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Reflect Money wants every app on Solana to have its own stablecoin. Its new tool, Create, is designed to make that a one-click affair.

The Solana-based protocol launched Create on October 22, 2026. It lets users and applications deploy custom yield-bearing stablecoins in a single transaction. The pitch is simple. Stablecoins that sit around doing nothing are a wasted opportunity, and Reflect thinks it can put them to work.

How Create works Instead of building collateral systems, liquidity plumbing and redemption logic from scratch, an issuer picks from a menu and ships.

That menu is a set of reviewed collateral options. According to the research findings, these include USDC+, senior tranches and tokenized assets. Each one backs the new token and generates the yield that holders earn.

Tokens launched through Create are built to plug straight into Solana decentralized exchanges, including Jupiter and Titan. So a freshly minted coin can trade on day one instead of languishing in a wallet nobody checks.

Minting and redeeming happen atomically, with no queues. Put plainly, you either get your tokens or your money back in the same instant, without waiting in line behind everyone else trying to exit.

Issuers can keep a percentage of the yield their stablecoin generates. That turns a stablecoin from a cost center into a potential revenue line for whoever launches it.

The numbers behind Reflect Reflect is not starting from zero. By the time Create went live, the protocol had issued 7 assets, with an average annual percentage yield of around 21%.

Total trading volume across the platform stood at $5.52 million at launch.

Reflect is aiming at the approximately $280 billion in idle stablecoin holdings that currently earn nothing.

The company describes its approach as “software-as-a-stablecoin.” The idea is to package on-chain decentralized finance strategies into liquid yield products that feel more like a savings account than a strategy deck.

Reflect also draws a clear line about what it is not. It is not a stablecoin issuer or custodian. Its protocols handle risk-adjusted allocations and asset wrapping transparently on-chain, positioning the company as a neutral operator rather than a traditional issuer.

From hackathon winner to infrastructure play Reflect Money was founded in May 2024. Its founding goal was to fix the inefficiency of stablecoin holdings by programmatically routing capital into DeFi opportunities while keeping that capital liquid and in users’ control.

The project won Grand Champion at the 2024 Solana Radar hackathon. In September 2025, it raised $3.75 million in a seed round.

Before Create, Reflect’s lineup centered on two products. Earn includes USDC+ and USDT+, while Protect offers yield tranches. The infrastructure also includes an insurance pool for risk management and a software development kit that lets developers integrate Reflect into their own products.

Create builds directly on that foundation. USDC+, one of the Earn products, now doubles as a collateral option for other people’s stablecoins.

What this means Yield on stablecoins comes from somewhere, and the around 21% average APY on Reflect’s assets reflects the DeFi strategies and collateral underneath. Those yields depend on market conditions and the performance of the assets backing each token.

Reflect says its collateral options are reviewed, and the insurance pool adds a layer of protection.

The things worth tracking from here are straightforward. Watch how many issuers actually use Create, whether the asset count climbs meaningfully beyond 7, and whether platform volume grows past $5.52 million.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Reflect has launched Create on Solana, offering users a way to issue a branded yield-bearing stablecoin in one transaction and choose how interest is divided among holders.

Summary

Create lets users launch branded tokens and choose how interest is shared.
Reflect names Offside Labs and Adevar Labs as auditors of its program infrastructure.
Collateral eligibility excludes assets with fixed transfer restrictions or investor eligibility requirements.
Reflect leaves token classification and market access decisions to each application and its counsel.

Reflect said its new tool lets users select collateral from a reviewed set, attach their own branding and build a token through a single transaction. Solana promoted the release through its main account, describing the process as taking less than a minute.

“Create is live,” the company wrote in its launch post.

The launch announcement does not name a legal issuer for each token or identify who signs off on every collateral review. Reflect’s documentation describes its approach to both questions, while stopping short of providing a regulatory determination for individual launches.

Create wraps collateral and shares its yield
Reflect’s Create documentation describes each token as a wrapper around yield-bearing assets held onchain. A deposit becomes backing collateral, against which the program mints the branded token.

Creators can select one approved asset or combine several in a basket. Eligible collateral must be permissionless and freely transferable, the documentation says, excluding assets with fixed transfer restrictions or investor eligibility requirements.

The technical launch flow creates the mint, attaches metadata, transfers mint authority to the program, and registers the integration. Reflect instructs developers to upload images and metadata before that transaction.

Interest comes from the underlying collateral. The creator chooses the share retained and the share passed to holders, with rates changing as the underlying return changes.

In its illustration, Reflect uses collateral earning 5%, with the creator keeping one-fifth of the interest. Holders receive 4%, while the creator receives $100,000 annually on $10 million outstanding. The company labels the figures an illustration, not a projection.

Reflect’s introduction identifies neobanks, fintechs, payroll providers, payment tools, marketplaces and treasury products among its intended users. Its product lineup includes Earn, which provides yield exposure through “plus” assets, and Protect, which divides exposure into senior and junior positions.

Reflect names code auditors and describes collateral checks
Reflect’s risk documentation identifies three reviews before an asset or strategy becomes eligible. Asset classification scores liquidity, issuer reliability, and availability across trading venues; economic security reviews use simulation and backtesting; code reviews examine the programs.

Offside Labs and Adevar Labs are named as code auditors covering Reflect Core, yield routing and the whitelabel program. The page does not name the third-party economic reviewers or an individual responsible for approving the collateral set.

Blockworks Advisory separately published a June 8 explanation of a risk framework for Reflect’s Solana lending markets. Its disclosure says Reflect commissioned and funded the work, although Blockworks used its own methodology.

The risk page warns that redemption depends on withdrawal capacity at the venues holding reserves. During market stress, withdrawals can become slower or more expensive, even where small transactions normally settle immediately.

Reflect says it operates no insurance pool. Its Protect structure instead allows junior capital to absorb losses before senior positions, with protection limited by the capital available beneath them.

Legal classification remains specific to each token
Reflect’s compliance documentation argues that users do not hold reserves themselves because backing assets sit in contracts and holders redeem against those assets. The company presents this as an architectural distinction, not a compliance certification.

Its guidance declines to determine whether a created token is a security. Classification depends on its structure, marketing, intended buyers, and jurisdiction, the page says.

The same documentation says contracts enforce no geographic restrictions, leaving applications to decide which markets they serve. Reflect identifies cash conversion, banking, card issuance and custody outside its system as activities that may require licenses.

In terms last updated in September 2025, Palindrome Engineering Inc., a Delaware corporation, identifies itself as the service operator. Those terms warn that local laws may treat Reflect assets as securities, derivatives, electronic money or other regulated instruments.

U.S. regulators have separately finalized payment stablecoin rules. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced its GENIUS Act framework on Oct. 21, setting Jan. 18, 2027, as the effective date.

The final rule retains the restriction on issuer payments of yield solely for holding, using, or retaining a payment stablecoin. Its treatment of multiple brands allows case-by-case review during licensing or registration, including whether holders remain adequately protected.

Branded stablecoin platforms already have live customers
PayPal, M0 and MoonPay launched PYUSDx publicly on Sep. 9, with Saturn, Concrete and Cap using the platform. As previously reported by crypto.news, the partners said the projects had processed more than $100 million.

M0’s announcement distinguishes PYUSD-backed custom tokens from the underlying PayPal stablecoin. The related coverage identifies MoonPay Digital Assets as issuer of PYUSDx tokens and Paxos as issuer of PYUSD.

Stripe introduced Bridge’s Open Issuance in September 2025, offering businesses customized stablecoins with reserve management and compliance infrastructure. Phantom was its first major partner, using the platform for CASH.

The OCC said its new rule does not complete every part of the GENIUS Act implementation. Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering, and sanctions requirements will be addressed through separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury Department.

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.

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COINDESK: Solana completes Alpenglow upgrade. Here's what it means for users

5 hours ago

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, Solana trader MattFws spent approximately $13,500 to buy 36.9 million DACITY tokens, sold the entire position 9 days later, generating a profit of around $124,900, a return of roughly 875%. The capital from this trade ultimately grew to approximately $139,100.

Source

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Your stablecoins sit on Arbitrum, your SOL is in a Solana wallet, and you still hold some BTC on Bitcoin. Moving value between them often means a centralized exchange, a bridge, or several apps that each cover only part of the journey.

A cross-chain swap app can replace that patchwork. The real question is how far its coverage reaches, and what each route needs from you.

Can One App Swap Across EVM, Solana and Bitcoin?
Yes. One app can swap across EVM chains, Solana and Bitcoin when it connects to cross-chain protocols that support routes between those networks.

On KyberSwap, Cross-chain Swap supports the major EVM chains currently supported on KyberSwap, plus Bitcoin, NEAR and Solana. You can swap from any token on one chain to a different token on another chain, directly through KyberSwap, with no external steps required.

Coverage still works route by route. A swap is only possible when a supported protocol can handle that source chain, destination chain and token pair, and when you have a compatible wallet or receiving address for each side.

Why Don’t EVM Chains, Solana and Bitcoin Connect Natively?
EVM chains, Solana and Bitcoin do not connect natively because each runs its own network with its own transaction rules, address format and wallets. A token on one of these networks cannot move to another network by itself.

EcosystemExample networksAddress formatWalletEVMEthereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB ChainStarts with 0xOne EVM wallet works across EVM networksSolanaSolanaBase58 string, no 0x prefixNeeds a Solana walletBitcoinBitcoinOften starts with bc1, 1 or 3Needs a Bitcoin wallet
EVM chains are the easiest group to move between. They share the Ethereum Virtual Machine, so the same wallet and address usually work on all of them.

Solana and Bitcoin are different. Each uses its own address format, and an EVM wallet address cannot receive funds on either network. That is why a route from an EVM chain to Solana or Bitcoin needs a protocol that can settle on the other network, plus a valid receiving address there.

How Does One App Reach Several Blockchains?
One app reaches several blockchains by connecting to cross-chain protocols instead of building a separate bridge for every pair of networks. Each protocol supports its own set of chains, tokens and routes.

An app built on a single protocol inherits that protocol’s coverage and its limits. An app that aggregates several protocols can offer any route that at least one of them supports.

KyberSwap Cross-chain Swap takes the aggregation approach. It aggregates liquidity from multiple third-party cross-chain swaps and cross-chain swap protocols. Supported protocols include NEAR IntentS, Across, Relay Protocol, deBridge, LI.FI, Mayan Finance, Bungee and Symbiosis.

After you enter an amount, KyberSwap automatically fetches real-time quotes from these protocols and selects the option that provides the best rate among the quotes by default. To see every option, click More Options to open the Choose Your Route section. There you can compare available providers, estimated return amounts, fees and estimated arrival times.

Support for chains and protocols could be changed over time, so the routes you see reflect what is available when you request a quote.

Which Networks Does KyberSwap Cross-chain Swap Support?
KyberSwap Cross-chain Swap supports the major EVM chains currently supported on KyberSwap, plus Bitcoin, NEAR and Solana.

On the EVM side, this includes networks such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon POS, Avalanche, Robinhood Chain and Arc. The full list is on the Supported Exchanges and Networks page.

These networks combine into five route types:

RouteWhat it connectsEVM ↔ EVMTwo EVM chains, such as Arbitrum and BaseSolana ↔ EVMSolana and an EVM chainBTC ↔ EVMBitcoin and an EVM chainNEAR ↔ EVMNEAR and an EVM chainNon-EVM ↔ Non-EVMTwo non-EVM networks, such as Bitcoin and Solana
Bitcoin, Solana and NEAR Are Reached Through Cross-chain Swap
Swap and Limit Order on KyberSwap run on EVM networks. Bitcoin, Solana and NEAR are supported through Cross-chain Swap.

In practice, KyberSwap is where you move value into or out of Bitcoin, Solana and NEAR. Once your tokens arrive on an EVM network, you can keep trading there with Swap or Limit Order.

Which Wallet Do You Need for Each Route?
You need a wallet connected on the source chain, and a receiving address on the destination chain. What that looks like depends on the route.

RouteSource chainDestination chainEVM ↔ EVMConnect your Web3 walletNo additional wallet connection is required if the same EVM-compatible wallet supports the destination networkEVM to Bitcoin or NEARConnect your Web3 walletEnter your Bitcoin or NEAR receiving address, or click Select Wallet to connect a compatible walletBitcoin to other chainsClick Select Wallet and connect a compatible wallet for BitcoinEnter your receiving address, or click Select Wallet to connect a compatible walletNEAR to other chainsClick Select Wallet and connect a compatible wallet for NEAREnter your receiving address, or click Select Wallet to connect a compatible wallet
For EVM ↔ EVM routes, the output tokens go to your connected wallet address by default. To send them somewhere else, enable the Send to other wallet option and enter the desired receiving address.

For other network cases, if you do not connect a compatible wallet for the destination chain, you are required to manually enter the receiving address. If you connect one, the default receiving address will be your connected wallet address.

Because address formats differ across EVM chains, Solana and Bitcoin, the receiving address is the detail to check most carefully. The confirmation box shows the destination address before you click Confirm Swap.

How Do Fees and Processing Time Change by Route?
The Platform Fee for Cross-chain Swap depends on the route and the volatility level of the tokens. It ranges from 0.05% to 0.25%.

RouteStable tokens & Same native tokenCommonExoticHigh-volatilityEVM ↔ EVM0.05%0.10%0.15%0.25%NEAR ↔ EVM0.1%0.2%0.2%0.2%Solana ↔ EVM0.1%0.2%0.2%0.2%BTC ↔ EVM0.25%0.25%0.25%0.25%Non-EVM ↔ Non-EVM0.25%0.25%0.25%0.25%
BTC ↔ EVM and Non-EVM ↔ Non-EVM routes use a flat 0.25%. Solana ↔ EVM and NEAR ↔ EVM routes range from 0.1% to 0.2%.

The applicable Platform Fee is shown in the swap details section after the route is generated and before you confirm the transaction. Some third-party providers may also charge a Protocol Fee for using their route. If applicable, it appears in the Swap Details or in the Choose Your Route section.

Processing Time
Some chains or protocols may take more time to complete. Before you confirm, check the Estimated Processing Time in the confirmation box.

After you start the swap, you can track its status in the transaction history panel. The status moves from Processing to Success or Failed.

Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Swap Bitcoin to Solana on KyberSwap?
Yes. Cross-chain Swap on KyberSwap supports Non-EVM ↔ Non-EVM routes, which connect networks such as Bitcoin and Solana. These routes use a flat 0.25% Platform Fee.

Can I Use Swap or Limit Order on Solana or Bitcoin?
No. Swap and Limit Order on KyberSwap run on EVM networks. Bitcoin, Solana and NEAR are supported through Cross-chain Swap.

Do I Need a Different Wallet for Each Ecosystem?
Usually, yes. One EVM wallet works across EVM chains, but Bitcoin and Solana use their own address formats. For a non-EVM destination, you can enter the receiving address manually instead of connecting that wallet.

What Happens if a Cross-Chain Swap Fails?
A failed cross-chain swap on KyberSwap is automatically reverted. The input tokens are returned to your sender wallet address.

When Does One App Make Sense for Multi-Chain Swaps?
One app makes the most sense when your assets are spread across EVM chains, Solana and Bitcoin, and you want to move between them without opening a separate bridge for each route.

Before you confirm any route, check four things: the route is available, you have a wallet or receiving address for both sides, the Platform Fee tier fits the trade, and the Estimated Processing Time works for you.

To see which routes are available for your tokens, open the Cross-chain tab on KyberSwap or visit kyberswap.com/cross-chain and compare live quotes before you sign.

Solana [SOL] is recovering after last week’s correction, with buyers defending the $95-$100 demand zone as a major network upgrade draws attention.

According to recent reports, Solana announced that Alpenglow is now live on the Solana mainnet, cutting network processing times from approximately 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds.

The upgrade arrives as institutional demand shows signs of improvement. Notably, Solana ETFs recorded significant net inflows over the past 24 hours, suggesting renewed investor interest.

So, can Alpenglow provide the spark required to extend SOL’s recovery?

ETF inflows and whale activity support its current recovery
Just hours after the announcements, the network reported $585,000 in daily SOL ETF inflows. This points to a positive institutional flow, as big players projected increased efficiency on the network after the upgrades.

Source: SoSoValue 
Moreover, the network whales are aligning with the network’s institutional players. According to the recent Futures Average Order Size data, Solana whales are bagging more orders at the current trading price.

Source: CryptoQuant
Besides the positive ETF inflows, the network’s Spot Volume Bubble Map data is flashing overheating signals. The spike points to current increased trading activity across the Spot markets. To be specific, the network trading volume spiked by 6% to $2.27 billion.

However, it is key for the prospective investors to note that if buying becomes crowded or larger holders begin taking profits, SOL could face renewed volatility despite the positive developments.

Source: CryptoQuant
Can SOL sustain its long-term uptrend?
Alpenglow upgrades could provide a potential fundamental spark, while ETF inflows and the rebound from the key demand zone between $95 and $100 offer additional support for the recovery.

To strengthen the bullish outlook, SOL must maintain buying pressure and demand rather than reacting quickly to the upgrade. Holding above the demand zone between $95 and $100 would help preserve the recovery structure, while overheating signals warrant caution.

The upgrade strengthens Solana‘s long-term trend, but sustained adoption and market demand will determine whether that translates into a lasting SOL rally.

Source: TradingView

Final Summary

Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade reportedly reduces processing times from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds, strengthening the network’s performance outlook.
SOL rebounds from the demand zone between $95 and $100 as ETFs record $585,000 in daily inflows, but overheating signals could increase short-term volatility.

Solana has processed $5 trillion in stablecoin volume so far in 2026, according to the network’s official account. The tally runs through October 22, which means the year still has more than two months left on the clock.

A stablecoin is a token built to hold a steady value, usually pegged one-to-one to the US dollar. Solana’s $5 trillion figure is the total value of those tokens changing hands on its network this year. It measures activity, not holdings.

September was a standout month. Stablecoin supply on Solana climbed to a record $17.51 billion. That same month, the network logged 557 million stablecoin transfers. No other tracked chain recorded more.

Solana holds only about 5% of the total stablecoin supply. Yet adjusted transfer data shows it captured between 32-36% of global stablecoin transfer volume during peak months in 2026.

Supply has eased slightly since the September peak. Cumulative transaction volumes, however, have kept growing steadily into late 2026.

At Money20/20 USA, Amir A. Valliani of the Solana Foundation discussed the network’s growth. He pointed to the involvement of major players such as Western Union in using stablecoin technology. Western Union and other payment firms are exploring or expanding stablecoin usage on Solana.

Samsung plans to integrate USDC transfers into its Galaxy wallet, a move that could potentially reach 82 million US devices.

The activation of Solana’s Alpenglow network upgrade is expected to bring transaction finality down to approximately 150 milliseconds.

There are caveats worth keeping in view. Transfer volume is a busy metric. It can be inflated by automated trading, arbitrage bots, and funds cycling repeatedly between the same parties. The research cites adjusted transfer volume for the 32-36% share, an attempt to filter some of that noise.

Samsung’s USDC integration remains a plan, and the 82 million device figure describes potential reach, not active users. Alpenglow’s roughly 150 millisecond finality is an expected improvement that still has to perform under real-world load. Western Union and its peers are exploring or expanding usage, which leaves room between pilot programs and full-scale deployment.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

A stock’s digital twin is now busier than the stock itself. Tokenized shares of Vida Global, trading on Solana as VIDAx, logged 248% more volume than the company’s traditional shares over a 30-day window.

The data comes from SolanaFloor, which published the comparison on October 22, 2026.

The numbers behind the copy
The VIDAx figure covers the 30 days before October 22. During that stretch, the on-chain token traded well above the volume of Vida Global’s shares on the NYSE American.

Vida Global was not the only name in the data. The tokenized version of Trump Media & Technology Group, ticker DJT, reached 27% of its traditional finance volume over the same period.

The VIDAx token arrived shortly after Vida Global went public in May 2026. Since then, it has shown fast growth in both holders and trading volume.

Lyle Pratt, Vida Global’s CEO, has been vocal about that traction. He has repeatedly pointed to the token’s expanding holder base and rising volume as evidence the experiment is working.

A bigger wave on Solana
Tokenized equities on Solana hit $4.4 billion in volume in September 2026 alone.

Tokenized equity supply on the network reached a record $684 million, a 47% jump in just three weeks.

Solana’s tokenized equities crossed 1 million holder addresses around late September and early October.

Solana has consistently accounted for more than 95% of global on-chain equity volume in quarterly figures.

How tokenized stocks actually work
Issuers including xStocks, backed by Backed Finance, and Backpack Securities provide these tokens on a 1:1 basis. Each token is meant to correspond to one underlying share.

Those tokens trade on Solana decentralized exchanges such as Raydium. Because blockchains do not close, the trading does not stop when the NYSE closing bell rings.

What this means for traders and issuers
When a token outtrades its underlying stock, it becomes a primary venue rather than a mirror. If more trading happens on Solana than on the NYSE American for VIDA, the on-chain market may increasingly influence where the stock’s price is set, especially outside regular hours.

Percentages deserve some caution, though. A 248% gap describes a ratio, not a dollar amount, and ratios can look dramatic when the traditional baseline is modest.

There are risks worth tracking. Tokenized stocks depend on the issuer actually holding the underlying shares, so the 1:1 backing is only as solid as the custodian behind it.

Round-the-clock trading also cuts both ways. Markets that never close can react to news instantly, but they can also move sharply during hours when traditional venues are dark and less liquidity is available to absorb big orders.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Wed 21 Oct 2026 ▪
5
min read ▪ by
Luc Jose A.

Summarize this article with:

Solana replaced TowerBFT with Alpenglow on its mainnet on October 21, in its most significant consensus change since launch. The new protocol targets a finality close to 150 milliseconds, compared to about 12.8 seconds previously, but part of the planned architecture is still to be deployed.

In Brief

Solana activated Alpenglow on October 21, replacing TowerBFT on its mainnet.
The new consensus targets a finality of 150 milliseconds, compared to 12.8 seconds previously.
The transition occurred without a network-wide outage, with participation from 654 validators.
The Votor mechanism speeds block validation through new voting procedures and BLS signatures.
Alpenglow promises faster final transactions and better fault tolerance.

Alpenglow Replaces TowerBFT on the Mainnet
The activation began at the start of epoch 1064. However, the network retained TowerBFT for the first 5000 slots of this epoch, about 18 minutes, to prepare the transition to the new system.

The transition completed at slot 459653000. The validators then formed the cryptographic certificate marking the birth of the Alpenglow consensus. Anza, the lead developer of the Agave client, described this operation as the “greatest upgrade in Solana’s history”.

The key elements of the activation illustrate the magnitude of the change :

Alpenglow replaces the TowerBFT consensus used since Solana’s inception ;
The targeted finality goes from 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds ;
654 validators participated in the transition ;
The switch from one consensus to the other lasted about 900 milliseconds ;
Validator votes are no longer recorded as on-chain transactions ;
BLS signatures allow multiple votes to be aggregated into a single certificate ;
Each admitted validator must pay a ticket of 0.8 SOL per epoch.

The transfer occurred without a full network halt. During the critical phase, blocks temporarily stopped including user transactions and carried only the necessary votes. This precaution was to allow a rollback without invalidating a user-signed operation.

Once the genesis certificate was formed, nodes handed the consensus over to the new Votor algorithm. Transactions then resumed under the Alpenglow regime.

Votor Dramatically Reduces Final Confirmation Delay
The consensus allows validators to agree on the order of transactions and when a block can no longer be reverted. With TowerBFT, Solana produced blocks quickly, but their full finality required about 12.8 seconds.

Votor uses two voting procedures in parallel. The first can finalize a block in one round when 80% of tokens staked staking respond. The second can conclude after two rounds with 60% participation. The protocol adopts the path that finishes first.

Votes are no longer recorded as ordinary transactions. Validators exchange signed messages directly via the BLS system. Multiple signatures can then be aggregated into a compact certificate, freeing block space for user operations.

Alpenglow also targets better fault tolerance. Its design allows simultaneous tolerance of 20% of tokens staked on offline validators and 20% on hostile actors. TowerBFT relied on a limit of less than one-third malicious participation.

For users, the expected effect mainly concerns payments, decentralized exchanges, and applications demanding quick certainty. A finality near 150 milliseconds would reduce the wait before an operation is considered irreversible. However, this gain doesn’t mean all applications will respond that fast, as their interfaces, servers, and controls add their own delays.

Part of the Upgrade Is Still to Come
The activation on October 21 mainly concerns Votor, the new consensus mechanism. It does not yet deploy all the components described in the Alpenglow project.

Rotor, the future block propagation system, is set to replace Turbine in a later phase. It plans to distribute data shards via a single relay and to use the network’s full bandwidth. Its activation schedule is not yet set.

The economic operation of validators is also changing. Off-chain votes remove the old fees paid for each vote transaction. Instead, the protocol charges a validation ticket of 0.8 SOL per epoch on the vote account. An operator lacking the required amount cannot vote or produce blocks during the following epoch.

The comparison with Ethereum’s “The Merge” mainly illustrates the technical significance of the change. Ethereum abandoned proof-of-work for proof-of-stake in 2022. Solana keeps its general model but directly replaces the engine organizing agreement among its validators.

The coming weeks will verify whether the observed finality remains near 150 milliseconds during high activity periods. Network stability, validator participation, and the future deployment of Rotor will determine if Alpenglow lives up to its promises.

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Luc Jose A.

Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019.
Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade entered its mainnet activation process on October 21, with the Solana Foundation listing its activation switch as active. The change introduces a new way for the computers running the network to agree that transactions are final.

For users, the goal is to have a shorter wait before a payment is settled. Alpenglow wants about 150 milliseconds, or 0.15 seconds, this is instead of the 12.8 seconds that the previous system has.

What faster finality means for users A transaction appearing in a wallet does not mean it has become final. What “finality” is is when the network considers that the transaction is settled and cannot be reversed.

The Foundation says that the figure is what is expected based on testing, but actual performance will depend on network conditions.

Activation comes before the completed handover The system in place before will still continue to operate for a while before the new process then takes over.

Another thing that will also be seen is that validator votes will not count as transactions recorded in blocks again. And what this means is that the total transactions that are reported could fall without user activity falling.

SOL approaches a nearby recovery hurdle SOL traded around the $106.85 price area at the time of this writing, up 0.39%.

It had pulled itself from the $100–$102 price levels that it was, and this was after it fell from the $124 price level. What this showed was that buyers were coming back, but prices were still not feeling the impact yet.

The price area it needs to cross is around the $108–$109 price area. If it is able to hold above that area, the recovery case will become stronger, and traders can then look at the $112 price area.

Source: TradingView If the rebound fails, the $100–$102 price area remains the recent area where buyers previously stepped in.

Final Summary Alpenglow’s mainnet activation has begun for transaction finality of around 150 milliseconds. SOL traded near the $106.85 price zone, with the $108–$109 looking like the next recovery area.

Filing Date

2026-10-21

Accepted

2026-10-21 16:22:30

Documents

11

Period of Report

2026-10-19

Items

Item 5.02: Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers: Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers

Mailing Address 3500 LACEY ROAD SUITE 700 DOWNERS GROVE IL 60515

Business Address 3500 LACEY ROAD SUITE 700 DOWNERS GROVE IL 60515 800-983-0903

Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF (Filer) : 0002074409 (see all company filings)

: 000000000 | State of Incorp.: DE | Fiscal Year End: 1231
Type: 8-K | Act: 34 | File No.: 001-43001 | Film No.: 261475965
: 6221 Commodity Contracts Brokers & Dealers
(CF Office: 09 Crypto Assets)

Solana switches on Alpenglow, built to settle trades in a blink

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SkyAI (Nasdaq: SKYA) began paying out its own cash on October 16, opening a tender offer that would return up to $201.3 million to stockholders at $3.00 a share — a price the company says equals roughly 0.95 times its net asset value. Two days after the offer documents landed, its largest outside stockholder, Bastion Trading, put the entire process under a governance challenge, demanding that the board explain how a company that told shareholders it “reaffirms its commitment to its Solana DAT strategy” in September had sold its entire SOL treasury within a month and was now returning the cash at a discount to the company’s own stated value.

The tender offer was disclosed in the company’s tender offer announcement on October 19, and Bastion Trading’s escalation followed in its own public statement on October 21. What makes the situation unusual is not that a company is returning capital. It is the speed of the pivot. Four days before its annual meeting, SkyAI said it held more than two million SOL. A month later, it held none.

The Offer Is Live: $3.00, a 95% Cap, and a $22.5 Million Residual The tender offer seeks up to 95% of each class of SkyAI’s outstanding securities at $3.00 apiece: 48,311,489 common shares, 4,880,734 cash pre-funded warrants, 9,939,850 cryptocurrency pre-funded warrants, and 3,955,293 strategic warrants — 67,087,366 securities in total. Warrants are purchased at $3.00 less their $0.0001 exercise price, or $2.9999 each. The offer expires at one minute after 11:59 p.m. New York City time on October 29, unless extended or terminated.

SkyAI said it held approximately $223.8 million in cash as of October 16 and has completed the sale of all of its SOL. Because it no longer holds any SOL, the offer is not conditioned on SOL’s price — a condition the company had initially expected to include when it announced the offer on October 11. “The Offer is not subject to a financing condition and does not require any borrowing,” the company wrote. If fully subscribed, the aggregate purchase price is about $201.3 million.

The arithmetic is straightforward. A fully subscribed tender at $201.3 million against $223.8 million of cash leaves roughly $22.5 million on the balance sheet before transaction fees and expenses — about 90% of the disclosed cash balance would leave the company in a single transaction. Each class also carries its own minimum tender condition: at least 50% of the shares sought must be tendered, at least 50% of the two pre-funded warrant classes combined, and at least 50% of the strategic warrants. If more than 95% of a class is tendered, purchases are made pro rata within that class.

From “Reaffirms Its Commitment” to Zero SOL in a Month SkyAI was known until recently as Sharps Technology, a medical-device maker that pivoted into one of the more aggressive corporate Solana treasuries. In 2025 the company was marketing a treasury it sized at roughly $400 million, built with Coinbase’s collaboration.

The reversal came quickly. On September 14, 2026, four days before its annual meeting, the company’s proxy material said it “reaffirms its commitment to its Solana DAT strategy” and continued to hold more than two million SOL, according to Bastion Trading’s recitation of the Schedule 14A. On October 11, SkyAI announced the buyback and said its board had rejected the latest all-stock takeover proposal from Forward Industries as undervaluing the company. On October 14, Bastion issued its first public challenge — which BlockchainReporter covered at the time as Bastion’s demand for a higher tender price and a board reset — after flagging that most of the SOL had already been sold. By October 16, the tender offer was open and the SOL was entirely gone.

Bastion’s Math: A $3.30 NAV, a $3.50 Ask, and an $11.9 Million Warrant Question Bastion Trading, which with affiliates beneficially owns about 9.99% of SkyAI’s common stock, wants the price raised from $3.00 to at least $3.50 per share or warrant. Its stated basis is a net asset value of roughly $3.30 per share, calculated — in the firm’s own words — as “(market value of SOL holdings + cash and cash equivalents – total liabilities) / fully diluted share count,” based on an assumed SOL price of $110 per token.

The more pointed demand concerns the strategic warrants. Bastion said those warrants were granted without any cash consideration to Sol Markets, an entity controlled by James Zhang, the brother of SkyAI director and Chief Investment Officer Alice Zhang. “By our calculation, those warrants could receive up to approximately $11.9 million in the Tender Offer,” Bastion wrote.

Bastion also flagged a related relationship: Sol Edge Limited, another James Zhang-controlled entity, has already received “substantial compensation” under a 20-year consulting agreement, including a $10 million upfront payment, according to the company’s Form 10-K. Bastion’s position is that allowing this insider-related party to monetize warrants through a tender funded by the sale of the company’s core treasury asset would be “fundamentally unfair.”

The firm’s language is blunt. “Directors are not elected merely to rubber-stamp management’s decisions,” Bastion wrote. “Their fiduciary duties require them to exercise independent judgment and oversight, challenge potential conflicts and protect stockholders’ interests.” It is demanding that Executive Chairman Paul K. Danner III and directors Soren Bo Christiansen, Timothy J. Ruemler and Jason L. Monroe publicly explain their roles, or resign — and it wants the strategic advisor warrants excluded from the offer entirely, plus a special stockholder meeting if the board cannot demonstrate accountability.

What the $3.00 Price Actually Values SkyAI’s own footnote frames the price as a multiple of net cash. The company defines mNAV as the $3.00 purchase price multiplied by roughly 70.6 million shares and warrants outstanding, divided by net cash of about $223.8 million. That works out to $211.8 million of implied value against $223.8 million of cash — a multiple of about 0.946, which is the “approximately 0.95x” the company cites.

In other words, a stockholder tendering at $3.00 accepts roughly 95 cents on the dollar of the company’s stated cash value, while the strategic warrants Bastion wants excluded would absorb about $11.9 million of the payout — close to 6% of the full $201.3 million offer. The gap between the two positions is a single number: SkyAI’s $3.00 sits about 9% below the $3.30 NAV Bastion computes, while Bastion’s $3.50 ask sits about 6% above it, a 16.7% difference over whether the company should pay out at a discount to cash or a premium above NAV.

The Countercase: Why the Board Says the Offer Works SkyAI’s framing is that the offer is clean and funded. The board approved it unanimously, and the company notes the offer carries no financing condition, requires no borrowing, and leaves the common stock listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The company also makes no recommendation on whether holders should tender, leaving the decision to each stockholder.

There is a narrower defense embedded in the structure. The minimum tender conditions mean the offer only closes if a meaningful share of each class participates, and the pro-rata mechanics cap any single class at 95%. A company returning cash at a discount to NAV is not automatically destructive: if the board believes the remaining business is worth less than the cash it holds, returning capital at 95 cents on the dollar can still exceed what the market would otherwise offer.

What the board has not yet provided is the independent analysis Bastion is asking for. The offer documents disclose no financial advisor, valuation, or fairness opinion — a point Bastion leans on directly — and the company has not separately responded to the October 21 statement. That silence, more than the $3.00 price itself, is where the governance risk sits.

What Decides This Between Now and October 29 The tender offer runs to October 29, and the practical questions are now concrete. Whether the 50% minimum conditions are met will determine whether any payout happens at all. Whether the strategic advisor warrants are excluded — and whether SkyAI responds to Bastion’s demand for director-level disclosure — will determine whether the governance fight stays in the filings or moves to a stockholder vote.

For a company that spent a year marketing itself as a Solana treasury, the liquidation itself is now settled; the capital return is the open question. The $3.00 price, the $11.9 million in strategic warrants, and the absence of a fairness opinion are the three numbers that will decide whether this is remembered as a clean exit or a contested one. SkyAI’s board has not answered. The next filing will show whether it intends to.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Grayscale Opens 10 Crypto ETFs to Investors, But There's a Catch

Grayscale Opens In-Kind Crypto Investing for Bitcoin, XRP, Dogecoin, Solana ETFs

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

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

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

Alpenglow is Solana’s first major consensus upgrade, replacing its current consensus model, TowerBFT. The upgrade’s 150-millisecond finality target seeks to introduce near-immediate transaction finality for users, which could mean faster payments, trade settlements and more responsive applications. 

Cointelegraph has approached the Solana Foundation for comment on Alpenglow’s finality measurements in testnet environments and its expected performance in real-world applications.

Solana Alpenglow activation dashboard. Source: Solana.com

At press time, the Solana mainnet showed a 6.6-second transaction finality and a throughput of 4,721 transactions per second, according to the Alpenglow dashboard.

Alpenglow marks “biggest change” for Solana’s core protocol: AnzaAlpenglow will introduce the “biggest change to Solana’s core protocol” since genesis, Anza researchers wrote in a May blog post.

A 150-millisecond latency, “Solana can compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness, potentially making blockchain technology viable for entirely new categories of applications,” wrote Anza researchers Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski and Roger Wattenhofer on May 19.

In August, Solana reduced its slot time for the first time since genesis, as part of the Solana Foundation’s plans to halve slot times to 200ms, arguing that it would improve latency and accelerate confirmations on the blockchain network. It completed the fourth stage of the slot reduction plan in October.

Following Alpenglow, Solana validators are expected to continue working on Agave 4.5, an upgrade that proposes increasing the number of accounts supported by a versioned transaction from 64 to 96. The increase could create better swap routes and execution prices, according to the Solana Foundation. The upgrade is currently in development and planned for December 2026.

SOL/USD, 1-year chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

The Solana (SOL) token’s price rose nearly 3% in the 24 hours leading up to the upgrade, reversing part of its 42% decline seen during the past year, according to CoinMarketCap.

Magazine: Solana’s fee overhaul increases burn and makes resource hogs pay

Solana's largest consensus upgrade since the network launched in 2020 brings sub-second, deterministic finality

, /PRNewswire/ -- Anza, the leading core engineering team behind Solana, today announced that Alpenglow, Solana's new consensus protocol that brings finality down to sub-second speed, is live on Solana mainnet-beta. As Solana powers internet capital markets and increasingly becomes the infrastructure for financial applications, Alpenglow delivers the deterministic settlement speed that traditional finance requires. Transactions now become irreversible in about 150 milliseconds, down from 12.8 seconds.

At slot 459,653,000 on Wednesday October 21st at ~14:00 UTC, Solana's validators retired TowerBFT, the consensus protocol the network has run since its launch in March 2020. Migration was completed on the live Solana network.

The change is to finality, the point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed. It is what an exchange, a bank, or a merchant waits for before treating an asset as moved. For most of Solana's history, that finality took about 12.8 seconds whereas a conditional confirmation was provided within seconds. Alpenglow is designed to deliver the previous two step path condensed to one in roughly 150 milliseconds, about the length of a blink. Bringing finality assurance from seconds to a fraction of a second makes payment and trading applications even more responsive. For merchants accepting payments or exchanges crediting deposits, it means an even better user experience.

"This is the largest, most ambitious blockchain upgrade since 'The Merge' and Anza took it from a white paper to running on mainnet in under 18 months," said Brennan Watt, CEO, Anza. "This aggressive timeline was only possible because of the caliber of our development team and the incredible cast of ecosystem teams and validator operators that helped harden the protocol over the last several months."

The engineering achievement extends beyond speed. Validators replaced the consensus system at the heart of a running blockchain while carrying its existing ledger forward. Independent operators coordinated a shared handoff point from the previous protocol, TowerBFT, to Alpenglow, while maintaining availability.

Before reaching mainnet, Alpenglow underwent public testing – including red teaming and penetration testing, repeated migration rehearsals, and security competition. It was then launched on Solana's testnet and devnet. Anza developed the protocol and implemented it in Agave, the validator software it maintains; while independent validator operators adopted and activated the upgrade.

The Solana blockchain has no single operator. Anza is one of several independent teams that build software for the network. Its research team, led by ETH Zurich professor Roger Wattenhofer with Quentin Kniep and Kobi Sliwinski, published the Alpenglow design in May 2025.

Looking forward, there are additional Alpenglow related improvements to come. Rotor changes how block data spreads across the network. Geographically aware leader rotations help reduce the handoff latency between leaders. Quantumglow levels up Alpenglow for post-quantum security. It's a research design from Anza that swaps Alpenglow's elliptic-curve cryptography for hash-based signatures while keeping the same finality speed. These are planned for later releases and have no committed date yet. Status and technical details are at anza.xyz/alpenglow.

About Anza
Anza engineers Solana, shipping the software that pushes the boundaries of blockchain performance and scale. Founded by core Solana Labs engineers, Anza builds and maintains the software that validators run, researches the next generation of the protocol, and works with the ecosystem to roll out upgrades on a live network. Learn more at www.anza.xyz.

Media Contact
[email protected]

SOURCE Anza Technology, Inc.

Anza is also working on further protocol changes, including Rotor, which would improve block propagation.

Solana Solana (SOL) validators replaced the network’s original consensus protocol on Wednesday, cutting transaction finality to milliseconds in a live-network upgrade.

In a statement shared with The Block, Solana core engineering firm Anza said its Alpenglow consensus protocol reached mainnet-beta at slot 459,653,000 at approximately 14:00 UTC. The deployment retires TowerBFT, the consensus protocol Solana had operated since its March 2020 launch.

The protocol shift condenses Solana's previous two-step transaction confirmation process into a single step, bringing finality down from 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds for exchanges crediting deposits and merchants processing payments, according to Anza.

"This is the largest, most ambitious blockchain upgrade since 'The Merge,' and Anza took it from a white paper to running on mainnet in under 18 months," Anza CEO Brennan Watt said.

Anza first published the Alpenglow design in May 2025. It said the upgrade underwent public testing, which included red teaming, penetration testing, repeated migration rehearsals, and a security competition before the mainnet deployment.

Notably, the team outlined several further changes, though none have a confirmed release date. Rotor would change how block data moves across the network, while geographically aware leader rotations are intended to reduce delays between block producers, Anza said.

A separate research design, Quantumglow, would replace Alpenglow’s elliptic-curve cryptography with hash-based signatures to address post-quantum security while preserving its finality speed, according to the statement.

Jump Crypto’s Firedancer team proposed removing Solana’s 60 million compute-unit block limit in September 2025, after the planned Alpenglow upgrade. Proposal SIMD-0370 would let block capacity scale with validator hardware, rather than remain capped at a fixed limit.

In brief Solana's new Alpenglow consensus protocol has gone live on mainnet-beta, replacing TowerBFT at slot 459,653,000, core developer Anza said. Transactions now become irreversible in about 150 milliseconds, down from 12.8 seconds, which Anza says matters for exchanges, banks and merchants. Further upgrades, including a post-quantum version called Quantumglow, are planned but have no committed dates. Solana's largest consensus upgrade since the network launched in 2020 went live on Wednesday, cutting the time it takes for a transaction to become irreversible from about 12.8 seconds to roughly 150 milliseconds, core engineering team Anza said.

Validators retired TowerBFT, the consensus protocol Solana had used since March 2020, at slot 459,653,000 at around 14:00 UTC. They switched systems on the running network while carrying its existing ledger forward, with independent operators coordinating a shared handoff point.

The change is to finality, the point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed and the moment an exchange, bank or merchant waits for before treating an asset as moved. Under TowerBFT, Solana gave a conditional confirmation within seconds but took about 12.8 seconds to reach full finality. Alpenglow condenses those two steps into one.

"This is the largest, most ambitious blockchain upgrade since 'The Merge' and Anza took it from a white paper to running on mainnet in under 18 months," said Anza CEO Brennan Watt, referring to Ethereum's 2022 switch to proof of stake.

Before reaching mainnet, Alpenglow went through public testing, including red teaming, penetration testing, repeated migration rehearsals and a security competition, followed by launches on Solana's testnet and devnet. Anza implemented the protocol in Agave, the validator software it maintains, and independent validators activated it.

Anza's research team, led by ETH Zurich professor Roger Wattenhofer with Quentin Kniep and Kobi Sliwinski, published the Alpenglow design in May 2025.

Under Alpenglow, validators send their votes directly to each other instead of writing them into later blocks, and votes are weighted by stake. "If you have 80% of the votes say yes, then it's immediately done," Wattenhofer, Anza's head of research, said in an interview with Solana Foundation technology vice president Jacob Creech published last month. "You immediately know that the block is final."

A second route, two rounds of voting that each need 60% of stake, can be even quicker for validators clustered close together, such as in Europe, he explained. The protocol is designed to keep working with less than 20% of stake acting maliciously and a further 20% offline. If the network goes 10 seconds without finalizing a block, validators gradually lengthen block times until messages get through. "Eventually, even a bad internet will give us a block again," Wattenhofer said.

More upgrades are planned. Rotor will change how block data spreads across the network, and geographically aware leader rotation aims to cut delays as block production passes between validators. Quantumglow, a research design, would swap Alpenglow's elliptic-curve cryptography for hash-based signatures to make it secure against quantum computers while keeping the same finality speed. None has a committed date.

Myriad: Where does Solana go next? Click to make your prediction.Alpenglow's road to mainnetValidators approved the upgrade in September 2025, voting 98% in favor of SIMD-0236, the proposal that implements it. "The biggest difference users will feel right away will be a reduction in confirmation latency to approximately 150-200ms," Anza lead economist Max Resnick told Decrypt at the time.

Alpenglow went live on Solana's community test cluster in May 2026, when Resnick said the team was targeting a mainnet activation in late Q3 or early Q4. On October 13, Anza confirmed the October 21 date.

The upgrade also opens the door to other changes. Developers at Jump Crypto's Firedancer team have proposed scrapping Solana's cap of 60 million compute units per block once Alpenglow is live, letting blocks grow as large as the fastest validators can handle while slower ones use its "skip vote" feature to abstain. Critics warned the change could favor well-funded operators and increase centralization.

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Crypto asset manager Grayscale continues to take innovative steps regarding cryptocurrencies. In its latest announcement, Grayscale stated that it will allow investors to invest in spot cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin directly in exchange for shares in its ETFs and other investment products.

Accordingly, Grayscale has implemented an in-kind subscription model in 10 of its products, allowing investors to exchange eligible digital assets for direct investment product shares. The new model aims to facilitate the integration of crypto assets into traditional portfolio management.

The Need for Cash Conversion is Decreasing!
Grayscale has announced a new investment method for some of its investment products. This system allows investors to directly exchange their crypto assets for shares in Grayscale’s investment products without first having to convert them to cash.

The company stated that this method could reduce operational burdens stemming from custody and security processes, lower transaction costs in crypto markets, and facilitate the inclusion of digital assets in traditional investment portfolios.

10 Cryptocurrencies, Including Bitcoin and Ethereum, on the List!
According to Grayscale, the subscription service includes 10 investment products, including Bitcoin and Ethereum: “Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avalanche, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Hyperliquid, Solana, XRP, Sui, Zcash”

“Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC)

Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ETH)

Grayscale Avalanche Staking ETF (GAVA)

Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK)

Grayscale Dogecoin Trust ETF (GDOG)

Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG)

Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL)

Grayscale Sui Staking ETF (GSUI)

Grayscale XRP Trust ETF (GXRP)

The Zcash ETF (ZCSH)”

Finally, according to Grayscale’s statement, the service is available to eligible investors. Clients wishing to trade on the primary market must work with authorized participants or the institutions that act as intermediaries for these participants.

*This is not investment advice.

Follow our Telegram and X account now for exclusive news, analytics and on-chain data!

A series of security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in internet infrastructure software within a single day, affecting PHP, Node.js, and Go.

Multiple internet infrastructure software projects rolled out security updates in a single day, addressing vulnerabilities including remote code execution, TLS certificate validation bypass, and certificate trust risks. PHP fixed two critical flaws: CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, both enabling unauthenticated remote code execution that impacts PHP environments processing web requests. The patched versions are 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36, and 8.2.35. Node.js’ advisory details 10 vulnerabilities, four of which are high-severity: these include remote code execution via out-of-bounds write in the Brotli decoder, DNS name truncation, and two TLS certificate hostname validation bypass issues. Fixed versions are 26.12.1, 24.22.1, and 22.23.4. Additionally, Go’s crypto/x509-related risk is tracked as CVE-2026-111943, rated "Important" by Red Hat with a CVSS 3.1 score of 6.8. Attackers with specific network access and valid certificates could impersonate legitimate servers to intercept or alter communications. Go 1.26.10 and 1.27.3 have been added to a deny list, blocking trust for compromised intermediate certificates.

19 minutes ago

Dataline completes $10.6 million seed round funding, and plans to conduct an ICO.

Decentralized data network for AI agents Dataline has closed a $10.6 million seed round, co-led by Lattice and Samsung-backed Dispersion Capital, with participation from Symbolic Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Anagram, and Robinhood co-founder & CEO Vlad Tenev, among others. The round, completed in April, utilized a SAFE agreement with token warrants; valuation was not disclosed. Dataline is now live, covering approximately 50 data sources to deliver on-chain and off-chain data, and scores data reliability, timeliness, and consistency using AI. Proceeds will be allocated to expanding data sources, enhancing data validation, and expanding into robotics, AI training data, and other sectors. Dataline plans to launch a token by the end of 2026 for network payments and data access, and intends to conduct a public token sale on Base via Uniswap’s Continuous Clearing Auction (CCA) system, with details set to be revealed next week. The public sale’s target fundraising amount, token quantity, and other terms remain undisclosed.

19 minutes ago

Trump plans to leverage White House cyber crime efforts to showcase achievements in combating cross-border crypto fraud.

White House officials said on October 21 that Trump planned to focus on the U.S. government’s actions to crack down on overseas crypto fraud rings during the White House’s cybersecurity event that day, including recovering funds and shutting down fraudulent operations. These transnational criminal groups steal funds from U.S. citizens via romance scams, phishing, ransomware and other methods. The U.S. government noted that law enforcement agencies have seized approximately $833 million in crypto assets linked to overseas fraud, and shut down 503 fraudulent crypto websites under the supervision of the Homeland Security Task Force. Relevant authorities have also notified nearly 9,000 U.S. citizens to alert them they are being targeted by fraud. The U.S. Treasury Department previously announced the establishment of an inter-agency "Fraud Strike Task Force" to target "pig butchering" scams run by organized criminal groups in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. Since last year, the U.S. has also imposed multiple sanctions aimed at cutting off support for related fraud websites and their infrastructure.

19 minutes ago

American Bankers Association voices dissatisfaction with OCC’s final GENIUS Act rule, which abandons proposed restrictions on stablecoin yields.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that the American Bankers Association (ABA) has voiced dissatisfaction with the final rules implemented by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) under the GENIUS Act. The OCC abandoned the previously proposed restrictions on stablecoin yields, a move the ABA argues will "maintain the status quo for crypto platforms." The ABA’s CEO stated: "It is a mistake to wait until deposit outflows and economic harm have already occurred before attempting to address these issues."

19 minutes ago

Beyond PHP, three Node.js version branches are also affected by high-severity vulnerabilities, and users need to update their runtime environments promptly.

Node.js rolled out a security update on October 21, covering its 26.x, 24.x, and 22.x version branches, with corresponding patched releases: 26.12.1, 24.22.1, and 22.23.4. The advisory details 10 total vulnerabilities, categorized as 4 critical-severity, 3 medium-severity, and 3 low-severity, with varying impact scopes across the three version lines. The critical CVE-2026-111497 is an out-of-bounds write flaw in the Brotli decoder that could enable remote code execution (RCE), affecting all three branches. Other critical issues include improper null character handling in DNS resolution and a TLS certificate hostname validation bypass. The update also resolves problems with persistent connection response processing, random number cache duplication, and permission models, while updating dependencies including c-ares, OpenSSL, and Undici. The official note warns that end-of-life (EOL) versions may still be vulnerable, advising users to use the latest supported releases. Separately, prior reports noted PHP has fixed two critical unauthenticated RCE vulnerabilities, with patches available for versions 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36, and 8.2.35; PHP users are urged to upgrade immediately.

19 minutes ago

Putin in principle has agreed to resume the trilateral peace talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine, with Abu Dhabi a possible venue.

According to reports from Reuters and Axios, the Kremlin stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday he "agrees in principle" to resume trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. around November 10 to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with the venue potentially in Abu Dhabi.
Witkoff held a three-hour meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg the same day, presenting the latest plan to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Trump envoy Jared Kushner joined the session via video.
Witkoff informed Putin that progress had been made in the Oslo talks, and expressed hope that both sides would consider restarting the Russia-U.S.-Ukraine trilateral negotiations and allow technical experts to participate in discussions on specific issues. He also submitted multiple documents on the peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to Putin.
Separately, Putin raised with Witkoff the possibility of Russia acting as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran. Putin noted that Russia has decades of special trust relations with Iran and is willing to contribute to resolving the current crisis.

19 minutes ago

Introducing Seeker Connect: a dApp-side SDK that gives your users a named, branded, one-tap connection to the Seeker wallet from mobile web, PWA’s and native apps. It ships today with full documentation, agent skills, a video integration guide, and working example apps.

Here’s everything you need to start building:

What Is Seeker Connect?Seeker Connect is a developer SDK for connecting Solana mobile web apps to the Seeker wallet in a single tap. It is built on top of the latest Mobile Wallet Adapter (MWA) libraries, and it ships two connection methods:

Standard wallet listing that appears in the wallet picker you already have

Branded "Connect with Seeker" button that skips the picker entirely

The Problem It SolvesConnecting through Mobile Wallet Adapter today means your user taps a generic "Mobile Wallet Adapter" option, then picks their wallet from a second screen. This requires two taps from users, and places a protocol name where a wallet name should be.

Seeker Connect collapses that into one tap on a button the user recognizes, without giving up compatibility with any other wallet.

Seeker Connect runs on Mobile Wallet Adapter’s brand new transport over Nostr relays. Your dApp and the wallet meet on a Nostr relay that Solana Mobile operates, instead of connecting over a local websocket connection directly to the wallet. In standard MWA, Chromium browsers like Chrome, Brave, and Edge ask the user for permission to access local devices before the dApp can reach the wallet. If the user denies that prompt, the connection fails, and getting it back means finding the right setting in the browser's site permissions. With Seeker Connect, the user taps connect, approves in their wallet, and lands back in the dApp with no browser prompt in between. This works on all chromium based browsers while avoiding the UX problems presented by the local websocket connections normally used by MWA. 

How Seeker Connect WorksSeeker Connect sits on top of the official MWA libraries and uses the MWA specification's existing endpoint-specific URI mechanism to target the device's own wallet directly and improve UX.

Other wallets keep working exactly as they do now so your existing MWA integration does not break. Session traffic use Nostr relays that Solana Mobile operates, which means there is no infrastructure to stand up and nothing for you to host.

Option 1: The Branded Connect ButtonDrop in the "Connect with Seeker" button and skip the picker entirely. This is the opinionated, one-tap path, and it is the one that converts. There is a sign-in variant for Sign-In With Solana flows, it themes itself to light or dark pages automatically, and it renders isolated from your page styles so it looks the same in every app that ships it.

Option 2: The Standard Wallet ListingRegister Seeker Connect and it appears in your existing wallet picker with its own name and icon. If your app uses Wallet Standard — which covers most of the React and web stack — this is a single function call at startup and nothing else in your app changes. It is the lowest-lift way to adopt.

What the SDK Handles For YouSeeker Connect takes care of the parts of mobile wallet integration that are easy to get wrong.

Sessions persist across reloads without launching the wallet. MWA sessions are per-interaction by design, so continuity comes from the auth token issued at authorization. The SDK caches that token, which means a returning user lands in your app already connected and the wallet never flashes on screen. Disconnect works in reverse and forgets the token locally rather than launching the wallet just to say goodbye.

The connection UI is owned end-to-end. The progress overlay and error dialogs shown during a connection ship with the SDK, so the interaction looks and feels like one deliberate flow to users.

Failures come back typed. There are distinct cases for a user declining in the wallet, a user dismissing the sheet, and a relay or association problem, so you can retry the ones worth retrying and stop showing error states for choices the user made deliberately.

The full signing surface is supported. Sign message, sign transaction, sign and send, and SIWS all work, with transaction capabilities reported by the connected wallet rather than assumed.

What's in the DocumentationThe new Seeker Connect docs section at https://docs.solanamobile.com/solana-mobile-stack/seeker-connect covers:

Integrating the standard wallet listing

Embedding and configuring the branded connect button

Relay configuration

Session persistence and reconnection

Error handling reference

Migration guidance for apps already on Mobile Wallet Adapter

If you would rather watch someone do it first, check out Beeman’s developer video walkthrough here.

Frequently Asked QuestionsDoes Seeker Connect replace Mobile Wallet Adapter? No. It is an opinionated layer on top of the official MWA libraries and uses the MWA spec's existing mechanisms. MWA remains the protocol, and Seeker Connect is a UX layer over it. Seeker Connect is built on our new relay architecture, which was recently added to MWA. From a user perspective, Seeker Connect replaces MWA references in the UI.

Will my app still work with other Solana wallets? Yes. Adopting Seeker Connect does not remove or degrade support for any other wallet. Most apps will run the branded button alongside their existing picker.

Do I need to run any infrastructure? No. Solana Mobile operates the Nostr relays that handle session traffic. But you can if you want! MWA (and by extension Seeker Connect) is designed to be decentralized — it does not rely on any one centralized party to operate.

Which platforms are supported today? Native Android, React Native, and Mobile Web.

How long does integration take? If your app already uses Wallet Standard, adding the wallet listing is a single registration call at startup and requires no other changes to your app. The step-by-step integration guide is in the docs here.

Does it work with WalletConnect or Privy? Integration samples for both are on the roadmap but are not yet implemented. Apps using a standard wallet picker will see Seeker Connect listed today.

Start BuildingRead the docs on the Solana Mobile Docs site, watch the developer guide on youtube, and grab the SDK and example dApp on github. Questions and integration help are in the Solana Mobile Discord and Telegram.

If you are already shipping on Seeker, the wallet listing is one of the smallest changes on your backlog with a direct effect on your connection funnel.

New to building on Solana Mobile? Start with the developer documentation at docs.solanamobile.com, or apply for Solana Mobile Builder Grants to get funded, get users, and get your app in front of 100,000+ active Seeker device owners.

Happy Shipping 🫡

Related to this topicAI Agent Payments Report

Birdeye launches Peak, a $799/month institutional crypto terminal offering trading data, liquidity analysis and market intelligence.Bots dominate crypto trading, accounting for roughly two-thirds of trades and up to 80% of Solana volume, according to Birdeye's internal research.Birdeye targets institutional investors as demand for reliable crypto data grows amid industry consolidation and rising AI adoption.Every day, billions of dollars move through crypto markets. Investors watch trading volumes to understand where money is flowing and which assets are attracting attention. But how much of that activity comes from actual people?

According to data from Birdeye, roughly two-thirds of crypto trades are driven by bots. On Solana, automated activity may account for as much as 80% of trading volume. Yet only a tiny fraction of wallets appear to be responsible.

The Singapore-based company unveiled Peak on Wednesday, targeting investment funds, family offices and professional traders. Subscriptions start at $799 a month, with custom packages for larger institutions.

Birdeye already supplies data to major crypto platforms. Its infrastructure tracks more than 400 exchanges across 20 blockchains. Peak brings that information directly to institutional investors.

Introducing Birdeye Peak

The unified digital asset terminal for financial institutions and professionals, built to navigate Internet Capital Markets from a single platform. pic.twitter.com/G6G1rKuvzb

— Birdeye Data (@birdeye_data) October 21, 2026 What Does Birdeye Peak Actually Do? Imagine a fund preparing to buy $10 million worth of Bitcoin. Seeing a large daily trading-volume figure tells it little about where that activity happens or whether a large order could move the price.

Birdeye Peak aims to answer those questions.

Typing TDA BTC brings up Bitcoin’s spot trading volume across individual exchanges, including each venue’s market share. Users can examine liquidity depth, holder concentration, ETF flows, regulatory filings and fundraising history in one workspace.

The terminal also covers token unlock schedules, wallet activity and risk measures. It offers AI-assisted research, watchlists and spreadsheet exports.

For institutions, these details can influence how much they invest, where they execute trades and how they assess risk.

“The token screener, what most people know as Birdeye Terminal, was simply our first major product, and it now serves millions of retail users,” co-founder and CEO Kha Nguyen told BeInCrypto. “When millions of people depend on your numbers, you have to get accuracy and latency right at the same time, every day. That pressure forced us to develop deep expertise in data indexing and analysis.”

Coinbase uses Birdeye Data’s Exit Liquidity API to evaluate onchain pools on Base.

The API estimates how much value can actually leave a pool before significant slippage, not simply how much liquidity the pool reports.

If you’ve used that signal to assess a @base market, you’ve… pic.twitter.com/XRda1JQdH7

— Birdeye Data (@birdeye_data) October 12, 2026 Crypto Trading Is Dominated by Bots, Birdeye’s Data Suggests The company’s research points to something investors rarely see in ordinary trading dashboards.

Birdeye estimates that roughly one-third of trades come from humans and two-thirds from bots. On Solana, as much as 80% of trading volume is identified as automated activity.

Yet just 1% to 3% of wallets behave like bots, according to its September analysis.

“If a trade happened onchain, its volume is real, it moved the market,” Nguyen said. “The more interesting question is how much of that volume comes from humans trading manually versus bots, and the answer is striking. A very small number of bots is responsible for the majority of crypto trading volume,” he said. “That is exactly the kind of signal institutions need to see clearly, and it is what Peak is built to surface.”

The implications extend beyond professional trading desks.

A token recording millions in daily volume might appear to attract enormous investor interest. Some of that activity could instead come from automated market-making, arbitrage or bots repeatedly buying and selling.

This matters when investors use volume to judge market interest or liquidity.

Birdeye identifies bots through rule-based analysis of trading behaviour.

“Generally we’ll categorise them as a bot when they do something a human technically cannot,” Nguyen explained.

That includes several trades per second, complex contract interactions and purchases within seconds of a token listing.

Source: Birdeye internal research. Approximate trade-count shares, not shares of total trading volume. Full methodology is scheduled for December 2026. However, the findings remain preliminary. Birdeye has yet to publish its full methodology, which it plans to release in December alongside a Solana year-end report.

Note: The figures have not been independently verified, and automated trading does not necessarily indicate manipulation.

Crypto’s Data Companies Are Fighting for Wall Street Peak arrives during a major shake-up in crypto analytics.

Kaiko acquired Amberdata in June. Blockworks bought Messari the same month for a reported sum exceeding $10 million, far below Messari’s $300 million valuation in 2022. Allium raised $40 million, while Dune cut 25% of its workforce as it refocused on institutional customers and AI. Reliable data has become increasingly important as AI assistants enter financial research.

When Blockworks opened its datasets to AI tools, co-founder Jason Yanowitz warned that “the agent has no way to check a number, so the data has to be standardized and sourced before it ever gets there.”

Birdeye believes owning its data infrastructure gives it an advantage. Unlike several competitors, the company has taken no outside funding.

“Every financial decision should come from real business demand and what helps the company grow healthily, not from following a trend,” Nguyen said. “Having capital and knowing how to deploy it well are two different things. I want to be sure that if we take on external money, we know exactly what we are doing with it.”

He has left the door open to investment.

“As demand increases, if the timing is right, we would be happy to welcome new investors.”

For investors, Peak’s biggest test will be whether its data helps distinguish genuine market demand from the enormous volume generated by machines.

Disclaimer

BeInCrypto independently reports and controls this Feature. Quoted views belong to their speakers. This content is general and non-personalized; it does not consider your circumstances and is not investment research, financial, investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer, endorsement or recommendation to transact in any crypto-asset, product or service. Verify material information before acting. Crypto-assets are volatile and may result in total loss. BeInCrypto gives no warranty as to completeness, accuracy or timeliness, except where required by law.