Crypto News

Bitcoin is holding near the lower boundary of a parallel trading channel as fear weighs on stocks and cryptocurrencies. A potential decline in the US 10-year Treasury yield from its recent peak of 5.36% towards 4.7% could ease pressure on risk assets and support a relief rally. The technical picture for Bitcoin is mixed. The price could rebound towards the descending trendline and resistance near $84,000, while momentum indicators suggest a possible short-term improvement. However, Bitcoin has fallen below its 50-day simple moving average. A daily close below that level could confirm a breakdown, and weakening weekly momentum raises the risk of a deeper correction towards $70,000. The article also points to weakness in US stocks, with the market retreating from a high near 7,900 and support identified around 7,630. Overall, Bitcoin traders are weighing the possibility of a relief bounce against signals that the correction could continue.

Morpho Midnight, Morpho’s fixed-rate DeFi lending protocol, says deposits have exceeded $100 million about three months after its July 21 launch. The protocol operates mainly on Base and later added Ethereum, offering fixed-rate lending alongside Morpho Blue’s variable-rate markets. Its offer-book model lets lenders set rates and maturities. Funds are locked only when offers match, while unmatched offers can continue earning variable yield through Morpho Blue callbacks. Coinbase now offers fixed-rate Bitcoin-backed loans through Midnight. The headline deposit figure differs sharply from DefiLlama’s reported $19.5 million in total value locked (TVL) as of October 22. The metrics may count unmatched offers and deposited capital differently, so the figures are not directly comparable. Traders should track both measures to assess actual liquidity and adoption. Morpho Midnight’s growth signals interest in predictable DeFi borrowing costs, but it remains a small part of Morpho, whose overall deposits exceeded $14 billion earlier in 2026.

Monero (XMR) surged above $650 on October 22, reaching an eight-month high, before retreating to about $605. The rally followed the release of Monero GUI v0.18.5.4, a minor update with bug fixes and renewed support for testnet and stagenet wallets. Some traders forecast a move to $1,000, while one analyst warned that historically elevated open interest could increase the risk of a sharp correction; Santiment disputed the open-interest claim. Zcash (ZEC) climbed above $1,360 on October 21, amid plans to speed up block production through the NU7 upgrade, targeted for November 5, and reports of about $37 million in leveraged long positions. It later fell to around $1,200 and was down roughly 2% for the week. A trader flagged $1,050 as key support and said reclaiming $1,300 could weaken a bearish chart pattern. Bitcoin (BTC) was rejected near $85,000 and traded around $81,500. Despite market uncertainty, newly created wallets reportedly withdrew more than $770 million in BTC since October 1, while holders with 10–10,000 BTC accumulated nearly 90,000 BTC in a month. Continued accumulation could reduce available supply, although its price effect depends on demand.

Recent hardware wallet security incidents have renewed debate over whether crypto self-custody is suitable for beginners. Ledger devices were reportedly affected by implants that stole recovery phrases, while a Coldcard firmware bug could let attackers recreate private keys and steal funds. Industry leaders disagree on whether self-custody was ever designed for newcomers. Onramp CEO Michael Tanguma says it was not, and argues that simpler custody tools are needed for wider adoption. Safe Labs CEO Rahul Rumalla says self-custody is meant for everyone, but users should not have to become security experts. Multisignature wallets can improve security by requiring several keys to approve transactions, but they add complexity around signer coordination, backups and recovery. They also cannot prevent users from approving a malicious transaction if multiple signers are fooled by the same compromised interface. Seedless wallets remove recovery phrases but introduce other risks. Tangem says users can back up access across up to three devices; losing all of them would permanently lock funds. Foundation CEO Zach Herbert also warned that wallets without a built-in screen may leave users vulnerable to approving malicious transactions through a compromised phone. For traders, the debate highlights that self-custody security depends on both device integrity and safe transaction verification. More accessible wallet designs could support crypto adoption, but security flaws or confusing recovery procedures may undermine user confidence.

Currency markets were subdued, but the yen and Swiss franc moved in opposite directions. The yen posted a modest gain to lead G10 currencies, while the Swiss franc fell 0.25% to rank last. The euro traded between about $1.1185 and $1.1225, caught between pressure on France and a sharp decline in US interest rates. Global equities remained under pressure. The MSCI Asia-Pacific index fell for a fourth consecutive week, while Europe’s Stoxx 600 was down about 1.6% for the week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were near the lower ends of their recent ranges, with futures little changed. Investors were watching the preliminary US October PMI. The composite reading was expected to ease to 57.1 from 58.4. The yen’s relative strength and the Swiss franc’s decline point to mixed safe-haven demand, while weaker equities and lower US rates could influence currency and risk-asset trading.

South Korea plans to require certain crypto businesses to register and report cross-border virtual asset transfers from December 3, 2026. The proposed rules cover transfers between domestic and overseas exchanges, as well as transfers between exchanges and private wallets. Qualifying firms would report transaction data through the Bank of Korea’s foreign exchange information system and meet staffing and technology requirements. The draft does not formally recognize USDT or USDC as payment instruments, nor does it announce new stablecoin trading restrictions. Public comments close October 26, after which the rules will undergo further reviews. The framework could increase compliance costs for exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb, depending on their activities, while strengthening oversight of overseas crypto transfers.

Bitcoin traded near $81,500 on Friday after dipping to about $81,000 late Thursday, following a week of roughly $3,000 price swings. It was down 0.4% over 24 hours and remained below the $82,500 level it lost on Thursday. Bitcoin’s narrower trading range suggests a pause in recent volatility, but not a confirmed recovery. Altcoins were mixed. BNB gained nearly 2% to about $745, while DOGE rose around 1%. XMR fell 7% to roughly $607 and ZEC dropped nearly 4% to about $1,200. ETH, XRP, SOL and HYPE slipped by 1% or less. Broader markets steadied, with Nasdaq 100 futures little changed after the index’s sharpest daily fall since June. Rising Brent crude prices, which reached their highest level since early May, added to inflation concerns ahead of the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 27–28 meeting. The oil and rate outlook could keep crypto traders cautious, even as technology stocks stabilise.

Bitcoin’s 90-day realized volatility was about 38% on Thursday, according to CoinDesk calculations. That is close to Nvidia’s 37%, but well above gold’s 23.5% and the S&P 500’s 11%. The euro-dollar pair was much steadier at 4.6%, making Bitcoin roughly eight times more volatile. Bitcoin volatility has declined over time: its average was about 58% since January 2020 and it peaked at 134% in June 2020. Its lowest reading, 27.5%, came in September 2025. The figures show that Bitcoin has become less volatile but remains riskier than major traditional assets, a factor for traders weighing portfolio diversification and position sizing. A separate market signal showed the S&P 500’s VIX above its 200-day average, while Bitcoin’s implied-volatility gauge, BVIV, remained below its own 200-day average. This points to rising expected turbulence in equities but comparatively restrained expectations for Bitcoin, although that could change if volatility spreads across markets.

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #428 covers a proposed Bitcoin layer 2 design, wallet improvements and important infrastructure security fixes. Adam Gibson’s Lichen proposal would let users redeem bitcoin from their own onchain 2-of-2 contracts even if the single issuer refuses or goes offline. The design still relies on the sequencer to process ledger activity honestly, and some tokens received beyond a user’s negotiated redemption cap may only be redeemable at the issuer’s discretion. João Dias proposed descriptor syntax for importing known hash preimages into Bitcoin Core wallets, potentially allowing wallets to construct and sign transactions without external tools. The proposal’s scope and implementation details remain open for discussion. The newsletter also reports Eclair security releases, fixes for Lightning routing and taproot-splicing vulnerabilities, and updates to BDK, LND and BTCPay Server. These Bitcoin software changes may matter to node operators and wallet developers, but the article reports no market-moving price event.

Futu Holdings has launched BNB deposits and withdrawals for eligible professional investors in Hong Kong, allowing clients to transfer BNB between self-custody wallets and Futu crypto accounts. The service, introduced on October 23 through Futu Securities International (Hong Kong), uses the BNB Smart Chain and BEP20 standard. Withdrawals are restricted to pre-verified, whitelisted addresses and typically complete by 6:00 p.m. Hong Kong time on the third business day. Futu says it will not charge additional platform fees for BNB transfers for now, although withdrawals carry a fee of about 0.000055 BNB. Eligibility is limited to professional investors, for whom a qualifying portfolio threshold can be HK$8 million. The move expands Futu’s BNB offering beyond trading. Its PantherTrade platform began offering BNB trading pairs to professional investors in July 2026. The new BNB transfer option provides eligible clients with more control over custody, but its restricted access and slow withdrawal timeline limit the immediate reach and likely market impact.

HTX Research’s report on the 2026 U.S. midterm elections expects elevated crypto market volatility before and immediately after the vote. It says inflation, financing costs and capital flows are likely to drive short-term crypto prices more than election politics. The report anticipates repeated repricing and diverging performance across digital assets, rather than a sustained rally based on a single political narrative. It examines possible effects on crypto legislation, regulatory oversight and asset prices under different congressional outcomes, and outlines indicators to monitor through the first half of 2027. The report is available on HTX’s website.

Paybis has added four local payment methods for crypto purchases in the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Austria: iDEAL, BLIK, Multibanco and EPS. Customers can confirm payments through banking apps or online banking, or pay a Multibanco reference, without entering card details. Cards and bank transfers remain available. The service offers more than 90 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and USDC. Payment limits range from €5,000 for Multibanco to €50,000 per iDEAL transaction. These options are the first four of 13 local payment methods Paybis plans to add. The company says it will support more than 30 ways to pay once the rollout is complete. Upcoming options include services in Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Norway and Denmark.

Coinbase remains rated Hold ahead of its Q3 earnings report on October 29. The analyst cites strong liquidity, derivatives market-share gains, faster growth in prediction markets and record USDC balances in Q2, but says Coinbase has yet to demonstrate sustained operating profitability. The article forecasts Q3 revenue of $1.12 billion to $1.22 billion and underlying operating losses of up to $75 million. The Q4 outlook could influence any change to the rating. Coinbase shares trade at elevated revenue multiples—8.8 times estimated FY2026 revenue and 6.9 times FY2027 revenue—making a revenue rebound, cost discipline and evidence of stronger product margins important to the investment case. Key risks include weaker retail trading, volatility in USDC-related revenue, Deribit integration, stock-based compensation and competition from Robinhood and Circle.

US Treasury yields recorded their steepest one-day fall since the March 2023 regional banking crisis on 22 October, with yields across maturities dropping 15–21 basis points. The 10-year yield closed at 4.95%. JPMorgan said the rally was driven by widening French-German bond spreads and continued weakness in technology shares, rather than a material improvement in US economic fundamentals. The bank said foreign private investors remain strong buyers of longer-dated Treasuries, despite concerns about de-dollarisation. Recent 10-year and 30-year auctions recorded historically high end-user demand, while August data showed the fastest net foreign purchases of long-term Treasuries in more than a year. JPMorgan identified 4.94%–5.02% as a key resistance zone for the 10-year yield. It cautioned against betting against the bond rally until risk assets show clear signs of stabilisation. The bank also maintained its recommendation to hold 10-year/30-year yield-curve steepeners, a trade it sees as offering relative value.

SlowMist found a data-stealing backdoor in the GitHub repository Hylance/sol-live, presented as a Solidity interview practice project. The malicious code is hidden in VS Code workspace settings and can run when users select the project’s custom terminal configuration. On macOS and Linux, it downloads and executes a remote script; Windows execution remains unconfirmed because of a possible quoting error. Analysis of archived code and retained payloads found capabilities to collect browser login databases and wallet extension data, copy macOS Keychain files, scan and upload local files, monitor clipboard contents, and run commands through a remote-control channel. The code’s browser password decryption function returns an empty value, and investigators did not verify that passwords, seed phrases or private keys were decrypted or stolen. They also did not execute the sample or confirm infections or data exfiltration on victim devices. SlowMist says users who launched the project’s malicious terminal configuration should investigate their devices and, if exposure cannot be ruled out, move wallet assets and rotate credentials using a trusted device. The incident highlights software supply-chain risk for crypto developers: opening the repository alone is not confirmed to trigger the backdoor.

Pi Network’s PI token traded near $0.0786 on October 23, below $0.08 despite the scheduled Protocol 28 Mainnet activation. Pi set October 13 as the deadline for node operators to update and October 16 as the activation date, but its node page still described the upgrade as “in progress” on October 23. The project says Protocol 28 improves handling of delayed transaction data and allows developers to upgrade groups of smart contracts together. These are developer tools, not proof of greater adoption: Pi has not published comparable figures for app transactions, repeat users, payment failures or the use of the new features in production. Pi reports more than 300 Mainnet apps and 18.1 million KYC-verified users, but those counts do not establish active customers or payment demand. PI’s reported 24-hour trading volume was about $3.1 million, with a market value near $888 million. Price movements around the upgrade do not show that it caused either buying or selling. The next potential checkpoint is Pi’s online ecosystem summit, scheduled for November 17–19. Evidence of working apps, repeat payments and PI’s role in those transactions would help traders assess whether the upgrade can generate sustained demand. Until then, the article’s central takeaway is that Protocol 28 may expand what developers can build, but its economic impact remains unproven.

Bitcoin steadied near $81,700 after recovering from about $81,000, while altcoins led the rebound. Ether rose 0.9%, the CoinDesk 80 index gained 0.7%, and memecoins climbed 2.9%. Pepe (PEPE) advanced about 13%–14%, extending its weekly gain to 23%, with no clear catalyst reported. The recovery followed a tech-led sell-off on Thursday, when the Nasdaq fell 2.6%. Market attention is turning to the Federal Reserve’s October 27–28 meeting and US spot Bitcoin ETF flows. Those funds recorded $635 million in outflows on Thursday, after attracting more than $1 billion over the first three days of the week. Brent crude near $113 a barrel is also keeping inflation concerns in focus. Crypto derivatives signals were mixed. Futures volume and liquidations fell, while open interest edged higher in Bitcoin and Ether, suggesting some new positions were being opened. However, traders continued to close positions in Solana, XRP, Dogecoin and Zcash. Options activity showed demand for Bitcoin calls, while Ether options and one-week skew pointed to stronger demand for downside protection. The rebound was broad but uneven: Polkadot and Cosmos rose more than 5%, and several DeFi tokens also gained. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator rose to 58 from 54 earlier in the week. The move suggests improving altcoin sentiment, but ETF outflows, macroeconomic risks and mixed positioning leave the near-term market outlook uncertain.

Zcash (ZEC) is at the centre of a growing contest between the Winklevoss twins and Digital Currency Group (DCG), as the privacy coin has gained about 3,000% year to date. The rivalry spans investment products and mining infrastructure. DCG’s Grayscale launched what the article describes as the first US Zcash ETF in August. The Winklevoss twins filed this month to launch a competing Zcash ETF. Their backed miner, Cypherpunk Technologies, holds about 20% of the network’s computing power. DCG-backed Fortitude Mining says its share is expected to reach 20% after planned capacity additions. The firms plan to invest tens of millions of dollars to expand mining capacity. Because Zcash mining rewards are distributed through competition for a fixed issuance, more computing power can increase a miner’s chance of earning rewards but does not guarantee a higher ZEC price.

Glassnode and Fasanara Digital’s Q4 2026 Digital Asset Report says traditional finance is increasingly using crypto derivatives, with perpetual contracts linked to stocks, gold and oil gaining traction on major trading venues. The report examines liquidity, derivatives, tokenized assets and institutional flows, and describes the trend as a structural shift as institutions incorporate these instruments into investment strategies. Perpetual futures have no expiry date and use funding payments between traders to keep contract prices close to the underlying asset. Their expansion into traditional markets could intensify competition between crypto venues and conventional futures exchanges and brokerages. It also brings risks: leverage can magnify losses and liquidations, while 24/7 trading may expose participants to faster moves. The report offers no specific trading-volume figures or direct market-price forecast.

The Cysic bridge exploit has taken a new turn: the attacker transferred about $744,000 in ETH and BNB to Tornado Cash on Friday, according to PeckShield. The funds included 300 ETH and 30.4 BNB. The exploit, disclosed on Saturday, allowed the attacker to mint 10 million CYS tokens on BNB Smart Chain. Cysic suspended the bridge and blacklisted the recipient wallet, freezing about 2.8 million newly minted tokens. The foundation said its mainnet and assets already held in user wallets were unaffected. Cysic later offered a 10% recovery bounty if the attacker returned 275.872 ETH, worth about $665,000 and representing roughly 90% of the identified Ether proceeds. The transfer to Tornado Cash may make tracing the funds more difficult. The incident could weigh on sentiment toward CYS and bridge security, although the article reports no broader market impact.

A large Bitcoin holder deposited 4,000 BTC, worth about $327 million, to Binance and Deribit over five hours, according to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain. The transfers put a substantial amount of Bitcoin on centralized trading platforms, where it could be used for spot sales, derivatives positions or as collateral. The deposits alone do not confirm that the whale intends to sell, but traders may watch for increased Bitcoin supply on exchanges and short-term price volatility.

New York State is seeking to recover $1.37 billion from fugitive NovaTech founders. Investigators have traced $134.5 million in investor funds to cryptocurrency wallets, according to a report cited by Solid Intel. The report does not identify the founders, specify which wallets or tokens were involved, or provide details on the legal process. The NovaTech case highlights the risks of alleged investment fraud and the challenges of tracing and recovering funds moved through crypto wallets.

CME Group reported record third-quarter revenue of $1.7373 billion on October 21, up about 13% from $1.5376 billion a year earlier. Average daily trading volume reached approximately 29.4 million contracts, while market-data revenue totalled $243 million. The figures cover CME’s entire exchange business and do not disclose how much revenue came from crypto derivatives. A separate September product announcement said the exchange planned to launch Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures on October 19, subject to regulatory review. CME also reported first-half 2026 crypto futures and options average daily volume of 279,800 contracts, equivalent to $8.3 billion in notional value. Those figures are for the first half, not the third quarter, and cannot be used to calculate crypto-specific growth in the latest results. The earnings show strong overall activity at a major regulated derivatives exchange, but do not reveal crypto traders’ market direction or the crypto business’s contribution to growth. Contract counts also do not equal notional exposure, particularly when Micro and standard contracts are compared.

1inch says developers can use its Swap API to add tokenized real-world asset (RWA) swaps across Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base and Robinhood Chain. The API connects applications with assets from providers including Ondo, xStocks, Maple and Coinbase, offering a shared execution layer rather than requiring separate integrations for each issuer and network. On Ethereum, the API supports assets from Ondo, xStocks and Maple. Ondo RWAs have recorded more than $2.5 billion in trading volume through 1inch, according to the article. Ondo and xStocks are also supported on BNB Chain. On Base, 1inch provides access to Coinbase tokenized stocks, including assets linked to Apple, Alphabet, Meta and Nvidia. Robinhood Chain supports RWA swaps and 24/5 trading. The API is a non-custodial aggregation and execution service, not an issuer or custodian. Asset access and trading conditions depend on the issuer, network, liquidity, compliance requirements and jurisdiction. The expansion could make RWA swaps easier for wallets and apps to integrate, but does not guarantee liquidity or broad user access.

Anthropic could begin its IPO roadshow as early as the week of 9 November, with some investors discussing a valuation of about $1.5 trillion. That would be roughly 55% above the company’s $965 billion post-money valuation in its May funding round, although the figures remain under discussion and no public S-1 filing was available as of 23 October. Bloomberg estimates based on the $965 billion valuation put Spark Capital’s stake at about $7 billion, up from its $75 million investment, and Iconiq’s at roughly $17 billion after investing more than $6 billion. Menlo Ventures’ stake was estimated at $14 billion, while Sequoia Capital and Singapore’s GIC each held about 1%. These are paper valuations and do not account for dilution from new IPO shares. FTX, which invested $500 million in Anthropic in 2021, sold its entire stake for about $1.34 billion during its 2024 bankruptcy liquidation. The potential Anthropic IPO highlights the scale of investor returns in the AI sector, but the reported valuations are not realized gains and may change before listing.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company plans roughly $220 billion in capital spending in 2026, while demand for AI infrastructure still exceeds available capacity. He says the investment could help AWS grow into a business with a $1 trillion annual run rate. In a discussion with a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg, Jassy said falling AI inference costs could make the technology more accessible to businesses. He also described how AI is changing Amazon’s operations, enabling smaller teams to build products faster and prompting a rethink of Alexa. Jassy highlighted cybersecurity, human judgment and critical thinking as increasingly important in the AI era.

Hardware signer verification—not simply adding more devices—can help Bitcoin users check what a signing device actually does, according to an article about EntropyLab’s work on PSBT audits. Its planned audit feature would compare the PSBT sent to a hardware signer with the one returned, checking transaction details, signatures, sighash settings, metadata, change outputs and other fields. EntropyLab also checks supported ECDSA signatures for nonce reuse and can verify Jade anti-exfil records when the required data is available. The article stresses that a match with an independently calculated signature does not prove a signer is trustworthy, while a mismatch requires investigation rather than proving malice. Multisig remains useful for shared control, redundancy and geographic separation of keys; transaction and signature verification address a different threat: whether a signer behaves as expected. The approach has limits, including private-key requirements for some checks, support constraints and incomplete protection against hardware, firmware or supply-chain attacks.

The article reports continued growth across much of the eurozone, based on purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data, while France remains the main exception. The headline offers no specific PMI readings or further details, so the scale and sectoral sources of growth cannot be assessed. Traders may view the eurozone PMI as a broad signal of regional economic momentum, with France’s weaker performance highlighting uneven conditions. The PMI data may also inform expectations for the European Central Bank’s policy outlook.

Bitcoin is under pressure after falling from $84,800 to around $81,500, with traders watching the $80,000–$81,500 zone. The area combines a major Binance buy wall, the average cost basis of US spot Bitcoin ETFs and listed treasury firms, and the 50-day moving average. A daily close below it could expose BTC to a further pullback toward $77,000–$80,000; a move above $82,600–$83,400 would ease near-term pressure, while a break above $84,800 could trigger a short squeeze toward $94,000. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $635 million in net outflows, their largest daily withdrawal since June, turning October flows negative. Rising oil prices and geopolitical tensions are adding to inflation concerns ahead of US inflation-expectations data and the Federal Reserve’s October 28 rate decision. A possible MSCI index exclusion of Strategy on November 11 is another risk to corporate Bitcoin buying. Despite a shift by some listed miners toward AI, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate has rebounded 11.7% from its August low, near its record high. Elsewhere, Asian equities staged sharp rebounds: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Tech Index gained 2.05%, while China’s tech-heavy stocks helped drive a broad A-share rally. For crypto traders, weak ETF demand and macro uncertainty keep BTC vulnerable, but crowded short positions could fuel a rapid rebound if key resistance levels break.