Crypto technology provider Haruko was hit by a targeted cyberattack earlier this week, affecting 15 clients and exposing read-only exchange API details and trading data, according to messages reviewed by CoinDesk and people familiar with the matter. Three people with knowledge of the incident said some smaller hedge-fund clients with weaker security controls may have lost a small amount of funds. Haruko said it has fixed the vulnerability, refreshed its server-side secrets, and told clients that an inbound IP whitelist would offer maximum protection. The London-based firm, which provides portfolio, risk-management and trade-data infrastructure to institutional digital-asset companies, said the attacker exploited a vulnerability in one of its processes to extract a user access token and capture data held in memory. Haruko’s CTO Adam Carlile told clients the company itself, rather than any individual customer, was the target. The incident comes as attacks on crypto firms continue to rise, with TRM Labs reporting 207 attacks in the first half of 2026 and $972 million in losses.

Bitget Chief Legal Officer Hon Ng used the exchange’s eighth anniversary letter to frame the company’s growth around one theme: responsibility. In the letter, Ng said Bitget has grown from a crypto derivatives venue into a broader platform serving more than 125 million users, with expansion under its Universal Exchange, or UEX, vision into asset classes including U.S. stocks, gold and foreign exchange. The letter laid out several areas the company sees as central to that responsibility. Ng said Bitget has published proof-of-reserves data every month since launching the system in December 2022, maintaining at least a 1:1 reserve ratio for user assets and allowing users to verify inclusion through a Merkle Tree mechanism. As of September 2026, the exchange said it had released 46 proof-of-reserves reports, with an overall reserve ratio of 135% and an average ratio above 120%. The coverage has also been expanded from four assets to 19, including XAUT. Ng also pointed to Bitget’s Protection Fund, established in 2022 with an initial size of $300 million and carrying an average valuation of about $382 million in August 2026, alongside account security tools, transaction monitoring, anti-fraud systems, a market order and token responsibility framework, and regulatory registrations, licenses or approvals across multiple jurisdictions.

Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan used Amazon Web Services as a reference point on Sept. 18 to explain how HyperCore separates financial functions into standalone modules. On the same day, HyperCore enabled manual borrowing, allowing users to post HYPE or BTC as collateral and borrow USDC or USDT. Yan said borrowers had more than $400 million in available supply on the first day. Public API data cited in the report showed the USDC lending pool at roughly $408 million in supply, with $279 million already borrowed, putting utilization at 68.3%. Borrow rates were listed at 5% annually, while depositors were earning about 3.08% annualized. The report also said idle stablecoins held by portfolio margin users would automatically earn yield. Yan argued that each loan on HyperCore has a matching supplier, keeping risk inside the lending module rather than spreading it across the whole platform. Hyperliquid’s documents also indicate that HyperCore is not intended to become a full lending marketplace. Tokenized deposit positions and broader lending products are expected to be built by independent teams on HyperEVM, with future upgrades set to let smart contracts supply liquidity through CoreWriter.

Bitget said it has upgraded its Proof of Reserves system, expanding the number of verifiable assets from four cryptocurrencies to 19 major assets. The exchange said the broader scope will allow more users to check whether their holdings are included in reserve snapshots, while the platform will also publish reserve data for each supported asset. Under the update, users can review reserve ratios, total user assets, and the public blockchain networks where those assets are distributed. Bitget also extended its Proof of Assets feature to the same list, allowing users to verify inclusion in a specific PoR snapshot through a Merkle Tree process. The platform said it provides Merkle hash data, snapshot information, and related records for users who want to conduct deeper checks. Bitget said it has published monthly PoR reports since December 2022. As of August 2026, it had released 45 consecutive reports, with the latest showing an overall reserve ratio of 122%, above the 1:1 reserve standard. CEO Gracy Chen said users should be able to verify asset backing themselves rather than rely only on the platform’s statements.

Crypto venture capital activity picked up in the second quarter of 2026 after a softer first quarter, with investors deploying $5.683 billion across 384 deals, according to Galaxy Research. The report said the quarter-over-quarter increase was driven mainly by larger late-stage rounds, with funding rising 31% and deal count climbing 10%. Trading, exchanges, investing and lending companies drew the largest share of capital, while US-headquartered startups continued to dominate both dollars raised and number of transactions. The report also drew attention to a widening gap between capital deployment and capital formation. While deal activity improved, just $3.9 billion was allocated to five new crypto venture funds in Q2, making it the weakest quarter for new fund count since late 2019. Galaxy Research said that split matters more than headline deal volume alone, because it suggests venture firms are still able to put money to work even as fundraising from limited partners remains difficult. For the first half of 2026, total crypto VC investment reached $10.018 billion across 744 deals. Annualized, that pace points to roughly $20 billion for the full year, slightly below 2025’s $20.3 billion but still above most of the market seen during the 2023-2024 bear period. The report added that crypto startup funding has become less tightly correlated with Bitcoin than in earlier cycles, even though both moved higher in Q2 2026.

A Foresight article argues that the story around stablecoins and real-world assets, or RWA, is shifting away from simply issuing more tokens and toward building a financial network that can actually function end to end. The piece says the market is now focusing on whether tokenized assets can be issued in compliance, traded with investor rights intact, settled onchain, and eventually used in everyday payment scenarios. It points to several recent developments across traditional finance and crypto. The New York Stock Exchange said in January that it was developing a tokenized securities platform designed to support shareholder rights, 24/7 trading, fractional shares, instant settlement, and stablecoin-based cash settlement. Later, it brought in Securitize and tZERO to add infrastructure around transfer agency, broker-dealer services, securities registration, and onchain settlement. On the crypto side, Bitfinex Securities recently launched five products that give qualified investors economic exposure to listed companies including Strategy and Metaplanet. The article also highlights a payments push in Japan. HashPort and Lawson tested an in-store yen stablecoin payment in Tokyo in August, while NETSTARS completed a Stablecoin Pay proof of concept at another Lawson store. On Sept. 3, imToken and NETSTARS signed an MOU to explore connecting imToken wallet infrastructure with Stablecoin Pay.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Participants Division issued Staff Letter 26-25 on Sept. 17, extending a no-action position that had previously applied only to Phantom Technologies to all qualifying passive software providers. The move lowers the barrier for crypto wallets, trading interfaces, and other software developers to connect users to CFTC-regulated derivatives markets without first registering as Introducing Brokers, provided they act as access points rather than brokers. Under the framework, eligible software can display market data, aggregate positions, present product information, and transmit user orders for futures, perpetual contracts, and event contracts to regulated entities. The letter also allows certain revenue-sharing arrangements and transaction-based fees. At the same time, the CFTC drew firm limits: software providers cannot hold or control customer assets, cannot generate explicit buy or sell signals, and cannot determine order routing or execution. The relief is not a blanket exemption. Letter 26-25 sets out 10 conditions, including disclosure of relationships and conflicts, risk disclosures, recordkeeping, and written commitments with each partnering CFTC-registered entity under joint and several liability. The agency also said the position reflects the view of the Market Participants Division only and may be changed, suspended, or terminated if facts change or formal rules are introduced later.

Bitget used its eighth anniversary to outline how its Universal Exchange, or UEX, strategy is expanding beyond crypto into a broader trading setup that includes traditional financial products and institutional services. The company said that during peak trading periods, non-crypto assets accounted for 40% of total platform volume, while daily volume in TradFi perpetuals and contracts for difference each topped $10 billion. It also highlighted the rollout of stock perpetuals, U.S. stock options and Hong Kong stock Quanto contracts, alongside growth in its tokenized stock product rToken. According to the company, rToken surpassed $100 million in assets under management within five weeks of launch and has now recorded more than 3 million cumulative trades. Bitget also said one in four new users on the platform starts trading with rToken. On the risk and transparency side, the exchange expanded the number of verifiable assets in its Proof of Reserves program from four to 24, while its Protection Fund had an average valuation of about $382 million in August 2026. Looking ahead, Bitget said institutional trading services will be a major focus in its ninth year, after institutional client net assets rose 45% from the end of 2025 to the second quarter of 2026 and core active market makers increased from 90 to 248.