Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto: The US SEC clarified when certain crypto activity may fall outside securities laws, Bitget resumed Bitcoin withdrawals following a $388 million hack and Vitalik Buterin said Hegotá could be Ethereum’s last “normal” fork.

SEC clarifies when crypto activity may fall outside securities laws

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has updated its guidance on when certain crypto assets and transactions may fall outside federal securities laws.

The new FAQs expand on the SEC’s March interpretation of how the Howey test applies to digital assets, including token buybacks, network development and staking receipt tokens. The agency said buybacks may not constitute the managerial efforts associated with an investment contract when a crypto network is already functional and lacks a central party. Work to maintain or improve a functioning network may also fall outside that standard, while staking receipt tokens would not automatically be treated as securities.

The guidance is non-binding and does not change existing law, but gives crypto projects more detail on how SEC staff intends to apply current securities rules.

The update follows similar guidance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and comes days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, which would have established a statutory framework dividing oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC. Both agencies are now moving ahead under their existing authority while the legislation remains stalled.

Bitget resumes Bitcoin withdrawals as hacker swaps ETH via THORChain

Crypto exchange Bitget is resuming withdrawals after a security breach affecting nearly $388 million in assets, as the attacker continues moving stolen crypto through THORChain.

Bitget said it resumed Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals Monday after suspending them following last week’s security incident, with additional assets and networks set to follow over the coming days.

The Sept. 24 breach compromised part of Bitget’s hot and warm wallet infrastructure, while its cold wallets remained secure, according to the exchange.

Bitget later revised the stolen amount from $351.6 million to $387.5 million after accounting for additional transfers on Zcash and Tron.

BTC withdrawals on the Bitcoin network and the BNB Smart Chain resumed first, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said during a Monday ask-me-anything session.

“We restored BTC first because the withdrawal pipeline is the first to be completed,” Chen said, adding that Ether (ETH) and Tether’s USDt (USDT) would follow as security checks progress.

Vitalik Buterin says Hegotá could be Ethereum’s last ‘normal’ fork

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum’s Hegotá upgrade could be the network’s last “normal” fork before development shifts toward technologies that include recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, optimized consensus and quantum-safe cryptography. 

On Sunday, Buterin said Hegotá, which is planned for 2027, is likely to be the final upgrade whose features and technology would still be recognizable to someone familiar with Ethereum in 2015. 

He said PeerDAS, which allows nodes to verify data availability by sampling portions of data rather than downloading everything, marked the beginning of Ethereum’s transition “from being just a blockchain to being something much more powerful.” 

Buterin described the transition as Ethereum’s evolution into a “cryptographic world computer,” moving beyond a model in which nodes simply download and re-execute transactions toward an architecture combining blockchains with cryptographic verification, privacy and decentralized offchain components.

The shift could change how Ethereum applications are built by moving more computation offchain while using the base layer to verify results, settle transactions and preserve access to shared onchain state.