Autumn is coming, and so do the discussions around cybersecurity. The last summer month was rich in news on hacks and security breaches. Cryptocurrency bridge provider Nomad experienced one of the largest hacks in crypto history — $190 million was stolen.

Moreover, after receiving a $30 million fine from the New York regulator for violating AML, cybersecurity, and consumer protection requirements, Robinhood announced a 44% drop in revenues and had to let go of 800 employees.

On a more positive note, crypto is getting new headways in the art and jewellery industries. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, class 2022, includes NFTs and gold. The company released 250 NFTiff that could be purchased for 30 ETH, or about $50K. Another big NFT release: British band Muse launched its new album, Will Of The People, offering a limited run of 1,000 NFTs.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Luck is not on Robinhood’s side. After receiving a $30 million fine from the New York Department of Financial Services for violating AML, cybersecurity and consumer protection, Robinhood announced a 44% drop in revenues, sending the company’s shares down more than 3%. As a consequence, the company informed that it had to lay off about 23% of the team or 800 employees. 

Robinhood’s CEO, Vlad Tenev, said the discharges were consequences of the global economic situation, which includes high inflation and the collapse of the crypto market. The company is also facing allegations of market manipulation as part of a class action lawsuit filed by investors in “meme stocks” of nine different companies. It is also paying $9.9 million to a group of users who are suing over repeated outages. Rumors on Wall Street suggest that the company could be acquired by one of its competitors.

Hack Attack

Cryptocurrency bridge provider Nomad was hacked and had $190 million stolen. Considered one of the largest hacks in crypto history, Nomad’s system was drained gradually in batches, and stolen coins included ETH and USD-linked stablecoins. The company is offering a bounty of up to 10% to retrieve user funds, but so far only $20 million were recovered. In the same week nearly 8,000 hot wallets were hacked at Solana, summing up around $5 million stolen from users.

Crypto Down Under

The Australian Government released a statement that will review how the country plans to manage and regulate digital assets, prioritising users’ protection and updating practices, in order to embrace the new technologies. The work will start with “token mapping” to have an overview of the digital assets market, in categorising crypto assets to know what needs to be regulated.

NFTs At Tiffany’s

Holly Golightly would definitely have acquired one. Tiffany’s launched a partnership with Cryptopunk NFT to release custom-designed pendants in 18-karat gold. The cooperation, which sold out in only 20 minutes, consisted of 250 NFTiff that could be purchased for 30 ETH or about $50 thousand. Each will have at least 30 gemstones and/or diamonds and will be based on the buyers. The lucky customers will receive a rendered digital NFT by October and the final piece by the beginning of the next year.

Creating A New Base

Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong recently said that it is currently cutting costs and changing its revenue model. In the second quarter of this year, Coinbase saw a 60% drop in revenue and reported a net loss of $1.1 billion. The company has also recently been subpoenaed and received requests from SEC for documents and information regarding certain existing and intended customer programs, operations and future products, including the company’s processes for listing assets, the classification of certain listed assets, its staking programs, stablecoin products, and income generators. Besides, 100 Coinbase users filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing Coinbase of having exposed important data to hackers. There is another ongoing case against a former Coinbase employee accused of insider trading.

3 Arrows Capital Default

Singapore’s Supreme Court approved a petition to recognize the liquidation order against Three Arrows Capital (3AC). Teneo, the company appointed to liquidate the crypto hedge fund, declared that there might be further information at 3AC headquarters in Singapore regarding bank accounts, properties, digital assets and holdings in other companies. Su Zhu, the company’s co-founder, stated that Teneo misrepresented the operations and relationships between entities related to 3AC, as well as the timeline of events.

Brazilian Investment Banks Diving On Crypto Market

Brazil is way ahead in cryptocurrency adoption. After Santander, another two of the country’s major investment banks announced they are also launching crypto trading platforms. BTG Pactual is launching the platform Mynt, while XP is coming to the market with XTAGE in cooperation with Nasdaq. Mynt will begin with the trading of BTC, ETH, SOL, DOT and ADA. XTAGE will offer more than 3.5 million customers access to buying, selling, trading and holding BTC and ETH. Mercado Pago, one of Latin America’s main marketplace and online payment platforms, has also announced that it will roll out crypto payments in Brazil.

Post-Brexit Digital Assets Strategy

In the U.K., a new bill that could bring digital assets such as stablecoins as part of local payments regulation is expected to be analysed by the Parliament in September, beginning a complex legislative process. Crypto advocates await more details from regulators on the rules’ interpretations and enforcements. These rules on stablecoins are part of a larger financial-services and markets bill that maps out the U.K.’s post-Brexit economic strategy.

On The Verge Of The Merge

The long awaited The Merge was finally confirmed by Ethereum Foundation and it is set to start on September 6, 7:34AM with the upgrade expected to be fully completed between September 10 and 20. The event marks the Ethereum blockchain transition from proof-of-work protocol (PoW), to proof-of-stake (PoS). After the upgrade, there will be no need for miners to validate and secure operations, since the stakers will be used to carry out and secure the validations. The goal is to make Ethereum Network 99% more efficient in energy consumption.

More Greenlights For Crypto In The US

The U.S. Federal Reserve released detailed guidance on how crypto banks can secure master account access. The Fed has indicated that it is open to letting crypto companies access global direct payments within the central bank. According to Fed’s Vice Chair, Lael Brainard, “The new guidelines provide a consistent and transparent process to evaluate requests for Federal Reserve accounts and access to payment services in order to support a safe, inclusive, and innovative payment system.”

Will Of The People

The British band Muse released on August 26 its new album “Will Of The People”. The work is making history by offering a limit of 1,000 copies globally of downloadable versions of the disc with high definition tracks signed by the band members at the Serenade Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) platform. The platform is also known for selling the official NFTs of the Brit Awards in February. The new album format sold out in 25 minutes. Muse had already collaborated in 2020 with Dapper Lab’s CryptoKitties project, for the creation of digital collectibles. However, it is the first time the band has worked on creating and marketing their own NFT works.

Conclusion

August sharpened the market’s priorities. Security moved from a technical topic to a mainstream headline, with bridge exploits and wallet compromises shaping sentiment. At the same time, enforcement and compliance pressure intensified, pushing platforms to defend operations, controls, and disclosures under public scrutiny. 

Cultural adoption continued to expand the funnel — luxury and music treated NFTs as a product format, not a side experiment. The direction into autumn looks clear: tighter regulation, higher expectations on cyber hygiene, and more brand-led consumer narratives arriving even while markets stay fragile.

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