While the market consolidated after a volatile week, several landmark events occurred in the industry. The Cosmos ecosystem faced a critical security threat, a traditional banking giant took its first step in distributing a regulated stablecoin, and Coinbase's layer-2 network opened a new era for traditional assets by tokenizing shares of tech giants.
Cosmos Labs: Emergency network halt due to security incident
Cosmos Labs officially confirmed the presence of an active vulnerability in the Cosmos EVM module that affected users. Security teams and developers strongly recommended that all validators of related networks immediately halt their operations until the issue is fully resolved. At this time, the company has not disclosed the nature of the vulnerability, the list of affected networks, or the scale of potential losses. A full investigation report will be published after the incident review is completed.
Standard Chartered becomes a pioneer in distributing Hong Kong's stablecoin
Standard Chartered bank made a historic move, becoming the first bank to begin distributing one of Hong Kong's two regulated stablecoins — HKDAP from issuer Anchorpoint Financial. The token has already been offered to qualified institutional clients and bank partners. In the fourth quarter, the launch of subscription and settlement services for tokenized money market funds is planned in collaboration with asset management companies. In parallel, the bank is testing HKDAP for intra-group settlements and exploring scenarios for cross-border payments and treasury management.
Base and Coinbase: Tokenized Apple and NVIDIA shares in DeFi
The Base network launched tokenized shares from Coinbase under the B20 standard. Each token is backed by real securities on a 1:1 basis, held with regulated custodians. Qualified users can now hold tokenized Apple and NVIDIA shares in non-custodial wallets and use them within the network's DeFi ecosystem. Asset management is handled through regulated broker and custodian Alpaca, opening opportunities for on-chain trading, lending, and other financial operations.
Market on the rise: Bitcoin storms $80,000
Bitcoin once again demonstrated strength, rising 4.65% in 24 hours to reach the $80,692 mark. Ethereum also strengthened by 2.47%, trading around $2,508. Among the growth leaders are Monero (+8.52%), Solana (+8.10%), and Cardano (+3.32%). In the top 100, the best result was shown by Stacks, which surged 18.17%. Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $337.56 million, while Ethereum products brought in $115.57 million. Positions worth $646.93 million were liquidated in a day, with the main impact hitting shorts — $457.28 million versus $189.65 million in longs.
My take on the situation
The Cosmos EVM incident is yet another reminder that security in multi-chain ecosystems remains the most vulnerable link. The decision to halt the networks is the right and responsible step, but it highlights how critical it is for projects to have clear response protocols for such threats. As for the tokenization of shares on Base — this is a powerful signal that institutional assets are gradually integrating into DeFi, which could become one of the main market growth drivers in the coming months.