Nine public companies objected to having their shares offered in tokenized form by OKX and ICE, testing whether platforms can create blockchain-based markets without issuer consent. Nine listed companies have formally objected to having their shares offered in tokenized form on the proposed tokenized stock platform backed by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The companies included Cerebras Systems, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, CoreWeave, Verizon Communications, Applied Optoelectronics, Broadcom and UnitedHealth Group, according to a Thursday notice by OKX and ICE. The notice did not disclose the reason behind the objection. Under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Sept. 17 innovation exemption announcement, to…
Strategy added 267 Bitcoin to its holdings as it bought back 1.94 million STRC shares and boosted its preferred stock buyback program to $3 billion. Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, continued buying Bitcoin last week while spending nearly nine times as much repurchasing its preferred stock. Strategy bought 267 Bitcoin for $22.1 million at an average price of $82,900 between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18, bringing its holdings to 848,517 BTC, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company also repurchased 1.94 million shares of its Stretch (STRC) preferred stock for $193.1 million and increased its digital credit securities buyback authorization to $3 billion from $2 billion.
World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin saw its market cap decrease more than $400 million over two weeks of large redemptions on Ethereum and BNB Chain. World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin has shed over $400 million in market capitalization over the past two weeks, driven by large redemptions on Ethereum and BNB Chain. On Monday, CoinGecko data showed USD1’s market capitalization at about $4.02 billion, down from $4.43 billion on Oct. 6. That’s a decline of approximately $401 million, or 9.1%. World Liberty Financial’s proof-of-reserves dashboard separately showed approximately $4.01 billion in reserves. The decline extends a period of concentrated redemptions on Ethereum and BNB Chain, according to blockchain research firm Onchain Benchmark. The researchers found that nearly $20…
ESMA’s latest MiCA register update includes BingX, YouHodler and Banco Santander’s Openbank, bringing the total to 375 unique CASPs. [Update 11:30 UTC, Oct. 19 - Updates with comment from Penning Financial Services in the sixth paragraph.] The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) register added nine crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), including BingX, bringing the total to 375 unique providers. The European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Friday register update included crypto exchange BingX’s Austrian entity, MEGE zweite. It also listed the Italian subsidiary of YouHodler, a crypto lending platform offering yield products, with authorization for custody, crypto exchanges, order execution and transfers.
France’s National Assembly adopted a crypto tax amendment targeting certain stablecoin swaps, while separate proposals on exit taxes and self-custodial wallet reporting remain under consideration. French lawmakers narrowly approved a new crypto tax amendment on Friday that could make crypto-to-stablecoin swaps taxable events starting in 2027. France’s National Assembly adopted Amendment I-3898 on Friday, with 38 votes in favor, 37 against and 25 abstentions. The measure was initially introduced as committee amendment I-CF1826 by French MP Nicolas Sansu and adopted on Oct. 7. The Assembly is scheduled to vote on the first part of the 2027 Finance Bill on Tuesday, according to its official schedule. Other crypto-related proposals remain under consideration, although it is unclear whether eac…
Analysts expect Bitcoin to retest $80,000 support again as stock markets attempt to recover last week’s losses. Bitcoin (BTC) starts the third week of October at $82,000 as crypto and stock markets begin a tentative rebound. Key points: A lighter week of US macro data prints will shift the market’s attention to corporate earnings as stocks rebound from last week’s sell-off. Some 15% of S&P 500 companies are due to report third-quarter earnings figures this week, including SpaceX on Tuesday and Tesla and Meta on Wednesday.
JPMorgan is reportedly expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, allowing institutional clients to make payments and settle tokenized asset transactions. JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank by market capitalization, is expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, Bloomberg reported on Monday. JPM Coin represents US dollar deposits held at JPMorgan and lets eligible clients transfer funds within seconds, around the clock. Emma Landriault, global head of Kinexys Labs, said crypto companies could use the token for blockchain payments, while financial institutions could use it to settle trades and post collateral.
US spot Ether ETFs recorded around $955 million in October net outflows so far, while Bitcoin funds extended their weekly withdrawal streak to two weeks. US spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw $549 million in net outflows last week as investors continued pulling money from two of the largest crypto funds. Bitcoin ETFs recorded around $229 million in weekly net outflows, while Ether funds posted even higher withdrawals at $320 million, according to SoSoValue data. The latest withdrawals marked a second consecutive week of losses for Bitcoin ETFs and a third for Ether funds. Outflows slowed from the previous week, when the two recorded $1.22 billion in net outflows.
Sam Altman-backed World has rolled out biometric verification badges for Zoom enterprise users, aiming to combat AI deepfake impersonation and fraud. Zoom enterprise customers will now be able to see “proof of human” badges to verify that people appearing on video calls are real, after a global rollout of biometric identity technology from World. On Sunday, the Sam Altman-backed project announced that World ID for Zoom is now available in the Zoom Marketplace. The system compares an image captured by the company’s iris-scanning Orb, a live selfie and the participant’s video feed before displaying a Human Badge visible to other meeting participants. World first announced its Zoom integration in April, when it was undergoing limited beta testing with VanEck Funds. The feature is now availa…
Finance officials are reportedly set to meet major crypto exchanges on Tuesday, days after a lawmaker introduced legislation that could push the tax’s start date back two years. South Korea’s senior finance officials are reportedly set to meet crypto exchanges on Tuesday as calls to postpone a planned cryptocurrency tax are heating up ahead of its scheduled implementation in January. According to Yonhap, the government is planning to hold a consultation on crypto taxation, with representatives coming from Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX and Gopax, along with executives of the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance, known as DAXA. Government officials attending include Kwon Dae-young, first vice minister of finance and economy, and Yoo Young-jun, director general for digital financial policy at…
Qubic says 87.1% of the stolen funds remain onchain and the rest were frozen at crypto exchange MEXC, as network validators prepare to vote on a recovery plan. Layer-1 blockchain network Qubic halted operations Sunday after an attacker reportedly exploited weakly generated wallet seeds to drain approximately $1.4 million from more than 1,400 accounts, according to the project. In a statement on X, Qubic said the network was halted at tick 85,371,949, where it remains paused at the time of writing. Qubic said the vulnerability affected wallet seeds generated using any browser on an iPhone or iPad, Safari on a Mac until Oct. 18, 2026, or the Qubic iOS app before July 2025, leading to 2.94 trillion Qubit (QU) stolen. “87.1% of the drained funds never left the Qubic network and remain frozen…
HEX founder Richard Heart detained in early morning raid in Istanbul, Starknet plunges almost 50% as it votes to become an L1, and Bitwise says all signs point to Crypto Spring. The HEX market cap fell from $561 million to $315 million this week after founder Richard Schueler — better known to the crypto community as Richard Heart — was detained by authorities in Istanbul on October 14. Police seized $7.15 million in cash along with firearms and ammunition during an early morning raid in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, alongside searches of 15 related addresses according to Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek. Police impounded nine luxury vehicles registered to Schueler’s wife according to news agency Anadolu. The haul reportedly included 28 watches, 300 bags and 19 graphics cards.
The prediction market industry enables people to bet on US elections and sporting events. Most Americans polled by Reuters/Ipsos are opposed to betting on US elections and other government actions. The prediction market industry, led by Polymarket and Kalshi, enables people to bet on US elections, government policy moves and sporting events, which has resulted in a series of lawsuits involving state and federal agencies over who has the authority to regulate these markets. Some 69% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans polled said they opposed using prediction markets to bet on election results. The Reuters/Ipsos survey of 4,506 adults nationwide was taken on Sept. 30-Oct. 5.
Cysic said the incident was limited to bridge message processing and minting and did not affect the mainnet or other operational systems. Cysic is investigating an unauthorized issuance on BNB Smart Chain and said the mint size alone does not establish the incident’s dollar impact. The company said in a Sunday X incident report that its cross-chain bridge was suspended after an attacker exploited a processing flaw to mint 10 million CYS on BNB Smart Chain on Saturday, with preliminary findings pointing to unauthorized access to a database supporting the bridge. The mint occurred at 12:31:38 UTC, and Cysic added the recipient address to the token contract’s blacklist at 13:47:52 UTC. About 2.8 million CYS remained at that address, with transfers restricted.
Police alleged the suspect was involved in cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchanges for criminal groups across more than 133 accounts. Thai police arrested a 37-year-old Chinese man wanted by authorities in China for alleged involvement in an international crime network and money laundering. Investigators said the network handled more than 500 million yuan ($75 million) in transactions, Thai media Khaosod English reported in a post on X on Saturday. Police alleged the suspect was involved in cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchanges for criminal groups across more than 133 accounts.
The round brings AIsa’s total funding to more than $9 million. AIsa said it had completed its seed extension round, with Tether and HIVEN joining as strategic investors. The round brings AIsa’s total funding to more than $9 million. The two new investors joined Alibaba, Tribe Capital, Sumitomo Corporation, Draper Associates, Saison Capital and other backers. “Enterprise AI agents need trusted information, useful tools and a governed way to transact,” said Jordan Liu, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based AIsa, in a Friday statement. “Our vision is to build the infrastructure that enables agents to discover, access and pay for resources globally, while giving enterprises full control over permissions, spending and transactions. We are excited to welcome Tether and HIVEN as strategic invest…
Solana has had no reported mainnet outages in two years, but concentrations in stake, hosting and client software should be monitored, according to a report. Solana has made significant progress in terms of network health across resilience, economic security and performance indicators, according to a Fidelity report. Solana has had no reported mainnet outages in two years, but concentrations in stake, hosting and client software could threaten this, according to the report by Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT). The report said economic security was supported by substantial staking participation and incentives that reward validator performance. Low latency, expanded capacity and inexpensive transactions also support practical use at scale.
Markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East see increasing demand for stablecoins. Stablecoin issuer Circle is seeking to enter about 40 developing markets, according to the company’s CEO and chairman, Jeremy Allaire. “We’re kind of going through an inflection point...a transition right now, and that transition is essentially moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase,” Allaire told Reuters, speaking Friday on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. Markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are experiencing increasing demand for stablecoins as businesses and individuals seek to enter the internet-based economic system, Allaire reportedly said.
“The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments,” according to the ECB president. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said September’s 3.8% euro area inflation rate largely reflected high energy costs, which the ECB expects to ease next year. Lagarde said while an energy shock is expected to keep euro-area inflation above the bank’s target through the first half of 2027, a measured policy response remains appropriate, according to a statement delivered at the IMF Annual Meetings on Saturday. Lagarde added that meanwhile, the ECB is devising a digital euro. “In the retail space we are preparing to complement cash with its digital equivalent — the digital euro — for day-to-day payments. The digital euro will further stimulate innovation an…
Bitget says user funds are safe and exchange will continue to operate during the change. Bitget said it will discontinue services for some crypto users in a one-off exercise The cryptocurrency exchange said in a post on X on Saturday that users’ funds will remain safe during the service change for certain customers, while its crypto platform continues to operate. Users can verify the safety of their assets here: https://abcdstable.com/academy/how-to-verify-your-assets-in-bitget.
