Morning Report | Stablecoin regulatory rules finalized, OCC advances implementation of the GENIUS Act; U.S. Senator: New restrictions on crypto fundraising included in the CLARITY Act

Compiled by: ChainCatcher

What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?

Stablecoin Regulatory Rules Finalized, OCC Advances Implementation of GENIUS Act

According to ChainCatcher, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has finalized the implementation rules for the GENIUS Act, applicable to licensed payment stablecoin issuers, foreign issuers under OCC jurisdiction, and certain custodial activities of regulated entities, covering reserve support, redemption, and risk management. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the legislation a "watershed moment for the U.S. financial industry," comparing it to the National Currency Act of 1863.

The final rules do not include provisions from the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering, and OFAC sanctions, which will be addressed through subsequent rules coordinated with the Treasury. The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, and regulators failed to finalize the rules by the July 18, 2026 deadline; the Federal Reserve proposed two related rules in September 2026.

Both the GENIUS Act and the OCC final rules are set to take effect on January 18, 2027, and the OCC has not yet announced when it will accept issuer applications and exemption requests.

BlockSec: X100 Global Suspected of Governance Attack, Attacker Exploits Vulnerability to Steal Approximately $4.75 Million

According to ChainCatcher, BlockSec monitored a suspicious transaction on Ethereum involving X100 Global that resulted in a loss of approximately $4.75 million. The related attack stemmed from a governance mechanism design flaw: the attacker used a flash loan to borrow funds to purchase X tokens, allocated the tokens to two controlled contracts, and then deposited them into a Freezer, thereby controlling 2 out of 3 senator seats in the same transaction, and immediately passed and executed a malicious treasury proposal.

Specifically, the attacker first created and provided liquidity to the X-USDT trading pool on PancakeSwap V3, then used the acquired governance majority to approve the exchange of 400,000 X tokens to that trading pool, setting the minimum output to 0, ultimately receiving only about 35.68 USDT.

Subsequently, the attacker withdrew liquidity, sold part of the recovered X tokens through the existing Uniswap V3 X-USDT trading pool, and repaid the flash loan.

Strategy, Strive, and Others Raise Funds Through Preferred Stock to Acquire 135,979 Bitcoins, Accounting for Over 0.5% of Maximum Supply

According to ChainCatcher, bitcoin treasury companies such as Strategy and Strive have raised funds through preferred stock to acquire 135,979 bitcoins, accounting for over 0.5% of the maximum bitcoin supply; the related preferred stock market size is approximately $12 billion.

Perpetual preferred stock has no fixed maturity date, which can alleviate refinancing pressure and attract income-oriented investors who are unwilling to hold bitcoin directly; however, an expanded issuance scale will also increase dividend expenses. Continuous financing for bitcoin purchases relies on preferred stock trading at or near par value; if the price falls below par, the attractiveness of new issuances may decline, and the company may also turn to buybacks.

CoinShares Research Director James Butterfill stated that Strategy's latest weekly report shows the company spent $193 million to repurchase STRC, while simultaneously buying 267 bitcoins and increasing the preferred stock repurchase authorization to $3 billion. Buybacks can reduce future dividend costs but may also compete for funds with bitcoin purchases.

Bitwise Research Director Ryan Rasmussen expects that ETFs will remain a larger source of bitcoin demand in the long term, while perpetual preferred stock covers different groups of income-oriented investors, providing another source of demand support for the market. Butterfill believes that preferred stock may amplify market cycles: supporting bitcoin purchases when financing conditions are favorable, while such support may weaken when market sentiment deteriorates.

U.S. Senator: New Restrictions on Crypto Fundraising Included in the CLARITY Act

According to ChainCatcher, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis posted on the X platform stating that Democrats previously requested to lower the annual fundraising cap for Regulation Crypto from $75 million to $50 million and to add a $200 million lifetime fundraising cap. Cynthia Lummis stated that the relevant parties have agreed to these two requests and included them in the CLARITY Act, but she also accused Democratic lawmakers of ultimately voting against the previously drafted rules aimed at protecting retail investors.

Peter Schiff: Bitcoin's Next Support Level is $75,000, and ETF Holders Cannot Sell Over the Weekend

According to ChainCatcher, long-time bitcoin critic Peter Schiff posted that bitcoin has begun to weaken again, with the next support level potentially at $75,000. Bitcoin investors may face a rather tough weekend, especially ETF investors, who will have to wait until Monday to sell.

Notable Trader: BTC Has Retraced About 9%, Suggests Continuing Dollar-Cost Averaging in the Coming Weeks

According to ChainCatcher, notable trader Killa posted that the market is currently anticipating bitcoin to touch the previous extreme low again, but the "liquidation wick" at that time occurred during a concentrated outbreak of multiple bearish factors.

Unless more negative news emerges, bitcoin should not be assumed to inevitably fall back to previous lows, and historical trends may not simply repeat.

Killa further pointed out that buyers in the fourth quarter seem to still be waiting for lower entry prices and suggested that investors continue to dollar-cost average (DCA) into BTC over the coming weeks. Killa stated that bitcoin has currently retraced about 9%, which he views as a decent pullback in a bull market.

Analyst: ETH Market Cap Has Evaporated $54 Billion in Nearly Three Weeks, Current Adjustment May Be Nearing Its End

According to ChainCatcher, crypto analyst Darkfost posted that this round of deleveraging has been driven by price declines, chain liquidations, and traders actively closing positions to reduce risk. Looking back at July of this year, Ethereum also experienced a more severe contraction of open contracts, followed by stabilization and a rebound of over 32%, with prices briefly breaking above $2,800.

Deleveraging is part of the market adjustment process, and such phases are often accompanied by panic sentiment and may also occur at the tail end of an adjustment. Over the past three weeks, the altcoin market has performed weakly overall, with Ethereum's price retracing about 15%, and its market cap shrinking by approximately $54 billion.

In the derivatives market, Binance's ETH open interest has decreased by $1.3 billion over the past month, a decline of nearly 20%, down to $5.7 billion; the total open interest for ETH across the network has fallen to $11.5 billion.

Chinese National Extradited to the U.S. in Connection with Over $36.9 Million Crypto Fraud Case

According to ChainCatcher, Chinese national Zheng Zhao has been extradited from the Netherlands to the U.S. and appeared in court in the Central District of California on October 23. He is suspected of participating in an investment fraud and money laundering case involving 174 American victims, with funds exceeding $36.9 million.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that the fraudulent activities were operated by a scam center in Cambodia. Prosecutors claimed that over $36.9 million was transferred to an account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas controlled by accomplices, then exchanged for the stablecoin USDT and transferred to a digital asset wallet in Cambodia.

Eight other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty; Zheng Zhao faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years if convicted.

Lightning Labs: Opens Wavelength, AI Agents Can Make Autonomous Payments on Bitcoin Mainnet

According to ChainCatcher, Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that Lightning Labs has opened Wavelength to all users, allowing AI agents to autonomously send and receive payments on the Bitcoin mainnet through the Lightning Network and L402, without requiring manual approval for each transaction.

AI agents can use their payment API to call fees, purchase data, and trade with other agents, with single transaction fees as low as less than 1 cent; developers do not need to run Lightning Network nodes, manage channels, or raise liquidity to integrate payment functionality into applications.

The self-hosted toolkit supports independent on-chain exits, with an initial limit of 300,000 satoshis per wallet, and Lightning Network payments incur a service fee of 0.25%. Wavelength is currently still in the Alpha stage and plans to support stablecoins.

ECB Official: Digital Euro Will Enhance European Payment Sovereignty, Pilot Program to Launch Next Year

According to ChainCatcher, Cointelegraph reported that Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Board, stated that the digital euro is expected to help the EU establish a self-controlled payment infrastructure, reducing reliance on non-European third-party payment service providers.

Europe has recognized the risks of excessive reliance on external forces in critical areas such as energy and defense, and the payment sector is no exception, but payment sovereignty does not mean excluding third parties; rather, it allows Europe to have autonomy in key services.

The European Central Bank plans to launch a digital euro pilot program next year and will test it using real transactions, currently preparing in collaboration with 36 market operators while inviting e-commerce and mobile commerce operators to participate.

Tailscale Allegedly Has Serious Vulnerabilities, Built-in SSH Can Be Exploited to Gain Device Root Access

According to ChainCatcher, Bitcoin News reported that researchers claim Tailscale has serious vulnerabilities, where users with approved access can exploit its built-in SSH to gain root access to devices, and the attack may also spread to other devices on the network. Users running nodes with Tailscale should disable Tailscale SSH and update promptly after patches are released. Tailscale has not yet responded.

Trader Killa: If BTC Drops to $74,000, Will Open Another 10x Leverage Long Position

According to ChainCatcher, trader Killa posted that he currently still holds long positions in Bitcoin, including longs established at $62,600, $76,000, and a 10x leverage long position established at $82,800.

If BTC spikes down and drops to $74,000, causing the 10x leverage long position to be liquidated, he plans to establish another 10x leverage long position at the previously set invalidation point, but the position size will be smaller, as he already has significant exposure in that price range.

Killa added that if he did not already hold a large number of long positions and spot, he would actively buy at the current price level, and investors with insufficient position allocation could consider gradually buying in the coming weeks, stating that he would rather enter early than miss out on subsequent larger market movements.

Tom Lee: Banks Need to Be Cautious of Delayed Crypto Transformation, Traditional Financial Dominance May Cause Cognitive Bias

According to ChainCatcher, Tom Lee stated in an interview that about 99% of financial activities are still operating on traditional financial infrastructure, but this status quo may create misleading short-term biases, causing investors and businesses to view cryptocurrencies as a niche area and underestimate the potential speed of transformation in the financial system.

Tom Lee believes that the current dominance of traditional financial infrastructure does not mean this pattern will be maintained in the long term.

As financial activities gradually shift to crypto infrastructure, institutions' reliance on the existing market structure may lead them to underestimate the speed of industry changes. He also warned that banks that have not established crypto business channels or formulated relevant strategies may face competitive disadvantages as crypto adoption increases.

Slow Mist: Yapeswap Suffers Attack, Losses Approximately $21,900, Attacker Seizes Key Permissions with Extremely Low Voting Power

According to ChainCatcher, Slow Mist monitoring reported that Yapeswap was attacked, resulting in losses of approximately $21,900. The root of the incident lies in the WorkersUnion governance mechanism's quorum requirement being zero, allowing a proposal that received only about 0.000055% voting power support to transfer the feeToSetter permission of YapeFactory to the attacker.

The attacker subsequently deployed a malicious Registry contract, causing latestVault() to return a forged vault address, while vaults() still listed the real vault.

Deposits intended to be transferred by YapePair were counted as farm assets but did not receive redeemable shares, ultimately resulting in a loss of funds. This incident involved contracts such as YapeFactory, YapePair, and YapeWrapper.

Tether Freezes 9 Addresses Related to CoinDCX Security Incident, Involving 2,212,900 USDT

According to ChainCatcher, Salus monitoring reported that Tether has blacklisted 9 addresses related to the CoinDCX security incident, freezing 2,212,850.3 USDT.

The investigation began when investigator Darcy discovered an abnormal transfer of approximately 15.99 million USDT. CoinDCX co-founder Sumit Gupta initially claimed that no security breach had occurred.

Subsequently, Salus raised questions based on the transfer situation of "proof of reserves" addresses and the TRX distribution model, prompting relevant parties to respond and providing Tether with verifiable on-chain evidence, allowing it to take appropriate action.

Keystone Hardware Wallet Website Attacked, Customer Addresses and Order Details Leaked

According to ChainCatcher, hardware wallet manufacturer Keystone confirmed that its website suffered a security vulnerability attack, resulting in the leakage of some customers' address information and order details. The company stated that it took immediate action upon discovering the vulnerability and successfully prevented unauthorized access. Currently, Keystone has completed the vulnerability repair work and emphasized that this incident did not affect users' payment details, mnemonic phrases, or private keys. The company stated that it will continue to strengthen security measures.

Galaxy Research: Frequent "Garbage Inscriptions" on Bitcoin Network Are Not Encrypted Information, Likely Script Testing

According to ChainCatcher, Galaxy Research published an analysis stating that over the past three weeks, the Bitcoin network has seen about 40 inscriptions composed of random letters each day, appearing to be encrypted text but are not actually cryptographic information. The related addresses had previously written the U.S. Constitution into the Bitcoin network in May.

The research found that after analyzing 562 texts, the frequency of the 26 English letters was almost evenly distributed, which is significantly different from the characteristics of normal English and substitution ciphers; metrics such as word length distribution and repeated word frequency also indicate that these texts were likely generated by a random letter generator.

Galaxy Research referred to the operator as "Babel Scribe," believing it is more like testing a data publishing tool on the Bitcoin mainnet rather than attempting to convey hidden information. The structure of on-chain transactions, the continuous use of change addresses, and the regularity of publication times all exhibit characteristics of automated scripts.

Related activities also include testing texts, random words in different languages, binary data, and subsequent writings of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It is estimated that the project has transferred approximately 3.33 million satoshis, of which about 24% was used to pay miner fees, while the remaining funds are still held in the related addresses. Researchers suggest that there is no need to interpret these garbled texts as hidden information.

Netanyahu Considers Using Cryptocurrency to Evade Sanctions

According to ChainCatcher, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated in a television interview that he is considering using cryptocurrency to evade economic sanctions imposed by other countries on Israel. In response, competitor Gadi Eisenkot criticized his policy as leading to international isolation and posing a threat to national security.

Meme Popularity Ranking

According to data from the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN as of October 26, 08:00,

The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: EVMZONE, PEPINA, DACITY, SQK, CTM

The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: BTC, STONK, LAUNCH, GME, NMS

The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: XDP, ELSA, PROS, VVV, STONKEX

The top five popular BSC tokens in the past 24 hours are: BNCB, 4AGENT, ONECOIN, GANG, BIBI

What are the noteworthy articles to read in the past 24 hours?

CoreWeave: Once Ethereum Miners, Dragged Down the Entire AI Stock

Bloomberg reported on October 15 that the three co-founders of CoreWeave have sold approximately $3.3 billion worth of company stock since their IPO in March 2025, with about $2.4 billion sold in 2026.

A company spokesperson stated that the related sales were pre-arranged and fully disclosed; as of the report, the three still collectively hold about 20% of the equity.

When Will AI Trading Stop Falling? The Market Focuses on the "Prisoner's Dilemma" Behind Meta's "Massive Bond Issuance"

The long-end curve steepens, reflecting an increase in investors' risk compensation demands for long-term debt. As AI companies continue to expand capital expenditures, the market not only needs to judge whether investments can be converted into revenue but also to assess the scale of financing, the timing of cash flow improvements, and the impact of new bonds on financing costs.

Therefore, whether AI trading can stop falling hinges on whether the massive financing can be absorbed by the market, whether credit spreads can stabilize, and whether the risk differentiation among AI companies continues to widen. Until these pressures ease, any phase rebound may still be constrained by rising financing costs.