📈 Bitcoin Rebounds, DeFi Holds, AI Regs & Trump’s Crypto

Good Afternoon,

Crypto markets are finding their footing as the U.S. and China ease trade tensions, helping Bitcoin rebound above $115K after last week’s market crash. During the crash, DeFi protocols held strong, withstanding a major stress test as $20B in leveraged positions were liquidated. Meanwhile, California becomes the first state to regulate AI chatbots, crypto payments go mainstream in South Africa, and Trump emerges as one of America’s biggest Bitcoin holders.

Wait! There’s more! 👇

News Roundup

Artificial Intelligence

• Crypto-AI Startups Raise $2B in 2025 as Investors Chase Hype — But Skeptics See Little Substance (DL News)

• Study Finds AI Models Mirror Human Gender Bias in Risk-Taking Behavior (Decrypt)

• Research Shows AI Models Can Forecast Consumer Purchase Intent Almost as Accurately as Humans (Decrypt)

• When Robots Look Too Human, Trust Turns to Unease (Decrypt)

• California Becomes First U.S. State to Regulate AI “Companion” Chatbots (Decrypt)

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• Tether Co-Founder’s New Stablecoin USST Depegs Hours After Launch (The Defiant)

• Galaxy Raises $460M to Convert Texas Bitcoin Mine into AI Data Hub (The Block)

• DWF Labs Offers Capital Support to Projects Hit by Flash Crash (X)

• Binance Users Hit by Volatility and Transaction Issues May Get Custom Compensation (Binance)

• Ethena’s USDe Stablecoin Wobbles Amid $19B Market Meltdown, Quickly Regains Dollar Peg (CoinDesk)

• RWA firm Securitize Weighs $1B SPAC Merger With Cantor Fitzgerald to Go Public (The Block)

• Coinbase to Launch Bitcoin-Themed Amex Card Offering Up to 4% BTC Cashback (CoinDesk)

• Grayscale Files Form 10 for Bittensor Trust ($TAO), Taking First Step Toward SEC Reporting Status (X)

• Binance Issues $283M in Compensation After Market Turmoil, Addresses Depeg and Technical Glitches (Binance)

• Ethena Founder Blames Oracle Glitch, Not Fundamentals, for USDe’s $0.65 Binance Depeg (Cointelegraph)

• Dubai Approves Financial Strategy as It Becomes the World’s Largest Licensed Virtual Assets Market (Gulf Business)

• House of Doge Goes Public on Nasdaq to Drive Dogecoin’s Traditional Finance Adoption (Decrypt)

• Binance to Launch Recall (RECALL) Trading on Alpha and Futures With 50x Leverage (Binance)

• CME Group Launches CFTC-Regulated Solana and XRP Options Trading (X)

• Hyperliquid Founder Calls Out Centralized Exchanges for Hiding True Scale of Liquidations (X)

• BNB Chain to Airdrop $45 Million in BNB Tokens to 160,000 Memecoin Traders (DL News)

• Solana DeFi Powerhouse Kamino Integrates Project 0 to Enable Cross-Margin Lending (The Block)

Exchange-Traded Funds

• Between October 6 and October 10 (ET), U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.71 billion in net inflows.

• From October 6 through October 10 (ET), U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs saw $488 million in net inflows.

Infrastructure

• South Africans Can Now Pay With Crypto at 650,000 Stores Through Scan to Pay Integration (Cointelegraph)

• Solana Hits 100,000 TPS During Historic Stress Test, Network Remains Fully Stable (X)

• Hyperliquid Achieves 100% Uptime and Zero Bad Debt as ADL Activates for First Time in Two Years (X)

• Bitcoin Core 30.0 Release Brings Major Upgrades, Lower Fees, and Legacy Wallet Removal (BitcoinCore)

• Hyperliquid to Launch HIP-3 Upgrade, Enabling Permissionless Perp Market Creation (The Block)

• Akash Network to Sunset Cosmos Chain and Seek New Blockchain Home (The Block)

• Brevis Launches “The Proving Grounds” to Showcase Real-World ZK Technology Across 20+ Blockchains (X)

• Ripple and Immunefi Launch $200K “Attackathon” to Secure XRPL Lending Protocol (DL News)

Markets

• Record $16B in Crypto Longs Liquidated After Trump’s China Tariff Threat (CoinDesk)

• Crypto Markets Crash After President Trump Imposes 100% Tariffs on Chinese Imports (The Defiant)

• Total Crypto Market Cap Sheds Over 9% After Trump Confirms 100% Tariffs on China (The Block)

• CZ Credits BNB’s Price Surge to Community and Deflationary Model, Not Market Manipulation (X)

• $11B Bitcoin Whale Opens $900M in Short Positions, Betting on BTC and ETH Price Correction (Cointelegraph)

• Hyperliquid Whale Who Earned $150M on Friday’s Crash Opens New $160M Short (The Block)

• Bitcoin and Ethereum Rebound After Record $20B Crypto Wipeout (Decrypt)

• $446 Million in Token Unlocks Set to Hit Markets This Week (Tokenomist)

• Bitcoin Rebounds Above $114K as Markets Recover From Record Liquidations (The Block)

• BNB Hits New All-Time High at $1,369.99 (CoinGecko)

• Meme Coins Lead Crypto Comeback as Market Recovers From Record Crash (Decrypt)

• DeFi Passes Major Stress Test as $20B Market Meltdown Rocks Crypto (The Defiant)

Politics & Regulation

• China to Impose Sweeping Export Controls on Nearly All Products Starting Nov. 1, 2025, Says Trump (Truth Social)

• Trump Reportedly Considering Pardon for Former Binance CEO CZ (X)

• India Probes 400 Wealthy Binance Traders for Alleged Crypto Tax Evasion (The Block)

• South Korea to Target Cold Wallets in Expanded Crypto Tax Crackdown (Cointelegraph)

• European Banking Authority Warns of Regulatory Loopholes as Crypto Firms Exploit MiCA Transition Period (EBA)

• U.S. and China Ease Trade Tensions, Raising Hopes for Market Recovery (Cointelegraph)

Token Generation Events

• Polymarket Token Planned, But Launch Unlikely Before 2026 (Decrypt)

• Aster Delays Airdrop After Discovering Token Allocation Errors (Decrypt)

Treasuries

• Inside the Reflexive Economics of Digital Asset Treasuries: How Companies “Alchemize” Crypto Into Market Premiums (DL News)

• Trump Becomes One of America’s Biggest Bitcoin Investors via Trump Media’s Crypto Treasury (Forbes)

• MARA Holdings Buys $46 Million in Bitcoin After Record Market Crash (Decrypt)

• China Renaissance in Talks to Raise $600 Million for BNB-Focused Crypto Treasury (Bloomberg)

• Strategy Inc Expands Bitcoin Holdings to 640,250 BTC After $27.3M Purchase (Strategy)

• BitMine Immersion Expands Ethereum Holdings to 3.03 Million ETH, Total Assets Reach $12.9 Billion (PR Newswire)

Venture Capital

• MetaDAO Community Rejects $6M VC Deal Offering 30% Token Discount (The Defiant)

Other News

• UK Investment Giant Hargreaves Lansdown Warns Investors: “Don’t Buy Bitcoin” (Decrypt)

• BNB Smart Chain Hits Record 5 Trillion Gas Units in a Single Day (The Defiant)

• US to Release Delayed CPI Report on Oct. 24 for Social Security COLA Adjustment (Reuters)

• Astaroth Trojan Exploits GitHub to Evade Takedowns and Steal Crypto Credentials (McAfee)

• Jack Dorsey Calls for Tax-Free Status on Small Bitcoin Transactions to Boost Everyday Use (Cointelegraph)

• Ukrainian Crypto Blogger Kostiantyn ‘Kostya Kudo’ Hanich Found Dead in Kyiv, Police Investigating Possible Suicide (Ukrainian News)

• CCP’s ‘Eve Frontier’ Leaves Ethereum for Sui in Pursuit of a “Forever Game” Vision (Decrypt)

• Benoît Pagotto, Visionary Co-Founder of Nike-Acquired RTFKT, Dies at 41 (The Block)

• Steak ’n Shake Drops Ethereum Payment Plans After Bitcoin Community Pushback (X)

• Hacker-Linked Wallets Lost $5.5M After Dumping and Rebuying ETH During Market Crash (The Block)

• WazirX Wins Court Approval for Debt Restructuring, Paving Way to Resume Operations (Decrypt)

Check This Out

The largest crypto liquidation event in history occurred on October 10, when U.S. tariffs on China triggered $19.16 billion in losses—surpassing the April and May 2021 events of $9.94 billion and $9.01 billion, respectively, according to Coinglass.

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