Ethena (ENA) - 40.63MM Token Unlock - 02 Oct 2025

Blockstream, an infrastructure and hardware wallet provider, issued a warning about a new email phishing campaign attempting to target Blockstream Jade hardware wallet users.

The company confirmed on Friday that it never sends firmware files through email and said that no data has been compromised in the attack.

Phishing attacks are designed to steal crypto and sensitive user information through seemingly legitimate communication. According to Blockstream, the email featured a simple message directing users to download the latest version of Blockstream Jade wallet firmware by clicking on a link, which was malicious.

Phishing scams cost crypto users over $12 million in August and affected over 15,000 victims — a 67% increase from July, according to anti-scam service Scam Sniffer.

As phishing campaigns and other crypto scams increase in complexity and diversity, crypto users must exercise a heightened sense of awareness and take online safety measures to protect their funds and sensitive information from theft.

Staying safe amid a rising threat landscape

Crypto users lost over $3.1 billion due to scams and hacks in the first half of 2025, a sharp rise from 2024, according to a report from blockchain security firm Hacken.

Phishing scams are designed to catch users off guard by cloaking malicious links designed to steal data in messages disguised to look like they are from reputable crypto companies.

Typically, this involves a customer service email sent to the target warning of an imminent account closure, theft, cybersecurity breach or some other issue, and demanding a user’s private keys or passwords to fix the problem.

Users can avoid phishing scams by double-checking URL addresses to ensure that websites are legitimate.

Scammers will often create URLs that are nearly identical to legitimate crypto websites, with one or two small errors, such as including or excluding periods or substituting the letter “o” with the number zero and vice versa.

Users should also bookmark trusted pages instead of typing in the URL into the search bar manually or relying on search engines. Even paid advertisements thrust to the top of popular search engine sites like Google can be scams.

Other good practices include avoiding clicking links from unknown senders altogether, using a virtual private network (VPN) to mask IP addresses and locations, and checking emails and websites for spelling or grammatical mistakes.

One week after opening a contest to decide the issuer of its first native stablecoin, USDH, Hyperliquid is preparing for a validator vote on Sunday to select the winner in what has quickly become one of the industry’s most closely watched community decisions.

Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures that launched its own layer-1 in November 2024, handled $330 billion in trading volume in July with a team of 11 people. USDH will serve as the platform’s first dollar-pegged asset, providing traders with a stable unit of account and collateral option within the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

The vote will decide which company controls the exchange’s canonical stablecoin and gains access to billions in stablecoin flows.

The race has already seen twists. On Thursday, Ethena withdrew its bid and endorsed newcomer Native Markets. That leaves Paxos, Frax, Sky, Agora, Curve, OpenEden and Bitgo still in contention.

Native Markets

Native Markets was first team to file a proposal for USDH, which it did on Sept. 5.

Explicitly formed to launch a Hyperliquid-native stablecoin, the group pledged to mint USDH directly on HyperEVM and split reserve yield evenly between HYPE buybacks and ecosystem growth.

Its plan relies on Stripe’s tokenization platform, Bridge, to manage reserves. This choice won early validator backing but also sparked pushback from competitors warning of potential conflicts with Stripe’s blockchain ambitions.

Hyperliquid investor Max Fiege, former Uniswap Labs resident MC Lader and blockchain researcher Anish Agnihotri lead the venture.

Native Markets’ current odds on Polymarket: 96%.

Paxos

Also on Sept. 5, stablecoin infrastructure company Paxos submitted a proposal to launch USDH, a Hyperliquid-first stablecoin designed to comply with both the US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.

The filing stated that 95% of the interest generated from USDH reserves would be directed toward buying back Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE and redistributing it to validators, users and partner protocols.

“We are the only firm that has launched and scaled multiple regulated stablecoins, including Binance USD to $25B+ and PayPal USD to $1B+,” Paxos said in its announcement.

Paxos also pledged to integrate USDH into its brokerage platform, already used by PayPal and Venmo.

Paxos’ current odds on Polymarket: 4%.

Sky

On Sept. 8, Ethereum decentralized finance (DeFi) pioneer Sky, the issuer of the decentralized stablecoin USDS (formerly DAI), submitted its proposal. Sky’s pitch stands out for pledging to make USDH natively multichain via LayerZero, allowing the token to circulate across networks from day one.

The team also committed to deploying part of its balance sheet into Hyperliquid, offering the community a 4.85% return on USDH, and direct profits toward HYPE buybacks and the Assistance Fund.

Sky’s current odds on Polymarket: less than 1%.

Frax Finance

Decentralized finance protocol Frax Finance, issuer of the frxUSD stablecoin, outlined its proposal to issue USDH through a partnership with a federally regulated US bank, though the bank was not named.

The plan would back USDH one-for-one with tokenized US Treasurys, ensure full GENIUS Act compliance, and recycle the entire treasury yield into Hyperliquid’s ecosystem.

Frax described its approach as “something no one else will match: give everything back to the community.”

Frax Finance’s current odds on Polymarket: less than 1%.

Agora

Also on Sept. 8, Agora, the issuer of the AUSD stablecoin, put forward a proposal to launch USDH with VanEck as asset manager. The bid proposal features a commitment to direct 100% of net revenue from reserves into HYPE buybacks or the Assistance Fund.

Agora also sharply criticized Native Markets’ reliance on Stripe’s Bridge, warning that Stripe’s plans for its own Tempo blockchain could create conflicts of interest for Hyperliquid.

“If Hyperliquid relinquishes its canonical stablecoin to Stripe, a vertically integrated issuer with clear conflicts, what are we all even doing? We strongly urge caution against using Stripe (Bridge) as an issuer,” Nick VanEck, co-founder of Agora, said on X.

Agora’s current odds on Polymarket: less than 1%.

The remaining competitors

Three last-minute bids were submitted on Sept. 10, the final day of the proposal window, and have not yet appeared on Polymarket’s prediction markets.

They came from Curve, the Ethereum-based decentralized exchange known for its stablecoin pools; OpenEden, a real-world asset tokenization platform; and BitGo, a US crypto custodian and trust company.

How the USDH vote will work

The USDH vote marks Hyperliquid’s first major governance decision beyond routine asset delistings. Voting will occur entirely onchain between 10:00 and 11:00 UTC on Sunday, with validator power determined by the amount of HYPE tokens staked and delegators free to shift their support.

A proposal must win two-thirds of the total stake to pass, though the Hyperliquid Foundation and staking provider Kinetiq — which control about 63% of tokens — have pledged to abstain.

The buildup to the vote has coincided with a rally in HYPE, which hit a new all-time high of $57.30 on Friday, according to data from CoinGecko.

Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs — Inside story

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, a group of mid-sized Bitcoin holders has stepped up buying this week, taking in roughly 65,000 BTC over the past seven days.

At a spot price of $113,595, that haul equals about $7.35 billion. Reports have disclosed that these investors — wallets holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC — have pushed their monthly net accumulation to 93,000 BTC.

Sharks Expand Their Holdings

Those mid-sized holders a.k.a. “sharks” now control about 3.65 million BTC. That is roughly 18% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, which is about 19.91 million coins.

The shift is striking because it removes a meaningful chunk of coins from the pool of easily traded supply. Less available BTC can change how quickly prices move when demand rises.

glassnode

@glassnode

#Bitcoin entities holding 100–1k #BTC (“sharks”) have sharply ramped up accumulation. Over the past 7 days, their holdings grew by ~65k $BTC. The pace of accumulation has grown as well, with a 30D net increase of 93k $BTC. This group now holds a record 3.65M $BTC. pic.twitter.com/MRcIPcTB1T

Sep 11, 2025

What This Means For Supply And Demand

While these sharks are not the same as the very large institutional whales, their moves still affect market balance. Buying at this scale reduces liquid supply and can push prices up if fresh buying keeps coming.

Some market participants see the pattern as a sign of growing confidence among this class of investors. At the same time, it can raise short-term volatility: when a concentrated group holds more coins, their future decisions to sell or hold will matter. Market Moves And Recent Price Action

Bitcoin’s run this year has been strong. Based on market tracker numbers, BTC has climbed about 100% over the past year, is up 23% year-to-date, and has gained over 40% over the past six months.

Price action has not been smooth, though. The market fell to about $107,000 on September first, then recovered to a little over $116,000 earlier today. At the time of writing, BTC was inching near $114,000. Forecasts And Investor Expectations

Public forecasts have been bold. Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor has suggested Bitcoin could top $150,000 by Christmas. Tom Lee of Fundstrat has forecast $200,000 by the same date.Risks And What To Watch For

This aggressive accumulation comes with caveats. Markets can reverse quickly. Large inflows into or out of ETFs, miner sell pressure, or a shift in macro conditions could halt the rally.

Also, heavy concentration in certain wallet groups can amplify moves if those groups change course. Investors should watch wallet flows, trading volumes, and major announcements that might tilt sentiment.

In short, the recent buying by mid-sized holders is a clear, measurable trend. It tightens the pool of coins available to trade and has coincided with strong price gains this year.

Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView