Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a “fun fact of the day” on X, posting two detailed cost tables comparing Bitcoin mining economics to AI inference.
The numbers expose a clear gap: Bitcoin mining costs split roughly 50/50 between compute capex and electricity, while AI inference is dominated almost entirely by hardware capex.
That gap gives power-rich Bitcoin mining operations a structural flexibility advantage that pure AI operators largely cannot replicate.
Vitalik’s Numbers: Bitcoin Mining Is ~46% Electricity, AI Inference Is ~5% Buterin’s tables break down costs per unit of work. For Bitcoin mining, the approximate total cost per BTC mined sits near $93,700.
Compute capex, hardware, cooling, and power gear, accounts for roughly $37,600, or about 40%.
Electricity into the machines adds $40,600, or 43.3%. Other electricity costs lift the total electricity share to about 45.9%.
Labor accounts for $3,200 (3.4%). Facilities rent comes to $2,500 (2.7%). Other expenses, maintenance, insurance, and bandwidth, make up about $7,400 (7.9%).
AI inference per GPU-year tells a very different story. Total costs land near $26,260. Compute capex alone takes up $19,900, or roughly 76% of the total.
Electricity, by contrast, totals just $1,260 across all categories, barely 4.8% of the bill. Labor adds $1,400. Facilities rent comes in at $900. Other overheads make up around $2,800.
Buterin did not frame the comparison as a criticism of either model. He presented it as a factual contrast.
Wu Blockchain highlighted the post as a notable data point for the crypto-AI infrastructure debate, noting that Vitalik has been increasingly vocal on AI and crypto security risks.
He has also built a privacy-focused AI agent that limits identity and data leaks, signaling his deeper engagement with AI infrastructure questions.
Fun fact of the day: Bitcoin mining cost is split about 50/50 between compute capex and electricity. Meanwhile, AI inference is almost completely dominated by compute capex. pic.twitter.com/PCFKZSuNRw
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 17, 2026
Why Bitcoin Miners Are Structurally Positioned to Win in AI Hosting The cost gap carries a direct strategic implication. Because Bitcoin mining electricity costs are large and variable, miners with flexible power contracts can curtail or redirect capacity when hashprice falls.
AI inference operators have no such relief. Once a GPU cluster is financed and deployed, the capex clock ticks whether or not the hardware is fully utilized.
That explains the wave of miner-to-AI pivots already underway. Core Scientific signed an AI data center deal with AMD as it shifted capacity away from mining.
Bitcoin miner MARA is targeting AI growth through a $168M EDF deal. And Anthropic signed a 20-year data center lease with Bitcoin miner TeraWulf, locking in long-term power access through mining infrastructure.
VanEck has also made the case publicly. The asset manager argued that Bitcoin miners’ AI arbitrage could be a game-changer, pointing to the same structural cost gap Buterin’s tables now quantify precisely.
More broadly, Bitcoin miners are diversifying into AI and projecting billions in revenue from hosting and colocation contracts.
Buterin’s post adds a precise, data-backed foundation to a shift the industry has been tracking for months.
Miners that control large, flexible power contracts are not just hedging, they are sitting on a structural asset that AI-only operators cannot easily replicate.
And despite the AI-Bitcoin intersection narrative, Vitalik has rejected claims that AI could crash Bitcoin’s price by 50%, reinforcing his view that the two ecosystems are more complementary than competitive.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has compared Bitcoin mining with AI inference, sharing cost estimates that put electricity at 45.9% of mining expenses and computing capital expenditure at approximately 76% of inference costs.
Summary
Electricity represents 45.9% of Bitcoin mining costs in the comparison Buterin shared. Computing capital expenditure accounts for approximately 76% of the AI inference estimate. Both tables include cooling, power equipment, and financing within computing capital expenditure. US operators have pursued AI facilities through customer leases, borrowing and crypto treasury sales. In an Oct. 17 X post, Buterin described Bitcoin mining costs as split roughly evenly between computing investment and electricity, while calling AI inference almost completely dominated by computing capital expenditure.
Fun fact of the day: Bitcoin mining cost is split about 50/50 between compute capex and electricity. Meanwhile, AI inference is almost completely dominated by compute capex. pic.twitter.com/PCFKZSuNRw
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 17, 2026 Bitcoin electricity costs approach half of the estimated total Buterin’s post draws a distinction between the spending required to purchase computing infrastructure and the recurring expense of powering it.
“Bitcoin mining cost is split about 50/50 between compute capex and electricity,” he wrote.
The mining table attached to his post provides a more detailed breakdown. Electricity supplied directly to computers costs an estimated $40,600 per BTC, accounting for 43.3% of the total. Other electricity expenses contribute another $2,400, or 2.6%.
Together, the two electricity categories amount to $43,000 per BTC and 45.9% of the listed cost.
Computing capital expenditure contributes approximately $37,600 per BTC, representing around 40%. The category covers hardware, cooling, and power equipment, including financing, so its scope extends beyond the purchase price of mining machines.
The remaining categories include labor at $3,200 per BTC, facility rent at approximately $2,500, and other expenses at roughly $7,400. Maintenance, spare parts, facility operations, insurance, taxes, and bandwidth fall into the final category.
Adding the listed dollar amounts produces an estimated total of $93,700 per BTC. The calculation describes the table Buterin shared and does not establish a uniform production cost for every Bitcoin miner.
AI inference spending centers on computing infrastructure The AI table uses a different unit, dollars per GPU-year, and assigns a much larger share of expenses to computing capital expenditure.
Its estimate places that category at approximately $19,900 per GPU-year, or 76% of the total. As with the mining table, the category includes hardware, cooling, power equipment, and financing.
Electricity supplied directly to computers accounts for $1,050 per GPU-year, representing 4%. Other electricity contributes $210, or 0.8%, bringing the combined electricity share to 4.8%.
Labor adds $1,400 per GPU-year, while facility rent contributes approximately $900. The remaining maintenance, operating, insurance, tax, and bandwidth expenses total roughly $2,800.
The listed amounts sum to approximately $26,260 per GPU-year. Because one table measures costs per Bitcoin and the other per GPU-year, their dollar totals do not provide a direct comparison of the price of performing the same task.
Buterin summarized the difference by writing that AI inference is “almost completely dominated by compute capex.” The accompanying breakdown assigns approximately three-quarters of total inference costs to that category, with electricity, labor, rent and other operating expenses making up the remainder.
TeraWulf separates AI hosting from processor ownership US data center agreements illustrate how companies divide responsibility for facilities and computing equipment.
As crypto.news previously reported, TeraWulf was considering a potential $3.5 billion financing in July to support an AI campus in Kentucky. The financing plans, attributed to Bloomberg, included possible leveraged loans and high-yield bonds.
The planned borrowing followed TeraWulf’s announced 20-year lease with Anthropic at its Justified Data campus in Hawesville. The company said the facility would support approximately 401 megawatts of critical computing capacity and estimated $19 billion in revenue over the initial contract term.
Initial capacity was expected in the second half of 2027, with full deployment targeted for early 2028. The revenue estimate covered two decades of the agreement and was not an upfront payment.
Chief Financial Officer Patrick Fleury described an operating model in which customers remain responsible for servers, processors and technology upgrades, while TeraWulf supplies power and physical infrastructure.
Earlier financing supported its New York operations. In October 2025, a TeraWulf subsidiary priced $3.2 billion of senior secured notes carrying a 7.75% annual interest rate and maturing in 2030.
Crypto sales and power agreements support AI development Other companies have used digital assets to help finance their AI data center projects. A July 31 account documented transactions announced the previous day by Quantum Solutions and US-listed Hyperscale Data.
Quantum’s subsidiary GPT Pals Studio sold 1,000 ETH for $1.903 million after transaction fees to support Japanese AI data center expansion plans. Hyperscale monetized approximately 100 BTC and established a Bitcoin-backed credit facility for construction in Michigan.
Hyperscale’s initial customer deployment covered approximately 20 megawatts under a ten-year agreement with two optional five-year extensions. The company estimated more than $1.2 billion in revenue over the maximum term, subject to those extensions.
MARA’s July announcement focused on securing land and power capacity for future development in Texas. The company disclosed a definitive agreement to acquire a 1,200-acre property intended to support high-performance computing, flexible computing services, and Bitcoin mining.
According to MARA’s announcement, the site was expected to provide access to an initial gigawatt of grid capacity by October 2027, with total available capacity projected to reach two gigawatts by April 2028.
MARA planned to develop the property with Starwood Digital Ventures, with phased construction subject to regulatory approvals. Seller HIF would retain a minority ownership interest once an HPC lease was executed.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has once again ignited a debate across the crypto ecosystem after spotlighting a key difference between the cost structures of Bitcoin mining and AI inference earlier today.
In what he described as an interesting fact about the matter, Buterin briefly explained how both Bitcoin and AI rely on computing resources but in different ways.
Buterin discusses Bitcoin mining costWhile he pointed to the different roles computing hardware and electricity play in Bitcoin and the AI industry, he explained the cost structure for both.
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According to Buterin, Bitcoin mining costs are split almost equally between computing hardware investments, known as capital expenditure (CapEx), and electricity consumption.
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As such, miners ensure that they invest heavily in specialized equipment while also paying substantial energy bills to keep their operations running.
AI inference, on the other hand, which refers to the process of using trained AI models to generate responses or perform tasks, has a different cost structure.
Unlike Bitcoin, Buterin notes that AI inference costs are dominated almost entirely by computing hardware investments, as they do not rely on heavy electricity consumption.
Bitcoin and AI comparedNotably, the comparison made by Buterin clearly shows that Bitcoin miners need both powerful hardware and a steady supply of electricity to compete for block rewards, making energy prices a major fraction of their production cost.
Meanwhile, the case is different for AI, as AI inference relies heavily on computing infrastructure capable of processing large volumes of requests.
This means that the cost of acquiring and maintaining that infrastructure takes the major share in the broader economics of running AI systems.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $82.39M on October 16, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $71.78M.
Ethereum ETFs recorded $69.68M in outflows, marking their third consecutive day of withdrawals.
Bitcoin open interest rose 4.5% as its price fell 2.68%, raising concerns about leveraged long positions.
Cryptoinsightuk sees a possible BTC correction toward $75,000, but the outcome remains uncertain.
Bitcoin ETF outflows reached $82.39 million on October 16, as spot Ethereum ETFs lost another $69.68 million. The withdrawals coincided with Bitcoin trading at $81,381.41, down 0.38% over 24 hours and 1.41% over seven days.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for $71.78 million in Bitcoin ETF outflows, while its Ethereum fund, ETHA, recorded $69.68 million in withdrawals.
Meanwhile, market analyst Cryptoinsightuk warned that Bitcoin could face a deeper correction toward $75,000. He cited rising leveraged long exposure, positive funding rates, and liquidity below Ethereum’s market price.
Bitcoin ETF Outflows Reach $82.39 Million as BlackRock Leads Withdrawals
According to Wu Blockchain, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $82.39 million in net outflows on October 16.
BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for $71.78 million, while Fidelity’s fund lost $10.61 million. Crypto Patel’s flow data showed that investors withdrew approximately 1,014 BTC across the two funds.
Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $69.68 million in net outflows, marking their third consecutive day of withdrawals.
BlackRock’s ETHA accounted for the entire daily outflow, equivalent to 28,960 ETH. These figures indicate that selling pressure extended beyond Bitcoin into Ethereum investment products.
Other crypto ETFs also recorded net outflows.
Solana funds lost $12.67 million, XRP funds shed $2.47 million, and Chainlink funds recorded $397,260 in withdrawals. Zcash and Hedera products also posted outflows of $1.22 million and $558,980, respectively.
NEAR ETFs were the exception, attracting $2.61 million in net inflows.
Crypto Patel reported approximately $166.78 million in total net outflows across US spot crypto ETFs. These figures show broad-based withdrawals, although individual fund flows do not establish the direction of the entire crypto market.
Bitcoin Price Faces $75,000 Risk as Leverage Builds
Bitcoin’s price structure remains central to the market outlook.
Cryptoinsightuk said Bitcoin may have completed an initial five-wave advance from lows near $57,000. However, he considers a deeper corrective move toward $75,000 more likely than an already completed correction.
His analysis points to positive funding rates and rising open interest.
Since Bitcoin traded near $84,000, open interest increased approximately 4.5%, while its price declined 2.68%. This combination suggests traders continued adding exposure as the market moved lower.
The market is grappling with whether the next move is a leg higher or a leg lower.
We’ve seen what looks like exuberance across a lot of equities, but recently AI stocks have started to cool off. That’s caused some panic, pushing the Fear and Greed Index back into fear.
I’m… pic.twitter.com/urDmFQ6RTb
— Cryptoinsightuk (@Cryptoinsightuk) October 17, 2026
Positive funding rates generally mean long-position holders pay short-position holders in perpetual futures markets. That can indicate crowded bullish positioning, although funding rates alone cannot confirm whether new positions are predominantly long.
If Bitcoin continues falling, leveraged long traders could face forced liquidations. Those liquidations may add selling pressure, potentially accelerating a decline toward the $75,000 region.
Cryptoinsightuk also identified Ethereum liquidity approximately 6% to 9% below its current price as supporting context for his scenario.
ETF withdrawals and leveraged positioning are adding pressure to an already weakening market structure. However, neither ETF flows nor funding rates guarantee further declines.
Bitcoin’s ability to stabilize above recent lows will help traders assess whether the correction is deepening or losing momentum.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sparked renewed discussion in the cryptocurrency community by drawing attention to a fundamental distinction between the cost structures of Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) inference.
Bitcoin mining cost breakdownButerin stated that Bitcoin mining is characterized by a nearly even split between investment in specialized computing hardware (capital expenditures) and electricity consumption. Miners typically allocate significant resources to obtain advanced mining equipment while also facing substantial energy costs to sustain their operations.
This two-pronged expense model means that both powerful hardware and affordable, reliable electricity are essential for miners aiming to remain competitive in the race to secure block rewards.
Bitcoin mining costs are split almost equally between spending on dedicated hardware and ongoing electricity use, making energy prices a major component in the economics of mining.
As a result, fluctuations in electricity pricing can have a direct and sizable impact on the profitability of Bitcoin mining activities worldwide.
AI inference: A different approachIn contrast, AI inference—the process of applying trained AI models to generate outputs or respond to queries—relies primarily on investments in computing infrastructure. Buterin pointed out that, unlike Bitcoin mining, the bulk of AI inference costs stem from capital outlays on powerful hardware rather than electricity usage.
Operators running AI inference systems focus largely on acquiring and maintaining servers and other specialized equipment capable of handling high volumes of computational tasks. Electricity, while still a factor, plays a comparatively smaller role in the total cost structure for AI applications.
While AI inference does require significant hardware investment, its electricity requirements are far less impactful compared to Bitcoin mining, resulting in a cost structure dominated by the acquisition and upkeep of powerful servers.
This distinction highlights the broader differences between blockchain and AI infrastructure, with energy prices serving as a critical variable for Bitcoin miners but not for providers of AI-driven services.
Tools for adapting to fast-moving marketsThese technical differences underline how swiftly changing market conditions—ranging from Federal Reserve decisions to new altcoin listings—can alter the operating environment for both industries. In this fast-paced context, traders and investors increasingly rely on privacy-focused platforms such as CryptoAppsy to streamline portfolio management. The platform delivers real-time charts, intelligent price alerts, coin-centric news, and major macroeconomic updates on a single, consolidated interface, all without requiring users to register an account.
For cryptocurrency market participants, balancing operational costs while keeping pace with news and technical changes is becoming ever more complex, emphasizing the need for efficient and integrated information tools.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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OKX CEO Star Xu recalled several Bitcoin crises, including early network attacks and exchange failures.
The Mt. Gox collapse and Bitcoin scaling disputes raised concerns about cryptocurrency’s long-term survival prospects.
Xu explained that resolving major cryptocurrency industry crises can take several months or one year.
OKX founder believes cryptocurrency markets become stronger after addressing past failures and security weaknesses.
OKX founder and CEO Star Xu has recalled several crises that nearly brought Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry to collapse. His remarks follow renewed discussions about Bitcoin’s history of market crashes and how digital assets have survived previous downturns.
Star Xu: Bitcoin Nearly Died Several Times, but Crypto Emerged Stronger
In an interview on the New Era Finance Podcast @new_era_finance, OKX founder and CEO Star Xu @star_okx recalled Bitcoin's early forks and hash power attacks, the collapse of Mt. Gox, disagreements over… pic.twitter.com/y5v6i4h26Z
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 17, 2026
Speaking on the New Era Finance Podcast, Xu described early network attacks, the Mt. Gox collapse and the FTX bankruptcy. He explained that resolving major industry problems can take several months or even a year before recovery begins.
Star Xu Recalls Bitcoin’s Early Crises and Mt. Gox Collapse
Star Xu said Bitcoin faced repeated threats during its early development, particularly between 2011 and 2012. Network forks, security concerns and disputes over mining power raised questions about whether the cryptocurrency could survive.
Among the problems he recalled were hash power attacks and disagreements over how Bitcoin should operate. These incidents occurred when the network was smaller and its infrastructure was still developing.
The OKX founder then pointed to the 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange. The platform filed for bankruptcy after reporting approximately 850,000 BTC missing, leaving thousands of customers unable to access their funds.
The collapse damaged confidence in centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and led to years of legal proceedings. More than a decade later, Mt. Gox creditor repayments remain connected to the exchange’s bankruptcy process.
Xu also recalled Bitcoin’s scaling disputes, which divided developers, miners and businesses over the network’s transaction capacity. The disagreements eventually contributed to the creation of Bitcoin Cash through a hard fork in August 2017.
The debate centered on competing proposals to increase transaction throughput while preserving Bitcoin’s decentralized structure. Xu described these disputes as another period when the industry’s future appeared uncertain.
OKX CEO Points to FTX Collapse and Stronger Industry Standards
The discussion later turned to FTX, whose November 2022 bankruptcy disrupted cryptocurrency markets and exposed serious failures in customer fund management. The exchange’s collapse triggered withdrawals across competing platforms and increased pressure for stronger custody controls.
Xu said the industry has repeatedly worked through such problems, although resolving them often requires considerable time. In his view, cryptocurrency businesses become better prepared after addressing the weaknesses exposed during each crisis.
The fallout from FTX renewed attention on exchange reserves and whether customer assets were properly separated from company funds. Years later, former Mt. Gox executives have continued proposing recovery measures, showing how long unresolved exchange failures can remain relevant.
During the podcast, Xu discussed OKX’s approach to handling customer assets and explained why he rejects using deposits for speculative investments. He pointed to monthly proof-of-reserves reporting as one measure intended to help customers verify exchange holdings.
OKX has since expanded beyond conventional cryptocurrency trading through partnerships involving traditional financial institutions. Earlier this month, the exchange secured new funding from Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered at a $25 billion valuation.
The company is also pursuing tokenized securities and stablecoin services as more regulated financial businesses enter cryptocurrency markets. Its planned tokenized stock trading platform with Intercontinental Exchange forms part of that expansion.
Xu maintained that Bitcoin’s past recoveries support his confidence in the industry’s longer-term development. He expects stablecoins, regulation and tokenized financial products to play larger roles during the coming decade.
US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced significant net outflows totaling $82.39 million on October 16. The bulk of these withdrawals came from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which accounted for $71.78 million. At the same time, spot Ethereum ETFs reported $69.68 million in outflows, marking the third consecutive day of withdrawals for these products.
ETF flows deepen across major cryptocurrenciesFidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF also saw its holdings decrease by $10.61 million during the same period. Data compiled by analyst Crypto Patel showed that investors pulled about 1,014 BTC from BlackRock and Fidelity ETFs combined. Bitcoin traded at $81,381.41, retreating 0.38% over 24 hours and falling 1.41% across the past week.
In the Ethereum market, BlackRock’s ETHA fund was solely responsible for the day’s $69.68 million outflow, equal to 28,960 ETH. This trend highlights that selling pressure is not limited to Bitcoin but extends to other major crypto investment products.
Additional outflows were observed in other cryptocurrency-linked ETFs. Solana funds registered withdrawals of $12.67 million, XRP funds lost $2.47 million, and Chainlink products recorded $397,260 in net outflows. Zcash and Hedera funds posted losses of $1.22 million and $558,980, respectively.
In contrast, NEAR ETFs attracted $2.61 million in inflows, making them the exception in an otherwise withdrawal-heavy environment.
Crypto Patel reported that total net outflows across US spot crypto ETFs reached $166.78 million. These broad-based withdrawals do not necessarily point to a single cause, but reflect ongoing caution among investors regarding crypto exposure.
Cryptocurrency ETFNet Outflows (USD)Bitcoin (BTC)$82.39 millionEthereum (ETH)$69.68 millionSolana (SOL)$12.67 millionXRP$2.47 millionChainlink (LINK)$397,260Zcash (ZEC)$1.22 millionHedera (HBAR)$558,980NEAR+$2.61 millionBitcoin price action and leverage riskMarket analysts turned their attention to Bitcoin’s technical and funding metrics amid these outflows. Cryptoinsightuk, a prominent digital asset analyst, warned that Bitcoin could see a deeper correction toward $75,000. He pointed to rising leveraged long exposure, ongoing positive funding rates, and a liquidity cluster below Ethereum’s current market price as risk factors.
Open interest in Bitcoin’s futures markets climbed by roughly 4.5% while the price of Bitcoin dropped 2.68% from levels near $84,000. The increased open interest as prices fell suggests that traders continued to add exposure, heightening the risk of forced liquidations if the price declines further.
Positive funding rates in perpetual futures typically require long position holders to pay short sellers. This can indicate an imbalance toward bullish expectations, although the presence of positive funding rates alone does not confirm that all new positions are long.
If price weakness persists, liquidations of leveraged long positions could accelerate selling pressure, possibly pushing Bitcoin toward the $75,000 region. Cryptoinsightuk noted significant Ethereum liquidity sitting 6% to 9% below its current price as a relevant context for further downside potential in the crypto market.
While these trends signal mounting pressure on the market, ETF flows and funding rates by themselves may not dictate the next direction for digital assets.
Mini dictionary: Funding rate – In cryptocurrency perpetual futures markets, the funding rate is the fee paid between traders holding long and short positions, ensuring the contract price tracks the spot market. Positive funding rates typically indicate that long holders are paying short sellers, often reflecting a crowded bullish sentiment.
Cryptoinsightuk indicated that a combination of rising open interest, positive funding rates, and a dense liquidity area below current Ethereum prices could make a Bitcoin pullback to $75,000 more probable if selling pressure continues.
Broad outflows from crypto ETFs—including products tracking Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and more—signal ongoing caution among market participants, but do not set the overall direction for the crypto sector.
Meanwhile, oil prices have skyrocketed to a monthly peak.
Although BTC is already down by several grand since its local peak, the real trouble could be around the corner as reports emerged hours ago that US President Donald Trump is preparing a fresh wave of attacks against Iran during the weekend.
The US stock market also plummeted again on Friday, especially the Nasdaq 100, which, according to the analysts at the Kobeissi Letter, is close to a technical correction.
Macro Pressure Builds
The initial reports claimed that the POTUS has asked Iran for permission to strike its Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site without retaliation, but the authorities in the Middle Eastern country rejected the request. The claims come from IRIB state media correspondent Morteza Ghoroghi, who said: “Trump’s statements today point to war within the next 24 hours.” He also suggested that Iran’s military forces are “in a state of complete readiness.”
Shortly after, new reports indicated that Trump went to Mar-A-Lago for the first time since May 1, which is the same location where he started the war against Iran on February 28. Oil prices responded with an immediate uptick. Brent crude oil jumped from under $106 to a monthly peak of $110.
BREAKING: Brent crude oil surges to nearly $110, its highest level since September 15, as Iran places its armed forces on the highest alert for 72 hours and mobile bomb shelters being rapidly deployed in Tel Aviv.
US oil is now at $100. https://t.co/WKJ45cFVtF
— The Strait Report (@StraitReport) October 17, 2026
Stock Market Pressure
The other macro pressure on BTC could come from the overall stock market state. Earlier this week, the major KOSPI and Nikkei crash led to a correction in the crypto market as well. Now, US equities are under pressure, with the S&P 500 down by 2% last week.
The Nasdaq 100 had its biggest weekly decline since April 2025, dumping by 3% on Friday alone. The tech sector has erased over $3 trillion (more than the entire crypto market) in the past 10 days. The Kobeissi Letter argued that the Nasdaq 100 is just 2.5% away from “entering a technical correction.”
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There it is folks.
The Nasdaq 100 is now down -3% on the day and on track for its biggest weekly decline since April 2025.
US tech stocks have erased over -$3 trillion in market cap in just 10 days.
This puts the Nasdaq 100 just ~2.5% away from entering a technical correction.
As outlined below, we are in a “Bear-Bull Market.”
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 16, 2026
These corrections are not isolated. The Indonesian stock market recently experienced its worst daily dump in 28 years, plunging by over 11%.
Will BTC Fall Below $80K?
The primary cryptocurrency dipped below the key $80,000 support earlier this week for the first time in a month but managed to rebound above that level immediately. However, the growing pressure explained above could lead to another substantial leg down, especially if the US indeed strikes Iran over the weekend.
Bitcoin didn’t respond immediately to the major developments on previous weekends, but waited until Sunday evening and Monday morning when traditional financial markets started to open. For now, the asset remains at $81,500, down by 1.5% weekly and by over 6% from its local top marked a few weeks ago.
The Bitcoin for Financial Services Summit (BFFS26) returns to Denver October 20–22, 2026, bringing together CPAs, wealth advisors, attorneys, lenders, and finance leaders who are building Bitcoin into their practices. Now in its second year, the summit has grown to more than 30 sessions across two full program days, with a speaker lineup drawn from the firms defining Bitcoin custody, credit, and advisory.
Headlining the program are Joseph Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Unchained, who opens the summit with a keynote on custody, credit, and trust at scale; Alan Lane, former CEO of Silvergate Bank, on lessons for Bitcoin and banking; Patrick Lowry, CEO of Samara Asset Group, on holding Bitcoin as a public-company treasury reserve; and Colin Crossman, Wyoming’s Deputy Secretary of State, on the regulatory outlook for banks, exchanges, and advisors. Additional speakers include Kate Goldman of Anchorage Digital, Sam Baker of River, Eric Yakes of Epoch Ventures, Daniel Hillery of UTXO Management, Moish Peltz of Falcon Rappaport & Berkman, and CJ Konstantinos of Peoples Reserve.
Sessions focus on practical application: bringing Bitcoin into wealth planning and family offices, Bitcoin-backed lending and mortgages, treasury accounting and valuation, retirement and income planning, charitable giving strategies, mining as an asset class, and fiduciary duty when clients hold Bitcoin. Dedicated workshops will offer continuing education credit for financial advisors and CPAs.
“Last year proved that financial professionals want more than a Bitcoin primer. They want to know how to serve clients who already own it,” said Jordan Guess, CPA, co-host of the summit in a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. “This year’s program is built around the questions advisors and accountants are actually getting from clients, answered by the people building the infrastructure.”
The summit opens Tuesday, October 20, with the Better Money Invitational golf tournament at City Park Golf Course, hosted with Bitcoin Sports Network, followed by a welcome party at The Space sponsored by Falcon Rappaport & Berkman. Evening programming includes wine and whiskey tastings, and Thursday begins with an optional sunrise hike in the Rocky Mountains.
BFFS26 is co-hosted by Jordan Guess and Wyatt O’Rourke of BFFS Media, producers of the Bitcoin for Financial Services podcast. Sponsors include Unchained, Anchorage Digital, UTXO Management, River, SOUND HSA, SustainHash, and Stormrake.
Registration is open now at https://www.bffs.media/summit.
Hal Finney, the cypherpunk and PGP developer, received 10 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto on January 12, 2009. A look at his career, his ALS diagnosis and his cryopreservation.
Hal Finney (@halfin) was the first person Satoshi Nakamoto ever sent Bitcoin to. On January 12, 2009, CoinGecko notes, he received 10 $BTC from Satoshi in Bitcoin block 170, making him the first recipient of a Bitcoin transaction.
A cypherpunk before BitcoinLong before Bitcoin, Finney was a cypherpunk, part of the community of 1990s coders who built privacy tools. According to the Nakamoto Institute, he worked for PGP Corporation, where he developed some of the earliest PGP code, the encryption software. He also built the first anonymous remailer and RPOW (Reusable Proofs of Work), a proof-of-work based digital cash system. He launched RPOW in 2004, five years before Bitcoin went live.
When Satoshi released the first Bitcoin software in January 2009, Finney was among the first to run it. He posted "Running bitcoin" on Twitter on January 11, 2009, according to a timeline published by whatisbitcoin.com. In a 2013 forum post quoted by Cointelegraph, Finney said the coins were sent to him as a test, and that he spent the following days emailing with Satoshi, mostly reporting bugs that were then fixed.
The 10 BTC had no market value at the time. Cointelegraph described the transfer as likely a test of the blockchain's viability.
Satoshi speculation, ALS and cryopreservationSome people have long suspected that Finney was Satoshi himself. Wikipedia's entry on Finney notes that he lived in the same Californian town as Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto for about a decade, which fed speculation, and that Finney denied being Satoshi. The question remains unresolved in public debate.
In August 2009, Finney was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive disease that gradually removes control of the body. Finney announced the diagnosis publicly in October of that year, according to the cryptoanarchy.wiki. As the illness advanced, he kept programming. By March 2013 he described himself as essentially paralyzed but still working on code, including experimental software called bcflick, designed to strengthen Bitcoin wallets.
Finney died in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 28, 2014, aged 58. The Bitcoin Wiki records that he had arranged with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation to be cryopreserved after being declared legally dead. Cryopreservation involves freezing a body at extremely low temperatures in the hope that future technology might one day revive it.
Finney's contribution to Bitcoin's early days has been widely recognized. His earlier work on RPOW is often cited as groundwork for the proof-of-work design that Bitcoin later used.
Sources:
CoinGecko: Hal Finney, Bitcoin's First Transaction RecipientNakamoto Institute: Hal FinneyBitcoin Wiki: Hal Finney
Strategy stock fell over 5% on Friday, closing at $136, which marks a 20% decline from its September high and the lowest level since mid-September. This renewed drop comes as momentum in both the stock and Bitcoin appears to be fading, with ongoing concerns about share dilution among investors.
Bitcoin price decline impacts Strategy stockShares of Strategy, a firm holding one of the world’s largest public Bitcoin positions, have closely tracked the cryptocurrency’s recent downturn. Bitcoin’s price surged to a peak of $87,270 in September but has since fallen to about $80,980 as appetite in both futures and spot ETF markets has weakened.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which saw substantial net inflows in recent months, recorded more than $534 million in outflows this month, reversing September’s inflows of $2.6 billion and August’s $3.52 billion increase. Despite these outflows, total cumulative inflows for Bitcoin ETFs stand at $56.9 billion. Among these, BlackRock’s IBIT leads with $66 billion in assets.
Bitcoin futures open interest has dipped, shrinking to $52 billion from last month’s high of $62 billion, indicating lighter demand from speculative traders. Additionally, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has remained negative since late September, reflecting sustained caution among US-based investors.
Shares of Strategy often mirror Bitcoin’s movements, given the company’s significant exposure. The firm currently holds 848,250 BTC, with a total market value of $68.6 billion.
Strategy has funded much of its Bitcoin acquisition by issuing new shares. Outstanding shares have climbed to 352 million from just 93.2 million in 2022, raising worries about ongoing dilution for shareholders.
Mini dictionary: Strategy is a US-based publicly traded company known for holding significant amounts of Bitcoin on its balance sheet and using equity issuance to expand these holdings.
Key technical levels for Bitcoin and MSTRTechnical analysis indicates Bitcoin has performed poorly over recent weeks, moving from $87,270 at the end of September to around $80,890. After forming a double-top pattern, considered a sign of potential downward reversal, the price dropped below the $82,300 neckline. Bitcoin has also slipped under its 50-day moving average, and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) continues to worsen.
Analysts suggest the next key support for Bitcoin may be near $74,933, its lowest level in September. If a further drop occurs, the value of Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings could decrease to $63.4 billion.
MetricSeptember HighCurrentBitcoin Price$87,270$80,980Strategy (MSTR) Share Price$171.40$134–$136Outstanding Shares93.2 million (2022)352 millionBitcoin ETF Inflows (Sept)$2.6 billionOutflows $534 million (Oct)For MSTR shares, the daily chart reveals a decline from $171.40 on September 22 to $134, tracking the Bitcoin sell-off. The price has dropped below the 25-day moving average and the descending trendline connecting recent highs. The MACD indicator has shown a bearish crossover, with both lines pointing downward. This technical setup hints at further weakness, with the psychological $100 level as a probable target.
If the stock rises above $150, the bearish scenario may be invalidated, potentially signaling gains up to $200.
Analyst views and future outlookDespite the recent correction, several analysts remain positive on MSTR’s prospects. Cantor Fitzgerald has set a price target of $208, Citigroup targets $240, and Bernstein offers an optimistic $350. B.Riley projects a more conservative rise to $195.
Analysts from multiple firms have issued price targets ranging from $195 to $350 for Strategy, reflecting continued faith in the firm’s Bitcoin-centric strategy over the longer term despite recent market headwinds.
As both Bitcoin and ETF inflow momentum cool, investors will be closely watching support levels in the weeks ahead as well as further dilution risk stemming from additional share issuance.
Call it poetic justice: one of the biggest victims of last week’s Ledger theft happened to be a scammer themself, according to blockchain analysts, and lost nearly $5 million in bitcoin.
In a post Thursday, Chainalysis wrote that a crook lost 60 bitcoins worth about $4.8 million they’d stolen via a so-called task scam.
According to Chainalysis, the address was linked with a con where people were paid to fake sales and reviews of real items. They were told to add their own money in order to get paid — and then stolen from.
One of the biggest victims of the Ledger theft was a scammer themselves. They lost more than 60BTC, about $4.8M. The funds were from a task scam.
In this task scam, people were paid to fake sales and reviews of real items. Then a "negative balance" appeared, and they were told… https://t.co/IJX4tx9ib3 pic.twitter.com/pGXNJkZJUi
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) October 15, 2026 But the mastermind behind the task scam moved the stolen money to Ledger addresses which were then targeted by different scammers last week.
“On Sep 22, the person behind the scam moved the proceeds into three separate Ledger addresses,” Chainalysis said. “On Oct 9, thieves emptied all three. One transfer each, into the same wallet. The wallet is reported as stolen funds.”
Paris-based Ledger last week said it had started an investigation after customers in South East Asia reported they’d lost funds after buying from Malaysia-based reseller, CryptoBilis.
Ledger has since said that the scam was a massive organized crime operation where a group installed implants into devices and put them back on the market. The implants could read users’ seed phrases so criminals could then drain wallets.
Calling it one the most “sophisticated attacks” the digital asset industry has experienced, Ledger is yet to reveal how much money has been lost — but blockchain investigator Specter said $86 million had been drained.
And the task scam conman, according to Chainalysis, was one of the victims.
Ledger has said that it is working with law enforcement to “follow the funds and dismantle the attackers’ infrastructure” and has made sure no other vendors have been targeted by scammers.
CryptoBilis has stopped selling Ledger products, the company said.
Criminals have targeted bitcoin hardware sellers this year, with a huge attack taking place in July on the popular Coldcard products.
Crooks were able to steal close to $120 million in bitcoin from Coldcard users because the devices had a firmware bug which led to faulty seed generation, allowing hackers to guess investor seedphrases.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
Google Quantum AI researchers have reported a significant experimental advance on their Willow superconducting processor, successfully implementing a method known as magic state cultivation that cuts error rates by roughly forty times relative to conventional preparation techniques.
The result, detailed in a paper published in Science on October 15, 2026, and summarized on the company’s research blog, marks the first practical hardware demonstration of a long-theorized approach to overcoming one of quantum computing’s most stubborn resource bottlenecks.
For two decades, specialists have recognized that performing the non-Clifford operations required for universal, fault-tolerant quantum computation depends on high-quality “magic states.”
Generating these states through traditional distillation protocols has been projected to consume the vast majority of a machine’s physical qubits—estimates have run as high as 95 percent—leaving scant capacity for useful computation.
Once consumed, a magic state cannot be reused, further constraining scalability.
The cultivation protocol, refined from earlier theoretical work by Google researchers including Craig Gidney, Noah Shutty, and Cody Jones, treats the process more like selective filtering than mass production.
A noisy candidate state is injected into a compact patch of qubits.
Coordinated measurements then identify and discard flawed attempts while the surviving, higher-purity state is expanded or “grown” into a more robust encoding.
On Willow, the team achieved T-states (a key variety of magic state) with a reported logical fidelity of 99.99 percent.
They also demonstrated the ability to transfer purified states between different error-correction codes—specifically grafting from a distance-3 color code into a distance-5 surface code—showing that the technique integrates with the processor’s existing architecture.
Researchers note that the advance could, in principle, allow meaningful programs to run with substantially fewer qubits than previously estimated, potentially on the order of one-tenth the earlier projections.
Google Quantum AI emphasizes that larger-scale demonstrations are still required and that numerous engineering hurdles remain before the method supports practical applications.
Nonetheless, the work converts a paper concept into an experimentally verified reality on real hardware and advances the broader goal of building error-corrected quantum machines capable of tackling problems beyond classical reach.
This progress arrives amid growing caution from researchers about the eventual implications for cryptography protecting bitcoin and other digital assets.
Earlier analyses, including work associated with Google Quantum AI published in March 2026, revised downward the estimated hardware resources needed to attack the elliptic-curve cryptography used in bitcoin signatures.
Those estimates suggested that a sufficiently advanced superconducting system with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits might solve the relevant discrete-logarithm problem in minutes—roughly a twenty-fold reduction from some prior figures.
While no existing quantum processor, including Willow’s 105-qubit array, comes close to that scale, and experts stress that cryptographically relevant machines remain years away, the combination of improved error handling and lowered resource thresholds has prompted calls for accelerated migration toward post-quantum cryptographic standards.
European regulators and others have separately highlighted that threats could materialize before commercial quantum systems become widely available, particularly for addresses whose public keys are already exposed on-chain. The cultivation result itself does not enable attacks on current cryptocurrency security, yet it contributes to the steady reduction of the practical barriers between laboratory milestones and larger, more reliable systems.
The Bitcoin price hovered close to $81,000 on October 16, rebounding from a weekly low at $79,800. The leading cryptocurrency tested its 50-day moving average, currently positioned at $81,279, as traders monitored potential technical support in this range.
Key technical resistance and trader insightsTrader Ardi, a well-followed figure in the crypto trading community, noted that Bitcoin faces clear resistance at $84,200. This level represents a necessary breakout point for Bitcoin to shift out of its short-term bearish structure. Ardi stated his intention to look for buying opportunities only if the price can convincingly breach this threshold.
Until we break above $84,200, the local swing structure remains bearish, and buyers should act accordingly.
Repeated attempts to recover since Bitcoin’s rise to $87,000 in September have instead resulted in a series of lower highs, reinforcing concerns about persistent selling pressure. The most recent daily high at $82,941 stands as the immediate hurdle, and a move above this would be needed before attempting a challenge at $84,200.
Bearish signals and technical indicatorsAnalyst Jesse Olson took a cautious view, commenting that the daily charts continue to reflect bearish momentum and warning of the possibility for a new closing low in this corrective phase. Technical indicators supported this near-term negative sentiment. The daily Aroon indicator showed a 0% upside reading and a 92.86% downside value, highlighting the recency of lower price points versus highs in the standard 14-bar window.
BTC remains bearish on the daily chart, with trends suggesting the lowest candle close of this correction.
The 50-day moving average, currently less than $70 away from the spot price, has offered a measure of support since the August recovery. If Bitcoin closes below this average, attention may shift back to the recent lows at $79,800.
The 200-day moving average serves as more distant support, situated at $72,397. With the 50-day moving average crossing above the 200-day, a bullish sign, the focus remains on the nearer support of the faster-moving threshold.
Momentum, support levels, and market risksDespite weak daily momentum, weekly indicators told a different story. The weekly relative strength index (RSI) posted a value of 56.39, above the average of 51.80, showing persistent, albeit not extreme, positive momentum. The weekly Supertrend, another trading signal used to assess long-term direction, flashed green at $66,812, reinforcing a positive bias in the broader timeframe.
A recent CoinGlass heatmap revealed significant concentrations of orders between $84,300 and $84,700, and smaller pockets from $83,300 to $83,700. These resistance levels align closely with Ardi’s breakout targets. On the downside, strong support clusters appear at $80,000 and between $79,000 and $79,500, which could attract buyers if prices weaken further.
LevelTypePrice ($)Closest supportCluster80,000Major support rangeCluster79,000–79,500Immediate resistanceDaily high82,941Breakout targetTechnical84,200Large order clusterHeatmap84,300–84,700Adding complexity to the market environment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that US inflation climbed to 3.7% in September, up from 3.4% in the prior month. Rising inflation remains a key risk factor for all financial markets, including cryptocurrencies.
With technical barriers in play and macroeconomic risks building, traders continue to follow crucial price levels to gauge the short-term outlook for $BTC.
Mini dictionary: CoinGlass is a data analytics platform specializing in real-time cryptocurrency order flow, liquidation data, and heatmaps for active traders.
A known crypto scammer has lost $4.8 million in bitcoin after falling victim to last week’s Ledger hardware wallet theft, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
Scammer loses stolen bitcoin in Ledger breachChainalysis stated that the individual, who previously orchestrated a “task scam” targeting unsuspecting victims, moved approximately 60 stolen bitcoins into three Ledger wallet addresses. The scam involved convincing people to fake sales and post fraudulent reviews, with the promise of payment. Victims were required to deposit their own money first, which the scammer then stole.
Chainalysis traced the scammer’s trail and discovered that the funds were sent to the Ledger addresses just weeks before the breach occurred. On October 9, thieves managed to drain all three addresses in single transfers, directing the bitcoin to a wallet flagged as containing stolen funds.
Chainalysis observed that one of the largest victims in the Ledger theft turned out to be a scammer who lost more than 60 BTC, equivalent to $4.8 million, from funds acquired through a task scam.
The firm described how the orchestrator of the task scam became a victim of a more sophisticated scheme. The stolen bitcoin was taken as part of a broader attack on Ledger devices, marking a rare instance where illicit gains disappeared through a new round of criminal activity.
Ledger attack targets resellers and usersLedger, a leading Paris-based provider of hardware wallets for cryptocurrencies, confirmed last week that it had begun investigating reports of theft after customers in Southeast Asia reported funds missing. Those affected had purchased devices from a reseller, CryptoBilis, based in Malaysia.
According to Ledger, criminals installed custom implants into hardware wallet devices, allowing them to capture users’ seed phrases—the sensitive backup needed for wallet recovery. Once the information was transmitted, attackers were able to empty affected wallets.
Ledger called the incident one of the most sophisticated attacks seen in the crypto industry to date. While the exact losses are still unknown, blockchain investigation firm Specter reported that the criminals drained $86 million during the breach.
Mini dictionary: Ledger is a French company specializing in hardware wallets designed to securely store cryptocurrencies offline. These devices are widely used in the crypto sector as a defense against online attacks, but become vulnerable if tampered with before sale.
Ledger said it is cooperating with law enforcement agencies to help track and recover stolen funds, and is working to dismantle the criminal group’s operations. The company also stated that other vendors have not been affected by the implant scam.
CryptoBilis, the implicated Malaysian reseller, has stopped selling Ledger wallets following the attack.
Ongoing risks for hardware wallet usersThis is not the first time hardware wallet sellers have faced such threats. In July, hackers targeted users of the popular Coldcard device by exploiting a firmware vulnerability. Cybercriminals stole nearly $120 million in bitcoin by identifying predictable seed phrases generated by compromised Coldcard firmware.
According to Chainalysis, both episodes highlight the persistent risks targeting hardware wallet providers and their customers as criminal schemes evolve.
Trump lauds US stock market: "Strongest in history!"
Former US President Trump posted a graphic on his social media platform, claiming that during his tenure, the S&P 500 surged from 5,881 points in December 2024 to 7,651 points in September 2026, a cumulative gain of roughly 30%. He captioned the post: "The strongest in history!" However, recent risks tied to AI trading have pressured US equities, which fell broadly on Friday. Concerns over AI investment returns, paired with soaring international oil prices, triggered fresh sell-offs in tech stocks. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.15%, the Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.5%, and the S&P 500 slipped 1.1%. The Nasdaq notched a 4.48% weekly loss, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68% — their weekly performance gap was the largest since July 2002. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined for the eighth straight trading day, marking its longest losing streak since 2008. Earlier today, Trump delivered his latest comments on the Russia-Ukraine and Middle East issues: "I know some details of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and I will make them public at some point. I hope it ends. The Biden administration did a lot of bad things regarding the Ukraine issue." When asked about inflation, Trump again asserted: "Oil prices will drop soon. Israel's support for Saudi Arabia is very substantial, and the Abraham Accords are back on Saudi Arabia's agenda."
1 seconds ago
A crypto whale’s 20x long position on SOL has generated $13 million in unrealized profit, with the position valued at $57.5 million.
According to Arkham's monitoring, whale trader 0x9c6 holds a 20x leveraged long position on SOL on Hyperliquid, with the current position value totaling around $57.5 million. The entry price for the position is $80.86. Based on SOL's current price of $104.43, the position has an unrealized profit of roughly $13 million. The trader opened the position approximately one month ago and has not closed it to date. Their Hyperliquid account is currently valued at about $24.2 million.
1 seconds ago
Binance’s spot trading volume remains elevated, while Coinbase’s trading activity has cooled.
Crypto market analyst CW noted in a post that Binance’s spot trading volume typically fluctuated between $6 billion and $13 billion before mid-August; it later rose to $19.4 billion at one point, and has recently held steady at around $10 billion daily. Following the previous rally in the crypto market, Binance’s overall spot trading volume has remained at a high level. Despite the current short-term bearish trend in the market, Binance’s trading volume remains strong, indicating that market liquidity is still relatively sufficient. In contrast, Coinbase’s trading volume rose significantly during the recent market upswing, but as the market entered a consolidation and correction phase, trading activity has gradually cooled down.
1 seconds ago
Justin Sun's latest personal asset allocation: Core BTC holdings remain unchanged, while 80 to 90 percent of his ETH positions have been reduced, with the funds redirected to US stocks.
TRON founder Justin Sun recently shared his personal asset allocation views (excluding TRON) during a 3.5-hour face-to-face talk with Jin Ming. Key points of his core portfolio strategy: - BTC: Held as a base position, with no reductions over the past year. While he expressed concerns about potential impacts from quantum computing and AI algorithms, noting the market has not fully priced these risks, he still maintains his BTC holdings and uses cold wallets in "bunker mode" for isolation. - ETH: Last year, he cut roughly 80-90% of his aggressive ETH positions in the $3,600–$4,000 range, and now only retains about 20% as a base position for observation, with no repurchase plans. Most funds from the ETH position reduction were allocated to US stocks. - NVIDIA: Serves as his main US stock holding, positioned as a base in the AI sector, with a heavy stake that he has not reduced. - Nasdaq 100: Held with a heavy position. He holds a slightly bearish mid-term outlook (citing factors like capital clustering and high interest rates) but has not opened short positions, keeping the position intact. - A-share market: No holdings. Overall, Sun is bearish on traditional assets and more focused on areas like AI applications and Web3. During the interview, he emphasized ETH as an aggressive asset while BTC acts as a base position. He added that he is bullish on AI health management and other applications, and bearish on some hardware sectors. The above are key takeaways from the interview, not a complete balance sheet.
1 seconds ago
Yesterday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $82.4 million, while spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of $69.7 million.
According to Farside's monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $82.4 million yesterday, while spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of $69.7 million, marking three consecutive trading days of net outflows.
1 seconds ago
Cloud deployment platform Zeabur announced it will gradually cease operations after suffering two security attacks, with all its servers to be shut down by December 31.
Beating AI Express News: Cloud deployment platform Zeabur founder Lin Yuanlin announced via user email that the platform will gradually cease operations. Some services will shut down successively starting December 1, and all dedicated servers and shared clusters will be closed by December 31. The official advises users to back up data and arrange migration as soon as possible. The shutdown decision stems from successive security incidents on the platform. Zeabur suffered a security incident in August this year and was attacked again in October. According to the official status page, the attacker gained read access to the platform’s database in the latest breach, accessing service environment variables, account information, and API tokens; some Google Cloud dedicated servers also faced unauthorized access. The founder noted in the email that the team began discussing whether to continue operations after the August incident. Following the latest attack, the team re-evaluated the investment required for sustained operations and the responsibilities it could assume, ultimately deciding to shut down the platform. The past year marked Zeabur’s fastest growth period, with AI applications including n8n, OpenClaw, and Vibe Coding driving demand for cloud deployment. However, AI has also lowered deployment barriers, leading the platform to hit growth bottlenecks. The team will also provide Markdown migration guides and Skills for Claude Code and Codex to help users migrate their existing services.
Trump lauds US stock market: "Strongest in history!"
Former US President Trump posted a graphic on his social media platform, claiming that during his tenure, the S&P 500 surged from 5,881 points in December 2024 to 7,651 points in September 2026, a cumulative gain of roughly 30%. He captioned the post: "The strongest in history!" However, recent risks tied to AI trading have pressured US equities, which fell broadly on Friday. Concerns over AI investment returns, paired with soaring international oil prices, triggered fresh sell-offs in tech stocks. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.15%, the Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.5%, and the S&P 500 slipped 1.1%. The Nasdaq notched a 4.48% weekly loss, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68% — their weekly performance gap was the largest since July 2002. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined for the eighth straight trading day, marking its longest losing streak since 2008. Earlier today, Trump delivered his latest comments on the Russia-Ukraine and Middle East issues: "I know some details of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and I will make them public at some point. I hope it ends. The Biden administration did a lot of bad things regarding the Ukraine issue." When asked about inflation, Trump again asserted: "Oil prices will drop soon. Israel's support for Saudi Arabia is very substantial, and the Abraham Accords are back on Saudi Arabia's agenda."
1 seconds ago
A crypto whale’s 20x long position on SOL has generated $13 million in unrealized profit, with the position valued at $57.5 million.
According to Arkham's monitoring, whale trader 0x9c6 holds a 20x leveraged long position on SOL on Hyperliquid, with the current position value totaling around $57.5 million. The entry price for the position is $80.86. Based on SOL's current price of $104.43, the position has an unrealized profit of roughly $13 million. The trader opened the position approximately one month ago and has not closed it to date. Their Hyperliquid account is currently valued at about $24.2 million.
1 seconds ago
Binance’s spot trading volume remains elevated, while Coinbase’s trading activity has cooled.
Crypto market analyst CW noted in a post that Binance’s spot trading volume typically fluctuated between $6 billion and $13 billion before mid-August; it later rose to $19.4 billion at one point, and has recently held steady at around $10 billion daily. Following the previous rally in the crypto market, Binance’s overall spot trading volume has remained at a high level. Despite the current short-term bearish trend in the market, Binance’s trading volume remains strong, indicating that market liquidity is still relatively sufficient. In contrast, Coinbase’s trading volume rose significantly during the recent market upswing, but as the market entered a consolidation and correction phase, trading activity has gradually cooled down.
1 seconds ago
Justin Sun's latest personal asset allocation: Core BTC holdings remain unchanged, while 80 to 90 percent of his ETH positions have been reduced, with the funds redirected to US stocks.
TRON founder Justin Sun recently shared his personal asset allocation views (excluding TRON) during a 3.5-hour face-to-face talk with Jin Ming. Key points of his core portfolio strategy: - BTC: Held as a base position, with no reductions over the past year. While he expressed concerns about potential impacts from quantum computing and AI algorithms, noting the market has not fully priced these risks, he still maintains his BTC holdings and uses cold wallets in "bunker mode" for isolation. - ETH: Last year, he cut roughly 80-90% of his aggressive ETH positions in the $3,600–$4,000 range, and now only retains about 20% as a base position for observation, with no repurchase plans. Most funds from the ETH position reduction were allocated to US stocks. - NVIDIA: Serves as his main US stock holding, positioned as a base in the AI sector, with a heavy stake that he has not reduced. - Nasdaq 100: Held with a heavy position. He holds a slightly bearish mid-term outlook (citing factors like capital clustering and high interest rates) but has not opened short positions, keeping the position intact. - A-share market: No holdings. Overall, Sun is bearish on traditional assets and more focused on areas like AI applications and Web3. During the interview, he emphasized ETH as an aggressive asset while BTC acts as a base position. He added that he is bullish on AI health management and other applications, and bearish on some hardware sectors. The above are key takeaways from the interview, not a complete balance sheet.
1 seconds ago
Yesterday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $82.4 million, while spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of $69.7 million.
According to Farside's monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $82.4 million yesterday, while spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of $69.7 million, marking three consecutive trading days of net outflows.
1 seconds ago
Cloud deployment platform Zeabur announced it will gradually cease operations after suffering two security attacks, with all its servers to be shut down by December 31.
Beating AI Express News: Cloud deployment platform Zeabur founder Lin Yuanlin announced via user email that the platform will gradually cease operations. Some services will shut down successively starting December 1, and all dedicated servers and shared clusters will be closed by December 31. The official advises users to back up data and arrange migration as soon as possible. The shutdown decision stems from successive security incidents on the platform. Zeabur suffered a security incident in August this year and was attacked again in October. According to the official status page, the attacker gained read access to the platform’s database in the latest breach, accessing service environment variables, account information, and API tokens; some Google Cloud dedicated servers also faced unauthorized access. The founder noted in the email that the team began discussing whether to continue operations after the August incident. Following the latest attack, the team re-evaluated the investment required for sustained operations and the responsibilities it could assume, ultimately deciding to shut down the platform. The past year marked Zeabur’s fastest growth period, with AI applications including n8n, OpenClaw, and Vibe Coding driving demand for cloud deployment. However, AI has also lowered deployment barriers, leading the platform to hit growth bottlenecks. The team will also provide Markdown migration guides and Skills for Claude Code and Codex to help users migrate their existing services.
Fidelity Digital Assets recently released an analysis noting that the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has risen to its highest level since Bitcoin’s inception, while the size of U.S. federal debt has surpassed $40 trillion, with interest payments exceeding Medicare to become the second-largest expenditure item in the federal budget. Fidelity pointed out that Bitcoin’s correlation with the 10-year U.S. real interest rate was long low, but has gradually turned positive in recent years, rising above 0.6 in 2026, a record high. Over the past two months, Bitcoin has rallied nearly 30%, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has jumped more than 10% in the same period. Fidelity argues that amid rising government debt, higher financing costs and growing concerns over fiscal intervention, Bitcoin’s fixed supply cap of 21 million coins may boost its appeal as a potential hedge against currency devaluation and a portfolio diversification tool. If current debt and interest rate trends persist, government interest payments could even become the largest expenditure item in the federal budget in the future. U.S. Treasury data shows that the U.S. federal budget deficit for fiscal 2026 rose to $1.99 trillion, up from $1.78 trillion in fiscal 2025, the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the Trump administration’s pledge to cut spending, military spending, Social Security expenditures and Treasury interest payments continue to climb, coupled with a decline in corporate tax revenue, further expanding the fiscal deficit.
MONACO, Oct. 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crypto news today is turning toward AlphaPepe as the presale moves closer to announcing its fifth CEX partner. Four exchange partnerships are already in place, and online communities are increasingly debating whether Binance could be the next major name tied to $ALPE. The countdown comes with AlphaPepe above $3.01 million raised and more than 12,500 holders already onboard.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has bounced back toward $82,000 after briefly breaking below $80,000, while a new $175,000 BTC forecast is giving retail bulls something much bigger to watch. AlphaPepe’s Fifth CEX Reveal Moves Into Focus AlphaPepe’s next exchange announcement is now the main presale catalyst. The project already has four CEX partnerships behind it, and the fifth partner reveal is coming soon as $ALPE remains before its first public exchange chart.
That timing is what makes the story attractive to retail. Buyers are watching the exchange network expand before open-market trading begins, rather than discovering the token after a major listing has already put it in front of a much larger audience. Binance has become the name dominating online discussion around the reveal.
With four partnerships already announced, communities are trying to work out whether AlphaPepe’s fifth exchange could take the rollout into a much larger tier. $3.01M Raised Before the Next Exchange Name Drops The coming CEX reveal is arriving with considerably more momentum behind AlphaPepe than earlier exchange updates.
The presale has crossed $3.01 million raised and 12,500 holders, with more than 100 new holders reportedly joining every day. That means the fifth announcement will land in front of an existing retail crowd. AlphaPepe is not trying to find its first buyers after exchange exposure arrives. Thousands are already positioned before the next exchange name enters the story.
The current presale price is $0.03368, while the listing price starts from $0.08. For buyers focused on timing, the attraction is straightforward: the next CEX catalyst is still ahead while the token remains in its pre-listing phase. AlphaSwap Gives the Listing Story More Than Hype Exchange speculation becomes more interesting when a project already has a product behind it.
AlphaSwap, AlphaPepe’s AI DEX, is live in Early Access, while Auto-Trade registration is also open before $ALPE reaches exchanges. The ecosystem is being developed by an ex-Shibarium developer, giving AlphaPepe a stronger technical background than meme projects built entirely around branding and future promises. Buyers also receive their ALPE tokens immediately after purchase instead of waiting for a later claim window.
That creates a cleaner setup heading into the fifth CEX reveal: exchange exposure is expanding, the AI DEX is already accessible, and the token is still before its first public-market cycle. Bitcoin Price Prediction Reaches $175,000 Bitcoin rebounded toward $82,000 on Friday after briefly falling below $80,000 as hotter U.S. inflation, rate-hike fears and a global technology selloff hit risk assets.
Easing Treasury yields and softer oil prices helped bring buyers back, but BTC is still heading toward a second straight weekly decline. The bigger retail headline is a fresh $175,000 target. Siebert Financial analyst Brian Vieten recently argued Bitcoin could move above $175,000 over the coming quarters, pointing to broader institutional ownership, banks accepting Bitcoin ETF shares as loan collateral and growing stablecoin adoption.
That target would require a major recovery from current levels, but it gives bulls a clear long-term thesis while short-term traders fight around $80,000. Bitcoin already has the institutional infrastructure and mature market. AlphaPepe remains much earlier, with its fifth exchange partner still waiting to be revealed.
AlphaPepe Makes the Fifth CEX the Next Catalyst to Watch AlphaPepe has moved beyond $3.01 million raised, but the immediate story is no longer another fundraising milestone. It is which exchange comes next. Four CEX partnerships are already announced, Binance is dominating the online conversation, and the fifth reveal is approaching while $ALPE remains at $0.03368 before public price discovery.
AlphaSwap is already live, an ex-Shibarium developer is behind the ecosystem, and more than 12,500 holders are already watching the same countdown. Bitcoin traders are asking whether BTC can recover from $80,000 and eventually make the run toward $175,000. AlphaPepe buyers have a much nearer event in front of them: the fifth CEX partner reveal.
VISIT ALPHAPEPE OFFICIAL WEBSITE FAQs When will AlphaPepe announce its fifth CEX partner? AlphaPepe says its fifth CEX partnership reveal is coming soon. Four CEX partnerships have already been announced, while Binance is one of the names being heavily discussed online.
What is the Bitcoin price prediction?
Bitcoin price prediction reaches $175,000 in a bullish multi-quarter scenario built around stronger institutional ownership, bank-backed crypto financing and wider digital-asset adoption.
What is AlphaSwap?
AlphaSwap is AlphaPepe’s AI DEX, already live in Early Access. Auto-Trade registration is also open while $ALPE remains in presale.
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BlackRock has sold $71.78 million worth of Bitcoin, according to a widely shared post on X. That number sounds dramatic when you attach the name of the world’s largest asset manager to it.
The reality is more mundane, and arguably more telling. The selling traces back to investors pulling money out of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), not to Larry Fink’s team deciding Bitcoin had a bad vibe.
What actually happened IBIT is the largest US spot Bitcoin ETF, holding tens of billions of dollars in assets. When shareholders redeem, the fund sells some of the Bitcoin backing those shares to pay them out.
BlackRock has made that point itself. The firm maintains its Bitcoin sales are purely reactive, driven by client demand, and no proprietary Bitcoin selling by BlackRock has been documented. Every sale on record ties back to redemptions.
The $71.78 million figure lands amid a run of similar moves. Research covering mid-October 2026 shows IBIT clients sold approximately $65.4 million in Bitcoin on October 13, 2026.
That followed a much rougher session earlier in the month. On October 7, 2026, IBIT saw $207.7 million in outflows in a single day.
IBIT was not alone that day. Net outflows across all US spot Bitcoin ETFs hit $484.9 million on October 7, which means BlackRock’s fund accounted for a sizable slice of the exodus.
Zoom out to the full week, and the picture gets bleaker. Combined outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF products exceeded $1.2 billion, marking the weakest stretch for these funds since late June 2026.
The backdrop: a jittery market Bitcoin has been trading in a range of roughly $80,000 to $83,000 during this period. The redemptions have coincided with price swings around that band.
Higher rates matter here for a simple reason. When safe assets start paying more, the opportunity cost of holding a non-yielding asset like Bitcoin goes up.
Since launching in January 2024, IBIT has become the default on-ramp for institutions that want Bitcoin exposure without touching a private key.
There is also precedent for large holders trimming positions. Harvard Management reduced its IBIT stake by about $72 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, another case where the selling started with the client, not the issuer.
Why the headline number misleads, and why it still matters Framing these flows as “BlackRock sells Bitcoin” makes for a punchy post. It also implies a strategic call by the firm, which the evidence does not support.
BlackRock is acting as a pass-through here. The Bitcoin it sells belongs, functionally, to IBIT shareholders who decided they wanted dollars instead.
What the data actually shows is a sentiment problem among the fund’s clients. And for anyone tracking Bitcoin’s price, client sentiment may matter more than BlackRock’s corporate opinion anyway.
What this means for Bitcoin investors ETF flows have become one of the clearest real-time windows into institutional appetite for Bitcoin. When money pours in, funds buy. When it pours out, they sell, and that selling hits the spot market.
Still, flow data is noisy. One heavy day, like the $207.7 million IBIT saw on October 7, can be followed by smaller outflows or even inflows once markets settle. The October 13 figure of approximately $65.4 million was meaningfully smaller than that early-month spike.
For BlackRock, the stakes are reputational as much as financial. Its insistence that it only follows client demand is part of what makes IBIT credible to cautious institutions.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
According to Farside's monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $82.4 million yesterday, while spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of $69.7 million, marking three consecutive trading days of net outflows.
Bank custody, stablecoin payments and Bitcoin retirement accounts feature in today’s crypto developments, alongside a last-minute change to Solana’s Shanghai event. This roundup covers announcements and new disclosures from October 16, 2026.
Deutsche Bank Outlines Bitcoin and Ethereum Custody Timetable Bitcoin and Ether will be the first assets supported when Deutsche Bank introduces its crypto custody service, corporate banking co-head Gerald Podobnik told Reuters in a report published Friday. He put the German launch just weeks away, with expansion into Asian financial centres planned for 2027. Stablecoin transactions, tokenized deposits and blockchain-based securities also form part of the bank’s broader plans.
Coinbase Partnership Brings Stablecoin Card Plans to Marqeta Customers Businesses using Marqeta are set to gain a way to offer cards funded from customers’ stablecoin holdings, under an expanded Coinbase partnership announced Friday. Marqeta will oversee card issuance and processing, while Coinbase will safeguard the digital assets and manage conversion into conventional currency. Settlement will use Base, and businesses will be able to fund their card programmes around the clock.
Circle Targets About 40 Additional Markets Circle is preparing to enter roughly 40 emerging and developing markets, CEO Jeremy Allaire said in an October 16 Reuters interview. He pointed to growing demand for digital dollars across Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East as the company pursues wider adoption. Allaire also highlighted AI software making small payments in USDC as another developing use for the stablecoin.
Solana Postpones Shanghai Gathering After Registration Surge People preparing to attend Solana’s Shanghai event were told on October 16 that the programme had been postponed. Solana Foundation President Lily Liu attributed the decision to registrations increasing fourfold overnight, taking expected attendance beyond the limit agreed with local authorities. Organizers said registered guests would receive an updated schedule once arrangements were confirmed; a replacement date had not been announced at the time of reporting.
Bitcoin Well Opens U.S. Retirement Accounts Holding BTC U.S. customers can now open Traditional or Roth retirement accounts through Bitcoin Well that hold Bitcoin directly, following the company’s October 16 product announcement. Heritage IRA administers the accounts, which accept eligible transfers from existing retirement accounts and qualifying 401(k) rollovers. Bitcoin Well lists a $210 annual IRA fee and says it also earns revenue from the spread on Bitcoin transactions within the accounts.
SBI and Startale Explore a Yen–Dollar Stablecoin Connection A proposed connection between yen and dollar stablecoins is the focus of SBI Holdings and Startale’s latest initiative. The companies announced on October 16 that they had joined Open Standard and would explore a pilot linking JPYSC, issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, with the dollar-denominated Open USD, or OUSD. Their goal is to simplify settlement between the two currencies, with the proposed connection still at the exploration stage.
Bitcoin turned lower in late morning trade, retesting the $80,000 threshold heading into the weekend. The flagship cryptocurrency is down 1.3% to $80,970 Friday afternoon, according to pricing data from LSEG. The cryptocurrency had rallied along with the stock markets in morning trade, but succumbed to continued weakness seen in tech and AI stocks, following the 2.4% slide seen on the Nasdaq.
Bond yields turned higher in the afternoon, this after the Treasury Department passed on an opportunity to send a strong signal that it is considering reducing the sizes of bond auctions. Higher yields have been a pressure point for cryptocurrencies and general commodities, with investors cautious about engaging with what they perceive as "riskier" assets.
Crypto assets were supported in morning trade by dimming expectations for a near-term Federal Reserve rate hike. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh avoided a clearly hawkish or dovish tone during a moderated conversation at the International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok. But for bitcoin, lacking demand for tokens on the spot market is a fundamental problem that hasn't gone away.
"The demand picture has not improved," said Colin Basco, a senior quantitative analyst with Coinbase Institutional. Basco attributes the upward movement seen in bitcoin earlier in the week to trading by leveraged long positions, as opposed to spot demand among investors. Net flows in and out of bitcoin ETFs, considered a metric of interest in the cryptocurrency among fund managers, have slid back into being more negative than positive for the week.
Through Thursday, bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $146 million, according to data from Coinglass. At the same time, analysts say that bitcoin's relative strength versus AI stocks this week is reason for optimism. Bitcoin shed roughly 3% this week, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF slipped 9%. Write to Kirk Maltais at [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires 10-16-26 1543ET Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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Google Quantum AI reduced errors 40-fold on its Willow processor using magic state distillation. Researchers achieved 99.99% logical fidelity, but retained only 8% of attempts. Google’s earlier research estimated that future quantum attacks could threaten Bitcoin’s digital signatures. Coinbase urged Bitcoin developers to prepare quantum-resistant security upgrades before future attacks become practical. Starknet opened a governance vote as it explores becoming an independent, quantum-resistant blockchain. Google Quantum AI reported a new test on its Willow processor on Thursday, reducing errors in a key quantum operation by 40 times. The findings also revived Bitcoin security concerns.
Google Quantum Test Reaches 99.99%, State Fidelity The study, published in Science on October 15, tested a process called magic state cultivation. Willow produced special quantum states with 99.99% logical fidelity.
Quantum computers need these states for complex calculations. Earlier estimates suggested their production could consume up to 95% of a machine’s capacity.
Google filtered out faulty states through repeated checks on Willow. Just 8% passed. Researchers successfully transferred the remaining states between two error-correction methods, although larger tests are still needed.
Bitcoin Faces a Longer-Term Quantum Risk In March, Google Quantum AI researchers estimated that a future machine might break Bitcoin’s current signature protection using fewer than 500,000 physical qubits. The calculation assumed future hardware, not a successful attack.
The researchers described a possible nine-minute attack against transactions with exposed public keys. About 6.9 million BTC may face exposure through already visible public keys.
Other networks are also debating protections. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson challenged Vitalik Buterin’s concerns about AI-assisted attacks on lattice cryptography in an October 9 X post, arguing that security choices require evidence.
Coinbase Calls for Early Bitcoin Preparation Coinbase published a security paper on October 13 urging developers to plan before quantum attacks become practical. It called Bitcoin’s eventual transition a multiyear effort.
Its recommendations include examining BIP-360, which changes how certain Bitcoin transactions reveal keys. Coinbase also discussed wallets that could support existing and newer signature methods during a transition.
In its Bitcoin quantum security plan, Coinbase cited limited block space, custody systems and dormant coins as unresolved problems. Owners who have lost access to their wallets may be unable to move funds when upgrades become available.
Other Networks Review Their Security Plans Starknet said on X that it was considering becoming an independent blockchain, with a goal of reaching quantum resistance in 2027. Its account has more than 350,000 followers.
On October 15, Starknet opened a nonbinding vote on whether to study that change. The vote runs through October 22 and does not authorize a network move. Google has separately set a 2029 target for its own cryptography transition.
Morgan Stanley Capital International is moving ahead with a proposal that could remove bitcoin juggernaut Strategy from its global equity benchmarks.
The index maker said Thursday that it “will implement the proposal to define and classify non-operating companies as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.”
Bitcoin treasury Strategy previously blasted the idea, calling it “misguided” and “flawed.”
“MSCI will implement the proposal to define and classify non-operating companies as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes, as set out in the consultation announced on August 3, 2026, with minor modifications,” the statement read.
“The changes will be implemented as part of the November 2026 Index Review, which will take effect as of the close of November 30, 2026.”
MSCI’s decision won’t immediately remove Strategy from its Global Investable Market Indexes but future tests could end up excluding the company from the index.
If Strategy does get removed from the index, it would mean that fewer institutional investors can or will hold the stock.
Strategy did not immediately comment on the MSCI’s decision. The company said of the proposal in August: “Bitcoin doesn’t need MSCI. Neither does Strategy.”
MSCI in 2025 proposed excluding from its indices all companies whose digital-asset holdings represent 50% or more of total assets.
Strategy — formerly MicroStrategy — is an enterprise software company that pivoted to buying and holding bitcoin in 2020.
It first bought the cryptocurrency to protect shareholders but has since aggressively bought the asset and is now the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency, with 848,250 bitcoins worth $69.2 billion at today’s prices.
Investors can buy Strategy’s Nasdaq-listed stock (MSTR) to get heightened exposure to bitcoin’s performance.
Nasdaq-listed Strategy’s shares were trading over 6% lower on Friday.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
German multinational Deutsche Bank is just weeks away from its crypto custody service, according to reports.
The lender — which is Germany’s biggest — also plans to expand the custody platform into Asia next year, according to a Friday Reuters report, which quoted its corporate banking chief.
Top banks worldwide are debuting or planning to debut crypto custody services, with BNY Mellon, State Street, Standard Chartered, U.S. Bank, and Citigroup all committing to direct crypto custody over the past 18 months.
Deutsche Bank first officially announced plans to debut a bitcoin custody service for European corporate and institutional clients in September, with the German multinational at the time saying service was subject to the completion of the applicable regulatory timeline.
Friday’s report added that the service will support custody of major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin before moving to services that help clients move money into and out of stablecoins.
Gerald Podobnik, co-head of the corporate bank, was quoted by Reuters saying that the financial system will need to “offer tokenized or blockchain solutions.”
A number of top banks have started using the technology that powers bitcoin, the blockchain, for their own products in recent years.
Stablecoins and tokenization in particular have become a hot topic as traditional financial firms aim to accelerate certain services.
Crypto custody is often a starting point for banks moving into the digital asset space. BNY Mellon in 2022 became the first major U.S. bank to offer digital asset custody services.
Banks like Citi and Standard Chartered have this year debuted or announced plans for bitcoin custody around the world.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
Charles Schwab’s crypto research team says the asset still has strong fundamentals for the future, and it expects regulatory progress to help the broader market.
What Schwab’s researchers are saying
Analyst Adam Lynch made the bullish case on October 15, 2026. He pointed to nearly $60 billion in ETF inflows since early 2024 as evidence that demand runs deeper than a passing trend.
“Bitcoin is strong. It’s powerful… still has strong fundamentals for the future,” Lynch said.
Jim Ferraioli, Schwab’s Head of Crypto Research, noted that Bitcoin’s volatility now sits at about 40, down from a previous range of 50 to 60. He also put Bitcoin’s market cap at approximately $1.6 trillion and said the tokenization of real-world assets has reached around $50 billion.
On regulation, the team cited progress in the US, including clarity on Bitcoin and Ether as digital commodities.
Schwab Crypto goes fully live
Schwab completed the full retail rollout of Schwab Crypto around October 16, 2026. Eligible clients can now trade Bitcoin and Ether directly inside their Schwab accounts. Each trade carries a fee of 0.75%. Schwab plans to add more tokens to the platform by the end of the year.
The service runs through Schwab’s Premier Bank, with Paxos providing sub-custody support and handling execution.
CEO Rick Wurster has described crypto trading as a new source of revenue for the firm. Schwab’s clients hold approximately 20% of the assets in spot crypto ETFs, within Schwab’s $13 trillion in managed assets.
What this means for investors and the industry
Schwab’s research suggests modest allocations to crypto within diversified portfolios.
The 0.75% fee will be one point of comparison for cost-conscious traders. Watch, too, whether Schwab follows through on its plan to add more tokens by year-end.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
A year after crypto’s historic crash, leveraged trading has yet to regain its old swagger. But the appetite for outsize bets hasn’t disappeared. Increasingly, the machinery that made crypto notorious for speculation is being turned on stocks, commodities and other traditional assets rather than just digital tokens.
New data from Talos show the shift. Across five major trading venues, total open interest in perpetual futures — a gauge of outstanding speculative positions — has fallen to about $67 billion from $81 billion over the past year. Yet open interest in contracts tied to so-called real-world assets has gone from virtually nothing to $9 billion, claiming 14% of the total across those venues.
The retreat from crypto-native bets has been broad. Bitcoin perpetuals have shed roughly $8 billion in open interest, Ether $5 billion and smaller tokens another $10 billion. Growth in contracts linked to traditional assets has only partly offset those losses, suggesting crypto’s speculative machinery is finding new uses even as traders show less appetite for leveraged bets on digital tokens.
“What’s particularly striking is that while overall perpetual futures open interest remains below last October’s levels, the composition of the market has changed considerably,” said Samar Sen, head of international markets at Talos.
The shift has unfolded in the shadow of last year’s Oct. 10 crash, when crypto suffered one of the biggest deleveraging events in its history where about $19 billion of leveraged bets in the perpetual futures market were wiped out in 24 hours.
The damage went beyond the one-day liquidation event. Leverage remained subdued even as crypto prices staged a recovery rally from August 2026, with investors still contending with higher rates, geopolitical risks and uncertainty around US crypto legislation. Bitcoin slipped roughly 2% to around $81,700 on Thursday.
“What looks like calm is really a stalemate. Rates, CLARITY delays and Middle East risk weigh on price, while ETF demand and risk appetite keep absorbing the pressure. All it takes is one side to tire for price to break out,” Yuan Rong Tan, head of ALM at QCP, wrote in a recent report.
This points to a broader structural shift in derivatives markets, with crypto-native trading infrastructure increasingly being used to gain exposure to traditional financial assets, Sen said. “As the boundaries between traditional and digital asset markets continue to blur, this suggests the next phase of growth may increasingly come from assets beyond crypto itself,” he added.
It also reflects a broader maturation of digital assets. Years of institutional adoption and closer links with Wall Street have made crypto easier for mainstream investors to access, while reducing some of the distinct speculative character that once defined the market.
“You’re probably not going to see the same kind of crazy activity you saw in the past, because the asset class has matured. In a positive sense, it has matured. In a less flattering sense, it has become a little boring,” said Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO of Alpaca.
Kacper Szafran, founder of MNRT, the Malta-based firm behind the M-Squared multi-manager fund, said the shakeout is also forcing investors to become more selective.
“The altcoin market isn’t dead, but a large majority of tokens have no reason to exist and will trend toward zero,” Szafran said. “We’re finally reaching a stage of market maturity in which investors place more value on projects whose token economics are tied to actual usage, revenues and clear value accrual rather than on speculation alone.”
US stock market sees "Black Friday": Nasdaq falls more than 2%, AI-related stocks decline across the board.
According to BIT (bit.com) market data, the U.S. Nasdaq index’s decline widened to 2.36%, the S&P 500 fell 1.19%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.58%. Individual stocks posted losses: SPCX fell 2.24%, ORCL dropped 4.42%, GOOGL declined 2.27%, NVDA fell 0.95%, and TSLA dropped 2.97%. For other AI-related concept stocks: Optical module stocks: COHR fell 6.26%, LITE dropped 3.87%, AAOI declined 7.89%, NOK fell 2.51%, MRVL dropped 4.2%; Storage stocks: SKHY fell 6.13%, MU dropped 4.33%, SNDK declined 5.3%, WDC fell 5.16%, STX dropped 5.97%.
2 hours ago
The Nasdaq’s decline in US stocks widened to 2.2%, with the S&P 500 falling over 1%.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), the Nasdaq extended its decline to 2.2%, the S&P 500 fell 1.11%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.54%.
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has dropped below $81,000, with a current price of $80,936. Ethereum has fallen below $2,400, now priced at $2,397.
2 hours ago
US crypto-related stocks fell broadly, with Strategy (MSTR) dropping nearly 10%.
According to BIT (bit.com) market data, U.S. crypto-related stocks fell broadly, with individual declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 9.9%, Strive (ASST) down 7.97%, SharpLink (SBET) down 6.46%, Bitmine (BMNR) down 6.87%, Bullish (BLSH) down 7.09%, Gemini (GEMI) down 4.90%, Circle (CRCL) down 5.65%, and Coinbase (COIN) down 4.5%.
2 hours ago
Trump: Oil prices will fall soon, and he hopes the Russia-Ukraine conflict will end.
US President Donald Trump delivered a recent speech on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Middle East issues, stating: "I know some details of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and I will make them public at some point. I hope it ends. The Biden administration has done a lot of bad things on the Ukraine issue." When asked about inflation, Trump again claimed: "Oil prices will drop soon. Israel has provided very significant assistance to Saudi Arabia, and the Abraham Accords are once again a topic in Saudi Arabia." (Jinshi)
2 hours ago
NEAR Intents announces progress on its vulnerability incident: Attackers exploited a flaw in deposit notifications to generate fake balances, and all funds have been returned.
Cross-chain swap protocol NEAR Intents has released a post-mortem report on its recent vulnerability incident, disclosing that the $3.8 million asset extraction stemmed from a flaw in its deposit notification function. Attackers created smart contracts intentionally causing notification failures, resulting in deposited tokens being refunded while the protocol’s internal ledger still recorded the corresponding balance. Over 23 failed deposit transactions, the attackers accumulated $3.8 million in fake, unbacked balances, then withdrew real tokens between September 29 and October 1, transferring them to other blockchains via Omni infrastructure. Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, emphasized the vulnerability resided in NEAR Intents’ contracts, not Omni’s infrastructure. The protocol added that the attacker repaid all funds within 36 hours of the bug being identified, and affected users have received full compensation. The team has since enhanced balance monitoring mechanisms and permanently removed the vulnerable function on October 7. Additionally, a security researcher who discovered the critical vulnerability was awarded a $300,000 bounty.
Bitcoin traded near $81,400 on Oct. 16 after rebounding from a weekly low of $79,800, leaving its recovery dependent on holding the 50-day moving average and breaking a pattern of lower highs.
Summary
Bitcoin hovered near its 50-day moving average at $81,279 after slipping below $80,000 this week.
Trader Ardi identified $84,200 as the level needed to break the local bearish structure.
Weekly RSI held above 50, while the daily chart showed weaker short-term momentum.
CoinGlass’s one-week heatmap showed a large overhead liquidation cluster around $84,300–$84,700.
Bitcoin’s daily chart showed a price of $81,345.75, down 1.09% for the session, at 5:38 p.m. UTC. The weekly chart captured a minute later placed BTC at $81,449.99, down 2.77% from the week’s opening price.
The rebound above $80,000 has preserved a nearby support area, but Bitcoin has struggled to build on it. Following September’s advance toward $87,000, successive recovery attempts have stalled below the previous peaks, bringing price back toward its rising 50-day average.
Trader Ardi focused on that deteriorating structure in an Oct. 16 X post, arguing that calls for higher prices were running ahead of the evidence.
“Until we break $84.2K, you simply need to respect that the local swing structure is still bearish.”
Ardi said a break above that pivot would prompt him to consider long positions toward the top of the trading range. His bullish scenario therefore depends on Bitcoin first clearing resistance rather than simply bouncing from support.
Bitcoin’s recovery runs into a familiar $82,000 hurdle
The first obstacle sits closer to the current price. Bitcoin needs to regain $82,000 and sustain the recovery through the latest daily high near $82,941 before Ardi’s $84,200 threshold comes into view.
The $82,000 area has already featured in analysts’ assessments this month. In comments reported on Oct. 1, ViaBTC chief analyst Jeff Ko and Bitget Wallet research lead Lacie Zhang identified it as an important support level. Zhang warned that losing the $82,000–$82,500 zone could accelerate a decline toward $80,000, according to the report on Bitcoin’s October support. crypto.news
Bitcoin has since traded through that downside area. Recovering the former support would give the rebound more substance, while another rejection would leave the recent sequence of lower highs intact.
Crypto analyst Jesse Olson also maintained a cautious view in an Oct. 16 post.
“BTC remains bearish on the daily chart.”
Olson said Bitcoin was heading toward the lowest daily candle close of the correction. His assessment focused on the closing-price trend, which remained under pressure despite the recovery from the weekly low.
The 50-day average faces a close test
The daily chart places Bitcoin’s 50-day moving average at $81,279, only about $67 below the displayed price. Bitcoin is therefore testing a trend reference that has risen beneath the market during the recovery from August.
Bitcoin price daily chart — Oct. 16 | Source: TradingView
Holding that average would preserve a nearby base for another attempt at $82,000. A sustained break below it would instead put the week’s $79,800 low back in focus.
The daily Aroon indicator favors caution. Aroon Up stood at 0%, while Aroon Down reached 92.86%, showing that a recent low dominates the indicator’s 14-session window while a fresh high remains absent.
That reading fits the retreat from the September and early October peaks. Price has returned to support without first breaking the downward sequence identified by Ardi.
The longer daily trend has more room beneath it. Bitcoin’s 200-day moving average stood at $72,397, well below the immediate trading area, while the 50-day average remained above it following an earlier bullish crossover.
The current test is consequently concentrated around the faster average and recent price lows. Losing $80,000 would weaken the September recovery before it threatened the more distant 200-day trend reference.
Weekly momentum holds up better than the daily structure
Bitcoin’s weekly chart offers a less bearish picture. The relative strength index stood at 56.39, above both the neutral 50 level and its displayed average of 51.80.
Bitcoin price weekly chart — Oct. 16 | Source: TradingView
Weekly momentum has therefore retained some strength even as the daily price structure has weakened. The RSI has recovered from its midyear lows, although it remains below the stronger readings reached during earlier advances.
The weekly Supertrend also remained green, with its active line near $66,812. Bitcoin traded well above that level, keeping the indicator’s broader bullish signal intact.
The distance to that line means it offers little protection against a further near-term decline. Bitcoin could lose its immediate support while the weekly Supertrend remains positive.
For the recovery case, the more useful confirmation would come from price clearing the recent lower highs while weekly RSI stays above 50. Until then, the stronger weekly readings coexist with a daily correction.
Liquidation clusters build above the market
CoinGlass’s one-week liquidation heatmap showed its brightest overhead concentration around $84,300–$84,700, just above Ardi’s breakout threshold. Smaller clusters appeared near $83,300–$83,700.
Bitcoin liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass
Those estimated liquidation levels give a recovery through $84,200 an additional derivatives-market hurdle. Reaching the larger cluster could expose short positions to forced closures, although the heatmap does not establish that price will move toward it.
Below the market, visible concentrations extended through roughly $80,000 and $79,000–$79,500. A renewed loss of the weekly low would bring that lower area into the downside scenario.
U.S. inflation remains part of the backdrop. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that September consumer prices rose 3.7% annually, up from 3.4% in August. Before the release, BTSE chief operating officer Jeff Mei had warned that hotter inflation could send Bitcoin below $80,000 in comments on the inflation risk to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s immediate test remains the $81,279 average and the $79,800 weekly low. Holding that base leaves room for another recovery attempt, but a sustained break above $84,200 would be needed to challenge Ardi’s bearish local outlook.
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Bitcoin risks wiping out the results of many years of growth entirely and returning to fundamental support at the $10,000 level. The largest digital asset, which has served as the main indicator of risk appetite since 2009, is showing signs of a global trend reversal. The key trigger for this scenario would be a large-scale decline in the US stock market.
According to Mike McGlone, Bloomberg Intelligence's leading macro strategist, a 20% drop in the S&P 500 would set off a cascade effect that would return the cryptocurrency to its historical mean. "I see Bitcoin on track toward support around $10,000, notably if the US stock market has a 20% drawdown," the analyst states directly in his latest report.
Technical chart of Bitcoin, S&P 500, copper, and metals tracking a macro rollover, Source: Bloomberg IntelligenceBloomberg Intelligence technical indicators tracking 50-week moving averages show Bitcoin rolling over downward after its peak above $100,000, recorded in 2025. On the chart, the Bitcoin index, adjusted by a factor of 10, has fallen to 7,648, declining faster than other commodity and equity instruments. The current dynamics of the crypto market call into question the stability of adjacent sectors.
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The key question as of October 2026 is whether US stock indices and key industrial metals will follow Bitcoin. At the moment, the composite metals index stands at 8,130, the S&P 500 holds at 7,192, and copper futures have corrected to 6,045.
If Bitcoin, as the proxy asset most sensitive to liquidity, is the first to react to capital outflows, traditional markets may now be on the verge of a similar decline. In this context, McGlone puts an open question in the headline of his research: "Bitcoin Has Rolled Over — Are Stocks, Metals Next?"
The end of the cheap-money era. Where does this pessimism come from?McGlone links Bitcoin's bearish outlook to fundamental changes in the policies of the world's financial regulators. Most of the world's central banks have finally shifted their focus toward monetary restraint, keeping interest rates high. At the same time, government bond yields are rising aggressively, making conservative debt instruments more attractive to institutional capital.
"Most central banks shifting to restraint alongside surging government bond yields may signal an endgame," the strategist states. Amid a liquidity shortage, capital is flowing into tangible defensive assets, vividly confirmed by the triumph of precious metals: in the first quarter, the gold price firmly settled above $5,000 per ounce.
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If the US stock market loses 20%, the forced closing of large players' margin positions would inevitably return Bitcoin to the $10,000 level, which is its main historical liquidity anchor.
Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, made noteworthy statements regarding the future of the altcoin market. Arguing that the cryptocurrency sector struggles to innovate internally, Chen specifically noted that many Layer-1 and Layer-2 projects have failed to create real-world use cases. The experienced executive also warned that Bitcoin could face significant risks under current market conditions.
In an interview with New Era Finance, Chen assessed the development of the cryptocurrency sector in recent years, stating that despite its increasing integration with traditional finance, the sector has not been able to generate enough innovation within its own ecosystem.
According to Chen, some blockchain projects that have reached market capitalization of billions of dollars have a very limited user and developer base despite their high valuations. The executive added that the number of daily active developers on some networks remains in single or double digits.
Chen stated that the problems in the altcoin ecosystem are not limited to blockchain infrastructures alone, adding that sectors like GameFi, SocialFi, and NFTs, which generated great expectations in the past, have also failed to deliver on their promises.
Chen stated that SocialFi projects haven’t been able to truly compete with platforms like Facebook or TikTok, and that blockchain-based games struggle to compete with traditional games, adding that many projects in the NFT sector are failing to generate lasting value.
Chen stated that the number of projects capable of ensuring long-term sustainability in these sectors is quite limited, and that many initiatives have lost their operations or are gradually weakening.
However, the Bitget CEO is not entirely pessimistic about the future of the cryptocurrency sector. According to Chen, the biggest opportunities for the sector lie in the integration of the traditional financial system with blockchain technology.
Chen argued that areas such as stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization (RWA), and cross-border payments have strong growth potential, noting that these technologies offer solutions to concrete problems.
Chen added that for the cryptocurrency sector to regain strong growth, it needs to develop applications that respond to real user needs.
2022 Warning for Bitcoin: Could Another Crash Occur? In the interview, Chen also evaluated Bitcoin’s current price movements, noting that optimism in the cryptocurrency market changes quite rapidly.
Chen argued that the recent rise in Bitcoin’s price was not supported by an equally strong improvement in fundamental indicators, and stated that he did not define the current market situation as either a classic bull market or a traditional bear market.
Chen described the current period as a “monkey market” due to the constant up and down of prices.
Bitget CEO, particularly warning investors about highly leveraged trading, stated that Bitcoin could experience sharp price movements in the near future.
According to Chen, considering Bitcoin’s four-year cycle, the year 2026 has characteristics similar to the bear market of 2022 rather than the beginning of a new bull market.
Chen stated that if this similarity continues, a new unexpected event similar to the FTX crash could occur, warning that such a development could push the Bitcoin price to even lower levels.
On the other hand, Chen believes that Bitcoin has significant upside potential in the long term. The executive stated that if developments such as growth in the global money supply, institutional adoption, and countries starting to use Bitcoin as a reserve asset occur, Bitcoin has the potential to reach $1 million by 2035.
*This is not investment advice.
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In brief MSCI finalized a rule treating “non-operating companies” as ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes, effective Nov. 30, using a core screen plus a five-ratio exclusion test. The change targets Bitcoin treasury firms like Strategy and Metaplanet whose balance sheets are dominated by crypto, and scraps a temporary 2025 reprieve for companies with 50%+ digital-asset holdings; the affected list comes Nov. 11. Removal would force index-tracking funds to sell the shares; Saylor called the rule “discriminatory MSCI has finalized a rule change that threatens to boot Bitcoin treasury companies like Michael Saylor’s Strategy from its widely tracked equity indexes, a move that could cut off a significant source of passive investment demand for their shares.
In an announcement dated Oct. 15, the index provider said it will treat “non-operating companies” as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes, implementing a proposal it floated in August with minor modifications. The change takes effect at the close of Nov. 30 as part of MSCI’s November index review.
Will Strategy hold over 1M BTC before 2027? Click to make your prediction.The new methodology screens for corporate issuers that lack substantial operating assets and behave more like passive investment vehicles than real businesses. Companies that fail an initial “core screen” are then run through an exclusion test based on five financial ratios; a stock gets flagged as ineligible if it trips four or more of them.
The rule is aimed squarely at firms whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset, the model pioneered by Saylor’s Strategy, which holds hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin, and adopted by Japan’s Metaplanet and a wave of imitators.
To limit index churn, MSCI built in buffers: current index constituents will only be removed if they fail the screen in each of their two most recent annual filing periods, while new additions are blocked if they fail in either of the last two. MSCI said it would publish the final list of affected companies on Nov. 11.
The decision also ends a temporary reprieve. As the crypto-treasury trend exploded, MSCI last year froze certain index adjustments for companies whose digital-asset holdings made up 50% or more of their total assets; that interim measure now gets scrapped, with all such firms assessed under the new rules.
Removal from major MSCI indexes would force the funds that track them to sell the affected shares, potentially pressuring stock prices and shrinking the premium these companies have long traded at over the value of their crypto. Saylor had urged MSCI to drop what he called a “discriminatory” rule that would delete Strategy from its benchmarks.
The threat has already spurred defensive maneuvers. Metaplanet recently sold 10,000 Bitcoin and bought back 11,000 to demonstrate active treasury management, while Strategy has kept accumulating, adding to its stack even as the index question loomed.
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In brief
MSCI finalized a rule treating “non-operating companies” as ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes, effective Nov. 30, using a core screen plus a five-ratio exclusion test.
The change targets Bitcoin treasury firms like Strategy and Metaplanet whose balance sheets are dominated by crypto, and scraps a temporary 2025 reprieve for companies with 50%+ digital-asset holdings; the affected list comes Nov. 11.
Removal would force index-tracking funds to sell the shares; Saylor called the rule “discriminatory
MSCI has finalized a rule change that threatens to boot Bitcoin treasury companies like Michael Saylor’s Strategy from its widely tracked equity indexes, a move that could cut off a significant source of passive investment demand for their shares.
In an announcement dated Oct. 15, the index provider said it will treat “non-operating companies” as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes, implementing a proposal it floated in August with minor modifications. The change takes effect at the close of Nov. 30 as part of MSCI’s November index review.
Will Strategy hold over 1M BTC before 2027? Click to make your prediction.The new methodology screens for corporate issuers that lack substantial operating assets and behave more like passive investment vehicles than real businesses. Companies that fail an initial “core screen” are then run through an exclusion test based on five financial ratios; a stock gets flagged as ineligible if it trips four or more of them.
The rule is aimed squarely at firms whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset, the model pioneered by Saylor’s Strategy, which holds hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin, and adopted by Japan’s Metaplanet and a wave of imitators.
To limit index churn, MSCI built in buffers: current index constituents will only be removed if they fail the screen in each of their two most recent annual filing periods, while new additions are blocked if they fail in either of the last two. MSCI said it would publish the final list of affected companies on Nov. 11.
The decision also ends a temporary reprieve. As the crypto-treasury trend exploded, MSCI last year froze certain index adjustments for companies whose digital-asset holdings made up 50% or more of their total assets; that interim measure now gets scrapped, with all such firms assessed under the new rules.
Removal from major MSCI indexes would force the funds that track them to sell the affected shares, potentially pressuring stock prices and shrinking the premium these companies have long traded at over the value of their crypto. Saylor had urged MSCI to drop what he called a “discriminatory” rule that would delete Strategy from its benchmarks.
The threat has already spurred defensive maneuvers. Metaplanet recently sold 10,000 Bitcoin and bought back 11,000 to demonstrate active treasury management, while Strategy has kept accumulating, adding to its stack even as the index question loomed.
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Bitcoin’s price has dropped this week as new inflation data has come in hot.
But while the largest cryptocurrency’s near-term setup is difficult, it’s not “fundamentally bearish,” according to European asset manager CoinShares’ Head of Research, James Butterfill.
In a report Friday, the analyst said that bitcoin’s near-term challenge stems from a macro environment that’s caught in an awkward middle ground: inflation is too elevated for the Fed to ease up, while the economy is too resilient to force a policy pivot.
“Bitcoin and the broader digital asset market have moved lower on the resulting hawkish repricing, a reminder of how sensitive Bitcoin remains to monetary policy over short horizons,” he wrote.
Bitcoin’s price recently stood at $81,473, down 2% over a seven-day period.
The price of the leading cryptocurrency dropped Wednesday after data showed that U.S. consumer prices shot up more than expected in September.
Then, on Thursday, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said that U.S. producer prices rose in September at the fastest pace in more than four years.
This has weighed on bitcoin’s price because higher inflation means the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates. Higher borrowing costs can restrict the liquidity the digital coin needs to rally.
The Federal Reserve hiked rates in September and will meet at the end of this month.
But Butterfill added that investors should be patient and advised investors to instead think in the long-term and not react to any single weekly data point.
“For investors, that argues for reading the coming weeks as a data-driven range rather than a trend, and for sizing digital asset exposure against a strategic allocation rather than against this week’s print,” he wrote.
Bitcoin spent the first half of 2026 in a bear market but had its best quarter in years after surging in August and September. Analysts have now said the leading cryptocurrency is now back in a bull market after trading above its 365-day moving average.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
Google has made a fresh announcement regarding quantum computing, reigniting fears about the future security of crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that Google's Quantum AI team has made a breakthrough in what's called "magic state cultivation" on their Willow quantum computer.
The findings, which were published in the scientific journal Science, revealed that they reduced errors by a factor of 40 compared to preparing quantum states without the new method.
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Also, they've achieved a record logical fidelity of 99.99% for specialized quantum states called T-states.
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Google has stated that this breakthrough is a major step towards creating high-power, error-corrected quantum computers that can do things that are impossible with today's computers.
This breakthrough solves one of the major problems in quantum computing, which is the huge amount of resources needed to create reliable quantum states.
What does this mean for crypto?This news reignites concerns about how quantum computing may be a threat to the security of blockchain.
Many major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum use elliptic curve cryptography to secure transactions and verify digital signatures.
If a powerful enough quantum computer were created, theoretically it could break these cryptographic measures.
This new breakthrough from Google doesn't mean current cryptocurrencies are in trouble right now.
The tech giant has not yet demonstrated this method at a scale that would be required for real practical use in large-scale quantum computing.
That said, the developmnent makes it much easier to complete one of the toughest steps in creating a quantum computer capable of breaking cryptocurrency.
They've made one of the toughest steps much easier to accomplish when creating a quantum computer that could break crypto.
A May 2026 test identified Strategy, Metaplanet, and Yellow Cake as potential candidates for removal from MSCI's index.
Michael Saylor-led Strategy could face removal from major global stock indexes after MSCI approved new rules for companies it considers non-operating. The index provider announced this week that it would exclude these companies from its Global Investable Market Indexes.
The new rules will take effect at the close of November 30, 2026, as part of MSCI’s November index review.
Non-Operating Firms Targeted The move comes after MSCI previously considered excluding companies whose digital asset holdings made up at least 50% of their total assets. Strategy had opposed that proposal as well.
In its response to MSCI’s consultation, the BTC treasury company argued that the new rules target digital asset treasury firms under a different name. It also questioned MSCI’s definition of a non-operating company, while adding that the terminology has no basis in US GAAP, IFRS, or any recognized legal framework. Strategy maintained that its Bitcoin business qualifies as an operating segment under US accounting rules, consistent with discussions with SEC staff.
The company also asserted that MSCI’s proposal introduces policy judgments into index construction and could undermine the neutrality investors expect from the provider. Strategy asked MSCI to withdraw the proposal.
The new rules target companies that resemble investment funds and other passive investment vehicles, which are already excluded from its indexes. The process starts with a check for substantial operating assets. Companies that fail face a second test based on five financial ratios. These cover expenses, cash flow, changes in asset values, as well as reliance on outside financing. A company flagged on at least four ratios becomes ineligible.
Exclusion Impact “Overstated”? MSCI will also use safeguards to limit frequent index changes. Existing members must fail the test in two consecutive annual filing periods to face removal. A May 2026 test flagged Strategy, Metaplanet, and Yellow Cake for possible removal.
You may also like: Bitcoin Could Jump 50% If Developers Agree on Quantum Plan: Capriole CEO Coinbase Lays Out Post-Quantum Needs for Bitcoin Custody UK Judge Says Chinese Law Applies to Claims Over £4B Bitcoin Fraud JPMorgan analysts have estimated that index exclusion could trigger outflows of about $2.8 billion from MSTR stock. But market commentator Adrian Morris believes that this claim is “overstated.” While he doesn’t predict zero price impact, Morris added,
“Any forced selling will be into trading flow, around rebalances, etc. This will not be a market dump event. MSTR has the liquidity and turnover to absorb this selling with little issue IMO. This is a near term ripple to deal with, not an existential threat to MSTR.”
The recent sharp sell-off in the cryptocurrency market has heightened investor concerns, while some analysts believe the current correction could be a healthy pullback at the start of a new bull cycle. In an article published by The DeFi Report (TDR), analyst Mike noted striking similarities between Bitcoin’s (BTC) price movements in 2023 and current market conditions, arguing that significant opportunities could arise, particularly in altcoins with strong fundamentals.
The analyst stated that he maintains his view that the cryptocurrency market is in the early stages of a new bull cycle, giving this scenario a 90 percent probability. However, Mike emphasized that investors should not expect an uninterrupted rise in the short term, predicting that Bitcoin could fluctuate between $80,000 and $95,000 in the coming months.
Mike recalled that during the early bull market of 2023, Bitcoin moved sideways for about seven months, experiencing two 17% corrections during that period. He noted that high inflation, banking crises, and the Fed’s tight monetary policies created uncertainty in the market during that time, and stated that similar macroeconomic pressures are still in effect today.
Mike stated that the most important technical indicator for Bitcoin is the 50-week moving average, noting that the price managed to stay above this level in 2023, laying the groundwork for subsequent price increases. According to the analyst, the 50-week moving average, currently around $77,200, remains a critical support level in the current cycle.
Mike predicted that this average could bottom out around $75,000, while Bitcoin’s movement between $78,000 and $92,000 would be similar to the early bull market of 2023. The analyst warned that a sustained decline below $75,000 could seriously weaken the current bullish scenario.
According to an analyst, altcoins could be the winners of this cycle.
One of the most notable points in Mike’s assessment was his expectation that altcoins could outperform Bitcoin in the current market cycle.
Recalling that Bitcoin’s market dominance steadily strengthened in the previous cycle, the analyst argued that a different picture might emerge this time. He stated that the main reason for this is the presence of more cryptocurrency projects that have reached real user demand, generated revenue, and transferred economic value to token holders, compared to previous years.
Mike, specifically highlighting the importance of token buyback mechanisms, stated that in some projects, reinvesting revenue generated back into the token economy creates a stronger value proposition for investors.
The analyst, noting the recent performance of projects like Zcash (ZEC), Hyperliquid (HYPE), Lighter (LIT), and NEAR Protocol (NEAR), said that demand for quality altcoins could create a different market structure than in previous cycles.
However, Mike, who expects Bitcoin’s market dominance to rise again in the short term from around 60 percent, predicted that this movement could trigger a new wave of gains in altcoins.
Could Robinhood’s Ecosystem Be the New Solana?
The analyst suggested that one of the most notable opportunities in the current market could be the ecosystem developing around Robinhood Chain.
Mike stated that the Robinhood ecosystem has seen a sharp correction following intense speculation during the summer months, with some assets losing approximately 70 percent of their value and investor sentiment deteriorating significantly.
However, according to the analyst, this does not mean that the ecosystem’s long-term potential has disappeared.
Mike noted that Robinhood’s large user base, wallet infrastructure, and ability to combine traditional and decentralized finance applications offer significant advantages, and drew attention to the infrastructure created by platforms such as Uniswap, Morpho, and Lighter.
The analyst did not claim that the Robinhood ecosystem would directly become the Solana of this cycle, but reminded that in past cycles, some ecosystems that attracted speculative interest early on turned into big winners in subsequent rallies.
According to Mike, the current price correction presents a noteworthy period for assessing whether the Robinhood ecosystem will play a significant role in future market movements.
Which Altcoins Stand Out After the Sharp Decline?
Mike also reviewed the recent performance of the assets in his portfolio, noting in particular the pullback in the price of Lighter (LIT).
The analyst noted that the LIT price had fallen from around $5.50 to $3.30, adding that the Relative Strength Index (RSI) approaching the oversold region could be a potential positive sign.
Mike also stated that he maintains his bullish outlook for Ethereum (ENA), while noting that Derive (DRV) remains stronger compared to some other altcoins, influenced by a recently published investment report.
The analyst noted that momentum indicators in the Memecoin portfolio were also approaching oversold levels, suggesting that new opportunities could emerge in this area, but cautioned that these assets carry high volatility.
Mike explained that although his positions outside of Bitcoin have fallen by approximately 33 percent from their September peaks, they continue to generate a total return of over 106 percent.
On the other hand, the analyst added that one of the biggest risks to the bullish scenario is inflation. Noting that US annual inflation in September came in at 3.7%, exceeding expectations, Mike said that pressure on interest rates and bond yields could increase volatility in the cryptocurrency market.
Nevertheless, the analyst, maintaining his long-term optimism, argued that the current sell-off could be a rebalancing process in the early bull market rather than the beginning of a new bear market.
*This is not investment advice.
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