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According to a report by the WSJ, a previously undisclosed internal investigation report from Binance shows that Iranian financier Babak Zanjani used affiliated companies, shell companies, and multiple trading accounts to transfer funds through Binance, establishing a funding channel for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to evade Western sanctions. The related network involves 21 individual and corporate trading accounts, with a total trading volume of approximately $850 million, of which at least $67 million flowed from two accounts to wallets associated with the IRGC.The report indicates that Tajik businessman Sukhrob Oimakhmadov, classified as a "high-value customer" by Binance, received over $10 million through his account, with sources including digital wallets later identified by the Israeli Ministry of Defense as belonging to the IRGC. The cryptocurrency platform Zedcex, associated with Zanjani, had a total trading volume close to $830 million, with approximately $56 million withdrawn to related wallets. The network also involves the Turkish payment company ZedPay, as well as the cryptocurrency token USDZ used for trading.Binance stated that it has identified the related activities and taken measures, with all accounts associated with sanction violations being restricted from trading and gradually closed. The company also emphasized that the total trading volume of accounts does not equal the actual funds flowing into the IRGC and acknowledged past procedural issues in internal approvals and execution timeliness. The U.S. Department of the Treasury had previously imposed sanctions on Zanjani and related companies and individuals.

On October 8, the UK added Xeltox Enterprises, Processing KG, TokenSpot, and Tsunami Payments to the sanctions list, identified as RUS3755, RUS3756, RUS3758, and RUS3763 respectively. This batch includes a total of 38 new designations, including three cryptocurrency exchanges and two payment platforms. The government stated that two of the companies had processed transactions related to the Kremlin-backed A7 network, which claims to have transferred over $90 billion last year; the announcement did not specify the exact companies, and this figure is based on A7's claims as reported by the UK.The measures go beyond asset freezes, and the listed companies also face restrictions on banking, payment processing, and internet services within the UK. The Secretary of State stated there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Xeltox benefits from or supports the Russian government by operating in the Russian financial services sector, and is associated with activities linked to Cryptomus and those continued through Heleket. Cryptomus, Heleket, and Certa Payments Ltd are listed as major name variants of Xeltox. TokenSpot is a closed joint-stock company based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with reasonable grounds to suspect it supports the Russian government or benefits from it by operating in the Russian financial services sector.Processing KG is an open joint-stock company based in Bishkek, with websites processing-kg.com and vexpay.net, and records indicate that the parent company is the Kyrgyz Ministry of Finance, engaged in business of economic significance to the Russian government;

According to CoinDesk, the UK Foreign Office announced a new round of sanctions related to Russia, stating that relevant cryptocurrency platforms may assist Russia in evading sanctions.The sanctioned entities include Xeltox Enterprises, which operates Cryptomus, Heleket, and Certa Payments, the Kyrgyz exchange TokenSpot, and the payment platform Processing KG, as well as Tsunami Payments, two of which previously handled transactions related to the A7A5 network.

On October 8, the XRP Ledger activated the PermissionDelegationV1_1 feature, allowing account owners to authorize other accounts to perform specific tasks without relinquishing control of the account's master key. According to the monitoring site XRPL Dashboard, such upgrades require over 80% support from trusted validators for two consecutive weeks; based on the current 35 validators, at least 29 must support it. The countdown for this feature was reset in September due to the support rate falling below the threshold.This feature allows enterprises to split permissions by function. Stablecoin issuers can authorize compliant accounts to approve new customers while keeping the master key offline. Authorized accounts use their own keys to sign and can only perform the granted operations; owners can change or revoke these permissions at any time. Each authorized account can receive up to 10 permissions, which limit the types of operations they can perform, rather than automatically setting spending limits. Banks have previously separated payment and compliance responsibilities at the employee level, and this upgrade enforces such division at the ledger level.According to a report shared by Evernorth, a subsidiary of XRP Treasury, the network held an average of $3.72 billion in tokenized assets and $539 million in Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin in the second quarter, totaling approximately $4.26 billion. Official guidance advises users not to delegate PaymentBurn permissions before separately fixing activation; this permission is intended for assistants to destroy tokens but, under certain conditions, also allows for the creation of new tokens. This warning pertains to tokens issued on the ledger rather than newly minted XRP.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on Cryptomus, Heleket, and TokenSpot in actions targeting Russian entities suspected of evading sanctions. TokenSpot transferred over $950 million in funds to the sanctioned exchanges Grinex, Garantex, and the Kremlin-backed A7 network.

A report from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) identifies stablecoins, particularly USDT, as a key liquidity channel supporting Iran's shadow banking system. Licensed virtual asset service providers (VASP) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region face heightened sanctions compliance pressure and need to enhance wallet ownership identification and counterparty assessment.Soham Jethani, a partner at the law firm Septten, stated that merchants settling crypto assets into local fiat currency do not necessarily avoid sanctions risks. Liability may involve designated entities, the provision of funds or economic resources, and asset handling within the transaction chain, potentially arising before the final settlement by banks. Jethani pointed out that the name of the stablecoin or the currency in which it is priced does not determine legal ownership; specific rights depend on contractual arrangements and actual payment processes.Globally circulating stablecoins may also pose secondary sanctions risks, as indirect or historical wallet associations do not automatically constitute violations and must be assessed in conjunction with applicable regulations, transaction participants, and specific facts. In regulated markets like the UAE, licensed exchange wallets are continuously monitored, and related funds can be frozen before consumption settlements, with merchants also required to complete KYC. Regulated VASPs handling deposits and withdrawals bear the responsibility for counterparty and sanctions risk assessment and corresponding controls.

The Cardano Foundation announced that the programmable token standard CIP-0113 has officially launched on the Cardano mainnet, allowing issuers of regulated assets such as stablecoins, tokenized funds, and bonds to directly embed compliance rules such as KYC, anti-money laundering, sanctions screening, asset freezing and confiscation, and transfer restrictions into the tokens, which will be executed by the Cardano ledger during each transfer, minting, and burning.This standard does not require a hard fork, and the tokens remain native assets of Cardano, with issuers able to update the rule modules according to regulatory changes.

According to a report by the Japan Economic News cited by Reference News, the Japanese government has decided to impose additional sanctions on Russia during a cabinet meeting. In principle, the Japanese government prohibits providing operational, maintenance, insurance, and financing services to 35 vessels in Russia's "shadow fleet," which secretly transports crude oil to evade Western sanctions.In addition to the sanctions against the "shadow fleet," the Japanese government will also add 33 Russian military-related groups and 9 individuals to the asset freeze list, including groups involved in using cryptocurrency to evade financial sanctions.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a member of Hamas's military wing, two French nationals, and two charitable organizations, accusing them of raising over $2 million for Hamas through cryptocurrency and so-called humanitarian donations in a fundraising campaign that lasted six years.The Treasury stated that Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid raised funds in France under the guise of humanitarian efforts, subsequently transferring the money to Hamas. This network raised over $2 million between 2020 and 2026, with $1.5 million occurring after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The two also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq in Gaza, who is the deputy battalion commander of Hamas's Kassam Brigades.The sanctions freeze the assets of the relevant entities within U.S. jurisdiction, and Americans are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions may face secondary sanctions risks, and restrictions also extend to companies in which the sanctioned parties hold more than 50% directly or indirectly. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on complex financial intermediaries and fraudulent means. This move indicates U.S. concern about the role of cryptocurrency in broader fundraising networks, rather than viewing it as Hamas's primary source of funding.

Aptos governance proposal #206 is currently voting, proposing to enable the ChunkyDKG V1 full mode and the encrypted_transactions feature. This mechanism will support encrypted transactions through distributed key generation, hiding their content before the transactions enter consensus ordering, and then collaboratively decrypting by validators, which helps reduce front-running and MEV risks.The proposal voting will end on October 6, and currently, the approval rate is close to 100%, but the voter turnout is only 2.69%, which has not yet reached the quorum requirement of 24.8%.

According to Cointelegraph, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry jointly issued a statement on Friday, officially adding the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex to the asset freeze list. This measure will severely restrict payment and capital transaction activities related to Garantex.The statement pointed out that this expansion of sanctions is due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Garantex has previously been blacklisted by multiple jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, for allegedly assisting Russian entities in evading financial restrictions.In addition to the cryptocurrency platform, Japan has also added 33 related organizations and 9 individuals to the sanctions list in this action, and imposed bans on repair and insurance services for 35 vessels suspected of transporting Russian crude oil as part of a "shadow fleet."

According to a report by the Japan Economic News cited by Reference News, the Japanese government has decided to impose additional sanctions on Russia during a cabinet meeting. In principle, the Japanese government prohibits providing operational, maintenance, insurance, and financing services to 35 vessels in Russia's "shadow fleet," which secretly transports crude oil to evade Western sanctions.In addition to the sanctions against the "shadow fleet," the Japanese government has also added 33 Russian military-related groups and 9 individuals to the asset freeze list, including groups involved in using cryptocurrency to evade financial sanctions.

According to The Block, Base has completed its third mainnet upgrade, Cobalt. The core of this upgrade is the Validity Transactions conditional transaction feature, allowing users to submit transactions with conditions that must be met before they are packaged on-chain; if the conditions are not met, the transaction will never be included.Base stated that this API is part of a neutral infrastructure, allowing advanced traders to keep their submissions confidential before they are finalized.Cobalt also enhances the B20 token standard launched with the Beryl upgrade in June, adding three new features. Composite Policies allow asset issuers to combine existing whitelists and blacklists using "or" and "and" logic, without the need to duplicate lists or maintain off-chain synchronization.The Schedule Multiplier upgrade aligns with the ERC-8056 standard, supporting issuers in changing the display method of asset balances, which can be used in scenarios such as stock splits.Base also revealed plans to shorten block time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds in the coming months, implement native smart accounts at the protocol layer, support Gas payment and transaction batching, and introduce some EVM improvements from the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on the ATM network associated with Tren de Aragua and has added seven Tron addresses to the sanctions list.Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis stated that the counterparties of the aforementioned wallets had interacted with money laundering networks used by drug trafficking groups in Mexico and Colombia, as well as money launderers in Venezuela.

Noah Shinn, founder of Personal AI Agent Instinct, stated that the company's user base has been growing by about 10% to 11% daily in recent weeks, leading to a corresponding demand for computing power that is close to doubling each week. He now spends about 40% of his time considering how much computing power to purchase in advance.Shinn indicated that computing power cannot be procured in sync with user growth. Purchasing only double the current computing power would be exhausted in about a week; buying five times would run out in less than three weeks; directly purchasing ten times would mean a significant upfront investment. Many resources need to be booked months in advance, and the price for temporarily supplementing computing power could be three to four times higher. He mentioned that purchasing too little makes it difficult to support growth, while purchasing too much would amplify costs when growth slows down.He estimates that even if the daily growth rate drops from 10% to 5% to 8%, after continuous growth for 3 to 4 months, it may still be necessary to prepare computing power for a scale of 100 million users, and the waiting time for new computing power to come online would be roughly the same. He believes that this is more challenging than scaling consumer internet products like Instagram and Facebook, because each new user of the personal agent continuously consumes a large amount of model inference. He stated that Instinct's current scaling speed is even faster than similar situations encountered by Claude Code and Codex in the past.

According to Saudi media outlet Hadass, sources say that Iran has agreed to stop uranium enrichment in exchange for the United States easing sanctions.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin software provider Breez announced that applications built on its Breez SDK now support users receiving stablecoin payments from over 30 networks using their Bitcoin balance.Breez stated that after the recipient selects the network and amount of the payer, the SDK generates a deposit address and displays the amount received, while the payer pays from their wallet as usual; Flashnet completes the exchange in the background, and the funds ultimately enter the recipient's non-custodial wallet in the form of Bitcoin, or in the form of USD if the stable balance feature is used.In June of this year, Breez launched the ability to send USDT/USDC, allowing a single Breez-powered balance to transfer stablecoins bi-directionally across almost all networks. This update is the latest in a series of usability upgrades, following the rollout of features such as Passkey login, Cash App instant account opening, and stable balance. Breez also launched a reference application called Glow in August to showcase the capabilities of the SDK.The Breez SDK is a developer toolkit that allows applications to add Bitcoin payments without having to build their own payment infrastructure, covering wallet creation, sending and receiving, and Lightning Network payments. Developers can provide Bitcoin functionality with minimal code, without needing to run nodes or manage liquidity.In July of this year, Breez announced a partnership with Turnkey, allowing developers to add non-custodial Bitcoin support to wallet applications running on their own servers.

Artificial intelligence company Instinct successfully raised $1 billion with a valuation of $10 billion.