Arbitrum Activates Elara With Optional Compliance Filters for Dedicated Chains

Arbitrum activated ArbOS 61 Elara on Aug. 20, adding optional protocol-level transaction screening, priority-fee support and an alternative data-availability interface for dedicated chains, while changing base-fee administration and expanding Stylus capacity on Arbitrum One. The upgrade went live… Read the full story at The Defiant

Optimism Redirects $49.7 Million Airdrop Reserve After Late Deciding Vote

Optimism governance approved a proposal to move 546.9 million OP tokens, valued at roughly $49.7 million at the time of the vote, from an allocation reserved for future user airdrops into a Strategic Ecosystem Fund administered by the Optimism Foundation. The change removes the remaining dedicated… Read the full story at The Defiant

Trump Says CFTC Working to Onshore Hyperliquid

President Donald Trump said CFTC Chair Michael Selig is working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion, putting the White House behind a domestic path for a perpetual futures venue that currently geoblocks American traders. Trump made the remark Wednesday… Read the full story at The Defiant

Gnosis Chain to Abandon Its Validator Set and Settle to Ethereum

Gnosis Chain is transitioning from a standalone Layer 1 to an Ethereum-settled rollup and retiring its independent validator set, according to an announcement from Gnosis Chain and a proposal published on GnosisDAO’s governance forum. For GNO stakers, the approved direction would unlock roughly… Read the full story at The Defiant

Maya Protocol Exploit Drains $1.7 Million From Shared Liquidity

Maya Protocol was exploited for roughly $1.7 million after an attacker inflated accounting with a false subsidy, then added and removed liquidity to extract about 48.87 million CACAO and 98.82 LINK, according to blockchain security firm CertiK. CertiK said the assets came from shared liquidity. In… Read the full story at The Defiant

Bitcoin Tops $68,000 as Short Liquidations Hit $1.7 Billion

Bitcoin traded above $68,000 and ether gained 9% on Wednesday, forcing $1.91 billion of leveraged positions to close, according to Coinglass. Shorts made up $1.74 billion of that total, roughly eight times the volume of liquidations recorded over the previous 24 hours. The trigger came from the… Read the full story at The Defiant

SEC Proposes Token Offering Rules With $75 Million Exemption

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Regulation Crypto Assets on Aug. 18, a framework that would let token issuers raise up to $75 million a year without registering the offering and, under a separate safe harbor, remove some tokens from the definition of a security altogether. The… Read the full story at The Defiant

Tenev Pushes for Tokenized Stocks in America

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev called on US policymakers to modernize securities rules so tokenized stocks can trade in America, in a long post published Tuesday that named the absence of US Stock Tokens as “one glaring gap” in the company’s tokenization push. The post landed five days after the SEC… Read the full story at […]