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Three addresses believed to belong to the same whale deposited 494,310 HYPE worth $37.83 million to Coinbase over the past 24 hours, according to Lookonchain. Exchange deposits are typically interpreted as a sign of intent to sell.

Bitcoin-based stablecoin protocol Ducat announced on its official X account that it will gradually shut down operations and start user redemptions. Ducat said its designed price-floor maintenance mechanism did not function as intended. The protocol added that each DUCAT will be eligible for a proportional distribution of treasury assets, while all deposited assets can be returned regardless of lockup periods. Ducat also said it has completed a snapshot of current holders, and addresses included in the snapshot can redeem DUCAT from the treasury.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital assets are breaking down the boundaries of financial services, while fintech is becoming a key driver shaping the future of the financial industry. Oh said the Seoul city government will expand support and investment links so financial companies and fintech firms can apply new technologies in real-world financial settings and further develop them, Edaily reported. Speaking in a congratulatory address at the conference titled AX-based Digital Finance Transformation: Finance That Knows Me, held today, Oh added that the competitiveness of a financial city is not determined solely by the scale of capital and that an ecosystem attracting technology, talent and innovative companies is more important.

Galaxy Research said random strings recorded about 40 times a day on the Bitcoin network over the past three weeks were likely test output from a data-posting tool rather than encrypted messages. In a post on X, Galaxy Research said its analysis of 562 strings found each of the 26 letters appeared at a nearly even frequency of 3.6% to 4.2%, with no statistical traits typically seen in ciphertext. Transaction records also suggested a bot, rather than a human, wrote the strings at regular intervals, it said. Galaxy Research added that tracing the BTC used by the bot linked it to a wallet that inscribed the full U.S. Constitution on the Bitcoin network on May 29. The operator also inscribed the Declaration of Independence, random strings, words in multiple languages and test JSON files, according to the firm. It said a total of 0.033 BTC was used for the records, with about 24% spent on mining fees and the remaining 76% still held at related addresses. No funds were sent to outside parties. Galaxy Research said the series of records was more likely part of testing a data-publishing tool on the Bitcoin mainnet than an attempt to convey a specific message.

Park Soo-young, vice chair of the ruling People Power Party’s policy committee, urged the government to confirm a delay to virtual asset taxation and first overhaul the systems and institutions needed to enforce the tax. In a Facebook post published today, Park said investors, many of them young people, were not trying to evade taxes but were asserting their right as taxpayers to pay fairly under a completed system and framework. Park added that, according to a survey by Park’s office, the five major exchanges had exchanged official documents with South Korea’s National Tax Service 49 times but still had not built the necessary system. Park called on the government and the ruling Democratic Party to immediately confirm a tax delay and first put proper systems and institutions in place.

Ethereum staking protocol Lido has launched a new version of its Community Staking Module, or CSM, allowing independent operators to run validators with up to 2,048 ETH, CryptoSlate reported. The module is permissionless, and operators must post 32 ETH as collateral for the first validator and 30 ETH for each additional validator. Lido separately supplies the staking funds, allowing a validator’s effective balance to increase to as much as 2,048 ETH. Lido estimated capital efficiency could reach around 2.18x to 2.26x compared with solo staking once the effective balance hits the maximum and staking rewards on the operator’s collateral are included. Initially, Lido plans to allocate 32 ETH each to around 32 validators and then seek to raise the funding allocation cap once they are activated. Additional allocations, however, will depend on factors including fund inflows. As of Oct. 25, the Ethereum network had 1,295,748 ETH waiting to enter staking, with an estimated wait time of 22 days and 23 hours.

California’s financial regulator has opposed the U.S. SEC’s proposed easing of crypto fundraising rules, arguing the changes could weaken investor protections, Bitcoin.com reported. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation submitted a comment letter to the SEC last week and said the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets could limit state authorities’ power to conduct advance reviews of investment products. DFPI Commissioner KC Mohseni said California supports innovation and entrepreneurship, but cannot accept efforts by a federal regulator to weaken its own oversight while undermining state authority and investor safeguards.

Wall Street investor Jordi Visser pushed back on Chamath Palihapitiya’s claim that Bitcoin could eventually be hacked and see its value fall to zero, calling the argument far-fetched, according to Stocktwits. Stocktwits said Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive, had argued earlier that Bitcoin would need stronger cryptography to maintain security, but internal divisions within the community would make that difficult to achieve. Visser said Bitcoin’s future security risks should be taken seriously, but there is still seven years to respond, and banks’ entry into the cryptocurrency market has created an economic incentive to address Bitcoin security issues quickly.

Anonymous addresses believed to be tied to an institution that invested in AAVE and Worldcoin deposited $45.38 million worth of WLD, ETH and AAVE to exchanges over two days, according to EmberCN. The entity cumulatively deposited 35.1 million WLD worth $17.06 million, 6,000 ETH worth $14.4 million and 97,000 AAVE worth $13.92 million. EmberCN added that exchange deposits are typically interpreted as intended for selling. Following the deposits, WLD fell to $0.46 from $0.51, while AAVE dropped to $137 from $147, EmberCN said.

Anchorpoint, a stablecoin issuance joint venture led by Standard Chartered’s Hong Kong unit, is pursuing a consumer stablecoin built on a public blockchain, the South China Morning Post reported. Anchorpoint launched an institutional product in August and had previously said a consumer offering could debut as early as later this year, although a specific launch date has not been set. CEO Dominic Maffei said the goal is to use stablecoins for everyday payments and corporate commerce while linking them to existing payment infrastructure. Maffei added there are multiple considerations for a consumer product and Anchorpoint will not rush the launch. The company is also pursuing a model of serving retail customers through corporate partners and sees cross-border remittances as a key use case. Separately, HSBC launched its Hong Kong dollar-based stablecoin 'HSBC RedCoin' on Oct. 23.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index stood at 53. The index is calculated by comparing the price performance of Bitcoin and the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins and wrapped coins. A period is considered altcoin season when 75% of the top 100 coins have outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days. The opposite is considered Bitcoin season. A reading closer to 100 indicates stronger altcoin season conditions.

StandX said via its official X account that it has opened its airdrop claim page. Users can check whether they are eligible on StandX’s official airdrop lookup page.

According to data from Dropstab, the major token unlocks scheduled for this week (Oct. 26–Nov. 1) are as follows: - GT: 6.67 million tokens ($65.2 million), representing 6.37% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 26 - GRASS: 31.58 million tokens ($22.72 million), representing 4.51% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 28 - SIGN: 296.21 million tokens ($3.18 million), representing 24.68% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 28 - FF: 197.53 million tokens ($19.64 million), representing 8.44% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 29 - XAN: 202.71 million tokens ($1.59 million), representing 8.11% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 29 - NIGHT: 53.45 million tokens ($2.54 million), representing 8.59% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 29 - AI: 89.78 million tokens ($1.58 million), representing 6.88% of circulating supply, at 6:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 29 - KITE: 109.26 million tokens ($12.36 million), representing 4.25% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Nov. 1 - TRUTH: 104.86 million tokens ($2.05 million), representing 5.03% of circulating supply, at 12:00 a.m. UTC on Nov. 1 - EIGEN: 36.82 million tokens ($7.4 million), representing 3.77% of circulating supply, at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Nov. 1

The key global macro events for the fifth week of October are as follows, based on Korea Standard Time: - Oct. 28, 6:00 p.m. UTC: U.S. interest rate decision - Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. UTC: FOMC press conference - Oct. 28, 8:00 p.m. UTC: Coinbase earnings release - Oct. 29, 12:30 p.m. UTC: U.S. September core personal consumption expenditures price index, U.S. third-quarter GDP, U.S. initial jobless claims - Oct. 29, 1:15 p.m. UTC: EU interest rate decision - Oct. 30, 3:00 a.m. UTC: Japan interest rate decision

CoinMarketCap’s in-house Crypto Fear and Greed Index came in at 43, down three points from yesterday, while remaining in neutral territory. The index indicates extreme fear as it approaches zero and extreme optimism as it nears 100. According to CoinMarketCap, the gauge is calculated based on price moves among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, market volatility, derivatives-market indicators including the put/call ratio, the stablecoin supply ratio (SSR), and CoinMarketCap’s own search data.

The spot CVD chart is an order book analysis chart for the BTC/USDT spot trading pair. The upper panel shows the volume heatmap, while the lower panel shows cumulative volume delta, or CVD. - The volume heatmap in the upper panel tracks trading volume by price range. The background becomes brighter when the price stays in a specific range for an extended period or moves sharply. Brighter zones may act as support or resistance. - The cumulative volume delta indicator in the lower panel reflects buy and sell orders by order size. As buy orders increase, the line for the corresponding color moves higher. The yellow line represents orders between $100 and $1,000, while the brown line represents large orders between $1 million and $10 million.

Bitcoin and gold are posting the weakest returns among major asset classes this year, marking the first time since annual asset-return data began in 2011 that the two have occupied the bottom two spots together, BeInCrypto reported. Charlie Bilello, an investment strategist at wealth management firm Creative Planning, said BTC and gold were down 7.3% and 7.5%, respectively, this year, placing them at the bottom of a group of 21 major asset classes. The outlet said gold had surged 63.7% last year, its strongest annual return in the period tracked, but has since turned weaker. Spot gold, which had traded above $5,400 an ounce at the start of the year, closed at $3,995.81 on Oct. 23, falling below $4,000 for the first time since July. BTC was also down about 35% from $126,000 reached in October last year. BeInCrypto added that both assets generate no interest income, which can make them less attractive than bonds or cash-like assets when interest rates rise.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $80,000. BTC is trading at $79,890.63 on the Binance USDT market.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has received a total of 49.24 million USDC following large altcoin sales, according to Onchain Lens. The on-chain tracker said Hayes recently received an additional 23.07 million USDC from Galaxy Digital, bringing the total amount received from trading firms and cryptocurrency exchanges to 49.24 million USDC. Hayes had previously sold altcoins including ETH and ENA worth about $22.28 million on Oct. 24.

Crypto analyst Darkfost said on X that as Bitcoin has held above $80,000 in recent weeks, retail BTC deposits flowing into Binance have climbed to their highest level in six months. Darkfost said retail investors’ 30-day cumulative BTC deposits to Binance rose from $5.5 billion to $10.75 billion, nearly doubling in a short period. In contrast, whale deposits fell from $5.9 billion in late August to $3.8 billion now, extending a decline of about two months. Darkfost said the data suggests retail investors, after roughly a year of sustained weakness, have recently used the rebound as an opportunity to sell BTC, while whale investors have been reluctant to move BTC to exchanges, indicating limited willingness to sell at current price levels.

Kraken-backed stock token platform xStocks has surpassed $1 billion in on-chain market capitalization, Crypto Briefing reported. The market cap of xStocks’ tokenized stocks rose 802.5% over the past year. xStocks launched the service on June 30 last year with tokenized products tied to about 60 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds.

Cryptocurrency analyst Michaël van de Poppe said Bitcoin’s ability to hold $80,000 will be a key factor in determining its next price direction. In a post on X, van de Poppe said BTC staged a relatively strong rebound after briefly breaking below its recent low, but needs to move above its previous high of $87,000 to maintain its uptrend. If BTC fails to set a new high, it could retest its recent low and fall below $75,000, putting the current uptrend at risk, van de Poppe said. On the other hand, if BTC forms a higher low and holds support at $80,000, the correction could end and the asset could attempt a further advance. Van de Poppe added this week’s price action will be an important inflection point for BTC’s next directional move.

Whale Alert reported that 386,092,254 USDT has been transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet. The transaction is valued at about $386 million.

South Korea’s presidential office has decided to delay taxation on cryptocurrency income, which had been scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 next year, according to the Seoul Economic Daily. A presidential office official said today the issue had been discussed in the direction of postponing implementation. The government had originally planned to begin taxing virtual asset income through a 2020 revision to the income tax law, but the measure has already been delayed three times. Under the current schedule, the tax would take effect on Jan. 1. The presidential office decided on another delay while citing insufficient preparations for taxation and public sentiment among younger people. The office was also said to have considered that the U.S. will join the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, from 2029. CARF is a system under which tax authorities in countries around the world collect users’ residency and transaction information from crypto asset service providers and exchange that data with one another. The delay in U.S. participation could raise concerns that taxation would be concentrated only on users of South Korean exchanges because of the size of the domestic trading market. Within the ruling Democratic Party as well, a revision bill has already been proposed to begin crypto taxation in 2029. The People Power Party is also calling for a delay, and the law is expected to be revised during tax bill reviews in November.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $81,000. BTC is trading at $81,000 on the Binance USDT market.