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Liquidity restaking protocol Ether.fi (ETHFI) said layer-two network Blast is shutting down and advised weETH holders to withdraw assets by Oct. 26. According to Ether.fi, Blast decided to end operations as the chain’s operating costs exceeded revenue generated on the L2 and no economically sustainable path was visible. As part of the shutdown process, withdrawals of Blast’s Lido assets will be handled first and are expected to take about one week. During that period, withdrawals will be temporarily suspended. Once that process is complete, withdrawals will resume with the delay reduced to 24 hours. Asset withdrawals will still be possible after Oct. 26, but users will need to access Blast’s bridge contract on Ethereum L1 directly.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower today. - S&P 500: -1.09% - Nasdaq: -2.14% - Dow Jones: -0.34%

Broadcom, Verizon and UnitedHealth have opposed plans to tokenize their shares after the U.S. SEC announced rules on tokenized stock trading last month, The Wall Street Journal reported. AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron had earlier also reiterated his opposition to Robinhood’s tokenization of AMC shares and said he would not back down, according to the report.

TD Cowen raised its price target on Bitcoin accumulation company Strive (ASST) to $56 from $44, while maintaining its Buy rating.

Guy Wuollet, a partner at a16z crypto, said blockchain’s key near-term growth opportunity remains in finance. In an interview, Wuollet said stablecoins and perpetual futures are the main areas. Demand for stablecoins is supported by efforts to improve payment efficiency and by demand to hold U.S. dollars in countries with high inflation and capital controls, Wuollet said. Wuollet added stablecoins and blockchain are likely to drive the digital transformation of the financial industry, in a shift similar to how cloud services changed corporate IT environments. He also said a16z is watching payments, lending, credit, exchanges, prediction markets, derivatives, crypto AI, and asset management.

Stablecoin-based cross-border remittances are about 84% cheaper than traditional methods, according to a report from global liquidity network Borderless.xyz. The report found that sending $200 with stablecoins carries a median cost of 1%, or $2, versus a median cost of 6.36%, or $12.72, for conventional cross-border remittances based on World Bank data. It added that stablecoin transfers could reach a recipient’s local bank account within minutes, while traditional SWIFT international transfers were generally settled the next day. Some took as long as three business days.

Whale Alert reported that 213,600,000 USDT has been transferred from an unknown wallet to Bitfinex. The transaction is valued at about $213 million.

The Nasdaq’s intraday loss widened to 2.04%. The S&P 500 was down 1.17%, while the Dow Jones was off 0.57%.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $81,000. BTC is trading at $80,995.04 on the Binance USDT market.

Michael Saylor criticized index provider MSCI over its plan to exclude Strategy (MSTR) and other companies from its global indexes in December, calling the move anti-Bitcoin bias, according to Bloomberg. In an interview with Bloomberg, Saylor said MSCI recognizes oil, natural gas, land and machinery as capital but does not treat Bitcoin as capital. Saylor added that such an approach amounts to acting like an unregistered financial adviser. Using the English phrase from the interview, Saylor said, "Digital Credit is our product." Saylor added Strategy is actively operating a business that produces what Saylor described as the world’s best credit and said the company is a going concern, which is not open to debate. MSCI said yesterday it had decided to introduce new criteria restricting index inclusion for non-operating companies. Under the new rules, Strategy and Metaplanet are expected to be removed from the MSCI Global Investable Market Index (GIMI) starting in December. MSTR was trading at $137.07, down 9.46%.

U.S. investment adviser Unique Wealth disclosed roughly $10.4 million in Bitcoin investments through an SEC 13F-HR filing, according to Crypto Briefing. The firm bought Bitcoin via spot ETFs including Bitwise’s BITB and BlackRock’s IBIT. Its largest position was BITB at about $5.3 million, while IBIT accounted for about $2.1 million. As of the second quarter, Unique Wealth’s total portfolio was valued at about $858 million.

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 5.92% from the previous level to 140.58T.

Decentralized perpetual futures exchange Lighter has launched an EVM development network built in partnership with Axiom, according to the company. The OpenVM-based EVM-equivalent rollup runs in parallel with Lighter Core and allows developers to deploy smart contracts using tools such as Foundry and Hardhat. Through the network, developers can query account, balance, position, order, and market data on Lighter Core, while also creating, modifying, and canceling orders directly through smart contracts. Lighter plans to gradually expand access to the network and open it to all developers within the next few weeks.

U.S. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said in an interview with Fox Business that fraud and market manipulation know no borders, reiterating that this is why the agency has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets. Selig said prediction market platforms are interstate businesses that accept and match buy and sell orders from customers across the United States. He added that Congress gave the CFTC the authority and tools needed to enforce consistent standards across state lines, monitor and crack down on fraud and market manipulation, and protect customer funds.

Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald has raised its price target on Strategy to $208 from $186 while maintaining an Overweight rating, citing an upward revision to its Bitcoin forecast.

The Starknet Foundation on Oct. 16 announced a dedicated Starknet VIP Program for holders of its native token STRK and wrapped Bitcoin asset strkBTC. Eligible holders can apply through vip.starknet.io. VIP-tier investors will receive direct communication with the foundation’s core team, dedicated senior-level support, priority access to tickets for major global conferences, and additional ecosystem benefits to be disclosed later.

Cobo Wallet announced it will officially shut down its app service on Dec. 1, 2026. Users must withdraw or transfer all assets by 2:59 p.m. UTC on Nov. 30, 2026, and also change any Cobo Wallet deposit addresses previously set on other platforms. If assets are not withdrawn by the deadline, Cobo said it will charge a 2% monthly custody fee on remaining account assets, with a minimum monthly fee of around $100.

Mark Karpeles, former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, criticized Ledger for failing to respond adequately despite receiving tips for months about counterfeit hardware wallet incidents, Cointelegraph reported. Karpeles said at least two people had reported issues involving fake devices to Ledger since December last year. Ledger replied it would launch an internal investigation, but proper follow-up action did not take place, he added.

USDC issuer Circle generated about $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of this year, The Block reported. Of that, $819 million was spent on payments to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs, while about $473 million was reinvested in infrastructure, regulatory compliance and product development. Circle said it retained about 7 cents in net profit for every dollar of revenue, implying estimated net profit of about $98 million. Meanwhile, USDC’s on-chain transaction volume reached $36 trillion.

Bitcoin has formed a floor around $57,000 and entered a new bull cycle, according to crypto analyst Lark Davis. Davis said a combination of about 12 on-chain and technical indicators, including record accumulation by whale investors and the two-week moving average convergence divergence, or MACD, suggests the market bottom formed at $57,000. Davis added the market is now in the early stage of a new bull run, with investment opportunities emerging not only in Bitcoin but also in altcoins. He also said Bitcoin accounts for most inflows into cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, and that ETF inflows relative to market capitalization, along with the growth of gold ETFs, show ETFs are reshaping Bitcoin’s market structure. Davis cited the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve and the CLARITY Act, a U.S. crypto market structure bill, as additional key variables, adding that if the U.S. Bitcoin reserve policy is codified into law, its policy legitimacy would be further strengthened.

DeFi total value locked fell by $1.34 billion over the past seven days to $122.25 billion, while stablecoin supply declined by $1.35 billion to $305.24 billion over the same period, according to blockchain analytics firm Sentora. Sentora said the similar scale of the two declines points to a possible outflow of capital from the on-chain market.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened mixed today. - S&P 500: +0.19% - Nasdaq: -0.25% - Dow Jones: +0.15%

Coinbase will offer stablecoin-based payment cards to corporate clients through a partnership with global card issuing and payments platform Marqeta, The Block reported. Coinbase will handle digital asset custody and fiat conversion, while Base, the Ethereum layer-two network, will manage on-chain payment settlement. Marqeta will oversee card issuance and transaction processing to support businesses using payment cards powered by stablecoins.

Cryptocurrency analyst MorenoDV said the average cost basis for new Bitcoin whales is currently around $77,000. If Bitcoin holds near $77,000 and the realized cap held by new whales continues to rise, that could support the view that buying demand is absorbing selling in the market. MorenoDV added that if BTC remains below that level, new whales could slip back into unrealized losses, potentially increasing selling pressure on any price rebound. In that case, exchange inflows and realized loss indicators would be key gauges for determining whether the market is facing short-term stress or a broader resumption of selling.

Chainlink Labs, the developer of Chainlink (LINK), has formed a strategic partnership with Pacific Meta, a Japanese blockchain and AI consulting firm, focused on building infrastructure for institutional asset tokenization, onchain identity verification, and regulatory compliance in Japan’s financial market. Pacific Meta plans to adopt Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as a preferred solution and list the Automated Compliance Engine (ACE) on its partner solutions marketplace, the company said.