Morning Edition · Thursday, October 15, 2026
Crypto
Ledger Finds Hidden Cellular Chip That Sent Recovery Phrases From Reseller-Sold Wallets
Investigators put losses at $86 million to $93 million across more than 300 wallets on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tron, and the implanted devices reportedly passed Ledger's own authenticity check.
Crypto
Aztec Discloses a Critical Proof Flaw in Its V5 Alpha as Miden Pitches Private Stablecoin Finance
Aztec contributors found a flaw that could let a forged proof pass verification, discovered it on July 27 with AI-assisted auditing, and will not ship the fix until the V6 upgrade later this year.
Crypto
Solana Schedules Alpenglow Consensus Switch for October 21, Targeting Finality in About 150 Milliseconds
Anza's upgrade replaces the TowerBFT consensus algorithm in a single slot, and validators must register new signing keys and run Agave 4.3 before then.
Crypto
European Banking Authority Names Circle's USDC the First Significant Stablecoin Under MiCA
Direct supervision by the European Banking Authority and French regulators begins November 12, while a bank-backed euro stablecoin holds a Dutch license but cannot yet launch.
Crypto
NEAR Intents Custody Bug Leads Wave of Exploits Hitting Hot Wallets, Signers and Oracles
New write-ups and proof-of-concept files cover losses from $32,600 to about $388 million, and most of the failures sat in off-chain or privileged infrastructure rather than core contract logic.
Macro
Higher-Than-Expected US Inflation Data Drives Nearly $1 Billion in Crypto Liquidations as Bitcoin Falls Below $81,000
Ether accounted for nearly 60% of forced closures across the two largest cryptocurrencies, and South Korea's Kospi index triggered a circuit breaker after an 8% fall.
Crypto
Ethereum Researcher Proposes Splitting Block Execution Proofs So Proving Can Begin Before State Is Known
A separate 15-month study of Ethereum block fees was corrected on publication day after a base-fee decoding error, and layer-2 value fell on most major networks this week.
Crypto
Russia's Central Bank Authorizes Sberbank to Exchange Crypto as Banks in Russia, the UAE and Europe Absorb Retail Access
Sberbank plans its first bitcoin products for December, Standard Chartered has opened bitcoin trading for wealthy clients in the United Arab Emirates, and Kraken's parent is buying a European bank.
Crypto
Binance Pool Will Close After Its Bitcoin Hashrate Fell 65% Since December
The pool's computing power fell from 26 exahashes per second to about 9, and its remaining miners must move to another provider before a November 10 cutoff.
Crypto
Firelight Moves XRP Stakes Into Insurance Pools Automatically, and the Withdrawal Queue Grows
An October 6 activation turned existing FXRP deposits into cover capital that earns fees but absorbs claims, while XRP treasury firm Evernorth readies 473 million XRP for yield strategies.
Crypto
AI Agents Have Made 138 Million Crypto Payments Through Coinbase's x402 Protocol, Chainalysis Says
Most payments were under 10 cents, and wallets linked to the United States account for just over 88% of tracked spending on AI models, against 0.1% for China.
Crypto
US Bank Regulator Finds Crypto Restrictions at Nine Major Banks as the White House Crypto Council Loses Its Executive Director
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency could not measure how far debanking went, Patrick Witt's detail to the White House ended, and Kalshi's chief executive warned that state oversight would push prediction markets out.