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South Korean retail appetite for risk assets is reviving as the crypto market recovers, Bloomberg reported, and the so-called kimchi premium in Bitcoin has also reappeared. Bloomberg said BTC on South Korea’s largest exchange, Upbit, was trading at about a 1% premium in won terms to Binance’s dollar-denominated price. Domestic BTC prices have maintained a premium over offshore markets for the past week, the longest such stretch since early May, according to the report. Bloomberg explained the kimchi premium measures the gap between Bitcoin prices in South Korea and global markets and is used as one indicator of retail investor sentiment in Asia. BTC Markets analyst Rachael Lucas added that South Korean retail investors tend to buy aggressively when risk appetite strengthens. Lucas said past shifts in South Korea from BTC trading at a discount to offshore exchanges to a premium were followed by stronger returns in the following weeks.

UNI has risen by 4.37% in the past five minutes on the COINNESS market. Currently, UNI is trading at $5.89.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court halted presidential candidate Renan Santos’ online campaign and suspended about $600,000 in campaign funding after Santos’ camp failed to disclose 16 social media accounts within the required registration period, local media reported. The court did not revoke Santos’ candidacy, and Santos’ camp plans to appeal the decision. Santos recently backed the adoption of a national strategic BTC reserve in Brazil.

Stablecoin payment card spending reached a record $1.076 billion in August, according to PaymentScan data cited by Cryptopolitan. Monthly payment volume topped $1 billion for a second straight month following July. Transaction count also hit a record at about 10.67 million, while active addresses rose to a record 283,653. By provider, RedotPay handled about $390.1 million, accounting for 36% of total payment volume and ranking first.

Solana-based automated market maker Aquifer was hit by a hack worth about $2.5 million after a wallet address was compromised, BlockBeats reported. The hacker appears to have operated addresses across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana. The report added the hacker may have gained access to multiple addresses linked to the protocol, raising the possibility that a private key or administrator privileges were compromised. It has not yet been confirmed whether the stolen funds can be recovered or whether wallet access rights were in fact compromised.

AI social engine infrastructure provider X-Agent announced it will hold the X-Agent AI MCP Hackathon 2026 for developers worldwide on Sept. 2. Backed by OLA XBT, the event targets agents and MCP applications with real-world usability and verifiability. The hackathon will run in two tracks: Open Innovation and the OLA XBT x X-Agent Trading Challenge. The Open Innovation track allows participants to freely build API-based agents and MCP applications using AI, crypto, data, automation and agent infrastructure. Teams joining the trading challenge will receive OLA XBT Nexus MCP. The winning team in each track will receive 500 USDT, while the top five teams in each track will receive X Points. X Points can be used to exchange for X-Agent’s airdrop token XAGT. Registration and development will remain open through Sept. 19. Technical review and evaluation will run from Sept. 20 through Oct. 1, and the list of winners is scheduled to be announced between Oct. 2 and 4.

Hyperliquid trader James Wynn closed a 1.33 BTC short position worth $103,000 at a $1,500 loss and then opened a 1.86 BTC long position worth $147,000 with 30x leverage.

The 60-day cumulative net buying by wallets holding 100-1,000 BTC reached 73,300 BTC as of Aug. 31, on-chain analyst Amar Taha said, marking the highest level since April 21. Taha added that large-scale whales holding more than 10,000 BTC also held 43,300 BTC. Taha said this differs from April and May, when 100-1,000 BTC holders' net buying rose to 91,920 BTC but whales holding more than 10,000 BTC moved in the opposite direction and sold about 40,000 BTC in mid-May. Bitcoin later fell about 25%, he said, adding that the market structure now appears different from the earlier period.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission received failing-level marks in a government performance review for its digital asset policy, Edaily reported. According to National Assembly member Park Min-kyu of the Democratic Party, citing a National Assembly audit document titled the "2025 self-evaluation result report" on major policy areas submitted by the FSC, the agency’s tasks of preparing a second-phase virtual asset law and establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins were rated "somewhat insufficient" and "insufficient," respectively. Park said the poor marks stemmed from delays in legislating the Framework Act on Digital Assets. Concerns are rising as taxation is being pushed ahead at speed even though the underlying basic law has yet to be put in place.

A Robinhood-based decentralized exchange saw its daily trading volume top $900 million for the first time on record. A memecoin launchpad also set a record high, with daily trading volume reaching $438 million.

South Korean exchange Upbit announced it will temporarily suspend MINA deposits and withdrawals at 2:00 p.m. UTC on Sept. 2 due to a network upgrade on the MINA network.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is publicly seeking feedback on proposed amendments to the 2019 Payment Services Act to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins in Singapore, ChainCatcher reported. It is also collecting comments on proposed additional regulatory requirements reflecting developments in the stablecoin industry since 2023.

Thailand’s SEC has proposed allowing brokers to support retail investors investing in certain offshore cryptocurrency derivatives, according to Cointelegraph. The eligible products must be similar to crypto derivatives traded in Thailand in terms of underlying assets, maturity, leverage and settlement methods.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $216.7 million in net inflows on Aug. 31, reversing to net inflows after one trading day of net outflows, according to Farside Investors. - BlackRock IBIT: +$205.9 million - Fidelity FBTC: +$6.9 million - Bitwise BITB: +$4.3 million - VanEck HODL: -$13.4 million - Morgan Stanley MSBT: +$3.6 million - Grayscale Mini BTC: +$9.4 million

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $87.6 million in net inflows on Aug. 31, extending their net inflow streak to 11 trading sessions, according to Farside Investors. - BlackRock ETHA: +$59.9 million - Fidelity FETH: +$9.3 million - Bitwise ETHW: +$3.7 million - 21Shares TETH: +$1.2 million - Grayscale Mini ETH: +$13.5 million

Blockchain security firm PeckShield said 50 cryptocurrency-related hacking incidents in August caused total losses of $136.3 million. That was down 49.5% from $270 million in July. According to PeckShield, the largest loss came from Tectonic.cro, a Cronos-based DeFi protocol, where about $74 million in assets was drained. PeckShield said it was the fourth-largest crypto hacking loss this year, after incidents involving DRIFT, KelpDAO and LayerZero (ZRO).

The team address for the TRUMP memecoin transferred another 11.01 million TRUMP worth $26.65 million to an external address two hours ago, according to Lookonchain. The specific purpose of the transfer and how the funds will be used were not disclosed.

Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target on Coinbase to $212 from $184 and maintained its overweight rating. Cantor Fitzgerald said the broader crypto ecosystem has been recovering in value, with BTC recently rising to $80,000, and described Coinbase, a U.S. regulation-compliant exchange, as one of the key investment names for institutional investors. The bank added that if BTC’s strength persists, investors’ risk appetite will continue to support Coinbase’s corporate value.

The following shows estimated liquidation volumes and position ratios for major crypto perpetual futures over the past 24 hours: - BTC: $43.94 million liquidated (74.33% shorts) - ETH: $31.64 million liquidated (82.39% shorts) - SOL: $6.83 million liquidated (58.1% shorts)

An anonymous whale address staked its entire 488,599 HYPE holding today, according to Lookonchain. The whale bought HYPE five months ago at an average price of $35 and is now sitting on an unrealized profit of $23.7 million. HYPE was trading at $84.05, up 5.15%, at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

Hong Kong digital asset firm OSL Group posted first-half revenue of $7.1 billion, up 65.8% from a year earlier, while adjusted net profit rose 75.5% to $42.2 million, The Block reported.

South Korea’s National Tax Service is facing difficulties in drafting detailed guidance for virtual asset taxation ahead of its planned January implementation, Edaily reported. The agency held the first meeting of its advisory panel on Aug. 24 and discussed the specific meaning of virtual asset transfers and lending, along with taxation standards for staking, lending, airdrops and hard forks. Advisors, however, said the scope that can be delegated to an administrative notice is limited under current law. They explained that while calculation standards such as how to determine acquisition costs can be clarified through a notice, defining the scope of transfers or lending where the law provides no clear definition, or designating specific transactions as taxable, could effectively create new taxable items and risk violating the principle that taxation must be based on law.

Binance announced the listing of HK0625/USDT perpetual futures at 2:45 a.m. UTC today, with support for up to 20x leverage.

Senior executives from Franklin Templeton, Northern Trust, Moody’s and S&P Global are set to attend KBW2026 with Upbit in Seoul from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. Speakers will include Franklin Templeton Senior Vice President Chetan Karkhanis, Northern Trust Senior Vice President Alvin Chia and Moody’s Executive Director Jin Fang, who will discuss asset tokenization and the on-chain transition in institutional finance. Representatives from New York Life Investment Management and SBI Securities will also take part, while figures from Coinbase, BitGo and Bitwise are included on the speaker lineup. A private event for institutional investors, the Upbit Institutional Summit, will be held on Sept. 29, the opening day, followed by the main conference from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1. FactBlock CEO Park Wi-ik said blockchain initiatives in the financial industry had until a few years ago been closer to proof-of-concept work and feasibility testing, but have now moved into a phase where core functions that actually drive financial markets, including products, custody and credit rating information, are being connected on-chain.

An anonymous whale deposited a total of 70,739 ETH, worth about $174 million, to multiple exchanges over the past two days, according to Lookonchain. Such exchange deposits are typically interpreted as a sign of intent to sell. The whale currently holds 97,115 ETH, valued at about $237 million.