The testnet hard fork scheduled for today is hitting pause.
According to an Ethereum Foundation announcement, the Glamsterdam upgrade, originally planned to activate on Hoodi at around 17:42 UTC on October 26, has been postponed, with a new date yet to be set. The plan to raise Hoodi’s gas limit to 200 million has also been canceled. Core developers need to further assess how changes to state creation and gas metering, such as EIP-8037, interact with contracts on the live network. Security researchers have noted that the refund path after failed calls could change, potentially causing erroneous handling results to be committed in edge cases.
How to read this: This is a testnet schedule rollback, not an immediate change to mainnet rules. For node operators and validators: don’t configure clients based on the old activation time. For application teams: don’t treat the day of the Hoodi upgrade as a hard deadline for integration testing. The mainnet timeline has yet to be finalized; security takes priority over rushing to meet a narrative.
Bitcoin is trading sideways near $80,000, and this week’s calendar is making more noise than the charts.
According to market calendars and Deribit’s public open-interest data, the Fed is expected to announce its decision on Wednesday. On Friday (October 30), about 136,000 BTC options contracts are set to expire on Deribit, with a notional value of roughly $10.9 billion—more than 30% of its BTC options open interest. Strike distribution is skewed toward out-of-the-money calls, with the largest concentration at around $95,000. The same week also brings U.S. GDP and PCE data, plus decision windows for the ECB and Bank of Japan.
How to read it: a large notional expiry ≠ guaranteed volatility—many out-of-the-money calls could ultimately expire worthless. More worth watching is whether spot can hold the $80,000 level, and whether funding rates and net ETF flows move in sync around the policy decisions. Treating “options expiry” as a risk-management calendar is more prudent than treating it as a directional signal.
AI is generating plenty of buzz, but the books haven’t caught up.
According to TechCrunch, Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, points out that the “S&P 493”—excluding Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—has seen profit margins and revenue per employee remain largely flat, with no financial evidence of AI-driven productivity gains. He describes the financial returns for businesses outside the tech sector as “virtually zero.”
How to read this: Cheaper computing power and models ≠ automatically higher profit margins. Non-tech companies still face hurdles in turning “cheaper intelligence” into revenue growth and pricing power, because of processes, accountability, and trust—all areas that are hard to automate. What matters more for crypto is this: The AI narrative can boost valuations, but real results depend on cash flow and unit economics, not the density of the slogans.
Solana wants to build its own oracle, but it’s still at the concept-paper stage.
According to reports, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has proposed using validators’ stake weights to build a native oracle that prices tokenized assets. The mechanism is still in the concept stage and could eventually become an on-chain alternative, but it also raises contentious issues such as token issuance and conflicts of interest.
How to read this: RWA and perpetuals both depend on reliable price feeds. A native solution could reduce reliance on external providers, but the incentives behind “validators produce blocks and provide prices” need to be clearly aligned. Don’t treat this as a short-term catalyst for a rally; in the medium term, watch for a verifiable design document and progress on testnet.
Tokenized U.S. stocks want to go live, but first they’re running into a list of companies opposed to the move.
According to monitoring data, an OKXICE TSV announcement shows that 22 companies in total—including Wells Fargo, Cisco, and Micron—oppose trading their own stocks on the platform, a marked increase from 9 as of October 15. The venue plans to let users trade tokenized U.S. stocks 24/7, with liquidity coming from Uniswap v4 pools on OKX XLayer.
How to read this: A growing opposition list doesn’t mean the project will stop immediately, but it shows that issuer approval remains a hard threshold for tokenized securities. Watch two things next: whether the list continues to grow, and whether trading volume can sustain the narrative once the pools actually go live.
Another company looking to learn how to tell a story from Saylor has teased it with a chart.
According to monitoring, Strive CEO Matt Cole posted a chart of the company’s Bitcoin holdings on X, hinting that it will disclose additional BTC purchases next week. The market interpreted this as a possible attempt to emulate the disclosure cadence of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) founder Michael Saylor.
How to read it: A teaser doesn’t mean a deal has been done. The numbers to watch next week are the size of the purchases, the cost range, and whether they are accompanied by equity or debt financing. The treasury-company narrative can stir up sentiment, but it is sustained buying and the balance sheet—not a teaser chart—that ultimately matter.
Yet another small country wants to get the rules for RWA clear first.
According to reports, Latvia plans to introduce an RWA tokenization regulatory framework in the first half of 2027, with commercial real estate and government bonds named as key use cases.
How to read this: The timeline is set for 2027H1, which means it’s still at the legislation and rulemaking stage—not that bonds will be issued on-chain tomorrow. But it’s a signal to project teams: Europe’s peripheral markets are also competing to claim the “compliant tokenization” licensing narrative. The next thing to watch is whether the detailed rules favor sandbox pilots or open a formal channel for issuance and custody.
Europe no longer wants to outsource its payment sovereignty.
According to reports, European Central Bank officials say the digital euro pilot is set to launch next year. Its goal is to build a more autonomous and controllable payment infrastructure and reduce reliance on non-European third-party payment providers. The pilot will use real transactions by ECB and national central bank staff, and invite e-commerce and mobile commerce operators to take part in testing.
How to read this: The focus of the story is not “issuing another currency,” but whether Europe can have a say over its own payment rails. What’s more worth watching for the crypto sector is whether the pilot’s scope will extend to stablecoins and cross-border settlement, and how the subsequent retail and wholesale tracks will be divided. The short-term impact on sentiment is limited; in the medium term, this is a contest for influence over infrastructure.
In through a mixer, out cross-chain—this position is switching lanes.
According to monitoring data, an unidentified entity has bought approximately 3,000.5 ETH (about $7.06 million) via Tornado since October 23, and has since swapped it for BTC through THORChain. The address had previously sold ETH in batches near the highs, then bought back after prices pulled back.
How to read this: The choice of route itself signals risk appetite—swapping ETH for BTC looks more like reducing volatility and favoring the “hard money” narrative than chasing altcoin upside. Don’t rush to label this “smart money”: mixers and cross-chain swaps obscure intent. The key is whether it continues adding BTC and whether large on-chain flows move in tandem.
Weekly flows have turned green, but the month is still paying back losses.
According to trackers including Decrypt, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs still saw net outflows of about $137.9 million on Friday. But they recorded net inflows of about $301 million for the week, ending a two-week losing streak. October still saw net outflows of about $314 million, while Ethereum ETFs had net outflows of about $1.18 billion this month. Bitcoin fell about 1.1% on the day, trading near $80,500.
How to read it: Morning inflows offset redemptions in the second half of the week, showing buyers are still around. But “a positive weekly tally ≠ a bullish monthly trend.” Next, watch whether inflows continue over the next couple of days or selling picks up again, and whether ETH ETFs continue to weigh on risk appetite.
As negotiations over the rules continued, the fundraising caps were set first.
According to reports, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis said Democrats agreed to lower the annual cap on crypto fundraising from about $75 million to $50 million and add a lifetime fundraising cap of about $200 million. Both have been included in related text of the CLARITY Act. She also criticized the other side for continuing to block progress even after the provisions were included.
How to read this: The tighter annual cap directly limits how much a project can raise in a year; the lifetime cap also puts a ceiling on repeated fundraising. This bolsters the narrative of protecting retail investors, but imposes a hard constraint on early-stage projects’ fundraising pace. The thing to watch is whether the bill actually makes it through the legislative process, rather than the provisions merely being exchanged on paper.
The timeline for AI self-improvement has been moved up another notch.
According to reports, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark has moved his predicted window for when “AI may develop successor systems through self-improvement” from around 2028 to around 2027, based on evaluation signals such as TasteVal. This is still a researcher’s timeline, not a product launch commitment.
How to read this: split “self-improvement” into two layers—rising evaluation scores, and the ability to reliably iterate on its own training and alignment pipelines. The latter has a much higher bar. For crypto, what matters more is compute, inference costs, and when Agent workflows will become cheaper—not the year in a slogan. When a headline says “one year earlier,” first look at the supporting datasets and reproducible experiments before deciding whether to change your positioning narrative.
UK users are piling up complaints after banks blocked their crypto purchases.
According to figures cited by Stand With Crypto, UK consumers filed more than 9,000 complaints about banks restricting crypto purchases, involving around 9,800 users. Lloyds Banking Group received the most complaints. The report says some banks have imposed limits on crypto transfers, while Chase, Starling and TSB, among others, have been accused of banning related transactions outright.
How to read this: It’s a user-side pressure gauge showing how “compliant on-ramps are tightening”—not a blanket ban on crypto, but it does increase the friction of funding accounts and the risk of users turning to gray-market workarounds. Compared with differences between domestic and overseas foreign-exchange transfer and stablecoin channels, European retail users still rely heavily on banks as an entry point. The short-term impact on crypto prices is limited; over the medium term, the question is which compliant products and custody channels can absorb the demand being pushed out.
Another “shutdown” reminder has appeared on the L2 calendar.
According to reports, the Blast project announced it would gradually wind down operations and advised users to withdraw their assets to Ethereum mainnet by around October 26, Beijing time. Withdrawal delays have been reduced to about 24 hours to make it easier for users to exit. There are also reports that Upbit, Coinbase, and others have scheduled or announced the delisting of BLAST-related trading, so the liquidity window will narrow first.
How to read this: winding down does not mean funds automatically disappear, but “waiting until the last day” is the easiest way to run into congestion, withdrawal queues, and fake customer-support phishing scams. First verify the official withdrawal portal and contract address, then withdraw in batches. On the exchange side, check first whether trading and withdrawals are still available. Treat announcements like this as operational-risk events: prioritize protecting your principal and keeping on-chain receipts, and don’t chase the endgame narrative.
Hardware wallets need protection from website breaches too.
According to disclosures, Keystone’s official website was accessed without authorization around October 20. Users’ names, contact details, shipping addresses, and order information may have been exposed; payment card details, recovery phrases, private keys, and wallet passwords were reportedly unaffected. The company says it has fixed the issue and notified affected users, and warns them to watch out for phishing and scams.
How to interpret this: The cold wallet’s security model itself remains intact, but this is a reminder that “purchase and after-sales channels” are also part of the attack surface. Verify the official domain and support ticket before responding to messages about replacements or after-sales service; never click unfamiliar links to import a recovery phrase. In security incidents, distinguish between risks to “device-side keys” and “website-side personal information” so you can take the appropriate steps.
Are “gibberish inscriptions” flooding the blockchain? Galaxy Research offers a more down-to-earth explanation.
According to reports, after observing a large number of seemingly meaningless inscriptions on the Bitcoin network, Galaxy Research concluded that they were more likely produced by automated tools testing data-publishing scripts than by hidden intelligence. Supporting evidence includes letter frequencies that deviate from normal text and transaction patterns characteristic of machine-generated batches.
How to read this: On-chain noise can be amplified by headlines into a “mysterious signal.” First, distinguish whether the research points to “traces of testing” or “verifiable targeted information.” Then check whether inscription fees, batch addresses, and the toolchain line up. Treat it as incidental debris from on-chain infrastructure testing—not as a trading signal.
Next week’s unlock calendar is packed again—don’t rush to chase the narrative.
According to Token Unlocks, FF, CARDS, SUI and others are set for large token unlocks. FF is expected to release around 208 million tokens on October 29 (Beijing time), worth approximately $20.7 million. Figures are based on third-party calendars; always refer to official disclosures from the projects for final details.
How to read this: An unlock doesn’t automatically mean a sell-off, but when circulating supply suddenly expands, short-term volatility and order-book depth tend to tell the story first. Prioritize checking the unlock as a percentage of circulating supply, the allocation (team/investors/ecosystem), and whether there are vesting restrictions or OTC arrangements. Then compare exchange net flows and funding rates. Calendar events are useful for risk management, not as one-way trading signals.
Is crypto adoption being underestimated? Tom Lee lays out the numbers again.
According to reports, Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, an Ethereum treasury company, noted that around 99% of financial activity still runs on traditional infrastructure. As a result, the market may be underestimating the room for crypto adoption. He also warned banks that if they continue to lag in the shift to crypto, they could fall behind in the next round of competition.
How to read this: It’s a “huge existing market, but still shallow penetration” narrative. That supports the long-term adoption story, but it doesn’t directly translate into a short-term price catalyst. In reality, stablecoin settlements, RWA, and bank pilots are advancing, but the share that can genuinely replace credit cards and clearing remains low. Treat this as a macro perspective—the pace of real-world adoption still depends on licensing, compliant channels, and when institutional capital actually enters the market.
Another large batch of POL has been moved on-chain into a staking contract.
According to monitoring data, the Polygon-related multisig address “0xFA5” transferred approximately 52.928 million POL, worth about $4.82 million, to a staking contract. Other reports say that around 27.3 million POL from the official side is being used to support staking rewards. The market interprets this as potentially easing selling pressure and stabilizing expectations around staking.
How to read this: a large staking deposit ≠ a guaranteed price increase, but locked-up supply and signals from the rewards pool can affect short-term sentiment. First, determine whether the “multisig operation” and the “official protocol announcement” refer to the same batch. Then look at staking APR, the unlock schedule, and net exchange inflows. The “locking up tokens to defend the price” narrative is easy to overstate; what matters is whether on-chain inflows continue or this was a one-off transfer.
The space economy’s purse strings have tightened a little.
According to reports, SpaceX’s roughly $40 billion AI-related financing plan has hit headwinds. Amid volatility in credit markets, investors are reassessing risk pricing, while Goldman Sachs, which is leading the effort, continues talks with investors including Apollo. The figure still reflects a “planned/in-discussion” amount; it does not mean the deal has officially closed.
How to read this: The grand AI narrative is running into financing costs and a shift in risk appetite. Even top-tier issuers are facing fresh scrutiny on pricing. Don’t interpret “hitting headwinds” as the project falling apart—it’s more likely that terms, size, and timing are being renegotiated. Watch for disclosures on valuation, dilution, and use of proceeds in the final terms. If crypto gets swept up in the space/satellite narrative, first check whether the funding actually comes through instead of chasing headlines.