Payward, the operator of the Kraken exchange, has linked with Bahrain-regulated Singapore Gulf Bank to offer round-the-clock US dollar settlement to institutional traders in Asia and the Gulf. The service starts small, with dollars only and a select, unnamed client list.
The UAE is one of the most tax friendly places in the world for crypto. Individuals pay no income or capital gains tax on their coins. The picture changes once crypto becomes a business, and a 2024 rule reshaped how VAT treats digital assets. Here is what actually applies.
The US Treasury designated the Russia-linked A7 Network a transnational criminal organization on October 1 and blocked its ruble-backed A7A5 token. Officials said sub-agents moved more than $17 billion and that the token saw $179.1 billion in flows used to help Russia and Iran evade sanctions.
A seed phrase is the short list of words that backs up a crypto wallet. Whoever holds it controls the coins, which is why losing it, or leaking it, is so costly. Here is how the system works and how people lose access for good.
Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade activates on the Sepolia test network on October 6, 2026, in its first public trial. The release moves block building into the protocol and opens a path toward a 200 million gas limit, though the mainnet date is still unset.
A liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged crypto trade when the collateral runs out. Here is how margin, maintenance levels and cascades work, and why one October day in 2025 wiped out more than $19 billion in positions.
A US government funding lapse that began on October 1, 2026 has frozen the SEC's review of new crypto ETFs, stalling more than 90 pending applications for Solana, XRP and other tokens. Funds already trading, such as BlackRock's IBIT, keep running. No reopening date has been set.
Oct 7–8, 2026
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
The year’s largest crypto gathering
Oct 27–29, 2026
Madrid, Spain
Nov 3–6, 2026
Mumbai, India
Ethereum Foundation’s developer conference
Nov 15–17, 2026
London, United Kingdom
Dec 7–8, 2026
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Apr 21–22, 2027
Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank say their tie-up brings always-on, real-time dollar settlement to institutional digital-asset markets.
Our read: SGB Net is live and the bank says it clears more than $20 billion in fiat a month, so the plumbing is real. But the service starts with US dollars only, a select and unnamed client list, and undisclosed jurisdictions, and no fees or client numbers were shared.
Treasury says the A7 Network and its A7A5 ruble token formed a shadow-banking rail that moved vast sums for Russia and Iran to evade sanctions.
Our read: FinCEN traced more than $17 billion through sub-agents and tied over 180 entities to $179.1 billion in A7A5 flows, but the $179.1 billion is the token's total throughput rather than confirmed illicit value, and a designation is an executive action, not a court finding.
Glamsterdam will make Ethereum much faster and cheaper by tripling the block gas limit and building block production into the protocol.
Our read: The upgrade is real and dated, but October 6 is only a Sepolia test. The 200 million gas limit is opt-in and meant to rise gradually, the default stays at 60 million, and the Ethereum Foundation has set no mainnet date. The gains depend on a clean testnet and a later rollout.
Analysts framed October 2026 as the month a wave of altcoin ETFs for Solana, XRP and others would finally launch in the US.
Our read: More than 90 applications are on file and some faced early-October decision windows. But the SEC funding lapse froze new approvals on October 1, and the agency has given no reopening date. Funds already trading keep running, while the new ones are stuck behind a closed review process.
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Bitcoin miners run power-hungry computers that race to seal each block and earn new coins. The reward now sits at 3.125 BTC a block and halves about every four years. Here is what mining really does, what it costs in electricity, and why it keeps the network hard to cheat.
The Bitcoin halving cuts the mining reward in half every 210,000 blocks, about once every four years. It is the rule that caps the total supply of bitcoin at just under 21 million coins, with no bank or committee in charge.
Bitcoin Core 32.0 is in release-candidate testing, with developers aiming for a final release on October 10. The update speeds up how full nodes validate blocks and patches security bugs, including a memory flaw found with AI-assisted auditing.
Payward, the operator of the Kraken exchange, has linked with Bahrain-regulated Singapore Gulf Bank to offer round-the-clock US dollar settlement to institutional traders in Asia and the Gulf. The service starts small, with dollars only and a select, unnamed client list.
Fiserv turned on its digital asset platform on 1 October, with Bank of North Dakota's Roughrider Coin as the first live stablecoin on it. More than 90 banks and credit unions in the state can now use the dollar token on Solana.
Absa has launched a regulated digital asset custody service for institutional clients in South Africa, the first run by a bank on the continent. It holds Bitcoin, Ether, XRP Ledger assets and USDC, and runs on Ripple's technology.
Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade activates on the Sepolia test network on October 6, 2026, in its first public trial. The release moves block building into the protocol and opens a path toward a 200 million gas limit, though the mainnet date is still unset.
NEAR Intents clawed back all $3.8 million drained in an October 1 exploit after giving the attacker 48 hours to return it. The funds came back on October 2, and the protocol closed its investigation without naming who was behind the theft.
Blockchain security firms PeckShield and CertiK put September crypto theft between about $766 million and $768 million, the heaviest month of 2026. A single breach at the exchange Bitget drove most of it.
A liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged crypto trade when the collateral runs out. Here is how margin, maintenance levels and cascades work, and why one October day in 2025 wiped out more than $19 billion in positions.
Bitcoin reached a 24-hour high near $87,086 after a weak US September jobs report, then reversed as Treasury yields held near a multi-decade high and about $433 million in mostly long positions were liquidated over 24 hours.
The regulator signed off on Cboe BZX's rule to list six triple-leveraged products, two of them tied to Bitcoin and Ether. Approval is not a launch. No fund can trade until a separate registration takes effect.