Crypto News

US forces in the Middle East are reportedly prepared to launch a potentially large operation against Iran within 96 hours of an order from President Donald Trump. The plans have not been publicly confirmed by the White House or the Pentagon, and no attack has been ordered. Officials familiar with the planning say a decision could come before the end of the year, but is considered more likely after the US midterm elections. Potential targets could extend beyond military assets to energy infrastructure and nuclear-related facilities. The reports have heightened attention to oil prices and risk appetite. Brent crude was about $109.60 on October 26, while Bitcoin traded near $79,900, down slightly over 24 hours. A major escalation could push oil higher and weigh on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, although Bitcoin’s response may vary as traders reassess its role as a hedge. The reported plans remain unverified; traders are watching official US statements, military developments and oil-market data.

Reflect’s Create lets projects issue branded, yield-bearing tokens using approved collateral in a single transaction. Promoted by Solana on October 22, the product also allows issuers to decide how interest from the underlying assets is split between them and token holders. The yield comes from the collateral, not from the branding or issuance process. Reflect says wrapped positions may carry additional risks from lending markets that receive the reserves. Basket tokens can also hold assets with correlated risks, while routing through Jupiter and Titan may ease minting and redemption without guaranteeing liquidity or a particular redemption value. For traders, the key considerations remain the quality and liquidity of the collateral, the source and distribution of yield, and the issuer’s share. Reflect Create makes token issuance more accessible, but it does not remove the financial risks of the assets behind each token.

Polymarket traders raised the probability that Predict.fun will launch a token by 31 October to 22%, up 10 percentage points over 24 hours. The probability of a launch by 30 November reached 97%, up 14 percentage points. Under the market’s settlement rules, a token must be officially launched and publicly transferable and tradable; an announcement alone does not qualify. The odds reflect market expectations, not confirmation from Predict.fun.

An early Ethereum ICO participant has moved 5,000 ETH after holding the tokens for about 11 years, according to on-chain analyst Ember. The whale acquired 100,000 ETH in 2015 at $0.311 each, spending about $31,000. Six months later, the investor sold 50,000 ETH at $5.47 each, reportedly making a 17-fold profit. The remaining 50,000 ETH had stayed put until now. Of the 5,000 ETH moved within two hours, 1,500 ETH—worth about $3.45 million at the time of the report—was sent to a centralized exchange. The transfer may indicate potential selling activity, but an exchange deposit does not confirm that the ETH has been sold.

Foundation phishing emails may be reaching people beyond its customer base, according to Bitcoin News on X. A former job applicant reported receiving a suspicious email, raising concerns that the campaign—or a potential data leak—could affect people who previously contacted Foundation. Anyone who has communicated with the organization through any of its email addresses should remain alert and avoid clicking suspicious links or sharing sensitive information. The report did not confirm the scope or cause of the incident.

Bitcoin fell nearly 2% to about $79,800 during Asian trading as investors reduced risk ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting. Ether and XRP each dropped nearly 3%, while Solana, Dogecoin, Zcash, Hyperliquid and BNB also declined. Tron was slightly higher. Traders are focused on whether Fed Chair Kevin Warsh signals a possible December rate rise. Higher interest rates could tighten liquidity and weigh on cryptocurrencies and other risk assets. Weakness in Asian technology shares, including a 1% fall in South Korea’s Kospi after Goldman Sachs cut its 12-month target for the index by 25%, added to the cautious mood. Bitcoin needs to recover $82,500, a level it lost last Thursday, to strengthen the case that the decline is only a pause. The Fed’s guidance and broader market sentiment are likely to shape near-term trading.

Crypto long liquidations accompanied a broad market decline, with Bitcoin trading near $80,000 and Ether around $2,300–$2,370 in the later report. WhaleInsider cited about $117 million in long positions liquidated over 24 hours, while an earlier report put the figure at $694 million, indicating different reported estimates or time windows. Long liquidations can add forced selling and heighten short-term volatility. An earlier report also noted skepticism about Hyperliquid reaching $100 by the end of 2026, but gave no supporting market data. Traders will be watching BTC and ETH levels and further crypto liquidation data for signs of whether selling pressure is easing or continuing.

An earlier report put crypto long liquidations at $383 million over 24 hours, while a later update estimated about $117 million in long positions liquidated from October 25 to 26. The figures differ, possibly reflecting different reporting windows or estimates. The later update put total futures liquidations at $117 million to $133 million, with bullish positions accounting for 70% to 80%. Ethereum led with $39 million to $54 million in liquidations, followed by Bitcoin at $22 million to $32 million; Solana and other altcoins made up smaller amounts. Binance handled an estimated 50% to 66% of the activity, including a reported $7 million ETH long closure. The liquidations were spread across exchanges, with no major catalyst identified. Crypto long liquidations point to crowded leveraged bullish positioning and can add short-term selling pressure, although the later estimate was below levels seen in major market sell-offs.

Timothy Wadsworth was sentenced to 51 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme involving unauthorised credit card payments processed through Stripe. The US Department of Justice said he must also pay $810,965.19 in restitution and forfeit $810,956.19 in proceeds from wire fraud. From 10 March to 15 May 2020, Wadsworth used account details provided by co-conspirators to attempt 310 payments worth about $1.67 million. Of those, 116 payments succeeded, generating roughly $730,700. Some funds moved through bank accounts he controlled and were used to buy Bitcoin on Coinbase before being transferred to co-conspirators. The wider scheme, which also involved disaster and pandemic relief loans and unemployment benefits, caused actual and expected losses of about $2.06 million. The case highlights the use of cryptocurrency in laundering fraud proceeds, but does not allege wrongdoing by Bitcoin or Coinbase.

ai16z founder Shaw says the Pump.fun contract reverse-engineering effort aims to reproduce the original code byte for byte, including its bugs and flaws, rather than build a functionally similar version. Developers are invited to use AI tools and contribute through GitHub. Shaw argues that open-source smart contracts improve security reviews, citing more than $40 million in losses over the past year linked to serious vulnerabilities in closed-source contracts. He also plans to use tokens previously bought back with meme coin fee revenue as bounties for contributors. Shaw earlier said the Pump.fun contract work was about 90% complete and was expected to finish that night.

XRP ETFs returned to net inflows after a weekly loss of $1.84 million ended a 13-week inflow streak. In the latest reported period, they attracted nearly $710,000 on Wednesday and $3.55 million on Thursday, their strongest daily result since October 8; Friday had no reportable flows. Cumulative XRP ETF inflows remained near a record $1.8 billion as the funds approached their first anniversary. Solana ETFs, by contrast, extended their outflow run to three consecutive weeks. After a record weekly outflow of $25.52 million, the funds saw an estimated $17.30 million leave through Thursday in the latest reported week; October 23 data was unavailable. Cumulative net inflows declined from $1.62 billion to $1.56 billion over two weeks, and were reported at $1.54 billion on October 22, down from $1.61 billion on October 2. The flows coincided with price weakness: XRP fell from resistance near $1.40 to about $1.27, while SOL failed to hold above $110 and struggled around the $100 level. The latest XRP ETF inflows suggest a recovery in demand, but persistent Solana ETF outflows point to continued caution toward SOL. ETF flows can influence sentiment, but do not determine prices on their own.

US-Canada trade talks are gaining momentum, with White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett saying the two countries are close to a deal. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been in contact with Canadian officials during the past week. Separately, Republican lawmakers challenged Elon Musk’s claim that Ukraine breached Starlink’s terms of service by using the satellite network for offensive drone strikes. The debate highlights Starlink’s role in the war and the limits of private control over communications infrastructure. A separate report said US executives quit an Alaska gas venture over alleged Russian funding. The dispute underlines the regulatory, sanctions and geopolitical risks facing Arctic energy projects. These political and business developments could affect trade and energy markets, but the article reports no direct cryptocurrency news.

Tron Inc. (Nasdaq: TRON) bought 150,997 TRX at an average price of $0.3311, according to Onchain Lens. The purchase was worth about $50,000 and brings the company’s TRX reserves to more than 720.5 million tokens. The latest TRX purchase adds to the company’s holdings, though its relatively small size may limit any immediate effect on the market.

Bonk Guy says he is positioning for a potential crypto market rally despite widespread pessimism. Citing historical cycle data, he says bull markets have lasted an average of about 1,060 days, or 74% of a cycle, compared with roughly 380 days, or 26%, for bear markets. He argues that investors may find opportunities during periods of low sentiment rather than waiting for a confirmed recovery and a return of buying interest. The figures describe past cycles and do not guarantee future market performance.

US-Iran tensions have risen after two US officials said American forces in the Middle East could launch a new military operation against Iran within 96 hours of an order from President Donald Trump. The officials described the potential action as possibly large-scale and broader than previous strikes on radar, missile launchers and other military assets. No attack has been ordered. Some current and former officials believe a decision could come before the end of the year, potentially after the US midterm elections. The reports may put US-Iran tensions and geopolitical risk back in focus for traders.

Ripple Swell will take place in New York from October 27 to 29, bringing Ripple’s institutional conference together with its Apex developer event. The programme covers payments, tokenization, stablecoins, settlement, privacy and XRP utility. The preview stresses that traders should distinguish announcements from evidence of implementation. A partnership shows intent, a pilot tests a workflow, and a live service with named customers and published terms offers stronger proof of adoption. For XRP Ledger features, software releases do not necessarily mean a feature is active; validator approval through the network’s amendment process may still be required. Ripple Swell announcements about tokenized assets or institutional services also would not automatically translate into demand for XRP. The effect depends on how each service handles payment principal, collateral, fees and reserves. The clearest signals for traders will be named counterparties, customer availability and verifiable network milestones.

Foundation users are being targeted by an email phishing campaign, Bitcoin News warned in a post on X. Users were urged not to click links in suspicious emails. The Foundation team had not issued an official announcement at the time of reporting, so the campaign’s scope and any confirmed losses remain unclear. The Foundation phishing warning highlights the need to verify messages through official channels and avoid sharing wallet credentials or signing unexpected transactions.

Stellar Philippines has approved $95,000 in grants for 19 teams developing financial tools, infrastructure and AI applications on the Stellar network. Each project can receive $5,000 through the Instawards program, subject to completing technical milestones during a 30-day sprint. Nine teams have completed their sprints and demonstrated working software. Their projects include social-handle payments, community savings and lending tools, AI services paid in USDC, transaction security products and developer infrastructure. The other 10 teams are building solutions such as SMS-based transfers, merchant payments, payroll, freelance escrow and agricultural insurance. The grants extend Stellar Philippines’ developer outreach in the country, where the network has also supported hackathons and bootcamps. Stellar’s existing commercial presence includes remittance partnerships with Cebuana Lhuillier and Coins.ph. The funding is intended to support local development and practical uses of the Stellar network.

Hong Kong has named Nasdaq-listed Solana Company (HSDT) a strategic enterprise, making it the only blockchain infrastructure company selected in the government program’s 2026 batch. The program now includes 142 enterprises. The designation gives Solana Company a government contact point, faster routes for recruiting overseas talent and introductions to local institutional partners. The firm operates staking and validator infrastructure, advises financial institutions on blockchain adoption and holds SOL in its digital asset treasury. Solana Company plans to establish validator operations in Hong Kong through Pacific Backbone, a project to develop low-latency blockchain infrastructure across Asia-Pacific. The move could support regional Solana infrastructure and institutional engagement, but the announcement does not detail investment amounts or an operating launch date.

Web3Caff Research’s weekly report for 17–23 October 2026 highlights a study of how AI agents and blockchain could change China’s payment infrastructure. It examines new demands for real-time payments, autonomous transactions and more efficient cross-border settlement, alongside developments involving CIPS, the digital yuan, mBridge and Hong Kong dollar stablecoins. The report also outlines potential roles for digital currencies and distributed ledger technology, while identifying challenges including interoperability, cost control and regulatory compliance. The article provides no specific funding figures, market data or token announcements, so it offers limited immediate trading signals. Its relevance is mainly thematic: China payment infrastructure and the convergence of AI, blockchain and financial services may be important long-term areas to monitor.

Citrini Research founder James van Geelen has sharply reduced his semiconductor exposure and holds some short positions, arguing that the risks around AI infrastructure funding have changed. Big tech companies have relied on their own cash flow to fund AI investment, but he says more incremental spending now depends on equity and debt markets. That makes construction plans more vulnerable to a downturn in investor sentiment. Van Geelen says current valuations depend on AI labs reaching about $1 trillion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2028. He highlights uncertain demand growth, limited spending gains from lower AI prices and rising open-source model use as risks to that target. He would consider returning to chip stocks if paid usage and AI revenue growth accelerate enough to support investment through customer cash flow. He remains positive on Nvidia and favors a long-Meta, short-Google trade. Separately, a Citrini experiment with Anthropic’s Claude produced 211 scorpion-antibody candidates in 64 hours, 17 of which bound to their target in lab tests. Van Geelen says AI can speed up design, but lab work and scarce research animals remain bottlenecks; he sees opportunities in clinical research services rather than AI drug-discovery stocks.

A crypto whale identified as 0xfAb is sitting on nearly $400,000 in unrealized losses across spot holdings of ONDO and LINK, according to Arkham data. The investor began buying ONDO about a year ago and added to the position over time, at an average cost of around $0.55 per token. The whale also sold its entire QNT position about a month ago, realizing a loss of roughly $20,000. The address has invested about $1.5 million in total, while its portfolio is now valued at around $1.1 million. The ONDO and LINK losses reflect this wallet’s trading performance and do not, by themselves, indicate broader market activity.

China Asset Management (Hong Kong) and Cheetah Trading have launched 24/7 secondary-market trading for two Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission-approved tokenised public funds. Retail investors can buy and sell tokenised units in the Hong Kong dollar and US dollar digital money market funds every day of the year, including weekends and public holidays. The service extends 24/7 trading to regulated tokenised money market funds, although the announcement does not specify trading volumes, liquidity arrangements or settlement details.

AI companies are moving into biotechnology for its large revenues and strong patent and regulatory barriers, according to longevity investor Alex Colville, co-founder of age1. He says AI drug discovery is already speeding up molecule design and routine research work, making it easier and cheaper for small teams to start biotech companies. But the biggest hurdle remains clinical development: proving a drug is safe and effective still requires patients, time, regulatory approval and millions of dollars. AI has not yet made that process substantially cheaper. The article also highlights the early stage of longevity research. Colville estimates that companies focused on ageing have a combined market value of about $15 billion—roughly one-fiftieth of the cancer sector—and says no commercial product has yet proved effective in humans. He expects initial therapies targeting aspects of ageing could emerge within a decade. Loyal is developing a life-extension drug for dogs, while NewLimit is researching epigenetic reprogramming, including work in mice. For biotech and AI investors, the central distinction is between generating promising ideas and proving them in trials. AI drug discovery may broaden the pipeline, but clinical validation remains the costly, slow bottleneck.

Lookonchain reported that Abraxas Capital’s two hedge accounts on Hyperliquid initially held more than $1.45 billion in short positions and had made over $331 million in combined profits. In the later update, the shorts had fallen to more than $1.29 billion while combined profits rose above $353 million. The reports do not identify the assets involved. Abraxas Capital’s positions show substantial bearish exposure, but without knowing which tokens are being shorted, they do not establish a broader market trend or guarantee further price declines.

SpaceX has raised $40 billion in callable debt to finance purchases of AI chips, Elon Musk said. The company’s Starlink and rocket-launch revenues, alongside its strong credit rating, helped it secure funding as lenders become more cautious about AI infrastructure businesses. Musk warned that debt markets have largely shut out companies without substantial revenue beyond AI data centres. He expects more than 200 neocloud providers—firms that rent out AI computing capacity—to consolidate, leaving only a few survivors. The financing highlights the growing cost of the AI chip race and the funding risks facing companies with concentrated exposure to data centres. For crypto traders, the development is an indirect signal about risk appetite: the article reported Bitcoin near $79,400 amid broader concerns about returns on heavy AI spending. It does not describe a direct change to crypto funding or regulation.

World launched a banking and finance offering on October 18, bringing its human-verification tools into discussions about financial institutions and AI agents. The key distinction is that World ID credentials establish different facts: Proof of Human checks uniqueness, Proof of Presence checks that someone is present, and Proof of Attributes verifies possession of a supported government document. These checks do not, by themselves, authorize a financial transaction. Banks and services still need to verify account permissions, spending limits, recipients and the duration of an agent’s authority, while providing a way to revoke that authority. Transaction-risk checks and privacy safeguards also remain necessary. The article notes that NIST guidance treats biometrics as insufficient on their own for specified authentication combinations; it does not assess whether World meets a particular certification. For traders, the announcement is relevant to identity verification and AI-powered finance, but the article reports no token launch, adoption figures or direct market catalyst. World ID should be understood as one potential layer in financial controls, not a complete payment-approval system.

Grok trading bots can lose money even when their signals are sound, an analysis of three common meme coin bot strategies warns. The key risk is how much a bot bets when its strategy fails—not just how much it earns when it works. Gambler bots risk escalating position sizes after wins, leaving accounts exposed to sharp losses from a rug pull. The recommended safeguard is to use a fixed share of current account equity for every trade and make contract checks a condition for placing orders. Market-maker bots earn fees but can lose money if trading volume does not cover token issuance, liquidity and gas costs. The article recommends forecasting fees at least twice the issuance cost, setting a daily budget and never selling tokens the bot itself issued. Copy-trading bots face execution delays and slippage. A 40-second delay could mean buying 60% above a tracked wallet’s entry price. The proposed rules include skipping trades when the expected entry is more than 15% higher, copying exits and limiting exposure to individual wallets. These controls cannot guarantee profits or prevent rugs and liquidity failures. The analysis advises traders to prioritize account-level exposure and treat risk limits as enforced rules, not optional settings.

Ducat is gradually shutting down its protocol, saying many participants did not fully understand the mechanism designed to maintain a price floor. During the wind-down, Ducat says each DUCAT token represents a proportional claim on protocol treasury assets, which the team says fully back the token. Eligible holdings include vested bonds and Pass rewards, staked or cooling-down pDUCAT, and circulating DUCAT in wallets. Holders do not need to wait for a staking cooldown to end before redeeming. Eligibility is based on a snapshot: DUCAT bought through liquidity pools after the snapshot is not eligible. The team has updated its interface to let eligible holders redeem the fair value of their tokens from the treasury.