Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

In the first half of 2026, USDC settled more than $36 trillion in onchain transaction volume. Circle minted and redeemed more than $315 billion of USDC, about $1.7 billion every day, including weekends and holidays. Circle also paid $819 million for its USDC distribution partners and transaction costs. By June, USDC carried roughly 77% of all global stablecoin transaction volume, up from 60% a year earlier.

Those are the numbers behind a digital dollar in production: trillions in settlement, billions converted to and from fiat every day, and most of the economics flowing to the partners who build on it.

Yet lately, new entrants have claimed they can build a more “useful” stablecoin. The pitch is familiar: issuers keep too much of the economics, redemptions are expensive, and a new model will fix both.

It is an intriguing pitch. It also misrepresents how USDC works today and drastically underestimates what it takes to make a stablecoin useful.

I lead Circle’s commercial business, where my team negotiates the partnerships that put USDC in the world’s leading wallets, exchanges, banks, fintechs, enterprises, and payment networks. Circle has years of experience executing stablecoin partnerships that help customers worldwide access, use, and earn from USDC through a global network of partners. From that vantage point, I want to put the facts and numbers on the table, so anyone deciding where to build can judge the substance for themselves rather than rely on framing or false headlines.

Three points deserve to be stated plainly up front:

Circle shares the majority of USDC’s economics with the partners that drive its adoption, and has for years.All Circle customers have always been able to redeem for free through standard rails, with settlement in up to two business days. Additionally, all customers who move flows over the Circle Payments Network or build on the Circle Platform can now redeem USDC for free, with near-real-time, 24/7/365 settlement capabilities.USDC is, by far, the most useful stablecoin in the market by the measures that matter to businesses, and the gap is widening because Circle has spent more than 8 years building and investing in the infrastructure behind it.
Let’s dive in.
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How USDC's revenue is distributedIn the first half of 2026, Circle generated approximately $1.4 billion in revenue and paid approximately $819 million of it to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs. Approximately 59 cents of every dollar of revenue went to the global partners that make USDC available across wallets, exchanges, banks, fintechs, enterprises, and payment networks worldwide.

We reinvested the vast majority of what remained in the network. Circle spent about $473 million, roughly 34 cents of every dollar, on the licenses, banking relationships, settlement liquidity, compliance programs, new product investments, and blockchain integrations that make USDC the world’s most useful, compliant, and licensed stablecoin. Circle made 7 cents of net profit from every dollar of revenue earned.

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That reinvestment is not overhead. It is what makes USDC useful, and it reflects more than 8 years of building. A digital dollar has to work everywhere: redeemable at any hour, held by regulated institutions, and moving natively across the chains and platforms where businesses operate. That means licenses across the world’s major jurisdictions, so a bank in Europe, a fintech in Latin America, and a payment network in the United States can use the same dollar under their own rules. It means native deployments on dozens of blockchains and the interoperability to move between them. And it means the liquidity and banking relationships to honor billions in mints and redemptions every day, in every major financial market center around the world. Without that foundation, a stablecoin is not a digital dollar; it is a token. This is what new issuers leave out when they promise to share the “substantial majority” of their economics: a stablecoin that distributes everything but funds nothing. The costs of redemption, compliance, and resilience don’t disappear just because the issuer declined to pay them. Every dollar Circle reinvests widens that gap.

So the real question is not whether reserve income should flow to the businesses building on a stablecoin. USDC’s financials settle that. The question is how much can be shared while continuing to fund the infrastructure that makes the stablecoin useful in the first place. The rest of this piece answers it: how partners participate, how redemption works, and what that infrastructure actually costs.
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How partners participate in USDC economicsDistribution economics follow adoption: the partners that bring the most USDC to market earn the most. Coinbase, our largest and longest-standing partner, is the clearest example. In its second-quarter results, Coinbase reported that average USDC held in its products reached an all-time high of $20 billion, up 44% year over year.

But Coinbase is one partner in a much larger network. In September, Binance, the world’s largest exchange, signed a five-year commercial agreement and invested $100 million in Circle. More than 150 other partners have an economic interest in USDC’s growth, spanning the financial system and the businesses that run on it: exchanges, wallets, neobanks, fintechs, payment platforms, banks, and enterprises. That broad base of participation is why USDC carried roughly 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier.

The model itself is simple. Partners participate in USDC’s economics in two ways.

Bring and grow balances, then earn on them. Distribution partners that hold and grow USDC balances on their platforms earn a share of the reserve income generated by those balances. The more USDC a partner drives, the greater the share.Build on the platform and redeem for free. Customers who move payment flows over the Circle Payments Network or build on the Circle Platform through Arc, Circle Mint, or Circle Wallets can redeem for free in near real time. The next section covers exactly how that works.
‍The facts on redemptionRedemption has drawn the most confusion, so I want to be exact. The world’s largest payment networks, including Visa and Mastercard, settle in USDC seven days a week, including when the banking system is closed. Payment companies around the world rely on Circle’s infrastructure to convert USDC to dollars because it works at scale every day of the year.

In the first quarter of 2026 alone, Circle redeemed $71.8 billion in USDC, roughly 90% of the total supply in circulation at the time. In the second quarter, combined minting and redemption volume reached $170 billion, up 105% year over year. No other stablecoin issuer processes fiat redemptions at a comparable scale.

Circle’s redemption terms rest on three principles:

Every Circle customer can redeem USDC for free. Redemptions through standard banking rails typically settle in up to two business days.Payment flows on Circle Payments Network (CPN) can now settle in near real time, for free. Businesses that use USDC as a payment rail on CPN, including card networks, processors, remittance providers, enterprise, and fintechs that settle real volume, can now redeem in near real time at no cost. Payments companies globally are invited to join CPN, where this capability is built in.Circle Platform customers can now qualify for free near-real-time redemption in several ways. This includes holding USDC balances on the Circle Platform and building with Circle through CPN, Arc, Circle Mint, Circle Wallets, and other eligible products. Qualified customers redeem for free in near real time.What makes that settlement speed possible is liquidity. To process redemptions in near real time rather than over days, at any hour and at any size, Circle holds a substantial pool of cash at its global network of bank partners, pre-positioned and ready to leave the moment a redemption is confirmed onchain. That cash has to stay liquid, so it earns less than it would in Treasuries. And it has to be available at every hour, including when the banking system is closed, which means maintaining the bank relationships and settlement rails that can move it on demand. We carry that cost so customers don’t have to wait. This liquidity is the most important and most expensive part of the redemption model, and we do not charge for it when a customer participates in the network.
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Building a globally trusted digital dollarAnyone comparing stablecoin models should look past the headline economics and ask a harder set of questions: can the issuer honor redemptions at any hour, operate through stress, maintain compliance across jurisdictions, and keep investing over time? Regulators ask the same questions. A stablecoin is not a software product. It is monetary infrastructure, and it has to be financially sound.

Circle has lived this tradeoff firsthand. USDC launched in 2018 as a consortium project. In 2023, Circle took full governance and rebuilt the model around a simple principle: the issuer must have the capacity to invest in the network. That decision accelerated everything that followed, and more than 8 years of investment sit behind every dollar of USDC.

Those investments include more than 55 licenses and registrations, including an OCC national trust bank charter and compliance with MiCA; relationships with more than 25 partner banks, including systemically important institutions; reserves in a government money market fund managed by BlackRock and custodied at BNY, with monthly attestations; global compliance and sanctions programs across 185 countries; native deployments on over 35 blockchains; and the liquidity to honor roughly $1.7 billion in daily mints and redemptions.

That is what utility looks like at scale. USDC is used for settlement by major payment networks, held as a reserve asset by a growing number of banks, and used by developers as the default dollar for onchain applications. The industry depends on it: more than 70% of the companies on recent consortium launch rosters already build on USDC. They are all partners we value, and we expect to keep building with them.
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In summaryUSDC’s model is built as a flywheel, so the entire ecosystem wins. The majority of its economics goes to the partners that drive adoption, every customer can redeem for free, and what Circle retains goes back into the infrastructure that makes USDC the most useful stablecoin in the world. Each turn reinforces the next. Partners grow USDC because they share in its economics. That growth funds more licenses, liquidity, and chains. A more useful digital dollar then draws in the developers, businesses, and users who become the next wave of adoption. That model has held through every market cycle since USDC launched more than 8 years ago, and we will keep investing to make it stronger for the next one.

Circle has built the industry’s broadest and most deeply integrated stablecoin ecosystem across distribution, payments, banking, trading, and blockchain infrastructure. If you are deciding where to build, we are ready to build with you.

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USDC is issued by regulated affiliates of Circle. See Circle’s list of regulatory authorizations.

Circle Technology Services, LLC (CTS) is the operator of Circle Payments Network (CPN) and offers products and services to financial institutions that participate in CPN to facilitate their CPN access and integration.  CPN connects participating financial institutions around the world, with CTS serving as the technology service provider to participating financial institutions. While CTS does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable the global ecosystem of participating financial institutions to connect directly with each other, communicate securely, and settle directly with each other.  CTS is not a party to transactions between participating financial institutions facilitated by CPN who use CPN to execute transactions at their own risk.  Use of CPN is subject to the CPN Rules and the CPN Participation Agreement between CTS and a participating financial institution. 

Arc is an open L1 blockchain launched by Arc Network Services LLC ("Arc LLC") and operated by a permissioned validator set. Arc LLC provides software services only and does not offer regulated financial or advisory services. Arc has not been reviewed or approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services or any other regulatory authority.

The Arc network is provided "as is" and "as available." Use of Arc involves inherent risks associated with blockchain technology, including smart contract vulnerabilities, network disruptions, and the absence of recourse for transaction errors or losses. The ability to transact on Arc depends on the ability to obtain and use USDC to pay gas fees. Neither Arc LLC nor any permissioned validator is responsible for the content, accuracy, legality, or functionality of third-party applications, protocols, or services built on or integrated with Arc. You are solely responsible for features or services you provide to users, including obtaining any necessary licenses or approvals and otherwise complying with applicable laws.

All Arc features may be modified, delayed, or cancelled at any time without notice. Nothing herein constitutes a commitment, warranty, guarantee or legal, regulatory, tax, or investment advice.

Circle Mint and money transmission services are provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. Circle Internet Financial, LLC, NMLS # 1201441, is a licensed provider of money transmission services. See Circle’s licenses here. Circle Mint is currently available only to institutions and is not available to individuals.

Circle Wallets are provided by Circle Technology Services, LLC (“CTS”). CTS is a software provider and does not provide regulated financial or advisory services. You are solely responsible for services you provide to users, including obtaining any necessary licenses or approvals and otherwise complying with applicable laws. For additional details, refer to the Circle Developer Terms of Service.

The term “partner” refers to companies with which Circle has commercial agreements to grow the adoption and use of USDC, and does not necessarily refer to a legal partnership, joint venture, or fiduciary relationship.

Circle paid $819 million to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs during the first half of 2026, accounting for approximately 59% of its $1.4 billion in revenue.

The figures, disclosed in an October 16 statement, highlight how much of Circle’s revenue goes toward supporting USDC adoption across exchanges, wallets, banks and payment networks.

During the same period, USDC processed more than $36 trillion in onchain transaction volume, while Circle minted and redeemed over $315 billion in USDC, averaging approximately $1.7 billion daily.

Where the money went
After allocating $819 million to distribution partners and transaction costs, Circle spent approximately $473 million on operations and infrastructure.

Those expenses covered licensing, banking relationships, compliance programs, settlement liquidity, new products and blockchain integrations.

Circle said it retained approximately 7 cents in net profit for every dollar of revenue, equivalent to roughly $98 million during the period.

The second quarter followed a similar pattern. Distribution and transaction costs reached $412 million against $701 million in revenue and reserve income, representing approximately 59% of quarterly revenue.

The partner network behind USDC
Circle said more than 150 partners participate in USDC’s economics, with Coinbase remaining its largest distribution partner.

Coinbase reported that average USDC balances held across its products reached $20 billion during the second quarter, up 44% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Binance signed a five year commercial agreement with Circle in September and invested $100 million in the company.

Under Circle’s model, distribution partners receive a share of reserve income based on the USDC balances they attract and maintain.

The company said USDC accounted for approximately 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier.

Circle expands free USDC redemptions
Circle also addressed criticism from emerging stablecoin issuers regarding redemption fees and revenue sharing.

The company said all its customers can redeem USDC without fees through standard banking channels, with settlement taking up to two business days.

Additionally, businesses using the Circle Payments Network and qualifying Circle Platform customers can now access free redemptions with near instant settlement around the clock.

Circle said the service depends on maintaining cash liquidity across its banking partners, allowing it to process redemptions even when traditional banking systems are closed.

The company operates across more than 35 blockchains and maintains relationships with over 25 banking partners, alongside more than 55 licenses and registrations.

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

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16 October 2026 | 17:31 Visa has taken a stablecoin feature from testing into live payment operations. Through Inyo Global, eligible firms can now use USDC to fund cross-border payouts when conventional banking windows are closed.

What Visa actually launched

This is a funding tool for payment firms, not a consumer service for sending USDC worldwide. Inyo Global is the first Visa Direct processor to make USDC prefunding commercially available to eligible clients.

Visa announced the launch on October 15 in an official release. Inyo’s clients can access the option through the APIs they already use to operate payment services, rather than building a separate connection to Visa Direct.

The stablecoin stays behind the customer payment The rollout follows Visa’s earlier work on stablecoin payment infrastructure, but it brings one specific function into commercial use: an eligible business can use USDC to prefund cross-border payouts through Visa Direct.

In practical terms, USDC enters at the funding stage. A money transmitter, fintech or bank supplies the stablecoin to make funds available for its payouts. The person receiving the payment does not necessarily see a crypto transaction or receive USDC.

Inyo serves payment businesses, including money transmitters, fintechs, banks and other providers. Its platform handles functions such as onboarding, compliance, payment acceptance and domestic or international payouts, while the new integration gives eligible clients another way to keep those operations funded.

Why payment firms keep money waiting in advance A payment provider needs funds in place before it can complete a payout. If moving money between bank accounts takes time, the provider may maintain fiat balances in advance in the markets and currencies where it expects customer demand.

That creates a constant balancing act. Too little money can interrupt payouts; too much leaves capital sitting in accounts before it is needed. Bank cutoffs, weekends and holidays can increase the buffer because a provider may not be able to replenish a balance when demand suddenly changes.

Visa’s September 2025 prefunding pilot focused on this step. It let selected businesses use stablecoins instead of fiat to cover Visa Direct payouts, while recipients could still be paid in their local currency.

How a weekend shortfall could work

A remittance company receives more payout requests than expected on Saturday. Under the usual model, it needs a sufficiently large fiat balance already waiting in the relevant payout route because its normal bank-funding window may be closed.

With the Inyo integration, an eligible provider could use USDC to replenish the balance supporting those Visa Direct payouts. The recipient may still receive local currency through the usual payout route.

What the launch changes—and what it does not Part of the payment What Visa and Inyo confirm What remains unconfirmed Business funding Eligible firms can prefund Visa Direct cross-border payouts with USDC in near real time. That every Visa Direct client or payment corridor can use the service. Recipient payout Inyo can support domestic and international payouts through Visa Direct. That recipients receive USDC or can cash out instantly. Operating hours The USDC funding option is available around the clock. That every local bank, wallet or payout rail operates continuously. Cost Payment firms have another route to manage payout liquidity. Lower foreign-exchange costs, lower fees or cheaper payments for customers. Visa has also tested a separate stablecoin wallet-payout service. In that pilot, businesses could fund payments in fiat while eligible recipients received dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDC in compatible wallets.

That is not the product Inyo has taken live. The current launch concerns the payment firm’s funding method, not universal delivery of stablecoins to end recipients.

Inyo’s 180-country reach is broader than USDC availability Visa says Inyo supports domestic and international payouts across more than 180 countries. That is the reach of Inyo’s wider platform; it is not a list of 180 countries where USDC prefunding is confirmed to be available.

Visa limits the launch to eligible clients and partners, with availability varying by geography. A payment firm must still establish whether the service is available for its entity, the payout route it uses and the local rules attached to that route.

The distinction matters operationally. A provider may be able to fund a payment outside regular banking hours while final delivery still depends on compliance checks, local settlement arrangements and the receiving institution in the destination market.

The real test is whether firms need less idle liquidity USDC does not remove the need to finance payouts. The potential gain is that a provider may be able to hold less money idle in advance and replenish a payout balance closer to the moment customer demand emerges.

That advantage depends on timing. If a firm buys USDC several days early and leaves it unused, part of the liquidity buffer still exists; it has simply taken a different form. The stronger use case is a provider that can acquire and deploy USDC reliably when a payout balance needs topping up.

The economics also extend beyond the blockchain transfer. Conversion costs, foreign exchange, local payment delivery, compliance and the terms offered across each corridor will determine whether the new route is cheaper or merely more flexible.

Visa has not disclosed transaction volumes, corridor-level availability, working-capital savings or end-user cost reductions for the Inyo implementation. Those figures will show whether USDC prefunding becomes a widely used treasury tool or remains a specialised option for selected payment routes.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Service availability depends on eligibility, geography and the applicable payment route.

Author

Alexander Zdravkov is a market analyst and crypto journalist with interests in economics, broader financial markets and digital assets. His journey into crypto began more than four years ago, driven by a fascination with the rapid evolution of blockchain technology and the transformative potential of decentralized finance. He began analyzing market cycles and identifying emerging trends before they reach the mainstream. He holds a degree in International Relations - a background that helped shape his broader perspective on global economics, geopolitics, and the interconnected nature of modern financial markets. Whether covering the latest developments in the crypto sector or exploring broader macroeconomic themes, Alexander focuses on giving readers context rather than simply repeating headlines. During his career, he has authored more than 5,000 articles covering cryptocurrencies, traditional finance, and global market developments. His work spans everything from Bitcoin and altcoins to macroeconomic trends influencing risk assets worldwide.

Circle Internet Group (CRCL) reported approximately $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, paying $819 million to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs while reinvesting about $473 million in infrastructure, compliance, and product development.

The company outlined those economics in a blog post Friday, pushing back against new stablecoin entrants that argue existing issuers retain too much revenue, charge too much for redemptions, and could be replaced by more efficient models.

"That reinvestment is not overhead," wrote Circle COO Kash Razzaghi. "It is what makes USDC useful, and it reflects more than 8 years of building. A digital dollar has to work everywhere: redeemable at any hour, held by regulated institutions, and moving natively across the chains and platforms where businesses operate."

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Circle said it retained roughly 7 cents in net profit for every dollar of revenue. USDC processed more than $36 trillion in onchain transaction volume and accounted for about 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier.

Stablecoin monthly transfer value has averaged nearly $10 trillion this year, according to Standard Chartered Bank, which published a report earlier this week.

In an investor note last month, William Blair analysts said Circle could benefit from a broader crypto recovery, with regulatory rulemaking, growing tokenized-asset activity and diversification supporting the stock into 2027.

Circle will report its third-quarter financial results on Nov. 4.

Tesla-linked perpetual futures have retreated to around $357 on Hyperliquid, reversing an overnight climb toward $380 following Elon Musk’s demonstration of a thruster-equipped Roadster.

Summary

Hyperliquid’s Tesla contract reversed its climb toward $380 and traded down 0.95% over 24 hours.
Binance led daily Tesla-linked trading with $564.49 million in turnover, according to RootData.
Hyperliquid held approximately $80 million in open interest, ahead of Binance’s $64.96 million.
Tesla will release third-quarter financial results after market close on Oct. 21.

Hyperliquid showed its TSLA-USDC contract at a mark price of $356.66, down $3.42 over 24 hours, with approximately $247.8 million in daily trading volume and $80.05 million in open interest, the value of outstanding contracts.

Tesla futures give back their climb toward $380
On Hyperliquid’s 1-hour chart, the Tesla contract rose from around $360 to $380 on Oct. 16 before retreating to approximately $357. The reversal carried the price below the level where the overnight advance began.

The same chart showed the contract trading near $385 earlier in the week before declining toward $360 ahead of Thursday’s Roadster presentation. Friday’s rebound approached $380 but stopped below those earlier highs, according to the displayed price history.

Across the exchanges listed in RootData’s stock-contract comparison, Tesla-linked markets showed negative 24-hour returns. Binance’s TSLAUSDT contract traded at $357.26, down 0.85%, while the displayed declines ranged from 0.84% on OKX to 1.30% on Lighter.

Binance leads turnover as Hyperliquid holds more open positions
RootData listed $564.49 million in daily Tesla-linked trading on Binance, compared with $246.64 million on Hyperliquid. Bitget and OKX followed with $78.35 million and $68.46 million, respectively.

The same table showed $45.95 million in turnover on Bybit and $23.37 million on Lighter.

RootData placed Hyperliquid first with $80.12 million in open interest, ahead of Binance’s $64.96 million, Bitget’s $18.04 million and OKX’s $14.87 million.

RootData listed liquidity within 2% of the quoted price at $6.73 million on Hyperliquid and $4.52 million on Binance. Binance nevertheless showed the narrower quoted spread at 0.0028%, compared with Hyperliquid’s 0.0084%.

Hyperliquid identifies TSLA-USDC as a perpetual market independently deployed by xyz. Trade.xyz’s specification index states that the contract references one Tesla common share quoted in US dollars and permits leverage of up to 20 times.

According to the operator’s specifications, the market uses cross-margin treatment. Hyperliquid’s trading interface warns users about low liquidity, high volatility, and elevated liquidation risk in the independently deployed contract.

The instrument provides price exposure without transferring Tesla stock ownership. A separate Anthropic-linked perpetual contract examined by crypto.news on Oct. 15 similarly granted no shares, company earnings claims or right to redeem positions for equity.

Trade.xyz’s stock-linked markets previously encountered a pricing disruption in July, when the operator agreed to cover eligible liquidation losses involving its SK Hynix contract.

In a statement described in the July 29 coverage, Trade.xyz said multiple independent data providers relayed an executed external-market trade. The contract’s mark price fell 18.7%, from $1,127.90 to $917.25, triggering liquidations of leveraged long positions.

The operator characterized reimbursement as a one-time discretionary decision and said it would review how external venue prices entered its pricing system, according to the same account.

Musk’s Roadster demonstration carries a 2028 production target
At SpaceX’s McGregor test facility in Texas on Oct. 15, Musk presented the redesigned Roadster using technology developed by Tesla and SpaceX engineers, Reuters reported.

AP described cold-gas thrusters and a suction system that enabled short aerial movements and midair spins. Musk named 2028 as the production target, while Tesla had not immediately announced a price, according to the agency.

Tesla’s website labels the rocket feature “Not approved for public road use,” AP reported.

Reuters traced the second-generation Roadster to a prototype unveiled in 2017, when Tesla promised deliveries in 2020. The production target announced on Thursday falls eight years after that original delivery schedule.

During the presentation, Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy claimed acceleration from zero to 60 mph in less than one second and a top speed above 230 mph, Reuters reported. The company claimed a driving range exceeding 300 miles.

Tesla earnings follow deliveries of 486,532 vehicles
Tesla’s Oct. 2 operating release reported third-quarter deliveries of 486,532 vehicles against production of 464,391. Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 478,237 deliveries, with 8,295 vehicles listed under other models.

Calculated from Tesla’s figures, deliveries exceeded production by 22,141 vehicles during the quarter. Model 3 and Model Y represented approximately 98.3% of total deliveries.

Tesla reported energy-storage deployments of 13.7 gigawatt-hours over the same period. Its release cautioned that deliveries and storage deployments were only two measures of financial performance, with results dependent on selling prices, costs, foreign-exchange movements and other factors.

The company scheduled its financial results for after market close on Wednesday, Oct. 21, followed by management’s question-and-answer webcast at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Tesla said net income and cash-flow figures would accompany the earnings release.

During the previous quarter, Tesla kept its Bitcoin reserve unchanged at 11,509 BTC, according to July 22 coverage of its shareholder update. The company recorded a $112 million after-tax digital-asset loss without buying or selling Bitcoin during the reporting period.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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Zcash (ZEC) climbed to $1,231 on October 16, 2026, after rebounding from support near $1,077. Market participants are closely monitoring whether ZEC can extend this rally toward the $1,288 level or if renewed selling will drive the price back to lower supports.

Zcash tests recovery, attention shifts to resistanceZEC’s recent uptick followed a sharp correction of roughly 34% from highs near $1,700. Despite this pullback, the token remains well above its 200-day moving average, which is positioned near $669 as of October 16. The recovery places Zcash in a critical position between immediate resistance and nearby support levels.

Technical specialist Eric Van Tassel pinpointed the $1,200–$1,288 range as a significant rebound zone on the hourly Coinbase chart, using Fibonacci retracement and trendline analysis. This region aligns with major resistance and is considered a possible barrier for the ongoing rally.

Other technical analyses support similar resistance levels. Montbon identified initial resistance close to $1,290, while CoinCodex listed areas around $1,235 and $1,326. These estimates, derived from different methodologies, highlight the challenge for ZEC to consolidate gains above this range.

A persistent move above $1,288 could bolster the recovery scenario if buyers demonstrate enough strength to maintain reclaimed support. However, technical analysts caution that a brief move through resistance does not confirm a lasting trend; subsequent price candles and buying activity will be critical for validation.

Zcash’s rally into the $1,200–$1,288 region presents a technical inflection point, as both descending trendline resistance and Fibonacci levels converge to test the sustainability of its short-term recovery.

Bearish chart patterns reinforce riskOn the downside, analysts tracked a head-and-shoulders formation on the four-hour chart, which signals increased risk if ZEC breaks below the pattern’s neckline. Eric Van Tassel projected a potential downside target around the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level near $727, though this target depends on further price confirmation.

The reliability of this bearish setup hinges on whether the price decisively breaks the neckline. If ZEC advances without significant pullback, the head-and-shoulders scenario could become invalid, or morph into a different formation, such as a double top. These technical patterns are not predictions but conditional signals lacking guarantees on direction.

A separate review by AstroCryptoGuru noted that Zcash was rejected at the $1,229 resistance and the four-hour downtrend line, forming another lower high. This technician highlighted $1,080 and $1,059 as the next support levels if selling pressure intensifies and the current momentum fades.

Cloud indicators and momentum readingsMaisonCypher’s analysis on the daily chart provides another angle. The price recently surged above the upper Ichimoku Cloud boundary but turned back lower, approaching the cloud’s lower end. This suggests ZEC could dip toward approximately $879 to reset momentum indicators and potentially establish a recovery base.

The $879 level sits below the more immediate supports noted above, marking a deeper correction scenario. The capacity of ZEC to protect the $1,080–$1,059 support range may determine whether downside momentum persists or stabilizes.

On October 16, Montbon’s technical readings showed Zcash’s daily relative strength index (RSI) near 47 and a negative MACD, indicating neutral-to-weak momentum. These conditions do not rule out a rebound but fall short of confirming strong buying interest at current levels.

Key levels in focus amid volatile sentimentIn addition to trendline resistance, RSI trends, and moving averages, the ability to track timely and informed trades is essential in a rapidly changing market. In the meme token segment, internet trends can spur millions of dollars of activity within days. Fomo App reported that a trader converted a $99 investment into about $370,000 with the “Niu Lai” meme token, showcasing the potential impact of tracking investor timing and token selection. Fomo App enables users to spot and trade tokens while monitoring social feeds and investor activity in real time.

For ZEC, immediate resistance remains between $1,229 and $1,288. Sustained buying above this band could allow a move toward higher resistance, but only if upward momentum persists. Losing the $1,080–$1,059 area would strengthen the case for a steeper retracement, with $879 and $727 as deeper potential supports based on various chart projections.

These levels stem from differing timeframes and analysis styles; a significant break of the neckline in the head-and-shoulders formation adds weight to the bearish view, while a resilient close above $1,288 could shift sentiment toward recovery.

A move above $1,288 would reinforce the case for recovery, but a decisive loss of $1,059 could accelerate a correction toward $879 or even $727, depending on how technical patterns resolve.

Macro context and market outlookThe broader outlook for Zcash relies on its technological foundation in zero-knowledge cryptography and market sentiment. Even with strong fundamentals supporting private transactions, ZEC continues to experience pronounced price volatility. The earlier climb to $1,700 was followed by a notable retreat, underlining this unpredictability.

The longer-term positioning of Zcash above its 200-day moving average suggests underlying strength remains, despite the recent loss in momentum. For now, the $1,288 level stands as a pivotal hurdle; reclaiming it could shift the balance in favor of buyers, while failure to rally could empower sellers and bring lower support zones into play. As the price tests these technical boundaries, market participants continue to weigh the prospect of recovery against the risk of renewed downside pressure.

THORSday Community Podcast #243 ft. CBarraford, KentonC137 & Patriotsounds | October 15, 2026 | Watch the full episode on YouTube

By Raynalytics

TL;DROne week into the SwapKit Rev-Share trial, Chad said about $430 of discounts lined up with almost $2,000 of protocol revenue, a 4.6x return, while stressing that the sample is small and may not scale.v3.21 was on release candidate 6 with final stagenet checks running. $XMR changes for THORNode ride in v3.21, and any remaining Bifrost patches could follow quickly in v3.21.1.Tether briefly froze THORChain's Tron $USDT vault address before reversing it, prompting a debate over whether protocol-owned liquidity should favor permissionless assets.The devs are weighing whether Huginn, which has already added about 1,300 unit tests and new testing frameworks, should count as one of the two approvals a code change needs.Dynamic fees will move from daily to volume-based measurement windows, THORNode code now runs about 3x faster, and 2-second blocks and a FROST rollout are back on the table.https://raynalytics.net/dashboards/rev-share1. SwapKit Rev-Share's First Week: Early Data Looks PromisingRev-Share has been live with SwapKit for about a week, and Chad screen-shared Ray's SwapKit Revenue Share dashboard to walk through the first results. THORChain kicks back 20% of the revenue it earns from SwapKit-routed swaps into a credit bucket. SwapKit then spends that bucket to discount future quotes and win trades it might otherwise lose. As the hosts clarified, SwapKit does not keep the money: the intent is to spend all of it on better quotes, and SwapKit earns from the extra volume it routes.

So far SwapKit has spent only about $430 of the just under $3,000 accrued. Over the same period, swaps carrying those discounts generated almost $2,000 for the protocol, a 4.6x ratio that had been 3.7x the day before. The discounted swaps totalled slightly over $1 million in volume across 302 swaps, and the dashboard's volume view showed roughly double the baseline over 8 days. Chad assumed that volume was trade SwapKit would not have won otherwise, but said he does not know that for sure. SwapKit is also scaling up slowly while it waits for v3.21 to fix a few THORName issues.

"For every $1 we give SwapKit and they spend that to discount quotes, we get back $4.60 effectively." (Chad)The number Chad is watching is 5x. The protocol already earns more than it gives back below that line; 5x is where SwapKit's bucket becomes self-funding. Because SwapKit receives 20% of the extra revenue, any return above 5x refills the bucket faster than SwapKit can spend it, a flywheel where the discounts fund themselves. If the ratio stalls near 4.6x, Chad agreed that raising the share to 25% would move that point down to 4x. If it climbed toward 10x, the share could instead fall to 10% or 15%. His caution was just as clear: the bucket has so far been applied selectively, and returns could shrink as spending scales into the thousands.

The bigger question is reach. SwapKit is integrated with wallets such as Trust Wallet and Ledger, where it competes with other providers, and THORChain currently wins only a single-digit percentage of SwapKit's trades. The agreement is exclusive in both directions for this feature, so THORChain cannot run the same program with another aggregator, and SwapKit cannot run it with Chainflip or NEAR Intents. Dividing volume by swap count, the hosts put the average discounted swap at about $3,400, the larger trade sizes where THORChain tends to quote well. This builds on the launch covered in last week's recap.

2. v3.21 Is Nearly Cut, With Monero Close BehindChad said every pull request for v3.21 had been merged and the release was on release candidate 6, with final stagenet tests underway. During the show, the hosts relayed a team update that the core stagenet tests had passed and the last chain checks were finishing. Chad expected the release to be cut that day or the next, followed by node voting to adopt it. The release had been held back a few days so it could carry as many Monero changes as possible.

Chad said the THORNode changes needed for $XMR are expected in v3.21, while some Bifrost-specific patches may land in v3.21.1. That split matters because a patch release can be cut at any time, while a full release takes far more testing and coordination. Much of the $XMR work has been handled by Zly Dev and the team. Getting Monero live on mainnet is one of Chad's primary short-term goals.

"You better believe we want the same damn thing you do." (Chad)Chad also hopes to remove the churn as a requirement for adding most new chains in v3.22 or v3.23. For chains using key types THORChain already supports, vaults only need to derive and publish new addresses from existing public keys; chains needing new cryptography, like Monero, would still require more. Progress is tracked on devops.thorchain.org.

https://raynalytics.net/dashboards/pol-income3. Tether Froze the Tron $USDT Vault, Then Reversed ItTether recently froze the address THORChain uses for its Tron $USDT pool. Chad suspects the freeze happened partly because THORChain's external addresses look like ordinary wallets rather than smart contracts. He first saw it when Devel posted in the THORChain mainnet channel, and it took three to four hours to reach the team. With help from Randy, he spoke with Tether's CEO, who was apologetic and had it fixed quickly.

The episode put the exposure in context. The pool held about $200,000, while the freeze covered about $1.45 million, which Chad assumed was largely $USDT arriving from the malicious party that triggered it rather than LP or protocol funds. In a worst case, only the stablecoin side, about $100,000, would be lost. The $RUNE side could be redeployed through the protocol-owned liquidity (POL) module into other pools. Kenton added that THORChain Swap already stops trading when a pool is paused, but this pool was not paused, so the team is adding monitoring of the Tether and Circle blacklists to block affected swaps automatically.

Denny used the incident to revisit a post he made in the dev Discord. POL currently goes to the pools with the best depth-to-revenue performance. He floated always sending some flow to the best-performing permissionless asset, or letting nodes redirect it. Kenton disagreed: $BTC to $USDT is the largest trading pair in the world, and stablecoin pools need to keep growing for THORChain to pull volume off centralized exchanges. Denny granted that his proposal trades economic efficiency for protection against an event that may never happen, and that $XMR would likely win POL flow for a long time anyway.

"I'm willing to sacrifice some efficiency to make sure THORChain is as robust as possible." (Denny)Chad argued a deliberate freeze would be self-defeating for any issuer: every DeFi protocol would have to reconsider the asset, LPs would pull out, and the issuer could face legal claims from LPs whose funds it froze. The POL routing question was left open. For background on POL, see the recap covering its launch.

4. Dynamic Fees Will Measure by Volume, Not by DayChad has been reviewing the dynamic fee model and said it is not as effective as he would like. The first version was deliberately kept as a plain minimum viable product, so real-world data could show what works before the design was refined. The problem that data revealed is sample size: on many affiliate pairs there is not enough volume to tell whether a fee change in bps actually caused more or less volume.

The fix Chad wants is to change the epoch, the window the model studies. Today it compares fees and volume day against day, and a day with only 10 trades says little. Instead, the epoch would close once a set amount of volume has passed through, with $100,000 or $1 million used only as illustrative figures. Quiet pairs would collect data over a longer period, while a busy pair like $BTC might need only an hour. The aim is more signal and less noise.

That change is one of several Chad wants in v3.22. In the meantime, the team may leave the current model running for roughly another two weeks to keep studying how it moves. Earlier results are covered in the dynamic fees recap.

5. Should Huginn Count as a Code Approval?The devs are debating whether Huginn should be able to approve pull requests. Merging a THORNode change currently requires two human approvals. Huginn reviews every pull request and every later commit and is, by Chad's count, the top commenter, but its approval does not count toward a merge. The proposal is to require Huginn plus one human. Chad said no one on the team is arguing to remove humans, devs hold valid views on both sides, and he wants the security team's input before anything is decided.

Chad's case is speed. He said AI has lifted coding efficiency by only about 1.3x to 1.4x, because the slowest part of the life cycle, the human steps, has not sped up. He added that humans and AI both make mistakes, so the real question is which is more likely to, and how severe the mistake would be.

"The thing that is super slow is always me. It is always the human." (Chad)Huginn's role is already growing. Beyond reviews, it runs continuous security audits, fixes issues it finds under human oversight, and has added about 1,300 unit tests (roughly 70,000 lines of code), along with new fuzz, mutation and accounting testing frameworks. Chad would let it run self-directed improvement loops only on tests and on performance work that can be verified by replaying thousands of mainnet blocks and checking that every block's app hash is identical. He would not trust it with open-ended feature work at this stage. The approach was first outlined in last week's recap.

6. A 3x Faster THORNode Brings 2-Second Blocks Back Into ViewChad said THORNode's code is now about three times faster after AI-driven optimization work, merged the day before and expected in v3.21. A large part of that came from pprof profiles supplied by Liquify, which Chad described as an X-ray of a live daemon showing where code spends its time and memory. He still needs a Bifrost profile from an active validator, and the hosts relayed that Devel aimed to provide one the next day. Any operator can help by enabling pprof through an environment variable, and Chad said the profiles contain no private keys. A faster Bifrost should lower the CPU and memory validators need.

The speedup will not shorten block times on its own, but Chad expects it to make them more stable after recent instability. It also gives him more confidence to revisit a year-old pull request that moved THORChain from 6-second to 2-second blocks. He pulled back then because many mimir settings run every set number of blocks and mainnet's reaction was hard to predict, but modern AI tools could help verify the change before it ships. Faster blocks could let arbitrageurs track prices more closely, and Chad expects Rujira, which is working toward perps, would welcome them. The hosts added that shorter blocks might eventually make room to raise the 120-node limit.

Chad also flagged an upcoming Cosmos SDK upgrade that will move THORChain to v4.0, and asked the community not to read the version jump as a major feature release. He would not leave the Cosmos SDK unless forced, and said THORChain could take over maintenance if the Cosmos Labs team ever stepped away.

7. FROST Will Roll Out One Vault at a TimeChad said work on a FROST implementation has started, and he expects it to be finished next week or the week after, followed by integration into Bifrost. The plan is to move away from GG20 toward newer cryptography with a smaller attack surface, building on the work covered in the v3.20 recap.

The rollout would start small: one smaller chain, on one of THORChain's six vaults. If that vault hits a signing bug, outbound transactions would be reassigned to a working GG20 vault, slowing mainnet a little without breaking anything. As confidence grows, more vaults would move over each churn, then more chains. Initially FROST would replace GG20, but Chad said GG20 could return as half of a 2-of-2 multisig, so breaking THORChain's cryptography would require breaking both schemes at once.

DKLS is still planned, just second. FROST comes first because $BTC can use it through Taproot, and $BTC makes up a larger share of TVL. Some chains, such as Bitcoin Cash, lack Taproot and cannot use FROST. Chad ranked FROST, then DKLS, then GG20 by how unlikely each is to have an implementation flaw. Separately, Soda Labs completed a full audit of THORChain's code, done largely by hand, and the team is patching what it found. Chad said none of the issues were serious.

8. A Proposed Public Test of Quotes Versus FillsThe hosts said they keep hearing from wallets that some swap services give attractive quotes but poor fills. Kenton floated publishing an objective report rather than calling anyone out, and Chad suggested how to run it: use marketing funds for real swaps, have Ray run them across providers, and publish the quotes, outputs and transaction hashes so anyone can verify them on-chain. Kenton offered to pay to distribute the results. He also gave Ray a shout-out, saying Ray has never said no to anything he asked.

The design discussion was specific: 30 to 50 swaps per size for a statistically meaningful sample, at sizes from about $500 to $50,000, across 10 to 12 providers including THORChain and Maya Protocol. Kenton plans to start the provider list from the routes Ledger Live displays. Concurrent swaps would use separate pools so they do not affect each other, and the group discussed open-sourcing the tooling so anyone can rerun the test. Chad also said aggregators could one day adjust quotes for providers that consistently overquote.

"We have the moral authority to do that." (Chad)Kenton's other priority is wallet coverage on THORChain Swap. After a week of bug fixes, the next targets are Trezor, Rabby and Brave Wallet, one of the more popular Zcash wallets. Trezor is the priority so it is ready before Monero goes live. New wallets will be left to settle before more are added, but Kenton believes broader wallet support could matter more than new features.

What to WatchWhether the SwapKit Rev-Share return reaches 5x, where the credit bucket refills itself, as SwapKit scales spending after v3.21 adoption, and whether the 20% share changes.The v3.21 cut and node vote, and whether $XMR follows quickly in v3.21.1.v3.22 changes to dynamic fees, plus churn-free chain additions in v3.22 or v3.23.Whether the Huginn approval change is adopted after security-team input.The Bifrost pprof profile, a revived 2-second block pull request, and the Cosmos SDK upgrade to v4.0.The first FROST vault on mainnet, and the Soda Labs audit patches.Kenton's quarterly report, expected next week, and whether the quote-versus-fill test goes ahead.Schedule changes: no podcast on Saturday, October 17, Zodl on Friday, October 23, and Moca on Saturday, October 31, when the Saturday show moves an hour later.More THORChain data, check out raynalytics.net

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October 16, 2026

Overview This is the v0.18.5.4 release of the Monero software. This is a minor release that includes bug fixes.

Some highlights of this minor release are:

Daemon: fix DNSSEC validation for checkpoints, blocklists and update checks (#11542) RPC: restore string-to-integer conversion in JSON requests (to be removed in v0.19 as a breaking change) (#11552) The complete list of changes is available on GitHub, along with the source code.

Contributors for this Release This release was the direct result of 2 people who worked to put out 6 commits containing 35 new lines of code. We'd like to thank them very much for their time and effort. In no particular order, they are:

selsta tobtoht Download The new binaries can be downloaded from the Downloads page or from the direct links below.

Windows, 64-bit Windows, 32-bit macOS, Intel macOS, ARM Linux, 64-bit Linux, 32-bit Linux, armv7 Linux, armv8 Linux, riscv64 Android, armv7 Android, armv8 FreeBSD, 64-bit Hashes If you would like to verify that you have downloaded the correct file, please use the following SHA256 hashes:

monero-win-x64-v0.18.5.4.zip, 1ccac3b476ba75bf6dfdfa848f6520a79b64cdf3457a160eaa0dad82d5a2a042 monero-win-x86-v0.18.5.4.zip, 2cefcdb1027104aa7400d4bef5b1c1d4dcdbd7ee29d7c0c1bdcba7a458930578 monero-mac-x64-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, 9fefa7f5f7ae60fbd8d0ad18842b76c56ed161eca4ffb4f8b5f4800e5033b146 monero-mac-armv8-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, d457de7c8a1ad42e3232fdea6d9f9003be9652143fb8f719c1fc906aa6b4917b monero-linux-x64-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, ba2928962c101b609434bf8c1b43ad59ebe96c5525977284ca599d8bf0f02d10 monero-linux-x86-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, c48e3db1c4d008cdfadb1192b3d39906ed06c29ec61b357c8f30ecc1b6111595 monero-linux-armv8-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, d20d71e6522b41eb8e549c3425f7f4622c9c9a448fc7147525393fd0a6b59703 monero-linux-armv7-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, 124883ebd8b3e19fb9000bc051dd9a28958a1a383455af78b539362b0d59094f monero-linux-riscv64-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, 4f064d6cecfbee03f9d468f616147e7fac1c48df3613d877105e321ac0b71a76 monero-android-armv8-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, b1ba5efaf8d078fce26ae66a45252e4eb67a7de3068ea093c5ba6c8f7e7cb59c monero-android-armv7-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, 58d39c1e241bde624a01d9d2402784314a769bf47f555708aa52ae52fbcfc7f8 monero-freebsd-x64-v0.18.5.4.tar.bz2, 0bf207083558c2b567b170ae78103c78a23a8ae628367579b7133b957f7cf54a A GPG-signed list of the hashes is at https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/hashes.txt and should be treated as canonical, with the signature checked against the appropriate GPG key in the source code (in /utils/gpg_keys). To ensure that the files you download are those originally posted by the maintainers, you should both check that the hashes of your files match those on the signed list, and that the signature on the list is valid.

Two guides are available to guide you through the verification process: Verify binaries on Windows (beginner) and Verify binaries on Linux, Mac, or Windows command line (advanced).

Post tags : Monero Software Releases

3 Altcoins That Could Reach All-Time Highs This Weekend

Summary

Lune.fi describes itself as a crypto exchange platform, a non-custodial aggregator that pulls liquidity from 1inch, ChangeNOW, LI.FI and Uniswap on one interface.

The platform is said to feature a Smart Routing Engine that scans the liquidity sources in real time before automatically selecting the most efficient path for users to trade, giving them the best price. 

Beyond swaps, the platform also offers Lune Earn, a yield product offering up to 29.5% a year. It also features a partner program. This Lune review will take a look at these elements in detail. 

Lune.fi Quick Verdict

Lune works for users who want simple wallet-to-wallet swaps without creating an exchange account. With its four liquidity sources, the platform has a strong swapping system. The fact that users don’t need to sign up to make a swap makes it a streamlined platform. With real-time status tracking and the ability to buy crypto using Visa and Mastercard, Lune has a flexible ecosystem.

The platform is not built for active trading or order books, but is meant for one-off conversions and should be treated as such. The Earn program is a good addition, but many of its details, like reserves and audits, are not available presently on the website.

Ratings 3.8 / 5

Supported Assets 3

Liquidity 4

Customer support 4

User Experience 4

What Is Lune.fi?

Lune.fi is best described as a non-custodial software interface. According to the legal disclaimer that the platform has provided at the bottom of its home page, the platform does not hold user assets or oversee transaction execution. All the swaps that the platform facilitates are done through third-party liquidity providers: ChangeNOW, 1inch, Uniswap, and LI.FI.

Since the platform only acts as a passthrough for a single transaction, there is nothing sitting on the platform between the swaps. Lune states that its no-deposit and account-free model means funds are never being parked in the servers.

The platform, from the information available, has a simple system, suitable for a single transaction by beginners and even institutional traders. Furthermore, the platform is accessible worldwide through the website and also its Telegram Mini App.

While the swap mechanisms don’t require users to create an account, using the Lune Earn product does.

How to Use Lune.fi: Step by Step Guide

The official website has highlighted three steps through which Lune runs swaps:

Configure Your Swap Users must select the asset pair and enter the amount in the asset they want to swap and the name of the asset they want to swap into. The aggregator then calculates the best market rate. After reviewing the rate, users are advised to enter the destination wallet address. Before proceeding any further, they must check the address and the network since Lune explicitly states that users are solely responsible for the transaction process.

Make a Deposit In response to the details entered in the previous step, Lune generates a unique deposit address and the exact amount required to make the swap. To initiate the transaction, users must send crypto from their personal wallet.

Receive Your Payout Lune states that once the deposit is confirmed on the blockchain, the platform automatically sends the funds to the specified address. Users can then track the funds in real time or through updates they receive via their email.

Lune Features

The following is a breakdown of Lune’s key features:

Smart Routing Across Four Liquidity Sources Lune aggregates liquidity from four sources: 1inch, ChangeNOW, LI.FI and Uniswap, giving users a mix of CEX-style and DEX liquidity. Lune also takes measures to cut slippage by scanning the liquidity sources in real time and picking the best route automatically.

Account-Free Swaps Lune lets users swap cryptos without needing to sign up. The platform has made it part of its AML policy, stating that it does not require identity verification to make an exchange. But if Lune deems a transaction high-risk, it can pause it and ask the user for proof of funds.

Buy Crypto With a Card Lune states that users can “buy crypto worldwide” through Visa and Mastercard. For fiat, the swap widget picks EUR by default. To facilitate crypto purchases through fiat, Lune.fi integrates a third-party infrastructure.

Real-Time Process Monitoring Lune states that it provides live updates at every stage of the exchange. That way, users can maintain full oversight over their information, which is backed by automated monitoring protocols.

Lune Earn Pools The Lune Earn Program features three pools, each with separate infrastructure and a separate sign-up system. These pools are USDC and USDT, ETH and BTC. According to the Earn page, the stablecoin pool offers an 18% yield for 1-day term and up to 29.5% for a 360-day term. In the case of ETH and BTC pools, the yield ranges from 14% up to 21.5%. The Earn program does not require any KYC and starts at $10.

Partner Program Lune also features a partner program that offers a fixed 1% of every deposit a referred user makes into the Earn program. The condition is that the commission is only withdrawable if the referred deposit stays active for 30 days.

24/7 Support Lune offers multiple ways to reach customer support. There is live chat, and also a ticket-based help desk.

Is Lune.fi Legit?

Lune does not disclose much of its information. The founding year detail is absent. However, it does have established liquidity providers, and user reviews on Trustpilot have been positive.

The platform is rated 4.4 out of 5 on Trustpilot, with some users calling it the “most positive discovery,” while others are simply saying “everything works well.” Overall, if we consider customer reactions and liquidity providers, Lune.fi feels legit.

Final Verdict

Lune presents itself as a simple, account-free swap aggregator built on four known liquidity sources. That makes it fine for beginners making one-off conversions. For active traders that need a published fee schedule, Lune might not be the best fit.

The platform’s Earn program claims high, zero-KYC yields. But since it does not provide any audits, users should use the program with care. They must also do their own research before using the platform.

About Author

About Author

Edwin Munyui is a Research and Product Analyst with over seven years of experience covering cryptocurrency markets, blockchain infrastructure, prediction markets, and emerging financial technologies. He specializes in research-driven analysis, combining market data, industry developments, and broader economic trends to explain complex topics in a clear and practical way. At CoinGape, Edwin writes news, market analysis, and educational content that helps readers understand the developments shaping the digital asset ecosystem.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Lune does not require KYC for swaps or Earn.

Lune has built the fees into the quoted rate. The platform’s swap commission ranges from 0.4% to 5.9%.

According to Lune, swap takes minutes after blockchain confirmation.

There is no minimum amount stated for swaps. Earn, however, starts at $10.

Filecoin is rewriting how it pays the people who keep its network running. Under FIP-0118, nicknamed “Solstice,” a growing slice of block rewards will depend on whether customers actually pay for storage.

How the new reward split works
The change divides each block reward into three streams. The first is the consensus share, which goes to storage providers that win blocks.

That consensus share currently sits at 95%. Under FIP-0118, it steps down toward a 50% floor over about nine quarters, or roughly 2.25 years.

The second stream is a service share, directed to Registered Service Orchestrators. These are the participants tasked with driving paid demand onto the network.

The service share starts at 5%. It can climb in 5% increments, but only when on-chain Filecoin Pay volume hits targets denominated in US dollars.

The third stream is the twist. Any portion of the service share that goes unearned is burned, meaning it is permanently removed from circulation rather than handed out to someone else.

Timing and the supply picture
The new structure is set to activate with the nv29 mainnet upgrade. That upgrade is scheduled for epoch 6470279 on October 19, 2026, at approximately 12:59 UTC.

It lands just days after another supply event. The six-year vesting schedule for Protocol Labs and Filecoin Foundation allocations is expected to wrap up around October 15, 2026.

The end of that genesis vesting removes roughly 66.7 million FIL per year from the supply schedule. Combined, these changes are expected to cut daily new FIL issuance by around 75%.

Why Filecoin is ditching Fil+
FIP-0118 replaces the Filecoin Plus (Fil+) DataCap system. Fil+ was meant to steer rewards toward useful data by granting extra reward weight to storage of verified client data.

In practice, the system proved prone to governance problems and exploitation. When the reward for looking like a real client is high enough, some participants will put real effort into looking like one.

The new design swaps human-administered verification for a simpler test: is there on-chain payment volume? Money changing hands through Filecoin Pay becomes the signal, rather than an allocator’s sign-off.

What this means for FIL holders and storage providers
For storage providers, the math changes gradually but meaningfully. As the consensus share slides from 95% toward 50%, providers who depend only on winning blocks will see that portion of rewards shrink over the transition window.

The burn mechanism creates an interesting dynamic. If paid usage underperforms, more tokens get destroyed, which tightens supply. If paid usage outperforms, more tokens go to service orchestrators, but that would reflect genuine revenue on the network.

The design also makes Filecoin’s health easier to read from the outside. Filecoin Pay volume against USD targets gives observers a public scorecard, and every 5% step in the service share becomes a visible milestone.

The dollar-denominated targets tie a crypto-native reward schedule to fiat-measured activity, so swings in FIL’s price could affect how quickly payment volume reaches the thresholds.

The key dates to watch are October 15, 2026, for the end of genesis vesting, and October 19, 2026, for the nv29 upgrade at epoch 6470279.

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

Moving $20,000 between two subsidiaries of the same company should be quick. With a traditional bank wire, it usually eats most of an afternoon.

Hyundai Card, the financial services arm of the Hyundai Motor Group, recently tried a different route. Using Axiym Finance’s infrastructure on the Avalanche blockchain, it cut the transfer time for an intercompany payment by more than 96%.

The pilot ran on July 9, 2026. It moved $20,000 in USDT, Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, from Hyundai’s US subsidiary to its Mexican subsidiary. The whole process took roughly seven minutes.

A comparable bank wire typically needs three to four hours.

Seven minutes versus a few hours Axiym converted dollars into USDT, sent the stablecoin across Avalanche, and handled the move back out of crypto on the other end.

The settlement ran on Avalanche’s C-Chain, where Axiym set up the liquidity and settlement framework for the transfer. The pilot included four parties: Hyundai Card, Tether, Avalanche, and Axiym.

The research findings describe it as the first public use of a production-ready stablecoin treasury settlement by a major South Korean conglomerate on Avalanche.

A recent Avalanche update pointed to the result directly. It credited Axiym’s tools with saving Hyundai more than 96% of the usual transfer time.

Who is Axiym, and why the plumbing matters Axiym describes its business as liquidity-as-a-service. Companies that send money across borders often keep funds parked in accounts in each country so payments can settle. That money sits idle instead of working.

Axiym says its model cuts that capital lockup by 70–90%.

The Hyundai pilot also fits a wider growth pattern at Axiym. The platform reported cumulative stablecoin payment volume above $2 billion as of October 2026, a 4.4 times increase year over year.

Its third quarter of 2026 set a record, with $529 million in payment volume.

Background: stablecoins move into the treasury office Intercompany payments are a natural testing ground for stablecoins. Both sides belong to the same corporate family, so counterparty risk is minimal and the stakes of a hiccup stay contained.

Tether’s participation means the stablecoin issuer was involved directly, not merely acting as a background asset.

What this means for corporate treasuries and the stablecoin market The clearest takeaway is for multinational finance teams. If a seven-minute settlement is possible for a $20,000 internal transfer, the obvious next question is what happens at larger sizes and across more currency corridors.

The 70–90% reduction in capital lockup that Axiym claims could be the bigger draw for chief financial officers, because idle cash carries a cost even when nobody sees a fee line.

Moving treasury flows onto stablecoins introduces exposure to the issuer, to the blockchain’s reliability, and to regulators in every jurisdiction the money touches. The pilot does not resolve those questions. It shows that, for at least one cross-border corridor, the technology performed as advertised.

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

9 hours ago

Solana Foundation Chair Lily Liu posted that the large-scale light display on the entire exterior wall of Citigroup Building in Shanghai’s Lujiazui area on the evening of October 14 was meant to showcase Solana’s deep affection for the Chinese community and express gratitude for the warm welcome extended by the community. Due to promotion efforts, registrations for the "Solana Shanghai Event" quadrupled overnight, far exceeding the maximum number declared to local authorities. Officials were unable to prevent the excessive influx of attendees. To comply with local regulations, the event will be postponed, pending a time when it can better accommodate the community’s scale and reach. We extend our apologies to all friends who traveled near and far to join the Shanghai Solana event.

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In brief GTA 6's launch trailer was released on Thursday and briefly mentioned "Dacity Coin," which has caused an on-chain frenzy. A copycat Solana meme coin skyrocketed 2,900%, thanks to the trailer, with dozens of traders profiting more than $10,000 each. The token existed five days before the trailer release, after degens found mention of Dacity Coin in leaked GTA 6 footage. Two seconds of the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer was all it took for a Solana meme coin to fly, making some traders pretty rich.

Dacity Coin was seen plastered along the side of a plane in the GTA 6 launch trailer released on Thursday, with a man setting off a neon pink flare on the wing. This prompted a real meme coin of the same name to skyrocket 2,900% from a $104,000 market capitalization to $3.18 million, in the hour following the trailer's release.

Interestingly, the token had been created five days prior, after notorious Rockstar hacker "Cyberleek" leaked GTA 6 gameplay revealing that Dacity Coin was set to be in the game—but only a comparatively small group of traders noticed.

Upon its October 11 launch on Solana launchpad Pump.fun, Dacity Coin hit a peak market cap of $1.14 million before falling to $144,700 over the coming day and trading sideways until Thursday's sharp rise.

As a result, traders had plenty of time to buy into the meme coin before it skyrocketed. According to DEX Screener, 24 traders profited more than $10,000 on the token, with the top trader turning $1,912 into $44,000.

Dacity now sits at a $1.5 million market cap, dropping around 53% from its $3.18 million peak.

What is Dacity?In the launch trailer, the plane reads "DacityCoin AudaCity," and in previously leaked footage, the game's protagonist Lucia can be seen skydiving wearing an AudaCity parachute. When the parachute opens, per the leaked screenshots, it features the slogan "Quit your job. Sell your house. Move [ineligible]."

According to the GTA wiki, Lucia is asked to parachute as a stunt to advertise the AudaCity brand and attract investment to the Dacity Coin.

If true, the game appears to be satirizing the stunts that meme coin creators have performed to promote their tokens over the years. In 2024, Decrypt reported that a man set himself on fire to promote his meme coin while others smoked drugs on livestream, pretended to be a dog, or recklessly shot a pistol out of their window.

Myriad: Where does Solana go next? Click to make your prediction.This falls on the backdrop of years-long rumours of cryptocurrencies featuring in GTA 6. Several theories were thrown out, including play-to-earn features, NFT-owned properties, and even an entire blockchain for the game. However, all of them were unsubstantiated—Dacity Coin is the first solid sign of cryptocurrency being in the upcoming game.

How prominent will Dacity Coin be in the upcoming GTA 6 game? That's the question currently on the lips of traders. If it's a mainstay of the game, then degens might stand to profit handsomely from holding the token for longer. If not, well, this might be the end of the road.

Déjà vuThis has all happened before.

In February 2025, Fortnite added a fake crypto coin called Dill Bits, and degens quickly launched a real one on Solana that hit a $4.78 million market cap before crashing 96%. It pumped 2,700% again in April after Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called it a scam, then dropped 82% within days.

“I didn’t launch it. What is wrong with you people,” Sweeney posted, as traders floated theories that he was secretly behind the coin.

I didn’t launch it. What is wrong with you people.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 6, 2025

The Dill Bits community took the whole thing as bullish, given that Fortnite’s storyline was literally about a pickle villain called Big Dill running a crypto rug pull. It didn’t help much, with DB dropping 82.3% in the days that followed.

Epic Games told Decrypt at the time that there was “no real cryptocurrency or memecoin associated with Fortnite or endorsed by Epic.”

Rockstar has yet to say anything about Dacity Coin, and the game studio did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment.

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Circle has reportedly minted approximately 750 million USDC on the Solana blockchain over the past day, according to social media reports. This development suggests increased dollar-pegged liquidity on the Solana network, although it is unclear if this represents net growth or merely supports cross-chain transfers or replaces redemptions. As of October 12, Circle had $72.7 billion of USDC in circulation across 38 blockchains. The significant minting on Solana highlights the network’s role in hosting substantial flows of USDC.

Key Takeaways

Significant USDC minting on Solana appears to suggest increased dollar liquidity on the network.
Markets may interpret this as supportive of Solana’s potential price increases, consistent with increased liquidity and demand.
Solana’s price prediction markets reflect a range of outcomes, with notable activity around short-term price changes.

What to Watch
Observers will be monitoring how this influx of USDC affects Solana’s price and whether it leads to increased decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on the platform. Market participants will likely focus on any indications of regulatory developments or technological upgrades that could influence Solana’s standing. Additionally, watch for Solana’s performance against other cryptocurrencies amid broader market trends that could affect the network’s growth and utility.

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Updated 7min ago

The Solana Accelerate event in Shanghai was postponed after pre-registration exceeded the event cap set by local authorities, according to Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation.

Event registration quadrupled overnight following publicity for the event, Liu wrote in a Friday X post, adding that organizers decided to postpone the event to “comply with local requirements.”

Earlier on Friday, X users claimed that the event was “abruptly suspended” as law enforcement officers were stationed at the venue.

In October 2025, a Solana event in Shenzhen was also cut short due to venue capacity and public-safety concerns, Solana’s Chinese-language community account announced then on X.

Shanghai was scheduled to open Solana’s four-city Accelerate China tour, followed by Hangzhou on Sunday, Shenzhen on Tuesday and Beijing on Thursday, according to the event’s website.

The postponement followed Solana executives’ promotion of a new Shanghai office earlier this week.

China prohibits a range of crypto-related services, including token fundraising, trading and mining. In February, the People’s Bank of China and seven other agencies doubled down on those restrictions in a notice that added new bans, including unauthorized issuance of yuan-pegged stablecoins.

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

US stock market sees "Black Friday": Nasdaq falls more than 2%, AI-related stocks decline across the board.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, the U.S. Nasdaq index’s decline widened to 2.36%, the S&P 500 fell 1.19%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.58%. Individual stocks posted losses: SPCX fell 2.24%, ORCL dropped 4.42%, GOOGL declined 2.27%, NVDA fell 0.95%, and TSLA dropped 2.97%. For other AI-related concept stocks: Optical module stocks: COHR fell 6.26%, LITE dropped 3.87%, AAOI declined 7.89%, NOK fell 2.51%, MRVL dropped 4.2%; Storage stocks: SKHY fell 6.13%, MU dropped 4.33%, SNDK declined 5.3%, WDC fell 5.16%, STX dropped 5.97%.

41 minutes ago

The Nasdaq’s decline in US stocks widened to 2.2%, with the S&P 500 falling over 1%.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), the Nasdaq extended its decline to 2.2%, the S&P 500 fell 1.11%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.54%.

41 minutes ago

Bitcoin drops below $81,000, Ethereum falls below $2,400

According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has dropped below $81,000, with a current price of $80,936. Ethereum has fallen below $2,400, now priced at $2,397.

41 minutes ago

US crypto-related stocks fell broadly, with Strategy (MSTR) dropping nearly 10%.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, U.S. crypto-related stocks fell broadly, with individual declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 9.9%, Strive (ASST) down 7.97%, SharpLink (SBET) down 6.46%, Bitmine (BMNR) down 6.87%, Bullish (BLSH) down 7.09%, Gemini (GEMI) down 4.90%, Circle (CRCL) down 5.65%, and Coinbase (COIN) down 4.5%.

41 minutes ago

Trump: Oil prices will fall soon, and he hopes the Russia-Ukraine conflict will end.

US President Donald Trump delivered a recent speech on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Middle East issues, stating: "I know some details of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and I will make them public at some point. I hope it ends. The Biden administration has done a lot of bad things on the Ukraine issue." When asked about inflation, Trump again claimed: "Oil prices will drop soon. Israel has provided very significant assistance to Saudi Arabia, and the Abraham Accords are once again a topic in Saudi Arabia." (Jinshi)

41 minutes ago

Strategy (MSTR) shares extend losses to 9%

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Strategy (MSTR)’s decline has widened to 9.08%, currently trading at $137.5. On the news front, MSCI plans to implement new rules that use operating asset ratios and multiple financial ratio tests to filter out companies whose asset structures and operational characteristics are closer to investment funds than traditional operating enterprises. Strategy, due to its extremely high proportion of Bitcoin assets, has been included in the observation list of potential exclusion candidates. The final affected list is expected to be announced on November 11. Market participants believe that if MSTR is removed from MSCI-related indices, passive funds tracking these indices will be forced to reduce their holdings of its stock, which may generate selling pressure worth billions of dollars and pose a challenge to its model of continuously acquiring Bitcoin through equity financing.

41 minutes ago

Jupiter Exchange’s new experimental trading product, YOLO, recorded $1 billion in trading volume less than 24 hours after launching in beta yesterday, October 15.

The product lets users speculate on $SOL, $BTC, and $ETH prices, offering leverage of up to 1,000x with a minimum collateral of $5.

“$1B in volume on Jupiter Yolo in less than 24 hours!” Jupiter wrote in an X post earlier today.

However, the milestone represents the notional value of positions opened and closed, meaning $5 in collateral can create a $5,000 position at 1,000x leverage.

How YOLO Works Launched by Jupiter Labs, YOLO uses a simulated trading model instead of executing leveraged positions directly in the market.

“Positions aren’t actually executed in the market, but the profits and losses are real,” Jupiter co-founder Siong Ong explained in a post.

Unlike conventional peer-to-peer trading systems, YOLO places users against a single house pool shared across $SOL, $BTC, and $ETH. Settled trader losses replenish the pool, which funds winning traders’ profits. Users cannot deposit money to provide liquidity to the pool.

The model lets Jupiter offer leverage beyond the 250x maximum on its existing Jupiter Perps markets, which use the Jupiter Liquidity Pool (JLP) as their counterparty.

However, the higher leverage comes with substantial risks. At 1,000x leverage, a 0.1% price move can liquidate a position and consume its collateral. YOLO also offers only market orders without stop-loss or take-profit orders.

Winning Does Not Guarantee Immediate Payment YOLO’s payout structure introduces a risk beyond losing a trade. When a trader closes a position, Jupiter returns their remaining collateral in $JupUSD. However, the platform pays profits immediately only when the house pool can cover the full amount and no earlier claims remain in the queue.

If the pool lacks sufficient funds, YOLO places all profits into a first-in, first-out payout queue. The platform then pays queued profits in full, one at a time, as subsequent trader losses replenish the pool.

New winning trades join the queue while outstanding claims remain, and Jupiter provides no guaranteed payout deadline. Its trading rules warn that profits may never be paid.

Jupiter also disclosed that YOLO remains unaudited, urging users to start small rather than risk their life savings.

Solana’s Answer to PaperTrade? YOLO’s launch comes as PaperTrade, an onchain perpetual futures platform built on Hyperliquid, attracts attention with a similar house-based trading model. PaperTrade offers up to 1,000x leverage on $BTC and $ETH and rewards losing traders with $PAPER tokens. Its house pool receives traders’ losses, while the platform uses Hyperliquid prices as its market reference without executing orders on Hyperliquid’s order book.

Jupiter co-founder Siong Ong confirmed in an X post that the Jupiter team “took inspiration” from what PaperTrade has been building.

PaperTrade launched on October 10 and has reportedly generated more than $1.1 trillion in volume, with $67.8 million in TVL.

Some Solana community members have already framed YOLO as Solana’s answer to PaperTrade.

Meanwhile, Others have questioned the sustainability of products that combine extreme leverage with house-funded payouts.

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Solana Opens Shanghai Office in a First for the Blockchain Industry, Leaving CZ Surprised

The Gold I Bought On Solana Had 4 Middlemen

Solana price has retreated toward $104, putting $100 support back under pressure even as its weekly chart leaves room for the broader recovery to survive.

Summary

SOL’s daily chart showed $104.47 after an intraday decline to $103.91.
The weekly 50-period average near $98.99 sits just beneath the recent $100.62 low.
Daily Aroon and Awesome Oscillator readings favored continued downside pressure.
U.S. Solana ETFs recorded nine consecutive withdrawal sessions ahead of the scheduled Alpenglow upgrade.

Solana is back near the area where its September recovery began to gather strength. After advancing from its summer base toward $124, the token has surrendered much of that breakout, leaving buyers defending a narrower cushion above $100.

Solana’s daily chart shows SOL was trading at $104.47, down 0.92% for the session after reaching $107.44. Its inability to hold that intraday advance brings the previous day’s $100.62 low back into focus.

Yet the daily and weekly charts tell different parts of the story. Short-term momentum continues to weaken, while the weekly price remains above two moving averages that could help determine whether the pullback becomes a deeper reversal.

Solana’s weekly recovery rests on the $99 area
The weekly chart placed the 50-week simple moving average at $98.99, just below the psychological $100 threshold. The 20-week average sat farther down at $89.56.

Solana price weekly chart — Oct. 16 | Source: TradingView
This makes the area around $99–$101 a more consequential test than the round number alone. It brings the recent low and the 50-week average close together, giving buyers a defined region to defend after the retreat from $124.

SOL remained above both shorter weekly averages, but below its 200-week average at $112.43. The September rally had carried price above that longer-term reference before the latest decline pushed it back underneath.

A recovery through roughly $112–$113 would therefore repair part of the weekly damage. Until then, the move back below the 200-week average leaves the rebound facing resistance before it can challenge the recent peak.

Weekly momentum has also cooled. Stochastic RSI showed its faster line at 75.77, below the slower line at 88.60 after turning down from elevated readings. The summer recovery has lost momentum as price returns toward support.

A separate Oct. 16 assessment from the account publishing as Daan Crypto Trades described SOL as holding above major support, with the daily 200-period exponential moving average approaching beneath it. The account treated a loss of that area as an invalidation of its recovery setup.

$SOL Slow and steady. It has been pretty resilient relative to $BTC & $ETH the past few days.

Still sitting right above the major support level with the Daily 200EMA coming in below. So that's a clear invalidation below.

Solana Breakpoint is a month from now which usually sees… pic.twitter.com/Gizckx6ilx

— Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) October 16, 2026

Daily selling pressure challenges the longer-term bullish case
The daily indicators give buyers little room for another failed bounce. Aroon Down stood at 92.86%, while Aroon Up was at zero. That wide separation favors the recent downward trend, with fresh lows occurring much more recently than fresh highs.

Solana price daily chart — Oct. 16 | Source: TradingView
The Awesome Oscillator was also negative at −6.49, and its latest bars were red. Together, those readings show that the retreat toward support is still accompanied by weakening momentum.

Crypto Xlarge offered a more optimistic monthly interpretation in an Oct. 16 post. The account described price compressing between rising support and horizontal resistance, alongside a possible RSI trendline breakout.

Its outlook depends on confirmation. SOL remains well below the upper boundary drawn on that monthly chart, while the immediate daily setup is testing whether buyers can preserve support.

U.S. fund flows add another obstacle. Farside Investors recorded $9.8 million in Solana ETF withdrawals on Oct. 15, extending the negative streak to nine trading sessions. Calculated from its table, those sessions produced approximately $37.8 million in combined outflows.

The selling also followed a broader withdrawal from crypto funds. crypto.news’ weekly ETF flow review recorded $1.29 billion in withdrawals across five tracked U.S. crypto ETF categories during Oct. 5–9.

Liquidation clusters frame the next recovery attempt
CoinGlass’s one-month liquidation heatmap showed nearby concentrations around $104–$105, with further bands around $108–$110. Larger overhead concentrations remained near $123–$125, close to the region where the recent advance stalled.

Solana liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass
Below price, visible bands around $100–$101 and $96–$97 place leveraged positions near the same area now being tested on the weekly chart.

crypto.news’ previous Solana price analysis documented Thursday’s rebound from $100.62 toward $106.20. The latest daily reading near $104.47 shows that buyers have already surrendered part of that recovery.

Alpenglow provides the next scheduled network catalyst. The Solana Foundation expects activation on Oct. 21, targeting roughly 150-millisecond finality.

For price, the nearer test remains $99–$101. Holding that region would preserve a route back toward $108–$110 and the weekly resistance near $112.43. Losing it would expose the heatmap concentrations around $96–$97, with the 20-week average near $89.56 becoming the next broader reference.

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

US-listed cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted divergent results on October 15, with Bitcoin funds recording modest inflows while products tracking Ethereum, XRP, and Solana faced net withdrawals.

Bitcoin regains ground after sharp outflowsBitcoin ETF products collectively brought in $5.1 million on October 15, offsetting some losses from the prior session. On October 14, Bitcoin funds saw $261.4 million in outflows, led by major withdrawals from Fidelity’s FBTC and BlackRock’s IBIT.

By contrast, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) registered inflows of $16.8 million, partially balancing $7.6 million in redemptions from Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust and $4.1 million from Invesco Galaxy’s BTCO.

Despite the daily rebound, data from Farside Investors indicated Bitcoin ETFs had a net loss of $146 million between October 12 and 15, reflecting persistent selling pressures during the week.

On a single trading day, Bitcoin-linked investment products drew more demand than major altcoin ETFs, though net inflows remained modest in the context of broader weekly outflows.

Altcoin ETFs report notable redemptionsEthereum, XRP, and Solana ETFs all posted net outflows during the session, with Ethereum experiencing the largest withdrawals among the four major crypto assets.

According to Farside Investors, US spot Ethereum ETFs shed $60.3 million on October 15, following a $129.5 million outflow the previous day. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) led the redemptions with $44.4 million, while Grayscale’s ETHE lost $18.3 million. Inflows of $2.4 million into Fidelity’s FETH provided limited offset.

Over two trading days, net outflows from Ethereum ETFs reached approximately $189.8 million. Despite the recent withdrawals, cumulative US Ethereum ETF net inflows remain positive at about $13 billion since launch.

Mini dictionary: Farside Investors, a financial research and data analysis firm, provides daily flows and statistics for US-listed spot and futures-based cryptocurrency ETFs, widely used by analysts in tracking institutional crypto fund activity.

XRP investment products also faced withdrawals. Data from CryptoETF Today showed XRP funds recorded around $1 million in net outflows on October 15. Bitwise’s XRP ETF accounted for $3.7 million in redemptions, partly balanced by $2.7 million in inflows into Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ fund. Estimates of XRP outflows varied between trackers, reflecting differences in how daily flows and fund coverage are calculated.

Despite the short-term weakness, the five XRP funds monitored by CryptoETF Today have seen total net inflows of roughly $1.81 billion since their respective launches.

Mini dictionary: CryptoETF Today is a market data provider that tracks flows and asset movements for US-listed crypto ETFs, focusing on leading digital asset investment products for both institutional and retail investors.

Solana ETFs, meanwhile, experienced $9.8 million in withdrawals. Grayscale’s GSOL saw $6 million in redemptions, while Bitwise’s BSOL lost $3.8 million. The pullback followed last week’s $24.8 million in outflows, which marked the end of a 14-week inflow streak into Solana funds.

AssetOutflow (Oct 15)Key Fund(s)2-Day Cumulative OutflowEthereum$60.3 millionETHA, ETHE, FETH$189.8 millionXRP$1 millionBitwise XRP, Franklin XRPZn/aSolana$9.8 millionGSOL, BSOL$34.6 million*Bitcoin+$5.1 millionIBIT, Mini Trust, BTCO$146 million (Oct 12-15)*Includes $24.8 million outflow during previous week.

Wider context: Institutional demand and adoptionRecent ETF outflows have reflected the broader volatility and risk-off sentiment seen across crypto markets in mid-October. While Bitcoin ETFs recovered briefly, many institutional investors continued to withdraw holdings from major altcoin products.

Analysts have cautioned that the latest short-term outflows are not necessarily indicative of a shift away from digital asset adoption. Cumulative net inflows into both Ethereum and XRP ETFs remain significantly positive since their US market introductions.

Some industry observers noted there is no direct evidence to suggest funds withdrawn from leading altcoin ETFs have been immediately reallocated into Bitcoin products. Daily fund flows can be influenced by a range of factors including portfolio rebalancing, market sentiment shifts, or institutional capital movements.

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

In a recent X post, long-time Shiba Inu community member Mazrael hinted that Shiba Inu's pseudonymous creator, Ryoshi, might be gone for good after disappearing in May 2022.

Just like Bitcoin's enigmatic creator Satoshi Nakamoto, who exited the scene in April 2011, Ryoshi deleted his iconic Medium posts and previous tweets in May 2022 and has never been heard from since.

Not from Ryoshi. The allhailtheshiba Medium was deleted May 30, 2022. A different account took the handle afterward confirmed by the change in Medium page user ID on Wayback Machine (70f3e7a9c807 → c8d086596085). Same username, different account. Post-deletion content isn't Ryoshi. And you know this.

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— Mazrael.shib (@Mazrael_shib) October 16, 2026 In response to an article that sought to explain the mystery of the Shiba Inu founder, Mazrael clarified that any content ascribed to Ryoshi after the deletion of his tweets and Medium posts may not be from him.

Key detail uncoveredSome in the crypto market claimed the Shiba Inu creator had returned and might have launched other tokens (meme coins), drawing comparisons to Ryoshi's inspiration and his X profile picture.

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Mazrael firmly stated that this is "not from Ryoshi" while sharing a key detail to support his claim. According to Mazrael, the 'allhailtheshiba' Medium attributed to Ryoshi was deleted on May 30, 2022. Shortly after, a different account took this handle, which is confirmed by the change in Medium page user ID on the Wayback Machine from 70f3e7a9c807 to c8d086596085.

"Same username, different account. Post-deletion content isn't Ryoshi," Mazrael wrote alongside a screenshot that showed the details of the deletion of the 'allhailtheshiba' page and a subsequent change in user ID.

The screenshot showed the page user ID as of May 30, 2021, when Ryoshi was active in the SHIB community, as '70f3e7a9c807.' Following the deletion of the page, a new user ID emerged as 'c8d086596085'.

"This is wrong—this message was posted on the Medium after Ryoshi deleted the 'allhailtheshiba' handle and someone else took the handle," Mazrael wrote, highlighting this fact without specifically stating the message and the post he was referring to.

"This is observable by anyone on Wayback Machine. The Medium page username is the same as they took the same handle, but the user ID is the proof in the page," Mazrael wrote. 

Cover image via depositphotos.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is trying to restart growth that should erase yet another zero from the coin's price and lift its market capitalization to $7 billion.

After a powerful surge in the third quarter (+39.3%), the token went into a correction. Its market capitalization is now holding at $3.05 billion, while the price has frozen around $0.00000516. The investors' plan to remove the zero has been put on pause, and now everything depends on one specific line on the chart.

For the zero-erasing scenario to come back to life, buyers need one clear signal: closing the current week above the 23-week moving average (the green line).

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Shiba Inu (SHIB) weekly market capitalization chart testing crucial support levels, Source: TradingViewThe price has now fallen below this level. Below it, the last line of defense is the round mark of $0.00000500, which keeps the market capitalization near the key $3 billion support. If large buyers step up their volumes and push the price above the green line by the weekly close, SHIB will return to growth. If the dip cannot be bought back, the coin risks sliding to the summer lows.

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The two scenarios everything is heading toward:

Optimistic: 798 whales muster their will, buy the price back above the green line, erase the zero, and drive the market capitalization to to outpace Dogecoin, to the envy of its chief fan Elon Musk.Realistic: The buyback chokes, SHIB goes down to test the summer bottom, and the million retail "shrimps" are left with nothing to do but tighten their belts and keep believing in deflation.Who is dragging the token to $7 billionThere is no panic inside the blockchain itself. On the contrary, large players are using the drop to accumulate coins. Over the past 24 hours, investors withdrew another 51 billion tokens from exchanges to their own wallets.

At the same time, the fate of this push toward $7 billion lies in the hands of a very narrow club. Blockchain statistics show that 94.6% of all SHIB coins are controlled by just 798 large wallets.

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As long as these holders (among them exactly 310 dollar millionaires) are not selling their coins, a supply shortage is building in the market. As soon as they push the price above the green line, it will become a signal for the mass retail market, which will then drive the remaining capital toward the target billions.

Shiba Inu (SHIB), a popular meme-based cryptocurrency, is aiming to regain bullish momentum after a recent correction. The project’s community hopes that an upward move would help eliminate another zero from the token’s price and increase the market capitalization to $7 billion.

Key resistance levels and technical outlookSHIB experienced a strong rally in the third quarter, gaining 39.3%. However, this upward trend has since reversed, with the price retreating to approximately $0.00000516. The coin’s market capitalization now sits at around $3.05 billion, and price action has stalled.

Analysts point to the 23-week moving average as a crucial resistance level. The token’s price has slipped below this benchmark, and the next notable support rests at the psychologically significant $0.00000500 mark. This level also serves as a key threshold for maintaining SHIB’s $3 billion market cap.

If buyers succeed in pushing SHIB above the 23-week moving average by the weekly close, it could signal renewed growth and set the stage for further gains. Conversely, failure to reclaim this level increases the risk of a decline toward the summer lows.

Whale influence and concentrated ownershipOwnership within the SHIB ecosystem remains highly concentrated. Current blockchain analytics reveal that 798 wallets control a striking 94.6% of the total circulating supply. This elite group includes 310 wallets each holding dollar millionaire status in SHIB.

These major holders play a decisive role in price dynamics. If large investors collectively support the price above critical levels, a shortage of available supply could trigger a broader market reaction.

On the retail side, around a million smaller investors continue to monitor whale activity, with many hoping bullish momentum will return if the price recovers key technical levels.

Mini dictionary: Whale, a market participant who holds a very large amount of a particular cryptocurrency, often able to influence prices due to the size of their transactions.

MetricCurrent ValueKey Level/Recent ChangeSHIB price$0.0000051623-week MA as resistanceMarket capitalization$3.05 billionTarget: $7 billionTokens withdrawn from exchanges (24h)51 billion SHIBN/AOwnership concentration94.6% held by 798 wallets310 wallets with $1 million+Large withdrawals and market sentimentDespite the price pullback, blockchain data shows that major players are withdrawing SHIB from exchanges and accumulating coins. Over the past 24 hours, investors have moved 51 billion SHIB into personal wallets, reflecting confidence among leading holders.

This ongoing accumulation suggests that, even amid volatility, significant holders remain optimistic about SHIB’s prospects. Market watchers note that until these whales decide to sell, the circulating supply is likely to stay tight, which could fuel future price surges if bullish triggers appear.

As soon as whales push the price above key resistance, retail investors may flood back in, driving SHIB’s market capitalization toward the $7 billion mark.

17h05 ▪
4
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Fenelon L.

Summarize this article with:

Bitcoin brushed $80,000 on Thursday before bouncing back above $82,000. While buyers managed to defend this key threshold, Glassnode notes a sign of fragility: buy orders supporting the price are becoming scarce below this symbolic level. A situation that deserves attention, as tensions over US inflation continue to weigh on markets.

In brief

On Thursday, bitcoin reached $79,800, exhausting some of the buy orders positioned at $80,000 on Binance. New demand then propelled its price to $82,634.
According to Glassnode, buy orders below $80,000 are becoming less numerous, which could weaken the next rebound.
Position liquidations accompanied the movement, while US wholesale prices rose 6.3% year over year.

At $80,000, buyers hold firm, but their reserve diminishes
The day before, the market analysis already highlighted the central role of the $80,000 threshold. On Thursday, Binance’s order book confirmed its importance.

Before 1 pm, bitcoin traded between $80,500 and $81,900, supported by a significant volume of buy orders at $80,000. Then, the price slipped to $79,800, putting this reserve to a tough test.

About twenty minutes later, Glassnode spotted new buy orders appearing just below this threshold. Buyers then reinforced their presence, allowing bitcoin to rise back to $82,634. In the evening, the price found new support around $82,000.

However, Glassnode emphasizes an important point: even though buyers defended $80,000, available orders below this level remain fewer than before. In other words, the next pullback may face less support.

Liquidations fuel the rebound despite economic tensions
Movements in derivative markets also explain part of this rise. The decline triggered about $930 million in liquidations, including $780 million of long positions. Then, the rebound resulted in $53 million in short position liquidations.

These forced buybacks can accelerate an uptrend but do not guarantee its continuation. Meanwhile, the US economic context continues to fuel concerns.

US wholesale prices rose 6.3% year over year, after the release of a consumer price index at its highest level in four months. Meanwhile, Beth Hammack, president of the Cleveland Fed, mentioned the possibility of a tougher response to inflation.

Investors are also awaiting the next statements from the Federal Reserve chairman. At the same time, US ETFs backed by bitcoin and ether recorded $391 million in outflows in a single session.

How high can bitcoin rise?
Prediction markets provide insight into investors’ expectations. At the start of the session, bettors estimated a 94.8% probability of closing above $80,000 and 53.5% probability of a price above $82,000.

By mid-morning, these probabilities had climbed to 97.2% and 68.5%, while the $84,000 threshold convinced only about 4% of bettors.

In the longer term, expectations remain mixed. The annual market, which represents nearly $76 million in volume, attributes a 38.5% chance to an increase up to $95,000 before December 31, versus 37.5% for a drop to $70,000.

Willy Woo, however, is more optimistic. According to him, bitcoin has already absorbed a significant part of its correction, even as stock markets were setting records.

The $80,000 threshold therefore held for the first time. But the question remains: will buyers have enough reserves to defend this level on the next pullback? The answer will mainly depend on the actual evolution of orders in the market.

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Fenelon L.

Passionné par le Bitcoin, j'aime explorer les méandres de la blockchain et des cryptos et je partage mes découvertes avec la communauté. Mon rêve est de vivre dans un monde où la vie privée et la liberté financière sont garanties pour tous, et je crois fermement que Bitcoin est l'outil qui peut rendre cela possible.

DISCLAIMER

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