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According to Crypto Briefing, Orca's Chief Legal Officer Christopher Montagano stated at the Korea Blockchain Week that the innovation exemption released by the SEC on September 17 provides the conditions to verify whether DeFi blockchain tracks are more efficient than traditional infrastructure.The exemption offers a conditional relief period of 5 years, until September 17, 2031; under this framework, tokenized securities venues and specific liquidity providers can operate tokenized U.S. stock licensed trading without registering as exchanges or brokers.Montagano stated that the exemption is specifically designed for AMM but does not constitute a ruling on DeFi; relevant parties must still comply with sanction rules and obtain issuer consent to distinguish it from unlicensed DeFi. Orca has been involved in discussions with the SEC since 2025 and began trading tokenized stocks in November of the same year.

According to Decrypt, DogeOS has announced the launch of its application layer public testnet based on Dogecoin.DogeOS is an EVM-compatible application layer network designed to allow developers to build applications on the Dogecoin ecosystem. The testnet transaction fees are paid in DOGE, and projects such as lending protocols, perpetual contract trading platforms, stablecoins, and prediction market aggregators have already been integrated.DogeOS was initiated by the MyDoge wallet team, utilizes zkVM technology, and operates as an independent layer without altering the Dogecoin base layer. The official mainnet launch date has not yet been announced.

According to Cointelegraph, ESMA submitted a proposal to the European Commission to amend MiCA, aiming to establish a new category of regulated crypto services for companies providing access to DeFi protocols, while also strengthening regulatory requirements for staking, crypto lending, and non-compliant stablecoin-related services.

According to financing data statistics from RootData, there were a total of 47 financing events disclosed in the crypto primary market in September, of which 34 disclosed amounts that can be accurately counted, with a total financing amount of approximately $1.114 billion. This represents an 85.0% increase compared to about $602 million in August, and a 9.0% increase compared to about $1.022 billion in September 2025; the number of financing events decreased by 4.1% compared to 49 in August, and decreased by 25.4% compared to 63 in the same period last year.From the perspective of sectors, infrastructure had the most financing events in September, with a total of 14 financings completed, disclosing an amount of approximately $263 million; both CeFi and DeFi completed 11 financings, disclosing amounts of approximately $394 million and $369 million, respectively. The three major sectors of CeFi, DeFi, and infrastructure accounted for about 92.0% of the disclosed financing amount this month.The three highest financing amounts in September were Polymarket ($300 million), Félix ($200 million), and Jeeves ($110 million), totaling $610 million, which accounted for about 54.8% of the total financing amount this month; Kraken also received a $100 million investment from Nasdaq. The financing amount this month showed a significant rebound, mainly driven by a few large financings, while the overall number of financing events in the market did not increase correspondingly.In September, a total of 8 RWA-related financing events were disclosed, of which 6 disclosed specific amounts, totaling approximately $52.75 million, accounting for about 17.0% and 4.7% of the number of financing events and total financing amount this month, respectively. Compared to 2 events and $14 million in August, the number of events increased by 300%, and the financing amount increased by approximately 276.8%. The top three projects by amount were OpenReserve ($25 million), Tare ($13.25 million), and CatchBack ($8 million), which together accounted for approximately 87.7% of the disclosed amount in the RWA sector.Additionally, 11 merger and acquisition events were disclosed in September, an increase of 57.1% compared to 7 in August, and a decrease of 42.1% compared to 19 in the same period last year. Among them, the tools and information services sector had a total of 4 events, making it the most active sector for mergers and acquisitions. Representative transactions include MoonPay acquiring North Capital, CoinMarketCap acquiring CoinGlass, Circle acquiring Tazapay, and S&P acquiring OpenZeppelin.In terms of investment institutions, Coinbase Ventures participated in 6 financings, making it the most active institution this month; a16z and Maven11 each participated in 3. Overall, in September, funds mainly flowed towards payments, prediction markets, trading and data infrastructure, CeFi, and RWA, among other directions.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has submitted two rules for review to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). One rule aims to include event contracts within the regulatory definition of swaps, while the other is a "temporary final rule" that seeks to exclude "casino-style gambling products" from the scope of swaps.These two rules were received by the OMB this week, with the document dated September 28. OMB review is typically the last step before rules are submitted for public comment, and the temporary final rule will take effect immediately while allowing for subsequent public input and revisions.This move comes as the CFTC engages in a tug-of-war with multiple states over the nature of prediction markets. Event contracts are typically binary yes-or-no bets on measurable outcomes such as sports events and elections. Last week, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kalshi's sports contracts do not fall under swaps and should be governed by state gambling regulations, while the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals made a similar ruling; however, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals previously determined that the CFTC has jurisdiction over prediction markets, creating a legal divergence at the federal level. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig believes that the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets.If event contracts are classified as swaps and not as gambling products, it could weaken the positions of various states in multiple lawsuits against prediction market platforms like Kalshi. The CFTC is legally required to consist of five commissioners, but President Trump has yet to nominate additional commissioners, leaving Selig as the sole commissioner, who is unilaterally advancing regulatory and policy decisions. Additionally, information disclosed by the OMB indicates that the CFTC recently submitted a "pre-rule" focusing on cryptocurrency regulation to the White House.

According to The Defiant, Ostium has announced the previous loss compensation arrangements and will officially open the compensation channel this Wednesday, with a total of 3,666 damaged wallets included in the disposal scope.According to the plan, 3,321 addresses with losses not exceeding $1,000 can receive full reimbursement, meaning that this group of small-scale victims can recover all their losses.The remaining 345 wallets collectively bear at least 86% of the total loss of approximately $23.8 million. These 345 addresses with significant losses can choose one of two arrangements: either receive a one-time payment of $1,000 directly or file a proportional claim for the portion of their assets that has not yet been recovered.

According to The Block, Jeff Yan, co-founder of the decentralized perpetual contract trading platform Hyperliquid, stated during a fireside chat at the Korea Blockchain Week 2026 that around-the-clock trading is not the essential difference between on-chain trading venues and traditional exchanges. He pointed out that cryptocurrencies do not need to adhere to traditional market opening hours because these assets inherently possess international attributes, and some traditional exchanges have already begun to actively extend their trading hours.Yan emphasized that the more enduring value of on-chain finance comes from allowing users to retain control and custody of their funds, which helps to avoid a common single point of failure risk. In his view, once a counterparty, intermediary, or even custodian encounters issues, the ability to self-custody becomes particularly crucial.In addition, transparency constitutes another distinct feature of on-chain trading. Although it does not have a strong appeal in serving ordinary consumers, it is essential for building trust in the entire system. In a system controlled solely by a private organization, users cannot obtain the same level of trust and neutrality guarantees.He also mentioned that for assets lacking publicly available prices during the closing hours of traditional exchanges, continuous trading remains necessary. He cited commodities, stocks, and Pre-IPO targets that had already traded on Hyperliquid before the reference market opened as examples to illustrate that the demand is indeed real.

The Illinois Department of Revenue has released the legislative draft details of a 0.2% digital asset transaction tax, clarifying that stablecoins will be considered taxable digital assets, while non-fungible tokens are not subject to taxation. The draft stipulates that DeFi transactions are generally exempt; however, fees paid by users that are deemed "valuable consideration," such as protocol fees for operating or maintaining the platform, may trigger taxation.Only network fees and exchange fees paid to liquidity providers do not trigger this tax. Cross-chain bridging conducted through digital asset brokers and paid with consideration will be regarded as taxable exchange activities. If centralized exchanges charge fees when transferring to self-custody wallets, it may also be subject to taxation. This tax law was approved in June and is set to take effect on January 1, 2027. The Illinois Department of Revenue is seeking public comments on the draft, with a deadline of October 30.

The DeFi protocol Sentora has initiated an ARFC proposal to operate an independently curated lending market on Aave V4.According to the proposal, Sentora will be responsible for market operations, including collateral assets and interest rates, while the Aave DAO will retain ownership and ultimate control of the smart contracts. The lending assets will be limited to RLUSD, PYUSD, and OUSD, while the collateral will include USDe, PRIME, mWIN, PST, and kBTC. The protocol revenue generated by the market is expected to be split equally between the Aave DAO and Sentora.

The decentralized lending protocol Abracadabra initiated a vote on Snapshot, proposing to liquidate the entire protocol, converting the remaining collateral assets into ETH, and proportionally compensating MIM stablecoin holders. The team estimates that the recoverable asset support is approximately 900,000 USD, while the scale of bad debts borne by the protocol reaches up to 21 million USD.According to the proposal, MIM holders are expected to recover only about 0.04 USD for every 1 USD of face value. If the vote passes, Abracadabra will officially enter the liquidation process, and the remaining collateral will be converted into ETH for compensation.

According to The Defiant, the token holders of the DeFi protocol Balancer have voted to approve the protocol liquidation plan while rejecting the proposal to launch an official fork chain.According to this liquidation arrangement, the paused liquidity pools will switch to a withdrawal-only mode starting October 30. BAL holders will need to wait until the end of May 2027, at which point they can exchange their tokens for the protocol treasury assets.

According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley has established a digital asset lab to test technologies such as stablecoins, tokenization, and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. The Wall Street bank is exploring how blockchain-based systems can be applied to its various businesses.Megan Brewer, head of market innovation and labs at Morgan Stanley, stated in an interview that the initiative is part of the company's existing innovation lab network. This network provides employees with dedicated facilities to explore emerging technologies while avoiding risks to the bank's core systems.

According to Crypto in America, former CFTC Chairman Russ Behnam stated at the Georgetown University Financial Markets Quality Conference that as prediction markets experience explosive growth, Congress urgently needs to clarify the boundary between risk management and gambling, and related lawsuits may ultimately be submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.Behnam also pointed out that after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate, the CFTC's reliance on existing authority to regulate the spot market is akin to "patching things up with tape and paperclips," and regulators urgently need to establish more durable rules.

The Sun Wukong ecosystem will hold a deep roundtable discussion themed "When Stocks Start to Go On-Chain and AI Begins Trading: Will DeFi Become the Operating System of the Next Generation Digital Economy?" on September 29 at 8 PM at X Space.This event will focus on how RWA brings real assets on-chain, as well as the industry trend of AI Agents transitioning from "providing information" to "autonomous decision-making and execution." It will explore the changing role of DeFi when on-chain finance serves both "humans" and "machines." Special invited industry KOLs will analyze the evolutionary path from humans actively invoking protocols to Agents holding wallets, autonomously seeking liquidity, and executing trades. They will assess whether the existing liquidity and trading infrastructure can support the next stage of a more automated on-chain economy and will dissect the operational logic of the next generation of on-chain finance at the intersection of RWA, AI Agents, and DeFi.

According to Globenewswire, Nasdaq-listed DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV) announced that since September 21, it has increased its holdings by approximately 47,706 SOL, bringing its total SOL and SOL-equivalent holdings to about 2,538,010, currently valued at approximately $309 million.This increase has resulted in a week-over-week growth of about 2% in its SOL holdings, and a growth of about 10% since the release of its second-quarter financial report on August 12, during which it has cumulatively added over 226,000 SOL. The company stated that it will continue to raise funds through channels such as the recently established $300 million CHAD ATM to continue increasing its SOL holdings.

The Bitcoin DeFi project Omnity Network announced that it will gradually cease operations due to depleted operating funds. Its products RichSwap and Satsman will stop operations within the next 30 days. The team reminds RichSwap liquidity providers to withdraw liquidity as soon as possible and states that it will upgrade the smart contracts and lift existing lock-up restrictions so that users can withdraw funds without limitations.A specific timeline for operations and liquidity withdrawal guidelines will be announced soon, and support channels will remain open for 30 days during the transition period to assist users in completing related operations. Although the project will cease operations, core team members will continue to support the Bitcoin ecosystem and plan to participate in related development through personal and developer collaborative organizations.

According to DefiLlama data, the DeFi TVL of the Robinhood chain is currently reported at 1.027 billion USD, with a growth of 60.47% over the past month, ranking first among leading blockchains in growth rate.In terms of DEX trading volume, the network achieved a trading volume of 1.397 billion USD in the past 24 hours, ranking second in the entire network, second only to Solana. The Robinhood chain went live in early July, and in less than 3 months since its launch, it has become a mainstream blockchain in crypto in terms of TVL and trading activity.