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The chief Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Richard Blumenthal, sent a letter on Thursday to Tether and its U.S. subsidiary CEO Bo Hines regarding the consulting firm Nxum Group, which Hines co-founded, requesting clarification on the arrangements related to Tether's payments to Nxum. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nxum received substantial payments for providing consulting services to Tether while Bo Hines was still serving as a White House crypto advisor and involved in shaping crypto policies, including those concerning stablecoin issuers.In his letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Blumenthal stated that the unusual terms and nature of the business relationship between Tether, Nxum, and Bo Hines raised serious ethical and legal concerns, implying that Tether likely knew that making payments to a current White House official directly involved in shaping critical legislation for its business was illegal and improper. A Tether spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CoinDesk previously reported that Nxum, as a major campaign advertising supplier for a political action committee associated with Tether, received millions of dollars in revenue, despite having little prior political experience, and recently hired another White House crypto advisor, Harry Jung.Blumenthal has recently focused on the crypto space, including Trump's meme coin, World Liberty Financial, and activities involving Binance, particularly Tether. He has released reports on Tether's financial connections with Iran and questioned its relationship with U.S. financial partner Cantor Fitzgerald. Ardoino criticized Blumenthal this week for ignoring important information and sharing the report with the media before giving the company a chance to respond. The prediction market Kalshi shows a 69% probability that Democrats will regain control of the Senate, and if Blumenthal leads the subcommittee, he will gain greater subpoena and agenda control.

According to PR Newswire, the blockchain asset management firm CMCC Global announced the tokenization of its Crest Fund (Crest) and Liberty Bitcoin Accumulation Fund (LBAF), calling them the first tokenized master fund products issued under El Salvador's digital asset legal framework.The two funds will be issued using Tether's Hadron tokenization platform and will raise funds from qualified investors through the regulated Bitfinex Securities platform, with the subscription period ending on October 30, 2026. Both funds are multi-manager quantitative hedge funds that invest in market-neutral strategies in the digital asset market, including funding rates, cross-exchange and volatility arbitrage, market making, and DeFi strategies. Among them, Crest is denominated in USD, targeting returns above U.S. Treasury yields; LBAF is denominated in Bitcoin, targeting a net annualized return of 8% to 12%.BTCS S.A., a digital asset treasury company listed in Poland and Frankfurt, has agreed to act as a cornerstone investor and plans to allocate a three-digit number of Bitcoins to LBAF, with the specific amount not yet disclosed. The token issuance price is set at $10 per CREST and 0.0001 BTC per LBAF, with a minimum subscription of one token; eligible holders can also trade on the secondary market through Bitfinex Securities around the clock.

According to CoinDesk, Ben Edgington, the coordinator of the Ethereum rapid finality research direction, along with several researchers, submitted a draft proposing to reduce the transaction finality waiting time from about 16 minutes to about 4 minutes, improving it by approximately four times.The current goal is to push this draft into the formal upgrade proposal process. The core idea of the draft is to separate the original "block selection" and "finality confirmation" mechanisms of validators, allowing finality to progress at a faster pace and facilitating future adoption of quantum-resistant signatures.Faster finality is expected to reduce the costs incurred by cross-chain transfer services due to capital occupation. The Ethereum Foundation's research provides an example: if a service advances about 1 million dollars per hour, under a 16-minute delay, approximately 267,000 dollars would be pending recovery, which could be reduced to about 67,000 dollars after shortening to 4 minutes.

According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time October 21), the total net inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs was $14.955 million, turning into a net inflow after five consecutive days of net outflows.The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net inflow yesterday was Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF ETH, with a single-day net inflow of $28.0693 million, bringing the historical total net inflow of ETH to $2.039 billion. The second was Fidelity ETF FETH, with a single-day net inflow of $13.0333 million, currently having a historical total net inflow of $2.355 billion.The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net outflow yesterday was Blackrock ETF ETHA, with a single-day net outflow of $29.3239 million, currently having a historical total net inflow of $12.336 billion.As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $15.358 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of Ethereum's total market value) of 5.05%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached $12.825 billion.

Ethereum Institutional official X platform has released a recruitment notice, currently hiring a head for the Asia-Pacific region in Tokyo. This role involves establishing partnerships with Japanese banks, financial market infrastructure institutions, asset management companies, and enterprises, as well as planning and organizing communication meetings and presentations aimed at financial institutions and institutional investors, promoting Ethereum as the infrastructure for next-generation financial services.Job requirements include 5 to 7 years of practical experience in banking, asset management, capital markets, payments, or financial infrastructure, proficiency in both Japanese and English at a business level, experience in the digital asset field, particularly in products or collaborative business with financial institutions and institutional investors, and a broad network with Japanese financial institutions and institutional investors.

According to information from GitHub, a core protocol draft named "Decoupled Consensus" has appeared in the Ethereum EIP repository. It proposes to separate the beacon chain's head voting from the finality proof voting to enhance fork choice security, shorten finality time, and lay the groundwork for a subsequent transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQ).The proposal is co-authored by Francesco D'Amato, Roberto Saltini, Yann Vonlanthen, Mikhail Kalinin, and Ben Edgington, and is currently still in the early draft stage, with multiple details yet to be determined. The submitters primarily hope to obtain an EIP number at this stage. The proposal is pending further review and has not yet been merged.

According to The Defiant, as JPMorgan launched its token JPMD on Ethereum, 13 counterfeit tokens with the same name appeared in the market. JPMorgan's official documentation warns that the tokens with the same name on other addresses are not related to the bank.The bank's genuine Ethereum token currently shows zero supply and zero holders.

On-chain data analysis account Lookonchain posted on X that on October 21, Bitcoin ETF had a net outflow of 403 BTC in a single day, approximately 33.88 million dollars; over the past 7 days, there was a net inflow of 2,528 BTC, approximately 212 million dollars.During the same period, Ethereum ETF had a net outflow of 12,700 ETH in a single day, approximately 31.42 million dollars; over the past 7 days, there was a net outflow of 155,100 ETH, approximately 384 million dollars.

According to official news, Tether announced that it will lead the Pre-Seed round financing of the Bolivian fintech company Peso, with the specific amount undisclosed.Peso provides global USDT accounts for Latin American users, allowing them to save, spend, invest, and make cross-border remittances through the same app. Peso has integrated USDT payments on the Bolivian digital service platform Yango, enabling users to order takeout directly with USDT; in addition, Peso also offers offline payment services and virtual accounts opened in the user's name, connecting USDT with the Bolivian banking system through QR codes and ACH channels, facilitating the conversion between stablecoins and local fiat currency.This round of funding will be used to expand Peso's local fiat deposit and withdrawal channels in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina, and to advance its merchant payment network and virtual account infrastructure construction.

The blockchain data acceleration network Optimum has launched the data propagation tool mump2p on the Ethereum mainnet. This tool reduces redundant data transmission through random linear network coding, helping validators receive and propagate block and proof messages more quickly.According to official information from Optimum, mump2p can run in parallel with existing Ethereum clients without the need to modify consensus rules or change hardware. Optimum claims that its mainnet block propagation speed can reach 2 to 4 times the GossipSub benchmark.

According to BBX data, yesterday the traditional European banking system and global digital asset giants disclosed the latest developments in retail crypto financial channels and cutting-edge computing power investments, with the core information as follows:The German Savings Bank officially opens crypto trading to retail customers, initially supporting BTC, ETH, SOL, and other cryptocurrencies: The German Savings Bank Association (DSGV) announced that starting from October 19, the first batch of participating customers from the German Savings Banks (Sparkassen) can directly buy and sell cryptocurrencies through the existing bank mobile application. Each savings bank will independently decide the specific launch time, and it is expected that 30 to 40 new savings banks will be added each month thereafter, aiming for comprehensive coverage of most interested banks in Germany by the first half of 2027.Supported cryptocurrencies and fees: The initially supported cryptocurrencies include BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, and POL. Each transaction order incurs a fixed fee of approximately $1.11 (0.99 euros);Underlying technology and compliance framework: This service is provided by DekaBank, a professional securities service provider under the savings bank group, with the underlying crypto assets being jointly compliant custodied by DekaBank and Boerse Stuttgart;Prudent business principles: DSGV clearly states that this service is only available to customers who have the willingness to make independent decisions, and the savings banks themselves do not provide any investment advice, nor will they conduct extensive active promotion across the network, and will prominently indicate the high volatility and potential total loss risks of crypto assets at the product level.Tether Capital invests in AI chip unicorn Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion Series E financing: Tether Capital, the investment arm of the global stablecoin giant, officially announced its investment in the well-known AI chip and computing architecture company Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion Series E financing. This oversubscribed financing has significantly boosted Tenstorrent's post-investment valuation to $6.2 billion. Tether's official statement indicated that this strategic investment deeply aligns with Tether's overall landscape in artificial intelligence software, robotics, and decentralized payment fields, and is highly compatible with its QVAC platform, which focuses on local AI operation on terminal devices, effectively extending its investment reach into underlying processors and cutting-edge computing hardware systems.

According to SoSoValue data, the total net outflow of Ethereum spot ETFs is $26.1343 million. The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net inflow is Fidelity ETF FETH, with a single-day net inflow of $3.6318 million, and the historical total net inflow of FETH has reached $2.342 billion. The second is Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF ETH, with a single-day net inflow of $3.2522 million, and the historical total net inflow of ETH has reached $2.011 billion.The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net outflow is Blackrock ETF ETHA, with a single-day net outflow of $33.0183 million, and the historical total net inflow of ETHA has reached $12.365 billion. As of the time of publication, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $14.975 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio (the market value compared to the total market value of Ethereum) is 5.01%, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.81 billion.

Ethereum Institutional announced the appointment of David Duong as the head of the U.S. region, responsible for promoting collaboration with U.S. institutional investors to further engage institutions in the Ethereum ecosystem.David Duong previously served as the Global Head of Investment Research at Coinbase, focusing on cryptocurrency market research for institutional clients of the exchange, covering areas such as macroeconomic analysis, valuation models, and market structure. He has 17 years of experience in sell-side macro strategy research at HSBC, Santander Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

A network startup company called Optimum, led by Professor Muriel Médard from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced that its block propagation software mump2p has officially launched on the Ethereum mainnet. The Ethereum liquid staking protocol ether.fi has made mump2p a mandatory requirement for all 12 of its node operators, whereas previously the software was optional for its operators.Optimum stated that there are currently 16 node operators running mump2p in production environments, collectively managing approximately 22,000 validator keys and over 1.4 million staked ETH, accounting for more than 3% of the total staked amount on Ethereum. Partners include Blockdaemon, Everstake, P2P.org, Stakefish, and Bitcoin Suisse. The software operates in a sidecar gateway manner, not replacing Ethereum's default GossipSub, but rather overlaying it on top of libp2p and utilizing random linear network coding technology. Optimum claims that the block arrival speed is 2.42 times faster than GossipSub, with an approximately 7.88 times reduction in arrival time variance.Rok Kopp, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of ether.fi, stated that they will not require the entire validator set to adopt a new infrastructure unless they are confident that it can enhance the overall level of stakers and the network. Médard mentioned that traditional financial institutions invest billions of dollars to shorten execution times to the millisecond level because speed is money. Optimum launched its private testnet in June 2025, having previously completed a $11 million seed round financing led by 1kx, and plans to expand the protocol to other high-throughput blockchains after Ethereum.

According to Cointelegraph, the current amount of staked Ethereum has risen to a record 43.8 million ETH, accounting for 35.9% of the total ETH supply. Meanwhile, both the staking yield and the number of validators have decreased.

According to Fortune, New York-based startup Mural has completed a $15 million Series A funding round, led by Tether, with participation from North Island Ventures. This round of funding brings Mural's total financing to $28 million. Previously, the company completed a $5 million seed round in 2022.Mural was co-founded in 2022 by former Palantir engineer Sinclair Toffa (CEO) and Chris Fernandes. Its platform provides payroll service providers, software companies, and fintech firms with a single account that can hold traditional dollars, local currencies, and stablecoins simultaneously, helping businesses simplify cross-border payments and compliance processes without the need to connect with multiple banks and payment service providers.

Ethereum Institutional announced the appointment of David Duong as the head of the U.S. region, responsible for promoting collaboration with U.S. institutional investors to further engage institutions in the construction of the Ethereum ecosystem.David Duong previously served as the Global Head of Investment Research at Coinbase, responsible for cryptocurrency market research aimed at institutional clients of the exchange, covering areas such as macroeconomic analysis, valuation models, and market structure, and has worked in sell-side macro strategy research for 17 years at HSBC, Santander Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

According to Gate quotes, the two giants of Hong Kong stocks fell together, with Zhipu (02513.HK) dropping over 5%, and the stock price falling below 500 Hong Kong dollars; MINIMAX-W (00100.HK) fell 6.5%.

According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time October 19) the total net outflow of Ethereum spot ETFs was $103 million.The Ethereum spot ETF with the highest single-day net outflow yesterday was Blackrock ETF ETHA, with a single-day net outflow of $95.3953 million. Currently, the historical total net inflow of ETHA has reached $12.398 billion. The second was Fidelity ETF FETH, with a single-day net outflow of $5.9632 million, and the historical total net inflow of FETH has reached $2.338 billion.As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of Ethereum spot ETFs is $14.765 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market value compared to the total market value of Ethereum) of 5.04%. The historical cumulative net inflow has reached $12.837 billion.