1. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Russian shadow bank A7 Network, involving $17 billion in funds
The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on the A7 Network, a shadow banking network linked to Russia. OFAC has classified it as a major transnational criminal organization. FinCEN plans to ban fund transfers involving its agent network and issue a risk warning to financial institutions. The U.S. Treasury Department stated that A7 Network assisted in evading sanctions through third-country companies, false trade documents, etc. Its agent network processed more than 17 billion US dollars in funds from January 2025 to June 2026, and was used by the Central Bank of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, etc. to transfer funds, and was also involved in Iranian oil sales, weapons procurement, and some encryption-related illegal activities. A7 Network also includes A7A5, a ruble-backed token issued by Old Vector LLC, which the United States says is used for cross-border transactions and to circumvent sanctions.
2. Haina International and Castle Securities withdrew the Futu Tiger Options insider trading lawsuit and reached a settlement
Susquehanna International (Susquehanna) and Citadel Securities (Citadel Securities) said they would withdraw their lawsuits against traders suspected of using Chinese regulatory information to trade Futu (FUTU) and Tiger Securities (TIGR) options in advance, and have reached settlements with multiple defendants. The specific terms were not disclosed. The companies previously said traders involved bought about $12 million in put options before the regulatory announcement on May 22 and made more than $100 million in profits. The federal judge in the Southern District of New York previously refused to continue to freeze relevant accounts, believing that although insider trading may be an explanation, the existing evidence is insufficient to support the continued freezing of funds; the two companies still reserve the right to re-indict the unreconciled defendants.
3. Tether-backed Utexo plans to issue USDT on the Bitcoin network this month
Tether-backed Utexo plans to issue USDT on the Bitcoin network this month. Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk said that the company has obtained a commercial license to issue USDT on Bitcoin and plans to provide APIs, SDKs and cloud infrastructure for exchanges, wallets and payment service providers. Utexo will be based on the RGB protocol and the Bitcoin UTXO model, keeping most transaction data off-chain, and focusing on supporting three types of applications: USDT private transfers, direct exchange of native BTC and USDT, and mortgage lending using native BTC without encapsulating BTC to other blockchains. USDT was first issued on the Bitcoin network through the Omni protocol in 2014, and subsequently Ethereum and Tron gradually became the main circulation networks. Utexo also plans to expand to the Lightning Network after USDT is launched on the Bitcoin network.
4. Italian private banking giant Fideuram suffered an AI voice telecom fraud, and at least 36 million euros were converted into cryptocurrency.
In February 2026, Paolo Molesini, the former chairman of Fideuram, received a WhatsApp message impersonating Intesa Sanpaolo Group CEO Carlo Messina and received a call using artificial intelligence to forge the voice of lawyer Paolo Nastasi. He then instructed the financial department to transfer funds to accounts in mainland China, Hong Kong and other places, with an initial transfer of approximately 95 million euros. Fideuram subsequently recovered approximately 40 million euros, and Portugal froze another 13 million euros. However, at least 36 million euros were still converted into cryptocurrency after multiple overseas transfers, and investigators are tracking the relevant funds through international judicial assistance. Molesini was not investigated and resigned as chairman on March 12, citing "personal reasons."
5. Ethereum Foundation and Open Anonymity launch zkAPI: Hide API payment identity through zero-knowledge proof
The Ethereum Foundation and the Open Anonymity Project launched zkAPI, which uses zero-knowledge proof to separate API usage and payment identity. It has now been launched on the Ethereum main network. Users can first deposit ETH, USDC and other amounts into the on-chain Vault, and then authorize API usage for a single or a session through zero-knowledge proof. The service provider can verify the validity of the payment but cannot know the specific deposit source and payment identity, and the payment layer cannot see the request content. zkAPI supports the generation of short-term and limited API Keys for compatible interfaces such as OpenAI and Ollama, and is settled based on actual usage; funds are managed by smart contracts, and users can exit and withdraw on the chain. This solution is currently mainly used for AI inference, and can also be extended to RPC, image generation, VPN and inter-machine services. However, it cannot hide the identity-related risks caused by IP, request time and prompt word content itself.
6. The Trump Meme Coin Holders Dinner will be held on November 22, and the first 185 holders can participate.
Fight Fight Fight, the promoter of the Trump Meme Coin TRUMP, plans to hold a coin holder dinner at Trump National Golf Club on November 22. The top 185 TRUMP holders will be eligible to participate, and Trump is listed as a guest at the event. Trump has previously participated in similar activities for TRUMP holders. The token has fallen by about 95% since its high point. The price once rose by about 9% on the day this event was announced. At the same time, Democratic lawmakers are paying attention to Trump and his family’s encryption business and have said that if they control either house of Congress after the November midterm elections, they may further investigate related business activities; the White House has previously stated that Trump is not involved in the daily management of the family business and denied that his encryption business constitutes a conflict of interest.