Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, BitMart’s official account called on the exchange’s founder to produce a repayment plan, Chainalysis sued the US government over an ICE decision to award a contract to TRM Labs and Ethereum developers outlined Hegotá proposals.

BitMart account demands founder explain funds status, Xia calls claims ‘fabricated’

BitMart’s official Chinese-language X account has publicly demanded that founder Sheldon Xia explain the whereabouts of user funds and produce a repayment plan by Wednesday.

The account said in a Monday post that some users remained unable to withdraw funds and that some employees had not received their final salary or compensation, while calling on Xia to disclose BitMart’s wallets, assets, liabilities and available reserves, according to a machine translation of the post.

The post said if Xia does not provide a verifiable asset disclosure and repayment plan by the deadline, it would continue to submit evidence to regulators, law enforcement, lawyers and the media.

It was unclear who authored Monday’s post or whether the account remained under the company’s control. Cointelegraph contacted BitMart for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

BitMart announced on July 26 that it would wind down its exchange as its BMX token plunged and users reported withdrawal delays. The company said trading on the platform will end on Aug. 26 and operations will cease on Jan. 31.

Chainalysis sues US over $95M ICE contract with TRM Labs

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has sued the US government over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decision to award a sole-source contract to competitor TRM Labs. 

On July 27, Chainalysis Government Solutions filed the challenge in the US Court of Federal Claims. The relevant motion became publicly accessible through CourtListener’s RECAP archive on Sunday. 

A federal award notice values the contract at about $94.6 million and says it covers forensic software and support services for Homeland Security Task Force investigations. The one-year award runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. 

Chainalysis alleged that ICE’s decision was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.” It said it had submitted a capability statement in response to ICE’s notice of intent to obtain forensic software and support services from TRM. 

TRM intervened in the case on July 28. The court has scheduled responses from the government and TRM for Friday and oral argument for Sept. 2. The government requested a decision by Sept. 10. The public filings do not detail Chainalysis’s specific objections or requested remedy. 

TRM Labs declined to comment. Chainalysis and ICE did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

Ethereum devs to narrow 66 proposals tied to Hegotá upgrade

Ethereum developers are currently reviewing 66 proposals to narrow them down as part of scoping the next major Ethereum upgrade, Hegotá, with several proposals aimed at bringing more privacy capabilities into the protocol.

FOCIL is currently the only Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) scheduled for inclusion in the upgrade. Frame Transactions (EIP-8141), Keyed Nonces (EIP-8250) and Recent Roots for Frame Transactions (EIP-8272) should also be included to “unlock native privacy, allowing privacy apps to work without having to rely on intermediaries,” wrote Ethereum Foundation contributor Toni Wahrstätter in a Sunday X post.

FOCIL, short for Fork-choice enforced inclusion lists, seeks to allow a committee of validators to force pending transactions into blocks to boost the network’s censorship resistance, while the other proposals could provide protocol primitives for privacy applications.

Core developers aim to ship the Hegotá upgrade next year. The next Ethereum core developer calls will shape a significant part of Ethereum’s development trajectory for 2027. Proposals that do not make the cut for Hegotá could be reconsidered for a later upgrade.

The next Ethereum developer call is scheduled for Monday at 2:00 pm UTC.