Executive brief
Digital asset markets are displaying a bearish directional tilt as Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 to trade near $79,700, diverging from strength in broader Asian equity sessions while traders position ahead of the two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting. Macroeconomic anxiety and tech-sector capital reallocation serve as the primary drivers, with massive infrastructure expenditure in artificial intelligence drawing liquidity away from crypto majors. High-profile corporate moves underline this shift, as Anthropic filed for a blockbuster IPO disclosing a first-half net loss of $80.7b on $16.3b in revenue. In addition, major corporate treasury vehicles are recalibrating their liquidity strategies; Strategy paused its weekly Bitcoin accumulation to deploy $204.9m repurchasing STRC preferred stock, leaving its treasury steady at 848,517 BTC.
Despite spot price weakness, institutional real-world asset tokenisation and stablecoin infrastructure continue to build significant momentum. In banking developments, Ripple secured final OCC approval to establish a national trust bank to oversee reserves for its RLUSD stablecoin, alongside Robinhood adding RLUSD to its retail platform. Simultaneously, traditional finance is integrating onchain funds, highlighted by Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launching a tokenised Nasdaq-100 fund on Stellar. Emerging market currency volatility represents an immediate catalyst for real-world adoption, with Brazilian businesses turning to stablecoins to escape local currency depreciation following election shocks. The primary risk cue centres on tech-sector contagion and potential downside acceleration below $82,000 for BTC, while long-term opportunity persists across institutional tokenisation pipelines and regulated payment rails.
1) Top 20 news headlines
- Intel, Oracle, IBM join growing list of firms objecting to OKX–ICE tokenized stock plans; the latest regulatory filing added four formal objections, taking total corporate pushback to 26 companies.
- Brazilian companies turned to stablecoins on election day to dodge a currency crash; Mercado Bitcoin reported an 800% jump in USDT volume and an 865% surge in Bitcoin volume during election volatility.
- Robinhood taps Ripple’s $2.5 billion RLUSD stablecoin despite backing rival USDG; Robinhood will offer the $2.5b stablecoin to its 28.6m retail customer accounts later this year.
- Nasdaq-100 comes onchain as Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launch first licensed fund; the $500b asset manager deployed an issuer-sponsored fund tracking the index on the Stellar network.
- CF Benchmarks brings Wall Street pricing infrastructure onchain, including data used by BlackRock; the rollout delivers institutional benchmark pricing onchain to power tokenised funds and derivatives.
- Bitcoin miners’ move into AI is creating a new market for trading computing power; infrastructure firm Luxor secured $16m in fresh capital to expand into AI hardware procurement and compute derivatives trading.
- Bitcoin drops below $80,000 as crypto ignores Asian tech rally, Fed meeting begins; Bitcoin slipped 0.4% to trade around $79,700 while the broader DeFi index dropped 1.8%.
- Crypto wallet maker Keystone to destroy almost 19,000 devices after security breach; the hardware vendor is destroying 19,000 units after attackers compromised an internal verification key and leaked 25,964 customer records.
- Ripple gets a final go-ahead to launch its own U.S. national trust bank; the OCC granted final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank to manage stablecoin reserves and institutional custody.
- Solana bug reports now cost 1 SOL as AI floods security teams with spam; researchers must burn 1 SOL, valued at approximately $100, per vulnerability submission after a contest drew 809 mostly AI-generated reports.
- Ethereum fixes Glamsterdam bug that could have sent staking deposits to builders; core developers merged a protocol fix on 26 October resolving a consensus flaw that risked crediting validator deposits to block builders.
- Zcash co-founder proposes ending grants funding, citing $125 million treasury; Sean Bowe proposed redirecting the community’s 8% network block reward to miner reserves, noting the grants treasury already holds $125m.
- Strategy Halts Bitcoin Purchases, Spends $205 Million Buying Back STRC Shares Instead; Michael Saylor’s company paused BTC purchases to deploy $204.9m repurchasing 2,068,459 STRC preferred shares, keeping reserves at 848,517 BTC.
- Galaxy Digital swings to $323 million quarterly profit, announces new $200 million share buyback; Galaxy reported a $323m net quarterly profit alongside an authorised $200m share repurchase program.
- Ark Invest buys $5.2 million of Circle shares, sells $15.9 million of its own Bitcoin ETF as BTC grinds lower; Cathie Wood’s firm purchased $5.2m in Circle equity while divesting $15.9m from its own ARKB spot Bitcoin ETF.
- Aviva Investors launches tokenized share class of $29B Sterling fund on XRP Ledger; the asset manager tokenised its £22b ($29.4b) Sterling Liquidity Fund on XRPL, seeding the share class with £50m of its own capital.
- CFTC sues Utah as battle over prediction market regulation intensifies; the federal derivatives regulator launched legal action against state regulators over jurisdiction surrounding event contract markets.
- USDC overtakes USDT in euro stablecoin trading as EU rules reshape market: Kaiko; USDC commanded 56% of euro-denominated stablecoin trading volume as regional exchanges delisted non-MiCA compliant tokens.
- SoFi discloses 503,000 crypto products as gross crypto revenue hits $162 million; financial platform SoFi reported 503,000 active crypto accounts generating $162m in gross digital asset revenue.
- BlackRock joins SBI and Startale to link tokenized MMFs with Japanese yen stablecoins; BlackRock formed a strategic alliance to integrate money market funds with yen-pegged tokens for onchain settlement.
2) BTC and ETH ETF flows
| Metric | BTC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Net inflow | $110,344,120 | -$88,576,872 |
| Value traded | $1,863,077,616.9 | $506,234,687.4 |
| Net assets | $102,839,745,964.25 | $14,066,650,049.24 |
| Cumulative net inflow | $57,293,208,418.09 | $12,630,661,507.60 |
3) X trending news
- Ripple national bank charter; Ripple has received full regulatory approval from US banking watchdogs to operate as a chartered national trust bank.
- Brazil election market rout; over $200b was wiped from Brazilian equity markets following the election outcome as local assets suffered steep liquidations.
- Anthropic files for IPO; artificial intelligence developer Anthropic has officially filed an S-1 registration statement to list on the Nasdaq under ticker ANT.
- Microsoft workforce buyouts; Microsoft has offered buyout severance packages to roughly 60,000 employees as part of corporate cost restructuring.
- Ripple Robinhood tie-up; Ripple and Robinhood announced a strategic commercial partnership to distribute dollar stablecoins across retail channels.
- Vanguard Metaplanet allocation; global asset manager Vanguard completed a $7.5m share purchase in Japanese corporate Bitcoin holder Metaplanet.
- Bitmine treasury purchase; corporate vehicle Bitmine acquired 10,452 ETH valued at approximately $24m for its balance sheet reserves.
- Brazil 10-year yield shock; Brazilian 10-year sovereign bond yields surged by 300 basis points in a single session to approach 16%.
