NK hacker scams | US Bank revives BTC custody | ECB pushes digital euro | Arbitrum $40M DRIP

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).  

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 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.  

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 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).  

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 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.