Latest Crypto News | Bitcoin, Ethereum and Altcoin Updates

Aptos has released the private v1.49.2-hotfix for its mainnet nodes. Validators must upgrade, while fullnode operators are advised to upgrade. Deposits and withdrawals are not affected. The Aptos node hotfix is distributed through attached binaries or a Docker image, and its source code is not publicly available. The release is identified by commit 9769b10811399b5132b9419b767c374230d772fe. The Aptos node hotfix is primarily an infrastructure and network-maintenance update, with no stated impact on user transactions or exchange operations.

Pantera Capital’s tokenization report says the market is moving beyond issuing assets on-chain. The next challenge is building compliant, liquid and capital-efficient secondary markets. Across 671 tracked assets worth $33.18 billion, non-stablecoin tokenized assets grew 13.3% from the first to the second quarter of 2026. Demand for price exposure is strong. In June, stock perpetual futures on Hyperliquid and Lighter reached $67.8 billion, about 16 times observable spot trading in tokenized stocks. Robinhood Chain also expanded distribution: within its first month after launching on 1 July, tracked tokenized asset value increased roughly fivefold. Weekly RWA trading rose from $5 million in the first week to $887.5 million in the final week of August. Market access remains a decisive factor. Open-access products represented 41% of the value of 110 non-stablecoin products above $10 million, but generated 99.8% of observable June spot volume, or $4.8 billion. Whitelisted products accounted for 59% of value but only 0.2% of volume. However, low turnover does not necessarily indicate failure: tokenized Treasury funds may prioritise yield and issuer redemption, while credit products may derive value from lending and collateral use. June turnover varied sharply by category: tokenized stocks reached 204.6%, commodities 16.7%, credit 9.5%, private funds 9.4%, and interest-rate products just 0.1%. Only 29 of 110 products combined at least 1% monthly turnover with broadly distributed holdings. Regulatory uncertainty remains. The US Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on 15 September, while the SEC issued a five-year conditional exemption on 17 September for certain venues and liquidity providers supporting tokenized US stocks. The report concludes that tokenization’s long-term opportunity lies in combining compliant access, secondary trading, lending markets and reliable redemption.

Bitcoin held near $84,123 despite rising Treasury yields, higher oil prices and weaker institutional demand. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $148.7 million in net outflows on Wednesday, ending a nine-session inflow streak worth about $3.1 billion. Resistance sits at $85,000–$85,600, while key support is near $82,500, followed by $80,000 and $77,200. The macro outlook remains challenging for Bitcoin. A change in the calculation of US PCE inflation reduced some headline pressure, but the ISM manufacturing prices-paid index jumped to 77.9, its highest level in months. The 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.34%, its highest since 2002, while Brent crude moved above $100 after China suspended some fuel exports. Stronger payrolls could revive expectations of an October Federal Reserve rate hike and pressure risk assets. Ethereum fell to $2,682.88 as spot Ether ETFs lost $59.6 million for a second consecutive day. The ETH/BTC ratio weakened after failing to break above 0.033. Cardano dropped to $0.2462 as large holders sold about 90 million ADA, although projects with Petrobras and PUC-Rio could support its longer-term adoption case. For traders, Bitcoin remains range-bound with an upward bias, but a sustained breakout requires renewed ETF inflows, stronger volume and lower bond yields. Rising crypto security losses, including a $388 million Bitget breach and a $3.8 million NEAR Intents exploit, add to market-risk concerns.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new crypto custody rules for registered investment advisers and regulated funds. The proposal would allow advisers to self-custody eligible crypto assets when no qualified custodian is available, subject to quarterly reassessments and strict controls. These include documented expertise, multi-person private-key approval, segregated client addresses, quarterly account statements and independent accountant reviews. The SEC would also allow eligible state-chartered trust companies to provide crypto custody services. They would need state banking authorisation, written safeguards against theft and misuse, and clear separation of client and company assets. The 760-page proposal also covers custody audits, financial statements and broker-dealer services. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the plan addresses a gap created by crypto adoption advancing faster than custody infrastructure. The proposal follows the withdrawal of a 2023 custody plan and comes as wider US crypto regulation remains uncertain after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate. A 60-day public comment period will begin after publication in the Federal Register. For crypto traders, the SEC crypto custody proposal is potentially bullish for institutional access and long-term market infrastructure, but its immediate price impact is likely neutral. The rules are not yet effective and could change during consultation.

The Ethereum Foundation and Open Anonymity Project launched zkAPI on Ethereum mainnet on 1 October 2026. The Ethereum privacy system uses zero-knowledge proofs to let users pay for AI models and other API services without exposing a specific deposit, payment note or funding address to the payment server or model provider. Users deposit ETH or USDC into an onchain vault. Private notes can authorize capped, short-lived API sessions covering multiple requests. The payment server verifies proofs offchain, while the model provider receives prompts and settles usage through signed receipts. Ethereum records deposits, withdrawals and vault activity, but not every API request. Users can withdraw remaining funds through an onchain exit if the server shuts down. zkAPI uses Groth16 proofs, Baby-JubJub commitments and a 32-level Merkle tree. However, its privacy is limited. In direct runtime-key mode, the payment server should not see prompts, but the AI provider still does. In proxy mode, the zkAPI server can view traffic. IP addresses, timing, browser data, repeated phrases and identifiable documents may also reveal user links. The launch follows a February 2026 research proposal by Vitalik Buterin and Davide Crapis and comes after more than $100,000 in grants to the Open Anonymity Project. For traders, zkAPI strengthens Ethereum’s privacy, AI infrastructure and machine-to-machine payments narrative, but it is unlikely to be an immediate ETH price catalyst. Long-term relevance will depend on adoption, security audits, smart-contract safety, transaction costs and support from AI providers.

The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq-100, reached an intraday record high of $752.21 on 2 October 2026, according to MSX data. QQQ was up more than 1.22% during US trading. The move highlights continued strength in large-cap technology and growth stocks. QQQ is widely monitored as a key indicator of sentiment toward the US tech sector. The QQQ rally may support broader risk appetite, although the report contains no direct cryptocurrency catalyst. Crypto traders should watch Nasdaq futures, technology stocks, Treasury yields and the US dollar for potential spillover into Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Polymarket odds for the October FOMC meeting have shifted sharply towards a Federal Reserve rate hold. Earlier in the cycle, traders assigned more than 60% odds to a 25-basis-point hike, while the September 30 market showed a 57% chance of no change and a 42% chance of a hike. The latest October FOMC odds put the probability of a hold at 84%, against 16% for a 25-basis-point increase. The contract has recorded nearly $23 million in volume and is due to settle on October 28. The change followed comments from New York Fed President John Williams, who said policymakers had time to assess incoming economic data before deciding on further tightening. Other outcomes, including a rate cut or a hike of at least 50 basis points, remain close to zero. Williams has not ruled out another increase later in 2026. Polymarket places the probability of a later 25-basis-point hike at 66%, down from about 74% earlier in the week. This suggests traders expect a delay in tightening rather than a clear dovish policy pivot. A higher-for-longer interest-rate outlook can pressure Bitcoin by making cash and government bonds more attractive, raising borrowing costs and reducing liquidity for risk assets. Bitcoin nevertheless rose above $86,000 earlier in September, supported by exchange-traded fund flows, improved regulatory sentiment and short covering. The latest October FOMC odds may provide temporary support for BTC and broader crypto risk appetite, but traders should monitor inflation, employment data, Treasury yields, ETF flows and further Fed guidance because rate expectations can change quickly before the meeting.

WISeKey has completed its redomiciliation from Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands through a cross-border merger with its subsidiary, WISeQey Corp. The merger became legally effective on October 1, with WISeQey as the surviving company. Existing WISeKey Nasdaq ADSs and Swiss Class B shares are expected to trade until the close of October 2. WISeQey ordinary shares are scheduled to begin trading under the new WQEY ticker on Nasdaq and the SIX Swiss Exchange at market open on October 5. Each WISeKey ADS will convert into one-half of a WISeQey ordinary share. Each Class B share will generally convert into one WISeQey ordinary share, unless holders selected the alternative unlisted Class B structure. WISeQey says its operating headquarters and effective management will remain in Switzerland. The company operates in cybersecurity, digital identity, semiconductors, space-based IoT and blockchain-related technology. However, the restructuring is a corporate reorganisation rather than a cryptocurrency or token migration. For traders, the key dates are the October 2 end of legacy-security trading and the expected October 5 launch of WQEY. The main risks are temporary liquidity gaps, ticker-transition confusion and price volatility during the conversion process. The direct impact on cryptocurrency markets is limited.

Rust-Lightning, also known as the Lightning Development Kit (LDK), has advanced its 0.3 release from RC2 to RC3, adding major improvements for Bitcoin Lightning Network developers and node operators. LDK 0.3 expands channel splicing with replace-by-fee (RBF) support, the ability to add and remove funds in one operation, and APIs for tracking pending splices and discarded funding transactions. Anchor channel support has also broadened, while zero-fee HTLC negotiation is now enabled by default. Older pre-anchor channels are expected to be gradually deprecated. The LDK 0.3 release adds LSPS1 support, improves LSPS2 handling, and expands BOLT 12 functionality, including payer proofs, payment metadata and offers for phantom nodes. It also improves HTLC interception, blinded payment paths, routing privacy and forwarded-payment accounting. Asynchronous signing is now available across supported ECDSA channel-signer methods. Storage and reliability upgrades include PaginatedKVStore, FilesystemStoreV2, deferred ChainMonitor writes and faster parallel monitor loading. The release fixes several channel gossip, blockchain reorganisation, funding-tracking and splicing issues. LDK 0.3 requires Rust 1.75 or later. For Bitcoin traders, this is primarily infrastructure news rather than a direct price catalyst. LDK 0.3 could support more reliable Lightning payments and improve Bitcoin’s long-term payments utility, but short-term BTC market impact is likely to be limited. Developers must review migration risks because some BOLT 11 invoices containing payment metadata, unclaimed BOLT 12 refunds and in-flight BOLT 12 payments may become incompatible across versions. Downgrades can also be restricted in cases involving pending splices, asynchronous monitoring and zero-reserve channels.

US nonfarm payrolls first showed unexpected strength in August, rising by 162,000 against forecasts of about 53,000 to 56,000. The unemployment rate held at 4.1%, labour-force participation increased to 61.6%, and annual wage growth reached 3.1%. Upward revisions to earlier data lifted Federal Reserve rate-hike expectations, pushing Treasury yields higher and Bitcoin below $80,000. The latest September jobs report presents a sharp reversal. Nonfarm payrolls rose by only 29,000, well below the 90,000 forecast, while the August figure was revised down from 162,000 to 133,000. The unemployment rate increased to 4.2%, above the 4.1% forecast and previous reading. The weaker US labour market reduces expectations of another Federal Reserve rate hike in October. Lower rate expectations and potentially falling Treasury yields could support Bitcoin and other risk assets. However, rising recession concerns may increase short-term volatility. Traders should monitor US PPI and CPI data, Treasury yields and further changes in Fed policy expectations.

Bitcoin broke above $88,000, rising nearly 2% in 24 hours as crypto markets moved higher. A weak US jobs report showed only 29,000 new jobs, unemployment at 4.2%, and a downward revision to August employment data. The figures eased concerns about interest rates and supported a risk-on move across markets. Citigroup raised its 12-month Bitcoin target to $113,000 and its Ether target to $3,028. The bank also projected a further $5 billion in cryptocurrency inflows. Bitcoin’s rally comes alongside gains in technology futures, while gold approached $4,200 and silver traded above $61. Oil fell below $90, and the 10-year US Treasury yield stood at 5.22%. For traders, Bitcoin’s move above $88,000 strengthens its short-term momentum, but the rally remains sensitive to interest-rate expectations, Treasury yields and follow-through from institutional investors. Bitcoin and broader crypto markets could face volatility if upcoming economic data changes expectations for monetary policy.

Zano disclosed that a missing verification in Gateway Addresses allowed an attacker to mint about 18.4 million ZANO in one transaction, followed by additional ZANO and fUSD creation. The illicit tokens were valued at more than $200 million in total. The exploit began on 29 August and remained undetected for nearly a month because Zano’s privacy system made the counterfeit coins difficult to distinguish from legitimate funds. The project traced potentially affected activity across 117,941 outputs and 65,301 transactions. To protect supply integrity, Zano launched Hard Fork 7 from block 3,833,000, before the exploit. The restart removed roughly 30 days of transactions, staking rewards and mined blocks, while also disabling Gateway Addresses. Zano said affected balances would be restored without changing the ZANO supply or emission schedule, using funding from the development fund, team members and outside contributors. Exchanges must review the affected period before restoring services. The Zano incident highlights smart-contract and consensus risks in privacy-focused blockchain networks and may keep trading activity volatile until the network and exchange infrastructure are fully restored.

Morgan Stanley metals strategist Amy Gower says the gold price forecast remains supported near $4,000 an ounce despite bullion’s recent drop below $4,200. She identified three potential supports: persistent physical demand, lower long-term bond yields and falling oil prices that could reduce inflation pressure. Central banks bought a net 23 metric tons of gold in July, including about 20 tons from China. Chinese gold imports exceeded 1,000 tons in the first eight months of 2026, putting demand on track for its strongest year since at least 2017. Morgan Stanley has previously raised its 2026 gold forecast to $4,400. However, higher Treasury yields remain the main risk. The US 10-year yield recently moved above 5.3%, increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold. Traders should monitor bond yields, crude oil, Federal Reserve policy expectations, central-bank purchases and ETF flows. A sustained move below $4,000 could weaken the bullish outlook, while falling yields and continued official-sector buying may support a rebound.

Illinois’ 0.2% crypto tax has been delayed by six months, moving the proposed implementation date from 1 January to 1 July 2027. The agreement between the Digital Chamber, the Illinois Blockchain Association and state officials still requires approval from a Sangamon County circuit court judge and is expected to be filed on 2 October. The crypto tax would apply to businesses with annual receipts above $100,000. It covers digital-asset trading, transfers and custody. Industry groups say the broad tax scope could create disproportionate compliance costs for smaller crypto companies. The legal challenge argues that the crypto tax may be invalid under Illinois law, unconstitutional or pre-empted by the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act. The groups previously sought a temporary injunction because businesses had already incurred compliance preparation costs and faced regulatory uncertainty. For crypto traders, the delay reduces the near-term risk of higher operating costs for exchanges, custodians and other service providers. However, the crypto tax remains a long-term regulatory risk until the court rules on its validity and enforceability. The measure is unlikely to have a direct effect on cryptocurrency prices, but an Illinois victory could encourage more state-level taxes and increase US market fragmentation. A successful legal challenge could discourage similar policies in other states.

A US federal judge dismissed most claims in the Celsius bankruptcy estate’s lawsuit against blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, but allowed an aiding-and-abetting claim to proceed. The case alleges Chainalysis helped Celsius insiders breach fiduciary duties by supporting a misleading 2020 press release. The dispute centers on a reported $3.3 billion “audit” of Celsius assets. Chainalysis initially helped calculate about $1.18 billion using its Reactor software, before changes to the methodology raised the figure to roughly $3.3 billion. Celsius later described the result as an independent audit, despite allegations that Chainalysis knew the description was false or materially misleading. Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed 12 claims with prejudice and three consumer-protection claims without prejudice. Plaintiffs have until Oct. 20 to amend the latter claims or abandon them. Chainalysis has not commented. Celsius froze customer withdrawals in June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, leaving roughly $4.7 billion in customer assets inaccessible. The lawsuit, brought by the Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium on behalf of the Celsius estate and certain former customers, seeks to recover funds for creditors. The ruling is primarily a legal and creditor-recovery development, with limited direct impact on crypto prices.

Sui’s consensus layer is adding opt-in full-epoch replay for external consumers such as Ika. The new ReplayMode::FullEpochPaced constructor lets consumers discover a startup replay target from storage, replay finalized history at a pace tied to application acknowledgements, and receive separate notifications for committed progress, acknowledgements and target discovery. The unfinalized tail remains unpaced so it can catch up with live consensus. Consumers must continue draining and acknowledging commits while startup is pending. Closing a consumer during the acknowledgement wait triggers a startup panic. Progress reports track the stored consensus head rather than the application’s replay position. The change is designed to preserve compatibility with existing Sui consumers. Production Sui callers continue using the supplied-watermark constructor, with no migration, wire-format, consensus-rule or application-execution changes. Existing replay and readiness behavior remains unchanged, including the 250-commit production batch size. Validation on macOS ARM64 passed 373 selected consensus-core and configuration tests, replay simulations, formatting, Rustdoc and Clippy checks. A previous Linux run passed 3,150 tests but reported an unrelated legacy upgrade-compatibility failure. A v3 replay scenario remains ignored pending separate timestamp-quorum and finalization fixes. This full-epoch replay update improves recovery coordination for Sui infrastructure and external consensus consumers, but it is primarily an engineering and reliability change rather than a direct token-market catalyst.

The US ISM manufacturing PMI edged down to 54.5 in September from 54.6 in August, but remained in expansion territory for a ninth consecutive month. New orders rose to 55.3 and the employment index increased to 52.7, indicating continued activity and improving factory labor conditions. The production index fell to 56.7, while inventories declined to 48.6. The main concern was the prices index, which climbed sharply from 71.1 to 77.9, pointing to stronger input-cost pressures. For crypto traders, the ISM manufacturing PMI and its prices component are important indicators of US economic momentum and potential Federal Reserve policy. A resilient PMI may support risk appetite, but rising prices could reinforce inflation concerns, limit expectations for interest-rate cuts and pressure Bitcoin and other risk assets.

Polygon launched Crypto Checkout within its Open Money Stack, enabling merchants to accept stablecoin payments through existing checkout flows. Crypto Checkout supports payments from compatible wallets, tokens and blockchain networks, while its routing layer handles swaps, bridging and network fees in the background. The service separates the asset and network used by customers from the settlement currency preferred by merchants. Businesses can receive USDC, USDT, fiat or another selected currency. Payments settle onchain and cannot be reversed through card-style chargebacks, although merchants can still issue refunds under their own policies. Polygon Crypto Checkout is designed to work with existing Stripe setups through a drop-in component, headless SDK or API. It does not require a dedicated Polygon wallet or a replacement for card payments. USDC can also be converted into local currency and sent to a bank account through the Open Money Stack fiat off-ramp. The launch strengthens Polygon’s payments and stablecoin adoption narrative, with potential use cases in digital goods, gaming, travel, ticketing, remittances and cross-border commerce. However, the announcements provide no transaction-volume, revenue or direct token-demand data. Short-term price impact is therefore likely to be limited. Long-term success will depend on liquidity, supported assets and networks, compliance, reconciliation and merchant adoption.

Kraken’s Halloween sweepstakes will run from 1 October to 31 October 2026, offering one randomly selected winner a prize of 1,000 SOL. The Kraken Halloween sweepstakes is open to eligible clients in select regions. Users must enroll through the Kraken app, Kraken Pro app or Kraken Pro web before trading. Only eligible volume generated after enrollment counts. Every $1 of eligible spot or instant buy trading earns one entry, with a maximum of 1 million entries per account. Eligible trades cover more than 600 assets on Kraken and Kraken Pro. Bundles, stocks, xStocks, fiat-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-stablecoin trades, margin, and derivatives are excluded. A free alternative entry method is also available under the campaign’s terms and conditions. The campaign may encourage higher spot trading activity and increase user engagement on Kraken, particularly in SOL-related markets. However, the promotion does not guarantee sustained demand for SOL or broader cryptocurrency gains.

Drift has opened DFX claims for users affected by its April DeFi exploit, with verified losses now estimated at $299.5 million. Eligible wallets receive one DFX recovery token for each USDT of confirmed loss, up to a permanent supply cap of 299,500,810.998 DFX. DFX claims opened on 1 October through dfx.drift.trade and close at 00:00 UTC on 1 January 2028. Unclaimed tokens will then be burned. The recovery pool held about 3.1 million USDT at launch, giving each DFX an initial redemption value of roughly $0.0104. Users can redeem DFX immediately, hold it for potential recovery-pool growth, or trade it on secondary markets such as Raydium. Redeemed DFX is permanently burned, so redemptions cannot be reversed. The recovery pool will receive 60% to 90% of Velocity’s daily net protocol revenue, depending on revenue levels. Tether has committed up to $127.5 million to Drift’s relaunch and user recovery, while strategic partners may provide up to $20 million. Recovered assets from freezes, bounties or law-enforcement action could also increase the pool. Mandiant linked the exploit to North Korean threat group UNC6862. The DFX claims programme gives victims a potential recovery route, but its final value depends on future funding and asset recovery. Traders should monitor DFX liquidity, redemption activity and recovery-pool inflows, as these factors may drive volatility in the token’s secondary-market price.

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT virtual try-on and Favorites features globally, powered by its ChatGPT Images 2.5 model. Users can upload a selfie or full-body photo, click the new “Try On” button in shopping results, or submit a product image to preview clothing and accessories. The ChatGPT virtual try-on tool is part of OpenAI’s broader shift from in-chat checkout to product discovery. Its Instant Checkout service, launched in September 2025 and expanded through a Walmart partnership covering 200,000 products, reportedly generated conversion rates only one-third of those on Walmart.com, according to Forbes. The Information also reported that users were not widely completing purchases through the chatbot. OpenAI said its initial Instant Checkout lacked flexibility and is now encouraging merchants to use their own checkout systems. The company is focusing instead on helping users discover products through the Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard developed with Stripe for exchanging product information between AI systems and merchants. ChatGPT Images 2.5 offers more natural lighting, richer textures, improved instruction following and up to 50% lower generation latency than Images 2.0. Favorites allows users to save products and try-on images in the app’s Library. ChatGPT can also assemble outfits based on style descriptions or identify purchasable items from celebrity outfit photos. OpenAI warns that virtual try-on images may not accurately represent fit, sizing, products or appearance. For traders, the launch strengthens OpenAI’s consumer AI and e-commerce positioning, but it does not directly affect cryptocurrency markets.

South Korean insurer Kyobo Life Insurance is assessing how USDC stablecoin and tokenized real-world assets could be used in its insurance and asset-management operations. The company held a forum in Seoul with Japan’s SBI Holdings, Circle Internet Group, the issuer of USDC, and a South Korean digital-asset custodian. The discussions focused on potential stablecoin use cases, tokenized assets, custody infrastructure and possible applications within financial services. No specific launch date, investment amount or commercial product was announced. The initiative highlights growing institutional interest in USDC and blockchain-based financial infrastructure in South Korea and Japan. For crypto traders, the development is a sign of longer-term adoption potential, but it is unlikely to create an immediate USDC price catalyst because USDC is designed to maintain a stable value.

NEAR Intents identified the attacker behind a security breach that stole about $3.8 million in user funds. The exploit involved a flaw in the interaction between Omni’s deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and NEAR Intents smart contracts. The platform suspended services and pledged to fully reimburse affected users. General manager Alex Shevchenko gave the attacker 48 hours to return the assets under a responsible-disclosure arrangement. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT said the funds moved through KuCoin before being bridged into Bitcoin. The incident is a short-term negative risk for NEAR trading sentiment, although reimbursement or fund recovery could reduce longer-term damage to confidence in NEAR Intents.

Bitcoin fell 1.5% in the week through September 1, while Ether declined 1% and XRP dropped 6%. By the week ending September 29, Bitcoin and Ether had each fallen 3%, while XRP was broadly flat. Bitcoin’s year-to-date loss improved from about 12% to 4%, and Ether’s decline narrowed from roughly 19% to 10%. The latest Advisor Perspectives update still shows pressure on major cryptocurrencies, with Ether underperforming Bitcoin over the year. XRP’s recovery to a flat weekly result suggests a mixed market rather than a broad-based sell-off. Traders should monitor momentum, risk appetite and market exposure, as the different structures and risk profiles of Bitcoin and Ether may influence short- and long-term positioning.

The 10-year Treasury yield is described as technically oversold ahead of the September nonfarm payrolls report. The report is expected to show around 90,000 to 100,000 net new jobs, with forecasts rising after stronger global PMI data. August core PCE inflation increased 0.2% month on month, below the 0.3% forecast. However, the softer inflation reading failed to support Treasury prices, suggesting that bond-market sentiment remains weak and that investors may be focused on employment data, interest-rate expectations and fiscal risks. The article contrasts the limited 25-basis-point move in the 10-year Treasury yield over three years with the Federal Reserve’s rapid tightening cycle, which lifted the federal funds rate from near zero in early 2022 to above 5% by 2024. Traders may therefore watch the jobs report for signs of a potential reversal in Treasury yields or further selling pressure.

Citigroup raised its 12-month Ethereum (ETH) price target by about 35%, from $2,240 to $3,028. The bank cited improving macroeconomic conditions, stronger crypto-market activity and renewed demand for exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It also increased its Bitcoin target to $113,000 from $82,000. Ethereum remains below resistance near $2,800 after several failed attempts to hold above it. A sustained breakout could expose the $3,000 level and bring the Ethereum price target closer. Key support is estimated at $2,600-$2,660. US spot Ethereum ETFs recorded strong inflows from 21 to 23 September, including $270 million, $162.2 million and $104.5 million. However, flows later weakened, with net outflows of $59.6 million on 30 September, according to Farside Investors. About 35% of ETH is staked, limiting liquid supply and potentially amplifying institutional demand. The Ethereum outlook remains constructive, but traders should watch ETF flows, interest rates, liquidity, risk appetite and network activity before treating the higher Ethereum target as a confirmed price signal.

A Bloomberg report says Semi-Tech Leasing Group, a Chinese financing company largely controlled by Shenzhen and Beijing governments, helped Glory View Technology acquire more than 700 AI servers. At least 32 Asustek servers reportedly contained Nvidia Blackwell B300 chips, which are subject to US export controls. Glory View raised more than 3 billion yuan, about $450 million, through sale-and-leaseback financing. Semi-Tech is also linked to China’s national semiconductor fund and has invested more than 11 billion yuan, or about $1.6 billion, in computing infrastructure. Later regulatory filings reportedly removed some hardware and supplier details. The case highlights how leasing and state-backed finance may help Chinese buyers access restricted Nvidia chips, potentially challenging existing US export-control enforcement. For traders, the Nvidia chips story could increase regulatory risk for Nvidia, Asian server suppliers and AI infrastructure companies, while broader crypto-market effects are likely limited.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved an immediate $139 million disbursement to El Salvador after completing the second and third reviews of its $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility. The IMF granted El Salvador a waiver for failing to meet a performance target linked to its Bitcoin holdings. The country reportedly took corrective measures and renewed its commitments under the programme. Documents submitted by El Salvador indicated that the Bitcoin acquired after the first review came from private donations rather than public funds. The IMF said El Salvador’s economic performance was stronger than expected, with progress in anti-money-laundering controls, fiscal transparency and the planned transfer of majority ownership and control of the state-run Chivo digital wallet to private operators. For crypto traders, the decision reduces immediate policy and funding uncertainty around El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy. However, the waiver does not remove the country’s broader obligations or restrictions under the IMF programme. The direct impact on Bitcoin markets is likely to remain limited because the funding is macroeconomic support rather than a major new public Bitcoin purchase.

Blue Owl Technology Finance Corp. (OTF) has fallen 40% in just over a year and now trades at about 0.59 times net asset value (NAV). The analysis argues that credit concerns may be overstated, as non-accruals remain low and its software-focused borrowers continue to show stable fundamentals. The main risk is dividend coverage. Recurring net investment income covers only about 86% of OTF’s quarterly $0.35 dividend. Based on current earnings, the payout could be reset to roughly $0.30 unless interest rates rise or operating income improves. Scenario analysis estimates potential total returns of about 25% in the base case and 50% in a bullish case. The valuation appears to be driven more by investor-required returns and market sentiment than by material credit losses. Blue Owl Technology Finance therefore offers substantial upside potential, but traders should monitor non-accruals, earnings, interest rates and any dividend reduction.