Madry's return to OpenAI highlights the growing emphasis on AI safety, signaling a shift in industry priorities towards addressing security risks.

The post OpenAI welcomes Aleksander Madry back to tackle AI safety challenges appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Increased staking in Ethereum and Solana signals strong network confidence, potentially influencing token valuations and market dynamics.

The post Ethereum, Solana staking milestones: 43.8M ETH, 69% SOL staked by Q3 appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Gemini 4 Argon's creative demo highlights AI's potential in enhancing educational tools and complex workflows, bridging tech and public engagement.

The post Google DeepMind’s Gemini 4 Argon builds a 3D periodic table synced to a song appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Musk's AI compute expansion could significantly boost AI capabilities, impacting tech industries and infrastructure demands globally.

The post Musk projects at least 13 gigawatts of AI compute by end of next year appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The case could set a precedent for state-level control over foreign investments in digital industries, impacting national economic policies.

The post Arkansas foreign Bitcoin mining ownership law stays blocked as appeals court weighs case appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Liquid Network Announces Final Stages of Recovery Following Massive Hack 

The Liquid Network on Tuesday said that things were up and running again, over one month after hackers stole 4,000 bitcoin, worth about $320 million at the time, from the network’s federation wallet before returning most of it in a “white hat” operation.

Writing in a blog post, the Liquid Network said that it was entering “the final stages of recovery with enhanced security.” 

Hackers in September stole 4,000 bitcoins from the federation wallet that backs the Blockstream sidechain. Blockstream was able to negotiate to get back most of the funds. 

“The final phase of restoration involves reestablishing the network’s full 1:1 bitcoin backing, followed by the controlled reactivation of Federation peg-outs for authorized PAK key holders,” the Liquid blog post read. 

“The Federation, Blockstream, and independent security experts have made substantial progress toward this objective, with the necessary technical infrastructure and safeguards now in place.”

The post added that it had introduced phased swaps again. Blockstream CEO Adam Back wrote on X on Tuesday that swaps were working again. 

Liquid is a layer-2 created by Blockstream that allows users to quickly move assets backed 1:1 with bitcoin. People can swap stablecoins for bitcoin and bitcoin on the Lightning Network on apps that support the Liquid Network. 

Hackers were able to get 4,000 bitcoins by exploiting an inflation bug on the Liquid sidechain to create over 4,000 LBTC — a token supposedly backed by bitcoin — that did not exist before and cash them out for real on-chain BTC. 

The hackers claimed to be white hat hackers who then had an exchange with Blockstream via messages written into Bitcoin blocks. Though critics argue they were not so ‘white’ since they kept 15% of the stolen funds, worth millions.

In one message, the hackers slammed Blockstream as “delusional, greedy, and arrogant,” and threatened to reveal all of Blockstream’s encrypted messages in the exchange unless the company paid the hackers 10% of the bitcoins as an official bounty. 

“You SHALL pay 10% using your own money as bug bounty or you will cause all your holders a 15% loss for your irresponsibility and stinginess,” the message read. 

The hackers are still holding onto around 600 bitcoins — or 15% of the total funds — worth close to $50 million at today’s prices as per the latest public knowledge. 

It is not clear if Blockstream reached a settlement with the hackers in private.

This post Liquid Network Announces Final Stages of Recovery Following Massive Hack  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Swiss Financial Regulator Gives Green Light to Country’s First Bitcoin ETF

Swiss financial regulator FINMA has approved the country’s first bitcoin exchange-traded fund for retail investors. 

The watchdog said Tuesday that the approval comes as people in Switzerland express a growing interest in crypto — particularly bitcoin. 

Bitcoin ETFs — particularly in the U.S. — have widened the scope of investors who can buy and sell the leading cryptocurrency. Via shares that trade on the stock exchange, investors can buy exposure to the biggest cryptocurrency in a safe and regulated way. 

“As early as 2021, FINMA authorised a fund for qualified investors that invests primarily in a basket of cryptocurrencies,” the announcement read. 

“As Bitcoin has a long trading history and a particularly high trading volume compared with other cryptocurrencies, FINMA has approved an exemption from the applicable risk diversification rules in this case.” 

It added: “At the same time, FINMA emphasises that investments in Bitcoin — even through an approved ETF — remain highly risky.” 

The announcement did not reveal which asset manager or bank would debut the product. Switzerland already has crypto ETFs limited to institutional or qualified investors on the market. 

In the U.S., bitcoin ETFs had the most successful debut in the history of investment vehicles when approved in 2024. 

Now, traders, institutions, and retail investors can quickly buy shares that track the price of the leading cryptocurrency and not worry about exchanges or storage of the digital coin. 

The funds, managed by Wall Street giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Morgan Stanley, manage over $97 billion in assets, according to CoinGlass data. 

This post Swiss Financial Regulator Gives Green Light to Country’s First Bitcoin ETF first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Treasury Strive Debuts New Preferred Stock With 15% Dividend 

Bitcoin treasury Strive’s preferred stock, SATS, is now trading on the Nasdaq, according to the company. 

The stock debuted Tuesday and will pay a 15% dividend every business day, according to an announcement. 

Nasdaq-listed Strive said it closed its upsized initial public offering of 7,000,000 shares of SATS at a public offering price of $90 per share. 

It comes as public companies work to financialize bitcoin via different products. OG bitcoin treasury Strategy, which has five different preferred stocks, proposed daily dividends for its products last month. 

“The successful, upsized IPO of SATS marks a critical milestone in our strategy to maximize long-term total returns for our common equity investors,” Matt Cole, Chairman and CEO of Strive, said in a statement. 

The Nasdaq-listed Strive also has SATA, another preferred stock, which pays a variable dividend. 

Strive debuted as an official bitcoin treasury last year and is now the fourth biggest company in the space. 

Founded by former Ohio gubernatorial candidate and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the company holds 36,818 BTC worth over $3 billion at today’s prices. The company on Monday announced another bitcoin buy of 4,045 BTC between October 12 and 16.

In January 2026, it completed the acquisition of Semler Scientific in an all-stock deal — the first instance of a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company acquiring another such company. 

Like with other digital asset treasuries, the idea is that investors can get amplified returns from Strive’s stock. The company buys bitcoin with equity, and maintains a debt-free balance sheet: no bonds, no credit lines, and no leveraged positions that could trigger forced liquidation in a downturn. 

Strive is following in the footsteps of software company Strategy, which started buying bitcoin in 2020. Strategy is now the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, with 848,517 coins worth over $60 billion. 

Its five preferred stocks are STRF, STRC, STRK, STRD, and STRE. 

Strive’s stock, ASST, was trading 4% higher on Tuesday. 

This post Bitcoin Treasury Strive Debuts New Preferred Stock With 15% Dividend  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Could Outperform Most Assets, JPMorgan Says — But the Bank Still Won’t Recommend It

JPMorganChase’s asset management division has said that while bitcoin is still too volatile to be recommended for strategic investors’ portfolios, the cryptocurrency could outperform most asset classes over the next 10 years.

In its 2027 “Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions” report, the bank said that while volatility in the biggest cryptocurrency’s price has dampened, it is “premature to consider BTC as a diversifier in a balanced portfolio.” 

JPMorgan, one of the world’s biggest banks, has utilized Bitcoin’s underlying tech — the blockchain — to debut its own products. But the multinational’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, has long been a Bitcoin skeptic.

“BTC currently lacks a clear role as a diversifier in balanced portfolios due to unstable correlations to other asset classes,” the report read. 

It added: “We see bitcoin as a speculative asset and a hedge against monetary easing.”

The report went on to show a graph with a base case for bitcoin returns beating stocks, bonds and gold. But it did add that the coin’s volatility could harm its role in portfolios. 

“But should volatility continue to decline and correlations to other asset stabilize, this may evolve in the future, particularly as regulation becomes clearer and liquidity and price discovery continue to improve,” it noted. 

For now, the report added, bitcoin “mostly trades like a high beta risk asset that tracks global money supply growth.” 

Bitcoin has become more popular on Wall Street, especially since the Securities and Exchange Commission green lighted exchange-traded funds to trade in 2024. 

President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance has also helped: regulators under the U.S. leader have taken a far more open approach to watchdogging the space since 2025. 

JPMorganChase boss Jamie Dimon has famously blasted Bitcoin, calling it a “hyper up fraud” and “pet rock” — adding that its only value is to criminals.

Still, he has praised the coin’s underlying technology, and lauded crypto products like stablecoins. 

This post Bitcoin Could Outperform Most Assets, JPMorgan Says — But the Bank Still Won’t Recommend It first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

BlackRock Files for Bitcoin ETF With Downside Buffer and Capped Upside

BlackRock has filed for a new bitcoin exchange-traded fund which, if approved, would cap investors’ upside while limiting their losses. 

The iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF, or PBIT, would aim “to create and manage bitcoin exposure,” according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

It would work buying options and fixed-income strategies to give investors regulated bitcoin exposure with capped upside and some downside protection — but not direct bitcoin ownership. 

The fund would suit investors who want to invest in bitcoin but not experience all the volatility that comes with the top cryptocurrency. 

Bitcoin has attracted attention for its wild price swings over the years but its volatility has dampened as more investors have bought into the space. 

But 2025 was the least volatile year for the asset and the bear market of 2026 has been its most shallow on record: in past cycles, bitcoin’s price has dropped as low as 80% from its all-time high; this year it shed just 50% of its value. 

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust — IBIT — started trading in 2024 after the SEC gave the green light to 11 spot bitcoin ETFs. 

The most successful of the ETFs in terms of flows, the investment vehicle has helped bring bitcoin to Wall Street. Now traders, institutions and retail investors can quickly buy shares that track the price of the leading cryptocurrency. 

They don’t need to worry about exchanges or storage of the digital coin, rather, BlackRock buys and holds the bitcoin while investors simply hit the buy or sell button via their brokerage account. 

IBIT has the most assets under management out of the bitcoin ETFs, currently handling $65.7 billion. 

On Monday, the fund received $665.2 million in fresh investment as bitcoin buyers flooded back into the market. 

That’s the biggest number of shares bought in the product since October 2025, when bitcoin notched a new all-time high, according to Farside Investors data. 

This post BlackRock Files for Bitcoin ETF With Downside Buffer and Capped Upside first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

A report page shared by @Matt_Hougan shows the 10-to-15-year assumptions, while the firm stops short of a bitcoin allocation.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

The October 20 notice covers tools built using DeepSeek implementations, with a 60-day exception period tied to July issuance.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

Musk's 2027 promise concerns his own holdings, while Anthropic's initial allocation needs stockholder approval and future additions remain discretionary.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

Glassnode’s spread crossed zero as downside skew rose, but the figures establish neither higher dollar hedge costs nor an option-selling profit.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

Bitquery's September 19–October 18 study separates automated counts from billions in larger transfers, including issuer flows.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

The proceeds of the attack on Drift Protocol are moving again. On October 20, 2026, wallets that observers attribute to the attacker forwarded a large part of the stolen ether to the Tornado Cash mixer, after the addresses had lain still for around two months. Figures for the sum diverge and range between $32 million and $61.6 million. For European investors this is no distant piece of news: laundered ether ends up on the open market, and accepting it unknowingly risks a frozen deposit.

25,700 ether in two hours: the figures on the October 20 movement

The largest value comes from the analytics service Lookonchain. According to its reading, 25,700 ether worth around $61.56 million flowed into Tornado Cash within two hours on October 20. The first report of the day came from Onchain Lens and was smaller: 13,400 ether, equivalent to roughly $32 million, out of an address that observers label "Drift Exploiter 5". The security firm Salus independently counted 19,600 ether, around $46.81 million, spread across 196 individual transactions.

To put the magnitude in context: one ether costs around $2,436, or €2,168, on October 20, 2026. The 25,700 ether in the Lookonchain calculation therefore amount to roughly €55.7 million.

Three observers, three sums: the method explains the $32 million to $61 million range

The range is not a contradiction but a consequence of how it is measured. Each service watches its own groups of addresses, cuts the time window differently and converts at different prices. Onchain Lens reported early in the day; Lookonchain updated later and thereby captured more transactions. Salus evaluated a third slice. Only the range is therefore reliable, not any single number. Citing the smallest figure understates the day's movement; taking only the largest attaches you to a snapshot.

Mixer: a mixer is a contract on the blockchain that pools deposits from many users and later pays them out in equal-sized pieces, so that deposit and withdrawal can no longer be linked unambiguously.

What a crypto mixer such as Tornado Cash does technically

Tornado Cash works with fixed denominations and a cryptographic proof. Whoever deposits receives a secret note. On withdrawal, that note proves they deposited at some point without showing which of the deposits was theirs. The more participants sit in the pool at the same time, the larger the crowd in which a single sum disappears. That is precisely the point of the 196 individual transactions Salus counted: many small steps are harder to attribute than one large transfer.

The technique does not erase the trail completely. Analytics firms work with time windows, amounts and the behaviour of the addresses afterwards. The fact that three services noticed the movement independently on the same day shows how closely such addresses are now watched.

81,500 ether remain with the attacker: the rest of the proceeds

The October 20 movement has not used up the proceeds. Arkham Intelligence subsequently put the remaining balance at around 81,454 ether, roughly $194 million. Lookonchain arrived at around 81,864 ether and therefore roughly $195 million. Earlier estimates ran between 82,000 and 94,000 ether and up to $224 million. The attacker thus still commands a multiple of what passed through the mixer that day.

Two months of stillness before the movement

The rhythm stands out. The addresses lay inactive for around two months before turning active on a large scale in a single day. That pattern is familiar from other cases: waiting until public attention has faded means meeting fewer observers, and services that no longer check an address daily.

The attack of April 1, 2026: $295.4 million on a Solana platform

Drift Protocol was a trading venue for derivatives on the Solana blockchain. On April 1, 2026 it lost the bulk of the customer funds deposited with it in short order. The Drift Foundation itself speaks in its recovery report of around $295.4 million taken from users. Individual trade publications name $285 million and a sequence lasting twelve minutes; the first reports in the week of the attack came in above $270 million. The range of $285 million to $295.4 million is therefore the reliable frame.

What became of the platform was described by this newsroom in October: a successor launched under the name Velocity. The details are set out in the report Velocity replaces Drift after the hack.

Mandiant and Chainalysis both point to North Korea but name different groups

Here the investigators diverge, and that belongs in the picture. In its report of June 3, 2026 the Drift Foundation relays the investigation by Mandiant, which by its own account attributes the attack unambiguously to the group UNC6862, a North Korean threat actor. TRM Labs and Chainalysis point instead to UNC4736, also known as Citrine Sleet, likewise with a state link to North Korea. The two attributions share the origin and differ on the group named. No conclusive public finding by an authority exists.

Involved in tracing the funds, according to the foundation, are Mandiant, zeroShadow and SEAL 911. A comparable case lies only weeks back: at the exchange Bitget, Chainalysis attributed a theft of $387 million to the same origin, as set out in our report on the Bitget attribution.

$9.2 million frozen: what the Drift Foundation says about recovery

The recovery record is sober. Of the roughly $295.4 million, about $9.2 million had been frozen according to the foundation, so around 3 percent. Frozen does not mean recovered: the foundation writes that release runs through law enforcement and takes time. Proceeds had already gone through Tornado Cash in August, so the October 20 movement is not the first.

Affected users can register claims through a compensation pool that runs under the ticker DFX. The first payouts in early October came to slightly more than 1 percent of user losses, and claims were opened at one cent per token. In addition there is a public bounty of 10 percent on funds successfully recovered, which the foundation has posted jointly with Bybit.

Tornado Cash has been off the US sanctions list since March 2025

A widespread misunderstanding concerns the legal status of the mixer. The US Treasury removed Tornado Cash from the sanctions list on March 21, 2025. The notice carries the title "Cyber-related Designation Removal; North Korea Designation Update and Removal" and lists the TORNADO CASH entry together with the associated ether addresses among the deletions. It can be read in the announcement by the US sanctions authority OFAC. It followed the judgment of the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury of November 26, 2024.

The removal concerns the tool, not the act. Stolen funds remain stolen, whichever route they take. For one of the founders the designation under the North Korea programme even remained in place under the same notice, while the cyber designation fell away. Concluding from this that a deposit with mixer history is unproblematic confuses sanctions law with anti-money-laundering supervision.

Anti-money-laundering law: an exchange in Germany may hold a deposit back

Providers serving customers in Germany fall under the Money Laundering Act. These firms have to check the origin of assets, report suspicious activity to the Financial Intelligence Unit, and may hold a transaction back until it is clarified. In practice they work with the same analytics services that are tracking the Drift proceeds. If an incoming sum appears at a short distance from a mixer or from a flagged address, the system fires.

For the customer that means: the credit may sit unprocessed, a withdrawal is stopped, and the provider asks for evidence of origin. A case like that is resolved through documents, not through objection. Purchase receipts, bank statements and a traceable path from entry to deposit are then the only basis on which anything can be clarified. Buying through licensed firms gives you that record anyway. An overview of regulated providers is kept by this newsroom in the comparison of crypto exchanges.

Custody and deposit routes: where second-hand ether gets noticed

The risk arises not when buying at a licensed exchange but at the edges. Direct deals with unknown counterparties, swap offers in chat groups and payments from strangers for services are the usual entry points for funds with a history. Accepting ether from such sources and depositing it at an exchange later puts the burden of proof on you.

Self-custody changes nothing about origin. A hardware wallet rules out third-party access to the keys and is the most effective measure against phishing and attacks on services, but it does not turn flagged funds into unflagged ones. The devices and their handling are set side by side by this newsroom in the hardware wallet comparison. The benefit lies in protecting your own holdings, not in cleaning up a history.

With a stopped withdrawal, evidence counts for more than objection

Answer the provider's enquiry in full first, with date, counterparty and amount. Then assemble the transaction hashes that show the path of the funds back to your own entry point. If you do not know the origin yourself, say so openly, because an invented explanation weighs more heavily with a supervisor than a gap.

In context: a mixer deposit is no evidence of a sale

One distinction to close with, which gets lost in many reports. That 25,700 ether flow into a mixer says nothing about whether and when they will be sold. The funds then sit in a contract, and the destination of the withdrawal is open. No immediate pressure on the ether price can be derived from this, especially as the sum is small against daily trading volume. Reading the movement as a sell signal attributes to the data something it does not carry. The transaction is documented, the intention behind it is not.

Three points remain open: which group is actually behind the attack, when the frozen $9.2 million will be released, and where the remaining 81,500 ether or so will go.

Drift proceeds: 81,500 ether still sit with the attacker

1. Check which routes brought ether into your holdings, and file purchase receipts for every entry point. For future purchases, the safe route runs through licensed providers from the exchange comparison.
2. Move larger holdings into your own custody so that an attack on a service does not reach your keys. The devices in the hardware wallet comparison show the differences in handling and backup design.
3. Avoid direct deals with unknown counterparties. If a deposit stalls regardless, answer the provider's questions with evidence rather than objection.

(As of October 20, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

A Nasdaq-listed company that had built its balance sheet on Solana has held no SOL at all since October 16. SkyAI, known as Sharps Technology until the rename, has sold a little over 2 million SOL, sits on roughly $223.8 million in cash and is offering its own shareholders up to $201.3 million of that in a buyback. What counts for the price is less the quantity sold than the price at which this seller got out: $107.51 on average, net of fees. SOL trades at $106.32 on Tuesday evening, 1.1 percent below that mark.

This is no footnote from the world of US balance sheets. Six listed companies hold just over 17 million SOL between them, and whatever happens to those holdings feeds into the same order book that European investors buy in. Where the price may point over a horizon of months is covered in our Solana price prediction. This article answers the question that comes before it: what happens when a holder of that size closes the door from the inside.

SkyAI sells 2 million SOL: the sequence from October 11 to 16

In September the company still reported more than 2 million SOL. On October 11 it disclosed having sold around 1 million of them. An update dated October 14 still showed 210,000 SOL on the balance sheet, alongside $204.6 million in cash. By October 16 the holding was at zero. The filings submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the buyback offer date the completion of the sales to October 15. The sequence was reported by the trade outlet coinpaper on October 19, drawing on the company's own disclosures.

The company puts the average price at $107.51 per SOL, net of fees. That figure, however, covers only the transactions completed before the October 14 update. For the remainder of the holding, the final 210,000 SOL, no separate price has been given. Reading the $107.51 as an average across the entire liquidation puts a number in the company's mouth that it never named.

Measured against supply, 2 million SOL amount to 0.34 percent of all 589.5 million coins. Measured against trading it is more than it sounds: with daily turnover of $2.67 billion, $213 million equals roughly 8 percent of a full trading day. Spread across five days that stays digestible; in a single session it would not have been.

$107.51: the price at which a seller with no choice got out

Levels usually come out of the chart. This one comes out of a balance sheet, which makes it firmer than a drawn line. A seller who had to unwind a position in full, because a buyback offer to its own shareholders depended on it, received $107.51 on average. Above that level, in other words, the market was able to absorb selling pressure of this magnitude without breaking down.

Tuesday's low was $103.66 and the high $107.93. The price is swinging right around the exit level. If SOL closes above $107.51 for several days, the selling pressure from this one firm has been worked off without the market keeping it. If the price falls below and stays there, the buyers from that period are under water, and that zone is where follow-on selling tends to sit.

The $100 level, which we described as decisive on October 14 and again on October 17, has held in the meantime. In our article of October 14, SOL stood at $103.82, and at $103 on October 15. Today it is $106.32, up 1.75 percent over 24 hours and down 1.59 percent on the week. The holding drained away, then, without breaking the support. That is the real finding of this week, and it reads more positively than the headline suggests.

Yesterday we examined the capital turnover of the Solana blockchain in this slot: 2.2 times the trading volume of Ethereum on an eighth of the capital tied up. What has been added since is the cross-check on the supply side. A market that absorbs a good 2 million SOL from a forced unwind in five days and ends 2.5 percent above its daily low confirms exactly the turnover we measured yesterday in the volume figures. The difference: yesterday it was a metric, today it is a completed sale.

Treasury companies: the discount to net asset value explains the exit

A crypto treasury company is a listed company whose business purpose is essentially to hold a cryptocurrency and fund that holding through the equity market. Investors do not buy the coin, they buy a share with coins behind it. The metric for this is mNAV: the ratio of the company's market capitalisation to the net asset value of its holdings. An mNAV of 1.0 means the market is paying exactly market value for the holding.

The model only works above 1.0. If the share trades above net asset value, the company can issue new shares, buy more coins with the proceeds and raise the holding per share. Once mNAV slips below 1.0 the mechanics invert: every new share dilutes existing holders, and the most sensible use of capital is to buy back its own stock. That is precisely where the sector stands right now.

17 million SOL sit in six balance sheets, all below net asset value

The Solana treasury tracker run by The Block lists six listed holders with 17,045,723 SOL between them. That is 2.89 percent of the circulating supply and, at today's price, around $1.81 billion. The tracker names no cut-off date, and it still shows Sharps Technology with 1,997,796 SOL, the very position the company has since sold in full. The remaining rows are therefore to be read as a snapshot rather than a current holding.

• Forward Industries (FWDI): 7,550,000 SOL, mNAV 0.73, so 27 percent below net asset value
• DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV): 2,490,304 SOL, mNAV 0.38
• Solana Company (HSDT): 2,300,000 SOL, mNAV 0.72
• Upexi (UPXI): 2,174,583 SOL, mNAV 0.25, the widest discount in the field
• Sharps Technology (STSS), today SkyAI: 1,997,796 SOL in the tracker, zero in reality
• Sol Strategies (STKE): 533,040 SOL, mNAV 0.83

None of the six trades at or above the net asset value of its holdings. The range runs from a 17 percent discount at Sol Strategies to 75 percent at Upexi. For an investor that means: buying one of these shares gets you a SOL for considerably less than on an exchange, but carries the risk that the discount never closes. SkyAI has demonstrated how it can be closed, namely by liquidation.

The buyback offer: $3.00 per share until October 29

On October 19 SkyAI tabled a cash offer of up to $201.3 million. It is bidding $3.00 per share or per warrant and will accept up to 95 percent of each eligible class. The deadline falls on October 29, unless the company extends it or terminates the offer sooner. Funding comes entirely from cash on hand, with no new debt. If the offer is taken up in full, around $22.5 million remains before transaction costs.

One condition has fallen away, and it says more about the situation than the figures do: originally the offer was to apply only as long as SOL traded above $100 during the acceptance period. The company struck that clause because it no longer holds any SOL, which leaves the price irrelevant to the funding. SkyAI has announced no return to a Solana holding; the company is repositioning towards an AI-driven financial platform.

Bastion Trading demands $3.50 and changes to the board

Opposition is coming from the shareholder base. Bastion Trading, which has disclosed just under 9.99 percent of the common stock, is demanding a buyback price of at least $3.50, an independent review of the SOL transactions and personnel changes on the board. The charge behind it is that the offer does not protect shareholders adequately. We do not have a verbatim statement from Bastion; the demands are reproduced in summarised form from press coverage.

Our assessment: for the SOL price this dispute is the better of two pieces of news. As long as the buyback price is being negotiated, the argument is about distributing cash on hand rather than about sales into the market. Selling pressure from this firm has been history since October 16, evidenced by the holding of zero and by the deleted $100 clause. There is a second point against that: five more companies still hold a good 15 million SOL, and all five trade below net asset value. What was the end at SkyAI is a viable route for them. No buy recommendation follows from this, but a requirement does: with any SOL position, know which wrapper it sits in.

Tax in Germany: a holding period on the coin, flat tax on the share

Here is the point at which the case touches European investors directly. The same economic bet on Solana is taxed entirely differently depending on the wrapper.

If you hold SOL directly, section 23 of the German Income Tax Act applies: the sale is a private disposal, and after a holding period of one year the gain is tax free. How stable that rule is remains under debate; we track the state of play in our overview of the crypto holding period. If you hold the share of a treasury company instead, it is a security: 25 percent flat tax plus the solidarity surcharge and, where applicable, church tax, due from the first euro of gain above the €1,000 saver's allowance. There is no holding period there after which nothing more falls due.

The difference becomes concrete in a cash offer. Tendering shares into a buyback realises a sale for tax purposes, even if it feels like a repayment. With a SOL that had sat in your own wallet for more than a year, the same transaction would have carried no tax at all.

How to check what your Solana exposure actually consists of

Three points count now. First the wrapper: does your statement show a coin, an exchange-traded product or a share? The holding period applies only to a coin under your own control. Second the backing: an exchange-traded product on SOL should be physically backed, and the backing ratio appears in the issuer's key information document. Third the discount: with a treasury share, the current mNAV belongs on the table before any purchase, because it decides whether you are buying SOL cheaply or a structure that keeps its discount.

The same thought applies one level down, to custody. Holding SOL directly and intending to use the one-year period requires an unbroken record of purchase date and purchase price. If the coins sit on an exchange that pools balances, that record is harder to produce than with your own wallet and a clean transaction history.

Fund flows and the date on October 21

Alongside the balance-sheet holders stands the second large source of demand, the funds. As we reported on October 10, the run of 14 weeks of inflows into Solana funds ended with an outflow of $24.8 million, of which around $21 million came from a single product; cumulatively, net inflows still stand at $1.58 billion, $816.8 million of that in the current year. Fund demand has not gone away, then, it has merely lost its streak.

On the technical side Alpenglow is pending, the largest change to the consensus of the Solana blockchain. The goal is transaction finality in the region of about 150 milliseconds instead of the current twelve seconds and change; the project page at solana.com tracks the state of play. We reported the start on October 14 for Epoch 1064 on October 21. If you stake yourself, check before the switch whether your own validator is coming along; if you stake through a provider, the information sits in that provider's status notice. The date is no trigger for the price, but it very much is one for staking yield.

Nothing changes on the route to buying. Under the European MiCA regulation, providers selling or holding crypto in Germany need authorisation; which firms have it and what they charge is shown in our comparison of crypto exchanges.

Solana treasuries: the payout is decided by October 29

The first large Solana balance-sheet holder has closed its position, the market has shrugged it off, and the price of its exit sits at $107.51. Three steps follow from that:

1. Establish by October 29 which wrapper your Solana position sits in. If it is a treasury share, compare its price with the net asset value per share before you add to it. If it is a coin, the direct route runs through an authorised exchange, with terms in the comparison of crypto exchanges.
2. Document the purchase date and purchase price of every SOL tranche so the one-year period stays provable. Which tools pull that automatically out of exchange exports is set out in the comparison of crypto tax tools.
3. Move holdings you intend to hold beyond the one-year period into your own custody, and check the status of your staking before October 21. Suitable devices are shown in the comparison of hardware wallets.

(As of October 20, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

The TRON blockchain settled stablecoin payments worth $2.2126 trillion in the third quarter of 2026, more than in any quarter before it. Its own token is not keeping pace: the supply of TRON grew on every single day from July 1 to October 16, because the amounts burned were smaller than the amounts newly issued. For holders that is no footnote. Holding or staking TRX means earning a yield in a token whose quantity rises by a good one and a half percent every year.

This article works out where the new supply comes from, how wide the gap between issuance and burn currently is, what the new seat held by Tron Inc. in the governance set has to do with it, and what investors in Germany should take from it for the buying route, custody and tax.

Price of the week: TRX at $0.3312 and 0.75 percent up over seven days

TRX costs $0.3312, according to CoinGecko, as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Over seven days it is up 0.75 percent, over one day down 0.16 percent. The weekly high came on October 17 at $0.3351, the weekly low on October 14 at $0.3272. The whole week's range is therefore 2.4 percent, unusually tight for a token ranked 8 by market value.

Measured against the wider market, that small gain is notable. Bitcoin lost 2.21 percent over the same seven days and trades at $81,583; ether gave up 4.58 percent and stands at $2,395. Of the 25 largest crypto assets excluding stablecoins, only a handful closed the week higher, and TRX is among them. Market value stands at $31.46 billion, the float at 95.0 billion TRX. The record price from December 2024, $0.4313 at the time, is 23 percent away.

What the tight range says about trading

Daily volume of around $306 million equals just under one percent of market value. A token that turns over only one percent of its value a day and whose price moves 2.4 percent in a week is mostly held and used, not traded. That fits a blockchain whose main purpose is the transfer of stablecoins.

108 days in a row: TRX supply grew every day since July 1

The figure comes from an analysis of the daily data published by CryptoSlate on October 17: on all 108 days from July 1 to October 16, 2026, the newly issued amount of TRX exceeded the amount burned. In the third quarter the network issued 360,217,352 TRX and burned 234,453,624, a net addition of 125,763,728 TRX. Over the first 16 days of October, 62,650,984 issued stood against 39,778,374 burned, a net gain of 22,872,610. Across the 108 days that adds up to 148.6 million extra TRX. The full calculation is at CryptoSlate.

In percentage terms it sounds harmless. The third-quarter increase equals 0.133 percent of an opening stock of around 94.850 billion TRX. What counts is the direction, not the size of a single quarter: 108 days without a single exception are neither chance nor market mood, but the result of a fixed rule in the protocol. Treating TRX as a scarce good means having misread the protocol.

136 TRX per block: where the new supply comes from

The TRON blockchain pays out two rewards, and both are created new. The producer of a block receives 8 TRX. On top of that the protocol distributes 128 TRX per block to the elected nodes and through them to their voters. Both values sit as network parameters in the blockchain itself and are described in TRON's developer handbook. Together that makes 136 TRX, for every block, regardless of how much happens on the blockchain.

cryptoticker.io measured how often that happens. The basis is the network parameters of the TRON blockchain and two blocks 28,800 blocks apart, three checked objects in total. Between those two blocks lay 86,430 seconds, which gives a block time of 3.001 seconds and 28,790 blocks in a day. Multiplied by 136 TRX, that is 3,915,440 new TRX a day, around $1.30 million at the current price. Over a year it comes to 1.43 billion TRX, which is 1.504 percent of today's float. cryptoticker.io collected this analysis itself on October 20, 2026.

The cross-check agrees. Scaling the daily issuance up over the 108 days yields 422.9 million TRX. That same total comes out of adding the issuance CryptoSlate reports for the third quarter and the first 16 days of October. Two independent routes lead to the same amount, which settles what the increase hangs on: the running reward per block, not a one-off special distribution.

Burn against issuance: 63.5 percent coverage in October

TRON burns TRX in several places: on fees paid in TRX, on the creation of new accounts, on certain contract calls. Over the first 16 days of October those burns covered around 63.5 percent of the new issuance. In the third quarter it was a good 65 percent. Every third newly issued TRX therefore stays in circulation.

For the balance to tip, one of two things would have to happen. Either burns rise by 57.5 percent at unchanged issuance, or issuance falls by 36.5 percent at unchanged burns. The first depends on how many fees are actually paid in TRX. The second would mean changing the two reward values, and that is a matter for the governance vote the next section deals with.

$2.21 trillion in stablecoins against a $93.88 billion balance

The other side of the calculation is impressive. According to the quarterly report from TRON DAO Research, the project's own research unit, the blockchain settled stablecoin payments worth $2.2126 trillion in the third quarter of 2026, 5.1 percent more than in the second quarter. The daily average rose by 3.9 percent. The balance of USDT and USDD on TRON stood at $93.88 billion at the end of the quarter, up 5.5 percent.

A network that moves more money in three months than some national payment infrastructures, and a token whose quantity grows by 126 million units in that same time: this contradiction is the heart of the matter. Usage and token scarcity are two separate quantities at TRON, because a large part of the usage never reaches the burns at all. The section on energy and bandwidth further down explains why.

Tron Inc. has held the 27th place in the governance set since October 18

On October 19 Tron Inc., the Nasdaq-listed company trading under the ticker TRON, announced that its node had been elected into the circle of 27 Super Representatives. As of October 18 the node ranked 27th with around 0.76 billion delegated TRX. A subsidiary takes on block production, verification of transactions and participation in governance. The company also recorded the election in a mandatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 27 Super Representatives are where the two reward values from the previous section could be changed. Whoever sits there votes on protocol proposals. That makes the seat more interesting for holders than the news suggests at first glance: cutting the reward of 136 TRX per block would change the supply arithmetic immediately, and it would have to be decided in that circle.

Tron Inc. gives running revenue on the blockchain as its reason. Chief executive Rich Miller points to recurring earnings from node operation and to the growth of the network. Part of the company's position is that it topped up its TRX holding by 148,607 tokens shortly beforehand and now holds more than 719 million TRX. Place 27 is the last of the 27 seats, and the delegated amount is a snapshot from October 18 that changes with every shift in votes.

Energy and bandwidth: fees that burn no TRX at all

TRON has two ways of paying for a transaction. One is a fee in TRX, and that part is burned. The other runs through energy and bandwidth, two resources obtained by freezing TRX or rented from others. Paying that way burns no TRX; it consumes a resource that refills by itself.

That explains the contradiction from the previous section. The more professional the users, the more runs on rented energy, and the less arrives at the burns. For users this is good news at first, because it makes a USDT transfer cheaper. For the token's supply arithmetic it is the bad half: growing usage does not automatically land in the burn. Sending USDT over TRON frequently therefore usually means paying through rented energy rather than in TRX.

Where things stand since October 10: Polygon, payments and the TRX price

The last German article on TRON in this slot appeared on October 10 and dealt with the opening of Polygon's payment kit to TRON. TRX traded at around $0.333 back then. Almost nothing has happened to the price since; ten days later it stands at $0.3312, down 0.5 percent. The $0.33 level has held over those ten days, and the weekly low of $0.3272 on October 14 sat only just below it.

Two things have been added since October 10 that shift the view. First, the analysis of the supply data on October 17, which turned a feeling into a number. Second, the governance seat of October 18, which shows that listed companies now treat node operation as a business model. The payments side of the story, which the October article ran on, is confirmed by the quarterly report; the token side is not.

Levels above and below: $0.3351 and $0.3272

On the upside the first well-founded level is the weekly high of $0.3351 from October 17. Above it follows the round $0.35 level, which TRX last saw in early October. On the downside the weekly low of $0.3272 from October 14 marks the floor of the current range, and below it $0.32 would be the next round level.

These are observations from the price range of the past seven days, not price targets and not a recommendation. What makes them usable is the tightness: as long as TRX moves between $0.327 and $0.335, a holder's return is decided above all by the difference between the staking yield and the annual supply growth of 1.504 percent, and only secondarily by the chart.

The date of the week: the Fed decision on October 28

There is no TRON-specific date in the coming days. The pace for the whole crypto market this week is set by the US central bank: the Federal Reserve's open market committee meets on October 27 and 28, 2026, and the decision falls on the second day. For a token with a range as tight as TRX's, that is the most likely trigger for the levels from the previous section to be tested at all.

Staking at TRON: 1.504 percent new supply against the yield

The 128 TRX per block are the source of staking earnings at TRON. Freezing TRX and delegating your vote to one of the elected nodes earns a share of them. That also means the yield does not come from fees paid by users but from newly created tokens. Your share of the total float only grows if your yield exceeds the annual supply growth of 1.504 percent.

That is the number against which every offer has to be measured. A nominal yield of two percent means a real gain of about half a percent after dilution. Delegating through a platform rather than directly deducts its share as well, and some providers add a lock-up period during which selling is impossible. Which providers carry which terms and which lock-ups is therefore worth comparing before delegating.

What happens to your rights when you freeze

Frozen TRX stays at your disposal; it is merely non-transferable for a time. The protocol sets a maximum duration for the delegation. Going through a centralised platform, by contrast, hands over the keys and adds that provider's default risk. This difference matters more than a tenth of a percent of extra yield.

Buying route, custody and holding period: TRX in Germany

TRX is listed on all the large trading venues licensed in the EU. Since the MiCA regulation there is no longer any need for a provider from outside the EU. When comparing, look at the spread and not only at the stated order fee, because with a token whose daily ranges are this tight a wide spread eats the advantage quickly. The spread is the larger cost item with TRX.

On custody, the same applies to TRX as to any other crypto asset: on an exchange your holding sits as a claim against the provider, in your own wallet with your own keys it sits as a holding. Staking means weighing the two, because convenient delegation through a platform puts the keys in someone else's hands. Which devices are suitable and what they cost is shown in our comparison of hardware wallets.

In tax terms the one-year holding period of section 23 of the German Income Tax Act still counts in Germany: sell TRX after more than a year of holding and the gain stays tax-free, below that the exemption threshold for private disposals applies. Staking earnings are to be kept separate; they arise as other income, in the year they are received. Staking therefore means collecting a running stream of tax-relevant inflows, which should be recorded as they come in rather than in the spring.

The newsroom's read: the network earns, the token dilutes

Our assessment: the two halves of the TRON story are drifting apart, and the evidence for it is in the open. For usage there are $2.2126 trillion in stablecoin settlement in the third quarter and $93.88 billion in USDT and USDD balances. Against the token there are 108 days of growing supply, burn coverage of 63.5 percent in October and 1.504 percent annual growth from the block reward. Both are documented, and both hold at the same time.

What argues against overstretching this read: 1.504 percent a year is low dilution for a crypto asset, well below that of many young networks, and the burns do catch almost two thirds. The price performance of the past week also shows that the market is not punishing the dilution at present: TRX held up better than Bitcoin and ether. The decisive question will be whether the newly filled governance set touches the reward per block. Until then TRX is a token with running supply growth and a network that earns money, and anyone holding it should know both. Crypto assets can lose their value entirely.

TRX supply: only a burn above issuance turns the balance

1. Measure your staking yield against 1.504 percent. If the net return after the platform's share falls below it, your share of the float shrinks despite the yield. The terms and lock-up periods of the providers are in the comparison of staking platforms.
2. Check the spread and the licence of your trading venue. With a weekly range of 2.4 percent, the spread decides more than the order fee. Which venues are licensed in the EU and what they cost is shown in the comparison of crypto exchanges.
3. Record your staking inflows as they arrive. Those inflows are taxable in the year they are received, unlike a price gain after a year of holding. Tools that log this automatically can be found among the crypto tax tools.

(As of October 20, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

One ether costs $2,443, or 2,175 euros, on Tuesday evening. The number that says more about the network on this particular day is not on the price board, though: 1,155,535 ETH are waiting at the entrance to staking, and the estimated wait is 20 days and one hour. At Tuesday evening's price that comes to roughly $2.8 billion which their owners have already sent off and which will still earn nothing for three weeks.

The opposite direction has almost emptied out at the same time. The exit queue still holds 174,282 ETH with a wait of four days and one hour. For every ether leaving staking there are 6.6 trying to get in. Where the price can point on a horizon of months is set out in our Ethereum price prediction. For the coming weeks the queue at the entrance is the more concrete signal, and this article works out what it is worth.

1.16 million ETH waiting for activation

The figures come from Validator Queue, the public read-out of the Beacon Chain queues, retrieved on the evening of October 20. By that count 44.1 million ETH are staked across the network, 36.07 percent of all circulating ether, spread over 817,468 active validators.

The entry queue amounts to 2.62 percent of that stake. It sounds small until it is converted into time: deposit 32 ETH on Tuesday and the first reward arrives in November. The exit queue makes up 0.395 percent of the staked total, $426 million at Tuesday evening's price.

A validator is not an account but a slot in the network: 32 ETH posted as security, plus software that proposes and attests blocks. To take a slot you have to wait until the activation queue lets you through. To give one up you wait until the exit queue releases it. The two queues run independently and do not offset each other.

256 ETH per epoch: the arithmetic behind the 20 days

The wait is neither chance nor market mood. It is a hard ceiling in the protocol. Per epoch, only a set amount of fresh stake may become active. That activation limit stands at 256 ETH per epoch. An epoch lasts around 6.4 minutes, which makes 225 epochs a day.

That gives a throughput of 57,600 ETH a day if the limit is used in full. Divide the 1,155,535 waiting ETH by that figure and the result is 20.06 days. The Validator Queue estimate and the recalculation from the protocol rule therefore agree almost to the hour. That is why this number carries more weight than any sentiment reading: the value follows a calculation rule, not a survey.

The exit queue has shrunk by 80 percent since October 10

Two and a half weeks ago the picture looked the other way round. On September 30 MetaMask reported a security incident in part of its staking infrastructure and began closing validators as a precaution. Analysts put the scale at around 17,000 validators holding some 523,000 ETH; MetaMask has not confirmed that estimate.

The exit queue jumped from roughly 166,000 ETH at the end of September to about 851,000 ETH on October 2. On October 5 it held 767,349 ETH with a wait of a good 13 days, and on October 10 another 870,130 ETH with an estimated 15 days. Tuesday evening's reading of 174,282 ETH is 80 percent below that level.

The entry queue has come down more quietly over the same stretch: 1.44 million ETH on October 5, 1,398,922 on October 7, 1,260,628 on the evening of October 14, 1,282,776 on October 15 and now 1,155,535. The trend points down, though not in a straight line, and the lead over the opposite direction is still 6.6 times.

Why a queue is not selling pressure

A common misreading belongs here. ETH waiting in the exit queue are not sell orders. Closing a validator sells nothing; it merely makes the stake available again. In MetaMask's case the move was expressly precautionary after an incident, not a market decision. The reverse holds too: the 1.16 million ETH at the entrance have already been bought and already been sent, and they simply drop out of the freely tradable float for a while.

EIP-8061 is in Last Call until November 1

Developers are working on exactly this asymmetry. Improvement proposal EIP-8061 would scrap the fixed ceiling on exits and let exit capacity grow with the staked total instead. In the authors' worked example, capacity at 36 million ETH staked runs about four times as high as today, and capacity for consolidating validators about twice as high.

The proposal has been in what is called Last Call since mid-October, the final comment phase before adoption, with a deadline of November 1, 2026. The target is the Glamsterdam upgrade, pencilled in for the fourth quarter of 2026; no mainnet activation date is set. The state of play is documented in the write-up by CryptoSlate of October 15.

The decisive part for you is the part that does not change: the activation limit of 256 ETH per epoch is left untouched in the proposal. Exits would get faster, entries would not. Counting on a shorter wait at the entrance over the coming months means counting wrongly, as things stand today.

What has changed since yesterday's ETH/BTC article

On Monday evening the ratio of Ethereum to Bitcoin was the focus in this slot: one ETH cost 0.0293 Bitcoin, as set out in our analysis of October 19. On Tuesday evening that yardstick stands at 0.02961, 1.05 percent higher. The dollar price has risen from $2,407 to $2,443, a gain of 1.73 percent in 24 hours.

The level the ratio hinged on yesterday was 0.0289. It held, and the distance to it has widened from 1.5 to 2.4 percent. A three-month low on the yardstick against Bitcoin is off the table for the moment, but the downward move of the past five weeks is not broken: over seven days Ethereum is 2.80 percent lower, over 30 days 6.43 percent.

A daily range of $2,374 to $2,472 and the hurdle before $2,500

Tuesday was unusually lively for the quiet October days. Between the session low at $2,374.52 and the session high at $2,471.63 lie $97, or 4.09 percent. For comparison: on Monday Ethereum finished the day practically unchanged at around $2,400.

On the upside the first marker is the weekly high of October 14 at $2,496.59. It sits 2.18 percent above Tuesday evening's price and therefore right in front of the round $2,500 level, which is 2.32 percent away. The two points practically coincide, which turns them into a single hurdle: take the weekly high and you take the $2,500 with it.

On the downside the session low at $2,374.52 is the first line of support, 2.82 percent below the current level. Beneath it lies the zone around $2,364, which we described as the lower marker on Sunday. The answer to the question in the headline is therefore that $2,500 is arithmetically within a single daily range, but it needs a day on which the price does not merely touch $2,471 but closes above it.

Own validator, pool or exchange: where the 20 days fall

The wait does not hit everyone equally. Setting up your own validator with 32 ETH puts you fully into the activation queue and means sitting out the 20 days without a reward. Going through a staking pool or a liquid staking provider usually buys a share in validators that are already active and skips the queue, at the cost of a fee on the reward. Running staking through an exchange hands custody to the provider and pays out the reward after its margin.

The network yield stood most recently at 2.21 percent a year, measured and recalculated in our analysis of October 18. Twenty days without a reward cost a good twentieth of the annual yield on paper, around 0.12 percentage points in the first year. To weigh the costs of the routes against each other, the providers are listed in the comparison of staking platforms.

The holding period keeps running during the wait

For investors in Germany the second question matters more than the yield. Under current law, gains on the sale of crypto assets are tax-free after a holding period of one year, and that period applies even when the coins were staked in the meantime. The state of the debate about a reform is tracked on our page on the crypto holding period.

Neither the deposit into the activation queue nor the waiting itself is a sale. The period therefore keeps running, even while the validator is not yet active. Rewards are a different matter: staking rewards count as other income and fall under the exemption threshold of 256 euros a year. Above that they are taxed at your personal rate. Recording the inflow dates and prices cleanly calls for a tax tool, because every single reward inflow needs its price at the moment of credit.

Our read: the entry queue is the stronger signal

From the newsroom's point of view the number at the entrance weighs more than the one at the exit. The evidence: 1,155,535 ETH want in, 174,282 want out, a ratio of 6.6 to 1. On net, 981,253 ETH more want in than out, $2.4 billion at Tuesday evening's price. That money has already been paid and leaves the freely tradable supply for at least a year, because almost nobody ties up 32 ETH for three weeks of waiting only to step straight back out.

The counter-argument is the order of magnitude. The net inflow equals 2.2 percent of the staked total and 0.8 percent of all circulating ether. Against daily volume of $10.9 billion, $2.4 billion is no lever that carries a price on its own. And the yardstick against Bitcoin has been falling for five weeks although the queue was in seven figures throughout. Deriving a price target from the queue overstretches it.

The honest reading lies in between. The queue says something about holders' intent, not about next month's price. What it does document is that the outflow after the MetaMask incident has been worked through and that demand for staking slots clearly exceeds it. That is a foundation, not a starting gun.

Staking queue: 20 days of waiting before the first reward

Three things follow from the state of play on October 20:

1. A schedule instead of a gut feeling. Planning your own validator now means reckoning with a good 20 days to activation and therefore a start in November. If you need a reward sooner, check the routes without a queue in the comparison of staking platforms and set the fee against the waiting time saved.
2. Keep the exemption threshold in view. At a yield of 2.21 percent, the 256-euro threshold is reached from a staked value of about 11,600 euros a year. Above that, the inflow dates need clean documentation, for instance with a tax tool from the comparison.
3. Note the levels. On the upside the daily close above $2,471.63 decides, and above it the $2,500 mark stands open. On the downside the session low at $2,374.52 holds. To build up ether first, the terms are in the exchange comparison.

(As of October 20, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy. Crypto investments can lead to a total loss.)

BlackRock has filed a Bitcoin fund with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that is built to limit losses on the downside: the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF, ticker PBIT, is meant to absorb the first 10 percent or so of a price decline and to cap the upside in return. As a retail investor in Germany you will not be able to buy it, and that will not change once it launches. Why that is, what the filing actually promises and which routes remain open here is set out below.

The filing is a Form 485APOS, a post-effective amendment to an existing registration, submitted on October 19, 2026 for the iShares Trust. It is public, and the decisive sentences sit in the draft prospectus. One point first: a filing is not a product. The prospectus carries an unfilled date field for 2027, the management fee is a blank line, and no listing venue is named.

What BlackRock filed with the SEC

In the draft prospectus BlackRock states the investment objective in a single sentence: the fund is to participate in the performance of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, the firm's own spot fund IBIT, but only up to an approximate ceiling, while providing a degree of protection on the downside.

What the fund does not do is just as notable. It holds no bitcoin itself. According to the prospectus it works with options on IBIT and comparable bitcoin reference assets, together with cash, money market instruments and short-dated bonds. A PBIT holder would own a bundle of options on a fund that in turn holds bitcoin.

The bitcoin price is not on the sunny side at the moment. On October 20, 2026 Bitcoin traded at around $83,200 according to CoinGecko, up 1.25 percent over 24 hours. Roughly 34 percent separate that level from the all-time high of $126,080 set on October 6, 2025. Against that backdrop, a product that sets out to limit losses touches a nerve.

How the 10 percent loss buffer works

A buffer ETF is a fund that uses options to put a floor under losses and limits the upside in exchange. In the US the design has existed for years on equity indices. On bitcoin it is new.

The mechanics in the filing run through three steps. The fund buys call options on the bitcoin reference asset in three packages that overlap in time and that the prospectus calls tranches. The strike price of those purchased options is named the Tranche Protection Start Value. According to the filing it is typically set at about 90 percent of the price prevailing when the options are bought. That produces an initial loss limit of about 10 percent, which the prospectus calls the Floor, and it applies expressly before fees and expenses.

That detail is more than a footnote. The 10 percent apply before costs are deducted, and the costs are not yet fixed anywhere in the filing. Whatever reaches the investor as protection is therefore bound to be less than 10 percent.

The cap on the upside: what the sold options cost

Buying options costs money. So that the fund does not carry that premium alone, it sells call options with a higher strike price in the same three tranches and collects a premium of its own. That sale is the price of the protection: if bitcoin rises above the strike of the options it has sold, the fund no longer takes part in that portion of the advance. The prospectus calls this limit the Tranche Cap Value.

The filing names no fixed figure for that cap. The strike depends on market conditions at the start of each tranche, and under the prospectus the fund has wide discretion over whether and when it sells. The ceiling can therefore differ from tranche to tranche and over time. For investors, that means the upside is limited, but nobody can say in advance at which number.

Three overlapping tranches instead of one fixed protection level

Most buffer funds in the US work with fixed terms. Buy on day one, hold to the end, and you get exactly the buffer and exactly the cap that were advertised beforehand. PBIT is built differently, and the prospectus says as much.

Because the fund permanently holds several overlapping tranches, it commits to no fixed Tranche Protection Start Value, no fixed Floor and no fixed Tranche Cap Value. The prospectus even states expressly that investors should not expect to achieve the same result a single tranche held over its full period would deliver. BlackRock also reserves the right to raise or lower the protection value of individual tranches at any time.

A second limitation tends to go missing in coverage of such products. The protection does not move up automatically with a higher price. If the reference asset rises sharply and then falls back, the decline measured from the peak can be considerably more than 10 percent, because the protection is tied to the entry value of each tranche.

What the filing leaves open: fee, launch date, listing venue

Three figures that decide the quality of such a product are missing from the document. In the fee table, the management fee and the total ongoing costs are each a blank line, and only other expenses are shown, at 0.00 percent. No launch date is given, and the exchange on which PBIT is to trade has not been settled either.

A missing fee is usual in a first filing of this kind and is still the most important open point. For a product whose advertised benefit is a buffer of about 10 percent, the annual expense ratio decides how much of that benefit reaches the investor.

PBIT and German securities accounts: where the door closes

The short answer is that PBIT will not go into your account at a German bank or broker. The reason has nothing to do with BlackRock or with bitcoin. It sits in a European regulation.

A key information document, KID for short, is a standardised short document required under the EU regulation on packaged retail investment products, known as PRIIPs. To distribute such a product to retail investors in the EU, the provider has to supply that document. In its supervisory notice of August 4, 2022 the German regulator BaFin made clear that since January 1, 2023 a key information document under the PRIIPs regulation has to be produced for investment funds distributed to retail and semi-professional investors.

US fund companies as a rule do not produce it, because US law does not require it. The consequence is mechanical: without a key information document a broker may not execute a retail client's buy order, however large or well known the fund. Clients may usually continue to hold and sell existing positions, but they may not buy new ones. Products from Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico and Australia are caught alongside US funds.

This is neither an isolated case nor a new phenomenon. We described the same mechanism with the Zcash ETF: a US fund launches, the German headline sounds like a new way to invest, and the conclusion is that European investors cannot get at the product.

Before reacting to a headline about a new US crypto fund, check three things. First, whether the product carries an ISIN with the country code US, because the route for retail clients is then shut as a rule. Second, whether your provider lists funds without a key information document at all, since many do not even display them. Third, whether a European version with a comparable strategy exists and publishes a key information document in your own language. Which provider carries which range of products is a question for our comparison of the best crypto brokers.

Bitcoin ETN instead of a US fund: the routes open in Germany

Investors in Germany who want bitcoin exposure through a securities account usually reach for an ETN or ETP. That is an exchange-traded debt security which tracks the bitcoin price and which, with the common issuers, is physically backed by bitcoin. In legal terms it is not a fund but a bearer debt security, and the differences that matter follow from exactly that. Which products are tradable in Germany, and what to look at in the issuer, the backing and the venue, we have put together in our overview of crypto ETFs in Germany.

These products offer no genuine buffer of the kind PBIT describes. A loss limit has to be built by hand, through a sell order with a price limit or through a smaller position. Both are less elegant than a finished product, and neither costs a built-in ceiling on gains.

The third route remains a direct purchase on a trading platform with self-custody afterwards. That version brings the most work and, in tax terms, the biggest difference.

Tax: holding period on a direct purchase, flat tax on an ETN

On a direct purchase, section 23 of the German Income Tax Act currently applies. Sell your bitcoin after more than twelve months and the gain stays tax-free. Sell inside the period and your personal income tax rate applies, with an exemption threshold of 1,000 euros for all private disposals in a year taken together. The period counts per position, not across the account as a whole.

With a bitcoin ETN it looks different. Gains are, on the prevailing view, treated as investment income under section 20 of the Income Tax Act, meaning 25 percent flat tax plus the solidarity surcharge and, where applicable, church tax. No tax exemption applies after a year. In exchange, losses can be offset against other investment income, although deadlines apply there, as we described using the example of the loss certificate for crypto ETNs.

The tax treatment of individual ETNs depends on how each one is structured and is disputed in part. Add to that the movement in the taxation of crypto assets in Germany: a draft bill provides for a switch to the flat tax. It has not been promulgated, and sources describe the state of the process differently. Clarify your own position with a tax adviser before you base a decision on a deadline.

Context: who a buffer product is built for

A buffer of about 10 percent sounds like safety, yet measured against bitcoin's range of movement it is a narrow strip. The gap between the all-time high of $126,080 and the current price of around $83,200 comes to about 34 percent according to CoinGecko. A 10 percent buffer would have cushioned that decline, but nowhere near absorbed it.

Products of this design are therefore aimed at a particular group: investors who want a holding in bitcoin inside a regulated securities wrapper, who want to smooth smaller setbacks and who accept giving up part of the upside for it. Investors betting on a large move up pay a high price through the cap for protection that helps least at exactly the moment things really break.

For German retail investors it stays an observation from a distance in any case. The filing is interesting all the same, because it shows where the product range is heading. If the design catches on in the US, it is a question of time before European issuers launch something comparable with a key information document. That is when a second look pays off.

Bitcoin buffer ETF: without a key information document PBIT stays shut

The filing is news about the US market rather than a new way for you to invest. Three steps still make sense:

1. Check where a product comes from before you react. A crypto fund advertised with a US ISIN is not tradable for you as a retail client. Which providers carry which European products is shown in the broker comparison.
2. Pick the route that matches your holding period. For a plan longer than a year, the holding period argues for a direct purchase; if you need the securities account, the route runs through an ETN. The tradable products are listed in the overview of crypto ETFs in Germany above.
3. Document your tax position cleanly. Holding periods and loss offsetting can only be evidenced with complete records. Suitable software sits among the crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers.

(As of October 20, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s 2027 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions project a 10% annual return for Bitcoin over 10 to 15 years, though the firm isn’t adding it to its main portfolio models.

The North Korea-linked attacker behind April's $295 million Drift heist pushed 25,700 ETH through the mixer in two hours, and still controls roughly $198 million more.

Sixteen companies have now objected to having their shares traded on the planned OKX-ICE tokenized stock venue, up from nine just four days earlier, according to an updated public notice.

FINMA waived the diversification rules for the fund but leaned hard on custody and investor-protection safeguards.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $526.7 million on Monday, their biggest day since Sept. 22. BlackRock's IBIT supplied all of it while Fidelity and Grayscale funds bled.

Uphold has added Evernorth's XRP treasury-backed stock, XRPN, to its trading platform, giving investors another way to gain exposure to XRP without directly holding the cryptocurrency.

A Bitcoin wallet linked to convicted Irish drug dealer Clifton Collins has suddenly moved $41.52 million worth of BTC to Coinbase Prime after more than a decade of inactivity.

Stellar officially announces the upcoming Bell upgrade, introducing vital post-quantum security before the November 23 vote.

Wintermute catches capital fleeing crashing altcoins to seek shelter in Bitcoin, leaving Ethereum and XRP completely exposed.

Ripple's native stablecoin, RLUSD, makes a grand first-ever debut into Türkiye's crypto market following a major partnership between Ripple and Inveo Kripto.

TLDR

• Oracle stock gains 1.20% as AstraZeneca AI agreement puts healthcare in focus.
• Non-binding Oracle-AstraZeneca deal targets faster clinical trial recruitment.
• AI tools could help clinicians identify eligible patients for clinical trials.
• Initial plans span cancer, heart, kidney, respiratory, and rare disease research.
• Partners plan shared oversight and outcome measures before any broader rollout.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) stock rose 1.20% to $131.14, gaining $1.55 following its healthcare collaboration announcement with AstraZeneca. After-hours trading added 0.08%, bringing shares to $131.19 after a gradual afternoon pullback. The companies aim to use AI and real-world health data to improve clinical trial recruitment and medical research.

Oracle Corporation, ORCL

Oracle Stock Gains as Healthcare Partnership Expands

Oracle shares attracted strong midmorning buying interest before surrendering some gains during the afternoon session. The announcement highlighted the company’s growing involvement in healthcare technology and pharmaceutical research. Meanwhile, its proposed collaboration with AstraZeneca introduces opportunities to connect clinical data with advanced computing systems.

The agreement combines Oracle’s cloud infrastructure, healthcare software, and analytics capabilities with AstraZeneca’s pharmaceutical expertise. Oracle already provides technology that supports electronic health records, clinical workflows, and healthcare data management. Through this collaboration, both companies intend to explore practical applications that could improve research efficiency.

The companies signed a non-binding agreement covering selected healthcare applications rather than an immediate commercial deployment. Neither company disclosed financial terms, implementation schedules, or specific healthcare organizations participating in the proposed initiatives. Instead, they will evaluate potential applications before considering broader implementation across medical research programs.

AstraZeneca Collaboration Focuses on Clinical Trial Recruitment

The partnership targets patient recruitment, a persistent challenge that can delay clinical studies and pharmaceutical development. Oracle and AstraZeneca plan to use AI systems to identify patients who meet specific trial requirements. Their proposed approach could help healthcare professionals connect eligible participants with relevant research opportunities earlier.

The collaboration will explore ways to combine scientific knowledge with cloud computing and clinical information systems. These capabilities could help medical teams assess patient eligibility while maintaining established healthcare workflows. Consequently, participating organizations could improve screening processes and support wider access to clinical research.

Initial areas under consideration include oncology, cardiovascular diseases, kidney disorders, and metabolic conditions. The companies also identified respiratory diseases, immunology, and rare diseases as potential areas for exploration. However, they have not announced individual clinical studies, recruitment targets, or confirmed implementation plans.

Oracle and AstraZeneca Target Faster Medical Research

Beyond recruitment, the collaboration aims to strengthen connections between clinical research and routine healthcare services. Both companies plan to explore systems that incorporate research findings into everyday medical decision-making. This approach could support future study designs, medicine safety monitoring, and improved patient care.

The partners intend to establish shared governance structures and reusable technology components for future applications. They also plan to develop measurable outcomes that will help evaluate the effectiveness of their proposed systems. Successful testing could support wider adoption across additional disease categories and international healthcare markets.

The agreement reflects broader efforts to integrate advanced analytics and artificial intelligence into pharmaceutical research. For Oracle, the initiative creates another opportunity to expand its healthcare technology capabilities beyond traditional clinical software. Further development will depend on testing results, healthcare participation, and the practical benefits of the proposed applications.

The post Oracle Corporation (ORCL) Stock: Rises as AstraZeneca AI Partnership Targets Clinical Trials appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Citigroup (C) gains 0.69% to $122.53 after its board approves new dividends.
• Citigroup declares a $0.67 common dividend, payable November 25 to holders.
• Citigroup approves dividend payments across 12 preferred stock series in November.
• Preferred stock holders of record on November 6 qualify for November payouts.
• Citigroup stock recovers from early losses, gaining 0.69% to reach $122.53.

Citigroup announced new payments on common and preferred shares as its stock advanced during a volatile trading session. Citigroup (C) stock rose 0.69% to $122.53, adding $0.84 after recovering from early losses. The board approved a $0.67 quarterly common dividend and distributions covering 12 preferred stock series.

Citigroup Inc., C

Citigroup Sets November Date for Common Stock Dividend

The latest common stock declaration establishes two dates for the bank’s next shareholder payment. Citigroup set November 2, 2026, as the record date for determining which common shareholders qualify. The company will distribute the quarterly dividend on November 25, 2026.

At the declared rate, four equal quarterly dividends would total $2.68 per common share over one year. That annual figure assumes the board approves the same amount during each future quarter. Each dividend requires a separate declaration, and the current announcement only establishes the upcoming distribution.

Citigroup provides banking and financial services to consumers, businesses, and institutional clients across international markets. Its common dividend delivers cash to eligible shareholders alongside the company’s wider banking activities. Meanwhile, the preferred dividend declarations address securities with different payment terms and ownership structures.

Citigroup Approves Payments Across Preferred Stock Series

Citigroup set November 16 as the payment date for its 4.150% Series Y and 7.375% Series Z. Series Y receipts carry $10.375, while Series Z receipts receive $18.4375. On that date, its 7.625% Series AA receipts receive $19.0625, the largest listed payment.

The bank declared $18.00 for 7.200% Series BB receipts and $17.8125 for 7.125% Series CC receipts. Meanwhile, 7.000% Series DD receipts carry $17.50, while 6.750% Series EE receipts carry $16.875. All four series follow the same November 16 payment schedule.

Depositary receipts for 6.950% Series FF receive $17.375, while 6.875% Series GG receipts receive $17.1875. Likewise, Citigroup declared $16.5625 per receipt for its 6.625% Series HH. Each receipt for Series Y through HH represents one twenty-fifth of a full preferred share.

Preferred Dividend Terms and Citigroup Stock Movement

Citigroup’s 6.250% Series II uses a different receipt structure, with 1,000 depositary receipts representing one preferred share. The board declared $0.390625 per Series II receipt and set November 16 for payment. The bank also declared $16.25 for 6.500% Series JJ receipts, each representing one twenty-fifth of a share.

All 12 preferred series carry a November 6, 2026, record date for determining eligible holders. Citigroup describes the preferred dividends as noncumulative, including its fixed-rate reset series and Series II. Under noncumulative terms, unpaid dividends do not accumulate as claims for payment in later periods.

Citigroup stock recovered from its early decline as trading momentum shifted during the session. The shares later stabilized, despite sharp intraday price movements that interrupted the recovery. The 0.69% increase accompanied the board’s announcement of cash distributions across common and preferred securities.

The post Citigroup (C) Stock: Rises as Board Approves Common and Preferred Dividends appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Broadcom seals a 10-year cloud deal with NTT DOCOMO as AVGO shares dip 0.07%.
• NTT DOCOMO extends VMware support for a decade to strengthen cloud operations.
• VMware Cloud Foundation anchors DOCOMO’s push for uptime and stronger security.
• Broadcom and DOCOMO plan faster service launches using unified cloud systems.
• AVGO slips to $334.37 despite a long-term deal supporting AI and future 6G.

Broadcom secured a 10-year agreement with NTT DOCOMO to advance the Japanese telecom company’s private cloud infrastructure. The agreement covers VMware products, technical assistance, and maintenance as DOCOMO prepares for growing digital demand. Broadcom (AVGO) stock slipped 0.07% to $334.37, losing $0.22 after surrendering earlier gains.

Broadcom Inc., AVGO

Broadcom Extends VMware Partnership for Another Decade

The agreement marks Broadcom Japan’s first comprehensive 10-year contract covering VMware licenses, technical support, and maintenance. DOCOMO already uses VMware Cloud Foundation to operate its private cloud across key service systems. The new contract gives both companies a shared plan for infrastructure improvements over the coming decade.

Broadcom will provide engineering resources while DOCOMO contributes experience managing large-scale telecommunications systems. Together, they aim to improve service continuity, security, and software delivery. They will also align technology plans as demand for digital applications and computing capacity increases.

The partnership builds on seven years of technical cooperation between VMware and DOCOMO. Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023, expanding its software operations alongside its semiconductor business. The acquisition strengthened Broadcom’s presence in enterprise technology used by telecommunications and other major industries.

VMware Cloud Foundation Targets Reliability and Security

VMware Cloud Foundation will remain central to DOCOMO’s private cloud under the agreement. Its tools coordinate computing, storage, and networking through a unified operating environment. As a result, DOCOMO can adjust capacity and manage resources during periods of high demand.

DOCOMO plans to improve system upgrades and maintenance while keeping customer services running. Broadcom’s VCF Forte Support package provides enhanced support targets and technical assistance. Automated resource allocation will also help the operator respond when traffic increases across its applications.

Security forms another major part of the arrangement as cyber threats become more complex. The companies plan to use timely patches, anomaly detection, and AI-assisted system monitoring. Dedicated support managers will help DOCOMO resolve issues and introduce new security measures.

Cloud Modernization Supports Faster Services and AI

Broadcom will support DOCOMO’s efforts to speed up software development and service launches. VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service will let teams run virtual machines and containers on one platform. That setup simplifies infrastructure management and supports faster deployment of new applications.

DOCOMO plans to automate development, testing, and release processes to shorten delivery cycles. It also intends to use AI-assisted operations to identify system problems sooner. These changes aim to accelerate service updates while maintaining the reliability of existing systems.

The companies expect the platform to accommodate future technologies, including 6G and IOWN. However, Broadcom did not disclose the agreement’s financial terms or implementation budget. The contract extends its VMware relationship with a major Japanese telecom operator as digital infrastructure needs evolve.

The post Broadcom (AVGO) Stock: Secures Landmark 10-Year Cloud Deal With NTT DOCOMO appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Accenture (ACN) gains 0.72% to $238.63 as Avicado acquisition boosts services
• Avicado adds more than 190 specialists to Accenture’s construction business
• Accenture gains expertise across Procore, Autodesk, Trimble and Oracle tools
• Acquisition expands Accenture’s reach in data centers and major infrastructure
• Accenture leaves Avicado’s deal price undisclosed as it grows project services

Accenture plc acquired Miami-based Avicado to expand its digital construction services for major capital projects. Accenture (ACN) stock climbed 0.72% to $238.63, gaining $1.70 after reversing earlier losses. The acquisition strengthens Accenture Construct’s software integration and project management services across complex infrastructure developments.

Accenture plc, ACN

Accenture Expands Digital Construction Consulting Capabilities

Accenture Construct will absorb Avicado’s consulting operations, widening its support for infrastructure owners and developers. The acquisition adds expertise in connecting construction software, improving project controls, and organizing complex workflows. As a result, project owners can manage data more efficiently and reduce manual handoffs between teams.

Avicado began operations in 2015 and maintains its headquarters in Miami, Florida. The consultancy helps organizations connect construction platforms and improve reporting throughout major projects. Its approach combines technology implementation with operational support for clients managing complex construction programs.

More than 190 Avicado employees will join Accenture Construct’s United States team. Their experience strengthens the unit’s ability to manage digital systems and construction delivery requirements. Accenture plans to combine these capabilities with its existing industry expertise and artificial intelligence services.

Avicado Brings Construction Software and Project Management Expertise

Avicado works with major construction software providers, including Procore, Autodesk, Trimble, Oracle and Kahua. The firm implements Autodesk Construction Cloud, BIM 360, Oracle Primavera P6, and Textura. Its specialists also support Trimble’s e-Builder platform and integrate software across project workflows.

Beyond software implementation, Avicado assists project owners with planning and daily program delivery. Its specialists handle feasibility reviews, site selection, procurement, scheduling, and document management. They act as owner representatives and help oversee work across multiple project teams.

Avicado serves data center operators, transportation agencies, government bodies, and commercial property developers. Its customers also span education, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, water, and wastewater sectors. These industries require extensive planning, project controls, and reliable records throughout construction.

Accenture Strengthens Infrastructure Services Through Avicado Acquisition

The acquisition expands Accenture Construct’s ability to support complex capital programs across several industries. By adding Avicado’s specialists, Accenture gains deeper expertise in construction platforms and project delivery. The combination also supports its strategy of connecting technology, operational processes, and project management services.

The deal strengthens Accenture’s position in digital consulting for infrastructure development. Avicado’s experience with major construction platforms complements Accenture’s broader technology and systems integration capabilities. These services can help project owners improve coordination, manage information, and strengthen operational oversight.

Accenture did not disclose the acquisition price or provide specific financial projections for the transaction. Consequently, the deal’s direct contribution to revenue and earnings remains unclear. Nevertheless, the acquisition broadens Accenture’s construction consulting capabilities and extends its reach across capital-intensive industries.

The post Accenture (ACN) Stock: Climbs as Avicado Acquisition Expands Digital Construction appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• RTX stock gains 0.28% to $192.65 as third-quarter adjusted earnings climb 33%.
• RTX revenue reaches $25 billion as aerospace and defense sales gain momentum.
• RTX raises 2026 profit guidance after its order backlog hits a record $340B.
• Collins profit jumps 50% as commercial aircraft demand fuels RTX sales growth.
• Raytheon sales surge 14%, while RTX free cash flow drops 47% in the quarter.

RTX Corporation (RTX) shares rose 0.28% to $192.65 after stronger third-quarter earnings lifted the aerospace and defense company. Adjusted earnings grew 33%, while revenue reached $25 billion across its commercial aerospace and defense operations. RTX raised its full-year outlook as its backlog hit $340 billion.

RTX Corporation, RTX

RTX Stock Recovers as Third-Quarter Profit Rises

The stock gained $0.54 after late buying erased earlier session losses. Shares moved sharply during trading but ended higher following the quarterly report. The gain coincided with improved profit and demand across RTX’s commercial aerospace and defense operations.

RTX reported $2.58 billion in net income, up 35% from $1.92 billion last year, driven by stronger earnings. GAAP earnings per share rose 34% to $1.89 from $1.41. Adjusted earnings per share climbed to $2.26 from $1.70.

Adjusted net income reached $3.09 billion, a 34% annual increase from $2.31 billion in 2025. RTX’s adjusted earnings included $0.25 per share from IEEPA cost recovery. Higher taxes and lower pension income partly offset operating gains.

RTX Revenue Climbs as Backlog Reaches $340 Billion

RTX generated $24.97 billion in sales, compared with $22.48 billion a year earlier. Revenue increased 11% on a reported basis and 12% organically. Commercial aviation and defense demand supported growth, while new awards exceeded $81 billion during the latest reporting period.

These contracts pushed the RTX backlog to a record $340 billion. Commercial aerospace orders totaled $176 billion, while defense orders reached $164 billion. RTX also secured multi-year production contracts for Tomahawk and AMRAAM missiles during the third quarter of 2026.

RTX raised its 2026 adjusted sales forecast to 97.0billion–97.5 billion, from 95.0billion–96.0 billion. The company increased adjusted earnings guidance to 7.65–7.75 per share and organic growth expectations to 10%–11%. It also lifted its annual free cash flow target to 9.0billion–9.2 billion.

Collins, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon Drive Results

Collins Aerospace reported $8.38 billion in sales, up 10% from last year. Adjusted operating profit jumped 50% to $1.79 billion as commercial aircraft activity strengthened. Original equipment sales increased 23%, while commercial aftermarket revenue advanced 9% from the comparable prior-year quarter.

Pratt & Whitney reported $9.23 billion in sales, representing 10% growth. Adjusted operating profit rose 29% to $968 million with support from stronger commercial engine aftermarket demand. However, a $363 million customer bankruptcy charge contributed to a 19% drop in reported operating profit.

Raytheon recorded $8.03 billion in sales, up 14%, amid rising missile and air defense orders. Adjusted operating profit climbed 32% to $1.13 billion, aided by productivity improvements. Despite higher earnings, RTX’s quarterly free cash flow fell 47% to $2.12 billion from $4.03 billion.

The post RTX Corporation (RTX) Stock: Rises 0.28% as Q3 Earnings Jump 33% and Revenue Hits $25 Billion appeared first on Blockonomi.

Figures shared by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis show that Canada’s crypto economy jumped more than 2% in the year to June 2026.

At the same time, the US economy contracted by an almost similar percentage, with the divergence coming at a time when Canadian traders are moving more toward stablecoins, and dollar-pegged tokens making up a larger portion of order-book volume than assets bought primarily to store value.

Stablecoins Take the Largest Share of Canadian Crypto Trading

In its post, Chainalysis reported that the global crypto economy shrank 1.6% during the same period. Canada moved in the opposite direction, with the firm describing it as the second-largest country in its “big money index” and ranking it 10th among 117 countries in its grassroots adoption index.

According to the firm, Canada’s share of that market grew 2.3% to $247.7 billion, while the US’s dropped by 2.2%. Everyday use appears to be part of the Canadian picture. Chainalysis described the country as having the strongest peer-to-peer crypto economy in the Group of Seven, although the figures shared did not provide a transaction total for that activity.

The composition of Canadian trading has also changed. Stablecoins accounted for 44% of crypto order-book volume in June 2026, up from 30% a year earlier, according to a separate Chainalysis post. That put them ahead of store-of-value assets, which accounted for 29%.

USDC dominated the stablecoin category, the firm added. Smart contract layer-1 assets made up 17% of the tracked volume, while payment-focused cryptocurrencies accounted for 8%. Meme coins, layer-2 tokens and other assets together represented the remaining 2%.

Dollar Tokens Gain Ground as US Crypto Flows Shift

The Canadian figures come amid a broader geographic split in crypto activity, with Chainalysis finding that the US had become a net importer of Bitcoin in 2026 for the first time since 2022, while dollar-backed stablecoins continued to flow abroad.

“Stablecoins let users hold dollars without having a US bank account. US users generally have easier access to dollar banking, making that benefit less pressing at home,” it explained.

The report found that transfers below $10,000 remained net outbound from the US, while larger transactions moved in the opposite direction. Transfers worth more than $10 million accounted for 53,200 BTC flowing into the country.

Chainalysis also reported that 99.1% of global stablecoin order-book volume was tied to the US dollar. Its figures for tokenized real-world assets provide further context, with the market growing 135% to $36.07 billion in the period ending in the second quarter of 2026, and tokenized US Treasuries reaching $15.42 billion.

The post Data: US Crypto Economy Shrinks as Canada’s Market Expands in 2026 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino pushed back on X against a US Senate subcommittee report, dated September 28, that accuses the stablecoin issuer of being slow to freeze wallets tied to Iran and its proxies.

At issue is whether Tether freezes addresses ahead of sanctions designations, as the executive claims, or behind them, as the report contends.

Tether Says It Freezes Early, While the Report Finds Delays

Ardoino put the word “analysis” in quotation marks when describing Senator Richard Blumenthal’s work. Since 2023, he wrote, Tether has frozen reported addresses an average of four weeks before formal designations by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF), and in 99% of cases it did so before blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis labeled them.

The Tether chief also credited the company’s actions with a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes, which he attributed to “law enforcement partnerships.”

Titled “Tethered to Terrorism,” the report comes from Blumenthal and the minority staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It analyzed 846 wallets that OFAC or the NBCTF sanctioned or targeted for seizure and found that 84% transacted exclusively, or nearly exclusively, in USDT.

Delays are the subject of the report’s third finding. After the NBCTF designated 39 wallets linked to a Hezbollah money launderer in June 2023, Tether froze only five of them for months and blocked the other 34 in March 2024, shortly before OFAC sanctioned the same launderer.

The subcommittee’s analysis showed that more than $34.6 million in USDT left those wallets after the seizure notice was published. Babak Zanjani, a sanctioned Iranian money launderer, posted Central Bank of Iran wallet addresses on X in December 2025, and Tether had not blacklisted them as of September, according to the report.

Three wallets tied to the Modex Exchange Company, a brokerage the report links to funding Iran’s central bank, took in $575 million in USDT between April and June 2025, and Tether did not blacklist those either.

Nearly $5B Frozen

As CryptoPotato reported earlier, Tether said on September 28 that it had helped US authorities freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT this year, including more than $344 million across two addresses tied to the Central Bank of Iran in April.

The company also reported freezing more than $22 million across over 40 cases referred by Israel’s counter-terror financing bureau, and across all cases, the stablecoin issuer says it had helped freeze more than $4.9 billion, including over $2.4 billion connected to US authorities.

The post Tether CEO Rejects Senate Claims Over Iran-Linked USDT appeared first on CryptoPotato.

PENGU, the official community token of the Pudgy Penguin ecosystem, was once among the largest meme coins, with a market cap of more than $2.5 billion. However, after months of bearish pressure, its capitalization has shrunk to under $500 million, and the token currently trades around $0.0074, down 20% over the past fortnight.

One key signal, though, suggests that PENGU might soon chart a notable resurgence.

Upswing on the Way?

Ali Martinez identified a fresh buy signal on the meme coin’s TD Sequential indicator and noted that the metric has been extremely accurate at anticipating trend shifts in the past.

For instance, buy signals at the start of August and mid-September were followed by major price increases of 77.6% and 66.9%, respectively. At the same time, a sell signal less than a month ago preceded a 31.5% pullback.

“Now, the TD Sequential has flashed a new buy signal on the daily chart, suggesting another upswing could be starting,” he added.

Martinez noted that the timing of a potential resurgence is interesting from a fundamental perspective, adding that PENGU is now available to buy, sell, and hold on SoFi, giving the token exposure to a platform serving more than 15 million members.

The official X account of Pudgy Penguins highlighted the development, saying it “marks another step toward bringing PENGU to everyone, everywhere.”

Altcoin Sherpa – a popular X user who often focuses on crypto – described the initiative as a “pretty cool partnership” for PENGU. “If there was one brand that has really escaped into the mainstream, it’s Pudgy Penguins imo. (I have a bag),” they revealed.

The Previous Signals

Martinez shared another analysis of PENGU toward the end of September. Back then, he claimed the meme coin’s Bollinger Bands had squeezed on the weekly chart, a development often seen as a precursor to a major price move (though the direction remains unclear).

Adding to the bullish case, the analyst highlighted several technical indicators that have turned positive. These include two consecutive buy signals from the Tom DeMark Sequential, a bullish flip in the Parabolic SAR, and a fresh SuperTrend buy signal, which previously preceded a 1,156% price explosion.

Since then, though, PENGU has undergone a steep correction, and it remains to be seen whether these favorable factors, coupled with the most recent indication, can reignite momentum.

The post PENGU Dumps 20% in 2 Weeks, But Analyst Predicts a Massive Rebound appeared first on CryptoPotato.

ZENDEX is a decentralized exchange that’s specifically designed for professional capital and private execution. It just announced live testnet trading and a core community-building phase following the completion of a full security audit by Hacken and Dual Defense.

The testnet will roll out gradually across multiple phases, which include points incentives. It will be followed by seeded liquidity and a live private DEX mainnet trading venue.

Mainnet and subsequent (ZENDEX V2/V3) launch phases are included in the roadmap toward private EVM liquidity aggregation and advanced on-chain ZK-DeFi execution functionality. Day-one ZENDEX DeFi operations are anchored by a permanent ZEN-denominated fee converter that converts every fee collected by ZENDEX into ZEN, the Horizen ecosystem’s legacy utility asset.

The ZENDEX fee splitter will then transparently distribute ZEN between liquidity providers, treasury operations, and Horizen’s existing ZEN Staking Contract. This is intended to create a long-term utility and tokenomic flywheel.

With ZEN serving as a legacy zero-knowledge utility asset aligned with Horizen’s long-term vision for private computation and EVM verifiability, ZENDEX is engineered to address many structural weaknesses of public on-chain trading.

The Transparency Barrier in Public-Chain DeFi

Now, it’s important to note that public blockchains expose every trade, strategy, and treasury movement. This is a well-known industry reality that this transparency has contributed to keeping significant institutional liquidity off-chain while, at the same time, putting retail traders at a disadvantage through extractive MEV practices.

ZENDEX is designed to shield trade sizes, execution intent, and sensitive trading activity in order to significantly reduce exposure to front-running, sandwich attacks, and other forms of extractive MEV while maintaining deterministic settlement. The model is intended to enable both retail and institutional participants to execute trading activity without exposing sensitive information to external observers unnecessarily.

Dual-Engine Execution: ZK-AMM & Private Order Book

ZENDEX achieves private, high-throughput execution. To do so, it unifies two core trading primitives within a single zero-knowledge framework.

The Shielded ZK-AMM

Essentially, this is a private automated market maker built on constant-product pricing. Positions, liquidity deployments, and swap volumes are represented through opaque commitments. The rules for maximum slippage are enforced through Noir-based zero-knowledge circuits.

The Private Limit Order Book

Makers submit hidden limit orders as private commitments, which brings DeFi execution that’s inspired by dark pools. The protocol is designed to reduce information leakage prior to settlement while preserving market functionality and efficient execution.

Price Discovery Through Three Market Primitives

ZENDEX combines three market primitives within a single private execution environment:

• Automated Market Maker (AMM)
• Private Limit Order Book
• Liquidity Provisioning (LP)

Together, these mechanisms enable market-driven price discovery through liquidity pools, AMM math, and private order matching. At the same time, the design reduces the information exposure typically associated with public blockchain trading.

To reduce computational cost and latency, ZENDEX utilizes Single-Epoch Inclusion Proof Reuse. By letting users verify eligibility across sequential trades without generating fresh Merkle membership proofs for every action, the protocol improves execution efficiency while minimizing gas overhead.

ZEN-Denominated Fee Engine & Foundational Liquidity

Day-one trading depth will be supported through foundational liquidity provision and carefully seeded protocol markets.

Testnet liquidity should not be viewed as representative of eventual mainnet liquidity conditions. Additional assets and market functionality will be introduced as liquidity, trading activity, and ecosystem demand develop.

While concentrated liquidity remains a potential future feature, the primary objective of ZENDEX’s next evolution is private liquidity aggregation through router-to-router connectivity and multi-protocol liquidity sourcing.

This approach allows ZENDEX to access broader liquidity networks and improve execution quality without sacrificing privacy-focused design principles, laying the foundation for deeply liquid and dynamically executing on-chain capital markets.

Compliance-Clean Privacy Architecture

Rather than relying on opaque mixing systems or manual gatekeeping, ZENDEX seeks to embed privacy-preserving due diligence directly into the execution path.

By integrating AMLBot risk scoring alongside PureFi’s recent Horizen integration, ZENDEX aims to introduce objective, privacy-preserving compliance signals into decentralized execution without abandoning the principles of self-custody and open access.

Security attestations can be validated on-chain prior to processing state changes. Transactions that fail predefined objective risk criteria may be programmatically rejected according to protocol rules, creating a transparent and rules-based security framework without introducing arbitrary enforcement mechanisms.

Testnet Activities & Onboarding

Phase one of the public testnet is now live. The testnet currently features:

• synthetic faucet assets
• non-mainnet pricing environments
• active partnership discussions
• ongoing ecosystem initiatives
• expanding community of users exploring the next generation of private EVM-native DeFi execution.

ZENDEX welcomes developers, traders, liquidity providers, ecosystem partners, and long-term supporters of privacy-preserving decentralized protocols to participate in the continuing testnet rollout and help shape the future of responsible private on-chain capital deployment.

Testnet: https://testnet.zendex.fi/

Official Hub: https://zendex.carrd.co/

Follow ZENDEX on X: https://x.com/zendexfi/

ZENDEX Disclaimer: ZENDEX is a decentralized, open-source, non-custodial software ecosystem deployed on public blockchain infrastructure. By interacting with ZENDEX protocols, you assume full responsibility for your actions, security procedures, and regulatory compliance. ZENDEX is a utility infrastructure ecosystem and does not offer financial advice.

Disclaimer: The above article is sponsored content; it’s written by a third party. CryptoPotato doesn’t endorse or assume responsibility for the content, advertising, products, quality, accuracy, or other materials on this page. Nothing in it should be construed as financial advice. Readers are strongly advised to verify the information independently and carefully before engaging with any company or project mentioned and to do their own research. Investing in cryptocurrencies carries a risk of capital loss, and readers are also advised to consult a professional before making any decisions that may or may not be based on the above-sponsored content.

Readers are also advised to read CryptoPotato’s full disclaimer.

The post ZENDEX Private EVM ZK-Privacy DEX Testnet Goes Live appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin dipped below $81,400 on Tuesday. Despite ongoing market uncertainty, the largest holders of the crypto asset have been stacking up.

According to Santiment, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have accumulated around 88,987 units in just one month.

Holders Keep Loading Up

The buying spree began on September 19. The combined holdings of this cohort have now climbed above 13.69 million BTC, reaching a level not seen in the past six months. This trend puts whale activity back in focus.

Santiment noted that these wallets have historically tracked closely with Bitcoin’s major price movements, and their growing balances suggest large holders are increasing exposure rather than cutting back during volatility.

But accumulation alone does not guarantee a rally. If the trend continues, it could offer support for Bitcoin’s price outlook. Given BTC’s influence on the wider crypto market, steady buying from these holders could also help strengthen confidence.

But growing whale balances do not fully explain Bitcoin’s struggle to break higher. HashKey Senior Researcher Tim Sun explained that rising borrowing costs and narrower valuation premiums have weakened some corporate treasuries’ incentive to keep adding the asset. In a statement to CryptoPotato, Sun said,

“During the last two years, key marginal buyers of Bitcoin mainly came from spot ETFs and corporate Bitcoin treasuries. The latter, in particular, relies heavily on capital market financing conditions for sustained purchasing power.

As monetary policy faces renewed tightening pressure and borrowing costs rise, equity valuation premiums for some treasury companies have narrowed, reducing the economic incentive to continually expand Bitcoin holdings through financing. This bears a certain similarity to the recent pressure seen in AI tech stocks.”

Sun said that BTC has still avoided a “sustained, deep drop” while adding that growing long-term investment is helping the market absorb macroeconomic shocks, even as some traditional sources of buying demand lose strength.

Weak Institutional Demand

The pressure on corporate Bitcoin buyers is not the only concern. Another factor weighing on the crypto asset’s buying pressure is the slowdown in ETF demand. Spot BTC exchange-traded funds attracted $526.6 million on Monday, which happens to be their largest daily inflow in nearly a month. The inflows weren’t enough to turn things around, as these funds posted net outflows of $90.57 million so far in October.

On a deeper level, Sun believes that the asset “is gradually transitioning toward a more mature asset-allocation-driven phase.” As investment channels mature, institutional buying will increasingly depend on market liquidity, interest rates, risk budgets, and Bitcoin’s value compared to other major asset classes.

The post Bitcoin’s Biggest Holders Scoop Up Nearly 89,000 BTC in Just One Month appeared first on CryptoPotato.