Business & Technology
Business and technology in crypto means the companies, infrastructure, and product moves that aren't pure protocol news. LeoDex News covers exchange business (earnings, executive moves, IPOs, geographic expansion), mining stocks (RIOT, MARA, IREN, CleanSpark), Layer-1 infrastructure providers, partnerships and acquisitions, gaming and NFT platforms with real users, and the wider Web3 product landscape.
We track the strategic moves: which exchange is winning institutional flow, which custodian is taking share, which infra provider quietly powers a category, which product launches are real and which are vapor. Skip the press-release noise — read what's actually shipping and who's actually using it.
Latest in Business & Technology
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Binance's use of MiCA exemption draws EU regulator scrutiny, FT reports
ESMA and regulators in France, Germany and Greece are examining Binance's use of MiCA's reverse solicitation exemption, the FT reported. Separately, ESMA wants stronger powers over non-EU crypto firms.
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Coinbase wins CFTC clearinghouse nod, but its stock perps filing names Nodal Clear
The CFTC registered Coinbase Clearing LLC as a derivatives clearing organization on Sept. 28, CryptoSlate reported. Coinbase's single-stock perpetual futures proposal was still 'Approval Pending' on Sept. 30 and names Nodal Clear.
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Robinhood unveils crypto perps, weekend stock trading and AI trading agents
Robinhood announced crypto perpetual futures, weekend stock trading, AI agents that place trades and earnings contracts at its Houston summit, according to Decrypt's Morning Minute newsletter.
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HSBC names Hong Kong stablecoin RedCoin, plans P2P and merchant payments first
HSBC has named its planned Hong Kong stablecoin HSBC RedCoin. In a Sept. 20 announcement, the bank said it will first support P2P and person-to-merchant payments, with corporate and institutional uses to follow.
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Binance Pay links USDT wallets to PayPay merchants in Japan via HIVEX
Binance Pay has partnered with TBCASoft's HIVEX network so eligible overseas users can pay with USDT at PayPay merchants across Japan. Merchants get paid in yen, Crypto Briefing reported.
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Binance Pay opens USDT spending at PayPay merchants in Japan via HIVEX
Binance Pay said eligible overseas visitors to Japan can spend USDT at most PayPay-supported merchants starting Wednesday, with payments routed through HIVEX and merchants still settled in yen.
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Unusual Whales launches Options Trader app on Robinhood's Agent Apps marketplace
Unusual Whales launched a $30-a-month Options Trader app on Robinhood's Agent Apps marketplace at the HOOD Summit in Houston, feeding its options flow data to Robinhood's AI agents, Crypto Briefing reported.
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Cboe, S&P DJI to explore tokenized options in 25-year licensing extension
Cboe Global Markets and S&P Dow Jones Indices said Tuesday they will explore tokenized options contracts as part of a 25-year extension of their exclusive licensing deal, which runs through 2051.
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Citi and Coinbase link banking rails for two-way stablecoin payments, newsletter says
Large Citi corporate clients can accept stablecoin payments without holding tokens, with Coinbase converting them to dollars, according to Tyler Warner's Morning Minute newsletter published by Decrypt.
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Pump.fun's cumulative SOL sales reach $848 million after Kraken transfers, U.Today says
Pump.fun's fee accounts sold about 47,994 SOL (roughly $5.83 million) in two hours via Kraken deposits, taking cumulative SOL sales to about $848 million, according to U.Today's reading of on-chain data.
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Coinbase wins CFTC approval to launch its own US derivatives clearinghouse
Coinbase received CFTC approval for Coinbase Clearing LLC, a US derivatives clearinghouse cleared for fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps but not leveraged products, Cointelegraph reported.
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Robinhood's average daily crypto volume rose 24% in September, Crypto Briefing reports
Robinhood's average daily notional crypto trading volume rose 24% in September versus August, Crypto Briefing reports, though the report gives no full-month total and volumes remain well below 2025 levels.
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Apollo: Top 10% of AI Customers Drive 99.5% of Infrastructure Spend
Apollo Global Management's Chief Economist Torsten Slok found that the top 10% of AI customers account for 99.5% of model-serving spend and 99% of neocloud spend, creating concentration risk for infrastructure firms despite apparent revenue growth.
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Iran crypto mining drains 14% of summer grid deficit, Majlis warns
Iran's Majlis Research Center found that cryptocurrency mining operations consume 930–1,200 megawatts of electricity, representing roughly 14% of the country's power deficit during peak summer months and draining $1.5 billion annually in diesel fuel costs.
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Riot Platforms Repays $200M Coinbase Credit, Frees 5,821 BTC
Riot Platforms completed early repayment of a $200 million credit facility with Coinbase Credit on September 21, freeing approximately 5,821 BTC (valued at $340.7 million) from collateral and boosting the miner's financial flexibility ahead of major data-center deployments.
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Payward Builds Unified Crypto-Equities Infrastructure With $2.65B in Acquisitions
Payward, Kraken's parent company, is transforming itself into financial infrastructure through $2.65 billion in acquisitions and major investments from Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse, aiming to bridge crypto and traditional equity markets—but regulatory and integration risks remain steep.
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Nvidia hires OpenAI data center head Chris Malone as DSX Platform VP
Nvidia hired Chris Malone, who ran data center operations at OpenAI, as vice president of its DSX Platform effective September 24, 2026. The move signals Nvidia's push into full-stack AI infrastructure as OpenAI retreats from building proprietary data centers.
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IBM Digital Asset Haven connects to Swift's blockchain ledger for tokenized deposits
IBM's Digital Asset Haven platform can now interface with Swift's shared ledger, enabling institutional clients to execute tokenized deposit transactions. The integration links two major pieces of institutional blockchain infrastructure built in the past year.
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Xaman wallet hits 735,000 users, strains XRPL node capacity
Xaman, the XRP Ledger's primary mobile wallet, has grown to 735,000 active users—a 45.8% increase from the prior period—straining some node infrastructure and triggering a targeted fix from protocol developers.
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Coinbase Launches Fixed-Rate Bitcoin Loans via Morpho Protocol
Coinbase rolled out fixed-rate USDC loans backed by Bitcoin, marking the first enterprise deployment of Morpho Midnight and a shift from on-chain lending's variable-rate standard.
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UBS Initiates Applied Digital at Buy, $38 Price Target
UBS analyst John Hodulik initiated coverage of Applied Digital with a Buy rating and $38 price target, positioning the firm on the conservative end of the analyst spectrum as the AI infrastructure builder posted 407% Q4 revenue growth.
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Chainlink's Project Pangea enables T+0 FX settlement, eliminating business-day delays
Chainlink unveiled Project Pangea, a consortium of 50+ banks across 16 countries, to test instant T+0 settlement for cross-border foreign exchange trades using blockchain infrastructure and regulated stablecoins. The initiative targets the EUR-KRW corridor and aims to execute live transactions within 12 months.
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Cardano integrates x402 SDK for ADA-based API payments
Cardano Foundation engineers merged Cardano support into the x402 protocol repository, enabling AI agents and applications to pay for API calls directly in ADA through HTTP requests without accounts or intermediaries.
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Hana Bank issues $100M digital bond with T+0 settlement on Euroclear blockchain
South Korea's Hana Bank completed a $100 million foreign-currency digital bond on Euroclear's blockchain platform with T+0 settlement, eliminating the traditional three-to-five-day cycle and marking the first such transaction by a Korean commercial bank.