Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Solana Spot Volume Flips to “Heating” or the First Time as SOL Price Falls

Hyperliquid (HYPE) holders have lost 15% in a month as the token fell harder than Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Yet analysts are more bullish on it than on any other major cryptocurrency, according to CryptoQuant’s ranking of analysts.

HYPE traded at $76.55 on Sunday, about 22% below its September 23 record of $97.96. The token is worth roughly $17 billion.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoWhy is HYPE Falling Harder than the Market?Over the same 30 days, Bitcoin (BTC) was flat, while Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) each lost about 9%.

One cause is specific to HYPE. On October 6, Hyperliquid’s team received 3.75 million HYPE, then worth about $340 million, in a scheduled payout, according to unlock tracker Tokenomist.

A co-founder said the batch would be sold off-exchange to one institutional buyer. Neither the buyer nor the price was disclosed.

That payout was worth nearly five times the $71 million Hyperliquid generated for buybacks over the past 30 days, DefiLlama data shows.

The platform, a venue for trading crypto futures, routes about 99% of trading fees into daily HYPE purchases, according to CoinShares.

Traders betting on higher prices with borrowed money lost $688.56 million to forced closures in one day this month, BeInCrypto reported in its Hyperliquid whale coverage.

How Bullish are Analysts on HYPE?CryptoQuant scores how strongly analysts lean bullish against each coin’s own recent history. HYPE topped its ranking at 2.3 standard deviations above normal. BNB, Solana, Bitcoin, and Cardano (ADA) followed.

Analysts Are Most Bullish on Hyperliquid. Source: Ki Young Ju/X “The most bullish crypto asset by analyst sentiment is $HYPE,” noted Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant.

The leading call on the firm’s chart targets $100 to $120.

By raw share, HYPE is not the most backed. CryptoQuant’s page shows 90% of tracked analysts bullish on HYPE, against 100% for ADA and 92% for Uniswap (UNI).

HYPE Becomes Crypto’s Most Bullish Bet as Price Drops 15% in a MonthHistory offers a contrast. HYPE’s last big pullback, from about $75 in early June to near $52 in August, came as analyst sentiment turned bearish on CryptoQuant’s chart. This time, sentiment has stayed bullish through the drop.

For holders, two figures now test the bull case. One is whether daily buybacks can absorb selling. The other is $75.14, a support level flagged in BeInCrypto’s weekend analysis.

HYPE trades less than $1.50 above it, per the Hyperliquid price page.

Bored Ape NFTs Enter Solana With 8 Rare Cards

Stacks has laid out its fourth-quarter game plan, and it centers on getting more Bitcoin locked into its system.

The Bitcoin layer 2 protocol says Q4 will focus on growing BTC bonds, putting that BTC to work in ecosystem apps, and shipping the Epoch 4.1 network upgrade in early December.

The priorities arrived alongside the protocol’s Q3 Ecosystem Report, released on October 15, 2026.

Monthly bonds and a December upgrade Stacks plans to run Bitcoin Staking bonding periods on a monthly schedule. The first of these monthly windows, Bond 3, is slated to open around November 10, 2026.

Bitcoin Staking has drawn 735 BTC in total across its first two phases. That figure splits into 250 BTC from the inaugural Genesis Bond and 505 BTC from Period 2.

The other big Q4 item is Epoch 4.1, the next network upgrade, which Stacks is targeting for early December. Epoch 4.1 will make Clarity 7 the default for new smart contracts on the network.

Stacks says the exact activation block height will be announced 30 days ahead of time.

Staking growth and a leadership shift The Q3 report also pointed to a jump in STX staking. After the PoX-5 upgrade, the amount of staked STX climbed from 392 million to 493 million, an increase of more than 25%.

STX rose approximately 50% over the four weeks leading to October 13, 2026, outperforming Bitcoin across that stretch. The research findings tie that outperformance to increased institutional participation in liquid staking.

The report landed alongside a leadership change. Stacks founder Muneeb Ali transitioned to CEO of Stacks Labs as the report was released.

With the new role came a long-range strategic vision branded the “Satoshi Upgrades.” The plan aims to expand Bitcoin’s capabilities in three areas: capital markets, privacy, and post-quantum security, with a timeline running through 2030.

What this means for Stacks and BTC holders For developers, Epoch 4.1 is the item to circle on the calendar. Clarity 7 becoming the default for new contracts means teams building in December and beyond should plan around the updated version. The 30-day notice on the activation block height gives node operators, app teams, and anyone running infrastructure a month of notice before the switch flips.

Stacks is juggling a new bonding cadence, an app-integration push, a December upgrade, and a CEO transition, all in a single quarter.

The near-term scorecard is simple: watch Bond 3 intake around November 10, watch for the Epoch 4.1 block height announcement, and watch whether the BTC flowing into Stacks starts showing up inside actual apps.

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

The Sandbox [SAND] recorded a 15% daily surge and was trading at around  $0.0663 at press time. The sharp bullish move outperformed a largely flat crypto market as the token’s trading activity also accelerated to a new weekly high.

The network’s increasing trading volume has played a key role in the current price surge. At the time of writing, The Sandbox’s trading volume had recorded a sharp spike by about 543% to $256.95 million, signaling an abrupt increase in market participation. 

Adding to the bullish technicals and network trading activity, SAND exchange reserves have also risen sharply over the past 48 hours. Could this signal growing selling pressure just as buyers attempt to extend the breakout?

Source: Santiment
Retail activity is also on a surge
According to AMBCrypto’s analysis on who is driving the trading volume, retail traders seem to be taking the driver’s seat. Spot retail activity reveals a heavy presence of retail orders at the current trading price.

This indicates that the token price action is majorly under retail control, which is a key development despite many investors classifying retail-led rallies as short-lived.

However, it is also important to note that retail traders mostly initiate a price movement before whales and big whales follow. For SAND, we cannot overwrite the same repeating. But as it stands, retail traders are making the first move.

Source: CryptoQuant
Rising exchange reserves raise a warning
Contrary to the above-mentioned bullish signals, a sharp spike in SAND’s exchange reserves introduces a potentially bearish counter signal.  To be specific, the exchange reserve had spiked sharply by over $15 million to the trailing amount at $106.4 million since the 16th of October.

The increasing  exchange reserves suggests that holders are moving tokens onto trading platforms, potentially preparing to sell. If that supply reaches the market while buying pressure fades, it could limit further gains.

However, exchange inflows do not automatically translate into selling. Traders may also move tokens to exchanges for liquidity management or other purposes. 

Source: CryptoQuant
Can SAND sustain the rally?
SAND’s 15% gain and explosive volume growth have improved its short-term technical outlook. Yet  the recent increase in exchange reserves sends some cautionary signals to the market bulls.

For bulls to maintain control, SAND needs to hold above its EMA support levels while spot demand remains strong. If exchange-related selling pressure increases, the token could surrender part of its recent gains.

As it stands, the network’s volume trading supports the rally, but rising exchange reserves warrant caution. The next move will depend on whether buyers can absorb potential selling pressure.

On the daily chart, buyers seemed to be dominating, with the swing high at $0.100 standing out as the next potential target for the network bulls.

Source: TradingView

Final Summary

SAND records significant gains as the network trading volume records a sharp spike over the last 24 hours.
The network’s rising exchange reserves introduce a potential bearish signal, as additional exchange-held supply could increase selling pressure if holders begin taking profits.

Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club launch Mudwater, a Solana trading card series. BAYC and MAYC holders can claim packs, and a 2.5% trade reflection buys ApeCoin ($APE).

@yugalabs and @BoredApeYC have launched Mudwater, a trading card series built on @Solana. Holders of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs can claim packs now. Every trade of a Mudwater card also funds purchases of ApeCoin ($APE), which are paid out to holders of the new cards.

What Mudwater includesThe debut set is called Swamp Origins. Crypto Briefing reports that the collection went live on Oct. 17, 2026. Eight of the cracked-ice cards are one-of-one pieces, according to TechFlow.

Each digital card is a Solana NFT, with a physical counterpart held in a vault, according to Tron Weekly. The planned supply is 10,000 boxes. Each box holds 24 packs of 10 cards, which works out to 240,000 packs and 2.4 million cards, TokenPost reports.

Each Bored Ape qualifies for 10 packs and each Mutant Ape for two. That puts more than 140,000 packs in the holder claim pool, which TokenPost says is open through mid-January 2027. Claiming is free apart from network fees, while opening a pack costs 8 USDC, according to CryptoTicker.

How the 2.5% ApeCoin mechanism worksEach Mudwater NFT trade carries a 2.5% reflection that buys $APE and distributes it to collectors in proportion to their holdings, per TokenPost. Cards, packs and Totems trade on OpenSea, Crypto Briefing reports.

The 2.5% is not the only fee. ETHNews reports that a separate 2.5% publisher royalty applies, so buyers and sellers face a combined 5% charge. The same report cautions that trading volume does not equal net demand for $APE, since reward recipients may sell their tokens and offset buying.

Crypto Briefing also notes that the scale of $APE buying depends on how actively the cards change hands. CryptoTicker adds that NFT trading volume has been thin for months, so the payout to holders will only become clear in the coming weeks.

The launch is also notable for its chain choice. BAYC, the $APE token and the Totems that unlock claims all sit on Ethereum, while the cards and their market sit on Solana, according to Solana Compass. The outlet says Yuga Labs has not publicly explained why it chose Solana.

Sources:

Crypto Briefing: Yuga Labs launches Mudwater trading cards on SolanaTokenPost: Yuga Labs launches Solana card collection with 240,000 packs plannedETHNews: Yuga Labs opens Mudwater claims with Solana cards and APE rewards

TLDR: ONDO is described by the Ondo Foundation as a governance token for the Ondo DAO and Flux Finance. Published risk disclosures say ONDO holders have no shareholder rights or claim to company dividends.  Andreou asks for a clear mechanism, enforceable scope and measurable benefit linking products to holders.  Ondo’s Solana tokenized assets passed $500M, and Ondo Stocks reached $1B TVL and $18B in volume.  The ONDO token faces a fresh debate over what its holders actually own as Ondo expands its tokenized finance business. Questions have emerged over how product growth translates into value for token holders.

Meanwhile, tokenized assets tied to Ondo on Solana reportedly crossed $500 million. The two views reflect a wider discussion about the link between platform adoption and governance token demand. Both positions depend on how the token is defined in Ondo’s published documents.

What the ONDO Token Represents The Ondo Foundation describes ONDO as a governance token for the Ondo DAO and Flux Finance. Holders therefore take part in decisions tied to those two areas. The ONDO token is not presented as a claim on company revenue.

Giannis Andreou raised the question in a post on X. He asked how the success of Ondo’s products reaches someone holding the token.

🏦 $ONDO BULLS: WHAT EXACTLY DOES THE TOKEN HOLDER OWN?

Ondo could become an important business in tokenized finance.

Institutions could adopt its products. Assets under management could grow. Distribution could expand across wallets, exchanges and financial platforms.

My… pic.twitter.com/F8tbhdRGjE

— Giannis Andreou (@gandreou007) October 18, 2026

He pointed to the Foundation’s token-sale risk disclosures. Those disclosures state that holding the token provides no shareholder rights. They also exclude rights to company dividends and distributions.

Andreou added that a customer buying a tokenized financial product acquires something different from an ONDO buyer.

The yield or economic rights attached to a product do not automatically belong to the governance token holder. Governance rights and product economics therefore sit in separate categories.

What Would Support a Bullish Case Andreou acknowledged that governance can carry value. He also noted that future changes could strengthen the token’s role. Market demand may rise as the ecosystem grows. However, he asked that each of those arguments be evaluated separately.

He wants supporters to identify the existing mechanism, its enforceable scope, and the measurable economic benefit for holders.

If a thesis relies on a future governance decision, he asked that the dependency be explained. He also asked who holds the power to deliver that decision.

According to Andreou, a documented link between product success and durable demand for the ONDO token would change his view. He said numbers should show why that link matters. This standard applies to any claim that product growth benefits holders.

Solana Milestone Adds Another Angle Niels offered a separate view in a post on X. He reported that ONDO crossed $500 million in tokenized assets on Solana. Ondo brought its tokenized stocks to the network only in January. The launch started with more than 200 U.S. stocks and ETFs.

$ONDO crossed $500M in tokenized assets on Solana.

Ondo only brought its tokenized stocks to Solana in January, starting with 200+ U.S. stocks and ETFs.

Since then, it has expanded 24/7 minting and redemption on Solana, while the wider Ondo Stocks platform has grown past $1B…

— Niels (@Web3Niels) October 18, 2026

Since then, Ondo has expanded 24/7 minting and redemption on Solana. Niels added that the wider Ondo Stocks platform has passed $1 billion in TVL. Cumulative volume has reached $18 billion in under eight months.

Niels described the pace of cross-chain expansion as hard to ignore. His post centers on platform scale. Andreou’s post centers on how the ONDO token captures benefits from that scale. Both posts therefore frame the same debate from different sides.

The Injective ecosystem is booming, with RWA trading hitting a record high. According to Injective’s latest update, RWA perpetuals on the platform have surpassed $1.1 billion in year-to-date trading volume.

Over the past month, the platform generated over $230 million in trading volume.

What’s driving growth in Injective RWA perpetuals?
The Injective ecosystem has continued to grow, driven by its extensive reach across major markets. RWA activity is not limited to a single market. 

As such, equities, forex, commodities, indices, and pre-IPO assets have become central to on-chain trading. Pre-IPO markets such as SpaceX recorded $6.6 million, while Robinhood reached $5.2 million.

Source: X
In addition, Injective now hosts 135 on-chain RWA perpetual markets. The growing number of markets on Injective indicates a broader shift toward active trading.

The platform’s market growth has been supported by major institutions, including Pentiv, which tokenized its $10 billion mortgage portfolio, as well as ongoing collaborations with other entities such as Nomura and POSCO.

What has turned out to be even more interesting for Injective is the continued development of infrastructure that enables individuals to actively trade.

What about INJ?
Despite the reported growth in Injective’s RWA markets, INJ has shown relative weakness on the charts.

The altcoin’s rally to $9.4 after Injective officials visited the White House proved short-lived, as the altcoin crashed. For that reason, INJ plunged to a low of $8.3.

The altcoin has shown relative weakness driven by increased sell-side activity. On the 17th of October, the Spot sell volume rose to 1.45 million, compared to 1.4 million in buy volume.

Source: Coinalyze
On October 18th, the same trend continued, with the sell volume rising to 416k. As a result, the Spot market also saw a negative delta of -4.39K, suggesting aggressive Spot selling.

On the derivatives side, the behavior was no different. The altcoin’s Open Interest fell from $205 million to $182 million, marking an 11% drop.

Source: CoinGlass
Such a drop in OI indicated that a significant number of traders closed their trades. With both Spot and derivatives activity weakening, selling pressure could continue to weigh on INJ.

Can the momentum hold?
Although the market is experiencing strong sell-side activity, technical indicators suggest that Injective’s momentum may hold. 

A look at the MACD shows that the indicator formed a bullish crossover three days ago and has maintained an upward trajectory. The rising MACD, despite the price drop, suggested a weak bearish momentum, and the price could rebound.

Source: TradingView
At the same time, the Aroon Oscillator has held above 50, further supporting the strength of the upward trend.

These two indicators suggest that the drop could be short-lived, with a potential rebound. Therefore, if ecosystem expansion boosts demand, we could see a rebound, reclaiming $9 and targeting a move above $9.4.

However, if profit-taking continues and derivatives traders keep exiting their positions, the decline could extend toward $7.5.

Final Summary

Injective’s RWA perpetuals have surpassed $1.1 billion in year-to-date trading volume, with 30-day volume reaching $230 million. 
INJ faced a rejection from $9.4 and plunged to a low of $8.3, driven by intense selling pressure. 

Robinhood is offering $5 in SUI to users who complete a short in-app lesson on the Sui Network, following its August 2025 listing of the Layer-1 token.

Robinhood is offering $5 worth of $SUI to users who spend a few minutes learning about the @SuiNetwork Layer-1 blockchain inside its app. The promotion is framed as a "SUI 101" lesson and is not available in New York state, and rewards are limited to while supplies last.

The campaign is not an endorsement of the token. Still, it is notable that $HOOD, the listed parent of @RobinhoodApp, led by @vladtenev, is putting resources behind educating investors about this particular network.

How the Robinhood Learn and Earn programme worksThe offer sits within Robinhood's existing Learn and Earn feature. According to Robinhood's rewards support page, users scroll to the "Learn about crypto" section of their crypto account and select Learn and Earn. They read a short lesson about a token, then take a quiz, and those who pass may be eligible for a reward. Robinhood says the cash value of the reward must be held for 180 days after it is granted, and availability is limited to certain jurisdictions.

Crypto community accounts have described the Sui version as a card labelled "Learn and earn $5 of SUI" in the app, with users completing short lessons to claim the reward.

Background: Robinhood and SuiThe promotion follows Robinhood's decision to add the token to its platform last year. The Sui Foundation said SUI became available to trade for US customers on Robinhood, and described the listing as a step up in access for retail users new to crypto. CoinCentral reported that spot trading went live on August 19, 2025, for users in the US and Europe, and that the token's price initially rose 1.7% before reversing amid profit-taking.

Robinhood's own asset page describes SUI as the native utility token of the Layer-1 Sui blockchain developed by Mysten Labs. It is used for gas fees, staking in the network's Delegated Proof-of-Stake system, and governance.

Educational rewards of this kind are a common way for trading platforms to draw new users toward specific assets. Crypto prices are volatile, and users receiving tokens through such programmes should be aware that the value of their holdings can fall as well as rise.

SourcesRobinhood: Rewards and Learn and Earn
Sui Foundation: SUI now listed on Robinhood
CoinCentral: Robinhood lists SUI

3 min read

Hacken noted hacks rose 55% in the third quarter. (Max Bender/Unsplash)Summary

Hackers stole $1.18 billion from crypto projects in the third quarter, up 55% from the previous quarter, according to blockchain security firm Hacken.About $900 million in losses stemmed from compromised suppliers or developer tools, uninstalled security fixes or components excluded from security reviews.Hacken warned that audit badges can give investors a false sense of security because reviews often omit wallets, signing systems and third-party software that attackers target.Crypto investors may be putting too much faith in security audits that fail to cover the systems hackers actually target, according to blockchain security firm Hacken.

In a report released on Thursday, Hacken found that hackers stole $1.18 billion across 107 incidents during the third quarter, 55% more than in the previous quarter. Of that amount, $906.8 million was lost due to compromised suppliers or developer tools, publicly available security fixes that were not installed or components excluded from the most recent security review.

"The problem is always scope." Andrii Matiukhin, co-founder and board director at the company, said in an interview with CoinDesk. "It's expensive to have enormous scopes of all components that interact with funds or influence economics, and teams cut corners, auditing only critical parts of the service.”

The findings raise questions about how much protection investors can expect from crypto projects advertising themselves as audited. Hacken said customers often assume an audit covers an entire platform when it may examine only specific smart contracts, leaving wallets, signing systems and third-party software outside its scope.

“Usually, when a customer sees a new project, they see an audit badge, assume the whole system is covered, and lose money through a key, a supplier, or a setting that was never tested,” Matiukhin said.

The biggest incident in the period was the September attack on crypto exchange Bitget, which lost at least $352 million after hackers exploited a vulnerability in a third-party security product to gain access to its withdrawal infrastructure, according to the report.

Matiukhin declined to identify the venues or provide a detailed assessment before publication of the report. He said it had found no evidence of an active vulnerability, but considered some of the arrangements inadequate given the amounts involved.

“We are not aware of a live bug in the systems of any reviewed venue,” Matiukhin said. “Instead, what we found is setups where key setups are not secure enough considering the scale of the venues reviewed.”

Matiukhin said delays in fixing known vulnerabilities were another concern, particularly when multiple blockchains relied on the same software but updated it at different times.

“Sometimes a critical vulnerability is classified as low by the team, and fix implementation is delayed or even declined,” Matiukhin said.

Responsibility ultimately rests with the companies holding customer funds, which must track vulnerabilities and install fixes promptly rather than rely on an audit completed months or years earlier, Hacken said.

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The memecoin market has entered the final quarter of 2026 at roughly $30 billion, with far more new tokens than lasting trading markets. CoinGecko put total crypto capitalization growth at 39.6% in Q3 even as average daily volume fell 8.6%, and a Bitquery study found most Pump.fun coins stopped trading after their first day. The question for the rest of Q4 is whether traders bring new capital to the category or keep moving the same capital between short lived launches.

Summary

Total crypto market capitalization rose 39.6% in Q3 while average daily trading volume fell 8.6%, CoinGecko reported. CoinGecko valued the memecoin category near $29.9 billion in its October 18 snapshot, with 24 hour volume near $3.4 billion. Bitquery found 79% of Pump.fun tokens in its study had no trades after launch day. Only 1 in 58 Pump.fun launches graduated to a full trading pool in Bitquery’s November 2025 to October 2026 sample. Pump.fun added a 0.45% app trading fee on October 17 for wallets without a referral code. The memecoin category has registered about $29.9 billion in market value in an October 18 snapshot. CoinGecko’s meme category snapshot put Dogecoin near $12.4 billion and Pepe near $1.6 billion, with different kinds of trading activity hidden under the same label. Market value and 24 hour trading volume change continuously; these figures are dated observations, not values fixed for the rest of the quarter.

CoinGecko’s third quarter market study described a crypto recovery in prices that outpaced participation. The same study said memecoin trading became a major source of activity on Robinhood Chain, a network presented as infrastructure for tokenized assets. A market in which incumbent coins retain liquidity and new launchpads draw speculative trades can look healthy at a glance even if few new coins continue trading after their initial burst. A Q4 outlook needs to measure both halves separately.

The sector’s $30 billion starting point conceals concentration A category capitalization combines coins with vastly different markets. CoinGecko’s October 18 list put Dogecoin around $12.4 billion and Shiba Inu around $2.9 billion. On a roughly $29.9 billion sector total, the two represented close to 51% by simple division, subject to movements and category membership. Adding Pepe’s approximately $1.6 billion takes the three to around 56%. The calculation uses rounded constituent values and the category value from the same displayed page; it is a share of reported market capitalization, not a measure of where every trade occurred.

Dogecoin’s scale means it can stabilize a sector average when a cluster of small tokens collapses. The reverse is possible: DOGE can fall even as a handful of new launches multiply. Capitalization alone therefore cannot answer whether traders are buying memecoins across the board. A large legacy asset, a newer exchange listed coin and a fresh token on a bonding curve respond to different pools of buyers and different liquidity constraints.

A recent selection of established memecoins at crypto.news discussed Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Pepe, Bonk and Floki according to their history, communities and observable activity. Selection on those grounds is distinct from a prediction that they will outperform. Their market access and prior trading records let an outlook examine behavior across many sessions. A token minted yesterday has no comparable record, however large its launch day percentage gain appears.

CoinGecko displayed approximately $3.4 billion in category trading volume over 24 hours in its October 18 snapshot. Dividing that figure by roughly $29.9 billion in market value yields a volume to market cap ratio near 11.5% for that particular day. A ratio built from one rolling 24 hour window is not proof that 11.5% of all memecoins changed hands; volume may include repeated turnover of the same units across venues, and the capitalization is a snapshot. The useful Q4 comparison is the same measure tracked on consistent days and against each coin’s own earlier levels.

Liquidity is more specific than volume. A deep order book can absorb a large trade without moving much; a shallow pool can record high turnover as traders repeatedly buy and sell small amounts while even a moderate order moves the price. Aggregated category volume does not describe spreads, pool depth or the cost of exiting an individual memecoin. Those details determine whether a nominal gain can be realized, particularly in new tokens whose first purchasers may be a large share of all holders.

The category composition can change as data providers add or remove tokens or classify a project differently. PUMP, the token associated with a launchpad, appears on CoinGecko’s meme category list; its economics and holder base are different from those of a token without a business attached. Comparisons across months require checking whether the same constituents are included. A rising category total caused by adding a newly listed token is not identical to price gains among existing coins.

Q3’s recovery drew less trading than its prices suggest The CoinGecko Q3 report put total crypto market value at $3.0 trillion at September’s end, up $840.1 billion from the end of June. August accounted for more than half the quarterly gain. Average daily trading volume nevertheless fell 8.6% from Q2, and centralized exchange spot volume dropped 14.2% to $1.65 trillion. These are marketwide figures, not a claim that memecoin spot volume declined by the same percentages.

The contrast matters to a sector outlook because small, volatile tokens often depend on the willingness of marginal buyers to chase gains. A market can reprice upward when sellers hold back even if trading thins. Continued gains in the largest crypto assets do not guarantee the same depth of demand in tokens launched by the thousands. Conversely, volume could return to memecoins while the total market stays flat if traders rotate among assets. The report identifies the broad setting; Q4 memecoin flow must be checked separately.

The quarter supplied an example of attention moving between chains. Robinhood Chain generated more than $88.9 billion in trading volume since its July 1 public launch, CoinGecko said. Native decentralized exchange daily volume rose from $1.3 million at launch to a reported $3.5 billion peak on September 4, coinciding with the CASHCAT coin and launchpad activity. The network averaged about 9.5 million daily transactions in Q3, but CoinGecko noted that most newly deployed tokens failed to gain traction. None of those figures establishes that all the trading volume came from memecoins or that each transfer represented a new user.

Robinhood Chain activity cooled from its September pace. An October network analysis recorded an average of 6.2 million daily transactions during October 2 to 8, 42% below the mid September comparison used in that report. The drop does not establish an irreversible reversal, because chain transaction counts can respond to bot behavior, transaction fees, application launches and the mix of activities. It does show why Q3’s peak cannot be projected through December as a steady run rate.

Trading across different chains creates another complication. A user buying a memecoin on Solana, moving to Robinhood Chain for a new launch and later trading Dogecoin through a centralized exchange has not necessarily added capital to the sector. Gross volumes at all three venues can rise as the same wallet rotates. A durable sector expansion would be easier to identify if market capitalization, stable liquidity and repeated trading by holders broadened together, rather than a headline volume series moving alone.

Most new tokens lose the market before week five Bitquery analyzed Solana token survival from November 1, 2025 through October 7, 2026. Its study covered 11.5 million new tokens that traded, including 8,984,141 originating on Pump.fun. Among the Pump.fun group, 79% traded only on launch day. Approximately 1.5% had any trade in their fifth week, and just 0.2% registered ten or more fifth week trades. The percentages describe that study’s historical sample, not an assured outcome for a coin launched this month.

The study reported that one in 58 Pump.fun launches graduated to a full trading pool. Graduation is not the same as a liquid market weeks later. A third of September’s graduations took three trades or fewer, according to Bitquery. The findings complicate a simple success rate: a coin can cross the platform’s migration threshold without developing a diverse, active market afterward. A new listing or an impressive launch day chart should be evaluated against whether trading continues after the first wave leaves.

Bitquery followed the tokens beyond their launch venues. Its table shows that 51% of Meteora DBC coins traded on launch day only, against 79% at Pump.fun, but just 1.9% of Meteora DBC coins recorded any fifth week trade, compared with 1.5% at Pump.fun. A better first day retention number did not translate into a broad population of month old markets. The cohorts have different designs and participants, so the difference should not be attributed solely to a launchpad’s technology.

The sample needs a clear denominator. It includes tokens with at least one trade, not every contract created or every idea proposed. It counts any fifth week trade differently from ten or more trades, and neither threshold measures meaningful liquidity. One wallet can generate transactions without demonstrating a community of independent buyers. Bitquery’s 0.2% fifth week ten trade figure is thus a stricter participation filter than its 1.5% any trade measure, but still a modest one.

For a Q4 readout, the useful cohort is coins launched in the first half of October and observed again at 24 hours, seven days and five weeks. That sequence would reveal whether new fee arrangements and changing market conditions coincide with longer trading lives. A comparison must allow the full observation window to pass: a token launched on October 17 cannot be labeled a five week survivor or failure on October 18. The launch date, venue and minimum trading threshold all need to stay fixed when comparing cohorts.

Survival tells only one part of the story. Established memecoins are survivors by definition, so a sample restricted to currently listed coins will overstate the chance that a new token lasts. A sample restricted to launches will understate how much of today’s sector value sits in older coins. The divide between the two populations is central to the Q4 outlook. Sector returns may be positive because large coins rise even while most new issues disappear, or the established leaders may lose value amid a frenzy of new issuance.

A fee change gives the fourth quarter a new incentive Pump.fun’s October 17 fee schedule adds a platform fee of 0.45% on trades placed through its web or mobile app by a wallet without a referral code, and 0.40% where the wallet applied another user’s code. The charge sits on top of protocol, creator or holder reward, and liquidity provider fees. Pump.fun says it does not apply to trades through Terminal or third party interfaces. The schedule covers the first purchase made when creating a coin and app orders that execute later.

For a bonding curve transaction, the published existing fees total 1.25%: 0.30% to the creator, 0.95% to the protocol and zero to a liquidity pool. Adding 0.45% produces a listed 1.70% charge on an eligible app trade without a referral code. If both a purchase and a later sale each have exactly $1,000 in notional value, the two listed charges amount to $34 before price movement, slippage and network costs. The equal notional assumption is for comparison; a real sale may have a different value and therefore a different dollar fee. A referred wallet’s corresponding listed rate is 1.65% per side under the same bonding curve schedule.

The new charge changes the economic difference between using Pump.fun’s app and another route to the same underlying market. It does not mean all trades now cost 1.70%; graduated pool fees vary by a coin’s market capitalization, third party interfaces may charge separately, and a referral code changes the app fee. Traders should check the fee displayed for the particular order. A view of gross launchpad fees without the recipient split can misread what reaches the company, creator, liquidity providers or referrers.

An October 17 account of perpetual trading covered Pump.fun’s separate Hyperliquid feature and its builder fee of up to 0.10% per order. Perpetual futures are a distinct product with different costs. Pump.fun’s new app platform fee does not apply to those perp orders under the October 17 schedule. Combining the percentages across unrelated trades would produce a misleading total.

Fee income can hold up even if individual memecoins do not. Launchpads earn from a flow of new creations and repeated trading; traders who lose interest in one token may generate fees on the next. Pump.fun fee revenue exceeded $10 million over one week in an August comparison, illustrating how trading turnover can benefit the platform even when individual coin outcomes differ. For token holders, the economics are different: each new coin competes for attention and available capital, and the cost of entering and exiting reduces the gain left from a small price move. The Q4 question is whether additional fees finance better discovery and lasting participation, or simply collect more from an existing cycle of churn. The published fee schedule establishes charges; it cannot establish the behavior that follows.

Established coins face a different demand question Dogecoin’s October 18 market value was roughly six times that of Shiba Inu and more than seven times that of Pepe in CoinGecko’s snapshot. Its deep listing history and broad market access make DOGE a useful gauge of established memecoin demand. Those qualities do not mean it will outperform newer tokens. Large capitalization demands more net buying to achieve a comparable percentage gain, while a relatively small token can move quickly through a thin order book in either direction.

The experience of a regulated investment wrapper illustrates how access and appetite differ. Bitwise planned to close its Dogecoin ETF after roughly ten months, with final trading expected October 14. The closure of one fund is not a vote on every Dogecoin investor or all future memecoin products. It does show that the existence of an exchange traded route cannot be treated as evidence of durable demand. Existing spot markets, other funds and direct brokerage trading may still serve different customers.

Pepe and Shiba Inu offer other kinds of comparison. A price gain in Pepe accompanied by persistent volume across major venues would provide different evidence from a thin spike in a new launch. Shiba Inu’s long holder history can make supply distribution and large wallet sales relevant even when launchpad counts surge elsewhere. None of these coins shares a single underlying cash flow that lets an analyst set a common fair value. A sector forecast should examine their trading patterns and relative strength without inventing a fundamental earnings multiple.

Price charts alone can conceal capital rotation. If DOGE loses market value while a smaller token rises by the same dollar amount, the total category may barely change, even though social feeds appear full of gains. Likewise, a meme coin’s percentage rally from a tiny starting capitalization contributes little to a $30 billion category. Comparing the change in dollars as well as percentages is necessary when deciding whether new buyers arrived at scale. A cohort of winning tickers selected after the fact is not evidence of the return on the full universe of launches.

Communities are measurable only imperfectly. Holder addresses can multiply because one person uses several wallets; social followers can remain after trading interest fades. Repeated trading volume, available liquidity and the number of distinct wallets that still transact after a few weeks offer more direct observations. None identifies the identities or motivations of all buyers. The indicators become persuasive when several independent measures move in the same direction over time.

Three paths for the rest of Q4 A scenario needs a starting value and conditions that could disprove it. The October 18 CoinGecko category observation near $29.9 billion is a reference, not a fixed forecast input. A $35 billion sector would stand roughly 17% above that value; $40 billion would be around 34% higher. A $25 billion sector would be about 16% lower, and $20 billion about 33% lower. The percentages come from subtracting $29.9 billion and dividing by $29.9 billion, rounded. The endpoints are illustrative market size markers, not estimates of probability or a price target for any particular coin.

Expansion case, approximately $35 billion to $40 billion. Established leaders would hold or gain in dollar value while a larger share of new coins retains active trading beyond the first week. Sustained category volume, deeper liquidity and activity across more than one chain would support the case. Pump.fun and other launchpads could see fee income rise, but the stronger evidence would be broad participation that persists after campaigns and initial social attention fade. The case weakens if category gains depend on one legacy asset or a short lived launch while active trading and depth keep shrinking.

Rotation case, approximately $25 billion to $35 billion. Capital would keep moving between established coins and new themes without lifting the category decisively. DOGE might retain deep liquidity while newer coins post brief rallies and then fall silent. Launchpad revenue could remain substantial because churn itself generates fees. The scenario describes a wide range around the October reference: a category near $30 billion in December could hide major winners and losses beneath the aggregate. Consistent coin level and cohort data would distinguish it from genuine broadening.

Contraction case, approximately $20 billion to $25 billion. Established coins would lose enough capitalization that a few new winners could not offset them. Lower category volume, widening spreads, weaker late cohort survival and falling onchain fee generation would support the downside case. A macro shock or reduced appetite for speculative assets could accelerate such a move, but the evidence gathered here does not assign either event a likelihood. The case would be challenged by several weeks of improving liquidity and persistent activity across established coins and new cohorts.

The cases are deliberately conditional. The boundaries are not technical support or resistance levels, because a sector capitalization is a sum of assets with changing classifications and supplies. If CoinGecko changes the set of tokens included, the headline total can move even if individual prices do not. A material Q4 classification change would require reconstructing the series on a like for like basis before treating a crossing of $35 billion or $25 billion as a market signal.

The bull case has evidence, and it has limits CoinGecko’s Q3 report gives the optimistic case a real starting point. Memecoin trading helped drive activity on Robinhood Chain, and the wider crypto market recovered sharply in August. The largest memecoins still support substantial reported trading, while new platforms can draw users who were not active in earlier cycles. New holder reward arrangements may keep some participants involved longer. Rising revenues at a launchpad and strong category turnover could accompany that expansion.

The counterargument is equally concrete. Q3 average trading volume fell despite the rise in total market capitalization, and Bitquery’s large historical cohort found little fifth week trading for most new launches. Robinhood Chain transaction counts later eased from the mid September comparison. No one figure proves that Q4 will be weak: a broad crypto volume measure is not a memecoin volume measure, old launch cohorts do not determine new ones, and a chain’s transaction count includes more than meme trades. Together they identify the questions a bullish thesis must answer with subsequent evidence.

The sector could have a strong quarter led almost entirely by DOGE, SHIB and PEPE while the launchpad survival rate remains poor. A new cohort might retain users better even if prices on the largest coins fall. Both outcomes would make a single phrase such as “memecoin season” too broad to be informative. The disagreement is about where and for how long buyers are active, not whether memecoin trades occur at all.

Macroeconomic data will shape the background, but they do not set a mechanical timetable for a memecoin rally. The Federal Reserve meets October 27 and 28, according to its calendar, and U.S. inflation data for October are scheduled for November 10. A less aggressive policy path could support risk taking, while a new inflation surprise could hurt it. Prior positioning and crypto specific flows can complicate either reaction. The Q4 analysis should check what the sector actually did after the releases, not infer an effect from the calendar alone.

What the data still cannot tell us Neither the CoinGecko category page nor Bitquery’s study measures all memecoin capital flows. Capitalization multiplies price by circulating supply; it does not mean investors contributed that entire dollar amount. Volume can include rapid turnover of the same capital. Token survival registers transactions, not profitable exits. Launchpad fees are the sums paid by traders and may be split among protocol, creators, holders and liquidity providers.

Crosschain accounting creates further uncertainty. Wrapped tokens, bridged liquidity and coins with similar names can appear in multiple places. A sector series needs a defined token set and consistent time convention. Price snapshots taken at one time and volume observations from another can create ratios that seem precise but are not. The figures in this article are explicitly dated where they can change and should be refreshed before publication.

The Bitquery cohort ends October 7 and cannot show how the October 17 Pump.fun fee will affect new token behavior. A change in fees may encourage use of other interfaces, alter trade frequency or make little difference compared with price volatility. Its effect requires observing comparable cohorts after the new schedule took effect. The study’s historical rates are a benchmark to test against, not an expected value assigned to every Q4 token.

Investor outcomes are especially difficult to infer from successful token examples. A wallet’s realized gain requires knowing when it bought, how many units it sold, the available exit liquidity and every fee paid. A quoted market capitalization or an unrealized balance is not a cash return. At Q4’s first substantive reporting checkpoint, CoinGecko’s October 15 report supplies the Q3 marketwide volume baseline, while Bitquery’s October 10 verified cohort supplies the launch survival baseline for subsequent comparisons.

What to watch Category market value and constituent list: Compare CoinGecko’s daily category total with the same large coins and check whether reclassification changes the series. Trading volume and liquidity: Track repeated daily volumes alongside order book or pool depth for DOGE, SHIB, PEPE and representative new coins. Seven day and fifth week launch survival: Compare new October cohorts with Bitquery’s 79% launch day only and 1.5% fifth week any trade benchmarks after enough time passes. Launchpad fee and revenue splits: Observe whether Pump.fun trading, platform fee income and creator or holder rewards grow together after the October 17 change. Activity across chains: Compare Solana and Robinhood Chain transaction and DEX volume patterns without treating every transaction as a new memecoin investor. FAQ What is the outlook for memecoins in Q4 2026? The outlook depends on whether activity extends beyond major coins and launch day trades. This feature sets conditional expansion, rotation and contraction cases around CoinGecko’s roughly $29.9 billion category snapshot on October 18, not a guaranteed quarter end target.

How large is the memecoin market in October 2026? CoinGecko’s category page showed approximately $29.9 billion in market capitalization and around $3.4 billion in 24 hour trading volume in the October 18 snapshot. Both measures change continuously and depend on the provider’s included tokens.

Are new memecoins still attracting traders? New launches continue to trade, but durability is scarce in Bitquery’s historical Solana sample. It found 79% of Pump.fun coins had no trades after launch day and 1.5% registered any trade in their fifth week.

What share of Pump.fun coins reach a full trading pool? Bitquery found one in 58 Pump.fun launches graduated in its November 2025 to October 2026 study period. Graduation describes migration to a trading pool and does not establish lasting liquidity or gains for holders.

Did memecoin activity rise during Q3? CoinGecko reported intense memecoin driven activity on Robinhood Chain during Q3, including a peak of $3.5 billion in daily native DEX volume on September 4. Its report did not assign every transaction or every dollar of that volume to memecoins.

Does a higher DOGE price mean the whole sector is recovering? No. Dogecoin accounted for roughly $12.4 billion of a near $29.9 billion CoinGecko meme category snapshot on October 18. Its size can lift a category total while many smaller tokens lose value or stop trading.

Did Pump.fun change its trading fees in October? Yes. Its October 17 schedule added a 0.45% app platform fee for wallets without a referral code and 0.40% for referred wallets, on top of applicable existing trade fees. The new platform fee does not apply to Terminal or third party interface trades under that schedule.

What would strengthen the bullish Q4 case? Several weeks of volume growth, deeper available liquidity and more new launch cohorts still trading after seven days and five weeks would support it. A one day rally or a high count of newly created tokens is not enough. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Figures reflect regulatory filings and reporting available at the time of writing and change with each disclosure. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or asset. Always do your own research. Information is accurate as of October 18, 2026.

The L1 narrative rally has turned into a steady correction Starknet’s governance poll on going independent failed to stop the selling Record weekly network revenue landed in the middle of the decline The 200 EMA zone decides whether the larger uptrend survives STRK price has dropped to $0.0624 at the time of writing, roughly 51% below the $0.1268 high it printed around Oct 11–12, after a rally that took the Starknet token nearly five times higher in under four weeks on the back of StarkWare’s plan to turn the network into an independent post-quantum layer 1. The token is down 43.7% over the past seven days and 12.8% in the last 24 hours, its market cap has shrunk to $472.3 million, and the slide has continued even while STRK holders vote on whether that L1 plan should move into a research phase.

A quantum pitch fuelled a 385% run STRK was trading near $0.026 in mid-September, well before anyone at StarkWare spoke publicly about leaving Ethereum. The real trigger came on Oct 8, when Starknet said it was actively considering becoming an L1, a move that would let it become the first fully quantum-resistant network with 2027 as the target. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson put the idea to the community as an open question the same day, and two days later StarkWare said an independent L1 was its clearest path forward, which lines up with the tallest green candles and the heaviest volume of the entire run on the 4H chart.

We are actively considering becoming an L1.

This would enable Starknet to become the first fully quantum-resistant network, with 2027 as our target. https://t.co/yaFlkp0R1P

— Starknet (@Starknet) October 8, 2026

StarkWare’s case for the move comes down to dependency on Ethereum, and according to the Starknet Foundation, the parts of the network Starknet controls itself can become quantum-resistant soon, while its bridge and data availability layer move on Ethereum’s schedule, and Ethereum’s own post-quantum team is only targeting initial protocol-level protections by 2029. Traders liked that pitch enough to buy it long before any vote existed, and STRK added about 385% from its September base to the October top.

Oct 8 · Starknet says it is considering an L1 move

Oct 10 · StarkWare calls an independent L1 its clearest path

Oct 11–12 · STRK peaks at $0.1268

Oct 15 · Poll opens, spike to $0.098 gets rejected

Oct 22 · Voting closes and results go public

Sellers ignored a revenue record On Oct 17, data from Chainspect showed Starknet’s weekly revenue topping $90,000 for the first time at $92,824, a 5.2% weekly gain that would normally give bulls something to point at. STRK kept sliding through that day and into the weekend, a sign that traders who rode the near fivefold move were still locking in gains regardless of what the network itself was reporting.

💰 @Starknet moved past $90K in weekly revenue for the first time.

$92,824 over the past week.

Starknet's weekly number just got a lot more interesting.

📊 https://t.co/KSeeiplsnb pic.twitter.com/DUNVGFhr1F

— Chainspect (@chainspect_app) October 17, 2026

Two days earlier the poll launch had drawn the same reaction, after Starknet opened itsseven-day, non-binding governance poll on Oct 15, asking stakers and delegators whether the network should research becoming an independent post-quantum L1, with a yes vote leading to research and more detailed proposals and a no vote keeping post-quantum work on the current layer 2 path. STRK shot up to about $0.098 that day on one of the largest volume bars since the peak, then got rejected just under the 0.236 Fibonacci level at $0.103 and closed back inside the range, a failed bounce that confirmed the lower-high sequence and turned what looked like consolidation into a corrective trend.

STRK/USDT 4H chart. Source: TradingView / Alexander Stefanov RSI near oversold, no divergence yet RSI reads 32.3 on the 4H timeframe, below its signal line at 38.4 and close to oversold territory, though it is still making lower lows together with price, so there is no bullish divergence to suggest the selling is ending. Volume on the way down has been noticeably lighter than during the rally, which looks more like orderly profit-taking than panic while also showing that buyers have yet to step in with any size.

On the price side, STRK has now lost the 0.618 retracement at $0.0646, the level traders usually treat as the last line for a strong uptrend, and it trades in the gap between that level and the 200 EMA at $0.0591. The 50 SMA at $0.0854 has started to roll over above price and now sits close to the 0.382 Fib at $0.0883, leaving that band as the ceiling bulls would eventually need to clear.

What’s next for STRK Price? Level From price Zone 50 SMA + 0.382 Fib
$0.085–$0.088 +36% Trend reclaim 0.5 Fib
$0.0764 +22% Upside target 0.618 Fib
$0.0646 +3.5% Reclaim test ● STRK NOW · $0.0624 200 EMA + 0.707 Fib
$0.0555–$0.0591 −5% to −11% Main support 0.786 Fib + Oct 6–8 floor
$0.0476–$0.049 −21% to −24% Breakdown target STRK/USDT 4H levels, Binance.

The $0.0555–$0.0591 zone carries the most weight on the chart because it stacks the 0.707 Fib and the rising 200 EMA on top of the early-October breakout area, where the Oct 5 highs and the Oct 8–9 base sit. If buyers defend it, RSI prints a higher low and a 4H candle closes back above $0.0646, STRK has room to retest the 0.5 Fib at $0.0764. A 4H close under the 200 EMA and $0.0555 would point to $0.048–$0.049 instead, a 0.786 retracement of the whole September–October move that would read as a full reset of the rally.

The vote itself may offer less of a catalyst than its timing suggests. The poll has no quorum requirement and only authorises research, Starknet has published no timetable for an actual exit, and the Starknet governance forum makes clear that any real transition would need its own dedicated governance process later on. Even a clean yes on Oct 22 therefore leaves STRK holders waiting on proposals that do not exist yet, which is a slower story than the one the market paid for in early October.

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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Galaxy Research analyzes why Bitcoin weakened in October, pointing to weak corporate treasury buying and ETF outflows as the primary causes.

Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn points out that Bitcoin’s weakness in October is tied to weak growth in corporate Bitcoin reserves and net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs. Using the “institutional absorption vs. long-term holder address distribution” metric for analysis, the calculation is: spot ETF net inflows plus net additions to corporate reserves, minus the amount of Bitcoin that has been dormant on-chain for over five years and reactivated. Data shows that as of October 18, the year-to-date net value of this metric stood at roughly negative 127,300 BTC, meaning the distribution of old coins from long-term holding addresses has overall outpaced institutional uptake. The analyst also noted that the year-to-date net inflow of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs returned to positive territory in September and has barely held steady since, currently at around $355 million, with a small net outflow recorded so far in October.

60 minutes ago

Qubic discloses security incident: Approximately $1.3 million in QU tokens stolen, affecting 1,404 Qubic wallets.

Qubic announced that between 23:42 UTC yesterday and 01:26 UTC today, attackers exploited insufficient randomness in the seed of some wallets to access and siphon approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens from 1,404 Qubic wallets. The root cause lies in the seed generation mechanism, not the Qubic protocol itself. Affected seeds include those created in any iPhone or iPad browser before October 18, 2026, those created in Mac Safari on the same date, and those generated via the Qubic iOS App before July 2025. The network has been halted at tick 85,371,949. 87.1% of the stolen funds remain in the Qubic network and are frozen, while the remaining 12.9% has been transferred to MEXC, with the associated receiving accounts also frozen. Qubic said the seed generation issue has been fixed in version 4.26.4. Subsequent actions will be decided by the Computor quorum per network rules, and a full technical report will be published after a fund recovery plan is finalized.

60 minutes ago

Viewpoint: Bitcoin has completed bottom hunting to liquidate long positions, may shift to a short squeeze next week, and maintains a bullish stance above $79,800.

Renowned trader Killa reviewed Bitcoin’s weekly chart trends, noting that last week, BTC fell from $87,000 to the $80,000 range before bouncing back 50%. After the current weekly chart opened, the token rallied on Monday but faced persistent resistance, eventually retesting the prior week’s low around $80,000. Currently, longs are the main targets of market liquidations, so there’s a high chance the trend will shift to targeting shorts next week. For short-term trades, closely watch for a retest of this week’s low at $79,800; if that occurs, look for long entry opportunities.
Killa laid out a clear observation framework: If BTC does not retest the lows, focus on the $83,600 level. If the price fails to break above this level, the market will remain in a range-bound capitulation phase; if it breaks through successfully, the rally will push higher. He expects next week’s weekly chart open will move upward, forcing late shorts who entered short positions against the recent rally to cover their positions. In the worst-case scenario for bulls, BTC could dip to the $76,000–$78,000 range. The analyst also explicitly ruled out the extreme scenario of a retest of $74,000.

60 minutes ago

US and South Korean stock market price preview for Monday: SK Hynix and Samsung are expected to open nearly 5% lower, while US stocks are set to open nearly flat in pre-market trading.

During the weekend when traditional markets are closed, Trade.xyz — dubbed the "On-Chain Nasdaq" — leverages perpetual contracts to enable continuous trading and real-time price discovery that traditional finance cannot achieve, pricing in advance the upcoming Monday’s U.S. and South Korean stock market trends.
Most popular U.S. stock assets on Trade.xyz saw minor declines from their Friday after-hours levels, with an overall flat-to-slightly-weak opening expected on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: SpaceX is currently priced at $144.66, down from $145.47 in U.S. Friday after-hours trading; Micron (MU) is at $869.99, versus $875.98 in Friday after-hours; SanDisk (SNDK) is at $1,275.4, compared to $1,292.43 in Friday after-hours; NVIDIA is at $213.57, versus $213.75 in Friday after-hours; Marvell Technology (MRVL) is at $225.84, versus $226.9 in Friday after-hours; Intel is at $88.89, versus $89.33 in Friday after-hours; Google is at $339.68, versus $339.22 in Friday after-hours; AMD is at $527.09, matching its Friday after-hours level.
Popular South Korean stocks on Trade.xyz have dropped notably from their Friday closing prices, with an expected opening decline of 4%–5% on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: Samsung Electronics is currently priced at $155.81, down from $161.75 at Friday’s close; SK Hynix is at $907.95, versus $954.75 at Friday’s close.

60 minutes ago

Bitcoin Jesus renounced his U.S. citizenship to evade taxes, only to be ordered to pay nearly $50 million in expatriation tax a decade later.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus", under which fraud and tax evasion charges against him will be dropped in exchange for a maximum fine of $49.9 million. As one of the earliest Bitcoin evangelists, Ver purchased large amounts of Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $3 million. In February 2014, to avoid high tax burdens, he obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month. At that time, he and his companies held at least 131,000 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the then-current price. He thought changing his nationality would let him escape the U.S.'s high taxes, but the U.S.'s strict "expatriation tax" foiled his plan. Under U.S. tax law, eligible expatriates must treat their global assets as if sold on the day before expatriation and pay capital gains tax. Ver reported $1.03 million in taxes, but not only failed to disclose his personal Bitcoin holdings, he also severely undervalued his company assets. A decade later, the IRS uncovered his fraudulent tax evasion (fraud and tax evasion are not subject to statute of limitations), ultimately forcing him to pay up to $49.9 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest—48 times the amount he had self-reported paying that year.

60 minutes ago

Justin Sun resumes trading PEPE after a two-year hiatus, receiving $28.44 million worth of the token from Poloniex's multi-signature address.

On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) has monitored that Justin Sun is trading PEPE again after a two-year hiatus. 22 hours ago, Sun’s address 0x176…0a132 received 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens from Poloniex’s multi-sig address, valued at $28.44 million. This marks his first on-chain PEPE transaction since June 2024, when the token was priced at $0.00001256.

60 minutes ago

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TLDR: Binance sell order at 21:21 UTC triggered liquidations that reached Hyperliquid-linked stock contracts  Bullish positions made up about $38M of the $51.6M liquidated between 21:22 and 21:32 UTC on Saturday  SOXL saw roughly $12.7M in liquidations, while SanDisk and SK Hynix each recorded about $10.8M Semiconductors had logged eight straight losing days, their worst streak since 2008, before the drop A semiconductor flash crash wiped out $51.6 million in leveraged positions during weekend trading on crypto platforms. A large sell order on Binance at 21:21 UTC on Saturday triggered the liquidations.

The wave spread to venues such as Hyperliquid and hit contracts tied to SOXL, SanDisk, and SK Hynix. Thin liquidity worsened the drop, since US stock markets were closed. Prices rebounded quickly afterward, and the wider crypto markets held steady.

Binance Sell Order Triggers Liquidations Across Venues Analyst AN Crypto described the semiconductor flash crash in a post on X. The post states that liquidations occurred between 21:22 and 21:32 UTC on Saturday. Positions tied to chip stocks and semiconductor funds were closed by force during that ten-minute window.

The selling began on Binance. Within seconds, it reached stock contracts linked to Hyperliquid. These contracts stay open even when US exchanges are shut.

🚨 $52 MILLION WIPED OUT IN JUST 10 MINUTES — WHILE WALL STREET WAS CLOSED.
Crypto exchanges are becoming a 24/7 casino for stock traders. This weekend, leveraged bets on semiconductor stocks suffered a massive liquidation wave, even though the underlying U.S. stock market wasn’t… pic.twitter.com/j4mTHAvzpk

— AN Crypto (@ANCrypto_) October 18, 2026

Thin weekend liquidity left few buy orders to absorb the large sell order. The sequence showed how quickly pressure can move across trading venues.

A liquidation occurs when an exchange closes a leveraged position after the trader’s margin falls too low. Bullish traders took the largest share of the losses. About $38 million came from positions betting on higher prices. The rest came from traders betting on lower prices.

SOXL, SanDisk, and SK Hynix Lead the Losses SOXL contracts recorded the biggest losses, with about $12.7 million liquidated. SanDisk and SK Hynix contracts followed, each seeing around $10.8 million in liquidations.

The liquidations came after a rough stretch for the semiconductor sector in regular trading. Chips had logged eight straight losing days, their worst streak since 2008.

Pullbacks in AI spending accompanied that decline. The streak left the sector under pressure before the weekend session began.

The semiconductor flash crash on crypto venues followed this run of losses. Together, the three contract groups accounted for about $34.3 million of the total. Other positions made up the remaining balance.

Lack of Live Stock Prices Complicates Weekend Trading AN Crypto pointed to the absence of an opening bell as the central issue. With Wall Street closed, these contracts had no real-time share prices to anchor them. Traders were effectively reacting to each other, and leverage amplified the move.

US markets reopen on Monday. Actual share prices will then show how far weekend contract prices drifted from the underlying stocks. Until then, moves from the semiconductor flash crash cannot be compared with live stock data.

Tokenized stock exposure and perpetual contracts now allow markets to trade around the clock. Perpetual contracts have no expiry date, so traders can hold them while margin requirements are met.

However, constant access does not guarantee reliable price discovery or deep liquidity. Longer trading hours offer more opportunity, but they also create more ways for traders to face liquidation.

Galaxy Research analyzes why Bitcoin weakened in October, pointing to weak corporate treasury buying and ETF outflows as the primary causes.

Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn points out that Bitcoin’s weakness in October is tied to weak growth in corporate Bitcoin reserves and net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs. Using the “institutional absorption vs. long-term holder address distribution” metric for analysis, the calculation is: spot ETF net inflows plus net additions to corporate reserves, minus the amount of Bitcoin that has been dormant on-chain for over five years and reactivated. Data shows that as of October 18, the year-to-date net value of this metric stood at roughly negative 127,300 BTC, meaning the distribution of old coins from long-term holding addresses has overall outpaced institutional uptake. The analyst also noted that the year-to-date net inflow of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs returned to positive territory in September and has barely held steady since, currently at around $355 million, with a small net outflow recorded so far in October.

59 minutes ago

Qubic discloses security incident: Approximately $1.3 million in QU tokens stolen, affecting 1,404 Qubic wallets.

Qubic announced that between 23:42 UTC yesterday and 01:26 UTC today, attackers exploited insufficient randomness in the seed of some wallets to access and siphon approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens from 1,404 Qubic wallets. The root cause lies in the seed generation mechanism, not the Qubic protocol itself. Affected seeds include those created in any iPhone or iPad browser before October 18, 2026, those created in Mac Safari on the same date, and those generated via the Qubic iOS App before July 2025. The network has been halted at tick 85,371,949. 87.1% of the stolen funds remain in the Qubic network and are frozen, while the remaining 12.9% has been transferred to MEXC, with the associated receiving accounts also frozen. Qubic said the seed generation issue has been fixed in version 4.26.4. Subsequent actions will be decided by the Computor quorum per network rules, and a full technical report will be published after a fund recovery plan is finalized.

59 minutes ago

Viewpoint: Bitcoin has completed bottom hunting to liquidate long positions, may shift to a short squeeze next week, and maintains a bullish stance above $79,800.

Renowned trader Killa reviewed Bitcoin’s weekly chart trends, noting that last week, BTC fell from $87,000 to the $80,000 range before bouncing back 50%. After the current weekly chart opened, the token rallied on Monday but faced persistent resistance, eventually retesting the prior week’s low around $80,000. Currently, longs are the main targets of market liquidations, so there’s a high chance the trend will shift to targeting shorts next week. For short-term trades, closely watch for a retest of this week’s low at $79,800; if that occurs, look for long entry opportunities. Killa laid out a clear observation framework: If BTC does not retest the lows, focus on the $83,600 level. If the price fails to break above this level, the market will remain in a range-bound capitulation phase; if it breaks through successfully, the rally will push higher. He expects next week’s weekly chart open will move upward, forcing late shorts who entered short positions against the recent rally to cover their positions. In the worst-case scenario for bulls, BTC could dip to the $76,000–$78,000 range. The analyst also explicitly ruled out the extreme scenario of a retest of $74,000.

59 minutes ago

US and South Korean stock market price preview for Monday: SK Hynix and Samsung are expected to open nearly 5% lower, while US stocks are set to open nearly flat in pre-market trading.

During the weekend when traditional markets are closed, Trade.xyz — dubbed the "On-Chain Nasdaq" — leverages perpetual contracts to enable continuous trading and real-time price discovery that traditional finance cannot achieve, pricing in advance the upcoming Monday’s U.S. and South Korean stock market trends. Most popular U.S. stock assets on Trade.xyz saw minor declines from their Friday after-hours levels, with an overall flat-to-slightly-weak opening expected on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: SpaceX is currently priced at $144.66, down from $145.47 in U.S. Friday after-hours trading; Micron (MU) is at $869.99, versus $875.98 in Friday after-hours; SanDisk (SNDK) is at $1,275.4, compared to $1,292.43 in Friday after-hours; NVIDIA is at $213.57, versus $213.75 in Friday after-hours; Marvell Technology (MRVL) is at $225.84, versus $226.9 in Friday after-hours; Intel is at $88.89, versus $89.33 in Friday after-hours; Google is at $339.68, versus $339.22 in Friday after-hours; AMD is at $527.09, matching its Friday after-hours level. Popular South Korean stocks on Trade.xyz have dropped notably from their Friday closing prices, with an expected opening decline of 4%–5% on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: Samsung Electronics is currently priced at $155.81, down from $161.75 at Friday’s close; SK Hynix is at $907.95, versus $954.75 at Friday’s close.

59 minutes ago

Bitcoin Jesus renounced his U.S. citizenship to evade taxes, only to be ordered to pay nearly $50 million in expatriation tax a decade later.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus", under which fraud and tax evasion charges against him will be dropped in exchange for a maximum fine of $49.9 million. As one of the earliest Bitcoin evangelists, Ver purchased large amounts of Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $3 million. In February 2014, to avoid high tax burdens, he obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month. At that time, he and his companies held at least 131,000 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the then-current price. He thought changing his nationality would let him escape the U.S.'s high taxes, but the U.S.'s strict "expatriation tax" foiled his plan. Under U.S. tax law, eligible expatriates must treat their global assets as if sold on the day before expatriation and pay capital gains tax. Ver reported $1.03 million in taxes, but not only failed to disclose his personal Bitcoin holdings, he also severely undervalued his company assets. A decade later, the IRS uncovered his fraudulent tax evasion (fraud and tax evasion are not subject to statute of limitations), ultimately forcing him to pay up to $49.9 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest—48 times the amount he had self-reported paying that year.

59 minutes ago

Justin Sun resumes trading PEPE after a two-year hiatus, receiving $28.44 million worth of the token from Poloniex's multi-signature address.

On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) has monitored that Justin Sun is trading PEPE again after a two-year hiatus. 22 hours ago, Sun’s address 0x176…0a132 received 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens from Poloniex’s multi-sig address, valued at $28.44 million. This marks his first on-chain PEPE transaction since June 2024, when the token was priced at $0.00001256.

59 minutes ago

Galaxy Research analyzes why Bitcoin weakened in October, pointing to weak corporate treasury buying and ETF outflows as the primary causes.

Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn points out that Bitcoin’s weakness in October is tied to weak growth in corporate Bitcoin reserves and net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs. Using the “institutional absorption vs. long-term holder address distribution” metric for analysis, the calculation is: spot ETF net inflows plus net additions to corporate reserves, minus the amount of Bitcoin that has been dormant on-chain for over five years and reactivated. Data shows that as of October 18, the year-to-date net value of this metric stood at roughly negative 127,300 BTC, meaning the distribution of old coins from long-term holding addresses has overall outpaced institutional uptake. The analyst also noted that the year-to-date net inflow of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs returned to positive territory in September and has barely held steady since, currently at around $355 million, with a small net outflow recorded so far in October.

59 minutes ago

Qubic discloses security incident: Approximately $1.3 million in QU tokens stolen, affecting 1,404 Qubic wallets.

Qubic announced that between 23:42 UTC yesterday and 01:26 UTC today, attackers exploited insufficient randomness in the seed of some wallets to access and siphon approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens from 1,404 Qubic wallets. The root cause lies in the seed generation mechanism, not the Qubic protocol itself. Affected seeds include those created in any iPhone or iPad browser before October 18, 2026, those created in Mac Safari on the same date, and those generated via the Qubic iOS App before July 2025. The network has been halted at tick 85,371,949. 87.1% of the stolen funds remain in the Qubic network and are frozen, while the remaining 12.9% has been transferred to MEXC, with the associated receiving accounts also frozen. Qubic said the seed generation issue has been fixed in version 4.26.4. Subsequent actions will be decided by the Computor quorum per network rules, and a full technical report will be published after a fund recovery plan is finalized.

59 minutes ago

Viewpoint: Bitcoin has completed bottom hunting to liquidate long positions, may shift to a short squeeze next week, and maintains a bullish stance above $79,800.

Renowned trader Killa reviewed Bitcoin’s weekly chart trends, noting that last week, BTC fell from $87,000 to the $80,000 range before bouncing back 50%. After the current weekly chart opened, the token rallied on Monday but faced persistent resistance, eventually retesting the prior week’s low around $80,000. Currently, longs are the main targets of market liquidations, so there’s a high chance the trend will shift to targeting shorts next week. For short-term trades, closely watch for a retest of this week’s low at $79,800; if that occurs, look for long entry opportunities.
Killa laid out a clear observation framework: If BTC does not retest the lows, focus on the $83,600 level. If the price fails to break above this level, the market will remain in a range-bound capitulation phase; if it breaks through successfully, the rally will push higher. He expects next week’s weekly chart open will move upward, forcing late shorts who entered short positions against the recent rally to cover their positions. In the worst-case scenario for bulls, BTC could dip to the $76,000–$78,000 range. The analyst also explicitly ruled out the extreme scenario of a retest of $74,000.

59 minutes ago

US and South Korean stock market price preview for Monday: SK Hynix and Samsung are expected to open nearly 5% lower, while US stocks are set to open nearly flat in pre-market trading.

During the weekend when traditional markets are closed, Trade.xyz — dubbed the "On-Chain Nasdaq" — leverages perpetual contracts to enable continuous trading and real-time price discovery that traditional finance cannot achieve, pricing in advance the upcoming Monday’s U.S. and South Korean stock market trends.
Most popular U.S. stock assets on Trade.xyz saw minor declines from their Friday after-hours levels, with an overall flat-to-slightly-weak opening expected on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: SpaceX is currently priced at $144.66, down from $145.47 in U.S. Friday after-hours trading; Micron (MU) is at $869.99, versus $875.98 in Friday after-hours; SanDisk (SNDK) is at $1,275.4, compared to $1,292.43 in Friday after-hours; NVIDIA is at $213.57, versus $213.75 in Friday after-hours; Marvell Technology (MRVL) is at $225.84, versus $226.9 in Friday after-hours; Intel is at $88.89, versus $89.33 in Friday after-hours; Google is at $339.68, versus $339.22 in Friday after-hours; AMD is at $527.09, matching its Friday after-hours level.
Popular South Korean stocks on Trade.xyz have dropped notably from their Friday closing prices, with an expected opening decline of 4%–5% on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: Samsung Electronics is currently priced at $155.81, down from $161.75 at Friday’s close; SK Hynix is at $907.95, versus $954.75 at Friday’s close.

59 minutes ago

Bitcoin Jesus renounced his U.S. citizenship to evade taxes, only to be ordered to pay nearly $50 million in expatriation tax a decade later.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus", under which fraud and tax evasion charges against him will be dropped in exchange for a maximum fine of $49.9 million. As one of the earliest Bitcoin evangelists, Ver purchased large amounts of Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $3 million. In February 2014, to avoid high tax burdens, he obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month. At that time, he and his companies held at least 131,000 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the then-current price. He thought changing his nationality would let him escape the U.S.'s high taxes, but the U.S.'s strict "expatriation tax" foiled his plan. Under U.S. tax law, eligible expatriates must treat their global assets as if sold on the day before expatriation and pay capital gains tax. Ver reported $1.03 million in taxes, but not only failed to disclose his personal Bitcoin holdings, he also severely undervalued his company assets. A decade later, the IRS uncovered his fraudulent tax evasion (fraud and tax evasion are not subject to statute of limitations), ultimately forcing him to pay up to $49.9 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest—48 times the amount he had self-reported paying that year.

59 minutes ago

Justin Sun resumes trading PEPE after a two-year hiatus, receiving $28.44 million worth of the token from Poloniex's multi-signature address.

On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) has monitored that Justin Sun is trading PEPE again after a two-year hiatus. 22 hours ago, Sun’s address 0x176…0a132 received 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens from Poloniex’s multi-sig address, valued at $28.44 million. This marks his first on-chain PEPE transaction since June 2024, when the token was priced at $0.00001256.

59 minutes ago

Bitcoin is holding above the key $80,000 threshold after recent volatility, with technical and on-chain signals presenting an uncertain outlook for near-term price direction.

Capitulation signs emerge as realized losses spikeGlassnode reported renewed Bitcoin seller capitulation on October 15, as realized losses spiked while BTC traded near the $80,000 level. This type of capitulation, driven by investors selling at a loss, often coincides with moments of increasing market stress or declining prices.

Glassnode’s analysis noted that previous bursts of realized losses in early August, mid-August, and September matched local price bottoms. The most recent spike follows this pattern, though Glassnode cautioned that historical relationships cannot confirm a forthcoming recovery.

Realized losses measure the value relinquished by investors when selling Bitcoin below their purchase price. A sharp rise in this metric may indicate that holders are exiting positions under pressure instead of waiting for a rebound.

According to its October 14 report, Glassnode observed that long-term holder realized losses have declined approximately 85% from the August peak. The share of holders realizing profits has begun to outweigh those locking in losses. While this may offer a potentially constructive signal, capitulation events alone have not been sufficient to establish a lasting price floor in previous cycles.

$80,000 region tested as resistance levels cap upsideDuring the reporting period, Bitcoin traded in the $82,000 to $83,000 range, having briefly dropped below $80,000 earlier in the month. Glassnode highlights the spot Bitcoin ETF cost basis at $81,500 as an important support area, representing the mean purchase price for funds holding BTC in U.S. spot ETFs. Bitcoin briefly slipped below this level on October 8 and October 13 but closed both sessions above it.

A daily close under the ETF cost basis could further weaken the support, while buying interest on Binance near $80,000 creates another focal point. Direct technical analysis from TradingView user Virupandey81 shows $79,821 as a crucial downside threshold. The chart positions initial long entries at $81,263 and underlines $83,014 as a confirmation level for renewed bullish momentum.

If BTC posts a sustained move above $83,014, the next technical targets stand at $87,233 and $91,754. However, a decline below $79,821 could bring $77,839 and $76,377 into view. Technical setups remain vulnerable to invalidation if price action breaches key support levels.

Combining chart structures and key support areas, monitoring price reactions near these technical thresholds becomes increasingly important. In fast-moving markets and alongside volatility observed during periods like these, careful tracking of support and resistance can help contextualize larger trends. Within these volatile conditions, meme token markets have also shown explosive moves. In the meme token market, an internet trend can transform into millions of dollars of interest within days. According to data shared by Fomo App, a trade involving “Niu Lai”—which turned an initial $99 investment into approximately $370,000, stands out as a striking example of this activity. In this market, tracking not only prices but also the timing and token choices of investors is crucial. Fomo App brings token discovery and trading together on a single platform, featuring social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications. Discover Fomo App to follow the world of meme tokens alongside investor activity.

Liquidation clusters and ETF outflows spark mixed sentimentCoinGlass identified clusters of liquidations around $82,300 and $80,600 in the Bitcoin derivatives market. The upper zone could be a trigger point for shorts, while the lower level puts leveraged long positions at risk of forced closure.

These liquidation heatmaps track where significant leveraged positions could be liquidated if the price crosses particular points, potentially increasing short-term volatility. However, such events do not inherently guarantee sharp moves in either direction, as traders frequently adjust exposures.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of about $228.6 million over the five sessions ending October 16, pushing month-to-date redemptions close to $615 million. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust accounted for approximately $165 million in weekly net outflows, with $71.8 million withdrawn on October 16. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund also reported net redemptions.

ETF outflows signal net investor redemptions rather than direct open market sales. While they remove a source of steady demand, such data should not be interpreted as evidence of deliberate price suppression by asset managers. Nonetheless, institutional flows remain a key factor for overall sentiment and liquidity.

These figures suggest ongoing caution among market participants, as investor withdrawals continue to exceed new inflows. Glassnode pointed to renewed net selling after late September’s brief period of ETF inflows failed to persist. Reduced realized losses among long-term holders offer some reassurance, but ongoing outflows raise questions about the strength and sustainability of any potential BTC rebound.

Near-term outlook: Key levels in focusBitcoin’s next directional move is likely to be shaped by how effectively bulls defend the $80,000 support area and counteract continued selling interest. Maintaining levels above the ETF cost basis at $81,500 and breaking through $83,014 could set the stage for gains toward $87,233 and $91,754, if market conditions align favorably.

Conversely, a decisive close below $79,821 would undermine the current bullish scenario and could trigger further declines toward lower support zones identified by technical analysis. Accelerated liquidations may amplify these moves on both upswings and downturns.

Although on-chain capitulation metrics indicate that some selling may have reached extreme levels, ETF flows, liquidity, and spot demand will remain decisive elements in projecting whether the $80,000 region endures as a base for renewed strength or gives way to deeper correction.

TLDR: Michael Saylor’s October 18 post hinted at another Strategy Bitcoin buy but confirmed no transaction. Strategy acquired 250 BTC for $21.5 million, taking its holdings to 848,250 coins as of October 11, 2026. Strategy reported a $4.88 billion reserve and $640.5 million in separate USD Cash as of October 11, 2026. Bitcoin traded near $81,616 on October 18 as its 14-day RSI stood at 46.5, indicating neutral momentum. Michael Saylor renewed attention on corporate cryptocurrency buying Sunday, October 18, after signaling that Strategy could add to its substantial Bitcoin holdings. “We found room for more orange,” the executive chairman posted on X, accompanying his message with an updated acquisition chart.

The comment, however, offered no purchase figure or confirmation that a transaction had occurred. The chart listed approximately 848,250 BTC, valued at $69.45 billion, with an average acquisition cost of $75,444 per coin.

Separately, a momentum indicator drew attention to Bitcoin’s price resilience. That technical signal measures market behavior rather than corporate demand, and does not establish that an advance is underway.

Michael Saylor Hints at New Strategy Buy After $21.5M Purchase A similar October 11 post preceded an October 12 acquisition disclosure. However, that pattern does not establish whether a new purchase occurred. The company reported buying 250 coins for approximately $21.5 million between October 5 and 11, at an average price of $86,194.

That brought total holdings to 848,250 coins, representing approximately 4.04% of the asset’s fixed 21 million supply. Common-stock sales funded $21 million of the purchase, while cash covered the remaining $500,000.

The funding mix illustrates how share issuance, rather than cash alone, supported that acquisition. Meanwhile, it spent $192.4 million repurchasing STRC preferred shares. On October 11, it reported a $4.88 billion reserve for dividend and interest obligations, plus $640.5 million in separate USD Cash.

The latter could support acquisitions and other corporate activities, although neither balance establishes the scale of any future purchase. Meanwhile, attention turns to a potential October 19 announcement, with Saylor yet to confirm another transaction.

Bitcoin RSI Near 46.5 as Traders Watch $80,000 Support Alongside the corporate buying discussion, analyst OxSweep highlighted a contrast between recent price behavior and the Relative Strength Index on October 18. The analyst compared the latest RSI decline with a May episode, when weakening momentum accompanied a sharper market drop.

$BTC current structure is very different than the one that happened in May

Back then the RSI reset and the price crashed

Right now the RSI reset is happening but the price is holding well

This is what happens when an asset enters a bull run pic.twitter.com/jksAcjrSsT

— Sweep (@0xSweep) October 18, 2026

This time, prices held comparatively higher levels despite the indicator’s retreat. That distinction underpinned the analyst’s bullish interpretation, rather than confirming that another advance had begun. RSI measures price-change speed and magnitude on a scale of zero to 100.

Fidelity’s technical guide identifies the 40–50 range as potential momentum support during established uptrends. Still, an October 18 snapshot showed the asset near $81,616, with its 14-day RSI around 46.5. That reading indicates neutral momentum, not a confirmed breakout.

Bitcoin’s price support near $80,000–$81,000 and a recovery toward $84,000 remain the immediate technical reference points. A subsequent regulatory disclosure would determine whether the latest orange-themed post reflected a purchase; price action would then provide the separate test of bullish momentum.

In brief
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of $228.6 million this week, after losing $681.1 million the week before.
Outflows topped inflows on three of five trading days, with Wednesday’s $261.4 million exit the week’s worst session.
The funds are down about $615 million for October, though cumulative net inflows since launch still stand at $57.3 billion.
Bitcoin ETF investors spent another week heading for the exits.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $82.4 million on Friday, according to Decrypt’s ETF tracker, capping a week in which outflows outweighed inflows on three of five trading days.

Myriad: How low will Bitcoin go? Click to make your prediction.The funds lost a net $228.6 million for the week, according to SoSoValue, following a $681.1 million drain the week before. Over the two weeks, about $910 million has left the funds.

It was a choppy stretch. A $175.7 million inflow on Tuesday was wiped out a day later by $261.4 million in redemptions, the week’s worst session. Thursday brought a modest $5.1 million inflow before selling resumed Friday.

Wednesday’s selling coincided with a hot inflation print. The consumer price index showed prices up 3.7% year over year in September, above the 3.6% forecast. A hotter-than-expected producer price reading followed Thursday, reviving bets on another Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

Bitcoin ETF flows. Image: DecryptBitcoin briefly slipped below $80,000 on Thursday, and nearly $950 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, about 90% of them bullish longs, according to CoinGlass. The drop also pushed Bitcoin below the average ETF holder’s estimated cost basis near $82,300, Nexo analyst Iliya Kalchev told Decrypt.

When inflation runs hot, the Fed tends to keep raising rates, pushing up Treasury yields and making a nearly risk-free return of around 5% a tough competitor for riskier bets like Bitcoin. Higher rates also make borrowing costlier and lift the dollar, squeezing the cheap credit that leveraged crypto traders depend on.

The back-to-back red weeks have dragged October deep into negative territory. After opening the month with roughly $293 million in inflows, the funds are now down about $615 million for October, based on Decrypt’s tracker. The slide began in earnest on Oct. 7, when a $484.9 million exit marked the funds’ worst day since June. Ethereum and Solana ETFs have also been in the red this month.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs are exchange-traded funds that hold actual Bitcoin. They trade on stock exchanges like ordinary shares, giving investors exposure through a regular brokerage account without buying or storing the asset themselves.

Since launching in January 2024, they’ve drawn $57.3 billion in cumulative net inflows, according to Decrypt’s tracker, making them a fixture of Wall Street’s crypto exposure. Because issuers report flows daily, and institutions and financial advisers account for much of the money, the figures have become a closely watched gauge of investor sentiment.

Total net assets stand at $104.29 billion, according to SoSoValue, while Decrypt’s tracker puts the figure at $100.2 billion. Bitcoin closed Friday near $81,590, down from about $82,337 a week earlier.

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Michael Saylor reignited discussion around corporate Bitcoin buying on Sunday, October 18, signaling that Strategy could expand its already significant Bitcoin reserves. Posting on X, Saylor wrote, “We found room for more orange,” sharing an updated acquisition chart. His message, however, did not confirm a transaction or include any specific purchase amount.

Strategy adds 250 BTC, reserves and cash detailedThe latest company data places Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings at 848,250 BTC, with a portfolio valued at approximately $69.45 billion and an average acquisition price of $75,444 per coin. These figures reflect an October 11 report confirming the purchase of 250 BTC for $21.5 million between October 5 and 11, acquired at an average cost of $86,194 each.

This acquisition represented about 4.04% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million coin supply. Of the $21.5 million spent, $21 million came from common stock sales, while $500,000 was paid in cash. The company also spent $192.4 million repurchasing STRC preferred shares, as part of its broader financial strategy.

Strategy reported holding $4.88 billion reserved for dividend and interest payments, along with $640.5 million in separate cash as of October 11. These balances provide flexibility for future purchases and other corporate activities, though they do not specify how much might be used for additional Bitcoin acquisitions.

Strategy’s last reported transaction, disclosed on October 12, shows a $21.5 million Bitcoin purchase funded primarily through stock sales rather than solely cash, highlighting the company’s financing approach while increasing its total holdings to 848,250 BTC.

Momentum signals and technical overviewRecent attention has shifted to Bitcoin’s price momentum indicators, rather than just corporate accumulation. Price held steady near $81,616 on October 18, as the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) stood at 46.5—reflecting neutral momentum rather than a strong directional trend.

Analyst OxSweep contrasted the current RSI environment with previous market cycles. While a similar decline in May saw Bitcoin’s price fall sharply as the RSI reset, this time the asset maintained high trading levels even as the indicator retreated.

Comparing the recent RSI reset to May, analysts observed that Bitcoin’s price has remained more resilient, pointing to continued market strength even during momentum shifts.

Fidelity’s technical manuals note the 40–50 RSI range as potential support within established bull markets. For now, Bitcoin remains within this band, suggesting consolidation rather than a confirmed new rally. The immediate focus is on whether the $80,000–$81,000 support zone holds and if a push toward $84,000 occurs.

Meme token market and investor behaviorAmid growing technical scrutiny and trading signal analysis, timing and token selection have become increasingly important across digital asset markets. In the meme token sector, a viral trend can rapidly translate into multimillion-dollar trading volumes. Data from Fomo App recently highlighted a striking example: an investment of just $99 in the “Niu Lai” token reportedly grew to about $370,000—all within a few days. These sharp moves underscore the need for careful monitoring, not just of prices but also investor behavior and strategic entry points.

Fomo App offers features such as integrated token discovery, social feeds, investor leaderboards, and trade notifications, helping users keep pace with the fast-changing meme token landscape and community activity.

Corporate buying activity, technical analysis, and the evolution of meme tokens all reflect the evolving complexity of digital asset markets. Market participants continue to watch for official disclosures that could confirm the next major acquisition or signal a shift in momentum for Bitcoin.

Galaxy Research analyzes why Bitcoin weakened in October, pointing to weak corporate treasury buying and ETF outflows as the primary causes.

Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn points out that Bitcoin’s weakness in October is tied to weak growth in corporate Bitcoin reserves and net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs. Using the “institutional absorption vs. long-term holder address distribution” metric for analysis, the calculation is: spot ETF net inflows plus net additions to corporate reserves, minus the amount of Bitcoin that has been dormant on-chain for over five years and reactivated. Data shows that as of October 18, the year-to-date net value of this metric stood at roughly negative 127,300 BTC, meaning the distribution of old coins from long-term holding addresses has overall outpaced institutional uptake. The analyst also noted that the year-to-date net inflow of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs returned to positive territory in September and has barely held steady since, currently at around $355 million, with a small net outflow recorded so far in October.

52 minutes ago

Qubic discloses security incident: Approximately $1.3 million in QU tokens stolen, affecting 1,404 Qubic wallets.

Qubic announced that between 23:42 UTC yesterday and 01:26 UTC today, attackers exploited insufficient randomness in the seed of some wallets to access and siphon approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens from 1,404 Qubic wallets. The root cause lies in the seed generation mechanism, not the Qubic protocol itself. Affected seeds include those created in any iPhone or iPad browser before October 18, 2026, those created in Mac Safari on the same date, and those generated via the Qubic iOS App before July 2025. The network has been halted at tick 85,371,949. 87.1% of the stolen funds remain in the Qubic network and are frozen, while the remaining 12.9% has been transferred to MEXC, with the associated receiving accounts also frozen. Qubic said the seed generation issue has been fixed in version 4.26.4. Subsequent actions will be decided by the Computor quorum per network rules, and a full technical report will be published after a fund recovery plan is finalized.

52 minutes ago

US and South Korean stock market price preview for Monday: SK Hynix and Samsung are expected to open nearly 5% lower, while US stocks are set to open nearly flat in pre-market trading.

During the weekend when traditional markets are closed, Trade.xyz — dubbed the "On-Chain Nasdaq" — leverages perpetual contracts to enable continuous trading and real-time price discovery that traditional finance cannot achieve, pricing in advance the upcoming Monday’s U.S. and South Korean stock market trends. Most popular U.S. stock assets on Trade.xyz saw minor declines from their Friday after-hours levels, with an overall flat-to-slightly-weak opening expected on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: SpaceX is currently priced at $144.66, down from $145.47 in U.S. Friday after-hours trading; Micron (MU) is at $869.99, versus $875.98 in Friday after-hours; SanDisk (SNDK) is at $1,275.4, compared to $1,292.43 in Friday after-hours; NVIDIA is at $213.57, versus $213.75 in Friday after-hours; Marvell Technology (MRVL) is at $225.84, versus $226.9 in Friday after-hours; Intel is at $88.89, versus $89.33 in Friday after-hours; Google is at $339.68, versus $339.22 in Friday after-hours; AMD is at $527.09, matching its Friday after-hours level. Popular South Korean stocks on Trade.xyz have dropped notably from their Friday closing prices, with an expected opening decline of 4%–5% on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: Samsung Electronics is currently priced at $155.81, down from $161.75 at Friday’s close; SK Hynix is at $907.95, versus $954.75 at Friday’s close.

52 minutes ago

Bitcoin Jesus renounced his U.S. citizenship to evade taxes, only to be ordered to pay nearly $50 million in expatriation tax a decade later.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus", under which fraud and tax evasion charges against him will be dropped in exchange for a maximum fine of $49.9 million. As one of the earliest Bitcoin evangelists, Ver purchased large amounts of Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $3 million. In February 2014, to avoid high tax burdens, he obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month. At that time, he and his companies held at least 131,000 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the then-current price. He thought changing his nationality would let him escape the U.S.'s high taxes, but the U.S.'s strict "expatriation tax" foiled his plan. Under U.S. tax law, eligible expatriates must treat their global assets as if sold on the day before expatriation and pay capital gains tax. Ver reported $1.03 million in taxes, but not only failed to disclose his personal Bitcoin holdings, he also severely undervalued his company assets. A decade later, the IRS uncovered his fraudulent tax evasion (fraud and tax evasion are not subject to statute of limitations), ultimately forcing him to pay up to $49.9 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest—48 times the amount he had self-reported paying that year.

52 minutes ago

Justin Sun resumes trading PEPE after a two-year hiatus, receiving $28.44 million worth of the token from Poloniex's multi-signature address.

On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) has monitored that Justin Sun is trading PEPE again after a two-year hiatus. 22 hours ago, Sun’s address 0x176…0a132 received 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens from Poloniex’s multi-sig address, valued at $28.44 million. This marks his first on-chain PEPE transaction since June 2024, when the token was priced at $0.00001256.

52 minutes ago

CZ responds to the proposal to launch a BNB phone: Carrying a crypto phone around everywhere isn't necessarily a good idea.

Binance founder CZ responded to community user Spigg’s suggestion to launch a BNB phone, noting he rarely disagrees with Spigg but has reservations about the idea of “carrying a cryptocurrency phone around”. Earlier, Spigg had proposed a BNB phone that natively supports wallets, instant payments and transfers, and integrates access to BNB Chain ecosystem dApps, arguing this model would deliver a distinct experience on BNB Chain.

52 minutes ago

TLDR:

Exchange reserves rose from about 2.67 million BTC to 2.68 million BTC but remain low versus January.
Spot demand neared zero before turning negative, while perpetual futures demand stayed positive.
Holders of 100–1,000 BTC remain net accumulators, while the over-10,000 BTC cohort is still negative. 
A durable recovery needs positive spot demand, buyers absorbing exchange inflows, and wider accumulation.

Bitcoin recovery remains uneven, according to updated CryptoQuant charts reviewed in a new XWIN Japan column. Exchange reserves, spot demand, and whale behavior show mixed signals as the U.S. midterms approach.

Low reserves, whale accumulation, and improving estimated demand still support a possible base. However, the latest data shows that buying strength is not yet consistent across the market. The column examines three charts that explain where support holds and where it weakens.

Exchange Reserves Edge Higher
Exchange reserves measure the amount of BTC held on trading platforms. They have risen from roughly 2.67 million BTC in early October to around 2.68 million BTC. Despite the increase, reserves remain low compared with January. Low reserves do not mean supply keeps shrinking.

Source: Cryptoquant

Transfers may reflect custody changes rather than selling. Therefore, rising reserves alone do not prove that holders are selling.

The increase is modest, and it comes from a low base. The supports from the earlier column remain, yet the Bitcoin recovery is uneven.

The earlier column, published six days ago, listed low reserves among the signs of base building. That earlier analysis centered on Bitcoin base building ahead of the U.S. midterms.

A durable Bitcoin recovery now requires buyers to absorb BTC that returns to exchanges. Reserves are rising, so that condition matters more.

Spot Demand Loses Momentum
The 30-day demand chart shows spot demand approaching zero before turning negative again. Spot demand reflects direct BTC purchases, while perpetual futures involve derivatives.

Meanwhile, positive perpetual futures demand supports total demand. Spot buying therefore remains weaker than futures activity.

Source: Cryptoquant

The earlier column cited improving estimated demand. This new breakdown differs from the Apparent Demand metric discussed previously. Their values are not directly comparable, so the readings should be viewed separately.

Sustained positive spot demand is one of three conditions for a durable Bitcoin recovery. Without it, futures demand carries the total figure. Positive spot readings would show buyers acting directly in the market.

Whale Cohorts Show Mixed Behavior
Holders of 100–1,000 BTC remain net accumulators over 60 days. Their buying sits below the late-September peak despite a modest rebound. The cohort has kept buying through the past two months.

Net holding declines among the 1,000–10,000 BTC cohort have narrowed toward zero. Meanwhile, the cohort above 10,000 BTC remains negative.

Source: Cryptoquant

Accumulation is therefore not broad-based across holder groups. A durable recovery also needs accumulation to spread more widely.

These rolling figures include pre-October activity and can reflect transfers between cohorts. Conditions that could support a base still exist. Expectations around the midterms and monetary policy must translate into actual buying.

The key is whether rallies gain a growing, lasting base of buyers. Until then, the Bitcoin recovery depends on whether buying broadens beyond a single holder group.

Bitcoin’s recovery is showing mixed signals, with recent CryptoQuant data indicating uneven market strength despite some signs of improvement. As the U.S. midterms approach, observers are closely watching trends in exchange reserves, spot demand, and large holder activity for clues about the market’s direction.

Exchange reserves rise from lowsThe amount of BTC held on exchanges increased slightly, reaching 2.68 million BTC from around 2.67 million BTC in early October. While this marks a modest uptick, reserves remain low compared to levels seen in January. Analysts note that such transfer patterns may reflect custody changes instead of outright selling, indicating that a rise in reserves does not necessarily equate to increased sell pressure.

Even so, the trend merits attention because past analysis linked low exchange reserves to a stronger Bitcoin base. As reserves grow, buyers may need to absorb larger inflows of BTC if a sustained recovery is to develop.

Reserves on exchanges are moving higher from a low starting point, but this alone does not confirm renewed selling or a clear change in market supply dynamics.

A lasting recovery could depend on whether the market is able to handle these higher reserves without seeing increased liquidation pressure.

Spot demand remains tepidLatest data shows that spot demand, reflected by direct purchases of BTC, has faded again. The 30-day metric recently fell to near zero and briefly turned negative. In contrast, demand from perpetual futures, or derivatives trading with no expiration, has remained positive, supporting overall demand but highlighting a reliance on leveraged traders rather than direct buyers.

This divergence between spot and derivative demand is seen as a weak point for market strength. Solid and sustained spot demand is considered one of the key requirements for building a durable market base.

For a stable and lasting recovery, buyers must show consistent spot demand and absorb any BTC returning to exchanges. The market now relies more on positive perpetual futures activity.

Positive spot readings would demonstrate buyer confidence and direct market support, something that is currently lacking.

Mini dictionary: Perpetual futures, a type of derivative contract traded on cryptocurrency exchanges, do not have an expiry date and allow traders to speculate on the price of digital assets using leverage. This instrument is popular for managing risk or seeking additional returns, but it increases market volatility due to leveraged positions.

Whale cohorts send mixed signalsSegmented data on Bitcoin holders shows disparate trends among large wallet groups. Holders of 100 to 1,000 BTC have maintained net accumulation over the last 60 days, though their pace of buying is below September’s highs. Meanwhile, entities holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC have stabilized their positions, with net changes nearing zero. The largest group—holders of more than 10,000 BTC—remains net sellers according to recent figures.

Because accumulation is limited to select cohorts, the broad base needed for a strong recovery is lacking. Cross-group transfers and cohort activity sometimes obscure these patterns, but the absence of widespread accumulation underscores the caution among larger players.

Analysts believe that for Bitcoin to regain solid momentum, accumulation must extend beyond a single group and include a diverse set of market participants. News flow around macro events such as the U.S. midterm elections and shifts in monetary policy may eventually drive renewed interest, but this has yet to translate into widespread buying.

Until rally participation broadens, Bitcoin’s recovery will likely remain uneven and vulnerable to further swings driven by limited support.

Qubic discloses security incident: Approximately $1.3 million in QU tokens stolen, affecting 1,404 Qubic wallets.

Qubic announced that between 23:42 UTC yesterday and 01:26 UTC today, attackers exploited insufficient randomness in the seed of some wallets to access and siphon approximately 2.94 trillion QU tokens from 1,404 Qubic wallets. The root cause lies in the seed generation mechanism, not the Qubic protocol itself. Affected seeds include those created in any iPhone or iPad browser before October 18, 2026, those created in Mac Safari on the same date, and those generated via the Qubic iOS App before July 2025. The network has been halted at tick 85,371,949. 87.1% of the stolen funds remain in the Qubic network and are frozen, while the remaining 12.9% has been transferred to MEXC, with the associated receiving accounts also frozen. Qubic said the seed generation issue has been fixed in version 4.26.4. Subsequent actions will be decided by the Computor quorum per network rules, and a full technical report will be published after a fund recovery plan is finalized.

1 hours ago

Viewpoint: Bitcoin has completed bottom hunting to liquidate long positions, may shift to a short squeeze next week, and maintains a bullish stance above $79,800.

Renowned trader Killa reviewed Bitcoin’s weekly chart trends, noting that last week, BTC fell from $87,000 to the $80,000 range before bouncing back 50%. After the current weekly chart opened, the token rallied on Monday but faced persistent resistance, eventually retesting the prior week’s low around $80,000. Currently, longs are the main targets of market liquidations, so there’s a high chance the trend will shift to targeting shorts next week. For short-term trades, closely watch for a retest of this week’s low at $79,800; if that occurs, look for long entry opportunities. Killa laid out a clear observation framework: If BTC does not retest the lows, focus on the $83,600 level. If the price fails to break above this level, the market will remain in a range-bound capitulation phase; if it breaks through successfully, the rally will push higher. He expects next week’s weekly chart open will move upward, forcing late shorts who entered short positions against the recent rally to cover their positions. In the worst-case scenario for bulls, BTC could dip to the $76,000–$78,000 range. The analyst also explicitly ruled out the extreme scenario of a retest of $74,000.

1 hours ago

US and South Korean stock market price preview for Monday: SK Hynix and Samsung are expected to open nearly 5% lower, while US stocks are set to open nearly flat in pre-market trading.

During the weekend when traditional markets are closed, Trade.xyz — dubbed the "On-Chain Nasdaq" — leverages perpetual contracts to enable continuous trading and real-time price discovery that traditional finance cannot achieve, pricing in advance the upcoming Monday’s U.S. and South Korean stock market trends. Most popular U.S. stock assets on Trade.xyz saw minor declines from their Friday after-hours levels, with an overall flat-to-slightly-weak opening expected on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: SpaceX is currently priced at $144.66, down from $145.47 in U.S. Friday after-hours trading; Micron (MU) is at $869.99, versus $875.98 in Friday after-hours; SanDisk (SNDK) is at $1,275.4, compared to $1,292.43 in Friday after-hours; NVIDIA is at $213.57, versus $213.75 in Friday after-hours; Marvell Technology (MRVL) is at $225.84, versus $226.9 in Friday after-hours; Intel is at $88.89, versus $89.33 in Friday after-hours; Google is at $339.68, versus $339.22 in Friday after-hours; AMD is at $527.09, matching its Friday after-hours level. Popular South Korean stocks on Trade.xyz have dropped notably from their Friday closing prices, with an expected opening decline of 4%–5% on Monday. Their weekend performance is as follows: Samsung Electronics is currently priced at $155.81, down from $161.75 at Friday’s close; SK Hynix is at $907.95, versus $954.75 at Friday’s close.

1 hours ago

Bitcoin Jesus renounced his U.S. citizenship to evade taxes, only to be ordered to pay nearly $50 million in expatriation tax a decade later.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus", under which fraud and tax evasion charges against him will be dropped in exchange for a maximum fine of $49.9 million. As one of the earliest Bitcoin evangelists, Ver purchased large amounts of Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $3 million. In February 2014, to avoid high tax burdens, he obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month. At that time, he and his companies held at least 131,000 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the then-current price. He thought changing his nationality would let him escape the U.S.'s high taxes, but the U.S.'s strict "expatriation tax" foiled his plan. Under U.S. tax law, eligible expatriates must treat their global assets as if sold on the day before expatriation and pay capital gains tax. Ver reported $1.03 million in taxes, but not only failed to disclose his personal Bitcoin holdings, he also severely undervalued his company assets. A decade later, the IRS uncovered his fraudulent tax evasion (fraud and tax evasion are not subject to statute of limitations), ultimately forcing him to pay up to $49.9 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest—48 times the amount he had self-reported paying that year.

1 hours ago

Justin Sun resumes trading PEPE after a two-year hiatus, receiving $28.44 million worth of the token from Poloniex's multi-signature address.

On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) has monitored that Justin Sun is trading PEPE again after a two-year hiatus. 22 hours ago, Sun’s address 0x176…0a132 received 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens from Poloniex’s multi-sig address, valued at $28.44 million. This marks his first on-chain PEPE transaction since June 2024, when the token was priced at $0.00001256.

1 hours ago

CZ responds to the proposal to launch a BNB phone: Carrying a crypto phone around everywhere isn't necessarily a good idea.

Binance founder CZ responded to community user Spigg’s suggestion to launch a BNB phone, noting he rarely disagrees with Spigg but has reservations about the idea of “carrying a cryptocurrency phone around”. Earlier, Spigg had proposed a BNB phone that natively supports wallets, instant payments and transfers, and integrates access to BNB Chain ecosystem dApps, arguing this model would deliver a distinct experience on BNB Chain.

1 hours ago