TikTok may be exploring a feature that would let users send money to friends inside direct messages. According to a TechCrunch report citing Bloomberg on Aug. 18, traces of a peer-to-peer payment tool were found in the current code of TikTok’s U.S. iPhone app, suggesting the social media company is studying a broader push into financial services. The code appears to describe a flow in which recipients must accept funds before they expire, while senders receive status updates through push notifications or an inbox. It also references the option to attach a message to a transfer, a setup described as similar to PayPal-owned Venmo. Bloomberg’s report said transactions would likely be handled by TikTok Pay, the payment service the company already operates in Southeast Asia. TikTok said it is not testing the feature in any market and does not guarantee it will launch. The code does not mention cryptocurrency or stablecoins, placing the effort in the category of traditional fiat P2P payments rather than crypto-based transfers.

PANews’ August 18-19 digest was packed with policy, markets, and AI updates. The U.S. debt burden may cross $40 trillion sooner than expected after tariff-related revenue losses accelerated Treasury borrowing. The SEC also proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets,” a new framework that includes startup and fundraising exemptions plus a safe harbor for digital assets that stop all managerial activity. OpenAI said it is tightening safeguards on its unreleased models, adding sandboxing and faster alerts after recent security concerns, while also pausing parts of its latest reinforcement learning training for two weeks. Elsewhere, Bhutan’s government-linked address moved 300 BTC, USDC Treasury minted 250 million USDC on Solana, and Metaplanet said it will use 2,100 BTC and $2.5 million in cash to acquire Super League and build a U.S. Bitcoin treasury platform called Superplanet. Cash App expanded beyond Bitcoin and USDC by integrating MoonPay, Ripple Prime sold $275 million of senior unsecured notes, and FASB proposed treating qualifying stablecoins as cash equivalents. The digest also covered NoOnes’ shutdown plan, a Maya Protocol exploit, Solana’s slot-time reduction, and major AI and IPO updates from OpenAI, Anthropic, Temporal, and Zhiyu/Unitree-related market listings.

NoOnes said it is beginning a phased shutdown of its P2P crypto trading platform after operating for more than three years. The team said attempts to remove sanctions tied to NoOnes were unsuccessful, and that those sanctions cost the company key partners. It also said blockchain monitoring services had flagged transactions connected to NoOnes as high risk, creating major barriers to continued operations. According to the company, the P2P trading platform will shut down at 7:59 on Aug. 22, 2026, and users must complete withdrawals no later than Aug. 23. As part of the liquidation process, accounts currently under freeze will be converted to banned status. After that change is completed, affected customers will be able to log in and withdraw available funds. The announcement lays out both the operational cutoff and the steps users with restricted accounts should expect during the wind-down.

A Bitcoin wallet created on Aug. 10, 2012 moved 212 BTC after 14 years of inactivity, according to an Odaily report citing Bitcoin.com News. Based on the price referenced in the report, the transferred holdings were worth about $13.72 million at the time of movement. The coins were originally valued at $2,346, or $11.07 per BTC. Using the article’s cited BTC price of $64,761, a full sale at that level would translate into a gain of 584,725%. The wallet owner has not been identified. The report said the 212 BTC was moved from a legacy Pay-to-Pubkey-Hash, or P2PKH, wallet to an unlabeled Bech32 wallet. The funds arrived in multiple batches before being consolidated. Bitcoin.com News also noted that a Coldcard vulnerability led to the theft of nearly 2,000 BTC, which may have prompted some long-term holders to relocate assets, though the address in this case has not been linked to any known entity.

Peer-to-peer crypto trading platform NoOnes said it will begin a phased shutdown after operating for more than three years, citing sanctions that it said could not be resolved or lifted. According to the company, those sanctions led to the loss of key partners, while blockchain monitoring firms flagged transactions linked to NoOnes as high risk, making normal operations increasingly difficult. The wind-down began on Aug. 17. NoOnes said its P2P marketplace will close at 23:59 UTC on Aug. 21. Other services, including Swap, NoOnes Visa, fiat withdrawals, the gift card store, and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, will also be discontinued in stages. After that, the platform will switch to withdrawal-only access, allowing users to log in, check balances, and withdraw remaining assets. The company urged users to withdraw funds as soon as possible, with Aug. 23 given as the latest date. BlockBeats also noted that NoOnes had previously disclosed a major security breach earlier in January 2025 that resulted in roughly $8 million in crypto losses. CEO Ray Youssef confirmed the incident after on-chain investigator ZachXBT disclosed the hack in his Telegram channel.

Peer-to-peer crypto trading platform NoOnes said it will begin winding down operations after more than three years in business. The company said it had spent time trying to resolve and lift sanctions imposed on NoOnes, but those efforts did not succeed. According to the platform, the sanctions cost it key partners and led blockchain monitoring firms to flag transactions tied to NoOnes as high risk, making normal operations increasingly difficult. Under the timetable released by the company, the wind-down started on Aug. 17. Its P2P marketplace is scheduled to shut at 23:59 UTC on Aug. 21. Other services, including Swap, NoOnes Visa, fiat withdrawals, the gift card store and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, will also be discontinued in stages. After that, the platform will move to a withdrawal-only mode, allowing users to log in, check balances and remove remaining assets. NoOnes urged users to withdraw funds as soon as possible and no later than Aug. 23. The shutdown follows an earlier security incident disclosed by the platform. NoOnes had said a major security breach led to roughly $8 million in crypto losses. Chief executive Ray Youssef confirmed the attack after on-chain investigator ZachXBT disclosed it on his Telegram channel.

Paystream, a Solana-based protocol focused on on-chain yield, said on Aug. 15 that it is shutting down and entering liquidation, according to ChainCatcher. Founder Maushish said the project went through several pivots during its life cycle, starting as a hackathon-born P2P lending protocol, then moving into an LP management terminal, and later becoming a perpetuals funding rate arbitrage tool called Funding Rate Farmer. That product saw some real usage, with users opening 185 positions and deploying $232,000 in margin. Paystream was funded through MetaDAO, but a restructuring proposal in May sharply reduced its remaining capital. The team also shrank from six people to one. Maushish said later attempts to build an automated vault product and a payroll compliance product did not work out. The team has decided to cease operations, plans to open-source the code for its funding rate arbitrage screener, and will publish the details of the liquidation proposal through MetaDAO once finalized.

A new study from the Royal United Services Institute says North Korea has changed how it handles stolen crypto, moving away from working alone and instead embedding illicit funds into established transnational criminal networks. According to Decrypt’s report on the study, this shift makes financing tied to nuclear proliferation far harder to distinguish from ordinary money laundering. RUSI said North Korea stole about $2.8 billion in cryptocurrency between January 2024 and September 2025. Of that total, roughly $1.5 billion came from the February 2025 Bybit incident alone. The report added that 95% of the stolen funds had already been moved through decentralized services, while only about 5% was recovered or frozen, including around $48.4 million recovered and $30.5 million frozen. The study also described the laundering process in detail, from selling tokens at a discount to third parties and mixing proceeds with pig-butchering scam funds, to breaking transfers into smaller sums on P2P markets. It said North Korea bought account credentials in the Philippines, Indonesia, and China, used stand-ins to hold and convert accounts, and relied on UnionPay cards issued by Chinese banks to cash out crypto into fiat. RUSI warned that once state-backed theft and criminal finance networks become deeply intertwined, sanctions aimed at single entities are much less likely to stop the flow of funds.