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The number of holders of Solana-based tokenized stocks has reached a record 1.2 million, according to Solana. Of that total, 775,000 were newly added in September.

Nasdaq-listed Hyperion DeFi, a Hyperliquid strategy accumulation company for HYPE, said it repurchased 240,124 HYPD common shares at an average price of $3.21 per share and fully repaid about $8.6 million in existing debt. The company said it repaid all principal and interest tied to its loan agreement with Avenue Capital, funding part of the repayment through sales of HYPE tokens, while not disclosing the size of those sales. As of Sept. 30, Hyperion DeFi held 15,442,482 outstanding HYPD shares, about $14.5 million in cash, cash equivalents and stablecoins, and 1.85 million HYPE tokens.

Linea, Consensys’ in-house zkEVM layer-2 network, said it is shutting down a validator that supports Yield Boost Vaults as a precautionary step tied to preventing a MetaMask security incident. The company said the funds and control rights of the staking vault itself are unaffected. It added net staking rewards used for ecosystem incentives may temporarily decline until the validator replacement is completed, and said it is continuing to monitor the situation.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $87,000. BTC is trading at $87,129.98 on the Binance USDT market.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 in September, below market forecasts for an 89,000 gain.

An anonymous whale deposited 71,000 HYPE worth about $6.48 million to an exchange around 50 minutes ago, according to ai_9684xtpa. Exchange deposits are generally interpreted as intended for selling. The address had earlier withdrawn 142,834.56 HYPE worth $12.3 million on Sept. 4.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said the lack of progress on the U.S. Clarity bill is leaving the crypto market exposed to ongoing systemic risk. Belshe said the main issue is a structure in which a single firm simultaneously operates a trading platform, brokerage and asset custody service. While the collapse of a brokerage alone could limit damage to part of the market, the failure of a firm running an exchange and custody services as well could spread the shock across the broader market.

Signs of recovering spot demand are emerging in Bitcoin on-chain data, according to CryptoQuant contributor MAC_D. Even so, more confirmation is needed before concluding the current uptrend is being supported by strong spot demand. As of Sept. 30, apparent demand growth improved to around negative 101,000 BTC on Oct. 1 from about negative 182,000 BTC on Sept. 24. The roughly 81,000 BTC improvement in a week still leaves the metric in negative territory, but suggests spot demand is recovering as the pace of contraction narrows quickly. By contrast, the Coinbase premium index remains negative, indicating spot buying pressure from U.S. investors has yet to show a clear recovery. The key issue in the current rally, MAC_D said, is the gap between Bitcoin's price and U.S. spot demand. The analysis suggests that even if Bitcoin extends gains and breaks above its previous high, the rally may prove less durable unless the Coinbase premium and on-chain spot demand improve together.

Bitcoin’s move toward the $88,000-$89,000 range is putting trading activity by investors who have held the asset for at least six months in focus, according to an analysis by on-chain analyst Darkfost. Darkfost said the average cost basis for holders in the 18-month to two-year cohort is around $88,350, while the figure for six- to 12-month holders is about $89,200. With the two groups clustered at similar levels, investor sentiment could shift sharply if Bitcoin enters that range. Darkfost added that holders with less than one year overall have continued to face losses, and some may have bought near the previous market peak, which could prompt selling as the price approaches their average entry level. At the same time, investors who endured prolonged losses may buy more Bitcoin to lower their average cost basis. With most nearing a return to profit, selling and additional buying could emerge at the same time.

Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard, said Bitcoin treasury companies are unlikely to find it easy to compete with Strategy, according to an interview with Cointelegraph. Ammous said it was hard to find a compelling reason to choose another Bitcoin treasury company over Strategy, adding that Strategy’s large Bitcoin holdings help lower its funding costs and give it a competitive edge. He said Strategy had not been pushed close to liquidation even during sharp Bitcoin price declines, and added that the company has enough cash to cover dividend obligations, leaving it room to withstand a much deeper drop in Bitcoin prices than current levels. He also said companies that generate stable cash flow can allocate surplus cash not needed for operations to Bitcoin. At the same time, Ammous noted that investing in Strategy stock also carries risks and said he personally prefers holding Bitcoin directly.

Circle submitted comments on the European Commission’s consultation on MiCA, or the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, and proposed preserving the multi-issuance structure for global stablecoins. According to Circle, about 30 electronic money tokens, or EMTs, have been approved under MiCA, but only USDC, USDG and EURC among the top 25 stablecoins by global market capitalization are currently subject to MiCA rules. Circle argued the current structure should remain in place so an EU entity authorized under MiCA and an entity authorized by an overseas regulator can jointly issue a single globally circulating stablecoin. Circle also recommended a framework under which the regulator in the issuer’s home jurisdiction would take primary supervisory responsibility, while the EU would handle regulatory equivalence assessments and recognition of entities by the European Banking Authority, or EBA.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov expressed disappointment with regulatory discussions by the European Central Bank and the European Banking Authority related to MiCA, saying proposals to require suitability reviews for DeFi users and apply certification rules to DeFi lending protocols are concerning. Kulechov said such measures could create a more closed financial ecosystem and reduce access to open financial networks.

Cross-chain decentralized exchange THORChain (RUNE) announced the official launch of its ZEC pool. With the network’s node rotation process now complete, all nodes have begun monitoring the ZEC blockchain, enabling permissionless trading for ZEC. The pool’s liquidity remains low for now, however, and the project said early trading requires caution even as liquidity is expected to increase over time.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said at Cointelegraph’s Seoul Connect event that crypto prices could rise if the U.S. expands its money supply to support the artificial intelligence industry and finance government debt. Hayes added that demand for scarce assets could also increase if China shifts from limited tightening to large-scale monetary stimulus, and said he is watching pressure in French financial markets, including credit default swaps linked to BNP Paribas and spreads on French government bonds.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced the temporary suspension of STRK deposits and withdrawals at 10:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 4 to support the Starknet network upgrade.

South African financial institution Absa Bank has launched Africa’s first institutional-grade cryptocurrency custody service, Crypto Briefing reported.

Crypto custody firm Copper has started offering Hyperliquid (HYPE) perpetual futures trading to institutional investors, The Block reported. The service lets clients trade Hyperliquid perpetual futures through Copper while keeping assets secured in Copper’s non-custodial MPC infrastructure.

Forward Industries, the largest corporate accumulator of Solana, said it bought an additional 949,000 SOL over the past quarter, raising its total holdings to 8.5 million SOL. The amount is equal to about 1.4% of SOL’s circulating supply.

A suspected Aave team-linked address sold 50,000 AAVE on-chain over the past week, worth a total of $8 million, AmberCN said. The address currently holds 30,000 AAVE, valued at $5.5 million.

Citi raised its target price on Strategy (MSTR) to $240 from $136 and maintained a Buy rating after increasing its 12-month Bitcoin price forecast by 39% to $113,400, Walter Bloomberg reported. Citi estimated about 34 percentage points of the target-price increase would come from Bitcoin’s price gains, while an additional 16 percentage points would be driven by an expansion in mNAV, or market value relative to net asset value. Citi also raised its Bitcoin Yield Multiple for Strategy to 4.0x from 2.5x and, based on that change, assumed an mNAV of 1.24x.

Software company Utexo plans to issue USDT on the Bitcoin network this month, CoinDesk reported. Utexo has secured a commercial license for Bitcoin-based USDT issuance and plans to provide APIs, SDKs and cloud infrastructure to exchanges, wallets and payment service providers. The company had previously entered into a partnership with Tether and said it would lead USDT issuance and distribution on the Bitcoin network.

Polygon has launched a stablecoin-based euro-dollar exchange pool that is not tied to traditional bank foreign-exchange market hours. Monerium, Frax and Capa launched the EURe/frxUSD trading pair on Uniswap V3, enabling direct swaps between regulated euro liquidity and dollar-denominated stablecoin liquidity in Polygon-based applications.

Aave V4 topped $1 billion in deposits for the first time in September, while lending volume grew to about $310 million. Aave also expanded into an institutional market built around stablecoins and a market for tokenized stocks, and deployed its protocol on Circle’s ARC and Base.

Aptos deployed a new validator hotfix on its testnet. The “Aptos Node V1.49.2 Hotfix,” released on Oct. 1, is a private hotfix, and Aptos has not disclosed the source code. Instead, it instructed node operators to use the attached binary or Docker image.

Optimism (OP) has unveiled a major update to its Rust-based fault proof system, focused on improving consistency so data derivation and proof execution produce the same results as other components of the OP Stack.