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JPYC Co. said it plans to launch a new initiative allowing foreign visitors to Japan to receive tax-free refunds in the yen-based stablecoin JPYC. UPBOND and Nihon Menzei developed wallet infrastructure through a partnership to let travelers receive those refunds in JPYC, and the system is scheduled to begin operating on Nov. 1.

Customer personal information was also exposed in an internal system hack at South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb on Oct. 27, Yonhap News Agency reported. The breach is believed to have occurred after an unauthorized party gained abnormal access to the company’s internal mobile groupware system.

Jack Yi, founder of crypto investment firm LD Capital, said the bullish trend in Bitcoin remains intact and that he is waiting for the current pullback to end. In a post on X, Yi said BTC has remained relatively resilient even as uncertainty in global financial markets has grown. Yi added that markets do not move in only one direction, so Yi is maintaining the existing bull-market outlook while waiting for the correction to run its course. As the U.S. midterm elections draw closer, volatility is likely to increase and create new trading opportunities, Yi said.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of CertiK (CTK) starting at 10:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 29 to support a network upgrade and help ensure stable service.

The market capitalization of tokenized stocks has reached $4.63 billion, up from under $1 billion at the start of this year, Crypto Briefing reported, citing Token Terminal data. The market exceeded $3 billion in early September and had expanded to $4.63 billion as of Oct. 28, according to the report. That level is roughly in line with the stablecoin market’s size in March 2020. By blockchain, BNB Chain currently holds the largest share of the tokenized stocks market, followed by Ethereum and Solana.

Bithumb has been subjected to another search and seizure, one year and seven months after the previous raid, over allegations involving the misuse of housing support funds by current and former executives, the Financial News reported. According to the legal community on Oct. 29, the major crimes prosecution division 3 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office began searching and seizing materials at Bithumb’s headquarters in Seoul’s Gangnam district earlier in the day. South Korean prosecutors were seeking to secure records to further verify facts related to some issues raised during the existing investigation.

The London Metal Exchange is considering tokenizing metal inventories stored in Hong Kong warehouses as digital assets, Reuters reported, citing an anonymous source. The project is linked to Hong Kong’s five-year economic development plan and aims to tokenize inventories of metals such as copper and aluminum for use in financial transactions including loan collateral. The target assets are metal inventories for which warehouse warrants have not been issued and that currently lack a standardized financing instrument. To advance the effort, the LME plans to hold a private meeting with industry participants in early November.

Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend ZIL deposits and withdrawals starting at 3:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 30 to support a network upgrade.

Russia has established suitability assessment standards for investors seeking to trade cryptocurrencies on regulated platforms, with brokerages expected to begin evaluating clients as early as late November. Ekaterina Andreeva, vice president of the National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR), said at Crypto Summit 2026 that a draft of the related standards was submitted last week to the Basic Standards Committee under the Bank of Russia. The assessment results will be mutually recognized across all regulated platforms, and the same evaluation questions and procedures are expected to apply to licensed businesses including exchanges and digital asset custodians.

Stellar has launched Project Thruput, a new transaction execution model that distributes workloads across multiple machines to improve processing performance, Cointelegraph reported. In initial benchmark tests, the model processed 7.02 million payments per second and is now running on Stellar’s FutureNet test network.

The following are the 24-hour long/short ratios for BTC perpetual futures on the world’s three largest crypto futures exchanges by open interest: Overall: 50.14% long, 49.86% short - Binance: 49.1% long, 50.9% short - OKX: 49.66% long, 50.34% short - Bybit: 49.28% long, 50.72% short

Blockchain cybersecurity platform Shentu (CTK) has released Proposal 58 to upgrade its mainnet to v2.20.0. The upgrade is scheduled for block height 31,812,210, which is المتوقع at 3:49 p.m. UTC on Oct. 29. As the upgrade is mandatory, all validators and full nodes must update to the v2.20.0 binary.

Three security vulnerabilities have been found in Bitcoin Core through AI-based code analysis, CoinDesk reported. One of them could allow an attacker to send large amounts of data to nodes running on Windows, macOS, and BSD systems, causing them to stop operating because of memory exhaustion. The issue was discovered on Oct. 23 and fixed on Oct. 27, while the other two vulnerabilities were also disclosed. Bitcoin Core developers said they changed their security policy on Oct. 22 to quickly fix and disclose vulnerabilities that are easy to find, as AI has made such flaws easier to identify.

An anonymous whale address sold 1.02 million SOL worth $104.03 million over the past five days, according to Lookonchain.

Some Ledger hardware wallets sold at local retail stores in Singapore were found to contain malicious hardware, Wu Blockchain reported. Singapore police said on Oct. 28 that the devices could steal users’ recovery phrases or private keys. Since Sept. 10, at least two 피해 cases have been reported, with losses reaching about 3.5 million Singapore dollars ($2.7 million). Ledger is reviewing the cases, and police are investigating.

Sony Group announced the launch of the Sony Onchain Entertainment Incubation Program, a global initiative to support startups and creators as it expands a blockchain-based entertainment ecosystem. Sony said the program aims to connect creators directly with fans through blockchain technology while supporting new value creation and community building. It targets projects using Soneium, Sony’s blockchain, to develop new entertainment experiences and business models that combine content, communities, and digital assets. Key focus areas include strengthening relationships between creators and fans, creating value through community participation, and building new revenue models based on digital content. Selected projects will receive access to Soneium’s technical infrastructure, opportunities for joint development with Sony Group affiliates, business development and marketing support, community connections, and fundraising opportunities. Applications open today and will run through December. The selection process is scheduled to run from November 2026 through March 2027.

Bitcoin volatility has fallen to levels seen in the summer of 2023, Cointelegraph reported, citing Glassnode data. According to Glassnode, Bitcoin’s one-month realized volatility has dropped to an annualized 25%. The metric previously fell as low as 18% in the summer of 2023, and the current pattern is seen as similar to the period when Bitcoin prices rose, speculation in memecoins and altcoins followed, and the market then entered a lull.

A Canadian national was sentenced to 25 months in prison by a federal court in Miami, Florida, for involvement in cryptocurrency theft and money laundering, CBC News reported. CBC News said Trenton Johnston, 20, was accused of posing as a Google technical support employee and a representative of a crypto company to obtain wallet access codes from victims. In March, Johnston and an accomplice were found to have stolen 185 BTC, worth $13 million at the time, from a California resident, according to the report. Prosecutors said Johnston used the proceeds to buy a Lamborghini, two BMW vehicles and jewelry, and to charter private jets. Johnston pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, returned about $3.8 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency, and is set to be deported to Canada after completing his sentence.

An anonymous whale unstaked 387,000 HYPE worth $30.43 million from Kinetiq, a liquid staking protocol in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, and deposited the tokens into Coinbase, according to Onchain Lens. Exchange deposits are typically interpreted as a sign of intent to sell.

Ethereum research and development nonprofit Ethlabs said Ethereum co-founder Mihai Alisie has joined as a major early backer. Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and Gattaca also joined as contributors, along with 19 additional new backers from the Ethereum community. Ethlabs did not disclose the size of the new funding or specific fundraising targets.

Australia’s corporate regulator views prediction markets as services closer to gambling than financial investment products, Bloomberg reported. Sarah Court, chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, said at a parliamentary hearing today that no prediction market operator has so far applied for a license to operate in Australia, and any future application would face strict scrutiny. Court said prediction markets share characteristics with binary options, in which investors can lose their entire stake depending on the outcome, making them difficult to view as financial products suitable for retail investors. Australian authorities had previously warned that users of offshore prediction markets may struggle to receive investor protection under the country’s financial regulations and had ordered access to Polymarket blocked as part of a crackdown on illegal online gambling.

Real Vision crypto market analyst Jamie Coutts said Bitcoin’s mining hash rate is showing a clear recovery. Coutts said BTC’s 14-day average hash rate fell 23% from its all-time high in October last year through February this year, marking the biggest drop since China’s 2021 mining ban. After fluctuating, the hash rate has rebounded 21% from its July 17 low, narrowing the gap with its record high to about 6%. He said the recovery reflects miners’ willingness to invest and stronger Bitcoin network security, although it does not necessarily mean BTC prices will rise. In six of nine similar past recovery phases, BTC traded higher a year later, with a typical gain of about 66%, Coutts said.

Ethereum GitHub developer kevaundray has proposed EIP-8450, a mechanism for registering quantum-resistant public keys for Ethereum validators. The proposal aims to prepare for quantum computing attacks by using leanXMSS keys, a hash-based cryptographic technology, and verifiable random function (VRF) tree roots. The update includes registration and replacement approval for quantum-resistant keys using existing BLS signing keys, as well as a minimum waiting period of one epoch for key changes. The proposal is currently in the draft stage and has not been implemented on the live network.

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of $21.4 million on Oct. 28, marking a third consecutive trading day of net outflows, according to Farside Investors. - BlackRock ETHA: -$44.8 million - Fidelity FETH: +$18.8 million - Morgan Stanley MSSE: +$1.0 million - Grayscale Mini ETH: +$3.6 million

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $137.3 million on Oct. 28, extending gains to a third straight trading session, according to Farside Investors. - BlackRock IBIT: +$136 million - Bitwise BITB: +$1.3 million