Live Feed

Open Standard, a stablecoin project backed by Mastercard, Visa and Stripe, has officially launched OUSD and applied a stablecoin economic distribution mechanism to the token, CEO Zach Abrams said, according to CoinDesk. The project plans to distribute most equity over the next four to five years to founding partners and other network partners based on their contributions. Partners that meet minimum participation thresholds will receive equity based on OUSD supply and transaction activity. The criteria were not disclosed. Abrams said founding partners will not receive any special profit-sharing treatment and will instead be subject to the same rules as other partners, with rewards tied to OUSD supply.

Crypto hacks this year reached as many as 277 incidents through the end of September, with total losses estimated at about $1.84 billion, Crypto Briefing reported, citing DefiLlama. On a full-year basis in 2025, about $2.715 billion was lost across 148 incidents. In the third quarter alone, 116 security breaches led to more than $1.25 billion in stolen assets, marking the largest quarterly loss this year. Major cases included a $320 million exploit involving Liquid Network on Sept. 6 and a $387 million hack at Bitget. The Bitget case was the largest single hack of the year.

Stripe has adopted Open USD, or OUSD, as the default stablecoin for corporate stablecoin payments and remittances, Crypto Briefing reported. OUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin developed by Open Standard, a consortium with participation from more than 200 companies. Members include Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Coinbase.

Petra Tschudin, a board member at the Swiss National Bank, said stablecoins make it harder for monetary policy to be transmitted across the broader economy. Tschudin said stablecoins are less connected to the existing two-tier financial system, which could weaken the impact of central bank policy on financial markets and the real economy, and stressed digital currency design should not constrain the role and functions of central banks.

A former UK National Crime Agency investigator has been ordered to repay 1.81 million pounds ($2.4 million) after stealing 50 BTC from a seized wallet during a dark web probe, Decrypt reported. According to the UK Crown Prosecution Service, Bristol man Paul Chowles transferred the 50 BTC from a seized wallet to his own address in May 2017 while handling cryptocurrency analysis and extraction work on devices seized by the Silk Road 2.0 investigation team. The BTC was worth about 60,000 pounds ($77,000) at the time. Chowles then split the stolen BTC into smaller amounts, moved it through the mixing service Bitcoin Fog, and cashed out using Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards. The related transactions totaled 279 transfers worth 144,580 pounds. Chowles admitted to theft and to transferring and concealing criminal proceeds, and was sentenced to five years and six months in prison in July 2025.

Ostium, an Arbitrum-based decentralized platform for tokenized asset perpetual futures, has fully compensated losses at 3,321 wallets affected by a July hack and proposed a separate recovery plan to the remaining 345 affected wallets, Crypto Briefing reported. According to the outlet, on July 15 an attacker compromised Ostium’s off-chain infrastructure, rather than its smart contracts, and submitted manipulated BTC-USD price data. A total of 23.75 million USDC was drained through eight abnormal trades. Ostium Labs decided to use its own funds to cover losses suffered by affected liquidity providers. The company has fully repaid the 3,321 wallets with relatively smaller losses and sent a term sheet outlining a recovery plan to the other 345 wallets on Aug. 29.

Chainlink (LINK) has launched Fulcrum, a cross-chain collateral and finance platform connecting banks, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds to on-chain markets, CoinDesk reported. Fulcrum supports 24/7 collateral transfers and collateral mobilization across public and private blockchains, as well as same-day financial transactions.

BlackRock’s crypto holdings rose by about $29.54 billion in the third quarter of this year, according to Finbold, citing Arkham data. Its crypto portfolio increased to about $77.1 billion on Sept. 30 from $47.56 billion on July 1, a gain of about 62.1% over three months, the report said. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), held about 738,200 BTC at the start of the third quarter and added 63,070 BTC, bringing total holdings to about 801,270 BTC, according to the report. That marked an increase of about 8.5% by holdings volume. Over the same period, BTC rose more than 42% from about $58,564 to around $84,000, Finbold said.

Global digital asset investment products recorded $3.55 billion in net inflows last week, the largest weekly net inflow this year, according to CoinShares’ weekly fund flows report. Total assets under management rose to about $173 billion, while year-to-date net inflows reached about $8.6 billion. By asset, Bitcoin investment products drew $2.52 billion in net inflows, followed by Ethereum at $702 million, Solana at $193 million and XRP at $92.3 million. About 71% of last week’s inflows went into Bitcoin, with Ethereum following behind.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor said on X that Strategy and Strive are working together on a Bitcoin-based financial strategy. Saylor argued that broader Bitcoin adoption could strengthen corporate balance sheets, lower funding costs and help lift equity valuations.

About $295.4 million in user funds was stolen in the April 1 hack, and the attacker has been identified as North Korea-linked threat group UNC6862, the Drift Foundation said on X. The foundation said it had investigated the incident and tracked the fund flows with Mandiant, zeroShadow and SEAL 911, adding that Mandiant identified the attacker as UNC6862. The stolen funds were bridged to the Ethereum network, where a total of about 130,259 ETH was held across four wallets. Of that, 107,165 ETH in three wallets has not moved so far. From the remaining wallet, about 23,094 ETH was sent to Tornado Cash on July 23. About $9.2 million in stolen funds has been frozen so far. The foundation said it is working with law enforcement agencies and zeroShadow to track the related wallets and fund movements, and plans to transfer any recovered funds to the DFX recovery pool.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has fallen below $84,000. BTC is trading at $83,949.99 on the Binance USDT market.

The Ethereum Foundation will provide $100,000 to support development of a formally verified compiler for the smart contract language Vyper, Crypto Briefing reported. Vyper-based smart contracts currently handle more than $2 billion in total value locked across DeFi protocols including Curve and Yearn.

Nasdaq-listed Lion Group Holdings bought an additional 38,000 HYPE after selling all of its SOL holdings and part of its BTC position, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company now holds 232,900 HYPE worth $20.1 million.

Fables, a decentralized exchange built on Robinhood Chain, said it will hold the token generation event for its native FABLES token on Oct. 20. The project said an initial 75 million FABLES will enter circulation, while the full circulating supply will not be issued at once. Instead, tokens will be minted only as needed for liquidity provision and future scheduled uses. A total of 120 million FABLES has been allocated to the community, with up to 45 million FABLES available as liquidity tokens at the time of the TGE. Prologue holders have been allocated 25 million FABLES, which will be minted when the tokens are claimed. The team allocation totals 80 million FABLES, but none of those tokens will enter the market at launch.

Bitcoin futures open interest has exceeded $50 billion for the first time this year, according to David Lawant, head of research at Anchorage Digital. Lawant said the move reflects stronger market activity, adding that rising spot trading volume and thinner order books point to the early stages of a Bitcoin recovery.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened higher today. - S&P 500: +0.30% - Nasdaq: +0.40% - Dow Jones: +0.20%

Singapore’s cryptocurrency market grew sharply over the year through June, with total transaction volume reaching $284 billion, up 55.4% from a year earlier, Cointelegraph reported, citing Chainalysis. That helped Singapore regain its position as the largest cryptocurrency market in Central, Southern Asia and Oceania. Growth was led by institutional activity, with trading volume on institutional platforms rising 94% to $60 billion. Most of that trading was concentrated among a small number of market makers, OTC firms and institutional brokers.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $85,000. BTC is trading at $85,000.01 on the Binance USDT market.

Financial-focused Layer 1 blockchain Pharos Network (PROS) unveiled its “Agent Native” upgrade at a keynote during Korea Blockchain Week, outlining support for onchain activity by AI agents. The upgrade includes adding gas fee sponsorship to the testnet, natural language-based real-world asset management, and AI tools for developers. According to Pharos, users will be able to use the Pharos Port Agent widget to check real-world asset holdings, returns, and redeemable periods through natural language queries. Pharos also plans to launch proof-of-stake staking in the fourth quarter of 2026, gradually introduce agent accounts and related features in 2027, and build an integrated Agent Native-based system by 2028.

U.S. core personal consumption expenditures prices rose 0.2% in August from a month earlier, below the 0.3% market forecast, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. On an annual basis, the core PCE price index rose 3.0%, also below expectations for a 3.3% increase. The core PCE price index, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, is widely viewed as a key inflation gauge for the Federal Reserve. A stronger-than-expected reading can weaken expectations for Fed rate cuts, while a softer-than-expected figure can be interpreted as a sign of easing inflation and strengthen expectations for rate cuts. Risk assets generally tend to rise when expectations grow for greater liquidity tied to lower interest rates.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $84,000. BTC is trading at $84,100 on the Binance USDT market.

Polymarket has introduced new user-protection measures, including deposit limits and self-exclusion tools, CNN reported. The move comes as calls grow to tighten consumer-protection rules alongside the rapid expansion of prediction markets. Users will now be able to set their own deposit caps that cannot be lifted immediately, a measure aimed at preventing excessive spending and losses. The platform has also added a feature allowing users to place themselves on a self-exclusion list to suspend access for a set period or permanently.

The Cardano Foundation and Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras are pursuing a blockchain project to track supply chains for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel, Crypto Briefing reported. The goal is to record fuel supply-chain data on-chain to make raw materials and distribution processes easier to trace and to reduce greenwashing.

Weekly altcoin deposit transactions sent to exchanges rose to 78,000 on Sept. 28, up about 160% from roughly 29,800 on Sept. 14 and the highest level since October 2025, Cointelegraph reported. Over the same period, the number of addresses depositing altcoins to exchanges climbed to about 51,600 from around 17,600, nearly tripling and reaching the highest level in the past year. Cointelegraph said token deposits to exchanges are generally interpreted as a sign holders are preparing to sell, which could point to potential selling pressure.