Polygon Labs announced Sept. 12 that it is partnering with Dubai-based Cypher Capital to expand institutional access to POL, the native asset powering the Polygon blockchain, across the Middle East.

The initiative marks the first in a series of efforts to bring professional investors into direct engagement with Polygon’s infrastructure.

POL will be positioned as an institutional-grade asset offering real yield, with roundtables, liquidity improvements, and structured opportunities aimed at funds, corporates, and other large allocators.

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said in a statement:

“Institutional demand for real yield on crypto is already in high demand, and keeps growing.”

He added that the program is designed to “translate that value into institutional-grade opportunities, offering a path for investors to earn real yield by engaging directly with the economic engine of the Polygon ecosystem.”

Cypher Capital, a venture and investment firm active in the region, will help Polygon navigate regulatory and capital market settings.

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The program is expected to highlight POL as a core portfolio asset for professional investors seeking exposure to blockchain infrastructure, global payments, and real-world asset transactions.

The announcement comes as Polygon continues to advance its “GigaGas” roadmap, which Nailwal said has already delivered sub-five-second finality and throughput of up to 1,000 transactions per second.

Future milestones aim to establish Polygon as a high-performance settlement layer for the “trustless internet of value.”

The rollout illustrates a broader push by leading blockchain projects to build institutional pipelines in growth markets, where interest in digital assets and tokenized products continues to climb.

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Ostium Labs argues that Bitcoin’s uptrend remains intact after August’s reversal, but it draws a bright red line at $98,000. In its September 1 Market Outlook, the firm writes: “Closing below $98k on this timeframe would turn weekly structure bearish,” adding that “above $98k weekly structure is still bullish and therefore we should anticipate the formation of a higher-low.”

At publication time, Ostium referenced BTC around $108,017, with the August monthly candle settling “firmly red” after wicking through the record to roughly $124.5k and closing near prior resistance-turned-support around $108.2k.

Key Bitcoin Price Levels To Watch Now

On the monthly chart, Ostium sees no evidence of a 2021-style cyclical top. The note acknowledges some momentum divergence on RSI but stresses the absence of confirmation from the Awesome Oscillator: “AO has continued to point towards building momentum throughout the uptrend… I do not think this is even remotely similar to the 2021 top formation.”

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The bear case strengthens only if September “closes below the 2025 open at $93.3k and therefore below local trendline support.” For the bullish path, the team wants September to find support “above the yearly open, but likely much higher around the July lows at $105k,” and “ideally” finish the month green “above the August open at $115k,” a configuration they say would “set us up for expansion beyond the highs in October.”

Weekly structure, by Ostium’s read, “showed no exhaustion on the move higher” and has now reset toward 50 on RSI, a profile the firm says supports trend continuation. Should the market carve a higher low early in September and reclaim momentum, a weekly close “back above $112k leads to a retest of the August open and potentially $117.5k into FOMC with a retest of the highs before month-end.”

The daily timeframe remains the near-term hurdle. Ostium characterizes the pullback as “orderly,” with supports flipped to resistance on the way down and “the key level… obviously the $112k prior all-time high,” which served as support in early August and then “reclaimed resistance” on last week’s leg lower.

“A breakout and close above the trendline and back above $112k would look like the bottom is in,” they write. A failed probe—“wick above the trendline into $112k and reject”—would bias price toward “the June open at $104.5k, with the 200dMA below that at $101.3k being key demand.” In derivatives, CoinGlass liquidation heatmaps for Binance’s BTC/USDT pair over one week and one month show dense liquidation bands layered above the $114k cap and clustered below around the $120k region, while no significant levels are visible to the downside.

With a macro-heavy week ahead— ISM prints, JOLTS, the Fed’s Beige Book, jobless claims, ADP, ISM Services, and Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls—Ostium lays out conditional tactical setups. For longs, they prefer evidence of exhaustion into support: trendline resistance respected, “today’s low” taken out via a liquidation wick into the June-open/200-day cluster, and bullish divergence forming there before bidding for a move back to the weekly open and the $112k retest. For shorts, they prefer a sharp early-week squeeze into $112k “with trend exhaustion… having not taken out today’s low around $107k,” fading the pop back into weekly lows with risk reduced if it unfolds ahead of NFP.

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Ostium also surveys positioning, pointing to snapshots across Velo and CoinGlass, three-month annualized basis, and the mix between Bitcoin and altcoin open interest, as well as one-week and one-month liquidation maps. While it refrains from headline claims on those dashboards, the note’s technical levels line up with the most concentrated liquidation density visible in the attached heatmaps, where stacked interest remains perched near the $112k pivot overhead and layered through the $105k–$101k demand shelf.

DXY As Tailwind For The BTC Price

The report extends beyond Bitcoin. The dollar backdrop, in Ostium’s framework, remains a tailwind for BTC into year-end. With DXY around 97.2, the firm says the current sequence rhymes with past cyclical drawdowns and expects “DXY to break below 96 and push towards at least 94.6, but more likely 93,” where a bottoming formation could emerge above the 200-month moving average. The secular DXY bull case is not dismissed; rather, Ostium situates the present leg as the final cyclical downswing before a higher-low and multi-year recovery, contingent on policy outcomes. A decisive monthly reclaim of 100 would invalidate the near-term bearish DXY view.

Across assets, the through-line of Ostium’s September map is clarity on thresholds. For Bitcoin, a weekly loss of $98,000 would be the first structural break of the cycle; a daily reclaim of $112,000 would strongly argue the local low is in; and a monthly hold above $105,000 with a close back over $115,000 would tee up fresh highs into October.

At press time, BTC traded at $110,610.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Eliza Labs and founder Shaw Walters filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against social media platform X on Aug. 27.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are alleging that the social media platform fraudulently extracted technical information about their AI agents before deplatforming them and launching competing products.

The complaint seeks damages exceeding $75,000 and immediate restoration of the account.

In an Aug. 28 statement, Walters described the lawsuit as a last resort after months of failed negotiations.

He said:

“X and xAI realize this on some level – they just filed a lawsuit alleging that Apple and OpenAI are doing the same anticompetitive conduct to them that X is doing to us.”

Walters added that X initially invited collaboration after seeing widespread adoption of Eliza’s open-source AI agent framework.

Following meetings at X headquarters in February, the platform demanded Eliza purchase a $600,000 annual enterprise license despite already paying over $20,000 annually in fees.

Antitrust claims

An antitrust lawsuit challenges practices that harm fair competition, such as monopolies and anticompetitive behavior, to protect consumers and ensure open markets.

Eliza’s complaint alleges X violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by leveraging monopoly power in short-form social media to suppress AI competition.

The lawsuit details how X suspended Eliza’s accounts in June 2025, then demanded extensive technical documentation under the pretense of account reinstatement.

Walters claims that X used this information to develop nearly identical AI features, including 3D avatars, voice integration, and telephone capabilities, which were launched through xAI’s products.

He added that X requested detailed explanations of Eliza’s framework architecture, endpoint functionality, and implementation specifics while developing competing products.

Remedies include platform restoration

The lawsuit seeks multiple forms of relief, including a declaratory judgment that X lacks Section 230 immunity for anticompetitive deplatforming, injunctions preventing future exclusionary conduct, and account restoration with full platform access.

Monetary remedies include disgorgement of X’s unjust enrichment from copying Eliza’s technology, compensation for fraudulent misrepresentation, and unfair competition damages, as well as treble damages under the Sherman Act provisions.

The plaintiffs also request punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. The lawsuit comes days after Elon Musk’s xAI sued Apple and OpenAI on Aug. 25.

Musk’s lawsuit alleged that the companies conspired to suppress AI competition through Apple’s exclusive ChatGPT integration and App Store favoritism. The lawsuit claims Apple’s partnership with OpenAI makes it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store.”

The parallel litigation highlights escalating legal battles over AI market control, with Musk pursuing antitrust claims while facing very similar allegations from Eliza Labs.

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Flows into Iranian crypto trading platforms have fallen in 2025 due to a breakdown in nuclear negotiations with Israel, a $90 million hack on Iran’s largest crypto exchange, and a major stablecoin blacklisting, says blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.

Iranian crypto flows hit $3.7 billion between January and July, an 11% decrease compared to the same period last year, with the worst drop off coming in June and July, TRM Labs said in a report on Tuesday.

“This downturn coincided with a breakdown in nuclear negotiations, a 12-day conflict with Israel beginning June 13, and widespread power outages in Iran — driven by a combination of Israeli kinetic and cyber operations, as well as regime-initiated shutdowns.”

Iran’s crypto flows started to sharply drop in June, just after the $90 million hack on Nobitex, which handles 87% of the country’s crypto transactions. 

Many Iranians rely on US dollar stablecoins as a store of value amid skyrocketing inflation and to skirt tough sanctions on the country, which has largely cut it off from the global economy.

Nobitex hack big contributor to Iran’s crypto shake-up

Confidence in Iran-based virtual asset service providers (VASPs) deteriorated following Nobitex’s security breach, which came at the hands of pro-Israel group Predatory Sparrow on June 18 — when tensions between Iran and Israel were at their peak.

While Nobitex continues to dominate Iran crypto transaction volume, the incident disrupted liquidity, slowed transaction processing and temporarily pushed users toward alternative platforms, TRM said.

Heightened Iran-Israel tensions further amplified the outflows, which surged more than 150% in the worst week and a large percentage of that volume headed to high-risk foreign exchanges with little to no Know Your Customer checks, TRM said.

Tether’s blacklisting slowed flows

Stablecoin issuer Tether also carried out its largest-ever freeze of Iranian-linked funds, blacklisting 42 crypto addresses with Tether (USDT) balances on July 2.

The incident sparked a coordinated push from Iranian exchanges, influencers and state-backed channels for users to offload their TRON-based USDT balances — Iran’s most widely used network and token — and move funds into Dai (DAI) on Polygon.

Related: UAE reportedly holds $700M in mined Bitcoin: Arkham

Many everyday Iranians continue to turn to crypto as a hedge against inflation, TRM said, highlighting Iran’s strong reliance on stablecoins.

Iran continues to use crypto for political objectives

Iran is still relying on crypto to pay for sensitive goods from Chinese chip resellers, including hardware critical for artificial intelligence, drone components, and other electrical equipment — enabling it to effectively bypass sanctions, TRM noted.

It has also used crypto to fund espionage payments with foreign operatives, the crypto analytics firm added.

However, illicit crypto transactions in Iran still only account for less than 1% of total volume.

Magazine: Bitcoin is ‘funny internet money’ during a crisis: Tezos co-founder

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/iranian-crypto-flows-fall-11-on-israel-conflict-nobitex-hack-trm-labs/feed/ 0 55297 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trm-labs-launches-beacon-network-to-hunt-down-stolen-crypto/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trm-labs-launches-beacon-network-to-hunt-down-stolen-crypto/#respond Fri, 22 Aug 2025 03:13:30 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trm-labs-launches-beacon-network-to-hunt-down-stolen-crypto/

TRM Labs has announced the launch of the Beacon Network, a system built to help exchanges, payment firms, and authorities trace and freeze stolen digital assets.

The company describes it as a new level of cooperation across industries that aims to cut off exit routes for funds linked to crime.

Since the start of 2023, TRM Labs estimates that at least $47 billion has flowed into addresses tied to fraud. In many cases, money is moved so quickly that by the time law enforcement responds, the funds are already dispersed.

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The Beacon Network is meant to close this gap. Verified members can flag suspicious wallets, follow transactions across chains, and share the data with services and agencies. If flagged assets hit a participating exchange or platform, an alert is sent automatically.

The founding group includes Coinbase

$1.94B

, Binance

$8.18B

, Kraken

$405.39M

, Robinhood, PayPal, Anchorage Digital, and Ripple. Independent researchers such as ZachXBT and the Security Alliance (SEAL) are also part of the effort.

TRM Labs added that law enforcement bodies worldwide are contributing by providing information on addresses linked to serious threats.

Beacon Network is already active and has helped track funds in cybercrime cases. The network’s focus includes blocking operations tied to North Korean IT groups targeting crypto firms, disrupting scams and hacking campaigns, preventing terrorist financing, and returning stolen assets to victims.

Recently, SoFi Technologies announced plans to launch a Bitcoin Lightning and UMA-powered transfer service. How does it work? Read the full story.

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USDe has set a new industry record by hitting $10 billion in total value locked (TVL) in just 500 days, making it the fastest stablecoin in history to reach that milestone.

The protocol behind USDe, Ethena Labs, posted:

“everyone wants to know what we’d say if we didn’t reach $10b supply

i guess we’ll never know”

The GENIUS behind the rise of USDe

USDe’s rapid climb has coincided with the passing of the GENIUS Act, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, which represents the first comprehensive federal framework for stablecoins in the United States.

Enacted on July 18, 2025, it imposes strict new rules on issuers, including 1:1 reserve requirements in low-risk assets, robust federal oversight for large issuers, and strong consumer protections such as priority repayment rights in the event of failure.

The most impactful provision of the ACT, however, and the catalyst behind the rise of USDe, is the prohibition on regulated issuers paying yields on stablecoins, as CoinFund president Chris Perkins told CryptoSlate:

“Under GENIUS, stablecoins do not pay interest to end users, and without interest, stablecoins are depreciating assets. So, holders will seek yield. And that’s where DeFi comes in. If the Treasury Department’s projections are correct and trillions of stablecoins come into the system, expect DeFi summer on steroids as users seek to maximize yield by engaging across a variety of yield strategies. Users will be drawn to yield-bearing vaults, and they will commission AI agents to optimize their returns.”

This ban on yield payments is causing a profound realignment in the stablecoin market. Capital that once flowed to traditional, yield-paying stablecoins such as USDC has been seeking alternatives, and much of it has landed with USDe. As prominent crypto trader, Cas Abbé, pointed out:

“The reason behind this growth is GENIUS Act approval, which prohibit issuers to provide yields on stablecoins.

Due to this, big money has now shifted to $USDe which provides lucrative yield.”

DeFi yield opportunities fuel demand

Ethena Labs has been able to attract this demand thanks to continued yield offerings via decentralized finance (DeFi) mechanisms, which fall outside the restrictions placed on federally supervised issuers. The result is a massive inflow of institutional and retail capital, propelling USDe past many of its competitors. The ENA governance token has also experienced a price appreciation of over 100% in the past month.

USDe’s $10 billion milestone is a testament to how dramatically the GENIUS Act has reshaped the stablecoin landscape. While the law tightens controls and imposes new safeguards, it has also created opportunities for nimble, DeFi-native protocols to capture yield-hungry capital, proving that regulatory shifts don’t have to stifle innovation.

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