Farmmi2026-09-02 19:33:49Farmmi Spike Coincided With Robinhood Chain Frenzy, but the ‘Tokenized Stock’ Was a Memecoin-Like ImitationFarmmi, a Nasdaq-listed Chinese supplier of dried mushrooms and bulk agricultural commodities, saw its stock jump as high as $0.50 on Wednesday from a Tuesday close of $0.1187. At the same time, a token labeled FAMI on Robinhood Chain drew heavy trading after it was paired with a memecoin called JINQIAN, a name taken from a mushroom variety mentioned in Farmmi’s own annual report. The article argues that this chain-based token was not a genuine Robinhood-issued stock token and had no visible connection to actual Farmmi shares. Onchain records cited in the report show the FAMI token had no issuer, no redemption path and a fixed supply minted entirely in the contract’s deployment transaction. One wallet kept 38% of supply and later spent two days creating pools, adjusting liquidity and calling a separate PoolRepricer contract it had also deployed. While Nasdaq data showed Farmmi shares surged as much as 321% intraday, the chain token traded separately and even moved above $1 for 45 minutes, a threshold the real stock must hold at the close for 10 straight business days to regain Nasdaq compliance. The same session also brought explosive activity in JINQIAN, which reached $0.0761 from an opening print of $0.00089 before dropping 92% from its peak by early afternoon. Farmmi had not issued any statement on the token or the trading, and Robinhood had not issued a Farmmi stock token, according to the report.260
UsePaid2026-09-26 06:30:56UsePaid says it has sent about $1.536 million to tagged X accounts through X Money as opt-out page goes liveUsePaid, a memecoin fee-sharing tool tied to pump.fun token launches, says it has paid about $1.536 million to tagged X accounts through X Money as of Sept. 26. The system routes 100% of a token’s creator fees to a treasury, converts 80% into U.S. dollars for payout through X Money, and uses the remaining 20% to buy back and burn the platform token, PAID. According to the project’s public ledger, it had collected roughly $2.895 million in onchain fees by 2 p.m. Taiwan time on Sept. 26, while an official X post the same day cited $1.44 million in payouts. The product does not require recipients to register, connect a wallet, or give prior consent. Former X product lead Nikita Bier called the idea a creative hack on X Money, but said users should be able to opt out if they do not want to be linked to a token. UsePaid has since launched an opt-out page. The project’s analytics page also shows about $550,000 spent to burn 36.37 million PAID tokens. DexScreener data cited in the report put PAID’s market capitalization at about $41.3 million, with a 24-hour gain of roughly 350% and about $31.8 million in daily volume on its main PumpSwap pool.3660
Visa2026-09-21 08:22:26Visa reportedly moves to close merchant code loophole tied to memecoin card purchasesVisa has reportedly told payment providers to stop classifying some memecoin purchases as "digital media" and to route them under merchant categories used for cryptocurrency transactions instead, according to a Sept. 19 report from Crypto In America. The change follows earlier testing by The Block, which found that users buying selected memecoins including dogwifhat (WIF) through Robinhood Wallet and social trading app Fomo, using Crossmint’s checkout with credit cards via Apple Pay or Google Pay, were not shown an additional full KYC identity form during checkout. Those test transactions were reportedly coded as MCC 5815, "Digital Goods Media," allowing users to receive standard card reward points or cash back. Visa’s own Merchant Data Standards Manual says cryptocurrency purchases should generally use MCC 6012 or MCC 6051, with crypto or quasi-cash indicators. JPMorgan Chase also reviewed one tested transaction and said the classification was incorrect, adding that the purchase should not have qualified for rewards under its card rules. Robinhood Wallet was drawn into the issue because part of its card-based crypto purchase flow is powered by Crossmint, not because Robinhood itself set the MCC.510
Visa2026-09-20 04:12:17Visa moves to reclassify memecoin purchases, ending credit card rewards tied to a coding loopholeVisa is moving to shut down a rewards loophole that had allowed some users to earn credit card points and cash back on memecoin purchases. According to reporting cited from The Block and the newsletter Crypto in America, certain transactions processed through Crossmint had been coded under merchant category code 5815, a “digital media” classification commonly used for streaming and audiobook purchases. That coding let users on apps including Fomo and Robinhood Wallet receive card perks that would not normally apply to crypto purchases. Visa has now told payment processor Checkout.com to switch those transactions back to the proper cryptocurrency classification. A grace period is expected to expire next week. Once that happens, the purchases will be treated as crypto transactions rather than digital media spending, removing the associated rewards benefits. The issue drew attention from Chase, which told The Block the setup was inappropriate and referred the matter to Visa. Crossmint’s head of strategy, Fonz Olvera, said the company’s reasoning was tied to SEC guidance, arguing that some memecoins could be viewed as collectibles under securities law. The Block also reported that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office had taken notice of Crossmint’s product and was investigating it.490
Visa2026-09-20 02:43:38Visa may tighten memecoin card purchase coding as Crossmint rewards loophole comes under scrutinyVisa is reportedly preparing to restrict a payment setup that allowed some memecoin purchases made by credit card to earn standard card rewards. The issue centers on how crypto payment processor Crossmint coded certain transactions for apps including Fomo and Robinhood Wallet. According to The Block’s Sept. 1 investigation, those purchases were classified under merchant category code 5815, or digital media, and did not carry a crypto-asset marker. That treatment could let cardholders receive rewards that usually do not apply to quasi-cash transactions. Visa’s own April merchant data standards manual says purchases of cryptocurrency must be coded under MCC 6012 or 6051 and include special condition indicator 7, with quasi-cash indicators attached in authorization and clearing records. The report says the current coding does not match those published requirements. A separate report from Crypto in America, cited by The Block, said a grace period would end next week and the transactions would then need to be processed as standard crypto purchases. Visa declined to comment to The Block, and that timeline has not been independently confirmed by Visa. Crossmint said its position and procedures for digital goods on its platform have not changed.370
Robinhood Cha2026-09-19 12:01:01Robinhood Chain fees plunge 97% while transaction counts remain near peak levelsRobinhood Chain’s fee income has collapsed even though on-chain activity has not fallen nearly as fast. According to CoinDesk, the network’s memecoin-driven boom has cooled sharply, cutting daily fees by 97% from their peak, while transactions remain close to record highs. The shift is notable because it points to a cheaper network rather than an abandoned one. At its early-September peak, Robinhood Chain generated about $8 million in fees from 13.1 million daily transactions, or roughly $0.64 per transaction. By Sept. 16, that had dropped to about $230,000 across 8.9 million transactions, or just 2.6 cents each, based on growthepie data. Over the latest seven-day period, average fees fell 82% and transaction counts slipped 6%, while roughly $1.5 billion per day continued to move through the chain. Weekly trading figures also complicate the idea of a broad user exodus. CoinDesk calculations using DeFiLlama show Robinhood’s decentralized exchanges handled about $12.8 billion to $13 billion in the seven days through Sept. 16, up 5% from the prior week, while stablecoin supply dipped only 1% to around $1 billion. Even as launchpad Pons cooled, overall DEX activity on the chain stayed firm.610
Circle2026-09-19 03:06:40Circle’s Arc logs 7.83 million day-one transactions, while USDC transfers reach only 624,000Circle’s new blockchain Arc opened with heavy activity but little evidence that its intended payment use case has arrived. In its first 24 hours, the network processed 7.83 million transactions, yet USDC transfers totaled only about 624,000, according to Arc’s Blockscout explorer. The chain also added roughly 400,000 new accounts, saw more than 73,000 contracts deployed, and recorded average fees rising fourfold to $0.03. Most of the traffic, the report said, came from memecoin trading rather than enterprise payments. That mismatch has sharpened questions around Arc’s positioning. Circle launched the network with 11 founding validators, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, and DTCC, and CEO Jeremy Allaire called it the company’s most important release since USDC. Still, day-one trading on decentralized exchanges reached only about $82 million, far below the memecoin activity previously seen on Robinhood Chain. Native token valuations on Arc have also remained modest, while several memecoins posted steep declines. Criticism also turned toward Circle after Arc Vice President of Product Rachel Mayer shared an AI-generated post promoting the memecoin DUKE. The post drew about 1 million views and prompted backlash from users who questioned whether Circle was pushing tokens to bootstrap activity on its own chain. Circle had not responded to inquiries at the time of publication.480
Bitcoin2026-09-10 10:24:14Bitcoin slips to $78,111 as most CoinDesk 100 constituents declineBitcoin fell 2% over the past 24 hours to trade at $78,111, while losses spread across most of the broader crypto market. According to CoinDesk, 95 of the 100 tokens in the CoinDesk 100 index moved lower. The report said memecoins and smaller-cap tokens were leading the retreat, and that most of the selloff took place during overnight trading. The move left bitcoin hovering near the $78,000 level as weakness extended well beyond the largest token.790