NEAR Intents says it recovers about $3.8 million stolen in security breach
NEAR Intents said it recovered about $3.8 million stolen during a Thursday security breach. NEAR Intents had identified the individual behind the breach and given the individual 48 hours to return the funds under responsible disclosure. General manager Alex Shevchenko announced the complete return of the funds later on Friday and said the investigation was stopping.
Cardano faces bearish signals as futures demand cools and large holders sell
Cardano's recent price surge faces pressure from fading trader interest and large-holder selling. Ali Charts said ADA futures open interest fell 9% over the past week, from $1.99 billion to $1.81 billion. Large holders have sold roughly 90 million ADA, worth approximately $22.5 million, since September 20. ADA has fallen 10% since a Tom DeMark Sequential sell signal appeared on the daily chart, and the correction may not be over. Ali Charts identified $0.24 as key support, with a decline toward $0.21 likely if ADA loses that level.
Leveraged funds' Bitcoin futures shorts fall about 5,300 BTC-equivalent as longs shrink
Leveraged funds' reported Bitcoin futures shorts fell about 5,300 BTC-equivalent in the week to September 29, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's futures-only figures. The funds' longs fell 908.99 BTC-equivalent during the same week. Their net short narrowed by 4,390.70 BTC-equivalent, from 40,110.83 to 35,720.13. Combined open interest across the covered markets fell 13.31% to 103,343.14 BTC-equivalent. The figures exclude paired spot and ETF holdings, so fewer futures shorts do not establish fresh spot buying or reduced bearish conviction.
Jim Cramer warns investors of potentially weaker third-quarter earnings
Mad Money host Jim Cramer warned investors that companies may not deliver the strong results investors have grown accustomed to this earnings season. Cramer linked the potentially more difficult conditions to rising borrowing costs and the Federal Reserve's determination to reduce inflation. However, FactSet data shows analysts expect 29.5% year-over-year earnings growth for the S&P 500 in the third quarter. JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are scheduled to report September-quarter results on October 14. New York Fed President John Williams will speak on Tuesday after weak September payroll data.
Arbitrum pauses new Stylus activations over AI-assisted attack risks
Arbitrum's Security Council temporarily blocked new Stylus contract activations on Arbitrum One and Nova in an October 2 emergency action. Arbitrum attributed the precaution to increasingly sophisticated AI-assisted attacks involving hand-crafted WebAssembly programs outside the standard Stylus compiler toolchain. Already-active Stylus applications can continue running, while ordinary Solidity deployment and execution remain unaffected, according to the Council's action report. Arbitrum said known Stylus bugs primarily threaten chain liveness and that no attack permitting theft of user funds had been discovered. A separate safeguard would suspend Arbitrum One's settlement to Ethereum if a one-step proof accepts conflicting answers, delaying unconfirmed withdrawals while One continues processing. The official notices give no date for restoring activations.
PUMP, AAVE, WLD and SKY post double-digit gains as broader crypto market declines
Pump.fun (PUMP), Aave (AAVE), Worldcoin (WLD) and Sky (SKY) posted double-digit gains as most of the crypto market declined into early October. BeInCrypto Markets data show that total crypto market capitalization fell 0.30% over the past week. PUMP gained 30% in a week, largely because of token supply cuts. AAVE gained 20%, largely because the Aave protocol reached $1 billion in user deposits. Santiment linked SKY's 14% weekly gain to rising institutional interest. Galaxy Digital said last month that Galaxy had added $100 million of Sky's sUSDS to its treasury. WLD gained 15% this week, without Santiment identifying a specific catalyst.
Community banks group sues OCC over crypto trust bank charters
The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, alleging that allowing cryptocurrency companies to obtain limited national trust bank charters exceeds the agency's congressional authority. The group filed the lawsuit Friday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. ICBA president and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said the group is asking the court to return the OCC to its statutory limits. The trust bank charters do not allow companies to accept deposits or make loans. The OCC had not responded to a request for comment by publication.
Analysis: Falling GPU rental prices threaten AI hosts as hedges remain immature
Falling GPU rental prices can undermine AI infrastructure operators' ability to repay equipment debt, while financial hedges remain immature. Luxor said it already brokers agreements between computing-capacity owners and customers, but no liquid market has formed for its cash-settled derivatives. CME Group announced H100 and B200 rental-index futures, targeting October 5 for launch subject to regulatory review. Derivatives could stabilize rental rates without securing customers, but mismatched benchmarks and counterparty failures could leave operators underprotected. Luxor did not provide requested AI collateral terms or procedures for payment defaults.
Trump expected to appoint Jay Clayton as AI czar, media report
President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, as AI czar, CNN and other media reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. Sources told CNN that Clayton is expected to remain director of national intelligence. A White House official told CBS News that any announcement would come directly from Trump and dismissed the reports as speculation. Trump planned to create an "AI Force" modeled after the Space Force to manage AI without adding regulations that could slow innovation. CNN reported that Trump gathered AI and technology chiefs at the White House on Tuesday to sign a commitment to self-police their companies' AI models and development.
Anchorage Digital reportedly cuts 17% of its workforce
Anchorage Digital has reportedly laid off 17% of its staff, according to The Information, citing people familiar with the matter. The Information linked the cuts to a year-long crypto market slump. The reduction would affect roughly 68 jobs if staffing remained near the approximately 400 employees disclosed in February 2025. Anchorage has not publicly commented on the reduction. Other crypto companies have also cut staff in 2026, including Gemini, Coinbase, Dune and Bitwise.
US judge dismisses LIBRA and M3M3 investor lawsuit with prejudice
US Judge Jennifer L. Rochon dismissed the proposed class action over LIBRA and M3M3 with prejudice in a Sept. 29 opinion. Rochon denied another amendment and ordered the Southern District of New York case closed. The court found that investors had not adequately pleaded the continuity required for their federal racketeering claims. The proposed amendment would have added MELANIA, ENRON and TRUST but did not cure the defects. The ruling removes a district-court route to recovery but does not establish that every alleged act was lawful or determine other possible recovery routes.
Analysis: Citadel Securities expects retail stock buyers to return in Q4
Citadel Securities expects retail investors to return to US stocks in the fourth quarter after trading activity weakened in September. Bloomberg said retail share trading fell to 0.94 times its one-year average in September, the lowest level of 2026. Most companies cannot repurchase shares before earnings, and those buyback windows reopen October 15. Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings per share to rise 27% this quarter. However, US employers added just 29,000 jobs in September against forecasts of 84,000, and most S&P 500 stocks fell despite the index rising. Citadel Securities earns money executing trades, including the retail orders the firm expects to return.
Analysis: SEC crypto custody proposal could favor larger advisers
The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed crypto custody fallback could broaden investment choices while favoring advisers with greater resources. The proposal, approved on Oct. 1, would let advisers hold covered client crypto assets when an eligible custodian is unavailable, subject to safeguards. The SEC models certain annual costs at $433,833 per adviser, excluding some potentially significant technology costs. The SEC's economic analysis says smaller advisers may decline to offer the service, while larger firms could spread costs across more clients or reuse infrastructure. Existing custodians could reduce that advantage, and advisers would have to transfer assets when a qualified custodian became available.
Blast plans layer-2 shutdown and sets October 26 deadline for normal withdrawals
Blast said on October 2 that it will shut down its Ethereum layer-2 network because maintaining the chain costs more than the network earns. Blast asked users to move their assets to Ethereum mainnet by October 26 to withdraw through the normal interface. User withdrawals will pause while Blast withdraws assets from Lido, a process expected to take approximately one week. Withdrawals will then resume with a 24-hour delay. Blast said assets will remain recoverable after October 26 through direct interaction with its Ethereum mainnet bridge contracts.
Analysis: Bitcoin loses US jobs-driven gains after tanker attack blamed on Iran
Bitcoin returned to $84,000 on Friday, October 1, after disappointing US jobs data and falling Federal Reserve rate-hike odds drove a rally near $87,000. Bitcoin added and lost $50 billion in a single day. Crypto markets reacted heavily to a tanker strike in Hormuz, while oil prices barely moved. Viral posts blamed Iran, but United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations did not identify the attacker and said authorities were investigating. The agency reported no casualties or pollution.
IMF approves $139 million for El Salvador, seeks smaller state Bitcoin role
The International Monetary Fund said Friday that it approved a $139 million disbursement to El Salvador while seeking to reduce state involvement in Bitcoin-related activities. The IMF praised economic activity that exceeded expectations but said Bitcoin accumulation performance criteria were not met. The IMF said waivers were granted based on strong corrective measures and renewed commitments. The IMF said no further bitcoin accumulation was envisaged beyond documented donations. The IMF said in September that El Salvador was not buying bitcoin, while the country's Bitcoin Office has repeatedly said the country buys the cryptocurrency.
Crypto-funded super PAC spends $11.4 million to help Husted defeat Brown in Ohio
Defend American Jobs, a super PAC funded by cryptocurrency companies and investors, is spending $11.4 million on ads to help Sen. Jon Husted defeat Sherrod Brown in Ohio, according to campaign finance disclosures. Super PAC spokesman Geoff Vetter said the group plans to spend $30 million in the race. The cryptocurrency industry spent heavily to defeat Brown in 2024 and is spending millions more to prevent Brown from returning to the Senate this year.
Analysis: Stablecoin issuers offset over 40% of China's lost Treasury demand
Tether and Circle increased Treasury securities and repurchase-agreement holdings by about $200 billion over five years, San Francisco Fed researchers said. The increase equaled more than 40% of the decline in China's Treasury holdings over the same period. However, stablecoin issuers mainly buy short-maturity assets, while China's reductions have largely involved longer-dated debt. Continued growth could lift stablecoin issuers' Treasury holdings toward $400 billion by 2030, but the researchers cautioned that the estimate carries substantial uncertainty. Proposed US implementing rules would reinforce demand for highly liquid reserves, including Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 93 days or less.
Community bankers sue Trump administration over cryptocurrency bank charters
Community bankers sued the Trump administration on Friday after regulators moved to grant bank charters to a wave of cryptocurrency companies. The lawsuit accuses regulators of giving risky cryptocurrency companies access to the banking system without the same oversight as banks.
Bank group sues OCC over granting crypto trust charters
The Independent Community Bankers of America filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over crypto trust charters. ICBA alleges that the agency is asserting chartering powers not authorized by the National Bank Act and imposing less regulatory oversight than community banks face. ICBA says this puts small banks at a severe competitive disadvantage. An OCC spokesperson said the agency does not comment on litigation. However, crypto trust companies do not operate under the same business model or intend to offer the same services as typical community banks.
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