Apple and Microsoft hardware have both raised prices, with demand for AI chips driving up storage costs, potentially kicking off a wave of consumer electronics price hikes.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum nodes can now complete synchronization in half a day, and with aggressive configurations, disk usage can be reduced to under 0.5 TB, mainly thanks to EIP-4444 and client teams’ ongoing optimizations to snapshot sync. The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade will further improve node synchronization, and Nimbus’ new sync protocol has already adopted related mechanisms. Vitalik also noted that users can point their wallet’s Remote Procedure Call (RPC) to a local node, but they must properly configure the node’s RPC functionality; some in-browser decentralized applications may not effectively support local RPC, while others have hardcoded RPC to their own servers. The Kohaku command-line tool will next further integrate privacy protocols, with partial early development already completed.

Over the past 30 days, tokenized stocks on the Base blockchain have generated approximately $1.3 billion in spot decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume, a 153.8% increase compared to the prior 30-day period. Of this total, tokenized stocks issued by Coinbase accounted for roughly $1.2 billion, representing the vast majority, while st0x-related assets saw trading volume of around $90 million.

Cosmos Labs released a disclosure stating that on September 22, Neutron suffered a governance attack, resulting in the theft of liquidity from protocols including Astroport. Approximately 1.73 million ATOM were subsequently transferred by the attacker to the Cosmos Hub. The Cosmos Hub itself was not targeted in the attack, and user funds remained unharmed. To block the stolen ATOM from being further moved, Hub validators temporarily paused the network for roughly 24.5 hours, resuming block production on September 23 using the patched Gaia v28.3.0. Cosmos Labs added that during the pause, 1.227 million ATOM stayed in the attacker’s Hub address. Upon network recovery, these funds were transferred in a single operation to a 4/6 multi-sig address made up of Nansen, Keplr, Enigma, Silknodes, Kiln, and Polkachu. Earlier, around 500,000 ATOM had been swapped for ETH via THORChain and cannot be recovered. An additional 169,000 ATOM entered the attacker’s address via a THORChain refund after the network came back online, and were later transferred to Osmosis and sold. The multi-sig address currently holds approximately 1.227 million ATOM, which can only be returned following authorization via a Cosmos Hub governance proposal. The funds will not be staked, lent, or traded. The Neutron team is expected to submit a recovery plan and related governance proposal next week.

Crypto news outlet Market Insider reported that Hunter Biden-associated token LAPTOP has seen its market capitalization drop below $25 million, a 99.9% plunge from its launch, and estimated the project team reaped eight-figure profits. Hunter Biden, son of former U.S. President Joe Biden, responded that he had previously called the token launch "terrible", adding that relevant accounts are under review. He noted that the project team’s wallet has not sold any LAPTOP tokens to date, questioned the claim that the team cashed out an eight-figure sum, and demanded the person who made the estimate disclose the relevant wallet address.

On September 25, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Cash FX Group and its CEO Huascar Jose Lopez Castillo, The Conversion Pros and its CEO Ronald Pope, and Justin Halladay. The CFTC alleges the defendants operated a multi-level marketing Ponzi scheme, illegally raising over $950 million from the public including U.S. residents, claiming the funds would be used to trade retail foreign exchange contracts and promising weekly investment returns of up to 15%. According to the CFTC, Cash FX only conducted a small amount of actual forex trading, misappropriating nearly all participants’ funds. It used money from new participants to pay out fraudulent trading profits to other participants, while also paying millions of dollars to the defendants. The company maintained the fraud by providing false account statements. The CFTC states that participants have lost at least $406 million, and it is currently seeking to recover funds, forfeit illegal proceeds, impose civil penalties, secure trading and registration bans, and obtain permanent injunctions barring the defendants from further violating the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran will not make concessions on its nuclear program even if the U.S. accepts Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The official added that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the U.S. meets all of Iran’s conditions. Iranian Foreign Minister Al-Araghchi previously stated that Iran has put forward a seven-day plan, which includes ending hostilities in multiple regions, lifting the U.S. maritime blockade on Iranian ports, unfreezing frozen assets, and canceling oil sanctions, in return for reopening the critical waterway. (Jinshi)