Cointelegraph

Opinion by: Dylan Dewdney, co-founder and CEO at Kuvi.ai

With everyone and their grandmother talking about AI these days, half the time it seems to be that vague, overhyped mantra “it’s going to change everything,” and the other half it’s about ChatGPT replacing your therapist. 

Almost no one is talking about how AI could help with the boring, frustrating, everyday mess of personal finance. This doesn’t mean dashboards, robo-advisers or the latest DeFi app with a shiny UX. It’s something more radical — agentic finance.

That phrase might sound a little academic, but it’s simple. Instead of clicking buttons and juggling tabs, you give an AI agent a goal, like “ensure solvency this month” or “optimize stablecoin yield without wrecking gas fees.” The agent then handles the fragmented mess of accounts, exchanges, wallets, swaps, bridges — whatever it takes. 

It’s not about replacing you, it’s about coordinating your choices. The fact that people are talking to a large language model about their anxiety but can’t yet trust an AI to handle a Uniswap trade is absurd.

The crypto mess no one admits out loud

DeFi still feels like 2010 web forums mashed with a bank’s back office. You’re jumping between Coinbase, Binance, MetaMask, maybe a Solana wallet on your phone, plus some Discord threads where people argue about “best” yield farms. Every screen looks different, every transaction has hidden friction. Gas fees spike, bridges break, approvals vanish into the ether.

There’s a reason so many people just leave their money on centralized exchanges, even after everything that went down with FTX. The UX of self-sovereign finance is still awful. That’s precisely why agentic finance matters.

Consider telling an AI agent: “Allocate 20% of my ETH into a low-risk yield strategy, but shift it if USDT de-pegs even a little.” You don’t want to read thirty blog posts or memorize which pool uses Curve versus Balancer. You just want it done. The agent works for you. It interprets, executes and adapts.

Markets are missing the boat on agentic finance

Here’s the infuriating part. If the world is hyped about AI agents, why are fintech and crypto folks still stuck on dashboards? We keep getting new “personal finance super apps,” but they’re just shinier spreadsheets: no coordination, no autonomy, no real intelligence.

People are literally spilling their deepest secrets to ChatGPT. They’re treating it like therapy, like companionship. But ask it to move $1,000 from USDC to stETH while balancing carbon footprint and keeping slippage under 1%? Suddenly, the whole industry acts like that’s a bridge too far.

It’s not, it’s fear. Regulators might freak out, and platforms don’t want to lose control of users. To be fair, the risk of bad actors building sketchy agents is real. Hiding from the future doesn’t stop it.

Think about the market implications for a second. If agentic finance takes off, the stickiness of single platforms like Coinbase or Robinhood evaporates. Loyalty shifts to whoever builds the best coordinator, not whoever owns the exchange. Imagine your agent balancing positions across five CEXs and 10 DeFi protocols — no more vendor lock-in.

That’s terrifying if you’re a centralized exchange, but it’s also an opportunity. Whoever figures this out first gets to redefine the rails of finance. Not wallets, not brokerages, not apps. The agent becomes the gateway.

Users will happily let that happen, because no one enjoys waking up at 2 a.m. to approve a transaction before the pool dries up. No one enjoys explaining to their spouse that the money’s “stuck in a bridge” for 48 hours. People want outcomes, not interfaces.

Sunset dashboards, build agents

It’s time to admit that dashboards aren’t the future. Play-to-earn had its hype cycle, memecoins had their run, and right now, “AI integrations” are the flavor of the month. The breakthrough is letting agents handle the grind of finance, especially crypto finance.

The objections will come. 

Some will say it’s risky to let an AI touch your money. Some will say regulators will never allow it. Some will argue people “should” want to learn the nuts and bolts themselves. Those same arguments showed up against online banking, automated bill pay and algorithmic trading. 

Agentic finance isn’t about making humans obsolete. It’s about giving us the space to focus on strategy instead of clicking through broken UI flows. It’s about making finance feel more like Spotify playlists and less like debugging Excel.

The companies that get this will win. The ones that don’t will cling to their dashboards, convinced that people enjoy the suffering. But just wait — once someone releases the first trustworthy financial agent, no one’s going back.


Opinion by: Dylan Dewdney, co-founder and CEO at Kuvi.ai.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Michael Saylor has once again hinted that his company, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), may be preparing to buy more Bitcoin, even as corporate Bitcoin treasuries face mounting pressure from a sharp drop in net asset values (NAV).

In a Sunday post on X, Saylor shared a chart from the Saylor Bitcoin Tracker, showing Strategy’s cumulative Bitcoin (BTC) purchases. “The most important orange dot is always the next,” he also wrote.  

The chart, tracking 82 separate purchase events, lists Strategy’s holdings at 640,250 BTC, worth around $69 billion at current prices, up 45.6% from its aggregate cost basis of $74,000 per coin.

The post has fueled speculation among traders that another Bitcoin purchase could be imminent. In the past, similar cryptic posts have preceded buying announcements from Strategy.

Saylor hints at upcoming Bitcoin purchase. Source: Michael Saylor

Strategy leads global Bitcoin treasuries

According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.Net, Strategy remains the world’s dominant Bitcoin-holding corporation with 640,250 BTC. The firm’s holdings represent nearly 2.5% of Bitcoin’s total supply, surpassing the combined reserves of top 15 public miners and corporate treasuries.

In second place is MARA Holdings (Marathon Digital) with 53,250 BTC worth approximately $5.7 billion, followed by XXI (CEP) in third with 43,514 BTC valued at $4.7 billion. Japan’s Metaplanet (MTPLF) ranks fourth with 30,823 BTC, while the Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company (CEPO) rounds out the top five at 30,021 BTC.

The data also shows that several US-listed firms, including Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Coinbase and Tesla, maintain smaller but still substantial Bitcoin positions. The top 15 public companies collectively hold over 900,000 BTC.

Top 15 Bitcoin treasury firms. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.Net

Bitcoin treasury NAVs collapse

The post follows a turbulent year for corporate Bitcoin treasuries. In a recent report, 10x Research revealed that Bitcoin treasury firms have seen their NAVs collapse, wiping out billions in paper wealth.

Analysts said the boom in Bitcoin treasury companies, which issued shares at multiples of their actual BTC value, has “fully round-tripped,” leaving retail investors deep in losses while firms accumulated real Bitcoin.

On Tuesday, Metaplanet saw its enterprise value fall below the value of its Bitcoin holdings for the first time. The company’s market-to-Bitcoin NAV ratio dropped to 0.99, signaling that investors now value the firm at less than the worth of its underlying BTC reserves.

Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light

Key takeaways:

Ether’s rebound from a key support confluence puts $4,500 back within reach.

MVRV bands show ETH price holding above support, and eyeing a rally to $5,000.

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has rebounded by more than 15% two weeks after plunging to its two-month low of $3,435. Multiple indicators now hint that ETH may extend its recovery toward $4,500 by the end of October.

ETH price bull flag bounce in play

Ethereum’s rebound appears to be forming within a bull flag pattern, a structure that often signals the continuation of a prevailing uptrend following a brief consolidation.

In ETH’s case, the flag is represented by a descending parallel channel, developing after the sharp rally from its April low near $2,500 to the August high around $4,950, as shown below.

ETH/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The latest bounce from the channel’s lower boundary near $3,500 coincides with support from the 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave), a level that has historically attracted dip buyers during bull markets.

ETH could target a breakout toward the channel’s upper boundary, around the $4,450-4,500 area in October, if the recovery momentum sustains.

The interim upside target aligns with analyst FOUR’s double bottom technical setup, which shows ETH’s price to hit the structure’s neckline resistance at $4,750 in the coming days.

Source: X

Trader Luca further anticipated ETH rallying toward $4,500 (the red area in the chart below), given it has held above its “weekly bull market support band,” represented via the yellow area.

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: X/@CrypticTrades_

Meanwhile, a breakout above the area could send the price toward the bull flag target above $5,200, a potential record high, by November.

ETH/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

A breakdown below the support confluence, the bull flag’s lower boundary and the 200-day EMA support (the blue wave) around $3,550, could invalidate the pattern, exposing ETH to deeper retracements toward $3,000-3,200.

Ethereum MVRV doubles down on $4,500 target

Ethereum’s MVRV Extreme Deviation Pricing Bands show that its recent pullback has been stabilizing near the mean band around $3,900, a level that has historically served as a springboard for new rallies.

Each time ETH has bounced off this midpoint, including in early 2021, mid-2023, and early 2024, it has advanced toward the +1σ (standard deviation) band, currently hovering near $5,000.

Ethereum MVRV extreme deviation pricing bands. Source: Glassnode

This structure suggests ETH remains in the “healthy correction” phase of its ongoing bull cycle, rather than signaling exhaustion. A push toward the $4,500–$5,000 zone by late October appears statistically probable if the mean level continues to hold as support.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Chinese technology giants, including Ant Group and JD.com, have reportedly suspended plans to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong after regulators in Beijing voiced concerns over privately controlled digital currencies.

The companies were instructed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to pause these initiatives, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

“The real regulatory concern is, who has the ultimate right of coinage — the central bank or any private companies on the market?” one source familiar with the discussions told the FT.

Both companies had expressed interest earlier this year in joining Hong Kong’s pilot stablecoin program or launching tokenized financial products such as digital bonds.

Hong Kong’s stablecoin push hits a snag

Hong Kong began accepting applications for stablecoin issuers in August. Mainland officials had initially viewed the program as an opportunity to promote renminbi-pegged stablecoins and expand the yuan’s international footprint.

However, the momentum soon slowed down as Ye Zhiheng, executive director of the intermediaries division at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), warned that the city’s new stablecoin regulatory framework has heightened the risk of fraud.

People's Bank of China Headquarter, Beijing. Source: Wikimedia

Ye’s remarks followed stablecoin companies operating in Hong Kong posting double-digit losses on Aug. 1, just after the new stablecoin regulation came into force.

Last month, Chinese financial outlet Caixin reported that Beijing had restricted Hong Kong’s stablecoin activity. However, the report was removed shortly after publication, casting doubt on its claims.

China U-turns on Hong Kong tokenization push

Last month, China’s securities watchdog also reportedly instructed several local brokerages to pause their real-world asset (RWA) tokenization activities in Hong Kong, signaling Beijing’s growing unease with the rapid expansion of offshore digital asset ventures.

The move came as tokenization gains momentum in the country. Last week, CMB International Asset Management (CMBI), a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of a major Chinese commercial bank, China Merchants Bank (CMB), tokenized its $3.8 billion money market fund (MMF) on BNB Chain.

Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is reportedly preparing to review regulations that could allow banks to acquire and hold cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for investment purposes.

The move would mark a major policy shift, as current supervisory guidelines, revised in 2020, effectively ban banks from holding crypto due to volatility risks, according to a Sunday report from Livedoor News.

Per the report, the FSA plans to discuss the reform at an upcoming meeting of the Financial Services Council, an advisory body to the Prime Minister. The initiative aims to align crypto asset management with traditional financial products like stocks and government bonds.

Regulators are expected to explore a framework for managing crypto-related risks, such as sharp price swings that could impact a bank’s financial health. If approved, the FSA will likely impose capital and risk-management requirements before permitting banks to hold digital assets.

Japan may let banks operate licensed crypto exchanges

The FSA is also considering allowing bank groups to register as licensed “cryptocurrency exchange operators,” enabling them to offer trading and custody services directly.

Japan’s crypto market continues to grow rapidly, with more than 12 million crypto accounts registered as of February 2025, about 3.5 times higher than five years ago, according to FSA data.

At the start of September, the FSA sought to place crypto regulation under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), shifting it from the Payments Services Act to strengthen investor protection and align crypto with securities laws.

The regulator said that many issues within crypto resemble those traditionally addressed under the FIEA, so it may be appropriate to apply similar mechanisms and enforcement.

Japan’s top banks to launch yen-pegged stablecoin

Three of Japan’s largest banks, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) and Mizuho Bank, have joined forces to issue a yen-pegged stablecoin aimed at streamlining corporate settlements and reducing transaction costs.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission plans to introduce new rules to ban and penalize crypto insider trading.

Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee has echoed the sentiment that digital asset treasury hype may be coming to an end, but remains bullish on Ether, having purchased $1.5 billion worth since the market crash.

BitMine Immersion Technologies has scooped up a total of 379,271 Ether (ETH) worth almost $1.5 billion since the record crypto market liquidation event last weekend.

The acquisitions came in three separate purchases: 202,037 ETH after the weekend crash, 104,336 ETH on Thursday, and 72,898 ETH on Saturday, according to onchain data from Arkham Intelligence and ‘BMNR Bullz’, which tracks the firm’s purchases.

BitMine is the world’s largest Ether treasury company with a stash of more than 3 million ETH, or 2.5% of the entire supply, worth $11.7 billion. 

It is already halfway toward its target of 5% and has only started accumulating the asset in early July, when ETH was hovering around the $2,500 level. 

“Ethereum could flip Bitcoin similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post 71,” Lee told ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on Thursday. 

DAT bubble bursting? 

The continued aggressive accumulation of Ether occurs despite Lee’s opinion that the digital asset treasury bubble may have burst.

Lee stated that many DATs are trading below their net asset value (NAV), or the worth of their underlying crypto holdings. “If that’s not already a bubble burst… How would that bubble burst?” he told Fortune on Thursday. 

Research firm 10x Research also reported on Saturday that major DATs such as Metaplanet and Strategy were trading near or below their NAVs. 

However, this is not all bad news as DATs with strong capital bases and trading-savvy management teams “may still generate meaningful alpha,” they said. 

Huobi founder Li Lin wants some of that alpha and has reportedly raised about $1 billion as part of a strategy to invest in an Ether treasury.

Gold envy keeping crypto down

Lee told CNBC after the trading day on Friday that investors were still “licking their wounds” from the record leverage flush, but there was also a bit of “gold envy” as the commodity has been a “huge performer this year.”

“This is not the top of the crypto cycle, but leveraged longs in crypto are near record lows, so I think [...] we’re at the basement and working our way back up.”

Crypto markets are currently down 15% from their record high on October 7, while gold prices have retreated almost 3% from their peak on Thursday. 

Tom Lee speaking on CNBC on Friday. Source: YouTube


 Magazine: Ether’s price to go ‘nuclear,’ Ripple seeks $1B XRP buy: Hodler’s Digest

Renowned technical analyst John Bollinger has identified patterns in Ether and Solana charts that could suggest a big move ahead, especially if something similar happens with Bitcoin.

John Bollinger has identified “potential ‘W’ bottoms” in Bollinger Bands, a volatility indicator that he invented, on Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) charts, but the pattern has yet to form on the Bitcoin (BTC) chart, he said. 

“Gonna be time to pay attention soon, I think.”

ETH and SOL appear to be setting up double bottoms while Bitcoin is still forming its base. A ‘W’ bottom in Bollinger Bands is a bullish reversal signal that indicates potential upward price movement.

Ether has fallen to $3,700 twice this month and appears to be recovering, while Solana mirrored the move with a double dip to $175 in October, followed by a minor recovery. 

Bitcoin has made a major ‘V’ shaped dip, falling below $104,000 on Friday before recovering over the weekend to trade at the lower band of a range-bound channel that formed in mid-May when it broke into six figures. 

Time to pay attention

Analyst ‘Satoshi Flipper’ observed that the last time Bollinger advised paying attention was in July 2024. Bitcoin pumped from below $55,000 to over $100,000 in the six months that followed.  

“It is indeed time to pay attention. That’s a real Squeeze and the controlling feature is a two-bar reversal at the lower band,” he said at the time. 

Following months of tight compression, Bitcoin Bollinger Bands have widened this month as volatility increased with the record leverage flush last weekend. Analysts had predicted this “volatility storm” during the market lull in September. 

BTC Bollinger Bands daily timeframe. Source: TradingView


Watch the 50-week SMA

BTC has failed to break above the support-turned-resistance level at $108,000 since its Friday dump. 

However, analysts remain confident that we are not in a bear market yet, despite all the fear and panic. 

Analyst ‘Sykodelic’ said markets are still in an uptrend, using the 50-week simple moving average, which has been tagged four times since November, as a technical indicator. 

“Every single time the price has come down to tag the 1W 50SMA, there has been mass fear in the market, with the majority panic selling and everyone saying it is over. And every time it has rebounded with strength and pushed much higher.”

Multiple revisits to the 50-week SMA have caused panic. Source: Sykodelic

Magazine: Ether’s price to go ‘nuclear,’ Ripple seeks $1B XRP buy: Hodler’s Digest

Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC), is the largest BTC holder in the world at the time of this writing, and the wallets controlled by Satoshi took an unrealized loss of over $20 billion since the all-time high price of over $126,000 reached in early October.

Nakamoto’s Bitcoin stash contains over 1 million BTC, valued at over $117.5 billion at the time of this writing, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

The portfolio swelled to over $136 billion during Bitcoin’s rally to new all-time highs of over $126,000 during the first week of October.

Satoshi Nakamoto’s portfolio. Source: Arkham Intelligence

However, crypto markets were rocked by cascading liquidations in the perpetual futures market on October 8, ignited by a post from US President Donald Trump signaling added tariffs on China, which sparked investor fears of a renewed trade war.

The market rout caused $20 billion in liquidations, the worst 24-hour liquidation event in the history of crypto, sending prices crashing, with the value of some altcoins declining by over 99%. However, Bitcoin showed resilience, remaining above the $100,000 level.

Market crash is a temporary setback, not a reevaluation of fundamentals

The market crash that began on October 8 is only a short-term decline and “does not have long-term fundamental implications,” according to investment analysts at The Kobeissi Letter.

Multiple technical factors contributed to the market meltdown, including excessive leverage, thin market liquidity, which heightens volatility and exacerbates the effect of large, sudden moves, and Trump’s social media post, The Kobeissi Letter wrote.

Bitcoin’s price action at the time of this writing. Source: TradingView

“We think a trade deal will be reached, and crypto remains strong. We are bullish,” the analysts continued.

Days earlier, The Kobeissi Letter said that Bitcoin’s all-time high coincided with the US dollar’s weakest year since 1973, which signals a major macroeconomic shift.

Moreover, risk-on asset prices are increasing at the same time as store-of-value and bearer assets like gold and BTC, an unusual phenomenon as these asset classes tend to run counter to each other, adding weight to the Kobessi analysts’ macroeconomic thesis.

Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hodling: Joseph Chalom

Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash privacy-preserving protocol, asked the open source software community whether they are concerned with being retroactively prosecuted by the US Department of Justice for developing decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

Storm asked DeFi developers: “How can you be so sure you won’t be charged by the DOJ as a money service business for building a non-custodial protocol?” 

The DOJ could prosecute a case, arguing that any decentralized, non-custodial service should have been developed as a custodial service, as it did in the case against him, Storm added, citing his recent motion for acquittal, which was filed on September 30.

Source: Roman Storm

“Our company does not have any ability to affect any change, or take any action, with respect to the Tornado Cash protocol — it is a decentralized software protocol that no one entity or actor can control,” Storm is quoted as saying in the acquittal documents.

Storm was convicted in August on one of three counts; the jury found him guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, setting a dangerous legal precedent for open source software developers and sending shockwaves through the crypto community.

The fight for privacy continues

Following the verdict, legal experts debated whether US prosecutors would pursue the money laundering and sanctions charges against Storm in another trial.

The Jury was gridlocked during deliberations and failed to come to a unanimous consensus on those counts, finding Storm guilty on just the unlicensed money transmitter charge.

“If the Trump administration wants the USA to be the crypto capital of the world, then the DOJ must not be allowed to retry the two deadlocked charges,” Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at venture capital firm Variant Fund, wrote on X at the time.

DOJ official Matthew Galeotti addresses the audience at the American Innovation Project summit. Source: American Innovation Project

Matthew Galeotti, the acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s criminal division, signaled in August that the DOJ would not initiate a retrial of Storm and would not prosecute similar cases.

“Our view is that merely writing code, without ill intent, is not a crime,” Galeotti told the audience at the American Innovation Project Summit, an event for regulatory advocacy and pro-crypto legislation in the US.

“The department will not use indictments as a law-making tool. The department should not leave innovators guessing as to what could lead to criminal prosecution,” he added.

Magazine: Can privacy survive in US crypto policy after Roman Storm’s conviction?

Investors should exercise “discernment” when considering privately-issued stablecoins, which carry all the risks of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) plus their own unique risks, according to Jeremy Kranz, founder and managing partner of venture capital firm Sentinel Global.

Kranz called privately-issued stablecoins “central business digital currency,” which feature all of the surveillance, backdoors, programmability, and controls as CBDCs. He told Cointelegraph:

“Central business digital currency is really not necessarily that different. So, if JP Morgan issued a dollar stablecoin and controlled it through the Patriot Act, or whatever else comes out in the future, they can freeze your money and unbank you.”

Sentinel Global founder and managing partner Jeremy Kranz. Source: Sentinel Global

Overcollateralized stablecoin issuers, which back their blockchain tokens with cash and short-term government securities, can be subject to “bank runs” if too many holders attempt to redeem the tokens at the same time, Kranz added.

Algorithmic and synthetic stablecoins, which rely on software or complex trades to maintain their dollar-peg, also feature their own counterparty risks and dependencies, like the risk of de-pegging from volatility or flash crashes in crypto derivatives markets, he told Cointelegraph.

Kranz said technology is a neutral tool that can be used to build a better financial future for humanity or be misused, but the outcomes are reliant on individual investors reading the fine print, understanding the risks, and making informed choices about the financial instruments they choose to hold.

A plethora of opportunities and risks are coming down the pipeline

The rapid pace of innovation in stablecoins, crypto, and tokenization technologies is like “10 black swan events,” Kranz told Cointelegraph, stressing that both opportunities and risks will arise from rapid and disruptive technological progress.

The stablecoin market capitalization crossed the $300 billion milestone in October, according to data from DeFiLlama.

Stablecoin market cap sits at over $307 billion at the time of this writing. Source: DeFiLlama

Stablecoins experienced heightened interest following the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill in the United States, which drew mixed reactions from lawmakers.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a US representative from Georgia, called the bill a CBDC Trojan Horse. "This bill regulates stablecoins and provides for the backdoor central bank digital currency,” she said in a July 15 X post.

“The Federal Reserve has been planning a CBDC for years, and this will open the door to move you to a cashless society and into digital currency that can be weaponized against you by an authoritarian government controlling your ability to buy and sell,” she added.

Magazine: Bitcoin vs stablecoins showdown looms as GENIUS Act nears

Key takeaways:

Gold’s ongoing pullback could trigger Bitcoin’s rebound, according to multiple analysts.

Rallying to $150,000–$165,000 by year’s end is still possible, based on technical analysis.

Bitcoin (BTC) is showing signs of bottoming out as the rally by its analog rival, gold (XAU), is starting to look increasingly overextended.

Bitcoin hints at “generational bottom” as gold dips

Gold’s rally appears to have stalled after hitting an all-time high of around $4,380 per ounce on Friday, given it has dropped 2.90% ever since. Still, the precious metal was up by over 62.25% year-to-date.

XAU/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Its daily relative strength index (RSI) readings have been persistently above 70 in the past month, indicating that the asset is overbought and risks profit-taking.

Bitcoin has jumped by almost 4% during gold’s correction period, recovering from its worst level in four months near $103,535. Its RSI reading is also at its lowest since April, mirroring a bottom structure that preceded a rebound of 60% or more in the past.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

To some analysts, this inverse behavior suggests that the Bitcoin price is bottoming.

That includes analyst Pat, who predicted a “generational bottom” for Bitcoin, citing its performance relative to gold over the past four years.

The Bitcoin-to-gold ratio has plummeted to levels historically associated with market bottoms, last seen in 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022. Each time, Bitcoin followed with rallies between 100% and 600%.

BTC/XAU 1-week chart. Source: Pat/TradingView

As of mid-October, the ratio has once again dipped below –2.5, signaling that BTC may be undervalued versus gold after the metal’s record run to $4,380. That may mark the beginning of Bitcoin’s next bull phase.

For analyst Alex Wacy, gold’s pullback is similar to its 2020 peak that coincided with a local Bitcoin bottom. The question now is whether gold will once again mark the bullish reversal for BTC.

Bitcoin and gold’s price performance in 2020 vs. 2025. Source: Alex/TradingView

HSBC predicts gold is not topping out yet

Contrary to the growing view that gold’s record run may be cooling, HSBC has doubled down on its bullish outlook, projecting that the precious metal could climb as high as $5,000 per ounce by 2026.

Source: X

The bank based the bullish outlook on geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, and a weaker US dollar, which it said would keep demand strong.

Unlike previous rallies, this one is expected to be driven by long-term investors seeking portfolio stability, rather than short-term speculation.

Gold’s 2025 rally has seen several overbought corrections, but each dip resulted in the price going even higher.

XAU/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The pattern reflects sustained investor confidence amid geopolitical and monetary uncertainty, the very conditions HSBC says will keep the rally alive into 2026.

Bitcoin’s own outlook remains highly optimistic, with JPMorgan analysts predicting BTC will reach $165,000 in 2025, arguing it remains undervalued relative to gold.

Similarly, analyst Charles Edwards noted that a decisive breakout above $120,000 could propel BTC toward $150,000 “very quickly.”

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

After surging to a record high above $126,000, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have been shaken by unprecedented volatility — literally. On Friday, crypto markets saw their largest-ever liquidation event, totaling roughly $19 billion.

The wipeout surpassed even the worst days of the FTX collapse in 2022, underscoring both how much the market has grown since then and how fragile it remains.

The sell-off began in classic crypto fashion. Reports suggest US President Donald Trump may have misinterpreted China’s export controls, sparking a sweeping tariff threat that sent risk assets tumbling.

As markets reeled, crypto price feeds briefly showed zero prices on some tokens, and traders reported losing years of gains within minutes. 

When the dust settled, Binance once again found itself in the spotlight. The exchange has since announced a major relief program aimed at helping traders impacted by the meltdown.

This week’s Crypto Biz examines Binance’s relief pledge, JPMorgan’s latest crypto initiative, the continued rise of Bitcoin (BTC) treasury companies, and Elon Musk’s comparison of Bitcoin to “sound money.”

Binance pledges $400 million relief program for traders

Binance announced a $400 million relief initiative to support traders hit by the Oct. 10 market crash, which was reportedly sparked by President Trump’s new tariff threat against China.

The event quickly snowballed into one of the crypto industry’s largest liquidation waves, wiping out an estimated $19 billion in leveraged positions.

Under the new program, Binance will distribute $300 million in token vouchers to eligible users. To qualify, traders must have suffered liquidations on futures or margin positions during the peak of the turmoil — between Friday 00:00 UTC and Saturday 23:59 UTC.

The exchange also plans to establish a $100 million low-interest loan fund for ecosystem participants affected by the volatility. However, Binance emphasized that it “does not accept liability for users’ losses.”

The move follows widespread criticism from traders, some of whom reported technical issues that prevented them from closing positions, as well as interface glitches that briefly showed several token prices at zero.

Binance was also linked to an exploit affecting Ethena’s USDe synthetic stablecoin, which temporarily lost its peg during the market chaos.

Source: Elon Trades

Continue Reading…

JPMorgan plans to offer crypto trading

From skeptic to adopter, US banking giant JPMorgan is preparing to offer clients cryptocurrency trading services, underscoring Wall Street’s continued shift toward digital assets.

In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe, Scott Lucas, the bank’s global head of markets and digital assets, said that while crypto custody isn’t part of JPMorgan’s immediate plans, the rollout of trading services is on the horizon.

“I think Jamie [Dimon] was pretty clear on Investor Day that we’re going to be involved in the trading of that, but custody is not on the table at the moment,” Lucas said, referring to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has long been a vocal critic of Bitcoin.

Despite Dimon’s past skepticism, JPMorgan has steadily expanded its crypto-related activities in recent years.

The bank previously partnered with Coinbase to provide banking services for its customers and has developed its own blockchain-based payment system, JPM Coin, for institutional clients.

JPMorgan’s Scott Lucas. Source: CNBC

Continue Reading…

Corporations are betting on Bitcoin like never before

The number of Bitcoin treasury companies has surged by 38% in just three months, reflecting unprecedented interest in Bitcoin as a reserve asset, likely spurred by the success of Michael Saylor’s Strategy

In its Q3 Corporate Bitcoin Adoption Report, Bitwise found that 172 companies now hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, with 48 of them emerging in the third quarter alone.

The total value of these corporate Bitcoin holdings rose 28% quarter-over-quarter, reaching $117 billion.

“This participation helps legitimize crypto as a mainstream asset class and lays the foundation for broader financial innovation, from Bitcoin-backed loans to new derivatives markets,” said Racheel Lucas, an analyst at BTC Markets. 

Strategy remains the largest corporate Bitcoin holder by far, with more than 640,000 BTC, though its pace of accumulation has slowed in recent months. MARA Holdings ranks a distant second with 53,250 BTC on its books.

Corporate Bitcoin adoption is growing. Source: Bitwise


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Elon Musk praises Bitcoin’s energy-intensive model

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk praised Bitcoin’s sound money principles, arguing that it offers stronger protection against currency debasement than fiat money, which can be printed at will.

In a post on X, Musk highlighted Bitcoin’s energy-intensive proof-of-work system, describing it as “impossible to fake energy” — a contrast, he suggested, to government-issued currencies.

Musk’s remarks came in response to a Zerohedge post claiming that Bitcoin’s recent rally reflects a broader “debasement trade,” as investors grow increasingly wary of the US dollar.

Musk is no stranger to Bitcoin. His electric vehicle company, Tesla, previously added the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. Despite later selling part of its holdings, Tesla remains the 11th-largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with 11,509 BTC on its books, according to industry data.

Source: Zerohedge


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Key points:

Bitcoin stabilizes into the weekend, but market sentiment is anything but relaxed about the outlook.

BTC price forecasts increasingly feature sub-$100,000 levels.

RSI signals still point to a rebound — something more likely if stocks head higher next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) clung to $107,000 on Saturday as traders braced for fresh lows next.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin traders still doubt strength of $100,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed cooling BTC price volatility into the weekend.

This gave bulls some much-needed relief after a week of nasty surprises left BTC/USD down another 7%.

Now at its lowest levels in months, the pair was tipped for even lower levels in the short term amid a lack of buyer demand and major macroeconomic change.

“It all lines up nicely across the board for another wave down,” trader Crypto Tony wrote in an X post on the day. 

“Bitcoin i see us dropping to $95,000, possibly testing the $91,000 region before we find a bottom.”

BTC/USDT perpetual contract one-day chart. Source: Crypto Tony/X

Crypto Tony described even the sub-$100,000 scenario as a “bullish” scenario.

Fellow trading account Daan Crypto Trades still saw calmer conditions lasting until the weekly candle close.

“BTC did a good job recovering some ground on Friday before the CME close. This makes it so we’re likely to stick around this ~$107K level during the weekend,” it told X followers.

The post flagged $105,000 as the key nearby support level to hold, with crypto due for a more significant rebound if stocks led the way next week.

BTC/USDT 15-minute chart with CME Group Bitcoin futures close. Source: Daan Crpyto Trades/X

To that extent, the outlook was promising — the S&P 500 closed at 6,664 on Friday, having recovered around half of its losses from the week prior.

News that US President Donald Trump did not expect higher tariffs on China to last helped equities stabilize, while gold came off its latest all-time highs.


Can RSI deliver a BTC price bounce?

As Cointelegraph reported, another encouraging sign for Bitcoin came in the form of relative strength index (RSI) values.

With daily RSI at its lowest since April, when BTC/USD fell to $75,000, the four-hour chart showed a clear bullish divergence developing.

As price made new local lows, RSI sought a higher low, indicating that sell-side pressure was declining below $110,000.

BTC/USD four-hour chart with RSI data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView


This led some to point out a conflict between bullish leading indicator data and overly bearish market sentiment.

Interesting, $BTC has confirmed a bullish divergence on the 6H & 8H and on 12H timeframe building on oversold RSI datapoints while sentiment is as depressed as Ive ever seen 🤔 pic.twitter.com/imvSXgSgsh

— 🀄Kriesz🀄 (@_Kriesz_) October 17, 2025

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index hit 22/100 Friday, marking its first trip into the “extreme fear” zone since April.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Opinion by: Ray Song, founder at aPriori

When you’ve been around markets long enough, you start to see patterns. The tools we trade on and the rails we build on are never static. In crypto, one of the biggest shifts happening right now is at the base layer.

For years, the layer 1 conversation was dominated by Ethereum if you wanted composability and a broad developer base, Solana if you wanted speed and Cosmos if you wanted sovereignty. The choice of L1 felt like picking a trading venue, evaluating fees, liquidity and execution. 

Lately, however, that decision has moved from tactical to strategic. Beyond developers deciding between ecosystems, big companies are now building their blockchains from scratch. And when the companies doing it are Stripe, Coinbase or other giants with deep regulatory and distribution advantages, the L1 stops being a neutral playing field and starts looking like a moat.

The Stripe Tempo moment

Take the Stripe news. It turned out that “Tempo,” a payments-focused layer 1, is being built in partnership with Paradigm. If you’ve traded long enough, you know Stripe isn’t doing this for no reason. This is a settlement-layer play, with control over the base layer, the fees and uptime.

In traditional markets, clearing and settlement are often invisible to end-users, but they’re where the real leverage is. Tempo would give Stripe a chain purpose-built for predictable fees, deterministic settlement times, and merchant distribution that nobody else can match. This is 20 years of payment-processor muscle memory applied to crypto rails.

From permissionless to permissioned

There is a clear spectrum emerging. On one end, there are fully decentralized, censorship-resistant protocols. These chains may lack the polish or compliance comfort institutions crave, but they’re the crucibles where real innovation happens. Ethereum in its early days, Bitcoin still today, newer privacy chains pushing the edges of what’s possible without KYC gates.

Conversely, you have corporate-controlled L1s aligned with regulated custodians and exchanges. Coinbase’s Base chain is already live. Binance’s BNB Chain is effectively a corporate ecosystem. Stripe is joining that tier.

In between are the hybrids, those L1s that want to be open enough to attract the crypto-native crowd but structured enough to keep institutions comfortable. This middle ground is where some of the most interesting battles will be fought — because it’s the one place both sides might meet.

This isn’t a level playing field

Crypto-native founders can’t compete with Stripe or Coinbase regarding distribution and regulatory terms. The big guys can acquire licenses overnight and onboard millions of merchants with an API call. 

Related: After stablecoin push, Stripe acquires crypto wallet developer Privy

That doesn’t make it hopeless for permissionless builders, but it does change the game. Competing head-to-head on the same vectors (licensing, institutional distribution) is suicide. The opportunity is what the corporate L1s won’t or can’t do.

They won’t prioritize privacy features that could raise regulatory eyebrows, and they can’t move as fast in shipping novel DeFi primitives, as every new feature needs legal sign-off. They’ll always have to balance decentralization with shareholder value.

Where the opportunities still live

The most significant breakthroughs in DeFi happened because anyone could plug into anyone else’s contracts without asking permission. That’s harder to do in a corporate-controlled L1 with guardrails. If you can offer true composability, you’ll attract the builders they can’t.

Crypto native founders can also experiment with tokenomics, governance models, or crosschain integrations when it takes incumbents to run a risk assessment.

Lastly, people forget how much cultural alignment matters. Ethereum has an identity, and Bitcoin has a mission. If you can articulate a vision that resonates with a specific user base, whether privacy maximalists, DeFi degens or regional adoption niches, you can outmaneuver corporate L1s in those segments.

The emergence of corporate L1s changes the liquidity map. If Stripe’s Tempo gains traction with merchants, you’ll see predictable, high-volume flows, which is great for low-risk, yield-capture strategies. The volatility and the asymmetric opportunities will still be in the permissionless frontier, however, where protocol changes, governance shifts, or market narratives can swing valuations overnight.

In a permissionless chain, the risks are technical and market-driven. In a corporate chain, the risks are regulatory and business-model-driven. Tempo might not rug you technically, but it could kill your yield with a policy update. 

The endgame

This isn’t a zero-sum fight between corporate and permissionless chains. They’ll likely complement each other. Corporate L1s will handle the compliant, large-volume flows that bring in conservative capital, while permissionless chains will keep pushing the boundaries, generating the innovation that the corporations will eventually adopt.

For traders and builders alike, the real alpha will come from understanding how value migrates between these worlds. The Stripe Tempo news signals that the base layer is now strategic real estate. And in markets, whoever controls the rails eventually controls the margins.


Opinion by: Ray Song, founder at aPriori.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

If a quantum computer capable of breaking modern encryption were to come online today, Bitcoin would likely be under attack — and no one would know.

“Everything would look like legitimate access,” David Carvalho, CEO of post-quantum infrastructure company Naoris Protocol, told Cointelegraph. “When you think you’re seeing a quantum computer out there, it’s already been in control for months.”

“You wouldn’t even know,” he said.

Researchers at IBM, Google and government-backed laboratories are racing to close that gap, but the clock is ticking. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has begun approving post-quantum algorithms, while most public blockchains still rely on encryption designed in the 1980s.

For now, it’s a theoretical threat. But if the theory became reality, Bitcoin’s defenses would crumble faster than the network could react, Carvalho warned.

The first three finalized post-quantum encryption standards. Source: NIST

How a quantum attack could break Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s core security depends on the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, or ECDSA, a cryptographic standard first proposed in 1985. The system allows users to prove ownership with a private key, while only the corresponding public key is visible to the network.

Using Shor’s algorithm, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could theoretically recover a private key directly from a public one. That would allow attackers to access any wallet where the public key has been exposed onchain, such as those used in early Bitcoin (BTC) transactions.

“It would be impossible to prove a quantum computer did it because it derives legitimate access,” Carvalho said. “You’d just see those coins move as if their owners decided to spend them.”

Kapil Dhiman, CEO and founder of Quranium — a layer-1 blockchain startup focused on post-quantum security — warned that the earliest and most visible victims would be the oldest wallets.

“Satoshi’s coins would be sitting ducks,” he told Cointelegraph. “If those coins move, confidence in Bitcoin will shatter long before the system itself fails.”

In such a scenario, the blockchain would continue processing transactions normally. Blocks would be mined, and the ledger would remain intact, but ownership would have quietly changed hands.

The reality today is that more powerful GPUs and better algorithms make brute-force attacks slightly more efficient. However, ECDSA with Bitcoin’s 256-bit keys is still far beyond the reach of classical computing.

Bitcoin is behind TradFi in post-quantum encryption

While banks, telecom networks and government agencies are already testing post-quantum encryption, most major blockchains still rely on technology from the 1980s.

“All the blockchains have identified this vulnerability as a root cause,” Dhiman said, referring to the risk that current encryption methods like ECDSA could be broken by quantum computers.

Transitioning Bitcoin to a quantum-resistant model would require an overhaul of the network’s consensus rules that demands broad coordination among miners, developers and users.

Researchers have floated early proposals, including Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360, which outlines potential pathways for adopting new cryptographic schemes, and the “Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signatures Sunset” proposal, which phases out legacy signature schemes. Ethereum developers have also explored lattice-based signatures and other quantum-resistant options, though none have reached implementation.

Fear of quantum computing may be as destabilizing as the technology itself. Source: Jameson Lopp

In traditional finance, the shift is already underway. The US NIST has approved algorithms, and JPMorgan has tested a quantum-safe blockchain in partnership with Toshiba. SWIFT has started offering post-quantum security training for its network.

“Traditional finance is actually ahead,” Carvalho said. “They have central control, budgets and a single authority that can push upgrades. Crypto doesn’t have that. Everything takes a consensus.”

Some newer blockchain projects are positioning themselves as quantum-ready from inception. Naoris Protocol, led by Carvalho, was mentioned in an independent proposal submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that discussed post-quantum standards, while Dhiman’s Quranium uses the NIST-approved Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Algorithm. Meanwhile, Quantum Resistant Ledger is a blockchain built around XMSS hash-based signatures, a now-standardized NIST algorithm.

What happens if Bitcoin fails the quantum test

For the average Bitcoin holder, the primary concern is a sudden collapse in confidence, which could send prices plummeting and ripple through traditional markets, where institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies has been accelerating.

“There is a non-zero probability of it being out now. The consensus in the scientific, research and military communities is that it is not the case,” Carvalho said.

“However, it would not be the first time world-class cryptography had been broken without public knowledge,” he added, referring to the Enigma cipher.

Used by Nazi Germany during World War II, the Enigma cipher was considered unbreakable at the time. But cryptanalysts led by Alan Turing and his team at Bletchley Park quietly cracked it. The Allies kept the breakthrough a secret so that Germany would continue using the cipher.

Enigma was cracked, but nobody knew. Source: National Security Agency

“When you think you’re seeing a quantum computer, it’s already been in control for months,” Carvalho warned.

But experts remain optimistic that quantum-secure blockchain systems are achievable and that the industry is attempting to align with standards already being adopted in traditional finance.

“Quantum-secure systems are possible,” said Dhiman. “We just need to start building them before the threat becomes real.”

For now, quantum threats remain theoretical. Bitcoin’s encryption holds strong, and computers capable of breaking it exist only on paper.

Magazine: Bitcoin vs. the quantum computer threat: Timeline and solutions (2025–2035)

Robinhood has expanded its tokenization initiative on the Arbitrum blockchain, deploying 80 new stock tokens in the past few days and bringing the total number of tokenized assets close to 500.

According to data from Dune Analytics, Robinhood has tokenized 493 assets with a total value exceeding $8.5 million. Cumulative mint volume has surpassed $19.3 million, offset by around $11.5 million in burning activity, signaling a growing but actively traded market.

Stocks account for nearly 70% of all deployed tokens, followed by exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at about 24%, with smaller allocations to commodities, crypto ETFs and US Treasurys.

The latest batch of tokenized assets includes Galaxy (GLXY), Webull (BULL), and Synopsys (SNPS), research analyst Tom Wan said. “Robinhood EU users now have a wider range of US Stocks, Equities, and ETFs, thanks to Tokenization,” he noted.

Robinhood has tokenized 493 assets. Source: Dune Analytics

Blockchain-based derivatives, not real shares

In June, Robinhood launched a tokenization-focused layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, allowing EU users to trade tokenized US stocks and ETFs as part of its real-world asset (RWA) expansion.

The company’s stock tokens mirror the prices of publicly traded US securities but don’t represent direct ownership of the underlying shares. Instead, they are structured as blockchain-based derivatives regulated under MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II), according to the company.  

The company also claims the stock tokens offer 24-hour market access, no hidden fees beyond a 0.1% FX charge and the ability to start investing with just 1 euro ($1.17).

However, the rollout has drawn scrutiny. In July, the Bank of Lithuania, which regulates Robinhood in the EU, requested clarification on how the tokens are structured. Tenev said the firm welcomes the review.

Robinhood deepens its crypto expansion

Robinhood’s tokenization rollout came shortly after the brokerage firm launched micro futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL).

Earlier in May, the firm acquired Canadian crypto platform WonderFi in a $179 million deal, further expanding its global footprint. Robinhood has also been pushing for clearer tokenization regulations in the US, submitting a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission for a unified national framework governing RWAs.

Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer has rejected claims that the company is pivoting away from non-fungible tokens (NFTs), saying instead that the marketplace is “evolving” into a universal platform to trade every type of onchain asset.

In a Friday post on X, Finzer announced that OpenSea's October trading volume exceeded $2.6 billion, with over 90% of that amount coming from token trading, calling it the beginning of the platform’s transformation to “trade everything.”

“We’re building the universal interface for the entire onchain economy — tokens, collectibles, culture, digital and physical,” Finzer told Cointelegraph. “The goal is simple: if it exists onchain, you should be able to trade it on OpenSea, seamlessly across any chain, while maintaining complete control of your assets,” he added.

OpenSea was the first major NFT marketplace, launching in 2017 as a platform for buying, selling, and trading various non-fungible tokens. The platform remained the dominant player in the space until early 2023, when it lost momentum due to a combination of the overall NFT market crash and the rise of a major competitor, Blur.

In April this year, OpenSea managed to reclaim its lead in the NFT market, capturing over 40% of total trading volume during the month. As of this writing, OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace with a market share of 51%, according to data tracker NFTScan.

OpenSea reclaims its lead in NFT market. Source: NFTScan

From NFTs to an onchain trading hub

Finzer said OpenSea is now positioning itself as the “interface layer for the entire onchain economy,” integrating token trading, swaps and portfolio management across 22 blockchains.

He said the platform’s users were juggling multiple wallets, bridges, and interfaces just to manage their portfolios. “We realized the same infrastructure expertise that unified NFT trading could unify all onchain trading. Now users can swap from Solana to Ethereum, trade any token, manage any asset, all in one place, without the complexity,” Finzer said.

The CEO positioned OpenSea as an alternative to both centralized and decentralized exchanges. “Unlike CEXs, you keep your keys. Unlike DEXs, the complexity is invisible,” he said. “We aggregate liquidity across 22+ chains into one seamless experience.”

However, Finzer rejected the idea that NFTs are now secondary. “Everything onchain is core to our business model — that’s what ‘trade everything’ means,” he said.

OpenSea CEO announces the project’s shift toward “trade everything.” Source: Finzer

Mobile app and SEA token ahead

OpenSea confirmed it is preparing to launch a new mobile app before Q1 2026, bringing instant crosschain swaps and portfolio tracking to mobile users. The company said it aims to bring “the entire onchain economy to your pocket,” making onchain trading “as easy as checking Instagram.”

Additionally, the OpenSea Foundation will launch its SEA token in the first quarter of 2026, which will support governance and ecosystem participation.

OpenSea’s roadmap also includes perpetual futures, expanded mobile access, and “true crosschain abstraction,” allowing users to trade any token across any wallet or chain.

Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light

Key takeaways:

XRP price dropped 8.75% on Friday despite Ripple’s $1 billion acquisition plans.

A drop toward the $2 support level is possible in the coming days, as bulls pin their hopes on a rebound.

Ripple is reportedly planning to raise $1 billion to purchase XRP (XRP) for its own digital asset treasury. This move could make it the world’s largest corporate holder of this top-five cryptocurrency.

However, XRP bulls largely ignored the news on Friday, with the price falling 8.75% after the Oct. 17 announcement, while continuing its prevailing downtrend, as shown below.

XRP/USD four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView

Can XRP break out of its prevailing downtrend in October?

XRP price eyes recovery after testing $2 support

Looking broadly, XRP has been fluctuating within a falling wedge pattern after last week’s crypto market rout, which liquidated a record $20 billion or more in positions.

The price could still dip toward the $2 support level, coinciding with the wedge’s lower boundary and serving as a potential reversal zone.

XRP/USDT four-hour chart. Source: TradingView

A breakout above the wedge’s upper trendline could trigger an upside toward the $2.36–$2.75 range, up 5-20% from current price levels, in October.

That range features levels with up to $118.76 million in cumulative short leverages, according to CoinGlass data.

Binance’s XRP/USDT liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass

Potential short liquidations at these levels could add momentum toward $3, a psychological resistance target further aligning with the upper boundary of XRP’s descending triangle pattern.

XRP/USDT weekly chart. Source: TradingView

Conversely, a close below $2 would invalidate the wedge setup, inviting further downside pressure toward $1.65, the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level, by month’s end.

Longer term: XRP still on track for a breakout

On longer-term charts, XRP is maintaining its ascending triangle breakout scenario despite plunging 60% during last week’s “black Friday.”

As of Friday, the cryptocurrency was holding above the triangle’s lower trendline near $2.25 while eyeing a rebound toward the upper trendline near $3.55.

XRP/USDT weekly price chart. Source: TradingView

A breakout above $3.55 with significant volumes could send the price to as high as $7.75, representing a 250% increase from current levels, by early 2026.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The UK tax authority has ramped up its scrutiny of crypto investors, doubling the number of warning letters sent to those suspected of underreporting or evading taxes on digital asset gains.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued nearly 65,000 letters in the 2024–25 tax year, up from 27,700 the year before, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The letters, known as “nudge letters,” are designed to prompt investors to voluntarily correct their tax filings before formal investigations are launched.

The sharp increase reflects HMRC’s growing focus on crypto-related tax compliance. Over the past four years, the agency has sent more than 100,000 such letters, with activity accelerating as crypto adoption and asset prices surged.

Example of a previous nudge letter sent in 2024. Source: kc-usercontent

7 million UK adults own crypto

The Financial Conduct Authority estimates that seven million UK adults now hold crypto, up from around 10% (5 million) in 2022 or 4.4% (2.2 million) in 2021, showing the growing interest.

“The tax rules surrounding crypto are quite complex and there’s now a volume of people who are trading in crypto and not understanding that even if they move from one coin to another it triggers capital gains tax,” Neela Chauhan, a partner at UHY Hacker Young, which submitted the FOI request, told the FT.

HMRC’s visibility into the market has improved dramatically. The agency now receives transaction data directly from major crypto exchanges and will gain automatic access to global exchange data from 2026 under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Crypto-Assets Reporting Framework (CARF).

US lawmakers weigh crypto tax exemptions

US senators are exploring updates to crypto tax policy, including exempting small transactions from taxation and clarifying how staking rewards are treated.

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing earlier this month, lawmakers debated whether everyday crypto payments should trigger capital gains tax and how to fairly classify income generated from staking services. Coinbase’s vice president of tax, Lawrence Zlatkin, urged Congress to adopt a de minimis exemption for crypto transactions under $300.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) has also intensified its crackdown on crypto tax evasion, warning that even assets stored in cold wallets will be seized if linked to unpaid taxes.

Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States have seen more than $1.2 billion dollars in outflows this week, but Charles Schwab is seeing more interest in the products. 

The eleven spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US saw an aggregate outflow of $366.6 million on Friday, which rounded off a red week for the asset and Bitcoin-associated institutional investment products. 

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust saw the largest outflow as the product lost $268.6 million, according to SoSoValue. Fidelity’s fund shed $67.2 million, Grayscale’s GBTC outflowed $25 million, and there was a minor outflow from the Valkyrie ETF. The rest saw zero flows on Friday.

Another red day for Bitcoin ETFs resulted in a total outflow of $1.22 billion for the week, which only saw one minor inflow day on Tuesday. 

The ETF exodus came as the underlying asset dumped more than $10,000 in a crash from just over $115,000 on Monday to bottom out at a four-month low of just below $104,000 on Friday. 

Spot Bitcoin ETFs see red this week. Source: SoSoValue


Schwab sees high engagement 

Charles Schwab clients own 20% of all crypto exchange-traded products in the country, CEO Rick Wurster told CNBC on Friday.

They have been “very active,” he said, noting that visits to the company’s crypto site have gone up 90% in the past year. 

“It’s a topic that’s of high engagement.”

Charles Schwab operates one of the largest brokerages in the US, noted ETF expert Nate Geraci on Saturday, who said, “hope you’re paying attention.”

Schwab currently offers crypto ETFs and Bitcoin futures and plans to offer spot crypto trading to its clients in 2026. 

Schwab CEO Rick Wurster talks crypto ETFs. Source: Nate Geraci 


A red October for BTC

Bitcoin has seen gains in ten out of the past twelve Octobers, but this month is breaking the trend as the asset has lost 6% so far, according to CoinGlass.

However, analysts remain confident that Uptober will resume as historical gains have usually come in the second half of the month.

Magazine: Binance shakes up Korea, Morgan Stanley’s security tokens in Japan: Asia Express