Gary Gensler, chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) is highly centralized in certain aspects and urged projects working in the sector to register with the SEC. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Gensler suggested that the decentralized notions implied by the term DeFi were “a bit of a misnomer,” adding: While DeFi projects are designed to be autonomous platforms that operate without a centralized authority, Gensler asserted that many are developed and controlled by a centralized team that is incentivized to promote its platforms.

Leading United States exchange by trade volume Coinbase has revealed plans to add half a billion dollars worth of crypto to its balance sheet. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the company’s board had approved the crypto spending spree in a Friday tweet, adding that Coinbase also plans to invest 10% of all profits generated into digital assets moving forward. Armstrong also indicated the company hopes to increase the percentage of profit it allocates to cryptocurrency purchases over time.

With thousands of Afghans currently being accepted as refugees in different countries following the Taliban’s takeover of many highly populated areas, many nonprofit organizations are accepting donations in cryptocurrency. Thousands, if not millions, of Afghans are attempting to or are in the process of fleeing their home in fear of what the Taliban may do now they are largely in control of the country. Organizations helping refugees and those on the ground have put the word out: They need funds to support Afghans arriving on foreign soil with often little more than the clothes on their backs. Hearts & Homes for Refugees, a New-York based grassroots nonprofit, is currently calling for donations to assist the roughly 20,000 Afghans still in the country waiting for United State authorities to process special immigrant visas. The group hopes to raise enough funds to relocate Afghan families to Westchester County, and currently accepts Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), ZCash (ZEC), Gemini dollar (GUSD), BAL, Yearn.Finance (YFI), Polygon (MATIC), Synthetix (SNX) and Bancor (BNT) through its integration with the Giving Block.

The Swedish government has found itself in the unforeseen situation of paying out around $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to a convicted — and then jailed — drug dealer. Two years ago, the man was convicted in a Swedish court for having illegally earned 36 Bitcoin through online drug sales. Yet, Tove Kullberg, his prosecutor at the time, had used the Bitcoin’s equivalent value in fiat to make her case. The court, therefore, judged that the man should be stripped of his illicitly earned Bitcoin at its then-value of 1.3 million Swedish kronor ($100,000). In the period following the man’s conviction and imprisonment, his crypto stash had appreciated to such an extent that the Swedish Enforcement Authority, tasked with auctioning off the 36 BTC, needed to sell off just 3 BTC to satisfy the court’s demands.

The mayor of Cool Valley, Missouri said he was exploring giving more than $1 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to the city’s 1,500 residents.  In a Thursday interview with St. Louis news outlet KSDK, Mayor Jayson Stewart said he wanted to see “every single household in my city receive some level of Bitcoin.” Stewart said the funds would likely come from some “very supportive donors” but did not rule out using money from the government’s pandemic relief response to launch the venture. The mayor did not specify how much Bitcoin the city would be able to distribute to each resident but suggested it could be any amount up to $1,000 — roughly $1.5 million — more than 30 BTC at the time of publication. However, he also hinted the funds could require Cool Valley residents to HODL for five years.

According to data from eth.btc.com，ethereum network's hashrate is610,197.42 GH/s，mining difficulty is8,093.50T. ETH's price ：$ 3,263.14 Avg Gas Price：44.00Gwei Pending Txs ：150609

According to data from eth.btc.com，ethereum network's hashrate is591,242.52 GH/s，mining difficulty is7,960.63T. ETH's price ：$ 3,301.85 Avg Gas Price：188.00Gwei Pending Txs ：164392

PAWS Chicago, an animal rescue organization in the midwest city aiming to have shelters stop using euthanasia for its resident cats and dogs, is now accepting crypto donations. In a Tuesday announcement, PAWS Chicago said it would be accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and other tokens to support its operations ahead of its new hospital for homeless cats and dogs. The organization is hoping to target “a tech-savvy demographic of potential donors,” promoting crypto donations with digital billboards featuring a dog shooting lasers out of its eyes. According to the organization, crypto donations may be used to further its goals of reducing the number of shelter animals euthanized in the United States by spaying and neutering cats and dogs. PAWS Chicago said it has provided 300,000 such surgeries in its 25 years of operation, helping reduce the number of homeless animals killed in the Chicago area by 91%. The new medical center aims to improve its efforts to save animals.

Galaxy Digital Holdings has teamed up with Alerian and S-Network Global indexes to launch eight crypto-focused blockchain indexes. According to an Aug. 24 announcement, the duo have launched two crypto index families named “Alerian Galaxy Global Blockchain Indexes” and the “Alerian Galaxy Global Cryptocurrency-Focused Blockchain Indexes,” which the eight offerings are listed under. The passive indexes offer exposure to “public companies and select investment vehicles” that are actively engaged in the crypto and blockchain sectors, such as crypto miners, companies that hold crypto on their balance sheets, infrastructure tech developers and blockchain researchers. The indexes are rebalanced monthly and equally weighted.

The hashrate for the Bitcoin network has made a remarkable recovery since it crashed following China’s crypto mining clampdown earlier this year. The Bitcoin hashrate has now topped 150 Exahashes, or one quintillion hashes, per second according to data from analytics provider CryptoQuant. On Aug. 24, the metrics provider reported a hashrate of 152 EH/s which has tripled since it bottomed out this year on June 28 at 52 EH/s.

Blockchain artificial intelligence lab Fetch.ai has launched a new NFT marketplace for AI-generated art, giving users the ability to create digital collectibles in a collaborative setting through machine learning technology. The new platform, dubbed Colearn Paint, allows groups of creators to automatically generate and collectively own NFTs designed by a machine learning algorithm. The platform is geared towards “abstract compositions,” according to Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai, who cited “collective learning” as a major trend for the future. Collective learning is a concept within artificial intelligence that describes the application of deep learning algorithms to data and privacy.

The controversial $1 trillion infrastructure bill will see a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives without any amendments to the crypto tax provisions by Sept. 27. The vote was agreed to after the House narrowly approved the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget blueprint in a vote of 220 to 212. Despite some initial pushback from moderate Democrats, the dissident voters were swayed after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi committed to pass the bill before Sept. 27. Pelosi stated: In late July, last-minute cryptocurrency provisions were added to the infrastructure bill in a bid to raise a further $28 billion through expanded tax obligations for the crypto sector.

Amid the enormous success of crypto-powered game Axie Infinity in the Philippines, the local Department of Finance has made clear that it wants a cut of profits generated by playing Axie and other play-to-earn games. An August 23 report from Inquirer cites Philippine Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko as clarifying that any profits gleaned through play-to-earn games are subject to income tax. “Cryptocurrency is an asset, so it’s already taxable in the Philippines [...] whoever earns currency from it, it’s income you should report it,” she said.

Nonfungible token protocol Alethea AI has closed a $16 million private token sale to build scalable infrastructure for the NFT market, highlighting once again the growing demand for digital collectibles. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban was among the backers of the Alethea AI token sale, which was co-led by Metapurse and Crypto.com Capital. Some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds participated in the sale, including Alameda Research, Multicoin, Galaxy Interactive, Dapper Labs, LD Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Borderless Capital and others. Individual investors included CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors and Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Capital. The funding will go towards building “scalable AI infrastructure for NFTs” that will give digital collectibles more dynamic characteristics, Alethea AI said. The company has been working closely with Open AI to develop its underlying technology. Once complete, Alethea’s protocol will enable NFTs to become “interactive media assets, with personality traits, preferences and real-time interactive capability.”

Nonfungible token protocol Alethea AI has closed a $16 million private token sale to build scalable infrastructure for the NFT market, highlighting once again the growing demand for digital collectibles. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban was among the backers of the Alethea AI token sale, which was co-led by Metapurse and Crypto.com Capital. Some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds participated in the sale, including Alameda Research, Multicoin, Galaxy Interactive, Dapper Labs, LD Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Borderless Capital and others. Individual investors included CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors and Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Capital. The funding will go towards building “scalable AI infrastructure for NFTs” that will give digital collectibles more dynamic characteristics, Alethea AI said. The company has been working closely with Open AI to develop its underlying technology. Once complete, Alethea’s protocol will enable NFTs to become “interactive media assets, with personality traits, preferences and real-time interactive capability.”

Coinbase is under fire for terrible customer service following reports of users accounts being hacked and drained of funds. According to an Aug. 24 investigation by CNBC, thousands of customers across the country have lodged complaints against the company. The outlet stated that it had interviewed numerous Coinbase customers who claimed hackers had drained their accounts, with the issue exacerbated by the exchange not responding to support requests:

Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is planning to officially expand into the European market, following in the footsteps of rival exchange Coinbase. Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell said that his firm is actively working on receiving a European license, targeting several local jurisdictions for a potential regulatory approval already this year. In a Tuesday interview with German business news agency The Handelsblatt, Powell noted that Kraken has been in talks with multiple European regulators, with countries like Malta, Luxembourg, and Ireland being the most likely jurisdictions to license the U.S. crypto exchange.

OKEx CEO Jay Hao said on Weibo that "OKEx permanently suspends services" is false news.

OKG Technology Holdings Limited issued an announcement stating that the legal counsel informed that XU Mingxing is currently under investigation by the Chinese public security organs. The company has not yet contacted XU Mingxing to verify the information.