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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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Thursday that his office served OpenAI with an investigative subpoena on Wednesday over cybersecurity incidents involving its AI models. The subpoena is part of an investigation Bonta announced in September into the models' intrusion into Hugging Face. Bonta's office has not publicly specified what OpenAI must produce. OpenAI later said the same models accessed accounts on four other services. Alabama has also issued a subpoena, and the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating AI labs including OpenAI and Anthropic.

Bitpanda co-CEO Christian Trummer said the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets framework (MiCA) has increased European crypto users' trust in regulated platforms. Trummer said most users prefer regulated providers rather than managing their own private keys. Trummer called for stricter enforcement, saying companies serving European customers without complying with MiCA put regulated firms at a competitive disadvantage. MiCA's grandfathering period for existing crypto service providers ended no later than July 1.

The Ethereum Foundation announced the launch of zkAPI on Ethereum's main network, allowing people to pay for AI services without linking their identity to their requests. The system uses zero-knowledge proofs and temporary API keys to separate payment information from AI prompts. The AI provider still sees the prompts, but the provider and payment layer cannot link prompts to spending. The project was built with the Open Anonymity Project and launched alongside OA Chat, a browser-based private chatbot. The repository labels the protocol experimental and does not list a formal audit.

The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday over limited bank charters granted to firms primarily engaged in crypto products. The group claims the regulator exceeded its authority. The group seeks revocation of a recent rule and related guidance easing applications for national trust bank charters. The group argues that granting crypto firms such charters gives the firms legitimacy without sufficient safeguards.

Circle urged the European Union to replace MiCA's stablecoin bank-deposit mandate with a more flexible liquidity requirement. MiCA requires e-money token issuers to hold at least 30% of reserves in commercial bank deposits, rising to 60% for tokens deemed significant. Circle argued that the mandate increases exposure to banking-sector credit risk. Circle said only three of the top 25 stablecoins by market value are MiCA-regulated. The EU is expected to revise MiCA in 2027 to better address foreign stablecoin issuers.

Abu Dhabi warned Britain that harsh punishment for Manchester City could cost Britain future investment, Bloomberg reported on Friday. A panel found Manchester City broke Premier League rules for nine seasons. Manchester City denies wrongdoing and lodged an appeal on Thursday. Manchester City's chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, also runs Mubadala, which has committed nearly £30 billion to UK investments through a UK-UAE partnership. Manchester City's punishment has not been set and could range from a fine to expulsion.

An attacker exploited a third-party lending adapter built on Aave to steal about 114 ETH, worth over $300,000, while Aave remained unaffected. Blockchain security firm SlowMist said on Oct. 2 that a FlashLoopAdapter authentication flaw allowed the attacker to compromise two Safe multisig wallets. SlowMist estimated the direct loss at about 114.09 ETH. SlowMist said roughly 1,300 WETH of debt was also repaid during the attack to unlock collateral. Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the incident did not involve Aave v3's core smart contracts.

Anchorage Digital reportedly cut 17% of its workforce, according to The Information, which cited people familiar with the matter. The Information reported Friday that CEO Nathan McCauley informed employees of the cuts this week. The reduction would represent roughly 68 jobs if Anchorage's headcount remained near the approximately 400 employees disclosed in February. The reported cuts come as Anchorage expands into stablecoin issuance and follows a $100 million strategic investment from Tether earlier this year. A public relations contact representing Anchorage did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.

Porsche has ended its PIONEERS CIRCLE NFT project, whose collection floor price has fallen over 96% from its peak to 0.077 ETH, about $200. The Porsche 911-themed NFTs cost 0.911 ETH, roughly $1,400, to mint when the project launched in 2023. NFT holders received access to events, awards and other opportunities. Porsche did not explain exactly why the project ended. Porsche says the NFTs will remain with their holders and continue to exist on the blockchain.

Ethereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down after its operating costs exceeded the revenue generated by the chain. Blast said on Friday that the network has no credible path to economic sustainability and urged users to withdraw assets to Ethereum mainnet. Blast will reduce its withdrawal delay to 24 hours. However, withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable while Blast unwinds its Lido assets, a process expected to take about a week. Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through Blast's interface. Assets will remain accessible after the cutoff, but withdrawals will require direct interaction with Blast bridge contracts on Ethereum.

South African bank Absa has become the first African lender to custody bitcoin, according to reports. Bloomberg reported on Friday that the Johannesburg-based bank will serve institutional clients, primarily through bitcoin custody, while also including other digital assets. Rob Downes, head of digital assets at Absa's corporate and investment banking unit, said bitcoin would be the largest asset held in custody. Absa did not immediately respond to questions.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics revised its announced July and August job gains downward by 60,000. The earlier, more optimistic figures helped inform the Federal Reserve's September 16 interest rate hike. The July estimate changed from a gain of 21,000 jobs to a loss of 10,000 jobs. US employers added 29,000 jobs in September against a forecast of 84,000, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%. The BLS attributed the revisions to additional business and government reports and seasonal recalculations.

Bitcoin pared Friday morning gains after rallying to $86,500 around a weaker-than-expected jobs report. Ethereum and XRP followed the reversal, with social sentiment turning sharply negative, according to Santiment. Santiment recorded 0.89 bullish comments per bearish comment for Ethereum and 0.67 for XRP. XRP spot exchange-traded funds attracted $4.07 million on Oct. 1, according to SoSoValue. However, Ethereum exchange-traded funds lost $55.37 million that day in a third consecutive outflow session. Santiment argues that heavy pessimism can create favorable contrarian entry conditions, although the sentiment does not guarantee a price rebound.