This Week in Crypto (September 7–14): Blockstream Refuses a $47M Ransom, the CLARITY Act Gets a 630-Page Rewrite, and Bitcoin ETFs Sell While Ether Squeezes Past $2,600

The defining story this week in crypto was a refusal. The attackers who drained Blockstream's Liquid sidechain returned 85% of the bitcoin, asked to be paid for the rest, and were told no. Elsewhere: Senate Republicans rewrote the CLARITY Act five days before its vote, a hot core inflation print lifted rate-hike odds to 69%, and U.S. Bank and Circle each moved to own a piece of the stablecoin rails. Here's the week, story by story.

The week at a glance

Blockstream got 85% of the bitcoin back, then refused to pay for the rest

On September 7, the attackers behind last week's Liquid drain sent 3,400 BTC back to the federation wallet and kept 598.5 BTC, about $47 million. By September 11 they wanted more: a 10% bounty paid from Blockstream's own funds, or what they called a 15% loss for every holder.

Blockstream declined, calling it "a crime, not responsible disclosure," and said it would work with law enforcement and forensic firms to trace the coins. CEO Adam Back pledged the L-BTC peg will be covered, which is what makes refusing possible: holders shouldn't have to absorb the gap.

On X: @intangiblecoins — Galaxy's Alex Thorn tracked the return in Liquid block 965,950: 3,400 BTC back, 598.5 kept.

On X: @side_swap — SideSwap, whose peg-out service the coins left through, says its fee is returned: "Return the bitcoin."

• [ ] Two details are still open. Reports differ on whether ordinary transactions resumed on the 10th. Bitcoin Red Team co-lead Calle says the bug had been reported to Blockstream earlier, and Samson Mow disputes that any warning was ignored. The Red Team plans to publish its account after Blockstream's post-mortem. Until peg-outs reopen, a peg is only a promise, the recurring lesson in why cross-chain bridges keep getting hacked.

The CLARITY Act got a 630-page rewrite five days before its vote

On September 10, Senate Republicans released revised CLARITY Act text ahead of the September 15 cloture vote at 2:15 p.m. ET. It needs 60 votes; Republicans hold 53. Cloture only opens debate. It does not pass the bill.

The changes are narrower than the page count suggests. Protocols that are decentralized in name only must now register with the CFTC, and the DeFi provisions are limited to spot and cash transactions after tribal concerns about prediction markets. The ethics provision, the Democrats' main objection, is unchanged: Justice Department enforcement only, expiring in January 2029.

On X: @SenLummis — the lead sponsor says the text reflects "bipartisan hard work over August."

Lummis says Republicans added more than 114 provisions at Democrats' request. According to Politico, no Democrat had backed this version as of release, and the House leaves on September 17. Estimates of when the next chance comes if cloture fails range from 2029 to Lummis's own 2030, so treat any single year as a forecast.

A hot core print lifted hike odds to 69%, and bitcoin ETFs left first

August CPI, released September 11, matched forecasts on headline (3.4%) and core (2.4%) year over year. The miss was core month over month: 0.3% against 0.2% expected. CME FedWatch put the odds of a September 16 hike at 69%, up from 59% a week earlier, and the 2-year Treasury yield rose to 4.63%. Gasoline, up 3.9% in August, made up more than a third of the monthly gain, which is why economist Daniel Lacalle warned against confusing "an energy-price shock with demand overheating."

On X: @byHeatherLong — the economist's read on the print: "America still has an inflation problem."

Bitcoin ETFs sold before the print:

Ether went the other way. It crossed $2,600 on September 11, its highest since early in the year, as more than $255 million of short positions were liquidated in 24 hours. Ether ETFs took $216.41 million the same day. Bitcoin whipsawed around the release and sat near $77,116 on September 12. A squeeze clears out shorts, not the rate risk behind them, as our guide to liquidation and LTV explains.

Two dollar incumbents decided to own the rails

On September 9, U.S. Bank, the sixth-largest US bank, completed a live pilot of USBDC, its own dollar stablecoin. The payment moved on Stellar between the bank's North American and European entities. It's a pilot, not a public launch, and the platform includes freeze and clawback controls.

A day earlier Circle agreed to buy Singapore's Tazapay for $400 million in stock, its largest acquisition since Poloniex in 2018. Tazapay handles more than $25 billion a year across 100+ markets, with over 60% of that volume on stablecoins as of July 31. The deal needs Singapore regulators' approval and is expected to close in 2027.

On X: @circle — Circle cites Tazapay's 60+ banking and fintech partners and stablecoin-heavy volume.

Last week 21 banks promised a stablecoin for 2027. This week one bank sent a real payment, and the largest regulated issuer bought the local banking connections stablecoin payments need. For holders, the practical difference between types of digital dollars is increasingly who can freeze them.

The kicker: Chainflip paid out the same Tron swaps twice

Early on September 12, an attacker drained 736,442.17 USDT from Chainflip's Tron settlement path in about 90 minutes. The trick was to attach memos to transactions validators had already signed. The protocol read each memo as a new swap, and when those duplicate swaps "failed," it refunded them. Six of eight attempts paid out.

Chainflip halted the network, expects to restart by September 16, and says affected users will be made whole. It hasn't said who pays. Every figure so far comes from Chainflip's own disclosure, and there's no independent post-mortem yet.

Also this week

• Solana pushed Transaction V1 to September 15. Anza moved activation from September 9 to epoch 1035, around 01:20 UTC, after ecosystem teams asked for more testing time. V1 lifts the maximum transaction size from 1,232 to 4,096 bytes.
• UniCredit is weighing crypto custody. Bloomberg reported on September 11 that Italy's second-largest bank is choosing a technology provider. UniCredit is already one of 37 lenders in the Qivalis euro stablecoin project.
• The SEC scheduled a 24-hour trading roundtable for September 17. Nasdaq, NYSE, BlackRock, Robinhood and FINRA are among the participants. The session is fact-finding and approves nothing.

What to watch next

September 15 is crowded: Solana V1 activates around 01:20 UTC, and CLARITY cloture follows at 2:15 p.m. ET. The Fed decides on September 16 with hike odds at 69%, and Chainflip's restart is due the same day. The House leaves on September 17. Blockstream still owes a post-mortem and a date for peg-outs. If this week's incidents have you checking your own exposure, our documentation on what to do when a wallet is compromised walks through the first steps. The Liquid and bank-stablecoin threads from last week's roundup both moved.

Last updated: September 2026

Sources: CoinDesk · CryptoNews · Cointelegraph · The Block