Solana (SOL) is a fast, low-fee blockchain that competes with Ethereum. Here is how it works, what SOL is for, its outage record, and the Alpenglow upgrade and ETFs now in play.
The European Central Bank will test a digital euro for a year before any public rollout, its president said on 17 October. The plan hangs on EU lawmakers passing the law by the end of 2026, a deadline that is far from certain.
USD1 is a dollar stablecoin issued under the World Liberty Financial brand, with reserves held by the custodian BitGo. It has grown past $4 billion in under two years, helped by a $2 billion deal that pulled in a congressional inquiry.
Payward, the company behind Kraken, has agreed to buy Saldo Bank, a small lender in Lithuania. The deal would give the exchange something a crypto firm rarely holds: a full European bank license. It is not done yet.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore wants to write its stablecoin rules into law, with full reserve backing, redemption at par and a ban on paying interest to holders. Public feedback on the draft closed on October 16.
CME Group will list Uniswap and Bitcoin Cash futures on October 19, cash-settled contracts it certified with the US CFTC on September 23. The launch gives institutions a regulated way to trade two tokens whose prices fell back after the news.
Broadcom, Verizon and seven other US-listed companies have blocked tokenized versions of their shares from trading on OKXICE, the OKX and ICE joint venture, using a 30-day opt-out built into a new five-year SEC exemption. Trading has not started.
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Read from the Bitcoin network itself, from companies’ own SEC filings and from the US Treasury’s sanctions list. No price here and no forecasts: the live price is on our bitcoin price page. Free to quote with credit.
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
May 4–6, 2027
Miami, USA
The ECB says a digital euro is on track for a 12-month pilot in 2027 and a possible first issuance in 2029.
Our read: The plan and the dates come from the ECB itself, so the intent is real and documented. But the whole schedule depends on an EU law still in negotiation, the holding cap is unsettled, and the ECB has not decided whether to issue the currency at all.
World Liberty Financial presents USD1 as a fully backed, ultra-transparent dollar stablecoin whose growth reflects real market demand.
Our read: BitGo holds the reserves and publishes monthly third-party attestations showing cash and short-term Treasuries, which supports the backing claim. But there is no full independent audit, and much of USD1's size traces to a single $2 billion MGX-Binance deal rather than broad use, so the organic-demand framing is only partly supported.
Buying Saldo Bank gives Kraken's owner a full EU bank license to serve European customers as a primary financial institution, with deposits, lending and card services.
Our read: The agreement is signed and Saldo is a real licensed EU bank with products in five markets. But the price is undisclosed, the deal is not expected to close until 2027, it needs regulatory approval, Saldo is small with a 2025 net profit near one million euros, and the new services are plans, not live products.
Singapore says licensing stablecoin issuers and forcing full reserves will make its MAS-regulated stablecoins safe to use and a credible settlement asset.
Our read: The draft is detailed and sits in a published consultation paper, with reserve, redemption, custody and disclosure duties and real penalties. But it is a proposal, not a law. MAS has set no start date, key thresholds and timeframes still sit in subsidiary legislation to be written, and no issuer has yet been licensed under it.
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Mining bitcoin in 2026 pays for very few people. A single machine at home usually spends more on power than it earns. Here is what a coin really costs to produce, a worked example with live difficulty and price, and why your electricity rate decides the outcome.
Quantum computers could one day crack the signatures that protect Bitcoin wallets. No machine is close yet. Here is what the threat is, which coins are exposed, and the defense work already under way.
Coinbase, the custodian of roughly 5% of all bitcoin, published a paper on 13 October urging developers to start building quantum-resistant defenses now. No computer can break bitcoin today. The company says the fix could take years, so the clock has started.
Payward, the company behind Kraken, has agreed to buy Saldo Bank, a small lender in Lithuania. The deal would give the exchange something a crypto firm rarely holds: a full European bank license. It is not done yet.
Visa says its USDC prefunding service is now in commercial production, letting businesses fund cross-border payouts with the stablecoin in near real time. Inyo Global is the first processor to switch it on.
Circle said $819 million of its $1.4 billion in first-half 2026 revenue went to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs, leaving about 7 cents of profit on every dollar. The disclosure shows how much the issuer depends on partners like Coinbase.
Solana will switch on its Alpenglow upgrade on October 21, replacing the TowerBFT voting system it has run since 2020 and targeting transaction finality of about 150 milliseconds, down from roughly 12.8 seconds. SOL holders need take no action.
The onchain contracts stay live, but Blur's website and its Blend lending service both close on November 12. Monthly trading volume had already fallen from $1.43 billion to under $7 million.
XRPL developers disclosed and fixed a payment engine flaw, hidden since 2015, that could have created XRP far beyond the network's 100 billion supply cap. The patch shipped in xrpld 3.4.1 on September 25, and RippleX says no public network was attacked.
USD1 is a dollar stablecoin issued under the World Liberty Financial brand, with reserves held by the custodian BitGo. It has grown past $4 billion in under two years, helped by a $2 billion deal that pulled in a congressional inquiry.
CME Group will list Uniswap and Bitcoin Cash futures on October 19, cash-settled contracts it certified with the US CFTC on September 23. The launch gives institutions a regulated way to trade two tokens whose prices fell back after the news.
Broadcom, Verizon and seven other US-listed companies have blocked tokenized versions of their shares from trading on OKXICE, the OKX and ICE joint venture, using a 30-day opt-out built into a new five-year SEC exemption. Trading has not started.