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Toss has completed a proof of concept with Kwangju Bank for QR payments using stablecoins, Digital Asset reported. The test was designed to verify a scenario in which Kwangju Bank customers make offline in-store purchases with stablecoins through the Toss app. Under the setup, when a Kwangju Bank customer selects stablecoin payment in the bank’s app, the linked Toss app opens immediately and automatically launches a QR scanner.

Solana-based decentralized exchange Orca and DeFi protocol Loopscale are merging to relaunch as Formation, The Block reported. Terms of the merger were not disclosed, and Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt will serve as CEO. Formation plans to combine Orca’s trading infrastructure with Loopscale’s lending and investment vaults to support everything from asset issuance and fundraising to trading. The company also aims to expand beyond crypto into capital-intensive industries including AI, energy, robotics, and defense, while longer term seeking to offer services that can access regulated U.S. capital markets. The existing Orca and Loopscale protocols will remain in place after the merger as the foundation of the ORCA and xORCA token networks.

VS Trust, a trust established in Delaware, filed a preliminary prospectus with the U.S. SEC on Oct. 7 for the registration of 3x leveraged ETFs tied to major assets including Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to materials shared on X by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, the six proposed ETFs are designed to deliver three times the daily returns of gold (GLDU), silver (SLVK), Bitcoin (BITH), Ethereum (ETHK), crude oil (OILY) and natural gas (NATX). The filing came after the SEC approved a rule change on Oct. 2 for listing the ETFs on Cboe BZX. Additional procedures are still required before actual trading can begin.

Stablecoins are currently the most suitable tool for micropayments made by AI agents, according to a Coinbase Institute report. The institute said legacy payment networks such as cards face limits in micropayments because of fixed per-transaction costs and human-centered identity verification systems, while stablecoins can handle cross-border micropayments with low fees and fast settlement. It added that the open payment standard x402 standardizes the process for AI agents to pay per use for content or data. The report also stressed that policies are needed to allow open standards and a range of payment methods so the AI agent payments market does not become dependent on closed systems run by a small number of companies.

The KOK coin case, widely known in South Korea as an alleged multitrillion-won pyramid-style crypto fraud, remains unresolved after several years, while some people tied to the case have reportedly moved into new business ventures. According to Yonhap News, former Medium Foundation Chairman Kim, identified as a KOK coin associate, was sent to trial nearly two years ago, but no first-instance ruling has yet been issued. As the legal process has dragged on, some KOK coin associates have reemerged as executives at a blockchain technology company in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Local media previously reported that the company had signed memorandums of understanding with banks, securities firms and fintech companies.

Blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos said on X it has added XRP support to its institutional crypto trading service, Paxos Crypto Brokerage. As a result, partners can now offer XRP trading to customers through the existing Paxos platform. According to Paxos, XRP, which has been in circulation since 2012, is currently held in more than 8.1 million wallets and has a market capitalization of about $95 billion.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said NEAR Protocol is already delivering business results through its cross-chain transaction service Intents and could see additional upside if the AI agent market grows. In a post on X, Hougan said Intents' cumulative transaction volume has surpassed $30 billion and is expected to generate about $45 million in fee revenue this year. Hougan added some of that revenue will be used for token buybacks. Hougan also said NEAR is preparing for the AI agent market by building high-throughput and cross-chain capabilities, as well as private AI infrastructure, and remains competitive on its existing businesses, including Intents, even if AI agents do not grow as much as expected.

Sixty-four percent of millennial cryptocurrency holders plan to make additional purchases over the next year, according to a survey report released by U.S. financial firm Charles Schwab, Crypto Briefing reported. The report found cryptocurrency ranked first among the asset classes millennials most want to invest in, followed by ETFs in second, stocks in third, bonds in fourth, and mutual funds in fifth. It also showed 33% of millennials currently hold cryptocurrency, compared with 22% of Gen Z respondents and 8% of baby boomers. The survey was conducted between Aug. 24 and Sept. 17 this year among 2,000 Americans ages 21 to 75.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower today. - S&P 500: -0.22% - Nasdaq: -0.22% - Dow Jones: -0.66%

Bitwise said in a report that Bitcoin’s rise in the third quarter this year signaled a structural shift in the market, according to Crypto Briefing. Bitcoin rose about 40% to 43% in the third quarter, marking the second-strongest third quarter gain in its history and the strongest third-quarter rally in more than a decade, the report said. Bitwise said the key point was not simply the price increase, but that the usual relationship between price and implied volatility had broken down. In past Bitcoin rallies, implied volatility, or the market’s expected range of price swings, tended to fall as prices rose. During this third-quarter rally, however, that pattern did not appear. Bitwise said this could be interpreted as a sign that the way the Bitcoin market functions is changing from previous cycles, amounting to a regime shift.

Wells Fargo is in talks with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, on a plan to secure liquidity for cryptocurrency trading, CoinDesk reported. The discussions involve a potential arrangement under which Payward would provide crypto trading liquidity to the bank and are private, according to CoinDesk. Wells Fargo previously advised on Nasdaq’s $100 million investment in Payward.

A federal court in Northern California dismissed a class-action lawsuit against Foris DAX, the operator of Crypto.com, Crypto Briefing reported. The court said the plaintiffs failed to prove concrete harm from an alleged privacy violation tied to Crypto.com’s cookie tracking. The plaintiffs had sued over claims that the company continued tracking site visitors even after they selected "Disable all" on the website’s cookie consent banner.

Wintermute sold 619.59 BTC through Binance, worth about $51.7 million, according to Onchain Lens.

A U.S. government address transferred another 94.15 million USDT seized from FTX and Alameda to Coinbase Prime, Onchain Lens reported. The total moved over the past few hours was about $566 million.

According to minutes released by the Federal Reserve, all participants supported a 25-basis-point rate increase, and most judged one additional hike by year-end could be appropriate. Almost all participants saw inflation risks as tilted to the upside, while assessing labor market risks as generally balanced. The Fed staff’s economic outlook was stronger than at the July meeting, and many participants said financial conditions were still supporting economic growth despite a recent rise in long-term Treasury yields. Participants also noted future economic data would determine the direction of interest rates.

Coinbase announced the addition of WHUF for spot trading.

A New York jury found cybersecurity consultant Jonathan Spalletta guilty of charges tied to the theft of about $55 million from crypto platform Uranium Finance, Bloomberg reported. Prosecutors said Spalletta laundered the stolen funds through crypto mixers including Tornado Cash, then spent millions of dollars on rare Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering cards, ancient Roman coins, and parts of a Wright brothers Flyer aircraft. The money-laundering charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 16 next year. Authorities also seized about $31 million worth of cryptocurrency and other assets from Spalletta's home.

Chainalysis said cryptocurrency addresses found in recently leaked internal materials from Silent Ransom Group, or SRG, also known as Luna Moth, were verified as being linked to the Russian-linked hacking group. Some of the addresses received millions of dollars in ransomware proceeds extorted from victims, while one wallet mentioned in the leaked materials was found to have been funded entirely with more than $10 million received from a victim in mid-2026.

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said tokenized stocks could become one of the biggest advances in financial markets over the next two to three years. In an interview with CNBC at Token2049, Horsley said bringing stocks and other capital markets on-chain could fundamentally change how assets are traded and accessed. Horsley added there is a broad intuitive sense that tokenization could drive a transformative shift similar to the past electronification of stock markets, while the industry is still studying its full significance. Potential benefits include 24-hour trading and fractional ownership, Horsley said. Horsley also said the crypto winter is over and added capital appears to be shifting back toward crypto from artificial intelligence. As investors rebalance their portfolios in the second half of this year or early next year, some liquidity is expected to flow back into the crypto market, Horsley said.

Canary Capital has filed an amended S-1 registration statement with the U.S. SEC to launch a staking SEI spot ETF, Cointelegraph reported. The proposed ETF would directly hold spot SEI and stake about 90% of its holdings to earn rewards. BitGo was named the sole custodian.

Polygon Labs has integrated the Tron network into its Open Money Stack stablecoin payments infrastructure, enabling remittance, fintech and payments firms to disburse Tron-based USDT through bank transfers, cards or cash, according to CoinDesk. The integration also lets users convert the tokens into bank account deposits and transfer USDT between Tron and EVM networks without connecting separate wallets, bridges or fiat on-ramp providers.

Digital assets are being integrated into the mainstream financial system regardless of whether the U.S. Congress passes legislation, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said at Token2049 in Singapore, according to Crypto Briefing. Belshe added institutional crypto adoption is moving faster than regulatory legislation. BitGo is also expanding its business in the Asia-Pacific region.

U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill said regulators are moving to address digital-asset issues, but their actions are not enough. In an interview with Fox Business, Hill said the U.S. SEC and CFTC have proposed rulemakings covering various aspects of crypto regulatory oversight and enforcement, but those efforts fall short of the Clarity Act. Hill added the two agencies’ responses remain inadequate and said Hill still hopes the Clarity Act can pass before the next congressional session in 2027, stressing that permanent legislative changes are needed for the United States to maintain its lead in crypto and blockchain technology.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake warned the cryptocurrency industry should start planning for a "bunker mode" response, as AI-driven recovery of private keys from ECDSA public keys could become possible within months rather than years, according to The Block. Drake recommended gradually moving assets to new addresses that have never signed a transaction, so the public key remains hidden behind its hash and is not exposed. He also stressed there was no need to rush, adding that poorly organized asset transfers could cause even greater losses.

HyperLabs, the developer behind Hyperliquid, completed the withdrawal of 3.75 million HYPE worth about $332 million two minutes ago after applying to unstake the tokens seven days earlier, according to on-chain analyst EmberCN.