$10,000 in Zcash at this morning’s $1,177.59 buys 8.49 ZEC. If ZEC simply reclaims its September 26 high of $1,698, that position is worth $14,419. The bet rests on one dated fact: Zcash’s NU7 network upgrade is now locked to mainnet block 3,543,405, which the chain should reach around November 5. The broader market is drifting the other way. Bitcoin slipped under $81,000 in the first hour of October 24 for the first time since mid-month, and only one top-10 coin is printing green.
Bitcoin traded at $80,882 as of 00:13 UTC on October 24, down 0.24% over 24 hours, per CoinGecko data. Ethereum sat at $2,379.52 (−0.17%), Solana at $102.49 (−0.95%), and XRP at $1.29 (−1.10%). BNB was the lone top-10 gainer, up 1.14% to $737.99. Zcash changed hands at $1,177.59, down 3.28% on the day, with a $20.0 billion market capitalization — the number that frames everything below.
Bitcoin Under $81K: A Level the Data Keeps Testing
The 30-day chart shows the story in one line. Bitcoin peaked near $86,490 on October 10, faded through the middle of the month, and has now spent four of the last six sessions under the $82,000 mark it defended through the first half of October. The slide from $86,490 to $80,882 is a 6.5% drawdown, and it has come on falling conviction rather than a single liquidation cascade: 24-hour volume near $23.9 billion is well below the October highs.
What matters for a trader is that $81,000 is not a random round number. It has acted as the pivot of the current range: buyers stepped in near $81,100 on October 22, and sellers have capped every push above $83,000 since the middle of the month. A daily close below $80,000 — the level defended through the weekend — opens the next test around $79,500, the deeper floor traders cited ahead of the Federal Reserve’s October 27–28 meeting. A reclaim of $83,000 puts the October 10 high back in play. Those are the two conditions, and both are data-bound, not vibes.
The Zcash Catalyst: NU7 Locks to Block 3,543,405
Zcash’s case is different because it is not waiting on a central bank. The Zcash Foundation released Zebra 7.0.0 on October 22, the first stable node release with mainnet support for Network Upgrade 7. The foundation is direct about what the upgrade changes: “NU7 brings blocks every 25 seconds instead of every 75, a Network Sustainability Mechanism that recycles part of every transaction fee into future block rewards, and new shielded limits that protect wallets from spam.”
Activation is not a calendar date but a block height: 3,543,405, targeted for around November 5. The upgrade had already gone live on testnet at block 4,465,026 on October 4. The speed change is the headline. Target block spacing falls from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, so the average wait for a first confirmation drops from 75 seconds to roughly 25 seconds. At target spacing, the chain produces about 3,456 blocks a day instead of roughly 1,152, and three confirmations clear in about 75 seconds rather than 225.
The fee change is the part most holders will actually feel. Under ZIP 235, the foundation writes, “60% of each block’s transaction fees are removed from circulation and placed in a reserve, while miners keep the other 40% so they still have every reason to include transactions.” Those reserved funds are scheduled to return gradually through later block rewards, beginning at mainnet block 8,939,664 — around February 2031. The 21 million ZEC supply cap does not change, and the halving schedule is untouched.
There is one deadline that is not optional. “Once NU7 activates, version 4 transactions are no longer valid,” the release states, and “because Sprout transfers can only use version 4, funds left in the Sprout pool become unspendable.” Anyone still holding ZEC in the original Sprout shielded pool must move it before block 3,543,405 or lose access. Node operators face the same cutoff: the foundation’s instruction is that “All Mainnet operators MUST upgrade before height 3,543,405 (~Nov 5) to stay on the consensus chain.”
The 2x Math: What Doubling Actually Demands
The money angle is concrete and the arithmetic is the own-work part of this screen. At $1,177.59 and a $20.0 billion market cap, a 2x on ZEC means $2,355 and a $40 billion market cap. That is not a re-rating of the entire Zcash story — it is ZEC returning to the $1,698 level it printed less than a month ago, before the NU7 testnet cycle began. The 8.49 ZEC a $10,000 position buys becomes $20,000 at that level, and $14,419 just by reclaiming the September high.
Bitcoin, by contrast, has to do much more for the same return. Doubling from $80,882 to $161,764 requires the market cap to grow from $1.63 trillion to roughly $3.25 trillion — a $1.62 trillion inflow that no single catalyst in the current calendar promises. BNB sits in between: a 2x to $1,475.98 needs its market cap to move from $97 billion to about $194 billion. The point is not that ZEC is the better asset in absolute terms. It is that a dated, network-level catalyst is a cheaper trigger than a macro regime change, and the math makes the tradeoff explicit.
The benchmark that matters is the one the market already tested. ZEC peaked near $1,698 on September 26 and has given back about 30% since, so today’s $1,177.59 is a retrace, not a new high. The NU7 activation is the first hard event since that peak that changes the protocol’s throughput, and the October 21 merge of the height into the ZIP specification removed the last “to be determined” from the schedule. That is what turns a retrace into a re-rating candidate.
Why This Setup Fails
The skeptical case is straightforward and should be taken seriously. First, ZEC is down 3.28% on the day while the rest of the market is flat — the NU7 catalyst has not yet shown up in price, and a protocol upgrade is a supply-and-throughput event, not a demand event. Faster blocks and a fee reserve do not, by themselves, bring new buyers. Second, the upgrade is still two weeks out, and the interim belongs to the macro calendar: the Federal Reserve decides on October 27–28, and a hawkish surprise would pressure every risk asset, ZEC included, regardless of its own roadmap.
Third, the Sprout migration is a real operational risk for a small but non-zero set of holders. Roughly 0.4% of shielded funds still sits in the legacy pool, and any of it left behind at activation becomes unspendable — a self-inflicted supply event that could read as confusion rather than progress if the migration warnings do not land. Finally, the broader privacy-coin trade has already run hard this year, which means some of the NU7 outcome may be priced into a token that is still up sharply on a year-to-date basis despite October’s pullback.
None of this breaks the trade, but it defines the invalidation. If Bitcoin closes the week under $80,000, the ZEC setup is fighting a falling tide. If NU7 slips past November 5 — the height is a target, not a promise — the catalyst is gone and the position thesis is gone with it.
The Levels That Matter Before November 5
For ZEC, the levels are clean: support at $1,081, the October 16 low after the inflation selloff, and resistance at $1,252 and then the $1,698 September peak. A close above $1,252 reopens the range top; a break of $1,081 puts the $1,049 mid-September low in view. For Bitcoin, the $80,000 close is the line in the sand, with $79,500 as the deeper floor and $83,000 as the reclaim that would turn the daily trend back up.
The two dates to keep on the calendar are October 27–28 (the Fed) and the November 5 NU7 window. The Zcash position is a bet that the second event matters more for one asset than the first one matters for everything else. That is the whole trade in a sentence, and it is why the Zcash news hub and the Bitcoin news hub are the two pages worth refreshing between now and then.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best crypto to buy now?
On October 24, 2026, the strongest dated catalyst sits with Zcash, whose NU7 upgrade is locked to mainnet block 3,543,405 for around November 5. Bitcoin is the safer core position but is drifting under $81,000 ahead of the Fed’s October 27–28 meeting.
What is Zcash’s NU7 upgrade?
NU7 is Zcash’s seventh network upgrade. It cuts target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, adds a Network Sustainability Mechanism that diverts 60% of transaction fees into a reserve, and disables version 4 transactions, which makes legacy Sprout-pool funds unspendable at activation.
When does the Zcash NU7 upgrade activate?
NU7 activates at mainnet block 3,543,405, which the network is expected to reach around November 5, 2026. Because block production is not perfectly uniform, the exact time can shift slightly; the height, not a clock, controls activation.
Is Bitcoin a buy at $80,882?
Bitcoin trades under $81,000 with support near $80,000 and $79,500. A daily close below $80,000 opens the next leg down; a reclaim of $83,000 would turn the daily trend back up. The October 27–28 Fed decision is the next macro catalyst.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Bitcoin fell from approximately $84,700 early Thursday to $80,900, marking its steepest decline in 2 weeks. The asset tagged $81,000 again earlier today before stabilizing between $81,000 and $82,000. Bitcoin currently trades around $81,500, down about 3.7% since midnight Thursday.
After experiencing $3,000 swings throughout the week, Bitcoin has spent much of Friday trading within a range of less than $1,000. The narrower range offers some stability after recent volatility, though price remains under pressure.
Solana followed a similar trajectory, falling from $109 to $103 before recovering to around $104.
Bitcoin ETFs Record Their Largest Outflows Since June
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $635.6 million in net outflows on Thursday, reversing Wednesday's $528.4 million in inflows. The withdrawal marked the largest daily outflow since June 25, when the funds lost $696.29 million.
Despite Thursday's reversal, Bitcoin ETFs remain positive for the week, with cumulative net inflows of $442.7 million. The funds attracted $526.7 million on Monday, $23.2 million on Tuesday, and $528.4 million on Wednesday before Thursday's withdrawals erased much of those gains.
Bitcoin has also struggled to reclaim the average acquisition cost of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, which stands at $82,313. Its current price remains below that level, leaving ETF investors collectively underwater on their average holdings.
Historical data offers a concerning signal. Across the 22 previous days when Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows exceeding $300 million, Bitcoin tended to trade significantly lower in the days that followed.
Solana ETFs Face Their Worst Month on Record
Solana's ETF market presents an even more concerning picture. U.S. spot Solana ETFs have recorded $72.24 million in net outflows so far in October, making it their worst month on record.
The funds have experienced consecutive weekly outflows of $24.81 million and $25.52 million over the past 2 weeks. They have also lost $17.31 million so far this week, with Friday's trading session yet to conclude.
Before October, June 2026 was the only other month to record net outflows, with withdrawals totaling just $786,580. October's figures therefore represent a substantial deterioration in investor flows. The sustained withdrawals raise questions about institutional demand for Solana exposure as the broader crypto market weakens.
Liquidations Exceed $254 Million as Sentiment Cools
According to CoinGlass, 99,714 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with total liquidations reaching $254.19 million. The largest liquidation order occurred on Hyperliquid for SOXL-USD, valued at $3.77 million.
The liquidation heatmap showed $162.22 million in long liquidations against $91.97 million in short liquidations over 24 hours. Long positions accounted for 63.8% of liquidations, while short positions represented 36.2%.
Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap's Fear & Greed Index stands at 48, indicating neutral sentiment. The index has fallen 38.4% over the past month, declining from 78 to 48, while Bitcoin lost approximately 5% over the same period.
Sentiment has remained neutral for 16 consecutive days, its longest such stretch since May. The index has stayed between 48 and 58 since October 8, compared with this year's high of 82 on August 27.
Can Bitcoin Recover Before Year-End?
Bitcoin remains approximately one-third below its all-time high above $126,000, reached about a year ago. A recovery since August had raised hopes that the asset could revisit $100,000 before year-end, but recent market turbulence and concerns about artificial intelligence spending have tempered expectations.
With Bitcoin trading below ETF investors' average cost basis, record outflows from ETFs, and sentiment weakening, the market faces several hurdles to a sustained recovery.
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Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) held roughly 57% of the digital asset market as of Oct. 10, its highest share since November 2022, according to Glassnode and Fasanara Digital.
Why Capital Stayed Concentrated in BitcoinGlassnode and Fasanara Digital wrote in the report that smaller tokens fell roughly 52% from their October 2025 peak, about 18 points worse than large-cap assets.
That breaks from past cycles, where Bitcoin gains typically spread into smaller coins over time. Ethereum’s market share slipped to 11% over the same stretch, now roughly matching stablecoins.
Bitcoin’s realized capitalization, a cost-basis measure of capital held in the network, posted its first positive month in nine during August, after falling $44.5 billion from its November 2025 peak.
The report’s liquidation model helps explain why: estimated short exposure in the $65,000 to $70,000 range collapsed from $7 billion to just $344 million within two days during August’s rally, suggesting forced buying kicked off the move before genuine demand took over.
Why Corporate Treasuries Are Shifting Toward EthereumCorporate Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) holdings grew 43% since December 2025, compared to 21% for Bitcoin and just 7% for Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), with Ethereum treasuries now holding roughly 6.6% of total supply.
The report attributed Ethereum’s edge partly to staking income, while Solana treasury accumulation has largely stalled.
Bitcoin corporate holdings remain far more concentrated than Ethereum’s. Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) held 848,000 BTC, about two-thirds of all disclosed corporate Bitcoin holdings, and accounted for nearly all of the 180,000 BTC that named companies added this year.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs held 1.3 million BTC, just 6% below their October 2025 peak, with BlackRock’s (NYSE:BLK) IBIT making up 62% of that total.
Why Traditional Assets Are Moving Onto Crypto RailsPerpetual futures tied to stocks, indices and commodities jumped from $23.5 billion in monthly volume in November 2025 to $778 billion in August 2026, a roughly 33-fold increase.
Their share of total perpetual trading rose from 0.5% to 23.5%, with Binance capturing about 55% of that volume in August despite entering the category after rivals.
On Hyperliquid, perpetuals tied to traditional assets now trade at roughly four-fifths the volume of the platform’s own Bitcoin contracts, up from under 1% in late 2024.
What Would Confirm the RecoveryThe report outlined four signals needed to confirm a sustained rebound: ETF inflows continuing into a third straight month, positive Binance spot buying pressure holding steady, futures open interest rebuilding in BTC terms, and Glassnode’s market indicators shifting into warmer territory.
As of early October, 56% of the firm’s 45 tracked indicators sat neutral, with fewer than one-fifth reading warm or hot.
Image: Shutterstock
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Franklin Templeton, a $1.8 trillion AUM global asset manager, has received approval from Nasdaq to list two new Bitcoin ETFs with a DRIP strategy. This brings the company closer to launching Bitcoin ETFs that systematically convert stock dividends into BTC exposure.
According to the latest SEC filing, Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF is now cleared to list and trade on Nasdaq under tickers FBEQ and FIBT. The ETFs will reinvest dividends from US stocks into Bitcoin.
Both Bitcoin ETFs track VettaFi indexes that combine traditional equity exposure with a rules-based Bitcoin allocation. Investment begins with 95% in U.S. stocks, either a large-cap 500 universe or a 100-stock innovation-focused Nasdaq list. Also, it has 5% in Bitcoin-related instruments.
Franklin Templeton Bitcoin ETFs Listing Approval from Nasdaq. Source: US SEC
Also Visit: Best Institutional Crypto Custody Providers in 2026
Instead of distributing dividends or reinvesting them in additional shares, the indexes systematically direct regular and special dividends into Bitcoin exposure on the day after each ex-dividend date.
Bitcoin weight is capped at 20%. Also, any allocation above 5% is cut back to 4.5%. BTC exposure comes through Bitcoin ETPs and other instruments offered by Franklin Templeton. Both ETFs have a management fee of just 0.09%.
The structure offers investors a passive way to accumulate limited Bitcoin exposure funded entirely by equity dividends, reflecting Franklin Templeton’s continued expansion into crypto-linked products.
Franklin Templeton’s spot Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) has recorded total inflows of $335 million to date. EZBC recorded $7.3 million in inflows on Wednesday.
Recently, Franklin Templeton met with US SEC Crypto Task Force. It sought clarity on whether its tokenized funds and ETFs need additional relief to participate in the TSV trading environment created by the Innovation Exemption without violating the 1940 Act.
Meanwhile, BTC price has dropped below $81,500 today amid multiple headwinds facing the broader crypto market. Trading volume decreased by 33% over the past 24 hours amid options expiry.
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.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
In This Article BTC USD: Why Does It Matter That Retail Left Futures?Are Bitcoin ETFs Still Buying?BTC USD Price Analysis: Will $79,800 Hold?One More Thing: Does the McRib Move Bitcoin? Bitcoin (BTC USD) is holding near $81,700 on Friday, October 23, after CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said retail traders have left Bitcoin futures markets. It’s the reverse of what his data showed at the 2025 top, after U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $1 billion in three days. The price has lost $3,000 since Wednesday’s high. The buyers haven’t left.
The Bitcoin price is down 0.2% in 24 hours and 0.6% in a week. So does a quieter futures market point to a bottom, and which levels matter for BTC USD now?
Retail traders are gone from BTC futures markets, the exact opposite of what we saw at the top. https://t.co/7cdtVHsVgG pic.twitter.com/3O4lmbOfSd
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) October 22, 2026
BTC USD: Why Does It Matter That Retail Left Futures? Because crowded markets tend to top. CryptoQuant’s chart sorts futures trades by average order size. Through the summer of 2025, with BTC between $110,000 and $120,000 ahead of its October record, small retail orders dominated almost every day. Retail kept leading as the price slid into January.
The picture is now reversed. Since May, no stretch has been led by retail. Large whale orders marked the July low near $58,000, and mid-sized whale orders drove the rally to $87,000 in September. October is mostly neutral, with whales still active.
That doesn’t mean the bottom is in. Retail also dominated from February to April 2026, when BTC was trading between $63,000 and $75,000, and BTC still fell to $58,000 by July. What it shows is that this market is less crowded with leveraged small traders, so there are fewer of them to liquidate on a drop.
Spot money agrees. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $1.07 billion from Monday to Wednesday, enough to turn October’s flows positive.
DISCOVER: Bitcoin ETFs Turn October Positive With $1 Billion in Three Days While ETH Funds Bleed $1 Billion
Are Bitcoin ETFs Still Buying?
Yes, and in size. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $526.7 million on Monday, $23.2 million on Tuesday and $524.8 million on Wednesday, about $1.07 billion in three sessions. That was enough to turn October’s flows positive.
BlackRock’s IBIT led again, with $235 million on Wednesday alone. Ethereum funds went the other way and kept bleeding money.
Put the two together, and the selling this week looks like short-term traders, not long-term money heading for the exit. ETF inflows of this size have come before past rallies.
DISCOVER: Bitcoin ETFs Turn October Positive With $1 Billion in Three Days While ETH Funds Bleed $1 Billion
BTC USD Price Analysis: Will $79,800 Hold? BTC is back inside the range it has traded in since October 10, between roughly $79,800 and $84,300. Wednesday’s push to $84,898 above the top failed within a day.
The short-term damage is a broken trendline. Thursday’s drop cut through the rising line that had held every dip since the October 15 low, and BTC is now retesting it from below near $82,000.
Update: Still alive. Bitcoin doing a little bearish retest of trendline here and we can continue down to Seppuko land. https://t.co/KaNIrsKPE8 pic.twitter.com/iIObZMGEMt
— VikingXBT (@VikingXBT) October 23, 2026
Overhead, $82,000 to $82,850 is the first wall: the trendline, the swing highs and the 4-hour moving averages. A reclaim would put $84,300 back in play.
Below, $80,876 is the 50-day EMA, and $79,800, the October 15 low, is the floor of the whole range. A quick sweep under $79,800 that reverses would be a classic shakeout and the cleanest setup for a bounce. A daily close under it would point to the 200-day EMA near $76,200.
EXPLORE: J.P. Morgan Projects 10% a Year for Bitcoin: The Bank’s Own Bear Case Points to $25,000
One More Thing: Does the McRib Move Bitcoin? Crypto Twitter has a less scientific indicator for Bitcoin. McDonald’s is bringing the McRib back “as early as 10/27,” and trader internbrah reminded more than 400,000 viewers that:
BTC historically goes up >2x after the McRib returns. Don’t fade the McRib.
The McRib is back on 10/27. BTC historically goes up >2x after the McRib returns. Don't fade the McRib.
Not financial advice. pic.twitter.com/RxBuzcVht5
— internbrah (@internbrah) October 22, 2026
We checked. Of the last seven McRib returns, BTC more than doubled within a year after two, in December 2020 and November 2023. After the November 2021 return, it topped out nine days later and lost two-thirds of its value. After the November 2025 return, it never traded higher.
McRib return BTC price Best gain within 12 months October 2019 $8,246 +49% December 2020 $19,201 +252% November 2021 $61,004 +11%, then −67% October 2022 $20,496 +68% November 2023 $35,437 +106% December 2024 $96,675 +29% November 2025 $102,997 none So the McRib is two for seven on doubling, which is about what you’d expect from a sandwich. For BTC USD, $79,800 still matters more than the menu.
EXPLORE: Best Crypto Presales With Asymmetric Upside in the Current Market
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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.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
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.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
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.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Bitcoin is navigating a challenging economic environment as Brent crude oil maintains levels above $100 per barrel, raising concerns about persistent inflation and the availability of fresh liquidity in global markets. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost highlighted that strong oil prices historically coincide with slower Bitcoin price momentum, though he emphasized that this pattern does not represent a confirmed causation.
Brent crude’s influence on Bitcoin and market liquidityAccording to Darkfost, ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Gulf region and intensified Ukrainian operations targeting Russian refineries have pushed energy prices higher. Elevated fuel costs can impact a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, transportation and services, contributing to rising prices across the economy.
“Over the long term, periods when Brent oil trends strongly above its annual average have typically seen Bitcoin’s upward momentum slow, though distinct causal links remain unproven,” stated Darkfost of CryptoQuant.
Brent crude recently hovered near $104, compared to an average range of $60 to $70 earlier in 2026. The commodity’s 365-day moving average is now rising following an extended downtrend.
Available data since 2014 shows that when Brent trades significantly above its yearly average, Bitcoin often underperforms. Several such episodes—such as in 2018, parts of 2021 and 2022, and periods throughout 2026—demonstrate this market relationship. However, not every increase in oil prices led to a drop in Bitcoin, underscoring the complex interplay between the two markets.
Darkfost argued that broader economic conditions, rather than oil prices alone, ultimately drive investor behavior. In an inflationary environment, access to capital and appetite for higher-risk assets like cryptocurrencies can diminish. Persistently high energy prices further complicate decisions for the Federal Reserve, as officials navigate balancing inflation risks with the goal of supporting economic growth.
If inflation does not subside, the Federal Reserve may be less inclined to loosen monetary policy, creating a less favorable backdrop for new investment in digital assets. Sustained high borrowing costs and elevated yields could make allocating capital to Bitcoin less attractive for some investors.
Nevertheless, the analyst noted that Bitcoin responded positively during brief intervals of reduced macroeconomic strain, as seen in July. Oil prices subsequently rebounded, but Darkfost did not rule out the potential for further gains, cautioning instead that persistent high energy costs may limit the flow of new liquidity into cryptocurrencies.
Mini dictionary: CryptoQuant is an on-chain analytics platform specializing in blockchain data and market intelligence for digital assets.
Whale activity: over $770 million in BTC withdrawnWhile macroeconomic pressure persists, large Bitcoin holders are increasingly moving considerable sums of cryptocurrency. Blockchain analytics provider Lookonchain reported that since October 1, forty newly-created wallets have withdrawn a combined 9,458 BTC—valued at approximately $771.5 million—through Wintermute, a leading digital asset trading firm known for providing market liquidity and institutional solutions.
Mini dictionary: Wintermute is a prominent global algorithmic trading firm providing liquidity and facilitating large-scale transactions in the digital asset markets.
These large-scale withdrawals suggest some whales are accumulating Bitcoin even amid sluggish overall momentum. However, transfers from exchanges or trading firms to private wallets do not confirm whether these represent new purchases, nor do they reveal the identities of the wallet holders. It also remains unclear if the recipients are distinct institutional investors or addresses controlled by a single entity.
Lookonchain’s observation highlights ongoing interest in Bitcoin by large market participants, but the data cannot confirm broader buying activity across the market. Moving coins between wallets is not equivalent to net buying pressure, and cannot guarantee immediate impact on price direction.
MetricValueBTC Withdrawn9,458 BTCUSD Value$771.5 millionNumber of wallets40PeriodSince October 1Main partyWintermuteEven as large withdrawals signal ongoing accumulation by whales, these movements alone do not demonstrate a market-wide trend toward new investments or establish a firm timeline for Bitcoin’s potential recovery.
Both the oil market analysis and whale activity measure distinct aspects of the current environment: energy prices frame the macroeconomic backdrop and potential liquidity constraints, while wallet movements illustrate how major Bitcoin holders position themselves under these conditions.
For now, no clear correlation guarantees either immediate price gains or losses for Bitcoin. Darkfost pointed to Brent’s performance above its annual average as the metric to monitor—should oil recede below $100 and fall under its yearly benchmark, pressure on Bitcoin could ease and create room for new market momentum.
Gold has been humanity’s favorite store of value for thousands of years. Bitcoin launched in January 2009. In the US, the newcomer now has more owners.
A research report released by River in July 2026 estimates that approximately 49.6 million American adults own Bitcoin. That works out to 18.6% of the adult population, compared with 28.8 million adults, or 10.8%, who report owning gold.
According to the report, this is the first time on record that Bitcoin ownership has overtaken gold.
The numbers behind the flip
The gap is wide. By River’s count, US Bitcoin owners outnumber gold owners by roughly 20.8 million people.
River’s data shows Bitcoin ownership rising from 14.3% to 18.6% of US adults in approximately six months.
The report credits much of that growth to easier access. Exchange-traded funds, mobile apps and a range of exchanges have made buying Bitcoin more accessible. River also links the trend to a broader cultural shift in how Americans view digital assets.
River isn’t the only outfit reporting this pattern. Earlier surveys from the Nakamoto Project, which collected data from late 2024 to early 2025 and published findings by mid-2025, landed in similar territory. Those surveys counted roughly 48 to 50 million Bitcoin owners, compared with about 37 million gold owners.
The two studies disagree on the gold figure. Their Bitcoin estimates sit in the same neighborhood, though, and both put Bitcoin ahead.
Beyond individual wallets
Individual ownership is only part of the US picture. American exposure to Bitcoin also runs through corporate treasuries and government vaults.
Americans are estimated to hold about 42% of the total global Bitcoin supply.
US public companies collectively hold approximately 1.24 million BTC. According to the research, that represents about 93% of corporate Bitcoin holdings worldwide.
The US government holds around 328,000 BTC, valued at over $26 billion. Most of it came from asset seizures rather than deliberate purchases.
A wrinkle in the data
Not every survey tells the same story. Gallup reported that 9% of US adults owned crypto as of June 2026. That figure was down from 14% the previous year.
That sits awkwardly next to River’s 18.6% Bitcoin figure. Bitcoin is a subset of crypto, so on paper, Bitcoin ownership shouldn’t exceed overall crypto ownership.
The likeliest explanation is that the surveys ask different questions of different samples. Some respondents may also not think of an ETF holding as “owning crypto.” The research frames the Gallup data as a sign that Bitcoin is pulling ahead of other digital currencies, even as broader crypto ownership slips.
What this means
River’s numbers suggest that among individual Americans, the default “alternative asset” may be shifting. The research suggests that could encourage institutions to allocate more toward Bitcoin, as it gains acceptance as a legitimate asset class.
The concentration figures cut both ways. The US holds about 42% of global Bitcoin supply, and US public companies account for about 93% of corporate holdings. That gives American policy decisions outsized influence over the asset, meaning regulatory moves on ETFs, corporate accounting or the handling of seized coins could ripple through the market.
What to watch next: whether the growth rate River measured holds up, and whether other pollsters converge on similar figures. The six-month climb from 14.3% to 18.6% is striking. And if Gallup’s lower crypto numbers keep diverging from Bitcoin-specific surveys, expect a debate over methodology to follow.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Parker Lewis, author of “Gradually, Then Suddenly,” has argued that Bitcoin is poised to eventually settle all global payments. In a recent interview, Lewis pointed to the increasing burdens on the credit system, citing $107 trillion in global debt, and outlined how these factors could accelerate Bitcoin adoption for payment settlement.
Bank Failures and the Payment RevolutionLewis explained that major bank closures in 2023 convinced him the payments infrastructure is Bitcoin’s most vital role, rather than custody or reserve functions. He noted that the banking instability showcased vulnerabilities in traditional finance and made decentralized alternatives more attractive to individuals and businesses alike.
Discussing merchant adoption, Lewis highlighted that businesses can bypass traditional card networks by accepting Bitcoin directly. He emphasized these advantages by stating that merchants avoid the typical 3% card processing fees and eliminate risks related to chargebacks.
Parker Lewis described the shift in payments as essential, stating that merchant adoption of Bitcoin means, “Fewer fees, no chargebacks, and a more direct payment system.”
This focus on direct payments, according to Lewis, could drive Bitcoin’s real-world usage beyond its perception as just an asset or reserve currency.
Debt, Macro Strain, and Dollar RelevanceLewis also addressed the strain in the global credit system, citing over $107 trillion in worldwide debt—up starkly from $52 trillion in 2007. He said escalating interest rates, with mortgages above 7% and corporate refinancing costs at nearly 10%, signal deeper systemic stress.
He added that traditional tools of the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury are losing efficacy, leaving large-scale money creation as one of the only remaining responses to rising financial pressures.
According to Lewis, in such an environment, the dollar price of Bitcoin gradually becomes irrelevant as the system transitions to more direct digital settlements and away from depending on fiat currency denominations.
He claimed that “over time, as more payments are made through Bitcoin, the importance of its price in dollars will diminish.”
Lewis further critiqued the alignment issues between Bitcoin treasury companies and their investors, asserting that simply holding Bitcoin does not automatically drive long-term value or innovation.
Payments Infrastructure and Technical DebatesDebating the technical side, Lewis argued that Bitcoin’s real innovation comes through closing the value transfer loop and using payment networks, such as the Lightning Network, to provide scalable, instant settlements.
He also discussed the constraints of on-chain transaction capacity versus off-chain solutions like Lightning, suggesting that the payments architecture will need to evolve dramatically to reach the projected scale.
Mini dictionary: Lightning Network, a second-layer payment protocol for Bitcoin, enables faster and lower-cost transactions by creating off-chain channels that eventually settle on the main blockchain. It is seen as a critical tool for scaling Bitcoin to handle global payment volumes.
Lewis’s viewpoint has sparked further debate about Bitcoin’s long-term utility and the future of global payment settlements.
Privacy on Bitcoin has always come with a surcharge. A new prototype called PISA is trying to lower the bill.
Developers demonstrated PISA on October 23, 2026, during the Plan ₿ Week and Forum events in Lugano, Switzerland. The project combines Payjoin with Cross-Input Signature Aggregation, better known as CISA, to make collaborative Bitcoin transactions smaller and cheaper.
What PISA actually does
Start with the two ingredients. Payjoin, defined in BIP77 and BIP78, is a method for collaborative transactions with built-in privacy features.
Collaborative transactions pull in inputs from more than one source. That makes them harder for outside observers to read, which is the privacy benefit.
The catch is size. Every input in a Bitcoin transaction normally carries its own signature, and every signature takes up space.
CISA attacks that problem directly. It lets multiple signatures across different inputs be aggregated together, rather than each one sitting in the transaction separately.
PISA stitches these two ideas into a single working prototype. The goal is to keep Payjoin’s privacy while using CISA to trim the transaction’s footprint.
The numbers and the people behind them
The savings are not trivial. CISA proposals could cut transaction size and fees by approximately 7–26%, depending on the type of transaction.
The biggest wins should land on multi-input payments. Those are exactly the transactions common in tools like CoinJoin and Payjoin.
Fabian Jahr and Dan Gould are the primary developers on PISA. Both emphasized the potential for meaningful fee savings in cooperative transactions.
The project is a collaborative effort involving the Payjoin Dev Kit and Brink. Cypher Tank supported the Lugano demonstration.
The team did not keep the work behind a curtain. Developers showcased the code and specifications during the event and made them publicly available through a dedicated project website at pisa.payjoin.org.
Discussion on social media following the demo focused on user experience improvements.
Still a draft, not a deployment
Now for the fine print. The CISA proposals behind PISA remain in the research and specification phase.
The relevant draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, BIP 458 and BIP 459, have not been activated on the Bitcoin network. Until they are, the savings PISA demonstrates live in a prototype, not in your wallet.
Work on improving collaborative transactions has continued since the Taproot activation in 2021, with developers looking for ways to boost privacy while reducing the costs of using these newer transaction methods.
PISA is one of the more concrete outputs of that effort. It turns a set of specifications into something people can actually run and inspect.
What this means for Bitcoin users and builders
For wallet developers and infrastructure teams, PISA offers a reference point. Public code and specifications give builders something tangible to evaluate ahead of any protocol change.
For investors, the near-term picture is more modest. PISA is protocol research, and its direct impact depends on whether BIP 458 and BIP 459 move from draft to activation.
Progress on BIP 458 and BIP 459, developer feedback on the published PISA code, and any wallet teams experimenting with the prototype will signal whether this demo becomes a building block or stays a conference highlight.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Block has introduced its first large-scale advertising campaign for Bitcoin, called “Bitcoin Does,” aiming to engage the estimated 60 million Americans with an interest in digital currency but who have not yet participated in the market.
New campaign strategy targets mass adoptionThe “Bitcoin Does” campaign marks a shift in Block’s outreach approach, focusing on demonstrating real-life uses for Bitcoin instead of delving into complex technical aspects such as mining or blockchain. The company seeks to present Bitcoin as a straightforward and practical financial solution, responding to the questions and concerns of everyday consumers.
Maria Pesce, who leads Bitcoin marketing at Block and works across its Cash App, Square, and Proto product lines, explained the rationale behind the campaign. Pesce stated that feedback from potential users highlighted a need for clearer messaging that emphasizes Bitcoin’s tangible benefits.
Pesce reported that Block’s research showed many people are seeking “more honest money” and are trying to understand how Bitcoin fits into their daily lives.
Customer insights inform campaign messagingThe concept behind the “Bitcoin Does” campaign emerged from insights gathered through conversations with Cash App users and Square merchants. Many expressed frustration with inflation, financial bailouts, and private equity practices, motivating Block to position Bitcoin as a more transparent and accessible alternative.
Pesce highlighted that messages from small business owners influenced the campaign’s narrative, with several describing Bitcoin as “more honest money.” The marketing materials focus on Bitcoin’s fixed supply, self-custody options, and why younger generations are increasingly choosing the cryptocurrency for its perceived stability and transparency.
Interactive experiences and payment innovationBlock also used experiential marketing, debuting its “Lightning Lake” activation at ComplexCon, a cultural event. At this venue, attendees engaged in interactive activities such as “fishing for Bitcoin” and making payments via the Lightning Network, a second-layer protocol that enables faster, low-fee transactions over the Bitcoin network.
Mini dictionary: The Lightning Network is a second-layer scaling solution for Bitcoin that allows for instant transactions between users and reduces congestion and fees on the main blockchain, making micro-payments practical.
Block’s design philosophy aims to make using Bitcoin as simple as sending email, underlining the company’s focus on accessibility. The company also promotes 0% Bitcoin transaction processing fees on Square, further incentivizing merchants and customers to adopt digital payments.
Block’s team emphasized that design choices and customer experience are crucial for helping new users reach “light bulb moments” where the advantages of Bitcoin become clear.
Block’s expanding role in the digital ecosystemFounded by Jack Dorsey, Block is a financial services and technology company known for its prominent brands including Cash App and Square. The company is expanding its reach in the digital asset sector, developing tools and experiences that aim to simplify and promote Bitcoin adoption.
The launch of this campaign coincides with Block’s efforts to join broader technology alliances. The company recently aligned with major firms such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Visa in initiatives focused on developing secure artificial intelligence applications.
By prioritizing practical demonstrations and tailored messaging, Block intends to bridge the gap between curiosity and active participation among millions of prospective Bitcoin users in the United States.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, is fluctuating within a narrow range of $80,000-$84,000, with the anticipated major surge failing to materialize. In its latest report, CoinShares analyzed the factors limiting the rise in BTC.
According to CoinShares, Bitcoin is showing resilience to declines thanks to a recovery in spot buying and an improvement in market sentiment, while high inflation and interest rate hike expectations in the US are limiting the upside potential in the cryptocurrency market.
Spot Buying Supports Bitcoin, Suppresses Inflation and Interest Rates! According to CoinShares’ latest assessment, Bitcoin is exhibiting a relatively strong performance despite volatility in risky assets. The recovery in spot market buying, improved sentiment in equity markets, and the closing of short positions are among the key factors supporting the Bitcoin price.
In contrast, inflation data released in the US continues to be a significant risk for the cryptocurrency market. The consumer price index (CPI) exceeded expectations in September, raising concerns about inflation and interest rates.
Higher-than-expected inflation is also making it more difficult for the Fed to ease monetary policy and is reducing expectations of interest rate cuts. The possibility of interest rates remaining high for a longer period or a new increase could increase pressure on non-yielding assets like Bitcoin.
At this point, the market is also closely watching the possibility of another interest rate hike in December. The probability of rates remaining unchanged in October is priced at 90.6%, while the probability of an interest rate hike in December is priced at 68.8%.
Uncertainty Continues for Bitcoin! CoinShares concludes its assessment by stating that in the short term, spot demand, as well as inflation, interest rate expectations, and liquidity conditions, could be decisive factors in Bitcoin’s trajectory. While spot purchases support the price, concerns about tight monetary policy pose an obstacle to a sustained rise.
Therefore, the direction of Bitcoin is expected to be shaped by upcoming economic data and policy signals from the Fed.
*This is not investment advice.
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Coinbase official logo (public domain, Wikimedia Commons) — CryptoBriefing brand treatment
A large transfer of 789 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $64.31 million, was made from an unidentified wallet to Coinbase Institutional, according to Whale Alert. This transaction comes amid Bitcoin’s price in the range of $81,500 to $81,900 on October 23, 2026, following a recent decline from around $84,800. The movement of such a significant amount of Bitcoin to an institutional platform like Coinbase suggests potential institutional interest, although the exact purpose and ownership of the wallet remain unclear. Meanwhile, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have been experiencing net outflows, adding another layer of complexity to the current market dynamics.
Key Takeaways The transfer of 789 BTC to Coinbase Institutional suggests potential institutional involvement, which could indicate interest in higher price levels. Bitcoin has been in a range between $81,500 and $81,900, with previous highs at $84,800, suggesting a cautious market environment. The recent net outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs suggest mixed sentiment among institutional participants. What to Watch Any further large transfers or institutional activity could influence Bitcoin’s price direction. The impact of this transfer on the market remains to be seen, particularly if it aligns with any significant announcements or shifts in institutional strategy. Additionally, any changes in the ETF inflow/outflow patterns may indicate shifts in institutional sentiment and its effect on Bitcoin’s potential to reach higher price thresholds.
Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h October 24 2026 0.9% — — View market → October 24 2026 13% — — View market → October 24 2026 3.5% — — View market → October 24 2026 1.2% — — View market → October 24 2026 3.5% — — View market → October 24 2026 13.5% — — View market →
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a fresh dip below $81,000 after Friday’s Wall Street open as Brent crude oil set new seven-month highs.
Key points:
Bitcoin briefly dropped below $81,000 at the start of Friday’s US trading session as stocks drifted lower and the US 10-year yield remained below 5%. Brent crude oil reached $116 per barrel for the first time since March 19 amid Middle East tensions.BTC price action focused on reclaiming its 50-day simple moving average at $81,781.US stocks slip, bond yields cool as oil surgesData from TradingView showed BTC/USD falling to $80,988 before recovering to around $81,600 at the time of writing.
US stocks opened lower as AI-sector expenditure woes coincided with a surge in oil prices on the back of tensions around the US-Iran war.
The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were down 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, at the time of writing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.4% lower.
As traders turned risk-averse, the 10-year US bond yield stayed below 5%, having reached 4.939% on Thursday, their lowest since Sept. 23.
US 10-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Concerns that the US may renew military strikes on Iran around the midterm elections sent WTI crude oil past $102 per barrel on Friday. This is the highest level since Sept. 16. Brent crude saw an even sharper rise of nearly 3% to $116 per barrel, a level last seen in mid-March.
CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Commenting, economist Robin Brooks noted that prices were rising although oil flows through the Persian Gulf approached pre-war levels for many nations and Saudi Arabia surpassed its pre-war average.
“Since the start of the war, we’ve not seen this kind of decoupling between prices and flows,” he wrote in analysis on the day, seeing markets incorporating a “huge risk premium.”
Persian Gulf oil-transit volumes (screenshot). Source: Robin Brooks on Substack.com
BTC price analysis eyes 50-day trend lineCommenting on low-timeframe BTC price action, Keith Alan, cofounder of crypto trading platform Material Indicators, saw the potential for lower support retests to come.
BTC/USD, he noted, had fallen below its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) at $81,781, with bulls now attempting to reclaim it by the daily close.
“If they fail to do so by tonight’s close, I’m looking for a support test in the $78k - $80k range,” he told X followers.
BTC/USD one-day chart with 50 SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Previously, Cointelegraph reported on substantial BTC price support between $80,000 and $81,500, as this area hosts the aggregate cost basis for investors in the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a fresh dip below $81,000 after Friday’s Wall Street open as Brent crude oil set new seven-month highs.
Key points:
Bitcoin briefly dropped below $81,000 at the start of Friday’s US trading session as stocks drifted lower and the US 10-year yield remained below 5%. Brent crude oil reached $116 per barrel for the first time since March 19 amid Middle East tensions.BTC price action focused on reclaiming its 50-day simple moving average at $81,781.US stocks slip, bond yields cool as oil surgesData from TradingView showed BTC/USD falling to $80,988 before recovering to around $81,600 at the time of writing.
US stocks opened lower as AI-sector expenditure woes coincided with a surge in oil prices on the back of tensions around the US-Iran war.
The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were down 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, at the time of writing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.4% lower.
As traders turned risk-averse, the 10-year US bond yield stayed below 5%, having reached 4.939% on Thursday, their lowest since Sept. 23.
US 10-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Concerns that the US may renew military strikes on Iran around the midterm elections sent WTI crude oil past $102 per barrel on Friday. This is the highest level since Sept. 16. Brent crude saw an even sharper rise of nearly 3% to $116 per barrel, a level last seen in mid-March.
CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Commenting, economist Robin Brooks noted that prices were rising although oil flows through the Persian Gulf approached pre-war levels for many nations and Saudi Arabia surpassed its pre-war average.
“Since the start of the war, we’ve not seen this kind of decoupling between prices and flows,” he wrote in analysis on the day, seeing markets incorporating a “huge risk premium.”
Persian Gulf oil-transit volumes (screenshot). Source: Robin Brooks on Substack.com
BTC price analysis eyes 50-day trend lineCommenting on low-timeframe BTC price action, Keith Alan, cofounder of crypto trading platform Material Indicators, saw the potential for lower support retests to come.
BTC/USD, he noted, had fallen below its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) at $81,781, with bulls now attempting to reclaim it by the daily close.
“If they fail to do so by tonight’s close, I’m looking for a support test in the $78k - $80k range,” he told X followers.
BTC/USD one-day chart with 50 SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Previously, Cointelegraph reported on substantial BTC price support between $80,000 and $81,500, as this area hosts the aggregate cost basis for investors in the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Franklin Templeton has taken the last regulatory step before launching two exchange-traded funds that convert stock dividends into bitcoin.
On October 22, Franklin Templeton filed a Form 8-A with the Securities and Exchange Commission to register shares of the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF for trading on the Nasdaq. A prospectus filed the same day lists an effective date of October 27.
The filings for both funds arrived in June without tickers or fees. Four months later, the details are in.
How the funds work The Equity fund, ticker FBEQ, tracks the VettaFi US Large-Cap 500 Bitcoin DRIP Index. The index holds the 500 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization, weighted by float-adjusted market cap.
As of September 30, it held 499 stocks ranging from $10.2 billion to $5.5 trillion in size, with a concentration in information technology.
At inception, the index allocates 95% to those stocks and 5% to bitcoin. Each dividend the companies pay, regular or special, is reinvested into bitcoin at the market open on the day after the ex-date. The bitcoin share of the portfolio grows with each payment.
A traditional dividend reinvestment plan, or DRIP, buys more shares of the company that paid the dividend. Franklin’s version routes that cash into bitcoin.
For a holder, the dividend stream from the largest companies in America becomes a recurring bitcoin purchase, with no exchange account, no wallet and no custody decisions.
The bitcoin position has limits. At each quarterly rebalance, an allocation above 5% is trimmed to 4.5%. If bitcoin exceeds 20% of the index between rebalances, it is cut back to 4.5% within two business days, and the proceeds return to stocks. The result is a stock fund with a bitcoin sleeve, not a bitcoin fund.
The ETF does not hold bitcoin on-chain. It gains exposure through bitcoin exchange-traded products, including Franklin’s own spot fund, through bitcoin futures and options, or through depositary receipts, in some cases via a Cayman Islands subsidiary.
FBEQ carries a 0.09% expense ratio with no 12b-1 fee. Franklin Advisory Services manages the fund, with Franklin Templeton Institutional as sub-advisor. Dina Ting, Hailey Harris, Joe Diederich and Basit Amin serve as portfolio managers.
The Innovation fund follows the same mechanic on the VettaFi US Innovation 100 Bitcoin DRIP Index, which draws from the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq.
A deeper bet on bitcoin Franklin Templeton filed for a spot bitcoin ETF in September 2023 and launched it as EZBC in January 2024. In April, the firm acquired 250 Digital and formed Franklin Crypto, an institutional digital asset division. Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson has argued that blockchains threaten Wall Street’s fee structure more than its technology.
The DRIP funds extend that strategy to investors who may never buy bitcoin on their own. A retiree holding an S&P 500-style fund in a brokerage account can, through FBEQ, let dividends from the companies she already owns build a bitcoin position over years.
The prospectus warns that investors can lose money, and that bitcoin’s price swings may affect the fund’s net asset value. Whether that trade-off appeals to the audience Franklin Templeton is targeting will become clear after October 27.
Micah Zimmerman
Micah first discovered Bitcoin in 2018 but remained a skeptic on the sidelines for too long. Since 2021, he has covered crypto and business and now works as a news reporter for Bitcoin Magazine, based in North Carolina.
Bankless co-founder David Hoffman wrote in a post that a batch of tokens he dubs "2017-era Bitcoin clones" has recently drawn renewed market interest. Among them, PRL rose 30% this week, hitting a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $4.2 billion. QTC jumped 300% this month, and with a total supply of 21 million tokens, its valuation reached $1.8 billion. Notably, tokens with a fixed supply of 21 million are commanding multi-billion-dollar valuations, a trend that warrants attention.
Bitcoin Core will now release fixes and security advisories quickly for bugs a simple LLM prompt could find, rather than holding them for as long as approximately a year under its severity rules.
Bitcoin Core rewrites security policy for bugs a simple LLM prompt can find
Posted October 23, 2026 at 11:58 am ET.
Bitcoin Core has rewritten part of its security policy for an era of AI-assisted bug hunting. A policy update approved this week creates an “easily discoverable” category of vulnerability, and those get a fix and a public advisory right away instead of waiting out the standard embargo.
Under the updated text, merged on Thursday, Oct. 22, Bitcoin Core will ship a point release with the fix for every maintained major version “as soon as possible, along with a security advisory, without applying the standard severity-dependent embargo periods.” The policy defines the new class as flaws found “with minimal effort, such as through a simple LLM prompt.”
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Why the Rules Changed Antoine Poinsot, a Bitcoin Core contributor who works at Chaincode Labs, opened the proposal on Oct. 16. In the pull request description, he wrote that the project had received more reports of bugs that can be “easily (re-)discovered,” a rise he said was “largely due to LLMs drastically reducing the bar to find certain classes of issues or identify covert fixes.”
Bugs outside the new class still follow the severity-based timelines: low severity bugs are disclosed two weeks after a major release containing the fix, while Medium and High severity bugs stay private until the final affected release has been out of support for two weeks, approximately a year after the fix first ships. Critical bugs are handled case by case. Poinsot wrote that the long embargo generally kept fixes from being backported, so users only got them with the next major release.
“For these issues that are easy to find, this is the wrong tradeoff,” he wrote. “The embargo period achieves little but it delays the availability of a fixed release.”
In a later comment, Poinsot said patching such bugs quietly “would achieve little,” because they “can already be found through a trivial LLM scan” and backporting the fix would reveal them anyway. He acknowledged that fixes will get less testing time in development branches before they reach users.
A Debate Over Timing Contributor Stéphan “stickies-v” Vuylsteke argued that attackers can now cheaply watch the code repository, noting they can “quickly and automatically monitor the repo,” and suggested disclosing these bugs no later than when the fix’s pull request opens. Another contributor, sedited, questioned whether that needed a written rule. Poinsot replied that for less than critical bugs, warning users before a fixed version exists would likely do more harm than good.
Contributor ariard proposed letting the project ship a fix without an advisory at the same time, with one to follow later “at an appropriate time.” Poinsot rejected the idea, writing that alerting users “without any details could create more risk unnecessarily,” for instance by prompting rushed migrations.
The change was approved by several contributors and merged by Michael “fanquake” Ford. According to the pull request description, bugs may be flagged as easily discoverable during triage, and the category is broader than AI findings alone: “In practice, we expect those to be issues that can be found with a simple prompt to an LLM, but the classification is not restricted to those.”
Related Listen: When Could Quantum Computers or AI Break Bitcoin? An Updated Threat Window
AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.
China targets a national blockchain network by 2030 under its 15th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization, while keeping its ban on crypto such as XRP and Bitcoin.
China plans to largely complete a national blockchain network by 2030, but the infrastructure is not expected to support public cryptocurrencies such as $XRP or $BTC. Beijing continues to promote blockchain as a strategic technology while enforcing a ban on crypto-related business activity.
What the 15th Five-Year Plan saysAccording to Cointelegraph, the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization was issued by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a senior Communist Party body that coordinates digital development policy. The plan calls for deeper blockchain use in trade and finance in the Yangtze River Delta, and large-scale deployment in manufacturing and agriculture in the Chengdu-Chongqing region in southwestern China.
The document also calls for stronger blockchain technical standards and wider use of the technology in data circulation and trading, per the same report. It sets an explicit completion target for a project that was already part of China's national development plan released in March. A joint policy from the Communist Party's central leadership and the State Council, published on Oct. 9, had earlier called for the network to be built.
The informatization plan lists the national blockchain network alongside other 2030 goals, including a fully built new-generation communication network and the commercial launch of 6G at an appropriate time, according to a summary published by PANews.
Under the plan, distribution nodes are being set up around business centers. They are expected to focus on cross-border trade and clearing in the Yangtze River Delta, and on logistics tracing in the Chengdu-Chongqing industrial belt.
Blockchain yes, crypto noThe push for state-backed blockchain infrastructure sits alongside a firm stance against digital assets. Cointelegraph noted that mainland China bans cryptocurrency-related business activities while promoting blockchain technology as a national priority.
That position was reinforced last year. According to Payment Expert, the People's Bank of China convened 13 agencies on Nov. 28, 2025 to reaffirm the ban on crypto trading and flag stablecoins as a new enforcement focus. The central bank said stablecoins cannot effectively meet customer identification and anti-money laundering requirements, as reported by CoinGeek.
For holders and traders of $XRP, $BTC and other tokens, the message is consistent: the network is designed as state infrastructure for trade, logistics and data, not as a route for public crypto assets to gain access to the mainland market. The plan does not name specific tokens, so any implication for individual assets such as XRP remains an inference from China's wider policy.
Sources:
Cointelegraph: China targets 2030 for its national blockchain network buildout
Payment Expert: PBoC targets stablecoins in renewed China crypto crackdown
CoinGeek: China's central bank reaffirms commitment to digital asset ban
Bitcoin price hovered at $81,595 on October 23, ahead of the November 3, 2026, US midterm elections.
Ethereum price traded at $2,397, and XRP traded at 1.32, as per CoinMarketCap. The upcoming vote has revived discussion on the downturns of Bitcoin after four prior midterm election cycles.
US Midterm Election: November 3, 2026
Americans will vote on Tuesday, November 3, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats being contested. The Senate elections have 33 regular elections and two special elections.
The midterms are in between the second term of President Donald Trump, both the houses of the congress are in the line to control. In 36 states, voters will also elect governors and decide on many state legislative races.
The result may have an effect on the law of cryptocurrency by altering the partisan composition of congressional committees and the overall legislative agenda. Voting is already going on in the United States, and the voting pattern and deadline vary among states.
Bitcoin’s Record After Four Midterm Elections
Analyst Ali Martinez pointed to the pattern in an election comparison prior to this year’s election.
He has graphed the decline of Bitcoin after the 2010 midterms and the 2014 elections, which were 72% and 65%, respectively. Since the 2018 election, the drop has been to 52%, and since the 2022 midterm elections, to 27%, according to his analysis.
https://t.co/sT0b0k3eDK
— Ali Charts (@alicharts) October 23, 2026
But Martinez said the observations don’t necessarily prove that elections caused the losses. The comparison is only for four cycles, which may not be useful as a standalone forecasting tool.
Bitcoin Price Prediction: Will BTC Hold $80,500 or Slide Toward $79,000?
As of the writing, the BTC price stood at $81,515 on the supplied Binance four-hour chart.
The relative strength index (RSI) was at 43.21, just below the 51.22 moving average and the 50 neutral level.
The MACD line was at -190.80, indicating that the line is below the signal line at 4.01, and the histogram was at -194.81.
Source: Tradingview
The psychological level of $80,000 would be in focus in the bear scenario, if it is closed below $80,500 for 4 hours.
But $80,500 will allow one more try to recover the $82,000, leaving a recovery scenario alive. If the breakout is sustained above resistance, then the target future Bitcoin outlook could be set at $83,500 which is resistance plus the height of the range.
FedWatch Shows 91.7% Chance of Rate Hold at October 28 Meeting
The market has priced in an FED pause leading up to the Oct 28, 2026 policy meeting. The FedWatch chart provided shows a 91.7% chance of no change in interest rates, indicating high confidence in the stability of rates. That would keep the federal funds target range unchanged at 3.75% – 4.00%.
Fedwatch data
An 8.3% probability, meanwhile, exists that an increase to 4.00%–4.25% will occur, making further tightening less likely. The chart shows that, at 0%, buyers of rate cuts give no odds to any chance of a rate cut, indicating market expectations are firmly in favour of a policy hold.
Key pre-market news for U.S. stocks on Friday is as follows: 1. SpaceX’s potential merger with Tesla faces antitrust scrutiny; the company is in talks to connect 80,000 cellular sites to build a new network. 2. OpenAI is nearing completion of a new funding round, seeking to raise up to $30 billion at a pre-money valuation of $1.25 trillion. 3. California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest U.S. public pension fund, is adjusting its asset allocation: cutting direct holdings in the "Magnificent Seven" tech giants while increasing exposure to private equity. 4. SK Hynix has scrapped the pre-IPO financing and IPO plans of its subsidiary Solidigm. 5. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $635 million yesterday, with Ethereum ETFs recording a net outflow of $110 million.
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Extended will launch the XTEN token in November, with its tokenomics model set to be unveiled on October 31.
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In brief
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $635.6 million on Thursday, erasing nearly 60% of a three-day, $1.07 billion inflow streak and flipping October back to a net loss of about $176 million.
Ethereum ETFs lost $110.6 million, bringing their October outflows to about $1.18 billion, while Solana ETFs shed $8.9 million.
Prices held steady, with Bitcoin near $81,460, as Myriad traders cut the odds of Bitcoin topping $87,500 this month to 17%.
Bitcoin ETFs’ October comeback lasted a single session.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $635.6 million on Thursday, according to Decrypt’s ETF tracker, wiping out nearly 60% of the roughly $1.07 billion the funds took in over the previous three sessions. It was their biggest single-day outflow of the month, topping the $484.9 million exit on Oct. 7 that was, at the time, the worst since June.
Myriad: How high will Bitcoin go? Click to make your prediction.The reversal pushed October back into negative territory. After climbing to roughly $460 million in net inflows for the month on Wednesday, the funds are now down about $176 million. Cumulative net inflows since launch slipped to $57.8 billion, with total net assets at $100.2 billion.
Ethereum ETFs followed suit, losing $110.6 million a day after snapping a five-day outflow streak. That brings their October losses to roughly $1.18 billion. Solana ETFs shed $8.9 million, bringing them to about $68 million in outflows this month, with just two days of inflows in October.
Spot crypto ETFs are exchange-traded funds that hold the underlying asset, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, and trade on stock exchanges like ordinary shares. That lets investors gain exposure through a regular brokerage account without buying or storing crypto themselves.
Bitcoin funds debuted in January 2024 and have since drawn $57.8 billion in net inflows, while Ethereum funds, which followed that July, have taken in $12.7 billion. Solana funds arrived late last year. Because issuers report flows daily and much of the money comes from institutions and financial advisers, the figures have become one of the most closely watched gauges of investor sentiment.
Yesterday’s selling coincided with a rough day across markets. Oil climbed above $111 a barrel as AI stocks slid, dragging the S&P 500 and global markets lower. The Federal Reserve next meets Oct. 27-28, with traders anticipating a “hold”—meaning, no increase to interest rates, which generally bodes well for risk assets like crypto.
Despite the heavy ETF outflows, prices barely budged. Bitcoin traded near $81,460 on Friday, flat over 24 hours and down 0.4% on the week. Ethereum dipped 0.2% to about $2,400, and Solana slipped 0.3% to roughly $104. The 30-day declines are steeper: Bitcoin is down 4.8%, Ethereum 11.4%, and Solana 10.4%.
Total crypto market cap held at about $2.85 trillion, while trading volume fell 20% to $67.1 billion. Bitcoin has settled into a wait-and-see mode, analysts told Decrypt, and that may not be a bad thing for the market.
Traders on Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, have trimmed their bets on an October breakout.
They now give Bitcoin a 17% chance of topping $87,500 before the month ends, down from 20% a day earlier, and 9% odds of reaching $90,000. They put the odds of a slide to $77,500 at 32%. Sentiment in Myriad’s open-ended markets is more upbeat. Users give Ethereum a 61.3% chance of reaching $3,000 before $1,500, and Solana a 54.9% chance of hitting $160 before $40.
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Binance founder Changpeng Zhao says AI doesn’t need to break Bitcoin’s cryptography to cause damage. Instead, he warns that leaked data already fuels phishing and social engineering.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin Core developers are changing how they disclose bugs as AI makes flaws easier to find.
Everyone worried about AI hacking crypto, but the internet and banking systems rely on weaker encryption.
That said, AI doesn’t need to break Bitcoin’s cryptography to cause damage, leaked data already enables more phishing, social engineering, etc,
Stay SAFU!
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 23, 2026 Why CZ Sees Phishing as the Bigger AI ThreatZhao, known as CZ, made the point in an X post on October 23. He argued that crypto’s encryption is not the weak link.
In fact, he said banks and much of the internet rely on weaker encryption than Bitcoin. As a result, those legacy systems would face greater risk if AI code-breaking became a serious threat.
However, AI can already make scams more convincing. Attackers combine old leaked personal data with polished, AI-written messages that seem to come from real contacts. CZ closed his post with a familiar reminder: “Stay SAFU!”
CZ’s view contrasts with a warning from Ethereum researcher Justin Drake on October 8. Drake urged the industry to “calmly start planning for ‘bunker mode.’” In a worst case, he said, AI could break the math protecting wallets “in months, not years.”
Still, no practical attack has emerged so far. Drake suggested that large holders gradually move funds to addresses whose public keys have never appeared on-chain.
Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for "bunker mode". My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses, i.e. addresses whose pubkeys remain hidden behind a hash.
Holders, starting with large…
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) October 7, 2026 How Is Bitcoin Core Responding to AI-Discovered Bugs?Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot announced a new security policy on the Bitcoin Development Mailing List on Thursday. He said large language models now make some flaws easy to rediscover.
As a result, Poinsot said long embargoes on those bugs achieve little. They also delay fixed releases for users.
Bitcoin Core Security Policy Update. Source: Google GroupsUnder the new rules, easily discoverable vulnerabilities will receive fixes as soon as possible across all maintained versions. Security advisories will accompany those updates.
Other bugs follow severity-based timelines. Low-severity issues become public two weeks after a major release includes the fix. Meanwhile, medium- and high-severity flaws stay private until the last affected version reaches end of life. Critical bugs, however, will likely need a separate process.
Together, both developments show how quickly AI is reshaping crypto security, from user scams to core software.
Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts says a break above $86,000 could send Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) toward $100,000 quickly, even as he shifts his own portfolio toward Ethereum and DeFi applications.
Why Coutts Sees $100,000 Within ReachCoutts on Thursday told the Milk Road podcast that $85,000 to $86,000 marks a cluster of major resistance built from on-chain data, spot positioning and the high of May’s counter-trend rally.
Clearing that zone would remove the overhang keeping Bitcoin range-bound, he said, opening a fast move toward six figures.
Coutts called Bitcoin’s current low already in place, arguing any dip tied to macro volatility is a buying opportunity rather than a warning sign.
He flagged two reasons to expect volatility ahead:
Rising margin debt: hit its highest three-month annualized rate since 2007 in Q2 Slowing global liquidity growth: has pulled back since early this year Even so, Coutts said the Trump administration understands liquidity management well enough to respond with stimulus if equity markets wobble, given how much tax revenue depends on continued economic growth.
Why Coutts Calls This Crypto’s ‘Payback Era’Coutts built a quality screening system tracking fee durability, token supply discipline and how much revenue protocols actually return to holders through buybacks and burns.
Crypto protocols paid out nearly $2 billion to token holders over the past year, he said, even as new token issuance hit record lows.
That shift shows up in performance data too:
2022 to present: high-quality tokens by Coutts’ screen underperformed Bitcoin’s 82% gain badly, with the top third of ranked assets still down 50% and the bottom third down 73% Year to date: that pattern flipped, with the top third of quality-ranked tokens gaining 49% while Bitcoin fell roughly 6% Where Coutts Has Repositioned His PortfolioBitcoin remains Coutts’ largest holding, but he’s cut that allocation sharply, from roughly 80% to 85% down to 30% to 35%. Here’s where that capital went instead:
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH): now one of his largest single positions DeFi applications: taken from 0% up to about 20% of his portfolio Aave (CRYPTO: AAVE): his main lending exposure Derive (CRYPTO: DRV): held since March, one of his standout performers He also continues holding Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC), bought back in April, alongside Athena (CRYPTO: ENA), which he treats more as a shorter-term trade than a long-term core holding.
Looking further out, Coutts pointed to two trends he expects to smooth out crypto’s traditional boom-bust cycles: tokenized real-world assets, which have grown 16-fold over three years, and stablecoins, which have doubled over the same stretch.
He also flagged agentic payments, where AI agents transact using crypto rails, as a theme still in its early stages but one he expects to become significant by 2027.
Image: Shutterstock
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TL;DRU.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $635 million in one of the largest daily outflows in months, while over 82,000 traders were liquidated, mostly longs.
Grayscale’s Zcash ETF (ZCSH) posted a third straight day of inflows ($14.23 million) ahead of the NU7 hard fork on November 5.
Spot XRP ETFs added $3.55 million, with XRP outperforming the market ahead of Ripple Swell.
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DFINITY founder Dominic Williams accused NEAR Protocol of building NEAR Intents on DFINITY’s proprietary technology; NEAR fell 1.29%.
The Friday morning session on the crypto market, October 23, 2026, is characterized by a large redistribution of institutional capital amid profit-taking in Bitcoin. The total capitalization of the crypto market stands at $2.75 trillion with a daily trading volume of $108.21 billion. Planned de-risking amid macroeconomic pressure triggered a wave of margin position closures.
Crypto market capitalization heat map with BTC at $81,657.29 and 60.02% dominance, Source: CoinMarketCapThe external factor is the correction of the U.S. stock market, where the S&P 500 index fell by 1.24%, and the price of gold was recorded at $4,029.80. A direct consequence of this dynamic was one of the largest daily outflows in recent months from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, amounting to $634.99 million.
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The trading structure points to an intra-market rotation of capital rather than its complete exit into fiat. While retail traders lock in losses, large limit orders absorb the drawdown in alternative assets. Liquidity is flowing into utility blockchain platforms of the banking sector and regulated exchange-traded products based on privacy coins.
The key beneficiaries of the morning distribution of funds are XRP and Zcash.
The great capital migration: how the Bitcoin drawdown fed XRP and ZECAccording to the SoSoValue analytics dashboard, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $634.99 million. The trading session also ended in the red zone for Ethereum funds, which lost $26.13 million, and Solana ETFs, where the outflow amounted to $2.65 million.
Countertrend resilience is demonstrated by Grayscale's spot Zcash ETF (ZCSH), which absorbed a net daily inflow of $14.23 million. Accumulation has continued for the third consecutive day after injections of $23.16 million and $12.88 million in previous sessions, which raised the fund's total net assets under management to $681.39 million.
Zcash spot ETF inflows chart showing a $14.23M net inflow and $681.39M in total net assets, Source: SoSoValueThrough this regulated instrument, institutional investors directly control 3.11% of Zcash's market capitalization, with a daily trading volume of $63.33 million and an underlying asset price of $1,236.83.
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In parallel, spot XRP funds recorded an inflow of $3.55 million, fully provided by the Franklin Templeton pool (FBIT). At the same time, issuers Bitwise, Canary, Grayscale, and 21Shares maintained a zero daily balance change.
XRP spot ETF net asset flows tracking a $3.55M daily inflow and $1.49B in total net assets, Source: SoSoValueFundstrat co-founder Tom Lee notes that this cycle represents a healthy correction, not a bubble: the short on big tech has become excessively consensus-driven, and the debt market is tightly limiting the inflow of speculative capital. The cumulative historical inflow into XRP ETFs has surpassed the $1.8 billion mark, with net assets under management at $1.49 billion (1.01% of the token's capitalization) at an estimated underlying asset price of $1.31.
Billionaires' race for privacy and code theft from ICP. Main stories of this morningAt the morning session, the focus of attention shifted from Bitcoin's price fluctuations to major corporate conflicts. In the U.S., a battle for control over privacy technologies is flaring up, accompanied by loud accusations of code plagiarism.
An open infrastructure war for Zcash has unfolded on the American market between Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Gemini) and DCG founder Barry Silbert. Demand for privacy has intensified due to AI tracking on public networks, so the miners they control, Cypherpunk Technologies and Fortitude Mining, each hold approximately 20% of the network hashrate. Big capital views the asset as a scarce alternative to Bitcoin with fixed issuance.
In parallel, a technology scandal is flaring up: DFINITY founder Dominic Williams publicly accused NEAR Protocol of patent theft. Williams claims that a key component of NEAR Intents is built on DFINITY's proprietary ECDSA threshold signature algorithm.
@hosseeb @grok The algorithm NEAR has been running on for two and a half years is patented. They also took vetKeys, it looks like, but that's not. Obviously if you're mining the repos, research, and work of competitors, without talking to them, referencing them, etc, this is a risk you take.
— dom | icp (@dominic_w) October 23, 2026 According to him, NEAR's solution runs on only 8 servers, is completely devoid of decentralization, and an emergency rollback to slower algorithms was recorded on NEAR's GitHub due to legal and litigation risks in the U.S. Against this background, the NEAR token decreased in value by 1.29%, trading at $4.96.
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At the same time, a flow of capital toward regulated Asia is being recorded, where traditional financial giants and state regulators are massively introducing stablecoins into the real sector of the economy.
Briefly about other important events this morning:
HSBC launches RedCoin in Hong Kong: Banking giant HSBC, with $3.4 trillion in assets, has officially deployed RedCoin (RCHKD), a stablecoin licensed by the HKMA and 100% backed by the Hong Kong dollar. It is instantly available to 3.3 million users of the PayMe app for payments across a network of 100,000 merchants.
Legalization of stablecoins in South Korea: The South Korean government recognizes stablecoins as an official means of payment from December 3. For this purpose, LG Group's IT division (LG CNS) has entered into a strategic alliance with Chainlink to digitize the Korean won on the $68 billion local crypto market.
Zcash anniversary and AI verification: The Zcash project celebrates a decade since its launch, and a $1,000 investment made five years ago is equivalent to $7,178 today. The developers used Anthropic's Claude AI tools for formal verification of code security before the Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) hard fork on November 5.
Ripple liquidity based on RLUSD: Ripple announces a partnership with the Arf platform to provide cross-border liquidity for the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger network. The project is preparing to launch Web3 lending features ahead of the Ripple Swell conference, while traders on Kalshi are pricing in a scenario of XRP rising to $1.80 by the end of the year.
A healthy correction, not a bubble. What to expect from the market in the coming daysBitcoin quotes are holding at $81,657.29 (-0.07% over 24 hours) with a market dominance of 59.63%. The current decline is accompanied by a shakeout of margin positions. Over the past 24 hours, the positions of 82,246 traders totaling $332.09 million were liquidated on the futures market. The decline is directed against buyers: 82.6% of the total volume of forced closures fell on long positions ($274.37 million), according to CoinGlass.
Crypto derivatives liquidation heat map dominated by Ethereum at $59.54M and Bitcoin at $52.28M, Source: CoinGlassThe main blow was taken by Ethereum derivatives ($59.54 million in liquidations, 82.1% longs) and Bitcoin derivatives ($52.28 million in liquidations, 87.3% longs). Binance's share is 45.5%, and the largest order was recorded on Hyperliquid in the XYZ:SOXL-USD pair, worth $4.34 million.
The correction is fully synchronized with the U.S. technology sector, where the SPDR index (XLK) fell by 3.6%, and semiconductors dropped almost 7% after Meta's reports on AI spending of up to $135 billion.
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Amid Ethereum's drop to $2,403.04 (dominance of 10.72%) and Solana's stagnation ($104.46), the outperforming dynamics of XRP ($1.3172, daily growth of +0.66%) and Zcash confirm the local rotation. The scandal around the centralization of NEAR Intents is accelerating the exit of capital into regulated U.S. exchange-traded products (ETFs) based on protected protocols.
Indicators to watch:
Holding the BTC price corridor: Bitcoin's ability to lock in the $81,700 – $82,000 range will determine the speed of the market recovery.
Zcash hard fork (November 5): The launch of the NU7 upgrade acts as the main fundamental trigger for retaining institutional demand for ZEC.
Ripple Swell conference: Upcoming announcements on the RLUSD stablecoin could push XRP through local resistance at $1.32 – $1.50.
Legal consequences of the ICP/NEAR dispute: The dynamics of NEAR Protocol's quotes will directly depend on official responses to DFINITY's accusations in U.S. courts.
Customers in the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Austria can now buy crypto on Paybis through a banking app or a payment reference, with no card details needed. The four methods are the first wave of 13 local payment methods Paybis is adding.
Riga, Latvia October 23, 2026 — Paybis, a global crypto exchange and payment infrastructure provider, today added four local payment methods for buying crypto in Europe. Customers can now pay with iDEAL in the Netherlands, BLIK in Poland, Multibanco in Portugal and EPS in Austria. Cards and bank transfers remain available, but they are no longer the only options.
Four new local payment methods live today: iDEAL, BLIK, Multibanco and EPS.
No card details needed: customers confirm payment in their banking app or pay a Multibanco reference.
More than 90 cryptocurrencies are available, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and USDC.
First wave of 13 local payment methods; Paybis will support more than 30 ways to pay once all are live.
Local payment methods at national scale
The four methods operate at scale in their home markets. BLIK had 21.6 million active users in Poland at the end of June 2026, according to its operator, Polish Payment Standard. iDEAL processed more than 1.5 billion transactions in 2025 and handled 71% of online purchases in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch Payments Association. The Multibanco network has around 13,000 machines across Portugal, according to SIBS. EPS is offered by more than 11,000 online shops in Austria.
Four methods, four markets
iDEAL Netherlands
Bank selection and confirmation in a banking app
Limit per payment: EUR 50,000
BLIK Poland
Six-digit code from a banking app
Limit per payment: PLN 50,000
Multibanco Portugal
Payment reference, paid at an ATM or in a banking app
Limit per payment: EUR 5,000
EPS Austria
Bank selection and confirmation in online banking
Limit per payment: EUR 10,000
Simple crypto, paid locally
Each method works the way it does for any other online payment in its market. The customer chooses the method at checkout and confirms the payment through their bank, or pays the Multibanco reference. No card details are needed. The crypto goes to the customer’s Paybis Wallet or to any external wallet address. Customers can choose from more than 90 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and USDC.
“Europe does not pay one way. A customer in Amsterdam reaches for iDEAL, a customer in Warsaw reaches for BLIK, and neither should need a card to buy crypto,” said Innokenty Isers, CEO and Founder of Paybis. “Now customers in the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Austria can pay the way they already pay for everything else online. Our philosophy is making crypto easy, and adding local payment methods market by market is how we do that.”
What comes next
iDEAL, BLIK, Multibanco and EPS are the first of 13 local payment methods Paybis is adding. Bancontact, KBC/CBC Bank and Belfius Pay in Belgium and Bancomat Pay in Italy follow in the next wave. Swish, Przelewy24, Vipps and MobilePay come after that. Once all are live, Paybis will support more than 30 ways to pay.
About Paybis
Paybis makes crypto simple for individuals and enterprises. Established in 2014, the company combines a trusted crypto exchange and wallet for buying, selling, swapping and holding over 90 cryptocurrencies, with award-winning crypto-fiat infrastructure. That infrastructure lets businesses transfer capital globally without traditional payment friction.
In 2026, Paybis was recognized as Best Crypto Payment Provider, a testament to its expansive global reach, rapid onboarding protocols, and the deep expertise of the 200 dedicated professionals who drive its operations.
Processing more than $6 billion annually, Paybis is one of the most efficient platforms for acquiring and transacting in digital assets. This commitment to operational excellence is why Paybis maintains one of the highest ratings for crypto companies on Trustpilot, and why 7 million users and hundreds of the world’s fastest-growing enterprises consistently rely on its services.
Here's everything most interesting surrounding XMR, ZEC, and BTC.
The popular privacy coin XMR has taken center stage lately after its price surged to an eight-month high. Its biggest rival, ZEC, also posted a substantial uptick, but bears stopped the rally, and the asset remains in the red on a weekly basis.
For its part, BTC slipped 1% within the same period, yet the recent whale activity suggests the price may soon head north.
XMR’s Pump The token registered a double-digit price increase yesterday (October 22), surpassing $650 for the first time since January. A potential catalyst for the rally was the announcement that GUI v0.18.5.4 ‘Fluorine Fermi’ has been released. Monero’s team explained that this minor upgrade reopens testnet and stagenet wallets and includes bug fixes.
Some analysts expected XMR to continue its upward trajectory, with X users Sweep and Alaoui Capital predicting an explosion to a new all-time high of $1,000.
Contrary to their projections, though, the privacy coin headed south and is currently worth $605 (per CoinGecko). In fact, Dr Profit recently warned that XMR’s open interest has hit a historic high (a claim Santiment rejected) and noted that the last time OI jumped this much, the price crashed 66% in just 20 days.
ZEC’s Turbulence Zcash also performed well earlier this week and, on October 21, reached a nine-day peak above $1,360. At the time, its ascent likely followed reports that the team behind the asset plans to triple block production speed, with developers targeting November 5 for the NU7 upgrade.
It also coincided with two major investors opening approximately $37 million in long positions on ZEC with 10x leverage. However, the surge was short-lived, and the token now trades near $1,200, down about 2% on a weekly basis.
You may also like: What Falling USDT Supply Means for Bitcoin’s Price Recovery XRP and DOGE Look Undervalued by MVRV Measures, but Will Traders Take Notice? BlackRock Enters the Buffered Bitcoin ETF Race With New SEC Filing Meanwhile, X user Crypto With Gopal suggested bearish pressure has been building and anticipates a further plunge in the near future. He believes bears are now pushing the $1,050 neckline support on a head-and-shoulders pattern and said bulls need to defend support and reclaim $1,300+ to weaken the setup.
What About BTC? The leading cryptocurrency looked ready to touch $85,000 on October 22, but got rejected and now hovers near $81,500. Factors that may have negatively impacted its performance include rising global geopolitical tensions and weak financial markets overall.
Despite the volatility and uncertainty, whales seem reluctant to wave the white flag and have actually increased their exposure to BTC. As Crypto Potato reported, 40 newly created wallets have withdrawn over $770 million worth of the asset since October 1.
Before that, market participants holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC accumulated almost 90,000 units in just one month. Such a buying spree leaves fewer assets available on the open market and could drive prices up (assuming demand doesn’t cool off). It may also encourage smaller players to buy, bringing fresh capital into the ecosystem.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs bled $635 million on October 22, according to SoSoValue data reported by Odaily. That is a sharp reversal for a product category that had spent the previous few days collecting cash.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the biggest name in the space, was the largest single source of the outflow. Investors pulled $254 million from the fund in one session.
A busy week in reverse The timing is what makes the number stand out. In the three days before October 22, these funds attracted more than $1 billion in combined inflows.
October 21 alone brought in approximately $528 million. Most of that came from the two heavyweights of the category.
IBIT took in $235 million that day. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) added $212.7 million.
Then the next day happened. IBIT’s $254 million outflow on October 22 was larger than its entire $235 million haul from the session before, which means the fund gave back a full day of gains plus about $19 million more.
With IBIT responsible for $254 million of the $635 million total, other issuers accounted for roughly $381 million in redemptions between them.
October has been choppy overall. Earlier in the month, certain stretches saw outflows reaching as high as $600 to $900 million, and mid-October brought only a modest uptick in flows before the late-week rally in demand.
The bigger picture since launch One rough day does not erase the longer trend. Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs since their January 2024 debut have now approached $57 to $58 billion.
Total net assets held across these funds are estimated at between $100 billion and $109 billion. That puts a $635 million day into perspective: meaningful, headline-worthy, but well under 1% of the asset base.
The Bitcoin price itself held a relatively steady range of $82,000 to $85,000 around this period. The research shows minimal direct correlation between the ETF flow figures and Bitcoin’s price during these swings.
What this means for investors For anyone tracking institutional demand, the key question is whether October 22 marks a turn or a blip. Earlier October buying has been read as a sign of resilient institutional appetite amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.
The fact that Bitcoin stayed within its $82,000 to $85,000 band is arguably the more important data point. If $635 million in redemptions cannot push the price out of its range, it suggests there is enough buying elsewhere in the market to absorb that selling.
Watch whether cumulative inflows keep climbing toward and past the $57 to $58 billion mark, and whether total net assets hold within or above the $100 billion to $109 billion range.
When the two largest issuers move in the same direction, as they did on the inflow side on October 21, it tends to say more about broad institutional sentiment than scattered moves among smaller funds.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin Core is changing how it handles security vulnerabilities, explaining that large language models have made certain software flaws significantly easier to discover.
In an email to the Bitcoin Development Mailing List on Thursday, Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot said that in the past, vulnerabilities were generally kept under lengthy disclosure embargoes to give users time to upgrade before details became public.
Maintaining that secrecy generally meant fixes could not be backported to older software versions, leaving users waiting until the next major release. However, Poinsot said LLMs have made some flaws so easy to rediscover that delaying fixes offers little protection.
“The embargo period achieves little but it delays the availability of a fixed release,” said Poinsot. “We are therefore updating our policy disclosure to accommodate those.”
The change comes as AI-assisted security research puts pressure on developers across Bitcoin’s software ecosystem.
Under the updated policy, vulnerabilities deemed “easily discoverable” will receive fixes as soon as possible across all maintained major versions, with security advisories published alongside the updates.
“This classification applies to vulnerabilities that can be discovered with minimal effort, such as through a simple LLM prompt,” it said.
Other vulnerabilities will continue to follow disclosure schedules based on severity, ranging from critical flaws that threaten Bitcoin’s fundamental security to lower-risk bugs with limited impact on individual nodes.
Bitcoin Core said low-severity vulnerabilities will be disclosed two weeks after the release of a major version containing the fix, while medium and high vulnerabilities will be disclosed two weeks after the last affected release hits its “End of Life,” typically a year after the fix is released in the new major version.
“Critical bugs are not considered in the standard policy, as they would most likely require an ad-hoc procedure,” it said.
“I’ve disagreed with Antoine’s approach to security in the past, but this is a good update,” said Luke de Wolf, host of the Bitcoin Infinity Show and author of “Defending Bitcoin.”
In August, the volunteer Bitcoin Red Team reported nearly 5,000 potential issues across 390 projects, although only around a fifth of its findings had been reproduced at that point.
That month, Core Lightning developers urged operators to upgrade or take their nodes offline after receiving multiple AI-generated vulnerability reports, while withholding technical details for two weeks.
Magazine: New DeepSeek ban in US, Swiss-Asia crypto ties deepen: Asia Express
Bitcoin Core is changing how it handles security vulnerabilities, explaining that large language models have made certain software flaws significantly easier to discover.
In an email to the Bitcoin Development Mailing List on Thursday, Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot said that in the past, vulnerabilities were generally kept under lengthy disclosure embargoes to give users time to upgrade before details became public.
Maintaining that secrecy generally meant fixes could not be backported to older software versions, leaving users waiting until the next major release. However, Poinsot said LLMs have made some flaws so easy to rediscover that delaying fixes offers little protection.
“The embargo period achieves little but it delays the availability of a fixed release,” said Poinsot. “We are therefore updating our policy disclosure to accommodate those.”
The change comes as AI-assisted security research puts pressure on developers across Bitcoin’s software ecosystem.
Under the updated policy, vulnerabilities deemed “easily discoverable” will receive fixes as soon as possible across all maintained major versions, with security advisories published alongside the updates.
“This classification applies to vulnerabilities that can be discovered with minimal effort, such as through a simple LLM prompt,” it said.
Other vulnerabilities will continue to follow disclosure schedules based on severity, ranging from critical flaws that threaten Bitcoin’s fundamental security to lower-risk bugs with limited impact on individual nodes.
Bitcoin Core said low-severity vulnerabilities will be disclosed two weeks after the release of a major version containing the fix, while medium and high vulnerabilities will be disclosed two weeks after the last affected release hits its “End of Life,” typically a year after the fix is released in the new major version.
“Critical bugs are not considered in the standard policy, as they would most likely require an ad-hoc procedure,” it said.
“I’ve disagreed with Antoine’s approach to security in the past, but this is a good update,” said Luke de Wolf, host of the Bitcoin Infinity Show and author of “Defending Bitcoin.”
In August, the volunteer Bitcoin Red Team reported nearly 5,000 potential issues across 390 projects, although only around a fifth of its findings had been reproduced at that point.
That month, Core Lightning developers urged operators to upgrade or take their nodes offline after receiving multiple AI-generated vulnerability reports, while withholding technical details for two weeks.
Magazine: New DeepSeek ban in US, Swiss-Asia crypto ties deepen: Asia Express
The largest U.S. public pension fund has significantly reduced its holdings in the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, shifting to increase allocations to private equity.
According to a Financial Times report, CalPERS, the largest U.S. public pension fund (California Public Employees' Retirement System), is adjusting its asset allocation: cutting direct holdings of the "Magnificent Seven" tech giants while increasing exposure to private equity to reduce concentration risk in public equity investments. Calculations from regulatory filings show CalPERS will slash its direct holdings of stocks in Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla by 26% in the first half of 2026. The fund is instead diversifying its portfolio across hundreds of companies, cutting concentrated bets on a small number of top firms. Anton Orlich, CalPERS' deputy chief investment officer, confirmed this allocation shift in an interview. He noted that public equity market valuations are already elevated, and concentration in a handful of leading companies is pressuring relative returns. In contrast, private companies offer more attractive pricing, helping CalPERS buffer against potential downturns in public markets. This rebalancing took place ahead of the recent tech stock sell-off. This week, multiple tech giants released earnings reports, stoking market concerns over whether AI spending can translate into tangible returns. Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet are set to report results next week, leaving the tech sector facing further tests. As of June 30, CalPERS' assets under management reached $637.1 billion. Data released by the fund in July showed its preliminary net investment return for the past 12 months was 14.8%, with both public and private equity portfolios performing strongly.
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Hong Kong's Secretary for the Treasury: Hong Kong's tokenization initiative is advancing towards the implementation phase.
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hui Ching Yu, stated that Hong Kong’s tokenization development is transitioning from the "experimental phase" to the "implementation phase". Currently, Hong Kong hosts over 1,400 fintech enterprises, including 8 virtual banks, 4 virtual insurance companies, and 12 licensed virtual asset trading platforms, which have achieved notable results in advancing tokenization. Hui added that the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is committed to launching a tokenized warehouse receipt financing pilot program next year. The project will partner with designated banks, utilizing distributed ledger technology, to facilitate the use of commodity warehouse receipts as collateral. Furthermore, HKEX is also developing a multi-asset tokenization platform that will include commodity warehouse receipts from approved warehouses.
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South Korea's KOSPI index closed 0.3% higher, with SK Hynix gaining 4.41%.
According to Bitget's market data, South Korea's KOSPI index closed up 16.53 points on Friday, October 23, with a 0.3% gain, ending at 5550.3 points. SK Hynix closed 4.41% higher, while Samsung Electronics rose 0.46%.
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He Yi reposted Binance's Agent wallet risk alert, warning of transaction risks associated with the Agent developer mode.
Jackson.ll (@0xOar), developer of Binance Wallet’s web version, posted today, stating: “Agent ID is being used in various ways, but users should also carefully check risk warnings. Enabling developer mode for the Agent means you can sign unverified contract transactions... Potential risks need attention. You can close the mode immediately after minting, or wait for products from verified developers.” He Yi subsequently retweeted the post. Earlier reports indicated that multiple minting projects exclusive to Binance Agent Wallet have recently emerged in the market, with some requiring developer mode activation.
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YuShu Technology, listed on China's A-share market, surges to its 20% daily limit, with its shares rising over 46% cumulatively this week.
Alliance Partner on a16z’s Shift: To Drive Crypto Talent to Build Cutting-Edge Technology
Imran, general partner at Alliance, took to X this morning to share his views on a16z crypto’s shift toward frontier technology sectors. He noted that a16z led Coinbase’s 2013 funding round via Chris Dixon, providing early validation for the crypto industry; Marc Andreessen’s 2014 New York Times op-ed, “Why Bitcoin Matters,” was a key factor in his decision to enter the Bitcoin space. At the time, few institutions and funds were willing to publicly back crypto, with a16z and USV standing out as two that took brand risk. Imran argued that the current development of AI infrastructure owes much to Bitcoin mining infrastructure and talent that has moved from crypto to AI. The shift to frontier technologies including robotics, biotech, AI, energy, and computing power means the talent and capabilities the crypto industry has built over the past decade can be applied to the broader frontier tech space. Citing data centers as an example, he noted that public and government pushback against data centers is growing, much like earlier resistance to crypto—yet today nearly all traditional financial institutions have embraced crypto to some extent. Yesterday’s news: a16z’s flagship blockchain fund will drop the “Crypto” moniker and rebrand as “a16z Frontier.”
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has said that a potential bust in the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble could actually be largely harmless for Bitcoin (BTC).
According to the prominent crypto analyst, the leading cryptocurrency has largely failed to participate in the massive run-up in AI stock prices.
As a result, a steep correction in the AI space could be relatively harmless for Bitcoin.
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"I don't think an AI bubble burst would hurt BTC much," Ju said in a recent post on X.
He speculated that investors looking to profit from the AI boom may have already dumped their Bitcoin holdings to finance their AI stock investments.
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Now, as worries about the extent of AI overvaluations grow, the reverse rotation could be in play.
"Now it may be time to rotate back into Bitcoin," Ju wrote.
But he didn't want to be seen as claiming that an AI market crash would be bullish for the leading cryptocurrency.
"An AI crash isn't necessarily bullish or bearish for BTC. They seem unrelated," he added.
Why are investors worried about an AI bubble?The meteoric rise of artificial intelligence has spurred one of the biggest investment booms in modern technology.
In many ways, it's reminiscent of the dot-com era of the late 1990s.
Tech companies are spending hundreds of billions on data centers, top-notch chips, and increasingly sophisticated AI models.
Do these massive investments make sense? Skeptics say it's not clear whether the money will be able to generate enough revenue to make it all worth it.
AI companies have yet to prove that their business model is capable of producing impressive results on a consistent basis.
Moreover, the growing complexity of the AI industry is a significant concern.
There are technology companies that invest billions in AI developers, which in turn invest a lot of their own money in the form of computing infrastructure and services from the companies that have invested in them.
That being said, a burst of the AI bubble doesn't necessarily mean it's the death of AI technology.
For example, during the dot-com crash, a massive amount of speculative money was vaporized, but the internet continued to change the world economy.
