“A return to last year’s indiscriminate capital raising looks unlikely,” said Bitfinex head of derivatives Jag Kooner.

The former medical device maker has liquidated its Solana treasury and is offering to repurchase shares and warrants using its $223.8 million cash holdings.

The Glamsterdam upgrade on Hoodi testnet may enhance Ethereum's scalability, but market impact remains limited without a mainnet timeline.

The post Ethereum sets October 26 for Glamsterdam upgrade on Hoodi testnet appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Binance's AOR could enhance trading efficiency in low-liquidity markets, potentially increasing user engagement and market fluidity.

The post Binance launches auto order routing on its Spot platform appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The arrest count is striking, but the scale of the online infrastructure removed may be the bigger story. An international effort against West African scam networks has resulted in 28 arrests, while technology companies say they removed more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups linked to fraudulent activity.

TL;DR: The US Justice Department says its October crackdown led to 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria. Binance and Coinbase were among the industry participants, and partners identified more than $11 million in potentially freezable funds, not confirmed recoveries.

The operation, called Joint Disruption Week, brought investigators together at the UK’s National Crime Agency in London during the week beginning October 6. Authorities targeted networks accused of investment fraud, impersonation and other online schemes that reach victims well beyond West Africa.

According to the Justice Department’s October 13 announcement, Ghanaian authorities arrested 19 people and seized 303 electronic devices in an operation near Accra. Nine more arrests were reported in Nigeria. Investigators also identified 117 trafficking victims in Ghana, a reminder that scam-centre operations can involve people held against their will as well as the victims losing money online.

Binance and Coinbase joined companies including Chainalysis, Elliptic, Meta, Google and Microsoft in sharing intelligence or disrupting the infrastructure used by scammers. That collaboration can help investigators connect social-media accounts, payments and wallet activity, but it should not be confused with proof that every suspect used cryptocurrency.

There is also an important distinction in the money figure. Officials said private-sector partners identified more than $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen. They did not say that $11 million had been seized or returned to victims.

The real test now is how much of the identified money authorities can actually secure and how many disrupted operations stay offline.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Crypto’s third-quarter security bill came to $1.18 billion, but the headline total is only part of Hacken’s latest warning. The firm recorded 107 incidents between July and September, with smart-contract exploits taking a much larger share of losses than they did three months earlier.

TL;DR: Hacken reported $1.18 billion stolen across 107 incidents in Q3 2026, up 55% from Q2. Smart-contract exploits accounted for 48% of losses, compared with 12% in the previous quarter. Access-control and operational failures made up 40%.

According to Hacken’s Q3 2026 Security and Compliance Report, the pattern behind attacks changed sharply. In Q2, access-control and operational failures had accounted for 88% of losses. That share fell to 40% in Q3, even as total damage rose. Smart-contract losses moved in the other direction, rising from 12% to 48%.

That doesn’t mean wallet keys, infrastructure and vendors stopped being dangerous. Hacken says the largest individual losses were linked to supply-chain attacks, compromised keys, and weaknesses in signer and withdrawal systems. Meanwhile, smart-contract and protocol-code vulnerabilities continued to account for a large number of incidents.

Those distinctions matter when projects point to completed code audits as proof that funds are safe. A contract review can catch defects in one component, but it cannot by itself secure the signing processes, deployment infrastructure and third-party software that surround it.

The report also highlights recurring attack techniques and cases where fixes were already public before exploits happened. That is a less comforting picture for teams relying on one-off reviews rather than continuous checks.

For users and investors, the takeaway is practical: a security audit is worth reading, but its scope, date and follow-through matter as much as the badge on a website.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Standard includes 250,000 monthly usage credits and live deployment, while users must approve workflows and supply trading funds.

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The unknown trader realized about $469,000 in losses before fees overnight, then added another 1,126 ETH of shorts.

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Chip stocks erased about $2 trillion in eight sessions, their longest losing streak since 2008. Yields above 5% and doubts that artificial intelligence (AI) spending will pay off weighed on the group.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a benchmark of US-listed chipmakers, bounced on Monday. However, CNBC’s Investment Committee panel split on whether that marks a buying chance or a pause in a larger unwinding.

Are Rates, Not Demand, Driving the Chip Stocks Selloff?

The index fell more than 11% last week, capping eight straight losing sessions.

Meanwhile, an inflation reading above forecasts has raised the odds of Federal Reserve rate hikes. Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting showed most officials saw another 2026 rate hike as likely appropriate.

The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.10% at Monday’s open, according to Schwab data.

One panelist said neoclouds, debt-funded firms that rent out AI computing power, are feeling the strain of high yields.

The panelist said yields 0.5 to 0.75 percentage points lower would ease that stress.

In contrast, another panelist welcomed hedge funds trimming chip exposure, noting that November and December are seasonally favorable for stocks.

However, a skeptic said last week’s broadening favored healthcare and energy rather than industrials such as Caterpillar.

Is the AI Spending Peak One Year Away or Four?

Panelists disagreed on when AI spending will peak, with estimates ranging from one year to four years away.

One panelist cited memory chipmaker Micron’s share buybacks and take-or-pay contracts, under which customers pay for chips regardless of usage.

Another panelist countered that such contracts would offer little protection once spending peaks, as in past cycles.

Earnings now offer the next test. Lam Research, a chipmaking equipment supplier, reports this week alongside Texas Instruments, Western Digital, Meta, Tesla and SpaceX.

One panelist said the key is returns on AI spending, not assurances that spending will continue.

Therefore, with the 10-year yield above 5%, investors judge each AI earnings report against the cost of money.

That bar applies to every AI-linked stock, from chipmakers to the Magnificent Seven, the group of largest US tech companies.

The post Chip Stocks Lost $2 Trillion in 8 Days, Testing Investor Faith in the AI Boom appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Zug, Switzerland, October 19th, 2026, Chainwire – StakerX’s AI Agent Surpasses $40M in Staked Assets on Solana Within Three Months of Launch

StakerGPT trades crypto markets around the clock and publishes every trade it makes, as more than 8,200 users join the platform

StakerX.ai, an agentic trading platform built by Switzerland-based StakerX Strategies AG, has passed $40 million in assets staked on Solana less than three months after its public launch on July 13, 2026. Users fund their stakes with more than 40 cryptocurrencies from most major blockchains, and StakerGPT, the platform’s agentic trading agent, puts that capital to work in crypto perpetual futures markets every day.

An AI agent that shows its work

An agentic system is AI software that carries out a multi-step task on its own. StakerGPT is built on rare-access Claude Mythos: it monitors crypto markets around the clock, reasons over potential trade setups, filters them through risk controls and routes the approved trades for execution, without a human placing each order.

Every trade is public. StakerX publishes the full record daily at stakerx.ai/trades, with the market, direction, entry and exit prices and return of each position, including both live-executed and signal-derived trades. As of October 18, 2026, the record holds 804 trades across 139 trading days since June 1, 2026, so anyone can check what the agent did on any given day instead of relying on summary figures.

Fund it with almost any coin

Users can deposit USDC, USDT, BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB, TRX and more than 30 other cryptocurrencies from Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin, BNB Chain, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Tron and other networks. Each deposit is converted and credited as USDC, a dollar-backed stablecoin, on Solana, so users do not need to bridge or swap anything themselves. Stakes start at $10 and run for 30 days.

Three months of growth

As of October 18, 2026, StakerX.ai reports:

• $40 million currently staked on the platform
• More than 8,200 registered users, of whom more than 3,000 have funded an account
• 804 trades published across 139 trading days
• More than 27,700 completed withdrawals, totalling $10+ million
• Nearly $12 million in yield credited to users since launch

Coming to the App Store and Google Play

StakerX is preparing native mobile apps for iOS and Android, expected in December 2026, which will bring the dashboard, deposits and the live StakerGPT trade record to the Apple App Store and Google Play. The platform is available today on the web at stakerx.ai.

About StakerX

StakerX is an agentic trading platform built and operated by StakerX Strategies AG, a quantitative trading and investment firm based in Switzerland. Its AI trading agent, StakerGPT, is built on rare-access Claude Mythos and evaluates crypto markets, applies risk filters and routes trades, and the platform publishes every trade in its record daily. Its goal is to make agentic trading accessible to anyone who holds crypto, from any chain, with every trade on the record. StakerX launched publicly on July 13, 2026. More information is available at stakerx.ai.

The post StakerX's AI Agent Surpasses Passes $40M Staked Assets on Solana Within Three Months of Launch appeared first on BeInCrypto.

The BNB Foundation has announced the completion of BNB Chain’s 37th quarterly BNB token burn, removing more than 1.64 million BNB from circulation. The burned tokens were valued at approximately $1.197 billion at the time of the transaction, according to figures provided by the foundation. The latest burn leaves the network with a reported total supply of 131,512,085 BNB. The quarterly mechanism is designed to gradually reduce BNB’s supply toward a target of 100 million tokens. The foundation’s announcement also emphasizes BNB Chain’s ongoing token-burning mechanisms, which include both quarterly Auto-Burn events and a separate real-time process linked to network gas fees. 

Key Figures From BNB Chain’s 37th Quarterly Token Burn 

The latest quarterly burn removed 1,646,196.44 BNB, with an approximate value of $1,197,344,519.40 at the time of the burn. The transaction can be viewed on BscScan.

As of October 19, 2026, at 10:05 AM UTC, the remaining total supply stood at 131,512,085 BNB. Users can check the amount still to be burned through the BNB Burn website.

BNB is the native coin of the BNB Chain ecosystem. It is used to pay transaction fees on BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and supports activity across opBNB layer-2 networks and BNB Greenfield. The token also serves as a governance asset, allowing holders to participate in decentralized on-chain governance.

BNB Chain launched its mainnet on April 18, 2019, after which BNB transitioned from Ethereum to BNB Chain. The token’s “Build and Build” philosophy reflects its role in supporting developm  ent across the ecosystem. BNB is also described by the foundation as a strategic reserve asset and has attracted interest from financial institutions.

How Does BNB Auto-Burn Reduce the Token Supply? 

NB Auto-Burn provides a quarterly process for reducing the token supply through an independently auditable mechanism. The system is designed to operate independently of the centralized Binance exchange, with burn amounts adjusted according to BNB’s price and the number of blocks generated on BSC during a quarter.

The long-term objective is to reduce the total BNB supply to 100,000,000 tokens. Following the BNB Chain Fusion, quarterly burns take place directly on BSC, with the designated amount sent to the blackhole address. BNB Chain has also adjusted parameters used in the Auto-Burn formula following the Lorentz and Maxwell upgrades. These upgrades increased the frequency of BSC block production compared with the conditions under which the original formula was defined. The adjustments are intended to preserve the mechanism’s underlying principles.

The auto-burn mechanism replaces an earlier quarterly burn model that was based on BNB trading volume and Binance’s exchange. Under the present system, the amount burned is calculated using BNB’s market price and the number of blocks generated during the quarter. This approach is intended to make the process more transparent and predictable by allowing the amount burned to adjust to changing market and network conditions.

Alongside quarterly Auto-Burn events, BNB has a real-time burning mechanism introduced through BEP-95. Under this process, a portion of the gas fees collected in each BSC block is burned, with the burn ratio determined through validator governance. This connects ongoing token destruction to network activity.

Together, the two mechanisms support BNB Chain’s stated goal of gradually reducing the token supply, with the latest quarterly event marking another step toward the 100 million BNB target.

On October 16, Ethereum (ETH) price witnessed upward momentum following growing whale accumulation and a rebound in Bitcoin price, helping the cryptocurrency to soar around 5% on a daily chart.

At the time of writing this, Ether (ETH) is trading at around $2,480 with a spike of 4.6% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The daily trading volume is hovering around $14.48 billion, along with an impressive market capitalization of $301.764 billion.

Whale Accumulates ETH Despite Uncertainty in Market

According to on-chain data, in the last few days, major whale accumulation took place during a recent pullback in ETH price, with the price trading roughly in the $2,300 to $2,500 range. Some large wallets bought the dip, while others rotated from Bitcoin into ETH.

For instance, Lookonchain has highlighted one whale, which bought 6,010 ETH worth approximately $14.23 million on October 15 amid the price pullback. This same wallet has previously sold 2,050 ETH for around $4.93 million, locking in about $1.08 million in profit, then re-entered at lower levels.

On October 15, another whale accumulated 3,288 ETH at an average price of around $2,450 during the dip. It withdrew 1,100 ETH from OKX at about $2,516.77 and added another 2,188 ETH at approximately $2,416.89.

Whales and institutions sold 1,601.1 BTC, worth about $132 million in USDC, over the last 5 days and used the proceeds to buy 53,095 ETH at an average price of around $2,497. They sold another 288.9 BTC for about $23.48 million USDC and bought 9,820 ETH. This activity was tracked by Yuqing, also known as Yu Jin Monitoring, and confirmed by Lookonchain.

ETH Follows Clear Upward Trajectory

As of now, Ethereum is consolidating in the price range of $2,460 and $2,480. It is up roughly 4% to 5% over the last 24 hours, recovering from an intraday or recent low near $2,300. This price is moving in a clear short-term upward trajectory after the recent sell-off.

Technical indicators also confirm the upward momentum in Ethereum’s price. The 14-day RSI currently revolves around 65. This suggests strong short-term buying momentum without being deeply overbought yet.

For moving averages, the 20-day SMA sits at around $2,590, with the price currently below it. The 50-day SMA is around $2,550, and the price is also below it. This means ETH is still below its short- and medium-term moving averages. It means that the intermediate trend has not fully turned bullish. However, it is above the rising 200-day SMA, which keeps the longer-term structure intact.

According to the current TradingView price chart, Ethereum is developing a double-bottom pattern, which is especially visible on the 4-hour chart. Two lows formed near the $2,400 to $2,4100 zone, with a deeper liquidity sweep toward $2,320 to $2,340. The neckline and resistance sit around $2,578 to $2,590.

A sustained break and close above this neckline would confirm the pattern and open upside targets toward $2,700 to $2,760. Until then, the recovery remains a bounce rather than a confirmed trend reversal.

Bitcoin Recovers From Fed Rate Ambiguity

On Friday, Bitcoin rebounded on October 16, 2026, recovering around 2% after slipping below $81,000 the previous day. The drop was triggered by hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data, which heightened uncertainty over Federal Reserve interest rate policy and clearly raised the odds of a potential rate hike,

BTC was trading around $80,000 before climbing back above $82,000. At present, BTC price revolves around $81,980 with a market capitalization of $1.65 trillion.

South Korea is approaching another decision point on its long-delayed cryptocurrency gains tax, with exchanges and policymakers preparing to discuss whether the January 2027 start date is realistic.

TL;DR: The country’s planned crypto tax has already been deferred three times. A new proposal would push implementation toward 2029, but no additional delay has been enacted.

Finance officials are expected to meet representatives of major domestic exchanges on October 20. The industry is arguing that the systems needed to handle different transaction types and calculate cost bases are still incomplete. A rushed launch, exchanges say, risks creating inconsistent tax treatment or driving activity to offshore platforms.

South Korea’s planned rate is commonly described as 22% after local tax is included, rather than a simple 20% all-in charge. The question now is less about whether crypto gains should ever be taxable than whether the supporting reporting infrastructure is ready for millions of transactions across different venues.

A lawmaker’s proposal would link the effective date to cross-border data sharing through the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, potentially moving the start to 2029. That measure requires legislative action; a meeting with exchanges cannot, by itself, change the law.

For investors, the current scheduled date remains January 2027 unless lawmakers decide otherwise. For exchanges, a later timetable could buy time to build reporting systems, but another postponement would also prolong policy uncertainty. South Korea has reached this crossroads before, which is why a proposed delay should not be reported as a settled outcome.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, has agreed to acquire Lithuania-based Saldo Bank, taking a route into European banking that goes beyond obtaining another exchange registration.

TL;DR: The proposed acquisition would give Payward an existing licensed banking operation in Europe. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2027.

Saldo provides banking products including loans and deposits. Bringing it into Payward would potentially put cash accounts, crypto assets and lending under a more connected product offering, rather than forcing customers to move between a separate crypto venue and their bank every time they need to borrow, spend or settle funds.

This is an important difference from a cryptocurrency firm simply partnering with an external payments provider. Ownership of a bank brings a regulated operating business, supervisory obligations and a different level of responsibility for customer money. Payward will not acquire unrestricted banking powers across Europe merely by signing the purchase agreement; the necessary approval and post-acquisition controls are still ahead.

The European push also fits a wider industry pattern. Crypto companies are pursuing banking relationships and charters as tokenized securities, stablecoins and conventional financial accounts become more closely linked. Existing lenders, meanwhile, are building crypto products of their own.

For Kraken users, the immediate message is about direction rather than a product they can use today. A completed acquisition could eventually make financing and fiat services feel less fragmented. Until regulators approve the transaction and the integration is completed, the promised benefits remain plans rather than available services.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.