Crypto: 23rd September 2025
📣 Headlines
• SEON raised $80M to scale its AI-driven fraud and AML compliance platform, with rapid drop-in integration and 900+ data signals.
• CrowdStrike warned that defenders must scale AI for defense as adversaries weaponize new tools targeting identity and cloud.
• Terra Security won CrowdStrike’s accelerator, blending agentic AI with offensive security, backed by Nvidia and AWS at Fal.Con 2025.
• Hack The Box acquired LetsDefend to expand blue-team training and SOC simulations for defenders.
• PwC’s deals lead highlighted AI M&A hotspots across agents, edge compute, identity, and security, signaling consolidation across infra.
• Hubble Network raised $70M to scale its satellite Bluetooth mesh and expand SKUs for global low-power connectivity.
• Microsoft expanded Fabric with a native graph engine and real-time geospatial maps powered by LinkedIn tech and OneLake integration.
• Silicon Valley players aim to escape the 'Nvidia tax' by exploring alternative silicon and strategies to reduce GPU dependence.
📈 Markets, regulation, and crypto narratives
FTX, Golden Geese, and The Widow’s Mite (acesounderglass.com). Discussion of FTX's theft, donations, and returning grants to Feeding America, with EA influence and the 'Widow's Mite' analogy
Note on Money Stuff: Stocks for the Long Run via Matt Levine (joshbeckman.org). Meme tokens, Money Stuff, and the Kirk tragedy illustrating memecoin monetization on Solana
Prediction markets are booming. Oversight is barely there. (citationneeded.news). Prediction markets grow under a lax oversight regime, risking manipulation, addiction, and election integrity concerns across Kalshi, Polymarket, and state regulators
Shorting Bitcoin as the Perfect Hedge (greyenlightenment.com). Hedging with short Bitcoin using BITI and Bitcoin futures contango for potentially superior risk-adjusted returns
💱 Stablecoins and DeFi trading infrastructure
Russian sanction-dodgers, Chinese gangsters & Mexican cartels (codastory.com). How Garantex successors laundered through A7A5 stablecoin, Kyrgyzstan hosts, and Chinese-Mexican money flows under FinCEN guidance
Trading Strategy receives Arbitrum Foundation grant to bring CCXT support to GMX (tradingstrategy.ai). Arbitrum grant enables CCXT-style GMX access for algorithmic traders on Arbitrum’s GMX DEX
The best-performing stablecoin vaults, September 2025 (tradingstrategy.ai). Overview of USD DeFi vaults performance (ERC-4626) across chains, with updates on new vaults, NAV thresholds, and notable market events
Shakeup in the Stablecoin Sector (coinmetrics.io). GENIUS Act-backed stablecoins shift competition toward distribution, with Circle’s USDC revenue and USDC activity across chains analyzed
🔐 Applied cryptography and key management
Use mutation testing to find the bugs your tests don't catch (blog.trailofbits.com). Mutation testing with Slither Mutate to detect uncaught mutants in Solidity for Arkis protocol security
How Anonymous Credentials Redefine Digital Access (leastauthority.com). Anonymous credentials enable privacy-first access using ZKAPs (Zero-Knowledge Access Passes) and Privacy Pass-inspired tokens for payments and verification
OpenSSL with Hana Andersen and Anton Arapov (opensourcesecurity.io). OpenSSL conference in Prague with Hana Andersen and Anton Arapov; post-quantum cryptography; OpenSSL ecosystem and communities
Protect your keys with the Secure Enclave (octet-stream.net). Overview of Protecting private keys with Apple's Secure Enclave, including key generation, wrapped keys, biometric access, and mutual TLS demos
🧬 Protocols, identity, and network architecture
Announcing the districts of the Ethereum World’s Fair (blog.ethereum.org). Ethereum World’s Fair in Buenos Aires reveals eight districts for on-chain finance, DAOs, wallets, privacy, gaming, AI, L2 scaling, and on-chain art
Creating an Independent Public Ledger of Credentials (PLC) Directory Organization (docs.bsky.app). Bluesky proposes an Independent PLC Directory Organization as a Swiss association to govern PLC identity, policies, and updates for a vendor- and application-neutral public good
GNUnet News: GNUnet 0.25.0 (gnunet.org). GNUnet 0.25.0 introduces CORE Authenticated Key Exchange CAKE, PILS peer identity privacy, DNS to GNS zone tooling, and Core improvements; GTK+3 GTK retirement announced
Transaction Finality on Kaspa Network Compared to Traditional Blockchains (brandonbyars.com). Kaspa's blockDAG architecture enables parallel blocks and ~10-second finality, outperforming traditional blockchains for real-time transactions
📚 Academic Research
xRWA: A Cross-Chain Framework for Interoperability of Real-World Assets (arxiv:cs). Cross-chain framework for RWAs using DIDs, Verifiable Credentials, Simplified Payment Verification, and a perpetual cross-chain settlement channel
Validating Solidity Code Defects using Symbolic and Concrete Execution powered by Large Language Models (arxiv:cs). Custom Slither-based detectors, LLMs, Kontrol, and Forge validate Solidity defects (Reentrancy, Complex Fallback, Faulty Access) via symbolic and concrete execution
How Exclusive are Ethereum Transactions? Evidence from non-winning blocks (arxiv:econ). Analysis of Ethereum blocks reveals exclusive transactions dominate builder revenue, accounting for 84% of fees in winning blocks
Swarm Oracle: Trustless Blockchain Agreements through Robot Swarms (arxiv:cs). Decentralized robot swarm uses onboard sensors and BFT protocol to verify real-world data for blockchain oracles
Angelfish: Consensus with Optimal Throughput and Latency Across the Leader-DAG Spectrum (arxiv:cs). Angelfish adapts leader-based and DAG-based consensus for optimal throughput and latency across the leader-DAG spectrum
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