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StakerX's AI Agent Surpasses Passes $40M Staked Assets on Solana Within Three Months of Launch

JPMorgan predicts Bitcoin will be the highest-return asset over the next decade, outperforming U.S. stocks and gold.

JPMorgan Asset Management released its "2027 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions" report on October 19, including Bitcoin in its long-term return forecast for the first time. The report projects Bitcoin’s compound annual return over the next 10 to 15 years will reach 10%, outperforming 7.5% for U.S. large-cap stocks, 5.5% for gold, and 8.2% for U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs). It also estimates Bitcoin’s arithmetic average annual return at 20.9% and annualized volatility at 55%. Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise, noted that JPMorgan has ranked Bitcoin as the top-performing asset expected over the next decade, a move that signals a shift in traditional financial institutions’ attitude toward crypto assets.

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After Anthropic disrupted IBM, OpenAI also posted a near-perfect score in COBOL migration.

Beating AI Express: In February this year, after Anthropic demonstrated Claude Code’s capability to modernize legacy COBOL systems, IBM’s stock price plummeted 13.2% in a single day. Eight months later, OpenAI released its latest results for the GPT-6 series on legacy programming languages, with a maximum success rate of 97.9% in COBOL code migration tests.
COBOL, created in the 1950s, remains widely used in banking transactions, ATMs, and insurance systems. Many programs have operated for decades, their original developers long departed, and some business rules exist only within the code itself. Rewriting these into modern languages requires not just making the code run, but also ensuring fully consistent calculation results. For instance, COBOL’s fixed-point arithmetic discards excess decimal places unless explicitly ordered to round; a new program using rounding instead could lead to financial account errors.
OpenAI specifically tested AI’s ability to convert COBOL programs to languages including C++, Java, Python, and Rust, requiring byte-for-byte identical output between the old and new programs. GPT-6.1 Sol achieved an 86.6% success rate at low inference settings, compared to just 5.4% for the previous GPT-5.6 Sol, with an estimated API cost reduction of 39%. Success rates climbed further to 97.9% when increasing inference settings.
OpenAI also open-sourced MultiLangBench, which tasked AI with building SQLite-compatible database engines from scratch in 20 different programming languages. GPT-6 Astra posted an average test pass rate of 87.4%, versus 26.8% for GPT-5.6 Sol. Between the two models, their scores on COBOL were 72.1% and 10.9% respectively – COBOL ranks as the most challenging of the 20 tested languages.

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Investors ramp up AI-related credit default swap trades to hedge against industry debt risks.

Investors are rushing to buy credit default swaps (CDS) to shield their portfolios from a potential AI boom bust. The financial instrument, which rose to prominence during the global financial crisis, has seen its trading volume surge sharply. Firms are on a borrowing spree to fund trillions of dollars in AI infrastructure spending, driving demand for these "insurance-like" derivatives that pay out if the underlying entity defaults on its debt. According to Morgan Stanley research, weekly average trading volume of CDS linked to bonds issued by Oracle, SpaceX, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Broadcom and Nvidia topped $9 billion in September, compared to less than $2 billion in July. Institutional data shows that year-to-date trading volume of U.S. corporate CDS indexes has already surpassed last year’s full-year total. (Financial Times)

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A ZEC-holding crypto whale increased its MASK holdings, purchasing 3.69 million tokens over the past three days.

According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, a crypto whale holds over $15 million in assets, including 10,241 ZEC tokens valued at $11.69 million. The whale has been steadily accumulating MASK tokens over the past three days, purchasing a total of 3.69 million MASK tokens worth $151,000.

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$ZEC Whale Buys 3.69M $MASK ($151K) Over 3 Days

A $ZEC whale is buying $MASK! This whale holds over $15M in assets, including 10,241 $ZEC ($11.69M). Over the past 3 days, he has been accumulating $MASK, buying a total of 3.69M $MASK ($151K).

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Cashmere Labs will launch its Mountain product and CSM token, with Goat LP opening to all users.

Multi-chain anti-MEV DEX aggregator Cashmere Labs, built on LayerZero, tweeted that it is expanding its ecosystem. Goat LP, an automated liquidity management tool for Uniswap v3/v4 positions on Robinhood Chain, will be open to all users. The team will next launch the Mountain product and its native token CSM. Within Mountain, Barn (a soulbound NFT) can earn CSM via continuous issuance, while Goat Street NFTs can be permanently bound to Mountain to receive issuance shares. CSM has a maximum total supply of 666 million tokens, with 65% allocated through Barn and Goat issuance. The team also plans an airdrop (wallets that have listed Goat Street NFTs on OpenSea will be excluded) and a launchpad.

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Two of Wall Street’s most recognizable names are running Solana funds. This week, they went in opposite directions.

Morgan Stanley’s Solana Trust, ticker MSOL, has not sold any SOL and has pulled in fresh money. Meanwhile, Fidelity sold $1.8 million of SOL in a single session. Same asset, same week, very different vibes.

The broader category of US spot Solana exchange-traded products saw outflows of approximately $25 million during the week. MSOL was swimming upstream.

The flow numbers On October 8, 2026, MSOL recorded an inflow between $1.77M and $1.8M. That came on a day when the Solana ETP cohort as a whole was losing money.

Fidelity’s FSOL went the other way. The fund logged a $1.8M outflow in October, matching reports that Fidelity sold SOL.

For context on scale, MSOL is still the smaller player. It manages approximately $52M in assets, which trails competitors such as BSOL.

FSOL has also shown intermittent redemptions rather than a single bad day.

How Solana ETPs got here The Solana ETP cohort first launched in May 2026. Since then, it has accumulated approximately $1.56 billion in net inflows.

As of mid-October 2026, the group held around $1.62 billion in net assets.

MSOL listed on NYSE Arca in late July 2026, entering a market where rivals already had a head start on assets.

To compete, Morgan Stanley leaned on two features. The first is price: MSOL charges an expense ratio of 0.14%. The second is yield: the fund passes up to 95% of staking rewards to investors.

What this means for Solana fund investors When the overall category is shedding money, a fund with a low fee and staking pass-through still managed to attract capital.

An inflow of around $1.8 million into a fund of approximately $52M is meaningful for MSOL. Measured against a category holding around $1.62 billion, it is a rounding error.

The broader category flows deserve the most attention. Approximately $25 million in weekly outflows, after a strong summer, hints that investors are taking a wait-and-see approach. Cumulative net inflows of approximately $1.56 billion give the group a sizable cushion.

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

September 2026 was the month Zoomex turned its TradFi expansion into a full trading calendar. After crossing the 50-contract milestone for Stock Perpetuals at the end of August, the platform spent September widening the lineup, adding ETF-linked perpetuals to its TradFi Zone, relaunching Zero-Fee TradFi, and opening the Zoomex World Trading Championship 2026 (ZWTC 2026) with a prize pool of up to 5 million USDT.

The backdrop was far less calm. The U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time since 2023, and Bitcoin still closed the month higher. Beneath that noise, Zoomex’s verifiable reserves stayed multi-chain, stablecoin-anchored and openly trackable, which is exactly what Transparent by Design is meant to deliver. This report reviews Zoomex’s on-chain reserves, chain and token composition, and platform metrics as tracked through DefiLlama, CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko, alongside the product developments that shaped the month.

Zoomex Overview Founded in 2021, Zoomex is a global cryptocurrency trading platform focused on Derivatives, serving over 3 million users across 35+ countries and regions and offering 700+ trading pairs. Its philosophy of easy-to-use, transparent balances and fair access to earnings shapes everything from its trading interface to the way it publishes proof of reserves. Zoomex has completed security audits conducted by Hacken and holds multiple regulatory registrations, including U.S. and Canada MSB, U.S. NFA, and Australia AUSTRAC.

September’s product story was the continued build-out of the TradFi Zone.

On September 1, Zoomex confirmed that its Stock Perpetuals lineup had grown past 50 contracts across four asset categories, timed with a Zero-Fee TradFi event that ran from August 28 to September 4. On September 8, the platform announced a further expansion covering more than 30 US and global equities across four categories, all margined and settled in USDT and trading around the clock. Two days later, Zoomex put the spotlight on TSLA and NVDA exposure through its rule-based derivatives offering, reinforcing Fair Access & Rule-Based Execution for every trader.

On September 18, ahead of the Federal Reserve decision, Zoomex highlighted its ETF-linked perpetuals, SPYUSDT, QQQUSDT, IWMUSDT, XLFUSDT, XLKUSDT and TQQQUSDT, available through the TradFi Stock Perpetuals section. The same day, it relaunched Zero-Fee TradFi, running from September 11 to October 11, 2026, which rebates 100% of actual trading fees on eligible stock contracts, commodity contracts and stock tokens, capped at 100 USDT per account.

On the competition side, Zoomex launched ZWTC 2026 on September 10 with a prize pool of up to 5 million USDT, its largest to date. The Squad Competition, with up to 2.5 million USDT in prizes and three separate leaderboards, opened on September 21 and runs until October 11 at 10:00 UTC. Alongside it, Zoomex Predict World continued to feature its established Long-Term event contracts, giving traders a longer-horizon complement to the 5 Minute, 15 Minute and 4 Hour markets. Together, these launches reflect a Refined Brand & Trading Experience built around one account and one rule set for crypto, equities, ETFs and commodities.

Exchange trade volume Zoomex’s exchange trade volume ranged from about $125M to $680M in September, with the month’s defining move arriving in its final third, according to CoinGecko. September volume ranged from roughly $125M to $680M, with the month’s low on September 13 and its peak on September 22. For scale, that peak sits at about two thirds of the $1.02B high recorded in August. 

Source: Coingecko On the pair side, BTC/USDT strengthened its lead at 53.5% of volume, up from 43.4% in August, followed by ETH/USDT at 13.7% and USDC/USDT at 11.6%. ETH has therefore overtaken USDC/USDT for second place. SOL/USDT contributes 3.9%, HYPE/USDT and XRP/USDT 1.6% each, and ENA/USDT 1.5%, while a tail of other pairs accounts for 12.6%. As in previous months, 100% of volume settles in USDT by CoinGecko’s currency breakdown, underscoring its role as Zoomex’s near exclusive quote and settlement currency. 

On-chain reserves Zoomex’s total on-chain assets stayed inside a narrow $34M to $38M band for the whole month, extending the durable step-up that began in August. DefiLlama’s CEX Transparency tracker shows reserves opening near $36M, easing to a monthly low of about $33.8M around September 10, rebuilding to roughly $36.5M by September 15, and reaching the month’s peak of about $38M around September 20. A pullback to roughly $35M followed by September 25, before assets climbed again to about $37M at month end. The live reading on October 13 stood at $34.9M.

Source: Defillama The contrast with the mid-year pattern is clear: there were no sharp spikes that unwound within days, and the base held. As always, this figure reflects verifiable cold and hot wallet holdings tracked by DefiLlama and sits alongside, not in place of, Zoomex’s separately maintained $50 million insurance fund.

Assets by chain Ethereum remains Zoomex’s largest chain by a wide margin, holding roughly $15.7M at month end versus about $16.5M on September 1, with a low near $15.1M around September 24. That is close to 42% of tracked assets. XRPL stays second at about $6.9M, after dipping to roughly $6.1M in mid-September and peaking near $7.4M on September 23. Tron fell from about $3.5M to around $2.0M by September 22, then jumped to roughly $4.0M by September 30, the largest late-month move among the major chains. Mantle rose from about $1.7M to $2.1M, Solana roughly doubled from about $1.0M to $2.0M, BSC slid from about $2.2M to $1.5M, while Base (about $1.45M) and Arbitrum (about $1.3M) stayed flat.

Source: Defillama The most unusual line is Bitcoin. Its balance sat near $0.8M until September 14, jumped to about $2.75M on September 15, climbed to roughly $3.3M by September 22, then fell back to about $1.6M on September 23 and $1.1M on September 24, ending the month near $0.95M. That round trip points to a temporary custody or settlement movement rather than a lasting reallocation, and it lines up with the BTC inflow and outflow bars in the flow data below. Zoomex’s reserves remain distributed across 14 networks, the same multi-chain footprint maintained throughout 2026, with OP Mainnet, Polygon, Vaulta, Doge and Sonic each holding under $0.5M.

Token balances Read in raw units rather than USD value, PEPE again dominates by count, but its trajectory reversed from August. The balance held near 8.7 billion units through mid-September, then stepped down to roughly 7.7 billion around September 17 and about 7.1 billion by September 20, a decline of close to 19%. Meme coin balances on an exchange typically mirror user activity rather than treasury decisions, so this looks like client withdrawals more than a deliberate reallocation. BONK stayed flat at roughly 2.5 billion units.

Source: Defillama TBY’s block-shaped presence continues to be the more interesting signal. It appeared at around 5.3 billion units in five separate windows, September 1 to 7, 10 to 11, 19 to 20, 24 to 25 and 29 to 30, and was absent in between. That on and off pattern is more consistent with temporary custody, a settlement cycle or a recurring product flow than with a held position.

USD inflows Source: Defillama Outside those windows, daily activity stayed shallow and mixed. Net flow across the month was slightly negative, yet total assets ended higher, which means price moves rather than deposits explain the stable balance sheet. The framing from August holds: movement was event-driven and concentrated in a handful of identifiable days, not the product of steady retail flow.

Inflows by token The token split shows what drove each of those days. The September 15 spike was almost entirely Bitcoin, at roughly $2.0M gross, and the September 23 outflow was the mirror image, with about $1.85M of BTC leaving, partly offset by roughly $0.4M of TRON inflow. That confirms the temporary Bitcoin build seen in the chain data.

Source: Defillama Stablecoins drove the rest. USDT left on September 1 (about $0.9M), September 19 (about $1.35M) and September 22 (about $1.6M), then returned on September 29, when roughly $1.65M of USDT arrived together with smaller USDC and TBY inflows. WETH was the one asset with clear accumulation, with inflows of about $0.85M on September 19 and $0.4M on September 20. XAUT recorded a small inflow of about $0.3M on September 2.

Token values (USD) Viewed by asset value, September was a rotation story. USDT started the month near $11.3M, held between $9.5M and $10.5M through September 18, then fell to about $8.6M on September 19, $6.9M on September 22 and a low near $6.6M on September 24, before rebounding to about $9.1M on September 30. At the same time, WETH stepped up from roughly $4.3M to around $6.1M between September 19 and 22 and held that level, which matches the inflow bars above. In other words, part of the stablecoin drawdown reappeared as ether exposure.

Source: Defillama XAUT slipped from about $5.35M to roughly $5.0M, a decline of around 7% that is largely a price effect, since gold retreated through September after its August high. Mantle’s MNT rose from about $1.5M to $2.0M, while ETH (about $1.6M), USDT0 (about $1.0M to $1.2M) and AAVE stayed broadly stable. The purple Bitcoin line shows the temporary spike to about $3.3M on September 22 and the return to under $1M afterwards.

Token breakdown The composition snapshot reads as liquidity first with measured diversification. USDT leads at 32.55%, followed by WETH (16.12%), XAUT (13.42%) and BTC (10.03%), which together account for roughly 72% of holdings. The rest is spread across MNT (4.55%), ETH (4.12%), USDT0 (3.48%), USDC (3.19%), AAVE (3.08%), TRON (1.71%) and an Others bucket of 7.73%.

Source: Defillama Several comparisons with August stand out. USDT rose from 27.96% to 32.55% and WETH from 12.45% to 16.12%, while XAUT eased from 14.94% to 13.42%. BTC jumped from 2.16% to 10.03%, which is consistent with the temporary Bitcoin build between September 15 and 22 rather than a strategic shift. Counting USDT, USDT0 and USDC, stablecoins make up about 39% of the portfolio, and ether exposure across WETH and ETH is about 20%. 

Individual stablecoins USDT makes up almost all of Zoomex’s tracked stablecoin balance. USDT opened September near $10.4M and closed around $9.1M, with a mid-month trough near $6.6M. USDC edged down from about $0.9M to $0.75M. 

Source: Defillama Total stablecoins Combined stablecoin holdings fell from about $11.5M on September 1 to a low of roughly $7.3M on September 24, a drop of around 36%, before recovering to about $9.9M on September 30. Net, stablecoins ended the month roughly 14% below where they started. Because total assets stayed in the $34M to $38M band, stablecoins slipped from about 32% of tracked assets at the start of the month to roughly a fifth at the trough, which reflects a shift in composition rather than a shrinking balance sheet. The late month rebound, which coincides with the $1.65M USDT inflow on September 29, suggests the rebuild was already underway as September closed.

Source: Defillama Platform community and user metrics Zoomex ended September 2026 with over 3 million registered users across more than 35 countries and regions. The platform’s Telegram community has grown from 76,277 members to 82,319, reflecting active engagement among Zoomex’s core retail trading base.

Zoomex’s daily active trader count consistently exceeds 1 million users according to independent review data, TradersUnion. The platform regularly adds new assets based on market demand combined with rigorous vetting, as of this report, Zoomex lists 486–495 cryptocurrencies and operates across 518–575 trading pairs depending on the market segment (spot or derivatives), a figure that has grown steadily through 2026.

ZoomexFounded in 2021, Zoomex is a global crypto exchange serving 3M+ users with 600+ trading pairs. Guided by the values of "Simple, User-Friendly, and Fast," Zoomex leverages a high-performance engine to ensure a fair, just, and transparent trading environment where every transaction is fully traceable and unbiased. With MSB (U.S./Canada), NFA, and AUSTRAC licenses and audits by Hacken, Zoomex provides institutional-grade security. Partnered with TGR Haas F1 Team and Emiliano Martínez, the platform mirrors elite precision and consistency, delivering a secure, low-barrier, and compliant ecosystem for traders worldwide.

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This third-party press release is published substantially as received and does not reflect BeInCrypto's editorial views. BeInCrypto has not independently verified its claims or assessed the suitability, legality or appropriateness of any referenced asset, product or service; publication is not an endorsement. The content is general information, not investment research, financial, investment, legal or tax advice, a personal recommendation, offer or solicitation. Verify all information and seek professional advice where appropriate before acting. Crypto-assets may result in total loss.

Stargate Finance is pulling the plug on four blockchains. Support for Gravity, Camp, GOAT and Metis through Stargate v2 will end on October 23, 2026.

If you have liquidity parked in Stargate pools on any of those networks, the calendar is now your most important DeFi tool. Users are being urged to withdraw or bridge their assets before the cutoff to avoid losing access to their funds.

What is changing and when
The affected chains are Gravity Alpha Mainnet, Camp, GOAT Network and Metis Andromeda. All four are being cut because of low activity.

The move tracks a broader LayerZero Labs initiative. The company is winding down the off-chain infrastructure services it runs on chains that show minimal usage.

There are actually two deadlines here, and they hit different groups. The first, October 23, 2026, applies to Stargate v2 users and liquidity providers on the four chains.

The second lands a week later. LayerZero’s default DVN and Executor services for those same chains will stop on October 30, 2026.

A cross-chain message needs someone to confirm it is legitimate and someone to actually deliver it on the other side. DVNs and Executors are the off-chain services LayerZero has been running to handle those jobs by default. When LayerZero stops supplying its default versions, apps on these chains have to arrange their own.

Developers building on the impacted networks have until October 30 to move to new DVN and Executor configurations, where those are available.

Anyone holding canonical assets through the established, official bridges is unaffected. The official bridges between Ethereum and Metis remain operational, so users who came in that way can sit tight.

Part of a bigger cleanup
This is not the first round of cuts. Stargate and LayerZero have already deprecated support for other networks earlier in 2026, with Aurora, Gnosis and Taiko among the chains named in prior wind-downs.

And the biggest cut is still ahead. All Stargate v1 pools are scheduled to shut down across every chain on December 15, 2026.

What this means for users, LPs and builders
For liquidity providers, the practical message is simple: act early. Waiting until the final days before October 23 means competing with every other LP heading for the exit at the same time.

Metis users have a cushion that the others may not, since the official Ethereum-Metis bridges keep running. For Gravity, Camp and GOAT, the practical impact depends on what alternative routes remain available to their users once Stargate exits.

Developers face the trickiest homework. Any application on these chains that leans on LayerZero’s default DVN and Executor setup needs a new configuration by October 30. If no replacement exists for a given chain, cross-chain features built on that stack could simply stop working.

For anyone touching LayerZero-based protocols, the dates worth circling are clear. October 23 for Stargate v2 on Gravity, Camp, GOAT and Metis. October 30 for default DVN and Executor services on those chains. December 15 for the shutdown of every Stargate v1 pool.

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

Aztec attacker deposits 1255.8 ETH, worth around $3 million, to Tornado Cash.

TLDR Table of Contents

CTSH stock rises 0.66% to $66.46 following an expanded Google Cloud alliance. Cognizant assigns over 18,000 employees to its new Gemini engineering group. The partnership targets AI automation across retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. A retail project reports 40% higher productivity and 35% lower costs using Gemini. Over 55,000 Cognizant employees complete Gemini training as deployment expands. Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) stock gained 0.66% to $66.46 on Monday, adding $0.43 as afternoon buying strengthened. The increase followed Cognizant’s announcement of an expanded Google Cloud partnership focused on enterprise AI adoption. The companies introduced a new Gemini Frontier Capability Group to support businesses deploying advanced automation systems.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, CTSH

Cognizant and Google Cloud Expand Enterprise AI Partnership The new partnership brings together Google’s enterprise AI technology and Cognizant’s engineering expertise to develop business automation solutions. Cognizant will support the initiative with more than 18,000 dedicated employees across its global operations. The group will help companies move AI projects from early testing into full commercial deployment.

Furthermore, the initiative builds on Cognizant’s Gemini practice, which launched in April 2026. The companies aim to simplify enterprise adoption through specialized engineering services and structured deployment methods. Their expanded collaboration targets businesses seeking greater efficiency across software development, operations, and cybersecurity.

Meanwhile, Cognizant plans to focus its engineering resources on modernizing older technology systems and improving developer productivity. The company will also develop autonomous business processes and strengthen enterprise cybersecurity capabilities. These services will combine Google’s cloud infrastructure with Cognizant’s experience across several major industries.

New Gemini Initiative Targets Retail, Healthcare, and Manufacturing Cognizant plans to introduce enterprise applications that automate specific tasks across retail, healthcare, and manufacturing operations. Its retail support agent will help businesses manage product catalogs and related customer service processes. Its healthcare marketplace will coordinate specialized digital agents across different operational functions.

The manufacturing initiative will focus on automating order processing, billing, and payment collection through connected systems. Cognizant will also use standardized architecture to support secure communication between enterprise applications. Google Cloud’s Model Armor will help protect these systems from security threats.

The partnership has already produced measurable improvements through an earlier retail software development project. Cognizant reported a 40% increase in developer productivity after integrating Gemini models into development workflows. The same project reduced delivery times by 30% and generated cost savings of 35%.

Cognizant Expands Workforce Training and Internal AI Deployment Cognizant continues to expand employee training as enterprise demand for advanced AI services increases. More than 55,000 employees completed its recent Build with Gemini workshop alongside Google Cloud. Participants developed applications and automation agents while earning credentials related to Gemini technology.

The training initiative supports Cognizant’s broader effort to develop engineers with specialized AI deployment skills. These employees will help enterprise clients integrate new technology into existing business systems. Consequently, the company expects its trained workforce to support larger and more complex customer projects.

Cognizant is also expanding Gemini adoption across its internal workforce throughout 2026. The company plans to provide the technology to 100,000 employees this year, with a longer-term target of 200,000. This expansion strengthens its existing Google Cloud partnership and extends AI capabilities across its global business operations.

Lighter, the Ethereum zk-rollup exchange known for perpetual futures, has launched binary options on Bitcoin and Ether on its Lighter Core platform, The Defiant reported on October 19.

The Up/Down contracts let traders take a view on whether BTC or ETH will rise or fall over 15-minute price windows, settled using Chainlink price data. Each winning share pays 1 USDC.

Positions must be fully funded in USDC, meaning the product carries no leverage and no liquidations. A trader’s maximum loss is the price paid for the shares.

First step toward a full options suite The launch follows an “Options season. Coming soon” teaser Lighter posted on October 16. Founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski has said the exchange is focusing on options this quarter, starting with binary options and moving next to onchain European options that would share the same balance sheet as its perpetual contracts, ChainCatcher reported.

Novakovski said the combined setup would let users trade spot, options and perpetuals on a single platform, supporting strategies such as basis trading and delta hedging.

Moving closer to prediction markets Fully funded contracts that resolve to a fixed payout bring Lighter closer to prediction market designs such as Polymarket, where share prices reflect the market’s implied probability of an outcome. Lighter’s initial markets cover only short-term price direction for two assets.

Lighter operates as an application-specific zk-rollup that publishes proofs of order matching to Ethereum. The company has said it is seeking a license from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

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

Circle’s euro stablecoin, EURC, grew its market cap by $4.8 million over the past seven days. In a sector dominated by dollars, that counts as a respectable week.

The gain pushes EURC’s market cap to $497.12 million as of October 19, 2026, with 443.11 million tokens in circulation.

The numbers behind the week
EURC’s supply climbed 8.8% in the month leading up to October 15, 2026, reaching €441 million.

The token crossed €400 million in circulation back in August 2026.

EURC has grown more than 10x since its MiCA launch two years ago, according to the research findings.

Market share is where Circle really stands out. EURC commands roughly 60% of the euro stablecoin market, which is estimated at somewhere between $760 million and $810 million in total.

A small pond, with one big fish
The entire euro stablecoin segment makes up less than 0.3% of global stablecoin supply.

Meanwhile, the USD stablecoin market exceeds $300 billion.

Circle launched EURC in 2022 as a euro counterpart to USDC. Every token is backed 1:1 by euros held in reserve.

The token is issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. It falls under the direct supervision of France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, known as the ACPR.

EURC lives on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Base.

Why MiCA keeps showing up in the story
The research findings tie EURC’s expanding listings to regulatory clarity under MiCA. The token is available on centralized platforms such as Coinbase and Kraken.

It also shows up across decentralized finance, on protocols including Aave and Uniswap.

Beyond trading, Circle has positioned EURC for payments, foreign exchange, and treasury work. Partnerships with VisaNet and Thunes support those use cases.

The competition is not standing still
Circle is not alone in chasing the regulated euro stablecoin crown. Société Générale’s EURCV is one of the MiCA-compliant alternatives competing for the same users.

Still, EURC’s roughly 60% share suggests Circle’s head start has been hard to erode so far.

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

XRP price is attracting bullish attention after transaction volume on the XRP Ledger skyrocketed to nearly $50 billion. The XRPL transaction volume marked a dramatic increase from the levels recorded over the preceding days. Ali Martinez, an analyst, says that the market may be nearing a bottom and be ready to rally to $2 as on-chain activity surged alongside XRP hitting the $1.25 support level.

XRPL Transaction Volume Explodes Nearly 6,000%
On October 19, approximately $49.66 billion worth of coins were transferred on the XRP Ledger, according to the Santiment chart shared by Martinez. That’s about $0.8 billion each of the previous days on the chart, which is an estimated 6,000% more than the previous amount.

XRP: THE BOTTOM IS IN

Transaction volume on the $XRP Ledger exploded last night as prices hovered around the $1.25 support.

The total dollar value of coins transferred on-chain skyrocketed to $49.70 billion, coinciding with the rebound that is now taking place.

This surge in… https://t.co/vTEFhtC5ss pic.twitter.com/fQTEvKsTKk

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) October 19, 2026

The chart shows that transactions were quite low during the October 16, 17 and 18 and then went off the charts on the 19th. The sharp surge was in tandem with XRP price trading above the $1.25 level and a quick recovery.

On X, Martinez declared, “XRP: THE BOTTOM IS IN.” In this regard, he implied that the price stability coupled with increased on-chain activity could be a sign that selling pressure is easing for XRP price.

“This surge in on-chain activity around such a critical support level suggests that $1.25 could mark the bottom,” he wrote.

However, an increase in volume does not necessarily mean a market reversal, aa rhe dollar value of coins transferred may not be a measure of the net buying pressure.

XRP Price Chart Signals Potential Rally To $2
In a previous analysis, Martinez pointed to a possible ‘inverse head and shoulders’ pattern on XRP price’s 3-day chart. The formation is in the process of forming a left shoulder, a deeper central low known as the “head”, and a right shoulder forming close to the $1.25 support zone.

XRP price chart analysis. Source: Ali Charts | X
The chart sets the neckline resistance at about $1.56. If it is able to clear this level, a bull market could be in the making and continue to push up towards $2.

“For $XRP, I’m watching $1.25,” Martinez wrote. With this level, he said, the right shoulder is filled out.

The “downside” scenario is still significant. Martinez said that if XRP price fell by $1.25, the next price to keep an eye on is $1.00.

Currently, the $1.25 and $1.56 support and resistance levels respectively are still vital. The volume spike is a good signal, but a price breakout is still required to confirm the expected rally.

Starknet (STRK) Loses Ground With a 4% Slide: Is a Trend Reversal in Sight?

Starknet’s STRK token has fallen about 38% over the past seven days, sharply underperforming Bitcoin and Ether as a rally driven by talk of an independent Layer 1 unwinds, The Defiant reported on October 19.

The decline comes as a community vote on whether Starknet should research leaving Ethereum to become a post-quantum Layer 1 remains open until October 22. STRK still holds a positive 28-day return despite the pullback.

Starknet’s DeFi total value locked fell 5.3% over the same period, a smaller drop than the token’s.

Rally peaked after Layer 1 announcement
STRK hit an intraday high of $0.1265 on October 11, its highest level since early December, according to AltcoinBuzz. The move followed StarkWare’s October 8 statement that it was actively considering turning Starknet into an independent network. Even at its peak, the token traded more than 97% below its February 2024 all-time high of $4.41.

Supply pressure arrived during the correction. A scheduled unlock released 127 million STRK to early contributors and investors on October 15, worth about $11 million at the time, according to Tokenomist data. Unlocks of up to 127 million STRK per month continue through March 2027.

Non-binding vote on a post-quantum future
The seven-day Snapshot poll, which opened on October 15, asks STRK stakers and delegators whether Starknet should explore becoming an independent Layer 1 focused on post-quantum security, The Crypto Times reported. The vote is non-binding. A “Yes” result would trigger a research effort and more detailed proposals, while “No” would keep post-quantum work on the current Ethereum Layer 2 path.

“Starknet becoming an independent L1 is our clearest path forward,” StarkWare said. The company argues that Starknet’s hash-based STARK proofs and native account abstraction position it for quantum resistance, but that its reliance on Ethereum for bridging and data availability ties it to Ethereum’s timeline, which targets full Layer 1 quantum resistance by the end of 2029.

StarkWare has said Starknet could reach full quantum resistance by 2027 if it controlled those components itself. STRK would remain the network’s token, and bridges from Ethereum would stay open under the proposal.

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

Sei Network (SEI) now supports tokenized funds from major asset managers including BlackRock, Apollo, Brevan Howard, Hamilton Lane and Nomura's Laser Digital, alongside Ondo Finance.

@SeiNetwork now supports tokenized institutional funds from a broad group of global asset managers, adding to the growing real-world asset (RWA) activity on the layer-1 blockchain. The offerings include products linked to @BlackRock, Apollo, Brevan Howard, Hamilton Lane, Nomura's @LaserDigital_, and @Ondo Finance.

The multi-issuer integration gives accredited investors and institutional desks onchain access to a range of fund strategies, including private credit and hedge fund exposure, on Sei's parallel execution layer.

How the funds reached SeiMuch of the rollout came in October 2025. According to crypto.news, tokenization platform KAIO launched BlackRock's ICS US Dollar Liquidity Fund and Brevan Howard's Master Fund on Sei, while Securitize also brought an Apollo fund to the network. The same report said investors can access shares of the BlackRock and Brevan Howard funds by holding a KAIO token on Sei.

Yahoo Finance reported that KAIO, backed by Brevan Howard and Nomura's crypto-focused Laser Digital, had issued more than $200 million in tokenized assets across feeder funds from Brevan Howard, Hamilton Lane, Laser Digital and BlackRock. The tokens are available to institutional and accredited investors and allow onchain subscription, redemption and reporting. The same report said Securitize's Apollo Diversified Credit Fund (ACRED) was a $112 million tokenized feeder fund of Apollo's private credit vehicle.

Hamilton Lane's Senior Credit Opportunities Fund (SCOPE) followed. Sei's own weekly roundup said it went live on the network via KAIO, after earlier launches from BlackRock, Brevan Howard and Apollo.

Why parallel execution mattersSei is a layer-1 chain built for trading and financial applications. According to CoinMarketCap, it uses optimistic parallelization, processing transactions across multiple cores at once rather than sequentially as Ethereum does, and targets block times of roughly 400 milliseconds. That design is central to Sei's pitch as a settlement layer for tokenized assets.

Tokenized funds still operate within existing legal, tax and compliance frameworks, even when the infrastructure is onchain. For institutions, the appeal is faster settlement and programmable access to products that were previously available only through traditional channels. $SEI is the network's native token.

Sourcescrypto.news: BlackRock and Brevan Howard tokenized funds launch on Sei
Yahoo Finance: Brevan Howard-backed tokenization firm expands funds to Sei
Sei Blog: The Roundup, Week of October 13th, 2025

Ondo Finance and Superstate pulled ahead of the pack in the tokenized US Treasury bill market this past week. According to Token Terminal data, Ondo added $41.6 million in market cap over seven days, while Superstate added $34.2 million.

Together, that is roughly $75.8 million of fresh capital flowing into two issuers in a single week.

Who grew, and by how much
The weekly gains cover the period ending around October 19, 2026. Ondo led the way, with Superstate a fairly close second.

A tokenized T-bill product takes short-term US government debt and represents it as a token on a blockchain. Holders get exposure to Treasury yields and can move that exposure around on-chain instead of waiting on traditional settlement rails.

Ondo’s weekly jump came on the heels of a bigger milestone. On October 13, 2026, the platform crossed $3 billion in total tokenized US Treasury assets.

Its flagship product, USDY, accounted for over $2.3 billion of that total, at approximately $2.328 billion. OUSG, Ondo’s other Treasury offering, held approximately $319 million.

That haul made Ondo the leading platform by assets, according to RWA.xyz.

USDY’s roughly $2.328 billion edged past BlackRock’s BUIDL, which sat at about $2.2 billion in the same October 13 snapshot.

The top spot for a single product, however, belonged to someone else. Circle’s USYC held roughly $2.38 billion under management, keeping it narrowly ahead of both USDY and BUIDL.

So the leaderboard depends on how you count. Measured by platform, Ondo leads. Measured by individual fund, Circle holds the crown.

A market measured in billions
The total tokenized US Treasury market was valued at between $14.9 billion and $15.5 billion in mid-October 2026. Against that backdrop, Ondo’s $3 billion represents roughly a fifth of the entire sector.

The broader category is bigger still. Total tokenized funds reached $35.1 billion by early October 2026, with T-bill funds standing out as a leading category within that universe.

Superstate’s USTB product is now marketed under the Invesco Short Duration US Government Securities Fund branding, putting a traditional asset management name on an on-chain Treasury vehicle. USTB has posted strong daily leadership in some recent periods, with on-chain assets under management in the hundreds of millions.

Why the growth matters, and where it stalls
There is a catch. Use of these tokenized assets inside decentralized finance remains low, estimated at only 0.4% to 2%.

The vast majority of tokenized Treasuries are being bought and held, not deployed. They are sitting in wallets collecting yield rather than serving as collateral in lending markets or liquidity pools.

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

HYPE has slipped below its short-term moving averages after pulling back from its September high. A bearish crossover between the two averages is forming but has not been confirmed. Hyperliquid’s CEO wants US rules to target market operators instead of the blockchain itself. A regulated route for American traders through Kraken’s parent company still awaits approval. HYPE price is hovering near $79.30 on Monday, down about 8.5% over the past week and roughly 19% below the $98.16 peak it reached in September, after sellers pushed the price under both its 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages. The pullback lands in the same week Hyperliquid Labs CEO and co-founder Jeff Yan used an interview on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast to explain how the platform could legally serve American traders, which matters for HYPE because the token’s buybacks are funded by trading fees on the network.

Two averages close to crossing The 20-day EMA sits at $83.60 and the 50-day EMA at $82.85, a gap of less than $1 that keeps shrinking as the faster line turns lower. If the 20-day average drops beneath the 50-day, traders would read it as a bearish crossover, meaning the average price of roughly the last month has fallen below the average of the last two and a half months, and that the October selling has started to outweigh the uptrend HYPE built from early August. That signal is still pending, although the price has already spent several sessions below both lines, so the $82.85 to $83.60 band now works as a ceiling buyers would need to break through before the short-term trend can be called healthy again.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) daily chart. Source: Alexander Stefanov / TradingView. HYPE also lost the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement at $80.21. These levels measure how much of the August to September rally, which took the token from $51.15 to $98.16, has been given back, and the 0.382 line marks the point where about 38% of that gain has been erased. A return above $80.21 would be the first sign of repair, while the 0.5 retracement at $74.66, where half of the rally would be gone, is the next support buyers have to defend.

Level Role $87.07 (0.236 Fib) Upper resistance $83.60 / $82.85 (EMAs) Trend ceiling $80.21 (0.382 Fib) First resistance $74.66 (0.5 Fib) First support $69.11 (0.618 Fib) Deeper support Key HYPE levels on the daily chart.

The Relative Strength Index reads 39.67, below the neutral 50 mark and under its own signal average of 43.77, which shows sellers have held the upper hand for most of the past two weeks. The reading is still above 30, the zone where a token is usually considered sold heavily enough to attract bargain hunters, so the chart still leaves room for more weakness before the token reaches levels that have historically drawn buyers back in. Volume during the October decline has also stayed well below the levels seen during the August breakout, a sign that the selling so far lacks the force of the rally that preceded it.

Yan’s case for regulating deployers Yan said Americans who reach Hyperliquid through a VPN are breaking its terms of service, and argued that compliant US access depends on regulators understanding onchain technology well enough to judge whether it meets the CFTC’s core principles. His proposal treats the Hyperliquid blockchain like an internet protocol and places compliance duties on the firms that deploy and run markets on top of it, since those firms control listings, margin rules and who can trade. As an example of what the technology offers supervisors, he noted that anyone can verify that total user balances equal the USDC held at a given address, a live proof of funds that customers of a traditional exchange cannot check for themselves.

How the US route is being built The pieces Yan described already exist on paper. HIP-3 lets outside builders launch their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid, and on September 16 Payward, the parent company of Kraken, said it intends to deploy onchain perpetual futures for US clients starting with HIP-3* markets, a permissioned version of HIP-3 where the market operator decides who is allowed to trade. Under that plan, Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated exchange that Payward acquired this year, would create and administer the markets and clear the contracts, while NinjaTrader Clearing would hold client accounts. American users would trade newly created contracts listed under Bitnomial’s rules, without any access to Hyperliquid’s existing order books, and the whole structure remains subject to regulatory approval.

Hyperliquid’s path toward US markets

Feb 2026 – Hyperliquid Policy Center opens in Washington

May 29 – CFTC approves Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual as a futures contract

Jun 18 – CME sues the CFTC, arguing perpetuals are swaps

Aug 19 – Trump says the CFTC chair is working to bring Hyperliquid onshore

Sep 16 – Payward unveils US perpetuals plan via Bitnomial

Oct 15 – Yan sets out deployer-level regulation

Political backing arrived in August, when President Donald Trump said at a White House meeting that CFTC Chair Mike Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion. The legal ground is less settled. CME Group sued the CFTC in June over its approval of perpetual futures, arguing they should be regulated as swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act, and the Hyperliquid Policy Center hired former US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to file a brief asking the court to throw the case out.

Why US access matters for HYPE The link between regulation and the HYPE price runs through fees. Most of the trading fees Hyperliquid collects go toward buying HYPE on the open market, and builders who launch HIP-3 markets have to stake HYPE, so regulated American volume would feed both mechanisms. Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, shared a ranking that put HYPE first among major crypto assets by analyst sentiment, about 2.3 standard deviations more bullish than the average reading, with fee-driven buybacks named as the main reason. That optimism has not stopped the token from sliding this month, and the US channel would initially cover only a subset of new contracts on Bitnomial, which limits how quickly any approval could show up in fee revenue.

The most bullish crypto asset by analyst sentiment is $HYPE. pic.twitter.com/VtqsqWSsiD

— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) October 18, 2026

Bitnomial approval and the CME case On the chart, a daily close above $80.21 followed by a move through the EMA band would neutralize the crossover threat, while a break under $74.66 would open the way toward $69.11. On the regulatory side, the CFTC still has to clear Bitnomial’s listing, and a ruling in CME’s favor could push perpetual contracts into the heavier swaps regime, raising compliance costs for every venue planning to offer them. Hyperliquid keeps expanding offshore in the meantime: EQX Labs said on October 14 it plans to launch 11 tokenized US stock and ETF markets on the platform, including SPY, QQQ and NVIDIA, and US persons are explicitly barred from buying them.

Alex is a financial markets journalist and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, and he's spent close to ten years trying to answer one stubborn question: what's really driving this? It started in 2016, when Bitcoin refused to make sense to him - and rather than shrug, he stayed with it until it did. That patience became his method. He's less interested in what an asset is doing today than in the plumbing behind it: how liquidity flows, where risk hides, what a chart is quietly telling you that the headline isn't. That lens eventually stretched well past crypto into traditional markets, because the same forces - fear, leverage, incentives, timing - show up everywhere once you know how to look. Most coverage, in his view, insults the reader by stopping at the surface. Price up, price down, moving on. He'd rather leave someone genuinely understanding a move than merely informed that it happened. His path into markets ran through a Tourism degree at New Bulgarian University - proof, maybe, that curiosity beats credentials. With more than 200 deep analyses and over 10,000 articles behind him, he still walks away from most trading days having learned something he didn't know that morning.

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Kinetiq (@Kinetiq_xyz) will launch the Elysium mainnet on November 9, a Layer 2 network for @HyperliquidX that settles to HyperEVM and uses $HYPE for gas.

Kinetiq (@Kinetiq_xyz) has set November 9 as the mainnet launch date for Elysium, a Layer 2 network built for the @HyperliquidX ecosystem. TechFlow reported on October 19 that, according to official announcements, Elysium is the first L2 network in the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

What Elysium is designed to doElysium is a general-purpose, high-performance L2 built specifically for Hyperliquid. ChainCatcher reports that it settles to HyperEVM, is co-located with HyperCore, and uses $HYPE as its native gas token. It runs Conduit's G2 sequencer on an architecture that meets SOC 2 Type 2 standards, according to the same report.

Kinetiq first unveiled the project on August 24. Crypto.news reported that the network is meant to increase transaction capacity within the Hyperliquid ecosystem, with 50% of sequencer fees allocated to buybacks and burns of Kinetiq's $KNTQ token.

The team has pointed to limits in the existing HyperEVM environment as the motivation. CoinTurk reported that Kinetiq cited HyperEVM's dual-block architecture, restricted throughput and high fees during congestion, including basic swaps costing as much as $20. Elysium is intended to be more deeply integrated with HyperCore, the liquidity engine behind Hyperliquid, and to offer faster block times.

Technically, Chainstack's overview describes Elysium as an Arbitrum Orbit chain that executes on its own fast chain and settles to HyperEVM, with high-frequency trading and market making as the stated target workload. The testnet has been live since September 22, 2026.

Why it matters for HyperliquidKinetiq is best known as the protocol behind kHYPE. OAK Research describes it as a non-custodial liquid staking protocol on Hyperliquid, where users deposit $HYPE and receive kHYPE in return. Elysium extends the company beyond staking into trading infrastructure.

Analysts have framed the launch as a test of execution. MEXC News noted that Elysium must show it adds meaningful functionality rather than fragmenting liquidity, and that performance, liquidity and developer adoption can only be measured after launch.

Kinetiq's documentation still describes Elysium as pre-launch, with specifications and parameters subject to change before mainnet, according to Chainstack.

SourcesTechFlow: Elysium to launch mainnet on November 9
ChainCatcher: First Hyperliquid L2 Elysium mainnet launch
Chainstack: What is Elysium?

A crypto whale staked 139,000 HYPE tokens, incurring a loss of $2.02 million over the past 30 days.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a crypto whale staked HYPE worth $10.95 million and incurred a $2.02 million loss over the past 30 days. The whale staked 139,050 HYPE (valued at $10.95 million) and delegated the assets to Infinitefield.xyz. The wallet also holds a 10x leveraged long position worth $202,250 involving CXMT, SKHX, and LYTE, with an unrealized loss of $36,540. The wallet’s total profit from perpetual contracts stands at $7.22 million, but it has suffered an overall $2.02 million loss in the past 30 days.

4 hours ago

Aster launches pre-market trading on PAPER, with up to 3x leverage.

According to official announcements, Aster has launched pre-launch contract trading for PAPER (papertrade.xyz), supporting a maximum leverage of 3x.

4 hours ago

Mastercard launches stablecoin risk intelligence service for institutions.

Mastercard announced at the Money20/20 USA conference this Monday the official launch of its "Stablecoin Security" risk intelligence service. The service enables financial institutions to comprehensively evaluate risks of stablecoin payments before funds are recorded on-chain. Via an API interface, Mastercard will supply banks with risk scores for seamless integration into their existing fraud prevention and compliance systems. According to Mastercard, the service tracks fund sources throughout the entire lifecycle of stablecoin payments, screens for links to financial crime risks including fraud, scams, and sanctions violations, and conducts in-depth analysis of transaction context before delivering risk scores. Citing a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) study, Mastercard noted that among 593 million stablecoin transfer events observed in 2025, nearly 60% took place in complex multi-step transactions rather than simple peer-to-peer payments, underscoring the necessity of pre-transaction security assessments. Ann Johnson, Executive Vice President of Mastercard Security Solutions, stated: "Stablecoins are creating new possibilities for value exchange, but financial institutions need the right intelligence and controls to participate with confidence."

4 hours ago

I appreciate you sharing this Lookonchain weekly report, but I need clarification on what you'd like me to do. You mentioned at the start that I should write headlines for Lookonchain tweets (max 120 characters, keeping tickers/amounts/names, no quotes/hashtags/periods). However, what you've pasted appears to be the beginning of a weekly report summary, not a tweet. Could you provide: 1. The specific tweet

Oct 12–Oct 18, 2026 #LookonchainWeeklyReport ?? Overview Stablecoin supply fell by $1.65B last week, DEX spot volume rebounded and perp volume edged up, while public companies added 7,721 BTC. ?? Stablecoin Market The total stablecoin market cap decreased by $1.65B. ?? Spot &

4 hours ago

Bitcoin ETFs see $94.94M outflow, Ethereum ETFs down $87.51M in 24 hours

Oct 19 Update: #Bitcoin ETFs: 1D NetFlow: -1,156 $BTC(-$94.94M)?? 7D NetFlow: -2,926 $BTC(-$240.41M)?? #Ethereum ETFs: 1D NetFlow: -36,378 $ETH(-$87.51M)?? 7D NetFlow: -130,684 $ETH(-$314.39M)??

4 hours ago

Former 5th-largest SOL treasury company radically shifts strategy to liquidate all its SOL holdings, having reaffirmed its 'SOL treasury strategy' just one month ago.

SkyAI, formerly Sharps Technology, has recently undergone a radical strategic shift. The company has liquidated all its Solana (SOL) reserves to fund its stock and warrant repurchase program, dropping from being the fifth-largest Solana treasury holder to zero SOL holdings. According to a Monday statement, as of October 16, SkyAI held roughly $223.8 million in cash and has "completed the sale of all SOL". Under the repurchase plan, SkyAI proposed to buy back 95% of its outstanding shares at $3 per share or per warrant. If fully subscribed, the company would retain approximately $22.5 million before related expenses. Additionally, since it no longer holds SOL, SkyAI has scrapped the original repurchase condition requiring SOL’s price to stay above $100. The liquidation was swift and abrupt: as recently as September 14, SkyAI reaffirmed its Solana treasury strategy, claiming to hold over 2 million SOL. But an October 11 repurchase announcement disclosed it had sold ~1 million SOL, and subsequent SEC filings showed its remaining balance was only around 600,000 SOL. This rapid sell-off has drawn strong pushback from Bastion Trading, a major shareholder holding nearly 10% of SkyAI’s shares. Bastion has called for an independent review and explicitly said it will not participate in the repurchase under current terms, demanding the repurchase price be raised to $3.5 per share, restrictions on insiders, and exclusion of strategic advisors’ warrants from the repurchase. Despite liquidating its crypto assets, SkyAI still describes its business as "building a financial platform combining Solana-based stablecoin tracks with AI". However, Monday’s announcement did not clarify if the company plans to rebuild its SOL treasury, nor provide updates on the platform. SkyAI only stated it intends to maintain its Nasdaq listing status after the repurchase is completed. As of the latest trading day, SkyAI (SKYA) shares rose 4.5% to $2.77, with a year-to-date gain of 35%.

4 hours ago

After Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Elon Musk presented a next-generation Roadster prototype incorporating SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) derived thruster technology at a demonstration on October 15 at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas facility, trading activity in instruments tracking Tesla’s share price accelerated sharply on always-open crypto platforms.

The event, which included the vehicle performing aerial maneuvers and flips using cold-gas thrusters and suction systems, occurred after regular US equity markets had closed, with Tesla shares finishing the session at $362.44.

On Hyperliquid, the TSLA perpetual futures contract (listed via Trade.xyz) rose roughly 4.9 percent to around $378 in the hours after the reveal.

Hourly trading volume on the contract increased approximately 1,580 percent, climbing from $2.8 million to $47 million within a single hour.

With the daily candle only about nine hours old at the time of the peak activity, the session ranked as the product’s second-busiest day since listing roughly a year earlier.

Data aggregated by RootData showed Binance leading overall 24-hour volume in Tesla-related derivatives at approximately $279 million, ahead of Hyperliquid’s roughly $159 million.

Hyperliquid nonetheless held the largest open interest, near $99 million.

Tesla’s actual shares indicated roughly 4.5 percent higher in premarket trading the following morning.

SpaceX has used thrusters to position spacecraft for decades.

Making them work in a vehicle instead of a vacuum took all-new hardware & controls.

Every usable void in the car is packed with Carbon Fiber Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs)

More compressed gas on board = more… pic.twitter.com/IyFDx26yEf

— Tesla (@Tesla) October 16, 2026

The Hyperliquid instrument is a perpetual futures contract that tracks the price of Tesla stock.

It settles in USDC, permits leverage of up to 20 times, and operates continuously without a traditional brokerage account.

This structure allowed market participants to take positions on Tesla’s valuation immediately after the prototype demonstration while the Nasdaq remained closed.

Tesla is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on October 21.

The episode highlights how round-the-clock crypto derivatives platforms can serve as an initial reaction venue for corporate news that emerges outside conventional equity market hours.

It is important to note that products of this type are frequently mislabeled in headlines and commentary as “tokenized stocks.”

In reality, not all instruments described as tokenized stocks constitute digital securities.

Conflating the two categories reflects a basic lack of understanding of how these financial instruments function.

A genuine digital security representing equity would ordinarily carry ownership rights, potential dividend claims, and the regulatory framework applicable to securities.

Many products marketed as tokenized stocks in crypto markets, including the Hyperliquid TSLA contract, are instead synthetic derivatives or price-tracking perpetuals.

They deliver economic exposure to price moves without conveying ownership in the underlying company, without voting rights, and without the legal character of a security in most jurisdictions.

Treating them interchangeably overlooks material distinctions in counterparty risk, settlement, regulatory status, and holder rights.

These are price-tracking derivatives, not tokenized equity securities.

Many industry professionals and commentators continue to treat every blockchain-based product that references a stock ticker as a form of tokenized equity, often without examining the actual contractual terms, settlement mechanics, or regulatory status.

This habit stems in large part from a failure to read the fine print that defines the instrument.

In the case of the Hyperliquid TSLA contract and similar products listed through platforms such as Trade.xyz, the documentation and market specifications make clear that the offering is a cash-settled perpetual futures contract whose value is derived from an external price feed.

It does not represent a claim on Tesla shares, does not confer shareholder rights, and does not involve the transfer or custody of any underlying securities.

Professionals who overlook these distinctions frequently default to the language of “tokenized stocks” because it is familiar and marketable, even when the product’s structure is that of a leveraged synthetic derivative.

The result is a persistent category error in which price-tracking contracts are discussed as if they were digital representations of equity ownership.

This confusion also reflects a broader shortfall in basic financial literacy among some participants in crypto markets.

Traditional equity ownership, whether in certificated or digital form, is defined by legal rights—including residual claims on assets, potential dividends, voting power, and protections under securities law—rather than by the mere ability to bet on a price.

Perpetual futures and other synthetic instruments, by contrast, are contractual agreements between counterparties (or against a protocol’s risk engine) that expire only when closed, settle in a stablecoin such as USDC, and carry funding rates, liquidation risk, and no ownership interest.

When industry voices blur these categories, they obscure material differences in counterparty exposure, regulatory treatment, and the nature of the claim being traded.

Accurate differentiation requires only the willingness to consult the product specifications and to apply elementary distinctions between ownership of a security and a derivative that tracks its price—distinctions that have long been standard in conventional finance.

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The Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) has urged the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt its proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework with five revisions aimed at providing greater legal clarity for crypto developers and token holders.

In an October 19 comment letter, the advocacy group supported the SEC’s proposal, which would allow qualifying crypto projects to raise up to $5 million over four years under a startup exemption or up to $75 million annually under a separate fundraising exemption.

The framework, introduced in August, would also establish a safe harbor for tokens no longer associated with investment contracts and provide exemptions from certain state securities registration requirements.

Hyperliquid Policy Center seeks clearer rules for airdrops and token trading
HPC recommended that the SEC formally establish that token airdrops do not constitute securities transactions when recipients provide no tangible consideration in exchange.

The group argued that administrative requirements, such as connecting a wallet or completing sanctions screening, should not be treated as payment for tokens.

It also called for clearer rules governing secondary market trading, including whether decentralized protocols and other intermediaries can facilitate transactions involving tokens distributed under the proposed exemptions.

Another recommendation seeks to expand the SEC’s proposed safe harbor to protect projects still undergoing development without requiring them to acknowledge that their tokens previously constituted investment contracts.

HPC also urged regulators to distinguish automated token buybacks governed by predefined rules from discretionary purchases controlled by developers or other centralized parties.

Finally, the group called for permanent federal preemption of certain state registration requirements, warning that the current proposal could expose mature crypto projects to additional state regulations once they qualify for the safe harbor.

The recommendations come as the SEC moves toward finalizing its crypto regulatory framework, with the public comment period scheduled to close on October 20.

HPC argued that greater legal certainty could encourage crypto developers to launch projects in the US rather than relocate overseas or exclude American users.

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

Hyperliquid’s HYPE has become Multicoin Capital’s largest hedge-fund position as the investment firm has reaffirmed its focus on crypto over standalone artificial intelligence investments.

Summary

HYPE ranks as Multicoin’s largest hedge-fund holding, with its position size undisclosed. Multicoin’s June research already identified HYPE among its largest liquid-fund investments. September wallet reports tracked Multicoin-linked transfers to Coinbase Prime without confirming completed sales. Paradigm’s expanded investment mandate retains crypto alongside artificial intelligence and robotics. Bloomberg reported that Spencer Applebaum, Multicoin’s general partner and co-head of venture investments, identified HYPE as the fund’s largest holding without disclosing its size.

Multicoin’s largest HYPE position follows months of ownership Applebaum told Bloomberg that Multicoin bought its HYPE exposure on public markets and generally holds publicly traded assets for several years. He declined to disclose the position’s size.

During the interview, Applebaum said Multicoin would keep investing in digital assets, citing the firm’s expertise in crypto. He questioned attempts to force connections between blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Multicoin’s own June 25 investment post establishes an earlier ownership disclosure. The firm said it had initiated a large position early in 2026 and continued accumulating, calling HYPE “one of the largest positions in our liquid fund.”

Written by Applebaum, Shayon Sengupta and Tushar Jain, the post described Hyperliquid as a blockchain and decentralized exchange designed for high-speed trading. Its investment argument centered on expanding the platform beyond cryptocurrency derivatives into other financial markets.

As crypto.news previously reported, Multicoin’s June valuation model projected a $319 HYPE price by 2028 under its base case. The coverage identified accumulation beginning in February and a three-day no-trade policy following publication of the research.

The June coverage tied that forecast to Hyperliquid’s earlier operating results, citing Multicoin’s estimate of $873 million in revenue on $2.9 trillion in trading volume during 2025. It recorded user growth from approximately 301,000 to 923,000 over that year, with open interest reaching $6 billion. Those were historical figures used in the investment case.

In June, Multicoin described HYPE as one of its largest liquid-fund positions. Applebaum identified it as the largest in the Bloomberg interview without disclosing its portfolio weight or how the allocation changed.

Multicoin’s $319 forecast rests on earnings and supply assumptions In its full June research report, Multicoin modeled approximately $8 billion in annual earnings by 2028 and applied a 20-times multiple. Its calculation produced a $160 billion valuation, which it divided by an adjusted supply of 502 million tokens to derive a price above $319.

The report presented a $109 bear case and a $689 bull case using different assumptions about derivatives-market growth and decentralized exchanges’ market share. All three figures were investment scenarios published in June, not realized returns or newly issued October forecasts.

Among the risks, Multicoin identified decentralization and governance, regulation, competition, interoperability between HyperCore and HyperEVM, token dilution, and bad debt. In its bad-debt discussion, the firm warned that illiquid markets and gaps through liquidation levels could leave the protocol with losses.

The shorter investment post linked its expansion thesis to HIP-3 markets covering assets such as commodities and equity indexes. It described prediction markets, options and portfolio margining as further growth opportunities, while acknowledging that the investment faced regulatory and technical risks.

Multicoin-linked transfers do not establish HYPE sales September reporting documented Multicoin-linked transfers to Coinbase alongside the firm’s public investment thesis. Lookonchain attributed a Sept. 24 deposit of 130,331 HYPE, valued at $12.15 million, to the investment manager.

The analytics firm put cumulative deposits into Coinbase Prime since July 28 at 4.23 million HYPE, worth approximately $285 million at the recorded transfer prices. Coinbase Prime provides institutional custody and execution services, so the deposits did not establish whether Multicoin sold the tokens afterward.

The available transfer reporting does not provide a complete hedge-fund balance sheet or a reconciliation of purchases, withdrawals and remaining holdings. A claim that Multicoin has continuously expanded its position would therefore go beyond the disclosed evidence.

Separate institutional buying appeared in a Sept. 25 report on Hyperliquid Strategies’ purchases. Lookonchain linked a wallet to the Nasdaq-listed treasury company and said it bought 494,200 HYPE worth $45.8 million over 16 hours.

The same wallet had accumulated 5.51 million HYPE worth roughly $476 million over the preceding month, according to that reporting. Those purchases concerned a public treasury company, not a disclosed reallocation by Multicoin’s venture-fund peers.

The company had reported approximately 29.3 million HYPE worth $1.9 billion as of June 30 after raising $647 million in equity capital, according to the September coverage.

Paradigm’s AI expansion retains a crypto mandate Paradigm raised its fourth fund with $1.2 billion in commitments, according to July 9 coverage of its announcement. Co-founder Matt Huang and managing partner Alana Palmedo announced the vehicle on July 8.

The firm said the fund would invest across crypto, AI, robotics and other technology fields while continuing to back companies developing markets and financial systems. Its announcement named Hyperliquid, Kalshi and Tempo among examples connected to that strategy.

The same coverage recorded Framework Ventures’ $400 million fourth fund in June for crypto, AI, robotics and energy startups. Haun Ventures raised $1 billion in May for crypto infrastructure, tokenization and AI agents.

HYPE Beats BTC and ETH in a Surprising Category: But Is This Really Good News?

Earlier this year, I wrote about stablecoins as the next chapter in the evolution of money. They aren't a replacement for the currencies people already use. They're the form those currencies are starting to take as money moves online and across borders.

Since then, I've spent a lot of time with banks, payment providers, brokers, fintechs and exchanges. They're at very different stages and have very different business models, but they keep asking for the same thing. They want to move stablecoins, and they want to do it safely.

That request covers more than payments. It covers money coming in and going out: client deposits, withdrawals, merchant settlement, payouts, and treasury transfers. Every one of those flows ends at a wallet, and every one raises the same question.

My answer keeps coming back to one thing: verify the wallet. Every time, in both directions.

Every transfer starts with a simple questionBefore any money moves, someone needs to know who is on the other side.

In traditional finance, that question was answered over decades. Bank accounts are tied to identities. Card networks built layers of authentication and dispute resolution. Trust is baked into the infrastructure, so most people never think about it.

Stablecoin money movement is newer, and that trust layer is still being built. A wallet address on its own tells you very little. It doesn't tell you who controls it, where they are, or whether the transfer should go ahead.

That's the gap wallet verification closes.

Money movement, not just paymentsWhen most businesses think about stablecoin compliance, they think about payments coming in. Who is paying us? Is this person who they say they are? Should we accept these funds?

Those are the right questions, but they're only part of the picture. Money moves in many directions:

In: customer payments, client deposits, account top-upsOut: withdrawals, payouts to sellers, creators and contractors, and merchant settlementAcross: treasury transfers between an institution's own wallets and its counterpartiesIn my conversations, the outbound side is often where verification is least mature. Teams have invested heavily in onboarding checks and screening on the way in, while withdrawals and payouts still rely on an address someone typed in or pasted from somewhere else. As stablecoin volume grows, that imbalance won't hold. Verification has to cover every flow.

Onchain transfers are final, so verification has to come firstOne of the great strengths of stablecoins is that they settle quickly and with finality. Funds arrive in minutes, not days, and there's no waiting for a batch to clear.

That strength also changes the order of operations. In a system built on finality, you can't rely on catching a problem after the fact. You can't claw back a withdrawal sent to the wrong wallet. The checks have to happen before the money moves.

This is why I think of wallet verification as infrastructure, not a compliance box to tick. It's what lets institutions get the speed of stablecoins without taking on risk they can't control.

What wallet verification actually meansWallet verification confirms that the person sending or receiving funds controls the wallet involved.

That distinction matters. Control can be proven at the moment of the transaction, with a single click from the wallet the person already uses. It tells a business that the person in front of them can actually act on that wallet, not just that they've supplied an address. And because the address is confirmed from the wallet itself, nobody has to copy and paste anything.

This matters most when the sums are large. When someone is moving significant volume, verification also works as a deliberate check from the user's side. The request they sign names the platform asking for it, so the user is confirming that this wallet is going to be used with this specific platform, and not with a lookalike site or an unknown counterparty. The platform gets a record tying that wallet to its own service. The user gets a clear checkpoint before large amounts move.

Wallet verification works alongside existing identity checks rather than replacing them. A bank or broker may already know who its client is. Wallet verification connects that client to the wallet they're using, which closes the loop between identity and money movement.

At WalletConnect, we've built three further layers on top of that:

Location and sanctions screening. We can check the IP address behind a wallet connection and screen the wallet against sanctions lists. That adds location-level insight for fraud prevention and restricted-region checks, which wallet data alone can't give you.An audit-ready record. Every verification captures proof of control, a timestamp, the chain and session details, and returns it to your systems.Configurable capture. The required fields adjust to each institution's compliance requirements.We built these because the institutions we work with told us they needed more context about who they were moving money with, and a record they could stand behind.

Knowing what you're signingVerifying the wallet tells you who is on the other side. The next question is whether the person signing understands what they're approving.

Too often, a wallet shows a user a string of raw transaction data and asks them to approve it. For large transfers, that's not good enough. WalletConnect Clear Signing shows the transaction in plain language before anyone signs: what's moving, how much, and where it's going. Users, and the custodians and approvers acting for institutions, can check it properly before approving.

Together, they cover both ends of the risk. Wallet verification confirms the right wallet. Clear Signing confirms the right action.

What it means in practiceThe need is the same everywhere, but it looks different depending on who you are.

Banks and financial institutions. When a client asks to withdraw stablecoins to an external wallet, the bank needs to know that wallet belongs to the client before releasing funds. Treasury teams moving funds between the institution's wallets and its counterparties need the same assurance, along with a record that satisfies auditors and regulators. Wallet verification provides both, inside the compliance controls the bank already runs.

Payment service providers. PSPs move money on both sides of a transaction. On the way in, they need to screen the payer before the payment clears. On the way out, they need to confirm that merchant settlement goes to the right wallet. Verifying both sides is what allows a PSP to offer stablecoins to its merchants with confidence.

CFD brokers and trading platforms. Brokers increasingly let clients fund accounts and withdraw in stablecoins. Many need to show that withdrawals go back to a wallet the client actually controls, and to block access from restricted regions. Wallet verification, with IP screening built in, confirms both before funds move in either direction.

Fintechs and neobanks. When users top up an account from a wallet, or cash out to one, the fintech needs to connect that wallet to a known customer. Verification at the moment of deposit or withdrawal means users get credited quickly without opening a gap for fraud.

Marketplaces and platforms. Paying sellers, creators, and contractors around the world means sending funds to thousands of wallets the platform has never seen before. Verifying the destination before each payout means the money reaches the person who earned it.

Exchanges, iGaming and prediction markets. Withdrawals are the highest-risk moment. Confirming wallet control and location before funds leave protects the platform and its users, and helps meet the obligations that come with operating across jurisdictions.

What WalletConnect Wallet Verification looks likeRegulation is turning verification into a baselineRegulators are moving in the same direction. In Europe, MiCA and the Travel Rule set clear expectations for how providers handle information about the parties to a transfer. Other markets are developing their own frameworks.

I see this as a positive. Clear rules give serious institutions the confidence to build, and they raise the bar for the whole industry. The providers who treat verification as a strength rather than a burden will be the ones regulators, partners, and customers trust most.

What WalletConnect Travel Rule capture looks likeVerification should be invisible to the userNone of this works if it adds friction. People expect moving money to be simple, and stablecoins should feel as easy as any other way to pay or get paid.

The best verification happens in the background, inside the flow the user is already in. They connect the wallet they already use, confirm, and move on. The institution gets the assurance it needs, and the user barely notices it happened.

That balance is the goal: strong verification that feels effortless.

What I expect nextBased on the conversations I'm having, I expect three things.

First, wallet verification will become standard across every stablecoin flow, in and out, in the same way identity checks became standard for opening an account.

Second, verification will become reusable. A user shouldn't have to prove control of the same wallet over and over. The industry will move toward verification that travels with the user, across the 700+ wallets and 80,000+ apps connected through networks like ours.

Third, trust will become the competitive edge. As stablecoin money movement grows, the institutions that can prove who they're paying and who's paying them will win the partnerships, the licences and the volume.

Every evolution of money has depended on trust, and stablecoins are no different. The technology to move value instantly is already here. The work now is making sure every transfer goes to, and comes from, the right place.

Verify the wallet. Both ways.

Frequently asked questions

What is wallet verification?Wallet verification confirms that the person sending or receiving funds controls the wallet involved before the money moves.

Why does wallet verification matter for withdrawals and payouts?Onchain transfers are final. Verifying the destination wallet before funds leave confirms the money is going to the right person, because there's no way to reverse it afterwards.

Is wallet verification the same as KYC?No. KYC confirms who a customer is. Wallet verification confirms that the customer controls the wallet they're using. The two work together.

Which businesses need wallet verification?Any business moving stablecoins on behalf of customers: banks, PSPs, brokers and trading platforms, fintechs, marketplaces, exchanges and iGaming platforms.

How does WalletConnect verify wallets?WalletConnect confirms wallet control with a single click from the user's own wallet. It screens the wallet and the IP address behind the connection against sanctions lists and restricted regions, and returns an audit-ready record to your systems.

What is Clear Signing?Clear Signing shows a transaction in plain language before it's signed, including what's moving, how much, and where it's going, so users and institutional approvers know exactly what they're approving.

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In brief An address first funded in September 2013 moved 411.45 BTC, worth about $33.4 million, to a new wallet on Sunday, its first outgoing transfer ever. The coins cost about $54,000 when Bitcoin traded near $130, and the transfer went to an unlabeled address, not an exchange. Galaxy tagged the address as one of 39,069 named in a New York lawsuit by “Noah Doe” seeking ownership of dormant wallets as abandoned property. Another long-sleeping Bitcoin whale has stirred, and this one is named in a lawsuit claiming its coins were abandoned.

An address beginning with "13Coop" that had never sent a single coin since it was first funded on Sept. 11, 2013, moved 411.45 BTC, worth roughly $33.4 million, on Sunday, according to Galaxy Research. Arkham data shows the coins landed in a single new address, where they remain.

Myriad: How high will Bitcoin go? Click to make your prediction.When the wallet was funded, Bitcoin traded around $130, according to Arkham, meaning the stash cost about $54,000. Galaxy put the holder’s average cost basis near $127 and the paper gain at more than 64,000%. It’s unclear whether the owner plans to sell, since the transfer went to an unlabeled address, not an exchange.

Galaxy tagged the sending address as “Noah Doe #970,” marking it as one of 39,069 dormant addresses named in a New York lawsuit filed this year by a pseudonymous plaintiff called Noah Doe and two Wyoming companies.

🏚️ 💤 Address awakened — dormant 13+ years — 411.45 BTC sent

This address had never sent coins (first funded 2013-09-11, 13.1y ago); it just spent 411.45 BTC ($33.44M) in block 972,036

Address: 13Coop8xFbYj9JR9WyF5EqzGa9GiZmxs7C

Coins moved: 411.45 BTC in 2 UTXOs — all held…

— Galaxy Research (@glxyresearch) October 18, 2026

The plaintiffs argue that the wallets, which hold about 3.8 million BTC, qualify as abandoned property under the state’s lost-and-found law, even though they hold none of the private keys.

Galaxy also flagged the address as one of those “dusted” in a 2025 campaign that sent tiny amounts of Bitcoin carrying embedded messages to dormant wallets, which Galaxy has described as groundwork for the abandonment claim. Arkham’s data shows a string of those dust deposits, some labeled as phishing.

Each move chips away at the lawsuit’s premise. Spending coins requires the private keys, which suggests at least some of the targeted wallets are anything but abandoned. Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn has said the pace of dormant “Noah Doe” coins moving onchain has been accelerating month over month.

The wallet joins a growing list of old coins on the move. Bitcoin’s oldest coins have been waking up at an unusual clip in 2026, according to Galaxy Research data.

Just a little over a week ago, a Satoshi-era wallet mined in 2010 moved for the first time in 16 years. In late September, about $161 million in decade-old Bitcoin was transferred over the course of roughly two weeks. And just last week, a whale moved a whopping $377 million after holding through every major market crash since 2020.

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