Anthropic's initiative could significantly enhance cybersecurity resilience, leveraging AI to protect critical infrastructure and open-source software.

The post Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to defend power grids and open-source code appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Nvidia's strategic investments could redefine US AI competitiveness, potentially leveling the playing field against China's cost-efficient models.

The post Nvidia’s funding seen as key for US AI firms to compete with China appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Increased scrutiny on Tether's operations could lead to stricter regulations for stablecoins, impacting their liquidity and institutional adoption.

The post Senator Blumenthal probes ties between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin's rebound highlights market sensitivity to geopolitical tensions, underscoring the fragile balance between crypto and global events.

The post Bitcoin rebounds above $81,000 after Trump rules out Iran strikes appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

AI's internal divisions and lack of a unified strategy weaken its political influence, contrasting with crypto's focused legislative approach.

The post AI super PAC’s strategy fails to replicate crypto’s election success appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

AI Coding Agents Drive Surge in Bitcoin Integration Requests: Breez

Bitcoin software company Breez said demand for its developer tools has surged since AI coding agents went mainstream, with partnership inquiries rising roughly 14-fold as developers, and increasingly the agents they deploy, look to add bitcoin payments to their apps.

In a company blog post, it tied the jump directly to Anthropic’s Claude Code, which launched as a research preview in February 2025 and became generally available three months later.

Before 2025, Breez said, most prospective partners fell into three camps: committed bitcoin enthusiasts, crypto developers, and fintech firms that treat bitcoin as an asset class.

Since Claude Code arrived, the company said, it has heard from many developers with little or no bitcoin experience. Requests have come from fitness apps, messaging apps that want users to send each other money, an eSIM service for travelers, and the team behind a mushroom-identification app.

Breez said many of these developers pick bitcoin for speed. Setting up traditional payment acceptance, including a bank account and cross-border transfers, can take weeks or months, while the company says its SDK can be running within minutes.

Breez said a growing share of inquiries now come from software, not people. The company said it regularly fields requests from coding agents writing on behalf of the companies that deploy them.

The company argues agents favor bitcoin because it is permissionless. An agent can build an app and set up payments for users worldwide without opening a bank account, passing onboarding checks or signing forms.

“Bitcoin is agnostic about whether the code of its current owner and user is composed of DNA base pairs or weights in a neural net,” Breez wrote.

That same absence of gatekeeping has long drawn scrutiny from financial regulators, who require traditional payment providers to verify customers.

Breez said its newest SDK implementation, built on the Bitcoin scaling protocol Spark, handled the added volume without problems.

The company framed the shift as an update to investor Marc Andreessen’s 2011 essay arguing that software is eating the world, saying AI is now eating software. It compared Bitcoin’s role to background infrastructure like electrical sockets and subsea cables.

This post AI Coding Agents Drive Surge in Bitcoin Integration Requests: Breez first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

WhiteBIT Integrates Lightning Network for Fast and Cheap Bitcoin Transactions

The Lightning Network continues to find use cases. 

Crypto exchange WhiteBIT announced on Thursday that the platform has integrated the network to help users quickly and efficiently move funds. 

Powered by BTC infrastructure provider Voltage, the Swiss exchange said that bitcoin withdrawals and deposits can be made over the network. A number of major exchanges — including Coinbase and Kraken — have integrated the second-layer solution in recent years. 

“WhiteBIT’s mission is to make blockchain technology accessible and widely adopted by delivering practical, user-friendly solutions for digital assets,” WhiteBIT Founder and CEO Volodymyr Nosov said in a statement.  

“Adding Lightning support brings us closer to this goal as we are making Bitcoin faster and more useful for customers who want to top up accounts, send and receive funds, and use Bitcoin across more real-world flows.”

Zug-based WhiteBIT, the 17th biggest exchange by transaction volume, according to CoinGecko data, added that the launch supports a faster Bitcoin rail with use cases for “remittances, exchange funding, merchant-style QR payments, and interoperability with Lightning-enabled wallets and applications.”

Transaction volume on Lightning has surged this year. The reason, broadly, is that exchanges are using the network to move funds because it’s so cheap and fast. 

Launched in 2018, Lightning was previously pushed for smaller transactions like tipping or buying a cup of coffee.

The network also offers more privacy than Bitcoin’s main chain: because Lightning payments are settled off-chain rather than recorded on the public blockchain, individual payments are harder to trace.

This post WhiteBIT Integrates Lightning Network for Fast and Cheap Bitcoin Transactions first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Greece Plans Crypto Capital Gains Tax: Report

Greece is planning a law to tax crypto investors’ capital gains at a rate of 15%, according to reports.

According to Reuters and local media, the country’s Finance Ministry has drafted a bill with the proposal. Greece currently has no legal framework for taxing crypto.

Under the draft, the first €500 (about $580) of crypto gains each year would be exempt.

The bill would tax only the net gain when crypto is sold, after deducting trading fees. Swapping one cryptocurrency for another, such as bitcoin, would not trigger the tax. It would apply only when holdings are converted into euros or another fiat currency, or used to pay for goods and services. 

Investors could carry losses forward against future crypto gains for up to five tax years, and tokens earned through staking or lending would be taxed only when sold.

The rules would apply retroactively from January 1, 2025, meaning gains from last year onward would be declared on tax returns filed in 2027.

The bill is due to be submitted to parliament in November.

Greece follows the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission authorizes and supervises crypto service providers, and the Bank of Greece handles prudential oversight of stablecoin issuers. 

Licensing has been slow: no Greek providers appeared on the EU’s register until September, about two months after MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1.

Since January 2026, the EU’s DAC8 directive has required crypto exchanges to collect detailed data on their users and transactions and report it to national tax authorities, much like banks already do for ordinary accounts. Greece wrote those rules into national law in May. 

Crypto tax treatment varies widely across the bloc. Rates range from 8% in Cyprus to 30% in France. Some countries are more lenient: Germany exempts crypto held for more than a year, and Portugal does the same after 365 days. 

This post Greece Plans Crypto Capital Gains Tax: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Falls Below $81,000 as Oil Spikes, Fed Talks Tough

Bitcoin’s price has dropped further, sliding with other assets as the oil price continued to climb and the Federal Reserve made a hawkish statement. 

The price of the leading asset recently stood at $81,203 after dropping as low as nearly $80,922 at one point on Thursday morning in New York. 

Over the past day, bitcoin’s price has shed nearly 3% of its value; over a seven-day period, it’s down by 4%. 

Just last week, the coin seemed to be closing in on the $90,000 mark after a phenomenal September rally and one of its best quarters in years. 

But so-called Uptober — the month of October typically gives bitcoin investors good returns — is starting slow on a surging oil price. 

This week, the price of Brent crude has jumped following renewed attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Trump also hinted that talks with Iran weren’t going the way he wanted. 

A surging oil price this year has — at least in the short-term — hurt the price of bitcoin and other “risk-on” assets because it increases the chances of the U.S. central bank raising interest rates. Bitcoin has in the past done well with low interest rates because of increased liquidity. 

In a speech Thursday, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller also said further interest-rate hikes will likely be needed to slow inflation. He did add that there was “flexibility” about ‌the pace of increases. 

Oil prices have jumped since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, which resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation by Iran. Higher oil prices have meant sticky and climbing prices around the world — including in the States. 

But bitcoin’s price in September appeared to shrug off comments by the new Federal Reserve Chair, Kevin Warsh, and jumped despite the central bank raising interest rates. 

Despite the bitcoin price dip, the coin, according to some analysts, has entered a bull market again. The biggest cryptocurrency spent most of 2026 in a bear market after reaching record highs in October 2025. It is currently more than 30% below its record of $126,080. 

This post Bitcoin Falls Below $81,000 as Oil Spikes, Fed Talks Tough first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

EDX Markets and VerifiedX Partner to Bring Verified Bitcoin (vBTC) to Institutional Markets

VerifiedX (verifiedx.io), a programmable layer for Bitcoin and other crypto assets, and EDX Markets (“EDX”), a Chicago-based digital asset technology firm that combines an institution-only trading venue with a central clearinghouse, announced a strategic partnership to bring Verified Bitcoin (vBTC), a tokenized form of Bitcoin, to EDX for institutional spot trading.

vBTC, VerifiedX’s flagship product, is designed to be a programmable, one-to-one backed Bitcoin asset, enabled by their layer-two protocol. As part of the partnership, EDX will join the VerifiedX network as a validator, providing EDX with direct participation in network validation and governance. The partnership will extend the relationship beyond asset trading into the underlying infrastructure supporting vBTC, while unlocking the asset for institutional traders and investors, according to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. 

“Bitcoin has become a globally recognized institutional asset, yet much of its financial utility remains fragmented across exchanges, custodians, wrappers, bridges and application-layer protocols,” they wrote. The press release explained how VerifiedX works to address that fragmentation by making the bitcoin backing vBTC verifiable on-chain at a more granular level, avoiding the pooling of funds and using more advanced Bitcoin technologies than other alternatives. In turn, this makes the asset easier to program for trading, payments, treasury management, lending, and other financial applications.

The partnership is expected to support a range of institutional strategies, including:

• Bitcoin trading and price discovery through institutional spot markets;
• Cross-market arbitrage and liquidity strategies between BTC and vBTC markets;
• Treasury and balance-sheet mobility, allowing Bitcoin capital to move between trading and programmable environments;
• Borrowing, lending and yield strategies built around Bitcoin-backed capital;
• On-chain liquidity and financial applications native to VerifiedX;
• EVM composability through vBTC.b, the canonical representation of vBTC for supported EVM environments, allowing Bitcoin capital to participate in broader decentralized financial markets while preserving a direct redemption path to underlying Bitcoin.

Through EDX, market participants will gain a new venue for trading vBTC within an institutional market structure designed around aggregated liquidity, central clearing and capital-efficient settlement.

“Bitcoin does not need another financial abstraction. It needs infrastructure that allows the asset itself to do more,” said Jay Pollak, Head of Strategy at the VerifiedX Foundation. “Bringing vBTC to EDX is important because it connects programmable Bitcoin capital with market infrastructure purpose-built for sophisticated institutions. An allocator should be able to trade Bitcoin, deploy it, move it across financial environments, and ultimately redeem back to Bitcoin without losing the fundamental ownership characteristics that made Bitcoin valuable in the first place.” 

“EDX joining as a validator makes this partnership even more meaningful. This is not simply about adding another trading pair. It connects institutional trading infrastructure directly with the network infrastructure underneath the asset,” Pollak added. As a validator, EDX gets maximum sovereignty over the signing and governance of the vBTC they are responsible for, while also becoming a node in Bitcoin and the VerifiedX layer. 

Aside from their home page at VerifiedX.io, the company has a dedicated block explorer as well as a Discord, X profile, and GitHub repo. They can also be contacted via email at info@verifiedx.io.

Bitcoin Magazine has a financial relationship with VerifiedX. This article was not commissioned or reviewed by VerifiedX and reflects the independent judgment of the author.

This post EDX Markets and VerifiedX Partner to Bring Verified Bitcoin (vBTC) to Institutional Markets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin registered an intraday low near $80,000 as a cryptocurrency selloff triggered over $1 billion in liquidations, overwhelmingly hitting traders betting on higher prices.

The largest cryptocurrency traded around $80,744 as of press time, down 3% over 24 hours and roughly 4% over the past week, extending a retreat from its recent attempt to reclaim $87,000.

The decline triggered $1.16 billion in liquidations across the crypto derivatives market over the preceding 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. Bullish positions accounted for $1 billion of that total, compared with $108 million in short positions.

The figures show how quickly the market's positioning has deteriorated as falling prices force exchanges to close leveraged trades that can no longer meet collateral requirements. Such liquidations can accelerate a decline when exchanges sell assets or close long positions into an already weakening market.

The pressure has intensified in recent hours. CoinGlass recorded nearly $700 million in liquidations over four hours, including $650 million in long positions. Overall, 166,769 traders were liquidated during the 24-hour period.

Ethereum leads the over $1 billion liquidation rout

Although Bitcoin's slide has dominated market attention, Ethereum has suffered the largest liquidation losses among major cryptocurrencies.

CoinGlass data showed approximately $324 million in Ethereum positions liquidated over 24 hours, compared with $240 million in Bitcoin positions.

Ethereum plunged below $2,500, down 4% over the same period, extending its weekly decline to approximately 9.3%.

The largest individual liquidation occurred on Hyperliquid, where traders closed an ETH-USD position worth about $20 million.

Losses spread across other major digital assets as the market unwound leveraged bullish exposure.

Solana fell 7.2% over 24 hours to approximately $108.61, while XRP declined 5.7% to $1.35. BNB fell 4.9%, and Zcash posted one of the steepest declines among the largest cryptocurrencies, down 14%.

Heavier losses across several altcoins suggest the broader market is under more stress than Bitcoin's percentage decline alone indicates.

The development also comes after warnings that leverage across the altcoin market had become increasingly stretched.

In its Oct. 7 weekly market report, Glassnode observed that a growing share of large-cap altcoins carried unusually elevated open interest relative to their market capitalization.

The analytics firm said the proportion had reached its highest level since before the October 2025 crypto market crash.

That positioning leaves traders vulnerable to further forced liquidations if prices keep falling before they reduce leveraged positions.

Bitcoin's newest investors rush coins to exchanges

The pressure is also visible in Bitcoin's on-chain activity, where recently acquired holdings are increasingly moving toward exchanges.

According to CryptoQuant, short-term Bitcoin holders transferred more than 50,000 BTC to exchanges at the 24-hour daily peak.

Of that amount, more than 29,500 BTC was transferred at a loss, representing approximately 59% of the cohort's exchange inflows.

CryptoQuant said the losses associated with those transfers were the largest recorded among short-term holders in nearly four months.

The movement marks a deterioration in sentiment among investors who acquired Bitcoin relatively recently and are generally more sensitive to changes in market prices.

Large exchange deposits can signal an intention to sell, particularly when investors are moving assets at a loss.

However, such transfers do not necessarily result in immediate sales, though the rise in loss-associated deposits adds another potential source of market supply as leveraged positions are already being unwound. It also contrasts with the profit-taking that accompanied Bitcoin's recent advance above $85,000.

Glassnode previously reported that short-term holders accounted for approximately 86% of exchange inflows on Oct. 4 as Bitcoin closed above that level, the highest such share in a year.

The shift from profit-taking to loss-associated transfers suggests that the market's retreat is increasingly affecting participants who bought during the recent rally.

Bitcoin's $81,000 buy wall faces a crucial test

The immediate question is whether Bitcoin can find sufficient demand near $81,000 to absorb the rising selling pressure.

Glassnode identified a substantial concentration of resting buy orders between $81,000 and $81,250 on Binance's spot order book in its Oct. 7 analysis.

Those orders had accumulated since Oct. 3 and represented the largest visible block of bids below Bitcoin's prevailing price.

The firm identified the area as an important support zone after Bitcoin failed to overcome sell orders between $86,500 and $86,750 and subsequently lost the buying support that had developed around $85,000.

However, bid concentration does not guarantee price stability. Orders can be withdrawn, while continued selling could overwhelm available demand.

Glassnode's derivatives analysis identified a large concentration of potential liquidation levels between $81,700 and $83,300, with another significant cluster near $75,000.

The latest decline has already carried Bitcoin through much of the near-term zone, leaving traders focused on whether buying interest around $81,000 can withstand further pressure.

A sustained break below the $81,000 bid zone could send Bitcoin lower again, potentially drawing attention to the deeper liquidation concentrations Glassnode identified.

The post Bitcoin crashes through $81,000 buy wall as $1 billion crypto liquidation bloodbath unfolds appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Circle has added a USDC payment route to SAP Pay through a partnership with payments provider Tereina, letting eligible businesses use stablecoins inside their existing SAP workflows. Access requires an institutional Circle Mint account and depends on regional availability, according to Circle’s SAP Pay page.

The Oct. 7 announcement says Circle’s integration with Tereina, the payments company behind SAP Pay, is available to SAP customers. It says USDC will be the preferred stablecoin for eligible dollar-denominated workflows, with EURC offering an option for euro activity.

For finance teams, the change is an additional settlement method within the software they already use to manage business payments. SAP announced SAP Pay on Oct. 6 as a service embedded in SAP Cloud ERP that executes and reconciles payments when invoices are due.

Circle describes use cases for USDC including cross-border supplier payments, transfers between company entities, and settling accounts payable and receivable. It says the route works alongside existing banks, approvals, controls and reporting. Circle Mint connects to the SAP stack through an API to mint, redeem and manage USDC.

Institutional access and regional limits

SAP customers must also meet Circle’s account requirements. Mint is available only to institutions, excluding individual applicants. Circle’s onboarding requirements include background checks, identity verification, know-your-customer checks and sanctions screening. Circle says processing can take one day to a week or longer.

The public regional descriptions differ. SAP’s Connect guide says SAP Pay is generally available in the United States and United Kingdom. Its separate product-page terms limit transaction processing to customers or affiliates domiciled in the US or European Union unless documentation provides otherwise. How the UK launch fits those domicile terms remains unclear. Circle’s regional account requirements apply separately.

Circle’s general Mint country guidance distinguishes fiat connectivity from wallet-only support. Those classifications cover general Mint services; the integration’s full country coverage remains unclear.

Banking access remains relevant when moving between dollars and USDC. Circle’s general wire guidance requires an account in the institution’s name that can send wires to Circle’s US bank account. It also says redemption is unsupported for accounts requiring an intermediary bank to receive dollar wires.

Circle promotes round-the-clock and near-instant USDC settlement, with potential improvements in working capital and reconciliation. The announcement and SAP Pay page provide no transaction volumes or measured customer savings for the integration.

SAP’s guide reports an unnamed distributor using SAP Pay, but does not identify it as using Circle stablecoins. That example establishes use of the payment service, without measuring uptake of the new USDC route.

Tereina and Circle plan joint customer proof-of-value programs over the coming months and intend to develop adoption insights as implementations progress. The companies also plan to train treasury and payment specialists and work with ecosystem partners.

The post SAP Pay adds USDC payments, with Circle Mint access required appeared first on CryptoSlate.

For XRP buyers, available supply depends on the price they are willing to pay. The token's roughly 63.09 billion circulating supply gives the market's scale; sell orders show the quantities being offered at particular prices.

XRP Insights, a ledger-data tracker, counted 21.97 billion XRP in exchange-attributed wallets at 08:00 UTC on Oct. 8, across 699 wallets and 24 venues. Those balances include pooled customer assets and cold storage.

The purchasing question is the size of sell orders at different prices. In an Oct. 8 CoinGecko snapshot, the column labeled “+2% Depth” showed about $2.4 million for Binance XRP/USDT and $4.0 million for Coinbase XRP/USD. These provider-reported dollar figures cover two individual trading pairs and change as orders change. Order-book depth records orders across a price range, making price tolerance part of any estimate of buyable XRP.

How the supply figures fit together

CryptoSlate's XRP market page displayed approximately 63.09 billion circulating tokens on Oct. 8. XRP Insights' supply breakdown used a broader figure: 68.59 billion XRP outside Ripple escrow after burns, with 31.40 billion still escrowed.

The roughly 63 billion to 69 billion span therefore compares definitions. Calling it a range for buyable XRP would give it a meaning neither endpoint measures.

CoinGecko's circulation methodology excludes escrow and can also exclude unlocked team or foundation holdings. Starting with a provider's circulating figure and subtracting those categories again risks counting the same exclusion twice.

The following measurements include overlapping holdings and cover different parts of XRP's supply.

These rows use different definitions and dates. They cannot be added together or subtracted in sequence to produce a clean float total.

In its Oct. 8 snapshot, XRP Insights includes 477.4 million XRP of wrapped-token reserves and other funds in exchange balances. Within that, 140.4 million backing cbXRP, a token backed by XRP, also appears under decentralized finance, so subtracting both removes that backing twice.

XRP Insights excludes identified US spot ETF custody wallets without public exchange labels from its exchange total.

Same-wallet balances fell by 44.0 million XRP over the seven days to Oct. 8.

Issuer disclosures identify another pocket of custody. Bitwise's XRP fund held about 419.96 million XRP on Oct. 6, while Franklin XRPZ held about 295.83 million on Oct. 5. These differently dated snapshots sum to 715.79 million XRP and cover two funds, rather than the whole ETF market.

Which holdings can move

Fund holdings restrict ordinary investors' direct access while preserving a redemption route. Bitwise's Sept. 28 prospectus permits authorized participants, the firms allowed to exchange baskets directly with the fund, to redeem through delivery of XRP or cash from XRP sales. Retail investors cannot redeem individual shares directly.

Ripple's June 30, 2026, disclosure reported 37.656 billion XRP held overall, including 32.6 billion in escrow. Subtracting those figures gives approximately 5.056 billion outside escrow at that date. Treating that historical balance as today's sale inventory would overstate what the disclosure tells buyers.

Ownership and custody can intersect. Ripple's Q1 2025 report explained that certain XRP transferred to investment vehicles could remain classified as Ripple-held until the company expected it to enter the broader market. Separate labels do not guarantee separate coins.

Dormancy is another uncertain subtraction. XRP Radar lists founders' holdings at an estimated 4.60 billion XRP, dated Jan. 16, 2026, and an unverifiable 531 million lost or inaccessible estimate, dated Jan. 22, 2026, that includes long-dormant accounts. Neither figure demonstrates a current locked balance. Protocol escrow, by comparison, prevents use until its release conditions are met.

Sell orders specify quantities and prices. A defensible buyable-supply range would require a price limit, a time window and coverage of executable exchange and over-the-counter offers. Holdings would also need to be reconciled so the same coins are counted once. Circulating supply provides scale and custody data shows where coins sit; buyers need the offers available for the trade they intend to make.

The post Why XRP’s 63 billion circulating tokens don’t tell buyers what’s for sale appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, is urging the cryptocurrency industry to begin preparing wallet and protocol upgrades for quantum threats, warning that a coordinated migration could take years. Its report published Oct. 7 identifies the cryptographic keys controlling funds as the main point of exposure.

The agency recommends a phased transition to quantum-resistant cryptography, designed to withstand attacks from quantum computers, with blockchain developers, wallet providers and users taking different parts of the work. For users, its recommendation is to migrate funds to quantum-resistant wallets as those wallets become available.

The warning concerns a future capability. Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) says quantum computers powerful and reliable enough to break the relevant cryptography do not yet exist, and their arrival remains uncertain. Early preparation matters because upgrading millions of wallets and nodes depends on both technical changes and agreement across decentralized networks.

The EC3 report separates the cryptography used to control funds from the hash functions supporting important aspects of blockchain integrity.

Wallets use a secret private key to authorize spending and a public key to let the network check that authorization. A sufficiently powerful, fault-tolerant quantum computer could derive a private key from an exposed public key, the agency says. That could allow an attacker to forge signatures and spend funds without the owner’s permission.

Hash functions have a different risk profile. Europol describes them as comparatively resilient to quantum attacks, while acknowledging that they are not entirely immune. That distinction helps explain the report’s emphasis on protecting ownership and control of assets without treating every part of a blockchain as equally vulnerable.

Europol argues that incremental upgrades and post-quantum cryptography give cryptocurrencies a path to adapt. Its proposed response depends on developers, providers and users completing the defensive changes.

Europol assigns responsibilities across the industry. Blockchain projects should prioritize integrating post-quantum cryptographic algorithms into their core protocols and support wallet providers in implementing those changes. Providers should begin testing and deploying compatible wallets and explain the risks and benefits to users.

Europol also recommends improving address and key management during the transition. Those measures can reduce exposure, but they complement adoption of quantum-resistant cryptography. Moving to a fresh address does not itself make the underlying signature technology resistant to quantum attacks.

The agency emphasizes understandable communication about risks, timelines and safeguards. Clear roadmaps and accessible explanations are part of its proposed response, helping users prepare for changes while reducing the risk of panic around an uncertain technological timetable.

Why migration can take years

The report describes deploying new cryptographic standards across millions of wallets and nodes as a resource-intensive, multi-year undertaking. Technical adoption must be matched by community consensus, making the organization of the transition a security concern in its own right.

Practical changes may extend beyond an ordinary software update. Europol says wallets could need hardware upgrades if existing devices become incompatible with the new arrangements. For holdings recorded as unspent transaction outputs, or UTXOs, migration also requires transactions registered on the blockchain.

Those demands add to deployment challenges associated with larger post-quantum signatures and the need for users to adopt new systems. Europol favors a phased approach and prioritizing holdings facing higher risk, allowing the ecosystem to work through compatibility, capacity and governance constraints.

The agency’s accompanying announcement calls for preparation before the threat becomes practical. For the cryptocurrency industry, the immediate task is to test upgrades, coordinate their deployment and explain future migration requirements. The timing of a capable quantum computer remains uncertain; the report’s rationale for starting now is the time needed to make those changes.

The post Europol says crypto’s quantum upgrade could take years and urges work to start now appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin slid below $81,000 on Oct. 8, with an intraday low near $80,800, even as traders expect the Fed to hold in October.

The September FOMC minutes, released Oct. 7, said most participants viewed another rate increase by year-end as probable and left decisions dependent on data.

December remains an expectation inferred from the policy path, and Fed Governor Christopher Waller's Oct. 8 remarks showed how far that path extends.

A pause delays the next hike

Waller cited futures pricing as of Oct. 7 that assigned an 85% chance to at least one hike by December. The same pricing put nearly 80% on at least two hikes by March 2027 and 33% on three or more.

The probabilities are cumulative and market-implied, with Waller adding that further hikes are probable if data evolve as expected and that they can skip meetings. An October hold moves the next increase later on the calendar while the path into 2027 stays steep.

The 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.305%, and the 2-year was at 4.821% on Oct. 8, with Brent crude at $104.87. Oil keeps inflation risk alive, and higher yields keep the cost of capital elevated for risk assets even if the Fed skips a meeting.

Glassnode's Oct. 7 report found combined spot-exchange and US Bitcoin spot ETF volume near $6.8 billion a day, below roughly 90% of observations since January 2024. Estimated new money from ETFs, stablecoins, and corporate treasury buying totaled $4.9 billion, while realized cap rose $12.8 billion over 30 days, less than 40% of the total.

The prior move higher leaned on existing capital repricing coins, and the buying depth to absorb selling was shallow.

As of press time, CoinGlass registered over $1 billion in liquidations for the past 24 hours, with $930 million tied to longs.

Bitcoin's $81,000 zone gave way

A day earlier, Glassnode flagged a modeled cluster of long liquidations between $81,700 and $83,300, along with large Binance bids around $81,000 to $81,250.

The modeled zones show where positioning sat, and the low shows that price crossed them. Liquidations amplified the move, and macro forces as the initiating cause is a supported interpretation. Proving that sequence would take intraday spot-flow and liquidation data.

If buyers rebuild above the $85,500 reclaim threshold with higher spot volume, Bitcoin meets a sell-order concentration at $86,500 to $86,750.

Beyond it sits Glassnode's largest one-year cluster of liquidations above price, from $87,100 to $95,900 and heaviest near $92,000, where a reclaim could force short covering and turn the pause into a catalyst.

If buyers fail to rebuild, Glassnode's next modeled liquidation cluster sits near $75,000, a reference level for the downside. The next macro tests are September CPI on Oct. 14, the Oct. 27-28 FOMC meeting, and the Dec. 8-9 meeting.

An October pause delays the next hike, and Bitcoin has to hold its structure through CPI and two Fed meetings on a thin base of buyers.

The post Bitcoin’s slide below $81,000 exposes why a Fed pause may not save the crypto market appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Most price targets for Shiba Inu rest on a single promise: Shibarium is to gain confidential smart contracts, and with them a reason to be used. The target window for that upgrade was the second quarter of 2026. It ended on June 30, and to this day there is no confirmed mainnet date.

SHIB traded at $0.00000528 on Thursday evening, the equivalent of €0.00000471. That is 2.6 percent below the level 24 hours earlier and the lowest reading of the past seven days. More telling than that figure, though, is what the chain itself currently delivers, because every forecast reaching beyond the day rests on exactly that.

Zama's target window for Shibarium: Q2 2026 ended on June 30

In December 2025, a roadmap from the encryption company Zama came to light, holding out full on-chain privacy and confidential smart contracts for Shibarium by the second quarter of 2026. Attribution is decisive here, and it belongs in any assessment: the target window came from the technology partner, not as a binding commitment from the Shiba Inu team, and it named a quarter rather than a date.

That quarter is now more than three months past. No public confirmation that the technology has reached Shibarium's mainnet can be found, and no new date either. For a forecast this is not a footnote but the core of the matter: a catalyst without a date cannot be priced in, because nobody can say which month it is supposed to act on.

Fully homomorphic encryption in one sentence

Fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE, is a method that lets a computer calculate with encrypted data without decrypting it first. On a public blockchain that would be the difference between a bank statement anyone can read along with and a transfer whose amount stays hidden while the network still validates it. For Shibarium it would be the first feature setting the chain apart from dozens of other layer-2 networks.

Shibarium by the numbers: 1,323 transactions a day and $159,561 in the protocol

The chain's block explorer reports 1,323 transactions for October 7. The seven days before that swing widely: 1,011 on October 1, 2,288 on the 2nd, 1,806 on the 3rd, then 4,084, 4,859 and 5,711 through October 6. That averages 3,012 transactions a day. Average block time runs at around five seconds, and the explorer counts 10.97 million blocks in total.

The second number carries more weight. The value deposited in Shibarium applications, the total value locked, comes to $159,561 according to DeFiLlama data. Not millions, but roughly $160,000. For comparison: the SHIB token itself carries a market value of $3.11 billion. The ratio between the token's value and the capital working on its own chain therefore stands at about 19,500 to 1.

You can look up both numbers yourself, at ShibariumScan for the transactions and at DeFiLlama for the deposited capital. The time of retrieval and the source belong with every figure older than a day.

Why the explorer knows only part of the blocks

One qualification has to go with this, or the number would look larger than it is. Shibarium's explorer had indexed only around 55 percent of its blocks in early October, as we showed in the Shibarium figures on October 6. The daily readings above are therefore a lower bound, not a complete count. It changes nothing about the order of magnitude: even double would still be a few thousand transactions a day.

The price since the target window: $0.00000528 and the 90-day range

Over the past 90 days, SHIB moved between $0.00000411 and $0.00000610. The 90-day average sits at $0.00000503, placing the current price around five percent above it. Measured over 30 days the picture flips: there the mean is $0.00000556, and the price trades just under five percent below.

The week itself ran in two halves. SHIB climbed to $0.00000592 by October 5, and has since eased to $0.00000528. Daily volume picked up along the way, from $68.6 million on October 7 to $90.3 million on October 8. Falling prices on rising turnover amount to a sell signal in the sense that the move is being carried, rather than arising from a lack of buyers. The token sits 93.7 percent below its all-time high.

Three checks to test a roadmap promise

Today's numbers go stale within days. What lasts is the routine for fetching them yourself at any time. Three queries are enough, and none of them needs a subscription.

First, activity. Open the chain's block explorer and look at transactions per day over several weeks, not at the daily reading. A single day says nothing; a series does. If the series fails to rise after an announced upgrade, then either the upgrade is not there or it is not being used. For the price, both come to the same thing.

Second, capital. A chain's deposited capital is harder to dress up than a transaction count, because it is real money that somebody moved. Where it sits in six figures, the chain carries no applications a price could live on.

Third, the date. Look for a specific mainnet date, not a quarter and not an announcement about an announcement. Find no date and treat the catalyst as absent. Drawing that line between what is documented and what is hoped for costs nothing and spares expensive disappointments.

Run these three queries once a month and you need no analyst's opinion to form your own view.

Two verified tokens carry the SHIB ticker on Solana: the buying route under MiCA

Since early October, SHIB also exists on Solana, as a bridged version by way of a token bridge. That sounds like a side issue and is a stumbling block in practice, because two verified tokens on Solana now carry the same ticker. Which of them is the canonical version, and how to tell them apart, we set out in detail on October 7.

In practical terms: a bridged version is not the same asset as the original token on Ethereum, because such a version depends additionally on the bridge that issues it. Should the bridge fail or come under attack, the claim on the original is affected, even if the price in your portfolio looks unchanged. Buy through a trading platform authorised in the EU and you will as a rule receive the Ethereum version, with the contract address stated in the product information.

Under the European Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCA for short, providers need an authorisation in a member state to trade SHIB. For you that is a simple preliminary check: where the provider appears in the national supervisory register, European law applies, complaints procedure included. Where it does not, you carry the risk alone in a dispute.

Holding period under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act: the bridge transaction belongs in your records

In Germany, gains from selling crypto assets fall under private disposals. After a one-year holding period the gain is tax-free; below that the exemption threshold of 1,000 euros per year applies, and above it the full gain is taxed at your personal rate. What decides the period is the acquisition date of the individual holding.

This is where the bridge to Solana becomes interesting for tax. Whether a change of chain counts as a swap, and therefore triggers a fresh holding period, has not been conclusively settled, and the tax authorities have published no clear line on it. In practice that means two things. Document every bridge transaction with date, amount and transaction ID, so that you can evidence the original purchase date if it comes to that. And expect a tax adviser to count the period conservatively from the bridge transaction while no clarification exists.

Spread your holdings across several wallets and exchanges and the acquisition dates quickly slip out of view without a tool. Which programmes track holding periods per holding and produce a report for the tax office is set out in our overview of crypto tax tools.

Custody: exchange account, software wallet and hardware wallet in practice

SHIB is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, and that determines custody. In an exchange account the token belongs to you economically but to the exchange technically, and a failure of the provider hits your holding. In your own wallet you hold the key yourself and take on responsibility for backing up the recovery words.

With small amounts that trade-off is quickly settled, because transaction costs on Ethereum can make a move expensive. With four-figure amounts the calculation flips, because the price of a hardware wallet is then small against the risk of a provider failure.

Liquidity and fees: $90.3 million daily turnover against a $3.11 billion market value

Daily turnover of $90.3 million corresponds to around 2.9 percent of the market value. For a private investor that is ample: orders in the three- and four-figure range do not move the price. The costs arise elsewhere, namely in the eighth decimal place. At a price of $0.00000528 the smallest representable price step is already worth around 0.19 percent, and the spread between the buying and selling price sits above that at many providers.

With SHIB, then, calculate in percent of total costs rather than in percent of price movement. A trading fee of 0.25 percent per side plus the spread adds up to about one percent for a complete entry and exit. The price has to clear that hurdle before any gain arises at all.

Bull case and bear case: what is attributed to the upgrade

The optimistic case, as put forward in market commentary, runs as follows: should confidential execution actually reach the mainnet, Shibarium would hold a feature hardly any competing layer-2 network offers, and applications would have a reason to move there. Rising usage would increase token burning through network fees. That chain of assumptions is coherent in itself, but hangs entirely on the first link.

The cautious case needs no assumptions, only the measurement. A chain with a few thousand transactions a day and six-figure deposited capital is unattractive to application developers, and a target window that passes without a new date weakens the credibility of future announcements. In that case SHIB remains a token whose price follows general market sentiment, with no occasion of its own.

Between those two readings the decision rests on a date, not on a price target. While the date is missing, the cautious reading is the one that matches the data.

Shiba Inu prediction: $0.00000610 stays the 90-day ceiling

The 90-day high sits at $0.00000610, the low at $0.00000411. Everything that has happened since July played out inside that range, and it is the most honest frame for the coming weeks as long as no date for the upgrade exists. Three steps follow from it:

1. Fix your measuring points before you trade. Note the two values of the 90-day range and Shibarium's current transaction series. Without those starting values there is no saying in four weeks whether anything has improved. Where to read the series at no extra cost is set out in the exchange comparison.
2. Assess custody separately from the price question. A holding meant to sit for a year does not belong in an exchange account out of convenience. The devices that hold Ethereum tokens directly are listed in the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Secure the holding period in your records. Keep the purchase date, the amount and every change of chain while the tax treatment of the bridge remains open. Programmes that track this per holding are shown in the tax tool overview.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

The European Securities and Markets Authority published an opinion on October 8, 2026 that denies authorised crypto service providers in the EU virtually every service involving stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA. The central case is Tether's USDT, the world's largest stablecoin with a market capitalisation of around $184 billion on October 8, 2026 according to CoinGecko, and still without authorisation as an e-money token in the European Union. National supervisors, BaFin in Germany, are to wind down the remaining holdings on the platforms, and to do so no later than three months after publication. That date is January 8, 2027.

For your balance this does not mean a freeze overnight. It means a one-way street: selling, swapping, transferring and withdrawing remain possible, while buying more and continuing to trade on an authorised EU platform fall away. How long your provider keeps that window open is decided not by ESMA but by BaFin and by the provider itself. In comparable cases, some exchanges have switched off considerably earlier than the deadline required.

The ESMA opinion of October 8, 2026 in its own words

The document carries the reference ESMA75-113276571-1742 and the title "Opinion on the provision of crypto asset services in relation to non-MiCA-compliant asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens". An opinion is a formal statement by ESMA addressed to the national supervisory authorities, through which the authority seeks to establish a consistent supervisory practice across the EU; the legal basis is Article 29(1)(a) of the ESMA Regulation, Regulation (EC) No 1095/2010.

The key sentence sits in paragraph 12 and is terse: in ESMA's view, crypto service providers should not provide crypto asset services in relation to ARTs or EMTs that fail to meet the requirements of MiCA. No reprieve, no grandfathering clause, no carve-out for tokens that keep running on a purely technical level. The opinion thereby builds on the earlier line drawn by the European Commission's Q&A 2404 and an older public statement from ESMA, and tightens it noticeably.

One point matters for context. In paragraph 7, ESMA says explicitly that it is not changing its existing position and is not claiming that every individual service around such a token automatically amounts to an offer to the public or an admission to trading within the meaning of Articles 16 and 48 of MiCA. Instead it sets out a broader supervisory expectation: whether an authorised provider may continue to offer such services is measured against its obligations under Title V of MiCA.

ARTs and EMTs: which tokens the opinion captures

MiCA recognises two classes of stablecoin. An asset-referenced token, or ART, keeps its value stable by referencing a basket of several assets, currencies or commodities. An e-money token, or EMT, references exactly one official currency, the euro or the US dollar for instance. The classic dollar stablecoins fall into the second group.

A token is non-MiCA-compliant, according to the footnote in the opinion, where the conditions for a lawful offer to the public or an admission to trading in the EU under Title III or Title IV of MiCA are not met, including any exemptions and transitional provisions. In practice it comes down to a single question: does the issuer hold an EU authorisation and a notified white paper, or not.

The opinion deliberately names no token at all. It is a supervisory benchmark, not a list. Which tokens fall under it follows from the supervisory registers and from the platforms' own notices, not from the document itself.

USDT, PYUSD and the state of MiCA authorisation

CoinDesk, in its coverage of October 8, 2026, frames USDT as the big case in point: by far the largest stablecoin, and unauthorised in the EU. The outlet names PayPal's PYUSD as a second unauthorised token. According to accounts in several trade publications, Tether never applied for authorisation as an e-money token, pointing to MiCA's reserve requirements, which call for a substantial share of the backing to sit in bank deposits inside the EU.

On the other side stands a growing group of authorised tokens. Circle's USDC and the euro stablecoin EURC are issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, an e-money institution authorised in France and supervised by the ACPR; the white papers were notified on July 1, 2024, the day MiCA's stablecoin rules became applicable. Further examples routinely listed as EMTs in the trade press are Société Générale's EURCV, EURI, and the tokens EURQ and USDQ issued by Quantoz Payments. Figures for the overall total diverge, ranging from around 25 authorised issuers to roughly 30 authorised e-money tokens; only the supervisory register gives a reliable answer in any individual case.

According to CoinGecko, USDC stood at a market capitalisation of around $73 billion on October 8, 2026. The gap to USDT is therefore wide, and that is precisely where the practical pressure of the opinion lies: the token with the deepest liquidity is the one meant to disappear from EU order books. The effect on spreads and trading pairs will only become visible once the large platforms name their switchover dates. If you want to compare regulated providers, the overview sits in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.

One qualification tends to get lost in the noise of the headlines: the opinion contains no ban for private individuals. It binds authorised providers. Holding, receiving or sending USDT, or swapping it on a decentralised exchange, remains permitted for you. The service is what is prohibited, not the ownership. Just how awkward control over such a balance can still become is clear from Tether's clause on freezing addresses.

Article 66 of MiCA as the lever: notices and warnings are not enough for ESMA

Legally, the opinion hangs on Article 66(1) of MiCA. The provision obliges crypto service providers to act honestly, fairly and professionally in the best interests of their clients. A CASP, meaning a crypto-asset service provider and therefore an authorised crypto service provider, breaches that duty on ESMA's reading if it knowingly exposes its clients to risks that follow solely from a token's unregulated status. What is meant here are the issuer-level safeguards MiCA requires: reserve backing, redemption rights, governance and ongoing reporting obligations.

The most striking passage is paragraph 19. There, ESMA closes off the escape route the industry had counted on: risk warnings, additional disclosures and client acknowledgements are, in the authority's explicit view, inadequate. A warning does not prevent the token from remaining available and usable. And a provider's own risk assessment presupposes complex legal and operational judgements that would differ from firm to firm. Clients, as a result, could hardly assess the significance of missing safeguards accurately.

Paragraph 21 draws the circle of affected services widely. It covers the operation of a trading platform, exchange services, the execution of orders, the reception and transmission of orders, the placing of crypto assets, advice, transfer services, custody and portfolio management. Under paragraph 22, firms are to put in place technical, contractual and organisational controls that prevent EU clients from building or increasing positions in such tokens. That is an instruction aimed at system architecture, not at the small print.

Paragraph 20 adds a supervisory argument that attracts little attention: as long as non-compliant tokens run through authorised firms, national authorities cannot enforce white paper quality and marketing communications, nor monitor whether the trading harms holders' interests. The opinion thus looks beyond investor protection to the enforceability of the rulebook itself.

The three-month deadline runs out on January 8, 2027

The hard number sits in paragraph 27. Where national authorities come across remaining legacy holdings, they should require a wind-down, as quickly as possible and no later than three months after the date of publication of the opinion. It was published on October 8, 2026, which makes January 8, 2027 the outer deadline. Any continuation of services is to stay strictly limited to sale, exchange, transfer and withdrawal, time-limited, risk-based and closely supervised.

Three months is no generous transition in this context. It is the outer edge. The phrase "as quickly as possible" comes first and is the actual requirement; the deadline is the limit, not the target. A firm that does nothing until early January and then invokes January 8 is precisely not meeting the opinion's expectation.

In practical terms: expect dates that fall before January 8, 2027. In paragraph 24, ESMA requires that such residual services be communicated clearly to clients. The notice from your exchange, by email or in your account, is therefore the date that applies to you, not the one in the headline. If you do not look at your portfolio over the Christmas period, you can miss a switchover window that stayed open for only a few weeks.

Paragraph 28 closes the loop: ESMA intends to monitor, together with the national authorities, whether the opinion is applied promptly. An authority that sets a deadline and then measures compliance itself leaves little room for quietly sitting it out.

Sell-only: sale, exchange, transfer and withdrawal remain permitted

Paragraphs 23 and 24 of the opinion provide for a narrowly drawn exception. National authorities may allow providers that do not yet meet the requirements to offer strictly limited residual services, insofar as these are necessary for an orderly wind-down and avoid harm to clients. Permitted on that basis are liquidation, exchange, withdrawal, transfer and the custody of existing holdings. Sell-only describes exactly that state: a trading pair stays open for sales, while the system no longer accepts buy orders.

Not permitted under the same paragraph are new acquisitions, advertising, trading, active distribution and the continued market availability of the token. For holders, the single most important point in that passage is that custody appears on the list of permitted residual services: your balance does not vanish from your account overnight, and withdrawing it to your own wallet remains an expressly contemplated route.

What separates this from an ordinary delisting is the motive. A provider that drops a trading pair for commercial reasons can reinstate it. Here a supervisory expectation stands behind it, one that applies equally to every authorised provider in the EU. Moving to the next platform inside the EU will therefore, predictably, lead to the same result.

BaFin implements the opinion in Germany

Under paragraph 9, the opinion is addressed first and foremost to the national competent authorities. For Germany that is the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht. Under paragraph 25 it is to assess whether an authorised provider within its remit offers services around non-compliant tokens or maintains their availability to clients in the Union, and under paragraph 26 it is to ensure that firms put the corresponding controls in place.

That produces a sequence worth keeping in view. ESMA sets the benchmark, BaFin applies it to specific business models, and only then does the platform give you a date. Between October 8, 2026 and the notice from your provider lies a stretch whose length nobody can currently pin down. How directly BaFin decides on authorisations was on display this autumn in the case of bitcoin.de and its refused MiCAR licence.

Two questions are worth answering separately for your own provider. First: is it authorised in the EU? Only then does the opinion bite directly. Second: which entity holds your account? Large providers often serve EU clients through a dedicated European entity, and only that entity sits under the supervision acting here. Both details appear in your contract documents and in the supervisory registers, not in the app's marketing copy.

A provider without EU authorisation is not the safe haven it looks like. ESMA already has reverse solicitation in its supervisory programme, the practice through which firms in third countries serve EU clients. An account outside the European framework shifts the problem; it does not solve it.

Holding period and the exemption threshold: swapping USDT is a sale

The tax angle is more uncomfortable than it first appears. Anyone who swaps USDT for USDC or for euros disposes of an asset in Germany. The governing rule is Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act with its one-year holding period: where less than a year lies between acquisition and disposal, a gain is taxable, and the exemption threshold for private disposals sits at 1,000 euros per calendar year. Exceed it and the entire gain is taxable, not only the portion above the threshold.

With a dollar stablecoin the instinct is that no gain can arise. The price reads one dollar, before and after. In Germany, though, the calculation is in euros, and the euro-dollar relationship may have shifted considerably between acquisition and swap. That is exactly where the taxable gain or loss comes from, without anything changing in the token's dollar price.

Documentation is the next piece. A forced swap initiated by the platform is a sale for tax purposes like any other, and it requires the acquisition date, the acquisition price and the disposal price. Download your transaction data only after a trading pair has been switched off and an account migrated, and obtaining it can turn laborious. Pull the reports while they are still available. Which tools gather the history automatically is shown in our comparison of crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers.

One note for context, because it is often missing here: this text does not replace tax advice, and the treatment in an individual case turns on your acquisition history. The direction, though, is unambiguous. A swap is not a neutral administrative step but a transaction with tax consequences.

Three routes for your USDT balance

The first route is a swap into an authorised stablecoin. The balance stays in the crypto market, liquidity on European platforms is preserved, and the move triggers the tax consequence described above. A euro EMT is worth considering where the purpose is euro-denominated, and an authorised dollar token where dollar trading pairs are involved.

The second route is a withdrawal in euros. If you hold the balance as a parking position anyway, you lose nothing but the ability to trade at any moment, and deposit insurance applies to a bank account in a way it never did to a stablecoin. The tax consequence is the same as for a swap.

The third route is a withdrawal into your own custody. It preserves the token but changes nothing about its status: you will not be able to trade it on an authorised EU platform afterwards. Take this route and you carry responsibility for the keys yourself, and a transfer to the wrong address cannot be reversed. An overview of the devices sits in our hardware wallet comparison.

Which route fits depends on your purpose. If you hold USDT as a staging post between two positions, a swap into an authorised token solves the problem most cleanly. If the balance has been sitting idle for months, a withdrawal is the simpler step. Make the decision before your exchange sends its notice, not after: in a sell-only window you are trading in a market where many people want the same thing at the same time.

ESMA stablecoin deadline: the exit stays open until January 8, 2027

The opinion appeared on October 8, 2026, the outer deadline for the wind-down is January 8, 2027, and the date that counts for your account comes from your platform. Three steps are enough to avoid running into the last window:

1. Establish your holdings and your provider's status. Open your account and note which stablecoins sit there and which entity your contract runs through. Where the provider is authorised in the EU, the opinion bites directly; the overview sits in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Secure your transaction history. Download the full reports while the trading pair is still active, because the acquisition date and acquisition price determine the tax consequence of the swap. Which tools automate that is set out in our comparison of crypto tax tools.
3. Choose a route and carry it out. Decide between an authorised stablecoin, a euro withdrawal and your own custody, and act before your provider names the date. For the third route, the hardware wallet comparison helps with picking a device.

Sources: opinion ESMA75-113276571-1742 of October 8, 2026 is available via ESMA's MiCA page; the framing, including the references to USDT and PYUSD, comes from CoinDesk's reporting of October 8, 2026. The market figures for USDT and USDC are CoinGecko data as of October 8, 2026.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

The Cardano Foundation activated the token standard CIP-0113 on the mainnet on October 7, 2026. It lets issuers write rules directly into a token: who may hold it, how much can be moved per transfer, and whether an authorised third party may freeze or seize it. The network enforces those rules itself on every transfer, every issuance and every burn.

The price of Cardano stands at $0.2294 at the same time, 10.32 percent below its level 24 hours earlier. The two have less to do with each other than the timing suggests. ADA itself does not fall under the new standard, and the daily loss fits into a market slide that has caught Bitcoin and Ether as well.

CIP-0113 on the mainnet: what the Cardano Foundation activated on October 7

What went live is a platform for so-called programmable tokens, together with the open standard CIP-0113. The specification defines programmable tokens as assets that "require the successful execution of a script in order to change owner". Behind that terse wording sits a shift: until now, enforcing rules was the job of whoever issued the token, or of the trading platform it ran through. In future it sits in the chain.

The step came without a hard fork. The specification explicitly describes the aim of modelling transfer logic with building blocks the protocol already has, rather than changing its rules. Programmable tokens remain native assets on Cardano and continue to run in the extended UTXO model. Wallets, explorers and applications therefore treat them technically like existing tokens.

The project is not new. The Cardano Foundation had already presented the platform and the standard on March 9, 2026, then connected to a preview environment on the preview testnet, without real funds. Between the March presentation and the October activation lie several independent security audits; the foundation has not named which auditors were involved. The Swiss Capital Markets and Technology Association has recognised the standard. On the tooling side, the wallets Eternl and GeroWallet, the block explorer CardanoScan and the developer library BloxBean are ready at launch.

Frederik Gregaard, chief executive of the Cardano Foundation, sums up the ambition in a quote carried by CoinCodex: "The rules have to travel with the asset and be enforced every time it moves."

Programmable tokens: how the network clears every change of owner

The mechanics are laid out in the specification. Programmable tokens sit at a shared script address, the programmableLogicBase. Every movement from there requires a call to a global logic, which passes the operation on to a responsible sub-function: one for ordinary transfers, one for third-party interventions, one for restructuring your own holdings.

Whether a transfer is permissible is decided by a token's own script, the transferLogicScript. The specification gives allow lists, per-transfer caps and compliance requirements as examples. Who may issue or burn tokens is governed by a second script, the issuanceLogicScript.

Registry proof: unregistered tokens continue to run like ordinary native assets

One point in the specification matters more to holders than any script name: a registration proof shows whether a token policy is registered at all. Only registered tokens have to execute the logic of their sub-standard. Unregistered tokens behave like ordinary native assets on Cardano, exactly as before. The new powers arise per token and only where an issuer has built them in. They do not apply across the board, nor retroactively.

Freeze and seize: the sub-standard that permits freezing, unfreezing and seizure

The core standard itself defines no freezing. Those functions sit in a sub-standard that the specification calls "Freeze and Seize" and that offers three operations: freeze, unfreeze and seize. The specification describes it as a simplified stablecoin contract with compliance functions. Such a sub-standard requires signatures from a defined circle of keys, called the "Substandard Admin" in the specification. Who sits in that circle is decided not by the standard but by the issuer.

For stablecoins and tokenized securities, that is the real purpose of the exercise. The specification's rationale names both groups explicitly and lists as a shortcoming that issuers using simple native tokens can neither enforce compliance requirements nor block balances.

thirdPartyLogicScript: when a third party moves tokens without the holder's consent

The most far-reaching power carries the name thirdPartyLogicScript in the specification. This power is optional and permits actions without the holder's permission. The specification explicitly lists seizure operations and forced transfers under it.

Partial seizure and wipe: partial confiscation, and seizure followed by burning

Several gradations are described. A partial seizure takes only a share of the holding. An operation designated "wipe" seizes and then burns. A "top-up" goes in the other direction and credits. One side condition in the specification is strikingly matter-of-fact: third-party interventions must actually change the balances concerned, so they may not pass through as an empty transaction.

Anyone who sees a resemblance here to familiar mechanisms on other chains is right. On Solana we described on September 13, 2026 how clawback and freeze functions work for tokenized assets there. The difference lies in the construction, not in the outcome: Cardano anchors the power in an open standard with sub-standards, rather than in extensions to a token program.

The BaFin standard in the specification: a compliance building block from FluidTokens

For German readers, the list of sub-standards contains an entry worth noting. The specification lists a "BaFin Standard" and describes it as a compliant token standard developed by FluidTokens. The name points to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority as a benchmark, not to any involvement by the authority: the specification names FluidTokens as the developer, not BaFin.

In practice that means an issuer wanting to meet German requirements can take a ready-made rule set instead of writing its own logic. For the holder it means that a token on Cardano may in future sit behind a set of rules modelled on German supervisory law, complete with the blocking powers that go with it.

MiCA and anti-money-laundering rules: blocking functions are compulsory for issuers in the EU

Technical development is converging on the legal position here. Anyone issuing an asset-referenced token or an e-money token in the EU needs authorisation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and must maintain procedures for implementing supervisory orders. European anti-money-laundering law additionally requires obliged entities to freeze funds connected with sanctions. A chain that cannot represent blocking powers in the first place turns both into a question of the issuer's goodwill.

The corollary is the more interesting one for holders: a token meant to be sound under supervisory law will as a rule be blockable. Blockability is no design flaw there; it is the condition of admissibility. Which stablecoins in Europe sit under which supervision is shown in our overview of stablecoins.

Portfolio position in Germany: which tokens on Cardano actually fall under CIP-0113

As of this article, the answer is manageable: almost none. The standard has been available on the mainnet for one day, and availability is not adoption. That Eternl, GeroWallet, CardanoScan and BloxBean support it says nothing about how many issuers will actually use it.

Three concrete questions follow for your holdings. First: if you hold ADA, there is nothing to do, because ADA is not a programmable token and remains freely transferable. Second: if you hold a stablecoin or a tokenized asset on Cardano, it pays to look into the issuer's terms to see whether it is switching to the new standard and which sub-standard it picks. Third: if a new tokenized fund or bond arrives on Cardano, the question of freezing and seizure powers belongs in your review before buying.

That your own keys only help so far is the uncomfortable part. Self-custody protects against a trading platform disposing of your holdings. It does not protect against a rule that sits inside the token itself, because the check happens in the protocol and not in the wallet. The limit of that protection is part of understanding the standard.

Loan collateral and lending: what the implementation documents recommend to platforms

One pointer from the foundation's documents should be read by anyone who pledges tokens as loan collateral or accepts them. Lending platforms are advised to check a token's rule sets before accepting it as collateral, because certain configurations allow authorised third parties to move tokens without the holder's consent.

The consequence for a lending business is obvious. Collateral that a third party can seize is not reliable collateral. The specification writes the fitting sentence itself: integrators have to check third-party powers per sub-standard, because compliance with CIP-0113 alone does not answer that question. No provider currently raises the question of whether a pledged token can be seized.

Status "Proposed": the standard is not formally final yet

One detail tempers the assessment, and it comes from the specification itself. CIP-0113 carries the status "Proposed" there, in the Tokens category, filed on January 14, 2023 and submitted in answer to the problem statement CPS-0003. In March the foundation had said it was continuing to work on refining CIP-0113 into a production-ready standard.

A gap therefore exists between a standard with the status "proposed" and a platform running on the mainnet. That is not a contradiction, because a CIP changes its status late in the Cardano process, but it is a reason to wait for issuer announcements rather than infer a wave of regulated tokens from the activation. It also remains open who may change the protocol parameters: the specification does not fix the amendment power and requires every deployment to document it itself.

ADA at $0.2294: a 10.3 percent daily loss in a broad market slide

The price section belongs apart. ADA trades at $0.2294, 10.32 percent below its level 24 hours earlier, 5.54 percent below the previous week and 4.55 percent above its level 30 days ago. Market capitalisation stands at $8.61 billion, trading turnover over the past 24 hours at $597.6 million, and the rank at 17. The daily high was $0.2579. All figures are as of Thursday afternoon and move continuously.

The daily loss is no solo effort. Bitcoin stood at $81,265 on Thursday afternoon, down 2.54 percent, and Ether at $2,428, down 5.36 percent. We described the connection between outflows from Bitcoin index funds, the US Federal Reserve's rate path and the slide separately this morning. That ADA gives up more ground than the two largest crypto assets is the usual pattern in a market with waning risk appetite, where smaller assets swing harder.

Seeing a cause between the activation and the price move would be an assertion without foundation. None of the reports reviewed makes that connection, and one of them explicitly records that the price move provides no evidence of any effect from the switch. An expectation can be argued on the facts, however: if Cardano succeeds in attracting regulated issuers, demand arises for block space and therefore for ADA to pay transaction fees. Whether that happens depends on issuers, not on code.

What comes next: these signals show whether the standard finds users

Three things can be observed without relying on anyone's assessment. The first is the number of registered token policies, because the registration proof is publicly recorded in the chain. The second is announcements from stablecoin issuers and fund providers about a switch. The third is the change of status of CIP-0113 from proposal to adopted standard.

Until then, nothing changes for holders of ADA. For anyone buying tokenized assets on Cardano, one question is added that did not exist before: who besides me may move this token?

CIP-0113: only registered tokens carry the new blocking rules

1. Classify your holdings. Check whether, besides ADA, you hold any tokens on Cardano that an issuer administers, meaning stablecoins or tokenized assets. Pure ADA holdings are unaffected.
2. Read the issuer's terms. Look through the terms for freezing, seizure and transfer clauses, and for which sub-standard is in use. For self-custody and its limits, the hardware wallet comparison helps.
3. Double-check collateral. If you pledge crypto assets or lend them out, establish in advance whether the token can be seized. The providers' terms are in the lending comparison.

The sources for this article are the specification CIP-0113 in the Cardano CIP registry and the Cardano Foundation's account of programmable tokens.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Programmable tokens move the enforcement of rules from the trading platform into the chain. For holders of ADA that changes nothing; for buyers of tokenized assets on Cardano one question is added that played no part before October 7, 2026: who besides me may move this token? The answer will from now on sit in the issuer's terms and in the sub-standard it picks.

Since October 8, 2026 the US provider Securitize has been trading twelve tokenized US stocks on the Solana blockchain. Behind each token sits a real share, dividends keep running, and settlement is in the stablecoin USDC. Whether you may use this offering from Germany is, however, not settled. Securitize speaks of "eligible investors" in the United States, the European Union and further approved markets, but does not define which investors it means. Your own due diligence begins at exactly that point, and only after that does it pay to look at tax, custody and trading hours.

Securitize Stocks: twelve tokenized US stocks on Solana since October 8

The product is called Securitize Stocks and launched on Wednesday, October 8, 2026. At the outset it covers twelve companies. Eleven of them are named consistently in the reports by Decrypt and CoinDesk: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Tesla, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, Circle, Strategy and Palantir. The twelfth name is given in neither report, and anyone who needs the complete list will for now find it only at the provider itself.

Trading runs through the Securitize platform, which operates as a registered broker-dealer in the United States. Liquidity is supplied by an automated market on Solana, with CoinDesk naming the trading firm Jump Trading as market maker. Settlement, custody and clearing are handled by the service provider RQD, according to CoinDesk. For the onward use of the tokens in blockchain lending, Decrypt reports that Ripple Prime and Aave are envisaged, though the language there is one of review and intent rather than live operation.

Securitize is no newcomer to this field. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ, has issued tokenized assets worth more than $4.5 billion to date according to CoinDesk, and brought BlackRock's first money market fund onto a blockchain. Around $300 million of its own listed shares already sit tokenized on Solana and Avalanche. For context: according to The Block, the value of tokenized stocks on blockchains recently passed $3 billion.

One-to-one backing: a real share sits in custody for every token

The technical core is quickly told. Each token is backed one-to-one by an actually existing share. Decrypt additionally reports that the deposited shares are not lent out. That commitment is no side note, because in securities lending the share moves temporarily to a third party, and if that third party becomes insolvent, clear backing turns into a claim.

Carlos Domingo, chief executive of Securitize, drew precisely that distinction on launch day. He told Decrypt: "Tokenized stocks should give investors more than a price on a wrapper that tracks a stock and is only offered offshore." Nick Ducoff of the Solana Foundation spoke in similar terms the same day, putting worldwide access at the centre.

Wrapper, certificate, backing: three terms that often get confused

A wrapper is a shell that merely replicates the price of an underlying asset, without the provider having to hold the share itself. Such a token can track the price and still convey no claim to the share. That differs from a structure with actual backing, where a share is held in custody for every token issued. Which variant you are dealing with is not something you can tell from the price chart, only from the provider's legal documents.

Security entitlement: why your name does not appear in the shareholder register

By its own account, Securitize issues the tokens as security entitlements. The term comes from the US Uniform Commercial Code and denotes a claim against an intermediary, not direct entry in the company's shareholder register. CoinDesk puts it in terms of the tokens precisely not establishing direct ownership in the register. Conversion into registered shares is to become possible once the respective issuer supports tokenization.

In practice that means a custody chain stands between you and Apple or Nvidia. As long as it holds, you notice nothing of it. If a link fails, the legal system of the custodian decides what remains of your claim, and in this case that is US law. This structure is entirely standard in the securities world; your German brokerage account also works through intermediaries. What is new is that the chain here runs via a US broker-dealer and a public blockchain rather than via the familiar combination of a house bank and Clearstream.

Settlement in USDC: the detour via a stablecoin and its currency risk

Trading and settlement are in USDC, the dollar stablecoin issued by Circle. Anyone coming from Germany normally holds euros and therefore needs two conversion steps: from euros into USDC, and back again on selling. Each of those steps costs fees, and between purchase and sale sits a currency risk that has nothing to do with the share. If Apple rises by five percent while the dollar gives up four percent against the euro, little of the price move survives.

A second point concerns the stablecoin itself. USDC is authorised in the European Union as an e-money token and is therefore one of the few dollar stablecoins that may be offered here as a matter of course. That does not resolve the currency question, though; it answers only the authorisation question for the means of payment. The dollar exposure remains part of your calculation either way.

Eligible investors: what Securitize leaves open about access from the EU

Both reports name "eligible investors" in the United States, the European Union and further approved markets as entitled to access. What that term means concretely remains open. Neither Decrypt nor CoinDesk says whether retail investors are meant or only professional and qualified investors, and on the requirements for identity verification and anti-money-laundering checks neither report offers any detail. In US securities law an "eligible" or "accredited investor" is typically tied to wealth or income thresholds, and those hurdles sit well above what an average private portfolio meets.

That sets a clear order of priority for you. Before tax, fees or trading hours matter at all, you need the answer to the access question, and you need it in writing from the provider: are retail investors resident in Germany admitted, what evidence does registration demand, and on what legal basis is a German customer accepted. A provider that actively directs investment services at retail clients in the EU needs an authorisation under European law to do so. One that instead relies on the customer's own initiative shifts the risk onto you. If you would rather hold the same share without these open questions, the route runs through a regulated broker; which providers are available in Germany is shown in our crypto broker comparison.

MiFID II rather than MiCA: tokenized stocks are financial instruments, not crypto assets

This is where the most common misconception about this product type lies. The European crypto regulation MiCA governs crypto assets but excludes instruments that already count as financial instruments. A tokenized share remains legally a share, even when it is transferred on a blockchain. What applies, therefore, are the securities rules under MiFID II and national provisions, not the MiCA authorisation that many providers point to.

In practical terms that means two things. A MiCA licence says nothing about whether a provider may sell tokenized stocks to you. And the protections you know from securities, such as the appropriateness assessment or the information duties on distribution, depend on whether the provider is authorised as an investment firm in the EU. On the US side, the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced an exemption described as an innovation exemption in September 2026, opening an orderly route for trading venues dealing in tokenized securities. That exemption applies to the US market and replaces no European authorisation.

Extended trading hours: the NYSE platform and OKXICE are announced, not live

At launch, trading runs in extended hours, so beyond regular exchange hours, but not yet continuously. Securitize names round-the-clock operation as a goal. Also planned is an extension to the New York Stock Exchange's announced round-the-clock platform, in whose construction Securitize is involved, and to the OKXICE trading venue, a joint venture of the exchange operators Intercontinental Exchange and OKX, which filed an application in the same week.

Both are subject to conditions. The venues first have to launch and meet the regulatory requirements. For your decision today, therefore, only the one figure that already applies counts: trading in extended hours on one platform. Thin trading hours have a side effect that occurs in every young market. The gap between the bid and the ask price widens, and an order without a price limit can be executed at a price you did not expect. A limit protects against that; a market order does not.

To place the surroundings on launch day: Solana trades at $108.52 on October 8, 2026, around 7.1 percent below the previous day's level. The broad crypto market also gave ground that day. For the stock tokens themselves that is initially irrelevant, because their value hangs on the deposited share and not on the price of the blockchain they sit on. It becomes relevant for transaction costs, and when you use tokens as collateral in lending.

Flat-rate withholding tax instead of a holding period: the tax break between share and coin

Anyone arriving from cryptocurrencies brings an expectation that does not hold here. With cryptocurrencies, section 23 of the German Income Tax Act on private disposals applies, and after a holding period of one year the gain stays tax-free. Shares do not fall under it. For them, section 20 of the Income Tax Act on income from capital assets applies: 25 percent flat-rate withholding tax, plus the solidarity surcharge of 5.5 percent on that tax, together around 26.4 percent, and church tax on top where applicable. The saver's allowance stands at 1,000 euros for single filers and 2,000 euros for joint assessment. There is no holding period after which it becomes tax-free.

Two further points arise with a foreign provider. Without a German paying agent, no capital gains tax is withheld automatically, and you declare the income yourself via the KAP schedule. And dividends from US companies first attract US withholding tax, which can be reduced to 15 percent under the double taxation treaty and credited against the German tax. For that you have to prove your tax residence to the provider. There is also an offsetting restriction: losses from the sale of shares may be offset only against gains from share sales, not against other investment income.

One caveat belongs here explicitly. Whether the German tax authorities treat a security entitlement under US law in the same way as a share, or classify it as another capital claim, depends on the specific structure and is not settled for this product. We have broken down the tax treatment of tokenized stocks in Germany in detail in a separate article. For an individual case, a tax adviser settles this before the first purchase takes place, not afterwards.

Dividends and voting rights: what the company commits to and where the limitation lies

According to Securitize, holders retain the economic benefits of their position, meaning dividends, and voting rights. Decrypt adds a limitation that is contained in the company's own wording: voting rights apply where applicable. That carries weight, because exercising a voting right presupposes that the chain from the token to the annual general meeting is organised. Whether and how that works in practice will only become clear in the first AGM season after launch.

The dividend is the easier part. As a payment process it can be passed along the custody chain, and USDC provides a settlement instrument for it. A voting right concerns the exercise of a membership right, and that depends on who stands in the register. According to CoinDesk, that is precisely where the tokens do not stand.

Tokenized stocks: without clarity on access, the rest is theory

The news is a genuine step: twelve well-known US names, backed one-to-one, on a public blockchain, through a broker-dealer registered in the United States. For investors in Germany, though, the decisive point remains unanswered, and it cannot be settled by reading, only by information from the provider. Three steps, in this order:

1. Clarify access in writing. Ask Securitize whether retail investors resident in Germany are admitted and what evidence registration requires. If the answer comes back negative or unclear, your review ends here. For recording holdings and income across several platforms, a tracker helps, of the kind we set against each other in our overview of tax tools and portfolio trackers.
2. Calculate the cost of the currency chain. Add up the conversion from euros into USDC, the trading fee and the way back, and hold the result against the cost of the same security in your existing brokerage account. Which trading venues offer USDC as a matter of course is set out in our crypto exchange comparison.
3. Check the legal form of the position. Read in the contractual documents against whom your claim runs and what applies if the custodian becomes insolvent. Why entry in the register makes the difference is something we explained using the example of the transfer agent's role.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

XRP trades at $1.36 on Thursday evening, 5.25 percent lower than the day before. The short answer to whether the level holds: the daily low of $1.34 is the only fresh support line the market has formed in this downturn, and tonight it comes alongside an event that has nothing to do with the price. At 23:25 German time the XRP Ledger activates a protocol change that for the first time allows an account to grant another account tightly limited rights over it. The repair component that the developer documentation explicitly mentions in this context is not yet active at that point.

Neither figure comes from an announcement; both come from the ledger itself. Every amendment in the XRP Ledger carries a timestamp there, marking the moment it has the required validator majority behind it, and it goes live exactly two weeks later. For PermissionDelegationV1_1 that stamp fell on September 24, and the two weeks run out this evening.

XRP at $1.36: the daily low of $1.34 is the first support line

The day's range runs between $1.34 and $1.43, or 1.21 in euros. Over a week the loss stands at 8.8 percent, over 30 days at 5.38 percent. The all-time high of $3.65 from July 17, 2025 is 62.8 percent above the current price. Market capitalisation stands at $85.6 billion, keeping XRP in fifth place, on trading volume of $2.95 billion in 24 hours.

The decline is not an XRP story. Bitcoin stands at $81,316 the same evening, down 2.46 percent, Ethereum at $2,433, down 5.11 percent, Solana loses 6.76 percent and Dogecoin 6.15 percent. XRP therefore sits roughly in line with the large altcoins and weaker than Bitcoin. If you are looking for a level where something is decided, you will find it in the broader market rather than in XRP's own chart.

What the $1.34 is worth technically

A daily low is not a support level in the classic sense. It only becomes one once the price approaches it repeatedly without breaking below. Until then it merely describes where, on this particular day, there was last enough demand to absorb the selling pressure. On the upside the next visible hurdle sits at the daily high of $1.43, and after that at the zone around $1.50, which capped the price several times in early October.

Of 99.99 billion XRP, 63.09 billion are in circulation. The remainder sits largely in Ripple's monthly released escrow accounts, whose releases have followed a fixed rhythm for years and should therefore be factored into any supply calculation.

PermissionDelegationV1_1 in the XRP Ledger: what is unlocked at 23:25

Permission delegation, listed in the specification as XLS-75, lets one account grant a second account the right to send specific transactions on its behalf. The technical term is role-based permissioning: rather than the whole key being handed on, what moves is a list of narrowly defined powers.

The figures from the ledger on Thursday evening: 28 of the 33 validators currently casting votes support the amendment. Twenty-six are required. That majority has stood since September 24, and exactly two weeks later, at 23:25 German time tonight, the function goes live. Should support fall below the threshold before then, the clock starts again.

In practical terms the function targets two cases. A company wants routine payments triggered from an account without surrendering the master key. And a private holder wants a service to carry out a single task, such as placing a trading order, without giving it access to the holdings.

DelegateSet: how a delegation in the XRP Ledger is granted and revoked

The delegation is granted with a transaction called DelegateSet. The same transaction later changes the rights again or withdraws them entirely. One account can maintain several delegates with different packages of rights.

The limits are set out in the ledger's documentation and matter more in practice than the function itself:

• Each delegate can hold a maximum of ten rights.
• Rights that would allow keys to be changed or further rights to be granted are excluded from delegation. A delegate therefore cannot give itself more power.
• The rights are hard-wired and cannot be tailored freely.
• Each delegate occupies one item of the owner reserve. In the XRP Ledger that currently amounts to 0.2 XRP per object, on top of a base reserve of 1 XRP per account.
• The delegate needs a funded account of its own and pays the transaction fees itself.
• Pseudo-accounts, such as the ledger's automated market makers, cannot be delegated to.
• Delegated transactions never enter the queue. Send one at the wrong moment and you get an error rather than a delay.

The details are set out in the XRP Ledger developer documentation.

fixCleanup3_4_0 at 24 of the 26 votes needed: the open gap is called PaymentBurn

This is where a protocol note turns into something that concerns holders. The XRP Ledger documentation explicitly advises against granting the individual PaymentBurn right while a further amendment called fixCleanup3_4_0 is not active. Before that fix, a delegate holding this right can under certain circumstances create new fungible tokens.

And that fix is precisely what is not active on Thursday evening. In the ledger it stands at 24 votes, with 26 required. It has not reached a majority and consequently has no timestamp from which a two-week deadline could run. So delegation goes into service tonight while the matching repair sits two votes short of the line.

None of this is cause for panic, and it is not an attack on existing holdings. Nobody can take a delegation over your account by themselves. Such a delegation comes about solely because you sign a DelegateSet transaction yourself. The gap concerns whoever grants a delegation from tonight onwards and includes this one particular right in it.

How to spot a DelegateSet request

The practical danger of the coming weeks is not a protocol bug but habituation. Every new transaction type in the XRP Ledger gets replicated within days by fraudulent sites that collect a signature under a harmless-sounding pretext. If your wallet asks you to sign something called DelegateSet and you were not in the middle of granting a delegation, there is no benign reason for it.

BatchV1_1 and fixBatchV1_2 on October 9: eight transactions in one package

Two further changes follow on Friday afternoon. fixBatchV1_2 goes live at 16:12 German time and carries the full support of 33 votes in the ledger. BatchV1_1, XLS-56 in the specification, follows at 16:46 with 28 votes.

Batch bundles several transactions into one envelope that is either executed in full or not at all. For holders this is a convenience at first; for applications on the ledger it changes more. A swap together with the trust line that goes with it can now be handled in a single step, with no half-executed state left behind. If you use software that trades on the ledger, you are more likely to notice this over the coming weeks in the form of smaller fee bills than in the form of new buttons.

LendingProtocolV1_1 at 14 of 26 votes: the credit module stays on the shelf for now

The most widely discussed module is the one that is specifically not arriving tonight. LendingProtocolV1_1, listed as XLS-66, stands at 14 votes out of 33 cast in the ledger. Twelve are missing to reach the required majority of 26. An older version called LendingProtocol stands at 15 votes and is therefore equally far away.

The position has barely moved since the beginning of October, as our analysis of the lending amendment from October 6 shows. If you are pinning your expectations for the XRP price on a native credit module on the ledger, the timescale is months at the earliest, not days.

Exchange holdings or your own XRPL account: who the change actually affects

This distinction determines whether tonight concerns you at all.

If your XRP sits at an exchange, the ledger account belongs to the exchange, not to you. You can neither grant delegations there nor be granted them. Nothing changes for you, apart from the fact that the exchange has to update its own software. A short maintenance window around the activation is common at larger venues, and it is precisely in such windows that deposits and withdrawals cannot be processed for a while.

If instead you hold your own XRPL account, for instance in a software wallet with your own key or in a hardware device, then from tonight you are the one who can grant a delegation. In that case it is worth checking whether your wallet displays the new transaction type in plain language at all. If it shows you only a string of characters instead of a comprehensible notice, you are signing blind.

The one-year holding period: a delegation is not a disposal

For investors in Germany the function carries a tax question, and it runs: does a delegation reset the one-year holding period under section 23 of the Income Tax Act?

The obvious reading says no. A delegation transfers no beneficial ownership: the coins stay in your account, you can withdraw the rights at any time with a further DelegateSet transaction, and under the protocol rules the delegate can neither change your keys nor grant itself further rights. Without a change of ownership, the event that the law captures as a disposal is simply absent. No administrative guidance addressing the case explicitly exists so far, because the function comes into existence for the first time tonight. If you move larger holdings, you are better off having this confirmed by a tax adviser than relying on the logic.

It looks different as soon as the delegate actually trades. If a service triggers a swap on your behalf, every single swap is a disposal with everything that entails: calculating the gain, a holding period per acquisition, and the 1,000 euro exemption threshold for other private disposals in the calendar year. A delegation that is allowed to trade therefore produces exactly the flood of records that is currently becoming a problem in the ongoing legislative debate: the consultation period on the federal cabinet's crypto tax bill closed on October 6, and the bill is due to be adopted on October 14.

What belongs in your records

If you grant a delegation, note the date, the delegate's account address and the rights granted. It costs two minutes and later answers the question of who triggered which transaction. Every transaction does stand permanently in the ledger, but the purpose behind it does not.

Delegation in the XRP Ledger: what you can do now

If you hold XRP in self-custody, there are three things to settle before the activation, each of which takes a few minutes. First: check whether your wallet software offers an update that recognises the new transaction types. Second: for the time being, do not grant any delegation that includes the PaymentBurn right while fixCleanup3_4_0 is not active. Third: treat every unexpected request for a DelegateSet signature as an attempted fraud.

If your holdings sit at a trading venue, a glance at its status page is enough. Maintenance windows around protocol changes are usually announced there in advance.

XRP at $1.36: without fixCleanup3_4_0, PaymentBurn stays off limits

Thursday evening's position in three steps you can work through in order:

1. Clarify custody. Decide first whether your XRP sits in your own ledger account or at a trading venue, because everything else follows from that. If you want to move or split the holding, the terms offered by the venues are in the crypto exchange comparison.
2. Check key control. With self-custody, what counts from tonight is whether your wallet displays a DelegateSet transaction legibly. Which devices show how much in plain language is set out in the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Secure your records. If you do grant a delegation, record the date and scope, and make sure every transaction it triggers ends up in your gain calculation. Tools for that are in the comparison of crypto tax tools.

The question in the headline can therefore be answered like this: the $1.34 holds or falls with the broader market, not with the amendment. A protocol change that unlocks an administrative function moves no price. What it does move is the number of routes by which a holder can lose their holdings, and the most important of those runs tonight through a signature nobody asked for. You can look up the current voting status of all amendments yourself at any time in the XRP Ledger amendment overview.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Manus built a self-driving AI assistant before the hype, sold itself to Meta, then watched Beijing unwind the deal. Its first fresh money since: more than $500 million.

Google Cloud unveiled a single Gemini agent that takes goals instead of questions, works in the background for days, and can join a company as a staffer with its own inbox and calendar.

Ethereum's Sepolia test network activated Glamsterdam on October 6 with a block gas limit near 200 million, over three times mainnet's 60 million.

The NFL urged the Supreme Court to resolve a circuit split over whether states can regulate sports contracts on prediction markets, arguing they're gambling, not federally regulated swaps.

A batch of 100.02 BTC mined in July 2010 moved Wednesday after 16 years. It's worth about $8.3 million, but nothing in the transaction shows who owns it.

XRP is facing fresh centralization allegations as Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons accuses the network of forcing validators to adopt closed-source code, calling its decentralization claims "straight-up fraud."

Bitcoin dominance has surged to a one-month high of 60.05% as a brutal crypto market selloff sends major altcoins.

David Schwartz confirmed for Ripple's main stage comeback at Swell 2026 to present the next generation of XRP architecture featuring AI and privacy.

Solana has scored another major institutional win as Securitize launches tokenized shares of Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and other U.S. corporate giants.

XRP whale activity across all exchanges weakens as the asset begins to see massive sell-offs, dropping by 27% in eight days.

TLDR:

• • Extended will migrate its settlement network to Circle’s Arc blockchain during the week of October 19.
  • Holders of over $1 in USDT or wBTC must convert to USDC or cirBTC by 12:00 UTC on October 21. 
  • Converting earns a 0.50% premium paid by Extended, with no swap fees and credit within 8 hours. 
  • Deposits and withdrawals pause for about two hours, while trading and sub-account transfers continue. 

The Extended Arc migration will move its settlement network to Circle’s Arc blockchain during the week of October 19. Extended operates a perpetual DEX offering contracts on stocks, commodities, indices, and crypto.

Arc is a Layer 1 network built for financial markets, and it launched on September 16. Trading will continue throughout the process.

Users holding more than $1 in USDT or wBTC must convert those assets by 12:00 UTC on October 21. Neither asset exists on Arc.

Extended Arc Migration Plan and User Deadline

In a post on X, Extended announced, “Extended is migrating its settlement network to Arc.” The platform listed three improvements.

On infrastructure, it said trades “settle on Arc, with sub-second finality and stablecoin-denominated fees that make costs predictable.” Extended also expects broader real-world asset coverage and deeper liquidity across spot and perpetual markets.

Accounts, sub-accounts, positions, orders, history, points, and keys will carry across unchanged. However, users with more than $1 of USDT or wBTC in a sub-account must act before the deadline. They can convert in the app to USDC or cirBTC at a 1:1 rate plus a 0.50% premium.

Extended pays the premium and charges no swap fees. The premium will be credited within 8 hours after the migration.

One approval in the app covers both assets and every sub-account. Deposits of both assets were disabled as of 16:00 UTC on the day of the announcement.

ETH balances will convert automatically to wETH on Arc at a 1:1 ratio. USDC will migrate as native USDC. Vault and XVS balances, along with withdrawal rights, will be preserved. Other users need to take no action.

Process Risks and Arc Features

Deposits and withdrawals will pause for roughly two hours during the Extended Arc migration. Transfers between sub-accounts will keep working.

Extended advised users to “make sure that open positions are comfortably margined.” Precise timing will be shared closer to the date.

Under the Extended Arc migration rules, users who miss the deadline face account restrictions. Standard liquidation rules still apply, and they cannot add margin or close positions.

Affected sub-account positions close at the mark price with no fee, and open orders are cancelled. Extended returns the assets to the login wallet on Starknet or Ethereum and covers network fees.

Arc mainnet went live on September 16 with four features relevant to a trading venue. These are deterministic sub-second finality, gas paid in USDC, and EVM compatibility. The network also has an institutional validator set. Existing wallets and tooling will continue to work as they do today.

Extended is building a unified platform for trading perpetual contracts across asset classes with varied collateral. That plan requires a settlement layer built for markets and trusted by the institutions that distribute them. Arc launched with BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Visa, and Mastercard among its founding validators.

The post Extended to Migrate Perpetual DEX Settlement to Circle’s Arc Blockchain appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Walmart (WMT) stock jumps 2.22% to $110.56 following its California hub opening.
• Walmart opens its fifth advanced fulfillment center in Stockton, California.
• The new 900,000-square-foot California facility will create over 1,000 jobs.
• Advanced automation cuts Walmart’s warehouse fulfillment process to five steps.
• Walmart targets next-day or two-day shipping coverage for 95% of Americans.

Walmart (WMT) stock gained 2.22% to close Thursday at $110.56, adding $2.40 before slipping 0.03% to $110.52 after hours. The retailer opened a new fulfillment center in Stockton, California, expanding its West Coast delivery network. The facility will create more than 1,000 jobs and increase Walmart’s capacity to process online orders.

Walmart Inc., WMT

Walmart Expands California Fulfillment Network

Walmart opened its fifth next-generation fulfillment center, covering more than 900,000 square feet in California’s Central Valley. The new Stockton location strengthens the company’s distribution operations across California and neighboring western states. Its location also brings inventory closer to customers and supports faster shipping across the region.

The facility combines automated systems, machine learning, and warehouse employees to handle orders more efficiently. Its storage technology moves products directly to workers, reducing the traditional fulfillment process from 12 steps to five. Employees can process additional orders while spending less time on repetitive warehouse activities.

Walmart expects its advanced fulfillment network to support next-day or two-day shipping for 95% of Americans. The Stockton center also provides additional space for merchandise from independent businesses using Walmart Fulfillment Services. This expansion supports the retailer’s growing online marketplace and its existing network of stores and distribution facilities.

New Facility Creates Over 1,000 Jobs

The Stockton center will employ more than 1,000 associates as Walmart increases operations at the site. The company continues recruiting employees for warehouse operations, technology, and other positions supporting its automated systems. These roles offer opportunities to develop technical skills and pursue longer-term employment within the company.

Walmart provides eligible full-time employees with medical coverage, dental insurance, retirement benefits, and paid leave. Workers can also access its employee stock purchase program and tuition assistance through Live Better U. Meanwhile, the company continues accepting applications through its online careers platform as hiring progresses.

The opening also brings additional economic activity to Stockton and the surrounding San Joaquin County area. Walmart marked the occasion with $10,000 in grants supporting two local education and food assistance organizations. The contributions went to the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton and Unbound Stockton Community School.

Walmart Strengthens Its California Operations

Walmart already employs more than 102,900 associates throughout California across its retail and distribution operations. The company operates more than 300 stores, clubs, and supply chain facilities across the state. Its latest investment expands an established network serving customers through physical locations and online channels.

During 2025, Walmart spent $36.5 billion with California suppliers, supporting approximately 310,304 supplier jobs statewide.Walmart and its foundation contributed more than $84.2 million to California organizations during fiscal 2026. These contributions included cash donations and goods distributed through local community partnerships.

The Stockton opening forms part of Walmart’s broader effort to modernize fulfillment and improve delivery efficiency. Advanced storage systems allow the company to handle larger order volumes without relying entirely on traditional manual processes. The new center adds capacity as Walmart expands its shipping services across the western United States.

The post Walmart (WMT) Stock: Gains as New California Hub Creates 1,000 Jobs appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Tilray Brands (TLRY) stock drops 3.36% to $3.59 despite strong quarterly revenue.
• Tilray’s Q1 revenue jumps 23% to $257.1M, while net losses reach $40 million.
• Beverage revenue surges 82% to $101.5M, supported by the BrewDog acquisition.
• Cannabis revenue declines to $56.1M, despite improved margins reaching 39%.
• Tilray maintains its fiscal 2027 EBITDA outlook of $68M to $75M despite losses.

Tilray Brands (TLRY) stock fell 3.36% to $3.59 at Thursday’s close, despite reporting strong quarterly revenue growth. Shares later recovered 0.61% to $3.6120 in after-hours trading on October 8. The company reported a $40 million first-quarter net loss, while revenue increased 23% year-over-year.

Tilray Brands, Inc., TLRY

Tilray Brands Reports Revenue Growth Despite $40M Loss

Tilray reported record first-quarter revenue of $257.1 million for the period ending August 31, 2026. Revenue increased from $209.5 million during the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, gross profit climbed 35% to $77.5 million, supported by improvements across several business segments.

The company’s gross margin expanded from 27% to 30%, reflecting stronger profitability across its operations. Tilray recorded a net loss of $40 million, largely due to noncash charges. The company reported a loss of $0.32 per share, while adjusted losses totaled $3 million.

Adjusted earnings per share showed a loss of $0.02 during the quarter. Furthermore, adjusted EBITDA declined to $9.2 million from $10.2 million a year earlier. Management attributed part of the decline to approximately $1.7 million in global fuel surcharges.

Beverage Revenue Surges as Cannabis Sales Decline

Tilray’s beverage business generated $101.5 million in revenue, representing an 82% annual increase. The acquisition of BrewDog contributed to this growth and expanded the company’s beverage operations. Beverage gross profit nearly doubled to $42 million, while margins improved from 38% to 41%.

Cannabis revenue declined to $56.1 million from $64.5 million in the previous year. Cannabis gross profit also slipped to $22 million, compared with $23.3 million previously. Despite lower sales, the segment improved its gross margin to 39% from 36%.

Distribution revenue increased 14% to $84.3 million, supported by the company’s pharmaceutical distribution operations. Wellness revenue remained near $15.3 million, although gross profit declined to $4.4 million. These results highlighted differences in performance across Tilray’s cannabis, beverage, distribution, and wellness businesses.

Tilray Maintains Fiscal 2027 Outlook and Cuts Debt

Tilray ended the quarter with $221.4 million in cash, restricted cash, and marketable securities. The company also reduced outstanding debt by $42 million during the fiscal year. These measures strengthened its financial position while management continued integrating recently acquired operations.

For fiscal 2027, Tilray reaffirmed its adjusted EBITDA forecast of $68 million to $75 million. The company expects stronger financial performance during the second half of its fiscal year. Management also expects the fourth quarter to contribute significantly to annual results.

Tilray continues expanding its presence across cannabis, beverages, wellness, and pharmaceutical distribution markets. Its agreement with Carlsberg will introduce production and sales of selected beer brands in the United States. The partnership will begin January 1, 2027, extending Tilray’s beverage operations beyond its existing portfolio.

The post Tilray Brands (TLRY) Stock: Drops as Q1 Net Loss Hits $40M and Revenue Jumps 23% appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Amazon stock drops 1.99% as its trailing P/E ratio falls to multiyear lows.
• Amazon trades near 20 times earnings, far below its five-year average of 60.
• FTC lawsuit alleges Amazon overcharged advertisers by more than $20 billion.
• Amazon plans $220 billion in 2026 capital spending to expand AI operations.
• Analysts forecast negative free cash flow as Amazon’s AI investments surge.

Amazon.com, Inc. stock fell 1.99% to $254.74, losing $5.18 as its earnings valuation reached multiyear lows. The company’s trailing price-to-earnings ratio dropped near 20 times despite continued expansion across artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Meanwhile, rising infrastructure expenses and a federal advertising lawsuit have added pressure to the technology company’s market performance.

Amazon.com, Inc., AMZN

Amazon Stock Valuation Drops Below Historical Averages

Amazon shares have struggled to regain their previous highs despite continued market interest in artificial intelligence companies. The stock has declined approximately 8.5% from its early August 52-week high, reflecting weaker performance than several technology peers. By comparison, Microsoft shares have retreated approximately 4.2% from their own 52-week high over the same period.

Data from Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace places Amazon’s trailing price-to-earnings ratio near 20 times, well below its historical averages. The company recorded an average trailing multiple of 60 times over five years and 102.3 times over ten years. Its current valuation represents a substantial decline from the premium historically associated with its earnings growth.

Market analysis platform TrendSpider also identified Amazon’s earnings multiple as one of its lowest readings in several years. Uncertainty remains over whether the calculation fully accounts for gains associated with Amazon’s investment in Anthropic. Such investment gains can increase reported earnings and reduce the trailing multiple without directly improving recurring operating profits.

FTC Advertising Lawsuit Adds Pressure to Amazon Shares

Amazon also faces regulatory challenges involving its advertising business, a major source of revenue across its retail platform. The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states filed a lawsuit on August 31 over alleged unfair advertising auction practices. Regulators claim the company used undisclosed pricing methods to increase advertising costs for businesses using its marketplace.

The FTC alleges that Amazon’s practices generated more than $20 billion in additional advertising charges since 2019. The complaint concerns approximately 1.2 million advertisers and questions how Amazon determined prices for sponsored advertising placements. To regulators, the company introduced pricing mechanisms that increased costs beyond levels set through ordinary bidding competition.

Amazon disputes the allegations and maintains that its advertising platform delivers value to participating businesses. The legal proceedings could affect an important profit source if regulators secure changes to the company’s pricing practices. The unresolved dispute adds another challenge as Amazon balances retail operations, cloud expansion, and growing infrastructure commitments.

Amazon AI Spending Raises Free Cash Flow Concerns

Amazon continues directing substantial resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure as competition intensifies among major cloud computing providers. The company raised its projected 2026 capital expenditure budget to approximately $220 billion during its second-quarter earnings update. These investments support computing capacity, data centers, and other infrastructure requirements across its expanding technology operations.

Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney expects Amazon’s annual capital expenditures to increase further over the next two years. His estimates place spending at approximately $320 billion in 2027, followed by another increase to $370 billion in 2028. The projections highlight the financial demands of expanding computing infrastructure while maintaining investment across other business divisions.

Mahaney also forecasts negative free cash flow of approximately $50 billion annually during both 2027 and 2028. These estimates reflect substantial capital requirements that could exceed cash generation despite continued growth across Amazon’s major business segments. Meanwhile, the combination of lower earnings multiples and higher spending expectations underscores the changing financial outlook for Amazon stock.

The post Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Stock: Hits Rare Valuation Lows appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• SoFi Technologies stock drops 1.44% to $15.44 despite its new Mastercard deal.
• SoFi joins Mastercard and Orbi to introduce crypto-linked payment cards in Mexico.
• The partnership enables crypto spending with instant conversion into fiat money.
• Stablecoins account for 40% of Bitso’s regional crypto purchases during 2025.
• SoFi Tech Solutions supports 135 million accounts and nearly 200 global clients.

SoFi Technologies (SOFI) stock fell 1.44% to $15.44 during Thursday’s intraday trading, despite announcing a new Mastercard partnership in Mexico. The shares lost $0.22 but recovered from midday lows near $15.27. Meanwhile, SoFi Tech Solutions partnered with Mexican fintech Orbi and Mastercard to introduce a crypto-linked payment card.

SoFi Technologies, Inc., SOFI

SoFi Technologies Expands Crypto Payments Through Mastercard Deal

SoFi Tech Solutions announced the partnership on October 8 to expand digital asset payments in Mexico. The program allows Orbi customers to spend traditional money or funds from their cryptocurrency balances. The service converts cryptocurrency into fiat currency during purchases, allowing merchants to receive conventional payments.

The partnership combines SoFi’s financial infrastructure with Mastercard’s payment network and Orbi’s digital financial services. SoFi Tech Solutions will manage card issuing, transaction processing, authorization, and compliance services. Mastercard will provide payment network access to support everyday purchases across participating merchants.

Orbi customers will access their digital assets through physical and virtual Mastercard cards. The cards will also support cash withdrawals through Mastercard’s domestic payment network in Mexico. Furthermore, the Mexico Domestic Switch will connect the program with existing payment infrastructure across the country.

Stablecoin Adoption Supports SoFi’s Expansion Into Mexico

Mexico’s large remittance market provides a commercial opportunity for companies developing digital payment services. Stablecoins offer another way to transfer funds across borders and access dollar-linked digital assets. Consequently, SoFi’s partnership targets customers who want to use cryptocurrency for regular financial transactions.

According to Bitso, stablecoins represented 40% of cryptocurrency purchases across four Latin American markets during 2025. Bitcoin accounted for 18% of purchases across Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. The figures marked the first time stablecoins exceeded Bitcoin in Bitso’s regional purchase data.

SoFi also plans to support additional stablecoin payment services through its financial technology platform. Its SoFiUSD stablecoin forms part of the broader infrastructure supporting the partnership. Furthermore, the companies aim to connect digital asset transactions with established payment systems and cross-border money movement.

SoFi Tech Solutions Builds on Existing Banking Infrastructure

SoFi Tech Solutions brings experience from Galileo and Technisys to support its financial technology operations across Latin America. Galileo contributes more than 30 years of payment processing experience, while Technisys provides core banking technology. Together, these capabilities support digital banking, transaction management, lending services, and payment processing.

The platform offers card issuing, real-time payment controls, digital banking services, and fraud management tools. Financial institutions can select individual services or combine several products within their existing operations. SoFi supports money transfers through traditional banking channels and newer digital asset settlement systems.

Nearly 200 clients currently use SoFi Tech Solutions to operate financial products and services. Its infrastructure supports approximately 135 million accounts and has processed billions of transactions. Over the past three years, the platform has also supported money movement totaling trillions of dollars.

Despite the Mastercard announcement, SoFi Technologies shares remained lower during Thursday’s trading session. The partnership expands the company’s presence in Latin America’s developing digital payments market. The session’s stock performance showed that the announcement did not reverse the intraday decline.

The post SoFi Technologies (SOFI) Stock: Falls Despite Mastercard Deal in Mexico appeared first on Blockonomi.

Hunter Biden has said that a forensic review of the LAPTOP launch found the token’s extreme rise and collapse were caused by unusually thin liquidity and later market-maker activity, while on-chain records showed the founders had not sold their allocation.

The account challenges the earlier perception of a rug pull, but the market makers remain unnamed (merely referred to as Market Maker 1 and Market Maker 2), and the investigation was commissioned by the project team.

LAPTOP Launch Exposed By Thin Liquidity

Biden said Groom Lake reviewed every recorded trade from the launch and found that a market maker given $500,000 deployed only about $5,200 into the initial pool. Fewer than 30,000 LAPTOP tokens were available there, creating a market where just $6 of buying could move the price 5%, compared with about $7,400 of selling needed for the same move.

Groom Lake compared 668 other launches and found none with a similar imbalance. LAPTOP then climbed from $0.05 to about $317 in under two minutes before ending the first hour 98% below its peak. Eighty-four seconds after the high, the liquidity position linked by the report to Market Maker 1 was withdrawn, reducing cash available to sellers near the quoted price from about $16,157 to zero.

The report also found gains associated with both market makers. The Market Maker 1-linked liquidity position ended up about $686,000 ahead, while activity linked to Market Maker 2 recorded more than $2.1 million in net USDC receipts under the report’s specified accounting.

Biden acknowledged responsibility for hiring the firms and called on the market maker he believes mishandled the launch to buy the tokens back and burn them.

Founder Wallet Remains Untouched

One point has stronger on-chain support. Groom Lake found that the wallet holding the 300 million LAPTOP founder allocation, equal to 30% of the original supply, made no outgoing token transfers through October 2. Biden also said his allocation is locked for six months and then vests over two years.

The token now trades near $0.08, up about 10% on the day, with a market cap around $29 million versus roughly $560 million on launch day. Daily volume is up 143% from a day earlier to $4.6 million, according to CoinGecko, signaling a rise in market activity that coincided with Biden’s report.

Reaction to the new accounting remains divided. Trader Crypto Bitlord argued that Biden may have been misled by inexperienced market makers, while lawyer Hailey Lennon dismissed the explanation as a post-mortem for what still looked like a rug pull.

However, Nicki Sanders, a crypto consultant, took a more cautious view, noting that the founder wallet claim can be checked on-chain but that the report was commissioned by Biden’s team and the market makers have not publicly responded.

The post Hunter Biden Blames Market Maker for LAPTOP Meme Coin Collapse appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – George Town, , October 8, 2026 —, Cayman Islands, October 8th, 2026]

THORChain, a decentralized exchange, announced that native Zcash (ZEC) swaps are now live, allowing users to exchange ZEC with assets across other supported blockchain networks without relying on wrapped tokens or a centralized exchange.

The launch follows THORChain update 3.20, which introduced support for Zcash and Monero to the protocol. The Zcash pool currently holds more than $50,000 in liquidity, allowing the network to begin processing live ZEC swaps.

The pool remains in a soft-launch phase while performance is monitored. Trading may be temporarily paused if bugs or other issues need to be addressed. The current pool size can easily support trades in the five-figure range, however larger trades will experience higher slippage and take longer to settle until liquidity grows in the pool.

Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) will be automatically added to the Zcash pool when the fees/depth ratio is high enough. POL, introduced as part of the 3.20 upgrade, gives the protocol a mechanism to deploy a portion of the liquidity fees (currently set at 20%) into supported liquidity pools. As more liquidity enters the ZEC pool, it will be better equipped to support larger swaps with lower price impact and faster execution.

The integration gives Zcash holders a direct route into the broader crypto market using native assets. Users can swap ZEC against supported assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and stablecoins without needing to deposit their Zcash with a centralized custodian or convert it into a wrapped representation on another network.

Zcash adds another native blockchain to THORChain’s cross-chain liquidity network, bringing the total to 14 blockchains. Rather than move assets through bridges or require users to give up custody to trade between otherwise disconnected networks, THORChain settles swaps using the native assets on their respective chains.

The soft launch will allow the network to test Zcash swaps under real market conditions while liquidity develops. The Zcash pool and its current liquidity can be tracked here.

About THORChain

THORChain is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that enables users to swap native digital assets across different blockchain networks without relying on wrapped assets or centralized custodians. It allows users to exchange assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other supported cryptocurrencies while maintaining a self-custodial experience.

Users can swap assets here: swap.thorchain.org

Swap | Website | X | Telegram | LinkedIn

The post THORChain Launches Native Zcash Swaps appeared first on CryptoPotato.

NEAR Protocol’s native token has been on an absolute tear. While the rest of the crypto market’s momentum cooled, NEAR held on to its rally. It pushed into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap this week after posting around 125% gains in the last 30 days before correcting earlier today.

According to Bitwise’s Matt Hougan, NEAR stands out because its big AI vision is backed by a business that is already generating real activity and revenue.

AI Ambition

NEAR rose 198% in the third quarter, well ahead of Bitcoin and Ethereum. But for Hougan, the bigger story is what the project is building and how that business is developing. NEAR calls itself “the blockchain for AI.” Its long-term goal is to become the infrastructure for AI agents that can transact with each other and interact with the wider world.

The main criticism is also clear. NEAR is not actually being used mainly by AI agents today. Its users are still mostly humans. But that has not stopped one of its products from gaining serious traction, Hougan said. NEAR Intents has now processed more than $30 billion in cumulative volume. The Bitwise CIO explained that the product is on track to generate around $45 million in fees this year. Some of those fees are returned to tokenholders through buybacks.

Intents allows users to move across crypto networks without having to deal with the usual complexity of wallets, bridges and exchanges. A network of market-making bots, known as solvers, handles the transactions behind the scenes. For Hougan, this is important because Intents is no longer just a product built around a future AI use case. He described it as a “real business” today.

“Even if AI agents never become a big deal, or if NEAR doesn’t capture all of that opportunity, I think NEAR is still positioned to do well. In other words, when I’m investing in NEAR, I’m buying an exciting blockchain business; the AI moonshot is gravy.”

Bitwise launched a spot NEAR exchange-traded fund, under the ticker NRR, on NYSE Arca last month, with Coinbase Custody as custodian.

$3.8 Million Exploit

NEAR Intents suffered a security exploit on Thursday that resulted in around $3.8 million in losses. The incident forced the platform to pause services and temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals across several blockchains.

According to the official update, the issue came from a bug involving its Omni deposit and withdrawal system and the NEAR Intents smart contract. The vulnerability has since been patched, and the project said affected users will be fully reimbursed for their losses.

The post NEAR Cracks the Top 20: Why Bitwise’s Matt Hougan Is Paying Attention appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum’s prolonged consolidation beneath resistance has pushed the asset lower, sending it toward $2.42K. The breakdown has weakened short-term structure, while the broader recovery now depends on buyers defending the support areas below.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, Ethereum has fallen sharply after repeatedly failing to clear the $2.68K–$2.77K resistance zone. The large bearish candle marks a departure from the recent consolidation, suggesting that sellers have gained control of the immediate price action.

Momentum has also deteriorated, with the daily RSI dropping to approximately 44 and moving below neutral. Nevertheless, Ethereum remains above both major moving averages. The 100-day average, near $2.21K, has already crossed above the 200-day average around $2.13K, preserving a constructive longer-term backdrop despite the current correction.

The highlighted $2.36K–$2.42K demand zone is the next major daily support area. The ascending trendline approaches this region, creating a potential confluence where buyers may attempt to stabilize the price.

Holding this area would keep the broader recovery structure intact, while a sustained breakdown would expose the moving-average region around $2.13K–$2.21K. On the upside, reclaiming the $2.68K–$2.77K supply zone remains necessary to restore a stronger bullish outlook.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows a decisive bearish break from a symmetrical triangle. After compressing between descending resistance and ascending support, Ethereum fell beneath the lower boundary near $2.68K and extended its decline toward $2.42K. The limited rebound following the selloff suggests that buyers have yet to establish a convincing recovery.

The RSI is now around 26, placing short-term momentum in oversold territory. This could support a temporary relief bounce, although oversold conditions alone do not confirm a reversal. Any recovery would initially face resistance around $2.6K–$2.62K, followed by the broken triangle boundary and supply zone near $2.68K–$2.7K.

As selling pressure persisted, the highlighted $2.40K–$2.42K demand zone became the next important support area. Failure to defend it would increase the risk of a move toward the September lows around $2.36K–$2.38K. Conversely, sustained acceptance back above the triangle’s former support would weaken the bearish breakdown scenario and allow another challenge of $2.77K.

Sentiment Analysis

The two-week Binance ETH/USDT liquidation heatmap shows that the latest decline has moved through the previously dense estimated liquidation bands around $2.6K–$2.65K. These bands fade behind the falling price, consistent with leveraged positions being cleared as Ethereum moved lower, although the heatmap does not quantify actual executed liquidations.

With Ethereum now near $2.56K, the remaining nearby downside concentrations appear around $2.52K–$2.54K, with additional bands toward $2.48K–$2.5K. These areas could become relevant if the correction continues, particularly as the lower clusters approach the technical demand zone.

Above price, a nearby band remains around $2.63K–$2.64K, while the most prominent overhead concentration sits around $2.78K–$2.84K. A sustained recovery could bring these pools into focus, but the current technical breakdown favors caution until Ethereum reclaims its lost support. The liquidation distribution highlights potential areas of accelerated volatility rather than guaranteeing the next direction.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Crashes 10% Weekly – How Low Can It Go? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin has nosedived again in the past hour or so, dumping below $81,000 for the first time since September 21, when it broke out.

The liquidations have skyrocketed once again, exceeding $480 million in the past hour alone. As expected, the majority is from long positions.

Cryptopotato reported yesterday that BTC crashed by $2,000 within 20 minutes, which was rather unexpected. It came after the US government transferred a portion of its crypto holdings to Coinbase Prime.

At the time, the cryptocurrency fell below $84,000 and managed to hold at around that level for hours.

However, the landscape worsened in the past several hours, with the asset tanking below $81,000. This also coincided with a new BTC transfer from the US government, according to data from Lookonchain. This one was even more interesting, as the moved bitcoin in question appears to have originated from the Bitfinex hack.

The altcoins have followed suit. ETH, which traded above $2,700 until 48 hours ago, is now down to $2,450.

XRP was rejected at $1.50 and has dumped to $1.34 as of now. Notable losses also come from SOL, HYPE, DOGE, and others.

Naturally, the total value of wrecked positions has jumped a lot. Data from CoinGlass shows that over $45wiped out has been wiped-out in the past hour alone. Almost all of it was from longs.

The amount is up to nearly $900 million on a 24-hour scale. The total number of liquidated traders is over 150,000.

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