state-level policy heads, with Jessica Schumer drawing the most attention. She is the daughter of US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, previously served as chief of staff at the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, and later led Amazon’s public policy work in New York. At OpenAI, she will oversee policy and partnerships in the US Northeast. Another new hire, Caulder Harvill-Childs, previously worked in public policy at Meta and also served Republican Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns; he will now be responsible for the US Southeast. Thomas MacLellan will handle state-level cybersecurity policy, with prior experience at firms including Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, and FireEye. OpenAI is shifting more focus to US states, a strategy it terms "reverse federalism": instead of waiting for Congress to enact uniform legislation, it is pushing major states like California and New York to adopt similar AI rules, eventually forming de facto national standards. OpenAI publicly noted that California, New York, and Illinois have already started aligning on frontier AI safety rules.

9 minutes ago

WLFI advisor Ogle is the actual top holder of PONS, holding 15.28 million PONS at an average price of $0.1.

According to EmberCN's monitoring, WLFI advisor ogle's PONS holdings are not the 10.96 million units shown on FOMO, but 15.28 million units valued at $13.92 million. He also holds 4.32 million PONS in another address, worth $3.86 million. Ogle is actually the top PONS whale, having accumulated a total of 15.28 million PONS at an average price of $0.1 per unit, with an unrealized profit of $13.77 million, marking an 87x gain. The relevant addresses are: 0x1Bcc5f67CD17e13770F199fA03bC043b0cde1143; 0x825F23921dCFf36944d8B0b0CA23ac7D05fB86cB

10 minutes ago

OpenAI Simultaneously Recruits Schumer’s Daughter and Veteran Republican Operative to Focus on U.S. State AI Policies

From Beating AI Express News: OpenAI has appointed three new state-level policy heads, with Jessica Schumer drawing the most attention. She is the daughter of US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, previously served as chief of staff at the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, and later led Amazon’s public policy work in New York. At OpenAI, she will oversee policy and partnerships in the US Northeast. Another new hire, Caulder Harvill-Childs, previously worked in public policy at Meta and also served Republican Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns; he will now be responsible for the US Southeast. Thomas MacLellan will handle state-level cybersecurity policy, with prior experience at firms including Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, and FireEye. OpenAI is shifting more focus to US states, a strategy it terms "reverse federalism": instead of waiting for Congress to enact uniform legislation, it is pushing major states like California and New York to adopt similar AI rules, eventually forming de facto national standards. OpenAI publicly noted that California, New York, and Illinois have already started aligning on frontier AI safety rules.

10 minutes ago

Altcoins rally broadly, with Layer 2 (L2) and DeFi sectors surging sharply. ARB, RAY, and SUSHI – the direct beneficiaries of the Meme craze – lead the market’s gains.

According to HTX market data, altcoins are rallying broadly amid active trading on Robinhood, BNB Chain, and Solana. The L2, DeFi, and DEX sectors are seeing sharp gains, with L2 led by ARB, followed by OP, STRK, IMX, etc. DeFi and DEX tokens including RAY, ORCA, JUP, UNI, SUSHI, CAKE, CRV, SPK, LISTA, and ENA are all rising, as capital flows back to DeFi projects with real trading use cases and fee mechanisms. On BNB Chain, boosted by BNB breaking above $780, tokens like BOME, 1000CAT, MARSCOIN, and TUT are also climbing. Meanwhile, today’s Altcoin Season Index has risen to 40, meaning roughly 40 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap have outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days, and total altcoin market cap has hit $1.10 trillion. Top gainers: ARB up over 51% in 24 hours, trading at $0.1997. Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum L2 built on Arbitrum Orbit, allocates 10% of its net protocol revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem—8% to the DAO treasury and 2% to development funds. RAY up over 42% in 24 hours, trading at $1.177. Solana-based token launch platform StonkFun announced it has integrated with Raydium LaunchLab. Going forward, all new StonkFun token deployments will launch via LaunchLab to cut costs, reduce front-running risks, and enable auto-compounding liquidity post-binding. SUSHI up over 24% in 24 hours, trading at $0.2385. SushiSwap has integrated its DEX and launchpad into Robinhood Chain, allowing new tokens to pair with tokenized stocks and launch with an existing Sushi V3 pool. SushiSwap Launch V2 is set to launch around September 4, with SUSHI serving as the launchpad’s quote asset. Other notable 24-hour gains: BOME, IOST, 1000CAT up over 20%; COTI, TUT, CAKE, SPK, UNI, STRK, MET, ORCA up over 10%; CRV, ENA, IMX, JUP, LISTA also posting solid increases.

10 minutes ago

StonkFun completes a $1 million buyback of STONK tokens; its platform token STONK surpasses $100 million in market cap today.

Solana-based token launch platform StonkFun announced it has completed a $1 million STONK token buyback, while over $7.5 million in rewards have been distributed to holders in the StonkFun ecosystem. StonkFun also announced it has launched on Raydium LaunchLab. Going forward, all new StonkFun token deployments will be initiated via LaunchLab to lower deployment costs, reduce sniper risks, and enable automatic liquidity compounding after binding is completed. According to GMGN market data, StonkFun’s platform token STONK surpassed $100 million in market cap today, currently trading at $92 million, with a 256% 24-hour gain and $30.4 million in trading volume over the same period. BlockBeats reminds users that related token prices are highly volatile, so investors should exercise caution.

10 minutes ago

Word has it that the first checkpoint of Google's new Pro model has emerged, with a possible public release in October.

Beating AI Express News: Leaker Lyra claims Google’s next Pro model already has its first checkpoint (a saved model state version from training) and is set to be unveiled in October. Lyra also predicts a new Flash-Lite launch in September, alongside an update to Nano Banana 2 Lite. The final name for the new Pro model remains unconfirmed; some community members speculate it could be Gemini 4 Pro, while others believe it may be another Pro variant.

10 minutes ago

Leading DeFi researcher questions Ethereum’s Layer 2 strategy: Robinhood’s revenue has surged, yet Layer 1 settlement layer revenue remains low—Is this a problem?

Renowned DeFi researcher Ignas points out that Robinhood’s Layer 2 (L2) network paid just around $722 to its underlying base layer yesterday, while Robinhood itself posted a record $6 million in fee revenue that same day—roughly 10% of which went to Arbitrum, with nearly negligible amounts reaching Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1). Against this backdrop, Ignas questions: Is this structure, where platforms rake in massive profits while the settlement layer gets almost nothing, actually a problem for Ethereum? Ethereum may currently be using low fees to onboard TradFi players into its ecosystem, planning to raise revenue shares once user migration costs become sufficiently high. If Ethereum’s official roadmap does include a strategy of first attracting a large number of L2s, then monetizing on L1 after switching costs rise, this could be positive for ETH—but such an approach is not visible in Ethereum’s current roadmap.

10 minutes ago

Bitcoin (BTC) price is down by 1.75% today, September 5, to trade at $79,599 at the time of writing. Ethereum (ETH) is also down by 2.45% to trade at $2,455, with these drops coming ahead of the release of the US CPI data on September 11 and a potential rate hike by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Bitcoin and Ethereum Price in US CPI and ECB Rate Decision The recent US jobs data report, which showed that the US labor market is becoming strong, increased the odds of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates during the September 16 FOMC meeting.

Data from CoinGape prediction markets currently shows that there is a 50% chance that the Fed will hike interest rates by 25 basis points, while another 50% of investors are betting on the Fed leaving rates unchanged.

Source: CoinGape Prediction Markets Attention has now moved to the release of the US CPI report. Data from MarketWatch shows that investors are expecting US inflation to remain unchanged at 3.4%.

If the CPI comes in lower than the expected 3.4%, it could reduce the odds of the Fed trimming rates and could make President Trump’s argument that the Fed should lower rates stronger.

However, while there is uncertainty about the decision that the Fed will make, the market is pricing in a 100% chance that the European Central Bank (ECB) will hike rates by 25 basis points on September 10.

This hike could push Bitcoin and Ethereum prices lower because hawkish central bank decisions tend to push investors away from risk assets.

BTC and ETH ETF Sustain Inflows Despite Inflation Concerns Data from SoSoValue shows that there were inflows to both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs on September 4 despite the rising possibility of the Fed hiking interest rates after US non-farm payrolls exceeded expectations and came in at 162,000.

The inflows to Bitcoin ETFs came in at $174 million, while ETH ETFs saw $26 million in inflows, suggesting that demand from institutions is high despite the hawkish outlook.

Crypto ETF Flows (Source: SoSoValue) These inflows also suggest that institutions are ignoring the concerns around inflation after Bloomberg reported that nearly half of US goods and services prices have risen faster than 3%.

Still, BlackRock’s portfolio manager Jeff Rosenberg links these ETF inflows to market pricing in that even a 25 basis point hike will not affect stocks.

Bitcoin Price Forecast as Short-Term Holders Book Profits Bitcoin price has dropped below the psychological support of $80,000. A previous CoinGape Bitcoin price analysis noted that the downtrend could continue until the price reaches the lower Bollinger band of $75,335.

This drop comes amid a surge in profit-taking by short-term holders. Data from CryptoQuant shows that short-term holders have sent 467,000 BTC, valued at $35.4 billion, to exchanges since August 17.

BTC Short Holder Inflow (Source: CryptoQuant) The report also adds that the cohort is sending an average of 27,500 BTC every day to exchanges, with this transfer being 29% higher than the previous 3-month average.

Still, Bitcoin price has been creating higher highs despite this STH selling, suggesting that the demand is absorbing the coins that traders are selling.

Ethereum Price Prediction as Bulls Test 200-week EMA Resistance The price of Ethereum has risen to test the resistance at the 200-week EMA of $2,455. ETH has tested this resistance for three straight weeks without closing above it.

If ETH closes above $2,455, it will support a bullish long-term Ethereum price outlook. A close above this EMA will suggest that the uptrend could continue in the long-term if market sentiment recovers and Bitcoin also surges.

Ethereum price is also facing another resistance at $2,555. Past trends show that Ethereum recorded a strong gain whenever it confirmed a close above this obstacle. However, each failed breakout has pushed the price to the support at $2,215.

BTC Price Chart (Source: TradingView) The RSI reading of 58 suggests that the momentum is favoring bulls, and this could support a breakout from the resistance of $2,555.

Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) price remains in a consolidation phase and has formed a bullish flag pattern that may point to a strong breakout. It was trading at $2,458 on Saturday, up by over 63% from its lowest level this year.

ETHB ETF Inflows are SoaringA key driver for the recent Ethereum price rally is the fact that American retail and institutional investors are piling into its ETFs. These funds added over $26 million in inflows on Friday, bringing the weekly increase to over $218 million. They added $1.8 billion in assets in August and now hold $15.57 billion in assets. 

A key driver to the ongoing ETH ETF inflows is the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (NASDAQ:ETHB), which has become the fifth-biggest ETH fund. Since its launch in March this year, the fund has accumulated over $980 million in assets. It has already overtaken funds by top companies like Bitwise, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton.

ETHB is similar to other ETH ETFs, with the main difference being its staking capabilities. BlackRock stakes its assets, allowing investors to generate an annual return that normally compensates the 0.25% fee. Staked ETH tokens currently earn an annual return of about 2.65%. 

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The ongoing ETH ETF inflows has coincided with that of other coins. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) ETFs have added $770 million in assets this month, while Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) have had over $13 million in assets.

Trending

The recent crypto rebound happened after many of them remained in a tight range for months, with investors focusing on the booming stock market. Now, with many top AI stocks being in a bear market, many investors, especially those from South Korea, have started to rotate back to crypto. Also, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index has moved to the greed zone of 75. 

Ethereum Price Has Formed a Bullish Flag PatternTechnicals suggest that the ongoing consolidation will result in a strong bullish breakout in the near term. It is part of the bullish flag pattern, which happens when a strong rally is followed by a consolidation. This pattern normally leads to a continuation.

The coin is also about to form a golden cross as the spread between the 50 and 200-day moving averages narrow. If this happens, it will be the first time that ETH has formed a golden cross since July last year when it jumped from $2,550 to $4,956 within weeks. 

Therefore, these technicals, together with the ETF and staking inflows, suggest that ETH may be about to soar. Such a move would point to more gains, potentially to the psychological level of $3,000.

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© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

A vulnerability in the RedSonic Vault on Ethereum enabled an attacker to drain 9.25 ETH using a complex flash loan exploit in a single transaction. Blockchain security firm ExVulSec identified and analyzed the incident, outlining how the vault’s dual-asset pricing flaw was entirely compromised.

Flash loan powers single-transaction exploitThe attacker launched their operation by borrowing 1,139 WETH from Balancer through a flash loan, which allowed the necessary capital without tying up their own funds. Flash loans are commonly used in decentralized finance (DeFi) to borrow significant sums, as long as the funds are returned within the same transaction, making them useful for both legitimate arbitrage and malicious exploits.

ExVulSec reported that the vulnerability lay in the RedSonic Vault’s registerErc20 function, which carried no access restrictions. This made the function permissionless, enabling anyone to register a new asset or share class within the vault, undermining protection against unauthorized manipulations.

By leveraging this function, the attacker registered stETH as a second asset under a new share class called rsvstETH. This setup allowed both rsvETH and rsvstETH shares to draw value from the same underlying stETH balance.

ExVulSec traced the operation in detail, showing that each step from the asset registration to the unwinding of the flash loan was performed within a single, self-contained blockchain transaction. The malicious smart contract used for the exploit self-destructed at the end of execution, a tactic often used to hinder post-incident on-chain tracking.

Mini dictionary: ExVulSec – A blockchain security research group specializing in post-mortem analysis of smart contract exploits and real-time incident response for DeFi vulnerabilities.

Vault pricing flaw allows double withdrawalThe exploit began when the attacker deposited 1,130 ETH to obtain nearly all of the rsvETH shares in the vault. This move positioned them to benefit from further manipulations in the vault’s asset balance.

Subsequently, the attacker deposited 9.34 stETH, which increased the raw stETH balance in the vault but did not mint new rsvETH shares, a result of how the pricing function getTotalAssetBalance was designed. Since rsvETH share price was tied to the raw balance, this action artificially inflated the share value.

With the rsvETH price boosted, the attacker redeemed their shares to receive 1,139.5 ETH, effectively extracting the profit. They also redeemed the newly created rsvstETH shares for stETH, exploiting the vault’s dual-asset mechanism to perform a double withdrawal against the same underlying collateral.

StepActionResult1Flash loan 1,139 WETH from BalancerSecured capital for exploit2Deposit 1,130 ETHAcquired nearly all rsvETH shares3Register stETH as new share class (rsvstETH)Enabled dual access to same collateral4Deposit 9.34 stETHArtificially inflated rsvETH price5Redeem rsvETH for ETHExtracted 1,139.5 ETH6Redeem rsvstETH for stETHDouble withdrawal from same pool7Swap recovered stETH for ETH on CurveFinalized profits8Repay Balancer loanSecured 9.25 ETH net profitExVulSec’s investigation revealed that the attacker inflated the vault’s share price by artificially increasing the stETH balance, then redeemed both the original and duplicate shares for separate withdrawals from the same collateral pool.

After securing the funds, the attacker used Curve, a decentralized exchange protocol known for efficient stablecoin and token swaps, to exchange stETH back to ETH and repay the original Balancer flash loan, wrapping up the attack in one transaction.

The attack was publicly documented, with the main transaction traceable on Etherscan under the hash 0xe3cba90e865c6cba950ebce36a52607f51f1fd33cd9fb920c78803f19b57791a. Key contracts and wallets involved include the RedSonic Vault contract at 0x4315990d9eeaffdfafd49958b4851f203fa1126f and the attacker’s wallet 0x70f2333d21Ed7E7D105F6578227A9A747687982C.

ExVulSec cautioned that self-destructing exploit contracts complicate subsequent forensic reviews, as they erase on-chain code references immediately after the attack completes.

Investigators detail that both the initial deposit and asset registration combined with a flash loan enabled the attacker to fully extract and swap their gains before contract self-destruction obscured further evidence.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

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The cybersecurity working group of the G7 has urged governments and businesses worldwide to begin the immediate transition to post-quantum cryptography, warning that the advancement of quantum computing represents an imminent risk to current encryption systems. This guidance carries direct implications for cryptocurrency networks, exchanges, and custodians facing potentially costly system upgrades before quantum computers become capable of compromising existing cryptographic protections.

G7’s call to action on quantum threatOn September 3, 2026, the G7 working group released a document titled “Preparing for the Post-Quantum Era: A Call to Action.” The report categorizes quantum computing as a significant cybersecurity risk that organizations must address in advance of the arrival of quantum machines capable of breaking widely used cryptography.

Although the G7 report does not mention cryptocurrencies specifically, the security of blockchain technologies is closely linked to public-key cryptography. Since cryptocurrencies rely on these algorithms to protect transactions and manage funds, the quantum threat extends to the crypto industry and its entire infrastructure.

Although the exact timeline is uncertain, several recent advances suggest an anticipation of the development of quantum computers able to break widely used public-key cryptography mechanisms.

G7 Cybersecurity Working Group

A key concern highlighted by the working group is the “harvest now, decrypt later” approach, where attackers collect encrypted data today and wait to decrypt it once quantum capabilities become available. For blockchains, where public keys and transaction history are permanently visible, this could lead to retrospective attacks even years after initial transactions.

Harvest now, decrypt later.

G7 Cybersecurity Working Group

The G7 has advised nations and organizations to raise awareness, establish national strategies, invest in research, promote public and private sector collaboration, and set procurement policies focused on post-quantum cryptography.

Europe’s post-quantum deadlinesThe European Union has already set binding requirements through its Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography. Adopted in June 2025, the policy mandates that all member states start transitioning by the end of 2026, with high-risk entities required to complete migration before 2030.

These regulatory changes mean post-quantum cybersecurity is now essential for compliance and competitiveness. Companies lacking clear migration plans may face legal hurdles or lose their edge in the evolving regulatory landscape.

Various approaches by Bitcoin and EthereumBitcoin developers are exploring BIP-360, a soft fork proposal known as Pay-to-Merkle-Root, which aims to reduce long-term quantum vulnerabilities. This measure seeks to eliminate key-path spending mechanisms exposed to quantum attacks, but its creators acknowledge that some risks, especially those involving mempool transactions, require further mitigations. An activation date for BIP-360 has not yet been established.

Ethereum has outlined a broader post-quantum security plan. Vitalik Buterin’s roadmap for February 2026 highlighted four crucial areas for upgrade: validator BLS signatures, KZG commitments, ECDSA account signatures, and zero-knowledge proofs on the application layer. Ethereum targets core post-quantum infrastructure by 2029, although the transition could extend beyond this date.

A significant challenge for both networks is the increased size of post-quantum digital signatures. For instance, a standard secp256k1 ECDSA signature is 64 bytes, while the Dilithium-5 post-quantum scheme requires approximately 4,595 bytes, and the finalized ML-DSA-87 standard uses about 4,627 bytes. Larger signatures may drive up storage, bandwidth, and transaction fees.

Cryptographic StandardSignature Sizesecp256k1 ECDSA64 bytesDilithium-54,595 bytesML-DSA-874,627 bytesMini dictionary: BIP-360, or Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360, introduces Pay-to-Merkle-Root—a protocol change meant to future-proof Bitcoin against quantum computer attacks by restructuring how spending conditions are recorded on the blockchain.

Migration risks overshadow quantum timelineIndustry observers note the near-term risk lies less with the timing of a quantum breakthrough and more with the challenges involved in the transition: protocol development, governance debates, increased infrastructure requirements, larger keys, and exposure of public keys from older wallets.

Research by Google Quantum AI in March 2026 argued that compromising 256-bit elliptic-curve cryptography may be easier than earlier assumed. Google also disclosed that its own post-quantum migration will conclude by 2029.

NIST has issued a draft recommending that 112-bit ECDSA be eliminated after 2030 and that all use of ECDSA cease after 2035, signaling a clear timeline for the industry to adopt new cryptographic standards.

Cryptopolitan previously indicated that institutional standards and custody requirements may soon require quantifiable post-quantum readiness, potentially making a robust migration framework a distinguishing factor for investors.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds attracted a combined $1.20 billion during the trading week ending Sept. 4, with Bitcoin products accounting for more than 80% of the total.

Summary

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $986.7 million in weekly net inflows. Ethereum ETFs added $215.3 million, down sharply from the previous week. BlackRock’s Bitcoin funds attracted $691.5 million across the five sessions. The largest combined inflows arrived on Sept. 3 as crypto prices rebounded. Bitcoin ETF inflows approach $1 billion According to data from Farside Investors, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $986.7 million in net inflows between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4. The weekly intake increased about 6.7% from the $924.5 million added during the previous five trading sessions.

The funds opened the week with $216.7 million in net inflows on Aug. 31 before recording $236.5 million in withdrawals on Sept. 1. Demand returned over the following three sessions, producing inflows of $101.1 million, $730.8 million, and $174.6 million.

Sept. 3 accounted for roughly 74% of the entire weekly total. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin products attracted $454 million that day, while ARK Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB added $137.7 million. Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust recorded $74.4 million and $48.8 million, respectively.

BlackRock’s products led the full week with about $691.5 million in net inflows. ARKB followed with $137.7 million, while Fidelity’s fund added $94.8 million.

Bitwise’s BITB received $41.7 million during the period. VanEck’s HODL posted approximately $33 million in net withdrawals, while Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund recorded a modest $18.6 million inflow.

The five-day result brought cumulative net inflows across the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market to approximately $55.69 billion, according to Farside’s data.

Ethereum ETF demand slows from the previous week U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $215.3 million in net inflows over the same period, Farside data showed. Although the funds remained net positive, weekly inflows fell by around 73.6% from $815.7 million during the previous week.

Ethereum products started the period with an $87.6 million inflow on Aug. 31 and added another $8.6 million on Sept. 1. The group then recorded $48.2 million in net outflows on Sept. 2 before attracting $141.4 million on Sept. 3 and $25.9 million on Sept. 4.

BlackRock’s ETHA brought in $136.4 million during the week, while its staked Ethereum product ETHB added $81.8 million. The two BlackRock funds therefore received a combined $218.2 million, slightly more than the category’s total net inflow after withdrawals from competing products were included.

Fidelity’s FETH ended the week with only $4.7 million in net inflows. The fund attracted $65.1 million on Sept. 3 but lost $48.3 million the following session.

Grayscale’s higher-fee ETHE recorded $37 million in weekly net outflows. Grayscale’s lower-cost Ethereum Mini Trust partly offset those withdrawals with $17.1 million in inflows.

Cumulative net inflows into U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs reached approximately $13.19 billion by the end of the week.

Crypto ETF inflows diverge from wider U.S. funds The $1.20 billion combined inflow into Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs came during a cautious period for conventional U.S. investment funds.

Investors withdrew $11.12 billion from U.S. equity funds during the week ending Sept. 2, according to LSEG Lipper data reported by Reuters. Large-cap funds accounted for $7.52 billion of those withdrawals, while money market funds attracted $48.76 billion.

Reuters tied the broader caution to rising bond yields, higher oil prices and tensions in the Middle East. Those factors weighed on risk assets earlier in the week, but sentiment improved on Sept. 3 after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he could support keeping interest rates unchanged if inflation continued to ease.

The shift coincided with the largest daily crypto ETF inflows of the week. Bitcoin and Ethereum funds collectively attracted about $872.2 million on Sept. 3, while Bitcoin climbed above $81,000 and Ethereum moved back toward $2,500.

The subsequent reversal showed that ETF inflows did not remove short-term macro risks. Bitcoin was trading near $79,664 at the time of writing, down about 1.8% over the latest session, while Ethereum traded around $2,458 after a 2.8% decline.

U.S. data keeps rate expectations in focus The next test for ETF demand could come from changing expectations for U.S. interest rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 162,000 in August, while the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

The stronger labor data reduced some of the optimism created by Waller’s comments because a resilient economy could give the Federal Reserve more room to keep borrowing costs elevated.

Investors will now focus on the Sept. 11 U.S. consumer price index report and the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 16 policy decision. Further evidence of persistent inflation could pressure crypto prices and ETF demand, while softer inflation would support the case for stable or lower interest rates.

Despite those risks, the weekly figures showed that U.S. investors remained net buyers of both major crypto ETF categories. Bitcoin products maintained their momentum from the previous week, while Ethereum funds stayed positive even as their weekly intake slowed.

NFT sales rose 55.6% to approximately $75.54 million over the past seven days, with BNB Chain overtaking Ethereum after recording more than $32.75 million in sales.

Summary

NFT sales increased 55.6% to $75.54 million, while transactions fell 14.77% to 650,332. Buyer addresses rose 20.38% to 273,655, and seller addresses increased 18.09% to 291,266. Ethereum sales fell 14.23% to $18.94 million despite an increase in buyer addresses. BNB Chain sales surged 1,042% to $32.75 million, making it the top-ranked network. Courtyard led collections with $6.32 million, while a BRC-20 NFT sold for 10 BTC. According to data from CryptoSlam, captured on Sept. 5 with the seven-day view selected, NFT sales increased from approximately $48.55 million during the preceding period.

Buyer addresses climbed 20.38% to 273,655, while seller addresses increased 18.09% to 291,266. However, total transactions fell 14.77% to 650,332, meaning the increase in sales value occurred alongside fewer recorded transfers.

The average value per transaction rose to approximately $116, compared with about $64 in the prior period. CryptoSlam records blockchain addresses rather than verified individual buyers or sellers, so the address totals should not be treated as confirmed user counts.

NFT activity increased as the broader cryptocurrency market remained volatile. Bitcoin traded near $79,694, while Ethereum changed hands around $2,458 at the time of writing. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at approximately $2.78 trillion.

The concurrent movements do not establish that cryptocurrency prices caused the rise in NFT sales. BNB Chain’s unusually large weekly increase also means the global comparison requires network-level context.

BNB Chain leads NFT sales with $32.75 million BNB Chain moved into first place with approximately $32.75 million in organic NFT sales, an increase of 1,042% from the previous seven-day period. Buyer addresses on the network rose 30.84% to 22,132.

BNB Chain leads weekly NFT blockchain sales | Source: CryptoSlam CryptoSlam recorded only $8 in wash-trading volume for BNB Chain, leaving its combined total close to $32.75 million. The scale and speed of the increase make the network the main contributor to the global weekly gain, although the collection rankings did not show one BNB Chain project accounting for most of the amount.

Ethereum ranked second with $18.94 million in organic sales, down 14.23%. Wash trading declined 56.30% to approximately $742,249, putting the network’s combined total at $19.68 million. Ethereum buyer addresses increased by 21.13% to 40,098 despite the decline in sales value.

Polygon followed with $7.29 million in organic sales, up 6.12%. The blockchain also recorded $18.73 million in wash trading, taking its combined volume to $26.02 million. Polygon’s 94,731 buyer addresses represented the largest total among the leading chains and increased by 10.67%.

Bitcoin ranked fourth with $5.87 million, down 34.20% from the previous period. Buyer addresses nevertheless rose 28.95% to 13,103. The network also generated approximately $94,991 in wash volume, producing a combined total of $5.96 million.

Base placed fifth after sales increased 36.59% to $4.23 million. Its wash-trading volume reached $4.80 million, exceeding organic sales and lifting combined volume to $9.03 million. Buyer addresses jumped 64.50% to 5,050.

Solana completed the leading six with $1.91 million in organic sales, up 9.99%. The network recorded 47,853 buyer addresses, an increase of 24%, and about $24,849 in wash activity.

Courtyard tops weekly NFT collection sales Polygon-based Courtyard remained the leading NFT collection with $6.32 million in sales, up 7.50%. The platform recorded 97,050 transactions, a 1.01% increase, while buyer addresses fell 7.63% to 17,766.

Courtyard tops weekly NFT collection sales | CryptoSlam Courtyard’s sales represented approximately 8.4% of global NFT volume. Its high transaction count separates the collection’s activity from projects where weekly sales were concentrated among a small number of wallets or transfers.

Base-based Beezie ranked second with $2.64 million, up 39.39%. Transactions increased 47.36% to 16,521, but CryptoSlam recorded only nine buyer addresses and 240 seller addresses. The low buyer count means the sales figure was highly concentrated rather than spread across a broad group of addresses.

Ethereum’s Argonauts placed third with $2.07 million despite sales falling 63.54%. Transactions declined by 72.74% to 3,068, while buyer and seller addresses also fell by more than 50%.

CryptoPunks followed with $1.86 million, down 9.92% from the prior week. The collection produced 18 transactions involving 15 buyer addresses and 15 seller addresses.

Blokyz generated $1.48 million, a decline of 19.56%, from 3,889 transactions. Bored Ape Yacht Club ranked sixth with $1.17 million, up 19.71%, while its transaction count increased 18.87% to 63.

Guild of Guardians Heroes completed the leading seven with $981,850 in sales, up 2.64%. Its transactions fell 5.78% to 733, while buyer addresses declined 15.42%.

BRC-20 NFT leads high-value NFT sales Bitcoin-based $REWD BRC-20 NFT #68f822daa8f482226a42a15319b5fe66a… recorded the largest sale, changing hands for 10 BTC, worth approximately $796,863, nine hours before the snapshot.

Top NFT collectible sales this week | Source: CryptoSlam Another Bitcoin-based asset from the $X@AI BRC-20 NFT collection ranked second. It sold for 5.1158 BTC, valued at approximately $394,346, three days earlier.

CryptoPunks #1839 placed third after selling for 161.5 ETH, or approximately $394,320, around 18 hours before the data capture.

Algebra Positions NFT-V2 #43 recorded the fourth-largest sale at 365,231.125 USDT, worth approximately $365,231, two days earlier. Algebra position NFTs represent decentralized exchange liquidity positions rather than conventional digital collectibles.

CryptoSlam classified both BRC-20 transactions and the Algebra position transfer as NFT sales, though their economic structures differ from those of profile-picture and digital-art NFTs.

BTC, ETH, and XRP prices are showing a fragile recovery after Thursday’s broad market rally lost momentum on Friday. 

Bitcoin price trades near $79,463, Ethereum changes hands around $2,451.72, while XRP holds at $1.40. 

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stands near $2.77 trillion, down 1.11% daily. Traders now face two major catalysts involving monetary policy and cryptocurrency regulation before another directional move.

Bitcoin Price Holds $79k as BTC Recovery Requires Stronger Buying Momentum Bitcoin climbed above $82,000, reaching its highest intraday level since May. On September 3 ET, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $731 million, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $454 million. Friday’s retreat below $80,000 shows sellers defending the $82,000 resistance zone. 

A sustained close above $82,000 could open a path toward $85,000 and strengthen the recovery. Another rejection could send BTC toward Friday’s $78,700 intraday low. Bitcoin holds a $1.59 trillion market value and roughly 57.6% cryptocurrency dominance. 

Bitcoin Spot ETFs Saw Total Net Inflows of $731 Million on September 3

On September 3 (ET), Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded total net inflows of $731 million, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $454 million. Ethereum spot ETFs saw total net inflows of $141 million, with BlackRock’s ETHA… pic.twitter.com/AZ9LGWSmqO

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 4, 2026

That dominance makes BTC crucial for determining whether ETH and XRP can preserve gains. Trading volume and daily closes should provide confirmation beyond intraday moves.

ETH and XRP Test Crucial Resistance Ethereum price trades around $2,451 after touching $2,542.40 earlier, showing that buyers failed to protect the session’s strongest gains. Ethereum funds added $141 million, while BlackRock’s ETHA secured $72.0685 million. 

ETH must reclaim $2,500 convincingly before traders can consider the recovery established. Holding above $2,436 would protect the immediate structure, while a breakdown could revive selling pressure. 

Ethereum’s market capitalization remains near $299 billion, supporting its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency.

XRP price has weakened sharply, falling toward $1.40 after reaching an intraday high near $1.48. The token needs to recover $1.45, then challenge $1.48, to restore short-term momentum. Support around $1.39 remains crucial because a break could expose lower levels and weaken the altcoin recovery.

CLARITY Act and FOMC Shape Next Move Washington could determine the next direction for BTC, ETH and XRP. The Senate has scheduled a September 15 cloture vote on the CLARITY Act, requiring 60 votes to advance debate. 

The legislation seeks clearer federal oversight of digital commodities and securities, making the outcome particularly important for XRP. A successful vote would not complete passage, but it could improve regulatory confidence across United States cryptocurrency markets.

The Federal Reserve meets September 15–16, creating another volatility trigger. August payrolls increased by 162,000, compared with approximately 55,000 expected, while unemployment held at 4.1%. That rate matched forecasts and equaled its lowest reading in 14 months. 

🇺🇸 FED RATE HIKE IS ALMOST CONFIRMED NOW.

Just now, the US unemployment data came in at 4.1% vs. 4.1% expected, equalling its lowest level in 14 months.

On top of that, the US economy added 162,000 jobs in August vs. 55,000 expected.

This means the job market is getting… https://t.co/QpDYQzIQfC pic.twitter.com/5igLmWVsDl

— Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) September 4, 2026

Strong employment gives policymakers more room to raise rates if upcoming inflation data remains elevated. Higher rates could strengthen the dollar and restrict speculative demand, while a pause could support another cryptocurrency advance. 

Late August’s crypto market rebound has driven enterprises to increase their crypto asset allocations. As Bitcoin’s price rose, Bitcoin mining firms that had previously pivoted aggressively to AI businesses have reemerged as high-beta plays in BTC’s market, while corporate balance sheet strategies involving direct Bitcoin holdings have once again drawn market attention. Data shows Bitcoin climbed around 23% in late August, with some mining stocks surging 41% to 67%—outperforming multiple AI infrastructure companies. The market attributes the rally to three key factors: the U.S. Treasury expanding Treasury repurchase operations, the White House issuing positive signals on crypto regulation, and over $1.6 billion in short positions being liquidated. In terms of corporate buying activity, Strive purchased 1,800 BTC in the final week of August for roughly $143 million, lifting its total holdings to 23,156 BTC and making it the fifth-largest public company holder of Bitcoin. Strategy added 4,603 BTC over the same period, bringing its total holdings to more than 845,000 BTC. Separately, 21 major financial institutions including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup plan to set up a new entity and launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027, with plans to expand to other G7 currencies for cross-border payments and digital asset settlements. For Ethereum, Bitmine has been accumulating ETH for 65 consecutive weeks, with its latest position exceeding 5.9 million ETH—accounting for 4.9% of Ethereum’s roughly 120.7 million circulating supply, just short of its 5% holding target. Despite the ongoing accumulation, the company’s current ETH holdings still carry approximately $5.1 billion in unrealized losses.

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Source: Alex Thorn/X However, with Spot Ethereum ETFs recording monthly inflows worth $365.17 million in July, $1.85 billion in August, and $104.26 million in September to date, hope remains.

Source: SoSo Value But with AMBCrypto recently reporting that ETH’s price stalled near $2,458, bulls have not yet established $2,500 as solid support.

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According to monitoring by OnchainLens, two cryptocurrency market-making firms, Galaxy Digital and Wintermute, currently hold significantly bearish positions on Hyperliquid. Wintermute holds approximately $99.82 million in short positions and $5.12 million in long positions, while Galaxy Digital holds around $26.41 million in short positions and $6.21 million in long positions. Combined, the two firms hold roughly $126.23 million in total short positions, compared to just about $11.33 million in long positions. Over the past 30 days, addresses associated with both firms have posted losses: Wintermute lost approximately $15.3 million, and Galaxy Digital lost around $5.96 million.

9 minutes ago

@Ondo has added STRCon to its growing roster of tokenized assets with round-the-clock minting and redemption, giving eligible investors continuous on-chain access to @Strategy's variable-rate Stretch preferred stock, $STRC.

What STRCon Offers

Always-On Infrastructure Keeps Expanding

Most of the platform's catalog, however, remains on weekday-only minting hours, with the always-on set covering a select group of assets.

Sources:
Ondo Finance: Real 24/7 Trading for Tokenized Stocks (Official Blog)
Crypto.news: Saturn Adds Ondo Tokenized Stocks to STRC Products
The Defiant: Ondo Finance Launches 24/7 Minting and Redemption for Tokenized US Stocks and ETFs

Blocks came every 101 milliseconds throughout the outage reported on Friday. The chain's transaction data went missing on Ethereum for exactly 14 minutes, across two gaps. Arbitrum blamed Ethereum's blob market, which fits the second gap and not the first.

Robinhood Chain kept producing blocks through the outage reported on Friday. What stopped was its transaction data reaching Ethereum, for 14 minutes across two gaps.

Posting those batches is what puts Robinhood Chain's data where anyone can reconstruct the chain and check it, and what allows funds to leave for Ethereum. Robinhood Chain posts more of that data than any other network, so a delay in its batches is the largest single interruption the blob market can produce.

Arbitrum said Ethereum's blob market caused the delay. That fits the second gap, which began after the blob price rose past the ceiling Robinhood Chain's poster was bidding. It does not fit the first and longer one, which ran 8 minutes and 36 seconds while Ethereum blocks carried 263 unused blob slots and priced them at 0.0086 gwei against the poster's standing bid of 0.0616.

"Robinhood Chain experienced no downtime," Arbitrum posted at 2:19 p.m. New York time, after posts on X and two crypto outlets reported that the network had stopped producing blocks for around 14 minutes. "Earlier today, Robinhood Chain experienced batch posting delays due to L1 market blob behavior. Direct user transactions experienced no delays. Some infrastructure providers that rely on Robinhood Chain's data stream experienced a brief performance impact due to a high number of feed subscribers. Robinhood Chain remains operational." The post had drawn about 24,500 views, 314 likes and 40 replies within an hour.

Robinhood has published no technical account of the incident and its chain documentation lists no status page.

Blocks Never StoppedRobinhood Chain produced 106,756 blocks between 12:00 and 15:00 UTC, an average of one every 101 milliseconds, according to blocks read from the chain's Blockscout explorer. Block 54,248,341 carries a 12:00:00 timestamp and block 54,355,097 carries 15:00:00, a count consistent with uninterrupted production at that pace.

Blocks inside the window that traders flagged were full of activity. Block 54,266,500 at 12:30:37 UTC carried 19 transactions, block 54,270,000 at 12:36:34 carried 14, and block 54,274,000 at 12:43:21 carried 22. Every block sampled between 12:28 and 12:50 UTC held between 14 and 22 transactions.

Fourteen Minutes Of Missing DataThe delay sits on Ethereum. Robinhood Chain's batch poster, the address 0xDaa5…87F4 identified by L2BEAT, submits blob transactions to the chain's sequencer inbox contract at a median interval of 12 seconds. It went 8 minutes and 36 seconds without posting, from 12:29:47 to 12:38:23 UTC, then went another 5 minutes and 24 seconds silent from 12:42:47 to 12:48:11.

Those two gaps total 840 seconds, or exactly 14 minutes, matching the figure that circulated on Friday as the length of a block-production halt. Across the 18 minutes and 24 seconds between the start of the first gap and the end of the second, the poster landed batches at nine separate moments against the roughly 92 its median cadence implies. Software tracking the chain through its Ethereum batch data rather than its blocks would have seen 14 minutes of nothing arriving.

Across the nine hours from 11:00 to 20:00 UTC, 26 intervals ran 60 seconds or longer, and 19 of them fell between 12:10 and 14:51. The figures come from 2,279 consecutive blob transactions sent by that address, read from Blobscan.

Room Going SpareA Robinhood Chain batch carries three blobs. Ethereum blocks held 21 at most on Friday and no block in a sample of 600 exceeded that, so the test of whether the chain was competing for space is how many blocks had three slots free while its batches were missing.

Through the first gap, 21 of the 29 Ethereum blocks that carried any blobs had at least three slots free, and the window held 263 unused slots in total. The blob base fee averaged 0.0086 gwei and peaked at 0.0152, against the 0.0616 gwei the poster had bid on its last transaction before the gap began.

Measured on EthereumGap 1, 8m 36sGap 2, 5m 24sBlocks with three or more blob slots free72%81%Unused blob slots in the window263223Blob base fee, mean0.0086 gwei0.0625 gweiBlob base fee, peak0.0152 gwei0.0906 gweiRobinhood Chain's standing bid0.0616 gwei0.0616 gweiThe second gap reads differently. The blob base fee averaged 0.0625 gwei through it, above the standing bid, and the batch that ended the gap raised its ceiling to 0.8187 gwei.

Blob price is not the only condition on inclusion. A blob transaction also competes on its execution-layer fee, and block builders sometimes carry fewer blobs than the limit allows to keep blocks propagating quickly. Neither accounts for 8 minutes and 36 seconds of absence across 263 open slots at a twelfth of the price the sender had already offered.

Bidding Its Way BackThe poster's fee ceiling shows what it did once batches began landing again. It bid 0.0616 gwei per unit of blob gas going into the first gap and 0.2463 gwei on the batch that ended it, four times higher, at a moment when the base fee had reached 0.0434. It bid 0.8187 gwei on the batch that ended the second gap and reached 1.4239 gwei at 12:53:59, roughly 10 times the prevailing base fee.

Whether that escalation was the poster responding to a rising market or recovering from a fault of its own is not established by the public record. Robinhood has not said which, and the mempool data that would show whether its batches were broadcast and waiting during the first gap is not publicly retained.

The 21-Blob CeilingBlob space did tighten on Friday, later than the first gap. The blob base fee averaged 0.0055 gwei across the 85 minutes to 12:25 UTC, then climbed to 0.1473 gwei by 12:53:23, 27 times the earlier level.

Ethereum blocks carried an average of 6.92 blobs in the calm period and 11.99 between 12:25 and 13:00 UTC. Eight percent of blocks in that window carried 21 blobs, the most any block held.

At the peak fee, a three-blob Robinhood Chain batch cost about 14 cents to post.

Base Filled The BlocksThe demand that moved the price came from Base. Robinhood Chain's own posting rate held steady: its batch poster sent 476 blobs in the 35 minutes to 11:35 UTC and 477 in the 35 minutes to 13:00 UTC, according to Blobscan.

Base nearly tripled its usage over the same comparison, from 222 blobs to 593, Blobscan data shows. Arbitrum One went from 48 to 135, and total blob supply across all senders rose 59%, from 1,058 blobs to 1,678. Robinhood Chain still accounted for 28% of every blob posted to Ethereum during the crunch and 45% in the calm window before it, more than any other single sender in either sample.

Base's batcher posts six blobs at a time, so it buys more space by posting more often. It submitted a batch every 55 seconds through the morning, then 45 batches in the 10 minutes from 12:30 UTC, one every 13 seconds and four times its morning rate, before settling near one every 30 seconds for the rest of the afternoon.

Traffic on Base is what changed. Its blocks carried an average of 1,428 transactions in those 10 minutes against 174 at 12:20, measured from blocks read through Base's public RPC endpoint. One block held 2,031 transactions; another burned 360 million gas against Base's 400 million gas limit. Base's own base fee left the 0.005 gwei floor it had held all morning, reaching 0.0193 gwei by 12:40.

About 31% of the Base transactions sampled in the 12:40 UTC window went to four unverified contracts that emit no event logs and move no tokens, burning between 54,000 and 144,000 gas each. None carries a public label. One has processed 4.43 million transactions since deployment and recorded a single token transfer, according to Base's Blockscout explorer.

Robinhood and Base did not reply to a request for comment by press time.

What Batches BuyRobinhood Chain's sequencer confirms transactions for users on its own; posting the batches to Ethereum is what puts the data where anyone can reconstruct the chain and challenge it, and what allows funds to leave for Ethereum.

Robinhood operates the chain's only sequencer, and L2BEAT flags a precompile, ArbFilteredTransactionsManager, that lets an authorized filterer register a transaction hash and cause the state transition to fail it, including transactions that were force-included. There is no delay on code upgrades. Users had no alternative route while batches queued.

Software that reads the chain's sequencer feed rather than its blocks, the route Chainstack's open-source decoder takes to see transactions before they execute, saw the degradation, which is consistent with monitoring tools reporting a halt that block data does not show.

Fees Keep ClimbingRobinhood Chain took $4.59 million in chain fees over 24 hours, up 3.1%, according to DefiLlama. Total value locked reached $839.7 million, from $783.1 million a day earlier. DEX volume was $1.69 billion, up 8.6% on the day and 98.2% over seven days.

The chain launched its mainnet on July 1 as infrastructure for tokenized securities, then leaned into memecoins as launch platforms paired them against stock tokens. It passed Solana on tokenized stock volume in late July, overtook Base on daily active users three weeks after launch and topped Ethereum on daily application revenue on Aug. 29.

Arbitrum collects 10% of the chain's fees under its Expansion Program license, split 8% to the DAO treasury and 2% to development funding.

ARB traded at $0.1327, down 5.7% over 24 hours, for a market capitalization of $886.2 million, according to CoinGecko. PONS, the launchpad token native to the chain, was at $0.6903, up 12.8%. ETH traded at $2,457.42, down 2.2%.

Robinhood Chain block data read from the chain's Blockscout explorer; batch posting, blob capacity and blob market data from Blobscan, covering 2,279 blob transactions from the chain's batch poster and 786 Ethereum blocks between 11:00 and 14:00 UTC on Sept. 4. Free-slot counts assume the 21-blob maximum observed across that window and a separate sample of 600 blocks. Base transaction, gas and base fee figures from 10 blocks sampled per 10-minute bucket through Base's public RPC endpoint, with destination contracts counted across 2,899 transactions in the 12:40 UTC window. Fee, TVL and volume figures via DefiLlama and prices via CoinGecko at 19:30 UTC on Sept. 4.

Circle Internet Group Inc (CRCL stock) surged more than 15% to hover above $103 ahead of today’s US jobs data release.

The crypto capitalization rose 4.15% in 24 hours, topping at 2.73 trillion early Friday.

Bitcoin price surged to over $81,000, Ethereum price stood at around $2,524, and XRP price at $1.45. Those gains added force to the demand from companies that are connected to the adoption of digital assets, one of them being the USDC issuer Circle.

US Jobs Data Drops Today; What’s Next for CRCL Stock The August employment report is released at 8.30 a.m. ET, preceding usual US equity markets.

Economists expect 56,000 payrolls, reversing July’s unexpected 23,000 decline. Unemployment level must be at 4.1, with not much momentum in hiring.

🇺🇸US JOBS DATA DROPS TODAY

The Non-Farm Employment Change drops at 8:30 AM ET.

Previous: -23K
Forecast: +56K

After a surprisingly weak July, markets are expecting a rebound in hiring.

This is one of the biggest macro releases for Bitcoin today.

A major miss could strengthen… pic.twitter.com/OoEKBdFqqv

— That Martini Guy ₿ (@MartiniGuyYT) September 4, 2026

Any payroll miss would rekindle expectations of rate cuts and undermine Treasury yields or the dollar.

Nonetheless, a robust reading may boost yields and the dollar, straining speculative assets.

Unemployment of less than 4.0% to some traders is considered bullish, whereas 4.1% can receive a weak response.

REMINDER:

🇺🇸 Unemployment Rate will be released at 8:30 AM ET, right before the U.S. market opens:

If Rate < 4.0% → bullish for markets
If Rate = 4.1% → markets will stay flat
If Rate > 4.2% → bearish for markets

All eyes are on the release today!! pic.twitter.com/2NnO2Z6NDj

— ᴛʀᴀᴄᴇʀ (@DeFiTracer) September 4, 2026

A reading of above 4.2% can provoke growth worries, but less virulent policy anticipations can ameliorate losses.

CLARITY Act Boosts Sentiment Crypto strength favoring Circle is that the USDC activity and reserve economics have a bearing on the earnings.

Circle makes significant profits through interest on reserves in support of USDC, which connects outcomes to rates and circulations.

Greater activity can lead to a greater use of networks and strengthening distribution alliances with the company.

The increased market will enhance transactions, liquidity, and institutional demand of regulated stablecoins.

Another stimulus came in the form of regulatory expectations with the CLARITY Act coming before a Senate vote. A cloture vote is scheduled for September 15 and needs 60 votes.

The bill would not pass the vote, but it would be possible to approve federal market-structure rules.

Better defined SEC and CFTC roles can lead to less uncertainty among exchanges, issuers, and blockchain enterprises.

In the case of Circle, broader regulatory assurance would favor USDC adoption, but distinct regulations currently govern stablecoins. The measure can still be held up by congressional scheduling and policy wrangles.

CRCL Stock Price Outlook: Will Bulls Push Higher? The CRCL stock is being resisted at around $105 and profit taking may commence just after the quick upsurge.

A confirmed break above $105 might reveal $110 and $120 in case the crypto momentum and volume are good.

To maintain the breakout and constructive short-term structure, bulls would need to defend $100.

CRCL stock The next support is around $95 below $100, which also precedes the $88.60 closing area on Thursday.

A drop in volume or rejection that could be below $100 would undermine the setup and promote caution.

Iranian media: Missile attack hits US targets in northern Jordan

According to Tasnim News Agency, a source said that a loud explosion was heard in Jordan, and a U.S. target in northern Jordan was hit by a missile.

6 minutes ago

AMC CEO launches fresh attack on Robinhood; MEME token accelerates decline, falling below $40 million

AMC CEO Adam Aron once again targeted Robinhood on X, harshly criticizing the firm for promoting offshore stock tokens on its U.S. website. Aron alleges Robinhood is essentially evading the spirit of securities laws and operating an unauthorized synthetic market. In apparent reaction to the news, MEME has accelerated its decline, falling below $40 million in market capitalization to a current level of $38.82 million, per GMGN data.

6 minutes ago

Trump: Strong jobs data, yet the stock market is falling, and high interest rates are the culprit.

Trump released a post stating: "We just got outstanding jobs data. The market should rally given our improved credit and economic conditions, but as has been the case over the past 25 years, the stock market is falling anyway. This is because we live in a false reality where if things go well, we must 'kill it' out of 'fear' of inflation. It should be the opposite, and that is how things operated until 25 years ago. If we cling to this theory, we will never achieve the real economic prosperity our country deserves, because every time we perform well, foolish people immediately want to halt this positive upward momentum. Growth does not cause inflation! This morning, as soon as I saw these strong jobs numbers, I knew the market should have skyrocketed, but instead it dropped. Our GDP growth rate should be 15% to 20%, not 2%, 3% or 4%; the U.S. should be far more financially robust than it is now. Debt should be repaid, and all sorts of other benefits should be realized. Remember, every one percentage point increase in interest rates costs the U.S. $650 billion annually. We should adopt the lowest interest rates in the world, because we keep everything running and bring massive economic wealth to countries that might otherwise be struggling!"

6 minutes ago

US stocks have maintained low volatility for 25 consecutive days, marking the longest such stretch since May 1992.

According to market data, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), the benchmark gauge for U.S. stock market volatility tied to the S&P 500, has closed in the 14 to 17 point range for 25 consecutive trading days — the longest such stretch since May 1992. Over the past 34 years, the only comparable period occurred in 2025, with the streak lasting 24 trading days. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has not posted a decline of at least -1.0% across 26 consecutive trading days, leaving the market in an unusually calm phase.

6 minutes ago

Hyperliquid will cut the minimum order notional amount for its prediction markets from $10 to $1.

Hyperliquid announced that in its upcoming network upgrade, it will lower the minimum notional amount for outcome orders (prediction market result token orders) from $10 to $1. Meanwhile, deployers will be able to query their remaining quota via the outcomeDeployerLimits information request interface.

6 minutes ago

Anthropic’s strategic deployment of in-house payment technology could erode Stripe’s market share.

Beating AI Express (from Dongcha) reports: Recent job postings reveal that Anthropic is planning to develop more in-house billing, fraud detection, and other financial infrastructure, while evaluating which payment-related services can be built internally instead of relying on external service providers. The postings show Anthropic has not yet finalized decisions on whether to further develop its own tools in areas including payments, billing, and tax processing, or continue procuring solutions from external providers. One senior software engineer position focused on billing requires assisting the company with technical selection: determining which business lines will continue development on external provider platforms, and which scenarios necessitate building their own underlying foundational modules around those external platforms.

6 minutes ago

Bitcoin Has No Label but Its Closest Rival Is Gold, BlackRock Exec Says

Bitcoin

4 September 2026 | 16:44 Bitcoin fell below $80,000 and Ethereum slipped under $2,500 after unexpectedly strong US employment data increased the prospect of tighter Federal Reserve policy.

Key Takeaways US payroll growth sharply exceeded expectations. Bitcoin retreated below the $80,000 level. Ethereum fell back beneath $2,500. Stronger employment raised interest-rate risk. August inflation remains the decisive test. Crypto reverses as payroll growth surprises markets Crypto prices gave back part of their earlier advance after the latest US employment report challenged expectations that monetary policy could soon become less restrictive.

Bitcoin traded near $79,440 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap data, putting it back below $80,000. Ethereum fell to approximately $2,454 and surrendered the $2,500 level.

Zcash fell below $1,000 after the sharp advance examined in this recent Zcash price analysis. XRP, Solana and Chainlink were also lower in CoinMarketCap’s short-term reading. However, Bitcoin, Ethereum and several other assets remained positive over the preceding 24 hours.

The market was therefore reversing part of an earlier advance rather than entering a full-day collapse. That distinction matters after the broad recovery examined in the recent crypto market rally analysis. Holding that recovery now requires Bitcoin to reclaim $80,000 despite the increase in expected borrowing costs.

Broader crypto market

XRP

$1.41 – dropping from $1.46

Solana

$101.5

Zcash

$977

Chainlink

$11.6

US employers added 162,000 jobs in August The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in August. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected an increase of only 56,000.

Earlier estimates were also revised upward. June’s gain increased from 20,000 to 31,000, while July changed from a reported loss of 23,000 jobs to a gain of 21,000. The revisions added a combined 55,000 positions to the previous two months.

Unemployment remained at 4.1%, and labor-force participation edged up from 61.4% to 61.6%. Together, those figures showed that the labor market had performed considerably better than investors anticipated.

Wages supplied the report’s main moderating detail. Average hourly earnings increased by 0.3% during August and 3.1% from a year earlier. Stronger hiring therefore did not arrive with a new acceleration in annual wage growth.

Why the payroll surprise pressured crypto Employment data reach crypto through monetary policy rather than through Bitcoin’s underlying network or adoption. A resilient labor market gives the Federal Reserve more room to concentrate on inflation without needing to support employment by holding rates down.

That possibility can push short-term Treasury yields higher as traders demand greater returns from bonds maturing around future policy decisions. Higher yields make government debt more competitive with riskier assets, while tighter borrowing conditions increase the cost of maintaining leveraged positions.

The dollar can also strengthen when investors expect US rates to stay elevated. Because cryptocurrencies trade globally against the dollar, a stronger currency can make dollar-denominated assets more expensive for buyers outside the United States and produce less favorable liquidity conditions.

The synchronized decline across major tokens was consistent with a broader repricing of US interest-rate risk.

Warsh and Waller have left September unresolved That repricing matters because Federal Reserve officials entered the employment report divided over whether persistent inflation justified another increase.

Chair Kevin Warsh placed a September hike firmly in consideration during his official Jackson Hole address. Warsh said policymakers must be confident that inflation is returning to the 2% objective at sufficient speed. Otherwise, he said, the Fed had “work to do.”

Governor Christopher Waller took a more patient position in his September 3 remarks. He said recent inflation readings showed signs of improvement and that he would be inclined to support holding rates steady if the trend continued.

Waller nevertheless left room to vote for a hike if the August inflation data showed that the improvement had been temporary. He also said inflation, rather than employment, would heavily influence his decision because economic activity and the labor market were already in satisfactory condition.

Argument for raising rates

Strong employment gives the Fed room to address inflation without responding to immediate weakness in the labor market.

Argument for holding rates

Continued progress on inflation could justify waiting another meeting instead of tightening policy immediately.

The employment release gives officials favoring tighter policy additional support, but it does not settle the meeting.

Futures markets nevertheless leaned toward a hike. At the time of writing, the CME FedWatch Tool assigned a 60.2% probability to a 25-basis-point increase on September 16, which would lift the target range from 3.50%-3.75% to 3.75%-4.00%. The remaining 39.8% pointed to no change, with no probability assigned to a rate reduction.

CME FedWatch probabilities for the September 16, 2026 meeting. Captured September 4, 2026. FedWatch calculates its probabilities from 30-day federal funds futures, so the figures reflect market positioning rather than a Federal Reserve forecast. The 60.2% reading is the market’s pre-CPI baseline and could change substantially after the August inflation report.

August CPI becomes the key remaining test The next two dates

September 11: The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the August Consumer Price Index.

September 16: The Federal Reserve announces its decision after a two-day policy meeting.

A firm CPI reading would combine persistent price pressure with employment strong enough to give policymakers room to respond. That combination would reinforce expectations for a hike and could keep pressure on crypto through higher yields, a stronger dollar and more expensive leverage.

Softer inflation would weaken that interpretation. It would allow officials such as Waller to argue that price pressures are easing without help from another increase, even as employment remains stable.

Bitcoin’s first test is whether it can reclaim and hold $80,000 after the initial repricing. CPI will then show whether the 60.2% hike probability has room to rise or whether easing inflation can revive the interrupted crypto recovery.

The article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

Iranian media: Missile attack hits US targets in northern Jordan

According to Tasnim News Agency, a source said that a loud explosion was heard in Jordan, and a U.S. target in northern Jordan was hit by a missile.

5 minutes ago

AMC CEO launches fresh attack on Robinhood; MEME token accelerates decline, falling below $40 million

AMC CEO Adam Aron once again targeted Robinhood on X, harshly criticizing the firm for promoting offshore stock tokens on its U.S. website. Aron alleges Robinhood is essentially evading the spirit of securities laws and operating an unauthorized synthetic market. In apparent reaction to the news, MEME has accelerated its decline, falling below $40 million in market capitalization to a current level of $38.82 million, per GMGN data.

5 minutes ago

Trump: Strong jobs data, yet the stock market is falling, and high interest rates are the culprit.

Trump released a post stating: "We just got outstanding jobs data. The market should rally given our improved credit and economic conditions, but as has been the case over the past 25 years, the stock market is falling anyway. This is because we live in a false reality where if things go well, we must 'kill it' out of 'fear' of inflation. It should be the opposite, and that is how things operated until 25 years ago. If we cling to this theory, we will never achieve the real economic prosperity our country deserves, because every time we perform well, foolish people immediately want to halt this positive upward momentum. Growth does not cause inflation! This morning, as soon as I saw these strong jobs numbers, I knew the market should have skyrocketed, but instead it dropped. Our GDP growth rate should be 15% to 20%, not 2%, 3% or 4%; the U.S. should be far more financially robust than it is now. Debt should be repaid, and all sorts of other benefits should be realized. Remember, every one percentage point increase in interest rates costs the U.S. $650 billion annually. We should adopt the lowest interest rates in the world, because we keep everything running and bring massive economic wealth to countries that might otherwise be struggling!"

5 minutes ago

US stocks have maintained low volatility for 25 consecutive days, marking the longest such stretch since May 1992.

According to market data, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), the benchmark gauge for U.S. stock market volatility tied to the S&P 500, has closed in the 14 to 17 point range for 25 consecutive trading days — the longest such stretch since May 1992. Over the past 34 years, the only comparable period occurred in 2025, with the streak lasting 24 trading days. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has not posted a decline of at least -1.0% across 26 consecutive trading days, leaving the market in an unusually calm phase.

5 minutes ago

Hyperliquid will cut the minimum order notional amount for its prediction markets from $10 to $1.

Hyperliquid announced that in its upcoming network upgrade, it will lower the minimum notional amount for outcome orders (prediction market result token orders) from $10 to $1. Meanwhile, deployers will be able to query their remaining quota via the outcomeDeployerLimits information request interface.

5 minutes ago

Anthropic’s strategic deployment of in-house payment technology could erode Stripe’s market share.

Beating AI Express (from Dongcha) reports: Recent job postings reveal that Anthropic is planning to develop more in-house billing, fraud detection, and other financial infrastructure, while evaluating which payment-related services can be built internally instead of relying on external service providers. The postings show Anthropic has not yet finalized decisions on whether to further develop its own tools in areas including payments, billing, and tax processing, or continue procuring solutions from external providers. One senior software engineer position focused on billing requires assisting the company with technical selection: determining which business lines will continue development on external provider platforms, and which scenarios necessitate building their own underlying foundational modules around those external platforms.

5 minutes ago

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Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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Robinhood Chain has stopped producing blocks for more than 14 minutes, preventing the Ethereum layer-2 network from confirming token transfers and smart contract transactions.

Summary

Robinhood Chain stopped producing blocks for more than 14 minutes at around 12:57 p.m. UTC. Transfers and smart contract calls remained pending until block production resumed intermittently. Robinhood has not disclosed the cause or provided a detailed account of the disruption. HOOD shares fell as much as 5.1% from their previous close before recovering part of the loss. Robinhood Chain stopped confirming transactions Robinhood Chain block explorer data showed that the network stopped adding blocks at around 12:57 p.m. UTC on Sept. 4, leaving submitted transactions without confirmation for more than 14 minutes.

Transfers, smart contract calls, and router interactions could not move forward while the chain remained at the same block height. New transactions continued to appear in the explorer, but several stayed pending because the network was not producing blocks to process them.

News aggregator Aggr News was among the first to report the interruption on X.

Block production later restarted, although explorer records showed uneven activity during the first stage of the recovery. Robinhood had not disclosed the cause of the halt or published a technical account of the event at the time of reporting.

The company also had not provided a specific recovery schedule. Its main status page did not list an incident for the chain, leaving the explorer as the main public source for tracking whether blocks were being produced consistently.

No report indicated that balances were lost during the interruption. Transactions submitted while production was paused could not receive on-chain confirmation until the sequencer began creating blocks again.

A sequencer halt froze Robinhood Chain activity As crypto.news explained in July, Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2 network built with Arbitrum Orbit technology. It runs transactions outside Ethereum’s main execution layer and posts data back to Ethereum.

Robinhood launched the public mainnet on July 1 with 95 tokenized stocks and access through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries. The chain uses ETH for transaction fees and supports Ethereum-compatible wallets, applications, and smart contracts.

According to the network explainer, Robinhood Chain relies on a sequencer to order transactions and produce blocks. When the sequencer stops, users can submit transactions, but the network cannot confirm or settle them until block production returns.

Robinhood Chain normally produces blocks every 100 milliseconds. At that speed, a 14-minute interruption represents approximately 8,400 expected block intervals without normal production.

The halt affected blockchain activity rather than Robinhood’s conventional brokerage system. No evidence showed that customers lost access to U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, or other assets held in standard Robinhood brokerage accounts because of the chain interruption.

Block production is especially important for decentralized finance users. Without new blocks, traders cannot complete swaps, transfer collateral, repay loans or interact with smart contracts, even when their wallets continue displaying previously recorded balances.

Tokenized stock activity had climbed before the outage The interruption arrived after a sharp increase in trading activity across Robinhood Chain. On Aug. 25, the network recorded approximately $945 million in daily decentralized exchange volume, according to a recent network analysis.

Cumulative DEX volume had surpassed $47 billion since the July 1 launch, while its 30-day total reached approximately $15 billion. The data placed Robinhood Chain fifth among tracked networks by 30-day decentralized exchange volume, behind Solana, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Base.

A separate Sept. 2 report found that RWA-linked trading volume had reached $390 million. By July 27, Robinhood had accumulated approximately 328,000 tokenized-equity holders, equal to around 44% of the 752,000 holders tracked across five large tokenized-stock platforms at the time.

Robinhood represented about $44 million of the tokenized assets in that comparison. Ondo held approximately $857 million, while xStocks accounted for about $487 million, showing that Robinhood’s holder count did not give it the largest value of tokenized assets.

Uniswap has operated as the chain’s primary public automated market maker since launch. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said in late August that combined stock-token trading volume on Robinhood Chain had reached $1 billion.

Robinhood Chain had also processed more than $12 billion in DEX volume and over 150 million transactions by the end of July, according to figures cited by Bernstein. The research firm used the figures when maintaining an Outperform rating and a $160 price target for Robinhood Markets.

HOOD shares fell as much as 5.1% During Friday’s U.S. session, Robinhood Markets shares opened at $120.48 after closing at $124.72 on Thursday. HOOD then traded as low as $118.30, representing a decline of approximately 5.1% from the previous close.

Shares later recovered to around $122.81, cutting the daily loss to roughly 1.5%. Robinhood’s market data showed an intraday high of $124.60 and trading volume of 13.96 million shares, compared with an average daily volume of 24.82 million.

Available market data did not establish that the chain outage caused HOOD’s decline. The stock had already traded near $120 in the premarket session when reports of the network interruption appeared.

Friday’s trading also followed a 16.6% rally in HOOD on Thursday, when the stock closed at $124.72. Analyst upgrades and Robinhood’s expanding product range had supported the previous session’s advance.

U.S. investors cannot access Robinhood Stock Tokens Robinhood Stock Tokens remain unavailable to U.S. residents, even though many of the products track U.S.-listed companies. The company offers the tokens in eligible overseas markets as derivative contracts that provide economic exposure to the referenced securities.

Token holders are not shareholders of record and do not receive voting rights attached to the underlying stock. Robinhood has said that a U.S.-licensed institution holds assets supporting the contracts.

In July, two securities transfer groups asked the SEC to distinguish between issuer-approved tokenized securities and products created by unrelated platforms. Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company and the Securities Transfer Association said third-party tokens may not establish a direct legal relationship between buyers and the company whose shares determine the token’s value.

The groups also raised concerns about custody, shareholder records, voting, dividends, sanctions checks, and claims during insolvency. They asked the SEC to prioritize issuer-backed structures and impose investor safeguards before granting regulatory relief to unaffiliated stock-token products.