Liquid Network loses $320M, CLARITY vote nears, Bitcoin ETFs shed $463M | Weekly recap

In this week’s edition of the weekly recap, a withdrawal of nearly 4,000 BTC forced Liquid Network to suspend transactions before operators began a limited restart. The U.S. CLARITY Act faced fresh doubts ahead of a Sep. 15 Senate vote, while spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $462.7 million over four trading sessions.

Summary

• Liquid Network halted transactions after a withdrawal worth about $320 million; 3,400 BTC was later returned.
• Senators remained divided over the CLARITY Act before a Sep. 15 procedural vote requiring 60 votes.
• U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $462.7 million during the Sep. 8–11 trading week.
• The DOJ restrained more than $52 million in crypto while targeting the Xinbi Guarantee network.
• The Ethereum Foundation ranked 62 proposals for its planned Hegotá upgrade.

Liquid Network restarts blocks after $320 million withdrawal

• An actor created unbacked L-BTC and withdrew approximately 3,996 BTC through an authorized peg-out service, according to crypto.news’ report on the Liquid Network incident. The withdrawal, first reported on Sep. 6, removed roughly 95% of the Bitcoin held in the sidechain’s federation wallet at the time. Liquid stopped transactions and peg operations while developers addressed a proof-verification flaw in its Elements software.
• Liquid said on Sep. 10 that its nodes had resumed producing blocks following an emergency update. Transactions and peg operations remained suspended. The actors returned 3,400 BTC, leaving about 598 BTC outside the federation wallet. Liquid called them “purported white-hat hackers,” reflecting the actors’ claim rather than confirming they had authorization.

CLARITY Act faces a 60-vote Senate test

• Republican senators warned that the CLARITY Act might lack the votes to advance when the Senate holds a procedural vote on Sep. 15. The measure needs 60 votes to open debate. With Republicans holding 53 seats, supporters would need at least seven Democrats or independents if every Republican backed the motion.
• Sen. Cynthia Lummis blamed Democratic demands for the impasse, while other lawmakers pointed to unresolved ethics provisions involving government officials’ crypto interests. Stablecoin rewards and protections for decentralized finance developers also remained disputed. A successful procedural vote would begin Senate debate; it would not pass the bill or make it law.

Bitcoin ETFs lose $462.7 million as Ether funds gain

• U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $462.7 million in net outflows from Sep. 8 through Sep. 11, according to Farside Investors data cited by crypto.news. Monday’s Labor Day closure left four trading sessions, and the funds posted outflows in each. Thursday’s $282.7 million loss was the largest of the week.
• Ethereum ETFs finished the period with $196.9 million in net inflows after attracting $216.4 million on Friday. Solana funds gained $9.7 million. The fund data showed a split between Bitcoin and Ether allocations as investors assessed U.S. inflation and the Federal Reserve’s Sep. 15–16 meeting.

DOJ restrains more than $52 million in crypto

• The U.S. Department of Justice restrained more than $52 million in cryptocurrency while targeting wallets and online channels linked to the Xinbi Guarantee network. Tether said authorities seized two wallets that had received about $12 million in payments and sought restraints against 47 more wallets associated with suspected money laundering.
• U.S. authorities and blockchain researchers described Xinbi as a marketplace connecting alleged scam operators with payment, laundering, and other services. Tether said it assisted the enforcement action. The wallet restraints are a confirmed step in the investigation; allegations concerning the marketplace and its users remain attributed to the authorities.

Ethereum Foundation ranks 62 Hegotá proposals

• The Ethereum Foundation graded 62 proposed changes for its planned Hegotá upgrade. About 60 protocol specialists contributed 397 assessments. Transaction inclusion lists and Frame Transactions received the highest “must ship” ranking, while other proposals were assigned lower priorities or declined.
• The rankings describe the foundation’s development priorities, not a decision to deploy all 62 changes. Its Protocol Cluster also stated a goal of making Ethereum’s base layer resistant to quantum attacks by December 2029. Developers and community members can discuss the Hegotá list at a Sep. 16 Reddit session.

Harmony proposes ending its blockchain

• Harmony proposed retiring its layer-1 network and issuing ONE balances as Ethereum-based tokens after a final snapshot. The project announced the plan on Sep. 6 and asked users to leave smart contracts before Sep. 10 because liquidity pools, multisignature vaults, and applications would not transfer with wallet balances.
• Harmony reserved $1.372 million for eligible validators and delegators, with proposed payments over four quarters. Its plan followed an August exploit that created forged ONE tokens. The final network block and Ethereum token distribution had not been confirmed in the linked report.

Bitcoin reacts to inflation before the Fed meeting

• Bitcoin fell below $78,000 on Sep. 10 after U.S. producer inflation exceeded forecasts, touching about $76,676 in crypto.news market data. The drop followed repeated failures to hold gains above $80,000 earlier in September.
• BTC recovered above $78,000 on Sep. 11 after U.S. consumer inflation met headline forecasts. Consumer prices rose 3.4% from a year earlier, while core prices increased 0.3% from July. Polymarket traders priced an 81% chance of a quarter-point Fed rate increase, according to the report.

Ripple urges senators to hear crypto holders

• Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty asked undecided and opposing senators to meet crypto holders before the CLARITY Act vote. He cited a National Cryptocurrency Association estimate that about 67 million U.S. adults hold digital assets.
• Crypto.news reported that supporters of Stand With Crypto contacted lawmakers nearly 50,000 times during August, citing Reuters. Banking groups also pressed senators over stablecoin rewards and their possible effect on deposits. Those competing appeals added to the legislative dispute, but neither established how senators would vote.

Robinhood reports 61% rise in monthly crypto volume

• Robinhood’s August crypto trading volume reached $17.5 billion, up 61% from July, according to operating figures released during the week. Bitstamp processed $10.1 billion, while the Robinhood app handled $7.4 billion.
• Despite the monthly increase, combined volume was 38% below August 2025. The comparison separates a rebound from July’s quieter trading from a year-over-year recovery, which Robinhood had not reported.

U.S. agencies propose revised bank vendor guidance

• The Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, and National Credit Union Administration proposed new third-party risk guidelines that would let banks and credit unions adjust oversight to each outside relationship. If finalized, the nonbinding guidelines would replace the 2023 and 2024 frameworks.
• Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr dissented, warning of possible gaps in supervision. The proposal is relevant to institutions assessing outside financial-technology providers, including digital-asset service firms, but it does not itself approve any crypto activity.

Brazil’s banks expand customer access to crypto

• Brazilian banks added digital assets to customer platforms while reporting no virtual assets on their own balance sheets in March filings reviewed by Folha de S.Paulo. Itaú offered 15 crypto assets, and Nubank listed 28.
• Banco do Brasil reported processing more than R$11 million in customer crypto transactions since January. The distinction between facilitating customer trades and buying tokens for a bank’s own account matters as Brazilian crypto firms prepare to meet licensing requirements later this year.

Flare reports 21.5 billion FLR staked

• Staked FLR increased from about 16 billion to 21.5 billion tokens after Flare changed its network economics, according to DefiLlama Research. The FIP.16 upgrade cut annual inflation from 5% to 3%.
• DefiLlama also reported that transaction-fee burns had risen to more than 10 times their earlier level. The figures measure activity after the upgrade; they do not prove the rule changes alone caused every increase in staking.

UniCredit considers broader digital-asset services

• Italy’s UniCredit is exploring crypto custody and brokerage infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The bank is also considering tokenized investments and stablecoin services, but has not selected a final product lineup or announced a launch.
• UniCredit previously offered professional clients a product linked to BlackRock’s U.S. Bitcoin ETF and issued a tokenized minibond. Its latest discussions remain at an early stage and could change before any customer service begins.