Morning Edition · Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Crypto
Ledger halts sales in seven Asian markets after confirming a hardware implant that steals recovery phrases
The implant reads the 24 recovery words as they travel to the device screen and sends them out over a cellular modem, and reported thefts linked to one reseller exceed $86 million.
Crypto
Aztec discloses a proving flaw in its Alpha V5 network that could let forged transactions pass verification
Core contributors found the bug with AI-assisted auditing on July 27, kept it private until a fix was ready for V6, and say chain history cannot show whether anyone used it.
Crypto
Solana sets October 21 to activate Alpenglow, replacing its voting system and targeting roughly 150-millisecond finality
The upgrade removes validator vote transactions from blocks, so the network's reported transaction counts will fall sharply even if user activity does not change.
Crypto
Coinbase lays out a multi-year plan to move Bitcoin to quantum-resistant signatures as researchers ship a post-quantum Lightning prototype
Coinbase backs hybrid wallets that can spend with either a classical or a post-quantum key, and it wants the fate of dormant coins decided separately so that dispute does not delay the upgrade.
Crypto
NEAR Intents' $3.8 million custody exploit leads a week of smaller vault and accounting bugs and an $800,000 knife robbery in the United Kingdom
DeFiHackLabs added proof-of-concept code for exploits at BitBay, X7 Finance and The Red Village, bringing its catalogue to 892 incidents, and most of the funds stolen from NEAR Intents were returned.
Tech
OpenAI is in early talks to buy Trail of Bits, the security firm that audits much of crypto's core code
The two companies have worked together since June on a program that pairs OpenAI's cyber models with Trail of Bits engineers to find bugs in open-source libraries.
Crypto
Ethereum researchers publish three designs for faster blocks and data on who pays for the front of the block
A revised "rapidblocks" consensus lets one block be skipped without a reorganization, a new EIP-8411 tier speeds publishing by home builders, and a 15-month dataset measures priority fees by block position.
Crypto
Miden launches a private-finance stack and a self-custody wallet, aimed at payments and treasury flows that institutions will not run on transparent chains
The zero-knowledge chain proves transactions on users' own devices so balances and counterparties stay hidden, and privacy coin Zcash led a broad token rebound this week.
Crypto
South Korea blocks the websites of 27 unregistered exchanges, including KuCoin and BitMart, as Dubai grants Kraken a full license
Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit is preparing withdrawal guidance through the domestic exchange association for users locked out of their accounts, while Kraken's parent prepares a launch in the United Arab Emirates.
Crypto
Philippine central bank moves against Coins.ph over alleged payments for offshore gambling firms
The country's largest crypto exchange, with more than 18 million customers, reportedly faces restrictions on bank deposits, though its crypto license remains active.
Crypto
Bitcoin treasury companies turn to convertibles, preferred stock and buybacks as Metaplanet trades about 90% below its peak
Metaplanet will repay $151 million of bitcoin-backed loans and buy back up to 14.7% of its shares, while Strive offers a 15% fixed-dividend preferred stock to raise $500 million for more bitcoin.
Crypto
BNY and Citadel Securities test tokenized Treasuries for financing as higher bank deposit rates slow USDC growth
Stablecoin supply stands at $312.39 billion, according to DeFiLlama, and issuers and wallets are turning to yield products such as CoinShares' new self-custody offering on Safe to compete with bank deposits.