Weekly: $68,000 Theft from Ukrainian in Trust Wallet, Circle's Lawsuit Against Trump Over $2 Billion in UAE, and Historic Solana Update

Incrypted has prepared another digest of the main events in the fields of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and artificial intelligence for the week. This time, attention was drawn to the theft of nearly $70,000 from the Trust Wallet of a Ukrainian user, a lawsuit by a Circle shareholder against Donald Trump over crypto deals in the UAE, and the largest consensus update in Solana's history. Also in focus are critical vulnerabilities in PHP discovered using OpenAI's AI and new challenges for the security of digital assets.

Main News

Bitcoin

• ETFs and Institutional Investments
  From October 12 to 16, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US recorded an outflow of $228.58 million, of which $165.45 million was attributed to BlackRock's IBIT.

Meanwhile, Tesla retained a reserve of 11,509 BTC in Q3 2026, and the revaluation of assets brought the company $288 million in unrealized profits before taxes. At the same time, the book value of Tesla's Bitcoin portfolio increased from $674 million to $962 million without selling any coins.

The Identity Crisis of Bitcoin: From Cypherpunk Dream to Wall Street Asset
October 15, 2026
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• Market Dynamics and Accumulation
  According to Santiment, over the month, large holders increased their total reserves by nearly 89,000 BTC to over 13.69 million BTC, which may indicate the formation of a market bottom; however, spot demand in the US remains weak.

Analysts at Wintermute expect increased volatility ahead of the Fed meeting on October 28: a breakout above $87,000 could pave the way for growth, while losing support at $82,500 could lead to a drop around $70,000.

Bitcoin Holds $80,000, Ethereum Continues to Decline: Trader Assesses Market Movement Scenarios
October 19, 2026
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Santiment also warned of the risks of large liquidations due to the increase in open interest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Specifically, on October 24, the price of Bitcoin fell below $81,000, and in one day, liquidations on this asset reached $90.72 million, with 89.3% attributed to longs. Overall, during this period, positions worth $466.54 million were liquidated in the crypto market, of which $319.36 million were losses for long position holders. At the time of writing, the first cryptocurrency is trading at $80,294, according to TradingView. BTC/USDT Chart on Binance. Source: TradingView.

Ethereum

• ETFs and Capital Movement
  From October 12 to 16, spot Ethereum ETFs in the US lost $319.97 million, exceeding the outflow from Bitcoin funds during the same period. The largest losses were suffered by BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), from which investors withdrew $298.97 million.

On October 24, liquidations in Ethereum amounted to $60.73 million, with 82.6% attributed to longs. At the time of preparation, the price of Ethereum is at $2,328, according to TradingView. ETH/USDT Chart on Binance. Source: TradingView.

• Network Updates and Institutional Adoption
  At the beginning of the week, Ethereum developers announced the activation of Glamsterdam in the Hoodi test network, scheduled for October 26, 2026. However, the launch was later postponed. The reason was the need for further research into the interaction of EIP-8037 with the smart contracts of the main network, and a new launch date has not yet been determined. The update is expected to increase L1 throughput, optimize block verification, and change gas accounting mechanisms, but the activation date in the main network remains unknown.

JPMorgan Chase will also launch the JPM Coin deposit token on the public Ethereum network for institutional clients to facilitate round-the-clock transfers of dollar deposits and support settlements for transactions with tokenized assets.

Altcoins

• Market Analysis and Investor Sentiment
  The research division of Grayscale Research has introduced a methodology for evaluating crypto assets based on yield metrics for token holders and adjusted profit, with HYPE, LIT, and CAKE leading the rankings.
  Meanwhile, analysts at CryptoQuant have recorded a decline in activity among large XRP holders on Binance: the 90-day average outflow of whale funds has dropped to $49.7 million, the lowest level in five years. Over the past 15 days, the market capitalization of altcoins has decreased by $134 billion.
• Market Dynamics
  Trader Peter Brandt compared the Monero chart to silver before its rise to $125, while open interest in XMR futures increased by about 22% from October 15 to 20.
  
  Privacy Protection or FOMO: What is Behind the Rise of Anonymous Cryptocurrencies?
  October 23, 2025
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  In turn, the BNB Foundation conducted its 37th quarterly token burn, removing 1.65 million BNB worth approximately $1.2 billion from circulation and reducing the total supply to 131.51 million BNB.
• Blockchain and Ecosystem Development
  House of Doge, the commercial arm of the Dogecoin Foundation, has agreed to transfer part of its product and engineering operations to the new company Dogecoin Labs, which will unite the teams of MyDoge, DogeOS, and other DOGE ecosystem projects. In return, House of Doge will receive a strategic stake in the new structure and focus on the tokenization of alternative investments and sports partnerships.
  Meanwhile, Zcash developers have proposed to activate the NU7 update around November 5, 2026, reducing the block interval from 75 to 25 seconds and anticipating changes in network funding and the discontinuation of the outdated privacy pool Sprout.

Crypto Fraud and Asset Security: The Role of Ukrainians

In Poland, eight Ukrainian citizens and a Belarusian citizen were arrested on suspicion of laundering money from investment fraud related to cryptocurrencies, with the group's transaction amount exceeding 337 million zlotys, or about $87 million.
At the same time, Ukrainian Instagram user Arthur Romanchuk reported losing over 68,000 USDT from his Trust Wallet on his iPhone, linking the incident to a set of DarkSword exploits and an outdated version of iOS, although there is no independent confirmation of this cause.

Solana's Technological Update

Solana activated the Alpenglow consensus protocol update on its mainnet on October 21, 2026, calling it the largest consensus update in blockchain history. Thanks to the changes, the block finalization time has been reduced from approximately 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds, which is expected to accelerate transaction confirmations in the network.

Alpenglow: How the New Consensus Protocol Will Change the Solana Blockchain?
May 20, 2025
Read

Crypto Exchanges Limit Services in Certain Countries

MEXC announced the cessation of services for users from Russia and Belarus, promising to provide those affected by the changes with individual instructions for closing positions and withdrawing assets. Bitget has also added Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to its list of prohibited jurisdictions in the user rules as of October 16, 2026. Bitget's restrictions also cover a number of other countries and territories, including the USA, France, Germany, Japan, as well as Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.

Lawsuit Against Trump and World Liberty Financial

Circle shareholder Jay Benjamin Greenberg has filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump, World Liberty Financial, and related parties, accusing them of violating the constitutional prohibition on the president receiving financial benefits from foreign states without Congressional consent. The lawsuit concerns, among other things, the sale of 49% of WLFI for $500 million and the use of the stablecoin USD1 in a $2 billion deal related to structures from the UAE. The plaintiff seeks to recover allegedly illegally obtained profits, while World Liberty Financial has denied the allegations.

Fraud

• Theft and Illegal Operations with Crypto Assets

The Qubic blockchain reported the theft of approximately 2.94 trillion QU from 1,404 wallets between October 17 and 18, 2026, explaining the incident as a result of insufficient randomness during the generation of part of the seed phrases, rather than a vulnerability in the protocol.

In turn, crypto analyst ZachXBT stated that over 87% of incoming transactions on the FreedomXMR service are linked to illegal activities, with the total amount of tracked funds from ransomware attacks, exploits, and social engineering exceeding $20 million.

In the U.S., a suspected participant in the international network Just Team was also arrested, which, according to investigators, may have laundered up to $50 million a day through cryptocurrencies and bank transfers, including servicing drug cartels and helping to circumvent sanctions against Russia.

• Lawsuit

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to recover over $1.37 billion from the founders of NovaTech and related entities in a case involving a crypto investment pyramid that attracted over $1.16 billion in crypto assets. According to the prosecution, the company promised investors profits from trading, but payments were primarily funded by new depositors. Separately, the prosecution is seeking recoveries in the AWS Mining case, related to NovaTech co-founder Cynthia Petion, including over $4.69 million based on claims presented in court documents.

Artificial Intelligence

• Development of AI Infrastructure and Competition Among Developers

OpenAI reported the discovery of two critical vulnerabilities in PHP using AI and independent research from Wiz, and called for patches to be installed.

Additionally, Google Cloud has integrated the GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, and GPT-6 Luna models into Model Garden, providing corporate clients access to them through a single payment system.

Claude Opus 5.5 vs. GPT-6 Sol: We gave two new AIs the same task — and here’s what came of it
September 28, 2026
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OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra: Overview of the new flagship model
September 5, 2026
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At the same time, Chinese startup DeepSeek, according to Bloomberg, raised about $15 billion for the development of data centers and open models to strengthen competition with OpenAI and Anthropic.

A ChatGPT advertisement featuring Lionel Messi also went viral due to mistakes on the chessboard and an unsuccessful debut recommendation, drawing attention to the quality of AI responses.

• AI Agents: Commerce, Financial Risks, and Business Transformation

Retailer Walmart introduced Agent Gateway and separate profiles for AI agents that will be able to search for products and place orders with controlled permissions and budgets. Meanwhile, American banks, including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citi, and Bank of America, are restricting third-party agents' access to accounts due to the risk of unauthorized transactions and deposit outflows, with banking sector representatives warning of potential significant financial consequences.

Additionally, Barclays plans to cut about 5,000 employees by the end of 2026, with part of the optimization linked to increased productivity due to AI.

Meta, for its part, will create Class C shares without voting rights to raise capital for the development of AI and infrastructure without weakening Mark Zuckerberg's control.

• AI Regulation and Investment Strategies

Anthropic proposed a bill to the U.S. Congress regarding the safety of advanced AI models, which includes independent assessments, risk reporting, and limitations on federal government powers to block models. Amid active capital raising in the sector, Multicoin Capital stated that it does not plan to expand its investment mandate to AI startups and will continue to focus on crypto assets, particularly the HYPE token.

Projects

• Project Closures and Development of Crypto Infrastructure

Echo Protocol has announced the cessation of its operations after nearly two years of activity, halting the acceptance of new deposits and the issuance of loans, while borrowers are required to repay their debts by November 19, 2026.

At the same time, the meme coin launch platform pump.fun has introduced Pump Bridge for cross-chain trading, which, according to the company, is twice as fast as Relay and has 92% fewer errors during purchases. The solution aims to simplify the movement of assets between blockchains and improve the execution of trading operations.

• AI Agents and Digital Identification
  Mastercard has opened early access to Agent Pay for Machines—a payment system that allows AI agents to pay for digital services within set budgets and permissions.

Meanwhile, World has introduced World ID for Banking and Finance for verifying the identities of bank and financial institution clients, including during video calls on Zoom, with protection against deepfakes. Both solutions are aimed at developing digital services using AI, automating payments, and enhancing the security of online interactions.

Other News:

• Gold fell below $4000 per ounce for the first time since July amid market sell-offs;
• HSBC launched the stablecoin RedCoin for 3.3 million users in Hong Kong;
• Andreessen Horowitz rebranded a16z crypto to a16z Frontier and expanded investments beyond the crypto market;
• Kalshi partnered with BitGo for futures trading backed by crypto assets;
• DekaBank will launch cryptocurrency trading for clients of German savings banks;
• Arkham launched a paid platform for blockchain investigations;
• A court in Kazakhstan banned the operations of six unlicensed crypto platforms;
• Six blockchain companies approached the SEC regarding the status of cryptocurrencies;
• Nine American companies opposed the tokenization of their shares on the OKXICE platform;
• The volume of funds in crypto vaults exceeded $10 billion amid regulatory scrutiny;
• Visa launched commercial payments in USDC;
• Latvia will allow tax payments in cryptocurrency starting in 2027.

What’s New in Incrypted?

Articles

The Incrypted editorial team has prepared a review of Hark Pro. You can read more about it here:

Review of Hark Pro: Private AI Assistant from the Founder of Figure AI
October 19, 2026
Read

The editorial team also explored what Odyssey-3 can do:

Odyssey-3: What if instead of watching videos you could control an entire virtual world right in your browser?
October 23, 2026
Read

Additionally, readers can check out thoughts on what will happen if Trump loses Congress in November:

The Shadow of Impeachment and Questions for the Crypto Business: What Happens if Trump Loses Congress in November
October 23, 2026
Read

Furthermore, in the Crypto Base section, materials are available on how to create a dynamic watchlist for cryptocurrency trading and what legal aspects to consider when issuing a token in 2026:

How to Create a Dynamic Watchlist for Cryptocurrency Trading
October 20, 2026
Read

What Legal Aspects to Consider When Issuing a Token in 2026
October 20, 2026
Read

In turn, readers are offered a review of the VWAP indicator and Setting Trading Alerts for News Events:

VWAP: A Benchmark for the Fair Price of Volatile Assets
October 20, 2026
Read

Setting Trading Alerts for News Events
October 20, 2026
Read

Moreover...

• We have gathered for you in one material the key investments in the field of blockchain, crypto assets, and AI for September.
• We regularly update the Incrypted crypto calendar, where you will find a wealth of interesting events and announcements.