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XRP Price Reacts to Ripple CTO's Resignation Announcement
NFT Gaming

XRP Price Reacts to Ripple CTO’s Resignation Announcement

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The price of the XRP token has remained mostly flat following Ripple CTO David Schwart’s surprising resignation announcement. 

As reported by U.Today, Schwartz will leave his CTO role at the end of the year while getting a seat on the company’s board of directors. 

The third-largest cryptocurrency is currently changing hands at $2.86 on the Binance exchange. 

“The architect of XRPL” 

Schwartz has always been regarded as a pivotal figure within the XRP community given that he is the architect behind the XRP Ledger (XRPL). He is one of the original designers of the network that is meant to solve the inefficiencies of the current financial system and address the scalability issues of other blockchains. 

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In his statement, Schwartz said that he has “total confidence” in the next generation of leaders and builders. 



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what the on-chain data says
NFT Gaming

Smart Digital Group stock crashes 87% after crypto pivot announcement

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Smart Digital Group faced a brutal investor revolt as its Nasdaq-listed shares imploded following a surprise announcement to establish a diversified cryptocurrency asset pool, a move markets likely viewed as a high-risk diversion.

Summary

  • Smart Digital Group stock collapsed 87% after announcing plans for a diversified crypto asset pool targeting Bitcoin and Ethereum.
  • The move likely drew investor backlash due to vague details, diverging from peers that saw stock surges after similar pivots.
  • Meanwhile, regulators are probing trading activity in companies adopting crypto treasury strategies, adding systemic risk to such moves.

On Sept. 26, Smart Digital Group Limited (SDM) publicly unveiled its strategy to deploy capital into a pool of cryptocurrency assets, naming Bitcoin and Ethereum as primary targets for their perceived “stability and transparency.”

“This move is designed to strengthen Smart Digital Group position in the digital asset ecosystem while leveraging the growing acceptance of cryptocurrencies in global markets. By allocating resources to established digital assets, the company aims to enhance portfolio diversification and capture value in the evolving digital economy,” the company said.

The announcement, intended to position the firm within the growing digital asset ecosystem, instead triggered an immediate and devastating sell-off. By the end of the trading day on Sept. 25, preceding the official press release, SDM’s stock had been decimated, collapsing 86.84% to $1.88 from a previous close of $13.60.

A pivot that defied the playbook

The dramatic collapse of Smart Digital Group’s valuation stands in stark contrast to the market’s typical reaction to such announcements. According to a 2025 Animoca Brands report, companies announcing corporate crypto-treasury strategies have surged an average of 150% within 24 hours of disclosure. This pattern has played out repeatedly in recent months.

Brera Holdings, a small European soccer club investor, saw its stock skyrocket as much as 464% after revealing its plan to rebrand as Solmate and transition to a Solana-based digital asset treasury, a move backed by a $300 million private placement from names like ARK Invest and the Solana Foundation. Similarly, Chinese EV technology firm Juizi Holdings enjoyed a 25% stock bump following its authorization of a $1 billion Bitcoin treasury initiative.

The critical difference lies in the details markets are now scrutinizing. Companies rewarded by investors have presented clear funding mechanisms, high-profile backers, and specific operational roadmaps.

Smart Digital’s announcement, by comparison, lacked concrete details on the size of the planned asset pool, its funding source, or any strategic partnerships. This vagueness, coupled with the absence of a clear, crypto-native business synergy, transformed a potential growth narrative into a red flag for shareholders concerned about uncalculated risk and diluted corporate focus.

Regulators take note of crypto treasury companies

This escalating trend has not gone unnoticed by regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority have reportedly initiated a broad probe into trading activity surrounding more than 200 companies that have announced crypto-treasury plans, according to WSJ.

The core of the investigation revolves around suspicious stock-price increases in the days preceding public announcements, a potential sign of selective disclosure or insider trading that would violate Regulation Fair Disclosure.

While Smart Digital’s pre-announcement trading involved a plunge rather than a gain, the intense regulatory spotlight adds a layer of systemic risk to any public company making a crypto pivot, potentially spooking institutional investors.



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$3,800 Flights and Aborted Takeoffs: How Trump’s H-1B Announcement Panicked Tech Workers
Product Reviews

$3,800 Flights and Aborted Takeoffs: How Trump’s H-1B Announcement Panicked Tech Workers

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After a six-week work trip Xiayun, an employee at a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley, had landed at her hometown in China for vacation when she saw the news about H-1B visas. On Friday afternoon, US president Donald Trump signed a proclamation saying that any H-1B visa holder’s entry into the US will be “restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000.” The news left Xiayun and hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers scrambling to figure out how they’d be impacted and whether, if they were abroad, they should return before Sunday, when the new rule was set to take effect.

Xiayun, who asked to use her online alias and not mention her employer’s name in the story to avoid being identified, claims she started receiving communications from her manager asking her to consider returning as soon as possible to avoid being charged the fee. Before she even met her family at the airport, she says she already decided to fly back to the US as soon as possible. She only stayed in Urumqi for two hours before hopping on the next flight back to California.

“I had looked forward to the opportunity of traveling with my parents for a long time, but the reality is, I can’t leave behind my husband, my cat, my house, my friends, and my job in the US,” she tells WIRED.

H-1B is one of the most common work visas, issued to skilled workers seeking temporary residence in the US as long as three years, with the possibility of renewal providing continuing employment. In 2019, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) estimated that there were over 580,000 immigrants holding H-1B visas in the country. Silicon Valley companies are the program’s biggest users, according to data collected by USCIS on the employers who had the most H-1B visas approved every year. In Fiscal Year 2025, the top companies sponsoring for new H-1B visas included Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google.

By Friday evening, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon had sent urgent communications to foreign employees, according to emails reviewed by WIRED, advising them to return to the states before the Sunday deadline set in the proclamation.

Conflicting messages poured out of the White House, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other government social media accounts. “Things are changing every hour, every 30 minutes,” says Steven Brown, an immigration attorney at Reddy Neumann Brown PC. Lutnick claimed the $100,000 fee would be charged annually, others said it’s a one-time charge; the original proclamation did not exempt current visa holders, but the follow-up announcements did. The contradictions and new developments left legal immigrant workers, their families, and employers unsure what to believe over the past weekend.

WIRED talked to six H-1B visa holders who made last-minute decisions to return to the US from vacation or work trips before the new policy took hold. All of them requested to be identified with only their first or last names in this story, fearing that speaking out against the administration will cause retribution. While explanations posted by the administration on Saturday afternoon clarified that most H-1B visa holders who were outside of the country at the time did not actually need to rush back, by then they claim they had already lost thousands of dollars in changing their travel plans and spent two days in emotional stress.



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NASA to Make Major Announcement About Martian Rock Sample on Wednesday. Here's How to Watch
Product Reviews

NASA to Make Major Announcement About Martian Rock Sample on Wednesday. Here’s How to Watch

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In July 2024, NASA’s Perseverance rover extracted a rock core from the edge of Neretva Vallis, a river valley cut into the Martian surface by water rushing into the Jezero Crater billions of years ago. This mysterious rock caught the attention of scientists on Earth, as its features may reveal clues about possible ancient life on the Red Planet.

At 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 10, NASA will host a press conference to discuss the analysis of the sample, dubbed “Sapphire Canyon,” and the subject of a forthcoming study. Participants include Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator; Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate; Lindsay Hays, senior scientist for Mars Exploration; Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance project scientist; and Joel Hurowitz, a planetary scientist at Stony Brook University.

NASA will livestream the event on its YouTube channel, and you can watch it right here at the stream provided below. You can also watch the livestream through the NASA app, available for both iOS and Android.

What is “Sapphire Canyon”?

NASA believes the ancient lake delta in Jezero Crater is the best place for Perseverance to hunt for signs of past microbial life. Since arriving in this 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) impact crater in February 2021, the rover has gathered 30 samples of rock and regolith for a potential return to Earth.

The Sapphire Canyon sample was the 25th collected by Perseverance. The arrowhead-shaped specimen, extracted from a vein-filled rock named “Cheyava Falls,” features a striking pattern. Tiny black spots that NASA scientists call “poppy seeds” are interspersed among larger “leopard” spots, potentially indicating past chemical reactions that could have provided an energy source for microbes.

Perseverance captured this image of a rock called Cheyava Falls on July 18, 2024. © Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, Labels: Gizmodo

Perseverance also took multiple scans of Cheyava Falls with its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument. This indicated that the rock contains organic compounds—the building blocks of life. While it’s possible that these compounds formed through non-biological processes, their presence alongside Cheyava’s spots suggests this rock contains a potential biosignature.

What to expect from tomorrow’s event

NASA has not revealed any details about the forthcoming study’s findings, but the fact that the agency is holding a press conference to announce them suggests they’re a big deal.

Perseverance is equipped with a suite of instruments capable of detailed chemical, mineralogical, and imaging analysis. It’s possible that analyzing the rover’s data on Cheyava Falls and the Sapphire Canyon sample revealed more evidence for potential biosignatures. It’s also possible that the analysis pointed to alternative, geological explanations for the rock’s strange features.

Whatever NASA reveals at the press conference will be just the tip of the iceberg compared with what Sapphire Canyon could teach us if it returns to Earth. Researchers are already investigating the best ways to study Sapphire Canyon once they can get their hands on it.

NASA has partnered with the European Space Agency to plan a multi-mission campaign to retrieve Perseverance’s samples, but progress has stalled due to escalating costs and complexity. President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal threatened to kill the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, but Congress moved to reinstate its funding in July.

With the future of MSR uncertain, it’s encouraging that NASA scientists still have exciting new findings to share about Perseverance’s samples, even from 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) away. As the search for ancient life on Mars continues, tomorrow’s event is one you won’t want to miss.



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How to Watch Apple’s iPhone 17 Announcement, and What to Expect
Product Reviews

How to Watch Apple’s iPhone 17 Announcement, and What to Expect

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Ah, September. The kiddos head back to school, the geese head south for the winter, and we all head to Cupertino to see the new iPhones.

Apple’s latest product launch event is happening on September 9. The livestreamed announcement starts on Tuesday at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, and 6 pm British Summer Time. You can watch the livestream right here on this page, on Apple’s website, or on Apple’s YouTube channel. If you’re already deep in the Appleverse, you can also watch in the Apple TV app on any screen where it runs.

For weeks, little nuggets of information about Apple’s forthcoming device lineup have been regularly extracted from the various online rumor mines. Based on those whispers and Apple’s typical release schedule (which rarely varies) we can expect an event filled with announcements. We’ll likely see a full line of iPhones 17, including the base model, the Pro models, and a brand-new ultra-thin version called the iPhone Air. We are also expecting new Apple Watches and new AirPods. All of these devices will surely have some sort of AI-enabled capabilities. There might even be some Apple TV news.

Just know that Apple always stays tight-lipped in the lead-up to its launch events, so the information we’re providing here is speculative. Also, the company likes to drop a surprise or two during its presentation, so keep an eye out for WIRED’s roundup of everything Apple announces once the event ends.

In the meantime, here’s what to look out for.

Air Born

The biggest news of the event might just be about one of the lightest gadgets in the lineup. We’re expecting a new addition to the iPhone lineup called the iPhone 17 Air.

This phone is expected to be noticeably thinner and lighter than other iPhones. The Air is rumored to have a 6.6-inch OLED screen and come in at a svelte 5.5 mm thick. (That’s 2.3 mm thinner than the iPhone 16.)

Given the phone’s slim size, the Air might come with some design tweaks and sacrifices to its internal powers to keep its lithe form. Rumors have indicated that the USB-C port won’t be centered along the bottom of the phone.



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Etherex price gains 40% amid Linea rewards program launch
Crypto Trends

Euler price surges 34% amid Bithumb listing announcement

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Following confirmation by South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb that the token would be listed for trading against the Korean won, Euler saw a more than 30% increase.

Summary

  • Euler gained over 30% as Bithumb announced a Korean won listing, with trading live from Sept. 5.
  • Trading volume surged 292% in 24 hours, signaling strong demand.
  • Technicals show bullish momentum, but resistance near July’s $15.81 high remains.

With the listing scheduled to go live at 5:00 p.m. local time, the announcement caused a significant spike in price. At the time of writing, EUL is up 34% over the previous day, trading at $13.02, with intraday fluctuations ranging from $9.25 to $13.33.

The token’s market capitalization stands at $242 million, while its fully diluted valuation is at $353 million. Despite the surge, EUL remains around 20% below its all-time high of $15.81, recorded on July 11.

Bithumb’s listing announcement caused trading activity to spike sharply. The daily volume increased by 292% from the previous day to $9.58 million. Listings on exchanges are important price catalysts because they frequently draw in fresh capital and liquidity.

Broader ecosystem developments

The Bithumb listing comes on the heels of several developments within Euler’s ecosystem. On Aug. 6, the token was added to Coinbase, expanding its reach to U.S. investors. In an effort to increase scalability and lower transaction costs, Euler introduced isolated ETH markets on Linea, an Ethereum (ETH) Layer 2, on Aug. 18. 

The protocol also celebrated the one-year anniversary of its V2 upgrade earlier this month, which brought with it the Euler Vault Kit, a modular system for building custom lending markets. To celebrate, Euler rolled out EulerEarn, a passive yield strategy platform backed by $50,000 in USD Coin (USDC) incentives. 

Meanwhile, new yield opportunities for decentralized finance users were made possible by an integration with Pendle (PENDLE), which was announced on Sept. 2. Euler’s total value locked has increased to $1.5 billion, a substantial increase from $100 million in early 2024, according to DeFiLlama data. 

Euler price technical analysis

The sharp price spike pushed EUL above the upper Bollinger Band, signaling strong momentum but also a potential overextension. Slightly below overbought levels, the Relative Strength Index is at 67.

Euler daily chart. Credit: TradingView

The moving average convergence divergence still indicates short-term caution, but moving averages over 10, 20, and 30-day windows are in a bullish setup.

EUL may retest its July peak at $15.81 if momentum continues. However, if profit-taking takes hold, a decline to the $10.50–$11.00 range is still feasible.



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Hollow Knight Silksong 'Special Announcement' Set For August 21
Game Updates

Hollow Knight Silksong ‘Special Announcement’ Set For August 21

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Hollow Knight: Silksong has been so anticipated for so many years that it’s become a meme, crowding the chat of every major game showcase of the last seven years. While we’ve had recent glimpses, like the announcement that it was coming to Switch 2, we haven’t heard a concrete update from Team Cherry since its announcement that it wouldn’t be releasing in 2023. This week, that will finally change.

Team Cherry’s official YouTube channel has a premiere set for Thursday, August 21, at 10:30 AM ET/ 7:30 AM PT. Its title reads, “Hollow Knight: Silksong – Special Announcement,” while the caption simply reads, “The countdown is on! Join us in 48 hours for a special announcement about Hollow Knight: Silksong!” It is unclear what exactly this announcement will involve, but fans are mostly just hoping for a release date.

 

Despite the general lack of information, Silksong is playable at this year’s Gamescom, according to Xbox, and it will be available on Microsoft’s ROG ALLY device, so we’re expecting some kind of announcement during Opening Night Live in a few hours. Geoff Keighley seemed to support this by posting a photo with a clown nose, potentially referencing the meme of Hollow Knight’s protagonist in clown attire that’s posted whenever we don’t get news about its sequel. 

However, partnered with this announcement is a series of Bluesky posts from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who is known for accurately digging up information from behind the scenes of the games industry. Not only does he claim to have “the story behind why Silksong took seven years to make,” citing a video call he did with Team Cherry’s founders earlier this month, he also says, “No, Silksong’s release date will not be announced today at Gamescom Opening Night Live, despite Geoff Keighley’s teasing.” Team Cherry’s Thursday announcement will come after Opening Night Live, however, so there’s a chance we might get a date then. While Schreier has a solid track record in this line of work, none of this is confirmed, so take it all with a grain of salt.

Regardless of when it drops or what this trailer will bring, people will be there to watch it. With 15,000 in the YouTube audience a full 47 hours before it even happens, it’s safe to say this is one of the most anticipated games of the decade. Here’s hoping Team Cherry gives them something to get excited about.



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No Hollow Knight: Silksong release date announcement today as Special Announcement is scheduled for Thursday
Game Reviews

No Hollow Knight: Silksong release date announcement today as Special Announcement is scheduled for Thursday

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A Hollow Knight: Silksong “Special Announcement” is planned for Thursday, with the video set to run on YouTube at 3.30pm BST on 21st August.

Watch on YouTube

The news of a “Special Announcement” on Silksong comes after speculation (not unwarranted) that the game would be shown off during Gamescom ONL tonight, with a release date potentially being revealed.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier‬ posted on Bluesky to confirm that Silksong would not be having its release date revealed tonight:

“No, Silksong’s release date will not be announced today at Gamescom Opening Night Live, despite Geoff Keighley’s teasing,” read the post.

Game Features

  • Discover a whole new kingdom! Explore coral forests, mossy grottos, gilded cities and misted moors as you ascend to the shining citadel at the top of the world.
  • Engage in lethal acrobatic action! Wield a whole new suite of deadly moves as you dance between foes in deadly, beautiful combat.
  • Craft powerful tools! Master an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons, traps, and mechanisms to confound your enemies and explore new heights.
  • Solve shocking quests! Hunt down rare beasts, solve ancient mysteries and search for lost treasures to fulfil the wishes of the downtrodden and restore the kingdom’s hope. Prepare for the unexpected!
  • Face over 150 all-new foes! Beasts and hunters, assassins and kings, monsters and knights, defeat them all with bravery and skill!
  • Challenge Silk Soul mode! Once you conquer the kingdom, test your skills in an all-new mode that spins the game into a unique, challenging experience.
  • Experience a stunning orchestral score! Hollow Knight’s award-winning composer, Christopher Larkin, returns to bring melancholy melodies, symphonic strings and heart-thumping, soul strumming boss themes to the adventure.

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.



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