Japanese police arrested 31-year-old Okayama Saki and 38-year-old Minamisawa Mitsuteru for allegedly impersonating Osaka Prefectural Police officers in a sophisticated fraud scheme. The suspects told a woman in her 40s that her bank card was tied to a massive 600 billion yen money-laundering case and demanded she 'prove her innocence.' The victim transferred crypto assets worth approximately 81 million yen ($515,000). Investigators say the fraud ring operated from a base in Cambodia, with known losses across connected cases totaling roughly 240 million yen ($1.53 million), and the mastermind is suspected to be a Chinese national.

China's delivered data center capacity has reached 24 gigawatts, exceeding the combined total of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia, according to a SemiAnalysis report. Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu spent a combined $20 billion in capital expenditure in the second quarter, doubling year-over-year, with all three reporting negative free cash flow simultaneously for the first time. ByteDance accounts for nearly one-fifth of China's delivered capacity, making it the nation's largest wholesale client. The buildout underscores how aggressively Chinese tech giants are positioning for the AI era.

Beijing Shijingshan police intercepted a cross-border telecom fraud scheme and froze 780,000 yuan ($108,000), returning funds to victims. A 53-year-old man accompanying his child abroad received a call from scammers posing as Chinese police who fabricated money-laundering allegations against him. The transferred funds were routed through bank accounts of two other Chinese students overseas, who were themselves victims of the same fraud ring. Investigators found the group operated with a pattern of 'one case, multiple victims' in which victims were coerced into exchanging funds for USDT to facilitate laundering.

Token Unlocks data shows DoubleZero (2Z) will unlock approximately 1.66 billion tokens on October 2, representing 47.69% of circulating supply and valued at about $114 million. Sui (SUI) unlocks roughly 13.26 million tokens worth $16.7 million on October 1, while Ethena (ENA) releases approximately 40.63 million tokens valued at $11 million on October 2. Kamino (KMNO) will also unlock about 229 million tokens on September 30. These supply events could create notable volatility for Asian traders active in these markets.

Multi-chain DEX DYORSWAP revealed that what users believed was the GIWA mainnet was actually a fraudulent chain constructed by scammers using the real GIWA chain ID 9134. Users lost approximately 766 ETH through a fake cross-chain bridge. DYORSWAP said it is working with security teams to trace funds and will use treasury resources to compensate affected users at a 40% rate for addresses that bridged less than 5 ETH. GIWA itself confirmed its mainnet has not yet launched and warned that any posts claiming to have GIWA mainnet RPC information are false.

South Korea's deputy prime minister said AI should be treated as basic infrastructure like electricity, accessible to every citizen at affordable cost. The government selected telecom firms SK Telecom and KT, along with internet provider Kakao, to lead the 'AI for All' initiative. The program aims to provide 51.6 million South Koreans with free access to ChatGPT-like services and personal AI assistants. President Lee Jae-myung framed the push as a pivotal moment, asking whether the country would remain a follower or become a leader in the technology.

GoPlus Security disputed THORChain's assertion that it cannot block illicit fund flows, noting that THORChain's outbound transfers require validators to actively sign via TSS threshold signatures, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum. The security firm said approximately 101.5 BTC ($8.5 million) from the Bitget hack has already moved through THORChain, with another 27.63 million XRP ($43 million) being converted to BTC. THORChain responded that as a permissionless protocol it cannot prevent such activity. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen earlier called on THORChain to refuse service to attacker addresses and launched a bounty program offering 5% rewards for freezing and recovering stolen funds.

A fraudulent social media account impersonating Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong posted messages between September 22 and 23 claiming to offer economic insights and study groups. The account directed users who added it as a friend or sent private messages into so-called 'learning groups' that ultimately channeled them into investment-focused Telegram chats. The Bank of Korea requested removal and the account was banned within hours, but related 'investment signal groups' on Telegram continue to operate with substantial membership. The incident highlights the growing use of impersonation tactics in Asia's crypto scam ecosystem.

Chinese poker champion and veteran crypto investor Hu Zhewen has filed suit in Chicago against quantitative trading firm Jump Trading and Chinese professor Zhang Yongfeng, seeking at least $500 million in damages, according to Caixin. Hu invested approximately $80 million in algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its sister token LUNA between May 2021 and May 2022, with holdings peaking above $800 million before LUNA collapsed to near zero. Hu previously claimed a return exceeding 1,000x on blockchain project Stratis. The case marks one of the highest-profile legal actions stemming from the Terra ecosystem's implosion.

Kazakhstan is advancing a plan to allow cryptocurrency mining companies to generate electricity from associated petroleum gas at oil fields, reducing environmental impact from flaring while lowering miners' electricity costs. The energy ministry said roughly 40 to 60 oil fields currently burn off associated gas, with 300 to 340 million cubic meters flared in 2024 — enough to produce 1.2 to 1.3 terawatt-hours of power. Officials are drafting a legal framework for the model after previously restricting miner electricity use due to grid strain. The initiative positions Kazakhstan to attract miners seeking low-cost, environmentally conscious power sources.