The warning comes as Gartner forecasts that more than 80% of specialist cloud providers will cease operating independently by 2030.

Elon Musk warns that over 200 specialist AI cloud providers could fail or consolidate as lenders tighten up their purse strings.

Musk said Sunday on X that lenders had largely stopped providing financing to companies without substantial revenue streams outside AI data centers. He said SpaceX had secured $40 billion in debt financing for GPUs because of its investment-grade status and revenue from its Starlink satellite internet and rocket businesses.&

& “That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many,” he said.&

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The Nasdaq-listed firm said it plans to establish Solana validator operations in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has named Nasdaq-listed Solana Company (HSDT) a strategic enterprise under a government program aimed at attracting businesses that support the city’s economic development.

Solana Company said Thursday that it was among the seventh batch of businesses selected by Hong Kong’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) and the only blockchain infrastructure company onboarded by the office in 2026.

Hong Kong’s government confirmed the addition of 18 enterprises to the program last week, bringing its total to 142.

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A security researcher warned that the leaked shipping details could expose crypto holders to targeted scams and physical attacks.

Crypto hardware wallet maker Keystone has disclosed a website security breach that exposed customer information to attackers, raising concerns about targeted scams and physical attacks.&

Keystone said Saturday that it detected suspicious activity earlier in the week and confirmed Friday, after reviewing API activity with Shopify, that an unauthorized third party had accessed customer shipping information. This included names, contact details, shipping addresses and other order details, such as items bought.&

“We’ve blocked access, fixed the vulnerability, opened an investigation, and are emailing affected customers,” said the company.

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The Standard Chartered and Animoca Brands joint venture previously targeted retail access as early as the end of 2026, but its CEO declined to reaffirm that timeline.

Standard Chartered-backed stablecoin venture Anchorpoint says it will take a cautious approach to opening its Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin to retail users, declining to confirm a launch date after rival HSBC rolled out RedCoin, according to the South China Morning Post.

The venture released its institutional stablecoin product in August and previously indicated a retail offering could arrive as early as the end of 2026.

Anchorpoint CEO Dominic Maffei declined to confirm that timeline at a Friday press conference, saying the company would take a prudent approach.

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Similar to the Hugging Face hack, Ethereum researchers have set up an AI Agent message board to help rescue the Glamsterdam fork. ‘Steal My Bitcoin’ site successfully hacked.

The second and final testnet for Ethereum’s Glamsterdam hard fork was cancelled this week, after ChainSecurity found vulnerabilities in two gas scaling Ethereum Improvement Proposals that could have spelled big trouble for at least 13 DeFi contracts.

The bugs were connected to EIP-8037/8038 and resulted in contracts, that rely on the way gas currently behaves, breaking when a call runs out of gas. It’s all fairly technical and complicated, but the upshot is that an attacker may have been able to exploit the resulting vulnerabilities.

The hard fork testnet dress rehearsal on Hoodi is not expected to be rescheduled until all the second order effects of the fork have been gamed out properly. In an article on X today, Derek Chiang from Ethlabs noted the issues were found very late in the process, which is less than ideal, “causing everyone to scramble to deal with the fallout.”

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Piero Cipollone said the bloc is on track to test real transactions in 2027 and roll out a digital euro as early as 2029, pending legislation this year.

European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said the digital euro that is set for a pilot next year has the potential to give the bloc “sovereignty” over a payments infrastructure that currently requires dependency on external, non-European third parties.

Cipollone said in an interview with Italy’s Milano Finance published by the central bank on Saturday that because the bloc is critically dependent on third parties, it’s not easy to ensure this smooth functioning. He did not cite specific third parties.

“In recent years Europe has learned that, for some essential services, we cannot rely only on third parties. We saw this with energy and we’re seeing it today with defense. And the same is true for payments,” he said.

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Ahead of elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel could turn to blockchain and crypto to skirt potential international sanctions, to the dismay of opponents and the country’s central banker.

Blockchain has become an issue in this week’s Israeli elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the country could turn to cryptocurrency to avoid strains on the economy from any potential international financial sanctions.

He told a local television interviewer that Israel is exploring the use of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies as a means of circumventing potential banking sanctions.

“Blockchain is an alternative to sanctions,” the prime minister said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 10 economic network on Friday.

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As of Friday, 22 companies had filed objections as part of the joint venture’s proposed tokenized stock platform under the SEC’s innovation exemption.

Six more companies have reportedly filed objections to having their stocks listed in tokenized form on the proposed platform as part of a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

According to a Friday Reuters report, the proposed stock platform, called OKXICE, had 22 companies total objecting to having their US stock listings tokenized. Among the most recent objections reportedly included Wells Fargo, Arm Holdings and Intuit, adding their names to Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet in the last week.

Notably, 16 of the companies were listed on Nasdaq, while only six of the stocks were available on the NYSE. Nasdaq released guidance for companies considering the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) innovation exemption for trading tokenized stocks in September, noting issuers “must be cautious about their participation,” saying “consequences for liquidity, price discovery, and long-term shareholder value may not become apparent until well after the experiment is underway.”

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The US tax agency is targeting faster resolutions and more flexible payment options for taxpayers voluntarily disclosing past tax violations under a planned program overhaul.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is preparing to overhaul its voluntary disclosure program, with plans to reduce penalties and accelerate the resolution of tax violations, including those involving cryptocurrencies, according to a Friday report by Forbes.

IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said the agency aims to introduce the revised program before December, with a target of resolving cases within 120 days of taxpayers completing the required submission process.

The overhaul would reportedly not establish a separate disclosure process for digital assets. Koopman told attendees at the UCLA Extension Tax Controversy Conference that the IRS would handle digital assets through the same voluntary disclosure procedures used for other forms of tax noncompliance.

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The blockchain suspended its layer-1 network and rollups after security researchers identified unauthorized token minting and millions in assets transferred to Ethereum.

Initia halted its layer-1 blockchain and rollups after blockchain sleuths reported an exploit that allowed an attacker to mint tokens without authorization and drain more than $2.6 million in crypto assets.

The network was halted at 3:41 p.m. UTC on Friday following a security incident, Initia said in a post on X. The team said it was working with security researchers, validators and exchanges to determine the full extent of the impact.

Blockchain security researcher Spreek first flagged the exploit on Friday, reporting that an attacker had minted tokens without authorization and converted approximately $2.6 million into other assets, with additional funds still being moved.

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The Democratic ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations asked Paolo Ardoino for records related to a reported deal between Tether and Nxum.

Update (Oct. 23, 6:27 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from Tether.

Senator Richard Blumenthal has requested information from Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino after a Wall Street Journal report said that the stablecoin issuer had inked a $6.3 million deal with a marketing company co-founded by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines.

In a Thursday letter to Ardoino, the Connecticut lawmaker said that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations demanded “records and information related to contracts, payments, communications, and lobbying” between Tether and Nxum, Hines’ company. The probe into Nxum, Tether and Hines, according to Blumental, was part of what the senator called the Trump administration’s “self-enrichment and self-dealings with cryptocurrency firms.”

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The SEC’s latest priorities highlight tokenization as an emerging market risk, while cryptocurrencies remain absent as a standalone examination category.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has added tokenization to its fiscal 2027 examination priorities, placing tokenized securities alongside quantum computing and extended trading hours among emerging trends it plans to examine.

In its 2027 examination priorities, released Friday, the SEC identified tokenization as an area of focus for examinations of critical market infrastructure. Tokenization was not explicitly mentioned in the agency’s 2026 priorities.

The report addressed the security and reliability of critical market infrastructure, stating:

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Bitcoin dipped below $81,000 as stocks fell and Brent crude hit its highest level since March, leaving the 50-day moving average in focus.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw a fresh dip below $81,000 after Friday’s Wall Street open as Brent crude oil set new seven-month highs.

Key points:

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China’s five-year digital development plan calls for wider blockchain use in trade and manufacturing alongside stronger technical standards.

China has set a 2030 target for largely completing a national blockchain network under a five-year digital development plan published Friday.

The 15th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization, which sets priorities calls for deeper blockchain use in trade and finance in the Yangtze River Delta, and deployment at scale in manufacturing and agriculture in the Chengdu–Chongqing region in southwestern China.

Friday’s plan was issued by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a senior body within the ruling Communist Party that coordinates digital development policy.

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The request follows an August 2025 default judgment, with the AG also announcing nearly $6 million in settlements with four promoters.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked a court to order defunct crypto and forex trading platform NovaTech’s founders, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, and related companies to pay $1.37 billion over its Ponzi scheme.

The AG is seeking the return of about $1.13 billion in investor funds, plus $232.5 million in interest, according to a Thursday court filing.

The court found the Petions and the companies liable by default in August 2025 after they failed to respond to the lawsuit.

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Bitcoin price volatility cooled as stock markets battled another day of resurgent AI fears during Friday’s Asia trading session.

Bitcoin (BTC) ranged below $82,000 into Friday’s Wall Street open as stock markets slid further on AI financing concerns.

Key points:

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Recent hardware wallet security incidents have renewed debate over whether self-custody is suitable for beginners, as multisig and seedless designs carry their own risks.

Crypto executives are divided over whether self-custody was ever designed for beginners, while approaches such as multisignature wallets and seedless backups come with their own security and usability trade-offs.

“We don’t expect every driver to be a mechanic, and we shouldn’t expect everyone who wants to own their assets to become a security expert,” Safe Labs CEO Rahul Rumalla told Cointelegraph.&

Making self-custody easier to use could be critical to Bitcoin’s broader adoption, as the ability to “be your own bank” remains one of its defining features.

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The attacker moved $744,000 in ETH and BNB to Tornado Cash after exploiting Cysic’s bridge to mint 10 million tokens on BNB Smart Chain.

The wallet linked to the Cysic bridge exploit sent about $744,000 in cryptocurrencies to Tornado Cash on Friday after the Cysic Foundation offered the attacker a 10% recovery bounty.

The address transferred 300 Ether (ETH) and 30.4 BNB to the crypto mixer, according to blockchain security company PeckShield.

The hacker exploited a bridge vulnerability to mint 10 million Cysic (CYS) tokens on BNB Smart Chain on Saturday. Cysic suspended the bridge and blacklisted the recipient address, freezing about 2.8 million of the newly minted tokens. The foundation said its mainnet and existing assets in user wallets were unaffected.

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Bybit’s new VARA licence authorizes spot trading services in Dubai, but the exchange must complete additional regulatory requirements before launching.

Crypto exchange Bybit has secured a full Dubai license for spot trading following its earlier in-principle approval.

Bybit said Thursday that its Dubai entity, Bybit Fintech FZE, received a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for exchange services, including spot trading.

A Bybit spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the entity’s previous in-principle approval was non-operational and did not permit it to serve customers in Dubai. VARA’s public register lists the new license as active, allowing services to retail, qualified and institutional investors.&

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HSBC is rolling out RedCoin wallets to PayMe users, with plans to support tokenized investment subscriptions and expand into institutional uses.

HSBC has launched its first Hong Kong-dollar stablecoin, RedCoin (RCHKD), for transfers and merchant payments through its PayMe app.

More than 3.3 million PayMe users will be able to activate stablecoin wallets in the app in the coming days, the bank announced Friday.

RedCoin is designed to be redeemable one-for-one for Hong Kong dollars. HSBC Digital Assets Custody provides safekeeping services for the stablecoin.

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BLOOM seeks to cut costs by helping financial institutions coordinate cross-border use of stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative on Friday as policymaker members.

BLOOM, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, is a public-private initiative that intends to help financial institutions use stablecoins and tokenized deposits for cross-border payments.

According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, BLOOM aims to cut costs and help institutions bring services to market faster by reducing the need for institutions to set up arrangements with each counterparty or market.

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Thursday’s withdrawals ended a three-day inflow streak and left US spot Bitcoin ETFs with $175 million in net outflows for October.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $635 million in net outflows on Thursday, pushing October’s flows back into the red.

The withdrawals more than erased Wednesday’s $528 million in inflows and brought October’s net outflows to $175 million, according to SoSoValue data.

It was the largest single-day net outflow since June 25, when Bitcoin ETFs lost $696 million. The withdrawals snapped a three-day inflow streak that attracted $1.08 billion.

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ChainSecurity said it identified 13 real-world examples of smart contracts potentially affected by Glamsterdam’s gas changes and is coordinating responsible disclosure with affected projects.

Ethereum developers have postponed the Glamsterdam hard fork on the Hoodi testnet after researchers identified gas-related security risks that could affect how existing smart contracts handle failed transactions.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) said that the upgrade, originally scheduled for Oct. 26, would be delayed to allow developers to investigate how some proposals interact with smart contracts deployed on Ethereum.&

On Oct. 13, Blockchain security firm ChainSecurity warned that two proposals included in Glamsterdam, EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, could weaken safeguards against a type of attack called insufficient gas griefing.&

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Bitcoin Core says keeping certain vulnerabilities secret no longer offers much protection in the wake of AI-assisted bug hunting.

Bitcoin Core is changing how it handles security vulnerabilities, explaining that large language models have made certain software flaws significantly easier to discover.&

In an email to the Bitcoin Development Mailing List on Thursday, Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot said that in the past, vulnerabilities were generally kept under lengthy disclosure embargoes to give users time to upgrade before details became public.

Maintaining that secrecy generally meant fixes could not be backported to older software versions, leaving users waiting until the next major release. However, Poinsot said LLMs have made some flaws so easy to rediscover that delaying fixes offers little protection.

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BIT Asset Management’s Bitcoin Fund ETF is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange in November, with its public offering restricted to Switzerland.

Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA’s first approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund for retail investors is expected to begin trading in November.

On Tuesday, FINMA announced it had approved the country’s first spot Bitcoin ETF that invests directly in Bitcoin, but did not disclose who the issuer was.

On Thursday, BIT Asset Management said its Bitcoin Fund ETF (BBIT) is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange next month. The fund holds Bitcoin directly and is approved for public offering in Switzerland only.

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Hegseth warned that prediction market wagers could expose military operations to adversaries.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has barred all Pentagon staff from using undisclosed information to place wagers on upcoming military action, including on prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.&

In a memo sent to senior Pentagon and defense agencies on Tuesday, Hegseth said all Department of War personnel are prohibited from engaging in financial transactions using nonpublic information. This involves both classified and unclassified information.&

“Make no mistake why this matters. Our enemies watch movements in these markets,” Hegseth wrote. “The lives of our Service members often depend on the enemy not knowing what is coming.”

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DeepSeek banned from US federal civilian agencies over spying fears. Singapore firm behind Europe’s only spot Bitcoin ETF, as Switzerland partners with Vietnam on crypto tech.

The US Treasury has proposed new rules that would block investment in artificial intelligence projects (sorry, ‘Super Intelligence’ projects) and certain high risk semiconductors in some foreign countries.

The blocks have been mainly aimed at geopolitical rival China, but will now also encompass other adversaries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba. The rules would implement the COINS Act from December 2025 and expand the Outbound Investment Security Program that went into effect in January 2025.

They rules build on previous restrictions on selling high powered AI chips to China. The US is backing up its threats too, having announced the first $200,000 penalty this month to& Amidi, LLC. Treasury for failing to report an investment by its Chinese subsidiary into embodied AI and robotics company Shanghai Qiongche Intelligent Technology (AKA Noematrix.)

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According to a Circle shareholder, the US president’s “corruption” through USD1 left the company unable to compete with stablecoins, harming USDC.

Update (Oct. 22, 10:27 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from the White House.

A shareholder for Circle Internet Financial, the company behind the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump, his family’s crypto company World Liberty Financial, affiliate entities, and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff over a $2 billion deal between a foreign government entity and Binance.

In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Circle shareholder J. Benjamin Greenberg alleged that Trump, Witkoff and World Liberty caused harm to Circle by creating a pathway for foreign governments to funnel money using the Trump family crypto company’s USD1 stablecoin. This “brazen corruption,” according to Greenberg, leaves Circle “unable to compete” in the stablecoin market with its USDC.

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The new service aims to bring onchain trading data into institutional financial systems as tokenized stock markets expand and face growing scrutiny.

Blockchain analytics platform Dune has launched real-time market data feeds covering more than 200 onchain trading venues, aiming to bring decentralized market activity into the trading systems used by traditional financial institutions.

The new service provides trade data from 12 blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Base and XLayer, roughly one second after execution, according to a Thursday announcement.

The feeds cover spot trading across decentralized exchanges, as well as perpetual futures trading on Hyperliquid and Lighter, with standardized data on prices, trade sizes and transaction details across markets.

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While crypto-aligned PACs have stepped up spending in Ohio, a committee launched by the co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini made one of its first forays into the Lone Star State.

Digital Freedom Fund, the Super political action committee (PAC) launched by Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 2025, announced additional expenditures for US Senate races in the 2026 midterm elections, attempting to influence voters in Texas, Iowa and Ohio.

In a Tuesday filing with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Digital Freedom Fund reported its first spending on ads to support Republican candidate Ken Paxton for one of Texas’ Senate seats. According to the PAC, it had spent more than $81,000 on direct mail media to support Paxton and oppose Democratic candidate James Talarico, with early voting having already begun in the state.

The Winklevoss-backed Super PAC, which reported raising about $34 million as of Sept. 30, did not limit its spending to Texas, reporting involvement in other key midterm election races using ads. Digital Freedom Fund disclosed additional expenditures in Ohio’s Senate race between Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown, bringing the PAC’s total support for Husted to about $7 million.

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The new funding option, expected to launch later this year, will allow eligible Underdog users to deposit digital assets around the clock.

Prediction market operator Underdog has partnered with crypto infrastructure provider zerohash to introduce cryptocurrency and stablecoin deposits, with the new funding option expected to launch later this year.

Eligible users will be able to fund their accounts directly through the Underdog app using supported digital assets, with the service designed to enable near-instant transfers around the clock, according to a Thursday announcement.

Underdog& did& not& specify& which& cryptocurrencies& or& stablecoins& would& be& supported& and& did& not& respond& to& Cointelegraph’s& request& for& clarification& before& publication.

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According to BlocksBridge, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is rising despite the industry’s AI transition, with smaller operators potentially absorbing equipment abandoned by larger competitors.

Bitcoin’s network hashrate has climbed to a seven-month high despite major publicly traded miners shifting capacity toward artificial intelligence, suggesting other operators are replacing lost computing power and intensifying competition among remaining network miners.

According to BlocksBridge Consulting’s latest Miner Weekly newsletter, Bitcoin’s seven-day average hashrate has recovered above 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s), equivalent to 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s), its highest level since March 3.

Hashrate measures the computing power securing the Bitcoin network. The recovery suggests that miners still operating on the network are seeing little relief from competition, despite the industry’s ongoing transition to AI workloads.&

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According to the Central Bank of Ireland, Coinbase Ireland had agreed with the facts around the enforcement action and will be subject to fines and sanctions upon approval by a high court.

The Central Bank of Ireland announced an enforcement action against Coinbase Ireland for failures to safeguard user funds and provide oversight between 2020 and 2025.&

In a Thursday notice, the regulator said that the Coinbase arm had “admitted the prescribed contraventions and has agreed to the undisputed facts,” settling for $3.6 million in fines. The notice said that Coinbase Ireland had violated regulations related to oversight and safeguarding of customer funds and improperly relied on the exchange’s US company to outsource certain services.

The company’s user agreement currently states: “We use a variety of service providers (some belonging to the Coinbase Group and some not) in the context of outsourcing arrangements to help us provide the Coinbase Services in an efficient and qualitative manner.”

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Bitcoin extended daily losses to 3% as US stocks came under pressure from President Donald Trump’s comments on Iran military action.

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed below $82,000 around Thursday’s Wall Street open as Iran war headlines returned to pressure risk assets.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $81,256 on Bitstamp, down 2.9% on the day.

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Fireblocks told Cointelegraph that reports of a potential $2.5 billion acquisition by Visa are “not true at present time,” while Visa declined to comment on the reported talks.

Crypto custody and infrastructure provider Fireblocks is disputing a report that payments giant Visa is in late-stage talks to acquire the company for about $2.5 billion.

“We are aware of the rumors about a possible acquisition of Fireblocks by Visa. This is news to us, and not true at present time,” a Fireblocks spokesperson told Cointelegraph on Thursday.

Axios reported Thursday, citing multiple sources, that the payment giant was in advanced discussions to acquire Fireblocks for approximately $2.5 billion.

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Public miners backed by major TradFi players are coming back online, boosting Bitcoin’s hashrate, a positive sign for BTC’s fundamentals, according to CryptoQuant’s Ki Young Ju.

Bitcoin’s rising hashrate represents an “indirect bullish signal” from institutional investors that are backing several public Bitcoin miners, according to analytics platform CryptoQuant’s founder and CEO, Ki Young Ju.

“Higher hashrate means stronger security and better fundamentals as a store of value,” wrote Ju in a Thursday X post, adding that he sees this as a bullish signal since public miners are largely backed by traditional finance (TradFi) institutions.

Hashrate is a measure of the computational power of a blockchain network, indicating how many hash calculations are performed per second.

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Thailand’s SEC says several asset managers have sought consultations on spot crypto ETFs, but it cannot confirm whether the first funds will launch in 2026.

Thailand’s new spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) framework is attracting interest from asset managers, but the regulator has yet to receive its first application.

Several asset management companies have approached Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for consultations about launching crypto ETFs, the regulator told Cointelegraph in a statement Thursday.

“However, no asset management company has yet submitted an application for approval to establish a crypto ETF,” the SEC said, without identifying the companies involved.

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SoFi Bank launched SoFi Earn, a tokenized deposit paying 4.40% APY with FDIC coverage, allowing users to convert funds to stablecoins 24/7.

SoFi Technologies launched SoFi Earn (SOFIE) on Thursday, offering a variable 4.4% annual percentage yield on tokenized bank deposits.

SOFIE has no minimum balance requirement, according to the company’s announcement. Each SOFIE represents $1 deposited at SoFi Bank. Customers can convert it one-for-one into SoFiUSD, the bank’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, to buy crypto in its app or send funds to supported external wallets.

SOFIE deposits qualify for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. SoFiUSD carries no FDIC insurance.

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DWF Labs research finds that Bitcoin ETF flows follow past BTC price movements rather than predict future returns, with investors buying rallies and selling dips.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) daily flows aren’t reliable guides to BTC’s next move as investors tend to chase rallies and sell into slumps, according to DWF Labs.

In a research report published Thursday, DWF found that investors pulled money from the funds during seven of the eight times Bitcoin’s price dropped at least 15%. All nine rallies of that size drew net inflows. The analysis reviewed 694 trading days dating back to January 2024, when Bitcoin ETFs first launched in the US.

“ETF flows confirm moves; they don’t predict them,” DWF said in its report. “The evidence points mostly to investors reacting to price, not driving it.”

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The UK’s 2027 crypto rules risk a de facto ban on regulated firms providing access to DeFi, argues Coinbase’s European policy head Katie Harries.

Opinion by Katie Harries, head of policy, Europe, Coinbase

The United Kingdom is approaching a choice that could define its financial future: should decentralized finance (DeFi) be allowed to develop through regulated gateways or will it be constrained to a silo?

This is not just relevant to crypto enthusiasts; it goes to the future of capital markets, the competitiveness of the City and the UK’s ability to shape the next generation of financial infrastructure.

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CoinDCX said it covered losses caused by a failed transfer process involving compromised wallets and credited all affected user accounts.

Update (Oct. 22, 12:32 pm UTC): This article has been expanded and its headline updated following CoinDCX’s admission of operational losses and its further explanation of the flagged wallet activity.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX admitted losses from a failure to move deposits out of previously compromised wallets after investigators challenged its explanation for about $16 million in suspicious transfers.

In a statement posted on X Thursday after this article’s initial publication, CoinDCX said some users continued depositing crypto into addresses compromised during its July 2025 hack despite warnings to stop.

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CoinDCX tied the transfers to wallets compromised in July 2025, but investigators said the addresses remained linked to its operations.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX denied a new security breach after analysts flagged suspicious transfers, but investigators questioned its claim that it stopped using the wallets after a July 2025 hack.

The flagged transactions involved old wallets created in January 2025, which were “compromised in July 2025” and have not been used by the exchange since, CoinDCX said Thursday on X.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT challenged that account, saying a CoinDCX deposit address remained in use by a liquidity provider for 10 months after the July 2025 incident. He said the address continued transferring user deposits to CoinDCX’s current public hot wallet and receiving funds to cover transaction fees.

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Bitcoin reversed a run toward $85,000 after Tesla reported lower-than-expected capital expenditure in Q3.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell nearly 3% on Thursday after an attempt to break higher was rejected near $85,000.

Key points:

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StarkWare plans to release a draft whitepaper in November as it explores an independent, quantum-resistant blockchain.

Starknet’s community has voted to support research into becoming an independent, post-quantum layer-1 blockchain.

The network’s potential departure from Ethereum gained overwhelming support. The governance vote that ran for seven days closed on Thursday. The poll drew about 3,200 votes, with 93.52% of voting power in favor of the transition.

The non-binding poll recorded the highest participation in Starknet’s governance history, according to StarkWare, which said it abstained from voting to leave the decision to the community.

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Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince said the network saw thousands of exploit attempts even before the PHP vulnerability was publicly disclosed.

Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince warned that the network saw millions of exploit attempts after two critical PHP vulnerabilities were publicly revealed.

In the 10 hours before the vulnerabilities’ disclosure, the network saw thousands of exploit attempts, which have now reached “millions,” Prince said in a Thursday X post.

Cloudflare is an internet infrastructure company that helps websites load faster and protects them from cyberattacks. About one in five websites worldwide routes traffic through its network, according to the company.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $1.08 billion over three trading sessions to push October flows back above water.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) attracted $528 million in net inflows on Wednesday as Bitcoin briefly surged above $84,700 before retreating.

The funds extended their inflow streak to three sessions, adding $23 million on Tuesday and $526.6 million on Monday, according to SoSoValue data. The three sessions drew in a combined $1.08 billion.

Wednesday’s inflows brought October’s net inflows to approximately $461 million, while year-to-date net inflows reached $1.34 billion.

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“Plenty will be ponzis. Plenty will get exploited. Plenty will insta die. There will be ridiculous gains, and people will get absolutely f***ing rinsed,” says Illuvium co-founder Kieran Warwick.

Update (Oct. 22 at 10:31 UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from Sébastien Borget and Ben James on AI-driven game development.

AI could unleash a flood of short-lived crypto “meme games,” attracting the same speculative traders who helped push memecoins to record highs in late 2024, according to Illuvium co-founder Kieran Warwick.&

Speculative crypto games such as Wolf Game and Fishing Frenzy, where players compete for financial rewards, once took months to develop. But Warwick says AI tools have reduced the time and cost of creating similar games to just days and around $1,000.&

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Government websites and online services were disrupted after concerns about a PHP bug that could allow attackers to take control of vulnerable servers.

The PHP Foundation has acknowledged that indecision and a shortage of resources delayed a fix for a critical security flaw first identified in 2024, calling the stalled response a “structural failure.”&

Government agencies and other organizations worldwide took websites offline Wednesday as a precaution while PHP released emergency patches for two related critical vulnerabilities. The flaws could allow unauthenticated attackers to execute code on affected servers without logging in.&

PHP is a programming language widely used to power websites and web applications, including content management systems.&

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Banking advocacy organizations are pushing back against the OCC’s finalized rules on a stablecoin law, arguing against changes to provisions on yield.

A lobbying group for US banks has weighed in on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC’s) recently finalized rules on payment stablecoin issuance and custody, arguing that the regulator’s interpretation went against Congress’ intent.

In a Wednesday notice, the American Bankers Association (ABA) said that while the OCC’s final rules implementing the GENIUS Act included “several positive steps,” the banking group remained critical of provisions related to stablecoin yield. The regulator dropped a provision that would have established a presumption that certain third-party arrangements violated the law’s ban on yield payments.

“The final rule removes the OCC’s originally proposed safeguards that would have addressed indirect arrangements involving affiliates, exchanges and other distribution partners,” said ABA. “As a result, payment stablecoin issuers can provide economically equivalent yield while technically avoiding the statutory prohibition. The OCC also declined to adopt a broader presumption against arrangements designed to circumvent the ban.”

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The investment will support Peso’s expansion across four Latin American markets, where it connects stablecoin payments to merchant services and local banking networks.

Tether has led a pre-seed funding round in Bolivian fintech Peso, which offers USDT payments through food delivery apps and local banking networks, to support the company’s expansion across Latin America.

In a Wednesday announcement, Tether said the investment will help Peso expand its stablecoin payment infrastructure across Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, including services that connect USDT with local currencies through banking and merchant payment systems.

Peso has integrated USDT payments into Yango’s food delivery service in Bolivia, allowing customers to pay for orders using the stablecoin. The fintech offers QR payments, point-of-sale services for merchants and virtual accounts linked to Bolivia’s banking system through ACH transfers. Tether did not disclose the size of its investment.

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The US President detailed many schemes defrauding Americans, but referred only to “cybercurrency“ related to scams.

US President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House on cybercrime, even as he and members of his administration face scrutiny from lawmakers and voters over accusations that they used their positions to enrich themselves with digital assets.&

Speaking at the roundtable event on Wednesday, Trump said “countless” Americans lost more than $20 billion from cybercrime in 2025 through impersonation schemes, ransomware attacks, scam centers and other methods. The president added that federal officials had frozen $1 billion in “cybercurrency tied to foreign scammers” and prevented $1.6 billion in losses in 2025 from going to criminals engaging in cybercrime following a March executive order.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (left), President Donald Trump (center) and Attorney General Todd Blanche (right) speaking at the White House on Wednesday. Source: White House

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The foundation called for regulation based on financial risks rather than technology, warning that overlapping rules could create uncertainty for crypto businesses across the EU.

The Cardano Foundation has urged the European Union not to introduce new, standalone regulations for decentralized finance and staking, arguing that existing financial laws should govern such activities based on their functions and risks rather than the technologies they use.

In a Wednesday blog post outlining its 19-page Sept. 30 submission to the European Commission, the foundation called for a distinction between direct participation in decentralized networks and financial services provided by intermediaries, particularly those involving custody or control of users’ assets.

“Regulation should follow the substance of an activity, the functions performed, and the risks created, not the technology through which it is conducted,” the foundation wrote.

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority consultations came just weeks after the agency opened applications for companies under its new crypto regulatory regime.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced two consultation periods for how companies using decentralized finance can comply with its guidance, and exclusions for certain crypto assets following “recent legislative changes.”

In a Wednesday notice, the FCA opened consultation periods for helping DeFi companies comply with the financial watchdog’s rules on money laundering and financial crime. The agency also announced a consultation for “exclusions from cryptoasset regulation,” citing recent legislation in the country.

Regarding DeFi, the FCA said that the proposed guidance “seeks to clarify existing rules rather than establish new policy.”

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The OCC has finalized rules for stablecoin reserves and redemptions, with Bessent calling the GENIUS Act a “watershed moment for American finance.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has compared the Trump administration’s landmark stablecoin legislation to banking reforms enacted under President Abraham Lincoln, drawing parallels between two efforts to establish a national framework for American currency more than 160 years apart.

In a Wednesday post on X, Bessent hailed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) final rule implementing the GENIUS Act, calling the legislation a “watershed moment in American finance.”

Bessent drew a comparison to the National Currency Act of 1863, which established a federal framework for nationally chartered banks to issue currency. He argued that the GENIUS Act serves a similar purpose for payment stablecoins in the digital age.

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Six major blockchain organizations urged the SEC to formally recognize digital commodities as non-securities in its proposed regulatory framework.

Six major blockchain organizations, including Chainlink Labs and the Cardano Foundation, have urged the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to formally classify digital commodities as non-securities, as the agency’s public consultation on proposed crypto regulations came to a close Tuesday.

In a joint letter dated Oct. 20, Chainlink Labs, the Cardano Foundation, Hedera, Aptos Labs, Ava Labs and the Stellar Development Foundation called on the SEC to incorporate its digital commodity classification directly into the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework, arguing that interpretive guidance alone leaves market participants facing legal uncertainty.

The groups argued that the SEC’s existing interpretation recognizes digital commodities as a distinct category but that the proposed rules fail to explicitly reflect that distinction, potentially leaving developers and other market participants uncertain about which securities regulations apply.

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Bitcoin extended gains to approach $85,000 after US stock markets reacted to higher-than-expected SpaceX earnings.

Bitcoin (BTC) passed $84,000 after Wednesday’s Wall Street open as US stocks added to gains on more strong corporate earnings reports.

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Solana’s first major consensus upgrade is targeting 99% finality reduction, seeking to offer users near-immediate transaction settlement and more responsive applications.

Solana’s first major consensus upgrade, Alpenglow, went live on mainnet around 1:54 pm UTC on Wednesday, according to the Solana Foundation’s Alpenglow dashboard.

Alpenglow seeks to reduce transaction finality by 99%, to roughly 150 milliseconds from about 12.8 seconds, according to the Solana Foundation’s July announcement.

The upgrade’s first phase, Votor, replaces the existing voting and finalization mechanism with direct validator voting and a certificate-based system designed to cut transaction finality to roughly 150 milliseconds. A later phase will introduce Rotor, a new block data-distribution protocol intended to replace Turbine.

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CertiK says crypto trading bots and exchange applications may remain exposed to the eMudhra certificate flaw because browser fixes may not protect all software.

Cryptocurrency trading bots and exchange applications may remain exposed to the eMudhra certificate security flaw despite emergency fixes from major technology companies, according to blockchain security company CertiK.

By Tuesday, tech giants including Google, Apple and Microsoft had blocked eight vulnerable certificates issued by India’s eMudhra, but the fixes may not protect crypto applications using separate security systems, CertiK’s senior director of digital assets security, Peiyu Wang, told Cointelegraph.

“Major browser blocks substantially reduce the risk for clients that receive and enforce them,” Wang said. “Some applications outside the browser ecosystem do not enforce Certificate Transparency or receive the same revocation protections.”

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Hardware wallets aren’t the only way to protect your crypto, but from ETFs and passkeys to multisig accounts, each alternative has its own risks and trade-offs.

After more than $200 million dollars worth of crypto was stolen in recent months from tampered Ledgers, and Coldcards where the seed generated wasn’t truly random, faith in hardware wallets has been shaken to the core.

These Bitcoin and crypto holders did everything right. They bought the products from official sources, correctly stored their seed phrases and they trusted in the phrase “not your keys, not your coins”, but they lost out any way. The thefts suggest that even the most diligent crypto holder using a hardware wallet faces risks beyond their control.

With the number of physical attacks on crypto holders rising — there’s been a $5 wrench attack in France every 2.5 days this year — the drawbacks of storing crypto on a hardware wallet are becoming clearer. And that’s even before you consider how many crypto owners have lost wallets and seed phrases over the years — “boating accidents” for tax purposes excluded.

There are plenty of drawbacks with all of the alternative methods of holding crypto however, so spreading your stack across different addresses and via different methods will at least minimize the damage if any one method is compromised.

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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s final rule covers payment stablecoin issuance and some custody activities, with the GENIUS Act framework taking effect in mid-January.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalized rules Wednesday for payment stablecoin reserves, redemptions and related custody activities, implementing the GENIUS Act for entities under its jurisdiction.

The final rule states issuers must maintain reserves worth at least as much as their outstanding stablecoins and generally process redemption requests within two business days.

The rule applies to national banks, federal savings associations and federal branches and their subsidiaries, as well as nonbank firms that seek or receive federal qualified issuer status, according to the agency’s announcement. It also covers state-qualified issuers when the OCC has regulatory or enforcement authority over them.

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The signing follows shareholders’ acceptance of Standard Chartered’s non-binding offer in May, with regulatory approvals still pending.

Standard Chartered signed definitive agreements to acquire Zodia Custody’s regulated operating entities, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

The signing advances a transaction announced in May, when Zodia’s shareholders accepted the bank’s non-binding offer.

As part of the deal, Standard Chartered would acquire 100% of Zodia Custody UK Limited, the parent company of Zodia’s regulated operating entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates, the bank said in a Wednesday announcement.

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PancakeSwap’s proposed fee-sharing overhaul would give liquidity providers 88% of swap fees and cut CAKE emissions by 69%, as BNB Chain’s DeFi activity expands.

Decentralized exchange PancakeSwap’s total value locked (TVL) grew nearly 19% over the past week, adding about $380 million as the protocol moves toward a major overhaul of how it distributes trading fees to liquidity providers.&

According to DefiLlama, PancakeSwap’s TVL climbed to $2.4 billion on Wednesday, up from about $2.02 billion on Oct. 14. The increase was concentrated in its V3 liquidity pools, where TVL more than doubled to about $739 million from $336 million over the same period.

The growth coincided with PancakeSwap opening a governance vote on a proposal called “The Flip,” which would increase liquidity providers’ share of swap fees on V3 and Infinity pools to 88%, up from 66%-68% on most pools.

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French authorities want crypto exchanges to conduct checks on DeFi protocols and face liability for certain customer losses under proposed changes to EU crypto rules.

France wants cryptocurrency platforms to face liability for certain decentralized finance (DeFi) incidents if they fail to vet protocols or ignore known security risks.

French authorities published proposals Wednesday to revise the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The joint response to a European Commission consultation came from France’s Treasury, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the central bank and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR).

“CASPs [crypto-asset service providers] should be liable for certain incidents affecting clients where they actively facilitated access,” French authorities said.

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Bitcoin price current resistance near $87,000 was reinforced by investors who bought BTC in late 2025, per new research.

Bitcoin (BTC) investors sitting on unrealized losses are capping price gains at $87,700, while ETF inflows strengthen support at $80,000, analysis reveals.

Key points:

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The companies will assess safeguards for travelers and whether stablecoins can speed up trade settlement between South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s Shinhan Card announced Wednesday that it signed an agreement with Japan’s SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC to test yen stablecoin payments for travelers and cross-border trade settlement.

Under the pact signed Tuesday, the companies will test stablecoin card payments, wallet-to-wallet payments and cross-border trade settlement. They will also assess anti-money-laundering and fraud-detection controls.

Shinhan Card is one of South Korea’s biggest credit card companies. SBI is a Japanese financial heavyweight that runs banks, brokerages, insurers and crypto exchanges.

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Zcash extended triple-digit year-to-date gains as developers agreed on the NU7 mainnet activation height, targeting Nov. 5, with node synchronization work still pending.

Zcash (ZEC) surged about 12% over the past 24 hours, as developers agreed on a mainnet activation block for the network’s NU7 upgrade, expected in early November.

The token traded around $1,270 at last look on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko. The rally coincided with a Tuesday GitHub proposal by Zcash developer Sean Bowe setting the activation at block 3,543,405, expected around Nov. 5.

The value of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses advanced trustless zero-knowledge proofs is up more than 148% year to date.

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Wallets linked to the $295 million April hack still held $138 million in Ether after sending another $46 million to the mixer Wednesday.

A Drift exploiter-linked wallet transferred 18,800 Ether, worth about $46 million, to Tornado Cash on Wednesday.

The exploiter transferred $61 million in Ether to the crypto mixer on Tuesday, taking its two-day total to 44,510 ETH, or $109 million, as blockchain data tracker Onchain Lens said on X.

The transfers to Tornado Cash make the funds harder to trace and represent nearly 37% of the $295 million stolen from decentralized exchange (DEX) Drift in April. The attack ranks as this year’s third-largest crypto hack, according to DefiLlama.&

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US spot Ether ETFs have shed $1.08 billion so far in October, the biggest monthly outflow of 2026, while Bitcoin ETF inflows slowed after Monday’s spike.

The cash drain from US spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rolled on as the funds surpassed $1 billion in withdrawals so far in October.

Ether ETFs net outflows totalled $1.08 billion since the start of October after adding $26 million on Tuesday, according to SoSoValue data. The month’s withdrawals erased September’s $832 million in net inflows, leaving year-to-date net inflows at approximately $485 million.

October has already recorded the largest monthly net outflow since November 2025, with eight trading sessions still to go.

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The platform tracks tokenized securities ownership and transfers, linking to Malaysia’s RENTAS+ system to settle corresponding payments in central bank money.

Malaysia’s central bank has launched a distributed ledger-based platform for issuing and holding tokenized bonds, connecting digital securities records with a payment system designed to operate around the clock.&

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said that its next-generation Scripless Securities Depository System (SSDS+) supports the issuance, depository and safekeeping of tokenized debt securities, including Islamic bonds known as sukuk.

The new platform tracks ownership and transfers of tokenized securities and connects to the Real Time Electronic Transfer of Funds and Securities (RENTAS+) system, which handles corresponding bond payments in central bank money.&

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A private key generation flaw allowed anyone to guess them and forge HTTPS certificates for any website.

Tech giants have deployed emergency blocks against eight vulnerable digital certificates that could allow attackers to impersonate legitimate websites.

By Tuesday, browser developers and other major technology companies had deployed protections against eight intermediate certificates issued by India-based certificate authority eMudhra Limited after discovering that their private keys were insufficiently secure.&

Mozilla cryptography engineer Dennis Jackson wrote in an incident report that Mozilla independently recovered the private keys when it first received notice of the flaw on Saturday, confirming that the key-generation process was “flawed” and “trivial to exploit.”&

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A merger would bring Tesla into the same corporate group as Grok developer SpaceXAI and social media platform X.

Elon Musk said he likes the idea of merging Tesla with SpaceX in a potential move that would create a roughly $3.5 trillion technology giant combining AI, space exploration and electric vehicle manufacturing.&

“Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes,” Musk said of the potential merger during a SpaceX Q3 earnings call on Tuesday.

Musk said that both SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees of independent directors to discuss the idea at the request of shareholders, though he isn’t able to take part in the discussions due to being a conflicted party.

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The network’s validators approved a recovery plan and opened claims until May 1, 2027.

Layer-1 blockchain Qubic has restarted its network and launched a recovery process after a wallet seed vulnerability allowed an attacker to drain roughly $1.4 million in QU tokens from 1,404 accounts, according to the project’s latest update.

Qubic’s blockchain explorer shows the network resumed processing ticks 8:00 pm on Oct. 19, advancing beyond tick 85,371,949, where it was halted on Sunday.

Qubic said its network validators, known as Computors, had approved a recovery plan and that the project had launched a claims platform for affected wallet holders.

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Derek Brown likened the prediction market company to a “public nuisance“ that was “causing a significant and substantial ongoing harm“ to state residents.

Update (Oct. 20, 9:53 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Kalshi.

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown announced a lawsuit against Kalshi, its affiliates and two Susquehanna trading companies, alleging that the prediction markets platform had been facilitating illegal betting in the US state since 2024.

In a Tuesday press briefing, Brown said Utah officials had petitioned a court to compel the companies to return about $30 million to $60 million in profits they made through allegedly illegal event contracts. The Utah attorney general alleged that Kalshi illegally offered its services to more than 32,000 users in the state, resulting in significant losses.

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The firms are seeking clearer guidance on the classification of crypto assets and secondary-market trading as the SEC’s public comment period comes to a close.

Bitwise Asset Management and the Hyperliquid Policy Center are pressing the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise its proposed crypto rules, seeking clearer guidance on token classifications, airdrops and secondary-market trading in comment letters submitted Monday.

The requests come as the SEC& closes public comments Tuesday& on its proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, which would create exemptions for qualifying crypto fundraising and a conditional safe harbor for tokens associated with investment contracts.

In an& Oct. 19 comment letter, Bitwise Asset Management urged the SEC to clarify how investment managers should determine whether a crypto asset is subject to securities laws, arguing that managers need a standard they can apply using “publicly available information.”

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Crypto projects are struggling to survive as falling revenues, depleted funding and security breaches force closures across DeFi, blockchain infrastructure and gaming.

Crypto researcher Stacy Muur has identified 82 digital asset projects and protocols that have reportedly shut down in 2026, raising questions about the financial sustainability of businesses across decentralized finance, blockchain infrastructure and Web3 gaming.

The list, published on X on Tuesday, includes Balancer, Radiant Capital, Neon EVM and Step Finance, among dozens of others. Muur described the number of closures as unlike anything she had previously witnessed.

The shutdowns follow a prolonged bear market, with Bitcoin (BTC) retreating from its October 2025 record high above $126,000 to below $60,000 earlier this year, adding to the financial strain on projects already struggling to attract users and generate revenue.

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The Bitcoin treasury company could acquire an estimated 7,372 BTC with its net proceeds, potentially surpassing Metaplanet’s holdings if it allocates the full amount.

Strive, the Bitcoin treasury company led by chairman and CEO Matt Cole, closed its upsized initial public offering of SATS preferred stock on Oct. 20, raising $630 million gross, according to the company’s announcement.

The company has not specified how much of the proceeds it will use to buy Bitcoin (BTC).

Strive sold 7 million shares at $90 each. The company estimated net proceeds of $608.15 million after underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net. In an SEC filing, Strive said it intended to use the funds for general corporate purposes, including Bitcoin purchases, working capital, income-generating assets, capital expenditures, share repurchases and acquisitions.

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Injective and BDACS plan to bring won-backed stablecoin KRW1 to tokenized asset markets as South Korea develops a regulatory framework for local currency stablecoins.

Blockchain network Injective has entered into a memorandum of understanding with South Korean digital asset custodian BDACS to bring a won-backed stablecoin to its tokenized asset markets, potentially allowing institutions to settle transactions without relying on US dollar stablecoins.

According to a Tuesday announcement, BDACS’s KRW1 stablecoin would serve as the exclusive won-denominated settlement asset for real-world assets (RWAs) on Injective, allowing institutions to trade and settle tokenized assets directly in Korean won.

BDACS says KRW1 is fully backed by Korean won reserves. Minting and redemption would initially be limited to approved institutional partners, subject to regulatory approval.

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Coinbase reports growing adoption by banks and businesses, even as stablecoin market capitalization remains largely unchanged over the past year.

Stablecoins moved more than $400 million an hour in adjusted transfer volume during the third quarter of 2026, as quarterly activity reached $891 billion, more than quadrupling since early 2023, according to a new report commissioned by Coinbase.

The report found that 73% of screened stablecoin transfer volume occurred outside US banking hours, including nights, weekends and holidays.

Distribution of stablecoin transfer volume by time of day. Source: Coinbase and The Block Research, via Dune Analytics

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About 25% of the US-listed companies in OKXICE’s initial tokenized stock platform proposal are asking to opt-out of the venture.

More companies are formally objecting to having tokenized versions of their shares available on the stock platform proposed by cryptocurrency exchange OKX and the New York Stock Exchange’s parent, the Intercontinental Exchange.

In a notice updated Monday, the joint venture between OKX and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), called OKXICE, reported receiving 16 notices of issuer objection from companies including Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet and Goldman Sachs. The objections did not include specific reasons for the notice to OKX, but one expert told Cointelegraph that they could relate to “not knowing what happens to their price” on the proposed platform.

Speaking to Cointelegraph on Tuesday, OKXICE co-chair and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that these notices were “not objections,” citing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “opening up to a global 24/7 marketplace.” He characterized objections as some companies standing on the side of a pool while letting others jump in and test the waters for OKXICE’s tokenized stock model.

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High US corporate earnings reports boosted stock markets and saw BTC price hit $83,300 before reversing at a 21-day trend line.

Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $83,000 after Tuesday’s Wall Street open as US stocks gained on strong earnings reports.

Key points:

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The Animoca Brands chairman explains that AI agents can make trades while you sleep, but users need to plan for the day they lose access to the bots.

Crypto traders can put AI agents to work around the clock, but Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu warns that users risk building their trading routine around a service they don’t control.

An agent can keep searching for new information and alert its user to developments they might otherwise miss, Siu tells Cointelegraph on the sidelines of Token2049 Singapore.

He uses conference planning as an example. A chatbot could supply a list of events when asked, but an autonomous agent would be on the lookout for new announcements and suggest attendance when a worthy event popped up.

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The April 1 hack caused about $295 million in losses and was later attributed to a North Korean threat group in a Mandiant investigation.

A wallet linked to the Drift Protocol hack sent about $61 million in Ether (ETH) to Tornado Cash, a service that obscures transaction trails.

The wallet deposited 25,700 ETH to the cryptocurrency mixer over two hours on Tuesday after two months of inactivity, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain said in an X post.

The exploiter’s addresses held about 81,454 Ether, worth roughly $194 million, according to Arkham. Crypto mixers pool funds from multiple addresses and obscure fund trails, making tracing harder.

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The Brale-issued token can be minted with USDC from eight networks and is designed to settle tokenized stocks and other assets on tx.

Real-world asset (RWA) platform tx has launched USTX, a dollar stablecoin for its wallet and planned marketplace for tokenized stocks.

Users will need USDC to mint USTX, which can also be redeemed for USDC, the company said in a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph. The platform accepts deposits from eight blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana and Base.

“It is not a USDC-backed wrapper or synthetic representation of USDC,” Ashley Ebersole, tx’s co-founder and chief legal officer, told Cointelegraph. USDC provides a way to mint USTX, which has its own 1:1 reserve structure through Brale, he said.

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UK banks are facing scrutiny over crypto transfer limits and bans as Stand With Crypto reports thousands of complaints ahead of the country’s 2027 regulatory regime.

[Update, Oct. 20, 18:35 UTC: This article has been updated to remove an unverified explanation for Revolut’s crypto transfer restrictions.]

Some of the biggest banks in the United Kingdom are facing fresh scrutiny over cryptocurrency transfer restrictions after thousands of customers reported difficulties moving money to crypto platforms.

Crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto said 9,803 people submitted 10,092 complaints to UK banks over restrictions on transfers to crypto platforms during a 90-day period between May and August 2026. The complaints were submitted through the group’s online tool, according to a report reviewed by Cointelegraph on Tuesday.

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Constance Wang criticized the streamer’s portrayal of her former FTX colleagues as not matching her own experience with Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison.

Former FTX COO Constance Wang said she was upset by the upcoming Netflix drama’s depiction of the collapse of the exchange and its portrayal of some of the top executives.

“The first 30 seconds were enough to upset me,” so “I stopped watching,” Wang told Cointelegraph during an episode of the Chain Reaction X spaces show published on Monday.

Wang said the Netflix trailer’s depiction of some former FTX executives made her “feel physically upset,” adding that the portrayal of Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison didn’t match her personal experience. She explained that former FTX co-founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was also more “socially awkward” than his Netflix portrayal.

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Nine other crypto platforms voluntarily restricted app access in Kazakhstan, prompting the regulator to withdraw its claims against them.

Kazakhstan’s Astana International Financial Centre court (AIFC) has prohibited six platforms from offering digital-asset services without licenses in its jurisdiction and extended access restrictions to app stores.

The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) said Tuesday the court issued injunctions after the regulator sued operators of crypto platforms for offering digital-asset services without authorization.

The Sept. 15 order named BingX, Bitcoin.com, Huobi Global (HTX), BitMart, Coinbase, LBank and WEEX; an amendment three days later removed LBank after its operator blocked access in Kazakhstan.

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More than 6 billion XRP reached exchanges tracked by CryptoQuant in the 30 days to Oct. 19, the most since March.

XRP inflows to exchanges have hit seven-month highs as more than 6 billion tokens were deposited in the last 30 days.

Key points:

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Mt. Gox extended its repayment deadline by another year as some creditors remain unpaid due to incomplete procedures and payment processing issues.

Mt. Gox pushed its creditor repayment deadline to October 2027, marking the sixth extension since 2023 as the collapsed crypto exchange continues working to settle outstanding claims.&

Rehabilitation trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi said on Friday that the Tokyo District Court approved moving the deadline for base, early lump-sum and intermediate payments from Oct. 31, 2026 to Oct. 31, 2027.&

Kobayashi said repayments for creditors who finished the required procedures without complications were largely complete, except for certain payment types. However, he said many creditors remain unpaid because they have yet to complete the procedures, while others encountered issues in processing.&

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The proposed acquisition would give Bitget a route into Thailand’s crypto market through a locally licensed operator.

Crypto exchange Bitget has announced plans to acquire Thailand’s GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics, seeking to expand its Southeast Asia footprint weeks after a major hack impacting its hot and warm wallets.&

The proposed transaction involves BTGT Management (Thailand), a company in which Bitget says it holds an interest, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.& The acquisition will allow Bitget to introduce its trading platform to Thai users.

“Thailand is an important part of Southeast Asia’s digital asset landscape, and this acquisition gives us a great opportunity to establish local operations in a thriving country,” said Bitget CEO Gracy Chen.

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JPMorgan included Bitcoin in its long-term capital market outlook for the first time but warned that volatility and unstable correlations limit its role in investment portfolios.

JPMorgan Asset Management projects Bitcoin (BTC) will outperform stocks and gold over the next decade, but cautions that its volatility makes it unsuitable for diversifying portfolios for now.

On Monday, JPMorgan published its 2027 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions report, projecting a 10% annualized return for Bitcoin, compared with 7.5% for large-cap US stocks and 5.5% for gold.

The projections are part of JPMorgan’s annual outlook covering more than 200 assets to help investors plan their portfolios.

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BlackRock’s proposed Bitcoin fund would use options to limit potential losses and gains, adding another strategy to its existing Bitcoin and Ether ETF lineup.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is looking to expand its crypto fund lineup with a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) that offers limited downside protection in exchange for capped gains.

The world’s largest asset manager on Monday filed a preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF (PBIT).

The proposed ETF would use options linked to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) rather than holding Bitcoin (BTC) directly, according to the preliminary prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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BlackRock’s IBIT led the gains with $665.2 million in inflows, offsetting withdrawals from Fidelity and Grayscale, while other funds recorded no net flows.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $526.7 million in net inflows on Monday, their largest daily intake in nearly a month, after posting net weekly withdrawals in each of the past two weeks.

According to Farside Investors, Monday’s inflows were the strongest since Sept. 22, when the funds attracted $714.7 million. Monday’s record reversed Friday’s $82.4 million in net outflows.&

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led the inflows with $665.2 million, exceeding the net total across all funds. The gains were partly offset by $83.6 million in withdrawals from Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and $54.9 million from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Other funds recorded no net flows, according to Farside.

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In June, Sophon’s developers said the costs of maintaining a standalone blockchain no longer justified its benefits and announced plans to focus on consumer finance and AI applications on Base.

Sophon has set a Nov. 25 deadline for users to withdraw their assets ahead of its planned mainnet shutdown, following a June announcement that it would abandon its Ethereum layer-2 blockchain and move operations to Base.

Sophon said Monday it will begin shutting down key infrastructure and related websites on Nov. 25, and any assets left on the Sophon Chain risk becoming permanently inaccessible.

The team has asked users to withdraw any Sophon (SOPH), Ether (ETH), USDC (USDC) and other assets, and claim any outstanding staking or Guardian rewards.

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The restrictions extend earlier bans within US defense and security agencies, amid concerns that DeepSeek could expose federal information to China.

The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered the removal of DeepSeek products from federal civilian agency IT systems.

The order, filed on Monday, also covers DeepSeek affiliates and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations while prohibiting affected agencies from making new purchases.

DHS warned that use of DeepSeek by government employees and contractors could expose sensitive information to China, potentially revealing details about US citizens and federal programs.

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“A return to last year’s indiscriminate capital raising looks unlikely,” said Bitfinex head of derivatives Jag Kooner.

Corporate Bitcoin purchases could accelerate toward the end of 2026 and into 2027 if the cryptocurrency rallies, but investors are likely to be more selective about which treasury companies they finance, according to analysts.&

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Bitwise head of research Ryan Rasmussen said there was a broad slowdown in Bitcoin treasury buying in Q3. Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings increased by a net 1,666 BTC in Q3, down from 83,901 BTC in Q2, according to company filings. Other public companies added a net 5,617 BTC, compared with 45,725 BTC in the previous quarter, according to figures supplied by Rasmussen.&

Rasmussen said he expects a re-acceleration of corporate Bitcoin purchases to begin as early as this year. Bitfinex head of derivatives Jag Kooner said renewed buying could follow if treasury companies regain premiums to the value of their Bitcoin holdings, but cautioned that investors have become more selective since the 2025 treasury boom.

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The former medical device maker has liquidated its Solana treasury and is offering to repurchase shares and warrants using its $223.8 million cash holdings.

SkyAI, formerly Sharps Technology, has sold its entire Solana (SOL) treasury and launched a tender offer to repurchase up to $201.3 million in shares and warrants, reversing its cryptocurrency accumulation strategy.

The company held approximately $223.8 million in cash as of Oct. 16 after liquidating its SOL holdings, according to a& filing& with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The tender offer allows shareholders and warrant holders to sell their securities directly back to SkyAI at a fixed price. It covers up to 95% of each class of the company’s outstanding shares and warrants, funded entirely by cash on hand.

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A Fairshake affiliate is supporting incumbent Aisha Wahab through ads in November, but the congresswoman already won a special election in the district.

Protect Progress, an affiliate of the cryptocurrency-aligned Fairshake super political action committee (PAC), reported spending $362,000 on ads to support a Democrat in California’s 14th congressional district, just weeks after she won a special election against the same opponent.&

According to a Sunday filing with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), Protect Progress reported spending $362,000 on media supporting incumbent Democrat Aisha Wahab in the Bay Area district against her fellow party member, Melissa Hernandez.

Wahab defeated Hernandez in an Aug. 18 special election with more than 53% of the vote, raising questions about why the cryptocurrency industry-aligned PAC is supporting her in the 2026 midterms.&

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The financial agency is scheduled to close public comments on its ‘Regulation Crypto Assets’ proposed in August.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to move forward with digital asset policies after Congress failed to pass legislation that would have established a framework for regulating cryptocurrency at the agency and across other parts of government.

On Tuesday, the SEC will close to public comments on its ‘Regulation Crypto Assets,’ a set of rules proposed in August intended to create what the agency called a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.” Over the 60-day period, the agency gathered about 140 comments from interest groups and individuals on rules and regulations related to a proposed safe harbor that would prevent token issuers from being considered “investment contracts,” as well as exemptions for companies permitting offerings up to a certain amount.

The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) Crypto Alliance, a group established to help organizations looking to implement the EU framework on digital assets, largely supported the SEC’s proposed changes to disclosure requirements. The alliance recommended specific amendments to have the SEC better define “concepts and data structures specific to crypto assets and the disclosure requirements.”

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Mesh will connect crypto and stablecoin wallets to Visa’s global payment network, allowing users to spend digital assets without a separate card.

Visa and crypto payments network Mesh have partnered to allow consumers to spend cryptocurrency and stablecoin balances directly from digital wallets at merchants across Visa’s global payment network.

The integration will allow users of participating wallets to pay in stores or online without transferring funds to a bank account or obtaining a separate crypto card, according to a Monday announcement from Mesh. Merchants will receive payments through Visa’s existing network without changing their checkout systems.

Visa’s network covers more than 175 million merchant locations across over 200 countries and territories. Mesh said participating wallets, supported devices and launch dates will be announced as rollout plans are finalized.

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The new service combines payment data and blockchain analytics to help banks detect suspicious stablecoin transactions before settlement.

Mastercard is extending its payment risk controls to stablecoin transactions by introducing a tool that lets financial institutions flag suspicious activity before funds move onchain, where recovering stolen funds can be difficult.

Unveiled Monday at the Money20/20 USA conference, Mastercard’s Stablecoin Security combines traditional payment data with blockchain analytics to identify fraud, scams, sanctions exposure and other financial crime risks. Borderless.xyz and Keyrails are the initial partners, with global commercial availability expected next year.

Banks already use fraud detection to monitor conventional payments. Stablecoins add complexity because funds can move across multiple wallets and blockchains, making it harder to assess risk throughout a transaction. Mastercard said Stablecoin Security can generate a risk score before a payment is completed, allowing banks to identify transactions that may require further review.

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The UK-based fintech will use the authorization to offer crypto services in additional international markets, though it has not disclosed specific countries or launch dates.

Revolut, a UK-based financial technology company and neobank, has received a cryptocurrency services license in Gibraltar, which it plans to use to expand its digital asset offerings into international markets beyond the UK and European Economic Area.

The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) granted a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Provider license to Revolut Global Digital Assets Limited, a newly established subsidiary, according to a Monday announcement.

A Revolut spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the license will allow the company to offer crypto services in additional international markets, although specific countries and launch timelines have not been announced.

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The transaction would give Metaplanet access to US capital markets, where it plans to use preferred stock offerings to finance additional Bitcoin purchases.

Shareholders of Super League, a Nasdaq-listed gaming and digital media company, approved a deal that would give Japanese Bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet a 93.7% ownership stake, paving the way for its expansion into US capital markets through a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company.

According to a Monday announcement and filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), shareholders approved the issuance of as many as 435.9 million common shares under agreements involving Metaplanet and Evo Fund. Metaplanet will contribute 2,100 Bitcoin (BTC) and $2.5 million in cash in exchange for 44.86 million common shares, 100 shares of convertible perpetual preferred stock carrying governance rights and 10-year warrants for additional common stock.

The transaction would give Metaplanet control over the company, including the ability to designate a majority of its board and approve major corporate decisions. Metaplanet’s common shares will be subject to a five-year lock-up.

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The Bitcoin treasury company added another 1,223 BTC after an earlier purchase pushed it past MARA Holdings, while continuing to expand its reserves through equity financing.

Bitcoin treasury company Strive purchased 4,045 Bitcoin for approximately $335 million last week, bringing its total holdings to 36,818 BTC as it continues to expand its cryptocurrency reserves through equity financing.

The company acquired the Bitcoin (BTC) between Oct. 12-16 at an average price of $82,803 per coin, including fees and expenses, according to a Monday& filing& with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Strive is now the fourth-largest publicly traded corporate BTC holder, ahead of MARA Holdings, with reserves valued at approximately $3 billion, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net. MARA was reported to be selling some of its holdings, as Arkham tracked wallets linked to the miner depositing about $82 million worth of the crypto into Binance and Gate in recent days.

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Bitcoin price action failed to improve with equities as a sell wall at $83,000 kept BTC in a tight range.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded below $82,000 after Monday’s Wall Street open as crypto diverged from rising stocks and bond yields.

Key points:

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A proposed US bill would let crypto investors correct past tax reporting mistakes through a dedicated disclosure program, with reduced penalties for eligible taxpayers.

Crypto investors who failed to report trades in previous years may soon breathe a sigh of relief thanks to legislation currently advancing in the US Congress.

Section 502 of the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, would require the Treasury secretary to establish a Digital Asset Voluntary Disclosure Program within 12 months of the bill becoming law.

That would allow eligible taxpayers to correct any past digital asset tax violation by filing amended returns and paying the tax owed, along with interest and a program penalty.

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Nine public companies objected to having their shares offered in tokenized form by OKX and ICE, testing whether platforms can create blockchain-based markets without issuer consent.

Nine listed companies have formally objected to having their shares offered in tokenized form on the proposed tokenized stock platform backed by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The companies included Cerebras Systems, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, CoreWeave, Verizon Communications, Applied Optoelectronics, Broadcom and UnitedHealth Group, according to a Thursday notice by OKX and ICE.

The notice did not disclose the reason behind the objection. Under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Sept. 17 innovation exemption announcement, tokenized venues must give issuers written notice and an opportunity to object before listing third-party tokenized stocks.

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Strategy added 267 Bitcoin to its holdings as it bought back 1.94 million STRC shares and boosted its preferred stock buyback program to $3 billion.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, continued buying Bitcoin last week while spending nearly nine times as much repurchasing its preferred stock.

Strategy bought 267 Bitcoin for $22.1 million at an average price of $82,900 between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18, bringing its holdings to 848,517 BTC, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company also repurchased 1.94 million shares of its Stretch (STRC) preferred stock for $193.1 million and increased its digital credit securities buyback authorization to $3 billion from $2 billion.

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World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin saw its market cap decrease more than $400 million over two weeks of large redemptions on Ethereum and BNB Chain.

World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin has shed over $400 million in market capitalization over the past two weeks, driven by large redemptions on Ethereum and BNB Chain.&

On Monday, CoinGecko data showed USD1’s market capitalization at about $4.02 billion, down from $4.43 billion on Oct. 6. That’s a decline of approximately $401 million, or 9.1%. World Liberty Financial’s proof-of-reserves dashboard separately showed approximately $4.01 billion in reserves.

The decline extends a period of concentrated redemptions on Ethereum and BNB Chain, according to blockchain research firm Onchain Benchmark. The research platform found that nearly $200 million in BNB Chain redemptions originated from a single unidentified address, although they could not establish who controlled the funds or why they were redeemed.

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France’s National Assembly adopted a crypto tax amendment targeting certain stablecoin swaps, while separate proposals on exit taxes and self-custodial wallet reporting remain under consideration.

Update, Oct. 20, 7:48 am UTC: This article has been updated to include a delay in the National Assembly’s vote on the revenue section of the 2027 state budget.

French lawmakers narrowly approved a new crypto tax amendment on Friday that could make crypto-to-stablecoin swaps taxable events starting in 2027.

France’s National Assembly adopted Amendment I-3898 on Friday, with 38 votes in favor, 37 against and 25 abstentions. The measure was initially introduced as committee amendment I-CF1826 by French MP Nicolas Sansu and adopted on Oct. 7.

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Analysts expect Bitcoin to retest $80,000 support again as stock markets attempt to recover last week’s losses.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the third week of October at $82,000 as crypto and stock markets begin a tentative rebound.

Key points:

A lighter week of US macro data prints will shift the market’s attention to corporate earnings as stocks rebound from last week’s sell-off. Some 15% of S&P 500 companies are due to report third-quarter earnings figures this week, including SpaceX on Tuesday and Tesla and Meta on Wednesday.&

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ESMA’s latest MiCA register update includes BingX, YouHodler and Banco Santander’s Openbank, bringing the total to 375 unique CASPs.

[Update 9:00 UTC, Oct. 20 - Updates with ESMA’s explanation of a technical issue that temporarily affected Penning Financial Services’ listing in the seventh paragraph.]

[Update 11:30 UTC, Oct. 19 - Updates with comment from Penning Financial Services in the sixth paragraph.]

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) register added nine crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), including BingX, bringing the total to 375 unique providers.

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JPMorgan is expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, allowing institutional clients to make payments and settle tokenized asset transactions.

Update (Oct. 20, 4:35 am UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from a JPMorgan spokesperson.

JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank by market capitalization, is expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum.

In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, JPMorgan said JPM Coin represents US dollar deposits held at the bank and lets eligible clients transfer funds within seconds, around the clock. A spokesperson told Cointelegraph that JPM Coin has been technically deployed on the Ethereum mainnet.

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JPMorgan is reportedly expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, allowing institutional clients to make payments and settle tokenized asset transactions.

JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank by market capitalization, is expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

JPM Coin represents US dollar deposits held at JPMorgan and lets eligible clients transfer funds within seconds, around the clock.

Emma Landriault, global head of Kinexys Labs, said crypto companies could use the token for blockchain payments, while financial institutions could use it to settle trades and post collateral.

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US spot Ether ETFs recorded around $955 million in October net outflows so far, while Bitcoin funds extended their weekly withdrawal streak to two weeks.

US spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw $549 million in net outflows last week as investors continued pulling money from two of the largest crypto funds.

Bitcoin ETFs recorded around $229 million in weekly net outflows, while Ether funds posted even higher withdrawals at $320 million, according to SoSoValue data.

The latest withdrawals marked a second consecutive week of losses for Bitcoin ETFs and a third for Ether funds. Outflows slowed from the previous week, when the two recorded $1.22 billion in net outflows.

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Sam Altman-backed World has rolled out biometric verification badges for Zoom enterprise users, aiming to combat AI deepfake impersonation and fraud.

Zoom enterprise customers will now be able to see “proof of human” badges to verify that people appearing on video calls are real, after a global rollout of biometric identity technology from World.&

On Sunday, the Sam Altman-backed project announced that World ID for Zoom is now available in the Zoom Marketplace. The system compares an image captured by the company’s iris-scanning Orb, a live selfie and the participant’s video feed before displaying a Human Badge visible to other meeting participants.&

World first announced its Zoom integration in April, when it was undergoing limited beta testing with VanEck Funds. The feature is now available globally to Zoom enterprise customers. World also named Bain Capital, Pantera Capital and other financial firms as initial design partners for its broader identity verification technology.

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Finance officials are reportedly set to meet major crypto exchanges on Tuesday, days after a lawmaker introduced legislation that could push the tax’s start date back two years.

South Korea’s senior finance officials are reportedly set to meet crypto exchanges on Tuesday as calls to postpone a planned cryptocurrency tax are heating up ahead of its scheduled implementation in January.

According to Yonhap, the government is planning to hold a consultation on crypto taxation, with representatives coming from Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX and Gopax, along with executives of the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance, known as DAXA.

Government officials attending include Kwon Dae-young, first vice minister of finance and economy, and Yoo Young-jun, director general for digital financial policy at the Financial Services Commission.

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Qubic says 87.1% of the stolen funds remain onchain and the rest were frozen at crypto exchange MEXC, as network validators prepare to vote on a recovery plan.

Layer-1 blockchain network Qubic halted operations Sunday after an attacker reportedly exploited weakly generated wallet seeds to drain approximately $1.4 million from more than 1,400 accounts, according to the project.&

In a statement on X, Qubic said the network was halted at tick 85,371,949, where it remains paused at the time of writing. Qubic said the vulnerability affected wallet seeds generated using any browser on an iPhone or iPad, Safari on a Mac until Oct. 18, 2026, or the Qubic iOS app before July 2025, leading to 2.94 trillion Qubit (QU) stolen.&

“87.1% of the drained funds never left the Qubic network and remain frozen in place,” said Qubic. “The remaining 12.9% was sent to MEXC, whose team froze the receiving account within about an hour.”&

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HEX founder Richard Heart detained in early morning raid in Istanbul, Starknet plunges almost 50% as it votes to become an L1, and Bitwise says all signs point to Crypto Spring.

The HEX market cap fell from $561 million to $315 million this week after founder Richard Schueler — better known to the crypto community as Richard Heart — was detained by authorities in Istanbul on October 14.

Police seized $7.15 million in cash along with firearms and ammunition during an early morning raid in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, alongside searches of 15 related addresses according to Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek.

Police impounded nine luxury vehicles registered to Schueler’s wife according to news agency Anadolu. The haul reportedly included 28 watches, 300 bags and 19 graphics cards.

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The prediction market industry enables people to bet on US ‌elections and sporting events.

Most Americans polled by Reuters/Ipsos are opposed to betting on US elections and other government actions.

The prediction market industry, led by Polymarket and Kalshi, enables people to bet on US ‌elections, government policy moves and sporting events, which has resulted in a series of lawsuits involving state and federal agencies over who has the authority to regulate these markets.

Some 69% of Democrats ​and 61% of Republicans polled said they opposed using prediction markets to bet on election results. The Reuters/Ipsos survey of 4,506 adults nationwide was taken on Sept. 30-Oct. 5.

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Cysic said the incident was limited to bridge message processing and minting and did not affect the mainnet or other operational systems.

Cysic Foundation is investigating an unauthorized issuance on BNB Smart Chain and said the mint size alone does not establish the incident’s dollar impact.

The foundation said in a Sunday X incident report that its cross-chain bridge was suspended after an attacker exploited a processing flaw to mint 10 million CYS on BNB Smart Chain on Saturday, with preliminary findings pointing to unauthorized access to a database supporting the bridge.

The mint occurred at 12:31:38 UTC on Oct. 17, and Cysic added the recipient address to the token contract’s blacklist at 13:47:52 UTC. About 2.8 million CYS remained at that address, with transfers restricted. There are roughly 160.8 million tokens in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap data.

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Police alleged the suspect was involved in cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchanges for criminal groups across more than 133 accounts.

Thai police arrested a 37-year-old Chinese man wanted by authorities in China for alleged involvement in an international crime network and money laundering.

Investigators said the network handled more than 500 million yuan ($75 million) in transactions, Thai media Khaosod English reported in a post on X on Saturday.

Police alleged the suspect was involved in cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchanges for criminal groups across more than 133 accounts.

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The round brings AIsa’s total funding to more than $9 million.

AIsa said it had completed its seed extension round, with Tether Capital and HIVEN joining as strategic investors.

The round brings total funding raised by the enterprise agentic AI infrastructure operator to more than $9 million. The two new investors joined Alibaba, Tribe Capital, Sumitomo Corporation, Draper Associates, Saison Capital and other backers.

“Enterprise AI agents need trusted information, useful tools and a governed way to transact,” said Jordan Liu, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based start-up, in a Friday statement. “Our vision is to build the infrastructure that enables agents to discover, access and pay for resources globally, while giving enterprises full control over permissions, spending and transactions.”

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Solana has had no reported mainnet outages in two years, but concentrations in stake, hosting and client software should be monitored, according to a report.

Solana has made significant progress in terms of network health across resilience, economic security and performance indicators, according to a Fidelity report.

The layer-1 blockchain has had no reported mainnet outages in two years, but concentrations in stake, hosting and client software could pose an outage threat, according to the report by Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT).

The report said economic security was supported by substantial staking participation and incentives that reward validator performance. Low latency, expanded capacity and inexpensive transactions also support practical use at scale.

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Markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East see increasing demand for stablecoins.

Stablecoin issuer Circle is seeking to enter about 40 developing markets, according to the company’s CEO and ​chairman, Jeremy Allaire.

“We’re kind of going through an inflection point... a transition right now, ‌and that transition is essentially moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase,” Allaire told Reuters, speaking Friday on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings ​in Bangkok.

Markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are experiencing increasing demand for stablecoins as businesses and individuals seek to enter the internet-based economic system, Allaire reportedly said.&

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“The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments,” according to the ECB president.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said September’s 3.8% euro-area inflation rate largely reflected high energy costs, which the ECB expects to ease next year.

Lagarde said while an energy shock is expected to keep euro-area inflation above the bank’s target through the first half of 2027, a measured policy response remains appropriate, according to a statement delivered at the IMF Annual Meetings on Saturday.

Lagarde also confirmed that the ECB is devising a digital euro. “In the retail space we are preparing to complement cash with its digital equivalent — the digital euro — for day-to-day payments. The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments, ensuring that the continued co-existence of public and private solutions underpins Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments.”

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“The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments,” according to the ECB president.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said September’s 3.8% euro area inflation rate largely reflected high energy costs, which the ECB expects to ease next year.

Lagarde said while an energy shock is expected to keep euro-area inflation above the bank’s target through the first half of 2027, a measured policy response remains appropriate, according to a statement delivered at the IMF Annual Meetings on Saturday.

Lagarde added that meanwhile, the ECB is devising a digital euro. “In the retail space we are preparing to complement cash with its digital equivalent — the digital euro — for day-to-day payments. The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments, ensuring that the continued co-existence of public and private solutions underpins Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments.”

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Bitget says user funds are safe and exchange will continue to operate during the change.

Bitget said it will discontinue services for some crypto users in what the exchange described as a “one-off exercise.”

The cryptocurrency exchange said in a post on X on Saturday that users’ funds will remain safe during the service change for certain customers, while its crypto platform continues to operate. No rationale or criteria for the action was provided.

Users can verify the safety of their assets here: https://abcdstable.com/academy/how-to-verify-your-assets-in-bitget.

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At least two industry-aligned PACs have poured more than $52 million into opposing Sherrod Brown’s return to the Senate.

Affiliates of the Fairshake political action committee (PAC), largely funded by Coinbase and Ripple Labs, have increased their initially announced expenditures by more than 50% in what could be a key race for control of Congress in 2026.

According to Thursday filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Fairshake affiliate Defend American Jobs — a group that supports Republican candidates in primaries and elections — spent $46.6 million on media opposing former lawmaker Sherrod Brown and supporting Republican incumbent Jon Husted in Ohio’s Senate race for the 2026 midterms. The spending marked a sharp increase over what Fairshake said in September it initially planned to spend opposing Brown’s return to the Senate: $30 million.

“I’ve spent my career taking on Wall Street, taking on big pharma, taking on big oil and been successful in many cases,” said Brown in an interview aired Friday on Pod Save America, addressing the attack ads funded by the crypto industry, adding:

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Borderless.xyz data shows major savings on cross-border business payments, with stablecoin transfers also settling faster than traditional international bank wires.

Stablecoin-funded remittances continue to offer substantial cost savings over traditional money transfers, particularly in emerging markets, reinforcing one of the leading use cases for digital dollars as payment activity grows.

According to a new third-quarter report from Borderless.xyz, a stablecoin payments network, sending a $200 remittance through stablecoin-funded payment rails costs a median of 1%, or $2, compared with 6.36%, or $12.72, for traditional remittances, based on World Bank data.

The difference makes stablecoin-funded remittances roughly 84% cheaper, although the comparison uses Borderless’s third-quarter 2026 pricing and World Bank figures from the same period in 2025.

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Tokenized stocks are drawing trading activity beyond Wall Street hours, while Bitcoin miners confront costly AI expansion and new accounting rules could benefit stablecoins.

Tokenization is beginning to reshape traditional financial markets, with stocks increasingly in focus. Much of the attention has centered on the $3.3 billion in tokenized equities now onchain, according to RWA.xyz, but one of the biggest innovations may be what happens before Wall Street opens and after it closes.

According to the latest industry data, more than 70% of tokenized stock trading volume on BNB Chain now occurs outside regular US market hours, with similar patterns emerging on Solana and Base.

Tokenized equities allow investors to trade US stocks across time zones without waiting for Wall Street’s opening bell, potentially changing how liquidity is distributed throughout the day.

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Bitcoin held above $80,000 as South Korean tech stocks recovered from a sell-off and traders lowered their expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $82,000 around Friday’s Wall Street open as crypto markets stabilized alongside a rebound in South Korean stocks.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD holding most of its reclaimed ground after bouncing at $80,000 on Thursday.

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Strategy conditionally declared daily dividends on STRC, which continued to hover below its $100 par value.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, declared daily dividends on its STRC preferred stock for November, subject to shareholder approval and related amendments taking effect.

The company’s board declared cash dividends for each calendar day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30, with payments beginning Nov. 2. Each dividend will be payable on the business day following its record date, according to a Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

STRC’s annualized dividend rate would remain at 12% for November. Strategy said management would keep recommending that rate until the stock demonstrates “sustained, healthy trading near $100 per share.”&

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Ledger was contacted about tampered hardware wallets risks months before its latest security crisis, with former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès questioning its response.

French hardware wallet maker Ledger received multiple reports of malicious hardware implants months before its latest security crisis, according to Mark Karpelès, former CEO of the collapsed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.

Karpelès told Cointelegraph he was aware of at least two people who contacted Ledger about tampered devices dating back to December 2025. Karpelès said he hasn’t encountered any public warning Ledger issued in response.

Joe Grand, a security researcher, told Cointelegraph he alerted Ledger on March 4, 2026, about a malicious implant in a Nano X purchased through online marketplace Lazada Thailand in August 2025.

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Germany’s largest bank reportedly plans to expand its digital asset custody services to Asian financial centers due to the growth of the digital asset economy.

Deutsche Bank reportedly intends to debut its crypto custody services in Germany and plans to expand them across Asian financial centers in 2027.

The rapid growth of the digital asset economy, including hundreds of billions of dollars held in stablecoins, is driving the bank’s plans, Gerald Podobnik, co-head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate bank, told Reuters in a Friday report.

Podobnik added that the move is part of Deutsche Bank’s goals to achieve compound annual growth of 8% in corporate banking by 2028.

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Solana Foundation President Lily Liu said registrations quadrupled overnight, exceeding the attendance limit registered with local authorities.

The Solana Accelerate event in Shanghai was postponed after pre-registration exceeded the event cap set by local authorities, according to Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation.

Event registration quadrupled overnight following publicity for the event, Liu wrote in a Friday X post, adding that organizers decided to postpone the event to “comply with local requirements.”

Earlier on Friday, X users claimed that the event was “abruptly suspended” as law enforcement officers were stationed at the venue.

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Panelists at Cointelegraph’s Singapore CONNECT event explored opportunities in tokenized markets, the future of everyday stablecoin payments and the evolving landscape for crypto investors.

Tokenized assets are opening new trading opportunities across financial markets, but the growing supply of real-world assets (RWAs) being brought onchain has yet to be matched by investor demand, according to Alex Taaffe, chief revenue officer at crypto trading firm GSR.

Speaking during on a panel on liquidity and market fragmentation at CONNECT by Cointelegraph: Singapore Edition on Oct. 9, Taaffe said liquidity is improving in trading for pre-IPO stocks, commodities and global equities that investors previously had limited access to. However, he said demand for fully tokenized RWAs has not kept pace with the growing number of assets being issued.

Panelists (l-r): Rayco Tarrida Ortega, Min Teo, Shiliang Tang, Lingling Jiang, Alex Taaffe. Source: Cointelegraph

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Bitcoin’s market cycle signals tool showed BTC price action copying history, possibly preparing to reclaim a key moving average before testing new highs.

Bitcoin is attempting to break through an “inflection frontier” that has historically triggered runs to new macro highs.

Key points:

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveals that BTC/USD has begun a fresh battle with its 20-month simple moving average (SMA).

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Europe’s second-largest Bitcoin treasury raised $30 million and increased its Bitcoin holdings by 11% in the first half of 2026, despite reporting a $75 million Bitcoin impairment loss.

France-listed Bitcoin treasury company Capital B reported a net loss of 69.5 million euro ($78 million) for the first half of 2026, driven by a Bitcoin impairment charge of $75.8 million.

The impairment reflected Bitcoin (BTC) prices as of June 30 and had no direct cash impact, according to the company’s first-half 2026 report, published Thursday.

Still, Capital B’s consolidated revenue rose 3.5% year-over-year to $6.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA was negative $1.2 million. EBITDA measures a company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

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Judge ruled changes in CFTC enforcement priorities and allegations of misconduct by its enforcement division were insufficient to overturn Gemini’s January 2025 settlement.

A US federal judge has rejected a joint request by crypto exchange Gemini and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to overturn a $5 million settlement, despite the regulator’s conclusion that it would not have pursued the case under current enforcement standards.

On Thursday, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that changes in CFTC enforcement priorities and allegations of misconduct by its enforcement division did not justify overturning the January 2025 settlement.&

On May 27, the CFTC and Gemini jointly asked the court to overturn the settlement after an internal agency review found alleged misconduct by the regulator’s enforcement division, including reliance on a questionable whistleblower, improper regulatory pressure and efforts to prevent the disclosure of evidence.

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An OpenAI research model checked 362 wallet addresses, questioned whether using the funds was ethical and proceeded with a transaction it later omitted from its final task summary.

An internal research model at OpenAI accessed a funded crypto wallet without authorization, using testnet Ether to deploy smart contracts on the Sepolia network and later omitting the spending from its final task summary.&

OpenAI said the model, which was part of its GPT-5.6 Sol family, was given the task of updating a crypto trading prototype and deploying compatible contracts. After failing to obtain testnet ETH through faucets, the model derived accounts from publicly known developer recovery phrases, checked 362 wallet addresses and selected one with enough funds to proceed.&

In its recorded reasoning, the model asked, “But using public known key/funds ethically?” It then argued that the funds were “effectively abandoned/test ETH” and that Sepolia ETH had no value, before using the wallet’s private key to sign and broadcast a deployment transaction. The transaction succeeded, with fees charged to the account.

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Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan wants to turn Farcaster into a haven for well-mannered techno-optimists. He had to do a bit of housekeeping first.

Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School has begun its reign over the decentralized social platform Farcaster. Its first order of business? An apparent wave of bans that has prompted backlash from members of the decentralized social network.&

Network School on Thursday announced it has acquired Farcaster from Neynar, rebranding it as the Network State Protocol. The same day, several users said on X that their Farcaster accounts had been restricted to “read-only,” as a result of previous posts that broke its new rules.&

“I know most of these folks. They shaped Farcaster with their quirks and wit,” said Kunal Gandhi, former India ecosystem lead at Eigen Labs. “Obliterating accounts from the get-go for past posts is pretty silly. Goes against the ethos of decentralized social.”

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Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi were previously identified for deletion under the methodology, with MSCI set to announce its final list on Nov. 11.

Index provider MSCI has adopted new rules that could lead to Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi being removed from its global indexes, while leaving several other crypto treasury companies facing potential exclusion.&

MSCI said Thursday it will adopt a methodology proposed in August that would make “non-operating companies” ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.&

MSCI previously identified Strategy (MSTR) among the companies that would be deleted from the indexes under the “non-operating companies methodology.” Sharplink, Inc (SBET), Ton Strategy Company (TONX), Solana Company (HSDT) and DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV) are among companies that would be put on a “watchlist” for potential removal.&

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Australia is among 77 jurisdictions committed to adopting CARF, with its first international exchanges of crypto tax data expected in 2028.

Australia has released draft legislation that would enable the automatic exchange of crypto tax information between countries.&

The draft bill, Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2026: Tax information reporting, is open to comment until Oct. 28. It would establish a framework to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) in Australian law and introduce a domestic crypto reporting regime, according to the Australian Treasury.&

Australia first signaled its intention to implement CARF in November 2023 and consulted on its proposed approach in late 2024. The government subsequently announced plans to implement both CARF and a domestic crypto reporting regime in its 2025–26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, with international exchanges of crypto tax information expected to begin in 2028.

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A scammer reportedly lost $4.8M of stolen money after storing the funds on tampered Ledgers. Bitcoin and Ether ETFs launch trading in Thailand and South Korea blocks 27 exchanges.

Ledger was forced to suspend its reseller network across South East Asia this week, after thieves stole more than $103.4 million from 530 addresses via tampered Ledgers inserted into the supply chain. But in a small measure of poetic justice, one of the “victims” was a scammer themselves according to Chainalysis.

The blockchain monitoring firm reports that the scammer lost 60 Bitcoin, worth about $4.8 million, from three newly purchased Ledgers containing spyware that records seed phrases. The Ledger thieves drained all three of their funds into the same wallet.

In a further irony, the scammer had operated a “task scam” where people were paid to fake sales and reviews of real items. So depending on how much they knew, their victims in turn may not have been entirely honest either. “Then a ‘negative balance’ appeared, and they were told to add their own money in order to get paid,” Chainalysis reports. So it’s possible that a scammer of scammers has just got scammed. In crypto it’s sometimes turtles all the way down.

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The crypto exchange was reportedly looking to use the additional funding to regain market share following Binance’s 2023 settlement with US authorities.

Binance.US is reportedly seeking to raise up to $100 million in a funding round that could value the cryptocurrency exchange at $1 billion.

According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, the US-based crypto exchange is pursuing private investment as it looks to expand its business. The potential $1 billion valuation would be well below the $4.5 billion pre-money valuation it secured in 2022, when it raised $200 million in seed funding.

Binance.US reportedly informed World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump and his sons, about the funding round, but the company will not be participating. Last year, Binance was embroiled in a controversial $2 billion investment between an entity tied to the United Arab Emirates royalty and World Liberty using the platform’s USD1 stablecoin.

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The Wall Street Journal reported that a company co-founded by Bo Hines benefited from the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill.

Bo Hines, previously a crypto adviser to US President Donald Trump who later joined stablecoin issuer Tether, reportedly kept a stake in a company that profited from the passage of a stablecoin bill when he was still at the White House.

According to a Wednesday report from The Wall Street Journal, Hines had a one-third stake in the investment company he co-founded, Nxum, while pushing US lawmakers to pass the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS, Act. The legislation reportedly came amid Nxum receiving $6.3 million as part of a deal with stablecoin issuer Tether, behind the USDt (USDT) token, with the first payment going through while Hines was still serving in government.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Hines kept in contact with his partners at Nxum, updating them on progress with the GENIUS Act through the Signal app while serving as Trump’s crypto adviser.

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Sweden’s Riksbank has recommended that lawmakers prepare for a possible digital krona, citing concerns over foreign-currency stablecoins and the future of domestic payments.

Sweden’s central bank is revisiting the possibility of introducing a digital krona, citing the European Central Bank’s (ECB) progress toward a digital euro and the growing use of stablecoins as reasons to reconsider a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In an Oct. 7 letter to parliament’s Finance Committee, published Thursday, the Riksbank urged lawmakers to begin preparing legislation for a potential digital krona, three years after a government inquiry concluded there was insufficient need for one.

The letter pointed to the ECB’s planned digital euro pilot in 2027 and a potential public launch in 2029. According to the Riksbank, Sweden’s payment system could become less competitive without a comparable digital version of its own currency.

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The launch of Global Money Platform marks Mastercard’s first major integration with BVNK since its August acquisition, with Nuvei and Marqeta among the first companies to adopt the platform.

Mastercard is expanding its role in stablecoin payments with a new platform that lets businesses integrate digital currencies into traditional banking and card services, a move that could make it easier for companies to offer stablecoin payments without building their own infrastructure.

The service, dubbed Global Money Platform, is Mastercard’s first major integration with BVNK since it acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company in August, the payments giant announced Thursday.&

According to Mastercard, businesses can use the platform to hold and convert fiat currencies and stablecoins, offer stablecoin-linked cards and make payments directly from stablecoin balances into recipients’ local bank accounts.

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BTC buyers attempted to defend $80,000 support after September US producer inflation overshot expectations by 100 basis points for the largest monthly gain since March 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below $80,000 on Thursday as US Producer Price Index (PPI) data significantly beat expectations.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD slipping to its lowest levels since Sept. 18, declining as much as 1.8% on the day, before rebounding to around $81,000.

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Russia plans to ban direct P2P crypto trades from July 1, 2027, while separate rules already prohibit transfers from digital accounts to self-custody wallets.

Russia will ban direct peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency transactions between individuals starting next year, requiring individuals to use authorized intermediaries for such trades.

The restriction will end individuals’ ability to exchange crypto assets directly without intermediaries, the Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, explained in guidance updated Monday. The regulator confirmed that such transactions will remain permitted only until July 1, 2027.

The regulator also clarified that individuals are not allowed to transfer crypto assets from their digital accounts to their own non-custodial, or self-custodial, wallets.

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The Nasdaq-listed treasury company holds about $237 million in TRX tokens and plans to raise additional capital to fund its purchases, alongside its daily accumulation.

Nasdaq-listed Tron (TRON) has filed for a new at-the-market (ATM) share offering allowing it to sell up to $200 million of common stock that will fund an even-larger Tron (TRX) treasury.

The deal allows Tron to periodically sell shares of its common stock at $0.0001 par value through Clear Street, which acts as an agent and retains a commission of up to 3% of gross proceeds, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company’s existing TRX accumulation program, announced in February, called for the purchase of approximately $50,000 worth of TRX per day for 360 consecutive days. Tron’s treasury holds 718.9 million TRX tokens, currently worth about $237 million, after the company’s latest acquisition of 149,369 TRX at an average price of $0.3347 on Thursday.

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The SEC and the CFTC have issued a raft of pro-crypto rules recently. But will the rules hold up in court, and can they be easily rolled back by the “anti-crypto army”?

In the wake of the failed CLARITY cloture vote in the Senate, the SEC and CFTC immediately moved to issue their own rules for crypto markets.&

Two days after the vote, the SEC unveiled a five-year exemption that permits the issuing and trading of stock tokens. OXK has since teamed up with ICE to launch trading in 63 NYSE-listed stocks and Securitize launched 12 Securitize Stocks, including Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft.& &

The SEC has also issued guidance clarifying that a crypto token doesn’t become a security just because a project is buying back its own tokens, and stated that liquid staking tokens are not securities. It has also proposed new rules for the custody of crypto assets.&

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The HEX token’s price declined by 30% following local media reports of the Istanbul arrest of founder Richard Schueler, nearly two years after Interpol issued a “Red Notice.”

The Hex (HEX) token fell nearly 30% in the past 24 hours after local media reports of founder Richard Schueler, also known as Richard Heart, being detained by authorities in Istanbul.

The HEX token declined to $0.0006 as of 11:28 am UTC on Thursday, erasing about $160 million from its market capitalization, from more than $500 million on Wednesday to $340 million by press time, according to CoinMarketCap. It previously topped $0.44 in September 2021.

On Wednesday, news outlet Ihlas Haber Ajansı (IHA) reported that Schueler and his wife were detained in Istanbul by Turkish authorities. Police reportedly seized multiple devices, hardware wallets, jewelry and handguns.

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Ledger’s new Atom combines crypto wallet security with everyday apps and is expected to ship in summer 2027 as the company investigates tampered wallets sold in Asia.

Ledger unveiled a new device on Thursday with stronger protections against tampering, days after confirming that wallets sold through a reseller in Asia contained malicious implants.

The French hardware wallet maker introduced Atom, an $849 device that combines a crypto wallet with everyday apps through a smartphone-like design. Atom separates Android apps from sensitive wallet operations and includes protections Ledger says would block the implants used in the recent Asia incident. It’s also advertised to detect tampering even when switched off.

The company expects to begin shipping the device in summer 2027, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

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Witt’s departure leaves a leadership gap at the White House Crypto Council and marks the fourth high-profile exit from the advisory group.

Patrick Witt, the executive director of the White House’s Crypto Council, is leaving his current role for a new opportunity in the private sector.

“Serving in this administration has been the privilege of a lifetime,” wrote Witt in a Thursday X post, adding that he looks forward to continuing to support US technological advancements “in the private sector.”&

Witt served as the White House’s leading advisor on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, would have created the first comprehensive US regulatory framework for the crypto market. The US Senate failed to pass a cloture motion on the legislation in September and further progress this session is unlikely.

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Starknet is asking STRK holders whether to explore becoming an independent layer-1 blockchain to reduce its dependence on Ethereum’s quantum-security upgrade timeline.

Ethereum layer-2 network Starknet has opened a non-binding vote asking STRK holders whether it should explore becoming an independent, post-quantum layer-1 blockchain.

On Thursday, Starknet opened a seven-day poll, which offers three options: support further research, oppose it, or remain neutral pending more information. Voting closes on Oct. 22, with results published afterwards.

A “Yes” vote would signal support for further research, not authorize a transition. Further proposals and governance votes would be required, and no timetable for becoming an L1 has been announced.

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Compromised suppliers, developer tools and infrastructure components outside security audits drove about 77% of the quarter’s total losses, according to Hacken.

Cryptocurrency hacks soared to $1.18 billion across 107 recorded incidents in the third quarter of 2026, according to security company Hacken.

Hacken’s Q3 report attributed 77% (about $906 million) to compromised suppliers or developer tools, publicly disclosed fixes that had not been deployed, or other components outside security reviews.

The four largest incidents included the $387 million Bitget hack, the $320 million Liquid Network exploit, the $120 million Tectonic exploit, and the Coldcard firmware vulnerability, associated with an estimated $115 million in losses.

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Bitcoin price action continued to see contagion from a Korean tech sell-off after the KOSPI Index fell 7.5% on Thursday.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to its lowest levels in over three weeks on Thursday as crypto tracked fresh losses on South Korean stock markets.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $80,154 on Bitstamp, a level last seen on Sept. 20.

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Thailand’s new Bitcoin and Ether ETF rules take effect Friday, but CoinShares expects modest initial inflows as existing investment options compete for demand.

Thailand’s first crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may get off to a slow start despite Bangkok’s efforts to expand access to regulated digital asset investments.

“I would expect modest inflows initially, with tens of millions of US dollars across the first products a more realistic starting expectation than billions,” James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset investment firm CoinShares, told Cointelegraph.

The country opens a new route for crypto exposure on Friday as its rules for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand take effect.

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Babylon’s proposal to bring native Bitcoin collateral to Aave V4 has entered a new governance stage, but further votes and security reviews remain before launch.

Bitcoin-focused developer Babylon Labs has submitted a proposal to let users borrow stablecoins on Aave against native Bitcoin (BTC).

Under the hood, users would lock their BTC in vaults on the Bitcoin network and borrow against it on Aave. A non-transferable token on Ethereum would represent the collateral, while the BTC itself would remain on its native blockchain without being bridged or wrapped.

The Wednesday proposal follows an initial submission on May 25 and a preliminary community vote that passed on June 10, according to Babylon Labs.

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Bitcoin ETFs have recorded $151 million in net outflows since Monday, after investors withdrew $681 million the previous week.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to net outflows for the week on Wednesday as BTC fell below $82,000.

Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $262 million in outflows on Wednesday, reversing $176 million in inflows the day before, according to SoSoValue data. The latest withdrawals brought this week’s net outflows to $151 million through Wednesday. The funds logged $681 million in net outflows last week.

Weekly flows in US spot Bitcoin ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

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South Korea is proposing tougher cybersecurity assessments after a review identified security deficiencies at 130 financial firms.

South Korea is planning tighter cybersecurity requirements for financial institutions after an investigation into earlier security incidents involving 16 companies, including crypto exchanges.&

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said it would pursue improved threat monitoring, more frequent security assessments and stronger accountability for executives after an industry-wide review found cybersecurity deficiencies at 130 of 555 financial companies.&

The FSC said about 100,000 pieces of customer information had been exposed across the affected firms, including names, contact details and identification numbers.&

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The consultation follows Parliament’s passage of digital asset legislation in April, with Australia’s securities regulator now proposing capital, custody and trading standards for crypto platforms.

Update (Oct. 15 at 5:35 am UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from Liam Hennessy, partner at Thomsons.

Update (Oct. 15 at 11:44 pm UTC): Added comment from Steven Pettigrove, partner at Piper Alderman.

Australia’s securities regulator opened consultation Thursday on proposed capital, custody and trading requirements for crypto platforms, as it prepares to implement legislation passed in April that expands oversight of the industry.&

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TeraWulf, Core Scientific, Cipher Mining and IREN each lost more than 12% as hotter inflation hit AI infrastructure companies.

US stocks suffered their sharpest selloff since July on Wednesday as hotter-than-expected inflation data weighed on technology and AI infrastructure companies, with Bitcoin miners among those hit.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, its biggest one-day decline since July 29; the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.9%, its biggest one-day drop since July 23, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% over the day.&

Leading decliners among major tech companies included data center operator CoreWeave, which fell 16%, AI infrastructure provider Nebius, which fell 11%, and Oracle, which fell 9%.&

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VanEck initially filed an S-1 registration statement for the exchange-traded fund in October last year.

Asset manager VanEck said it no longer plans to proceed with its proposed Lido staked Ether exchange-traded fund, shelving the product designed to give investors exposure to the liquid staking token.

In an SEC filing on Wednesday, VanEck Digital Assets said it “does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution” of the trust’s shares. It did not explain what prompted the decision or whether VanEck would pursue a replacement product.

VanEck initially filed the fund’s S-1 registration statement on Oct. 16, 2025. The proposed fund would have held Lido staked Ether (stETH) and would expect to accrue certain staking rewards through ownership of stETH.

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The deal gives Polygon access to 37 money transmitter licenses and 11 state exemptions.

Polygon Labs has completed its acquisition of Coinme, giving its stablecoin payments platform a regulated way to convert dollars into digital assets and back across 48 US states.

Polygon said Wednesday its US payments business now has coverage with 37 money transmitter licenses and 11 exemptions. It is also registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) as a money services business.

The acquisition follows agreements announced in January to buy Coinme and wallet infrastructure provider Sequence for more than $250 million combined, while consolidating some roles at Polygon Labs. At the time, Polygon CEO Marc Boiron said it needed the team to transition into a “leading payments-focused blockchain company.”

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Illinois officials already agreed to delay implementation of a 0.2% tax on crypto assets, but industry-aligned organizations are pushing for summary judgment on the merits.

The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) and Blockchain Association (BA) said they would join the Digital Chamber and others to push for a court to address the merits of a lawsuit over Illinois’s digital-asset tax, set to take effect in 2027.&

In a Tuesday filing in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County, the crypto advocacy organizations asked the court to approve an expedited schedule for summary judgment “to reach a decision on the tax’s lawfulness as quickly as possible.” The filing cited the CCI’s and BA’s lawsuit against Illinois state officials, as well as one filed separately by the Digital Chamber and Illinois Blockchain Association.

“While pausing enforcement of the Digital Asset Tax Act protects Illinois consumers and businesses from this onerous and legally flawed tax until July 1, it remains imperative that the merits are determined as soon as possible,” said CCI CEO Ji Kim.&

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The second-largest stablecoin by market cap will be overseen by French and EU authorities under its classification as a “significant e-money token.“

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has classified Circle’s USDC stablecoin as a significant e-money token under the region’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework.&

In a Wednesday notice, the banking regulator said the e-money token classification, granted to only 45 other projects, effectively means the USDC stablecoin will be jointly overseen by the EBA and France’s supervisory authority, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution. The stablecoin is the second largest by market capitalization, at $73 billion compared to Tether USDt’s $184 billion.

The “significant“ classification came as many EU-based token issuers pushed for regulated US dollar-pegged stablecoins in the region. Stable Mint CEO James Bennett told Cointelegraph that while Europe couldn’t “wish away“ dollar stablecoins, regulators could control safeguards and rules for issuers.

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Brooklyn prosecutors and the FBI seized 112 servers and shut down 241 websites linked to investment scams that targeted Russian-speaking Americans.

Prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have disrupted an Eastern European cryptocurrency scam network accused of stealing tens of millions of dollars from Americans, primarily Russian-speakers.

The operation, carried out last week and announced on Wednesday, resulted in the shutdown of 241 websites and the seizure of 112 servers hosted by companies in Eastern Europe and the United States, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. No arrests were made.

“These criminals stole many millions of dollars from Russian-speaking victims through an elaborate investment scheme, then tried to exploit them again with false promises to recover their money,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. He credited the office’s Virtual Currency Unit and the FBI with uncovering the network’s infrastructure.

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The report from the US banking regulator did not include specific examples of debanking related to crypto, but mentioned it alongside ties to oil, gas and firearms.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a report on debanking efforts, including ties to digital assets as activities that influenced banks to limit financial services.

In a report released Wednesday, the OCC said certain banks had “public and nonpublic policies” restricting services for many industries, including oil and gas, tobacco, firearms and digital assets. According to the banking regulator, the report was in accordance with an August 2025 executive order from US President Donald Trump to prevent what he called “unlawful debanking.”

“Many institutions also placed restrictions on banking digital asset activities, including on issuers, exchanges, or administrators, often attributed to financial crime considerations,” said the OCC.

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The bank identified four distinct stablecoin markets, with USDC leading payments and AI transactions as competition intensifies over reserve yields.

Standard Chartered says stablecoin transaction activity continues to grow even as the market’s overall value has stalled, suggesting existing stablecoins are circulating more frequently rather than new supply driving growth.

In a report shared with Cointelegraph, the bank said it now expects stablecoin market capitalization to reach $2 trillion by 2030, two years later than initially projected, after the market plateaued at roughly $309 billion this year.

Geoffrey Kendrick, StanChart’s head of digital assets research, said stablecoin usage continues to expand despite slower supply growth, with existing stablecoins changing hands more frequently as their use cases diversify.

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Bitcoin fell below $82,000 while bond yields targeted new 24-year highs on the back of hot US CPI inflation.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $82,000 after Wednesday’s Wall Street open as US consumer inflation beat expectations.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed crypto, gold and stock-market futures dropping after the release of Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September.

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Even if Justin Drake’s prediction that AI could break cryptography proves correct, critics say “bunker mode” is an impractical suggestion that’s unlikely to protect your crypto.

If rising geopolitical tensions weren’t enough cause for concern, now it’s crypto’s turn to go nuclear.

The industry is busy debating a cryptography doomsday scenario in which attackers derive private keys from public keys using a formerly far-fetched, but now potentially credible, AI scenario that places everyone’s crypto at risk.

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake called for “bunker mode” planning last Wednesday, citing “humbling” advances in artificial intelligence that could accelerate the discovery of mathematical attacks and ultimately “break” cryptography:

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Remittance-sized crypto transfers from Canada to three Asian countries reached $2.36 billion, while transfers to the Philippines alone rose 28% to $61 million.

Remittance-sized crypto transfers from Canada to India, China and the Philippines surged 141% year-over-year to $2.36 billion, as digital asset payments expanded across the three major remittance corridors.&

According to a new Chainalysis report, the three countries accounted for 19.4% of Canada’s outbound cross-border stablecoin value, up from 10.9% in the previous year. Transfers totaled 3.56 million transactions in the 12 months ending June 2026, averaging $663 per transaction.&

Referring to additional data shared with Cointelegraph, Chainalysis head of research Eric Jardine said Canada-to-Philippines crypto remittances alone reached $61.02 million across 73,564 transactions, up 28% and 34.7%. The analysis covers Bitcoin and stablecoins above $10,000 to and from personal wallets.

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Qivalis said the Electronic Money Institution authorization enables it to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin, with issuance planned for the coming months, subject to additional MiCA requirements.

European banking consortium Qivalis received Electronic Money Institution (EMI) authorization from the Dutch central bank, bringing it closer to issuing a euro-denominated stablecoin.

The Amsterdam-based company revealed the license from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in a Wednesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Qivalis said the EMI license subjects it to ongoing supervision by the central bank and makes it eligible to issue euro-denominated electronic money tokens.

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Payward expects to close the acquisition in 2027, enabling it to expand its traditional banking services into four EU operating markets already served by Saldo Bank.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken’s parent company, Payward, will buy Lithuania-based Saldo Bank as part of its expansion into traditional financial services, calling it “a deliberate next step in an infrastructure strategy we’ve been building for years.”

Payward signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB, is a digital bank licensed in Lithuania, according to a Wednesday announcement.

Payward said Saldo Bank’s EU banking license and footprint will enable it to expand into four operating markets, including Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, where the bank already offers retail term deposits. The bank’s authorization is also passported into the Netherlands.

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Ledger hardware wallet implants have renewed scrutiny of the middlemen handling devices before they reach buyers, even through authorized sellers.

Ordinary cryptocurrency owners cannot realistically be expected to detect sophisticated tampering with hardware wallets, security researcher Joe Grand told Cointelegraph on Tuesday.

Grand specializes in hardware security and has helped recover cryptocurrency from locked wallets. His work includes developing techniques to bypass security protections and extract data from memory chips used in wallets made by Trezor and KeepKey.

“It’s really hard to explain to people how they’re supposed to look at their devices, because even technical people like me are not looking at every single device to see if it’s been tampered with,” Grand said.

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Coins.ph says its Philippine central bank license remains intact amid reports of possible revocation over alleged offshore gambling transactions.

[Update, 11:00 am UTC: Added a follow-up response from a Coins.ph spokesperson.]

Coins.ph said it remains licensed by the country’s central bank following reports that it could face license revocation over alleged transactions involving restricted offshore gambling operators.&

Coins.ph is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the Philippines, recording approximately $52 million in 24-hour spot trading volume on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko. The reported license risk follows restrictions imposed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on incoming InstaPay and PESONet transfers involving DCPay Philippines, the entity operating Coins.ph’s peso e-wallet services.

“Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators,” the company said in an official statement shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday. “Our users’ funds are safe; we continue to operate as a BSP-licensed institution,” it added.

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Bitcoin onchain analysis eyed a “potential bottom” for BTC price action in early October as demand weathered external headwinds.

Bitcoin (BTC) can still preserve its traditionally strong October performance, as onchain data points to a local BTC price bottom forming.

Key points:

New analysis published on crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant Monday show onchain conditions in a state of “cautious optimism.”&

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Should US high court justices grant review of the case, they could release a decision as early as June 2027.

After being convicted in 2023, losing his appeal to a Second Circuit court in 2026 and awaiting a decision on a presidential pardon that may never come, former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried is hoping to take his criminal case to the US Supreme Court.

Jeffrey Fisher, counsel at the law firm Hecker Fink LLP and representing Bankman-Fried in his Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) appeal, spoke to Cointelegraph about the potential timeline surrounding the former FTX executive’s case and what onlookers could expect to see should the justices choose to accept his petition for a writ of certiorari, possibly resulting in a new trial.

Bankman-Fried is pursuing the high court’s review while also seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump. According to Fisher, SCOTUS rules require SBF to file a petition for a writ of certiorari within 90 days of a decision from an appellate court, requesting that the justices consider the case.

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Saifedean Ammous argues that Bitcoin already functions as money when held as a store of value; expects it will become larger and less volatile than gold as it matures.

Saifedean Ammous, the author of the 2018 academic book “The Bitcoin Standard,” said that Bitcoin already functions as a medium of exchange and that volatility’s effect on that is likely to diminish.

Bitcoin (BTC) can serve as a medium of exchange as it becomes less volatile than gold while surpassing the market capitalization of the largest precious metal, wrote Ammous in a Tuesday X post.

“Holding Bitcoin is using Bitcoin as money, and its lack of widespread use as a method of payment is no evidence against its monetization unfolding,” added Ammous.&

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Standard Chartered expanded its spot crypto trading services to professional investors in the UAE region, with plans to offer access to more market participants.

Standard Chartered has expanded Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading to wealthy clients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who qualify as professional investors.

Eligible investors can trade these assets within their existing Standard Chartered bank accounts, the London-headquartered multinational bank announced Wednesday.

Standard Chartered’s eligibility criteria require individuals to have at least 4 million dirhams (about $1.1 million) in net assets, excluding their main residence, and sufficient investment knowledge and experience or representation by a licensed entity.

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Starknet’s Shadow Accounts allow users to obscure connections between their main wallets and DeFi activity, though transactions remain visible onchain.

Ethereum layer-2 network Starknet has launched a wallet privacy feature that lets users interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) apps without publicly linking activities to their main wallets.&

StarkWare, the team behind Starknet, said that its new Shadow Accounts feature creates separate, persistent addresses for individual applications. Users can fund the accounts using shielded balances held in the network’s STRK20 privacy pool. This allows them to maintain lending, trading or other DeFi positions under different onchain identities.&

The new privacy feature obscures the connection between the shadow account and the wallet funding it. However, balances, transactions and positions of these shadow accounts remain publicly visible onchain, according to Starknet.&

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New York Fed President John Williams’ comments came as he reaffirmed his view that the US Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates once more this year.

New York Fed President John Williams said AI equipment supply could take more than two years to catch up with demand, which could add to inflationary pressure.

Williams made the comments during an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, saying that the buildout of AI infrastructure is pushing up chip prices and goods that use them.

Asked whether supply and demand within AI would become more balanced over the next two years, Williams said: “I think it’s going to take longer. Assuming the demand kind of impulse continues as expected, and that’s a big assumption.”

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Bitwise’s Matt Hougan said nearly every fundamental indicator that Bitwise tracks spiked sharply higher.

Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan says Q3 may have been “one of the best quarters in crypto’s history,” arguing a sharp rebound in crypto prices and growing onchain markets point to the start of “crypto spring.”

In its quarterly market review published Thursday, Bitwise reported a 46.4% quarterly gain in its large-cap crypto index, along with $6 billion in US spot Bitcoin ETF inflows that brought year-to-date net flows back into positive territory.&

The growth extended beyond the price of cryptocurrencies. The value of tokenized equities rose 65.5% to nearly $3.2 billion, while open interest on decentralized perpetual futures hit a new record near $26 billion, with a growing share tied to stocks, commodities, foreign exchange and pre-IPO shares.

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The wallet maker requested that devices be removed from shelves while investigators work to establish where tampering occurred.

Ledger has requested sellers and distributors of its devices in six Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong to suspend sales and remove its hardware wallets from shelves as it investigates reports of tampered devices.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Ledger said the request covers resellers in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

“To be clear, as the investigation continues, the only confirmed incidents remain contained to Southeast Asia. We have not verified a drain linked to a device bought elsewhere,” said Ledger.

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Tokenized equities have reached nearly $3.3 billion in value as investors embrace round-the-clock access beyond Wall Street hours.

Most trading in tokenized stocks on major blockchains now takes place outside regular US market hours, offering an early indication that around-the-clock trading could be one of the biggest advantages of putting equities onchain.

According to Blockworks data cited by The Kobeissi Letter, more than 70% of tokenized stock trading volume on BNB Chain occurs outside the traditional 9:30 am to 4 pm Eastern trading session. The figure is 63% on Solana and nearly 60% on Base.

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CCO Danny Sanders said he had notified certain hardware wallet resellers that they would be removed from Trezor’s list of authorized entities starting Jan. 1.

Hardware wallet producer Trezor announced it would reduce its number of resellers as a “preventive step, taken out of an abundance of caution,” following reports that malicious implants had been installed in devices made by competitor Ledger.

In a Tuesday X post, Trezor said there was “not a single piece of evidence that [its] devices have been compromised” after reports that Ledger hardware wallet users had found malicious implants that exposed recovery phrases.&

However, Trezor said that it would reduce the number of its resellers, citing “recent supply-chain incidents.” Chief commercial officer Danny Sanders added that he had notified certain resellers that they would be removed from the company’s list of authorized entities on Jan. 1, and would halt shipments of Trezor devices starting on Tuesday.&

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A recent change in the SEC’s rules on quorum could make it easier for the agency to amend its approach to crypto regulation in the absence of a market structure bill.

After US lawmakers failed to pass a comprehensive digital asset market structure bill, financial regulators stepped up efforts to change rules around the oversight and enforcement of crypto companies and offerings.&

However, the two primary regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), are understaffed at the leadership level, leaving the decisions for regulating aspects of the $3 trillion crypto market largely in the hands of just three individuals, two of whom were nominated by US President Donald Trump.&

At the SEC, two commissioners — Chair Paul Atkins and former Acting Chair Mark Uyeda — remain following the departure of Commissioner Hester Peirce earlier this month. The dearth of leadership at the CFTC is even more stark, with Michael Selig serving as the only Senate-confirmed chair and commissioner since December 2025. The agencies are intended to each have five commissioners.

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Strive is now the fifth-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, with 32,773 BTC, as it continues to expand its treasury through equity financing.

Strive, a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company, increased its holdings by more than 11% last week as investors exercised $208 million in warrants, with Bitcoin purchases outpacing share issuance and giving existing shareholders greater exposure to the cryptocurrency.

In a Tuesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Strive disclosed that it purchased 3,311 Bitcoin (BTC) in the week ending Oct. 9 at an average price of approximately $84,500 per coin. The purchases brought its total holdings to 32,773 BTC, making it the fifth-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, according to industry data.

At last look on Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading hands at roughly $83,300 apiece, according to Yahoo Finance data. The Strive (ASST) share price was little changed at $27.52.

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Bitcoin price action preserved overnight gains as US stocks quickly rebounded after opening lower on the back of Korea’s tech-stock rout.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to target $84,000 at Tuesday’s Wall Street open as US stocks attempted to shake off South Korea’s latest tech rout.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD returning to near $83,800 at the start of the US trading session, preserving much of its overnight upside.

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Anthropic warned that rogue “AI worms” are months away from the ability to self-replicate and autonomously infect user devices such as home appliances and other internet-connected devices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic warned that self-replicating autonomous AI systems may start spreading across user devices without human intervention, akin to computer viruses.&

Rogue “AI worms” may start autonomously targeting everyday devices, including Android TVs, smart appliances, cameras and other internet-connected devices with basic computing power and weak security, according to a Monday report by researchers William Zhou and Daniel Freeman for Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team.

Small AI models may be “months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things (IoT) devices,” which would be a challenging threat as it would have “no centralized point to shut off,” the authors said.&

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Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc says Bitcoiners are lying to themselves about Lightning. Developers claim usability has improved, but questions remain over everyday adoption.

Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc ruffled a few feathers this month with a brutally blunt assessment of the Lightning Network: Bitcoiners are lying to themselves about how well it works.

“Most people don’t realize how bad the Lightning Network is,” Sztorc said in an October 4 post on X, “because there has been a vast, years long conspiracy to ***lie*** about the LN user experience.”

He argued that custodial Lightning services account for more than 80% of payments, and described their promotion as a “vast campaign of fraud on par with Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos,” he said, referring to fake blood-testing device company whose founder was convicted of fraud.

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BIS said that digital cash can achieve “cash-like privacy,” however, the technology isn’t yet production-ready due to risks such as bank data breaches.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said digital cash can offer privacy properties similar to cash, but highlighted remaining risks, including how potential bank data breaches may expose users’ personal data.

While digital cash can achieve “cash-like privacy,” the technology stack is not yet “production ready,” wrote BIS in its Project Aurum Phase 2 report, published on Tuesday.

This phase implements a privacy-preserving digital cash prototype using BIS’s existing Aurum codebase to take a balanced approach between complete anonymity and full transaction transparency, BIS said.

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Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, has secured crypto exchange authorization as it prepares to offer Bitcoin, Ether and Tether USDt trading.

Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, has secured the central bank’s approval to trade cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, ahead of a planned December launch.

The Bank of Russia’s updated register, dated Tuesday, lists 10 authorized crypto exchange operators and six digital custodians, up from four and five, respectively, a week earlier. The lists include major lenders Sberbank and VTB alongside nonbank companies such as T-Invest Lab and Atomyze.

Sberbank previously said it plans to launch crypto products supporting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether’s USDt (USDT) on Dec. 1, 2026, through its existing SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness platforms.

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New .eth registrations would pause for hours during the transition, while existing domain holders could renew their names without migrating.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is seeking approval from its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to activate an upgraded naming protocol on the Ethereum mainnet.&

ENS founder Nick Johnson submitted an executable draft proposal to activate ENSv2, the next version of the protocol. If approved, the upgrade would freeze new registrations on the original ENS registrar while allowing existing domain holders to continue renewing their names.&

The upgrade introduces a redesigned registry architecture with more flexible domain management and permissions. After the activation, ENS Labs plans to transfer its remaining administrative control over the upgraded contracts to the DAO.&

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Metaplanet plans to issue zero-interest bonds with a five-year maturity to improve its debt structure and cut its reliance on Bitcoin-collateralized loans without selling holdings.

Metaplanet will issue 52 billion yen ($329 million) in zero-coupon, euro-yen convertible bonds due in 2031.

Japanese investment and Bitcoin treasury company plans to use about 23.6 billion yen ($149 million) of the net proceeds to repay Bitcoin-collateralized loans and about 28.3 billion yen ($179 million) for share buybacks, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The buybacks are part of Metaplanet’s new share repurchasing program, which targets up to 60 billion yen ($380 million) in total buybacks.

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European retailer MediaMarkt pulled Ledger products as the wallet maker probes tampering reports beyond CryptoBilis in Southeast Asia.

[Update Oct. 13, 1:10 PM UTC: This article has been updated with new statements from MediaMarktSaturn and Ledger.]

MediaMarktSaturn, the parent company of European electronics retailer MediaMarkt, has removed Ledger products from its physical stores and online platforms amid reports of tampered hardware wallets.

“The products have been removed from our product lineup internationally in all of our countries. We did this as a precautionary measure,” a MediaMarktSaturn spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

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Bitcoin’s liquidity kept BTC price below $84,000 amid a mounting South Korean tech and semiconductor stock sell-off.

Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded toward $84,000 on Tuesday as crypto markets skirted fresh losses for South Korean stock markets.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD up more than 2.5% on Tuesday, reaching $83,944 on Bitstamp to retrace Monday’s drop.

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Chinese fraud victims seeking to recover 61,000 seized Bitcoin face a legal setback after a UK court ruled that Chinese law governs their claims.

Chinese fraud victims seeking to recover 61,000 Bitcoin seized by the British government have lost a key legal battle after London’s High Court ruled that Chinese law, rather than English law, should govern claims to the assets.

On Monday, Justice Mark Turner rejected arguments for applying English law or a combination of English and Chinese law to the victims’ ownership claims. The judge ruled that Chinese law must determine whether the claimants have property rights in the seized Bitcoin, leaving the validity of claims for subsequent proceedings.

“The relevant damage occurred in China. The Applicants parted with their money in China,” Turner wrote.& “The contractual relationships thereby induced were entered into in China.”

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Ledger detailed how LTE-enabled implants exposed wallet recovery phrases as CryptoBilis halted sales and Trezor and OneKey cut ties with the reseller.

Malicious implants in Ledger wallets sold by CryptoBilis captured users’ recovery phrases from device screens and transmitted them over cellular networks, the French hardware wallet maker said.

Ledger Donjon, the company’s security research team, found that the implants used a microcontroller to decode the 24-word phrases displayed during setup and transmitted the data over LTE networks using an embedded SIM (eSIM), according to a Tuesday X post by Ledger.

The implants did not compromise the devices’ security chips or alter transactions, Ledger said.

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Blur’s planned website closure revived criticism of the royalty policies and token rewards that helped it overtake OpenSea during the NFT boom, but hurt creators.

Nonfungible token marketplace Blur, which once overtook OpenSea as the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume, says it is shutting down its website next month — and some NFT collectors couldn’t be happier.

Blur made the announcement on X on Monday, its first post on the platform in more than a year. It said the frontend will shut down on Nov. 12, while its onchain marketplace will remain operational.&

Blend, a peer-to-peer perpetual NFT lending protocol, will also stop matching new loans. Blur said borrowers have until Nov. 12 to repay outstanding loans or allow them to default. It also promised a withdrawal interface after the shutdown.&

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Binance will discontinue its mining pool and related services on Nov. 10, urging miners to move to alternative pools before the shutdown.

Crypto exchange Binance is shutting down its mining pool and related services in November, ending an operation that has been running for over six years.&

On Tuesday, Binance said it would discontinue Binance Pool on Nov. 10. The shutdown also covers Pool Savings, Cloud Mining, Transaction Accelerator and related features, including mining pool APIs and hashrate notifications.&

After the deadline, Binance said it would disable its mining endpoints and disconnect miners from the pool. The exchange will no longer accept hashrate submissions or credit mining shares received after the cutoff. Affected products will stop generating rewards and yields.

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Authorities said the restrictions are aimed at unregistered exchanges and have acknowledged that customers could have difficulty withdrawing assets.

South Korean authorities have approved measures to block domestic access to 27 websites operated by unregistered crypto exchanges and other virtual asset service providers, including KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex and Bitrue.&

In an announcement on Tuesday, South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) said the decision followed reviews by the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission on Oct. 6 and 7.&

The list also includes CoinW, BTCC, BitMart, BingX, DigiFinex and others. The block applies to crypto platforms that have not registered under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, the country’s anti-money laundering legislation.

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Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said its newest models are a step toward “personal superintelligence.”

Meta has unveiled two new artificial intelligence models, Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, which it called its most capable models to date and a step toward “personal superintelligence.”

Meta on Monday said the models introduce two capabilities Meta calls Active Memory and Active Focus. The first carries relevant information across conversations, and the second helps the agent sustain work on difficult tasks.

Independent evaluation platform Artificial Analysis scored Wonder Full at 56 on its Intelligence Index and the standard Wonder at 52, both at maximum reasoning effort.

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The optional feature hides transaction details until their order is finalized, preventing bots from exploiting pending trades.

Layer-1 blockchain Aptos has launched an optional new feature that could help shield traders from attacks involving maximal extractable value (MEV), including frontrunning and sandwich attacks.&

On Monday, Aptos said its Encrypted Mempool feature is now live on its mainnet, allowing users to opt in to keep pending transactions encrypted until their block ordering is finalized. Aptos said the feature was built for institutions submitting large transactions to the chain, traders wanting to avoid MEV risk, AI agents and builders.&

“When you send a transaction on any major chain today, anyone watching the network can see the details before it executes, the function you’re calling, the assets and amounts involved, and the contracts you’re interacting with,” Aptos said. “Bots use that visibility to trade against you or copy your strategy.”& &

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The defunct exchange acquired a 20% stake in Genesis Digital Assets before FTX declared bankruptcy in November 2022.

The investment company SWI Group has raised about $900 million in capital as part of plans to scale its data center and AI computing capacity, which includes a mining operation previously tied to cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

In a Monday notice, SWI Group said the 800-million-euro, or about $900 million, capital raise would fund its AI and data center expansion plans in Europe and the United States. The group reportedly now has majority control over one of FTX’s mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, which will be a part of the network of data centers’ computing capacity.

SWI announced in June that it had acquired “significant shareholding” in Genesis for $500 million. At the time, the company reported that Genesis had 15 facilities with 1.3 gigawatts of capacity. The firm said that it held a 70% stake in Genesis as of August, allowing it to rename the mining venture to SWI Digital.

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With just 22 days until the US midterm elections, a crypto-aligned committee has announced another major ad expenditure to support “pro-crypto” candidates in 2026.

Update (Oct. 13, 3:41 am UTC): This article has been updated to reflect that Andreessen Horowitz is one of the contributors funding Fairshake, and not Cantor Fitzgerald.

Affiliate entities of Fairshake, the US political action committee (PAC) funded largely by contributions from Andreessen Horowitz, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple Labs, reported millions of dollars worth of ad buys to support candidates they considered in favor of pro-digital asset policy with the country’s midterm elections less than a month away.

On Saturday, filings with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed a combined $2.7 million in spending on media by the Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress PACs. The two Fairshake affiliates reported expenditures on media and direct mail productions to support Democratic and Republican candidates running for US House of Representatives seats in 2026.

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A Tempo report examines how proposed US accounting rules could change corporate stablecoin holdings, with direct redemption rights determining which tokens qualify as cash.

A new report from Stripe-backed blockchain Tempo argues that a proposed US accounting change could remove a major barrier to corporate stablecoin adoption by allowing qualifying tokens to be classified as cash equivalents on company balance sheets.

The report examines an Accounting Standards Update the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) proposed in August that could make stablecoins more practical for corporate treasury operations. Under current accounting practices, stablecoin holdings may not count toward a company’s reported cash reserves, affecting liquidity ratios and loan covenants even when the tokens are fully backed by dollars.

The proposed change could let companies use stablecoins for payments and settlements without those accounting complications.

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The Bitcoin mining industry needs roughly $50 billion to complete planned AI infrastructure projects, with IREN, Riot Platforms and HIVE Digital facing major funding gaps.

Bitcoin mining companies expanding into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing face sharply different borrowing costs as lenders scrutinize large-scale data center projects, adding to the industry’s growing financing challenges.

According to the latest Miner Weekly newsletter from BlocksBridge Consulting, securing major AI customers has only been part of the challenge for miners. Companies must also raise billions of dollars to purchase computing equipment, build facilities and secure the power infrastructure needed to fulfill their contracts.

“[B]ig lenders have become more selective about data center loans and decisions increasingly depend on the customer, the contract and the path to completion,” BlocksBridge said.

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Bitcoin price action stayed rangebound after failing to sustain above $84,000 into the Wall Street open on rising oil prices.

Bitcoin (BTC) gave back early-week gains into Monday’s Wall Street open as doubts compounded over a Russia-Ukraine “energy ceasefire.”

Key points:

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Evernorth’s share price rose by 5% as investors welcomed the Nasdaq debut of the first pure-play XRP digital asset treasury.

The newly listed shares of XRP-focused treasury company Evernorth Holdings (XRPN) jumped as much as 5% on their Monday Nasdaq stock exchange debut, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Earlier on Monday, the company named former Coinbase Asset Management Co-Chief Investment Officer Hugo Jeandesboz as its new chief investment officer. He will lead treasury strategy, including treasury allocation, liquidity management and the active management of Evernorth’s XRP holdings, according to a Monday announcement.

Evernorth deploys its XRP holdings to earn additional income through decentralized finance (DeFi) yield strategies.&

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The discovery of an unauthorized Ledger hardware implant reignited debate on whether Bitcoin ETFs are safer than self-custodying Bitcoin via hardware wallet devices.

The newly discovered Ledger exploit has stirred broad industry debate over the safety of hardware wallets compared to effectively custodying Bitcoin holdings through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Bitcoin analyst Plan B said his then-controversial decision to move his Bitcoin (BTC) holdings to ETFs in 2025 was the right call in light of the recent Coldcard and Ledger exploits. “Zero regrets” about my ETF decision, wrote the analyst in a Monday X post.

Large holders have been converting self-custodied assets to ETFs for “enhanced security” for years, which is one of the main “selling points” for ETFs, 21Shares co-founder Ophelia Snyder told Cointelegraph in an email on Monday, adding that the recent exploits made this phenomenon part of the “public discourse.”&

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy said Bitcoin holdings reached 848,250 BTC after its latest purchase, while maintaining a $4.88 billion cash reserve.

Strategy bought 250 Bitcoin for $21.5 million last week, marking a second consecutive weekly decline in purchases as its Bitcoin holdings reached 848,250 BTC.

The company funded $21 million of the purchases through sales of its common stock and the remaining $500,000 with existing cash between Monday and Sunday, according to an announcement published on Strategy’s website.

Strategy also continued repurchasing shares of its STRC preferred stock, spending $192.4 million during the week, up from $176.3 million the previous week.

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ASIC’s proposal would extend leverage limits and protections against negative balances to certain derivatives settled in digital assets.

Australia’s securities regulator wants to extend leverage limits and other retail investor safeguards to certain trading contracts settled in crypto.

On Monday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) proposed expanding the rules for contracts for difference (CFDs), which let traders bet on price movements without owning the underlying asset.

The rules generally cover contracts settled in cash or by offsetting obligations between the parties. ASIC wants to add contracts settled by transferring digital assets, including those tracking non-crypto assets, provided they meet the other criteria for a CFD.

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Bitcoin traders braced for inflation-based volatility after BTC price action preserved key weekly support around $82,500.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts the third week of October by defending support at $82,500 ahead of key US inflation data.

Key points:

US inflation data is in traders’ crosshairs this week ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Oct. 28 meeting on interest-rate policy.

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Payward received full market approval from Dubai’s VARA to expand its digital asset services in the UAE, building on the preliminary approval received in May.

Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has received approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for its local entity, Payward FZCO, to provide crypto services.

At launch, Kraken’s clients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be able to access spot and margin trading in UAE dirham (AED)-denominated pairs and make direct deposit withdrawals, Payward announced on Monday. The company is targeting launch in the coming weeks.

VARA’s public register shows that the regulator issued Payward FZCO a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license on Oct. 6, enabling it to offer management and investment services, as well as broker-dealer services.

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Standard Chartered has launched custody for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger and plans to let institutions use the tokens as trading collateral.

Standard Chartered has launched institutional custody services for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, with plans to expand its use as trading collateral.

The UK-based multinational bank announced Monday it rolled out RLUSD support on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) through its Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch, giving eligible institutional clients access to its digital asset custody infrastructure.

Standard Chartered plans to extend its collateral-mirroring model to LMAX Group, an institutional trading company, allowing clients to use RLUSD as trading collateral while keeping the tokens in the bank’s custody.

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Jeonbuk Bank reportedly began offering Bitcoin-backed loans to corporate customers, with a third-party custodian holding the cryptocurrency used as collateral.

South Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank, a subsidiary of JB Financial Group, reportedly started issuing Bitcoin-backed loans to its corporate customers.

Local outlet EDaily reported Monday that Jeonbuk Bank became the country’s first commercial bank to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral for won-denominated lending. The bank is reportedly limiting the service to businesses seeking operational capital, while a specialized custodian holds the BTC used as collateral.&

The lending arrangement follows amendments to South Korea’s Civil Enforcement Rules that took effect on Oct. 1. According to the Supreme Court, the rules establish procedures for seizing and liquidating claims to virtual assets. In the event of a default, the bank can recover its funds through court-ordered sales.&

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The Financial Stability Board flagged cross-border stablecoin risks and AI-related cybersecurity threats while urging G20 policymakers to support stronger safeguards.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB), a global financial watchdog, has outlined financial stability risks associated with artificial intelligence and regulatory concerns surrounding stablecoins.

In a letter published Monday, FSB Chair Andrew Bailey warned that cross-border mechanisms for stablecoin oversight and crisis management “remain immature or are not yet developed.” In its 2025 review, the FSB found that 11 of 28 surveyed jurisdictions had finalized stablecoin regulatory frameworks.

He also urged G20 members to support the FSB’s newly finalized practices for responsible AI adoption in the financial sector.

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The migration is backed by a $30 million investment from Sui Foundation.

DATA Network, formerly known as Story, is planning to retire its independent blockchain and move its AI training data protocol to Sui, backed by a $30 million investment from Sui Foundation.

The project’s Trace registry, which launched in June, will join the Sui ecosystem, while Walrus, a decentralized storage platform in the Sui ecosystem, will become the default storage layer for applications operated by DATA Foundation, its partners said on Monday.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, a DATA Foundation spokesperson said running a dedicated blockchain for a single use case meant carrying the costs of validators, network security and infrastructure.

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Holders could face fines of up to 10,000 euros for failing to declare qualifying assets.

French lawmakers have backed a proposal that would require holders of self-custodied crypto assets to report holdings equal or above 100,000 euros ($112,000) or face penalties.&

The amendment, numbered I-CF821, was adopted by the National Assembly’s Finance Committee on Friday, and would introduce reporting requirements for crypto that isn’t held by a crypto-asset service provider, including assets stored in personal wallets.

The amendment would add a provision to France’s general tax code. Under the proposal, holders would be required to disclose holdings based on their value as of Dec. 31, and could face fines up to 10,000 euros for failing to declare.&

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The XRP Ledger Foundation pushed back against claims that its emergency security patch was forced on network operators.

XRP Ledger developers have defended the emergency security patch used to fix a bug capable of creating XRP beyond the network’s fixed supply, saying they could not wait for the network’s usual two-week validator vote without exposing the flaw to attackers.

The fix, released on Sept. 25, came three days after a bug bounty report, and took effect immediately on any server that installed it. It was the first deliberate bypass of the normal amendment process since the system was introduced more than ten years ago, they said.&

“With a normal amendment vote, the fix would have been public for weeks before it took effect, risking network security,” XRPL developers said in an X post on Sunday.&

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An user reports buying a tampered Ledger from a big retailer in Europe. Security researchers use AI to uncover a “$94 billion” XRP bug — but receive just a $250K bounty.

A tampered Ledger attack that has already seen an estimated $93.4 million taken from Asian hardware wallet users, has reportedly spread to Europe.

X user Johannes has presented photographs of a tampered Ledger he said he purchased two weeks ago from the European consumer electronics chain MediaMarkt. The implant inside appears to be an earlier version of the one found linked to CryptoBilis shipped devices in Asia, and no funds have been taken.

“Either the device didn’t work, or they were waiting for a more widespread usage of the compromised devices,” he said. Former Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, whose investigations into the tampered Asian Ledgers helped bring the problem to light, said the antenna in the device says it is the “Eurasian version” suggesting separate versions of the implant have been sent to regions that use different mobile frequencies. Ledger has not confirmed the reported European device is part of the same attack.

“PSA the ledger incident isn’t limited to Asia,” wrote European X user Johannes. Source: Johannes.

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Investors will have to wait an extra day to find out if and how much Strategy added to its Bitcoin treasury in the first week of October.

Strategy chair Michael Saylor teased investors watching Sunday for a signal of the company’s recent Bitcoin purchases with the message “There’s always room for more orange,” in a post on X.

However, any official notification via a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission won’t likely come before Tuesday, as federal offices will be closed on Monday for the Columbus Day holiday.

Source: Michael Saylor @saylor on X.com

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Company advised users not to visit or interact with the link in question and said it will share any further verified updates.

Bitcoin-only hardware wallet Coldcard said an unauthorized phishing link appeared Sunday on its official X account, which the company said it has used offline two-factor authentication with tightly restricted access since 2017.

The company said it was investigating how the post, which has since been deleted, was published from its account.

It advised users not to visit or interact with the link in question, adding that Coldcard’s only official website is https://coldcard.com.&

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Ledger said the incident appeared to be isolated to a single reseller and its Southeast Asian market.

Hardware wallet maker Ledger, which has been investigating reports of crypto losses involving its devices purchased from a Southeast Asian reseller, confirmed that one of the affected users’ devices contained an unauthorized hardware implant.

Ledger said in a Saturday post on X that it was contacting users as part of its ongoing investigation into the losses, which investigator Specter estimated may exceed $86 million across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tron.

Ledger asked that individuals who have information regarding the investigation to contact its bounty program at bounty@ledger.fr.

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The two measures attempt to set the stage for a potential US Supreme Court battle over federal and state jurisdiction.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued two proposals, one that would define event contracts as “swaps” under federal law and another that excludes traditional casino gambling from that definition.

Several states have sued prediction-market operators, including Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging illegal gambling, and the CFTC has countersued to defend its federal jurisdiction over event contracts, which it claims are beyond the purview of state regulators.

The first proposal clarifies the definition of “swap” to include event contracts, including those tied to sports, politics, cultural events and weather.

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“We’re ready to bring quantum resistance to mainnet at any time,” Sun said in a post on X.

Justin Sun, founder of the Tron network, said that the company’s post-quantum cryptography was now live on testnet.

“We’re closely tracking progress in quantum computing and AI, and we’re ready to bring quantum resistance to mainnet at any time, Sun said in a post on X on Saturday.

He added, “We’re committed to keeping user assets secure, and TRON is set to be one of the few major blockchains that is quantum-resistant before Q-Day,” or the day when quantum computing becomes capable of breaking current security standards.

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Recent incidents at OpenAI ‌and Anthropic stoke global concerns and fears that rogue AI agents may venture beyond human control.

While recent incidents at OpenAI ‌and Anthropic fuel fears that rogue AI agents may venture beyond human control, the European Union’s tech chief said the bloc’s rule on AI use are more than capable of dealing with the challenges.

“We see that the safety and security of very capable models is a very hot ​topic internationally and we in Europe are well equipped for that,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told Reuters in an interview published on Friday.

She dismissed critics who claim the bloc’s AI rules are outdated. While the EU’s AI Act, which regulates based on the level of risk, is among the world’s strictest AI regulations, it was adopted two years ago.

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The round follows increased international demand for Meanwhile’s Bitcoin life insurance policies amid broader macro instability.

Meanwhile, a life insurer licensed to operate completely in Bitcoin, announced $37.5 million in new funding from existing investors.

Bermuda-based Meanwhile, whose backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has now raised more than $180 million.

Bain Capital Crypto led the new round, alongside Haun Ventures, Framework Ventures, Pantera Capital, Apollo, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, and Morgan Creek Digital, it said in a statement.

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The Treasury Department has announced several digital asset seizures related to sanctions on Iran as part of US sanctions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the country was “probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week” as part of its crackdowns on Iran.

Speaking at the Newsmax Policy Summit on Thursday, Bessent said the planned cryptocurrency seizure was part of the US sanctions on Iran amid the country’s most recent military conflict, which started in February.& He did not clarify whether the digital assets targeted specific exchanges or resulted from intervention by stablecoin issuers.

“We know where it is, and we are isolating them,” said Bessent to Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren. He added the move was part of a strategy of economically cutting off Iran.

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The agreement resolves a 2023 civil fraud lawsuit against the Celsius founder and permanently bars him from the cryptocurrency, securities and commodities industries.

Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky has been permanently barred from the cryptocurrency, securities and commodities industries under a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James that includes up to $35 million in conditional payments.

The New York agreement, announced Friday, settles a 2023 civil lawsuit accusing Mashinsky of misleading hundreds of thousands of investors about the safety of Celsius before its collapse in 2022.

Under the settlement,& Mashinsky must pay New York $25 million if he fails to forfeit an additional $10 million in ill-gotten gains to the federal government beyond assets already forfeited, and another $10 million if he does not serve his full prison sentence.

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Chad Barraford, technical co-founder of the network, said that the funds were frozen and then unfrozen without explanation.

THORChain technical co-founder Chad Barraford accused stablecoin issuer Tether of blacklisting the network’s USDt (USDT) vaults without explanation, then unfreezing them hours later.&

In a Friday X post, Barraford said that Tether had blacklisted THORChain vault addresses, freezing about a combined 1.45 million USDT in the network’s funds across four wallets. He reported about two hours later than trading would resume after the company unfroze all the addresses.

“We don’t know why this choice was made and have had no comms with USDT before this action and are actively reaching out to have a conversation,” said Barraford before the addresses were unfrozen. “We hope that this was made in error / misunderstanding.”

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Chad Barraford, technical co-founder of the network, said that the funds were frozen and then unfrozen without explanation.

THORChain technical co-founder Chad Barraford accused stablecoin issuer Tether of blacklisting the network’s USDt (USDT) vaults without explanation, then unfreezing them hours later.&

In a Friday X post, Barraford said that Tether had blacklisted THORChain vault addresses, freezing about a combined 1.45 million USDT in the network’s funds across four wallets. He reported about two hours later than trading would resume after the company unfroze all the addresses.

“We don’t know why this choice was made and have had no comms with USDT before this action and are actively reaching out to have a conversation,” said Barraford before the addresses were unfrozen. “We hope that this was made in error / misunderstanding.”

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The technical trial showed how AI agents could discover services and make micropayments using HSBC’s tokenized deposits, with real-time settlement and risk checks.

British banking giant HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies have tested a system that lets AI agents access digital services and make micropayments using tokenized bank deposits, with transactions settled in real time on a blockchain testnet.

According to Friday’s announcement, the test combined HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service with Ant Digital’s Anvita Flow network, which enables AI agents to find and use services, and Jovay Testnet, a layer-2 blockchain testing environment.

HSBC provided settlement capabilities and real-time risk checks, while Ant Digital’s network coordinated service access and payments. The demonstration showed an AI agent selecting a digital service and completing a payment. The companies described the transactions as micropayments, typically defined as less than $2.

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Hardware wallet maker Ledger probes losses tied to reseller CryptoBilis, as researchers separately estimate more than $72 million to $86 million in suspected crypto thefts.

Hardware wallet maker Ledger is investigating reports of cryptocurrency losses involving devices purchased from a Southeast Asian reseller, warning affected customers to consider moving their assets to new wallets while the investigation continues.

In a statement posted on X, Ledger said it had asked reseller CryptoBilis to suspend sales and shipments of its devices as a precaution. Customers who purchased devices from the reseller within the past 90 days were advised not to set them up, while those who had already done so were advised to consider transferring their assets to a new Ledger signer with a newly generated recovery phrase.

CryptoBilis is listed as an authorized Ledger reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

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The crypto company has reportedly applied for two licenses with the US commodities regulatory as the courts weigh prediction markets cases.

Blockchain.com has reportedly applied to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for approval of prediction market offerings and crypto derivatives.&

CNBC reported Friday that the exchange filed for two licenses with the CFTC for event contracts and crypto derivatives offerings for US-based retail and institutional investors. The licenses, as a designated contract market (DCM) and futures commission merchant (FCM), would allow Blockchain.com to operate as a futures exchange for event contracts and a broker for derivatives contracts, respectively.

Blockchain.com announced in July that it planned to partner with Polymarket as part of a& prediction markets integration on the company’s app. However, if approved, the CFTC license would allow the exchange to offer its own marketplace with event contracts.

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Wealthy investors are embracing crypto faster than their advisers, while OKX attracts new funding and Strategy shifts more capital toward preferred stock buybacks.

Affluent investors appear increasingly comfortable with crypto, even if their financial advisers aren’t keeping pace. A new CoinShares survey found that a majority of wealthy investors across seven major economies already own digital assets, with many planning to increase their exposure this year.

The findings come as capital continues to move into crypto in other ways, even against a tougher market backdrop. Bitcoin is trying to build on its best quarter since 2017 while Treasury yields remain above 5%, and OKX has raised additional funding at a $25 billion valuation.

Meanwhile, Strategy is putting more capital into its preferred stock. The company spent more than six times as much buying back STRC shares last week as it did buying Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin and crypto markets eyed a recovery from Thursday’s drop despite concerns of another hardware wallet exploit.

Bitcoin (BTC) sought to avoid fresh losses on Friday as crypto markets digested reports of an exploit affecting Ledger hardware wallets.

Key points:

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Dragonfly’s Qureshi argued that asset migration is not a real solution in case of AI models breaking cryptographic signatures, and urged blockchains to adopt proactive measures.

Dragonfly’s managing partner, Haseeb Qureshi, called Ethereum researcher Justin Drake’s “bunker mode” warning “cryptographic doomerism,” and said migrating tokens to fresh addresses was not a real solution against the threat of artificial intelligence breaking cryptographic signatures.

“Bunker mode” would only protect investors’ coins as long as they weren’t moved from the fresh address, wrote Qureshi in a Thursday X post, adding that these coins would be “worthless if all of the other coins are being hacked and mass-sold.”&

Instead, Qureshi urged blockchain networks to adopt proactive measures to protect users against the event of AI breaking cryptographic signatures. He proposed a “Cryptographic Recovery Mode,” a hash-based backup signature plan that users could map to their addresses, enabling validators to force recovery if cryptographic signatures were broken.

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French authorities recorded 90 crypto-related cases involving kidnapping, extortion, threats and violent theft in seven months. What makes France such a hotspot?

French authorities have recorded 90 cases involving kidnapping, abduction, extortion, threats, and violent theft related to cryptocurrencies in just over seven months.

The figures, provided to Cointelegraph by the French Interior Ministry, are from Jan. 1 to mid-August 2026. Authorities also recorded 223 arrests, and 126 people were imprisoned from January to July.

The figures equate to a new case every two and a half days, although there is no official year-on-year comparison to understand if the problem has become suddenly worse: “We do not have the statistics on these items for 2025, as the recording of events began on Jan. 1, 2026,” the ministry says.

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ESMA is seeking industry feedback on the legal, liquidity and operational risks of tokenized collateral before deciding whether additional EU regulatory measures are necessary.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) wants evidence that clearinghouses can access tokenized collateral and turn it into cash if markets come under stress.

ESMA published a call for evidence Friday to seek industry feedback on the implications of tokenized collateral.

“We must create the conditions for tokenized markets to operate safely and at scale across borders, with legal certainty, interoperable infrastructures and appropriate supervision,” ESMA Chair Verena Ross said.

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The UK sanctioned crypto exchanges and payment processors, some of which were tied to thousands of Russian entities and the sanctioned HTX exchange.

The UK government has sanctioned three cryptocurrency exchanges and two payment platforms suspected of helping Russian entities circumvent financial sanctions.

Three of the service providers were linked to Kyrgyzstan, while two of them facilitated transactions with the Kremlin-backed A7 network, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) announced Thursday.

Cutting off these platforms makes it harder for sanctioned entities to move and access funds, the Foreign Ministry said, adding that the A7 financial network claimed to have moved more than $90 billion last year, or nearly half of Russia’s annual military expenditure.

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France’s Finance Committee backed taxes on stablecoin swaps, as well as unrealized crypto gains when households with more than 800,000 euros move abroad.

France’s National Assembly Finance Committee approved proposals this week to tax swaps into fiat-pegged stablecoins and extend the country’s exit tax to crypto investors.

Amendment I-CF1826, submitted by French MP Nicolas Sansu and adopted Wednesday, would make crypto conversions into fiat-pegged stablecoins taxable events from Jan. 1, 2027.

The explanatory text describes the current tax treatment as a “loophole in the legislation,” according to a machine translation.

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Bitcoin dipped below $81,000, sparking mass crypto liquidations as traders sent BTC to exchanges at a loss.

A Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins sell-off triggered more than $1 billion in liquidations over 24 hours as short-term holders sent tens of thousands of BTC to exchanges at a loss.

Key points:

Data from CoinGlass put total crypto liquidations at $1.09 billion for the 24 hours to 10 am UTC on Friday.

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Bitcoin ETFs lost $244 million on Thursday, while Ether funds extended their outflow streak to eight sessions, shedding $641 million.

US spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded nearly $1 billion in combined net outflows so far in October.

According to Farside Investors, Bitcoin ETFs recorded $244.1 million in net outflows on Thursday, following $484.9 million in withdrawals on Wednesday, the largest daily outflow since June 25.

Ether ETFs posted $72.5 million in net outflows on Thursday, extending their losing streak to eight consecutive trading sessions. The funds have shed about $641.3 million in net outflows over the streak, which began Sept. 29.

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Anthropic’s new opt-in service promises vulnerability reports from its strongest AI models, including Claude Mythos.

Ethereum client developer Nethermind and Bitcoin and Lightning wallet ZEUS are among several crypto companies to apply for a newly launched Anthropic program that gives open-source projects access to security reports from its most powerful AI models.&

The projects submitted enrollment requests on Friday for OSS Scanner, which Anthropic launched on Thursday with the aim of helping open-source developers find and fix vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.

“These reports will be generated by our strongest models (including Claude Mythos) to give open-source projects the largest defensive advantage,” Anthropic said in its announcement.

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The White House outlined a $215 million quantum computing competition and $2.4 billion in AI industry commitments as concerns grow over quantum threats to cryptocurrency security.

The Trump administration has announced over $6 billion in science initiatives, including a $215 million quantum computing competition and $2.4 billion in industry commitments for artificial intelligence tools and computing resources.&

On Thursday, the Department of Energy identified eight scientific applications to guide its Quantum Genesis Q Competition, which offers up to $215 million in planned funding to companies developing fault-tolerant quantum computers.

First announced in September, the funding includes milestone-based awards and incentive prizes for companies that demonstrate increasingly powerful quantum systems. The research priorities span chemistry, materials science, subatomic physics and applied mathematics.

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The rules are set to take effect next week, allowing crypto ETFs to trade exclusively on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Update (Oct. 9 at 1:10 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a comment from Binance Thailand CEO Nirun Fuwattananukul.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday finalized rules allowing crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to list on Thailand’s main stock exchange, limited initially to Bitcoin and Ether.

The regulator said the rules will take effect on Oct. 16, 2026. Crypto ETFs must be listed for trading exclusively on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Products linked to foreign crypto ETFs, such as depositary receipts, will not be permitted initially, while Thai brokers will remain barred from facilitating investments in overseas crypto ETFs for retail investors outside institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

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The letter follows a report by the Democratic investigators last month alleging Tether’s USDT has become a key tool for Iran’s shadow banking network.

US investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald is facing scrutiny from a Senate Democrat over its ties to Tether, with Senator Richard Blumenthal demanding records on the firm’s partnership with the stablecoin issuer and how much Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s family has made from the arrangement.&

In a letter on Thursday, Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, asked Cantor chairman Brandon Lutnick to explain how it monitors Tether’s compliance with banking and sanctions laws, along with all communications involving Howard Lutnick about Tether, including after he left Cantor.

“Disturbingly, Cantor Fitzgerald’s lucrative business arrangements with Tether come at the expense of America’s national security,” Blumenthal wrote.&

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Despite ongoing bans, China has seen a big surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use. New figures show South Korea’s $450B crypto economy is the largest in East Asia.

The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis.

The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026.

Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.

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Securitize’s new offering gives eligible investors access to tokenized shares of 12 US companies, with dividend and voting rights and plans for round-the-clock trading.

Securitize shares climbed about 10% Thursday as the company launched tokenized versions of major US stocks on Solana, offering eligible investors exposure to equities backed by underlying shares with dividend and voting rights.

The new offering, called Securitize Stocks, includes tokenized shares of Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Tesla and eight other US-listed companies. The tokens are backed one-for-one by underlying shares and will initially trade during extended market hours through Securitize’s registered broker-dealer platform, according to Thursday’s announcement.

Securitize (SECZ) stock. Source: Yahoo Finance

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According to the league, Kalshi and other prediction markets “threaten game integrity” because many event contracts are “highly susceptible to manipulation.”

The National Football League (NFL) largely sided with New Jersey officials in their petition for the Supreme Court to consider a case on sports bets through prediction markets platforms&

In an amicus brief filed with the US Supreme Court on Wednesday, the NFL called on the justices to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari from New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and gaming enforcement interim director Mary Jo Flaherty. The filing came in response to New Jersey officials petitioning the court to consider its case against Kalshi, potentially resolving whether the jurisdiction of prediction market companies falls under state authorities or federal agencies.

The football league supported many of the New Jersey authorities’ arguments, including that the case addresses potential issues with labeling sporting-event contracts on prediction market platforms as “swaps” and that it should be reviewed to “preserve game integrity” and “protect customers.” The group cited data showing that on the first Sunday of the football season, “more than half of all prediction-markets’ trading volume,” about $1.8 billion of $3.3 billion, related to the NFL.

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Sam Bankman-Fried remains in federal prison following his 2023 conviction, while Caroline Ellison was released in January.

Video streaming platform Netflix released a trailer for its eight-episode series about the lead-up to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, centered on former CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and his colleague and girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, who headed the company’s sister arm, Alameda Research.

In a Thursday X post, Netflix showed footage from the upcoming series to be released on Nov. 19 “about the love scorned prodigies behind the FTX scandal.” The series, starring Anthony Boyle as Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner as Ellison, seemed to focus on the idea that “going all-in every time is the mathematically optimal strategy,” likely referring to the crypto exchange’s high-risk investments using user funds.

“Lying isn’t bad for a good cause,” said Garner as Ellison in the trailer. The line echoes Ellison’s testimony at Bankman-Fried’s 2023 criminal trial, when she said he believed rules against lying and stealing did not necessarily apply to effective altruism. The philosophy emphasizes doing the most good possible, including through “earning to give,” the practice of accumulating wealth to donate to charitable causes.

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The global financial institution found tokenized equity markets less liquid and more volatile than traditional markets, despite growing demand for 24/7 trading.

Tokenization could reshape financial markets by making trading and settlement more efficient, but& legal uncertainty and risks to financial stability could hinder wider adoption, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a Thursday& analysis, the IMF said tokenized financial markets are growing rapidly but& remain small compared with traditional markets, with poor interoperability and a lack of widely accepted settlement assets among the key obstacles to expansion.

The gap between tokenization’s potential and its current scale is evident in trading activity.& Tokenized repurchase agreements, or repos,& dominate tokenized trading activity, averaging $300 billion to $350 billion in daily transaction volume, compared with roughly $13 trillion traded daily in the broader US repo market.

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Bitcoin dipped below $81,000 and oil prices gained after reports that military confrontation between the US and Iran could return.

Bitcoin (BTC) risked losing key support at $82,500 after Thursday’s Wall Street open as oil prices gained over concerns of US-Iran military action.

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Blockchain analysts identified the US government wallet tied to the recovery of funds from the Bitfinex hack.

The US government completed another major transaction involving seized cryptocurrency hours after moving a significant amount of Bitcoin to a Coinbase Prime wallet.

Blockchain data from Wednesday showed that a wallet associated with crypto seized by the US government had transferred more than 12,267 Bitcoin (BTC), worth more than $1 billion at the time of publication. The move came just hours after similar transfers from the government totaling $770 million in BTC to a Coinbase Prime wallet.

Arkham Research linked the wallet moving the Bitcoin to the recovery of funds from the 2016 Bitfinex hack, in which hackers stole 119,756 BTC. The identity of the owner of the recipient address was unknown at the time of publication.

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Tokenization offers structural advantages to financial institutions and helps asset managers reach new markets, according to Fidelity’s head of digital asset strategists.

Financial institutions are increasingly moving toward an onchain future with tokenization initiatives which provide access to new markets and offer structural advantages compared to traditional investment products, according to Matthew Horne, head of digital asset strategists at Fidelity Investments.

“In the last 18 months, if you look at the push by true institutions to move toward an onchain future, it’s really no going back,” said Horne during a panel discussion at Longitude Singapore on Thursday.&

US asset managers are particularly incentivized to move assets onchain as tokenization provides better investor access and helps them “reach new markets,” explained Horne.

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Crypto lending has risen by 55% since July, but now has to deal with the dangers of AI assisted hacks, and risks cascading through interlinked protocols. Here’s how to stay safe.

As the charts flip from red to green, crypto lending has seen a resurgence of interest after a particularly dismal second quarter.

Figures from Galaxy show that $11.33 billion left the sector in Q2 — partly due to the crisis of confidence in lenders caused by the Kelp DAO hack in April that left users of the most trusted protocol, Aave, unable to access their ETH.

Since the beginning of July, however, total lending value locked has gained more than 55% to sit around $56 billion today.

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MEPs also called for stronger asset recovery, while the Commission plans to adopt its first anti-corruption strategy by the end of this year.

Lawmakers are urging the European Commission to address corruption risks linked to crypto assets, opaque ownership structures and digital tools in its upcoming anti-corruption strategy.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Thursday also called for stronger efforts to trace, freeze, confiscate and recover criminal proceeds.

Parliament adopted a nonbinding resolution Thursday outlining its priorities for the EC’s anti-corruption strategy.

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Hashi has more than $500M in commitments ahead of mainnet launch, while Anchorage offers institutions settlement and self-custody.

Mysten Labs’ Hashi Bitcoin finance network will begin a phased rollout in October with more than $500 million in capital commitments from its launch partners.

Hashi uses Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral in Sui applications by minting hBTC on Sui against deposited Bitcoin, the Sui Foundation announced Thursday. Applications could include lending, borrowing, credit, vaults and structured products.

When users exit, hBTC is burned and the underlying BTC is returned to the Bitcoin network.&

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The US government moved 9,261 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, including 2,456 BTC in newly discovered funds pointing to federal law enforcement seizures.

The US government moved 9,261 Bitcoin worth $770 million to Coinbase Prime, stemming from asset seizures tied to previous cryptocurrency exploits.

Of the 9,261 Bitcoin (BTC) transferred over the past two days, half was recovered from the Bitfinex hackers, while another portion stemmed from known Binance seizures, wrote Galaxy Research in a Thursday X post.

An additional 2,456 BTC originated from previously unknown holdings and was sent to the US government’s seizure address on Coinbase Prime and may represent new law enforcement seizures, according to Galaxy.

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Bitcoin’s realized cap rise in the 30 days to Oct. 5 came mostly from existing holders, not fresh capital, Glassnode data showed.

Bitcoin (BTC) price gains do not yet reflect enough new capital entering the market, analysis warns.

Key points:

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ESMA said EU crypto firms should halt services involving non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins, giving regulators three months to address existing exposures.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said in guidance issued as an opinion to regulators in European Union member states that crypto firms should stop providing services involving stablecoins that aren’t compliant with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework, including holding them for customers.

ESMA said Thursday that national regulators should require companies to address remaining exposures to non-compliant stablecoins as soon as possible and no later than Jan. 8, 2027, setting a three-month deadline to address existing exposures.&

ESMA’s January 2025 guidance said custody and transfers of non-compliant stablecoins could remain available. The new opinion extends its supervisory expectations to those services, allowing them only temporarily to help customers exit existing positions.

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Eligible US Galaxy will be able to send USDC to crypto wallets and transfer funds to bank accounts in more than 60 countries.

Samsung plans to introduce USDC transfers to the Samsung Wallet payment app for eligible US Galaxy users in the last week of October.

The company announced that the feature will let users send USDC to compatible crypto wallets internationally and transfer money to eligible bank accounts in more than 60 countries, where recipients can receive funds in their local currency.&

Samsung said the feature will be available on 82 million compatible Galaxy devices in the US, but users must complete identity verification to access the service.

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NEAR climbed into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, as NEAR Intents surpassed $31 billion in cumulative transaction volume.

NEAR Protocol’s native token entered the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on Thursday after rising $138% in the last 30 days, according to CoinGecko.&

At the time of writing, NEAR traded around $5.51, up about 7% over 24 hours, with a market cap of about $7.2 billion and 24-hour trading volume reaching roughly $1.2 billion. NEAR ranks ahead of Stellar (XLM), which has a market cap of nearly $7 billion.&

NEAR Intents, a cross-chain trading protocol, has handled over $31 billion in cumulative transaction volume, according to the NEAR Intents Explorer.&

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Standard Chartered plans custody for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized assets for institutional and eligible corporate clients in Singapore.

Standard Chartered announced plans to launch digital asset custody services for institutional clients in Singapore.

The London-headquartered multinational bank plans to offer custody services for select cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets to institutional clients and corporate clients qualifying as accredited investors, subject to applicable regulatory requirements, according to a Thursday press release.

Cointelegraph asked Standard Chartered which cryptocurrencies its custody service will support but did not receive an immediate response.

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Greece’s draft bill proposes a 10% tax on crypto capital gains, with exemptions for annual gains of up to 500 euros and crypto-to-crypto swaps.

Greece’s Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a draft bill on Wednesday proposing a 10% tax on individuals’ crypto capital gains, with an exemption for annual gains of up to 500 euros ($559.95).

The proposal would allow voluntary declaration of previously realized crypto gains without penalties, within 12 months of the law’s publication. It would exempt crypto-to-crypto swaps from capital gains tax and introduce a flat 10% tax on returns from staking, lending or liquidity provision.

The draft bill would fill a legislative gap in Greece’s treatment of crypto taxation, according to the ministry.

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Bitcoin ETFs erased October’s net inflows with $485 million in withdrawals, while Ether funds logged a seventh straight outflow session.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $484.9 million in net outflows on Wednesday, reversing Tuesday’s $118.8 million net inflow.

The withdrawals were the largest since June 25, when the funds lost $691.7 million, according to Farside Investors.

Wednesday’s outflows wiped out the $321.6 million in net inflows recorded over October’s first four trading sessions, leaving Bitcoin ETFs with approximately $163 million in net outflows for the month.&

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Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the crypto industry to balance its support for Democrats and Republicans if they want federal crypto legislation passed.

The crypto industry’s heavy backing of US Republicans has alienated Democrats whose support is needed to pass federal crypto legislation, says former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Speaking in a panel with OKX CEO Star Xu at Token2049 on Tuesday, Cuomo said the industry “believed in investing heavily in the Republican Party” as a way to get the CLARITY Act passed.&

Crypto-focused political action committees tracked by Tech Influence Watch have spent $54.3 million supporting Republicans in the 2026 election cycle, compared with $26.2 million supporting Democrats. Another $23.2 million has been spent opposing Democrats, according to the tracker’s latest figures checked on Thursday.& &

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Canton CEO Yuval Rooz compared blockchain adoption to Uber and Airbnb, arguing that widespread adoption could help insulate it from potential policy reversals.

Digital Asset co-founder and CEO Yuval Rooz said the crypto industry should use the current regulatory environment to accelerate institutional adoption, arguing that widespread use of blockchain could make it harder for future administrations to reverse the industry’s progress.

Speaking at Token2049 in Singapore, Rooz said the industry should make blockchain so widely used that whatever happens in 2028, “there is no going back.” The next US presidential election, which could bring a change in administration and regulatory priorities, is scheduled for Nov. 7, 2028.&

He compared the opportunity to Uber and Airbnb, where he argued both services became entrenched before policymakers could effectively restrict them. “By the time people got their act together and decided, OK, we wanna legislate against those companies, it was too late,” Rooz said.&

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The Ethereum researcher said crypto users should consider moving funds to fresh addresses, warning AI could threaten private-key security before quantum computers do.

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has urged the industry to prepare for “bunker mode,” recommending users gradually move assets to fresh addresses amid concerns that advances in artificial intelligence could undermine the cryptography used in today’s blockchains.

In an X post on Wednesday, Drake said recent advances in AI, particularly OpenAI’s release of mathematical breakthroughs, suggest AI could eventually make it possible to break the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) used to secure cryptocurrency wallets.

“It is now reasonable to brace for the possibility that ECDSA breaks before qday, in the worst case in months not years,” said Drake.&

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Ethereum researchers say crypto users should consider an orderly migration of funds to fresh addresses, warning AI could threaten private-key security before quantum computers do.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has backed a new warning that advances in artificial intelligence could undermine the cryptography used in today’s blockchains before quantum computers do.&

Buterin was responding to a post from Ethereum researcher Justin Drake on Wednesday urging the industry to prepare for “bunker mode,” as AI could eventually make it possible to break the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) used to secure cryptocurrency wallets. Drake said users should begin a gradual migration of funds to fresh wallets where their public key is not exposed.

“I don’t recommend anyone scramble to move their funds to new wallets today,” Buterin wrote. “But we should take the risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously.”

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The partnership with SAP-backed Tereina will let businesses send and receive Circle’s stablecoins from within the financial software they already use.

Circle is bringing its USDC and EURC stablecoins into enterprise payment workflows through a partnership with Tereina, a financial services company backed by German enterprise software giant SAP.

The integration will allow businesses using SAP’s financial software to send and receive USDC and EURC within the applications they already use to manage payments. USDC will be the preferred stablecoin for dollar-denominated transactions, while EURC will be available for euro-denominated payments.

Source: Circle

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“Trump’s coin was max extraction, and I wanted to troll every grift like it,“ said Hunter Biden in a breakdown of the memecoin launch and fallout.

Hunter Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, released a full accounting of the memecoin he helped launch last month based on the reports of his infamous laptop.

In a series of X posts on Wednesday, Biden provided blockchain data confirming that 300 million tokens in wallets associated with the founders of the $LAPTOP memecoin “haven’t moved since launch.”

Biden added that charts tracking the price of the memecoin “looked like every celebrity rug ever” shortly after launch on Sept. 9, and the ones to benefit most were unnamed market makers — referred to as “two professional trading firms” hired by the project — that pulled their funds seconds after the peak price of about $317.

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The layer-1 blockchain said its programmable offchain tunnels reached the milestone during a live stress test designed to simulate high-frequency activity between AI agents.

Sui’s programmable offchain tunnels reached 40.6 million transactions per second in a live test designed to simulate high-frequency activity between AI agents.

Sui said its programmable offchain tunnels processed more than 40 million transactions per second during a live stress test, surpassing a previous record set in July. The test, conducted Wednesday at Sui Basecamp in Singapore, peaked at 40,614,180 TPS, up from about 6.1 million TPS in a similar test in July.

The transactions were processed offchain through Sui tunnels, programmable channels that settle to the Sui blockchain when closed. More than 10,000 tunnels were opened on Sui mainnet during the test, with activity spanning payments, games and chat applications.

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The agreement will explore a tenge-backed stablecoin pilot and a framework for tokenizing real-world assets as Kazakhstan expands its digital asset industry.

Tether has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan’s central bank and the Alatau City Authority to explore a tenge-pegged stablecoin and the tokenization of real-world assets.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the parties will study international stablecoin issuance models, identify potential use cases and develop a proposal for a tenge-backed stablecoin pilot, according to Tether.

The agreement also calls for the development of an asset tokenization framework, including identifying assets for potential tokenization and launching a pilot project in Alatau that could use Tether’s Hadron platform.

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Representative French Hill hopes lawmakers could pass a cryptocurrency market structure bill before the next session of Congress in 2027 as SEC and CFTC actions weren’t sufficient.

Representative French Hill, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said that though US financial regulators were moving forward with addressing digital assets, their actions lacked the long-term stability of legislation from Congress.&

In a Wednesday Fox Business interview, the Arkansas lawmaker said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had taken steps to address crypto regulations after the US Senate failed to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act last month. Both financial agencies have proposed rulemaking to handle different aspects of overseeing and enforcing crypto regulations, but Hill said their response following the failed CLARITY vote “[fell] short” of legislative solutions.

“I still have hope [...] that we can get [CLARITY] passed in the lame duck session of Congress,” said Hill. “We need that permanent law change to make sure America is number one in digital assets and blockchain technology.”

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US institutions will gain access to Deribit’s options and perpetual futures through Coinbase, with US retail options expected later this year.

Coinbase has completed its integration of derivatives exchange Deribit, opening a regulated route for eligible US customers to global crypto derivatives markets that have historically operated beyond their reach.

The exchange announced Wednesday that the integration combines its international derivatives business with Deribit while allowing eligible US customers to access that liquidity through Coinbase Financial Markets, its derivatives unit regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Coinbase International Exchange balances and positions were migrated to Deribit on Oct. 1.

Crypto derivatives account for roughly 80% of global crypto trading volume, according to Coinbase, but US traders have historically lacked a regulated path to the deeper options and perpetual futures markets available offshore. This began to change in May, when the CFTC issued guidance allowing Coinbase Financial Markets to connect US clients to global derivatives markets.

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Bitcoin fell below $83,000 to reach month-to-date lows as stocks reversed after all-time highs and bond yields spiked higher.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell further at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as oil prices gained on US-Iran war headlines and stocks came off all-time highs.

Key points:

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Some traders are looking for more predictable prediction market opportunities, rather than playing “hot potato” with the next 100x gem, according to Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan.

Cryptocurrency trading is becoming a game of “irrational exuberance” as traders race to be among the earliest investors to find the next 100x token, according to Shayne Coplan, the CEO of prediction market platform Polymarket.

“People think they’re buying something, it’s worthless, but they’re buying it. If it can go to 100X, they want to sell it before it goes back to zero,” said Coplan during a fireside chat at Token2049 Singapore on Wednesday.&

Coplan said that some traders can generate significant wealth through this strategy, but added that it is a “game of irrational exuberance and hot potato” where asset prices that rise must eventually come down.

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Crypto card demand can be stronger where access is harder, Tangem says, as it expands its Visa payment offering, allowing users to spend from its self-custodial wallet.

More than 40% of Tangem Pay payments come from Latin America and over 30% from the US, while physical card availability remains restricted in some markets, the Swiss crypto wallet provider told Cointelegraph.

“It is not simply a question of where people want crypto cards,” Andrey Ilinskiy, head of Tangem Pay, told Cointelegraph, adding: “It is where demand, regulation, banking infrastructure and card-issuing requirements happen to line up — and today, those maps do not always overlap.”

On Wednesday, Tangem announced its first physical Visa card for in-store and online purchases and ATM withdrawals, with an initial release limited to 5,000 cards.

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World Liberty Financial outlined plans to bring USD1 to major online platforms as Mesh announced a payments partnership scheduled to roll out this quarter.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) executives unveiled plans to bring USD1 stablecoin payments to major online businesses during a panel discussion at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday.

WLFI CEO Zach Witkoff and co-founder Zak Folkman took part in a stablecoin-focused panel discussion at the industry conference alongside Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi.

Azizi unveiled a partnership with WLFI that would enable USD1 holders to spend the stablecoin across the payment infrastructure provider’s merchant network. The rollout is planned for this quarter.

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Early Wall Street wealth-creation opportunities remain inaccessible to retail participants, but Hyperliquid’s perpetual contracts aim to democratize access, according to its CEO.

Wall Street’s traditional wealth-creation opportunities, such as company stocks, remain largely inaccessible to the investing public until they list on exchanges, meaning that retail participants miss the most significant pre-listing gains, according to Hyperliquid co-founder and CEO Jeff Yan.

“Some assets are only tradable by a few people for many orders of magnitude of its growth, and then ultimately tradable by the public only after all of the growth has been realized by a select few people with privilege,” said Yan during a Tuesday fireside chat at Token2049 Singapore.&

While he saw this dynamic as a byproduct of the broader economy, Yan added that this wealth-creation model is not “sustainable.”&

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BingX strategy chief Kevin Lee says wealthy investors are taking a longer-term approach to Bitcoin, though family-office crypto exposure remains limited.

BingX chief strategy officer Kevin Lee says wealthy “old money” investors are taking a longer-term approach to Bitcoin (BTC) than many crypto-native traders.

In a Token2049 fireside chat with Cointelegraph head of multimedia Ciaran Lyons, Lee said he deals with “a lot of old money” seeking alternative investments.

“They have stronger diamond hands than any of us,” Lee said.

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Bitcoin fell 2.3% in two hours amid suspicion over the appearance of leveraged BTC short positions on Hyperliquid.

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below $84,000 on Wednesday as flash downside liquidated over $500 million in crypto long positions.

Key points:

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Bitcoin ETFs returned to net inflows with $119 million on Tuesday despite falling prices, while Ether funds reached a six-session outflow streak totaling $408 million.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to net inflows on Tuesday as Ether ETFs extended their outflow streak to six trading sessions.

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $119 million in net inflows on Tuesday, reversing Monday’s $90 million loss, according to SoSoValue data.

Bitcoin fell from above $86,600 on Tuesday to below $84,000. At publishing time, BTC traded at $83,971, down 2.1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

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Tom Lee said Bitmine will not accumulate Ether past 5% of the supply, turning the company’s target into a ceiling.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies will cap its Ether holdings at 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply, according to Chairman Tom Lee.

Speaking during a keynote at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday, Lee said Bitmine is nearing the threshold after accumulating roughly 6 million Ether, equivalent to about 4.9% of the supply. He said the company needs about 100,000 ETH more to reach its target.

“That’s a hard cap. We’re not gonna be accumulating past 5%,” Lee said. “We’re not gonna own more than 5% of Ethereum.”

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Russia registered its first crypto exchanges and custodians, including its largest bank, Sberbank, which plans to launch crypto products on Dec. 1.

Russia has registered its first cryptocurrency exchange operators and digital custodians under new crypto regulations that took effect on Sept. 1.

The Bank of Russia on Tuesday published its first registers of authorized crypto operators, listing four exchange operators and five custodians.

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, was added to the custodian list, alongside Atomyze, Voltari and Cloud Infrastructure. T-Invest Lab, Zefir and Sistema-Crypto are on the crypto exchange operator list. VTB Bank appears on both lists.

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Prosecutors say a recent Bitcoin Fog appeals court ruling supports their argument that Tornado Cash activity in Manhattan was enough to establish venue for parts of Roman Storm’s case in New York.

Federal prosecutors cited a recent appeals court ruling involving cryptocurrency mixer Bitcoin Fog as supplemental authority for their opposition to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s acquittal.

In a Monday filing, prosecutors cited a Sept. 25 appeals court ruling that affirmed the convictions and sentence of Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov.

The D.C. Circuit held that venue in Washington, D.C., was proper for all four counts. For the money-laundering counts, it relied on evidence that an undercover agent conducted Bitcoin Fog transactions from his D.C. office. For the unlicensed money-transmission counts, it found sufficient evidence that Bitcoin Fog had served customers in the district.

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Gold recorded 542 million contracts and an estimated $5 million in fees in September, surpassing Ether’s 318 million contracts and $2.6 million, though Bitcoin remained far ahead.

Kalshi’s 15-minute gold markets generated nearly twice the estimated trading fees of equivalent Ether markets in September, just weeks after their August launch.&

The gold contracts, which let traders take positions on whether gold will rise or fall over 15-minute intervals, generated about $5 million in estimated fees during the month, compared with $2.6 million for Ether contracts, according to Predict Charts. Bitcoin remained the dominant market, generating $60.4 million in estimated fees.

The growth in short-duration gold markets comes as Kalshi’s broader commodities business has been expanding. The company said in September that commodities trading volume had reached $400 million within seven months, more than four times the volume its crypto markets had generated at the same stage.&

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Trading on the platform has largely been suspended since June as its operator awaited MiCA authorization, with the company now looking to regulated partners to restart services.

Bitcoin Group SE says it is seeking an alternative operating model for its bitcoin.de platform after the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) refused its subsidiary futurum bank AG’s application for authorization as a crypto-asset service provider under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

In an Oct. 6 announcement, the company said the BaFin decision was a setback, but it had prepared for the possibility of a refusal. It said it is now reviewing the decision and has the opportunity to lodge an objection or submit a new application in the future.

The group said it is also working on ways to resume trading through regulated partners “as quickly as possible.”

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Igloo CEO Luca Netz said the company funded Abstract for 18 months but still failed to find product-market fit despite attracting major brands and a community of millions.

Abstract, a consumer-focused Ethereum layer-2 blockchain built by Pudgy Penguins’ parent company Igloo Inc., said Tuesday it will shut down this year after struggling to scale and find product-market fit.

In an X post, Abstract said its focus on “consumer crypto” ultimately proved to be an unsustainable business model. Abstract launched its mainnet in January 2025 with the aim of driving consumer crypto adoption by targeting mainstream entertainment. For users, it aimed to strip away many of the complexities that traditional blockchains require.

“Unknown to most, Igloo, Inc. had been funding Abstract over the last 18 months,” said Luca Netz, CEO of Igloo Inc. “After losing tens of millions of dollars over two years, building consumer products, assembling an all-star team, onboarding some of the biggest brands in the world, and building a community of millions, we still had not found product-market fit.”

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The lawsuit alleged that Tether froze USDt funds in a Conduit wallet tied to an investigation launched by Brazilian authorities in 2024.

Cross-border payments platform Conduit Technology alleged that stablecoin issuer Tether froze $2.76 million in USDt (USDT) without explanation in September 2025.

In a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday, Conduit said that Tether froze funds belonging to the company to which it had “no legal entitlement” and “no claim.” The company said it began holding USDt as part of its digital treasury wallet in May 2025, alleging that Tether froze all $2.76 million of the stablecoin in September with “no justification” — an action Conduit claimed “materially impacted its business.”

“The funds are unequivocally Conduit’s, but Tether has taken them and is denying Conduit access to them,” alleged Conduit in the complaint, adding: “Tether is not allowed to take money from businesses just because they chose to store that money in Tether’s currency.”

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The proposed fund would hold ZEC directly, with Gemini Trust serving as custodian and Winklevoss Capital affiliates eyeing up to a $100 million investment.

A Winklevoss-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) seeking to track Zcash’s price has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The proposed Winklevoss Zcash ETF would hold ZEC directly and seek to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker WINK, according to the filing.

Winklevoss Asset Services would sponsor the fund, while its affiliate Gemini Trust Company would custody the ETF’s ZEC holdings. The fund would charge an annual sponsor fee of 0.25% and would not use leverage or derivatives to achieve its investment objective.

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The DIGIT pilot will test distributed ledger technology and onchain settlement for UK sovereign debt, with issuance expected by the first quarter of 2027.

The UK government has appointed six major banks to lead the issuance of its first digitally native government bond, with the pilot expected by the first quarter of 2027.

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and RBC Capital Markets were named joint lead managers for the Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) following a competitive procurement process.& Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby announced the appointments Tuesday during a keynote at UK Digital Assets Week.&

The banks will provide underwriting, investor engagement and distribution services for the pilot issuance.

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The digital ruble’s early uptake comes as BRICS nations explore linking their digital currencies for cross-border trade and payments.

Early adoption of Russia’s central bank digital currency, the digital ruble, has vastly exceeded forecasts, with more than 220,000 accounts opened in its first month, offering an early test of whether CBDCs can move beyond pilot programs and gain real-world adoption.

As Reuters reported Tuesday, Russian central bank Deputy Governor Zulfiya Kakhrumanova said the figure far exceeded the roughly 60,000 accounts officials had expected following the CBDC’s Sept. 1 launch.

The rollout comes as BRICS, the bloc of major emerging economies that includes Russia, China and India, explores ways to link members’ CBDCs for cross-border payments. As Reuters reported, Russia accelerated development of the digital ruble after Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine cut the country off from parts of the global financial system and complicated payments with major trading partners, including China and India.

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The No Betting on Your Own Race Act will not be addressed before the 2026 US midterms as Congress is on recess until after the election.

A North Carolina lawmaker has introduced legislation aimed at blocking politicians from using prediction market platforms to potentially profit on their own elections.

On Monday, Representative Don Davis introduced the No Betting on Your Own Race Act, prohibiting federal candidates, their campaigns, their spouses and children from “buying, selling, acquiring, disposing of, or holding contracts” related to their elections. Davis said that the legislation was designed to prevent market interference, insider trading and lawmakers from “cashing in” on elections, with a proposed $10,000 civil penalty for each violation or three times any potential financial windfall.

Although the text of the bill did not explicitly mention prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, it referred to “political event contracts,” signaling that the legislation targeted activities through such companies. Republican House of Representatives candidate Laurie Buckhout received a three-year suspension and a $2,590 penalty from Kalshi in August over trading event contracts related to her race, but did not face civil or criminal charges.

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Most affluent investors across seven countries own and are increasing their crypto holdings despite financial advisers who remain overly cautious about digital assets.

A majority of affluent investors across seven of the biggest economies hold digital assets, with crypto accounting for around 10% of their portfolios on average, according to a new CoinShares survey.

The survey covered 2,230 investors with at least $500,000 in investable assets across the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. Digital asset ownership ranged from 54% in Sweden to about 70% in the US, UK, Germany and Switzerland.

At least 85% of current digital asset investors in five of the seven countries said they planned to increase their exposure in 2026, with as much as 91% in the US, UK and Germany.

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Bitcoin price action was kept in check by overhead ask liquidity while US stocks broke out to new all-time highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to circle $86,000 on Tuesday as US stock markets hit fresh all-time highs.

Key points:

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The LG CNS partnership gives Securitize a foothold as the Seoul prepares new rules for tokenized stocks, bonds and funds beginning in February 2027.

Shares of tokenization platform Securitize rallied sharply on Tuesday after the company announced a partnership with South Korean technology company LG CNS as the country prepares to introduce a new framework for tokenized securities.

Securitize (SECZ) rose nearly 8% in early Tuesday trading to around $12.60, outperforming most major crypto-linked stocks, before pulling back later in the morning. The company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in July after completing its merger with special purpose acquisition company Cantor Equity Partners II.

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A ECB executive board member said the potential introduction of a digital euro would not ”take over the role of banks,” but ensure they have a role in the EU’s monetary system.

A member of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) executive board has warned that other entities could provide alternatives without the central bank’s introduction of a digital euro, potentially weakening Europe’s “resilience and monetary sovereignty.”

ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone said on a Tuesday MNI Connect Webcast that without a “pan-European digital payment solution that caters to every type of day-to-day transaction,” the potential for fragmentation could increase across tokenization platforms. He said that the central bank’s goal should be to create a digital euro exchangeable across banks for day-to-day transactions.

“Our objective is not to take over the role of banks,” said Cipollone. “On the contrary, the digital euro would equip banks with the infrastructure they need to compete in the digital age and help them expand the reach and use cases of their own solutions.”

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Ripple Prime will provide prime brokerage, clearing and financing services to funds managed by the $35 billion alternative investment manager.

Ripple Prime will provide multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing and financing services to funds managed by Brevan Howard, a global investment manager with about $35 billion in assets.

Under the expanded agreement, Brevan Howard will gain access to Ripple Prime’s services across traditional and digital asset markets, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The deal builds on an existing relationship between the firms. Brevan Howard-affiliated funds participated in a $500 million investment in Ripple in 2025 that valued the company at $40 billion.

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Sepolia marks one of the final major rehearsals before the final activation of Glamsterdam, aimed at bringing more efficiency and scalability to the Ethereum mainnet.

Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade has gone live on the Sepolia testnet, in one of the final major rehearsals before its mainnet activation.

Glamsterdam went live on Sepolia on Tuesday at 1:53 pm UTC, Ethereum community contributor Pooja Ranjan announced in an X post.&

The upgrade aims to advance Ethereum’s layer-1 scaling roadmap with enshrined proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and changes to gas pricing that better reflect the cost of execution, the Ethereum Foundation announced in a Sept. 28 blog post.

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OKX raised an undisclosed amount at a $25 billion valuation as an extension to March’s investment round led by the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX raised an undisclosed sum at a $25 billion valuation from its existing partners and investors.

The round saw participation from Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures investment arm, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple and stablecoin issuer Circle, OKX announced in a Tuesday press announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

OKX declined to disclose the size of the investment round.

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Real Vision founder Raoul Pal says a pause in the AI stock rally could help crypto attract capital, while AI agents are likely to boost Ethereum and Solana adoption.

A weakening US dollar could give crypto the “green light” and help extend the industry’s rally, says Real Vision founder Raoul Pal.

He tells Cointelegraph on the latest episode of Trade Secrets that higher bond yields and the strong dollar are keeping liquidity from flowing freely.

“If they can engineer the dollar lower, then we get a green light for further movement in crypto,” he says. “I don’t want to get overly excited, so I haven’t got a full green light on everything.”

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Paxos’ USDG stablecoin is now live on Arbitrum as the network proposes 100 million ARB in incentives to support adoption and liquidity.

Paxos-issued stablecoin Global Dollar (USDG) has launched on Arbitrum as the blockchain joins the Global Dollar Network.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, USDG is natively issued on Arbitrum One, with integrations across decentralized finance protocols including Fluid, Morpho, GMX and Maple.& Kraken will support deposits and withdrawals, while Stargate will enable transfers between Arbitrum and other blockchains.

A proposal submitted to the ArbitrumDAO would make USDG growth a strategic objective and add 100 million ARB to an incentive program to increase adoption. The proposal also calls for deploying Arbitrum treasury assets to support USDG liquidity, while businesses integrating the stablecoin can apply for support from the Arbitrum Foundation.

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US crypto rules could be vulnerable to political change after the midterms. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo argues Congress needs to pass durable, bipartisan legislation.

Opinion by Andrew M. Cuomo, former governor of New York

The digital asset revolution is here, and it’s already transforming our financial system.

We’re no longer questioning if it will continue to develop. It will. The issue is whether the United States will establish clear, durable rules for it to develop here.

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Polymarket begins its Protocol V2 rollout ahead of a planned November transition for new prediction markets, while existing positions remain on the current system.

Prediction market platform Polymarket is rebuilding its smart contract infrastructure, laying the groundwork for new market features and potential expansion beyond Polygon.

Polymarket began rolling out Protocol V2 on Monday, introducing a new smart contract system designed to support different market types through a single exchange, ​​according to an X post by Rajath Alex, the company’s head of protocol.

The platform is testing the system on a limited number of live markets through Oct. 30, with a tentative Nov. 2 target for switching new markets to V2.

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Hong Kong regulators plan to establish a licensing regime for four categories, including digital asset trading, custody, advisory and management services.

The Hong Kong government reaffirmed its plans to submit an amendment bill before the end of 2026 to establish licensing regimes for digital asset trading, custody, advisory and management services as part of its broader crypto licensing bill.

Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Christopher Hui, told a Monday policy briefing that the government will submit an amendment bill “within this year” to establish a broader framework for digital asset activities, according to a statement released by the Hong Kong government.

The secretary said the amendment bill covering the four categories will come in response to the “innovative developments” in financial technology.&

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Binance BTC reserves fell by nearly 40,000 coins since Sept. 20 as whales returned stablecoin capital to their exchange wallets.

Bitcoin (BTC) outflows from largest crypto exchange Binance set multiyear records in late September, new analysis reveals.

Key points:

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Ondo’s tokenized notes will give eligible investors exposure to private companies, with the first tied to an unnamed pre-IPO AI company.

Real-world asset tokenization platform Ondo Finance is expanding into private markets with tokenized exposures to an unnamed pre-IPO artificial intelligence company.

The platform introduced Ondo Private Markets, offering tokenized notes whose payouts are linked to the value realized per common share of the referenced company at a qualifying liquidity event. The note provides economic exposure without direct ownership of the company’s shares.

Eligible investors will be able to hold the notes in self-custody wallets or trade them on secondary markets around the clock. Ondo said the first notes are expected to start trading this week, with products tied to companies in robotics, cybersecurity, biotech, infrastructure and other sectors planned to follow.

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Solana DvP offers financial institutions an open-source settlement program designed to complete asset transfers and payments in seconds.

The Solana Foundation announced Tuesday the launch of Solana DvP, an open-source settlement program for financial institutions that aims to cut settlement times.

Solana DvP offers an open-source application programming interface for delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement on Solana.

The program aims to cut securities settlement from one to two days to seconds by transferring assets and payment in a single transaction that either completes in full or does not take effect, the Solana Foundation said in a press release. It is designed to offer institutions a reusable alternative to custom smart contracts.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs reversed two days of inflows as Bitcoin slipped below $86,000, trading roughly 32% below its October 2025 all-time high.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shed $89.9 million on Monday, reversing two days of inflows as Bitcoin slipped below $86,000.

Bitcoin ETFs attracted around $293 million over the previous two October trading sessions before Monday’s reversal, with total trading volume reaching $2.18 billion, according to SoSoValue data.

The pullback came a day before the first anniversary of Bitcoin’s $126,080 all-time high on Oct. 6, 2025, with BTC trading at $85,559 at the time of publication, or roughly 32% below its record, according to CoinGecko.

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An EEZ contributor shared a 0.001 ETH cross-chain test as the project develops a framework to connect Ethereum mainnet and its rollups.

The Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) has tested an atomic transaction between Ethereum mainnet and a layer-2 network, according to a project contributor.

On Tuesday, EEZ contributor Eduardo Antuña Díez shared the transaction and called it the “first atomic cross-chain” L1-to-L2 transaction. The transaction’s logs record a cross-chain call carrying 0.001 Ether (ETH) and a state update for a rollup.

In an atomic transaction, linked actions across networks either all succeed or are all reversed if any part fails.

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Better Markets said the CFTC’s proposed framework to bring certain cryptocurrency transactions and exchanges under its oversight will leave investors less protected than under the SEC.

Better Markets says the US derivatives regulator’s push to develop rules for certain retail crypto transactions could leave investors with weaker safeguards, arguing the agency is ill-equipped to oversee the market.&

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday sought public comment on a potential framework for margined, leveraged or financed retail crypto transactions under its existing authority. Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy at Better Markets, a nonprofit financial reform advocacy group, argued that CFTC oversight is less suited than the SEC to protecting retail investors.&

“Unlike the SEC, the CFTC lacks an investor protection mandate. Its mission is to regulate the commodity and derivatives markets, which historically have been dominated by large institutions with very little retail investor participation,” said Schiffrin.&

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Rain joins a growing queue of crypto firms seeking federal trust charters, while community banks have just asked a court to overturn the OCC rules underpinning them.

Stablecoin payments infrastructure provider Rain has filed an application to establish a national trust bank headquartered in New York, adding to a wave of crypto companies seeking bank charters over the last year.&

Rain said Monday it filed the application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Rain National Trust Bank. If approved, the bank would be able to provide fiduciary custody of digital assets and US dollars for institutional clients, provide reserve management for permitted stablecoin issuers and issue and redeem dollar-backed stablecoins in accordance with the GENIUS Act.&

Former Square Financial Services chief financial officer Brandon Soto will serve as president and CEO of the proposed national trust bank, subject to OCC review.&

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OKX Money lets users hold, send and spend dollar-backed stablecoins, with qualifying USDG balances earning up to 10% APY.

Crypto exchange OKX has launched OKX Money, a stablecoin savings and payments app, in parts of Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, that will pay some customers as much as 10% yield.

The app allows users to fund accounts using more than 50 supported currencies, with deposits converted into dollar-backed stablecoins, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Users can hold USDG, USDC or USDT, send funds and spend with virtual or physical cards. Qualifying customers can earn an annual percentage yield (APY) of up to 10% on eligible USDG balances without staking or a lockup.

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ZachXBT says he infiltrated the network by posing as a customer, gaining information that helped trace funds from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack.

A Chinese organized crime syndicate laundered more than $1 billion stolen in multiple crypto exploits for North Korea’s Lazarus Group, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT.&

In an Oct. 5 thread on X, pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT said he posed as a paying client to infiltrate the money laundering network in February 2025, just days after the Bybit hack. He put up $349,700 in stablecoins and took a 5% loss on each order to build trust with one of the network’s operators, known as “Jimmy Green.”

ZachXBT said the operations spanned Hong Kong and mainland China, and information supplied by the launderer helped him identify a cluster of more than $12 million in Bybit-linked funds, with Tether later freezing $442,000 in associated USDt (USDT).&

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Fairshake said it would financially back 32 House candidates who all voted in favor of the CLARITY market structure bill in 2025, as the legislation remains in limbo in the Senate.

Fairshake, the political action committee (PAC) backed by contributions from Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz, announced that it would initially spend a combined $6 million on six House of Representatives candidates out of 32 people the group planned to back ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections.

On Monday, Fairshake said that it would support 19 Republican and 13 Democratic incumbents in US House races for 2026. The PAC is expected to spend more than $100 million on ads supporting House and Senate candidates in 2026, including at least $30 million in Ohio’s Senate race to back Republican Jon Husted over Democrat Sherrod Brown.&

“Fairshake has always been and always will be an issue-focused organization,” said Fairshake spokesperson Geoff Vetter. “We back pro-crypto candidates who support American innovation in both parties.”

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The bureau under the US Treasury said it was withdrawing two proposed rules on unhosted wallets and crypto mixers ”as part of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda.”

The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) withdrew two proposed rules affecting its enforcement of crypto companies, including one on “convertible virtual currency mixing.”&

According to a Monday notice, the agency will withdraw a December 2020 proposal that would have imposed “recordkeeping, verification, and reporting requirements” related to crypto transactions and unhosted wallets, as well as one affecting enforcement of crypto mixing services. FinCEN said that the mixer rule, initially proposed in October 2023, “could have a chilling effect on legitimate activity and place a large reporting burden on covered financial institutions.”

“FinCEN has considered the comments submitted in response to these proposals and is withdrawing them as part of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda and ongoing efforts to ensure digital asset regulations are fit-for-purpose,” the Monday notice said.

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The payments infrastructure company is seeking federal approval to offer stablecoin custody and related fiat services through a limited-purpose national trust bank.

Payments infrastructure company Modern Treasury has applied to establish a US national trust bank that would provide digital asset custody and related fiat services.

According to Monday’s announcement, the company submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Modern Treasury National Trust Bank, which would operate as a federally regulated, limited-purpose national trust bank.

If approved, the bank would allow Modern Treasury customers to custody and move stablecoins and fiat through an integrated service, but would not issue stablecoins or make loans.

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CCI CEO Ji Hun Kim said that the organization “remains confident“ in the OCC’s approval of charters for crypto companies, despite a recent lawsuit and pushback from some lawmakers.

The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) has backed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC’s) move to approve several charters for crypto companies, saying a lawsuit filed by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) was an attempt to stifle innovation.&

On Monday, CCI CEO Ji Hun Kim said that the ICBA lawsuit was a “clear attempt to resist national trust charters, payments innovation, and competition in financial services.” The crypto advocacy organization supported the OCC’s approvals and conditional approvals of crypto companies for national trust charters, despite accusations from some lawmakers that exchanges “want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank.”

The ICBA legal action, filed on Friday in the US District ​Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that the OCC approved US bank charters for entities, including crypto companies, without sufficient safeguards or compliance with requirements normally used for banks.

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S&P Global’s new framework evaluates digital asset lending vaults across six risk categories as deposits in the sector climb to about $10 billion.

S&P Global Ratings has launched a risk assessment framework for digital asset lending vaults as the onchain investment products gain traction.

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CFTC Chair Michael Selig claimed that the agency was using its “existing statutory authorities“ to address crypto regulation after Congress failed to advance a market structure bill.

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig said that the agency will move forward on crypto regulation at the direction of President Donald Trump “with or without legislation” from Congress.&

Speaking at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium on Monday, Selig announced proposals giving crypto companies the option to operate under the CFTC’s umbrella rather than dealing with the patchwork of regulations offered by individual US states.&

According to written remarks from the event, the CFTC chair said that it had issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemarking for companies “offering retail customers the ability to trade crypto assets on a margined, leveraged, or financed basis,” calling the regulation ‘CTX.’

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Weak US jobs data has narrowed expectations for another Fed hike in October, offering Bitcoin some relief as investors continue to embrace the debasement trade.

Bitcoin (BTC) is coming off its best third quarter since 2017, but extending the rally may prove more difficult as Treasury yields above 5% offer investors an increasingly attractive alternative to risk assets, according to Delphi Digital.&

In its latest weekly newsletter, Delphi highlighted Bitcoin’s 43% gain in the third quarter, followed by a third straight weekly advance last week. However, “the grind higher is happening against real resistance,” Delphi wrote, pointing to the Federal Reserve’s September rate hike and surging Treasury yields, which have reached multi-decade highs.

“When a government bond pays over 5% risk-free, every risky asset has to work harder to deserve the money,” Delphi wrote.

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Bitcoin’s highest weekly close in eight months formed low-timeframe resistance at the start of Monday’s US trading session.

Bitcoin (BTC) fluctuated around $86,000 after Monday’s Wall Street open as US bond yields continued to rise.

Key points:

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Metaplanet revealed a revised capital allocation framework proposing to allocate as much as 15% of total assets to strategic investments to fund its Bitcoin accumulation.

Japanese investment and Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet introduced a net interest income strategy on Monday, seeking to invest capital in income-generating assets and use the net interest to fuel its Bitcoin accumulation and dividend payments.

The move is part of the company’s revised capital allocation policy under which 10% to 15% of assets can move into strategic investments, including mergers and acquisitions and interest-generating assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) remains the company’s core treasury reserve asset, accounting for 85% to 90% of total assets, Metaplanet revealed in a Monday notice. The decision aims to enhance the Japanese company’s financing capacity and credit quality to grow its BTC holdings per share through additional acquisitions.

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Strategy bought 334 Bitcoin for $28.7 million last week while spending $176.3 million to repurchase about 1.77 million shares of STRC.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy last week spent more than six times its weekly Bitcoin buying budget on its repurchases of one of its preferred stocks.

Strategy bought 334 Bitcoin (BTC) for $28.7 million between Monday and Sunday, bringing its holdings to exactly 848,000 BTC, according to a Monday 8-K form filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Over the same period, Strategy repurchased about 1.77 million shares of its STRC preferred stock for $176.3 million.

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Unique wallets sending P2P stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026 as crypto activity increasingly shifted toward direct wallet-to-wallet transfers.

[Updated Oct. 6, 2026, 7:00 am UTC: Added comments from Chainalysis Policy Advisory Lead Jordan Wain]

The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis.

The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026.

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Calls to slow down development of the most powerful AI models are colliding with an $800 billion investment boom. Could an AI slowdown tank the US economy?

The artificial intelligence industry in the United States has powerful forces pulling it in completely opposite directions.

Top AI industry leaders are jointly calling for a slowdown in the pace of development, while US President Donald Trump wants to go full steam ahead to beat China and has announced a so-called “Super Intelligence Force,” headed up by former SEC boss Jay Clayton.

Meanwhile, the five major US based AI hyperscalers are expected to tip $800 billion into the AI buildout this year according to Goldman Sachs.

With the US stock market and GPD growth increasingly dependent on the health of the AI industry, could a slowdown in the pace of AI development tank the economy?

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants to “pace the frontier,” slowing advances in the most powerful AI models so that safety research can catch up. His September proposal combines independent evaluators inside labs, shared safety standards and limits on developers in democratic countries, and eventual international coordination, with countries including China.

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The Ohio Republican candidate holds a stake in a digital asset manager and received donations from many in the industry, but has avoided making crypto a central campaign issue.

Two years ago, then-presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy couldn’t stop praising the virtues of cryptocurrency.

Running to be the 2024 Republican nominee in the race for the White House, Ramaswamy sprinkled his stump speeches with praise for Bitcoin (BTC) and token mining operations while strongly standing against central bank digital currencies.

Now, presidential candidate Ramaswamy is running to be the next governor of Ohio. And while he isn’t exactly distancing himself from positions on digital assets, he isn’t putting them at the forefront of his campaign despite substantial exposure to crypto investments and the Buckeye state’s interests.

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Bitcoin bulls renewed pressure on range highs with the 2026 yearly open forming the next key resistance to break through.

Bitcoin (BTC) is eyeing a key level as BTC/USD is on the cusp of turning the 2026 yearly candle green.

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The partnership will enable select institutions in Asia and the Gulf region to instantly settle US dollar transactions through the bank’s SGB Net

Kraken parent company Payward has partnered with Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) to enable 24/7 US dollar settlement for select institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf region.&

Payward has integrated SGB Net, the Bahrain-regulated bank’s real-time clearing network, allowing those clients to settle transactions instantly. The companies plan to expand the service to more clients and currencies, according to a Monday press release.

The bank will also access digital asset liquidity through Payward’s prime brokerage service, Kraken Prime, and use Payward’s markets to price customer trades in the coming months.

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Bitcoin ETF inflows reached a third straight week, while Ether ETFs swung to outflows and Zcash funds posted their first weekly outflow.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded a third consecutive week of net inflows as Ether ETFs flipped back to net outflows.

Bitcoin ETFs attracted $241.1 million last week, lifting cumulative net inflows to $57.8 billion, according to SoSoValue data.

The funds added $2.4 billion and $6.2 million the two preceding weeks, with year-to-date net inflows now at around $1.2 billion.

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Zcash’s NU7 upgrade is now live on testnet, giving developers several weeks to assess 25-second blocks and other protocol changes before a planned November mainnet activation.

Zcash has activated its NU7 network upgrade on testnet, moving the planned protocol changes into live testing about a month before its targeted mainnet rollout.

According to Zcash testnet block explorer ZecBlock, block 4,465,026 — NU7’s scheduled activation point — was mined on Oct. 4 at 18:21:45 UTC. Zcash confirmed the activation in a post on X, saying NU7 was live on testnet.

NU7 is Zcash’s next network upgrade and seeks to reduce the network’s target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The upgrade also disables version 4 transactions and integrates a Network Sustainability Mechanism that redirects part of transaction fees into future block rewards.

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The stock trading platform seeks to offer tokenized shares in more than 60 US-listed companies under the SEC’s recently introduced innovation exemption.

An OKX joint venture has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a tokenized stock trading platform.

OKXICE LLC, a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange operator OKX and New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange Inc., has notified the SEC that it intends to launch a tokenized securities venue (TSV) under the SEC’s new innovation exemption.

The platform will include more than 60 companies listed on US stock exchanges, said OKXICE co-chair Andrew Cuomo.

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Greenfield Capital said it sought changes to Safe Ecosystem Foundation’s board for months before turning to the Swiss regulator.

Update (Oct. 6 at 2:08 am UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from a Safe Ecosystem Foundation spokesperson.

Greenfield Capital, an investor in Safe, says it has filed a supervisory complaint with Switzerland’s foundation watchdog, seeking changes to Safe Ecosystem Foundation’s board after months of engagement failed to resolve its governance concerns.

In an open letter to the Safe community on Sunday, Greenfield founding partner Jascha Samadi said the complaint to Switzerland’s Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) comes after his firm became “increasingly concerned” about the state of Safe since early 2025, citing its performance relative to the broader market and a lack of independent voices on the foundation board.&

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The newly registered lobbying operation lists the CLARITY Act and two digital asset tax proposals among the issues it plans to lobby on in Washington.

A Zcash-focused advocacy group has filed to lobby in Washington, stepping up the privacy-oriented cryptocurrency ecosystem’s efforts to shape US policy on digital assets.

Pretty Good Policy for Zcash (PGPZ) filed a lobbying registration effective on Oct. 1, naming executive director Divij Pandya as its sole lobbyist. The registration lists the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and two digital asset tax proposals as among its current and anticipated lobbying issues.

PGPZ was launched in June this year, growing out of Pretty Good Policy for Crypto, which was launched in 2022 by Electric Coin Co. The initiative hosted Washington policy roundtables and organized a congressional briefing on encryption technologies in 2023.

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Roman Storm and the XRP army aren’t happy former SEC boss Jay Clayton is Trump’s new AI czar, Peter Brandt flips bullish and says Bitcoin may reach as high as $600K by 2029.

President Donald Trump has named Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, to lead the country’s new Super Intelligence Force, according to a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

“The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” Trump wrote in his post.

Clayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term and launched a prosecution against Ripple for selling securities on his last day in office, and as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York led the criminal trial against Roman Storm for his involvement in Tornado Cash. Storm commented:

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President Donald Trump said US intel chief Clayton will lead the SIF, reporting to the president and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

President Donald Trump has named Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, to lead the country’s new Super Intelligence Force, according to a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

The announcement followed media reports on Friday of the appointment. Cointelegraph reported Sept. 20 that Trump planned to create an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and appoint an artificial intelligence czar.

“The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” Trump wrote in his post.

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Garantex was previously sanctioned by the US, the EU and other jurisdictions for helping Russian entities evade financial restrictions.

The Japanese government has added Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex to its expanded list of sanctions against Russia, citing the continuing war in Ukraine.

Officials added 33 organizations and nine individuals linked to Russia to its asset-freeze list that restricts payments and capital transactions with the targeted parties, according to a joint statement issued on Friday by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Garantex was previously sanctioned by the US, the EU and other jurisdictions for helping Russian entities evade financial restrictions.

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Efforts will continue to reduce the state’s involvement in Bitcoin-related activities and to strengthen crypto‑asset regulation and governance, the IMF said.

The International Monetary Fund approved the immediate disbursement of about $138 million to El Salvador under the country’s $1.4 billion financing program, despite some performance criteria being missed.

The IMF’s Executive Board completed the second and third reviews under El Salvador’s 40-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement on Thursday, it said in a press release.

While certain performance criteria were not met, including on the Bitcoin accumulation front, the IMF granted waivers “based on strong corrective measures and renewed commitments.”

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Work on the introduction of the digital ruble to the budget process is being carried out by the Bank of Russia together with the Ministry of Finance.

Russia’s Ministry of Finance said on Friday that some of its employees had received their wages in digital rubles for the first time.

Being paid in the central bank’s digital currency is available for citizens of Russia on a voluntary basis, and began on Oct. 1, according to a Ministry of Finance press release.

The ministry did not disclose how many employees were paid in digital currency or the total payroll amount.

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The exploiter returned the entire sum to NEAR Intents after being identified and given 48 hours to respond.

NEAR Intents said it has recovered about $3.8 million stolen during a Thursday security breach.

Cointelegraph reported on Friday that NEAR Intents had identified the individual behind the security breach and given them 48 hours to return the funds under “responsible disclosure.”

NEAR Intents general manager Alex Shevchenko announced the complete return of funds later on Friday.

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Community banking group’s lawsuit claims OCC has overstepped its mandate from Congress.

A community banks group sued a US bank regulator, claiming its decision to allow cryptocurrency companies to obtain limited national trust bank charters exceeds the authority Congress granted the agency.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed the suit Friday in the US District ​Court for the District of Columbia.&

The group claimed the Office ​of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted cryptocurrency firms the credibility of a US bank charter without sufficient safeguards or compliance with normal bank requirements.

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US intel chief Clayton may be asked to also oversee AI innovation and development along with “self policing” tech CEOs.

President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, as the new AI czar, CNN and other media reported Friday, citing unidentified sources.

Cointelegraph reported Sept. 20 that Trump planned to create an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and appoint an artificial intelligence czar. The president posted on Truth Social that his new project would manage the fast-growing AI sector without adding regulations that could slow innovation.

Trump’s actions followed several public warnings about the potential dangers of AI.

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US intel chief Clayton may be asked to also oversee AI innovation and development along with “self policing” tech CEOs.

President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, as the new AI czar, CNN and other media reported Friday, citing unidentified sources.

Cointelegraph reported Sept. 20 that Trump planned to create an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and appoint an artificial intelligence czar. The president posted on Truth Social that his new project would manage the fast-growing AI sector without adding regulations that could slow innovation.

Trump’s actions followed several public warnings about the potential dangers of AI.

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Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction, Christian Trummer said MiCA has increased trust in regulated platforms and called for stricter enforcement against noncompliant firms.

European crypto users are placing more trust in regulated platforms following the implementation of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework (MiCA), according to Christian Trummer, co-CEO of Austria-based crypto exchange Bitpanda.

Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction, Trummer said most users have “more faith” in regulated market participants and trust those platforms following the rollout of MiCA.& &

He contrasted that with what he described as a “Crypto Twitter” bubble focused on self-custody, saying most users prefer regulated providers rather than managing their own private keys.& &

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The reported cuts come as Anchorage expands its institutional footprint, including stablecoin issuance and a $100 million investment from Tether.

Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered US digital asset bank valued at $4.2 billion earlier this year, has reportedly cut 17% of its workforce, suggesting that the prolonged crypto market downturn is weighing on the company even as it expands its institutional footprint.

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Information reported Friday that CEO Nathan McCauley informed employees of the cuts this week. Anchorage had about 400 employees globally as of February, according to McCauley’s congressional testimony at the time, meaning a 17% reduction would amount to roughly 68 jobs if its headcount remained around that level.

Cointelegraph reached out to a public relations contact representing Anchorage for confirmation but did not receive an immediate response.

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Once among Ethereum’s largest layer-2 networks by total value locked, Blast is urging users to move their assets to mainnet ahead of the shutdown.

Ethereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down after its operating costs exceeded the revenue generated by the chain.

In a Friday post on X, Blast said it sees no “credible path” to making the network economically sustainable and asked users to withdraw their assets to Ethereum mainnet.

“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers,” the team said. “Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense.”

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A Lloyds survey found that faster payments and settlement are the most significant perceived benefits of tokenization, as the UK builds infrastructure for tokenized finance.

Nearly three-quarters of major UK financial institutions expect tokenization to reshape financial services, as banks and asset managers increasingly explore blockchain-based infrastructure for payments, settlement and liquidity management.

The finding comes from an annual survey by& Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s largest financial services provider, which polled 100 senior decision-makers across major UK banks, insurers, asset managers and financial sponsors.

Faster payments and settlement emerged as the biggest potential benefit, cited by 60% of respondents, while 41% pointed to improved collateral and liquidity management.

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Kalshi seeks a $40 billion valuation, while Blockchain.com targets an IPO and crypto treasury companies struggle to maintain their once-high valuations.

Crypto companies are raising billions again, but investors are no longer handing out premiums indiscriminately.

Kalshi is reportedly seeking $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation, nearly twice what it was worth in May. Meanwhile, Blockchain.com is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) at a potential $6 billion valuation, well below the $14 billion it commanded during the last crypto boom. The divide is even sharper among digital asset treasury companies, where just four of the 20 largest still trade above the value of their crypto holdings.

This week’s Crypto Biz looks at where investors are still willing to pay up, where the old crypto premium has disappeared and how Bitget is dealing with the fallout from a $388 million security breach.

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Bitcoin climbed after weaker-than-expected payrolls pushed Treasury yields lower, but order-book resistance kept BTC from reaching new macro highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked past $87,000 on Friday as US jobs data missed expectations.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $87,229 on Bitstamp, just shy of new eight-month highs.

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European issuers say Europe cannot ignore demand for dollar stablecoins as businesses seek USD liquidity for global payments and settlement.

European stablecoin issuers are making the case for regulated US dollar tokens, arguing that Europe’s push to strengthen the euro does not eliminate businesses’ need for dollar liquidity.

AllUnity, a German stablecoin issuer, launched its US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDAU on Wednesday, expanding its MiCA-regulated lineup beyond European currencies.

“In global trade and FX markets, the US dollar is the glue,” AllUnity CEO Alexander Höptner told Cointelegraph, adding: “For European corporates to make cross-border payments globally, offering only a euro stablecoin isn’t enough.”

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The furious debate over Bitget’s $387.7M of hacked funds comes down to whether ideals around “permissionless and decentralized” tech means never intervening — even if you could.

After Bitget got hacked on Sept. 24, $387.5 million of stolen funds quickly began moving across chains, with some headed to decentralized cross chain swaps platform THORChain.

Chief executive Gracy Chen publicly appealed to the platform to refuse service to attacker-linked addresses. “The industry is watching,” she said.

Yet THORChain refused. And that refusal has kicked off a furious debate between those who believe protocols have a moral obligation to block stolen funds, and those hold the cypherpunk ideals of decentralized, permissionless technology sacrosanct.

Having previously watched on as the Bybit hackers funneled $1.2 billion through the protocol, it’s pretty clear which side of the argument THORChain is on. Developer Boone Wheeler tells Magazine:

Critics argue that THORChain wasn’t quite so idealistic when validators voted to halt the chain in May after an automated system triggered when an attacker exploited a vulnerability and drained over $10 million from one of its vaults.

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Circle wants the EU to replace mandatory bank-deposit minimums with more flexible liquidity rules and preserve cross-border stablecoin issuance.

Stablecoin issuer Circle urged the European Commission to revise reserve requirements in its response to a consultation on reviewing the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

In Thursday’s summary of its response, the USDC and EURC issuer said mandatory bank-deposit requirements expose stablecoin issuers to banking-sector credit and counterparty risks.

Circle faced those risks firsthand in March 2023, when USDC temporarily lost its dollar peg after the company disclosed that $3.3 billion of its reserves were held at Silicon Valley Bank. The funds were subsequently made available after US authorities protected the bank’s depositors.

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Tokenized stocks and ETFs on BNB Chain reached $1.1 billion as the broader market climbed to $3.7 billion, putting the network’s share at roughly 30%.

BNB Chain has become the first blockchain to cross $1 billion in tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The market capitalization of the tokenized stocks and ETFs rose around 17% to $3.35 billion in September from $2.87 billion in August, according to Token Terminal data.

The sector’s market cap on BNB Chain stood at $1.1 billion at the time of publication, accounting for roughly 30% of the $3.7 billion market, followed by Ethereum at $828 million, or 22%, and Solana at $738 million, or 20%.

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Strategy’s scale and cash reserves give it an edge over treasury rivals, according to Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard.”

Bitcoin treasury companies built primarily around buying the cryptocurrency may struggle to compete with Michael Saylor’s Strategy, according to economist and “The Bitcoin Standard” author Saifedean Ammous.

“I don’t see a compelling case for going to another Bitcoin treasury company other than Michael Saylor’s Strategy,” Ammous said on the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s Proof of Thesis.

Strategy holds the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, with 847,666 BTC acquired for $63.95 billion, according to its Monday 8-K filing. The company also reported a $5.02 billion US dollar reserve to cover preferred stock dividends and debt interest.

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Arthur Hayes said money printing could lift crypto prices, while CONNECT Seoul speakers examined Wall Street’s competitive edge onchain.

US policymakers could lift cryptocurrency prices by printing more money to support AI and finance government debt, according to Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom fund.

AI companies need trillions of dollars to finance data centers even as the prices of their services fall, Hayes said at a fireside chat at CONNECT by Cointelegraph: Seoul Edition, on Tuesday during Korea Blockchain Week.

“They’ve not really given themselves a lot of options other than print money and make it less bad,” he said.

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Bitcoin buyers broke through a wall of ask liquidity to reach new October BTC price highs near $87,800, with the area immediately above now a new resistance hurdle.

Bitcoin (BTC) neared $87,000 on Friday as BTC short liquidations topped $120 million over 24 hours.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $86,857 on Bitstamp before pulling back below $86,000.

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Aave founder Stani Kulechov said Aave v3 was unaffected after an attacker exploited a third-party adapter to drain about $305,000 from two Safe multisig wallets.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov said Aave v3 was unaffected by an exploit that drained roughly $305,000 from two Safe multisig wallets through a third-party adapter built on top of the lending protocol.

“This is not Aave v3 contract, it’s third party external adapter built on top of Aave, zero effect on Aave v3,” Kulechov said on X.

Blockchain security firm SlowMist said the attack targeted a module used to open and close leveraged Aave v3 positions through Safe wallets. The attacker exploited an access-control flaw that allowed a fake Safe contract to pass the adapter’s authorization check.&

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Porsche is winding down its Web3 project and Pioneers Circle community as trading activity in its 911 NFT collection falls sharply from early levels.

Porsche is ending its Web3 project and Pioneers Circle community nearly four years after launching its 911 nonfungible token (NFT) collection.

“Today, we are announcing the conclusion of the Porsche Web3 project and Pioneers Circle,” the company said in a post on X. Porsche said the project had expanded beyond its initial technology focus to include community events and other online and offline activities.

The automaker said the Porsche 911 NFTs will remain with their holders and continue to exist onchain. Porsche will turn the community’s Discord server into a read-only archive and stop actively updating the project’s X account.

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Bitcoin ETFs returned to inflows with $103 million, while Ether funds recorded a third straight day of net outflows.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) flipped back to net inflows on the first trading day of October after their strongest quarter of 2026.

Bitcoin ETFs attracted $102.7 million in net inflows on Thursday, following Wednesday’s $148.7 million in net outflows, according to SoSoValue data. Their combined net assets rose to $109.3 billion, while cumulative net inflows reached $57.6 billion.

The positive start to the month followed $6.34 billion in third-quarter net inflows, including $2.65 billion in September. Bitcoin rose 42.71% over the quarter.

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South Korean crypto exchange operating profits fell 78% in the first half of 2026 as trading volumes, market capitalization and customer deposits declined.

South Korean crypto exchanges saw operating profits fall 78% in the first half of 2026 as trading activity, market valuations and customer deposits declined, according to new government data.&

On Thursday, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) said average daily trading volume at domestic virtual asset exchanges fell 44% from the previous six months, while market capitalization dropped 33% and won-denominated deposits fell 35%. Exchange sales declined 41% over the same period, even as the number of accounts eligible to trade rose slightly by 0.4%.

KoFIU’s survey covered 26 registered virtual asset service providers, including 17 exchange operators and nine custody and wallet providers, and covered activity from Jan. 1 through June 30.

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South Korea’s financial regulator proposed detailed rules for tokenized securities, including capital requirements, OTC trading licenses and retail investment limits.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has proposed detailed regulations for issuing and trading tokenized securities as the country’s regulatory framework is set to take effect in February 2027.

The changes would allow stocks, bonds, funds and certain fractional investment securities to be issued and circulated in tokenized form.&

The proposal also introduces requirements for companies issuing and managing tokenized securities. Under the proposed changes, companies issuing tokenized securities while directly managing customer accounts would need at least 4 billion Korean won ($2.8 million) in equity capital and dedicated compliance and technology staff.&

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The unauthorized coins were indistinguishable from legitimate ZANO, leaving the team unable to remove them without rolling back the blockchain.

Update (Oct. 2 at 6:53 am UTC): This article has been updated to include a comment from Zano head of marketing and growth, Quinten van Welzen.

Zano revealed that the attacker who exploited its Gateway Address vulnerability over the last month used it to create 36.9 million Zano (ZANO), along with 1.8 quadrillion Freedom Dollar (fUSD) tokens, before the decision was made to roll the blockchain back by a month.&

In a post-mortem published Thursday, Zano said the attacker first exploited the vulnerability on Aug. 29, creating approximately 18.4 million ZANO in a single transaction. The attacker repeated the exploit on Sept. 25, minting another 18.4 million ZANO, before using the same method to create approximately 1.8 quadrillion fUSD.

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Node operators running version 26.06.7 or earlier were told to upgrade immediately.

The team behind Core Lightning, an open-source node software for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, has urged operators running older versions to upgrade immediately after receiving reports of attackers targeting unpatched nodes.

“Urgent security update: If you’re running version 26.06.7 or earlier, please upgrade to the latest release as soon as possible,” the team said on Friday.

Core Lightning did not specify which vulnerabilities attackers were targeting or the potential impact. Cointelegraph reached out to Core Lightning for comment.

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Ethereum’s zkAPI is now live on mainnet, turning an earlier zero-knowledge API payment proposal into a working implementation for private, prepaid access.

The Ethereum Foundation announced on Thursday that zkAPI, a system built with the Open Anonymity Project to let users pay for AI and other API services without revealing their billing identities, has gone live on Ethereum mainnet.

Users deposit funds into an Ethereum vault, then use zero-knowledge proofs to prove they have enough credit to pay for API requests without revealing which deposits are theirs, according to a post from Vittorio Rivabella, AI coordinator at the Ethereum Foundation’s dAI team.

One of the immediate use cases of the system is paying for the use of AI without linking the payment to a user. zkAPI issues short-lived API keys with predefined spending limits. Prompts are sent directly to the AI provider, while usage is settled separately through the payment layer. The project has also released a local client and software development kit, along with a browser-based AI chat implementation.

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“We have identified you, sir,” NEAR Intents general manager Alex Shevchenko said on Friday after the protocol was hacked for $3.8 million.

NEAR Intents said it has identified the individual behind a security breach that resulted in the loss of $3.8 million in user funds on Thursday, giving them 48 hours to return the funds under “responsible disclosure.”

“We have identified you, sir,” NEAR Intents general manager Alex Shevchenko said in an X post on Friday, as he shared three different wallet addresses to receive Bitcoin, BNB and Solana.

On Thursday, NEAR Intents paused services after detecting a “bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract.”&

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Custody requirements have kept some investment advisers from offering certain crypto to clients, a regulatory hurdle the SEC’s proposal could remove.

The US securities regulator has proposed easing rules governing how investment advisers and funds hold crypto, potentially clearing a regulatory hurdle that has held some businesses back from offering clients digital asset investments.&

The proposal, published on Thursday, would let investment advisers hold clients’ crypto assets themselves when no eligible crypto custodian is available, with conditions. It would also allow state trust companies to serve as crypto custodians.&

“The crypto asset market has grown from a niche curiosity into a multi-trillion-dollar asset class to which investors actively seek exposure. Unfortunately, our rules and regulations have not kept pace,” US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said in a statement.&

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Singapore’s crypto economy grows 55%, South Korea set to make crypto market makers legal, and Chinese spy ministry warns would-be foreign spies it’s watching the blockchain.

CHINA

China’s Ministry of State Security& has toughened its rhetoric on the risks of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their role in crime and stressing transactions are not really anonymous.

According to the South China Morning Post the spooks published an article on social media stating cryptocurrencies are used to facilitate money laundering and cyberattacks and serve as “accomplices” in espionage.

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Evernorth expects to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN after its SPAC merger closes, with an XRP treasury worth roughly $710 million at current prices.

Evernorth is set to become a publicly traded XRP treasury company after shareholders of blank-check firm Armada Acquisition Corp. II approved their proposed business combination.

The deal is expected to close on Oct. 7, with shares of the combined company set to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN the following day, subject to remaining closing conditions.

The vote clears a key hurdle after Evernorth filed its Form S-4 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March. The registration statement was declared effective in August, leaving shareholder approval as one of the remaining steps before the Nasdaq listing.

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The president is scheduled to appear at his golf club in Washington, DC, at a Nov. 22 dinner for his top 185 memecoin holders, following similar events in May 2025 and April 2026.

The group behind US President Donald Trump’s memecoin announced that he will appear at a third event for his top tokenholders weeks after a report that investors in his crypto ventures had lost a combined $4.7 billion.

On Wednesday, the GetTrumpMemes website behind the promotion of the president’s memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), announced a Nov. 22 dinner for the “top 185” holders. The event will mark the third time Trump has gathered his memecoin fans for similar events, including a May 2025 dinner for 220 TRUMP holders at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, and an April 2026 luncheon for 297 guests at the president’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

According to the GetTrumpMemes website, Trump will appear at his DC golf club on Nov. 22 alongside three unnamed guests. Attendance will be based on the top 185 memecoin holders, scored between Sept. 30 and Nov. 12.

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A 50,000-letter campaign is pressing Brussels to rethink stablecoin rewards as EU central banks seek broader changes to MiCA’s stablecoin rules.

More than 50,000 Europeans have urged the European Commission to loosen restrictions on stablecoin rewards as part of its review of the bloc’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, according to crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto EU.

The campaign came as the Commission closed its MiCA review consultation on Wednesday, with Stand With Crypto EU pushing for regulated stablecoin providers to be allowed to offer incentives including cashback, loyalty benefits and fee reductions.

The group said more than 50,000 supporters wrote to the Commission during the consultation, while more than 126,000 people have separately signed its petition calling for a more permissive EU approach to stablecoins.

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State officials agreed to delay the 0.2% crypto tax for six months after lawsuits and industry pushback claimed the bill was rushed through the legislature.

Crypto advocacy organizations behind a lawsuit opposing Illinois’ Digital Asset Tax reported that state officials agreed to delay implementation by six months.

In a Thursday filing in the circuit court of Sangamon County, Illinois, the crypto and blockchain advocacy group Digital Chamber said that Illinois would postpone a 0.2% tax on digital assets from Jan. 1 to July 1, 2027. The organization sued Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Department of Revenue official David Harris in July, claiming the tax had been “slipped into the state’s budget” without debate or public feedback.

“The Parties stipulate that continuing the Tax’s effective date from January 1, 2027 until July 1, 2027 will permit orderly briefing and adjudication of the underlying legal questions without prejudicing any Party’s rights, claims, or defenses on the merits,” the filing said.

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The agreement will allow the two state regulators to share supervisory information, streamline licensing reviews and coordinate examinations and enforcement actions involving digital asset firms.

New York and Wyoming financial regulators have signed an agreement to coordinate oversight of crypto companies operating across both states, including licensing, examinations and potential enforcement actions.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), announced Thursday by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the Wyoming Division of Banking,& applies to firms already regulated& in either state and& those& seeking approval in both jurisdictions.

Under the agreement, the regulators will share analysis and historical examination data to streamline applications, coordinate examination schedules and work toward joint examinations of companies operating in both states.

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US bond yields fell sharply around Thursday’s Wall Street open as Bitcoin price action sought to preserve a local trend of higher lows.

Bitcoin (BTC) pushed above $84,000 around Thursday’s Wall Street open as US bond yields retreated after setting more multidecade highs.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD preserving a pattern of higher lows on hourly time frames, up 0.6% on the day.

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The platform said it will compensate users affected by the hack, which stemmed from a bug that affected deposits and withdrawals.

Cross-chain protocol NEAR Intents reported a security breach that resulted in the loss of $3.8 million in user funds.

In a Thursday X post, the protocol said that the incident was the result of a “bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract.” NEAR said that it would compensate users in full for the lost funds, and the “contract-side vulnerability has been patched” to prevent similar attacks.

“The incident has been reported to law enforcement, and we are working with security and blockchain analytics partners to trace the funds and pursue recovery,” said the platform. “A detailed report will be shared publicly in the following days.”

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Crypto security losses reached $1.26 billion in Q3 across 247 incidents, with September alone accounting for roughly $769 million.

Losses from crypto security incidents climbed to $1.26 billion in the third quarter of 2026, largely driven by the $387.5 million hack of crypto exchange Bitget.

Losses rose 53.9% from $819.4 million in Q2, while the number of security incidents increased about 13% from 219 to 247, according to data from blockchain security company CertiK.

The Bitget hack accounted for about 31% of Q3 losses, making it the quarter’s largest recorded incident under CertiK’s methodology. Liquid Network’s $319 million exploit on Sept. 6 ranked second, followed by Tectonic at $120 million and the $112.7 million Coldcard theft.

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Researchers in a Latin American stablecoin ecosystem report warned “fragility in the system is concentrated in its thinnest layer,” with just 16 of 494 companies focused primarily on wholesale liquidity, treasury and credit.

Latin America’s stablecoin payment ecosystem may depend on a small group of underlying liquidity providers, potentially disrupting customers’ ability to cash out into local currency if a key provider loses banking access, according to Verda Ventures partner Amit Chu.

In a newly published report from crypto venture companies Varys Capital and Verda Ventures, drawing on Verda’s Stablescape database, researchers analyzed 494 companies in the region, but found only 16 whose primary business is providing wholesale stablecoin-to-fiat liquidity, corporate treasury and credit, warning that “fragility in the system is concentrated in its thinnest layer.”

“There are many sellers of liquidity and very few specialists. What we can’t see from public data is how many of them warehouse the currency risk themselves and how many pass it to the same few desks and exchanges. Our view is that it’s the second, and that’s the fragility the report is pointing at,” Chu told Cointelegraph.&

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Highly liquid and settling 24/7, stablecoins can leave banks and countries at lightning speed. But whether stablecoins are a risk — or an opportunity — depends on your perspective.

Anyone who’s ever sent a bank transfer overseas is familiar with the painful process of waiting for things like working hours, correspondent banks and settlement times.

In many cases, it would be faster, cheaper and just more efficient to strap the physical cash to a homing pigeon, or slap it in an envelope and send it via DHL.

Stablecoins can move money across borders around the clock, without waiting for the legacy system to fire up its steam engines.

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Dune found that tokenized markets show different trading patterns from traditional markets, with RWA value reaching $34.5 billion.

Tokenized markets show different trading and investment patterns from traditional markets, according to a new Dune report comparing onchain and off-chain activity across equities, credit, commodities and cash-equivalent products.

Dune found the difference pronounced in equities, where single stocks accounted for 81% of tokenized equity spot supply while exchange-traded funds (ETFs) made up 19%.

Armand Khatri, head of ecosystem at Ondo Finance, said tokenization gives investors more control over asset selection by reducing their dependence on local intermediaries’ offerings.

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Bitcoin erased its post-PCE gains as analysts cautioned that methodology changes complicated the lower-than-expected inflation reading.

Bitcoin (BTC) held above $83,000 on Thursday after giving back gains following lower-than-expected US inflation data.

Key points:

Data from Coinbase showed BTC/USD flat on the day after a brief bout of volatility ahead of September’s monthly and third-quarter close.

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EU regulators are reportedly examining Binance’s use of a MiCA exemption to serve customers as ESMA seeks stronger enforcement powers.

European regulators are reportedly scrutinizing Binance’s use of a legal exemption to continue serving customers in the European Union without authorization under the bloc’s crypto rules.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and regulators in France, Germany and Greece are examining Binance’s use of reverse solicitation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Binance withdrew its Greek MiCA application in June and said it would seek authorization in another EU member state.

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Chainalysis still faces an aiding-and-abetting claim over Celsius’ disputed $3.3 billion audit after a judge dismissed 15 other claims.

A US federal judge has dismissed most claims brought against Chainalysis by Celsius Network’s litigation administrator, but allowed one to proceed.

The surviving claim alleges Chainalysis helped Celsius insiders breach their fiduciary duties.

US District Judge Margaret Garnett denied Chainalysis’ bid to dismiss the aiding-and-abetting claim in a ruling issued Tuesday. She found that the complaint sufficiently alleged that Chainalysis knew a 2020 Celsius press release contained false statements and helped disseminate them.

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Bitcoin gained 42.71% in Q3, its best third-quarter performance since 2017, as US spot ETFs attracted $6.34 billion in net inflows.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded about $6.34 billion in net inflows in the third quarter, marking their strongest quarter of 2026 as Bitcoin rebounded from the first half.

The funds closed September with $2.65 billion in net inflows, down around 25% from $3.52 billion in August and following $172 million in July, according to SoSoValue data.

The quarterly flows reversed about $5 billion in net outflows recorded in the second quarter. Bitcoin gained 42.71% in the third quarter, its strongest quarterly gain since Q4 2024 and its best third-quarter performance since 2017, according to CoinGlass.

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A Bitcoin Policy Institute paper says MSCI’s proposed “non-operating company” rule could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its indexes and may have roots in an earlier crypto treasury review.

A Bitcoin policy think tank has questioned how MSCI developed its latest proposal to tighten the rules governing its market indexes, after the benchmark provider identified companies including Strategy and Metaplanet for potential treatment as “non-operating businesses” and exclusion from its indexes.&

MSCI first proposed excluding digital asset treasury companies from its global indexes in 2025, but shelved the plan in January after pushback and said it would instead review “non-operating companies” more broadly. On Aug. 3, it returned with a wider proposal that could still remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its indexes.

In a research paper titled Wall Street’s Invisible Committee, BPI pointed to metadata showing that the source presentation behind MSCI’s consultation was stored in an internal folder for digital asset treasury companies. BPI said the finding “warrants asking whether its broader language carried forward” MSCI’s earlier effort to exclude digital asset treasury companies.&

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The $388 million Bitget breach and $320 million Liquid Network exploit accounted for most of September’s losses, though more than $270 million from the latter was later returned.

Crypto suffered its worst month of the year for hacks and exploits in September, with two blockchain security firms estimating losses at more than $766 million.

PeckShield counted 55 major incidents resulting in $766.5 million in stolen funds, while CertiK recorded 97 incidents and estimated losses at $768.4 million. Both firms showed the losses were a significant increase from August.

The month included the $388 million Bitget hack and a $320 million hack of the Liquid Network. More than $270 million was later returned, according to reports. The incidents rank among the largest crypto thefts of the year.

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The classification could assist the CFTC’s claim that it has exclusive federal jurisdiction over event contracts offered on regulated prediction markets.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking to clarify the definition of a “swap” amid a jurisdictional fight with state gambling regulators over prediction markets.&

An Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs docket shows the agency has submitted a proposed rule to expand the definition of “swap” to include event contracts, along with an interim final rule that would exclude casino-style gambling products. Both are under review.&

The classification matters because the CFTC has argued that federal law gives it exclusive authority over swaps traded on its regulated exchanges, such as those offered by Polymarket and Kalshi. US state regulators have disputed that position, particularly for sports event contracts, arguing they are subject to state gambling laws.&

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MetaMask said it is investigating the threat internally and said it has found no immediate threat to its wallets.

MetaMask has announced it is responding to a security incident affecting part of its infrastructure and is exiting affected staking validators as a precaution.

In an update on Wednesday, MetaMask said it was addressing the ongoing threat internally and was working with external partners and security advisors. It did not share what the security issue was but said it has not identified any immediate threat to MetaMask wallets.

Source: MetaMask

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The bank also expects Ethena’s ENA token to rise roughly sevenfold to $2 by the end of 2028 as USDe scales and token buybacks increase.

British multinational bank Standard Chartered expects Ethena’s USDe stablecoin supply to grow eightfold to $40 billion by the end of 2028 as the protocol expands its sources of yield beyond crypto markets.

In a Wednesday research report shared with Cointelegraph, the bank initiated coverage of Ethena’s ENA token& with a year-end 2028 price target of $2, roughly seven times the $0.28 price cited in the report. Standard Chartered also expects USDe to slightly outpace overall stablecoin market growth over the period.

Its forecasts imply ENA would also outperform Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) through 2028. Standard Chartered sees BTC reaching $300,000 and ETH $18,000 by the end of the period.

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The organization’s endorsements in the House and Senate came as many polls showed Democrats favored to regain control of both chambers in 2027.

Update (Sept. 30, 10:55 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from Stand With Crypto.

Stand With Crypto, the industry-aligned organization Coinbase launched in 2023 to promote what it called “clear, common-sense regulations for the crypto industry,” has announced several picks for the next session of the US Congress.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg first reported that Stand With Crypto said it would be supporting candidates running for Senate seats in 2026, including Republican Jon Husted in Ohio, Republican Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Democrat Chris Pappas in New Hampshire. Husted is defending his Senate seat against Democrat Sherrod Brown, who lost to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 after outside groups spent more than $300 million in Ohio.

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Base’s Cobalt lets traders set transaction conditions while giving issuers tools for compliance checks, stock splits and forced token transfers.

Base activated its Cobalt upgrade Wednesday, adding conditional transactions and new issuer controls for tokenized assets as the Ethereum layer-2 network deepens its push into onchain finance.&

Cobalt, Base’s third major upgrade, expands its B20 token standard by allowing issuers to apply several compliance checks to the same asset. For example, an issuer could require recipients to pass identity checks, qualify as accredited investors and not appear on a sanctions list.

Issuers can also schedule adjustments for corporate actions such as stock splits. The update changes the number of shares displayed in wallets and apps without minting or burning tokens or altering the underlying balance.

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Bloomberg’s Allium-powered dashboard gives Terminal users hourly data on stablecoin supply, issuance, transfers and activity across blockchain networks.

Bloomberg has launched a stablecoin dashboard on its Terminal, giving financial professionals access to onchain data tracking stablecoin supply, issuance and transaction activity.

The dashboard, powered by blockchain data platform Allium, covers stablecoins with more than $100 million in circulation, representing over 98% of the market, according to a Wednesday announcement from Bloomberg.

Users can compare stablecoins by supply, mints, burns, transfer volume and velocity, and break down activity by blockchain network and peg type, including fiat currencies and commodities.

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Petrobras developed two Cardano-based applications to track sustainability claims tied to aviation fuel and renewable diesel as part of an ongoing research collaboration.

Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras has developed two blockchain applications using Cardano to track sustainability data for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and its Diesel R renewable fuel.

According to a Wednesday announcement from& the Cardano Foundation, the first application, developed with PUC-Rio’s Ledger Labs, tokenizes environmental attributes associated with SAF into digital tokens designed to prevent the same claim from being used more than once.

The application uses a Book-and-Claim model, which allows the environmental benefit to be separated from the physical fuel and assigned to an airline, company or passenger even if the SAF is used elsewhere.

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Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said that a protection fund created by the company in 2022 “absorbed the financial impact of the incident“ that resulted in $388 million in user losses.

The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget reported a gradual return to normal operations following a security breach that resulted in the loss of $388 million of user funds.

In a Wednesday X post, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said withdrawals for all tokens would resume on Friday, and the exchange has already restored access to users’ Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and USDt (USDT). As part of recovery efforts, Bitget’s ‘Protection Fund’ also reached $309 million.

The fund, initially set up by Bitget in January 2022 with 5,500 BTC, was intended to reimburse users’ potential losses that were “not a result of any misconduct from the user or the platform itself,” presumably including some security breaches. According to the company, funds were available “for instant deployment whenever the need arises.”

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THORChain will not — or can not — block addresses linked to the $387.5 million Bitget hack. Can the devs be prosecuted for money laundering? It’s complicated, says crypto lawyer Yuriy Brisov.

After suspected North Korean hackers exploited crypto exchange Bitget for $387.5 million last week, investigators were able to quickly flag and trace the recipient addresses.&

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen then controversially demanded that decentralized cross-chain swaps platform THORChain “refuse service to these addresses.”

THORChain responded:

The move was controversial, especially given the protocol was halted immediately in May when $10.7 million of its own funds were exploited. Complicating matters, THORChain has retired its admin key and doesn’t have an easy way to censor addresses, even if it wanted to.

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THORChain will not — or can not — block addresses linked to the $387.5 million Bitget hack. Can the devs be prosecuted for money laundering? It’s complicated, says crypto lawyer Yuriy Brisov.

After suspected North Korean hackers exploited crypto exchange Bitget for $387.5 million last week, investigators were able to quickly flag and trace the recipient addresses.&

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen then controversially demanded that decentralized cross-chain swaps platform THORChain “refuse service to these addresses.”

THORChain responded:

The move was controversial, especially given the protocol was halted immediately in May when $10.7 million of its own funds were exploited. Complicating matters, THORChain has retired its admin key and claims it doesn’t have an easy way to censor addresses, even if it wanted to.

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Singapore’s crypto economy grew 55.4% to $284 billion as institutional-platform activity surged 94%, while the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam stood out for small-value P2P transfers.

Singapore’s crypto activity rose 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, bucking a regional contraction and regaining its position as the largest crypto economy in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO), according to Chainalysis.

Much of the growth came from institutional platform activity, which increased 94% to $60 billion, concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms, and institutional brokerages. Chainalysis said the broader CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8% over the same period.&

“The growth in Singapore’s institutional platform ecosystem was very concentrated and marked by mostly high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than the dynamic entry of new services,” Chainalysis told Cointelegraph.&

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Crypto businesses should apply by Feb. 28, 2027, while existing money laundering registrations will not convert into FCA authorization.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened applications Wednesday for crypto businesses seeking authorization under a regulatory regime due to take effect on Oct. 25, 2027.

Companies intending to continue operating in the UK should apply by the end of February 2027. The FCA expects to decide applications submitted during that window before the regime takes effect.

The framework expands the FCA’s oversight beyond anti-money laundering and financial promotion requirements. The regulator finalized its rules in June, including requirements covering stablecoin issuance, crypto trading platforms and market abuse.

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CryptoQuant flagged potential selling pressure as deposit transactions and depositing addresses hit their highest counts since October 2025.

Altcoin exchange deposits have reached their highest transaction count since October 2025, according to CryptoQuant, which warned that holders may be preparing to sell.

Key points:

In its latest weekly report released on Tuesday, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant flagged a surge in exchange deposits involving altcoins.

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As the European Commission’s MiCA review consultation closes, Europe must decide whether its crypto rulebook is protecting the market without making it too costly to build in.

When the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) came into force, it did something that had eluded the digital asset sector in Europe for years: it created a single, coherent rulebook.

For the first time, a crypto asset service provider (CASP) authorized in one Member State can passport its services across the European Union and European Economic Area, and clients across the bloc can choose among a growing field of licensed, supervised providers. That is a genuine achievement, and one the industry should not take for granted.

As the consultation on MiCA’s review closes, the focus should now be on calibration: keeping what works, and being honest about where the compliance burden has grown faster than the risks it is meant to address.

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Ether ETFs shed $3 million Tuesday after seven days of inflows, following an $8 million outflow from Zcash funds at the start of the week.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) extended their net inflow streak to nine trading days, while Ether and Zcash funds flipped to outflows.

Bitcoin ETFs attracted $66.2 million on Tuesday, bringing net inflows over their winning streak to roughly $3.1 billion, according to data from SoSoValue. The year-to-date net inflows rose to roughly $1 billion.

However, some altcoin funds saw a reversal. Spot Ether ETFs ended their seven-day streak by posting roughly $3 million in net outflows on Tuesday. The funds had attracted more than $851 million during the seven sessions, bringing cumulative net inflows to about $14 billion.

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From touchscreen and QR-code devices to NFC cards and Bitcoin-only models, this guide compares hardware wallets by security, connectivity, usability and recovery options to help users choose the right fit.

A hardware wallet is a device designed to protect the private keys used to approve cryptocurrency transactions. In plain terms, your crypto remains on the blockchain, while a hardware wallet holds the keys that let you access it.

The main differences between wallets are which coins they support, how they connect to your phone or computer, and how you check and approve a transaction. This guide explains those differences and what they mean when choosing a wallet.

Cointelegraph tested Trezor Safe 7, Ledger Stax, Flex, Nano Gen5, Nano X, Nano S Plus and Coinkite’s Opendime. Testing used smartphones and computers running both Linux and macOS operating systems, with both third-party and official software. The Opendime was used as cold storage; the others were used to test both simple transactions and decentralized application interactions. All the other models covered in the article were reviewed based on publicly available information alone.

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SlowMist identified malicious activity weeks before the Bitget theft, involving a zero-day vulnerability, two security products and a custom withdrawal tool.

SlowMist traced the earliest logged malicious activity linked to Bitget’s $388 million theft to Aug. 31, when an attacker exploited a zero-day vulnerability affecting a third-party security product.

Attackers stole the funds from Bitget’s hot wallets on Sept. 24 (UTC), transferring assets to addresses they controlled across several blockchains. SlowMist’s investigation identified malicious activity involving two third-party security products and a wallet application host.

According to a SlowMist progress report, the attacker used a hidden script to access the database of what SlowMist called “Product A,” after retrieving its password from an environment variable. Similar activity was later detected on two other nodes on Sept. 23 and Sept. 25. The dates and times in the report are in UTC+8.

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AllUnity is launching USDAU, its fourth fiat-backed stablecoin, expanding a MiCA-regulated lineup that already covers the euro, Swiss franc and Swedish krona.

AllUnity is launching a new stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, expanding its digital asset lineup as dollar-pegged tokens continue to dominate the global stablecoin market.

The new token, USDAU, will maintain a 1:1 peg to the US dollar through segregated reserves and debut on Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, Arc and Polygon, AllUnity said in a Wednesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

AllUnity, regulated under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), already issues euro-backed EURAU, Swiss franc-backed CHFAU and Swedish krona-backed SEKAU stablecoins. CoinGecko measures EURAU’s market capitalization at roughly $400,000 and CHFAU’s at about $45 million.

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The prediction market was valued at $22 billion in a $1 billion funding round just four months ago, after doubling its valuation from December.

Prediction market platform Kalshi is reportedly now in “advanced talks” to raise approximately $1 billion in a new funding round at a valuation of $40 billion.

Existing investor Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management are in talks to lead the round, which could include Tiger Global Management and Dragoneer Investment Group, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

It comes after Kalshi closed a $1 billion Series F round in May at a $22 billion valuation, doubling its valuation from December.

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Illinois’ draft rules spell out how its 0.2% digital asset transaction tax would apply to stablecoins, DeFi platforms, crypto bridges and self-custody transfers.

Illinois tax officials have published draft rules detailing how the state’s already-enacted 0.2% digital asset transaction tax would apply to stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and other crypto activity.

The new draft rules provide implementation details for the law, including which transactions and digital assets would fall within its scope. Under the proposal, stablecoins would be treated as digital assets subject to tax, while nonfungible tokens would be excluded.&

DeFi transactions would generally be exempt unless users pay fees considered “valuable consideration,” such as protocol fees collected for operating or maintaining a platform. Network fees and swap fees paid solely to liquidity providers would not trigger the tax.

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In February, ai.com drew enough traffic to crash its website after a $15 million Super Bowl ad, but months later, users are still wondering what’s happened to their promised AI agent.

Crypto.com says its personal AI agent venture, pitched to perform a broad set of tasks from trading stocks to updating online dating profiles, is still under construction, months after a Super Bowl debut that got so much attention it crashed the website.

Ai.com, a business line of Crypto.com, promoted the launch of its AI platform in a $15 million ad during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl in February. The website crashed within minutes as curious users flocked to reserve a handle for their own personal AI agent.&

However, nearly eight months later, the website continues to display a message that AI agent generation is queued due to high demand.

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Binance Pay will let overseas users spend more than 100 cryptocurrencies at PayPay-supported merchants in Japan through HIVEX, while stores receive yen.

[Update, 07:00 UTC, Sept. 30: This article was updated after Binance clarified that users can pay with more than 100 supported cryptocurrencies, while USDT is used as the backend settlement layer.]

Binance Pay will allow eligible overseas users visiting Japan to spend more than 100 cryptocurrencies at the vast majority of PayPay-supported merchants starting Wednesday.

The service will run through HIVEX, a payment interoperability framework that connects overseas QR payment services to PayPay-supported merchants in Japan. Binance Pay uses Tether USDt (USDT) as its backend settlement layer, while HIVEX settles with PayPay and PayPay settles merchants in yen.

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Binance Pay will let overseas users spend USDT at most PayPay-supported merchants in Japan through HIVEX, while stores receive yen.

Binance Pay will allow eligible overseas users visiting Japan to spend Tether USDt (USDT) at the vast majority of PayPay-supported merchants starting Wednesday.

The service will run through HIVEX, a payment interoperability framework that connects overseas QR payment services to PayPay-supported merchants in Japan. Merchants will continue receiving settlement in yen.

Binance told Cointelegraph it is the first crypto payment service to access PayPay-supported merchants through HIVEX. Merchants will not need to opt in separately, it said.

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The voluntary accord puts much of the responsibility for managing frontier AI risks on developers.

US President Donald Trump and tech executives have signed a voluntary accord aimed at ensuring their AI models “behave as intended.”

The accord comes amid growing concerns over the safety of increasingly capable frontier AI systems. Trump has resisted a slowdown, citing competition with China. The agreement places much of the responsibility of managing AI risk on the companies developing the systems.&

The White House accord, named “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities,” calls for internal controls, independent external audits and board-level oversight “to ensure its models do not hack or access technical systems in unintended ways.” The accord also leaves open the possibility of turning those commitments into law or regulation, saying it may make sense to do so over time.

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Seven commissioner seats at the SEC and CFTC will be empty after Friday, leaving only a few leaders at financial regulators to oversee aspects of the $3 trillion crypto industry.

Update (Sept. 29, 8:45 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a response from the CFTC.

Two of the United States’ financial agencies tasked with overseeing and enforcing digital asset regulation will be down to just three commissioners after Friday, following the departure of a Republican member.

On Friday, Hester Peirce, who served as a commissioner with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for eight years, will leave the agency about two months before the end of the 18-month extension for her second term. The departure of Peirce, whom many in the industry knew as “Crypto Mom” for her views on digital assets, will mark only the second time in US history the agency has operated with two commissioners.

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OpenAI is reportedly seeking another $30 billion from investors as the ChatGPT developer pushes its long-awaited public market debut into 2027.

ChatGPT developer OpenAI is reportedly eyeing another $30 billion raise that could value it at $1.4 trillion, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies even before it goes public.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Tuesday that OpenAI is in the early stages of discussions for the new funding round, with investor demand driving the talks.

The proposed valuation would be roughly 64% higher than OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation in March, when it raised $122 billion.

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Kakaopay Securities is working with Dinari and Ondo Finance to explore tokenizing Korean-listed equities and expanding their availability to investors in international markets.

South Korea’s Kakaopay Securities is partnering with tokenization firms Dinari and Ondo Finance to explore bringing Korean-listed stocks onchain and distributing them to investors in international markets.

Kakaopay announced separate agreements with Dinari and Ondo on Tuesday, covering the sourcing of underlying Korean shares, tokenization infrastructure and their potential distribution outside South Korea.

Under the Dinari partnership, the companies will run a proof of concept using Dinari’s dShares model, which is designed to preserve applicable shareholder rights, including dividends and voting.& Dinari offers 724 tokenized US stocks and ETFs through dShares, with the Kakaopay partnership exploring an extension of the model to Korean-listed equities.

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Bitwise’s NEAR ETF begins trading on NYSE Arca as the token rallies more than 160% over the past month and activity on NEAR Intents grows.

Crypto asset manager Bitwise has launched the first US spot exchange-traded product tracking NEAR, giving investors exposure to the token through a fund trading on NYSE Arca.

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Bitcoin failed to make another run at $85,000 as sellers held the line above current levels, while surging US bond yields weighed on stocks and precious metals.

Bitcoin (BTC) reversed its latest gains after Tuesday’s Wall Street open as US bond yields continued to set multidecade highs.

Key points:

Data from TradingView showed a local rally to $84,540 stalling as the US trading session began, with BTC/USD retreating below its daily opening level near $83,600.

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Gracy Chen said she saw the 2025 Bybit hack as a “good reference point” for Bitget’s security breach, noting that only a small percentage of funds had been frozen or recovered.

The CEO of crypto exchange Bitget isn’t sure that the company can fully freeze or recover all the assets compromised in a security breach last week that resulted in the loss of $388 million in crypto.

Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction released Tuesday, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said she was looking at the February 2025 hack of crypto exchange Bybit as a “good reference point” for Thursday’s breach. Hackers stole about $1.5 billion worth of Ether (ETH) from Bybit, and the company reported only freezing and recovering a combined $80 million.

“I’m actually not very optimistic because after a year or so of Bybit’s hack, they’ve only [been able to freeze] about 3.5% of the total stolen funds,” said Chen. “That’s only the freezing. It’s not about recovery yet.”

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An October pullback could offer a buying opportunity before Bitcoin’s next cycle peak, which Brandt expects between $300,000 and $600,000. He’s not sold on “fool coin” XRP.

Veteran trader Peter Brandt called October 4 as the day Bitcoin’s bear market would end, but now he thinks the market beat him to it.

“There’s a good possibility we have seen the low and now are entering a new bull market cycle in Bitcoin,” Brandt tells Cointelegraph on the latest episode of Trade Secrets.

In July, Brandt warned that prices could fall into the high-$40,000 range. Bitcoin was trading near $64,000 when that interview was published and climbed to almost $85,000 by his latest appearance.&

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CoinShares says IBIT offers clues to institutional buying, but basis trades mean inflows are not necessarily bets on rising Bitcoin prices.

Billions are flowing back into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but the figures alone do not reveal how much of the demand comes from institutions, according to CoinShares.

US crypto investment products had attracted about $4.1 billion in September, with BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) accounting for more than 53% of those inflows, CoinShares head of research James Butterfill told Cointelegraph.

Crypto investment products attracted about $3.5 billion across the industry over the preceding five trading days, CoinShares said in a Sept. 25 market update.

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The ECB is seeking firms to explore AI agents and machine-to-machine interactions as it prepares a separate digital euro pilot for 2027.

The European Central Bank is seeking fintechs, payment firms and other organizations to explore the use of AI agents in digital euro payments.

The ECB opened applications on Monday for a new round of its digital euro innovation platform, dividing the program between hands-on testing of payment features and workshops on future digital euro uses.

The experimentation track will run from January through June 2027, with selected participants developing prototypes for e-receipts, multiparty transactions, conditional payments and new front-end features.

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Glamsterdam will bring proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and new gas pricing, while its mainnet date remains unset.

Ethereum developers have scheduled the network’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6.

Sepolia node operators must update both their execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before the activation, the Ethereum Foundation said Monday.

One of Glamsterdam’s changes is enshrined proposer-builder separation. It will move the handoff between specialized block builders and validators into Ethereum’s protocol, reducing reliance on outside middleware.

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US spot crypto ETF inflows fell about 80% from Friday as Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP funds attracted $64.8 million combined on Monday.

US spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) attracted about $64.8 million on inflows continued to cool on Monday, down roughly 80% from Friday after a strong week of buying.

SoSoValue data showed US spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs led Monday’s inflows with $31.07 million, followed by $17.1 million for Ether (ETH) ETFs. Solana (SOL) funds recorded $12.7 million, while XRP (XRP) ETFs drew $3.96 million.

The four categories attracted roughly $330.8 million on Friday. Bitcoin funds drew $134.47, while Ether took in $86.95 million, Solana $86.7 million and XRP $22.65 million.

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Bitcoin price action consolidated after early-week losses while protecting a “trend-defining” support zone.

Bitcoin (BTC) preserved crucial support into Tuesday as analysis warned of a new profit-taking surge.

Key points:

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Greece joined the EU MiCA register with four providers as HCMC expanded its denial of remarks attributed to officials in a report on Binance.

Greece has entered the European Union’s crypto regulatory register for the first time, with four providers added.

Four Greek providers — BCash, Xenios Blockchain Group, Capital Wallet Greece and Piraeus Bank — appeared on the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) register updated Thursday.

Six other crypto-asset service providers from Germany, France and Slovenia were added, bringing the register to 359 unique providers.

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BitMine could reach 5% of Ether’s supply by early November, while Tom Lee has left open whether it would continue buying beyond that level.

Ethereum treasury company BitMine Immersion Technologies could reach its goal of holding 5% of Ether’s supply by early November if its recent buying pace continues.

A Cointelegraph review of BitMine’s 12 weekly updates issued from July 13 through Sept. 28 shows the company reported acquiring about 259,000 Ether (ETH), averaging roughly 21,600 ETH per week. BitMine reported 6,001,302 ETH as of Sunday, equal to 4.9% of the 122.1 million ETH supply it cited.& &

At this supply level, 5% would equate to about 6.105 million ETH, leaving BitMine roughly 103,700 ETH short. Maintaining its 12-week average purchase rate would close the gap in about 4.8 weeks, though the estimate could shift if the company changes its buying pace.

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The disclosure came as Senate Democratic investigators alleged USDT had become a key part of Iran’s shadow banking network.

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it helped authorities freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026, as a Senate Democrat called for an investigation into the stablecoin issuer on Monday.

In a statement on Monday, the company said it has been working closely with international law enforcement for years. This year alone, it froze more than $130 million in USDT across four wallets, and in April, it froze more than $344 million linked to the Central Bank of Iran.&

“Tether has consistently demonstrated that USDT is not a haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations or criminal networks,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.& &

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Coinbase joins Kraken in bringing US derivatives infrastructure in-house, after Kraken’s parent acquired Bitnomial and its CFTC-regulated exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage in May.

Coinbase has received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch Coinbase Clearing LLC, its own US-based derivatives clearing organization.&

The registration became effective Monday, permitting the clearinghouse to clear fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps, though the registration does not permit the clearinghouse to clear its leveraged products.&

“Today’s CFTC approval completes Coinbase’s end-to-end derivatives infrastructure, enabling us to bring more regulated derivatives products to market with native USDC collateral and 24/7 settlement,” said Molly Abraham, Coinbase’s general counsel.

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The launch comes after several AI agents breached their testing environments this year, adding to calls for companies to slow the development of autonomous AI systems.

Chipmaker Nvidia has announced a new software platform that aims to address recent concerns about artificial intelligence agents “going rogue” and breaching their testing environments.

On Monday, Nvidia introduced its Open Agent Safety Platform with over 100 industry partners. The platform combines OpenShell, an open-source runtime that runs agents in sandboxed environments and controls their access to files, tools and networks, with Sentry, a separate hardware security layer that monitors agents and can quarantine them if they attempt to cross those boundaries.

“AI’s extraordinary potential for society will only be realized if we solve AI safety,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.

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The cross-chain protocol said it actively prevents stolen funds from being laundered, drawing a contrast with THORChain’s position that it does not selectively censor transactions.

NEAR Intents said it blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the Bitget hack.&

Attackers stole $387.5 million from Bitget on Thursday. A significant portion of these funds moved across chains to Ethereum, according to Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, a protocol that lets users swap crypto assets across blockchains.&

Shevchenko said its SHIELD system detected and blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers, which subsequently went to other providers. It managed to freeze $503,000 in funds during execution, while around $166,000 in suspected stolen funds passed through.

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