OpenAI's breakthrough in solving complex equations may drive AI research investment, potentially reshaping future AI development strategies.

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The attack exacerbates regional instability, threatening civilian safety and aviation, while influencing market perceptions of future conflicts.

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The housing crisis protests in Spain could significantly impact voter sentiment and market confidence ahead of the November election.

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China's tech hardware slump highlights the risks of overvaluation and market volatility, impacting investor confidence and sector stability.

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France's crypto tax measures could reshape market dynamics, influencing investor sentiment and potentially affecting Bitcoin's price trajectory.

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Bitcoin Magazine

AI Coding Agents Drive Surge in Bitcoin Integration Requests: Breez

Bitcoin software company Breez said demand for its developer tools has surged since AI coding agents went mainstream, with partnership inquiries rising roughly 14-fold as developers, and increasingly the agents they deploy, look to add bitcoin payments to their apps.

In a company blog post, it tied the jump directly to Anthropic’s Claude Code, which launched as a research preview in February 2025 and became generally available three months later.

Before 2025, Breez said, most prospective partners fell into three camps: committed bitcoin enthusiasts, crypto developers, and fintech firms that treat bitcoin as an asset class.

Since Claude Code arrived, the company said, it has heard from many developers with little or no bitcoin experience. Requests have come from fitness apps, messaging apps that want users to send each other money, an eSIM service for travelers, and the team behind a mushroom-identification app.

Breez said many of these developers pick bitcoin for speed. Setting up traditional payment acceptance, including a bank account and cross-border transfers, can take weeks or months, while the company says its SDK can be running within minutes.

Breez said a growing share of inquiries now come from software, not people. The company said it regularly fields requests from coding agents writing on behalf of the companies that deploy them.

The company argues agents favor bitcoin because it is permissionless. An agent can build an app and set up payments for users worldwide without opening a bank account, passing onboarding checks or signing forms.

“Bitcoin is agnostic about whether the code of its current owner and user is composed of DNA base pairs or weights in a neural net,” Breez wrote.

That same absence of gatekeeping has long drawn scrutiny from financial regulators, who require traditional payment providers to verify customers.

Breez said its newest SDK implementation, built on the Bitcoin scaling protocol Spark, handled the added volume without problems.

The company framed the shift as an update to investor Marc Andreessen’s 2011 essay arguing that software is eating the world, saying AI is now eating software. It compared Bitcoin’s role to background infrastructure like electrical sockets and subsea cables.

This post AI Coding Agents Drive Surge in Bitcoin Integration Requests: Breez first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

WhiteBIT Integrates Lightning Network for Fast and Cheap Bitcoin Transactions

The Lightning Network continues to find use cases. 

Crypto exchange WhiteBIT announced on Thursday that the platform has integrated the network to help users quickly and efficiently move funds. 

Powered by BTC infrastructure provider Voltage, the Swiss exchange said that bitcoin withdrawals and deposits can be made over the network. A number of major exchanges — including Coinbase and Kraken — have integrated the second-layer solution in recent years. 

“WhiteBIT’s mission is to make blockchain technology accessible and widely adopted by delivering practical, user-friendly solutions for digital assets,” WhiteBIT Founder and CEO Volodymyr Nosov said in a statement.  

“Adding Lightning support brings us closer to this goal as we are making Bitcoin faster and more useful for customers who want to top up accounts, send and receive funds, and use Bitcoin across more real-world flows.”

Zug-based WhiteBIT, the 17th biggest exchange by transaction volume, according to CoinGecko data, added that the launch supports a faster Bitcoin rail with use cases for “remittances, exchange funding, merchant-style QR payments, and interoperability with Lightning-enabled wallets and applications.”

Transaction volume on Lightning has surged this year. The reason, broadly, is that exchanges are using the network to move funds because it’s so cheap and fast. 

Launched in 2018, Lightning was previously pushed for smaller transactions like tipping or buying a cup of coffee.

The network also offers more privacy than Bitcoin’s main chain: because Lightning payments are settled off-chain rather than recorded on the public blockchain, individual payments are harder to trace.

This post WhiteBIT Integrates Lightning Network for Fast and Cheap Bitcoin Transactions first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Greece Plans Crypto Capital Gains Tax: Report

Greece is planning a law to tax crypto investors’ capital gains at a rate of 15%, according to reports.

According to Reuters and local media, the country’s Finance Ministry has drafted a bill with the proposal. Greece currently has no legal framework for taxing crypto.

Under the draft, the first €500 (about $580) of crypto gains each year would be exempt.

The bill would tax only the net gain when crypto is sold, after deducting trading fees. Swapping one cryptocurrency for another, such as bitcoin, would not trigger the tax. It would apply only when holdings are converted into euros or another fiat currency, or used to pay for goods and services. 

Investors could carry losses forward against future crypto gains for up to five tax years, and tokens earned through staking or lending would be taxed only when sold.

The rules would apply retroactively from January 1, 2025, meaning gains from last year onward would be declared on tax returns filed in 2027.

The bill is due to be submitted to parliament in November.

Greece follows the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission authorizes and supervises crypto service providers, and the Bank of Greece handles prudential oversight of stablecoin issuers. 

Licensing has been slow: no Greek providers appeared on the EU’s register until September, about two months after MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1.

Since January 2026, the EU’s DAC8 directive has required crypto exchanges to collect detailed data on their users and transactions and report it to national tax authorities, much like banks already do for ordinary accounts. Greece wrote those rules into national law in May. 

Crypto tax treatment varies widely across the bloc. Rates range from 8% in Cyprus to 30% in France. Some countries are more lenient: Germany exempts crypto held for more than a year, and Portugal does the same after 365 days. 

This post Greece Plans Crypto Capital Gains Tax: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Falls Below $81,000 as Oil Spikes, Fed Talks Tough

Bitcoin’s price has dropped further, sliding with other assets as the oil price continued to climb and the Federal Reserve made a hawkish statement. 

The price of the leading asset recently stood at $81,203 after dropping as low as nearly $80,922 at one point on Thursday morning in New York. 

Over the past day, bitcoin’s price has shed nearly 3% of its value; over a seven-day period, it’s down by 4%. 

Just last week, the coin seemed to be closing in on the $90,000 mark after a phenomenal September rally and one of its best quarters in years. 

But so-called Uptober — the month of October typically gives bitcoin investors good returns — is starting slow on a surging oil price. 

This week, the price of Brent crude has jumped following renewed attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Trump also hinted that talks with Iran weren’t going the way he wanted. 

A surging oil price this year has — at least in the short-term — hurt the price of bitcoin and other “risk-on” assets because it increases the chances of the U.S. central bank raising interest rates. Bitcoin has in the past done well with low interest rates because of increased liquidity. 

In a speech Thursday, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller also said further interest-rate hikes will likely be needed to slow inflation. He did add that there was “flexibility” about ‌the pace of increases. 

Oil prices have jumped since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, which resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation by Iran. Higher oil prices have meant sticky and climbing prices around the world — including in the States. 

But bitcoin’s price in September appeared to shrug off comments by the new Federal Reserve Chair, Kevin Warsh, and jumped despite the central bank raising interest rates. 

Despite the bitcoin price dip, the coin, according to some analysts, has entered a bull market again. The biggest cryptocurrency spent most of 2026 in a bear market after reaching record highs in October 2025. It is currently more than 30% below its record of $126,080. 

This post Bitcoin Falls Below $81,000 as Oil Spikes, Fed Talks Tough first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

EDX Markets and VerifiedX Partner to Bring Verified Bitcoin (vBTC) to Institutional Markets

VerifiedX (verifiedx.io), a programmable layer for Bitcoin and other crypto assets, and EDX Markets (“EDX”), a Chicago-based digital asset technology firm that combines an institution-only trading venue with a central clearinghouse, announced a strategic partnership to bring Verified Bitcoin (vBTC), a tokenized form of Bitcoin, to EDX for institutional spot trading.

vBTC, VerifiedX’s flagship product, is designed to be a programmable, one-to-one backed Bitcoin asset, enabled by their layer-two protocol. As part of the partnership, EDX will join the VerifiedX network as a validator, providing EDX with direct participation in network validation and governance. The partnership will extend the relationship beyond asset trading into the underlying infrastructure supporting vBTC, while unlocking the asset for institutional traders and investors, according to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. 

“Bitcoin has become a globally recognized institutional asset, yet much of its financial utility remains fragmented across exchanges, custodians, wrappers, bridges and application-layer protocols,” they wrote. The press release explained how VerifiedX works to address that fragmentation by making the bitcoin backing vBTC verifiable on-chain at a more granular level, avoiding the pooling of funds and using more advanced Bitcoin technologies than other alternatives. In turn, this makes the asset easier to program for trading, payments, treasury management, lending, and other financial applications.

The partnership is expected to support a range of institutional strategies, including:

• Bitcoin trading and price discovery through institutional spot markets;
• Cross-market arbitrage and liquidity strategies between BTC and vBTC markets;
• Treasury and balance-sheet mobility, allowing Bitcoin capital to move between trading and programmable environments;
• Borrowing, lending and yield strategies built around Bitcoin-backed capital;
• On-chain liquidity and financial applications native to VerifiedX;
• EVM composability through vBTC.b, the canonical representation of vBTC for supported EVM environments, allowing Bitcoin capital to participate in broader decentralized financial markets while preserving a direct redemption path to underlying Bitcoin.

Through EDX, market participants will gain a new venue for trading vBTC within an institutional market structure designed around aggregated liquidity, central clearing and capital-efficient settlement.

“Bitcoin does not need another financial abstraction. It needs infrastructure that allows the asset itself to do more,” said Jay Pollak, Head of Strategy at the VerifiedX Foundation. “Bringing vBTC to EDX is important because it connects programmable Bitcoin capital with market infrastructure purpose-built for sophisticated institutions. An allocator should be able to trade Bitcoin, deploy it, move it across financial environments, and ultimately redeem back to Bitcoin without losing the fundamental ownership characteristics that made Bitcoin valuable in the first place.” 

“EDX joining as a validator makes this partnership even more meaningful. This is not simply about adding another trading pair. It connects institutional trading infrastructure directly with the network infrastructure underneath the asset,” Pollak added. As a validator, EDX gets maximum sovereignty over the signing and governance of the vBTC they are responsible for, while also becoming a node in Bitcoin and the VerifiedX layer. 

Aside from their home page at VerifiedX.io, the company has a dedicated block explorer as well as a Discord, X profile, and GitHub repo. They can also be contacted via email at info@verifiedx.io.

Bitcoin Magazine has a financial relationship with VerifiedX. This article was not commissioned or reviewed by VerifiedX and reflects the independent judgment of the author.

This post EDX Markets and VerifiedX Partner to Bring Verified Bitcoin (vBTC) to Institutional Markets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Crypto firms authorized under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA) should resolve EU clients' remaining exposure to non-compliant stablecoins through their services within three months, according to a new opinion from the bloc's markets watchdog.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published the opinion Oct. 8. Where national regulators find legacy exposures, ESMA said they should require remediation as soon as possible and no later than three months after publication, or about Jan. 8, 2027.

National regulators may allow firms that do not yet comply to provide strictly limited services needed for an orderly wind-down and to avoid harm to clients. These can include liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer or safekeeping of existing holdings.

Those exit services should be time-limited, clearly communicated to clients and closely supervised. They should not enable new acquisitions, promotion, active distribution or continued market availability.

National supervisors decide whether to allow them, so customers do not automatically get three months of continued service.

The opinion's legal route is Article 66(1) of MiCA, which requires providers to act in clients' best interests. In ESMA's view, providing any MiCA service involving a non-compliant stablecoin should give rise to a presumption that it is incompatible with that duty, whether or not the individual service constitutes an offer to the public or admission to trading.

ESMA argued that providers cannot adequately mitigate the risks created by missing issuer-level safeguards. Warnings, disclosures and client acknowledgments would not resolve those concerns.

ESMA's Jan. 17, 2025 statement left mere custody and transfers open while restricting trading and other services that constituted public offers. The new opinion complements that guidance, preserving the earlier offer-to-the-public interpretation while adding expectations under providers' existing duties.

In its Sept. 30 MiCA-review response, ESMA had sought legislation prohibiting all licensable services involving non-compliant stablecoins, without specifying an implementation date or wind-down path for that proposal.

The October opinion adds a timetable and supervised exit arrangements under current MiCA obligations to the legislative request from Oct. 3.

Access to stablecoins beyond trading

ESMA's opinion names no token or issuer. However, Tether's USDT is among the assets Coinbase's EEA retail guidance labels MiCA-non-compliant.

Kraken's guidance, updated April 13, lists USDT among stablecoins delisted for EEA trading while still permitting deposits and withdrawals, although it discourages deposits.

Removing USDT trading pairs alone may not satisfy ESMA's expectations where a MiCA-authorized provider continues servicing it as a non-compliant token. Remaining services would need to fit any narrowly permitted, supervised wind-down.

For existing holders, the practical question is which exit services their provider and national supervisor allow. The opinion concerns access through regulated EU firms, but it does not impose a worldwide ban on owning USDT.

The post EU regulators target non-compliant stablecoins with a 90-day deadline appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Coinbase plans to introduce spot borrowing with up to 10x leverage, letting eligible traders borrow against collateral to buy crypto on spot markets, but US customers who do not qualify as Eligible Contract Participants will be excluded.

The exchange's Oct. 7 announcement puts the rollout in the coming weeks. Access will depend on customer eligibility and selected jurisdictions, but Coinbase does not identify those countries, so availability cannot be assumed for every trader outside the US.

For US individuals, a 2021 statement by a commissioner at the CFTC, the US derivatives regulator, describes discretionary investments exceeding $10 million in aggregate, or exceeding $5 million when the transaction is for risk management purposes. That distinction puts the planned service beyond ordinary US retail access.

The restriction applies specifically to spot borrowing, and Coinbase says the product is offered by affiliates and is separate from Coinbase Financial Markets, which offers US derivatives.

For US customers, the margin lenders will be Coinbase Custody International Limited or Coinbase Credit, Inc., even though traders would manage spot borrowing and derivatives exposure through a shared margin portfolio.

Coinbase completed the Deribit migration on Oct. 2, setting the stage for Coinbase's expansion, while the spot-margin plan adds a distinct borrowing option for eligible customers.

Collateral remains exposed

For customers who qualify, Coinbase sets maximum leverage at 10x on selected major assets and 5x on other supported assets.

The company says traders can post collateral in more than 15 supported assets, with those holdings remaining on Coinbase. Loan balances, collateral levels, and margin health will be visible in real time across open borrows.

Keeping collateral on the platform does not protect it from a forced sale. Coinbase warns that borrowed trading magnifies losses as well as gains, that collateral can be liquidated without notice, and that losses can exceed the initial deposit.

The announcement leaves borrowing rates, collateral valuation haircuts, or discounts applied to pledged assets, and liquidation thresholds unspecified. Those terms determine the cost of using the service and when collateral is at risk.

The post Coinbase rolls out 10x spot leverage, but blocks US retail from it appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Core Lightning, software for running Bitcoin Lightning payment nodes, has released v26.06.9 with security fixes and a repair for a regression that could delay channel traffic on busy nodes running v26.06.8.

GitHub lists the new release as published Oct. 7, while its versioned changelog carries an Oct. 6 date.

The update gives operators who installed v26.06.8 a fresh decision on upgrading, following the Sept. 27 revoked-channel penalty flaw that was fixed in v26.06.7. The latest patch adds fixes and addresses a regression introduced by that later version.

Bitcoin payment delays and shutdown risk

In v26.06.8, routine gossip, pings, and onion messages counted toward a CPU budget intended for gossip queries. On busy nodes, that accounting could throttle peers and delay channel traffic, according to the maintainers.

V26.06.9 reserves that budget for gossip queries, so ordinary messages no longer consume it, removing the documented cause of this throttling. The regression described by maintainers concerns busy nodes running Core Lightning v26.06.8.

The changelog also describes a fix for a payment contract (HTLC) that reaches its deadline while a channel is shutting down. V26.06.9 now force-closes the channel in that situation, preventing forwarded funds from being lost if the payment is fulfilled late.

For an operator forwarding payments, this fixes a funds-protection problem when payment deadlines and channel shutdown overlap.

Other fixes enforce the limits carried by runes used to authorize calls, so a restricted rune can no longer create an unrestricted one or relist blacklisted runes. Restrictions on the corresponding creation and blocklisting methods now also cover the invokerune and destroyrune aliases.

The listconfigs command now masks several sensitive values, including recovery information and Bitcoin RPC passwords, for every caller. The setconfig command closes a path for injecting configuration lines through persistent option values.

The fixes are available immediately, but maintainers have temporarily held back security tests to make exploit development harder and give operators more time to upgrade.

Nodes that have run master cannot downgrade to a 26.06.x release because their database schema is newer. The release also reiterates that dual funding remains experimental and discourages zero-confirmation channels with untrusted peers.

Maintainers urge Core Lightning users, including those on v26.06.8, to upgrade to v26.06.9 as soon as practical.

The post Core Lightning patches critical security flaws and a Bitcoin payment bug appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin miners are emerging from months of financial pressure as rising BTC prices lift daily industry revenue by 78%.

According to CryptoQuant's weekly report shared with CryptoSlate, total daily mining revenue climbed from approximately $27 million at July's lows to as much as $48 million, following Bitcoin's roughly 45% recovery from $58,000 to above $83,000.

The turnaround is also visible in hashprice, a closely watched measure of mining economics that tracks the expected daily revenue generated by a unit of computing power.

Data from Hashrate Index shows the metric recently climbed above $40 per petahash per second per day, its highest level since January. It has slightly declined to around $39 as of press time.

That marks a significant recovery from the industry's financial difficulties earlier this year. CoinShares previously reported that hashprice fell to approximately $27.70 in June, reflecting a combination of lower Bitcoin prices, persistently weak transaction fees, and mining difficulty that remained elevated relative to revenue.

The subsequent recovery has improved the economics of running mining equipment, although the gains vary considerably across operators depending on electricity costs, hardware efficiency and financing obligations.

Bitcoin's rally reverses months of mining distress

CryptoQuant's Miner Profit/Loss Sustainability indicator shows that the industry's financial position has improved substantially since August.

Between May and August, miners were largely classified as “extremely underpaid,” indicating that mining revenue was insufficient relative to the network's difficulty under the firm's methodology.

That changed on Aug. 21, when Bitcoin reached approximately $76,000. Since then, the indicator has generally remained in its “fairly paid” category, pointing out that mining revenue has recovered relative to the computational resources required to secure the network.

This improvement matters because mining operators receive Bitcoin-denominated rewards while electricity, equipment financing, and other operating expenses are generally paid in fiat currencies.

Higher Bitcoin prices therefore increase the dollar value of mining rewards without necessarily increasing operating costs immediately.

However, the higher hash price also reflects changes in network competition, since each unit of computing power is expected to generate more revenue when fewer miners compete for the same block rewards.

That dynamic helps explain why industry revenue and individual mining economics have improved even though Bitcoin's network hashrate remains below its previous peak.

CryptoQuant reported that network hashrate has recovered to about 962 exahashes per second (EH/s), up from 899 EH/s on July 31, when declining prices squeezed operators' margins.

The rebound has narrowed the network's drawdown from a peak of approximately 18% in late July to 13%, likely because improving returns are encouraging miners to bring more computing capacity back online.

Nevertheless, the financial recovery still depends heavily on Bitcoin's market value rather than increased transaction activity.

CryptoQuant found that daily transaction fees, measured using a seven-day average, rose from approximately $195,000 to $275,000. Those figures remain well below the $400,000 to $800,000 range recorded during parts of 2025.

Consequently, block subsidies still account for most mining revenue, leaving operators vulnerable to renewed pressure if Bitcoin prices retreat or network difficulty rises faster than earnings.

Miner selling pressure eases as profitability returns

Improved mining economics are also beginning to influence how operators manage their Bitcoin holdings.

CryptoQuant reported that extreme miner outflows have not occurred since Aug. 21, when approximately 29,000 BTC moved out of miner-associated wallets as Bitcoin advanced toward $76,000.

Since then, transfers have stayed within their normal range, with the latest daily reading at about 12,000 BTC.

Although wallet outflows don't necessarily translate into immediate market sales, the decline could be an indicator that miners face less pressure to move large amounts of Bitcoin after months of financial strain.

The change is also apparent among some of the network's oldest participants.

According to CryptoQuant, Satoshi-era miners, excluding addresses associated with Patoshi, transferred approximately 600 BTC out of their wallets in September. That was roughly a 70% decline from the approximately 2,000 BTC recorded in January.

Their combined holdings remain substantial at about 590,000 BTC, so changes in their spending activity matter for the market's potential supply outlook.

Meanwhile, addresses holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC have stopped reducing their aggregate balances after months of depletion.

The cohort's combined holdings declined approximately 20% from 64,000 BTC in December 2025 to roughly 51,000 BTC by early September. Since then, balances have remained relatively stable.

That stabilization could be a sign that miners have become less reliant on drawing down existing reserves as operating conditions improve.

For Bitcoin investors, the reduced selling pressure could remove one source of supply that weighed on the market during the downturn. However, the miners have yet to demonstrate a sustained return to accumulation.

Bitcoin's $80,000 support level emerges as a test for mining profits

Meanwhile, emerging constraints also limit how far the industry's financial recovery can extend.

As miners reactivate equipment and network competition intensifies, rising difficulty could compress hash price again unless Bitcoin's market value keeps climbing.

CryptoQuant identified Bitcoin's 365-day moving average near $80,000 as an important short-term support level, followed by its 200-day moving average around $71,000.

A sustained decline toward those levels could test the revenue gains miners have accumulated since July, particularly among operators using older, less efficient equipment.

A durable recovery would be marked by whether larger miners begin rebuilding their Bitcoin reserves while network hashrate continues to recover, suggesting that improving revenues are sufficient to cover operating expenses and support renewed accumulation despite increasing competition.

The post Bitcoin miners escape months of distress as daily revenue surges by 78% appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin faces a new macro headwind from the artificial-intelligence boom as massive infrastructure spending competes for long-term capital.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 15-16 meeting showed market participants citing heavy private debt issuance for AI infrastructure as one factor pushing Treasury yields and term premiums higher. Nominal yields rose about 35 basis points across maturities from two to 10 years between Fed meetings.

That complicates things for crypto investors focused primarily on when the Fed stops tightening. Policymakers raised the federal funds target by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4% in September, and most officials judged another increase would probably be appropriate before year-end.

Even when that cycle ends, continued competition for long-term financing could keep borrowing costs elevated independently of the overnight policy rate.

AI borrowing creates pressure beyond the Fed

The financing demands are already large enough to attract policymakers’ attention.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) estimates the five largest technology companies will spend more than $1 trillion on AI-related capital expenditure across 2025 and 2026. Industry projections cited by the BIS put global AI investment at roughly $500 billion today, potentially rising to between $3 trillion and $4 trillion by 2030.

Much of the earlier buildout could be funded from corporate cash flows. That balance is shifting as spending outpaces earnings and free cash flow at some companies, increasing reliance on bonds and private credit. The BIS said debt is becoming a larger part of the financing mix as firms build data centers, buy chips and secure energy infrastructure.

The Fed’s trading-desk manager said spreads on debt issued by major cloud providers remained wide because of the amount being borrowed and the long maturities involved. Market contacts also pointed directly to competition for capital from AI-related private issuance as one contributor to higher Treasury term premiums.

The minutes did not quantify how much of the roughly 35-basis-point rise in yields came from AI financing. Stronger economic data, expectations for additional Fed tightening, geopolitical developments and uncertainty around Treasury buybacks were also cited.

Still, the mechanism creates a potential problem for Bitcoin even after the policy-rate cycle turns.

Treasury data showed the 10-year Treasury par yield stood at 5.28% on Oct. 7, while the inflation-adjusted 10-year yield was 2.92%. Those levels give investors a substantial return from government securities before taking the volatility and drawdown risk associated with Bitcoin.

For crypto, that raises the required return on risk. A pause in Fed hikes could lower short-term rate expectations without providing the same relief at the long end of the curve if companies keep competing aggressively for financing.

The Fed also said changes in real rates accounted for most of the increase in longer-dated Treasury yields during the intermeeting period.

That distinction matters for Bitcoin because real yields reflect the return available after inflation, sharpening the competition between an asset with no contractual cash flow and securities that offer positive inflation-adjusted income.

AI-linked equities have so far absorbed the higher financing costs more comfortably. The Fed said companies benefiting directly from infrastructure spending outperformed the broader market, with stronger actual and expected earnings supporting equity prices even as valuation multiples declined.

The same boom could eventually reverse course

The longer-term risk is that the investment race becomes too successful at creating capacity.

The BIS has warned that the AI buildout ranks among the largest technology investment booms in US history. Its research argues that competition for future market share could push companies to commit more capital than eventual returns justify, while greater debt use increases the risk of financial stress and forced asset sales if revenue expectations disappoint.

That creates a second, very different Bitcoin scenario.

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of the defunct BitMEX exchange, argues that the data-center race will ultimately produce excess computing capacity and a downturn.

Hayes has repeatedly pointed out that major technological rollouts have historically been overbuilt and expects financial stress to emerge as new capacity comes online, potentially around late 2027 or 2028.

His Bitcoin thesis begins where the current yield pressure ends. If an AI bust threatens heavily financed infrastructure owners, Hayes expects policymakers eventually to respond with liquidity support, creating conditions he believes would favor Bitcoin and other crypto assets.

That remains a speculative path. AI demand could grow rapidly enough to absorb the infrastructure under construction, while higher productivity and profits could validate the spending before debt burdens become problematic.

The BIS nevertheless sees the financing structure as a genuine vulnerability. Investment commitments increasingly exceed internally generated cash, making future returns more important to companies’ ability to service the capital raised for the buildout.

Bitcoin’s next macro test moves to the long end

For Bitcoin investors, the immediate signal is therefore less about the exact meeting at which the Fed stops raising rates and more about what happens to long-term real yields afterward.

A sustained decline in the 10-year yield and term premium would weaken the argument that AI capital demand is keeping financial conditions tight. Strong Bitcoin spot demand amid elevated yields would also show investors are willing to accept the higher opportunity cost.

The opposite combination would be harder for crypto markets. Continued AI-related borrowing alongside high real yields would leave Treasuries and corporate credit competing aggressively for marginal capital even after monetary tightening peaks.

The Fed’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 27-28, with officials still focused on inflation and the possibility of another increase by year-end.

For Bitcoin, however, the bigger test may come after the final hike. If the AI investment race keeps the long end of the Treasury curve elevated, traders' expected monetary relief from a Fed pause could prove weaker than in previous cycles. If the spending boom eventually breaks, investors will watch whether financial stress brings the liquidity response Hayes is already positioning for.

The post AI may be keeping Bitcoin’s biggest macro headwind alive after the Fed stops hiking appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Cronos community has resolved that 228 million CRO be burned and that the revenue of two new products flow into buybacks in future. At the same time, the network’s Strategic Reserve releases around 1.167 billion CRO every month. The two figures belong together, and it is precisely that ratio which decides whether a burn shifts anything in the supply at all.

Cronos (CRO) is the token of the Cronos blockchain, which comes out of the orbit of the trading platform Crypto.com. The token pays transaction fees on the network, is staked, and serves as a discount instrument in the provider’s products. Holding it means depending on two things: demand, and the quantity that newly joins it.

The CRO price this week: 0.0538 euros and 12.2 percent down in seven days

CRO cost 0.0538 euros on Friday, October 9, at around 6 in the morning, according to CoinGecko. Over seven days that is 12.2 percent less, over 24 hours 3.5 percent less. Over 30 days the loss is markedly smaller at 3.0 percent, so the decline has concentrated into this week. With a market capitalisation of around 2.66 billion euros, CRO sits at rank 39 on CoinGecko.

The weekly high was 0.0622 euros on Monday, October 5, at around 1 in the afternoon. The weekly low followed three days later: 0.0527 euros on Thursday, October 8, at around 8 in the evening. From the high to the current level that is a discount of roughly 13.6 percent, from the low a recovery of a good 2 percent. For context: the all-time high of 0.793 euros dates from November 23, 2021.

The week fell into a broad pullback

The timing of the low coincides with a weak Thursday across the market as a whole. CRO was therefore not moving against the market but with it, and more strongly. That puts the price move into perspective as a statement about the vote: a resolution that touches supply works over months, not over one trading week.

The burn carried out: 228 million CRO to a burn address on Cronos POS

The vote on two proposals closed on October 3 and the result was reported on October 4. Proposal 36 took 228 million CRO out of what is called the community pool and sent them to a burn address on the Cronos POS chain, as Blockonomi reports. A burn address is an address with no known private key: whatever arrives there can no longer be moved and counts as permanently out of circulation.

The procedure is not new. Four earlier rounds each removed 50 million CRO. Together with the current round, 428 million CRO have now been burned through this programme. Blockonomi values the 228 million at about 15 million dollars; at Friday morning’s price the quantity corresponds to around 12.3 million euros. The spread comes from CRO having given way between the resolution and today.

We reported on the vote while it was running on October 1 in our piece on the Cronos burn vote. The result was still outstanding then. Now it is in, and with it the question of what it moves in relation to total supply.

Proposal 37 in force: revenue from Ult and Cronos Launch goes into monthly buybacks

The second resolution is the further-reaching one. Proposal 37 carries the name “Product Revenue Buyback and Burn of CRO” and found 99.78 percent approval, according to a report from KuCoin. It commits to converting all revenue from two products into CRO on the open market and then burning that CRO. The buybacks are to be executed monthly on-chain, and the transaction hash is to be published for every operation.

Both products are young. Cronos Launch went live on September 15, the trading app Ult on September 17. Neither has therefore been on the market for three weeks. How much revenue they generate has not been published so far, and without that figure the effect of the buyback programme remains an open quantity. A programme that deploys 100 percent of revenue says nothing about how high that revenue is.

Why the published transaction hash is the most useful part

A transaction hash is the unique identifier of an operation on the blockchain. Published for each buyback, it makes the commitment something to recalculate rather than to believe. For holders that is the only part of the resolution verifiable without inside knowledge. The first monthly cycle is still to come, so there is no record of it yet.

The Strategic Reserve: 70 billion CRO and around 1.167 billion a month

The second half of the calculation sits in an older resolution. In March 2025 the Cronos community voted to create 70 billion new CRO and hold them in an escrow account as the Strategic Reserve on the Cronos POS chain. That effectively reversed a burn from 2021 and brought total supply back towards 100 billion CRO.

The reserve is not freely available; it vests. Under the governance proposal, around 1.167 billion CRO come free roughly every 30.4 days, linearly and monthly, administered through a periodic vesting account of the Cosmos SDK. On the term the accounts diverge: one reading describes five years with 60 monthly tranches, while other reports arrive at ten years in total because they count in a lock-up period that has already expired. That spread cannot be resolved from the public information, and it is therefore left standing here as a spread.

The calendar dates of the individual tranches are also less firm than overview pages make them look. CoinGecko lists October 17 as the next date, with 1.17 billion CRO and 1.2 percent of total supply. A data provider modelling the same reserve expressly marks the monthly placement as an estimate and names no individual dates at all. For holders that means the monthly rate is documented, while the exact day is an assumption of the trackers.

Burn against issuance: 428 million stand against one monthly tranche

Now the two sides can be laid side by side. Burned through the community programme is a total of 428 million CRO, built up over five rounds. Released from the reserve is around 1.167 billion CRO in a single month. Set the two figures in relation and one monthly tranche corresponds to about 2.7 times the entire burn to date. Measured against the circulating supply of 49.5 billion CRO, that is roughly 2.4 percent per month, while the 228 million of the latest round make up just under half a percent.

This comparison carries an important caveat, and it belongs ahead of any conclusion. A release from vesting is not a sale. The tokens move into the reserve’s availability, and what happens to them there hangs on its decisions. Supply for sale only arises once they reach a market. Conversely, the 228 million came from the community pool, that is from holdings not yet in circulation. Both movements are supply mechanics; neither is automatically buying or selling pressure.

What remains is the order of magnitude. A buyback programme fed from the revenue of two three-week-old products works against a monthly rate in the billions. For it to shrink supply on a net basis, that revenue would have to reach a level for which no published basis exists so far. Buying CRO through a regulated crypto exchange therefore means buying into a supply that is scheduled to keep growing.

Circulating supply and dilution: 49.5 billion CRO are in circulation, 99 billion exist

The bare quantities make the picture clearer. In circulation are around 49.5 billion CRO according to CoinGecko, with total supply at just under 99 billion. Roughly half the existing supply is therefore not yet in the market. Dilution describes exactly that process: the share a single token has in the overall stock falls when new tokens join without demand growing with them.

The 428 million burned CRO correspond to 0.43 percent of total supply. That is a measurable quantity, but not one that shifts the relationship between circulation and total stock. The reserve remains the determining factor in this balance, and the staking payouts hang on it too under the resolution: the terms, including lock-up periods and bonus tiers, stay unchanged according to Blockonomi, supported out of the reserve, while ongoing issuance falls.

These levels show the week’s path: 0.0622 euros above, 0.0527 euros below

Three values from this week are useful for watching the next few days. On the upside, Monday’s weekly high of 0.0622 euros marks the point where the recovery last ended. On the downside lies Thursday evening’s weekly low of 0.0527 euros; the price stands a good 2 percent above it. Between them runs the current level of 0.0538 euros.

These levels are an observation, not a price target. All they show is where trading last took place, and nothing about where it will take place next. Using them means using them as orientation for your own limits, not as a forecast.

Buying route, custody and holding period for CRO: what to watch with your provider

Four points are practically relevant for investors in Germany. What decides is your own access to the token, not the outcome of the vote.

The provider and its authorisation. Since the EU regulation MiCA took hold, providers of crypto services in Germany need authorisation as a crypto asset service provider; the old permission under the Banking Act no longer suffices. Check before buying whether your provider holds that authorisation and whether CRO is tradable there at all. Tradability and authorisation are two separate questions.

Staking and what it really is. Staking means tying up tokens for a time and receiving a payment for it. Under the Cronos resolution that payment comes from the reserve, not from a profit. Lock-up periods also mean you cannot simply get out in a falling market. Anyone staking should know how long their tokens are tied up and who pays the reward.

Custody. Tokens sitting on an exchange sit within that exchange’s reach. In August 2026, after an attack on a protocol in its own ecosystem, Cronos rolled back blocks, and that episode showed that the chain itself can intervene too. For larger holdings, self-custody is the obvious answer, with everything that entails in responsibility for the private key.

Holding period. For crypto assets held privately, a one-year holding period has applied in Germany so far: once it passes, gains on a sale are tax-free. Abolishing that period is politically under discussion but has not been decided. Staking rewards are to be treated separately and are relevant for tax in the year they accrue. Record your purchase dates while the period still applies.

What the calculation does not cover: staking issuance and circulation without a burn

Three gaps remain open after this resolution, and they are the reason no supply squeeze follows from 428 million burned CRO. The revenue of the two products is not published, so the buyback quantity is unknown. The term of the reserve is given contradictorily in the sources, so the end of the monthly rates is unclear. And the staking payouts continue to run out of the reserve, so one part of the system keeps adding to supply while another part takes away from it.

What can be checked, by contrast, is the execution. The first monthly cycle of buybacks is still to come. If the announced transaction hashes appear, the quantity can be counted and set against the monthly tranche. If they fail to appear, that is the more telling information.

CRO burn: 428 million gone, 1.17 billion follow every month

1. Put the first buyback cycle in your diary. It is the first evidence of whether the resolution turns into quantities. Record the purchase date and quantity of your own holdings while you are at it, because the holding period counts from the purchase; a portfolio tracker with a tax function handles that as you go rather than after the fact.
2. Check the terms before you stake CRO. What matters is the lock-up period and the source of the reward, here the reserve. Compare the terms with other staking offers before tying up tokens for months.
3. Decide where your tokens sit. For holdings you want to keep longer, the private key belongs in your hand; a hardware wallet separates the holding from the exchange’s reach. For small amounts you want to move, the exchange remains the more convenient place.

(As of October 9, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Polkadot has a stablecoin of its own. dotUSD has been running on the mainnet since October 8, 2026: a token pegged to the US dollar that has no issuer. No company issues it, no bank holds reserves, no supervisor has authorised it. It is steered by the holders of the network token DOT through the OpenGov voting system.

For investors in the European Union the launch falls at an awkward moment. On that same October 8, the European Securities and Markets Authority published an opinion that takes aim at exactly this kind of token. This piece explains what dotUSD is technically, why its construction collides with the EU crypto regulation MiCA, and which routes are left open to an investor in Germany.

dotUSD: what Polkadot launched on the mainnet on October 8

A stablecoin is a crypto asset whose price is meant to track a stable reference, usually a currency such as the US dollar. USDT and USDC are the well-known examples: there a company stands behind the token, manages reserves and undertakes to redeem it.

dotUSD takes a different route. The proposal underlying the launch states expressly that the token is to have no issuer and to work solely through logic on the blockchain. Polkadot’s own description calls it an overcollateralised stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. Overcollateralised means that behind every token issued sits more security than its face value, so that price swings in the collateral do not immediately push the token below the peg.

The large price database CoinGecko does not yet show a circulating supply for dotUSD. The token is listed there under the stablecoins category, but price and supply still stand at zero the day after the launch. How big dotUSD really is cannot therefore be put in serious figures on this Thursday.

Referendum 1944: how DOT governance resolved on the stablecoin

Legally and organisationally, dotUSD hangs on a vote. OpenGov referendum 1944 carries the title “dotUSD: A Native Stablecoin for Polkadot” and is marked as executed following its approval. It was tabled by the Polkadot Community Foundation, which expressly claims only an administrative role for itself in it.

OpenGov is Polkadot’s voting procedure: anyone holding DOT can decide on proposals, and an approved proposal is executed by the chain itself. Responsibility for dotUSD therefore rests with a shifting majority of token holders. That construction is technically consistent and, in supervisory terms, the core problem, as the section on MiCA below shows.

Peg Stability Module: how dotUSD is tied to the dollar in phase one

The launch comes in two stages, and the first looks different from what the term “native stablecoin” suggests. In phase one, users mint dotUSD one for one against USDT, through what is called a Peg Stability Module and subject to a cap. A Peg Stability Module is a contract on the chain that offers a fixed exchange rate between two tokens and so pins the price of the new token to that of the old one.

That means the current stage leaves dotUSD dependent on a third-party stablecoin for its backing. Holding dotUSD means carrying a share of the risk in the USDT reserves behind it. Which stablecoins German providers still offer at all, and how they differ, is shown by our stablecoin comparison.

Overcollateralisation along Liquity v2 lines: what phase two plans with DOT vaults

The second stage is meant to free the token from USDT. Users will then lock DOT in a vault and mint dotUSD against it below the dollar value of the collateral. The proposal gives a collateralisation ratio of 150 percent as an example: lock collateral worth 1,000 dollars and you mint at most around 666 dollars in dotUSD. The worked example in the proposal itself uses a DOT price of 5 dollars and therefore does not reflect today’s market.

Liquity v2 as the model: stability pool, liquidations and redemptions

As the technical basis the proposal names Liquity v2 and its stablecoin BOLD. That brings a price oracle to put the collateral’s price on the chain, a stability pool to absorb undercollateralised positions, plus liquidations and redemptions. A liquidation here means that a position’s collateral is realised compulsorily once its value falls below the required ratio. For the holder that means a sharp fall in DOT can cost the locked collateral, without any action of their own.

The dollar peg is to be held at this stage through two mechanisms: arbitrage, in which traders even out deviations by redeeming into DOT, and a capped buffer of existing stablecoins. Both are market-dependent mechanisms. Neither creates a claim against a counterparty.

E-money tokens and ARTs: what authorisation MiCA requires for a stablecoin

The EU regulation on markets in crypto assets, MiCA for short, has applied since 2024. It divides stablecoins into two classes: e-money tokens (EMTs), which reference a single official currency, and asset-referenced tokens (ARTs), which point to a basket or to other values. Under that scheme a token pegged to the US dollar falls into the first class.

On its page on token issuance under MiCAR, BaFin sets out who may issue such tokens at all. On e-money tokens it states that only credit institutions or e-money institutions may issue them or apply for their admission to trading. For asset-referenced tokens the supervisor requires authorisation in advance, citing article 16(1)(a) read with article 18 MiCAR. In both cases a crypto asset white paper has to be submitted.

Each of these duties presupposes an entity able to discharge it: an institution with a licence, an address for the supervisor, someone answerable for the white paper. That is precisely the place dotUSD leaves empty by its own description. A token without an issuer cannot meet the requirements placed on an issuer, and not out of negligence but by construction. We have set out elsewhere in detail which duties MiCA loads onto companies.

The ESMA opinion of October 8: three months to clear non-compliant stablecoins

On dotUSD’s launch day, ESMA sharpened its position on such tokens. In its opinion of October 8, 2026, reference ESMA75-113276571-1742, the authority writes that crypto asset service providers authorised under MiCA should cease providing services relating to non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins to clients in the European Union.

The scope is drawn widely. All the crypto services in the regulation are covered, singly or in combination: trading platforms, exchange, order execution, custody, portfolio management and transfers. National supervisors are to check that firms do not hold such tokens, do not list them and do not give clients access to them. Technical, contractual and organisational controls are expected, including ones that stop clients from building up or increasing existing positions.

For legacy holdings the opinion names a deadline: national authorities should require a wind-down no later than three months after the opinion is published, and as early as possible. What may continue during that time is narrowly limited to activities needed for liquidation, exchange, withdrawal, transfer or custody of such assets. Even that is to be time-limited, risk-based and closely monitored.

No issuer, no redemption claim: where the risk sits for holders

With a stablecoin that has a company behind it, there is an address a holder can turn to when the peg breaks. With dotUSD there is none. Under the proposal, the dollar peg rests on arbitrage and a capped stablecoin buffer, which is to say on the behaviour of market participants and on program code.

A practical consequence follows: if you hold dotUSD and see the price drift away from a dollar, you have no contractual counterparty from whom to demand the face value. You can sell the token on the market or, in the second stage, redeem it into DOT through the chain’s mechanism. Both depend on liquidity and mechanics working at that moment.

There is also the risk in the first stage. As long as the backing consists of USDT, dotUSD hangs on a token whose availability at MiCA-regulated providers in the EU is currently being wound back. An exchange through a supervised platform in Germany is therefore not a reliable escape route.

DOT at 1.15 dollars: the figures of the trading day

The network token itself reacted to the launch fairly calmly, but better than the market as a whole. DOT was quoted at 1.15 US dollars early on Thursday, 2.85 percent above its level 24 hours earlier. The day’s range ran from 1.01 to 1.15 dollars, so the price sat at the upper edge. Market capitalisation came to around 1.96 billion dollars, rank 51 in the overall market. Over seven days it is down 3.28 percent, over 30 days down 4.39 percent. All figures come from CoinGecko.

That gain falls in a weak market. Total crypto market capitalisation stood at about 2.78 trillion dollars at the same time, 4.69 percent below the previous day. Bitcoin was quoted at just under 82,000 dollars. DOT rising while broad parts of the market give way is striking, but the available data do not pin it on the stablecoin launch alone. The project’s description voices the expectation that demand for dotUSD in phase two will turn into direct demand for DOT, because collateral is withdrawn from free circulation. An expectation is not a measurement.

Buying route and custody in Germany: what works through regulated providers

In practice the position for an investor in Germany reads like this: access to dotUSD through a platform supervised in the EU is not to be expected on ESMA’s stance, as long as the token does not meet the regulation’s requirements. Wanting to hold it anyway leads to routes outside the regulated framework, which means self-custody through your own wallet on the Polkadot chain.

Self-custody: what hangs on the key

With self-custody the holder carries responsibility for the private key. There is no office that resets a lost password, and no deposit guarantee. A hardware wallet keeps the key in a separate device, apart from the computer or smartphone. Added to that is the risk of the vaults in phase two, where a slide in DOT can hit the locked collateral.

Holding period and tax: how gains from stablecoin dealings are taxed in Germany

In Germany crypto assets count as other assets. Gains from a sale within one year of purchase are taxable under section 23 of the Income Tax Act; after a year has passed they stay tax-free. An exemption threshold of 1,000 euros per calendar year applies to gains from private disposals; once it is exceeded, the entire gain is taxable.

Swapping one stablecoin for another crypto asset is a disposal for tax purposes, even when the dollar value stays the same. Minting dotUSD against USDT in phase one therefore sets off a tax-relevant transaction. Income from a vault would have to be assessed separately. This outline is not tax advice, and the treatment of a token without an issuer is not conclusively settled; for larger amounts the case belongs with a tax adviser.

dotUSD: without an authorised issuer, access stays narrow

With dotUSD, Polkadot has launched something that is cleanly described in technical terms and unfinished in regulatory ones. For German investors, day one changes little, because the route through supervised providers remains blocked. Three things are worth doing now:

1. Place your own provider. Check whether your platform holds a MiCA licence and which stablecoins it still lists. For comparison, the overview is with the regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Go through existing stablecoin positions. ESMA’s three-month deadline concerns legacy holdings at service providers, not tokens in your own wallet. Which custody solution fits is shown by the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Document every swap. Each swap from one stablecoin into another is a tax-relevant event. A tax tool or portfolio tracker records date, price and holding period before the tax return comes round.

(As of October 9, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

The Exodus Wallet costs nothing to download and asks for no account. It still gets paid, just at a point that appears on no fee page: the swap of one cryptocurrency for another directly inside the app. How much that amounts to is in the company’s quarterly report. In the second quarter of 2026, 71.5 percent of all Exodus revenue came from exactly that swap, 18.74 of 26.23 million dollars. Use the wallet only to hold and send, and you really do pay almost nothing. Swap inside it, and you carry the price in the exchange rate without ever seeing it as a line item.

This piece places both sides: what the Exodus Wallet costs and how it keeps your keys. The two belong together, because a wallet that leaves you the keys also leaves you the risk. At the end comes the point at which moving to a dedicated device pays off, and what happens for German tax purposes as soon as you swap in the app.

What the Exodus Wallet is: a non-custodial software wallet on your own device

A software wallet is a program that stores your private keys on your own device and signs transfers with them. In its own filings with the US securities regulator, Exodus describes its product as an “un-hosted self-custodial digital asset wallet”. That draws a clear line against an exchange account: at an exchange your balance sits in the company’s books as a claim against it. In the Exodus Wallet it sits on the blockchain, and only your key moves it.

In practice: no ID, no approval, no minimum amount, but also no office that gives you access back. There are builds for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS plus a browser extension, and they all share the same twelve recovery words. The program supports several dozen networks, among them Bitcoin and Ethereum. How this type differs from custodial and device wallets we took apart in the overview of hot wallets and cold wallets.

71.5 percent of revenue from swaps: where Exodus takes its money from

Exodus Movement, Inc. has been listed on NYSE American since 2024 and therefore has to disclose what the company earns from. The quarterly report to June 30, 2026 shows, on total revenue of 26.23 million dollars, a line called “exchange aggregation” of 18.74 million, or 71.5 percent. In the same quarter a year earlier it was 23.42 of 25.83 million, or 90.7 percent. Across the first half of 2026 it comes to 38.74 of 48.98 million, or 79.1 percent, against 92.6 percent in the half-year before.

The share is falling because Exodus has bought two payment service providers since the start of 2026 and is building a second leg. That changes little about the basic point: four out of every five dollars earned still come from swapping inside the wallet. A wallet that costs nothing to download finances itself through the movement you set off inside it. That is not an insinuation but the provider’s own accounts.

The spread is not on the fee page but inside the rate you are shown

A spread is the gap between the rate at which you can swap and the rate that holds in the market. It is never debited; it is already inside the number the app shows you as the result. That is exactly what separates it from a charge: a charge sits in a table and can be read up before you buy, a spread cannot.

By its own account, Exodus does not carry out the swap at all. It runs through external service providers that the company calls API providers in its reports. The same filing states that revenue rests on estimates, among them an estimate of the “spread captured by the API Provider”. Even the provider books the spread as an estimated figure, then, because it moves with liquidity and volatility. Exodus publishes no fixed rate on its own pages; in third-party reviews it runs roughly between 0.5 and 2 percent depending on the trading pair and the amount, and above that for very small amounts.

Network fee, spread and exchange charge: how to check what a swap really costs

Three kinds of cost get mixed up here, and only one of them lands at Exodus. The network fee pays the blockchain network in question for including the transfer; it goes to the validators, not to the wallet provider, and moves with network load. The spread goes to the swap counterparty in the background, and Exodus takes a share of it. The exchange charge, finally, only arises if you go through a trading venue instead, where it is listed as a percentage in the fee schedule.

The spread can be checked in two minutes without triggering the swap: enter the amount in the app, read off how much you would receive, and work out the equivalent at the current market rate. The gap is your price. Repeat that with a markedly larger amount and you will see how sharply the percentage gap falls with size. The network fee arises on top and stays in place even if you carry the swap out elsewhere.

What a 1,000-euro swap costs: the calculation at 0.5 to 2 percent

A worked figure makes the order of magnitude tangible. Swap 1,000 euros from one cryptocurrency into another and a spread of 0.5 percent costs you around 5 euros, one of 2 percent around 20 euros. The network fee comes on top, ranging from fractions of a cent to several euros depending on the chain. At 10,000 euros the same range puts 50 to 200 euros in play, and that for a single operation that takes two taps in the app.

The range is deliberately wide, because there is no single figure. What matters is less the exact number than the direction: small amounts and exotic trading pairs are expensive in percentage terms, large amounts in liquid pairs considerably cheaper. Shifting larger sums regularly is as a rule cheaper through a trading venue with a published fee schedule, pulling the coins into your own wallet afterwards.

Five swap counterparties in the background: what the terms say about liability

In the first quarter of 2026, five individual API providers each accounted for more than 10 percent of total revenue; together they brought in 14.8 million dollars from swaps. More important than the figure is what the same report says about responsibility. It states that responsibility for the operations running through these providers lies solely with the respective provider and with the user. By its own account Exodus never holds the swapped asset, carries no inventory risk and is not responsible for execution.

A plain consequence follows for a dispute: there is no custodian with whom you could lodge a claim, because no entity holds your balance. At an authorised exchange there is one, with all the duties attached to it. This trade-off is part of choosing a wallet and is set out at greater length in the comparison of software wallets.

Twelve recovery words: how custody works with a hot wallet

A hot wallet is a wallet on a device connected to the internet. On first launch Exodus generates a sequence of twelve words from which all keys can be derived. Whoever has those words has the balance, anywhere and without further checks. The program stores them encrypted on the device and guards access with a password or fingerprint, but the protection ends at the boundary of the operating system.

The realistic attack routes therefore aim at the device: malware that swaps out the clipboard, faked installer files and tampered browser extensions. The countermeasures are unspectacular and effective: take the installer only from the maker’s site, keep the operating system current, never photograph the twelve words and never type them into a form. A step-by-step guide is in the piece on setting up and securing a wallet.

Hot wallet or a device of your own: when a hardware wallet pays off

A hardware wallet is a small device that holds the keys in a chip of its own and signs transfers there, so the keys never touch the computer. The purchase price sits in the low to middle double-digit euro range depending on the model. That outlay stands against the risk of an infected computer emptying the hot wallet in one go.

The rule of thumb that follows is not a prescription but a weighing of amounts. For sums you move within the month anyway, a software wallet is convenient and defensible. For the part of the holding you leave sitting longer, the extra device carries more than it costs. Exodus can be run alongside a device, with the app as the interface and the device holding the keys. What separates the models comes down mainly to the chip, the connector and the number of networks supported.

Staking in the app through a third party: what stays on the device

Staking means depositing coins to secure a network and receiving rewards for it. Exodus offers this in the app but handles it through the service provider Everstake. The quarterly report states that the holder determines the amount and retains full control and ownership of the coins.

This point matters more than it sounds. Staking through an exchange hands the coins into its care and carries a default risk on the provider. Here the power of disposal stays with you, and in return you carry the network’s own risks: lock-up periods, fluctuating rewards and, in some networks, deductions when a validator misbehaves. In Germany the rewards have to be recorded as other income when they accrue, whether or not you sell them.

Reporting duties and authorisation: what applies to wallet providers in Germany

An exchange in the EU has needed authorisation since MiCA, and authorisation brings capital requirements, segregation of client funds and a supervisor that can step in when it matters. Software that never takes your keys in hand holds nothing for you and therefore does not fall into the same category. Concretely that means: there is no deposit guarantee here, no segregation of client funds and no office that pulls back a mistaken transfer.

At the same time the area is not rule-free. Since September 11, 2026 a reporting duty for wallet makers has applied in the EU, which we assessed separately. For your own use nothing changes about the process for now, but something does change about which data on providers will converge in future.

Holding period and exemption threshold: why every swap in the wallet is a tax event

This is where it gets expensive for German users who overlook it. Swapping one cryptocurrency for another is not a neutral event for tax: it is at once a sale of the coins given up and a purchase of the coins received. If the coins given up were bought less than a year earlier, the gain is a private disposal under section 23 of the Income Tax Act and taxable as soon as all such gains in a year together reach the exemption threshold of 1,000 euros. Once the threshold is passed, the whole amount is taxable and not just the excess.

The convenience of swapping in the app has a flip side: two taps set off an event that belongs in the tax return, and the coins received start a fresh holding period. Shifting positions often within a year produces a long list of individual cases, each of which has to be evidenced with date, quantity and euro value. The export from the wallet supplies the raw data for that; keeping the allocation of acquisition costs clean is down to you.

Exodus Wallet: the spread decides, not the fee page

The Exodus Wallet is convenient, broadly equipped and, for pure custody, genuinely free. It gets expensive where it is easiest to operate. Three steps bring you to a decision that fits your holding:

1. Work out a real swap before you trigger it. Enter the amount, read off the equivalent, compare it with the market rate. If the gap is above one percent, the detour via a trading venue with a published fee schedule is worth it.
2. Split your holding by holding period. What you move may stay in the software wallet; what is meant to sit belongs on a device of its own from the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Set up the record-keeping before the first swap runs. Every swap is a tax event with its own holding period; a tax tool or portfolio tracker reads the addresses along the way and spares you the reconstruction in spring.

(As of October 9, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

An Ethereum savings plan buys the same euro amount of Ether every month, whatever the price happens to be. A calculation over the past twelve months shows how much that matters: twelve instalments of 100 euros, each bought on the first of the month, worked out at an average price of 1,981 euros per Ether. Investing the same 1,200 euros in one go on the day of the first instalment would have cost 3,318 euros.

That is not a recommendation, because a single year proves nothing about the next one. What it does show is the mechanism: what a savings plan lives on, why it bites harder with Ether than with Bitcoin, and what twelve separate purchases a year mean for tax. All figures here come from daily euro prices, recalculated on October 8.

Ethereum savings plan: an average of 1,981 euros across twelve monthly instalments

A savings plan is a buying machine. You set the amount and the rhythm, the provider buys, and the price on the purchase day decides how much you get for your money. When the price falls, the same 100 euros buys more Ether; when it rises, less. The technical term is dollar-cost averaging: the average purchase price ends up below the mean of the prices, because the cheap months contribute more units than the expensive ones.

How strong that effect turns out depends entirely on how much the price swings over the savings period. For an asset that rises steadily, the savings plan loses against an early lump sum. For one that slumps and then recovers, it wins. Ether did the second of those over the past year.

The calculation in detail: 1,200 euros paid in, 0.6057 Ether in the portfolio

The basis is Ether’s daily euro prices from October 9, 2025 to October 8, 2026. The model buys on the first of each month in that window, twelve times, 100 euros each time and without fees. The result:

• Paid in: 1,200 euros across twelve instalments.
• Acquired: 0.6057 Ether.
• Average purchase price: 1,981.05 euros per Ether.
• Value of that position on October 8 at a price of around 2,300 euros: 1,393 euros.
• Result before tax and fees: plus 16.1 percent.

The average price therefore sits about 14 percent below today’s level. That gap is the whole advantage the savings plan built up in this window, and it comes purely from the path the price took.

The lump sum over the same period: a 3,318-euro entry, 30.7 percent down

The counterpart: the same 1,200 euros, invested on November 1, 2025, the day of the first instalment. The price that day was 3,318.20 euros, so the money bought 0.3616 Ether. Those Ether are worth around 832 euros today, 30.7 percent less than was paid in.

The two routes are 561 euros, or almost 47 percentage points, apart. The savings plan ended up holding 1.67 times as much Ether for exactly the same outlay. The reason lies in the path: Ether was trading near its one-year high on the starting day and fell sharply afterwards. A lump sum at the bottom would have beaten the savings plan just as clearly. Which route comes out ahead is decided by the entry point, and nobody knows that in advance. We ran the same question for Bitcoin in savings plan or lump sum.

A single year proves nothing: the limits of this calculation

Three caveats belong with it, otherwise a measurement turns into a claim. First, the window covers only twelve months, and it began near a high. A window that begins in a trough reverses the result. Second, the example ignores fees; depending on the provider, anything from a few cents to more than a euro goes per instalment, which is already noticeable on a 100-euro instalment. Third, a real savings plan rarely executes exactly on the first of the month; depending on the provider, execution falls on the next trading day or within a fixed window.

None of these caveats overturns the finding, but each shifts it. Only the direction is solid: in a year with a deep slump and a subsequent recovery, buying in instalments clearly beats an early lump sum.

Annualised volatility: 62.9 percent for Ether, 44.5 percent for Bitcoin

Because the savings plan lives on price swings, their size is worth a look. Volatility measures how widely a price scatters around its own trend; it is usually quoted as an annual figure. The same daily prices give Ether an average daily move of 3.29 percent, which annualises to 62.9 percent. For Bitcoin the figures are 2.33 percent a day and 44.5 percent a year.

The range tells the same story. Over the twelve months Ether moved between 1,361 and 3,914 euros, with the high at 2.87 times the low. Bitcoin ranged from 51,474 to 106,651 euros, or 2.07 times. Ether has been noticeably more restless over this period, which strengthens dollar-cost averaging and strains the nerves at the same time. The two go together.

Staking and a burned base fee: what sets an Ether savings plan apart from a Bitcoin one

Beyond the price moves there are two quirks that Bitcoin does not have.

The first is staking. Ether can be deposited in the network to confirm blocks, and it earns a reward for doing so. According to Ethereum’s own staking page, running your own validator takes at least 32 Ether and can hold up to 2,048 Ether; pool solutions exist for smaller amounts. Provable misbehaviour by a validator leads to slashing, in which part of the deposited Ether is destroyed. For a savings plan that means the accumulated holding can later earn something, which a Bitcoin holding does not do by itself. Which providers handle that, and on what terms, is in the comparison of staking platforms.

The second quirk concerns supply. Bitcoin has a fixed cap and an issuance schedule known in advance. On Ethereum, according to the project’s developer documentation, the base fee of every transaction is burned and thus taken out of circulation, while new Ether is issued to validators at the same time. Whether the circulating amount grows or shrinks therefore depends on network load and is not fixed in advance. For a savings plan running over several years, that is one more unknown.

Twelve instalments, twelve acquisitions: the one-year clock runs separately for each

This is where a savings plan becomes something different from a single purchase for tax purposes. In Germany, crypto assets count as other assets under section 23 of the Income Tax Act. A disposal is taxable if no more than one year lies between acquisition and sale.

What counts, then, is the acquisition, and every instalment is one of its own. The instalment from November 1, 2025 reaches its one-year mark on November 2, 2026; the instalment from October 1, 2026 not until October 2027. Selling half your holding in December 2026 therefore means facing holdings of quite different ages, instalment by instalment. Which Ether count as sold is the decisive question, and it cannot be evidenced without clean records for each instalment; for larger amounts it belongs with a tax adviser rather than in a rule of thumb.

The Federal Ministry of Finance restated the cooperation and record-keeping duties in its circular of March 6, 2025, which replaces the version of May 10, 2022. It tightened the position on foreign trading platforms: transaction statements must be retrieved and retained regularly and in full, and missing documents count against the taxpayer. For Bitcoin we broke the holding period under a savings plan down in a separate piece on the savings plan holding period.

Section 23 of the Income Tax Act: gains stay tax-free below 1,000 euros a year

The law names a threshold, and it is worded more sharply than it is usually reported. Gains from private disposals stay tax-free if the total gain achieved in the calendar year came to less than 1,000 euros. At exactly 1,000 euros the exemption no longer applies, and then the whole amount is taxable, not just the part above the threshold. An exemption threshold works differently from an allowance.

The count also runs across all private disposals in a year together, not per coin and not per venue. Selling other crypto assets within a year alongside the Ethereum savings plan puts those gains into the same pot. Keeping records as you go is therefore not paperwork but the basis of your own tax return.

Whether the one-year period survives is politically open. Abolition is under discussion; nothing has been decided so far. Until then the rule applies as it stands in the law.

ETP or real coins: what the difference means for your tax

A savings plan on Ether can be built two ways, and they are not the same for tax. Buying real coins through a trading platform falls under the section 23 framework just described. Buying an exchange-traded product on Ether, an ETP or ETN, means buying a security in a brokerage account, to which the rules for investment income apply.

The practical difference is large. With a security the broker usually withholds the tax itself, but there is no one-year period after which a gain becomes tax-free. With your own coin you handle it yourself, but can sell tax-free after a year. An ETP also carries issuer risk, because you hold a debt instrument and not a coin. Which structure suits what we took apart in certificate, ETN or coin; which brokerage accounts offer such savings plans at all is shown by the comparison of crypto brokers.

Instalment, rhythm, fees and custody: four settings where a savings plan fails

There is little to optimise about the mechanism itself, but plenty about the execution.

1. The instalment has to be sustainable. A savings plan you suspend in the next slump loses exactly the part that makes it work: the purchases at low prices. Better 25 euros that stay than 200 euros that pause in March.
2. The rhythm is secondary. Monthly, fortnightly or weekly changes little about the average price, as long as the period is long enough. More frequent buying does raise the number of fee items and the number of acquisition dates to document.
3. Fees bite in percentage terms. A flat amount per execution hits small instalments harder. At one euro per instalment, a 25-euro instalment pays four percent and a 200-euro instalment half a percent. Over twelve years the difference adds up to a size of its own.
4. Custody belongs settled before anything accumulates. A holding that grows over years eventually reaches a size at which the question of where to keep it is no longer a side issue.

Ethereum savings plan: every instalment starts its own one-year clock

The calculation above is a window, not a forecast. What remains are three points that hold regardless of the price path.

1. Set the instalment and the term before you start. The effect builds over years and across slumps, not over months. Which providers run crypto savings plans and what they charge per execution is shown by the comparison of savings plan providers.
2. Document every instalment from the first one. Date, price, amount, fee and platform, ideally automatically. Which programs pull that from the statements is in the comparison of crypto tax software.
3. Decide on custody early. If you want to hold the position yourself, set that up while the sum is small, not once it has grown large. The devices for it are in the hardware wallet comparison.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Ondo Finance launched a platform on October 6, 2026 that makes stakes in companies tradable before they reach the stock market. What trades are tokenised notes, not shares; their value is tied to the price of one common share in the company concerned. Payment comes only once that company has completed a listing, is taken over, or ten years have passed. For anyone holding ONDO or considering a purchase, a new line of business is thereby written into the project, and at the same time a product that meets different rules in Germany than a coin does.

One thing at a time, because three questions hang on this launch that the press release does not answer: what do you legally buy? Who may buy at all? And when does money come back?

What Ondo Private Markets sells: tokenised notes instead of shares

A note is a debt instrument: a paper by which an issuer promises the buyer a payment. At Ondo Private Markets the size of that payment follows the value of one common share in the company the note refers to. Ondo calls that company the reference company.

Ondo's product page states the difference from a share itself, and plainly: the tokens are “not themselves stocks” and give their holders no rights to hold or receive the underlying assets. Buying such a note therefore does not make you a shareholder. There is no voting right, no annual general meeting, no dividend and no claim to delivery of the share itself. What remains is economic participation in the price, mediated through the issuer's promise to pay.

This design is nothing new in finance. Certificates and warrants have worked on the same basic idea for decades, and their best-known risk carries the same name as here: issuer risk. If the issuer fails, it does not help the holder that the reference company is flourishing.

Which documents govern

Ondo names three documents that govern the relationship: the token terms, the subscription agreement and a declaration accepting the token terms together with the repayment claim. In case of doubt, the token terms prevail. For a buyer that means the marketing page is not the contract. What applies is in the terms, which are only available during the subscription process.

The issuer sits in the British Virgin Islands: PM Issuer Co (BVI) Limited

As issuer of the notes Ondo names PM Issuer Co (BVI) Limited, a company under the law of the British Virgin Islands. For tokenised products this is a widespread construction, and it has two tangible consequences for German buyers.

First, the counterparty's seat lies outside the European Union. A dispute over the terms will therefore not automatically be heard before a German court, and the deposit guarantee or investor compensation familiar from a German institution does not apply here. Second, according to Ondo the tokens are not registered under the US Securities Act of 1933. That lack of registration is the reason for the access restriction set out below.

The press release puts a figure in front of the product to explain its market: roughly 87 percent of US companies with annual revenue above $100 million are said to be in private hands. The figure comes from Ondo's own announcement and describes why pre-IPO stakes are attractive as a product. It says nothing about how well this particular product does its job.

Qualifying liquidity event: when the note actually pays out

The product's most important mechanism is its payout date. Ondo pays neither at the end of a term nor on the holder's demand, but upon a qualifying liquidity event. The product page names four triggers: a listing that has traded for six months; a majority takeover; an insolvency; and the expiry of ten years after issuance.

More hangs on that list than it shows at first glance. A funding round expressly does not trigger payment, nor does a takeover offer to individual existing shareholders, nor does a sale of stakes on the secondary market. Yet those are precisely the events at which private companies are most often revalued. A holder can therefore watch their reference company valued at a multiple without any payment falling due.

What is then paid out is the liquidity event price of one common share, less tax withholding and settlement fees. Ondo names no amounts for these. Whether an event has occurred and which price applies is decided by a calculation agent at its reasonable discretion. For an investor that is a valuation they cannot recalculate themselves.

Secondary trading on the Ondo Perps Spot Market: 24/7 without a reference price

Because the payout can be years away, the secondary market becomes the actual way out. Ondo sets it up on its own Ondo Perps Spot Market, open around the clock. Further venues may follow later. The tokens are freely transferable, can be self-custodied and used in DeFi applications, though only to other eligible holders.

Ondo itself notes three restrictions. Trading is subject to maintenance, risk controls and suspension by the issuer. Liquidity may be limited and the spread between bid and ask wide. And there is no public market price for the reference company and no generally accepted comparable value, which is why the secondary market price can deviate considerably from the last private valuation and from the later payout.

That sets the instrument apart from everything traded on an established perp DEX. With Bitcoin or Ether there is a worldwide reference price across dozens of venues. Here buyers and sellers set the price among themselves, on a market the issuer is allowed to halt.

Access for eligible investors only: what the US exclusion means for Germany

The product page carries a “Not Available in US” banner, and it puts the exclusion harshly: US persons are prohibited from subscribing for, acquiring or redeeming the tokens. Behind that stands the missing registration under US securities law. For all other countries Ondo opens the product only to eligible investors, without saying on the page who falls under that.

For German prospects that gap is the practical crux. Access to the primary sale runs, according to Ondo, through selected distribution partners and through Ondo Private Client, meaning a service that is usually tied to minimum amounts and to evidence of investor suitability. Whether a retail investor from Germany passes that test is decided only during the subscription process, and no publicly available document from Ondo answers it in advance.

Clearing that up takes two steps there is no way around: request the subscription documents and look in them for which countries and which investor status are listed. A look at the marketing page is not enough.

Why an exclusion is no substitute for a recommendation

That a product excludes US investors is neither a mark of quality nor a defect. It follows from how the issuer set up its paper legally. What is sold is the same risk, merely to a different circle.

MiCA does not apply to tokenised notes: the legal framework for German buyers

Since 2024 the EU's MiCA regulation has governed the market for crypto assets, bringing authorisation requirements for trading venues, custodians and issuers. That regulation is not the yardstick here, though. MiCA excludes crypto assets that qualify as financial instruments. A note whose value is tied to a share carries exactly the features of a financial instrument, so the rules for securities apply instead of those for crypto assets. We have set out what that means for companies in practice in our overview of the MiCA obligations to 2026.

For a buyer the question of protection thereby turns around. With a MiCA-regulated provider, they can look up whether an authorisation exists and which supervisor granted it. With a security from an issuer in the British Virgin Islands that is not publicly offered in the EU, there is no approved prospectus in which a European supervisor has checked the statements. The checking shifts entirely to the buyer.

A classification in the individual case can only be made by a lawyer or tax adviser with the specific token terms in hand. This article describes which questions to ask, not which answer is right for a particular instrument.

Tax on pre-IPO notes: capital gains tax instead of the one-year holding period

Here lies the difference that can cost or save German investors the most money. For crypto assets such as Bitcoin the one-year holding period under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act applies: hold for more than a year and the gain is sold tax-free. That rule covers private disposals of other assets.

A note does not belong in that category. Capital claims fall under Section 20 of the Income Tax Act, and there is no holding period there after which the gain becomes tax-free. Gains are subject to withholding tax of 25 percent plus the solidarity surcharge and, where applicable, church tax, regardless of whether two months or seven years lie between purchase and sale. How the tax office classifies a specific tokenised instrument depends on the issuance terms; a foreign issuer also does not remit the tax automatically, so the declaration stays with the investor. Anyone holding several such positions over the year needs a schedule recording purchase, sale and deductions for each instrument.

The fact that, according to the product page, the issuer withholds tax before the payout changes none of this. A deduction at source abroad and the German tax liability are two separate matters, which in the best case can be set off against each other through a double taxation agreement.

ONDO price this week: $0.4822 and Thursday's weekly low

The token itself barely reacted to the launch, because the broader market set the tone for the week. ONDO trades at $0.4822, putting it 1.2 percent below the level of seven days ago, according to CoinGecko as of Thursday, 11:55 pm. The weekly high was $0.5106 on October 2, the weekly low $0.4437 on Thursday afternoon, the day of this article. By market capitalisation ONDO stands in 48th place.

The slide to the weekly low coincided with a broad sell-off in which Bitcoin dropped below $81,000 and several altcoins lost double digits. The reasons for that lie outside Ondo, with rising bond yields and outflows from the Bitcoin ETFs.

As an observation, not a price target: above, the weekly high at $0.5106 marks the first hurdle, along with the round $0.50 level. Below lies the weekly low at $0.4437, and beneath it the round $0.44 level. Whether a new line of business carries the token is decided over months, and by whether the notes generate revenue.

From Ondo Stocks to Private Markets: what Ondo has tokenised so far

Private Markets is the provider's third pillar. First came tokenised US Treasuries, then tokenised listed shares and funds. That equities business was called Ondo Global Markets until July 2026 and has run as Ondo Stocks since; in June 2026 the catalogue grew by 173 instruments to more than 430 positions across three blockchains. September brought the Intelligent Portfolios, three tokenised model portfolios following BlackRock model strategies. This offering is being rolled out step by step to further blockchains, most recently to NEAR.

Across these platforms together, Ondo reports by its own account a deposited value of $3.7 billion to $3.9 billion, with sources diverging on the figure, and more than one million holders over time. These numbers belong to the existing business, not to Private Markets, which began on October 6 with a single reference company from the AI sector.

Further sectors have been announced: biotechnology, robotics, defence, energy, space, quantum technology, aviation, logistics, digital assets and cybersecurity. A timetable for them is missing, and Ondo has not named the first reference company either. According to the announcement, secondary trading was due to start in the week after the launch.

How to recognise a legitimate route in

Tokenised pre-IPO stakes are a field in which dubious providers also advertise, because the values are inherently hard to verify. Three features separate a genuine offer from a scam: there is a named issuer with a legal form and a seat. There are subscription documents describing repayment, fees and risks. And there is a clear statement of which circle of investors is admitted. Ondo meets these three points on its product page. Anyone who instead finds only a yield promise and a payment window leaves the product alone and stays with a regulated provider.

Ondo Private Markets: no money flows until the liquidity event

The product extends what can be traded over a blockchain, and in doing so it shifts risks that do not arise with a share: onto the issuer, onto the valuation by a calculation agent and onto a secondary market without a reference price. Checking it for yourself goes in this order.

1. Clarify access before you calculate. Request the subscription documents and look up whether investors resident in Germany are listed and which status is required. If you do not fall under it, everything else resolves itself. An overview of providers that accept German retail investors in the ordinary course is with the regulated crypto exchanges.
2. Read up on repayment and costs. Look in the token terms for the list of liquidity events, for the role of the calculation agent and for the deductions applied before the payout. The ten-year period is the ceiling on your commitment. Whether you want to spread your portfolio more widely alongside it is settled by the comparison of crypto brokers.
3. Get the tax classification in advance. Put the terms to a tax adviser and have them tell you whether the instrument falls under Section 20 of the Income Tax Act. A year of holding makes no gain tax-free here. For recording the positions over the year, the tax tools and portfolio trackers help.

The statements in this article come from the Ondo Private Markets product page and from the report on the launch of October 6, 2026.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Manus built a self-driving AI assistant before the hype, sold itself to Meta, then watched Beijing unwind the deal. Its first fresh money since: more than $500 million.

Google Cloud unveiled a single Gemini agent that takes goals instead of questions, works in the background for days, and can join a company as a staffer with its own inbox and calendar.

Ethereum's Sepolia test network activated Glamsterdam on October 6 with a block gas limit near 200 million, over three times mainnet's 60 million.

The NFL urged the Supreme Court to resolve a circuit split over whether states can regulate sports contracts on prediction markets, arguing they're gambling, not federally regulated swaps.

A batch of 100.02 BTC mined in July 2010 moved Wednesday after 16 years. It's worth about $8.3 million, but nothing in the transaction shows who owns it.

Binance is set to delist 22 cryptocurrencies and restrict access to eight services in Brazil starting Oct. 27.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has unleashed a scathing attack on Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin over his warnings about AI-driven threats to lattice-based cryptography.

The market is in a deep correction and the possibility of a bullish reversal is certainly lower than before.

XRP is facing fresh centralization allegations as Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons accuses the network of forcing validators to adopt closed-source code, calling its decentralization claims "straight-up fraud."

Bitcoin dominance has surged to a one-month high of 60.05% as a brutal crypto market selloff sends major altcoins.

TLDR:

• Thailand Bitcoin ETF listings will begin under a domestic framework on October 16, giving investors access to spot Bitcoin and Ethereum through the SET.
• The new rules require passive management, at least 80% net exposure to one digital asset, and custody through SEC-supervised providers.
• Thai securities firms cannot provide margin loans for purchases, while retail clients cannot access overseas digital asset ETFs through local brokers.
• Mutual funds and private funds may invest in Thailand-domiciled digital asset ETFs, but existing investment limits and the initial asset list remain unchanged.

Thailand has approved domestic listings for spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds, with the framework taking effect on October 16. The Thailand Bitcoin ETF framework gives investors access through the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). It avoids direct use of cryptocurrency exchanges. The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) limited the first phase to Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

It requires passive management, supervised custody, and risk disclosures. The decision creates a regulated route for digital asset exposure while restricting margin lending and retail access to overseas products. Thailand Bitcoin ETF listings will open gradually under rules designed to control custody risks.

Thailand Bitcoin ETF Rules Set Passive Exposure and Custody Standards

Under the Thailand Bitcoin ETF framework, eligible funds must track one underlying digital asset through passive strategies. Net investment exposure to that asset must equal at least 80% of average net asset value during the fiscal year. The rule keeps the products focused on their stated holdings and limits active portfolio changes.

The initial list contains Bitcoin and Ethereum. The SEC has not opened the SET route to other tokens. Each fund must operate as a Thailand-domiciled product and list exclusively on the SET. That structure gives investors a securities-market channel while keeping product oversight within Thailand.

Fund assets must remain with digital asset custodians supervised by the SEC. Managers must disclose the fund structure, investment method, service providers, and key risks. Investors must also receive an explanation of the product’s features and risks before trading.

The requirements place custody and disclosure duties on regulated parties. They also separate ETF access from direct exchange use. Investors can obtain exposure through brokerage accounts, but the funds still depend on the performance of the underlying assets. The rules do not remove volatility or other market risks associated with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Thailand Bitcoin ETF Access Faces Limits on Overseas Products

Investor protections also shape the Thailand Bitcoin ETF rollout. Securities firms cannot extend margin loans for purchases. Investors must acknowledge product information before trading, adding a suitability and education step to the account process.

The rules also change how existing investment vehicles can participate. Thai mutual funds and private funds may invest in digital asset ETFs established in Thailand. They previously could invest only in overseas digital asset ETFs. Existing investment limits remain unchanged for these funds.

The SEC has restricted overseas access during the initial phase. Thai securities firms cannot broker overseas digital asset ETF investments for retail clients. Direct investment in overseas funds remains limited to institutional investors and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Depositary receipts linked to overseas digital asset ETFs will also not be issued or sold at this stage.

Attakrit Chimphlapibul, co-founder of Bitkub Group, said the policy follows the path set by United States spot ETF launches. Those products created a regulated route for institutional and retail participation in that market.

Thailand’s SEC said market participants broadly supported regulated access during a public consultation earlier this year. The regulator said domestic infrastructure, investor protection, and education should come before wider public access.

The Thailand Bitcoin ETF framework therefore combines approval with a narrow opening. It permits domestic listings but excludes leverage, overseas retail brokerage, and alternative products. The approach allows the SEC to assess custody, trading, and investor understanding before expanding eligible assets or easing distribution rules.

The move also places Thailand among Asian markets building regulated digital asset channels. Hong Kong and the United States already host spot Bitcoin and Ethereum products. Thailand’s framework differs through its initial limits on overseas exposure and its requirement for passive funds. Further changes will depend on market conditions and infrastructure maturity.

Thailand Bitcoin ETF listings will remain domestic initially, while broader access will depend on regulatory review and infrastructure readiness.

The post Thailand Bitcoin ETF Listings Start October 16 After SEC Approval appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Gemini Custody now opens every net-new account on MPC infrastructure, with existing users to migrate. 
• Withdrawals now typically complete in minutes, ending the wait for legacy daily runs for customers.
• Support expands to Tron, SUI, MON, Hype, Arbitrum and XRPL, along with newer signature schemes. 
• Customers approve transfers with their own passkey while assets stay with Gemini Trust Company, LLC. 

Gemini Custody has transitioned to a multi-party computation (MPC) protocol for its institutional custody service. The company announced that every new account now opens with MPC infrastructure.

Existing customers will move to the new system through a coordinated migration. According to Gemini, withdrawals now typically complete in minutes.

The upgrade also adds support for more blockchains and lets customers approve transfers with their own passkey. Gemini said the change keeps its regulated custodial structure in place.

Faster Withdrawals and Wider Blockchain Support

Gemini shared the update in a post on X. The company wrote that its new MPC technology means “withdrawals completed in minutes.”

The post also listed “support for more blockchains” and the ability to “approve transfers with your own passkey.” Gemini closed the post with “Faster access. More flexibility.” Gemini Custody serves institutional clients that require secure storage for digital assets.

Gemini then published a longer post titled “Gemini’s Shift to Multi-Party Computation Marks a New Era in Crypto Custody.” The company said customers “no longer need to wait for legacy daily runs.”

Instead, Gemini Custody can now process withdrawals much faster. Gemini stated that adoption and transaction volumes continue to grow.

Its MPC system can handle near instantaneous withdrawals while maintaining custom policy approval logic for each team.

Customers can now transact on several new networks. These include Tron, SUI, MON, Hype, Arbitrum, and XRPL. Gemini added that the service now supports newer signature schemes. As a result, the platform can keep pace with changes across the crypto market.

How the MPC Design Works

In the MPC system used by Gemini Custody, key shares are distributed across several parties. Gemini wrote that the complete private key is never assembled, “not in storage, not during signing.” The company added that “each share alone reveals nothing.”

Every transfer is also verified end to end at the signer level. Furthermore, each MPC signer undergoes separate upgrades and operates under independent governance.

This process includes cryptographic attestations to the software running in the environment. Gemini said this gives customers the most secure experience possible.

The company noted that its current multi-signature setup already protects against any single point of failure. According to Gemini, MPC adds to that protection.

The firm also pointed to lower-cost transactions and custody addresses that look like any other. The company stated that this approach modernizes the technology behind its custody service while preserving the custodial relationship.

Passkey Approvals and What Stays the Same

Gemini Custody customers now authorize address-book changes and withdrawals with their own passkey. Gemini said this method is “phishing-resistant because it’s bound to the genuine Gemini site.”

A customer may sign in with one passkey and approve transfers with a separate hardware key. Gemini said the approval policy remains under the customer’s control.

Existing customers will move to new custody accounts. Each network will have new deposit addresses. Gemini said customers will receive details of the transition in a separate communication. Meanwhile, every net-new Gemini Custody account already opens on MPC infrastructure.

Several elements of the service remain unchanged. Assets stay with Gemini Trust Company, LLC, a New York State-chartered trust company and qualified custodian.

Client assets remain segregated on-chain in unique, independently verifiable addresses. Account policies such as Multi-User Approval also stay available and configurable.

In addition, the company said custody infrastructure must keep up with the market. Gemini described the update as the start of Gemini 2.0.

The post Gemini Custody Adopts MPC Technology to Speed Up Crypto Withdrawals appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• BNY now offers regulated digital asset custody to select institutional clients in the European Union.
• BNY’s European entity joined the ESMA MiCA register in July 2026, enabling crypto-asset custody services.
• The platform supports BTC, ETH, SOL and USDC, with plans to add broader crypto-assets and stablecoins.
• Launched in 2022, the platform uses multiparty computation, segregated wallets and private key storage. 

BNY Digital Asset Custody is now available to select institutional clients in the European Union under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. BNY announced the expansion on October 8 in Brussels.

The company is one of the first global systemically important banks to offer regulated digital asset custody in the region.

The service covers custody, administration, and transfer of crypto-assets. It is aimed at clients operating in one of the world’s largest regulated markets for digital assets.

MiCA Registration and Executive Comments

The expansion follows a registry update made in July 2026. The Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV, BNY’s European banking entity, joined the European Securities and Markets Authority MiCA register.

As a result, BNY can provide custody, administration, and transfer services for crypto-assets. These services are available to clients across one of the largest regulated digital asset markets.

Jennifer Barker, Head of Europe at BNY, described the demand behind the launch. She said, “Digital asset adoption is accelerating across Europe.”

She pointed to banks and broker-dealers that are expanding crypto-asset and stablecoin offerings. Asset managers and corporate treasurers are also exploring digital payments and tokenized securities.

Barker also spoke about the standards institutions expect. She said they need solutions with “the same resilience, oversight, and safeguards” they rely on across traditional operations.

In her words, BNY is providing clients with “institutional-grade infrastructure to navigate this transition with confidence.”

The announcement called the update breaking news. It referred to institutional-grade security, risk management, and operational expertise.

Additionally, the post said the platform supports digital cash, tokenized assets, payments, settlement, and collateral mobility.

Platform Security and Supported Assets

Launched in 2022, BNY Digital Asset Custody provides secure safekeeping and servicing of digital assets. The infrastructure includes multiparty computation technology, segregated client wallets, and storage of private keys. BNY designed these controls to support risk management and security across the service.

Through this model, clients can access regulated custody for BTC, ETH, SOL, and USDC. BNY also has ambitions to support broader crypto-assets and stablecoins. For now, the platform serves select institutions in the European Union under the MiCA framework.

Emily Portney, Global Head of Asset Servicing at BNY, explained how the platform was built. She said, “Our platform isn’t a standalone solution.”

According to Portney, it draws on the firm’s existing asset servicing expertise and controls. She added that the expansion equips clients to integrate operations with digital strategies “across the full asset lifecycle.”

Carolyn Weinberg, Chief Innovation and Market Transformation Officer at BNY, commented on the BNY Digital Asset Custody expansion.

She said BNY is “committed to building the financial infrastructure of the future in partnership with our clients.” Weinberg added that the expansion connects traditional and digital financial ecosystems. She also cited continued investment in BNY’s capabilities.

The post BNY Expands Digital Asset Custody in Europe Under MiCA Framework appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• • Extended will migrate its settlement network to Circle’s Arc blockchain during the week of October 19.
  • Holders of over $1 in USDT or wBTC must convert to USDC or cirBTC by 12:00 UTC on October 21. 
  • Converting earns a 0.50% premium paid by Extended, with no swap fees and credit within 8 hours. 
  • Deposits and withdrawals pause for about two hours, while trading and sub-account transfers continue. 

The Extended Arc migration will move its settlement network to Circle’s Arc blockchain during the week of October 19. Extended operates a perpetual DEX offering contracts on stocks, commodities, indices, and crypto.

Arc is a Layer 1 network built for financial markets, and it launched on September 16. Trading will continue throughout the process.

Users holding more than $1 in USDT or wBTC must convert those assets by 12:00 UTC on October 21. Neither asset exists on Arc.

Extended Arc Migration Plan and User Deadline

In a post on X, Extended announced, “Extended is migrating its settlement network to Arc.” The platform listed three improvements.

On infrastructure, it said trades “settle on Arc, with sub-second finality and stablecoin-denominated fees that make costs predictable.” Extended also expects broader real-world asset coverage and deeper liquidity across spot and perpetual markets.

Accounts, sub-accounts, positions, orders, history, points, and keys will carry across unchanged. However, users with more than $1 of USDT or wBTC in a sub-account must act before the deadline. They can convert in the app to USDC or cirBTC at a 1:1 rate plus a 0.50% premium.

Extended pays the premium and charges no swap fees. The premium will be credited within 8 hours after the migration.

One approval in the app covers both assets and every sub-account. Deposits of both assets were disabled as of 16:00 UTC on the day of the announcement.

ETH balances will convert automatically to wETH on Arc at a 1:1 ratio. USDC will migrate as native USDC. Vault and XVS balances, along with withdrawal rights, will be preserved. Other users need to take no action.

Process Risks and Arc Features

Deposits and withdrawals will pause for roughly two hours during the Extended Arc migration. Transfers between sub-accounts will keep working.

Extended advised users to “make sure that open positions are comfortably margined.” Precise timing will be shared closer to the date.

Under the Extended Arc migration rules, users who miss the deadline face account restrictions. Standard liquidation rules still apply, and they cannot add margin or close positions.

Affected sub-account positions close at the mark price with no fee, and open orders are cancelled. Extended returns the assets to the login wallet on Starknet or Ethereum and covers network fees.

Arc mainnet went live on September 16 with four features relevant to a trading venue. These are deterministic sub-second finality, gas paid in USDC, and EVM compatibility. The network also has an institutional validator set. Existing wallets and tooling will continue to work as they do today.

Extended is building a unified platform for trading perpetual contracts across asset classes with varied collateral. That plan requires a settlement layer built for markets and trusted by the institutions that distribute them. Arc launched with BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Visa, and Mastercard among its founding validators.

The post Extended to Migrate Perpetual DEX Settlement to Circle’s Arc Blockchain appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Walmart (WMT) stock jumps 2.22% to $110.56 following its California hub opening.
• Walmart opens its fifth advanced fulfillment center in Stockton, California.
• The new 900,000-square-foot California facility will create over 1,000 jobs.
• Advanced automation cuts Walmart’s warehouse fulfillment process to five steps.
• Walmart targets next-day or two-day shipping coverage for 95% of Americans.

Walmart (WMT) stock gained 2.22% to close Thursday at $110.56, adding $2.40 before slipping 0.03% to $110.52 after hours. The retailer opened a new fulfillment center in Stockton, California, expanding its West Coast delivery network. The facility will create more than 1,000 jobs and increase Walmart’s capacity to process online orders.

Walmart Inc., WMT

Walmart Expands California Fulfillment Network

Walmart opened its fifth next-generation fulfillment center, covering more than 900,000 square feet in California’s Central Valley. The new Stockton location strengthens the company’s distribution operations across California and neighboring western states. Its location also brings inventory closer to customers and supports faster shipping across the region.

The facility combines automated systems, machine learning, and warehouse employees to handle orders more efficiently. Its storage technology moves products directly to workers, reducing the traditional fulfillment process from 12 steps to five. Employees can process additional orders while spending less time on repetitive warehouse activities.

Walmart expects its advanced fulfillment network to support next-day or two-day shipping for 95% of Americans. The Stockton center also provides additional space for merchandise from independent businesses using Walmart Fulfillment Services. This expansion supports the retailer’s growing online marketplace and its existing network of stores and distribution facilities.

New Facility Creates Over 1,000 Jobs

The Stockton center will employ more than 1,000 associates as Walmart increases operations at the site. The company continues recruiting employees for warehouse operations, technology, and other positions supporting its automated systems. These roles offer opportunities to develop technical skills and pursue longer-term employment within the company.

Walmart provides eligible full-time employees with medical coverage, dental insurance, retirement benefits, and paid leave. Workers can also access its employee stock purchase program and tuition assistance through Live Better U. Meanwhile, the company continues accepting applications through its online careers platform as hiring progresses.

The opening also brings additional economic activity to Stockton and the surrounding San Joaquin County area. Walmart marked the occasion with $10,000 in grants supporting two local education and food assistance organizations. The contributions went to the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton and Unbound Stockton Community School.

Walmart Strengthens Its California Operations

Walmart already employs more than 102,900 associates throughout California across its retail and distribution operations. The company operates more than 300 stores, clubs, and supply chain facilities across the state. Its latest investment expands an established network serving customers through physical locations and online channels.

During 2025, Walmart spent $36.5 billion with California suppliers, supporting approximately 310,304 supplier jobs statewide.Walmart and its foundation contributed more than $84.2 million to California organizations during fiscal 2026. These contributions included cash donations and goods distributed through local community partnerships.

The Stockton opening forms part of Walmart’s broader effort to modernize fulfillment and improve delivery efficiency. Advanced storage systems allow the company to handle larger order volumes without relying entirely on traditional manual processes. The new center adds capacity as Walmart expands its shipping services across the western United States.

The post Walmart (WMT) Stock: Gains as New California Hub Creates 1,000 Jobs appeared first on Blockonomi.

After posting massive gains in September, Ethereum has returned to roughly its price level from a month ago. This comes amidst a broader market correction that has erased more than $110 billion from the total market capitalization of altcoins in the past three days alone. ETH has dropped 10% during this period, wiping more than $38 billion off its market capitalization.

Its reserves on Binance, however, fell to the lowest level in six months.

Shrinking Exchange Reserves

CryptoQuant found that some investors are continuing to move their ETH off trading platforms. The asset’s reserves on Binance fell from 3.57 million to 3.47 million ETH over the period. Back in August, the exchange held around 3.92 million ETH, which means that reserves have dropped nearly 11.5% since then.

Withdrawals have also surged. On October 6, Binance recorded more than 320,000 ETH withdrawal transactions in a single day, which is a record high. Such a trend essentially indicates that investors may be looking to hold their crypto asset in private wallets for longer rather than keeping it on an exchange. Some may also be putting their holdings to work while waiting for a better opportunity to sell.

Meanwhile, Michaël van de Poppe believes that Ethereum’s failed attempt to break higher could still present an “opportunity” for investors and serve as a potentially attractive “entry point.” BATMAN also said that the altcoin may be approaching a point where buyers step back in.

ETH appeared to be testing the lower trendline of a rising channel, while its RSI has fallen to around 23, a level considered to be deeply oversold. If the trendline holds, BATMAN said that there is a possible rebound towards $2,700, with $3,000 next on the radar.

Ted Pillows, on the other hand, flagged that the altcoin is sitting right at its 100-week exponential moving average (EMA), a major level to watch. He warned that a weekly close below this zone could put further pressure on ETH and send its price below $2,400.

Losing Streak Continues

US-listed spot Ethereum ETFs are going through a rough patch after a strong run, as outflows stretched into October. The funds have now recorded eight straight days of outflows. Nearly $580 million has been pulled out so far this month.

While the outflows don’t tell the whole story of the market, they show that appetite for these funds has cooled considerably in recent days.

The post Ethereum (ETH) Correction Deepens, But Binance Withdrawals Tell Another Story appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Licensed EU crypto firms have until early January 2027 to wind down services for stablecoins that fail MiCA, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on Thursday.

ESMA set that three-month deadline in an opinion addressed to national supervisors. The opinion covers asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs) that do not meet MiCA’s conditions for a lawful offer or trading in the EU. It names no individual token.

Supervisors are told to check whether a firm lets EU clients buy, trade, hold, or add to such tokens. That check spans every service type, from trading platforms and order execution to advice and portfolio management. Firms offering those services should block new purchases by EU clients with technical and contractual controls.

Custody Comes Into Scope

ESMA first addressed non-compliant stablecoins in a statement on January 17, 2025. That statement told trading platforms to stop offering them, with sell-only access allowed until the end of March 2025. It also said mere custody and transfer of those tokens could continue. Binance kept to that timeline and delisted nine non-MiCA stablecoins, including Tether’s USDT, for European users on March 31, 2025.

After that date, Binance users could only sell those stablecoins through its Convert tool.

Thursday’s opinion brings custody and transfers into scope. Both now sit on the list of services supervisors should review. The opinion also rejects investor warnings as a fix. The 2025 statement had asked firms to run awareness campaigns for EU investors. ESMA now says warnings, disclosures and client acknowledgments would not address its concerns.

ESMA’s 2025 guidance turned on whether a service amounted to a public offer of the token. Thursday’s opinion keeps that public offer analysis and adds a second basis. It cites the MiCA duty for licensed firms to act honestly, fairly and professionally in their clients’ best interests. Serving a non-compliant token should be presumed to breach that duty, ESMA said.

Wind-Down Runs to January

Unlicensed firms hit an earlier cutoff this year. On June 23, ESMA told those unlicensed providers to stop onboarding new EU clients ahead of the July 1 end of MiCA’s transition period. By July 21, fewer than 300 of the more than 3,000 firms serving EU crypto clients held a license, according to CASP Tracker.

Thursday’s opinion targets the firms that made the cut. Those not yet in line may keep limited exit services running to avoid harming clients. The services cover selling, conversion, withdrawal, transfer and safekeeping of existing holdings.

Those exit services should not support new purchases, promotion or trading. They should be time-limited, clearly communicated to clients and closely supervised. ESMA itself will monitor, with each national supervisor, how promptly the opinion is applied.

The post ESMA Sets 3-Month Exit for Non-MiCA Stablecoins, Pulls Custody Into Scope appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ripple is moving deeper into Wall Street’s leveraged ETF business, with its prime brokerage arm providing swap financing to funds that use derivatives to amplify bets on stocks and indexes.

A recent Wall Street Journal report shows how the crypto company is entering a fee-heavy part of traditional finance where banks have long dominated, while tighter capital rules are creating room for nonbank firms.

Ripple Takes Aim at Leveraged ETF Financing

Ripple entered the business last year through its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, now known as Ripple Prime. The platform is already working with ETF providers and is seeking business from other investment managers, including hedge funds.

Additionally, on October 6, Ripple Prime announced its prime brokerage and clearing and financing service for Brevan Howard, which adds yet another hedge fund to the list of clients.

Leveraged ETFs use total return swaps and other derivative instruments in order to amplify the daily changes in individual stocks or indexes. The swap is provided by a bank or broker at a cost, and the risk is then hedged by purchasing the underlying security.

Morningstar Direct data quoted by the WSJ put the number of US leveraged ETFs at 593, with more than $256 billion in assets. Single-stock leveraged funds account for 426 of them, a category regulators first approved in 2022.

Noel Kimmel, president of Ripple Prime, described swap financing as a “growing and meaningful part” of the business. Nonbank firms such as Jane Street and Clear Street are also gaining ground as banks face tighter limits on the amount of risk they can take.

One example shows why the business can generate substantial fees. The Tradr 2X Long SDNK Daily ETF pays Ripple a fee tied to the overnight bank funding rate plus four percentage points. As of October 7, that worked out to roughly 8% of the fund’s assets on an annualized basis.

The Cost Falls on Leveraged ETF Investors

These financing charges are different from management fees and are captured in the net asset value of the fund. In a situation where leveraged ETFs are held by investors over long periods of time, the swaps costs will come together with daily compounding, and market movements will be very expensive for returns.

Swap financing also carries risk for providers. A sufficiently large one-day decline in an underlying stock could wipe out a leveraged ETF’s equity and leave its counterparty facing losses. Providers therefore hedge that exposure through other asset managers or market makers.

As CryptoPotato reported yesterday, Ripple Prime had expanded its relationship with Brevan Howard to include multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing and financing. The move follows Hidden Road’s earlier expansion into US institutional crypto OTC swaps, cross-margining and financing after Ripple acquired the brokerage.

Ripple’s latest push therefore reaches beyond crypto trading and payments, putting its prime brokerage operation into a financing business that has traditionally generated fees for Wall Street firms.

The post Ripple (XRP) Expands Wall Street Push With Leveraged ETF Swap Financing: Report appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Samsung is teaming up with Solana to allow users in the United States to send money across borders using USDC starting in the last week of October 2026.

The feature will be available through Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay.

Major Mainstream Partner

According to the official press release, the launch will be available across 82 million US Galaxy devices. More markets are expected to follow depending on local regulatory requirements. Solana will run behind the scenes. Users will not need to manage a separate crypto tool to make the transfers. Samsung Wallet will also include integrated fiat on- and off-ramps, which will allow users to convert between local currency and stablecoins within the experience.

The tech giant said the goal is to make stablecoin transfers feel as familiar as other features already available in its wallet.

Woncheol Chai, EVP and Head of the Digital Wallet Team at Samsung Electronics’ Mobile eXperience business, said

“Samsung Wallet is about making useful experiences feel simple and intuitive. Stablecoins have the potential to make moving money around the world faster and easier, and we want Galaxy users to be able to take advantage of that without having to navigate the complexity of traditional crypto tools. Solana helps us bring that experience to Samsung’s scale.”

The partnership also comes as stablecoin activity on Solana continues to grow. Stablecoin supply on the network has increased nearly 20% year over year. Solana has also processed more than $5.25 trillion in stablecoin volume during 2026 alone. Companies such as PayPal and Western Union are already using Solana for stablecoin activity.

The latest development has yet to give SOL’s price much of a boost. The crypto asset was down around 3% over the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, it was trading near $115.

Other Developments

Separately, the Solana Foundation officially joined the x402 Foundation earlier in April as one of the founding members.

The following month, the Swiss non-profit organization and Google Cloud launched Pay.sh, a platform that lets AI agents pay for API services using Solana-based stablecoins. The service removes the need for accounts, API keys, and subscriptions, thereby allowing agents to access services independently while handling payments and billing automatically through the gateway.

The post 82 Million Samsung Galaxy Devices Could Soon Get Native Solana Stablecoin Transfers appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Hunter Biden has said that a forensic review of the LAPTOP launch found the token’s extreme rise and collapse were caused by unusually thin liquidity and later market-maker activity, while on-chain records showed the founders had not sold their allocation.

The account challenges the earlier perception of a rug pull, but the market makers remain unnamed (merely referred to as Market Maker 1 and Market Maker 2), and the investigation was commissioned by the project team.

LAPTOP Launch Exposed By Thin Liquidity

Biden said Groom Lake reviewed every recorded trade from the launch and found that a market maker given $500,000 deployed only about $5,200 into the initial pool. Fewer than 30,000 LAPTOP tokens were available there, creating a market where just $6 of buying could move the price 5%, compared with about $7,400 of selling needed for the same move.

Groom Lake compared 668 other launches and found none with a similar imbalance. LAPTOP then climbed from $0.05 to about $317 in under two minutes before ending the first hour 98% below its peak. Eighty-four seconds after the high, the liquidity position linked by the report to Market Maker 1 was withdrawn, reducing cash available to sellers near the quoted price from about $16,157 to zero.

The report also found gains associated with both market makers. The Market Maker 1-linked liquidity position ended up about $686,000 ahead, while activity linked to Market Maker 2 recorded more than $2.1 million in net USDC receipts under the report’s specified accounting.

Biden acknowledged responsibility for hiring the firms and called on the market maker he believes mishandled the launch to buy the tokens back and burn them.

Founder Wallet Remains Untouched

One point has stronger on-chain support. Groom Lake found that the wallet holding the 300 million LAPTOP founder allocation, equal to 30% of the original supply, made no outgoing token transfers through October 2. Biden also said his allocation is locked for six months and then vests over two years.

The token now trades near $0.08, up about 10% on the day, with a market cap around $29 million versus roughly $560 million on launch day. Daily volume is up 143% from a day earlier to $4.6 million, according to CoinGecko, signaling a rise in market activity that coincided with Biden’s report.

Reaction to the new accounting remains divided. Trader Crypto Bitlord argued that Biden may have been misled by inexperienced market makers, while lawyer Hailey Lennon dismissed the explanation as a post-mortem for what still looked like a rug pull.

However, Nicki Sanders, a crypto consultant, took a more cautious view, noting that the founder wallet claim can be checked on-chain but that the report was commissioned by Biden’s team and the market makers have not publicly responded.

The post Hunter Biden Blames Market Maker for LAPTOP Meme Coin Collapse appeared first on CryptoPotato.