uk

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.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that he has submitted comments to the UK HM Revenue and Customs, suggesting improvements to the tax positioning of cryptocurrency collateralized loans and stablecoins.At the same time, he advocates for allowing stablecoins to be included in UK Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) in the future, giving stablecoin lending users the opportunity to enjoy relevant tax benefits.

The UK Ministry of Defence has spent nearly $40 million on SpaceX's Starshield and Starlink satellite services.

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.

According to Decrypt, the UK's National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) warned in its annual report released this week that criminals are "innovatively using cryptocurrency products to evade detection and transfer illegal value on a large scale."The agency is part of the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and is responsible for coordinating the UK's response to economic crime. The threat assessment in the report indicates that cross-border money laundering networks are spreading, combining new and traditional methods while transferring funds through both legitimate and illegitimate channels; many organized crime groups no longer launder money themselves but outsource it to specialized networks for a fee. The report also mentions artificial intelligence alongside cryptocurrency, noting that criminals are using synthetic identities and process automation to attack banks.The report shows that cryptocurrency ranks third among the nine economic crime priorities identified by the UK's National Economic Crime Centre, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Home Office, and the Treasury in July 2025, above cash crime and money mules. The agency states that it is developing "more proactive, intelligence-led cryptocurrency capabilities." Additionally, its joint operation "Atlantic Action" with the U.S. Secret Service, Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Tether has identified 20,000 approved phishing victims and frozen $12 million in funds; the "Stable Action" targeting Russian networks converting street cash into cryptocurrency has arrested 129 individuals and seized over £25 million in the UK.The report also mentions a report on privacy-enhancing technologies in the cryptocurrency industry released by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

According to a report by Sina Finance, Anthropic refused to submit its latest model Claude Mythos 5.1 to the UK Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) for testing before its release, as the model is only open to qualified institutions in the United States. This move has raised alarms within the UK Whitehall and AISI, with UK national security officials concerned that this could set a precedent, making it difficult for AISI to access the latest cutting-edge models in the future.Analysts pointed out that this action may be related to the increasingly stringent export control policies of the US government on the AI industry. The US government had previously implemented export controls on Anthropic's models Mythos and Fable, prohibiting foreign nationals from using them. Anthropic declined to comment on this, only stating that it is coordinating with the US government to expand access to the model for more domestic and international partners as soon as possible.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the predicted market Polymarket for the "Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers" event, the "Chicago Cubs" option in the sub-market "Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers" experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 43.5% an hour ago to the current 20% (a fluctuation of 23.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that CoinCorner has partnered with AnchorWatch to launch Vault, providing multi-institution Bitcoin custody services for UK customers, insured by Lloyd's of London.CoinCorner and AnchorWatch each hold keys, and neither party can independently transfer customers' Bitcoin. All Bitcoin deposits are insured.

The Kremlin stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, which lasted for one hour. Trump focused on ending the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible, and both sides evaluated the visit of the U.S. envoy. Putin supported the restoration of U.S.-Russia relations and discussed prisoner exchange matters.

The Sun Wukong ecosystem will hold a roundtable discussion at X Space on September 8th at 8 PM, with the theme "GPT-6, Claude, Grok taking turns to upgrade, the AI model war has entered the second half."This event will focus on the shift in industry competition amid the convergence of leading large model capabilities, and will delve into the evolution of true industry barriers from model parameters to underlying computing power scheduling, multi-model API routing efficiency, and the infrastructure supporting Agent automated execution.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket event "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Cincinnati Reds," the sub-market "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Cincinnati Reds" option for "Milwaukee Brewers" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 57.5% an hour ago to the current 14.5% (a fluctuation of 43%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

The Ukrainian police and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) recently dismantled a scam network that used a fake investment platform to steal cryptocurrency. This network disguised itself as an investment platform website, luring users to connect their main cryptocurrency wallets and approve a small test transaction when withdrawing funds. Subsequently, it used a "wallet stealer" hidden within the website to automatically transfer user funds to wallets controlled by the operators, kicking victims off the platform. Investigators have currently confirmed 62 victims, with over 46 Ukrainian citizens involved, and the network could steal up to $1 million per month.The police stated that the false profits displayed on the platform are part of the scam, with operators manually creating transactions and adjusting user account balances to create the illusion of investment growth. In addition to cryptocurrency, the platform also collected victims' passport information, phone numbers, email addresses, login credentials, and photos during the registration and identity verification process. The main organizer of the network is a 25-year-old IT expert who recruited over 46 Ukrainian citizens and operated multiple offices in Kyiv and surrounding areas, with members responsible for building and maintaining fake websites, contacting potential victims, and providing security.Victims come from multiple countries, including Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel. The police traced the gang's server equipment located in the Netherlands and obtained a database stored there, which included a list of victims, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, suspected stolen amounts, internal communications, and platform operation information. The Ukrainian police and SBU subsequently executed 34 searches in Kyiv and surrounding areas, seizing over 100 computers, more than 100 mobile phones, 79 SIM cards, documents, cash, and 15 vehicles.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket event "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Cincinnati Reds," the sub-market option "Milwaukee Brewers" experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 47.5% an hour ago to the current 89.5% (a fluctuation of 42%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Decrypt, the latest records from the UK Electoral Commission show that BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donated £4 million (approximately $5.4 million) to the Reform Party of the UK twice in April this year, bringing his total donations to the party this year to £8 million (approximately $10.8 million), second only to Tether equity investor Christopher Harborne (who has donated a total of £15 million, approximately $20.25 million).These two donations accounted for 75% of the party's total donations for the corresponding quarter and were also the largest two single donations received by any political party in the UK during that quarter. The UK has prohibited political donations in the form of cryptocurrency since March, so all donations were made in cash.It is reported that BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo revealed in April that he had donated $5.4 million (approximately £4 million) to the Reform Party of the UK led by Nigel Farage, with the donations occurring before the new regulation setting a £100,000 cap on donations from overseas expatriates was introduced.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the predicted market Polymarket for the "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs" event, the "Milwaukee Brewers" option in the sub-market "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, plummeting from 54.5% an hour ago to the current 32.5% (a fluctuation of 22%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to the UK magazine "Fortune," the largest investment platform in the UK, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), will open Crypto ETN trading to its approximately 2 million investors starting from September 3. The first batch will include 9 BTC and ETH ETNs, issued by companies such as BlackRock's iShares, WisdomTree, 21Shares, Invesco, CoinShares, and Bitwise, with annual fees ranging from 0% to 0.35%.HL had previously been the major investment platform in the UK that had not opened Crypto ETNs and stated last October that "BTC is not an asset class." These related products will be offered to users of its Advanced Investing service, and investors must pass a suitability test and comply with a 24-hour cooling-off period during their first transaction.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian National Police and Security Service announced the dismantling of a fake investment platform network based in Kyiv. This gang stole cryptocurrency from users in over 20 countries through built-in wallet theft tools. Investigators have currently confirmed 62 victims, including citizens from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, France, the UK, Canada, and Israel. The organizers recruited more than 46 Ukrainians, operating multiple offices in Kyiv and surrounding areas, where developers were responsible for building the fake platform and resisting bans, while other members handled customer service and security.According to the Ukrainian Security Service, the organizer is a 25-year-old IT expert, and the gang's peak monthly revenue reached up to $1 million. The scam began with advertisements for cryptocurrency investment projects on Telegram. After users registered, they connected their wallets and invested funds, while gang members manually forged transactions to show a continuously increasing balance in the user backend. When users requested withdrawals, the platform required them to connect their main wallet and approve a small "test" transaction under the pretext of verification. This authorization immediately triggered the built-in theft tool on the website, transferring assets to wallets controlled by the gang and locking the victims' accounts.Investigators tracked down server equipment storing the gang's database in the Netherlands, which recorded victim information, wallet addresses, stolen amounts, internal communications, and platform operation data, as well as user passports, phone numbers, emails, login passwords, and photos. Police executed 34 searches in Kyiv and surrounding areas, seizing over 100 computers, more than 100 mobile phones, 79 SIM cards, one GSM gateway, cash, and 15 vehicles.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the prediction market Polymarket for the event "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs," the option "Milwaukee Brewers" in the sub-market "Spread -1.5" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 61% an hour ago to the current 42.5% (a fluctuation of 18.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the predicted market event "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs" on Polymarket, the "Over" option in the sub-market "O/U 10.5" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in win probability, soaring from 22% an hour ago to the current 45% (a fluctuation of 23%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

The parent company of Kraken, Payward, announced a partnership with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to tokenize the stocks of the 100 largest companies listed on the LSE into xStocks, which are backed 1:1. The first London-listed xStocks are expected to be launched on Kraken and other platforms supporting the xStocks Alliance in the coming weeks, available to investors in over 110 countries, but not yet open to UK investors.Subject to regulatory approval, the LSE plans to list and support xStocks trading on its newly launched extended trading hours, LSE 24. LSE CEO Julia Hoggett stated that by collaborating with Payward and continuously working with the market infrastructure ecosystem, they are exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new access methods while maintaining the standards that underpin the public market. In addition to tokenizing existing stocks, both parties will also explore the issuance of native equity tokens through LSE infrastructure, which have the same rights as traditional stocks and are fully interchangeable.Payward's tokenized stock framework was launched in June 2025 and acquired by Payward in December, having processed over $40 billion in total trading volume, covering more than 200,000 holders, with nearly $20 billion settled on-chain. According to RWA.xyz data, there are currently approximately $2.53 billion in existing tokenized stocks, with xStocks tokenizing about $606.6 million, making it the second-largest issuer after Ondo.