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The Central Bank of Russia and the Reserve Bank of India are collaborating to establish a mechanism for settling bilateral trade using digital currencies to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments. Russia has launched the digital ruble, and India's digital currency is also used for government projects.Both parties will discuss digital currency trade settlement with BRICS countries at the summit in New Delhi.

AI entity operation platform Motive announced the completion of a $1.3 billion financing round, with General Catalyst participating through its Customer Value Fund; specific valuation data has not yet been disclosed.In addition, the company also disclosed that it has withdrawn its previously submitted S-1 registration statement, officially abandoning its plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

The city council of Albuquerque, New Mexico, passed an ordinance on Wednesday prohibiting the operation of cryptocurrency ATMs (cryptocurrency vending machines) within the city limits, while also banning cashier-assisted virtual currency transactions. The city government will notify known operators and retailers hosting the machines, requiring them to remove the relevant equipment within 45 days.The ordinance was jointly initiated by District 1 Councilor Stephanie Telles and District 7 Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn. Telles stated that 90% of cryptocurrency ATM transactions in Albuquerque are related to fraud, claiming that these machines are primarily exploited by scammers, organized crime, and human traffickers due to the instant, anonymous, and irreversible nature of transactions. Fiebelkorn remarked that we cannot wait for federal regulators to resolve the crisis. The city council emphasized that residents can still freely hold, mine, and transfer cryptocurrencies through online exchanges and personal wallets.In terms of background, Indiana banned such machines statewide in March, Tennessee in July, and Minnesota in August; Delaware has advanced related legislation, New Jersey is considering it, and Texas is also brewing a ban. One of North America's largest operators, Bitcoin Depot, filed for bankruptcy protection in May and removed about 9,700 machines. According to data from the FBI, nearly 11,000 complaints of vending machine fraud were received in 2024, involving amounts exceeding $246 million.

According to Bloomberg, Italian bank UniCredit SpA is considering expanding its digital asset-related services, including the early-stage development of digital asset custody and brokerage capabilities.Insiders say the bank is screening technology providers to build infrastructure for holding digital assets and supporting buy and sell transactions.

Former senior officials of the Bank of Japan warned that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's "unusual" intervention in Japan's monetary affairs could undermine the credibility of the Bank of Japan and trigger greater volatility in global markets.Markets expect the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates by 25 basis points at next week's meeting. Yellen claimed to have insider information about the intentions of the Bank of Japan, and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki stated that her remarks were "a bit frightening."

The Danish central bank, Danmarks Nationalbank, stated that the current usage rate of stablecoins in Denmark is very low and does not pose an immediate threat to domestic financial stability. However, the rapid growth of dollar-pegged stablecoins globally may expose Denmark to indirect financial market volatility and liquidity risks. Currently, there are no stablecoins denominated in Danish kroner in circulation, and the use of stablecoins by consumers and businesses is quite limited.As commercial banks, financial institutions, and payment applications connect to stablecoin infrastructure, the scale of related usage may change. USDT and USDC dominate the global stablecoin market, and turmoil in the overseas stablecoin market could transmit to Denmark through global liquidity channels and the U.S. financial system. Danmarks Nationalbank is collaborating with the European Central Bank (ECB) to ensure that central bank money continues to serve as the primary settlement asset for interbank transactions.

In August, Japan's corporate goods prices rose more than expected, supporting the Bank of Japan's continued interest rate hikes to curb inflation risks. Data shows that in August, corporate input prices increased by 7.6% year-on-year, higher than the expected 7.4%.Market expectations are that the Bank of Japan will raise the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25% on September 18.

The Bank of Italy (Banca d'Italia) issued a notice requiring payment service providers (PSPs) and crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to continuously use procedures related to the travel rule to review financial transactions, without setting a minimum amount threshold.Relevant institutions must verify the names of the initiator and beneficiary when establishing customer relationships, when the European Council makes decisions, and at the time of each transaction, and compare them with the lists of sanctioned individuals and entities. Automated systems must not set a minimum amount threshold for transaction reviews, and transfer delays may be accepted if necessary to enhance sanctions screening.

According to CoinDesk, London challenger bank Monument Bank has postponed its £250 million (approximately $330 million) project to tokenize UK retail bank deposits for several months, as the bank has been unable to find a local crypto custodian that meets the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) standards and can handle zero-knowledge privacy proofs.Mintoo Bhandari, founder of Monument Bank, stated that the bank originally planned to tokenize customer deposits on the privacy public chain Midnight, hoping to launch the world's first tokenized deposits two months ago, but it is now expected to take another two months, with a retail customer launch in November. To meet regulatory requirements, the bank expanded its search for custodial partners to overseas, ultimately finding a Canadian custodian approved by the FCA.Midnight is a privacy-first Layer 1 blockchain project funded by Charles Hoskinson, which keeps customer information within the Monument system through zero-knowledge proofs while allowing the bank to prove compliance on-chain and provide audit records to regulators. Monument Bank announced the project in March this year, planning to offer tokenized private equity, structured products, and automated Lombard loans to "mass affluent" customers with investable assets ranging from £50,000 to £5 million.Bhandari stated that customer deposits will continue to earn interest, fully backed by Monument, and can be exchanged at a 1:1 ratio for pounds, protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), with a limit of £120,000 per person or company.

According to CoinDesk, after the bankruptcy of Bitcoin ATM operator Bitcoin Depot, about a quarter of its more than 9,200 self-service terminals have been sold. The publicly traded digital asset infrastructure company Bitcoin Bancorp (BCBC) won 2,547 of these ATMs for $620,750 and additionally paid $110,500 to acquire related site agreements, intellectual property, trademarks, patents, and the BitcoinDepot.com domain name.Bitcoin Depot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May of this year, after its first-quarter revenue fell 49% year-over-year, with profits turning from a $12.2 million gain to a $9.5 million loss. In its last complete financial report before bankruptcy (fourth quarter of 2025), the company valued all properties and equipment (of which 98% were self-service terminals) at over $26 million.Bitcoin Bancorp, headquartered in Las Vegas and formerly known as Bullet Blockchain, trades at $0.04 on the OTC Markets, with a market capitalization of about $18.5 million, far below Bitcoin Depot's peak of about $400 million when it was listed on Nasdaq. The company stated that the remaining deliveries are expected to be completed in the next quarter. Data shows that losses from crypto ATM scams reached $389 million in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 58%. The UK's FCA has announced that crypto ATMs are illegal, and regulators in countries such as Australia and Canada have also intensified their crackdowns.

According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has partnered with financial platform Moov to provide stablecoin infrastructure for over 1,000 community banks and credit unions within Moov's customer base. The two parties will combine Coinbase's regulated digital asset infrastructure with Moov's payment platform to offer stablecoin payment acceptance, settlement, and real-time funding services.This infrastructure will support use cases such as consumer stablecoin payments, merchant settlements, and payments, and will provide businesses and merchants access to Coinbase's custodial accounts. U.S. community banks typically have total assets of less than $10 billion, including state-chartered institutions and savings and loan holding companies.This collaboration comes as major U.S. banks are experimenting with stablecoin infrastructure. On Wednesday, U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the U.S., completed a real-time cross-border payment using its proprietary stablecoin USBDC on the Stellar blockchain. Earlier this month, 21 financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and UBS, announced plans to form a company to issue stablecoins. Additionally, Western Union also partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain in August to launch a digital wallet and Visa-branded card.

J.P. Morgan Private Bank macro investment strategist Patrick Ernst stated that the European Central Bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points as expected, which has a limited impact on the euro to dollar exchange rate.Ernst pointed out that the dollar may still dominate the market. If the U.S. CPI data exceeds expectations, it could weaken the upward momentum of the euro against the dollar. The U.S. CPI data for August will be released on Friday.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde stated that inflation will remain above target levels until the first half of 2027.

Eurozone government bond yields remain high ahead of the European Central Bank's policy decision, with analysts expecting the central bank to raise interest rates by 25 basis points. The yield on Germany's 10-year government bonds rose to 3.44%, having previously reached 3.4514%, the highest since 2011. The market expects the European Central Bank's deposit rate to be 2.74% by December, up from the current 2.25%.

According to Bloomberg, Jon Cunliffe, the former Deputy Governor for Financial Stability of the Bank of England, has joined the blockchain payment company Fnality and will serve as the Chairman of its UK entity. Jochen Metzger, the former Director General for Payment and Settlement Systems of the German central bank, has been appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board of Fnality Europe and is expected to serve as its Chairman; Ron Berndsen, the former Head of Supervision and Head of Market Infrastructure Policy at the Dutch central bank, will also join the Supervisory Board.Fnality operates a wholesale payment system that allows banks to settle debts using central bank currency balances. Its pound sterling system, regulated by the Bank of England, went live in 2023 and is currently seeking regulatory approval to launch versions in US dollars and euros. Fnality states that the system is designed to support the tokenized trading of traditional assets such as stocks and bonds, enabling the synchronized flow of securities and payment funds across interconnected digital networks, thereby shortening settlement times and supporting round-the-clock trading. Fnality was established in 2019, with investors including major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, UBS Group, Santander Bank, Bank of America, and Citigroup.

The 26th China International Investment and Trade Fair recently opened in Xiamen. Under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, Bank of Communications officially released a cross-border trade service plan based on the "Digital Currency Bridge" (CBETS) blockchain infrastructure, focusing on cross-border trade settlement and compliance needs, enhancing the collaborative efficiency of capital flow, information flow, and document flow through on-chain rights confirmation, smart contracts, and other means.The plan relies on Digital Currency Bridge to support multi-party participation and data sharing, providing services such as cross-border payment and trade background verification for import and export enterprises, financial institutions, and regulatory departments, aiming to reduce compliance costs, shorten settlement cycles, and reserve expansion space for the digital renminbi and cross-border financial infrastructure integration.

Some criminal gangs use "free credit card repayment" as bait to lure ordinary people into providing credit card and identity information. They then launder illegal funds from overseas gambling, telecom fraud, and other activities by fabricating consumption and other means, and subsequently contact currency dealers to exchange for virtual currency to transfer abroad.

The European Central Bank is expected to implement its second interest rate hike since the energy prices surged due to the Iran war, as inflation remains persistently above target.Institutional surveys show that, except for one analyst, the rest expect the deposit rate to be raised by 25 basis points to 2.5% on Thursday. Policymakers are responding to last month's consumer price increase that surpassed 3%.

Jack Dorsey's payment company Block has applied to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. If approved, the bank will become an uninsured national trust bank directly regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), focusing on providing custody and trust services for Bitcoin and stablecoins, without accepting deposits or issuing loans.The application is still pending OCC approval, and the OCC's public list of digital asset license applications currently includes 11 pending applications (submitted between February 23 and August 19), which does not yet include Builders Bank. Previously, the OCC conditionally approved five national trust applications in December 2025, including Circle's First National Digital Currency Bank and Ripple, as well as conversion applications from BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos; Circle received final approval in July of this year.The Bank Policy Institute (BPI), representing large banks, had previously opposed a series of limited-purpose national trust license applications, arguing that companies should not obtain trust licenses unless they plan to operate a true trust company, and warned against using the license as a lightly regulated pathway for bank-like products. Block stated that Builders Bank will not begin operations until it receives the necessary regulatory approvals.

The Watchdog Committee of the Arbitrum ecosystem (composed of Entropy Advisors and others) submitted a proposal to the governance forum on September 3, requesting a permanent ban on the projects Good Entry, Limitless, and APX Finance, as well as their founders, prohibiting their participation in all future ArbitrumDAO initiatives. The committee determined that these three projects engaged in grant abuse within the STIP and LTIPP incentive programs, involving a total amount of 457,553 ARB (approximately $76,000).Specifically, Good Entry received 200,000 ARB in the first round of STIP, of which 142,839 ARB flowed to 1,032 ineligible users, and there is evidence of self-farming by associated addresses, with the team refusing to cooperate with the investigation; Limitless exchanged all 75,000 ARB for USDC and cross-chain to Base, being classified as suspected theft; APX Finance was approved for 525,000 ARB, of which 239,714 ARB involved issues related to funds being held in the treasury, delayed distribution, and witch cluster problems. APX later merged with Astherus and rebranded as Aster, with approximately 70% of its assets located on the BNB Chain.According to the proposal, the three projects may defend themselves in the forum post before September 10. If the explanations are not accepted and the funds are not returned, the committee will initiate three separate Snapshot votes to decide whether to permanently ban the relevant projects and founders.