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France's National Assembly passed an amendment to the 2027 budget by 38 votes to 37, with 25 abstentions. According to The Defiant, the amendment proposes ending tax deferral for cryptocurrency conversions into single-currency stablecoins starting January 1, 2027. Investors could face capital gains tax at the current flat rate of approximately 31.4%, even if they do not convert their assets into legal tender.
The amendment has passed only the National Assembly's first reading. It still requires Senate review and further legislative procedures before it can become law.

The Bank of Russia said residents will be barred from using self-custodial wallets for crypto transactions starting July 1, 2027. According to NS3.AI, residents will also be prohibited from transferring funds from regulated brokers to self-custodial wallets, with transactions permitted only through licensed brokers or exchanges.
Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov estimates that about 20 million Russians hold crypto assets worth 3.7 trillion rubles. Sberbank Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov expects about 20% of Russia’s crypto trading volume to move to licensed exchanges.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled an experimental “paranoid mode” for his AI agent on October 16, 2026, designed to obscure users, request origins and payments. The public-code setup combines Tor, cover traffic, local prompt rewriting and zkAPI, according to BeInCrypto. Each conversation gets a separate Tor circuit, while zkAPI payments run on Ethereum mainnet and accept ETH and USDC. The system does not provide complete anonymity: providers can see rewritten prompts, and traffic timing could expose requests. Buterin said lower zkAPI fees are coming; the prototype offers no evidence of widespread adoption or an immediate benefit to ETH’s price.

At ParaFi Investor Day 2026, Michael Saylor, executive chairman and co-founder of Strategy, set out a framework for what he termed digital capital, digital credit, digital equity, and digital money, and—in a fireside chat with Jeff Park—discussed the trajectory of digital assets, regulation, and the future of finance. His central argument was that Bitcoin functions as a form of digital capital on which a new asset class of Bitcoin-backed credit can be constructed, with Strategy's own instruments serving as his primary case studies.
Bitcoin as Digital Capital
Saylor framed Bitcoin as digital gold—a store of wealth that, in his telling, has achieved global consensus and now functions as "digital capital." By his estimates, Bitcoin represents roughly two-thirds of the crypto economy's market capitalization, about 80% of its liquidity, and some 90% of its economic value. He argued the market is moving back into a bull phase, noting that the price bounced off the 200-week simple moving average roughly three months prior and had returned to a slight premium—a pattern he said is consistent with a fifteen-year horizon.
The headwinds, in his view, were restrictive trade, foreign, and monetary policy over the past year, compounded by the "gravitational pull" of the AI buildout competing for capital. Because Bitcoin is "pure capital," he argued, anything negative for risk assets weighs disproportionately on it.
On tailwinds, Saylor pointed primarily to bank adoption. As banks move to custody Bitcoin, he said, they can create credit against it—and he estimated that every $10 billion of credit represents roughly one year of supply, a dynamic he characterized as bullish for price. He also cited the tokenization of securities and, more broadly, AI disruption. His reasoning on AI: as automation drives the marginal value of producible goods and services toward zero, investors should seek assets a robot cannot make. Bitcoin, he said, is "a scarce desirable piece of property in cyberspace."
Regulatory Tailwinds and Banking Adoption
Saylor welcomed three pieces of recent government guidance: the Treasury's rules on stablecoins, the SEC opening a path for tokenized securities, and the CFTC greenlighting crypto derivatives for US investors. Notably, he downplayed the stalling of the CLARITY bill, characterizing its roughly 600 pages as "600 pages of restrictions" and arguing the industry is better served by concise, positive rules. He added that Strategy's Bitcoin banking index had moved from 9% to 34%.
Bitcoin-Backed Credit and STRC
Drawing a historical line to the Bank of England and the British consol—credit issued against gold reserves, paying 3% to 5% in perpetuity—Saylor described digital credit as "credit built on digital gold." His logic: if an asset is expected to appreciate, an issuer can sell a credit instrument paying a fraction of that expected return.
As his central example, Saylor pointed to STRC, a perpetual preferred stock Strategy sells to the public, structured around a $100 par value. According to the figures he presented, STRC pays roughly 12%, carries about 48 years of dividends in the capital structure, had about $8.8 billion outstanding, traded around $150 million a day, and was over-collateralized at roughly $6.20 of Bitcoin per dollar of STRC. He described it, by trading volume, as among the most liquid preferred stocks in the market. These figures and characterizations were drawn from Saylor's own presentation.
Returning STRC to Par: Reserves, Buybacks, and Investor Feedback
Saylor acknowledged that STRC traded below par at the start of the summer, prompting Strategy to introduce a multi-year US dollar dividend reserve and a buyback program—he cited roughly $1.5 billion repurchased—to move it back toward par. The lesson he drew was that the market "values US dollar duration more than Bitcoin": the difference between holding ten and one hundred years of Bitcoin backing is immaterial to a credit investor, while the difference between a few months and three years of cash reserves is significant.
He described digital credit as "an alloy of capital and cash," using a metallurgical metaphor to argue that a structure weighted heavily toward Bitcoin with minimal cash is fragile, whereas a roughly 70% Bitcoin / 30% cash blend is more stable. Strategy, he said, now holds about three and a half years of dividends in cash, and has iterated on the instrument—from monthly dividends to a shelf registration, a dedicated USD reserve, variable monthly rates, semi-monthly payments, and a planned move to daily.
Amplifying Bitcoin Per Share and the "Triple Flywheel"
Saylor defined digital equity as the residual spread between the cost of credit and the return on capital—offering 12% while targeting a higher return leaves a spread accruing to equity holders. He stated that Strategy holds about 4% of the Bitcoin that will ever exist, and that the company raised roughly $21 billion in 2025, $25 billion the prior year, and $24 billion before that.
Citing performance since August 2020, he contrasted bonds and money markets with Bitcoin and MSTR, which he said had returned 37% and 51% annually, respectively. He explained that credit against equity is prohibited by the Investment Company Act of 1940, which is why gold-backed credit became the historical norm—and why, in his argument, Bitcoin's stronger assumed performance makes the model more compelling than its gold predecessor.
Saylor described Strategy as "a structured finance company" that, in his framing, strips volatility from Bitcoin on the credit tranche while amplifying it on the equity tranche, invoking a "conservation of energy" between the two. He characterized the mechanism as a triple flywheel: issuing credit to buy Bitcoin, issuing equity at a premium to buy more Bitcoin, with rising Bitcoin reserves reducing credit risk and compressing spreads, enabling further issuance. He noted this model depends on Bitcoin's fixed 21-million supply, and cited Strive as a recent example of a single issuer absorbing a large share of newly produced Bitcoin.
From Quarterly to Daily Dividends
In the fireside chat, Saylor traced the evolution of payment frequency. Quarterly dividends, he said, froze liquidity for much of the quarter and produced volatile ex-dividend events; monthly payments—better suited to retail investors—improved liquidity substantially. Strategy then moved to bi-weekly, believing a NASDAQ ten-day requirement was the floor, until Strive demonstrated daily payment was feasible, which Saylor said tripled turnover by tapping new capital pools.
Strategy is now moving toward daily (calendar-day) dividends, with an October 28th vote for MSTR holders. The stated rationale: in markets moving toward 365-day tokenized trading, a daily-paying instrument can increase liquidity, reduce the size of ex-dividend price moves, attract new capital, and support cross-market and higher-frequency trading strategies.
The Vision for Digital Money
Saylor described a longer-term goal of digital money: an instrument pegged to the dollar with low volatility, paying 6–8%—what he called "the mythical Bitcoin-backed stablecoin." He questioned why investors would hold stablecoins paying nothing if a yield-bearing alternative existed, and sketched a short-duration money-market-style instrument that could serve as a medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, and collateral. He presented this as an aspiration rather than an existing product.
The Path to Institutional Acceptance
On adoption, Saylor noted STRC grew from zero to over $10 billion in under twelve months, and that Strategy ranks among the largest equity issuers. He acknowledged, however, that digital credit is only in its "sophomore year," that credit investors typically want a three-year track record, and that the asset class must prove it can "manage through bear markets" with an uninterrupted dividend history. He drew a parallel to Bitcoin's own 17-year path to broader acceptance.
On pricing, Saylor declined to forecast the coming year, citing the Fed's dominant influence, but suggested STRC's spread—which he placed at roughly 700 basis points over the 10-year—could compress toward a 400-to-500-basis-point premium over the risk-free rate over time. He also noted that preferred stock once represented about a third of all capital before falling out of use for decades.
Beyond Bitcoin: Regulation Determines Value
Addressing non-Bitcoin digital asset treasuries, Saylor argued the genuinely valuable use cases are stablecoins (moving dollars rapidly), crypto derivatives (perpetual leverage), and digital exchanges for equities, commodities, currencies, and derivatives operating around the clock. His central point was that value flows according to jurisdiction and regulation: whether value accrues to a token, a crypto equity, a regulated bank, or the government depends on the regulatory regime, which can, for example, permit tokenization while restricting custody or transfer. The clearly investable categories in the US today, he said, are digital capital, digital credit, and digital equity, with derivatives emerging and tokens still in a "gray zone."

A whale identified as 0x204 withdrew 10 million ARB, worth about $1.8 million, from a centralized exchange (CEX) two hours before the report, according to Arkham monitoring. According to BlockBeats On-chain Detection, the whale had previously also withdrawn about 73,400 UNI, valued at approximately $2.34 million. Arbitrum unlocked more than 90 million ARB yesterday, while ARB’s price has continued to rise sharply in recent days.

On Oct 18, 2026, 13:29 PM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, BNB has dropped below 720 USDT and is now trading at 719.25 USDT, with a narrowed 0.12% decrease in 24 hours.

Robert Kiyosaki says his sixth money problem is going from too much money to no money, reversing his fifth: having too much money. He also lists having no money, earning too little, overspending and lacking future funds; according to BeInCrypto, he says sudden wealth can cause athletes, movie stars, lottery winners and heirs to lose fortunes through ego or dishonest managers, accountants, attorneys or relatives. Kiyosaki says he has experienced the cycle several times and views losses as lessons for those willing to learn. For crypto investors, he recommends setting risk limits before buying tokens; his Cashflow game, created with wife Kim, lets players practice with fake money.

On X, on-chain investigator Specter reposted a post warning that the InfoFi project BILL may be a scam; the token has fallen about 97% from its all-time high. According to ChainCatcher, 17 wallets that received tokens from team-linked wallets deposited about 988 million BILL to centralized exchanges over the past two months. A separate deposit address sent another 360 million BILL to a centralized exchange this week, with the tokens originating from the project team’s multisignature wallet.

Thai police arrested a 37-year-old Chinese man in Bangkok who is wanted in China over alleged involvement in an international criminal network and money laundering. According to NS3.AI, investigators said the network handled more than 500 million yuan ($75 million) in transactions; Khaosod English reported the arrest on Saturday.
Police alleged that the suspect conducted cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchanges for criminal groups through more than 133 accounts. He will face legal proceedings over an expired Thai visa before authorities coordinate his return to China to face an outstanding warrant.

Bitcoin rose during each of the past three weekends before reversing on Monday, analyst Killa said. According to Odaily, Killa wrote on X that markets often move in the opposite direction when weekend selling pressure increases; if Bitcoin rises toward the weekly close, Monday is worth watching, while the last time Bitcoin began falling over the weekend, it subsequently rose.

Hyperscale Data said its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Ault Global Commodities, completed the tokenization of 5,000 troy ounces of physical silver and listed the related tokens on the Ault Markets platform, with trading expected to begin within weeks. According to Odaily, Hyperscale Data also disclosed that its AI technology subsidiary, askROI, is preparing for a separate listing, which it plans to complete in the second or third quarter of 2027. Potential routes include a reverse takeover, an initial public offering, or a merger with a special purpose acquisition company; the timing will depend on the chosen transaction and financial, regulatory, and market conditions.

Hyperliquid bought and burned 11,340 HYPE tokens over the past 24 hours at an average price of $78.55 per token. According to BlockBeats On-chain Detection, the burn brings the cumulative total to 49.63 million HYPE, equal to 4.96% of the token’s 1 billion maximum supply. OnchainLens monitored the activity on October 18.

Grayscale has partnered with investment platform Republic to launch three crypto-focused funds, each with a minimum contribution of $2,500. According to NS3.AI, the funds focus on decentralized finance, AI and blockchain data infrastructure, and are available to accredited investors who meet U.S. securities regulations, allowing exposure without buying the underlying tokens. The products are not designed for general retail investors and have lower liquidity for positions than publicly traded ETFs.

If ETH breaks above $2,538, cumulative short liquidation intensity on major centralized exchanges would reach $611 million. According to ChainCatcher, Coinglass data also shows that if ETH falls below $2,304, cumulative long liquidation intensity on major centralized exchanges would reach $472 million.

Nine U.S.-listed companies, including CoreWeave, Broadcom and Verizon, have objected to tokenized versions of their shares trading on OKXICE. According to NS3.AI, a timely objection bars the venue from offering a company’s stock token under the SEC’s innovation exemption.
Applied Optoelectronics cited uncertainty about stock prices, liquidity and volatility, as well as the potential for investor confusion. OKXICE said it still plans to launch trading for dozens of U.S.-listed companies. Nasdaq separately said it would opt out of having its shares tokenized under the framework. OKXICE and the nine objecting companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Oct 18, 2026, 12:32 PM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, Bitcoin has dropped below 82,000 USDT and is now trading at 81,995.921875 USDT, with a narrowed narrowed 0.55% increase in 24 hours.

Nvidia PC Senior Vice President Jeff Fisher said the RTX 5090 graphics card has not been discontinued. According to Odaily, Fisher described the RTX 5090 as a core product and said Nvidia will continue supplying it. He acknowledged that production capacity across the supply chain remains limited and said Nvidia is working to bring the product to market.

According to CNBC, Vice President JD Vance faced questions about the Iran war, immigration enforcement, gasoline prices and his rhetoric during a CBS News town hall that aired Saturday night. Vance acknowledged mistakes in troop placement before six U.S. soldiers were killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait, and said the administration had changed its approach. He said gas prices were too high because of events in the Middle East and that the administration was taking steps to lower them. Asked about President Donald Trump’s crypto profits, Vance said he had not seen evidence of wrongdoing by the president or his administration and said anyone selling access to the White House should face consequences. A federal filing cited in the report showed Trump took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year.

VerityAI, an AI-based trusted reputation network, received an investment from AURUMX Capital on October 16. According to ChainCatcher, AURUMX Capital holds Hong Kong SFC Type 4 and Type 9 licenses and MSB credentials, and VerityAI had previously received investments from Titan Foundation USA and BlockX.
VerityAI aims to turn market research and predictive signals into verifiable on-chain reputation assets and build a system for assessing contributors’ credibility in digital markets. AURUMX Capital plans to draw on its institutional resources to support the use of VerityAI’s verifiable reputation infrastructure in institutional settings.
VerityAI’s Signal Explorer supports Morph Mainnet and BNB Chain. As of October 16, 2026, it had generated nearly 20,000 on-chain signals.

Ethereum lending platforms recorded about $1.63 billion in liquidations over the past year, with 89% settled through atomic paths, analysis firm Sentora said. According to ChainCatcher, atomic liquidations convert collateral and repay debt within a single on-chain transaction, commonly using flash loans, upfront capital, or direct contract calls.
RWA collateral with limited DEX liquidity and whitelist transfer restrictions may push more liquidations toward off-chain market makers, RFQ transactions, and solver routes. Because RWA assets can be difficult to sell immediately on a DEX, compliant off-chain market makers may take the collateral through RFQ or solver arrangements before completing the closeout.

FinCEN formally withdrew two proposals in October 2026 that would have expanded reporting requirements for transactions involving self-controlled crypto wallets and international cryptocurrency mixing. According to NS3.AI, the wallet proposal originated under Trump's first administration in December 2020, while the mixing proposal was introduced under Biden in October 2023.
Neither proposal took effect, and existing financial-crime obligations remain in force. FinCEN said the mixing proposal could discourage legitimate activity and impose significant reporting burdens, while leaving open the possibility of future action. Coin Center welcomed the withdrawals as a major privacy victory.
The reversal has also raised conflict-of-interest concerns because Trump's family made an estimated $2.3 billion in pretax crypto profits between late 2024 and April 2026. That estimate does not establish that the withdrawals were intended to benefit the family.

The U.S. Department of Justice said earlier this month that it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Roger Ver, under which fraud and tax-evasion charges will be dropped in exchange for up to $49.9 million in taxes, penalties and interest. According to Odaily, Ver bought a large amount of bitcoin in 2011 for less than $3 million and held at least 131,000 BTC with companies he owned when he obtained citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis in February 2014. He renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month; the bitcoin was worth more than $70 million at the time. The Internal Revenue Service determined that Ver failed to report bitcoin he held personally and undervalued company assets, making the amount sought 48 times the tax he reported for that year.

Hyperliquid Labs co-founder Jeff Yan is seeking U.S. rules to protect the blockchain and place regulatory responsibility on financial institutions operating markets on it, rather than on the network itself. According to ChainCatcher, Yan says this approach could let Hyperliquid enter Wall Street without bearing the full compliance burden of a traditional exchange. Hyperliquid is not yet open to U.S. customers, and Yan says it aims to provide underlying trading technology for traditional financial institutions rather than replace existing market participants. He likened the role to Amazon Web Services, which provides computing infrastructure to businesses.

Samsung Electronics has decided to use TSMC’s 3-nanometer process to manufacture NVHBM base dies at Nvidia’s request, according to Korean media cited by Citrini analyst Jukan. According to Odaily, Samsung has not ruled out using its own foundry lines and is assessing whether it could produce the base dies in-house if NVHBM demand exceeds TSMC’s capacity.

An OpenAI engineer was arrested on accusations of planting a covert recording device in an executive conference room, Bloomberg reported.
Morgan Meaker, a senior writer for Bloomberg Weekend, said AI training work is shifting toward highly skilled experts and could eventually reshape the professions that provide that expertise.

Solana’s network recorded 557 million stablecoin transfers in September, a 33% increase from August. According to ChainCatcher, citing Blockworks data referenced by Solana, the network ranked first in stablecoin transfers, with an average of 18.6 million transfers per day.

Michael Burry says the next bear market could last many years, citing a century of inflation-adjusted S&P 500 data. According to NS3.AI, Burry argues that fewer stocks are driving the index higher, even as the S&P 500 closed at a record on October 6. He says the same underlying buildup preceded all 10 market tops over the past 40 years, pointing to speculation, stretched valuations and returning inflation. Burry says investors should know now whether they face 15 to 20 years of weak inflation-adjusted returns.

Machi Big Brother reopened a 25x leveraged Ethereum long four hours after being fully liquidated, and now holds 1,325 ETH in the position. According to Odaily, the position is showing an unrealized profit of about $30,000, with a liquidation price of $2,368.

PAPER briefly rose above $0.035 and was reported at $0.02743. According to Odaily, Papertrade (PAPER) perpetual contracts had previously launched on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 market, with leverage of up to 3x.

Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of Bitcoin treasury company Strategy, has again posted information related to the Bitcoin Tracker. According to Odaily, Strategy has typically disclosed changes to its Bitcoin holdings the day after such posts and may report an update next week.

According to Jin10, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said on the 18th that Iran’s armed forces had prepared a response plan for any new “adventurism.” Rezaei said on social media that recent statements and repeated threats by U.S. and Israeli officials had not changed realities on the battlefield. He said the response plan’s destructive power would far exceed that of previous responses, and that Iran’s new operational plan would no longer follow rules familiar to its adversaries.

AIsa said it completed its seed extension round, with Tether and HIVEN joining as strategic investors. According to Cointelegraph, the funding brings AIsa’s total raised to more than $9 million, and the new investors join existing backers Alibaba, Tribe Capital, Sumitomo Corporation, Draper Associates and Saison Capital, among others. Jordan Liu, AIsa’s founder and CEO, said in a Friday statement that the company aims to build infrastructure allowing AI agents to find, access and pay for resources globally while giving enterprises control over permissions, spending and transactions. The San Francisco-based company is developing what it calls the Trusted Resource and Transaction Network for Enterprise AI Agents. Its infrastructure connects enterprise agents with external data, AI search, models, APIs, software tools and industry services, while providing governed access, usage metering, billing and settlement. AIsa said fragmented providers, integrations and billing systems have made it difficult for enterprise AI agents to function in production and operate at scale. Cointelegraph reported on July 31 that Tether posted a net operating profit of $1.5 billion for the second quarter, primarily supported by interest income from its US Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements backed by government securities.

Bitcoin News reported that former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès accused Ledger of inadequately warning customers about sophisticated hardware implants. According to NS3.AI, Karpelès alleged Ledger knew of the threat as early as March 2026 and buried warnings in Ledger Academy articles. Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier responded by citing Karpelès’s experience with Mt. Gox. Karpelès said evidence of mass-produced, self-aligning implants should have prompted the highest-level alarm response.

KR1 plc, a blockchain infrastructure company listed on the London Stock Exchange, has launched its own Ethereum validator, operated by P2P.org through Lido V3 stVaults. According to Odaily, KR1 plans to stake up to 6,000 ETH, beginning with 10 validators; the rollout schedule depends on the Ethereum validator entry queue. KR1 retains control over withdrawals, validator fee arrangements and vault permissions, and may mint stETH to access liquidity. Lido said stVaults allow stakers to select validators and retain control while maintaining liquidity through stETH. Lido also said the stVaults smart contracts have been audited by Certora, MixBytes, Consensys Diligence, Ackee Blockchain and Sigma Prime, and are covered by a bug bounty of up to $2 million.

On Polymarket, the “Alejandro Davidovich Fokina” option in the “Shanghai Rolex Masters: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Rafael Jodar” sub-market rose to 87.5% from 22.5% one hour earlier, a 65% increase. According to ChainCatcher, the sub-market is listed under the event “Shanghai Rolex Masters: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Rafael Jodar.”

Michael Burry warned that the stock market resembles a “supervolcano,” citing shrinking market breadth, speculation, stretched valuations and returning inflation. In his latest Substack post, Burry called the S&P 500’s October 6 record high unremarkable, according to BeInCrypto, and argued that history points to prolonged weak returns: inflation-adjusted stocks fell about 53% from 1966 to 1982 and roughly 40% from 2000 to 2011. He said investors should know if 15 to 20 years of weak real returns lie ahead, with the central risk being time rather than a sudden wipeout. Crypto holders are watching whether digital assets would decouple; Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan has argued Bitcoin can thrive across economic scenarios.

Niger banned exports of diesel and premium petrol to address fuel supply challenges in recent days, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a Facebook statement, according to Bloomberg.

Microsoft Corp. pulled out of a UK data center deal with British neocloud Nscale, the Telegraph reported. The withdrawal comes at a critical time for the startup’s initial public offering hopes, according to Bloomberg.

HIP-3 market deployer Entropy has launched an Anthropic Pre-IPO market on Hyperliquid. According to NS3.AI, ANTH fell 0.25% over the past 24 hours to $1,909, while the corresponding OTC market capitalization declined to $1.909 trillion from $2.1 trillion at the beginning of the month. The contract recorded $5.6 million in 24-hour trading volume.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned against weaponizing supply chains, energy and technology at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in New Delhi, according to Bloomberg. Business leaders said they are adapting as supply chains are rebuilt, geopolitical risk is permanent and countries including India compete for redirected capital.