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The article asserts that the "debasement trade" is now widely accepted by financial institutions, moving beyond a fringe debate. This trade is an investment strategy driven by the expectation that fiat currencies, particularly the US dollar, will lose purchasing power due to continuous central bank money printing and monetary expansion. Commentators note that traditional finance is finally catching up to the view long held by Bitcoin and gold proponents: that governments will not cease printing money, which will cause significant problems for traditional assets like the dollar and bonds moving forward. This shift in institutional mindset is leading to a massive boon for non-fiat assets.
Assets like gold and Bitcoin are seen as the primary beneficiaries of the debasement trade, with gold having already demonstrated significant gains this year, increasing by 50%. Experts describe the trade as the "dark matter of finance," impacting everything due to mounting deficits, high debt, and policies that suppress real yields, prompting investors to search for an unchanging yardstick of value. Bitcoin, in particular, is highlighted as being anti-debasement by design, owing to its fixed supply and transparent, trustless verification, making it a pure expression of capital preservation. The article points to the US Dollar Index falling by approximately 12% this year as clear evidence of the dollar’s ongoing debasement. Source
According to the 2024/2025 Crypto Compensation Report from Dragonfly, the crypto industry is experiencing a down market for compensation, with salaries and token incentives declining across nearly all roles and regions despite Bitcoin's strong performance this year. This contraction signals a shift toward leaner operations, cost discipline, and a more structured approach to pay, moving away from the aggressive expansion of previous years. The broad pullback in pay is evident across most seniority levels, with mid-level roles seeing flat growth and entry-level positions absorbing the steepest cuts, while the only meaningful increases were concentrated at the executive level, creating a "barbell effect" in compensation. Hiring has also slowed, and most firms remain remote-first.
Geographically, Western Europe continues to be a dominant labor hub due to venture funding and regulatory clarity, though Asia's share of hiring nearly doubled in the survey period. The U.S. leads in cash pay, while international teams tend to offer greater equity and token incentives. The survey, which compiled data from 85 companies, highlights that crypto firms are prioritizing structure over speed as markets stabilize, and regulatory frameworks mature, reshaping how talent and capital are distributed across the global ecosystem. Source
Peru's largest and oldest bank, Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP), has launched a pilot crypto platform named Cryptococos, marking the country's first regulated offering of digital assets by a bank. Authorized by the national regulator, the platform allows select BCP clients to buy and hold Bitcoin and USDC, with custody provided by US-based digital asset infrastructure company BitGo. To ensure regulatory compliance, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations, Cryptococos operates as a closed-loop system, meaning transactions are strictly confined to the platform, preventing transfers to external wallets. Users must register, meet minimum banking history requirements with BCP, and pass an investment risk assessment before being able to participate.
The move by BCP comes as Peru's broader crypto landscape shows signs of evolution, despite a fragmented regulatory environment. While crypto activity remains in a legal gray area, crypto fintech companies like Argentina-based Lemon Cash, which operates under a hybrid model using a licensed partner for Peruvian soles transfers and an El Salvador licence for crypto trading, have attracted significant user bases. Additionally, the Peruvian government and the Central Reserve Bank of Peru appear to be warming to digital assets, with the BCRP having launched a digital currency pilot in 2024 to promote financial inclusion, and plans for a pilot digital voting program utilizing blockchain technology ahead of the 2026 national elections. Source
Solana’s network is seeing a significant drop in daily transactions, which have fallen by nearly 50% from their peak of 125 million in July 2025 down to around 64 million, according to data from CryptoQuant. This decline is happening despite the imminent final deadline for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to approve several spot Solana Exchange-Traded Fund filings from major issuers. Analysts suggest this transaction fall is due to a combination of subsiding retail hype, capital rotation into rival networks like BNB Chain, and any underlying friction in the validator performance or user experience. The drop is viewed as part normalization and part competitive pressure as the network matures.
Despite high confidence from ETF analysts that a spot Solana ETF approval is all but confirmed, potentially leading to strong initial inflows bolstered by low proposed fees, experts do not expect the approval alone to cause a major price breakout for the token. Instead, the consensus is that Solana's price action will likely be muted and will follow the directional bias set by Bitcoin. For Solana to sustain a major independent bullish move, it would likely require a combination of the broad ETF-driven market inflows and a powerful new catalyst specific to the Solana ecosystem. Source
The current decentralized exchange (DEX) "wars" have shifted focus from attracting total value locked (TVL) with token incentives, a strategy previously used by platforms like SushiSwap and PancakeSwap, to competing on speed, leverage, and robust infrastructure for perpetual trading. Hyperliquid, built on its own high-performance blockchain, has been the market leader, handling over $300 billion in monthly volume around mid-2025, with its deep liquidity appealing to professional traders. This strong growth was partly fuelled by a successful points-to-airdrop rewards program that distributed a large portion of its token supply, now valued at $7 billion to $8 billion. However, rivals Aster and Lighter are rapidly challenging its dominance. Aster, built on BNB Smart Chain and advised by Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, occasionally surpasses Hyperliquid’s trading volumes and offers high leverage up to 1,000x on tokenized stocks, with its momentum driven by large airdrop programs and a strong market narrative.
Lighter, utilizing a custom Ethereum layer-2 for near-centralized exchange (CEX) speed, has reported daily volumes over $8 billion, offering zero trading fees for retail users and a highly attractive points-linked liquidity pool program. Both Aster and Lighter have employed the same points-to-airdrop playbook to bootstrap liquidity and activity, a strategy Calder White of Vigil Labs notes is highly narrative-driven, contrasting with Hyperliquid's more organic flow from serious participants. As institutional liquidity begins to enter the onchain derivatives space, the long-term success of these platforms will hinge less on introductory incentives and more on which platform can offer the most reliable rails, speed, and execution quality for serious capital, with Hyperliquid setting the current benchmark with high open interest and growing institutional traction. Source
Luxembourg has become the first country in the Eurozone to invest in Bitcoin-based securities, with its Intergenerational Sovereign Wealth Fund (FSIL) allocating a modest 1% of its portfolio to Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This decision, revealed by Finance Minister Gilles Roth, represents a shift from the fund's traditionally conservative approach, which historically favoured high-quality bonds and index equities for preserving wealth for future generations. The 1% allocation translates to approximately $8 million, based on the fund’s reported $811 million (702 million euro) total assets. This move was made possible by a revised investment policy approved in July 2025, which authorized the fund to allocate up to 15% of its assets to alternative investments, including real estate, private equity, and cryptocurrencies.
The FSIL opted for exposure through Bitcoin ETFs rather than holding the cryptocurrency directly, a choice made to minimize operational risks. Bob Kieffer, the director of the treasury, stated that the 1% allocation was a balanced step forward, which "strikes the right balance" for the fund's mission while simultaneously signalling confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term potential and recognizing the asset class's growing maturity. While other countries like El Salvador have made direct Bitcoin purchases, and US state funds hold smaller positions, Luxembourg's policy-based decision makes it a pioneer in the European institutional adoption of digital assets, following a trend that has seen other European nations like Czechia and Germany show interest in adding Bitcoin to their treasury holdings. Source
The UK Financial Conduct Authority is set to lift its January 2021 ban on crypto exchange-traded notes, or ETNs, on October 8, a move that could significantly open up the UK market to cryptocurrency investments and potentially unlock nearly $1 trillion in savings. ETNs are debt securities traded on exchanges that track the price of an underlying asset, offering investors exposure without requiring direct ownership of the crypto. The reversal of the ban, which previously restricted retail investors from buying or marketing crypto ETNs and related derivatives, is anticipated to position the UK as a major crypto market in Europe. A key factor in the market's growth will be whether these crypto ETNs qualify for tax-advantaged accounts like Individual Savings Accounts and Self-Invested Personal Pensions, which currently hold over $930 billion in assets; however, eligibility remains uncertain pending formal guidance from the tax authority.
The policy change aligns with renewed regulatory focus on digital assets in the UK and is expected to drive a sharp rise in crypto adoption, with a survey indicating that 30 percent of investors would consider buying crypto through ETNs, a significant increase from current ownership levels. Investment platforms like IG, Stratiphy, and Freetrade are preparing to list these ETNs, expecting a surge in demand, particularly among younger generations. The appeal of ETNs lies in the perceived safety and ease of access that comes with trading on regulated exchanges alongside traditional financial products, simplifying the process compared to setting up accounts on separate crypto exchanges. While the ban on crypto exchange-traded funds remains, the introduction of ETNs is seen as a major step that could reshape how British savers interact with crypto, creating one of the largest new investment channels in Europe. Source
Markethive is developing a complete, decentralized market network ecosystem committed to ensuring user autonomy, free speech, and financial sovereignty, operating without censorship or bias from external entities. The platform is built on a blockchain-driven distributed database to circumvent the control of centralized internet providers, making it resilient to single points of failure and content suppression. It functions as a hub for social interaction and a powerful facilitator for businesses, offering "supergroups" for e-commerce and a comprehensive marketing system that allows for uncensored global broadcasting of ideas. Furthermore, Markethive empowers users to build a sovereign income through participation and the use of its proprietary cryptocurrency, Hivecoin (HVC), which serves as the primary medium of exchange, rewarding contributions, and supporting peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries, thus safeguarding user earnings and creating a self-sustaining economy.
Markethive's core principles are enshrined in its Bill of Rights, which grants users full ownership of their personal information and content, explicitly stating that data does not belong to the platform. It adheres to a strict ethical stance by not using targeted ads, tracking, or profiling users, and it vows never to share personal information. The platform is committed to unfiltered connections, ensuring user feeds are unmanipulated and displayed in precise timeline order from chosen contacts and groups. For content security, it protects intellectual property from external censorship and deletion attempts by preserving it on its distributed system, even when content is broadcast to established social media giants using "opaque summaries" to bypass algorithmic filtering. Ultimately, Markethive aims to foster a space where genuine dialogue thrives, creators are respected, and the free flow of authentic information is prioritized through its robust, independently owned server network and blockchain technology. Source
The AI-focused Polkadot project Phala has decided to fully migrate its operations to its existing Ethereum Layer 2 solution following a successful community vote. This strategic move is intended to scale up the project’s offerings in confidential AI and GPU compute, particularly targeting enterprise clients. The migration, which begins before November 20, will see current Phala token holders receive the new ERC-20 variant at a one-to-one ratio, ensuring staking, rewards, and governance continue without interruption on the new layer. This full switch is a continuation of the project’s work, as it already launched a live and functional Ethereum L2 in January.
The decision to abandon Polkadot entirely and focus solely on Ethereum was driven by the desire to consolidate the project's staking, governance, and confidential compute services within the robust Ethereum Virtual Machine ecosystem. Proponents argued that renewing the Polkadot parachain slot would confine Phala to infrastructure with limited scalability, requiring significant upkeep, whereas the L2 path offers reduced operational overhead and direct integration with Ethereum's extensive liquidity and tooling. Furthermore, the Ethereum L2 is considered the optimal environment for utilizing next-generation computation technologies like TDX and GPU-based confidential workloads, where Phala is already seeing early commercial interest. This move is notable as Phala is one of the few Polkadot parachains to fully defect to Ethereum rather than adopting a multichain strategy, positioning its $80.6 million market capitalization token for growth on the new network. Source
Coinbase and Mastercard are reportedly in separate, advanced negotiations to acquire BVNK, a London-based fintech firm specializing in building stablecoin infrastructure for businesses. The potential sale is anticipated to value BVNK between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, a figure that would surpass Stripe’s previous $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge. While both corporate giants are vying for the London firm, which helps businesses integrate stablecoins for treasury operations, cross-border payments, and general payment processing, sources suggest that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase currently holds the advantage in the talks. This massive corporate interest highlights a significant industry shift where major payment networks and crypto firms now view U.S. dollar-pegged digital assets as core financial infrastructure.
Industry observers suggest the fierce competition for BVNK reflects diverging motivations for securing a strong early position in the evolving stablecoin economy. For Coinbase, the acquisition could represent a move toward vertical integration, allowing it to control both stablecoin issuance (through its association with USDC) and enterprise distribution, thereby capturing a larger share of the value chain. Conversely, Mastercard's interest is seen as a defensive strategy against the potential disintermediation of traditional card networks should stablecoin settlement bypass them, along with gaining optionality to white-label crypto services. These aggressive plays acknowledge that programmable dollars on public rails could erode current interchange economics, demonstrating that major firms believe the thesis for stablecoin infrastructure has crossed a threshold where strategic inaction poses a greater risk than uncertainty. Source
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has established a new initiative called the “Privacy Cluster,” uniting forty-seven cryptographers, researchers, and engineers to elevate the privacy and safety features of Ethereum’s Layer 1 infrastructure. This move signifies the Foundation’s commitment to making privacy a primary development priority, shifting it from a supplementary project to a core focus of the Ethereum ecosystem. The new structure integrates various existing projects, including long-running efforts from the Privacy & Scaling Explorations (PSE) team, which has already developed over fifty open-source projects such as tools for anonymous signaling and private voting. Igor Barinov will lead the new cluster, which aims to enhance private transactions, identity verification, and safer institutional operations on the network.
Key projects under the new cluster include Private Reads & Writes for executing confidential on-chain actions, Private Proving for verifiable proofs without exposing data, and the Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF), which seeks to bridge on-chain functionality with regulatory compliance. This focus on privacy is crucial as Ethereum processes billions of dollars in value daily, necessitating stronger data protection to maintain digital trust for individuals, developers, and institutions. The timing of this announcement aligns with increased institutional involvement in Ethereum, suggesting the IPTF's work will become increasingly important for addressing data protection and regulatory scrutiny. The initiative builds on Ethereum’s historical privacy research dating back to 2018, reinforcing the blockchain's overall security and value proposition. Source
Privacy-focused blockchain Monero has released the "Fluorine Fermi" software update, version v0.18.4.3, to enhance user security against malicious "spy nodes" on the network. Spy nodes are defined in the community as malicious groups or botnets capable of calculating and matching user IP addresses to specific transactions conducted on the Monero network. The core improvement in this highly recommended update is an improved peer selection algorithm that actively avoids connecting to the large subnets of IP addresses typically favored by these spy nodes, instead pushing users to connect with nodes deemed safer. This latest software release represents another effort by the Monero community to find workarounds for persistent privacy threats posed by malicious actors.
The release is part of the community's ongoing battle to uphold user privacy, which has involved promoting safety practices and tools like Dandelion++ software, designed specifically to decouple IP addresses from transactions. While previous ideas, such as creating ban lists for suspected spy node IP addresses, have been proposed, they are not considered fully sustainable due to the ease with which new malicious IP addresses can be created. Privacy concerns on the network were notably amplified following a leaked Chainalysis video in late 2024, in which the firm allegedly demonstrated its ability to track Monero transactions dating back to 2021 using its own malicious nodes. Source
The digital asset BNB, the native token of the BNB Chain created and backed by the crypto giant Binance, has shattered its all-time high, reaching $1,316 with a 24-hour surge of 8.8% and trading volume exceeding $3 billion. This significant rally is being fueled by a combination of factors, including robust memecoin trading activity and rising institutional adoption. Notably, CEA Industries announced a substantial $611 million BNB treasury holding of 480,000 tokens, while Kazakhstan’s Alem Crypto Fund named BNB as its first national reserve asset, signaling growing corporate and institutional confidence in the token’s credibility and utility.
The increased institutional bets validate the asset's value as the functional fulcrum of a massively integrated ecosystem, according to the CEO of CEA Industries. Further underlying the rally is the strong performance of the BNB Chain ecosystem, where Q3 decentralized exchange (DEX) volume soared by 185% to $37.1 billion. This growth was significantly bolstered by the DEX aggregator Aster’s substantial $29 million in daily fees. BNB's fundamental role remains powering transactions, offering staking, and providing fee discounts for traders within the BNB Chain. Source
Jack Dorsey, the founder of the payments company Square, advocated for a de minimis tax exemption on minor Bitcoin transactions to facilitate the cryptocurrency's adoption for daily payments. This appeal followed Square's announcement of integrating Bitcoin payment services for businesses using its checkout and point-of-sale systems, reflecting Dorsey's stated goal to make Bitcoin "everyday money ASAP." His comments gained traction with Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, who had previously proposed a de minimis tax provision in a separate crypto tax bill in July, which aimed to exempt Bitcoin transactions of $300 or less from capital gains tax, with an annual exemption limit of $5,000.
Currently, all Bitcoin transactions in the US are subject to capital gains tax if the price of Bitcoin has appreciated since its purchase, a regulation that hinders its utility as an everyday medium of exchange. Advocates for Bitcoin, including industry executives like the vice president of tax at Coinbase, continue to lobby for these tax exemptions, arguing that they would promote the use of cryptocurrency in retail commerce and ensure that payment innovation remains in the US. They point out that several other jurisdictions, such as the UAE, Germany, and Portugal, already offer favorable tax treatments for digital assets, creating a competitive disadvantage for the US compared to these countries. Source
S&P Global is introducing a new hybrid tokenized index, the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, designed to merge the worlds of digital assets and traditional crypto-focused equities. This benchmark will track a combination of 15 major cryptocurrencies and 35 publicly traded companies involved in the blockchain space. The index will be accessible to investors through a token called dShares, created in collaboration with the crypto asset firm Dinari. This initiative aims to take crypto from a niche market to a more mainstream investment, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices' chief product officer.
The selection criteria for the index components include a minimum $300 million market capitalization for the chosen cryptocurrencies, which will be sourced from S&P’s existing Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market Index. For the blockchain-linked equities, a minimum $100 million market cap is required, and these will include companies like MicroStrategy, Coinbase, and Riot Platforms. To promote diversification and prevent over-concentration, no single component within the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index will be permitted to exceed a 5 percent weighting. Source
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
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