law

The cross-chain exchange protocol NEAR Intents released a post-mortem report attributing a $3.8 million vulnerability to a flaw in the deposit notification feature. The protocol deploys a public settlement contract on NEAR that maintains an internal ledger of deposited tokens, while withdrawals transfer tokens out via a cross-chain bridge. The report was published by NEAR Intents General Manager Alex Shevchenko on October 16, stating that the attacker withdrew $3.8 million before the protocol was shut down on October 1 and returned all funds within 36 hours of detection, with all affected users fully compensated.The report indicates that the feature notifies third-party contracts when tokens are deposited. The attacker created a contract that intentionally caused the notification to fail, allowing the token contract to refund the deposit while NEAR Intents retained the corresponding ledger credit. Through 23 failed deposit transactions, the attacker accumulated $3.8 million in unsupported balance, referred to in the report as ghost funds, and subsequently withdrew real tokens based on this and transferred them to other chains via the Omni infrastructure. Shevchenko stated that this was a vulnerability in the NEAR Intents contract, not in the Omni infrastructure.Withdrawals occurred between September 29 and October 1. The settlement contract was paused and reopened on October 1, with affected routes gradually restored, and contract-side deposits resumed on October 2. The report noted that the vulnerability went undetected because monitoring only compared the original chain assets with the total balance of NEAR side tokens, without comparing the total internal user balances with the actual tokens held by the contract; the team has since added this check and will automatically pause the contract when there is a balance inconsistency. The fix for the October vulnerability was deployed on October 2, but another serious vulnerability report regarding the same feature prompted its complete removal on October 7, with the relevant researcher receiving a $300,000 reward.

The Solana Accelerate China team announced on October 16 that due to logistical considerations regarding the venue, the event originally scheduled for that morning in Shanghai has been postponed, with the specific time to be confirmed and communicated to registered attendees. The official apology for the hasty adjustment was issued, and attendees are asked to pay attention to notifications and emails from Luma.According to on-site sources, law enforcement personnel were stationed at the Shanghai Shangri-La Hotel, and participants were blocked from entering the venue for over an hour. The team has not provided further details regarding the specific reasons for the postponement or the new event arrangements.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea stated that after investigating 16 companies (including cryptocurrency exchanges) involved in a previous security incident, it plans to implement stricter cybersecurity requirements for financial institutions. The agency noted that in an industry review covering 555 financial companies, 130 companies were found to have cybersecurity deficiencies, with approximately 100,000 pieces of customer information leaked, including names, contact details, and identification numbers.Affected companies include Streami, the operator of Gopax, and the cryptocurrency trading platform Prabang, which previously disclosed that a hacking incident on October 2 led to the leakage of some customers' personal information. The FSC indicated that it is still investigating whether these incidents involved the use of artificial intelligence or if they are related to the same group of attackers.According to the proposed reforms, larger financial institutions will undergo vulnerability assessments at least twice a year. The regulatory agency also plans to improve the information-sharing system and is considering using artificial intelligence for security monitoring of small businesses. Additionally, the FSC is considering allowing supplementary cybersecurity inspections outside of the regular assessment schedule in the event of an urgent threat to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

The Blockchain Association, the Crypto Innovation Committee, in conjunction with the Illinois state government, the Digital Chamber of Commerce, and the Illinois Blockchain Association, submitted a joint motion to the Sangamon County Circuit Court, requesting the court to expedite the hearing of two lawsuits against the state's Digital Asset Tax Act. The state government has agreed to issue an injunction to suspend the effectiveness and enforcement of the Digital Asset Tax Act until July 1, 2027.In order to make a ruling on the legality of the tax law as soon as possible, the parties have proposed a timeline for expedited summary judgment submissions: the first round of motions is scheduled to be submitted on November 4, 2026, and all relevant submissions will be completed by January 22, 2027. The parties request the court to hold a hearing between February 8 and February 19, 2027, and request the court to make a ruling by March 1, 2027, to which the state government has no objection. This timeline is subject to court approval.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that the losses associated with the scam center have reached 1.7 billion dollars. During the same period, law enforcement actions conducted in West Africa resulted in the arrest of 28 individuals.The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that during a week-long coordinated law enforcement operation, law enforcement agencies removed over 3.7 million online accounts, pages, and groups, and identified over 11 million dollars in funds that could potentially be frozen.

An important ruling has been made by a UK court regarding the cross-border asset recovery dispute involving over 61,000 Bitcoins related to the illegal fundraising case of Tianjin Blue Sky Ge Rui in China. On October 12, local time, a judgment obtained by Caixin from the High Court of England and Wales indicated that the UK High Court determined that the property rights claims made by Chinese investors regarding the Bitcoins in question should be judged according to Chinese law rather than UK law.This means that approximately 16,000 Chinese victims who have participated in the UK recovery process may not be able to share in the substantial appreciation gains brought about by the soaring Bitcoin prices under UK law, and can at most recover their principal and interest.

According to Euronews, the Finance Committee of the French National Assembly voted last week to pass several amendments to cryptocurrency taxation. According to the proposal, residents holding over 800,000 euros in cryptocurrency assets who move abroad will be subject to an exit tax starting in 2027, covering foreign platform tokens and self-custody wallets, with the tax rate yet to be specified; those migrating within the European Union can apply for a tax deferral, and assets held for 2 to 5 years may be exempt from tax.Additionally, self-custody wallets valued at over 100,000 euros at the end of the year must be declared, or they will face a fine of up to 10,000 euros; the exchange of cryptocurrency assets for stablecoins will also fall under the current unified tax rate of 31.4%.It is worth noting that the committee rejected the budget revenue portion with a vote of 31 to 3, so the aforementioned amendments must be resubmitted this Tuesday and will be voted on again on October 20, with a full case vote scheduled for November 17 before being handed over to the Senate for review.

According to South Korean media Dailian, the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA) has released the "2026 Digital Asset Policy Compilation." Professor Zhao Zaiyu from Hanyang University pointed out that since the ICO ban in 2017, domestic cryptocurrency projects in South Korea have continuously moved their issuance entities and business foundations overseas due to regulatory gaps. The token issuance of Klaytn is handled by a Singaporean entity, and Wemade's WEMIX is also issued by a Singaporean entity. Subsequently, Metabora moved to Dubai, and NeoFin relocated its foundation to Abu Dhabi, with the trend of industry outflow continuing to intensify.Experts indicate that the core obstacles are the regulatory gaps between domestic and foreign issuers and the difficulties in opening corporate bank accounts. They emphasize that "what Korea needs is not looser regulations, but clearer rules," calling for the Digital Asset Basic Law to clarify the licensing standards for issuance, custody, verification, and other business activities, and to establish special procedures for the return of core functions from overseas to the domestic market.

On October 8, the IMF published a blog based on Chapter 3 of the Global Financial Stability Report for October 2026, indicating that the tokenized market is growing rapidly but remains very small and highly fragmented. The average daily trading volume of tokenized repurchase agreements is about $300 billion to $350 billion, while other tokenized assets amount to about $65 billion, compared to an average daily volume of about $13 trillion in the U.S. repurchase market, and a total global capital market asset size of $300 trillion.The report points out that investors have shown interest in certain tokenized features, with more than half of the trades occurring outside traditional market hours, and about 80% of tokenized stock trades being less than 1 share. However, the tokenized market has lower liquidity and higher volatility than traditional markets, and cross-platform fragmentation weakens network effects. The IMF believes that legal certainty, regulatory clarity, interoperability, and secure settlement assets are four mutually reinforcing constraints.The report also warns that scaling up could amplify traditional financial risks such as sell-offs, liquidity squeezes, and contagion. Policymakers should adopt a technology-neutral approach, clarify the legal rights of tokenized assets, ensure consistent regulation for similar activities, support interoperability between tokenized platforms and the traditional financial system, and continuously monitor interconnectedness, leverage, and liquidity risks.

According to CNBC, U.S. Democratic Congressman Don Davis proposed the "No Betting on Your Own Race Act," which aims to prohibit federal office candidates from trading prediction market contracts related to their own election results.Under the bill, violators will be fined at least $10,000 or three times the net profits from the related trades, whichever is higher. Before this proposal was introduced, Davis's Republican opponent in North Carolina's 1st Congressional District, Laurie Buckhout, was fined nearly $2,600 for trading Kalshi contracts related to her candidacy and was suspended from trading on Kalshi for three years.

Cryptocurrency analyst Darkfost stated that over the past decade, the volatility of Bitcoin prices around the "Power Law" trend line is gradually decreasing, and market cycle fluctuations are converging. The oscillation indicator peak has dropped from +169 in 2018 to +102 in 2025, with its daily standard deviation decreasing from 4.81 to 2.47, a decline of about 49%.Darkfost added that as of the current model's oscillation indicator at +34.5, the Bitcoin price is approximately $84,700. According to the model parameters for that day, an oscillation indicator of +100 corresponds to a Bitcoin price of about $157,800, which is approximately 86% higher than the current price. He also pointed out that $157,800 is not a fixed target price but rather a reference level calculated based on the current regression parameters. If the Power Law trend line continues to rise in the future, this reference price will also increase accordingly.

According to Bitcoin.com, U.S. Federal Judge Jennifer L. Rochon dismissed the class action lawsuit against the organizers of the LIBRA project, Kelsier Ventures, the DeFi protocol Meteora, and related individuals, while also denying the plaintiffs' request to amend the complaint again.

According to The Defiant, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon ruled to dismiss the class action lawsuit against LIBRA and M3M3 tokens, and it was a "dismissal with prejudice," meaning the plaintiffs cannot bring the same claims again.The judge found that the plaintiffs' reliance on a six-month issuance of Meme coins was insufficient to support the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) allegations; at the same time, the plaintiffs never listed Meteora as a suable entity.

A federal jury in San Diego, USA, ruled on Friday that Apple must pay over $5.7 billion in damages for using patented technology from the haptic patent company Taction Technology, according to Caixin. This is the highest patent compensation amount in U.S. history. Taction sued Apple in 2021, claiming that its sales of devices infringing on touch technology improperly utilized related innovations; the case was dismissed in 2023 but was later reinstated by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.Apple issued a statement strongly opposing the verdict and the amount of damages, stating that the ruling lacks factual basis. Apple stated that its haptic engine is fundamentally different from Taction's technology, and tests conducted during the trial confirmed this, asserting that it did not use Taction's technology and would appeal. Taction's chief attorney, Lance Yang, thanked the jury and mentioned that the company waited five and a half years for the case to go to trial.The core of the lawsuit revolves around two vibration-based haptic sensor technologies designed to allow users to perceive the device's response to input. Taction claims that Apple’s haptic engine in the Apple Watch and iPhone used its inventions without authorization. Apple's haptic engine was launched in 2014 with the Apple Watch and was used in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus the following year, replacing the older vibration motors. Since Apple insists on appealing, the amount of damages will need to be determined first by the presiding judge before entering the appeals process for final confirmation.

Fidelity Investments Global Macro Director Jurrien Timmer posted on X, discussing Bitcoin prices and the power law model.Jurrien Timmer stated: The power law mathematics of Bitcoin continues to indicate that after holding the $60,000 level, a new cyclical bull market is unfolding, with a target of reaching $300,000 by 2029.

According to Caixin, poker master and seasoned cryptocurrency investor Hu Zheweng made significant bets during the three waves of cryptocurrency frenzy involving ICOs, algorithmic stablecoins, and AI tokens, but faced consecutive failures. Hu Zheweng claimed to have invested in the blockchain project Stratis, achieving a return of "over 1000 times."According to disclosed information, Hu Zheweng invested approximately 80 million USD in algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its sister token LUNA from May 2021 to May 2022, with the peak market value of his holdings exceeding 800 million USD, but the price of LUNA subsequently nearly dropped to zero.In addition, Hu Zheweng has filed a lawsuit in Chicago, USA against the globally renowned quantitative trading firm Jump Trading and its related companies and executives in the cryptocurrency business, seeking at least 500 million USD in damages. After experiencing Stox and Terra, Hu Zheweng has not left the cryptocurrency market; last January, he bet on a new project by a Chinese computer professor Zhang Yongfeng. Zhang Yongfeng entered the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University in 2007 and is currently a tenured associate professor in the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University in the USA. He has been sued by Hu Zheweng on multiple charges including "securities fraud." It is reported that the tokens issued by the organization founded by Zhang Yongfeng, in which Hu Zheweng invested millions of dollars, have fallen over 99.6% from their peak in 2025.

KelpDAO stated on platform X that it has filed a lawsuit against LayerZero and its co-founder Bryan Pellegrino, seeking accountability for the rsETH cross-chain bridge attack incident that occurred earlier this year. The lawsuit claims that LayerZero failed to adequately disclose its inherent technical weaknesses and risks; failed to prevent its security infrastructure from being compromised; and that LayerZero had previously reviewed and approved Kelp's deployment and configuration in writing.Officials stated that LayerZero has publicly attributed responsibility to itself in recent months. Since the occurrence of the attack, the team has taken action to ensure the safety of user assets, including migrating the rsETH cross-chain bridge to a more secure cross-chain standard.LayerZero co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino tweeted that KelpDAO's related claims lack basis and that he will respond and defend in Vancouver.Previously, LayerZero released an incident report indicating that on April 18, 2026, the KelpDAO rsETH cross-chain bridge built on LayerZero was attacked, resulting in a loss of approximately 116,500 rsETH, valued at around $292 million.

Two ChatGPT users from California filed a proposed class action lawsuit against OpenAI in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California this month, accusing the company of failing to adequately inform users that their real conversations were being handed over to external contractors for processing. The lawsuit was served to OpenAI on September 2, focusing on its internal initiative Project Lily. According to the complaint, "AI data reviewers" and "chatbot evaluators" recruited through a third-party staffing company read real ChatGPT prompts and complete conversations, summarize user intent, and score and comment on responses from four models on a scale of 1 to 7.This process is known in the industry as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), which is a fundamental method for enhancing chatbot capabilities. The complaint states that users were never explicitly informed that a person, rather than a machine, might be reading their conversations. OpenAI filters conversations through an automated system before human review, but the complaint alleges that the filters cannot intercept all content, and personal details sometimes still reach contractors. 404 Media first reported on the project on September 14 and found that the reviewers' dashboard included "user memory summaries," which could expose users' approximate locations, occupations, or private life information, even though usernames had been removed.OpenAI stated that such reviews aim to reduce two behaviors: chatbots behaving too much like humans and overly catering to users, referred to by researchers as "flattery." The complaint raises eight legal claims, including violations of California's Unfair Competition Law, Consumer Privacy Act, and common law claims for intrusion into private affairs, with the plaintiffs seeking damages, restitution of unjust enrichment, and punitive damages.