CoinDesk headlines
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Stablecoin supply stalls, but payments jump 45% as Visa, Mastercard and Stripe connect crypto to cash
Analytics firm Allium said stablecoin payments hit $482 billion this year so far, up 45%, as card spending surges and global payment firms add crypto rails.
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Bitcoin’s $100,000 year-end hope divides analysts as inflation clouds outlook
Bitwise sees a potential return above $100,000, while LO:TECH expects a narrower trading range as interest-rate uncertainty weighs on the market.
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Crypto audits give investors false sense of security as Q3 hacks cost $1.18 billion, Hacken says
The security firm found that 77% of third-quarter losses involved compromised suppliers, delayed fixes or systems outside the latest security reviews.
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Crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase join West Africa scam sweep that flagged $11 million
Private-sector partners flagged $11 million in funds that could be frozen, while officials reported cryptocurrency seizures without disclosing their value.
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Chip-stock bets lost $52 million in 10 minutes with Wall Street shut
A 10-minute flush hit round-the-clock chip-stock contracts while U.S. markets were shut, leaving traders with no real share price to lean on.
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Circle defends USDC economics as stablecoin rivals court its partners with bigger cut
Coinbase, Circle’s largest USDC partner, also backs Open USD, a rival network that passes reserve income to partners after a management fee.
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Goldman, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley see tokenization as a growth play, not a threat
The largest banks in the world are eyeing new trading opportunities, speeding up payments and a role for advisers as tokenization takes root in Wall Street.
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Citrini sees a tokenization boom. The harder question is who profits
The influential research firm says real-world assets could finally give blockchains a clear role in finance. For investors, the next challenge is figuring out which companies, networks and protocols capture the revenue.
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Polygon sees Coinme acquisition as entry to payments sector dominated by Visa, Stripe
CEO Marc Boiron said the Coinme acquisition will help Polygon control customer relationships and capture revenue that previously went to payment intermediaries.
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Banks could slow stablecoin growth by paying savers more, BIS paper finds
A BIS working paper found a 1 basis point rise in U.S. bank deposit rates predicted slower stablecoin growth, cutting ten-week growth from 15% to 12%.
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‘Wow, it’s a real discovery’: Claude cracks a 25-year NSA number mystery
Numbers the spy agency handed over in the 1990s, long suspected of hiding a backdoor, turn out to have come from a basic computer program. Bitcoin was never on that list, and its quantum problem hasn’t gone anywhere.
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Satoshi-era bitcoin faces a bigger quantum threat after Google’s new Willow breakthrough
Google says its Willow chip can prepare the special quantum states needed for advanced calculations with about 40 times fewer errors, reducing one of the hardware bottlenecks behind any future attempt to crack bitcoin wallets.
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Big Tech's AI auditors will only see what they're shown
If the White House accord's audits are going to be worth anything, auditors should be able to choose what they test, writes Samuel Vance-Law, head of research at the Decentralization Research Center.
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Traders will soon be able to bet on whether Coinbase, Robinhood and Marathon will hit their targets
Your day-ahead look for Oct. 16, 2026
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Circle targets 40 new markets as stablecoin demand grows globally
The stablecoin issuer’s CEO Jerermy Allaire told Reuters demand for digital dollars is growing across Asia, Africa and Latin America as banks and payment firms.
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Quantum Alliance forms amid warnings 6.4 million bitcoin face future quantum threat
Nine crypto companies launched the Quantum Alliance to jointly prepare for quantum attacks, but they disagree on when the threat will arrive and whether vulnerable BTC should be frozen.
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Tokenized Tesla surges as Elon Musk unveils SpaceX-powered flying Roadster prototype
Volume in Hyperliquid’s Tesla contract hit $47 million in one hour after Elon Musk’s flying Roadster demo, up from $2.8 million, with U.S. stocks closed.
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Altcoins outpace bitcoin as celestia jumps 16%, Warsh silent on interest-rate plans
Celestia jumped 16%, injective rose 7.7% and layerzero added 7.3% while bitcoin held little changed near $82,100 and Fed Chair Warsh gave no sign on interest rates.
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Scammer gets scammed in Ledger spy-chip exploit, loses almost $5 million in bitcoin
Chainalysis says a fraudster who tricked people through fake online jobs became one of the biggest victims of the compromised hardware wallets.
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Live updates: Bitcoin back above $82,000, ZEC jumps 11% as ETF outflows continue
Crypto bounced a day after bitcoin’s brief drop under $80,000, but investors kept pulling money from ether, SOL and ZEC funds.
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U.S. judge rejects Gemini’s appeal to void $5 million settlement despite CFTC backing
The crypto exchange already paid up, but a court order and restrictions from its 2025 settlement will not be lifted even though the CFTC said the case should have never been presented.
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MSCI approves rules that could eject Strategy, Metaplanet from equity indexes
The rules proposed in August would see companies that exist mainly to hold investments as no longer eligible for index inclusion.
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XRP has failed to make holders rich like bitcoin and ether. Here’s why
XRP remains below its 2017-cycle high while bitcoin, ether and other major tokens have surged, enriching their holders.
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An OpenAI agent ran out of Ethereum funds, and took from a wallet it did not own
The research model derived funded Sepolia addresses from public seed phrases, questioned whether using the money was ethical, then called the funds “effectively abandoned” and used them anyway.
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Bitcoin buyers snap up a brief drop below $80,000 as Asian stocks rebound
Bitcoin tore back to $82,500 within two hours of dipping under $80,000, and chipmakers in Seoul recovered from their worst close since April.
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At the White House, crypto policy vacancy looms large
The departure of President Donald Trump's crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, leaves the digital assets office vacant and its policy aims uncertain.
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Crypto for Advisors: Wall Street is done waiting on Congress for crypto rules
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How Brooklyn prosecutors and the FBI took down a massive crypto fraud network targeting Russian speakers
The scheme allegedly stole tens of millions through Russian-language Facebook ads and fake advisers, then went after victims again with fake recovery offers.
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Under pressure Ledger unveils plan to turn its crypto hardware wallet into a smartphone
Ledger’s Atom will run apps like WhatsApp and Instragram and let users switch between smartphone functions and a protected mode for managing digital assets.
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Bitcoin, copper, stocks, yields all fall; gold rises
Your day-ahead look for Oct. 15, 2026