The Crypto Basic

TD Cowen has become more optimistic about The Smarter Web Company’s stock, raising its valuation target to £0.73 ($0.99) from £0.64 ($0.87).

The firm maintained its Buy recommendation on the Bitcoin treasury company, with the new target sitting about 90% above Monday’s market price. The revision comes as Smarter Web works on MORE, a preferred-share plan designed to add another source of long-duration capital.

Smarter Web traded at £0.385 ($0.52) on Monday, compared with £0.38 ($0.51) at the end of Friday’s session. The move represented a 1.32% daily increase, according to London Stock Exchange data.

MORE Gives Smarter Web Another Financing Route

In research distributed to clients Monday, a TD Cowen team headed by Lance Vitanza focused on how MORE could change the company’s access to capital. If the plan is completed, Smarter Web would gain an additional mechanism to fund itself over the longer term.

The analysts placed the proposal within an evolving approach to financing across businesses that hold Bitcoin as a treasury asset. Such companies are experimenting with a wider mix of capital structures, ranging from preferred equity and collateral-backed borrowing to convertible instruments and other structured funding arrangements.

How MORE Is Expected to Work

Details published by Smarter Web last week show that MORE would pay investors weekly dividends. The dividend rate would vary, and because the dividends are cumulative, any unpaid dividends would remain due.

Investors in MORE would receive preferential treatment under the security’s liquidation terms and would also be covered by its redemption provisions. Ownership of MORE would not, however, provide voting rights on shareholder matters.

Two approvals remain part of the proposal: shareholders must back it, and the Financial Conduct Authority must approve the related prospectus.

Smarter Web Reports 11.5% YTD BTC Yield

Treasury results were another element of TD Cowen’s assessment. Smarter Web calculated its BTC Yield at about 11.5% from the beginning of the year through Sept. 2.

That result absorbed a drag of around 420 basis points connected with the July 23 repayment of the TOBAM conversion. Meeting that repayment involved disposing of roughly 178 Bitcoin.

TD Cowen Maps Out a Wide Range for Bitcoin

Bitcoin was closing in on $78,000 on Monday, CoinGecko data showed. Even at that price, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization stood around 38% beneath its peak of almost $126,000.

For December, TD Cowen’s central projection uses a Bitcoin price of about $100,000. A stronger outcome in its modeling takes BTC to $175,000, whereas the weakest scenario puts it at $25,000.

Separately, TD Cowen expects the pace of Smarter Web’s acquisitions to build gradually until it resembles the level recorded in fiscal 2025.

South Korean crypto investors are making another attempt to delay the country’s digital asset tax, with a petition seeking a two-year extension having secured enough public support to reach lawmakers.

The government, however, is still preparing to introduce the tax from January 1, 2027. 

The latest petition has collected 50,000 verified signatures, the level required to send the proposal to the appropriate National Assembly committee. If lawmakers do not approve another postponement, this would end a series of three previous delays to the tax plan.

What Crypto Investors Could Pay From 2027 

The tax would apply when an investor’s crypto gains for the year exceed 2.5 million won, or approximately $1,856.

Gains above that allowance would be subject to a total rate of 22%, combining a 20% base tax with a 2% local component. The framework covers earnings from selling, transferring, or lending digital assets.

Government Is Still Preparing for the Tax

Despite the renewed campaign for a delay, the government’s position has not changed. 

Lee Hyoung-Il, a nominee for Minister of Economy and Finance, said over the weekend that the tax remains on track, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Investors are also expected to receive more guidance before implementation. Lee said the National Tax Service plans to release detailed standards for crypto taxation later this year.

Why Investors Are Asking for Another Delay

Investors and crypto industry participants behind the push say the country’s tax infrastructure and crypto market structure are not sufficiently prepared for the levy.

The anonymous author of the latest petition also pointed to financial pressure across the market. The petitioner said many crypto holders are carrying significant losses and claimed that operating profits at major Korean crypto companies have fallen by as much as 90%, while the wider industry is also in the red.

The petition further argues that introducing the tax under these conditions would reduce a wealth-building opportunity for younger investors and put them at a disadvantage in terms of equal opportunity.

Another concern is where investors could choose to trade. According to the petitioner, the tax may push some users toward overseas crypto platforms. The petition also argues that the market’s high volatility could leave the government collecting relatively little tax revenue.

How the Petition Reached Lawmakers

South Korea’s National Assembly operates an electronic petition platform that allows citizens to request legislative changes.

A proposal that receives 50,000 verified signatures within 30 days is automatically referred to the appropriate standing committee for review.

Crypto Tax Has Already Been Postponed Three Times

The dispute follows repeated changes to the tax timeline, with South Korea postponing implementation of the crypto tax three times.

Opposition has also previously gone beyond calls for postponement.

In May, another petition asked lawmakers to abolish the planned crypto tax entirely. That petition collected 50,000 signatures in just eight days.

The petition was subsequently referred to a committee, but no further action followed.

Symbiosis, a cross-chain liquidity protocol, said it retrieved about 15 BTC after its Bitcoin Bridge was exploited on Sept. 11. 

The recovered assets, currently valued at roughly $1.15 million, have been moved to a team-controlled multisignature wallet.

Blockchain security firm Blockaid said the exploit involved Symbiosis’s BridgeV2 contract on BNB Chain and resulted in about 46.1 billion syBTC being created and transferred to a newly established address. Despite the scale of that issuance, the apparent attacker converted only around 4.39 WBTC using Uniswap v4 on Ethereum, receiving approximately $336,000.

The amount of syBTC generated exceeded Bitcoin’s fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins by more than 2,000-fold. DeFiLlama records the attack as an unbacked cross-chain mint and estimates the loss at $336,000.

Symbiosis Restores Bitcoin Swaps While Its Own Bridge Stays Offline

Symbiosis said a weakness in the bridge enabled the attack, though it has not released additional information explaining the vulnerability. Following the breach, the protocol disabled its native Bitcoin routes and separated the compromised bridge from its broader system.

The disruption did not extend to routes operating across EVM networks, TON, or TRON. Octopools also stayed available, and Symbiosis said its relayer network remained functional.

Bitcoin swapping has since resumed through THORChain and Chainflip, which provide external routing for the protocol. Symbiosis has yet to reactivate its own Bitcoin Bridge.

Symbiosis initially gave the attacker until Sept. 13 to receive a white-hat reward worth 20% of the funds in return for their recovery. Once that deadline passed, the protocol said it would make a reward at the same rate available to anyone who supplies information that results in additional funds being retrieved.

The project said it is communicating directly with all liquidity providers affected by the attack and is preparing a compensation plan. Details determining who qualifies for compensation are due to be released shortly.

Liquid and Hyperbridge Incidents Highlight Risks From Unbacked Bridge Assets

The Symbiosis exploit came less than a week after a separate flaw was used to attack Blockstream’s Liquid Network. That incident allowed roughly 4,000 LBTC without corresponding backing to be generated and exchanged for Bitcoin held by the network.

The attacker later returned approximately 3,400 BTC. Blockstream rejected the attacker’s demand for a bounty tied to the roughly 598.5 BTC that remained outstanding, according to earlier reporting by The Crypto Basic.

A similar gap between unauthorized token creation and the amount that could initially be extracted also appeared in the Hyperbridge exploit in April. The attacker minted about 1 billion bridged DOT, while early estimates put realized losses on Ethereum at roughly $237,000. Hyperbridge later revised total realized losses across affected networks to approximately $2.5 million.

Symbiosis says transactions handled by the protocol have exceeded $10 billion since it launched around five years ago. DeFiLlama puts its current total value locked (TVL) at approximately $7 million and records about $3.19 billion of bridge volume since its dataset for the protocol began.

A U.S. Senate effort to establish a federal market structure for digital assets is approaching a critical procedural vote after Republican negotiators produced a revised CLARITY Act that makes concessions on government ethics, stablecoin rewards, and several regulatory provisions.

Sens. Cynthia Lummis, Tim Scott, and John Boozman released the latest version of H.R. 3633 late Sunday, calling it their final draft and saying it includes 126 substantive changes Democrats sought. The text would become the substitute amendment if senators agree on Tuesday, Sept. 15, to invoke cloture.

The revised ethics framework incorporates most of a proposal associated with Sens. Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego. Among its provisions, state attorneys general would gain an enforcement role over conflict-of-interest requirements covering government officials.

Some Democrats had made the ethics language a condition of their support. The Associated Press previously reported that President Donald Trump had largely accepted the proposed restrictions.

Trump and his family have drawn political scrutiny over their involvement with crypto projects and assets, including World Liberty Financial, the USD1 stablecoin, and the TRUMP memecoin. A financial disclosure from Trump showed crypto-related income exceeding $1.4 billion in 2025, raising conflict-of-interest questions as his administration develops crypto policy.

Under the latest bill language, the restrictions would apply to public officials and employees as well as elected presidents, vice presidents and members of Congress. Their spouses would also be covered, while the text does not set comparable limits for other relatives such as their children. 

Lummis said Trump had voluntarily accepted what she described as unusually stringent ethics restrictions for federally elected officials, judges and their spouses. She argued that the concessions addressed Democratic demands and that Democrats should now support the legislation.

Treasury Could Temporarily Curb Stablecoin Rewards

Another change targets concerns that payment stablecoins could pull deposits away from smaller banks. For the first 18 months following enactment, the Treasury secretary would have authority to activate restrictions on stablecoin rewards if community banks experience substantial deposit withdrawals linked to payment stablecoins.

The provision adds to an ongoing dispute between the banking and crypto industries over how stablecoin incentives should be treated. The legislation bars platforms from providing interest merely for holding stablecoins but leaves room for rewards tied to their use.

The American Bankers Association has sought stronger limits. Its president and CEO, Rob Nichols, said Sunday that bankers and customers had spent the August recess telling senators that locally held deposits support lending in their communities. He said the association was encouraged by increased Senate attention to what it calls a loophole involving stablecoin interest.

The draft makes changes beyond stablecoins. Certain software developers would face narrower money-transmission registration requirements through amendments to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, alongside a civil safe harbor. Provisions under the Senate Agriculture Committee’s jurisdiction would establish controls involving affiliate trading and conflicts of interest, while separate language addresses the reach of state consumer-protection laws. 

Calendar Leaves Little Room After Tuesday’s Vote

Republicans cannot advance cloture on their own. The motion needs 60 votes, while the party controls 53 Senate seats. Assuming every Republican backs it, seven votes would therefore have to come from Democrats or independents. 

Clearing that threshold would move the measure into debate rather than secure its passage. Senators would still need to deal with amendments and vote on the legislation itself, after which the House would have to act on the Senate’s substitute text.

Congress has limited time available for those steps. The Senate’s tentative calendar calls for a state work period starting Oct. 5 ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The House has also canceled its scheduled weeks of Sept. 21 and Sept. 28. 

Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, urged passage after negotiations that he said had lasted more than a year. 

Lummis offered a more severe assessment of the consequences of missing the current Congress, saying last week that another opportunity to enact CLARITY could be delayed until 2030, with jobs, investment and tax revenue lost in the intervening years. 

The revised draft also appeared to strengthen expectations that the bill would pass. On Polymarket, the probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year rose to roughly 32% from about 22%.

Blockstream has rejected a 10% bounty request from the group behind the Liquid Network breach, with 598 BTC from the incident still unreturned.

Blockstream said withholding assets obtained without authorization in exchange for payment does not constitute legitimate security research, distinguishing responsible disclosure from taking funds without permission.

The company had been in contact with the actors as it sought to recover user funds. Blockstream is now asking them to return what remains without attaching any financial conditions.

Hackers Seek 10% Bounty

The group outlined its terms in an on-chain message that Samson Mow, JAN3 CEO and former Blockstream chief strategy officer, shared on Wednesday. The proposal called for Blockstream to fund a 10% bounty and claimed Liquid holders could face a 15% loss without an agreement.

The demand came after the Sept. 6 breach of Liquid, when about 4,000 BTC was taken from the network’s federation wallet. The Bitcoin involved was valued at roughly $320 million at the time.

Of that amount, 3,400 BTC was subsequently sent back after fixes were applied to the affected bridge nodes, leaving 598 BTC unrecovered.

If those coins are withheld, Blockstream plans to involve law enforcement and seek assistance from exchanges, service providers and blockchain investigators. Such cooperation could help track where the Bitcoin moves and determine who controls it.

Liquid Moves Toward Restoring Operations

Meanwhile, Liquid took an initial step toward restoring the network on Thursday after implementing software fixes introduced in response to the breach.

Blocks began being created again, but without regular user transactions. Transfers between Bitcoin and Liquid also remained unavailable as the network continued to recover.