Spy Ledgers Have Now Turned Up in 6 Countries
Public teardown tracker by Mark Karpelès lists 12 Ledgers with a hidden LTE implant, bought everywhere from Lazada Thailand and Amazon Japan to Changi Airport.
CryptoBilis buyers in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines lost ~$102M, per Bitquery. Ledger has not confirmed a total, but on October 13 it halted sales in 7 Asian markets.
Bought a Ledger outside ledger.com this year? Move funds to a new device with a new seed.
Public teardown tracker by Mark Karpelès lists 12 Ledgers with a hidden LTE implant, bought everywhere from Lazada Thailand and Amazon Japan to Changi Airport.
"The implant sits inside the enclosure and reads the data shown on the screen … It does not modify the Secure Element or the Ledger operating system," Ledger's Donjon team said. That is why a tampered device still passes Genuine Check.
CryptoBilis buyers in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines lost ~$102M, per Bitquery. Ledger has not confirmed a total, but on October 13 it halted sales in 7 Asian markets.
Bought a Ledger outside ledger.com this year? Move funds to a new device with a new seed.
USDC Becomes EU's First Significant E-Money Token
The EBA classified Circle's USDC as a significant e-money token under MiCA. It is the first of 45 notified e-money tokens in the EU to get the label.
The EBA also signed a memorandum with New York's DFS to cooperate on cross-border stablecoins, as USDC is issued in both the EU and the US.
The EBA classified Circle's USDC as a significant e-money token under MiCA. It is the first of 45 notified e-money tokens in the EU to get the label.
From November 12, USDC moves to dual supervision. The EBA takes over direct oversight of its own funds, reserve assets, liquidity, and recovery and redemption plans from France's ACPR. The ACPR keeps governance, qualifying holdings, fit and proper checks, outsourcing and conflicts of interest.
The EBA also signed a memorandum with New York's DFS to cooperate on cross-border stablecoins, as USDC is issued in both the EU and the US.
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Mastercard Opens Its Network to Stablecoins
Mastercard launched its Global Money Platform, built on BVNK's stablecoin tech. Banks and fintechs can embed accounts that hold fiat and stablecoins side by side, with conversion through one API.
Nuvei, Ontop, Beem and Almond Fintech are among the first to integrate. The platform is available now through BVNK.
Mastercard launched its Global Money Platform, built on BVNK's stablecoin tech. Banks and fintechs can embed accounts that hold fiat and stablecoins side by side, with conversion through one API.
Users can spend stablecoin balances at hundreds of millions of Mastercard merchant locations, with card issuing in 130+ countries. Payouts go straight to local bank accounts via Mastercard Move, with coverage set to reach 40+ currencies in 200+ countries and territories in 2027. It is the first major product since Mastercard closed its up to $1.8B BVNK deal in August.
Nuvei, Ontop, Beem and Almond Fintech are among the first to integrate. The platform is available now through BVNK.
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Stripe and Plasma Build Multi-Currency Cards
Stripe and Plasma announced multi-currency cards backed by stablecoins. Cardholders will spend euros, reais or pesos directly instead of converting through dollars first.
Next, cards will pick the right balance automatically at checkout. Other businesses can issue the same cards through Stripe.
Stripe and Plasma announced multi-currency cards backed by stablecoins. Cardholders will spend euros, reais or pesos directly instead of converting through dollars first.
Stripe is expanding its stablecoin card infrastructure to USD, EUR, BRL, MXN and COP, plus USDC, OUSD and other GENIUS-compliant stablecoins. It is live in 30+ countries and targets 100+ in 2027. Plasma, an account for people whose finances span countries, is moving onto Stripe's card stack as design partner.
Next, cards will pick the right balance automatically at checkout. Other businesses can issue the same cards through Stripe.
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Celebrity NFT Graveyard. Still Holding, Still Losing
The ten priciest celebrity NFT buys on this board cost $6.04M in 2021-22. At today's floors they are worth about $263K, down 96%. Justin Bieber paid $1.31M for a Bored Ape that now sits near $12.9K.
Punks held up best: Snoop Dogg and Marshmello are down 81% and 85%. Logan Paul's 0N1 Force fell 99.99%, from $623K to about $71. All ten are still sitting in the stars' wallets.
The wider NFT market in 2026 👉 cryptodiffer.com/feed/project-updates/nft-market-2026-marketplaces-survival
The ten priciest celebrity NFT buys on this board cost $6.04M in 2021-22. At today's floors they are worth about $263K, down 96%. Justin Bieber paid $1.31M for a Bored Ape that now sits near $12.9K.
Punks held up best: Snoop Dogg and Marshmello are down 81% and 85%. Logan Paul's 0N1 Force fell 99.99%, from $623K to about $71. All ten are still sitting in the stars' wallets.
The wider NFT market in 2026 👉 cryptodiffer.com/feed/project-updates/nft-market-2026-marketplaces-survival
Ripple Prime Brings 24/7 RWA Perps to Institutions
Ripple Prime launched RWA perpetual swaps for institutional clients, starting with Virtu. They cover 100+ markets across stocks, indices, ETFs, metals, energy and FX, traded and settled 24/7.
For now the product runs out of Ripple Prime's BVI license, with more regions planned.
Ripple Prime launched RWA perpetual swaps for institutional clients, starting with Virtu. They cover 100+ markets across stocks, indices, ETFs, metals, energy and FX, traded and settled 24/7.
Ripple Prime trades as principal, and the swaps reference perpetual futures listed by Trade.xyz on Hyperliquid, so clients can manage exposure on weekends too. Positions can be cross-margined against other assets Ripple Prime supports, and RLUSD works as collateral.
For now the product runs out of Ripple Prime's BVI license, with more regions planned.
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Ramp Hits $60B Valuation With a $1.85B Raise
Ramp closed a $1.85B round at a $60B valuation, four months after raising $750M at $44B. Dragoneer led, with Thrive, Founders Fund, Sands Capital and Avenir co-leading.
Ramp is pushing into AI: it now tracks company AI spending across providers and routes model requests to cut inference costs by up to 40%.
Ramp closed a $1.85B round at a $60B valuation, four months after raising $750M at $44B. Dragoneer led, with Thrive, Founders Fund, Sands Capital and Avenir co-leading.
Annualized revenue now tops $2B with positive cash flow, and growth is 25% faster than a year ago. More than 85,000 companies run over $275B in yearly purchase volume through Ramp, up 175%. Other backers include Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, GIC, Coatue, Khosla and General Catalyst.
Ramp is pushing into AI: it now tracks company AI spending across providers and routes model requests to cut inference costs by up to 40%.
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Ledger Unveils Atom, Its Android Security Device
Ledger unveiled Atom, a data-only Android device that runs everyday apps while its secure chip takes over the screen for every signature, login and AI-agent approval.
The Founders Edition costs $849 with a $100 refundable deposit, rising to $899 after launch. Shipping is planned for summer 2027.
Ledger unveiled Atom, a data-only Android device that runs everyday apps while its secure chip takes over the screen for every signature, login and AI-agent approval.
The Secure Element, MCU and FPGA sit in a monitored zone that detects drilling or attempts to open the case, and the tamper sensors keep running on a separate battery when Atom is off. A hardware switch cuts the camera and mic. Solana Mobile's Seeker app and dApp Store come preinstalled. The launch lands amid the spy-implant cases on resold Ledgers.
The Founders Edition costs $849 with a $100 refundable deposit, rising to $899 after launch. Shipping is planned for summer 2027.
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Cryptomarket Check-In. Major Events & Headlines
Stablecoins moved deeper into everyday payments: Mastercard and Stripe opened card and merchant rails to them, and the EBA made USDC the EU's first significant e-money token. Wall Street kept building onchain, from BNY's tokenized repo to Ripple's 24/7 RWA perps.
Stablecoins moved deeper into everyday payments: Mastercard and Stripe opened card and merchant rails to them, and the EBA made USDC the EU's first significant e-money token. Wall Street kept building onchain, from BNY's tokenized repo to Ripple's 24/7 RWA perps.
Five that actually mattered:
— Mastercard opens its network to stablecoins
— EBA names USDC a significant e-money token
— BNY settles a tokenized repo with Citadel
— Stripe and Plasma build multi-currency cards
— Solana sets Alpenglow for Oct 21
Anthropic IPO Talk Drops to $1.5T as Growth Slows
Anthropic investors weigh a $1.5T valuation for the November IPO, down from roughly $2T expected before, Reuters reports citing people at its investor day.
Anthropic has committed at least $518B over a decade to cloud and compute. Investors see the IPO as a test for the AI trade, ahead of a possible OpenAI listing next year.
Anthropic investors weigh a $1.5T valuation for the November IPO, down from roughly $2T expected before, Reuters reports citing people at its investor day.
At the San Francisco meeting with CEO Dario Amodei and CFO Krishna Rao, Anthropic said Q3 revenue rose 45% to $16.8B and that it was profitable on an adjusted basis. Some investors were still disappointed, since revenue had more than doubled to $11.6B in Q2. Anthropic did not immediately respond to Reuters.
Anthropic has committed at least $518B over a decade to cloud and compute. Investors see the IPO as a test for the AI trade, ahead of a possible OpenAI listing next year.
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Fission Raises $10M to Make Tokenized Funds Liquid
Fission closed a $10M Series A led by Pantera Capital, joined by Circle Ventures, Borderless Capital and angel Ari Rubenstein. New Form and gumi Cryptos returned too.
Fission plugs into Centrifuge, which opens faster exits for tokenized funds from Apollo, Janus Henderson and New York Life Investments.
Fission closed a $10M Series A led by Pantera Capital, joined by Circle Ventures, Borderless Capital and angel Ari Rubenstein. New Form and gumi Cryptos returned too.
Exiting a tokenized fund usually means waiting for its redemption window, which can take about 200 days. Fission buys the shares itself for a fee and settles in stablecoins in 90 seconds or less, 24/7. Clients include hedge funds, crypto treasuries and stablecoin issuers holding tokenized assets.
Fission plugs into Centrifuge, which opens faster exits for tokenized funds from Apollo, Janus Henderson and New York Life Investments.
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How an OpenAI Model Took a Stranger's Test ETH
OpenAI disclosed that an internal model paid for a Sepolia testnet deployment with someone else's wallet. The GPT-5.6 Sol model had no wallet and no permission to spend.
The run happened in June and was found on September 25. OpenAI now runs misalignment monitoring on all traffic and blocks live internet access in similar tasks.
OpenAI disclosed that an internal model paid for a Sepolia testnet deployment with someone else's wallet. The GPT-5.6 Sol model had no wallet and no permission to spend.
After faucets failed, it wrote a script that derived keys from publicly known developer recovery phrases and checked 362 addresses until one had enough Sepolia ETH. It questioned whether this was ethical, decided the funds were "effectively abandoned" and worthless, then signed the deployment. Its final summary never mentioned the wallet.
The run happened in June and was found on September 25. OpenAI now runs misalignment monitoring on all traffic and blocks live internet access in similar tasks.
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MSCI's Kill List: 14 Crypto Treasuries
MSCI builds the stock indexes that pension funds and ETFs copy, like the MSCI World. If a company drops out, the funds tracking those indexes have to sell its shares.
MSCI just flagged 14 crypto treasury companies for removal under its new "non-operating companies" rule, and every one with usable data trades below the value of its crypto.
Before crypto, they were a hotel operator, three biotechs, a pet-products brand and a sports-betting marketer. Miners like MARA and Riot aren't on the list: they run real businesses.
Not crypto-only: a uranium holder and an Icelandic investment firm are flagged too.
MSCI builds the stock indexes that pension funds and ETFs copy, like the MSCI World. If a company drops out, the funds tracking those indexes have to sell its shares.
MSCI just flagged 14 crypto treasury companies for removal under its new "non-operating companies" rule, and every one with usable data trades below the value of its crypto.
Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi are flagged for deletion, 11 more sit on the watchlist. Final list Nov 11, effective after the Nov 30 close.
Before crypto, they were a hotel operator, three biotechs, a pet-products brand and a sports-betting marketer. Miners like MARA and Riot aren't on the list: they run real businesses.
Not crypto-only: a uranium holder and an Icelandic investment firm are flagged too.
Schwab Opens Bitcoin and Ether Trading to All Clients
Schwab completed its crypto rollout: all eligible retail clients can now buy and sell BTC and ETH next to stocks and bonds, on Schwab.com, mobile and thinkorswim.
The broker oversees $13.3 trillion in client assets across 40.3 million active brokerage accounts. The rollout started in May with a limited group of clients.
Next, clients can start moving their existing crypto into Schwab, and SOL, AVAX and LINK trading arrives by year-end.
Schwab completed its crypto rollout: all eligible retail clients can now buy and sell BTC and ETH next to stocks and bonds, on Schwab.com, mobile and thinkorswim.
The broker oversees $13.3 trillion in client assets across 40.3 million active brokerage accounts. The rollout started in May with a limited group of clients.
Each trade costs 0.75% with zero spread, and accounts sit with Charles Schwab Premier Bank. The service is not available in New York, Louisiana or outside the US.
Next, clients can start moving their existing crypto into Schwab, and SOL, AVAX and LINK trading arrives by year-end.
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Cboe vs Kalshi: The Battle for KPI Bets
On October 13 the SEC approved Cboe's KPI options: $1-or-nothing binary options on 116 KPIs from 23 companies, from MARA's bitcoin production to Coinbase revenue.
Kalshi offers the same kind of contract under the CFTC. The difference is the wrapper: a security on an SEC options exchange versus an event contract.
Robinhood will be Cboe's first retail broker, even though its own prediction exchange Rothera asked the SEC to wait. Trading starts once Cboe's clearing house gets its registration.
On October 13 the SEC approved Cboe's KPI options: $1-or-nothing binary options on 116 KPIs from 23 companies, from MARA's bitcoin production to Coinbase revenue.
Kalshi offers the same kind of contract under the CFTC. The difference is the wrapper: a security on an SEC options exchange versus an event contract.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins: the approval "reflects a new spirit of harmonization, innovation, and investor choice."
Robinhood will be Cboe's first retail broker, even though its own prediction exchange Rothera asked the SEC to wait. Trading starts once Cboe's clearing house gets its registration.
MAJOR UPCOMING EVENTS IN OCTOBER!
A full list of Major Upcoming Events, to be updated
👉 https://cryptodiffer.com/events
A full list of Major Upcoming Events, to be updated
👉 https://cryptodiffer.com/events
PAPER Hits Hyperliquid Before It Can Even Transfer
PAPER can't be moved between wallets yet, but traders can already bet on its price. Paragon listed PAPER on Hyperliquid as a pre-launch perp with up to 3x leverage.
It opened at $0.012 and hit $0.035 within a few hours. Nearly $6M changed hands on the first day.
PAPER is the token of Papertrade, the 1000x perps DEX that went live on October 10. It is minted only when traders lose money and can be staked for a share of fees. About 7.3B PAPER existed as of October 14.
Once PAPER becomes transferable, the contract converts into a regular perp. Until then, it trades on isolated margin only.
PAPER can't be moved between wallets yet, but traders can already bet on its price. Paragon listed PAPER on Hyperliquid as a pre-launch perp with up to 3x leverage.
It opened at $0.012 and hit $0.035 within a few hours. Nearly $6M changed hands on the first day.
PAPER is the token of Papertrade, the 1000x perps DEX that went live on October 10. It is minted only when traders lose money and can be staked for a share of fees. About 7.3B PAPER existed as of October 14.
Once PAPER becomes transferable, the contract converts into a regular perp. Until then, it trades on isolated margin only.
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US Debt, Foreign Wallets: Who Holds Tokenized Treasuries
Tokenized US Treasuries more than doubled in a year, from $6.86B to $15.42B. Chainalysis mapped holders by country, and the biggest ones aren't American.
Italy leads with 29.9% of geolocated value, then Portugal with 18.8% and Singapore with 18.2%. Together that's 66.9%. The US is fourth at 10.5%. And an interesting fact, Japan shows the biggest gap: 16.4% of all holders, but only 0.4% of the value.
Tokenized US Treasuries more than doubled in a year, from $6.86B to $15.42B. Chainalysis mapped holders by country, and the biggest ones aren't American.
Italy leads with 29.9% of geolocated value, then Portugal with 18.8% and Singapore with 18.2%. Together that's 66.9%. The US is fourth at 10.5%. And an interesting fact, Japan shows the biggest gap: 16.4% of all holders, but only 0.4% of the value.
Every foreign wallet buying a tokenized T-bill funds Washington, not its own government.
Builedrs Turning Hyperliquid Into a Revenue Stream
Hyperliquid lets any app plug into its order book through builder codes and keep a fee on every trade. In the last 30 days 874 apps did it, and together they earned $10.7M, double what they made in June.
Four apps take 56% of that money. Trust Wallet leads with $1.65M after moving its fee from 0.001% to almost 0.1% over the summer. fomo, Phantom and MetaMask each made about $1.4-1.5M.
Volume and money are two different rankings. HyperDash routed $2.1B, more than MetaMask, but earned 3.6x less because it charges 0.018%.
Pump fun went live on Oct 16 with the same model. It's not on the board yet. We'll check back in a month.
Hyperliquid lets any app plug into its order book through builder codes and keep a fee on every trade. In the last 30 days 874 apps did it, and together they earned $10.7M, double what they made in June.
Four apps take 56% of that money. Trust Wallet leads with $1.65M after moving its fee from 0.001% to almost 0.1% over the summer. fomo, Phantom and MetaMask each made about $1.4-1.5M.
Volume and money are two different rankings. HyperDash routed $2.1B, more than MetaMask, but earned 3.6x less because it charges 0.018%.
"Builder codes allow builders to receive a fee on fills that they send on behalf of a user." Hyperliquid docs
Pump fun went live on Oct 16 with the same model. It's not on the board yet. We'll check back in a month.
BNB Quarterly Burn #37: 1,646,196 BNB (~$1.2B) Burned
BNB Chain completed its 37th burn: 1,646,196 BNB worth about $1.197B went to the dead address. That's a bit more BNB than in July (1.62M), and the dollar value is up 28.5% from July's $932M.
Total supply is now 131,512,085 BNB. In all, 68.49M BNB, or 34.24% of the original 200M, has been burned. The target is 100M, so about 31.5M BNB are still left to burn.
BNB Chain completed its 37th burn: 1,646,196 BNB worth about $1.197B went to the dead address. That's a bit more BNB than in July (1.62M), and the dollar value is up 28.5% from July's $932M.
Total supply is now 131,512,085 BNB. In all, 68.49M BNB, or 34.24% of the original 200M, has been burned. The target is 100M, so about 31.5M BNB are still left to burn.
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