Here's your weekly crypto industry catch-up!📰

Crypto & Blockchain Update: September 23-29

📈Market Highlights

- Bitcoin is up by 1% in the last 7 days, currently trading at $64,454 while Ethereum is down by 1%, priced at $2,631 as investors are looking ahead for Powell’s speech and non-farm payroll data
- Top 3 gainers last week were FTT (67%), WIF (41%) and PEPE (38%); while 3 biggest losers were XMR (-12%), AAVE (-8%), and FET (-6%)
- Memecoins had a surge at the end of last week, with Solana-based Moo Deng (MOODENG) up by 90% in 24hr, currently priced at $0.25
- Crypto “Fear and Greed Index” is at 61 Greed today
- BlackRock’s Bitcoin holdings are now at $24 billion, making up 1.7% of total available $BTC
- BlackRock’s Spot Ethereum ETF surpasses $1 billion in total asset value for the 1st time, 2 months after launch

🎮Blockchain Tech & Gaming

- Ethereum L3 network XProtocol, built on top of Base, is launching an Android smartphone optimized for gaming, named XForge, which is being called the world’s first DePIN phone
- Base’s TVL crosses $2B for the first time (370% up YTD) as user activity increases
- Core blockchain passes $400M TVL, leading Bitcoin L2s
- Telegram game Hamster Kombat launched its airdrop on TON last Thursday, logging over $1.2B trading volume in 24 hours
- Flappy Bird confirmed its FLAP token and plans for staking rewards within the ecosystem
- Crypto farming game Pixels previews Telegram tap-to-drive game
- MapleStory N, PC-based MMORPG that integrates blockchain tech with world’s famous MapleStory IP, published its 10-day testing results from 1,000 participants

📃Regulatory Updates

- Binance founder and former CEO CZ released from prison
- Caroline Ellison sentenced to 2 years in prison
- UK gambling regulator is prosecuting NFT fantasy soccer game Sorare
- Hong Kong has started 2nd phase of e-HKD pilot totest settlement of tokenized assets, offline payments, and programmability
- South Korea fines Worldcoin Foundation and Tools For Humanity for data privacy violations

💰Investments & Partnerships

- Singapore-based Matrixport acquires Swiss crypto asset manager firm Crypto Finance to expand into EU
- Blockchain project Initia raises $2.5M in less than 2 hours via Echo through token purchase agreements
- Swiss digital asset management platform Taurus SA partners with equity token specialist Aktionariat AG
- Solana DePIN Mawari Network focused on spatial computing raises $10.8M in new funding
- Kraken acquires Dutch crypto broker BCM, part of its expansion efforts into the EU market

🛡️Cybersecurity

- Crypto losses due to hacks and scams fall to $413M in Q3, representing a 28% decrease compared to Q2, according to ImmuneFi
- DeFi protocol Onyx hit again for the second time this year, now with $3.2M exploit
- Fake WalletConnect app on Google Play steals over $70k worth of crypto from users before shut down
- 4 individuals part of the $47M gaming scam linked to Fiewin betting and gaming app have been arrested
- Crypto whale lost $32M worth of spWETH tokens after signing a malicious transaction powered by Inferno Drainer (scam-as-a-service software)
- Coinbase Ventures-backed Truflation hacked for $5M from treasury multisig and personal wallets

🗞️Miscellaneous

- Robinhood and Revolut are reported to be considering launching their own stablecoins, like PayPal has with PYUSD
- Bitdeer and TSMC to launch a state-of-the-art mining chip SEAL02 after completing successful tests

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Swapin team wishes you a great new week ahead!🤝