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Two years ago, we were using AI for research, writing, and making information easier to access. Then came more advanced capabilities — coding, building sophisticated apps and systems in minutes, automating business processes, and creating studio-grade images and videos. Now, AI systems are already making millions of payments.
Regulators meanwhile haven’t moved at a fraction of this speed. That gap could become dangerous as AI agents gain more control over money.
At United Nations Headquarters in New York, BeInCrypto recently led a regulatory panel examining that problem during the Future of Money summit. The discussion brought together Dottie Romo, Chief Risk and Control Officer at the US Internal Revenue Service; Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund; and Mastercard’s Julius Moye.
AI Payments are Already Happening at Scale
BeInCrypto’s State of AI Agent Payments 2026 research shows what machine-driven payments can already look like.
Between July 23 and August 26, researchers tracked 6.4 million x402 payment transactions carrying $119,947 across Base and Solana.
Most were tiny. 90.8% of transfers were worth less than one cent, but the AI agent recorded nearly 200 million settlement transactions since launch, according to the research.
x402 agent payments, July 23–August 26. Source: The State of AI Agent Payments in 2026
The amounts remain small because agents are largely paying for individual digital resources, such as data, API access or computing tasks. The transaction frequency shows how differently machine commerce can behave.
Regulators May Need Algorithms Watching Algorithms
IRS Risk Chief warned that traditional oversight may struggle with that speed.
“They’re making millions of decisions in minutes,” said Dottie Romo from the IRS.
She said regulators currently rely heavily on periodic reports to find fraud, control failures and other risks. Autonomous finance could make that approach too slow.
Does that mean algorithms would need to monitor other algorithms? Romo said some form of automated supervision would likely be necessary.
“We’re not going to be able to do that in a fast enough pace,” said Romo.
She argued for more real-time monitoring across markets while keeping humans involved in important decisions.
Who Gets the Kill Switch?
Mastercard’s Moye pointed to the 2012 Knight Capital trading disaster and Terra/Luna as warnings about automated systems running without sufficient safeguards.
His model starts with machines detecting unusual behaviour and automatically containing the problem. Serious incidents would then escalate to humans.
“It’s really using AI and machines to apply the tourniquet and stop the bleeding and then have humans come in to do the surgery,” said Julius Moye, Manager at Mastercard’s Financial Crime Solutions.
Dell’Accio argued that automation cannot erase responsibility. He said accountability should ultimately trace back through three questions:
Who developed the code? Who implemented the code and who oversees the code?”
A Dystopian Reality
The uncomfortable reality is that AI is becoming a visible and aggressive part of modern finance, so much so that they are making millions in transactions every month.
Regulators cannot practically close this gap. Such speed is humanly impossible to match. So, we may soon face a new reality where regulators need machines to supervise machines.
Sounds dystopian, but it is a reality already being discussed by policymakers.

Brazil’s election delivered a dramatic impact on its financial markets today. The Ibovespa crossed 200,000 points for the first time in history on Monday after right-wing leader Flávio Bolsonaro unexpectedly finished ahead of President Lula da Silva in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election.
The benchmark index went up more than 10% today, the highest single-day gain this year.
Markets Rally After Bolsonaro Wins Primary Election
Bolsonaro secured 47.03% of valid votes, compared with Lula’s 45.16%, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court. The two will meet again in a runoff on October 25.
The result challenged late polling and triggered an immediate repricing of Brazilian assets.
The US-listed EWZ fund, which tracks Brazilian equities, jumped almost 13% in pre-market trading.
Brazil’s currency, real, surged too. The dollar dropped 5% today in a straight line.
JPMorgan said Brazilian stocks could rise as much as 11% in the short term and the dollar could continue falling.
The Rally Now Faces a Reality Check
The election is still unfinished, and investors are already looking beyond the ballot box.
“Markets don’t price election results; they price execution,” said André Matos, CEO of MA7 Capital.
The next test will be fiscal policy. Sidney Lima of Ouro Preto Investimentos said a credible plan for debt and spending could lower Brazil’s risk premium.
Gustavo Assis of Asset pointed to long-term interest rates as an early measure of whether confidence lasts.
Fábio Murad of Wiser Asset said the dollar could become the fastest indicator of that shift.

China is quietly erasing its weakest banks. A record 670 closed in the latest yearly count, most swallowed by bigger lenders, leaving 3,139 after a 23% drop in four years, Fitch Ratings said.
Bank trouble rarely stays local. When Silicon Valley Bank failed in 2023, First Republic shares plunged more than 60% in a day. Bitcoin jumped as much as 10%.
Bitcoin Price and First Republic (FRCB) Stock Performance During 2023 Bank Crisis. Source: TradingView Why Are China’s Small Banks Disappearing?
Most of the closed banks were small rural lenders. Fitch calls them the weakest part of China’s financial system.
Their bad loans, money borrowers have stopped paying back, hit 2.8% in the first half, Fitch said. Across all banks, the figure was 1.5%.
Much of that money went to property developers. It also went to off-budget companies that Chinese cities use to borrow for roads and housing.
The wider economy is cooling. Growth slowed to 4.3% in the second quarter, the weakest since 2022. New yuan loans even fell outright in April and July.
“We’ve never seen consolidations on this scale before,” Jason Bedford, a senior visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore, told the Financial Times.
Fitch Says Contagion Is Unlikely, but a City Bank Fell in July
Fitch said the trouble is unlikely to spread. These banks lend locally and borrow little from other banks.
Yet the strain has moved beyond the countryside. In July, Wuhan authorities took over Z-Bank, a lender with about 124 billion yuan in assets. It was China’s first such takeover since Baoshang Bank in 2019.
“You have to avoid any type of disturbance to the financial market and depositors’ confidence,” said Karen Wu, an analyst at credit consultancy CreditSights.
According to Wu, China must move carefully.
How Past Bank Shocks Moved Markets
Earlier scares hit different corners of the market. Baoshang’s seizure pushed up funding costs for regional banks. Henan’s frozen village banks set off street protests in 2022.
China shuts 670 banks, past bank shocks and how Bitcoin reacted
Bitcoin (BTC) rose in the week after three of those four shocks. It traded near $85,340 as of this writing, BeInCrypto data. shows
Crypto has little direct exposure this time. Mainland China banned crypto trading in 2021, and its banks were already barred from handling crypto transactions.
Nevertheless, the cleanup is not over. Moody’s expects more mergers as regulators “seek to address risks at smaller and weaker regional institutions.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) opened public comment on Monday for new crypto trading rules that exchanges could choose to join. Chairman Michael Selig cited FTX, whose founders misappropriated about $8 billion in customer funds.
The CFTC regulates futures and other bets on commodity prices. Yet the one FTX unit it oversaw kept customer money safe, while about 130 sister companies went bankrupt.
What the CFTC Wants to Regulate in Crypto Trading
The notice is an early step that asks for public feedback before any rule is written. It covers retail crypto trades made with borrowed money or platform financing.
Federal law already requires such deals to run on a CFTC-regulated exchange. The agency now wants crypto-specific rules, including a new exchange category called a “crypto asset market.”
“Under my leadership, the Commission will take every necessary step to establish regulations that are designed to prevent, rather than only prosecute after the fact, fraudulent schemes such as FTX,” Selig wrote.
Selig’s announcement revisited an old CNBC coverage of FTX’s $32 billion valuation.
The lesson from FTX’s failure should have been obvious. America shouldn’t have to choose between responsible innovation in crypto and protecting market participants from fraud and abuse. It needs prophylactic rules that reasonably ensure both. Today, the @CFTC is taking action to… https://t.co/7vm8o1Wrt6
— Mike Selig (@ChairmanSelig) October 5, 2026
What Exchanges Gain and Give Up by Signing Up
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Selig said the rules would not force crypto onto CFTC platforms. The agency lacks that power without Congress, where the stalled CLARITY Act failed in the Senate.
Selig’s proposition is that:
Registered exchanges could offer retail traders leverage and margin, which state money transmitter licenses, the kind FTX relied on, do not allow.
In return, under the notice:
Registered exchanges must keep customer money separate
Watch for manipulation, and
Limit conflicts of interest.
Bitnomial said it is the first crypto-native US exchange to hold all three CFTC licenses for this business. It launched leveraged retail spot crypto trading in December 2025.
Kraken parent Payward agreed in April to buy Bitnomial for up to $550 million. It then planned a Hyperliquid route for US clients through Bitnomial, pending approval. Hyperliquid, an offshore trading platform, bars US users.
Comments are due 60 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register. A formal proposal and final vote must follow before any rule binds.

Amber Premium is moving deeper into blockchain infrastructure. The digital asset platform, owned by Nasdaq-listed Amber International, has joined XDC Network as a masternode validator through its Singapore business, Sparrow Tech.
That means Amber will now help verify transactions and support the network itself. For a company better known for crypto trading and wealth management, that is a different kind of bet.
Amber Moves From Using Crypto to Running Its Rails
Sparrow Tech operates as Amber Premium Singapore and holds a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for digital payment token services. MAS records confirm the licence.
By becoming a validator, Amber is effectively moving closer to the plumbing underneath crypto markets.
Validators play a fundamental role in blockchain networks. They help confirm transactions and maintain the ledger that everyone else relies on.
XDC has been trying to put established companies into that position.
Its existing infrastructure participants include names such as Deutsche Telekom, while Republic and Clearpool have also joined as institutional validators alongside SBI-linked infrastructure.
This matters because institutional blockchain adoption increasingly raises a simple question: who is actually running the network?
Wall Street Wants Blockchain. It Also Wants Someone Accountable
XDC has positioned itself around trade finance and tokenized real-world assets.
The network has been used for projects involving corporate debt and trade-related financial instruments. Brazil’s VERT Capital, for example, announced plans to tokenize up to $1 billion of assets on XDC.
A tokenized deposit and a stablecoin may appear similar onchain, but they do not represent the same type of claim.A stablecoin is generally a claim on its issuer, supported by a separately held reserve pool.A tokenized deposit remains a claim on the issuing bank and is backed… pic.twitter.com/1Nyo6y3hwi
— XDC Foundation (@XDCFoundation) September 16, 2026
Putting regulated financial firms into the validator layer could make that infrastructure easier for institutions to accept.
There is an obvious tension, though.
Public blockchains were built around decentralization. Filling validator sets with recognizable financial companies makes them look more credible to banks, but potentially more similar to the financial system crypto originally tried to move away from.
For XDC, that appears to be a deliberate trade-off.
The AI Story Is Much Further Ahead of Reality
Amber and XDC are also linking the partnership to another emerging theme: AI agents that can eventually move money and initiate transactions without human involvement.
XDC argues that if machines increasingly make financial decisions, the credibility of the infrastructure validating those transactions becomes more important.
However, the AI story remains largely a future thesis. The development happening today is much simpler.
A Nasdaq-listed digital asset company has decided that operating blockchain infrastructure is worth its time and capital. As tokenized finance grows, more financial firms may reach the same conclusion.

The US Treasury has withdrawn a plan to track personal crypto wallets, which would have made banks and exchanges record transfers above $3,000 and report those above $10,000.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Treasury’s anti-money-laundering bureau, said it will take no further action on the 2020 proposal. It dropped a second plan aimed at crypto mixing the same day.
Crypto Privacy Wins?
Personal, or “unhosted,” wallets are apps or devices where people hold their own coins instead of leaving them with a bank or exchange.
Under the 2020 proposal, firms would have verified their customer and kept records when a transfer involving such a wallet topped $3,000.
Transfers above $10,000, or several totaling that in 24 hours, would have triggered a report to FinCEN.
That rule never took effect. FinCEN’s filing says the withdrawal aims to keep digital asset rules “fit-for-purpose,” citing a July 2025 White House crypto report.
“The Trump Administration supports the ability of lawful users of digital assets to privately transact on a public blockchain,” read an excerpt in the FinCEN report.
It takes effect on publication in the Federal Register on October 6.
Why Crypto Mixers Still Face Scrutiny
FinCEN also withdrew a 2023 plan on mixing, which blends many users’ coins to hide where funds came from. Firms would have reported suspected mixing with a foreign link.
Until now, Treasury’s regulatory agenda still listed that rule for final action in December 2027.
FinCEN said commenters warned its mixing definition could chill legitimate activity. However, the bureau said illicit actors still use mixers and that it may act in the future.
Prosecutors are also pursuing the issue in court. Developer Roman Storm faces a Tornado Cash retrial in April 2027 over the Ethereum-based mixing service.
Existing duties such as suspicious activity reports and sanctions screening remain in force. Meanwhile, every Bitcoin transfer still lands on a public ledger, where wallet payments can be traced.

Morgan Stanley says SpaceX stock could nearly double to $300 a share. Yet at least 40 of the firm’s clients do not own the stock.
SpaceX went public in June in the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever, at $135 a share. Four months later, shares trade about 23% above that price.
SpaceX Stock (SPCX) Performance Since IPO. Source: Yahoo Finance Why Morgan Stanley Says SpaceX Stock Price Could Nearly Double
Analyst Adam Jonas kept his buy rating and $300 target in a note reported Monday. That sits 89% above Friday’s $158.96 close.
His case rests on one split. He values the rockets and Starlink, the satellite internet service, at $127 a share.
That leaves about $32 for the artificial intelligence (AI) business. It includes the Grok chatbot and computing power SpaceX rents out. Across roughly 13.2 billion shares, that values AI near $420 billion.
Jonas thinks that is too low. SpaceX’s recent short-term computing deals paid $30 to $50 per watt of capacity, he said. Analyst models assume $17.60.
$SPCX – MORGAN STANLEY: SPACEX “CHEAP AND GETTING CHEAPER”Morgan Stanley reiterates Overweight on SpaceX with a $300 price target, arguing the stock looks cheap once its growth profile is considered.Analyst Adam Jonas says SpaceX trades roughly 40% below mega-cap AI peers on…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) October 5, 2026
In other words, Jonas argues buyers today are mostly paying for rockets and Starlink, and very little for AI.
Why Investors Are Staying Away From SpaceX Stock
Jonas tested demand himself. Last week, he asked a room of 40 clients who owned the stock.
“not a single hand went up,” the Morgan Stanley analyst revealed.
He named the worries investors raise most:
Whether Grok can keep pace with rival AI models.
Whether Starlink can secure the airwaves, known as spectrum, for its mobile service.
Jonas says both are already priced in.
The stock has also slid since its debut. Shares sit about 30% below their post-IPO high of $225.64.
On September 24, about 328 million shares became free to sell as the post-IPO lockup ended. President Gwynne Shotwell also sold $52.5 million in shares.
Meanwhile, the AI arm is still losing money. It lost $1.26 billion last quarter while consuming 86% of SpaceX’s capital spending.
Not every analyst is convinced. Some forecast as low as $142, TipRanks shows. The 33-analyst average is $235.10.
SpaceX stock analyst price targets. Source: TipRanks What Could Bring Investors Back to SpaceX Stock?
Jonas points to Starship, Elon Musk’s dream reusable spacecraft that completed a recent successful orbit. Flight 15 is due in late October or early November.
If SpaceX catches the returning ship, Jonas said, it could be the stock’s biggest boost since the IPO.
Third-quarter earnings land in late October. Jonas also lists new Grok versions and more computing deals as possible boosts.
He also set out what would sink the stock. A drop to $100 within a year would take an AI slowdown, a severe Starship setback, or dilution.
For now, a $300 target is meeting a room with no hands raised.

S&P Global Ratings has launched a Vault Risk Assessment (VRA) to grade crypto lending vaults, a market now holding about $10 billion. The ratings giant stresses that its new scores are not credit ratings.
Think of a lending vault as a blockchain-based bond fund that gathers deposits and lends them to borrowers. However, deposits grew more than sixfold in two years, while disclosure standards still differ from vault to vault.
How S&P Plans to Score Crypto Lending Vaults
The announcement lists six areas of risk. They span portfolio credit quality, liquidity mismatches, the curator, the blockchain, the protocol, and vault security and governance.
Crypto lending vaults deposits grew from $1.5 billion to $10 billion. Source: BeInCrypto
Curators are the firms that decide where a vault deploys its capital. As a result, their choices can decide whether depositors get their money back during a market shock.
For crypto lending vaults, each assessment gives a forward-looking view of how likely investors are to suffer losses, S&P says. It will not comment on the yields that vaults advertise.
S&P Global risk factors for crypto lending vaults. Source: BeInCrypto
James Wiemken, head of global ratings services at S&P Global Ratings, pointed to uneven reporting across the sector.
“…the inherent complexities and varying disclosure standards in this nascent market create a clear need for a standardized, independent risk perspective,” James Wiemken, said
Why Wall Street Wants a Say in DeFi Risk
The VRA extends a wider push by S&P into digital assets. In September, the firm agreed to acquire auditor OpenZeppelin and took a stake in data provider Kaiko.
Earlier, the company said it issued the first credit rating for a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol, Sky Protocol, formerly MakerDAO. Another S&P rating covered a structured finance deal backed by Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, vault risks have already turned into real losses. In August, a Term Labs governance exploit drained roughly $8.5 million from its vaults.
Regulators have taken notice. In July, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce warned that crypto vaults and lending protocols may fall under federal securities law.
Independent grades could make crypto lending vaults easier to pitch to banks and funds that require third-party risk checks. Therefore, the real test is whether curators start competing on S&P scores rather than headline yields.

XRP price is once again drawing attention from chart analysts as the token consolidates near key technical levels this week.
One trader sees a path toward $10, but derivatives data is urging investors not to get ahead of themselves.
XRP Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto What Is Driving the $10 XRP Price Target?
Crypto analyst Moustache has identified a multi-year descending broadening wedge on XRP’s weekly chart. The pattern has been forming for almost two years. At the current price near $1.52, a move to $10 would mark a gain of nearly 560%.
The analyst called the structure “textbook” and remains constructive on the longer-term outlook. He acknowledged the breakout could still take time to play out fully.
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XRP Price Analysis. Source: X/@el_crypto_prof
Shorter-term charts tell a similar story of coiled tension building beneath the surface. Analyst Ali Martinez noted that XRP is consolidating inside a triangle pattern and nearing its apex.
That zone often precedes larger price swings in either direction. Whale wallets have stayed largely on the sidelines, with combined holdings steady near 3.9 billion XRP over the past week. A decisive four-hour close above $1.53 could open the door toward $1.62 in the near term.
$XRP – Update Still looking for that slow grind up on XRP. pic.twitter.com/DbnppqzMLS
— Crypto Tony (@CryptoTony__) October 4, 2026
Can XRP Rally Actually Hold Up Under Pressure?
Not every analyst sees an immediate breakout. A market observer places the odds at 65% to 70% for an upward move. He gives a 30% to 35% chance of a downside break instead, noting that XRP’s RSI remains below 50.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt has also hinted at a developing cup-and-handle pattern on XRP’s chart, a setup that often points to further upside.
That reading suggests the market has not entered a strongly bullish regime overall.
pic.twitter.com/UzAK96XjDR
— The Factor Report (@PeterLBrandt) October 5, 2026
Derivatives data adds another layer of caution. CryptoQuant data shows XRP open interest (OI) on Binance has climbed back to $516.6 million, up from 2026 lows near $350 to $400 million. It still sits well below the $1.3 billion recorded in October 2025.
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XRP Open Interest on Binance. Source: CryptoQuant
Price has rebounded faster than open interest. Leveraged traders have yet to show last year’s conviction, and analysts see the gap as a sign of a more cautious, less euphoric market overall.
None of this should be treated as investment guidance. Crypto markets move fast and unpredictably; earlier price action says nothing about what comes next, and anyone considering a position should look into it independently first.

Oil prices slipped on Monday after the Group of Seven (G7) agreed to release 100 million barrels from emergency reserves. Rising crude exports from the Middle East added to the supply relief.
Brent crude traded at $101.69, down 0.55%, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 1.04% to $90.16, Trading Economics data showed.
Oil Prices on October 5. Source: Trading Economics
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Reserve Barrels and Returning Tankers Ease the Squeeze
G7 leaders agreed Friday to a 4-month release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA). A statement from French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said diesel releases would be front-loaded into the first 20 days. The deal came after pressure from US President Donald Trump.
“Facing unprecedented volatility in oil markets–with surging prices threatening economic stability and the well-being of our citizens–we have agreed on decisive, coordinated measures to stabilise immediate energy supplies, shield households and businesses from price shocks, and strengthen the long-term resilience of global energy systems,” the statement said.
Gulf tanker flows have also recovered. Crude transits through the Strait of Hormuz hit a 7-day average of 13.5 million barrels per day in late September, CNBC reported, citing Kpler data.
Shipments from the wider region, including Red Sea routes, have climbed further. On 4 of the last 7 days of September, they topped pre-war levels, Kpler data cited by Reuters showed.
Tim Waterer, chief analyst at KCM Trade, pointed to both factors.
“The G7 decision to tap strategic reserves is taking some of the immediate supply anxiety out of the price, while there’s a growing view that Saudi export volumes are moving back toward pre-war levels, even if those barrels are still moving at higher cost and via less efficient routes,” he said.
Bitcoin and Gold Break From Oil While Tankers Stay Exposed
Bitcoin (BTC) and gold moved against oil on Monday. BTC rose 1.55% to $86,254, BeInCrypto Markets data showed, while gold edged up 0.23% to $4,149.70 an ounce.
Bitcoin Price Performance As Oil Prices Fall. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
Both have lagged crude over the past year. Brent is up 55.06% from a year ago, while gold has gained 4.71%. Bitcoin is down 29.4% over the past year.
Tanker attacks still threaten that supply recovery. Shipping intelligence firm Marisks logged at least 7 incidents near Hormuz, including a reported strike on Kuwaiti tanker Kazimah III. It said Iranian forces may be firing into a predetermined engagement zone.
On land, the Houthis said they fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and Khurais.
The diesel-heavy first phase of the G7 release is due within 20 days. Its arrival will test whether reserve barrels can offset the continued attacks.
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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson told a United Nations audience he does not trust the European Union with a digital euro. He predicted it would enable “asset and transaction discrimination” within a decade.
On paper, the EU’s draft law already rules out programmable spending rules. However, that text is still under negotiation, and Hoskinson argues only a binding law would prove his fears wrong.
UPDATE: Charles Hoskinson slams the EU, says "why I don't trust you Europeans with your Digital Euro, is we all know what you're gonna do with it—asset and transaction discrimination. Don't believe it? Well then put it in some sort of law that you're not gonna do it." pic.twitter.com/Yv8ONo8p7l
— Angry Crypto Show (@angrycryptoshow) October 4, 2026
Why Hoskinson Wants Digital Euro Limits Written Into Law
Hoskinson spoke on October 2 at the Future of Money, Governance & the Law Summit in New York. The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) hosted it at UN headquarters.
He warned that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) risks becoming a “financial panopticon” that watches and blocks payments.
“You’re going to go to buy some fuel and even though you have €2,000 in your bank account, it’s going to decline your card and say, ‘Well, I’m sorry. You’ve already purchased 50 L of petrol this month. You’re not allowed to buy anymore.’ Don’t believe it? Well, then put it in some sort of law that you’re not going to do it.”
He pitched his Midnight privacy network as an alternative. Code, he said, shifts the standard to “can’t be evil.”
The same day, BeInCrypto Global Head of News Brian McGleenon led a summit panel on AI outpacing financial regulation. Experts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Mastercard, and the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund debated who controls money-moving AI agents.
The session also launched joint BeInCrypto Research and GBA research on AI, blockchain, and quantum computing in finance. Final findings are due in January 2027.
Does the Draft Law Already Answer Him?
The European Parliament voted 416 to 169 on July 9 to open trilogue talks, closed-door negotiations with member states and the Commission.
The third round on September 30 ended with no deal on merchant fees or holding limits, which cap individual balances.
Meanwhile, the Commission’s 2023 proposal states that the digital euro should not be programmable money. Then-European Central Bank (ECB) board member Fabio Panetta also told lawmakers in 2023 the bank would never limit where, when, or to whom people pay.
None of these safeguards is binding yet. The ECB plans a 12-month pilot from late 2027, with possible issuance in 2029.
In contrast, the US Senate has passed a temporary CBDC ban running through 2030. Europe’s negotiators must now show that written guarantees can satisfy critics who trust only code.

Public voting decided the category, with the winner announced at the Future of Money, Governance, and the Law summit at the United Nations.
BeInCrypto has won the Government Blockchain Association’s (GBA) 2026 Annual Achievement Award for Best Organization. The winner was announced on October 2 at the Future of Money, Governance, and the Law (FoMGL) summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, following a public vote. Brian McGleenon, our Global Head of News, received the award on behalf of BeInCrypto.
The GBA presents five awards inspired by historical changemakers, covering Leadership, Innovation, Social Impact, Courage, and Organizational Excellence. The Organization category honors groups that use blockchain technology to solve challenges, promote justice, improve results, and change paradigms. According to the GBA, winning organizations create environments where people and ideas can thrive.
Why This Recognition Matters to Us
Since launching in 2018, BeInCrypto has covered digital assets, blockchain, and Web3 infrastructure, publishing news and market analysis in 26 languages. We are now expanding beyond daily coverage into a broader reference point that combines journalism, expert-led insights, research, and industry initiatives, connecting readers with the institutions, experts, and developments shaping the industry.
Our focus is making blockchain technology understandable. Our newsroom works to cut through speculation and hype with clear, accountable reporting for millions of readers trying to make sense of the digital asset space.
We thank the GBA for the recognition, our community for voting, and our peers for a productive week of discussions in Washington, D.C. and New York.
About BeInCryptoBeInCrypto is part of the BeInNews Academy Ltd, an independent media group covering the convergence of finance and digital assets. Through its newsroom, Expert Councils, Research Division, Institutional 100 Awards, and events, it helps professionals navigate a complex and fast-changing industry.

MicroStrategy, now called Strategy, bought just 334 Bitcoin (BTC) for $28.7 million last week. Over the same week, it spent $176.3 million buying back its own preferred stock, about six times more.
The purchase lifts holdings to exactly 848,000 BTC, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is a third straight weekly buy, yet only a fifth the size of the prior week’s 1,665 BTC.
Why Is Strategy Buying Back Stock Instead of Bitcoin?
The filing shows Strategy repurchased about 1.77 million shares of Stretch (STRC). That is a preferred stock that pays investors a 12% annual dividend.
Most of the money came from USD Cash, a pool of dollars the company keeps for general use. MicroStrategy drew $154.1 million from it for buybacks and only $13 million for Bitcoin.
Strategy reports a $21 billion gain on digital assets in Q3 2026. Last week, we acquired 334 $BTC and repurchased $176M of $STRC. As of 10/4/26, we hold 848,000 BTC and $5.7B of USD Assets. $MSTRhttps://t.co/DfKvdQl19R
— Strategy (@Strategy) October 5, 2026
The remaining $15.7 million for Bitcoin came from selling 92,894 new MSTR common shares.
Last week, Strategy said it would keep STRC’s 12% rate until the stock trades steadily near its $100 issue price.
Meanwhile, gold advocate Peter Schiff argued over the weekend that Strategy has lost its Bitcoin-buying power because STRC no longer raises fresh money.
“There’s no way that he’s going to be able to start selling more Stretch; that means he’s not going to be able to raise money to really start buying more Bitcoin,” Schiff said.
MicroStrategy Books a $20.9 Billion Bitcoin Gain for the Quarter
The same filing estimates MicroStrategy booked a $20.91 billion gain on its Bitcoin in the third quarter.
At the end of June, its Bitcoin was worth less than it paid. The rebound let Strategy reverse a $4.12 billion tax asset tied to that earlier loss.
At the current Bitcoin price of about $86,138, its stash is worth roughly $72.4 billion. Strategy paid $63.97 billion in total, or $75,441 per coin.
The company also holds a $4.88 billion USD Reserve for dividends and interest, plus $833.4 million in USD Cash.
Shareholders vote on October 28 on a plan to pay daily dividends across its four preferred stocks. The vote arrives as more of Strategy’s cash goes to those shares than to new Bitcoin.
Strive Buys 2,000 Bitcoin, Six Times Strategy’s Weekly Haul
Smaller rival Strive (ASST) disclosed a bigger purchase the same morning. It bought 2,000 BTC between September 28 and October 2 at an average of $84,422 each, according to its filing.
That comes to about $169 million and lifts its holdings to 29,462 BTC. Chief Executive Matt Cole said 61.5% of the money raised came from SATA, Strive’s own preferred stock.
Strive acquired 2,000 $BTC for $169M at an average cost of $84,422 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿29,462.61.5% of capital raised came from SATA, with warrants generating $56.7M.Today’s 8-K also highlights key metrics and KPIs through 3Q26.$ASST $SATA pic.twitter.com/HS4ADPQ8mJ
— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) October 5, 2026
The filing also shows Strive holds 505,000 STRC shares worth $50.2 million. Those are the same preferred shares Strategy is now buying back. Michael Saylor has said he wants his Bitcoin rival Strive to succeed.

The top 3 altcoins of the first week of October, Midnight (NIGHT), Pump.fun (PUMP), and Stacks (STX), gained between 21% and 69% over seven days.
However, all three rallies have now reached major resistance zones on the daily chart. Whether those zones break or hold may decide the next leg.
Midnight (NIGHT) Price Rejected Below $0.055
NIGHT rose 68.5% over the past week and roughly 200% from its July low. The move came weeks after Midnight’s pivot from developers to builders.
The rally tagged the $0.052 to $0.055 supply zone, which capped price in March. Sellers stepped in immediately, and NIGHT now trades at $0.0451, down 7.6% in 24 hours.
NIGHT daily chart / Source: Tradingview
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) cooled from above 85 but remains overbought near 75. Meanwhile, breakout volume stayed well below March levels, suggesting limited conviction.
A daily close above $0.0466, the 0.786 Fibonacci level, could reopen the path to $0.055. In contrast, losing $0.040 support may send NIGHT toward $0.035 and then $0.030.
Pump.fun (PUMP) Price Holds Above $0.0060
PUMP gained 27.3% this week, extending a rally of roughly 457% from its mid-2026 low. The project’s ongoing token buybacks have kept it in focus.
Price broke above the $0.0050 to $0.0054 zone, which rejected PUMP in late August. It now trades at $0.00646, just above the 0.618 Fibonacci level at $0.0060.
PUMP daily chart / Source: Tradingview
The RSI sits near 70. However, it printed a lower high than in August while price set a higher high, a possible bearish divergence.
Holding $0.0060 could push PUMP toward the $0.0071 to $0.0075 resistance zone and later $0.0090. A daily close below $0.0060 may trigger a retest of $0.0050 to $0.0054.
Stacks (STX) Price Tests the $0.40 Breakout
STX added 20.9% in seven days and roughly 237% since its August low near $0.118. Binance added STX to its Monitoring Tag in July, before the rebound began.
The token now trades at $0.3965, pressing into the $0.381 to $0.396 zone that capped price in January. Volume supports the move, with sharp spikes during both the August reversal and the early October push.
STX daily chart / Source: Tradingview
The RSI holds steady near 70, although it also shows a lower high than in August.
A daily close above $0.40 could open the way to $0.4528, the November 2025 high. Conversely, a drop below $0.381 would signal a failed breakout, exposing $0.325 to $0.341 and then $0.285.
Of the three, STX is the only one actively testing a breakout, while NIGHT is fighting a fresh rejection.

Machi Big Brother has won 12 consecutive trades over the past week, earning $2.14 million, according to Lookonchain. The gains all trace back to one token.
Behind the streak sits a Hyperliquid account with a long losing record and about $151 million in open longs.
Inside the Week That Paid Machi Big Brother $2.14 Million
Every win in the streak came on Pump.fun (PUMP). Lookonchain first flagged the run on October 2, after 10 straight PUMP wins over 5 days. Those trades had made $1.34 million, so the 2 latest wins brought the total to $2.14 million.
Hyperbot shows 4 open perpetual positions on his account, all of them long. The largest is 33,800 Ethereum (ETH) at 25x leverage, worth $91.98 million.
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Machi Big Brother Open Positions. Source: Hyperbot
Bitcoin (BTC) follows at $39.26 million across 455 BTC, with 40x leverage. He also holds 164,500 Hyperliquid (HYPE) at 10x, worth $15.36 million.
His PUMP long has grown to 700 million tokens, worth $4.48 million. Lookonchain’s post put that position at 425 million tokens. The PUMP long is also the only one in the red, down about $50,557.
The 3 larger longs, meanwhile, carry about $2.3 million in combined unrealized profit. However, holding the ETH position has already cost him $1.26 million in funding payments.
Hyperbot places his ETH liquidation price at $2,452.53 and his BTC liquidation price at $66,456.5. His HYPE long would face liquidation at $36.39.
Over the past week, the tracker records an 80% win rate across 15 closed positions. Hyperbot puts his equity at $12.2 million and his overall leverage ratio at about 12.3x.
That marks a change from mid-September, when Arkham showed 39,800 ETH, 569 BTC, and 88,000 HYPE. Since then, he has trimmed his ETH and BTC longs and nearly doubled his HYPE position.
12 Wins Inside a $22.8 Million Hole
Machi Big Brother, whose real name is Jeffrey Huang, trades on Hyperliquid with large leveraged positions. In March, BeInCrypto reported he had lost around $75 million there over the prior 6 months.
Lookonchain counted 335 liquidations on his account by that point, earning him the nickname King of Liquidations. Hyperbot now puts his all-time perpetuals loss at $22.83 million. Including spot trading, the deficit widens to $24.48 million.
His open positions currently carry about $2.2 million in unrealized profit. Against a $22.8 million deficit, the bigger swing factor remains his $131.24 million in ETH and BTC longs.
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Metaplanet owns 44,000 Bitcoin (BTC). Yet the stock market values the Tokyo company at less than those coins. On Monday, it rewrote its own rulebook, allowing up to 15% of its assets to go somewhere other than Bitcoin.
Since April 2024, Metaplanet has raised investor money and spent it on Bitcoin. Now only about 85% to 90% of its assets will stay in the coin.
Where Metaplanet’s Other 15% Is Going
Chief Executive Simon Gerovich says buying Bitcoin was never the whole plan.
“From the beginning, our strategy was never simply to accumulate Bitcoin,” he wrote.
The new slice has three jobs, according to the company’s filing. It will:
Fund takeovers
Buy income-paying securities, and
Seed a planned investment business.
In August, Metaplanet agreed to hand 2,100 BTC and $2.5 million to Super League Enterprise, a Nasdaq-listed media company. Metaplanet expects to control it, pending approvals, and rename it Superplanet.
The third job, a Net Interest Income Strategy, raises money and invests it in assets paying more than that money costs. Profits would buy more Bitcoin, though the filing warns results are not guaranteed.
Why Metaplanet Cannot Easily Sell New Shares
Metaplanet’s rules ban most new share sales while the company is worth less than its Bitcoin. Counting its debt, the market valued it at 74 cents per dollar of Bitcoin on Monday, according to BitcoinTreasuries.
Metaplanet BTC Holdings, Value, and mNAV. Source: Bitcoin Treasuries
At the current Bitcoin price of about $86,070, its coins are worth roughly $3.8 billion. Its shares are worth about $2.1 billion.
Growth money now leans on loans, bonds, and preferred shares, which pay investors a fixed dividend. Borrowing on its Bitcoin-backed credit facility to buy Bitcoin stays below about 10% of the coins’ value.
In the third quarter, Metaplanet sold more Bitcoin than its entire debt and held the cash. It then bought back more than it sold, netting 1,000 BTC.
“Rating agencies and credit investors ask one question of a Bitcoin company: can that Bitcoin be turned into cash to meet obligations, and will it be? We answered by doing it,” Gerovich added.
It now wants a credit rating. However, the Tokyo exchange could still reject its plan to list preferred shares.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is now live on Solana, giving the Ethereum-born meme coin a foothold on a network known for meme coin trading. The listing runs through Sunrise, a token gateway backed by Wormhole Labs.
The move breaks with SHIB’s own playbook. For years, the team pushed holders toward Shibarium, its in-house layer-2 network, instead of rival chains.
A Second Front Opens on Bonk’s Home Turf
SHIB traded higher after the listing went live. The token gained 3.89% over the past 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto price data, with most of the move coming after Solana’s announcement. Over the past week, SHIB is up 2.69%. Still, it remains roughly 93% below its October 2021 all-time high.
SHIB Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
Solana announced the listing on X.
BREAKING: $SHIB is live on Solana via @sunrise https://t.co/5YMgpqwlp1 pic.twitter.com/bwHIlG1YSN
— Solana (@solana) October 4, 2026
The SHIB team followed up with a playful nod to the news.
Different chain. Same dog. 🐕Have we mentioned $SHIB is on Solana yet?We have?Good. Just checking. pic.twitter.com/0AENVGaVKa
— Shib (@Shibtoken) October 5, 2026
Sunrise acts as an on-ramp for tokens from other blockchains. It relies on Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers (NTT) standard. This means SHIB on Solana is the canonical token, not a wrapped copy. Monad’s MON became Sunrise’s first listing.
Meanwhile, Solana has long been home to dog-themed rivals like Bonk (BONK). However, that corner of the market has cooled. BONK slid to its lowest level since November 2023 in August after Upbit announced a delisting.
SHIB enters a crowded arena just as its local competitors are struggling.
Can SHIB on Solana Win Over Meme Coin Traders?
The timing raises questions about Shibarium. Earlier this year, on-chain data showed Shibarium usage collapsing while SHIB traded near multi-year lows.
As a result, Solana offers SHIB a ready-made audience.
Cost is another draw. SHIB remains on Ethereum, but traders on Solana pay a base fee of 0.000005 SOL per transaction, a fraction of a cent. Ethereum fees, in contrast, fluctuate with network demand and can climb during busy periods.
The expansion carries a familiar risk. Unofficial tokens using the SHIB name already exist on Solana. Solana itself urged users to verify the official contract address on tokens.xyz before trading.
Ultimately, the listing tests whether meme coin loyalty can travel across chains. If SHIB on Solana draws real volume, other Ethereum-based tokens could follow the same route. The SHIB Army now has a second home to defend.

Affluent investors in 7 major markets trust wealth managers most for crypto information, a CoinShares survey published October 5 shows. Yet roughly 4 in 10 respondents with an adviser in 4 markets call theirs overly cautious.
The report polled 2,230 investors in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. Each held at least $500,000 in investable assets outside real estate.
Firm Policy Keeps Advisers on the Sidelines
The new data lines up with an adviser-side picture CoinShares published in June. That earlier survey covered 261 wealth professionals in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the UK.
It found that 61% of advisers work at firms that restrict digital assets or lack clear internal guidance. Active recommendation ranged from 48% at supportive firms to just 1% at restrictive ones.
Meanwhile, 25% of advisers said more than half of their clients’ crypto holdings are beyond their view. Among UK advisers, that figure reached 52%, as BeInCrypto reported at the time.
The October report adds detail from the poll. Advisers cited volatility (56%) and crypto’s speculative character (52%) as the top reasons they believe clients hold back.
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Investors Admit Knowledge Gaps and Look for Expert Help
The investor survey paints a more committed picture. Depending on the market, between 54% and 70% of respondents already hold digital assets, according to the new report.
Across the 7 markets, 71% to 91% of current holders also plan to add exposure this year. However, 88% concede they lack the knowledge to invest with complete confidence.
Alongside that gap, 69% would consider working with a crypto-savvy wealth manager. Among current holders open to advice, 98% are prepared to pay for it. In the US and UK, wealth managers lead most other sources on trust by 25 to 30 points.
When the June survey came out, CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti framed the adviser gap as a commercial risk for firms.
“Clients did not wait for permission. Every month a firm remains silent, more of its clients’ wealth migrates beyond its advice, its visibility and ultimately its economics,” Mognetti said.
In that poll, advisers said regulatory recognition (45%) and exchange-traded product access (43%) would most boost their confidence
In the 5 markets both surveys cover, investor demand now meets the policy barrier the June survey identified.
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The euro slid to a 17-month low against the dollar on Monday. Reports that Spain’s government may call an early election deepened worries already building over France’s budget.
Higher interest rates add a second strain, slowing European share sales after a strong start to 2026.
Madrid Joins Paris on the Market’s Worry List
According to Bloomberg, the euro lost as much as 0.8% during Asian hours, touching $1.1161. It later recovered slightly to $1.1179, leaving it down 4.86% for the year.
Euro to USD Year-to-Date Chart. Source: Google Finance
Three people close to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told Bloomberg that senior officials now back an early ballot. Cabinet ministers and Socialist party leaders see it as the best response to last week’s heavy defeat in parliament.
Traders said that Asia-based hedge funds sold euros for dollars in the spot market. That selling pushed the currency through option barriers, which extended the decline. These are levels where certain options switch on or off, forcing dealers to adjust their hedges.
Madrid’s troubles come on top of a shaky government and strained public finances in France. On Friday, the gap between French and German borrowing costs reached 152 basis points, its widest since 2011.
“Bond and currency markets are clearly signaling investor discomfort about the rising instability of the French government and erosion in the country’s fiscal anchor ahead of the elections in 2027,” Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier Singapore, said.
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Rates Take the Shine Off Europe’s Deal Boom
Politics explains only part of the strain on European markets, as borrowing costs have also climbed across the region. The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its deposit rate to 2.50% in September amid energy-driven inflation.
The prospect of further increases is now clouding the outlook for share sales. Third-quarter volume already dropped roughly 20% from a year earlier, Bloomberg data show.
That drop followed a first half in which European stock sales reached $89 billion, up 36% year-on-year. The outlook for initial public offerings (IPOs) is less clear. European listings from the past year have lost 17% on average.
Share prices have held up better than deal flow, with the Stoxx Europe 600 setting records over the summer. In August, Goldman Sachs said the index had outpaced the S&P 500 since early 2025.
Stoxx Europe 600 Performance. Source: Google Finance
The index closed Friday at 631.35, about 5% below its August intraday high of 663.41. JPMorgan’s Ashish Jhajharia said that steadiness hides investor unease.
“While headline indices are near all-time highs and VIX is fairly benign, there are clearly concerns underneath the surface around things like rates, inflation, geopolitics,” he stated.
The coming earnings season will show whether corporate profits can keep offsetting higher rates.
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The Nikkei 225 jumped about 2.5% on Monday as weak jobs data pushed October Fed hike bets below 25%.
The relief has limits, though. The 10-year Treasury yield sits near 5.25%, close to a two-decade high, after the Fed’s first rate hike in three years.
Does Weak Jobs Data Change the Fed Outlook?
September’s net hiring of 29,000 undershot forecasts and sat far below August’s 133,000, according to AP.
Wage growth also slowed, Investing.com reported, and money markets now price in less than a 25% chance of an October hike.
U.S. stocks rallied on the report Friday. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%, and the S&P 500 ended 0.7% higher, less than 1% shy of August’s record.
Friday also brought a record close for the Nasdaq 100, though its futures edged down 0.1% in Asian trading.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei briefly cleared 70,000 earlier in the session, a level it had not reached in three months, AP reported.
Nikkei has been on the rise and spiked on Monday. Image Source: Trading View
Meanwhile, mainland Chinese and South Korean markets were shut for public holidays, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sat near 23,976.
Can Bonds and Oil Sustain the Chip Rally?
In afternoon trading, Tokyo Electron, a chipmaking equipment supplier, rose 5.2% and SoftBank Group, a technology investor, gained 3.1%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) rose about 3% on reports of talks with Terafab, Elon Musk’s planned Texas chip venture.
Culpium, a newsletter by journalist Tim Culpan, broke the story, and Musk has confirmed talks without announcing a deal.
However, Wall Street’s gains narrowed Friday as the 10-year Treasury yield recovered to 5.28% from an intraday low below 5.17%. Thursday’s peak near 5.35% brought longer-term yields close to two-decade highs.
Investing.com tied the selloff partly to heavier corporate borrowing for AI projects.
Brent crude traded near $101 a barrel after briefly topping $103 on a Saudi-backed push against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.
Still, one soft report has not cleared the risks. Investing.com cited long-term yields, European bond-market worries, and geopolitical threats as sources of renewed volatility.
That leaves the rally exposed to a bond market still digesting heavier AI-related corporate borrowing.