Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

A credit union founded by postal workers in 1930 is now custodying real Bitcoin for its members. St. Cloud Financial Credit Union CEO Jed Meyer explains how its patent-pending hybrid custody model gives each member individual Bitcoin ownership in a multisig vault. He also covers how the credit union has grown to more than 20 BTC under custody without even trying.

Chapters:
00:00 St. Cloud Financial Credit Union’s Path to Bitcoin
01:08 Stablecoins, Dollars, and Bitcoin as New Money Networks
02:26 Bitcoin ETF vs. Credit Union Custody: The Hybrid Custody Model
03:18 Bringing Main Street Into Bitcoin With Direct Buy and Sell
04:45 Minnesota Custody Law, NCUA Exams, and the CLARITY Act
07:32 20+ Bitcoin in Member Vaults and Lightning Plans
09:38 What It Takes for a Credit Union to Own Bitcoin
10:57 The Cloud Dollar Stablecoin and the Cooperative Ownership Model
12:59 How Credit Unions Decide Which Digital Assets to Offer
14:10 Educating Skeptics and Why Credit Unions Must Own Their Rails

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.

Patrick Green

Patrick Green is an Assistant Producer and Channel Manager on the multimedia team at Bitcoin Magazine, focusing on production, content distribution, and channel strategy across the network.

Crypto card payments have reached a record $12.5 billion, a 140% jump since the start of the year. The main drivers are stablecoins and QR code payments.

Jupiter Global’s card product, Jupiter Spend, is one of the players in that shift. The headline volume, though, reflects the broader market. Jupiter’s own slice is considerably smaller.

The numbers behind the record The $12.5 billion figure covers crypto card payment volume across the industry. Attributing that cumulative total to Jupiter Spend alone is not supported by the available data.

In July 2026, stablecoin card spending across the industry crossed $1 billion in a single month for the first time. The exact July tally was $1.03 billion, spread across more than 10 million transactions.

Jupiter’s own figures are more modest. The company’s card settlement volume came in at $7.6 million in September 2026. That was an 8% increase from the previous month.

Advertisement

How Jupiter Spend works The card launched in January 2026. Users deposit USDC or USDT through the Jupiter app on the Solana blockchain. Those stablecoins convert into a USD balance that can then be spent at more than 150 million Visa merchants worldwide.

Deposits of USDC or USDT carry no fees when made via Solana. Non-USD transactions come with a foreign exchange fee of either 1% or 1.8%. Which rate applies depends on the card’s issuer.

The more distinctive feature is QR Pay. It allows fee-free payments in select markets across the Asia-Pacific region. QR Pay caps spending at $5,000 per day and $500 per transaction.

Cashback does the heavy lifting Jupiter offers a base cashback rate of 2% on card purchases. Users can push that to 4% through referrals.

Jupiter’s transaction volumes rose notably once a cashback promotion kicked in, compared with the period before it. The July milestone of over $1 billion was fueled mainly by QR Pay adoption and cashback incentives.

Background: stablecoins move from trading chips to pocket money Stablecoins like USDC and USDT are tokens designed to track the US dollar one-to-one. Card products like Jupiter’s turn them into something closer to a checking account balance, bridging on-chain money and the merchant’s point-of-sale terminal via Visa’s network of 150 million merchants.

Solana’s low-cost transfers make fee-free deposits practical, removing friction in moving funds onto the card.

What this means For Jupiter specifically, the product has the right ingredients: Visa reach, Solana rails, fee-free QR payments in APAC, and a cashback rate of up to 4%. But $7.6 million in monthly settlement volume shows it is still a smaller player in a crowded field.

The heavy reliance on cashback is the key risk to watch. Jupiter’s transaction volumes were notably lower before its cashback promotion commenced, raising the question of how much volume is organic versus rewards-driven.

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

The notes pay out based on the company’s share value at a liquidity event, carry no shareholder rights and are open only to eligible investors outside the U.S.

Ondo's new tokenized notes track an unnamed pre-IPO AI company

Posted October 6, 2026 at 8:38 am ET.

Ondo Finance is extending its tokenization business from public stocks and Treasuries to companies that have not yet listed. The firm announced Ondo Private Markets on Tuesday, a product offering tokenized notes that track the value of individual private companies.

The first market references an unnamed pre-IPO AI company and is expected to begin secondary trading this week. Ondo said robotics, cybersecurity, biotech and infrastructure names will follow, and a company blog post also lists defense, energy and space. The product is open only to eligible investors outside the U.S., in jurisdictions where it is permitted.

Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter.

How the Notes Work Payouts depend on what the referenced company’s common stock is worth per share when a “qualifying liquidity event” occurs, according to Ondo. Buyers do not get stock. The notes are obligations of their issuer and come with no ownership or shareholder rights in the underlying company, the release states.

Holders can keep the tokens in self-custody wallets, send them to other eligible holders, trade them around the clock on secondary markets or deploy them in DeFi. Ondo said that tradability targets a long-standing problem in private markets, where investors can wait years for an IPO before they are able to sell.

“In the US, the majority of the investment options accessible for retail are public companies, yet 87% of companies with over $100m in revenue are private. That’s where many of the leaders defining the next era of our economy are emerging, and retail investors can’t access them today,” Ian De Bode, Ondo’s acting CEO and president, said in the release. “Ondo Private Markets is built to change that, bringing tokenized exposure to the world’s best companies with 24/7 trading on permissionless rails.”

A Different Structure From Ondo’s US Tokens Ondo said the infrastructure behind its tokenized stocks and Treasuries holds $3.7 billion in total value locked across more than 1 million cumulative holders.

The new notes work differently from the tokenized BlackRock ETF and Micron shares Ondo brought onchain in July inside the U.S. regulatory perimeter. Those tokens are backed one-for-one by custodied securities and give holders proxy voting rights.

Coinbase has offered pre-IPO exposure through a different instrument, derivatives. It listed SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual futures on its international exchange in June, also limited to users outside the U.S.

Ondo has not said which AI company the first notes reference or which trading venues will list them.

Related Listen: Why Robinhood Chain Saw Memecoins Take Off Before Real World Assets

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.

Blast, the Ethereum Layer-2 network, is shutting down. Coinbase is pulling the plug on BLAST trading on October 20, 2026.

The exchange says users must withdraw their assets before October 26, 2026.

Blast announced on October 2, 2026, that it would wind down operations because the cost of running the network had climbed past the revenue it brought in.

The wind-down timeline Blast users can keep withdrawing through the standard Blast interface until October 26, 2026. That deadline lines up with the one Coinbase gave its own customers.

After that date, the easy route closes. Anyone still holding assets on the network will need to interact directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum.

There is also a short pause baked into the plan. Blast said withdrawals through the bridge will follow a brief hiatus meant to allow staked assets to be extracted.

A token in freefall The BLAST token has fallen approximately 99% from its all-time high. Immediately after the shutdown announcement, the token dropped another 19-47%, depending on where and when you looked. It now trades around $0.00024.

Beyond Coinbase, multiple platforms including BTSE, Bitvavo, and Bybit have announced delistings or trading suspensions for BLAST.

From billions to a rounding error Total value locked on Blast peaked at over $2 billion in June 2024. Today that figure sits at approximately $24-32 million.

At its height, Blast was pulling in around $3.5 million in monthly revenue. Recently, monthly revenue has fallen to as low as $1,793.

What a Layer-2 is, and why this one failed Layer-2 networks sit on top of Ethereum and process transactions off the main chain. The goal is to make activity faster and cheaper while still leaning on Ethereum for security.

Blast’s problem was that costs exceeded what the Layer-2 earned, and there was no viable path to close the gap.

What this means for holders and the Layer-2 sector For anyone still holding BLAST or assets on the network, the priority is practical. Coinbase customers have until October 20, 2026, before trading stops and until October 26, 2026, to move their assets off the platform. Blast users outside Coinbase face the same October 26, 2026, cutoff for the standard interface. Missing it does not mean losing funds, but it does mean navigating bridge contracts directly after the planned pause for staked assets.

The coordinated wave of delistings from Coinbase, BTSE, Bitvavo, and Bybit leaves remaining holders with fewer ways to exit. The slide from around $3.5 million to as low as $1,793 a month in revenue illustrates how capital that arrives quickly can leave just as quickly, collapsing the revenue that keeps a network running.

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

CryptoBriefing

Bloomberg has integrated 24/7 Hyperliquid perpetual prices for stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies into its Terminal platform. This development, reported by @DefiantNews, allows users to access real-time market-data monitoring for over 100 markets, enhancing the Terminal’s existing financial data offerings. The integration does not permit execution or asset custody through the Terminal but places Hyperliquid’s decentralized derivatives alongside traditional financial references like Bitcoin, Nvidia, and the S&P 500. This move is expected to increase visibility and confidence in Hyperliquid’s market presence.

Key Takeaways Bloomberg’s integration of Hyperliquid prices appears consistent with increased market visibility for the decentralized protocol. Market pricing suggests participants view this as supportive of a potential increase in Hyperliquid’s valuation. The introduction of round-the-clock pricing could indicate enhanced interest and confidence in Hyperliquid’s financial products. What to Watch Markets will likely reflect how this integration impacts Hyperliquid’s visibility and valuation in the coming months. Key indicators could include any major partnerships or increased institutional interest in Hyperliquid. Observers should watch for any changes in market confidence reflected in the Polymarket odds, particularly as the December 31, 2026, deadline approaches for Hyperliquid to reach $100.

Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 78% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.6% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 13% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market →

South Africa’s second-largest bank is letting its customers buy Bitcoin without ever leaving the banking app. First National Bank (FNB) has unveiled a feature called “Crypto Investing” that opens digital asset trading to nearly 9 million retail clients.

FNB is the retail banking arm of the FirstRand group. It announced the service on October 6, 2026, and built it in partnership with VALR, a local crypto exchange. Clients can buy, sell and trade digital assets directly on the bank’s existing share-trading platform.

What FNB clients can actually trade The menu is short for now. The service supports five assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Solana (SOL) and the USDT stablecoin from Tether.

The barrier to entry is about as low as it gets. Trades start at a minimum of R10, which works out to about $0.60.

Trading runs 24/7, which matches how crypto markets operate. Clients fund their purchases directly from their FNB accounts. There is no need to wire money to a third-party exchange or juggle a separate login.

The feature plugs into FNB’s existing investment products. Those include Share Saver, Share Builder, Share Investor and Share Zero.

The walled garden approach There is one significant catch. Any crypto bought through FNB stays inside the bank’s ecosystem. Clients cannot send their coins out to an external wallet or another exchange.

FNB has two reasons for the restriction. The first is compliance with South African exchange-control regulations, which govern how money and value move across the country’s borders. The second is security. Keeping assets within a controlled environment reduces the risk of customers sending funds to scam wallets or fraudulent platforms.

FNB executives pointed to strong customer demand for alternative investments as the motivation. They framed the bank as a trusted gateway to these markets, one that comes with established risk management attached.

South African banks warm up to crypto FNB is not the first mover here. Discovery Bank struck a similar arrangement with crypto exchange Luno in November 2025.

The local numbers back that up. More than 6 million South Africans were estimated to hold crypto assets as of late 2025. Over that same period, more than R25 billion in crypto assets were reported under custody at major platforms.

What this means for investors and the banking sector For VALR, the partnership is a distribution win. Exchanges usually spend heavily to acquire customers one at a time. Plugging into a major bank’s client base offers reach that is hard to build independently.

FNB says it plans to expand the list of supported assets. The bank also intends to provide educational resources to help clients understand the complexities and risks of digital currencies.

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

Spain has just shown every property owner in Europe that the rules around their asset can be rewritten by decree. Bitcoin is the one asset where that cannot happen.

I direct the Masters in Bitcoin at the Universidad de las Hespérides. My field focuses on how people build wealth over decades, not weeks. In Spain, for generations, the answer to long-term family wealth was land and property until now. 

Last week the government made that path close to impossible. I am not writing to dismiss real estate. I am writing because Spain has just threatened one of the few long-term wealth-building tools ordinary families had, and they will need another one.

Two decrees, one message On 29 September, the Spanish government approved two emergency decrees on housing. They took effect within days, and a planned hearing in Congress was on Friday, October 2, and the decree didn’t pass, though it was a very close vote. 

Spain’s government did not pass these rules as a normal law. On 29 September, it approved two emergency decrees (reales decretos-ley). The Constitution reserves this tool for cases of “extraordinary and urgent need”. A decree-law takes effect immediately, and Congress then has thirty days to validate or repeal it. The government split the reforms into two so each could be voted on separately, rather than one controversial measure sinking everything.

The first decree capped rent rises until the end of 2027. A rent already above the maximum set by the official reference-price index could not rise at all. In every other case, the parties could agree to an update, and without a new agreement, the increase could not exceed 2%. Spain’s inflation in September was 4.9%, according to the national statistics institute, so an owner’s real income would shrink every year by law.

The second decree went further. At the end of the minimum term, if neither side has given notice, the lease renews compulsorily in successive five-year periods, or seven if the landlord is a legal entity. A landlord who ends a contract without a reason listed in the law must compensate the tenant. The payment is calculated, where possible, on the state rent-reference system, and can never be less than one month’s rent for each year the tenant has lived in the home. In practice, owners lose much of their freedom to recover their own property or re-let it at current prices.

The rules also apply to contracts that are already signed, from their next renewal date (Provivienda summary). This is why many consider the decrees unconstitutional. Critics argue that they retroactively rewrite private agreements that both sides signed under different rules, which Article 9.3 of the Constitution bars for measures restricting individual rights.

Congress never settled that question. On 2 October it rejected the first decree by 178 votes to 172 and the second by 184 to 166. Sánchez then called general elections for 29 November.

On Tuesday the Council of Ministers approved both decrees again, introducing only technical changes, and sent them to the Diputación Permanente of Congress, where Junts’s vote is not needed. This is the reduced body that replaces the full chamber once Congress is dissolved. Sánchez said the second decree, on automatic renewals, would only take effect if that body validates it, rather than on publication in the BOE. Jurists consulted by one newspaper consider the move borderline abuse of law.

Investors can live with strict rules. What they cannot price is a rule that changes after they have committed. That last point is the one every property owner in Europe should read twice.

The market answered in hours The owners did not wait for the vote. A Spanish TV programme reported that around 2,900 rental listings were pulled from property portals in roughly four hours (EDATV). In Madrid, listings reportedly fell about 20% in under 24 hours, from 11,815 to 9,398 (LaBandera). These are early, unaudited counts. The direction is still clear.

None of this is new. We have run this experiment many times, and it keeps giving the same result.

Berlin, 2020: the city froze rents for five years. Studies at the time found the supply of regulated flats roughly halved, while unregulated rents rose. The constitutional court struck the law down in 2021. San Francisco, 1994: a Stanford study by Diamond, McQuade and Qian found that expanded rent control helped sitting tenants stay, but landlords cut regulated supply by about 15% and citywide rents rose by about 5%. Catalonia, 2024: rent caps in stressed zones slowed price growth, but rental listings fell 22.2% in Barcelona, while they rose 3.9% in Madrid (Fedea, via idealista). Spain itself, 1946 to 1985: forced, near-permanent lease extensions froze old rents for decades. Owners stopped maintaining buildings and city centres decayed, until the 1985 Boyer decree ended the system. The new automatic-renewal decree is, in its logic, a return to that old Spanish model.

The real problem is not landlords Spain does not have a landlord problem. It has a housing shortage. In 2025, around 240,000 new households formed while only about 92,000 homes were completed. The Bank of Spain puts the accumulated deficit for 2021 to 2025 at roughly 750,000 homes (Cantabria Económica).

The same report names the obstacles: scarce buildable land, slow urban development, and rigid planning. Economists such as my colleague Daniel Fernández Méndez argue that restrictive land rules and ever-stricter building standards have made construction unprofitable, even at today’s prices (Hespérides).

So the state restricts what can be built, then caps what can be earned from what already exists. Supply shrinks from both ends.

The people who pay are not established owners. They have options: they can sell, wait, or leave a flat empty rather than risk a tenant who never leaves. Renters pay. With fewer flats on offer, the rent on the ones that remain will rise, and more people will end up in informal arrangements with no contract and no protection, on the edge of the grey economy.

Buying is no way out either. Spaniards cannot afford to buy for the same reason they cannot afford to rent: there are too few homes, and these decrees do nothing to change that. Some landlords will be pushed to sell, but that will barely move prices. Sales adjust far more slowly than rentals. An owner whose mortgage is larger than what the flat would fetch cannot sell at all. Many others will simply wait and hope for a change of government, leaving their apartments empty. The result is that more people will be unable to rent or buy. Tenants lose, small investors lose, and the housing shortage stays exactly where it was.

An asset no decree can rewrite The biggest risk in real estate is not the market. It is that the rules around your asset can be changed by a government at any time, and you cannot move the asset somewhere else. A building sits in one jurisdiction forever.

Bitcoin is the opposite on every one of those points.

Fixed rules: the supply is capped at 21 million, and that rule has not changed in seventeen years. Arguably all Bitcoin infrastructure is built precisely to avoid that from happening. No minister can cap its yield, freeze it, or extend someone else’s claim on it. Real ownership: held in your own wallet, it has no tenant who can stop paying, no squatter who can move in, and no court that has to approve its sale. Portable: it does not sit in any one country. If the rules where you live turn hostile, your savings do not have to stay there. Open to small savers: buying property takes a deposit, a mortgage, a notary and years of commitment. Bitcoin can be bought a few euros at a time, on a regular schedule, by anyone. For most Spanish families, property is almost all of their wealth. This week showed how much of that wealth depends on politics.

The long-term picture shows both the reward and the price of it. Bought just after the 2017 peak, a bitcoin stake lost almost three-quarters of its value within a year, then outgrew Spanish housing several times over.

Past performance does not predict future returns. Bitcoin is highly volatile, and its value can fall sharply. The housing line shows price change only and excludes rental income, taxes, maintenance, and purchase costs. This is not investment advice.

Long Live Bitcoin Families will always need a place to live, so they will keep buying or renting homes. What has changed is the second flat, property as an investment. For a small investor, the risk now outweighs the return, and that removes one of the few ways ordinary Spaniards had to build wealth over a lifetime.

Bitcoin can fill that gap, if it is treated the way property always was: as a long-term holding, not a lottery ticket. Its price is volatile and can fall sharply in the short term. Anyone who holds it should think in years, buy regularly instead of trying to time the market, and never put in money they will need next year.

Property gives you an asset whose rules can be rewritten. Bitcoin gives you price swings but rules that stay put. After this week, many more Spaniards will be asking which of those risks they would rather carry with their savings.

Whatever Congress decides, Spain’s property owners have learned that their contracts can be changed after they sign them. That lesson will not be voted away. The rental market as Spain knew it is gone. Long live bitcoin.

VanEck CEO Jan van Eck has a simple thesis: approve more nuclear power, and two very different industries get a boost at once.

His argument is that greenlighting a nuclear plant would raise the value of AI and reduce Bitcoin sell pressure by delivering cheaper energy.

The reasoning rests on one shared constraint. AI and Bitcoin mining both run on enormous amounts of electricity, and whoever controls cheap, reliable power controls the economics of both.

The nuclear case, according to VanEck In a September 2025 interview, van Eck pointed to a major policy shift in favor of nuclear power. The driver, in his telling, is surging electricity demand from AI data centers and digital asset activity.

He highlighted substantial bipartisan support for nuclear energy in the US, referencing initiatives from both the current administration and the Trump administration. The headline effort is a plan aimed at quadrupling US nuclear output over the next 25 years.

Advertisement

Van Eck cited the expedited restart of a reactor at Three Mile Island as evidence that the trend is real rather than theoretical. That restart comes through a deal between Microsoft and Constellation Energy, designed to bring a Three Mile Island unit back online ahead of its originally scheduled startup.

Why Bitcoin miners keep coming up Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, has argued that Bitcoin miners sit in an unusually strong position. His point is that miners already hold extensive power contracts and the physical infrastructure to use them — exactly the assets AI and high-performance computing companies are scrambling to secure.

Sigel has noted that the market values Bitcoin miners at a discount compared with traditional data center operators. He described miners’ long-term power agreements as holding an “underappreciated optionality.”

Miners have traditionally sold a portion of the Bitcoin they produce to cover operating costs, especially electricity. If miners earn revenue from AI and computing contracts, they lean less on selling Bitcoin to pay the bills.

Sigel has also pointed to signs of seller fatigue among Bitcoin miners, observed in October 2026. He linked that to the structural value of miner power assets as AI demand rises.

VanEck’s own scorecard VanEck has a stake in both sides of this story. The firm runs Bitcoin investment products alongside a nuclear-focused fund.

The VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF, which trades under the ticker NLR, was reportedly up approximately 40% in the year. The fund drew around $2.8 billion in assets by the end of 2025.

Readers should weigh the commentary with that context in mind. A firm that sells nuclear and crypto exposure naturally has reasons to talk up the overlap between them.

What this means For Bitcoin, the most interesting part of van Eck’s argument is about who sells Bitcoin and why. If AI contracts and cheaper electricity turn miners into diversified power companies, a reliable source of supply could quietly shrink.

For the nuclear sector, the Microsoft and Constellation deal is the clearest real-world test so far. If that Three Mile Island restart arrives early and on budget, it strengthens the case that tech demand can actually accelerate nuclear timelines.

The things to watch are concrete: nuclear approvals and restart timelines, how many miners sign AI or computing contracts, and whether miner selling keeps tapering as Sigel suggests.

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

XRP continues to gain momentum across both its spot and futures markets as trading activity across both markets is also on the rise.

As the trend progresses, the latest onchain data from CryptoQuant shows that the XRP futures market has recorded strong trading activity throughout September.

While this signals sustained interest from traders and liquidity in the derivatives market, it has drawn attention from market watchers as it paints a bullish picture for the asset.

HOT Stories

XRP futures hit 6-month highAccording to the data, XRP futures volume across all major exchanges has continued to increase since August. As such, its futures activity has remained among the highest levels recorded over the past six months.

While the strongest XRP futures growth was witnessed last month, the analyst revealed that September's increase compared with August suggests that traders remained highly active despite futures volumes gradually retreating from earlier record levels. 

You Might Also Like

With XRP seeing sustained activity in its derivatives market, it appears that demand for leveraged XRP exposure and active positioning among market participants has persisted.

While its futures volume has spiked notably over the past months, this propels XRP toward greater liquidity while positioning its price for upside momentum.

Binance takes dominance Amid the surge in futures activity, the data shows that Binance led all major exchanges in the XRP futures surge in September, recording about $32.36 billion in trading volume. 

Meanwhile, Bybit followed closely with about $12.5 billion, while OKX also saw sustained activity, recording $11.32 billion during the month.

Ripple, a blockchain firm, has continued its string of investments in the crypto space, becoming part of the consortium of big names investing in crypto exchange OKX.

OKX revealed on Tuesday that the firm had secured investments from Ripple, stablecoin behemoth Circle, quant investment firm Qube Research and Technologies (QRT), and SC Ventures, the VC arm of Standard Chartered. It did this at a valuation of $25 billion (pre-money). Details on the latest investment in the exchange are, however, not disclosed.

The exchange's new round of investment is an extension of its previous funding round. This previous round was led by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. In March, ICE had invested about $200 million in OKX. The valuation then was $25 billion.

HOT Stories

You Might Also Like

OKX CEO and founder Star Xu revealed that the company did not look for new investors due to a shortage of funds. The company had sought strategic investors aligned with its vision in stablecoins, payments, institutional markets, and financial infrastructure.

OKX is trying to move beyond being a crypto exchange and become a financial technology platform. This platform links crypto markets to traditional finance.

Ripple's investment blitzRipple's investment in OKX is the latest in a string of strategic investments the firm has been making in its bid to expand into the institutional financial market and tokenization.

In August, for instance, the firm announced an investment in two firms: ZILO and Licuido. These firms are focused on digital capital market infrastructure. 

Ethereum has fewer validators than it did at the start of the year. It also has a lot more ETH staked.

As of October 6, 2026, active validators on the network sit somewhere between approximately 863,459 and 868,000. Total staked ETH, meanwhile, has climbed to approximately 43.7 million. Fewer seats at the table, but the table is holding more money than ever.

The explanation isn’t an exodus. It’s housekeeping, made possible by the Pectra upgrade that lets operators merge validator balances without pulling their ETH out of the protocol.

The numbers behind the shrink The validator count fell by about 4.9% over the past month, a drop of roughly 44,500.

Zoom out to January and the decline looks bigger. The network started 2026 with nearly 975,000 active validators.

Staked ETH began the year at roughly 36.3 million and has since grown to approximately 43.7 million. That works out to over 7 million ETH added to staking during 2026. The staked total now represents around 35.8% of Ethereum’s entire supply.

Advertisement

Why Pectra changed the math The Pectra upgrade went live on May 7, 2025. Its most consequential change for stakers came through EIP-7251.

Before that proposal, every validator was capped at an effective balance of 32 ETH. If you wanted to stake 320 ETH, you needed ten separate validators, each with its own keys and its own attestation duties.

EIP-7251 raised that ceiling to 2,048 ETH per validator. A single validator can now do the work that used to require dozens.

Larger effective balances allow consensus-layer rewards to auto-compound, rather than sitting idle above the old 32 ETH cap.

The kicker is that consolidation doesn’t require withdrawing. Operators can combine balances while their ETH stays staked, which is why the validator count can fall while the staked total rises.

Lido is doing the heavy lifting The largest staking provider on Ethereum is behind much of this trend. Lido is in the process of merging over 265,000 individual validators into approximately 4,000 larger ones.

If the project runs to completion, the overall validator population could contract by about one-third.

Queues on both ends Consolidation isn’t the only thing happening. Ethereum’s exit queue has risen to unprecedented levels, reaching hundreds of thousands of ETH. At the same time, entry waits are significant. New stakers are lining up to get in even as others line up to leave.

What this means for ETH holders and the network For investors, the clearest signal is the staked ETH figure. More than 7 million ETH entering staking this year points to sustained demand for locking up tokens in exchange for protocol rewards.

It’s worth separating optics from substance here. Fewer validator entries doesn’t automatically mean fewer independent parties, since one operator was already controlling those 265,000 validators before the merge began.

What to watch next: whether Lido completes its merge, how quickly the exit queue drains, and whether staked ETH keeps climbing past its current share of roughly 35.8% of supply.

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

[PRESS RELEASE – Hong Kong, Hong Kong, October 6th, 2026]

ASICID Inc. has released its IDMINER Series, a new lineup of cryptocurrency mining systems designed for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin mining.

The series includes the IDMINER HomeRack, IDMINER 2 and IDMINER 1, with configurations ranging from 1,150 TH/s to 9,600 TH/s of Bitcoin hashrate and from 350 GH/s to 3,200 GH/s of Litecoin and Dogecoin hashrate.

The three models are designed for different mining setups, from individual and home miners to professional and larger-scale operators.

IDMINER Series Specifications

IDMINER HomeRack

Bitcoin hashrate: 9,600 TH/s Litecoin/Dogecoin hashrate: 3,200 GH/s Power configuration: 4 × 1,300W Estimated monthly mining revenue: up to $25,590* IDMINER 2

Bitcoin hashrate: 2,400 TH/s Litecoin/Dogecoin hashrate: 800 GH/s Power consumption: 1,300W Estimated monthly mining revenue: up to $6,390* IDMINER 1

Bitcoin hashrate: 1,150 TH/s Litecoin/Dogecoin hashrate: 350 GH/s Power consumption: 700W Estimated monthly mining revenue: up to $2,790* *The revenue figures are estimates based on network conditions, cryptocurrency prices, and mining difficulty at the time of publication.

Designed for Simpler Deployment

The IDMINER systems are delivered pre-configured and tested before shipment. Users can connect the miner to power, connect via WiFi or Ethernet, enter their preferred mining pool information, and begin mining.

The systems support major mining pools and also provide access to ASICID’s Zero-Fee Mining Pool option.

Other features include thermal management and hardware testing before shipment.

Built for Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin Mining

ASICID develops and manufactures its mining hardware through an integrated production process that includes research and development, hardware engineering, assembly, thermal testing, and quality assurance.

The company is headquartered in Hong Kong with additional operations in the United States and serves individual miners, professional mining businesses, and institutional operators.

With the IDMINER Series, ASICID is targeting miners looking for high-hashrate hardware with straightforward deployment and power requirements suited to ongoing mining operations.

For more information about the IDMINER Series, users can visit www.asicid.com.

Cardano (ADA) topped $0.270 on Tuesday, extending gains after a 4% rally earlier in the week and pushing the token above its major daily moving averages. Market participants noted increasing derivatives activity, echoing renewed investor interest in ADA as the network prepared for a key ecosystem event.

Node diversity event draws focus to decentralizationAttention within the Cardano community centered on Tuesday’s Node Diversity Celebration Day in Singapore, held as a precursor to the TOKEN2049 conference. The event brought together contributors and developers involved in expanding Cardano’s node ecosystem, which is essential to the blockchain’s decentralization and resilience.

Cardano, a proof-of-stake blockchain established by Input Output Global and known for prioritizing scalability and interoperability, uses a decentralized network of nodes to validate transactions and maintain security.

The workshop ran for three hours, featuring development updates and outlining timelines for new, independent node implementations. Organizers emphasized that diversifying node software is designed to strengthen network resilience against failures and attacks, with further phases aimed at long-term decentralization.

Participants said the event served as a status check on ongoing initiatives rather than marking full completion. For investors, progress in node diversity is often seen as a factor that can boost confidence in the network’s future, although much depends on the delivery and adoption of proposed improvements.

Mini dictionary: Node diversity, in blockchain, refers to the use of multiple, independently developed node software clients on a single network. This approach enhances resilience by reducing reliance on a single codebase, lowering risks from bugs and security flaws.

ADA’s price action received additional support from derivatives markets. Data from CoinGlass indicated that ADA futures open interest reached $695.71 million on Tuesday, nearing the September peak after steady growth since early October.

MetricValueReferencePrice$0.270TuesdayFutures open interest$695.71 millionNear September highsFunding rate0.010%TuesdayKey resistance$0.299Upside targetInitial support$0.245DownsideThe funding rate for ADA perpetual futures entered positive territory, moving up to 0.010% on Tuesday. Positive funding occurs when traders with long positions pay those with shorts, indicating stronger appetite for upward price movement. However, rising leverage can also increase price volatility.

Technical outlook: ADA tests resistance after strong rallyOn technical charts, ADA continues to trade above its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day exponential moving averages, signaling a continued bullish outlook. Momentum indicators remain strong, although some suggest the current rally could be approaching short-term exhaustion.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for ADA stands at 71, marking entry into the overbought range and indicating that upside momentum is stretched. Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is still positive, reinforcing buyer enthusiasm.

Analysts caution that while indicators remain favorable, a period of consolidation or a brief correction could develop as ADA tests the next resistance zone. The key hurdle is located near $0.299, just below the psychologically significant $0.300 level.

ADA is currently in a constructive uptrend, but both funding data and technicals show that any sustained rally from here will require fresh demand, especially as the token approaches major resistance levels.

Should ADA break and close above this resistance on a daily basis, analysts see potential for the uptrend to extend further. However, if the token fails to overcome this barrier, a retracement toward initial support at $0.245 could follow, with further cushions at the 200-day EMA near $0.240 and $0.236.

Additional support is marked by the 50-day EMA at $0.226 and the 100-day EMA at $0.215. Should the correction deepen, longer-term support resides at a former trendline breakout around $0.203, with a base at $0.150 providing a more distant downside reference.

For now, Cardano’s recovery trend remains intact, as market participants await confirmation of a breakout or signs of consolidation near the critical $0.299-$0.300 resistance area.

The @Trondao ecosystem has quietly crossed a milestone that deserves more attention. Total stablecoin capitalization on the network has surpassed $94 billion, according to on-chain data,

and That kind of organic, sustained accumulation is what sets this run apart from previous cycles.

DeFi Activity Driving the Growth The stablecoin figures do not tell the whole story. Over the same three-month window, the DeFi side of the network posted equally notable numbers, with TVL growing by 29% and decentralized exchange volume rising by 31%.

At the protocol level, lending platform @DeFi_JUST holds around $7.1 billion in collateral. The protocol has also been expanding its reach:

SUN.io Handles the Volume On the trading side, decentralized exchange @OfficialSUNio processed $1.31 billion in monthly volume through its automated market maker pools. Much of that activity has been powered by SunSwap V4, which launched in March.

With stablecoin supply still climbing and DeFi protocols expanding their product ranges, the network's growth trajectory shows no obvious sign of slowing.

Sources:
CryptoTimes: Ethereum Holds 53% of $349B Onchain Tokenized Asset and Stablecoin Market
The Block: TRON Surpasses $30T in Total Transaction Volume
GlobeNewswire: TRON H1 2026 Strategy Report

The market cap of tokenized US Treasury bills on Stellar climbed by $96.2 million over the past week.

The jump adds to a steady run of Treasury inflows on the network.

A week of Treasury inflows A tokenized T-bill is a digital token that represents a claim on a short-term US government IOU, or on a fund holding those IOUs.

A separate RWA Activity report from the RWA Foundation and Token Terminal, covering the week ending October 5, 2026, logged its own sizable move.

In that report, tokenized T-bills on Stellar added $81.2 million to their market cap. Total tokenized funds on the network grew by $90.9 million that week, with Treasuries doing most of the heavy lifting.

Ethereum’s tokenized T-bills grew by $93.2 million over the same period, edging out Stellar’s weekly gain.

Issuer-level figures in the research reportedly credit J.P. Morgan with $81.4 million in T-bill growth. Franklin Templeton reportedly contributed $72.6 million.

From side project to a $3.47 billion base The network’s market cap for these assets grew from an estimated $500 million in early 2025 to more than $3 billion by June 2026.

As of early October 2026, distributed real-world assets on Stellar stood at approximately $3.47 billion.

Franklin Templeton’s BENJI product has been central to the narrative. It launched on Stellar in April 2021, long before tokenization became a standard line in bank strategy decks.

What the inflows mean for the tokenization race Ethereum still holds the overall lead in total Treasury token volumes, according to the research, and it outgrew Stellar in the October 5 reporting week.

Weekly market cap figures can swing as funds rebalance, redeem, or shift between chains, so a single strong week does not guarantee a trend line.

When a handful of large issuers account for much of the growth, a strategy change at one firm could noticeably dent a network’s numbers.

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

Backpack Brings Spot and Derivatives Trading to NEAR@Backpack is extending its trading infrastructure to @NEARProtocol, introducing $NEAR spot order books alongside leveraged perpetual futures and native $USDC deposit and withdrawal support. The move brings a fuller trading stack to one of the more active layer-1 networks in 2026, giving both retail users and algorithmic firms a regulated venue to trade or hedge exposure to the NEAR ecosystem.

, and The NEAR integration sits within that same regulated framework, designed to give participants clearer compliance footing than unregulated alternatives.

Native $USDC Support Cuts Bridging RiskA notable feature of the integration is native $USDC support directly on the NEAR chain. By contrast,

For traders, that distinction matters. Relying on a bridged stablecoin introduces custodial and smart contract risk at the bridge layer, as well as potential delays. Supporting the Circle-issued version directly removes that friction for dollar-denominated trading on NEAR's fast settlement infrastructure.

The combination of spot order books, perpetual futures, and native stablecoin rails positions Backpack as a more complete venue for NEAR-focused traders, rather than a single-product listing. Derivatives alongside spot liquidity allow participants to both gain directional exposure and manage downside risk within the same platform, without needing to move funds across multiple exchanges or custody solutions.

Sources:
Backpack Exchange overview, Solana Compass
Native USDC on NEAR, Circle
USDC launches natively on NEAR Protocol, NEAR Foundation

TLDR Fortitude signed an LOI for priority access to BITMAIN’s next-generation Zcash mining equipment. The non-binding purchase commitment could reach $100 million if Fortitude proceeds with the order. Fortitude must provide a $20 million refundable deposit, equal to 20% of the proposed commitment. DCG increased Fortitude’s credit facility from $50 million to $70 million, with about $42.7 million still available. Fortitude currently operates 4.7 GSol/s and previously ordered 9,000 Z15 Pro miners that could add 7.56 GSol/s. Fortitude Mining Holdings has signed a letter of intent with BITMAIN to secure priority access to unreleased Zcash mining machines. The agreement includes a non-binding commitment to buy up to $100 million of the next-generation equipment.

The deal extends Fortitude’s push into Zcash mining after the company expanded its Equihash fleet and power footprint. Management said early access could help the company add new hardware as BITMAIN brings it to market.

Priority Access Expands Zcash Mining Plans Fortitude operates about 4.7 GSol/s of Equihash hashrate. The company controls more than 60 megawatts of contracted power across seven sites in South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and New York.

In July, Fortitude agreed to purchase 9,000 Antminer Z15 Pro machines for $31.5 million. Those units would add 7.56 GSol/s of capacity. The plan comes as Zcash gained new THORChain support after months of technical work.

The letter of intent requires Fortitude to place a refundable $20 million deposit, equal to 20% of the commitment. The company plans to draw that amount from its credit line this week.

Fortitude raised its credit facility with parent Digital Currency Group to $70 million from $50 million. It still has about $42.7 million available to borrow, giving the company funding room for the deposit.

Fortitude Builds Around ZEC Strategy Digital Currency Group spun Fortitude out of Foundry’s self-mining business in January 2025. Since then, Fortitude has developed a venture-mining model with Zcash at its core, while Zcash grant approvals reached $8.39 million this month.

The company has kept adding Zcash mining capacity while ZEC prices have risen sharply. Zcash traded above $1,370 on Tuesday, gaining 3.6% over 24 hours, while Fortitude prepared for another possible future hardware purchase.

DCG founder Barry Silbert has previously said Zcash could reach 5% to 10% of Bitcoin’s market value over time. Fortitude’s hardware plan follows that group view, although the purchase commitment remains non-binding.

The move also comes as Zcash investment products recorded weekly outflows after earlier demand. Fortitude’s planned equipment purchase would depend on final terms, equipment availability, and the company’s decision to proceed. For now, the agreement gives Fortitude priority access rather than a completed $100 million order.

In This Article XMR Price Analysis: Can Monero Price Break $564 This Week?LiquidChain Targets Cross-Chain Liquidity: What Is LiquidChain and How Does It Differ From Monero? Monero XMR trades near $557.51, up about 1.5% over 24 hours. XMR is holding above $550 after a strong October 6 session, but resistance sits close above. Can buyers turn a short-lived reclaim into a durable breakout?

Monero’s FCMP++ and CARROT stressnet fork took place on October 5 at block height 3,102,800. The fork runs on a test network to evaluate proposed privacy upgrades. It does not activate them on the mainnet, and holders do not need to act.

The third version of beta stressnet for Full-Chain Membership Proofs (FCMP++) and CARROT is live!

We implore the Monero community to continue to participate in testing and to report issues in order to ensure a smooth transition! https://t.co/KTz0HkOjnh

— Monero (XMR) (@monero) October 5, 2026

XMR showed relative strength around the event. It rose from a $546.64 close while Bitcoin was flat, and the median top-50 coin barely moved. Still, a testnet milestone is not a price driver on its own.

XMR’s market cap is about $10.5 billion, with daily volume near $131 million. It is up 73% over the past year and 3.9% over 30 days, though it is down 2.9% over 14 days.

DISCOVER: BTC USD Price Stalls as Fresh Saylor Buy Fails to Clear $87K

XMR Price Analysis: Can Monero Price Break $564 This Week? XMRUSDT Chart 1D The one-hour chart shows XMR climbing from about $532 on October 4 to a high near $564 on October 6. It then pulled back to $557, suggesting sellers are defending the $563–$564 area. The 24-hour range is $546.49 to $564.26.

Technical signals are mixed. XMR trades above its 50- and 200-period EMAs, with daily RSI near 58.5. RSI(14) at 66.4 and MACD at 3.48, while stochastic readings above 85 flag stretched short-term momentum.

Bull case: A decisive close above $564 clears the ceiling and brings $590 into view. Base case: XMR consolidates between $553 and $564 as traders weigh the surge against overbought readings. Bear case: A rejection at resistance would weaken the setup and put the low near $546 back in focus with the main support at $481. The levels are close enough to matter. A breakout needs a daily close, not just a brief wick.

DISCOVER: Best Meme Coin ICOs to Invest in 2026 

LiquidChain Targets Cross-Chain Liquidity: What Is LiquidChain and How Does It Differ From Monero?

Monero’s rebound gives bulls a reason to stay engaged, but the near-term chart has a ceiling: $564 is still ahead, and momentum indicators warn against assuming straight-line gains. For traders looking beyond a large-cap privacy asset, early-stage infrastructure offers a different risk profile.

LiquidChain is a Layer 3 infrastructure project positioning itself as “The Cross-Chain Liquidity Layer.” It says its execution environment combines liquidity from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, with a deploy-once architecture intended to let developers access all three ecosystems. Its stated features include a Unified Liquidity Layer, Single-Step Execution, and Verifiable Settlement.

The project’s presale price is $0.014962, and the total raised is $980,892.84.

Background on LiquidChain’s cross-chain purpose adds context to the project’s stated approach. Research LiquidChain and review the project’s terms and risks before considering participation.

Visit LIQUID Here

Follow 99Bitcoins on X For the Latest Market Updates and Subscribe on YouTube For Daily Expert Market Analysis.

#Presales

Why you can trust 99Bitcoins

10+ Years

Established in 2013, 99Bitcoin’s team members have been crypto experts since Bitcoin’s Early days.

90hr+

Weekly Research

100k+

Monthly readers

50+

Expert contributors

2000+

Crypto Projects Reviewed

Follow 99Bitcoins on your Google News Feed

Get the latest updates, trends, and insights delivered straight to your fingertips. Subscribe now!

Subscribe now

Alex Ioannou

On-Chain Journalist

Alex is a seasoned cryptocurrency trader and market analyst with over seven years of active experience in the digital asset space. Since entering the markets in 2017, Alex has specialized in identifying emerging "meta" trends and high-volatility narratives. Notably, Alex... Read More

Free Bitcoin Crash Course Enjoyed by over 100,000 students. One email a day, 7 days in a row. Short and educational, guaranteed!

Crypto exchange OKX has raised funds at a $25 billion valuation, attracting capital from crypto firms Circle and Ripple, as well as Standard Chartered’s investment arm and Qube Research & Technologies (QRT). The exchange’s native token, OKB, surged on the news, even as the exchange moves to expand its offerings.

OKX Raises Funds From Circle, Ripple, StanChart According to a Bloomberg report, the crypto exchange raised funds at a $25 billion valuation, with investments from Circle, Ripple, SC Ventures, and QRT. However, the exchange did not disclose the exact amount.

This follows an earlier funding round in March, when OKX hit a $25 billion valuation with an investment of around $200 million from NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Meanwhile, the top crypto exchange said it plans to use the fresh capital to expand its long-term infrastructure.

This move follows OKXICE’s filing to offer tokenized stock trading under the SEC’s ‘Innovation Exemption’ framework. The OKX-ICE joint venture plans to offer tokenized trading for up to 63 NYSE-listed companies at the start, with plans to expand further later.

Notably, the crypto exchange is among the first to take advantage of the SEC’s Innovation Exemption framework. However, platforms such as Ondo Finance already offer several tokenized stocks and ETFs, though mainly to non-U.S. users.

OKB Price Surges On Fresh Funding OKX’s native token OKX surged double digits on the back of the report, rising to nearly $142, according to TradingView data. The token has pared some of these gains and is now trading at around $136, up over 6% on the day.

Source: TradingView OKB is also up over 13% in the past week as Bitcoin and other crypto prices rebound from last week’s lows. The token is also one of the largest gainers in 2026 among the top 100 coins by market cap, with a year-to-date (YTD) gain of 24%.

All of these also come as OKX looks to expand its presence in the U.S. Earlier this year, the crypto exchange appointed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to its board, while he also serves as co-chair of the OKXICE joint venture.

Gold has spent a few thousand years sitting in vaults doing nothing. Now a growing slice of it is being put to work on DeFi lending markets.

Tether’s tokenized gold, XAUT, worth $94.6 million is now deposited across DeFi platforms, with Aave and Uniswap holding most of it.

Where the gold is going Aave is doing most of the heavy lifting. Research data shows the lending protocol captured 74.2% of XAUT DeFi deposits, mainly through its V3 and V4 markets.

Its growth curve has been steep. Aave’s XAUT deposits climbed from around $40 million in early June 2026 to approximately $76.7 million by mid-August. That works out to roughly 91.7% growth in about ten weeks.

A separate snapshot in the research puts total XAUT DeFi deposits at $102.9 million across approximately ten venues as of early September 2026. That figure marked the first time deposits crossed the $100 million line.

Advertisement

Within Aave, the newer V4 markets are pulling in fresh capital. V4 attracted about $8 million in net inflows over a 90-day period, while earlier venues saw money head for the exits.

Uniswap remains the main decentralized exchange for trading the token. Its V3 pools held about $16.5 million in XAUT liquidity in mid-2026. Its share of total deposits, however, appears to be shrinking as users drift toward Aave’s lending products.

Gold as collateral, not just a hedge On Aave, XAUT functions as an ERC-20 token that can back loans. A user deposits XAUT, borrows stablecoins against it, and keeps full exposure to gold’s price moves.

The research notes that Aave has processed liquidations of XAUT positions successfully during volatility events.

Still, the numbers need some perspective. XAUT used in lending pools represents only about 1.5% of the combined market capitalization of XAUT and PAXG, the two leading tokenized gold products.

Tether keeps printing gold The supply side is also expanding. Tether minted approximately 119,670 additional XAUT tokens, worth around $495 million, in late September 2026.

Each token is backed by physical gold held in Swiss vaults, according to the research. The mint pushed XAUT’s on-chain supply higher in a single batch that dwarfs the entire DeFi deposit base.

The research flags an open question: does the new supply reflect fresh demand and new uses, or is it largely a redeployment of holdings that already existed in another form?

What this means The most obvious takeaway is concentration. With Aave holding 74.2% of XAUT DeFi deposits, the tokenized gold lending market is effectively a one-protocol show.

The thing to watch is the gap between supply and usage. Tether’s roughly $495 million mint is several times larger than the entire DeFi deposit base. If a meaningful portion of that new supply flows into lending markets, the 1.5% utilization figure could start climbing.

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

Filecoin [FIL] witnessed a major rally over the past day, gaining roughly 13% at press time.

Bullish positioning in the perpetual market supported the outlook, but Spot Netflow showed that sellers remained active. That left investors watching whether buyers could sustain the rally, with potential liquidation pressure below the market.

Are FIL spot buyers supporting the rally? FIL’s latest Spot Netflow readings challenged the accumulation narrative.

CoinGlass’s trading-based Spot Netflow tracks buying volume minus selling volume across exchanges. Positive readings indicate net buying, while negative readings indicate net selling.

Source: CoinGlass At press time, FIL recorded $31.61 million in Inflow and $31.96 million in Outflow over 24 hours. This left Net Inflow at approximately −$356,810.

The $31.96 million represented total Outflow within that period, rather than a separate, earlier withdrawal.

Despite FIL’s price gain, selling volume slightly exceeded buying volume across the tracked spot markets. The rally therefore lacked confirmation from positive Spot Netflow. That put the spotlight on perpetual traders, whose positioning leaned more bullish.

How firmly are FIL traders backing longs? FIL’s overall Long/Short Ratio stood at 1.0475, placing buyers slightly ahead of sellers. The reading supported a bullish tilt, although its proximity to 1 showed that the advantage remained narrow.

Source: CoinGlass In fact, Binance and OKX showed bullish readings across most tracked participant categories. Binance recorded more than $255 million in FIL Trading Volume. Retail traders and Whale Accounts leaned bullish, while the Whale Position ratio reached 2.59. Smart Money Sentiment was also bullish.

OKX recorded $130.73 million in FIL Trading Volume. Retail positioning leaned bullish, while Smart Money Sentiment was extremely bullish.

However, its whale readings were mixed. The Whale Account ratio stood at 1.08, labeled neutral, while the Whale Position ratio reached a bullish 1.75.

Source: CoinGlass Buyers retained an edge, but the overall ratio suggested that bullish control was far from overwhelming.

Could FIL’s rally unwind toward $1.05? The Liquidation Heatmap highlighted potential liquidation clusters around the $1.05 region, below FIL’s press-time price.

If buying momentum weakened, a decline toward those levels could trigger Long Liquidations and add selling pressure.

Source: CoinGlass However, those clusters could not establish a high probability of FIL reaching $1.05.

For now, perpetual positioning leaned bullish, while negative Spot Netflow offered a reason for caution. Stronger spot buying could give the rally firmer backing; weakening demand could leave leveraged longs exposed.

Final Summary FIL gained roughly 13%, despite slightly negative Spot Netflow and a narrow overall buyer advantage in perpetual markets. Potential liquidation clusters around $1.05 could intensify selling if FIL’s bullish momentum weakened.

Avalanche (AVAX) advanced nearly 5% in the past 24 hours, outpacing most major cryptocurrencies as a wave of institutional interest continues to reshape market perceptions around its real-world asset (RWA) capabilities.

Institutional adoption and trading metricsAVAX hovered near $11.45, supported by over $560 million in daily trading volume and a market capitalization approaching $5.1 billion. This growth follows a sharp recovery from the lows seen in September, largely fueled by renewed momentum for Avalanche as a preferred platform for tokenized funds, securities, and institutional settlement solutions.

While the latest surge is not tied to a singular headline event, the token’s rally extends a broader trend seen over recent weeks, driven by a series of high-profile institutional developments.

Goldman Sachs-linked fund access boosts narrativeOne of the most significant catalysts has been the integration of Goldman Sachs’ Financial Square Treasury Instruments Fund onto Lynq, an institutional settlement network built on Avalanche technology. Through Lynq, qualifying institutional participants can seamlessly move funds in and out of the Goldman Sachs offering while leveraging Avalanche’s settlement layer, enhancing the network’s presence within traditional finance circles.

Despite the fund itself not being fully tokenized, this arrangement represents a step forward in merging conventional finance with blockchain infrastructure. The development aligns with a broader trend that sees more funds, stocks, and other financial products transition onto blockchain rails, reinforcing Avalanche’s position in this space.

Mini dictionary: Lynq, an institutional settlement network, enables seamless transfer and settlement of assets for financial institutions by leveraging Avalanche’s blockchain technology. It is designed to provide secure, fast, and transparent access to financial products within a decentralized environment.

Access to Avalanche itself has widened in other ways. Earlier this year, investment manager VanEck launched the first US-listed spot Avalanche ETF, providing institutional and retail investors more straightforward market exposure. Additionally, Avalanche Treasury emerged as another public-market vehicle designed to facilitate investment into the broader AVAX ecosystem.

Product/FeatureDescriptionDate IntroducedLynq (with Goldman Sachs Fund)Institutional settlement gateway, access to Treasury Instruments FundRecent (2024)VanEck Avalanche ETFFirst US-listed spot AVAX ETFEarly 2024Avalanche TreasuryPublic market exposure vehicle for AVAX2024Helicon UpgradeMainnet protocol upgrades for speed and efficiencySeptember and October 2024Network upgrades and future positioningAvalanche underwent a major technical milestone with the activation of the Helicon upgrade on its mainnet on September 22. The upgrade introduced continuous execution, changes to validator staking requirements, and an updated, more flexible gas-fee structure. A subsequent update, Helicon.1, was rolled out on October 1 to further enhance the network’s snapshot performance and efficiency.

Network improvements play a critical role for Avalanche as it competes to serve as infrastructure for high-speed, low-cost financial applications.

The platform’s appeal for institutions is underscored by previous fund inflows, including a notable $675 million Avalanche Treasury transaction designed to strengthen its presence as an institutional-grade blockchain solution.

Avalanche’s increasing integration with institutional finance and ongoing technical upgrades are reinforcing its role as a key blockchain infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets.

DeFi Development Corp., a Nasdaq-listed digital asset investment firm, has authorized an open-ended plan to repurchase all outstanding and future CHAD preferred shares. The company, which focuses on blockchain-based investments, said it may use this buyback authority if CHAD trades below its $10 par value, but currently has no immediate plans to initiate any purchases.

Open-ended buyback authorization for CHADChief Executive Joseph Onorati emphasized that management’s main objective is for the CHAD security to stabilize at its $10 par value before considering any buybacks. The company views the authorization as a strategic capital allocation tool that can be deployed if market conditions warrant.

This move comes amid strong growth in decentralized exchange volume across the Solana blockchain, further spotlighting the role of Solana in DeFi environments.

Management aims to support CHAD’s establishment around its $10 par value, keeping the buyback authority ready as a future option if the preferred shares dip below that level.

The buyback authorization is separate from DeFi Development’s existing $300 million at-the-market CHAD program, which is designed to raise capital by selling CHAD shares. The company has reiterated that proceeds from CHAD sales will continue being used to expand its Solana (SOL) treasury position. On October 1, DeFi Development paid the first dividend to CHAD holders, marking a significant milestone in the launch of this preferred equity instrument.

The stated purpose for issuing CHAD remains unchanged: to generate funds for additional Solana acquisitions. The buyback program does not impact the ongoing strategy of using CHAD proceeds to further accumulate SOL.

Solana treasury expansion and financial updateDeFi Development reported preliminary third-quarter results indicating a considerable increase in its Solana treasury. Over the past week, the company’s SOL holdings reached approximately 2.56 million, while net asset value per share more than doubled. The company revealed that its approach involves tying capital-raising activities associated with CHAD directly to ongoing Solana reserve expansion.

Management regards CHAD as a long-term capital source rather than a single fundraising event. The flexible structure of the buyback program allows leadership to react to future market pricing and CHAD’s position relative to par value.

Mini dictionary: Preferred shares are a special type of equity security that receive priority for dividends and have a fixed par value, but usually carry no voting rights. They are often structured to appeal to institutional or long-term investors seeking stable returns alongside exposure to company performance.

MetricPrevious WeekCurrent WeekSolana Treasury Holdings (SOL)~2.53 million~2.56 millionNet Asset Value Per Share–More than doubledCHAD Par Value$10During Tuesday’s trading session, DeFi Development (DFDV) shares advanced by about 3.3%. This gain came after the company released its preliminary third-quarter update and reported growth in Solana holdings.

DeFi Development belongs to the small group of publicly traded companies that use crypto assets, such as Solana, as significant components of their treasuries. The ongoing expansion of Solana’s institutional settlement network is also drawing renewed attention to digital asset treasury strategies.

The CHAD repurchase framework offers an additional method for the company to manage its preferred equity. Investors are closely monitoring CHAD’s trading levels relative to the $10 par value and whether DeFi Development will eventually use the authority for buybacks. The open-ended nature of the authorization means it covers both existing and future CHAD shares without a set timeframe.

THORChain could have taken steps to disrupt funds linked to the Bitget hack, according to co-founder Chad Barraford. However, he said implementing an effective response would have been difficult, as coordinating validators can take days while attackers can quickly move funds to new addresses.

Barraford discussed the issue during an Unchained interview hosted by Laura Shin alongside onchain analyst and investigator Taylor Monahan. The debate centered on whether THORChain could have done more after Bitget asked the protocol to stop serving addresses linked to wallets that drained $387.5 million from the exchange.

Barraford said THORChain does not currently have a mechanism that allows the protocol to immediately censor individual transactions or wallets. He said creating one would still leave validators with the problem of coordinating quickly enough to act before stolen funds move elsewhere.

Reaching the two thirds validator consensus needed for certain actions takes about three days on average and can sometimes take as long as two weeks, Barraford said. A faster response, he argued, would require redesigning THORChain to give a smaller group more control.

The problem becomes more complicated once transactions are already underway.

Barraford said halting trading with swaps in progress would require reallocating those funds through a vault migration, which itself needs two thirds consensus and could take one to two weeks.

Validators could theoretically block a known Ethereum address before its funds entered the protocol, he added, but the attacker could simply switch to another address and continue trading.

“You can’t have the fast enough response because the protocol is decentralized,” Barraford said.

The discussion nevertheless showed that THORChain was not entirely without options.

Shin pointed to existing functions capable of halting Ethereum or Bitcoin trading. She argued that the Ethereum halt function could have sent certain swaps associated with stolen funds back to their sender rather than allowing them to continue through the protocol.

She also highlighted THORChain’s MakePause function, which she said allows a single node to temporarily halt chains for 720 blocks, or roughly an hour, potentially giving validators time to discuss a response.

Barraford’s argument was not that THORChain can never stop trading. Instead, he argued that using those mechanisms against an active hacker creates practical problems because a broad halt affects legitimate users while validators coordinate a more permanent response.

That coordination is easier when THORChain itself is under threat.

Barraford said validators tend to quickly reach consensus when an exploit threatens the protocol because protecting THORChain is part of their responsibility.

“When there’s a bug or an exploit on ThorChain, there is a wide consensus immediately amongst all validators that we need to pause trading,” he said.

Monahan challenged that distinction by pointing to previous instances in which THORChain had been willing to interrupt its own operations.

She cited the ThorFi incident, when an admin key was used as an interim measure to pause lending before validators approved further action through consensus. Barraford stressed that the key itself could only change configuration and could not directly reallocate user funds.

Shin also compared the situation with the response to the DAO hacker years earlier.

She said ShapeShift repeatedly reacted as the hacker attempted to convert stolen funds into Bitcoin. Although the attacker could continue switching addresses, Shin argued that responding still made moving the funds harder and appeared to cause the hacker to give up at certain points.

Barraford responded that ShapeShift was centralized at the time, allowing it to react far more quickly than a validator driven protocol such as THORChain.

Taylor Monahan pushed the broader argument that THORChain’s inability to perfectly stop stolen funds should not prevent validators from trying to make laundering more difficult.

She argued that the protocol had mechanisms available to intervene and questioned the use of decentralization as a justification for taking no action when a large share of activity on a route consisted of stolen funds.

The same disagreement had already surfaced following the Bybit hack.

Barraford said some THORChain validators attempted to pause Ethereum trading when stolen Bybit funds moved through the protocol, but the effort failed because most validators opposed the action.

“A few did it, but the vast majority didn’t want to do that,” Barraford said.

He later said roughly 20 validators may have left around the disagreement, although he stressed that he did not remember the exact number and said the network has since added more operators.

The previous vote illustrates the distinction at the center of the Bitget debate. THORChain validators can attempt to interrupt trading, but doing so does not guarantee that enough operators will agree or that they can coordinate before an attacker moves the funds.

Later in the interview, Barraford acknowledged more directly that validator consensus could ultimately be used to block laundering.

Asked by Shin what would happen if enough node operators joined THORChain and supported censoring illicit transactions, Barraford replied, “Then laundering would be blocked.”

“If you get a two third majority agreeing that we should censor transactions, then sure, that would be the way of the community,” he said.

Shin also raised NEAR Intents as an example of a protocol taking a more active approach.

She said the project’s Shield risk layer can refuse quotes or halt swaps during execution and had blocked an attempted $50 million in laundering. According to Shin, the system also froze roughly $500,000 during a swap and planned to return $340,000.

Asked whether THORChain could introduce something similar, Barraford said it was technically possible if validators supported it.

“Maybe. If the nodes want to deploy something like that, it’s up for validators to determine,” Barraford said.

“If the nodes wanted to do that, they could. My guess is they wouldn’t, but I don’t speak for them.”

The exchange ultimately narrowed the dispute from whether THORChain can intervene at all to how quickly and effectively it could do so.

The protocol has mechanisms capable of interrupting trading, and validators could adopt stronger controls through consensus. Barraford’s position, however, is that coordinating those measures quickly enough to stop an active hacker is difficult under THORChain’s current design.

He summarized that governance limitation later in the interview by acknowledging that validator consensus can ultimately change the protocol.

“Yes, if you get consensus behind any change, you could change anything,” Barraford said.

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

Providing liquidity on GMX has always meant holding crypto. With the GMX Dollar Vault, that’s no longer required.

From today, any user can deposit USDG, a fully backed dollar stablecoin issued by Paxos, and earn in the same unit they deposited. The position is measured in dollars. The yield arrives in dollars. No crypto price exposure on your deposit.

The GMX Dollar Vault, listed in the app as GLV [USDG-USDG], is one vault and one stablecoin deposit. USDG goes in, and the vault spreads it across the BTC, ETH, and SOL perp markets on GMX. There is no pool to pick and no position to manage.

Underneath, the vault holds a basket of GM pool tokens and automatically rebalances toward the best-performing pools. That keeps capital working for liquidity providers, and it directs liquidity to the markets traders are actually using. More markets will be added as the vault scales.

There is no deposit fee, and no lock-up. Liquidity on GMX can be withdrawn whenever you want, in GLV and GM alike.

Two things:

Trading fees. The Dollar Vault earns the majority share (63%) of the fees generated across the GMX markets it backs, from three sources: trading, liquidations, and borrowing. GMX expects the base yield to sit between 7% and 12% APR over time, before the launch boost. That is an estimate based on fee generation in the underlying markets, not on this vault’s own history.

A launch boost. For the first 8 weeks, the Dollar Vault carries a boost of 8% or higher on top of the base yield, on up to $100M of program TVL. The boost is funded by Arbitrum’s USDG program together with GMX.

Rewards compound into the pool token price automatically. There is nothing to claim or restake; no active management is required. The fees flow into the value of the pool, raising the GLV token price over time, so holding the token is how you earn.

Following the first 8 weeks, boost rates for later periods will be published before each period begins.

The Dollar Vault removes crypto price exposure. It does not remove the exposure every GMX LP has always had: liquidity providers take the other side of trader PnL.

In the short term, that can move the pool token price, when open interest is not precisely balanced between longs and shorts. GMX’s adaptive funding fees and other mechanisms pull open interest back toward balance, so across longer periods the effect of trader PnL on liquidity providers is only slight, and generally positive (view the granular LP Dashboard on Dune here).

Yield figures displayed on the Pools page are estimates based on recent performance.

GM [USDG] pools for BTC, ETH, and SOL go live alongside the new GLV vault. Direct deposits into these pools are open to whitelisted large depositors, with a 5% boost for the first 8 weeks, on up to $100M of program TVL.

Depositors who want direct GM access can message @GMXPartners on Telegram and mention “USDG whitelist”: t.me/GMXPartners

USDG is Global Dollar, issued by Paxos and fully backed. Arbitrum announced today that it is joining the Global Dollar Network, bringing USDG to Arbitrum One alongside more than 150 other members of the Global Dollar consortium:

Arbitrum@arbitrum

$USDG from @Paxos is now live on Arbitrum. Joining the Global Dollar Network brings Arbitrum closer to GDN members like @RobinhoodApp, @krakenfx, @okx and more. We'll grow $USDG as a core asset on Arbitrum One through partner incentives and protocol-level integrations. 🧵

1:00 PM · Oct 6, 2026 · 8.47K Views

5 Replies · 5 Reposts · 32 Likes

The GMX pools page converts USDC to USDG directly, with no external aggregator in the route. Both conversion routes sit in the same deposit box, and the app picks the cheaper one.

Auto. The default. The app routes your conversion through the USDG pool or direct with Paxos, whichever costs less at your size, then deposits into the Dollar Vault in the same flow: app.gmx.io/pools

Direct with Paxos. Offered in the deposit box from $250,000. USDG arrives in about 2 to 10 minutes, and you deposit it on the same page. Paxos conversion is fee-free for whitelisted addresses.

Converting through the pool carries a small swap fee of 0.005% to 0.01%. There is no deposit fee into the vault, and withdrawals carry a fee of up to 0.07%.

Open the GLV vault on the Pools page and choose what you’re paying with. USDC works directly; no bridging, no new wallet.

Enter an amount. The app shows the GLV you’ll receive before you confirm.

Expand Execution details to see the full cost. There’s no deposit fee into the vault.

Your balance appears against GLV [USDG-USDG] on the pools page.

These four screens illustrate the straightforward process. Nothing here requires more than a wallet with USDC on Arbitrum.

Nothing changes in the current GLV and GM pools. They continue exactly as they are.

LPs who would rather hold their position in dollars can switch from the same page: withdraw, convert to USDG, and deposit into the Dollar Vault; GLV [USDG-USDG]. There is no lock-up on either side.

Deposit into the Dollar Vault: https://app.gmx.io/pools

Documentation: https://docs.gmx.io/docs/usdg-launch-boost/

Twitter: https://x.com/GMX_IO

Telegram: https://t.me/GMX_IO

TG Announcements: https://t.me/GMX_Announcements

Discord: https://discord.gg/H5PeQru3Aa

Github: https://github.com/gmx-io

Documentation: https://docs.gmx.io/

Yields shown are estimates based on recent performance and are not guaranteed. Boost rates apply to the current program period only.