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Monad (MON) has announced a new privacy product - details will be revealed on October 6 in Singapore. 01 Oct, 2026 byDropsTab Join Its Socials The teaser "Privacy is coming" was released ahead of the Open Summit by the Monad Foundation, which will be held in Singapore during Token2049. At the same time, another announcement was made - StraitsX plans to launch XSGD and XUSD natively on Monad by early 2027. The MON token rose by 15% over the past 24 hours on the news NEAR co-founder Ilya Polosukhin confirmed details of the NEAR Intents exploit worth $3.8 million. 01 Oct, 2026 byDropsTab Join Its Socials - The bug was isolated in the Omni infrastructure chain with USDT on BSC during deposits/withdrawals via the NEAR Intents smart contract - The anomaly was detected by SHIELD - the project's proprietary AI monitoring layer - after which the service was temporarily suspended - The vulnerability was patched within an hour of discovery; NEAR Intents is now back online, except for a few isolated networks - The core NEAR protocol and token were not affected - this is the first major exploit targeting Intents, which currently processes over $4 billion in monthly volume Polosukhin noted the rise in attacks leveraging AI systems against large-scale infrastructure, citing recent incidents involving Bitget, MetaMask, and Lido. NEAR plans to introduce formal contract verification into its release process and has invited other projects to join SHIELD for threat data sharing. A full analysis of the incident will be published in the coming days. NEAR Intents reported a hack resulting in a loss of ~$3.8 million due to a bug in the Omni infrastructure. 01 Oct, 2026 byDropsTab Join Its Socials The service was suspended after a problem was discovered in the interaction between Omni's deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract. - Preliminary loss assessment - approximately $3.8 million; the team stated that it will fully compensate users. - The vulnerability on the contract side has already been fixed, and NEAR Intents and near.com should resume operations within an hour. - Deposits and withdrawals will remain unavailable for another approximately 12 hours on the BSC, Polygon, TON, Optimism, Avalanche, Stellar, Monad, LayerX, Adi, Scroll, and Plasma networks. Users whose assets from these networks are stuck in NEAR Intents (including HOT wallet and near.com) will be able to exchange them for other assets once the service is restored. A detailed report is promised to be published in the coming days. Citi raised its BTC forecast to $113,000. 01 Oct, 2026 byDropsTab Join Its Socials The bank's previous 12-month target was $82,000 - a forecast increase of roughly 35% from the current BTC price. At the same time, the Ethereum target was raised - from $2,240 to $3,028, representing about a 12% increase from the current ~$2,706. Among the drivers: renewed inflows into ETFs (the bank expects around $5 billion over 12 months, albeit at a slower pace), favorable macro conditions, and increased market activity. The SEC's actions were specifically highlighted as "temporary but significant positive," and the U.S. Treasury's repurchase of government bonds was also noted as a factor boosting the market. Arcus has launched a points program: Season 1 has already begun. 01 Oct, 2026 byDropsTab Join Its Socials Arcus has launched Arcus Points. Participants in the closed beta have already been credited with points for Season 0, which covers activity from July 1 to September 30. The final total number of points will be revealed closer to the program's conclusion. Season 1 started on October 1. Points will be distributed every Wednesday at 22:00 MSK for trading, market making, holding deposits on the platform, and inviting new traders. Additional bonuses are currently available for trading Stock Tokens and other RWA, for activity outside regular U.S. stock market hours, and for trades executed through Robinhood Wallet if they are settled via Arcus. During the three-month closed beta, Arcus reported over $5 billion in trading volume, more than 15,000 traders, a peak daily volume exceeding $500 million, and a TVL of over $25 million. The project has also moved away from a manual whitelist and switched to an invite system. One invite code is awarded for every $1 million in perpetual trading volume, including the volume generated by invited users. Arcus is a decentralized exchange on the Robinhood Chain, built by the dYdX team in partnership with Robinhood Crypto. On the platform, you can trade tokenized stocks, cryptocurrencies, and perpetual contracts on stocks, commodities, indices, and crypto assets around the clock. Arcus received strategic investment from Robinhood Crypto. The exact amount of the round was not disclosed publicly. BitMart proposed a payment plan for users following balance issues. 30 Sep, 2026 byDropsTab Join Its Socials The BitMart exchange has released a preliminary plan for payouts to users. Since August, the company, together with consultants Alvarez & Marsal and White & Case, has been assessing its assets and liabilities following the events of July 26. The exchange itself identified the causes of the crisis. First, there's a gap in the balance sheet dating back to the hack in December 2021, when BitMart lost about $319.5 million. While the market was growing, profits allowed the business to keep operating; however, starting in 2026, the business turned unprofitable. Additionally, certain groups were inflating futures volumes through bonuses and no-slip programs. Starting in May, according to the exchange, these same groups launched social media attacks that triggered panic withdrawals. The management deemed an offer from one investor to inject $10 million clearly insufficient. All user balances will be converted into dollars at the weighted average token price as of July 26; a court-appointed independent administrator will handle the valuation. Afterward, each user can choose one or more of the following options: First, an immediate proportional payout from the exchange's liquid assets: fiat currency, USDC, PYUSD, USDT, BTC, ETH, and SOL. Second, a redemption token backed by future recovery of funds stolen during the 2021 hack. According to the investigation, part of these funds is held on several centralized exchanges. Third, the Continuum token, which will be traded on a DEX and backed by BitMart's investments, future sales of illiquid assets such as stakes in private companies and altcoins, and - if the business can be relaunched - also by a share of future profits. In the next 3-4 weeks, the exchange will hold consultations with its 50 largest users and prepare a report detailing the expected returns for each option. The plan must be approved by the court. Your 100% Bonus Awaits Enjoy a 100% welcome bonus up to $1,000 and discover the Roobet experience

Fastest growing global finance super app Abound chooses Monad to power its next phase of growth. Aug 25, 2026, 04:37 ET Riding record growth after crossing $500 Million in remittances, the super-app built for global Indians announces its next chapter - including a brand-new wallet product, with the waitlist opening soon SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Abound, the super-app for Indians in the US backed by Times Internet (Times of India Group), grew past $500 Million in remittance volumes served in the last year, with US and India markets accounting for the bulk of volumes. Abound is excited to announce the next phase of products being built to serve the global Indian diaspora better. The next chapter will be built on Monad, the next-generation Layer 1 blockchain enabling open access to fair financial markets. With Monad's technology, it is the best option for Abound's use cases. What began as a smarter way to send money home has evolved into a comprehensive super app for NRI life spanning cross-border payments, savings, and everyday benefits designed around the needs of Indians living in the US. Abound has become one of the platforms Indians in the US trust to move and manage money across two countries, with over $500 million in volume served. Abound now plans to serve Indians across the world and expand support with newer products better suited to their changing needs. A New Roadmap for the global Indian Building on this momentum, Abound today unveiled the next chapter of its product vision: * A new wallet product: a single home for Indians overseas to hold, move, and manage money across both countries' multi-currency balances, and instant transfers between US and India accounts, with support for more countries coming soon. Waitlist opens soon; the product launches in Q3 2026. * New ways to earn and save: interest-bearing savings and investment accounts, giving NRIs more ways to put their money to work. * AI agent-led workflows, including the agentic payment protocol x402 to power the next chapter of Abound's upcoming product suite. Monad Foundation is a premier member of the x402 Foundation. "Abound has become the platform Indians in the US trust to move money home; we have moved $500 million since launch" said Nishkaam Mehta, CEO, Abound. "This roadmap is about building agents to seamlessly manage the NRIs entire financial life, with the trust of our community at the center of everything we do." "Abound is embarking on an ambitious journey to build a full set of agentic financial services and cross border platform for NRIs along its distribution via Times of India. We're excited to see Abound leverage Monad's technology to help accelerate at their efforts into the next chapter," said Raj Parekh, Head of Payments & Stablecoins. Powered by Next-Generation Technology Abound's upcoming product suite will be built on Monad. Monad is a high-performance, institutional-grade Layer 1 blockchain enabling open access to rewards, AI agents, and fair financial markets on neutral ground. The integration gives Abound the technology foundation to serve the Indian diaspora at scale - with the performance and reliability a community of global earners expects. Monad's technology underpins Abound's expanded capabilities as the platform scales into its next chapter. SOURCE Abound

Seoul office begins with crypto focus. Leading operations from the new office will be Park Sung-mo, a16z Crypto's Asia-Pacific go-to-market lead. Park, who was appointed when the firm's Asia expansion plans were announced in December, previously worked at Naver and the Monad Foundation. Park said the firm focuses on helping portfolio companies grow and enter new markets rather than providing capital alone. He added that the Seoul office will actively support portfolio companies seeking opportunities in South Korea and across Asia. The opening adds another step to a16z's increasing activity in technology sectors across the region. In May, Bloomberg reported that a16z led a $250 million funding round for AI search startup Exa Labs, valuing the company at $2.2 billion. Exa develops search infrastructure designed for AI systems and positions its platform as a search engine built specifically for artificial intelligence applications. Interest in financial infrastructure has also remained a priority for the firm. Earlier this month, a16z Crypto invested $100 million as part of a $355 million funding round for Digital Asset Holdings, the company behind Canton Network. Other participants included Citadel Securities, Apollo, BNP Paribas, HSBC, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Optiver, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Digital Asset said the funding will support ecosystem growth, partnerships, and acquisitions. The company has promoted Canton Network as a blockchain platform for tokenized assets and institutional finance, with reported support for more than $6 trillion in tokenized issuance. Alongside investments in AI infrastructure and tokenized finance, a16z said it intends to contribute to South Korea's startup ecosystem by creating opportunities between its portfolio companies and local businesses, using Seoul as a gateway for expansion across Asia.