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Bank of America (BofA) senior research analyst Shaun Kelley said the expansion of prediction markets is increasing competitive pressure on traditional sports betting operators, according to Walter Bloomberg. Kelley said Wall Street initially underestimated the potential of prediction markets and explained platforms such as Kalshi are challenging established sports betting companies including DraftKings and FanDuel. He cited nationwide availability across all 50 U.S. states and eligibility for users age 18 and older as key competitive strengths of prediction markets. By contrast, traditional sports betting is generally allowed only for those 21 and older under state-by-state regulations.

Layer-1 blockchain Initia (INIT) said Initia L1 and its rollups were halted as of 3:41:30 p.m. UTC on Oct. 23 following a security incident. The team said it is investigating the scope of the impact with its security team, validators and exchanges, and plans to share confirmed information through official channels.

Tether has frozen $2.2 million in USDT linked to the hack of Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, which was said to involve about $16 million in stolen USDT, CoinDesk reported.

South Korean exchanges Upbit and Coinone announced a temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals for Inicia (INIT) over a security issue.

Ether.fi has acquired Zeal Wallet, a cryptocurrency wallet service. Zeal Wallet users can migrate their data directly to Ether.fi through the application. Once the process is complete, users will be able to access Ether.fi’s lending, yield, stock and gold trading services. Financial terms of the deal, including the acquisition price and other conditions, were not disclosed.

A hacking attack on the layer-one network Initia exploited an unlimited token minting vulnerability, with more than $2.6 million stolen so far and a risk of additional losses, according to Unfolded. Unfolded said forged token minting transactions were identified on the Initia blockchain explorer, and the hacker’s Etherscan address was also disclosed. Initia’s total value locked stood at around $5.9 million, while INIT’s market capitalization was estimated at about $28 million.

David Hoffman, host and co-founder of crypto podcast platform Bankless, said tokens once known in 2017 as Bitcoin clone coins are drawing attention again. In a post on X, Hoffman said PRL rose 30% this week and reached a fully diluted valuation of about $4.2 billion, while QTC has surged 300% this month and is valued at about $1.8 billion based on a total supply of 21 million tokens. Hoffman added that it is worth noting that tokens with maximum supplies capped at 21 million are now being assigned multibillion-dollar valuations.

Wells Fargo, Intuit and four other listed companies have formally exercised their right to refuse stock tokenization listings through OKXICE, a joint platform run by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange. That brings the number of companies opposing such listings on the OKXICE platform to 22.

Solana said trading in 12 widely held U.S. stocks, including Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, is now available on its network through Securitize Stocks by Securitize. Each token is backed one-to-one by the underlying stock and is not used for lending. Eligible investors in the U.S., the EU and other permitted jurisdictions can trade the tokens.

Demand for prediction markets tied to Bitcoin, gold, and oil prices is increasing, JB Mackenzie, vice president and head of futures and prediction markets at Robinhood, said at the NEXTPredict conference in New York, according to CoinDesk. Mackenzie said sports remains the platform’s biggest product category, but user behavior is shifting as traders increasingly bet on financial market price moves beyond sports events and elections. Contracts tied to price swings in assets such as Bitcoin, oil, and gold are beginning to account for a dominant share of the market and are currently the fastest-growing products, Mackenzie said.

CME Group described Bitcoin as functioning primarily as a decentralized store of value, according to Bitcoin Magazine.

The top 50 donors ahead of this year’s U.S. midterm elections contributed a combined $2.39 billion, according to a Washington Post report based on U.S. Federal Election Commission data, with several crypto firms and industry figures included on the list. Coinbase ranked 11th with about $57.7 million in donations, while Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss ranked 12th after contributing a combined roughly $55.3 million. Ripple donated about $49.6 million, and Foris DAX, the operator of Crypto.com, gave about $38.6 million. Of the total, about $1.54 billion went to Republicans, $590 million to Democrats, and about $239 million to special interest groups. Among individual donors, Elon Musk ranked first with about $369 million, which the report said was directed mainly to super PACs and affiliated groups backing Republican candidates.

The U.S. SEC announced its main regulatory priorities for fiscal 2027 examinations and compliance oversight, saying it will review areas including tokenization and cybersecurity. Key examination areas include retail investor protection, private funds and private credit, broker-dealer trading, anti-money laundering compliance, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and customer information protection. The review will cover more than 34,000 registered entities, including investment advisers, investment companies, broker-dealers, clearing agencies, and other market participants.

Cysic said it plans to burn 7.2 million CYS from the foundation’s holdings by the end of October to offset tokens that were illicitly minted in a recent cross-chain bridge hack. The move is intended to align token supply with the project’s existing tokenomics, and Cysic said it will disclose the on-chain record once the burn is complete. Earlier, the bridge exploit caused about $727,000 in losses on Oct. 17, according to the project.

China aims to complete most of its national blockchain network by 2030, Cointelegraph reported. According to the outlet, a five-year plan released on Oct. 23 by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party calls for broader blockchain adoption in trade and finance in the Yangtze River Delta and in manufacturing and agriculture in the Chengdu-Chongqing region. The plan also includes strengthening technical standards and expanding blockchain use in data circulation and trading. The national blockchain network was included in a national development plan in March and was also identified as a policy task in a joint policy released on Oct. 9. China bans cryptocurrency-related businesses while continuing to support blockchain technology development.

The U.S. October services purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, came in at 57.9, matching the market forecast of 57.9, while the manufacturing PMI rose to 56.0, above expectations of 55.4. A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 signals contraction. The Federal Reserve uses the data as one reference point when assessing economic momentum and price pressures for interest-rate decisions. Readings above forecasts can support consideration of holding rates steady or raising them, or delaying rate cuts, to prevent overheating, while weaker-than-expected readings can support consideration of rate cuts to bolster the economy. Beyond whether the headline index beats or misses estimates, the size of the gap versus forecasts and detailed price indicators can also affect markets.

James Wynn, a well-known trader on Hyperliquid, resumed trading after 49 days by opening a 40x leveraged BTC short position worth 0.4947 BTC, or about $40,500, according to Lookonchain. The liquidation price is $82,671.48. Wynn was previously liquidated on a 1.86 BTC long position in September.

Prediction market platform Kalshi plans to launch futures products in December tied to the U.S. Consumer Price Index and core inflation measures, according to Bloomberg. To design the contracts and attract large institutional investors, Kalshi has hired former Barclays trader Michael Ashton, who is known as an inflation specialist.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened lower today. - S&P 500: -0.42% - Nasdaq: -0.22% - Dow Jones: -1.05%

Interpol said a cybercrime crackdown carried out with 21 countries led to 1,462 arrests and the recovery of $105 million, according to Decrypt. The operation ran from June 29 to Aug. 31, 2026. In Angola, authorities uncovered two illegal cryptocurrency mining sites and seized more than 2,000 mining machines as well as six illegal power-conversion facilities worth $1 million. In Nigeria, authorities tracked $2.4 million in proceeds from investment fraud, and a substantial portion was found to have been laundered through cryptocurrency transactions.

Franklin Templeton has received Nasdaq approval to list two ETFs that reinvest dividends from U.S. stocks into Bitcoin-related products, CoinGape reported. According to an SEC filing, the funds are the Franklin U.S. Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FBEQ) and the Franklin U.S. Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FIBT). The two ETFs will initially allocate 95% of assets to U.S. equities and 5% to BTC-related products. FBEQ will invest in 500 large-cap U.S. stocks, while FIBT will target 100 Nasdaq-listed innovation-focused companies. Regular and special dividends generated by the stock holdings will then be invested in BTC-related products instead of being used to buy additional shares or paid out in cash. The BTC allocation will be reset to 4.5% if it rises above 5% during quarterly rebalancing, while also remaining capped at 20% between rebalancing periods. BTC exposure will be gained through exchange-traded products, or ETPs, among other instruments, and both ETFs carry a 0.09% management fee.

Aptos announced the addition of privacy features to its mainnet that allow users to selectively protect identity, transfer amounts and transaction intent. The rollout includes Keyless Accounts, which let users create wallets with Google or Apple accounts; Confidential APT, which uses zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt balances and transfer amounts; and an Encrypted Mempool, which encrypts transaction data until block finalization to defend against maximum extractable value, or MEV.

Crypto wallet provider Phantom will begin supporting trading in Kalshi prediction market contracts for U.S. users starting today, according to The Block. Users will be able to trade Kalshi contracts directly in the Phantom app, and the rollout will expand gradually over the coming weeks. Trading will be restricted in some areas as Kalshi is in legal disputes with several state governments over its opposition to the application of state gambling laws based on federal regulation. Phantom general counsel Kevin Jacobs said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's jurisdiction is clear and saw no issue as long as Phantom's support model meets the conditions for CFTC enforcement relief. Phantom plans to comply with state-by-state rules while the disputes continue.

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said it may be time to sell stocks and commodities facing bearish outlooks and rotate into Bitcoin. According to analyst consensus data Ju shared on X, the stocks with some of the most bearish outlooks include KB Home, Citigroup, T-Mobile, Eversource Energy, Oracle and CoreWeave, while platinum and silver rank among the commodities with the weakest outlooks. He added, "it may be time to sell these assets and rotate into BTC."

Bitcoin derivatives trading volume on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reached $326.7 billion in the third quarter, while Ethereum derivatives volume totaled $118.8 billion, bringing overall cryptocurrency trading volume to $469.5 billion. CME’s total third-quarter revenue also hit a record high of $1.737 billion.