South Korean crypto exchange Upbit said on Aug. 31 that it has temporarily suspended deposit and withdrawal services for assets running on the Ontology network while the network undergoes maintenance checks. The affected assets are Ontology (ONT), Ontology Gas (ONG) and MovieBloc (MBL). The suspension took effect from the time of the notice and will remain in place until Upbit confirms that deposits and withdrawals on the relevant network are safe to resume, with a separate notice to announce the restart time. Upbit said spot trading for the affected assets will continue as normal during the suspension. Still, user deposits, withdrawal address registration and refund processing for those assets have all been paused. The exchange also warned that deposits sent to Upbit during the suspension may fail to arrive properly and could, in some cases, become unrecoverable.

Ontology has halted block production on its mainnet after its core development team found a potential security risk during a routine security check, according to the project’s blog cited by ChainCatcher. The pause was described as a precautionary measure so the technical team and validators can conduct a full security review of the network and related components. The team said it has not confirmed any security incident and has seen no signs that user funds were lost or stolen. Based on the current assessment, ONT, ONG, and other on-chain assets have not been affected. Ontology also said the decision was not a response to confirmed asset losses or an active attack. During the review, block production will remain suspended and on-chain transactions cannot be processed. Users do not need to move their assets or take action with ONT, ONG, or other holdings on the chain, though the team advised avoiding time-sensitive transactions until the network is formally confirmed to be back online. Ontology added that the duration of the halt has not been determined and that it will prioritize a thorough review over speed before resuming block production.

Upbit posted about $1.083 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, up 53.2% from the previous 24-hour period. XRP/KRW was the exchange’s most active trading pair, accounting for 17.54% of total volume with roughly $242 million in turnover. USDT/KRW ranked second at 9.97% and about $138 million, followed by ETH/KRW at 8.13% and around $112 million. ONG/KRW also made up 8.1% with about $112 million in volume, while BTC/KRW took 6.27% with roughly $86.54 million. The figures were cited by ChainCatcher in a market update based on CoinGecko data.

The crypto market posted a mild pullback on Aug. 26, according to HTX market data, with Bitcoin briefly dropping below $78,000 in early trading before recovering to $78,500. Ether was quoted at $2,443, while SOL changed hands at $96 after pulling back more than 3% following a move above $100. BNB fell below the $700 mark to $693, and ZEC was quoted at $774 with a nearly 7% decline over the past 24 hours. Total crypto market capitalization fell 0.4% over the same period to $2.739 trillion. Among gainers, BMT jumped 54% to $0.023, ONG rose 17% to $0.1, and PROM added 14.6% to $4.12, while FF, STX, and TLM were each up more than 10%. On the losing side, PEOPLE, STORJ, and MUBARAK were down nearly 20% over 24 hours, while PORTAL, JTO, ETHFI, DASH, and MET each fell close to 10%.

Crypto markets and adjacent tech news were both active on Aug. 21. Among the most-traded tokens on centralized exchanges, BTC, ETH, SOL and BNB all posted gains over the past 24 hours, while HYPE briefly rose above $73.4, according to OKX data, with a 24-hour increase of 26%. Separate ranking data from OKX and msx.com showed strong moves in spot tokens and crypto-linked equities, including a 60.15% jump in BTCT.M. On the corporate side, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic is preparing for an initial public offering that could match or exceed the record level set by SpaceX, with a public filing possible as soon as the end of August. The report said Anthropic raised capital in May at a $96.5 billion valuation, brought in $6.5 billion in financing, and had reached a $6.5 billion revenue run rate by the end of July. Bloomberg also said the company is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan and is weighing a super-voting share structure for CEO Dario Amodei. Other developments included ICE signaling openness to joining a new Polymarket funding round, the U.S. SEC proposing two fundraising exemption tracks for crypto projects, Riot Platforms signing AI data center leasing agreements worth about $9.8 billion in long-term revenue, and CZ saying a compliant U.S. entry by Hyperliquid would be positive for the broader industry.

The week of Aug. 17-23 is packed with events that could draw close attention from crypto traders, policymakers, and market infrastructure operators. On Aug. 19, President Donald Trump is expected to attend a White House gathering of crypto and prediction-market executives, with CEOs from Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini, Robinhood, Polymarket, and Kalshi also set to join, according to CoinDesk. The event is expected to warm up the first formal meeting of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s newly formed Innovation Advisory Committee. A day later, the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its July policy meeting, where the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to keep the federal funds rate at 3.5% to 3.75%. Markets will be looking for clues on how many officials saw a case for a rate hike and what evidence could shift the broader committee. Elsewhere, South Korea will roll out tighter rules for single-stock leveraged products and expand review standards for crypto operator registration. The same week also includes a series of exchange and network updates, including Binance delistings and precision changes, Coinbase product launches and support changes, Upbit service suspensions, a planned bitcoin eCash hard fork, and Manus data migration steps tied to its return as an independent company.

Binance spot market data showed broad volatility, according to a ChainCatcher newsflash. ALICE fell 15.62% over the past 24 hours, while HEMI climbed 59.63% and reached a new intraday high. HEMI also posted a 6.86% gain within five minutes. Several other tokens gave back earlier gains. ONG, BANANA, BERA, BIGTIME and YB were all described as showing a run-up-then-pullback pattern, with declines of 7.07%, 7.2%, 9.65%, 8.82% and 8.49%, respectively. TUT was listed as rebounding from a low, rising 6.04%. ID, meanwhile, hit a new intraday low and was down 5.04%. The figures cited in the report were taken from Binance spot data, with ChainCatcher characterizing the session as one of significant market volatility.

Bitget has added six new stock perpetual contracts, according to an official announcement cited by Odaily. The newly listed contracts are ZHONGJI, HANMI, LGELECTRONICS, NAVER, SAMSUNGEM and KR200, which refers to the KOSPI 200 Index. The exchange said all six contracts are settled in USDT and support leverage of up to 20x. Trading is available on a 24/7 basis. The latest additions expand Bitget’s stock contract lineup to 278 products in total as of the announcement. The newly listed names cover individual equities as well as an index-linked product, broadening the range of stock-related derivatives available on the platform. Bitget directed users to its official platform for more details on the listings and contract specifications. No launch date beyond the announcement itself, fee details or other trading parameters were disclosed in the source material.