Tether Kicks Off First Full Audit; SpaceX Said to Prepare IPO Filing

Author: Shenchao TechFlow Market Brief U.S.-Iran contacts reported, no full negotiations yet U.S. media reported that Iranian sources said Washington and Tehran have made contact through various intermediaries, but talks have not reached the level of comprehensive negotiations. An Iranian source cited by CNN said Iran is willing to consider "sustainable" proposals aimed at ending the war, adding that any acceptable plan must include the lifting of all sanctions on Iran. The source said Iran has not sought direct meetings, but would listen if a deal protects national interests. DOJ says it has no evidence in Powell probe, court record shows The Washington Post cited court records showing a senior aide to DOJ official Jenny O'Connor acknowledged at an in-camera hearing this month that the Department of Justice has no evidence of wrongdoing in its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell related to renovation costs for a Fed building. China issues SOE leaders' clean-conduct rules, explicitly bans accepting "cryptocurrencies" People's Daily reported that the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council released the "Regulations on Clean Business Conduct for Leaders of State-Owned Enterprises." Article 7 bars SOE leaders from seeking personal gain via their authority or influence, including accepting gifts, cash, or virtual currencies from affiliated firms; benefiting from unfairly priced property transactions; profiting from entrusted securities or futures investments without contributing capital; conducting quid-pro-quo deals via anonymous or nominee shareholding; earning outsized returns through financial activities such as private lending; using insider information or trade secrets; embezzling or misappropriating corporate assets; and privately taking discounts, intermediary fees, or kickbacks. Violations will be handled under relevant regulations, discipline, and law. Backpack responds to Sybil dispute with appeals and compensation plan Backpack team member Claire said the project has opened an appeals process and will roll out a token buyback compensation program after user disputes over Sybil determinations. Co-founder Armani and the core team introduced "Criterion 3": users flagged as Sybils who operated no more than three accounts from a single device can receive more than 50% of points back following manual review and verification. Backpack also plans to repurchase tokens on the secondary market in the coming days, earmarking the repurchased tokens to compensate eligible users. Claire said the impact was relatively concentrated among Chinese-speaking users due to differing compliance norms, and that the Chinese-language team coordinated with Europe and U.S. teams to implement the appeal and compensation mechanisms. Resolv proposes settlement to attacker: return 90% and keep about $2.5 million Resolv Labs said it sent an on-chain message to the attacker's address after an exploit enabled the uncollateralized minting of roughly 80 million USR. The proposal requires the attacker to return 90% of converted funds (about $25 million in ETH) to a recovery address and allows keeping the remaining 10% as an incentive. The attacker must also stop further activity involving the stolen funds and transfer all USR under their control to the same address. Resolv set a 72-hour deadline. If unmet, the team said it will escalate, including coordinating with centralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges and infrastructure providers to freeze related assets, publicly disclosing addresses and tracking data, working with blockchain analytics firms and law enforcement, and pursuing legal action. The investigation continues. Ethereum Foundation: L2 shifting from "scaling tool" to "customization service layer" In a post on its official website, the Ethereum Foundation laid out a framework for coordinated L1-L2 development. It said L2's role is evolving toward differentiated features and customized services, while L1 should focus on being a permissionless, highly resilient global settlement layer and shared state, liquidity, and DeFi hub. The Foundation said L2s should meet at least Stage 1 security standards and pass the "exit test." L2s seeking the closest integration with L1 should progress to Stage 2 and implement synchronized composability and native rollup mechanisms. The Foundation said it will keep advancing L1 scaling and blob expansion to raise throughput without sacrificing decentralization, invest in research supporting native rollups, and work with L2Beat to improve transparency and verifiability of L2 security properties. Bitlayer (BTR) drops 80% in a day; inflows to Bithumb raise selling concerns On-chain analyst Ember (@EmberCN) said Bitlayer ($BTR) fell 80% since yesterday afternoon, sliding from $0.2 to $0.04. On-chain data indicates 41% of circulating supply (about 140 million tokens) moved into Bithumb within a single day, suggesting the exchange may have been the main venue for spot selling or possible price manipulation. ZachXBT: Circle froze USDC in 16 business hot wallets tied to undisclosed U.S. civil case On-chain investigator ZachXBT said Circle recently froze USDC balances in 16 hot wallets belonging to multiple companies. The action is linked to an ongoing U.S. civil lawsuit that has not been publicly detailed, which one affected company confirmed to ZachXBT. He said the wallets, spanning exchanges, casinos, forex and other businesses, show no clear connection, raising questions about the review process. He added the frozen wallets were operational hot wallets used to process high volumes of user transactions, disrupting day-to-day operations. Tether hires Big Four firm for first comprehensive audit Tether said it has signed an agreement with one of the Big Four accounting firms to begin its first-ever full independent audit of its financial statements. The company called it the largest first-time audit in financial market history, citing complex assets spanning digital assets, traditional reserves and tokenized liabilities. Tether said USD₮ market capitalization has exceeded $184 billion and serves over 550 million users globally. The audit is intended to move beyond industry-standard attestations and demonstrate USD₮ is fully backed, sufficiently liquid and managed with risk controls aligned with international best practices. CEO Paolo Ardoino said, "Trust is built through actions, not promises; this audit represents the culmination of years of system strengthening." Robinhood authorizes $1.5 billion share buyback Bloomberg reported Robinhood Markets approved a new share repurchase program of up to $1.5 billion, expected to be carried out over roughly three years. Robinhood shares are down 39% since early 2026, and the company views the decline as a favorable repurchase opportunity. The Information: SpaceX may file for IPO as soon as this week The Information reported SpaceX plans to submit its IPO filing as early as this week. Recommended Reading Trump, the world's largest oil trader An in-depth look at Trump's influence on oil markets and potential conflicts tied to family investments in the defense industry, including how social media and policy signals have impacted prices and how defense-sector links may intersect with government contracts. 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