Crypto News

Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok says AI investment has yet to produce clear financial returns across most US companies. Inflation-adjusted revenue per employee and profit margins have risen among the Magnificent Seven, but remain broadly flat at the other 493 S&P 500 companies; Apollo also found no clear AI-driven productivity acceleration. AI adoption is widespread, but a September analysis found that while 69% of S&P 500 companies were deploying AI, only 29% reported quantified outcomes and 2% tracked performance over time. Some established businesses are becoming more selective about costly AI models, with token spending viewed as a cost that can squeeze margins. The latest market focus is whether AI spending will generate adequate returns during earnings season. Meta’s plans to increase AI investment and capital expenditure recently unsettled investors, weighing on its shares and pushing credit-risk indicators to record highs. For crypto traders, the findings are not a direct token catalyst, but could affect broader risk appetite if doubts about AI-driven growth spread across markets.

Prediction markets are increasingly being used as real-time data sources, not just trading venues. Their prices can offer timely probability estimates because traders risk money, prices respond to new information and outcomes can be checked after settlement. Prediction markets are now featured by Google Finance, CNBC, CNN and The Wall Street Journal, while ICE and Tradeweb distribute related data to institutional clients. A Federal Reserve working paper assessed Kalshi forecasts for economic indicators. It found that, in the period studied, Kalshi’s median and modal interest-rate forecasts were accurate on the eve of FOMC decisions, and its headline CPI forecasts outperformed Bloomberg consensus. Rate-market expectations also shifted as economic data emerged and were broadly in line with CME FedWatch. Research cited in the reports finds prediction markets competitive with, and sometimes more accurate than, polls and expert forecasts across elections, economic releases, public health and other events. Tiger Research analyzed 2,681 settled markets on the on-chain platform Limitless. Around 85% were sports-related; in nine of 10 price bands, implied probabilities were within four percentage points of actual outcome frequencies. Thinly traded markets were less reliable. For crypto traders, prediction markets may provide useful signals about macroeconomic expectations and event risks, but the findings are not a direct catalyst for crypto prices. Greater liquidity, regulatory engagement and transparent data remain important to their credibility.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has floated an early concept for a validator-weighted oracle that could price tokenized collateral and enable new SOL issuance against it. Validators’ pricing votes would be weighted by the SOL staked with them, while profits from the activity could be taxed to generate network revenue. The Solana validator-weighted oracle is not a formal governance proposal, and no eligible collateral, vote or implementation timeline has been announced. The idea follows the Alpenglow upgrade, which went live on 21 October and brought transaction finality to about 150 milliseconds while streamlining validator votes. A native oracle could complement or compete with providers such as Pyth and RedStone. Traders will be watching for details on collateral safeguards and the effects of new issuance on SOL supply. Giving validators influence over both asset pricing and SOL creation could also raise concerns about incentives, concentration and manipulation.

Stellar’s Bell upgrade for Protocol 30 is approaching, with mainnet validators scheduled to vote at 17:00 UTC on 23 November. Testnet validators are due to vote at 17:00 UTC on 3 November; dates may change, and activation depends on validator approval. The Bell upgrade guide asks wallets, exchanges and infrastructure operators to update software for contract addresses beginning with “W” and changes to ledger-header data. JavaScript SDK v17.3.0, released on 21 October, supports encoding, decoding and validating the new addresses. Operators that decode raw ledger data also need compatible tools for the updated ledger header. Bell adds ML-DSA signature verification for smart contracts and allows customer identifiers in contract addresses. Ordinary network transactions will continue to use Ed25519, and millisecond-level ledger timestamps will not, by themselves, make ledgers close faster or change the block interval. The Bell upgrade is a technical readiness milestone, not a confirmed improvement in network speed or performance, so its direct price impact on XLM is uncertain.

Hyperliquid has updated its testnet operation-priority rules following user feedback. The noop and scheduleCancel operations no longer affect the priority of other operations. Most other operations lower the priority of competing operations until they are completed, with cancel, cancelByCloid, order, modify, and batchModify also exempt. Hyperliquid has also added cDeposit2, an API operation similar to cDeposit that supports agent-signed requests. These changes apply to testnet functionality; no direct effect on HYPE trading or prices was reported.

Binance Futures will launch the PREDICTUSDT pre-market perpetual contract at 15:45 (UTC+8) on 25 October 2026, according to an official announcement. The contract will offer leverage of up to 5x, giving traders a way to take positions in PREDICT before regular market trading. The launch adds a new derivatives venue for PREDICT, but pre-market trading may carry heightened volatility and liquidity risks. Traders should account for the risks of leverage and sharp price swings.

Heatbit has introduced Bitwater, a Bitcoin-mining element designed to replace the lower heating element in compatible 30- to 80-gallon electric water heaters in the US and Canada. It uses 20 Bitmain BM1370 chips to deliver up to 34 TH/s at a maximum draw of 600 watts. Water cools the chips, and the company says the device runs without fans or noise. Users can track temperature, hashrate and earnings in an app, and choose solo mining or a pool. The first refundable preorder batch costs $899; later batches could reach $1,299. Shipments are expected in the first quarter of 2027. Heatbit has not issued its own earnings forecast. Estimates cited in the reports suggest full operation could generate about $1.25 in Bitcoin per day, or around $455 a year; at an assumed 80% operating rate, that falls to about $365 annually. Those figures imply roughly a 2.5-year payback on the first batch before electricity, maintenance, changing mining difficulty, Bitcoin prices or the product’s one-year warranty are considered. The next Bitcoin halving, estimated around April 2028, could also reduce mining revenue. Bitwater heats water more slowly than a typical 4,500-watt element, with the tank’s upper element available as backup. Its economics make most sense when the electricity is already needed for household water heating. Used solely for mining, it would consume about 14.4 kWh daily, costing an estimated $2.71 at the cited US average residential rate—more than the estimated Bitcoin income. Heat-pump water heaters may use two to three times less energy than resistance heaters, potentially offering comparable or greater savings. Solo mining offers a chance at a full block reward, but the odds are extremely low. Bitwater combines home heating and Bitcoin mining, but profitability depends on household use, energy costs and volatile mining conditions.

Google’s updated privacy policy, effective 16 October, allows information derived from Gmail, Google Photos, Drive and other connected services to inform personalized ads when users opt in to eligible AI features. This expands on the policy change by clarifying that AI-generated summaries, excerpts and inferences may be used; in some cases, summaries could closely resemble original content. Google says advertisers cannot access users’ underlying emails, files or photos, and sensitive categories are excluded from ad personalization. App connections are off by default, and users can manage them and ad settings through their Google accounts. However, some data processed by AI Mode and Ask Maps may be reviewed by people, and disconnecting an app or deleting its content does not necessarily erase information already retained in Search Services History. Google has also begun testing ads in AI Mode for users connecting services through Personal Intelligence, without specifying markets or formats. The update raises privacy and data-use questions around AI advertising, but has no direct, identified impact on cryptocurrency prices or trading.

An ETH whale added USDC margin to reduce the risk of liquidation on a large leveraged long. An earlier report said the whale deposited $9.21 million, lowering the ETH liquidation price from $2,256 to $2,181, and held long positions in 115,473 ETH and 1,539.5 BTC, worth about $397 million combined. A later Lookonchain update reported a $5.67 million margin addition to an ETH position of 93,184 ETH, valued at about $214 million, with liquidation levels of $2,181.69 and $2,177.79. The ETH long was showing an unrealized loss of $18.62 million and had accrued $2.68 million in funding fees. The reports give different position and deposit figures, but both point to substantial leveraged exposure. The ETH whale’s added margin lowers immediate liquidation risk; further ETH declines could still pressure the position and add to market volatility.

Crypto trader Bonk Guy, also known as Unipcs, says a systemic outage at major centralised exchanges during the 10 October 2025 market crash caused his largest single-day loss: eight figures. In the weeks and months that followed, he lost millions more by overtrading to recover the money and prove himself. Bonk Guy says taking a break from trading for months might have made him a better trader. He also warns that experience cannot guarantee profits: strategies that worked in one market cycle may fail in another. Past meme-coin rallies, including DOGE and SHIB in 2021 and WIF, POPCAT and FARTCOIN from 2024 to early 2025, illustrate how opportunities can be cycle-specific. His lesson for traders is to manage risk, recognise when their edge has faded and avoid forcing trades; sometimes staying flat until conditions improve is the best move.

Circle Gateway has expanded beyond USDC to support cirBTC and EURC, giving developers a shared interface to access the same asset across supported blockchains. Each asset keeps a separate balance and does not convert automatically into another currency. Circle said Gateway transfers had exceeded $10 billion by mid-October 2026. Network support varies: cirBTC is available on Arc and Ethereum, while EURC is supported on Arc, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Solana and World Chain. Gateway’s advertised access in under 500 milliseconds applies after a balance is established; deposits must first reach finality on the source network. Funds are held in noncustodial GatewayWallet escrow contracts, while a separate withdrawal route that does not rely on Circle’s API has a seven-day delay. The underlying Bitcoin backing cirBTC is held by a regulated Circle entity, so users still rely on its custody of those reserves. Both assets can be used with Circle Nanopayments, although payments in assets other than USDC are limited to Ethereum Virtual Machine networks. Circle is waiving Gateway fees for cirBTC and EURC on Arc at launch. EURC is backed by euro reserves and complies with EU MiCA rules; cirBTC is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin. The expansion could simplify cross-chain payments and reduce businesses’ need to pre-fund multiple networks, but developers must check supported asset, network and payment combinations and account for deposit, withdrawal and settlement costs.

Block has unveiled Dessa, a voice AI model built for natural, real-time, full-duplex conversation. Trained from scratch on human speech using a single Nvidia GB200 NVL72 system, Dessa is designed to handle interruptions, laughter and changes in tone. Block says it can run locally on a MacBook Pro with an M4 Max chip or higher. Dessa remains a research preview, available to a small group of AI safety researchers. Block has not disclosed its model size, benchmark results or public release date, and the demonstrations have not been independently tested. Reactions have praised its lifelike speech while raising concerns that realistic AI voices could make scams and impersonation more convincing. For crypto traders, the launch has no clear direct impact on Bitcoin or other digital-asset prices. Its relevance is chiefly to Block’s technology strategy and the wider discussion of AI safety and fraud; Block also has payments and Bitcoin businesses.

Bitcoin fell 2.2% in 24 hours to about $79,700, its lowest level in more than a month, as reports of US personnel being evacuated from Middle East diplomatic posts and military bases heightened concern about a possible Iranian threat. Ethereum, XRP and Solana also dropped 3% to 4%, indicating broad crypto-market selling. The latest report cites a memo from US intelligence chief Jay Clayton saying Iranian activity against US personnel had increased and plots targeting US citizens had advanced. President Donald Trump also suggested military action against Iran could intensify after the US midterm elections. Bitcoin had recently retreated from about $85,000. Traders are watching $80,000, with $78,000 and $75,000 as potential support zones if tensions worsen. De-escalation over the next 48 to 72 hours could support a rebound, while further incidents may deepen losses. Geopolitical uncertainty is weighing on Bitcoin and may keep crypto traders cautious.

Bitcoin treasury firms Strategy and Strive have used preferred-stock financing to acquire 135,979 BTC since the start of 2025 through 5 October. The purchases represent more than 0.5% of Bitcoin’s maximum supply, and the preferred-stock market is valued at about $12 billion, according to Fidelity Digital Assets. Perpetual preferred shares have no fixed maturity date and appeal to investors seeking income without holding Bitcoin directly. But issuing more shares increases recurring dividend obligations. New fundraising also depends on investor appetite and share prices: if preferred shares trade below par, issuance may become less attractive, while buybacks can compete with Bitcoin purchases for capital. Strategy recently spent $193 million buying back STRC preferred shares while purchasing 267 BTC, and raised its preferred-share buyback authorization to $3 billion. Buybacks could reduce future dividend costs, but may limit funds available for Bitcoin accumulation. By comparison, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted about $57 billion in cumulative net inflows and hold roughly $106 billion in assets. Bitwise expects ETFs to remain the larger source of Bitcoin demand, with preferred stock serving as a secondary channel. The financing model could support Bitcoin demand when market conditions are favorable, but its contribution may weaken if sentiment or share prices decline.

Blockaid reported an ongoing attack on X100, an Ethereum-based project, with two transactions taking about 4.85 million USDT by 22:49. One attacker gained control of two of X100’s three Senate governance seats and sold 400,000 X tokens into a liquidity pool they had created. A second attacker burned the Uniswap V3 liquidity position held by X100’s Freezer contract. Blockaid also shared suspected attacker addresses and example transactions. The X100 exploit puts the project’s treasury, liquidity and governance security in question, and could increase selling pressure on its token.

Stripe and Plasma plan to expand their stablecoin payment card service from more than 30 countries to over 100 by 2027. Announced on 15 October 2026, the initiative will move Plasma One’s multi-currency accounts onto Stripe’s card infrastructure. Users are expected to spend fiat balances and stablecoins, including USDC and OUSD, across five currencies: the US dollar, Brazilian real, euro, Mexican peso and Colombian peso. Planned features include automatic currency selection at checkout; the companies say stablecoin payments may reduce foreign-exchange fees and international transfer delays. Stripe’s stablecoin card infrastructure is estimated to process about $1.2 billion in monthly spending in 2026. The expansion could broaden real-world stablecoin payment use, but the 100-country target is a future goal, and transaction growth will depend on rollout and user demand.

Coinbase Derivatives suspended futures and perpetual futures trading at 05:00 US Central Time on October 24, 2026, for scheduled maintenance lasting up to nine hours. Trading was expected to resume around 14:00. During the Coinbase Derivatives maintenance, users could log in and check balances, but could not open positions or modify existing orders. The work combined routine quarterly upkeep with the Futures Industry Association’s annual disaster recovery test. A similar maintenance period in January lasted about three hours, and the October pause was reported to cause no significant price swings or liquidity disruption. Coinbase is moving some derivatives products towards 24/7 trading and phasing out weekday daily closures, though scheduled maintenance will continue. Traders with leveraged positions should account for periods when they cannot adjust orders.

Uniswap has launched Aggregator Hooks through its web app and API on Ethereum, Base and Robinhood Chain. The Uniswap v4 feature connects seven external DEX liquidity sources and compares quotes block by block, combining liquidity from Uniswap pools and external venues in one swap transaction. Users do not need to approve tokens separately when a swap uses external liquidity. Uniswap says the connected sources cover more than 90% of DEX activity on the supported networks, but that is not a guarantee of better execution for every trade. Aggregator Hooks may improve quote competition and routing, particularly for less-liquid tokens, though fees, slippage and smart-contract risks remain. Eligible swaps can generate protocol fees that support UNI burns. The effect on UNI demand, trading costs and volumes remains uncertain and will depend on live-market performance.

The IRS plans to overhaul its Voluntary Disclosure Program before December, potentially lowering penalties and offering installment plans or offers in compromise to taxpayers who disclose past violations, including unreported crypto income. IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said the agency aims to resolve cases within 120 days after receiving complete submissions, compared with current timelines that can exceed a year. Crypto tax disclosure will use the general program, not a separate digital asset process. The proposed changes come as custodial platforms face Form 1099-DA reporting requirements for 2025, which could make digital asset sales more visible to the IRS. Separately, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act has cleared the House Ways and Means Committee. One provision would allow eligible taxpayers to avoid penalties on the first $25,000 of a tax deficiency, subject to conditions. The bill is not law, and the IRS has not finalized the program’s rules or penalty levels. For traders with previously unreported trading, staking or mining income, the crypto tax disclosure overhaul could offer a faster way to address potential tax exposure.

The delayed US CLARITY Act could make jurisdictions in Asia, the Middle East and Bermuda more attractive to digital-asset businesses, Apex Group chief executive Peter Hughes said. The bill failed to advance in the Senate in September after disputes over ethics provisions and stablecoin rewards, leaving uncertainty about federal crypto oversight and the roles of the SEC and CFTC. The CLARITY Act delay may influence where companies launch products and institutions deploy capital, but the reports point to no immediate effect on crypto prices or market liquidity. Hughes said Europe may gain little from the delay, describing the EU’s MiCA rules as restrictive and slow to evolve. Separately, Apex, which services more than $3.5 trillion in assets, is working with droppRWA and Tokeny on regulated real-world asset tokenization, starting in Saudi Arabia. Tokenized Saudi real estate could attract overseas investors, though links between tokens and legal ownership records remain necessary. Hughes also cited tokenized money market funds and regulated, yield-bearing stablecoins as potential drivers of institutional adoption. Overall, the CLARITY Act uncertainty is a longer-term regulatory and business-location issue, not an immediate trading catalyst.

Bloomberg has expanded its Crypto Exposure Analytics service to help banks and asset managers identify, classify and report crypto and tokenised real-world asset exposures under the Basel Committee’s prudential framework. The tool looks through funds, equities, bonds and derivatives to detect direct and indirect exposure, including links that may not be clear from an instrument’s name or stated strategy. It covers products such as spot pairs, listed futures and options, indices and fund tickers, and provides classification data through Bloomberg Terminal and Data License. Bloomberg’s analysis flagged about 1,700 potentially relevant funds; roughly half did not explicitly disclose crypto exposure in their investment strategies. Morgan Stanley said it is using the tool to analyse fund holdings and classify exposures under Basel rules. The expansion of Bloomberg Crypto Exposure Analytics reflects growing institutional demand for regulatory reporting and risk monitoring, but institutions remain responsible for validating classifications. It does not by itself indicate the size of the exposures or a direct change in crypto market demand.

At TOKEN2049 Singapore, Arthur Hayes said high-FDV, low-float token launches are no longer reliably rising after Binance listings. He criticized venture capital pre-sales and token unlocks, saying early investor selling can leave retail buyers exposed and that the model is losing market support. Flop Labs is planning a FLOP fair launch with no pre-sale or VC allocation. Testnet participants would earn tokens through their contributions. About 4.4 billion FLOP—24.3% of the projected 18.1 billion token supply in year 10—is earmarked for a genesis airdrop. The campaign is expected to start in late October or early November 2026 and run for about 90 days, with mainnet planned for Q1 2027. Hayes is personally funding the project. FLOP is not yet trading, and Hayes warns that claims of early access or sales are scams. Traders should monitor circulating supply, unlock schedules and insider allocations rather than assume a Binance listing will drive gains.

Kraken has withdrawn a questionnaire asking Monero (XMR) customers about their employers, sources of funds and intended use of their coins. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the questions were inappropriate and stemmed from an internal mistake, not a regulatory requirement; affected customers do not need to respond. Kraken will continue standard anti-money-laundering source-of-funds checks, but says customers do not need to explain how they use Monero after withdrawing it. Monero remains available to trade in eligible regions, but Kraken does not accept XMR deposits. Users in the European Economic Area and the UK cannot trade XMR, while users in Canada and Australia cannot deposit, hold or trade it. The change removes a customer-information request but does not lift existing regional or deposit restrictions on Monero.

Franklin Templeton added about $150 million in tokenized shares of its OnChain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund to the XRP Ledger in two $75 million subscriptions. The fund’s XRP Ledger holdings rose to nearly 193 million shares, worth about $200 million at a recorded price of $1.039 per share. The XRP Ledger holdings are concentrated in one wallet, but it is unclear whether that wallet belongs to one investor or a custodian representing multiple clients. The fund invests in short-term U.S. dollar debt and money-market instruments. It is the XRP Ledger’s second-largest tokenized asset, behind Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. Holders need issuer approval, and Franklin Templeton can freeze or recover the tokens. The expansion points to greater institutional use of tokenized assets on the XRP Ledger, but does not establish broad investor demand or a direct increase in XRP buying.

Arthur Hayes said his investment firm, Maelstrom, sold its positions in ETH, ENA, UNI and other altcoins, taking profits. On-chain tracker Lookonchain put the sales at about $22.28 million, including 6,400 ETH worth $15.2 million, 14 million ENA worth $2.76 million and 323,000 UNI worth $2.24 million. Other reported sales included ETHFI, AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA. Hayes cited macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, saying the crypto market may need to fall before recovering. Arthur Hayes plans to stay on the sidelines until clearer signals emerge. The sales could add short-term caution around these tokens, but one investor’s trades do not confirm a broader market reversal.

Bitcoin’s history after US midterm elections shows no consistent post-election dip. A review of the 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 elections found sharply different short-term returns: BTC gained 31.6% in the 30 days after the 2010 vote but fell 45.5% after the 2018 election. Bitcoin was higher one year after each election in the data cited, with gains ranging from 23% after the 2014 vote to 1,580% after the 2010 vote. After its 2018 slump, BTC was up 45.2% a year later. The analysis says election-related policy uncertainty can influence Bitcoin through risk appetite, particularly as BTC has become more connected to US equities and global liquidity. Volatility can also trigger leveraged liquidations and move coins from fearful or forced sellers to buyers accumulating at lower prices. The later summary also cites reports of increased whale accumulation. These historical figures cover only four elections and do not predict future returns; current interest rates and ETF flows also differ from past cycles.

Initia halted its Layer 1 blockchain and connected rollups on October 23, 2026, after an attacker exploited a previously unknown MoveVM vulnerability. Initia said the flaw allowed unauthorized tokens to be created but did not affect native INIT issuance. The network stopped processing transactions at 15:41:30 UTC, and no restart date has been announced. The attacker reportedly created 2 million bridged AUSD, worth about $7.48 million at face value, then moved roughly $2.65 million to $2.73 million in real assets from bridge reserves to Ethereum. Reported outflows included AUSD, 105 ETH and 1.08 million USDC; later analysis said the funds were converted into about 1,135.5 ETH. The drained reserves have left some users unable to redeem bridged assets. AUSD issuer Agora said its own reserves were unaffected and that it would seek to freeze attacker-linked AUSD where possible. Upbit and KuCoin suspended INIT deposits and withdrawals, although Upbit initially kept spot trading open. Initia has not confirmed the final loss, a compensation plan or a restart timeline. The Initia exploit investigation is ongoing, keeping attention on bridge security and INIT market risk.

Seeking Alpha’s Politics and Markets forum hosts daily political discussions and sets rules for commenters, including a ban on personal attacks and other abusive or harmful content. The site warns that conversations can become heated and that comments receive less rigorous moderation than its other content. Neither summary reports new political developments, market data or cryptocurrency news. The Politics and Markets page therefore offers no specific trading catalyst or direct signal for crypto prices.

SoFi has launched SoFi Earn, a tokenised deposit product called SOFIE that offers a 4.4% annual percentage yield (APY), subject to eligibility and changing terms. SoFi says it is the first nationally chartered US bank to offer tokenised deposits directly to retail customers. Each SOFIE represents a $1 deposit at SoFi Bank and earns interest while held. Customers can convert SOFIE at a 1:1 ratio into SoFiUSD for crypto purchases or transfers to supported external wallets. The underlying eligible bank deposit may qualify for FDIC insurance within applicable limits and conditions; SoFiUSD and on-chain transactions are not automatically insured. Redemption rules, withdrawal limits and APY terms will be important for users. The launch connects bank deposits with blockchain-based liquidity as SoFi expands its crypto services, which include trading more than 40 cryptocurrencies. Traders will watch adoption, deposit-insurance terms and whether other banks follow. SOFIE’s 4.4% yield may appeal to users holding funds between trades, though its direct effect on broader crypto markets is uncertain.