NEWS DIGEST – 04.09.2025 🚀
1. North Korea ramps fake-recruiter hacks on crypto staff
🕵️♂️ Threat actors tied to North Korea are posing as recruiters from major crypto firms on LinkedIn/Telegram, tricking candidates into running malware or “skills tests” that drain wallets. Researchers tallied 230+ attempts in Q1’25 and warn sophistication is rising.
Why it matters: This targets the people layer—BD, devs, OTC, quants—where OPSEC is weakest. Teams should lock down hiring flows (no off-platform tests, signed binaries, hardware-only ops).
Sources: Reuters (SentinelOne/Validin research & cases).
⸻
2. U.S. Bank brings back institutional bitcoin custody (with ETF rails)
🏦 U.S. Bancorp revived its bitcoin custody for institutions after a 3-year pause, using NYDIG as sub-custodian and explicitly supporting spot-BTC ETF workflows. The restart follows rollback of the 2022 SEC accounting bulletin that made bank crypto custody capital-intensive.
Why it matters: Re-entry by a top U.S. bank signals improving regulatory plumbing and could divert some ETF custody/conversion flows away from pure-crypto venues.
Source: Reuters.
⸻
3. ECB: Digital euro is a resilience tool for crisis scenarios
🇪🇺 The ECB said a digital euro would ensure payments keep working during major disruptions (e.g., cyberattacks on banks), framing the project as critical infrastructure rather than a speculative push.
Why it matters: Puts CBDC back in the European policy spotlight—developers/payment firms should expect pilots focused on offline and continuity features.
Source: Reuters (remarks by board member Piero Cipollone).
⸻
4. Arbitrum kicks off $40M DRIP incentives (Season 1: “Loop Smarter”)
⚙️ ArbitrumDAO launched DRIP Season 1—up to 24M ARB ($40M) in rewards targeting leveraged looping on yield-bearing ETH/stables via major lending markets—part of a governance-approved program to steer incentives to specific on-chain behaviors.
Why it matters: A shift from shotgun grants to outcome-driven incentives; if it deepens borrow demand/liquidity, L2 DeFi spreads and TVL could re-rate into Q4.
Primary source: Arbitrum governance forum (DRIP program, August update). Coverage/round-ups: Bitget/CoinMarketCal.
