Author: John Smith

Police in the United Arab Emirates and Sweden have arrested seven people after investigators traced cryptocurrency transactions through an international money laundering network that allegedly handled 70 million Swedish krona ($7.1 million) and had financial links to organized crime and contract killings. Summary UAE and Swedish police arrested seven suspects over a network accused of laundering roughly $7.1 million in 10 months. Crypto transaction tracing helped investigators uncover financial links to organized crime and contract killings. The alleged leader was detained in the UAE while six other suspects were arrested simultaneously in Sweden. Swedish authorities have been increasing efforts to…

Solana has cut its target slot time from 300 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds, increasing the rate at which the network produces slots by nearly 17% without raising its overall processing ceiling by the same amount. Summary Solana has reduced its target slot time from 300ms to 250ms, bringing the network to four targeted slots per second. The faster clock cuts each validator’s four slot leader window from 1.2 seconds to one second. Overall processing capacity remains roughly unchanged because computation and data limits fall as slot duration decreases. The 250ms setting shortens an expected Solana epoch from roughly 36 hours…

Bitcoin has climbed above $77,400 on Sept. 18 after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, its highest level in roughly 31 years, while the yen weakened following the decision. Summary Bitcoin traded above $77,400 after the Bank of Japan raised rates to 1.25% on Friday. BOJ approved the 25-basis-point increase by seven votes to two, its second hike since June. CoinGecko showed Bitcoin near $77,409, up 1.4%, with $77,624 marking the daily high during trading. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $159.5 million on September 17, led by BlackRock’s IBIT fund. RSI…

XRP Ledger developers have released xrpld version 3.4.0 on Sept. 16, adding two amendment packages that revise proposed native lending functions and harden several transaction paths while asking server operators to upgrade. Summary XRPL version 3.4.0 introduces two amendments covering lending changes plus a bundled protocol-fix package now. LendingProtocolV1_1 adds closed-ended vaults and cash-basis accounting, but mainnet activation still requires sustained validator consensus. Server operators are urged to upgrade quickly as XRPL Foundation now distributes signed Linux packages. fixCleanup3_4_0 hardens vaults, AMMs, MPTs, escrow, signing, credentials, and permissioned trading behavior across transaction paths. The new lending amendment depends on XLS-65…

Avalanche Treasury Co. CEO Bart Smith has warned that AI agents could strain Layer 1 block space as automated financial activity moves onchain and traditional markets adopt longer trading hours. Summary Smith said AI agents could challenge the assumption that blockchain capacity is effectively unlimited. Rising transaction demand could make technical differences among Avalanche, Solana and Ethereum more important. Smith expects traditional markets to trade around the clock, five days a week, by mid-2027. Avalanche Treasury gives U.S. investors exposure to the network through its Nasdaq-listed AVAT shares. AI agents could test available block space The Block reported from the…

Aurora Intents has added Sui as a destination for one-signature cross-chain transactions, extending access to a solver network that Aurora Labs says has routed more than $30 billion. Summary Users can fund and complete actions on Sui from supported external chains with one signature. Intents Connect removes separate bridging, wallet switching and SUI gas management from the process. NEAR Intents supplies the liquidity, settlement system and chain connections behind the service. Sui applications can use the integration for lending, trading, staking and yield-based products. In a Sep. 17 press release shared with crypto.news, Aurora Labs said its Intents Connect product…

The Senate’s 50-49 failure to advance the CLARITY Act has left crypto firms without a federal market structure framework and could delay product launches, funding decisions, and commercial agreements, according to three industry experts. Summary The CLARITY Act failed to secure the 60 Senate votes required to open debate. WasabiCard expects regulatory uncertainty to delay some crypto launches, partnerships and funding decisions. The Decentralization Research Center urged the SEC and CFTC to provide clarity under existing powers. Paybis called for separate US and EU checks where their stablecoin requirements differ. CLARITY Act failure leaves jurisdiction questions open Kyle Bligen, executive…

XRP has fallen below the key $1.30 level after losing 7.3% on Tuesday, while Dubai-based crypto investor Royal Kane has ruled out buying the token because of its $81 billion market value. Summary XRP has dropped 23% from its recent high near $1.68. Royal Kane cited XRP’s large market capitalization in rejecting an investment. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Sep. 16. The CLARITY Act failed to advance after a 50-49 Senate vote. Royal Kane, a Dubai-based crypto investor, wrote on X that he would not invest in XRP at its present valuation, pointing to…

AI-linked crypto tokens have added about 9.4% in market value over the past 24 hours as King Charles III has hosted executives from Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind for talks on artificial intelligence safety. Summary AI tokens reached a combined market value of about $18.6 billion after gaining 9.4%. NEAR rose 20.8%, while FET, RENDER and TAO posted gains of between 6.9% and 11.7%. King Charles hosted major AI companies to discuss common principles for developing and deploying the technology. Token-specific developments provide clearer catalysts than the summit, leaving no confirmed causal link to the rally. According to CoinGecko…

Bitcoin has struggled to hold an advance above $76,800 after U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 196,000, strengthening the case for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated after its latest increase. Summary Initial jobless claims fell to 196,000, compared with the 207,000 market forecast. Bitcoin briefly gained 1.25% to $76,800 before retreating toward $76,051. The Fed raised its target rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00% on Wednesday. Analysts identified resistance at $77,500, followed by a heavier zone near $80,500–$82,000. US jobless claims strengthen the case for higher rates The U.S. Department of Labor reported that…