BitcoinKE

China’s peer-to-peer stablecoin activity has expanded sharply despite the country’s restrictions on cryptocurrency trading while South Korea has emerged as East Asia’s largest crypto economy, according to blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis.
The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer stablecoin transactions in China rose 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, Chainalysis data showed.
The firm recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 12 months to June 2026. Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times annually, more than three times the global average of 9.3, suggesting the assets are being used as working capital.
China’s crypto economy was valued at at least $176 billion with domestic peer-to-peer activity accounting for 59.1% of the total, up 3.5 times its share in the previous reporting period.
South Korea ranked as East Asia’s largest crypto economy with $449.1 billion in activity, an increase of 12.3% over the year to June 2026. However, operating profits at South Korean crypto exchanges fell 78% in the first half of the year as trading activity, market valuations, and customer deposits declined.

REALITY CHECK | South Korea Crypto Exchanges Operating Profits Fall ~80% in H1 2026

Hong Kong stood out for institutional crypto activity with institutional platforms accounting for 16% of service inflows, nearly three times the share in any neighbouring market. The city also recorded almost $24 billion in inbound business-to-business flows.

INTRODUCING | Hong Kong Becomes the First Global Financial Hub to Authorize Bitcoin and Ether Spot ETFs

In Japan, decentralised exchanges accounted for nearly 35% of crypto service activity, the highest proportion among mature East Asian markets. Decentralised exchange activity in the country has increased by more than 200% since 2022, Chainalysis said.
The figures highlight diverging crypto markets across East Asia, from China’s growing reliance on direct wallet-to-wallet stablecoin transfers to South Korea’s large trading economy and Hong Kong’s institutional activity.


MILESTONE | South-East Asia Crypto Funding in H1 2026 More Than Double the Entire of 2025




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The African Union (AU) has launched the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA), the continent’s first credit rating agency as it seeks to provide an alternative to the global ‘big three’ ratings firms as debt burdens weigh on many African economies.
The agency, whose creation was endorsed by African leaders in 2018, was launched in Port Louis, Mauritius, where it will be based. The AU says AfCRA will provide independent, Africa-focused assessments rooted in the continent’s data, expertise, and economic realities, complementing rather than replacing existing global ratings agencies.
African leaders have long accused major Western ratings agencies including
S&P Global,
Moody’s, and
Fitch
of failing to adequately reflect the risks and potential of African economies and of moving too quickly to downgrade countries during crises such as conflicts and pandemics.
The agencies reject that criticism saying they apply the same methodologies globally. A 2024 Reuters investigation into Africa’s debt crisis found no evidence of systemic bias in the sovereign ratings assigned to the region by the three major agencies.

Public Debt and Inflation in Africa Are at Levels Not Seen in Decades – Half of Nations in Double Digits, Says IMF

Rating experts said AfCRA’s success will depend on its ability to establish credibility with investors particularly during periods of financial stress.

“A new rating agency begins with a promise while investors ultimately require a track record,” said Dennis Shen, a lecturer in finance at the International School of Management in Berlin and a former sovereign analyst at Scope Ratings.
“The hardest test, however, will come when markets are under stress, because a rating agency’s credibility is tested most severely when its conclusions are uncomfortable rather than when it is highly convenient.”

Former Nigerian Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, said AfCRA could provide a counterweight to established ratings agencies but would need to meet global standards.
“It can’t just be a chauvinistic or nationalistic agency,” he said.

AfCRA will rate
sovereign borrowers,
financial institutions, and
private companies.
The AU said the agency will operate independently and be funded through shareholder capital and its operations, although it did not provide details of its shareholders.
The AU says the agency is intended to improve African countries’ access to capital markets and provide investors with more balanced and context-specific assessments of economies across the continent.
African economies are currently rated B to B-minus on average compared with BB for other emerging regions, according to the AU which says the gap can limit investor participation and increase borrowing costs.

5 Out of 10 Countries with the Most Significant Debt and Risk of Default are in Africa, Says Latest Report

The push to improve financing terms has become more urgent after years of rising government borrowing pushed several African countries into debt distress.
The AU said Africa’s annual external debt service reached $163 billion in 2024 up from $61 billion in 2010. In some countries, interest payments have exceeded annual budgets for key social sectors such as health and education.
AfCRA is also expected to expand ratings coverage with 23 African economies currently lacking a rating from the three major global agencies, the AU said.
The agency’s establishment forms part of broader African efforts to
reform the international financial architecture,
strengthen domestic capital markets, and
improve access to financing.


GLOBAL | South Africa Urges Global Action on Africa’s Mounting Debt Crisis





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NEAR Protocol’s native token entered the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization after surging 138% over the past 30 days, according to CoinGecko data.
NEAR was trading at about $5, as of this writing, giving it a market capitalization of ~$7.2 billion and daily trading volume of ~$1.2 billion. The rally pushed NEAR ahead of Stellar, which had a market value of nearly $7 billion.

NEAR Protocol’s native token, $NEAR, has entered the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization after rising ~$140% in the last 30 days.
@NEARProtocol @near_intents https://t.co/DG6lPbJf8P
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) October 8, 2026
The gains come as activity on NEAR Intents, a cross-chain trading protocol, continues to expand.

CRYPTO MARKETS | NEAR Surges ~80% in a Week as Privacy Trading Drives Intents Activity

The protocol has processed more than $31 billion in cumulative transaction volume, according to its transaction explorer.
NEAR’s rise has also followed the September 29 2026 launch of the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product tracking the token. The Bitwise fund trades on NYSE Arca under the ticker, NRR, giving investors exposure to NEAR without directly holding the cryptocurrency.
The rally also follows a $3.8 million exploit involving NEAR Intents’ deposit and withdrawal infrastructure.

CRYPTO CRIME | NEAR Intents Loses ~$4 Million in Exploit as Crypto Hacks Continue

NEAR Intents General Manager, Alex Shevchenko, said on October 2 2026 that all stolen funds had been returned.


MARKET ANALYSIS | Bitcoin’s Flash Drop Puts Hyperliquid’s Growing Influence on Price Discovery in Focus




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Ethereum Foundation researcher, Justin Drake, has urged the cryptocurrency industry to prepare for a potential breakthrough in artificial intelligence that could undermine the cryptography securing major digital assets warning that a worst-case scenario could emerge within months rather than years.

Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for “bunker mode”. My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses, i.e. addresses whose pubkeys remain hidden behind a hash.
Holders, starting with large and sophisticated ones, should consider moving the bulk of their funds to addresses that have never signed a transaction. And when they do sign one, they should also move remaining funds to a new address (possibly generated from the same seed phrase).
Don’t rush. While I believe there is cause for action a rushed migration would do more harm than good. Don’t panic either. Moving assets to protected addresses is a simple, preventative step which does not require new cryptography or new wallets.
IMO it is now reasonable to brace for the possibility that ECDSA breaks before qday, in the worst case in months not years. By “break” I mean fast private key recovery (e.g. in one week) on available hardware (e.g. a large GPU cluster).
Recent days have been humbling for human mathematical intuition. Long-held, unquestioned hypotheses have fallen. This includes the n log(n) bound for integer multiplication and the 3SUM conjecture. In hindsight, May’s unexpected disproof of the Erdős unit distance conjecture was our warning shot.
Yesterday’s OpenAI drop made it clear that mathematical superintelligence is upon us. They say there are weeks where decades happen. We are about to live through weeks where centuries of mathematical progress happen. Could our magic 64-byte ECDSA signatures be too good to be true? Was it just security through obscurity all this time?
Elliptic curves feel especially vulnerable to superintelligence. Curves carry rich structure, with room for fancy tricks like Schoof, Frobenius, pairings. (By contrast, hashes are designed to minimise algebraic structure.)
Separately, as Ewin Tang can attest, an efficient quantum algorithm sometimes foreshadows an efficient classical one. We should be open to the possibility of a classical counterpart to Shor that breaks elliptic curves and RSA at once.
Also noteworthy is the striking under-representation of cryptographic breakthroughs among the 722 mathematical results OpenAI published. I’ve witnessed first-hand the US government censoring academic quantum cryptanalysis results. Backroom interventionism is my base case.
I urge large, sophisticated actors to lead by example. Project11’s “risq list” (bitcoin-risq-list.projecteleven[.]com) is a great tracker of exposed BTC pubkeys. Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether have an opportunity to harden their cold storage. Next month I’ll address institutions in London in a live Q&A (forum.ethereuminstitutional[.]org/london-2026).
Again, please do not rush. Wallets holding under 50 BTC enjoy partial cover from “Satoshi’s shield”, i.e. his 20K exposed addresses that hold 50 BTC each. Load-bearing signers like oracles and L2 security councils should consider rotating ECDSA pubkeys with every signed message and/or multi-signing with a hash-based schemes like SPHINCS.
Exiting bunker mode safely will require post-AI cryptography. My inclination is to go all-in on hash-based cryptography and avoid structured mathematical assumptions entirely, whether from curves, lattices, or isogenies. A single battle-tested hash (e.g. from the SHA or BLAKE families) yields plausible post-AI security.
The Ethereum roadmap on strawmap[.]org fully embraces hash-based cryptography with end-to-end formal verification as a response to the quantum threat. Those timelines must now be revisited and accelerated in light of mathematical superintelligence. I’ll be pushing for maximum defensive acceleration.
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) October 7, 2026
Drake said that advances in AI-driven mathematics had increased the risk that the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), used by Bitcoin and Ethereum to secure transactions, could eventually be broken before sufficiently powerful quantum computers become available. He described the prospect as a reason for the industry to begin planning for what he called “bunker mode.”

CASE STUDY | The ColdCard Bitcoin Exploit Shows the Destabilizing Impact of ‘The New AI Paradigm,’ Says CEO

Drake recommended a controlled migration of funds to fresh wallet addresses whose public keys have not been exposed through previous transactions. He said large and sophisticated holders should be prioritized while funds remaining in an address after it signs a transaction should be moved to a new address.

CASE STUDY | Irish Police and EuroPol Crack a Wallet and Gain Access to 500 Bitcoins After Nearly a Decade

The warning followed the release by OpenAI of hundreds of mathematical findings which Drake said highlighted the accelerating ability of AI systems to solve problems that had challenged human researchers. He argued that elliptic curves could be particularly exposed to new mathematical techniques because of their underlying structure.

REPORT | AI is Currently 2x Better at Exploitation Than Detection, Says Binance

Ethereum Co-Founder, Vitalik Buterin, backed the need to take AI-driven cryptographic risks seriously but cautioned users against rushing to move their funds. Buterin said unused addresses that have not sent transactions provide additional protection because their public keys remain hidden while warning that poorly executed migrations could themselves result in losses.

I don’t recommend anyone scramble to move their funds to new wallets today. But we should take the risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously, and minimize our exposure to not just quantum-vulnerable cryptography, but also potentially AI-vulnerable cryptography.
The core new area of risk from this viewpoint is, unfortunately, ML-DSA / FHE / lattices.
(and it’s also another reason, along with quantum, why ECDSA might fall even faster than expected, hence the “fresh address” recommendation)
So far most people have been in the mode of thinking “elliptic curves broken, hashes safe, lattices safe”. But there is a good chance that the concrete security of lattices will take serious hits from the next two years of AI math.
The basic threat model is: factoring is something that naively takes 2^(n/2) time, but over decades smart people have found and optimized number field sieves, and degraded that to 2^O(n^(1/3)), which is why RSA keys and signatures need to be ~400 bytes (and not 64 bytes). What if there are skeletons in the closet like that, both for elliptic curves and lattices, that we are simply not smart enough to discover – but bots soon will be?
This is a major part of the reason why for the past year ethereum’s lean roadmap has been going in the “hash-only” direction: no lattices, no ML-DSA, no Falcon, no lattice-based commitments inside ZK proofs, etc. Signatures in lean ethereum are all hash-based, either WOTS or SPHINCS-.
For signatures and proofs, we already know how to go hash-only. The bigger challenge is for *public-key encryption* – and this goes far beyond blockchains. Secure communication, anonymizing protocols, lots of things need public-key encryption.
And unfortunately there are long-standing mathematical theorems showing why public-key encryption cannot be done with hashes alone. You have to have some kind of trapdoor object that has at least one form of usable “structure” – either group theory (incl. isogenies) or lattices or code-based or potentially in the future even more newfangled and spooky things (local mixing?). But for anything that has structure, you should assume that AI will make at least some progress in breaking that structure. Here, one reasonable inference is that if you want to make something plausibly long-term secure, multiply the key sizes by 10.
To me that’s a very plausible world and something not at all extreme to predict. If AI will bring us 50 years of math in 2 years, then that 50 years of math may very plausibly include a “naive factoring -> GNFS” level of improvement to our ability to break lattices. In that world, lattices will still exist, but they will have to be significantly bigger to guarantee the same level of safety.
And at those new larger sizes, hash-based constructions will beat lattice-based constructions on concrete efficiency in every use case where hash-based constructions are possible at all.
Theoretically, of course it’s possible that hashes are broken too (eg. P = NP would imply that). But I think P = NP is very unlikely. And intuitively, it’s much more likely that a mathematical object has exactly no exploitable structure (like hashes are intended to), than that a mathematical object has exactly ~3 forms of exploitable structure (for elliptic curves: associativity, Schoof, pairings) and not some secret fourth form of structure we have not yet discovered that greatly degrades its security (for elliptic curves, ECDLP and pairing security). Similar for LWE, SVP, RLWE and the zoo of lattice problems.
For this reason, we do not yet see any reason to worry and start padding the byte size of hashes (if we start to worry more, we would pad the round count first before doing anything to the byte size).
Concrete TLDR, my own personal views:
* Hash-based > lattice-based, in those situations where hash-based is possible at all * For anything lattice-based, be much more paranoid on param sizes. Remember that blockchains are only a small portion of the cryptography story; this point goes far beyond blockchains and applies to eg. access to websites, secure messaging, Tor / VPNs … * For privacy protocols, strongly favor NOT putting encrypted notes onchain. Instead, send them offchain through some third-party mechanism. * If it’s not difficult for you, keeping your funds in addresses which have not yet been used to make a transaction is a good idea. If it’s easy for you, do it. **But be careful about migrations; I personally have lost more money in botched migrations than I have lost in all hacks combined**. * For multisig wallets, doing confirmations offchain is better than onchain, because this way the signatures of signer wallets do not get exposed to the public, so if ECDSA falls to AI much faster than expected, at least the multisig “gracefully degrades” to a 1-of-1 where the 1 is whoever was gathering the signatures – a much better place to be than “anyone can take the money” https://t.co/oVjwZog2lL
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 7, 2026
No practical AI attack on ECDSA has been demonstrated, and Drake’s timeline is a worst-case assessment rather than a confirmed prediction. The warning nevertheless highlights a growing concern within the blockchain industry that advances in AI could alter the timetable for replacing cryptographic systems currently considered secure.


REALITY CHECK | Quantum Computers Could Crack a Bitcoin Key Before a Transaction is Confirmed by 2029, Says Google




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Robinhood has added $25 million worth of Bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet marking a shift from its focus on offering crypto services to customers toward holding the asset with its own capital.
Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international, said the purchase was intended to align the company with the cryptocurrency sector and diversify its assets.

“We care deeply about bitcoin and the ecosystem around it,” Kerbrat said.

MILESTONE | Robinhood Chain Overtakes Ethereum in Daily Revenue 2 Months After Launch

The allocation is small relative to Robinhood’s financial resources. The company reported $5.36 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $155 million in stablecoin holdings as of June 30 2026 making the Bitcoin purchase less than 0.5% of its cash balance.

MILESTONE | Strategy Surpasses 800, 000 Bitcoins After a Record Purchase

The move comes as Robinhood expands its crypto business through
tokenization,
its Robinhood Chain blockchain, and
plans to offer perpetual futures on cryptocurrencies.
Robinhood has not indicated whether the purchase represents the start of a broader Bitcoin treasury strategy.


CASE STUDY | This Protocol Activity Provides Strong Indication of Where the Market Sees the Opportunity




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Tokenized real-world assets reached $34.5 billion in value in August 2026, up more than 140% from a year earlier but trading activity is increasingly showing that on-chain markets do not necessarily behave like the traditional assets they represent, according to data analytics firm, Dune.
Dune’s report found that cash equivalents accounted for nearly $18 billion of the market making them the largest tokenized asset class although most of the assets remain inactive. Equities, meanwhile, represented only about 8% of the market but generated 93% of on-chain trading activity.

The divergence was particularly evident in tokenized equities.

Single stocks accounted for 81% of tokenized equity supply, compared with 19% for exchange-traded funds, suggesting investors on-chain are showing a stronger preference for individual companies than for diversified funds.

Direct stocks on Binance Reached $1 Billion in Assets Under Management (AUM) Within 30 Days of Launch
#bStocks, tokenized 1:1 U.S. securities on Binance that trade 24/7, crossed $100 million in AUM within 2 weeks of launch.
47% of bStocks trading volume takes place outside U.S. market hours, reflecting #demand for round-the-clock market access.
Details: https://t.co/quho70TrB8
#Tokenisation
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) August 25, 2026
The findings highlight a growing distinction between the size of the tokenized asset market and how those assets are actually being used. Dune said the four major asset classes
cash equivalents,
credit,
commodities, and
equities
had grown 141% over the year to August 2026.
The tokenized equity market remains small compared with traditional financial markets. Binance Research estimated its value at $4.43 billion as of September 15 2026, equivalent to just 0.0029% of the $151.9 trillion global listed-equity market.
U.S. regulators and financial exchanges are nevertheless moving to expand tokenized trading.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2026 granted a temporary exemption allowing limited on-chain trading of tokenized U.S.-listed stocks while the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Blockchain.com have announced plans for a digital trading platform offering tokenized stocks and ETFs subject to regulatory approval.

INSTITUTIONAL | NYSE and OKX File for 24/7 Tokenised U.S Stock Trading

The data suggests tokenization is moving beyond simply putting traditional assets on a blockchain. The emerging market is developing its own patterns of
liquidity,
asset selection, and
trading activity
raising questions about how closely on-chain markets will ultimately track the traditional financial markets they are designed to replicate.


STATISTICS | Tokenized Stock Transfer Volume Jump by Over 400% in August 2026




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Circle is moving to integrate its USDC and EURC stablecoins into enterprise payment workflows through a partnership with Tereina, a financial services company backed by German software group, SAP, as stablecoin issuers seek to expand beyond crypto markets into corporate payments.
The integration will allow eligible businesses using SAP’s financial software to send and receive USDC and EURC without leaving their existing applications. USDC will be the preferred stablecoin for dollar-denominated transactions while EURC will support Euro payments.

CASE STUDY | Why the World’s Largest Crypto Exchange Invested in the Most Regulated Stablecoin Globally

Tereina and Circle plan to conduct proof-of-value programs with customers over the coming months focusing on cross-border payments and corporate treasury operations. The integration will initially target SAP Cloud ERP through SAP Pay.
The companies said the SAP ecosystem accounts for 84% of global commerce potentially giving stablecoins access to a large base of corporate payment and treasury operations.
The move comes as Circle seeks to position stablecoins as payment infrastructure for businesses rather than primarily as crypto trading assets. SAP-backed Tereina also recently launched technology allowing companies to make payments directly from SAP software using traditional currencies and stablecoins.

AI | Leading Travel Platform Allows AI Agents to Book Hotels with USDC

Circle has also been expanding its infrastructure for institutional stablecoin payments with its Arc blockchain, launched in September 2026, focused on payments and financial markets and using USDC for transaction fees.
The partnership marks another step toward embedding stablecoins into existing corporate financial systems potentially reducing the need for businesses to operate separate crypto payment infrastructure.


STABLECOINS | Circle Invests in Africa’s Leading Fintech, Flutterwave, to Expand USDC Settlement




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Crypto news outlet, Cointelegraph, is seeking a buyer after a steep decline in website traffic, according to a person familiar with the matter, highlighting the growing pressure on crypto-focused media companies as search-driven traffic weakens.
The company has not disclosed a potential sale price. Cointelegraph did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but later said on X that it was “not for sale.”
Cointelegraph’s traffic has been hit particularly hard by changes to its visibility on Google. The site suffered an estimated 80% decline in organic traffic after Google imposed a manual penalty in October 2025 causing the website to disappear from search results, according to reports.
Similarweb data cited by sources showed Cointelegraph received more than 12 million monthly visits in December 2024. By Sept. 1, 2026, monthly traffic had fallen to just above 700,000.
The decline also comes after a prolonged period of relatively flat crypto prices which has reduced user attention across parts of the digital-asset media sector.

REALITY CHECK | The Crypto Startup is Dying. Regulation Didn’t Kill it Alone

Cointelegraph, founded in 2013, has more than 200 employees and has expanded beyond news into research, events, and regional operations. Its MENA franchise was acquired by Luna Media Corporation in July 2022 as part of efforts to fund international expansion.
The potential sale underscores a broader challenge for crypto media where audiences built around search traffic can become vulnerable when changes to search algorithms, platform policies, or market interest sharply reduce visibility and readership.


REALITY CHECK | Why Protocols Generating Over $10 Million in Monthly Fees Fell by Half YoY in H1 2026




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Kalshi’s 15-minute gold contracts generated 542 million contracts and about $5 million in fees in September 2026 overtaking Ether’s 318 million contracts and $2.6 million in fees just weeks after launch.
Bitcoin remained dominant at $60.4 million in estimated fees.
The bigger insight is that short-duration trading is moving beyond crypto.
Kalshi’s 15-minute markets across crypto, commodities, and financial assets generated $20.4 million in fees in the week through October 5 2026 accounting for 80% of its non-sports fees despite representing only 13% of trading volume.
Gold’s rapid rise suggests traders are not necessarily choosing between crypto and traditional assets. They are increasingly choosing the asset class and market structure that lets them express a view fastest.
That could make prediction markets a more serious competitor to traditional trading venues particularly as Kalshi expands short-duration products across asset classes.


Leading Prediction Markets Platforms Moving into Mainstream Derivatives Trading



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BTC fell 2.3% in two hours to below $84,000, triggering about $550 million in crypto liquidations. Just before the move, four newly created Hyperliquid wallets opened 40x BTC shorts worth roughly $12.5 million.

Bitcoin ($BTC) fell below $84,000 as a flash sell-off liquidated more than $500 million in crypto long positions.
Analysts flagged 40x-leveraged BTC shorts on @HyperliquidX before the drop, while @rektcapital said a daily or three-day close above $86,700 is needed to confirm an upside continuation.
#CryptoNews
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) October 7, 2026
That does not prove the positions caused the sell-off, but it highlights how large leveraged bets on Hyperliquid can increasingly become part of the market’s price-discovery process.

MARKET ANALYSIS | Why a Bitcoin Whale Just Exited a 40x-Leveraged Position on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid’s BTC perpetuals are tied to external spot prices through an oracle while its mark price also incorporates Hyperliquid market data and prices from major exchanges.
As on-chain derivatives liquidity grows, the bigger question is whether venues such as Hyperliquid are moving from simply reacting to Bitcoin’s price to increasingly shaping short-term price action through
leverage,
liquidations, and
positioning.


INSIGHTS | How Whale Liquidations Are Emerging as Crypto’s New Trading Signal




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South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) has partnered with local cryptocurrency platform, VALR, to allow customers to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and USDT directly through the bank’s app.
The service will provide 24/7 trading with customers able to fund their crypto purchases from their FNB accounts through existing share-investment products. The digital assets will remain ring-fenced within FNB’s infrastructure, meaning customers will not be able to transfer them to external wallets.

OPINION | Payments from Private Wallets Trigger a Cross-Border Flow Under Capital Controls Regulations in South Africa

The arrangement gives FNB greater control over custody, security, and compliance while allowing customers to access crypto through an existing banking relationship rather than a standalone exchange.
FNB said it plans to expand the range of cryptocurrencies available through the service and introduce educational resources covering the risks associated with digital-asset investing.
The latest development comes after ABSA bank said it has began offering crypto asset custody services initially available to institutional clients in South Africa.
The service provides the safekeeping, administration and transfer of digital assets within a regulated banking environment.

MILESTONE | ABSA Becomes First African Bank to Offer Crypto Asset Custody

The move comes as South Africa develops a more formal regulatory framework for crypto assets and as banks increasingly seek to serve customers already participating in the market.
For FNB, the partnership with VALR reflects a shift from treating crypto as a separate financial market to integrating digital assets into mainstream banking services while retaining controls around custody and transfers.
The launch also highlights the growing role of partnerships between traditional financial institutions and crypto platforms as banks look to meet demand for digital assets without exposing customers or their own systems to the full operational risks of external crypto wallets.


REGULATION | South African Crypto Exchange, Luno, Suspends Crypto Transfers to External Wallets in the European Union




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The European Central Bank should press ahead with a digital euro to prevent fragmentation in Europe’s payments system and preserve the role of central bank money as finance becomes increasingly digital, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on Tuesday.
Cipollone said Europe risked becoming overly dependent on foreign-controlled payment infrastructure and could see its monetary sovereignty weakened if it failed to provide a pan-European digital payment option. He also warned that tokenised finance could develop across closed and incompatible platforms, potentially undermining the “singleness” of money.

CBDC | European Parliament Backs Digital Euro to Reduce U.S Dollar Stablecoin Dominance in Payments

The ECB’s proposed digital euro would provide a common payment infrastructure for transactions across the euro area, while allowing private payment providers to build services on top of it.
The central bank is also seeking to address concerns that a digital euro could drain deposits from commercial banks. ECB analysis of 2,025 banks found that holding limits between €500 and €3,000 would have a limited impact on banks’ liquidity and funding under normal conditions.
Under a €3,000 limit, the ECB estimates that the aggregate liquidity coverage ratio would fall from 166% to 163% when excluding deposit inflows linked to the declining use of cash. The net stable funding ratio would fall from 128% to 127%.

REGULATION | The European System of Central Banks Seeks Minimum Liquidity Thresholds for Stablecoin Reserves

The ECB estimates that broader digitalisation could generate €127 billion in additional bank deposits by 2034, more than offsetting estimated digital-euro-related outflows under its business-as-usual scenario for holding limits up to €3,000.
The ECB has not yet decided whether to issue the digital euro. The legislative process is under way, with the central bank aiming to be ready for a potential launch in 2029 if legislation is completed by the end of 2026.
A 12-month digital euro pilot is planned to begin in the second half of 2027, with 36 payment service providers selected to participate.
Cipollone also highlighted the ECB’s wider push into tokenised finance, including Pontes, which allows tokenised transactions to be settled in central bank money, and Appia, a planned framework for connecting tokenised central bank money, bank deposits and other regulated assets.

INTRODUCING | The European Central Bank (ECB) Launches On-Chain Institutional Settlement System for Tokenised Assets

The ECB says the broader objective is to keep central bank money at the centre of Europe’s financial system while giving private firms infrastructure to develop and compete across the region.

STABLECOINS | European Central Bank (ECB) Opens Digital Euro Pilot to Online and Mobile Merchants




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Cross-border payments company, Conduit Technology, has sued Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, alleging the stablecoin issuer froze $2.76 million of its USDT without justification and has refused to release the funds for more than a year.
In a complaint filed in a U.S. federal court in New York, Conduit said Tether froze its treasury wallet in September 2025 in connection with a Brazilian police investigation involving former Conduit customer, Onix Intermediações.

Conduit said Brazilian authorities did not identify its wallet for freezing and that the funds were solely its own working capital.

MILESTONE | Tether Voluntarily Freezes $225 Million in Stolen USDT – The Largest Ever Freeze of USDT in History

Conduit is seeking the release of the funds and at least $2.76 million in damages.
In 2024, Conduit’s platform saw 16x transaction volume growth, surpassing $10 billion in annualized volume. The company’s network now spans 14 currencies and over 20 banking partners across nine countries, including the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, and Kenya.
https://bitcoinke.io/2025/05/conduit-raises-funding-to-scale-stablecoins-payments/
The case adds to growing legal scrutiny of Tether’s ability to freeze USDT in response to law-enforcement investigations following a separate lawsuit in which two Thai nationals challenged the freezing of $42.4 million in USDT following an ‘informal request’ by U.S Homeland Security Investigations.


CASE STUDY | This Stablecoin Freeze Sets a Legal Precedent for Privacy DeFi




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Strategy spent more than six times as much on repurchasing its preferred STRC stock as it did buying Bitcoin last week underscoring how the company is increasingly focused on strengthening the securities it uses to finance its Bitcoin treasury.
The company bought 334 Bitcoin for about $28.7 million between September 29 2026 and October 5 2026 taking its holdings to 848,000 BTC. Over the same period, it spent $176.3 million to repurchase about 1.77 million STRC shares, according to a regulatory filing.

Latest @Strategy $BTC vs $STRC repurchases filings with @SECGov
#InstitutionalBitcoin https://t.co/60Ouc1uZKo
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) October 6, 2026
The shift matters because Strategy’s Bitcoin strategy increasingly depends not only on accumulating the cryptocurrency but also on maintaining demand for the preferred securities that help provide capital for that accumulation.
Strategy has been trying to make STRC more attractive and more stable after the preferred stock fell sharply below its $100 stated amount earlier this year. The company has since expanded its preferred-stock repurchase authorization to $2 billion and is seeking shareholder approval to move STRC and three other preferred securities to daily dividend payments.

INSTITUTIONAL | Leading Bitcoin Holder, Strategy, Proposes Daily Dividends to Restore Preferred Shares to $100

Under the proposal, dividends would accrue every calendar day and be paid on the next business day without changing the dividend rates or Strategy’s overall payment obligations. The company says the change could
reduce re-investment delays,
improve liquidity and price stability, and
increase demand for its preferred securities.
Shareholders are due to vote on October 28 2026.
The timing highlights a broader change in Strategy’s capital allocation. Its Bitcoin holdings grew only 0.2% in the Q3 2026, with 7,218 BTC purchased and 5,553 BTC sold. During the same quarter, the company spent about $1.38 billion repurchasing STRC.

MARKET ANALYSIS | Strategy Doubles STRC Stock Buyback Authorization to $2 Billion

The immediate objective is therefore not simply to buy as much Bitcoin as possible. Strategy is also trying to build a stronger preferred-stock market around its Bitcoin treasury where more liquidity and a more predictable income stream could make it easier to attract and retain investors.
That could ultimately support the company’s ability to raise capital through preferred securities and continue adding Bitcoin. Strategy itself has said that strengthening its preferred securities could create a competitive advantage and that increased demand could contribute to higher Bitcoin per share.
In other words, the STRC buybacks are less a departure from Strategy’s Bitcoin strategy than an investment in the financing machinery behind it.


CASE STUDY | Why the World’s Largest Bitcoin Institutional Holder Doubled Down on Stock Buyback Over BTC Purchases




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Bitcoin withdrawals from Binance reached their highest weekly level in more than three years in late September 2026 while large holders increased stablecoin deposits on the exchange according to on-chain analytics firm, CryptoQuant.
Binance recorded net Bitcoin outflows of 23,137 BTC in the seven days through September 27 2026, the largest weekly outflow since June 2023 when its Bitcoin balance fell by 44,942 BTC. The exchange’s Bitcoin reserves have declined by nearly 40,000 BTC since September 20 2026, the data showed.


CryptoQuant said the withdrawals could indicate accumulation, as Bitcoin held away from exchanges is generally less readily available for immediate sale. In June 2023, a similar decline in Binance’s reserves was followed by a rise in Bitcoin prices from about $26,300 to $30,500 over the following week.
At the same time, large holders have been moving more stablecoins onto Binance. CryptoQuant said whale entities increased their rolling 30-day stablecoin inflows to the exchange by 40% between August 15 2026 and the end of September 2026 from $21.7 billion to $30.5 billion.
Stablecoins held on exchanges can provide liquidity for purchases of crypto assets although the data does not establish that the funds will be used to buy Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has traded between about $82,500 and $87,500 since September 21 2026.


The Largest Ever Single-Day Outflow of Bitcoin on an Exchange Takes Place on Binance




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The failure of the U.S. Senate to advance the CLARITY Act has left retail cryptocurrency markets without the comprehensive federal framework lawmakers had sought to establish putting greater pressure on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to fill the gap through existing authorities.

REGULATION | The CLARITY Act Fails to Advance

The CFTC proposed a framework for exchanges offering margined, leveraged, or financed crypto transactions to retail customers. The proposal would create a new category of federally regulated venues called ‘crypto asset markets,’ subjecting them to requirements including anti-manipulation controls and proof-of-reserves obligations. Registered futures commission merchants would also be required to intermediate customer trades.

REGULATION | CFTC Sends Crypto Market Rules to White House After CLARITY Act Stalls

But the proposal does not give the CFTC broad statutory authority over the spot crypto market. That authority was a central element of the failed CLARITY Act, leaving much of the retail spot market outside a dedicated federal regulatory regime.
The CFTC said its proposed rules rely on existing authority over certain retail commodity transactions while seeking public comment on how those rules should apply to crypto assets. The agency said the framework would provide a uniform national regulatory pathway rather than relying primarily on state-level licensing.
The SEC has also moved to establish rules within its existing authority. Last week, it proposed rules governing crypto-asset custody by investment advisers and funds saying they would provide a regulatory framework and a compliant pathway for investment professionals holding digital assets.

REGULATION | The Securities and Exchange Commission Updates Crypto Guidance After CLARITY Act Stalls

Those measures, however, do not amount to the comprehensive market-structure legislation that failed in the Senate. The SEC’s rules primarily address crypto assets falling within its securities jurisdiction while the CFTC’s latest initiative focuses on specific leveraged and margined retail transactions.
That division leaves a fundamental question unresolved for retail investors – which federal regulator has clear authority over the broader spot market and what protections apply when consumers buy and trade crypto assets directly?
Better Markets, a financial reform advocacy group, said the CFTC was the wrong agency to take the lead in regulating retail crypto arguing that the regulator lacks the SEC’s investor-protection mandate. It also questioned whether the CFTC’s existing statutory authority was intended by Congress to cover crypto transactions.

REGULATION | Prediction Markets Fall Under Our Federal Mandate, Says Chairman, CFTC

The CFTC has said its rules are intended to provide clarity and consumer protection while SEC and CFTC officials have indicated they will continue developing crypto rules despite the legislative impasse. But without congressional action, the resulting framework remains dependent on the agencies’ existing powers and could face legal challenges or change with future administrations.
The post-CLARITY reality is therefore less a new U.S. crypto rulebook than a patchwork of agency actions with retail spot crypto still lacking the clear federal regulatory foundation Congress failed to deliver.


REGULATION | European Crypto Users Have More Trust in Regulated Platforms Under MiCA, Says Crypto Executive




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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is withdrawing the following proposed rules:
a proposal that would have imposed recordkeeping, verification, and reporting requirements on certain transactions involving convertible virtual currencies and unhosted wallets, and
a proposal that would have imposed a special measure with regards to convertible virtual currency mixing.

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has withdrawn a proposal that would have required banks and cryptocurrency businesses to report transactions of more than $10,000 involving customers’ self-hosted crypto wallets.

OPINION | Payments from Private Wallets Trigger a Cross-Border Flow Under Capital Controls Regulations in South Africa

The proposal, introduced in December 2020, would have required financial institutions and money services businesses, including crypto exchanges, to report transfers above the $10,000 threshold to or from unhosted wallets. The threshold would also have applied to transactions that exceeded $10,000 in aggregate over a 24-hour period. Firms would have been required to collect information about the customer and the wallet involved.
FinCEN also withdrew a separate 2023 proposal that would have imposed additional reporting requirements on transactions involving cryptocurrency mixers.

REGULATION | Popular Cryptocurrency Mixer, Tornado Cash, Removed from U.S. Sanctions List Following Court Ruling

Neither proposal had taken effect.

FinCEN said the withdrawals were part of the Trump administration’s broader de-regulatory agenda and efforts to establish digital-asset rules that are “fit-for-purpose.”
The withdrawal ends nearly six years of uncertainty around the proposed reporting requirements which attracted thousands of public comments from the cryptocurrency industry and other stakeholders.


REGULATION | United States Leading Financial Regulators Sign MoU to Coordinate Oversight of Crypto and Financial Markets




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Crypto companies are shifting their focus from building on-chain financial products to getting customers to use them regularly as the industry seeks to move closer to mainstream finance.
Asset managers have launched tokenized funds,
exchanges are expanding into lending and payments, and
blockchain networks are seeking institutional customers.
The challenge is increasingly to demonstrate sustained usage rather than simply prove that the technology works.

REALITY CHECK | The Crypto Startup is Dying. Regulation Didn’t Kill it Alone

For Coinbase, the focus is on making crypto products useful for everyday financial needs rather than emphasizing the technology underneath them, said Ben Shen, the company’s head of financial services and loyalty products.
Customers want to grow, hold, send, spend, or borrow money while the underlying blockchain is often less important to them, Shen said.
Coinbase is seeking what Shen described as “magic moments” that immediately demonstrate a product’s usefulness. The company views adoption as a cycle in which customers
bring money onto its platform,
have reasons to keep it there, and then
find ways to spend, trade, or make payments with those assets.
Rewards and other incentives can help persuade customers to move money onto a platform, Shen said, but the goal is to turn that initial incentive into longer-term use.

“If you create the right magic moments across these three parts of the flywheel, then that’ll get people to increasingly bring more and more money onto the platform,” he said.

OPINION | Own the Customer, Rent the Coin

The same challenge applies to blockchain networks seeking institutional customers.

Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures, said networks need to demonstrate that companies are using their infrastructure rather than merely testing it.
“The challenge you have is ‘show me, show me adoption,'” O’Leary said at the Avalanche Summit in New York in September 2026.

INSTITUTIONAL | The World’s Largest Stock Exchange has Spent a Year Testing Avalanche for Tokenization Plans

He said institutional customers want to see actual deals and adoption rather than tests of blockchain technology.
For asset manager, WisdomTree, which oversees about $150 billion, expanding distribution is another route to adoption.

CASE STUDY | How This Wall Street Bank is Leveraging its Brand, Pricing, Distribution Network for its Bitcoin ETF

The company has built tokenized funds including WTGXX, a tokenized money market fund with about $1.2 billion in assets, according to Will Peck, WisdomTree’s head of digital assets.
WisdomTree is working to make its funds available through platforms beyond its own. A recent collaboration with MoonPay allows eligible U.S. retail customers to access WTGXX through MoonPay and buy the fund using stablecoins without separately onboarding with WisdomTree, Peck said.
Coinbase is also exploring distribution through third-party platforms, including artificial intelligence tools. Shen said AI agents could eventually become another route through which customers access financial services.
As crypto firms increasingly compete with traditional financial companies, the focus is moving beyond whether products can be built to whether customers find enough value in them to keep using them.


CASE STUDY | Why Circulation, Not Velocity, is What Currently Drives Stablecoins Revenue





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Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan has raised more than $82 million through three bond sales providing additional funding for its lending business as the company prepares for a planned stock market listing.
The funds were raised through two subsidiaries,
Halan Consumer Finance and
Tasheel Finance.
Tasheel Finance, MNT-Halan’s microfinance arm, raised $24.6 million and $46.8 million through two separate bond sales, while Halan Consumer Finance raised a further $10.8 million.

Egyptian Fintech, MNT Halan, Now Africa’s 9th Unicorn Valued at Over $1 Billion After $400 Million in Funding

The bond sales allow MNT-Halan to borrow from investors and repay the funds over time with interest providing capital that can be deployed into new loans to customers.
Founded in 2018, MNT-Halan has grown into one of Egypt’s largest fintech companies and is the country’s biggest non-bank microfinance lender, according to estimates. The company has about 24.3% of Egypt’s non-bank microfinance market by outstanding loan value.
MNT-Halan’s outstanding loans are worth nearly $1 billion while the company says it has extended more than $6 billion in credit since its founding. Lending has been its fastest-growing business with nearly 2 million customers.

FUNDING | Egyptian Fintech Unicorn, MNT-Halan, Raises a Further $157 Million After Achieving Over 20x Customer Growth

The fundraising comes as MNT-Halan prepares to list 20% of its shares on the Egyptian Exchange. The company, Egypt’s first unicorn, said in June 2026 that it had reached a valuation of $1.4 billion and plans to offer 320 million shares.
The listing is expected in October 2026 and would give MNT-Halan another source of capital as it expands its lending operations while potentially attracting more foreign investment into Egypt’s stock market.


STATISTICS | Only 3 African Countries Host Companies Worth Over $1 Billion – Here is Why




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European crypto users are placing greater trust in regulated platforms following the rollout of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, according to Bitpanda co-CEO, Christian Trummer.
Speaking on a podcast, Trummer said users have “more faith” in regulated market participants contrasting this with the focus on self-custody among parts of the crypto community. He said most retail users prefer regulated providers rather than managing their own private keys.
Trummer also called for stricter enforcement of MiCA saying some companies continue to serve European customers without the required authorization putting compliant firms at a competitive disadvantage.

“The problem there definitely is that it’s not strictly enforced by the regulators,” Trummer said, referring to firms offering services to European customers without a MiCA license.

REGULATION | BitPanda Fined €70,000 in Austria’s First Published MiCA Penalty

MiCA’s transition period for existing crypto service providers ended no later than July 1 2026 requiring unauthorized firms to wind down their EU operations. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has urged national regulators to act against firms continuing to provide crypto services without authorization.
The comments come as EU regulators scrutinize how some offshore crypto firms continue serving European customers including through the narrowly defined “reverse solicitation” exemption.


REGULATION | EU Regulators Reportedly Question Binance Over Continued European Operations Despite Wind-Down Order




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