Today in crypto, China’s central bank is establishing an international operations center to broaden the global reach of its digital yuan. In Iran, crypto exchange Nobitex was reportedly hacked by a group linked to Israel. Meanwhile, several publicly traded companies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to increase their crypto holdings.
Chinese Central Bank pledges global expansion of digital yuan — Report
China’s central bank chief Pan Gongsheng has pledged to expand the footprint of the digital yuan, reaffirming the country’s vision for its central bank digital currency (CBDC).
According to a Reuters report, China is creating an international operations center in Shanghai for the digital yuan, also known as e-CNY. Pan made the remarks at the Lujiazui Forum, a professional forum for high-profile local and international finance regulators and executives.
China envisions a “multipolar” currency system where multiple currencies support the global economy, Pan said. This vision contrasts with the current system, where a few currencies, like the US dollar and the euro, play large roles in the global financial system.
The US dollar, in particular, may have become less appealing to investors in 2025, partly due to the unscripted rollout of tariffs by US President Donald Trump over the past months.
Pan also weighed in on digital technologies, claiming that traditional cross-border payment systems are vulnerable to geopolitical risk.
“Traditional cross-border payment infrastructures can be easily politicized and weaponized, and used as a tool for unilateral sanctions, damaging global economic and financial order," he said.
Iranian exchange Nobitex hacked for over $81 million by Israel-linked hackers
Iran-based cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex has been hacked for more than $81 million of digital assets, according to onchain investigator ZachXBT.
The attack, disclosed in a Wednesday Telegram post, drained at least $81.7 million in assets across the Tron network and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchains.
ZachXBT spotted attackers using a “vanity address” to exploit the protocol, which resulted in “suspicious outflows” from multiple Nobitex-linked wallets.
A vanity address refers to a public wallet address with a specific, user-defined sequence of characters. The first $49 million was stolen through the address “TKFuckiRGCTerroristsNoBiTEXy2r7mNX.” The second address used was “0xffFFfFFffFFffFfFffFFfFfFfFFFFfFfFFFFDead,” according to Tronscan.
A pro-Israel hacker group calling itself “Gonjeshke Darande” has claimed responsibility for the Nobitex hack.
Nobitex confirmed that a portion of its hot wallets saw signs of “unauthorized access” and was immediately “suspended” upon detection.
“Users’ assets are completely secure according to cold storage standards, and the above incident only affected a portion of the assets in hot wallets,” Nobitex said in an X post, adding that “all damages will be compensated through the insurance fund and Nobitex resources.”
The Nobitex exploit “appears to stem from a critical failure in access controls, allowing attackers to infiltrate internal systems and drain hot wallets across multiple blockchains,” according to Hakan Unal, senior security operations lead at blockchain security firm Cyvers.
“Yet, surprisingly, the stolen funds remain unmoved,” Unal said.
The breach adds to a growing list of crypto industry hacks in 2025. More than $2.1 billion in digital assets have been stolen so far this year, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
Four public US firms to spend $844 million on Bitcoin, HYPE
At least three publicly-traded US firms said on Tuesday that they would spend a total of nearly $800 million buying Bitcoin (BTC), while another said it raised $50 million to buy the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token.
The heat-and-eat meal seller DDC Enterprise Ltd said it entered into three purchase agreements totaling $528 million, all of which will be used to expand the firm’s Bitcoin holdings, which was partly backed by the venture capital arm of Animoca Brands.
Bitcoin financial services firm Fold Holdings Inc also said on Tuesday that it secured a $250 million equity purchase facility, with the net proceeds “primarily intended” to fund additional Bitcoin purchases.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining equipment rental firm BitMine Immersion Technologies finished its purchase of $16.3 million worth of Bitcoin using proceeds from a recent stock offering.
Eyenovia, a digital eye exam tech developer, said it would set aside $50 million to buy HYPE, the token of the decentralized crypto derivatives exchange. The firm said it would also rebrand to “Hyperion DeFi” under the ticker HYPD.