Sandmark said on Aug. 19 that Binance still allowed users in Austria, France, Germany, Spain and Belgium to register and complete identity checks, whether or not they used a VPN. The accounts that passed verification did not receive any warning about a missing MiCA license and could still use services including crypto deposit reception. ESMA has told unauthorized firms to stop opening accounts, marketing and soliciting EU clients by July 1, and European regulators have already begun issuing penalties for MiCA breaches. Binance said, after withdrawing a MiCA application filed with Greek regulators, that it is still working on the relevant authorizations so it can operate in Europe on a long-term compliant basis, and that it has taken steps to align its products and services with the applicable legal framework. On Aug. 14, Austria’s Financial Market Authority fined Bitpanda €70,000 for notification and marketing violations, according to Bitcoin.com News.

A data breach at France’s tax authority has raised concerns in the crypto sector over the risk of so-called wrench attacks, where victims are forced through violence or kidnapping to hand over private keys. According to The Block, the incident exposed 678,437 records covering both individuals and businesses after attackers used stolen VPN credentials to access systems run by the French Directorate General of Public Finances, or DGFiP, in late June. The leaked data included names, birth details, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, income figures, tax identification numbers, withholding tax rates and family status. The exposed dataset also singled out high earners, including 26,800 people reporting more than €116,000 in annual income, 386 above €1.16 million and eight above €11.6 million. DGFiP has confirmed the intrusion and said the scope of the impact remains under investigation. For crypto holders, the concern is physical targeting rather than ordinary phishing. With verified identity and income information, criminals could build more convincing scams and identify wealthier targets with greater precision. The report cited earlier figures from Chainalysis and CertiK showing France has recorded a high number of wrench attack cases this year.

A hacker is reportedly selling a database tied to France’s tax authority, the DGFiP, in a breach that French cybersecurity outlet FrenchBreaches said could expose more than 678,000 people and businesses to phishing, identity theft, and targeted scams. The dataset allegedly includes 392,867 individuals and 285,570 professionals, with sample records containing names, birth details, addresses, email accounts, phone numbers, income figures, withholding tax rates, family status, dependents, and tax-share information. FrenchBreaches said DGFiP confirmed an intrusion into its information system, adding that stolen credentials were used in late June to access and extract taxpayer data and that the full number of affected people is still under investigation. The report lands as France remains a major hotspot for so-called wrench attacks targeting crypto holders. CertiK said in July that 33 of 52 such attacks recorded worldwide in the first half of 2026 occurred in France, while Chainalysis said earlier this month that 30 of 46 attacks logged through June took place there, with more than $30 million stolen.

TechFlowPost, citing a translated report from Unchained Crypto, described an undercover interview with a suspected North Korean crypto developer who had applied to Ump Labs. The interview was arranged with help from North Korea-focused security researcher Taylor Monahan and Nick Bax of SEAL Alliance and Ump Labs. According to the report, the candidate presented himself as a blockchain engineer with prior experience at projects including GameSwap, MetaPlay, and Cook Protocol, while investigators had also collected GitHub accounts, email-linked profiles, wallet activity, and other online traces they believed tied him to North Korean operations. During the call, the applicant said he lived in Long Beach, California, said he was from Singapore, and named Disney’s "Frozen" as his favorite film. He also answered technical questions on blockchain development, discussed The Graph and the Velas network, admitted gaps in his knowledge around Seaport and Uniswap v4, and pulled up documentation live to respond. The interview ended when the reporter asked him to make a negative comment about Kim Jong Un as part of what she described as a basic screening check. He left the Zoom call, later moved the conversation to Telegram, and still did not comply. The report also cited TRM Labs’ estimate that North Korean hackers have stolen more than $6 billion in crypto over the years.

A new paper from the Royal United Services Institute says North Korea is increasingly routing stolen cryptocurrency through the same laundering channels used by scam syndicates and organized crime, making it harder for investigators and compliance teams to distinguish proliferation-linked funds from routine criminal proceeds. The researchers estimate the regime stole at least $2.8 billion in virtual assets between January 2024 and September 2025, and they focus on the moment those assets are turned into cash rather than their already well-documented movement through decentralized services. The paper points to handoffs to third parties, use of mule accounts in the Philippines, Indonesia, and China, and repeated sales of small stablecoin amounts on peer-to-peer markets to stay below bank review thresholds. It also cites findings tied to the February 2025 Bybit hack, where incident responders said North Korea’s TraderTraitor group relied on launderers, OTC desks, and P2P traders, often Chinese nationals, to move funds and return cash. The paper also references U.S. action against infrastructure linked to Cambodia’s Huione Group and notes that Bybit has recovered or frozen only about 5% of the assets taken.

PANews’ weekly roundup showed that blockchain funding stayed subdued from July 27 to Aug. 2, with six disclosed deals totaling $41.5 million, while capital in the broader private market continued to cluster around AI, robotics and computing infrastructure. In crypto, funding was concentrated in security, execution infrastructure and AI-related Web3 projects. V12 raised a $10 million seed round led by Electric Capital, Birdai Labs secured $4 million for onchain execution infrastructure, and Axis Robotics closed a $12 million seed round led by Hack VC. Perceptron Network and ALPHEA also announced financing tied to decentralized AI data and distributed AI infrastructure. Outside crypto, the biggest checks went to major AI model companies and robotics platforms. Amazon disclosed that it had completed a total of $50 billion in investment in OpenAI and separately invested $11.3 billion in Anthropic and $13.7 billion in OpenAI during the second quarter. Moonshot AI reportedly raised $3.5 billion at a $35 billion valuation. Simile, Fish Audio, Modus and Pangram all announced new rounds, while Standard Bots, Enigma and Quantum Dynamics highlighted continued investor appetite for physical AI and robotics deployment. The period also saw M&A activity from Metaplanet and Fanatics, alongside fresh financing in nuclear power, bot detection and AI-focused funds.

A wide set of crypto, regulatory and macro developments emerged between July 29 and July 30. Binance rolled out European-style gold and silver options through its ADGM-regulated Nest Exchange, while Cardano wallet provider SecondFi said part of the recovered assets tied to its security incident had been transferred by a white-hat team to an EMURGO recovery fund address for transparent tracking. Bank of New York Mellon said it is moving core transfer agent recordkeeping onto blockchain for roughly $8.6 trillion in assets and 7.6 million accounts, with Baillie Gifford, BlackRock and Dreyfus among the first clients. South Korea’s finance ministry said it will curb leveraged ETF trading and raise related trading costs. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve kept the federal funds target range at 3.5% to 3.75% in a 9-3 vote, with three dissenters backing a 25-basis-point hike. Separate comments from SEC Chair Paul Atkins indicated the agency would write crypto rules on its own if Congress fails to pass the Clarity Act. Elsewhere, Polymarket launched an in-house funded research institute, Stripe was reported to be discussing a $10 billion acquisition of OpenRouter, Ethereum Institutional announced its first ecosystem funding round, Tether’s compliant stablecoin USA₮ went live on Celo, and Robinhood, Meta, Microsoft, Samsung and xAI released fresh business and earnings updates.

Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that launched in October 2016 with a design intended to hide the sender, recipient, and amount of a transaction while still allowing the network to verify that the payment is valid. Built by the Electric Coin Company and rooted in academic cryptography research, Zcash uses zk-SNARKs to enable shielded transfers, while also supporting transparent transactions similar to Bitcoin. Like Bitcoin, it has a capped supply of 21 million coins and follows a four-year halving cycle. The project has gone through several major technical milestones, including Sapling, Blossom, Network Upgrade 5, Orchard, and most recently Ironwood. In 2026, Zcash faced one of the most serious episodes in its history after a critical counterfeiting vulnerability was discovered in the Orchard shielded pool. Developers coordinated a confidential emergency response, disclosed the issue in June, and later activated Ironwood in July to retire Orchard, contain any possible counterfeit coins, and add new supply-verification and quantum-resistant features. Zcash also remains at the center of debates over privacy, regulation, and exchange listings. Regulators have long scrutinized privacy coins, yet Zcash’s optional transparent mode has helped it remain listed on more major platforms than some rivals. At the same time, the network is navigating leadership turnover, funding debates, software migration, and its next halving, all of which will shape its next phase.