gm 15/10

Summary
gm, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink notably shifted his stance on Bitcoin, stating cryptocurrencies "serve the same purpose as gold," marking a significant evolution from his previous "index of money laundering" characterization. Meanwhile, Citi announced plans to launch crypto custody services by 2026, and JPMorgan confirmed development of crypto trading services while explicitly avoiding direct custody. On the institutional front, Bitcoin mining stocks rebounded strongly after Trump's tariff threats sparked market turmoil, with companies like Bitfarms and Cipher Mining posting double-digit gains. Notably, Bhutan took a significant technological step by announcing the migration of its national identity system to Ethereum, with full implementation expected by early 2026.

News Headlines
💸 Strategy (MSTR) Misses Out on BTC Dip, Bought Tokens at $123K

• Strategy (MSTR) purchased 220 BTC at an average price of $123,561 shortly before Bitcoin's dramatic price drop to as low as $103,000, missing an opportunity to buy at prices nearly 16% lower.
• The company now holds a total of 640,250 BTC with an average acquisition price of $73,000, having raised $27.3 million through preferred stock sales to fund this latest purchase.

📉 Bitcoin whale reveals 3.5K BTC short: key support levels to watch next

• An anonymous Bitcoin whale has expanded their short position to 3,500 BTC with a liquidation price of approximately $120,000, raising concerns about potential insider information or market manipulation.
• Bitcoin currently hovers near the short-term holders' average cost basis of $113,861, which serves as a crucial support line, while analysts flag several moving averages as critical indicators to watch amid declining short to medium-term momentum.

🚨 Binance airdrops $45M in BNB to memecoin traders hit by market crash

• BNB Chain has initiated a $45 million "reload airdrop" to compensate over 160,000 users who lost money trading memecoins during the recent market crash, with distributions set to begin this week.
• The exchange faced accusations of worsening the market chaos as users reported difficulties exiting positions, though Binance claims core futures remained operational and attributed issues to thin liquidity triggering old limit orders.

🧠 Verifiable AI took center stage at DAS London with EigenCloud

• Eigen Labs' J.T. Rose emphasized that crypto's future growth will center around verifiable AI rather than DeFi, highlighting Eigen's crypto-economic security stack that enables verification before financial transactions.
• The presentation focused on three key use cases: autonomous trading agents demonstrating compliance with risk rules, agent-to-agent payments facilitated by work receipts, and gaming applications with provable outcomes.

🔎 Alleged 'Trump Insider Whale' Denies Insider Trading, Opens New $340 Million Bitcoin Short

• A whale trader who previously made millions by shorting Bitcoin and Ethereum just before the recent market crash has opened a new $340 million short position on Bitcoin with 10x leverage.
• The trader, identified as former BitForex CEO Garrett Jin, firmly denies any connections to Donald Trump or his family despite suspicious timing of trades just before Trump's market-moving tariff announcements.

Market Metrics

Fundraising & VC
1. Tria (Pre-seed, $12M) - Self-custodial neobank and payments infrastructure
2. 4AI (Strategic, $6M) - Decentralized AI marketplace on BSC
3. 375ai (Public Token Sale, $3M) - Decentralized edge data intelligence network

Regulatory
🤖 California Enacts First US Rules for AI 'Companion' Chatbots

• California became the first state to regulate AI companion chatbots, with Governor Newsom signing SB 243, which requires disclosure of AI nature and restricts discussions about sex and self-harm with minors.
• The legislation focuses on emotional interactions rather than technical aspects, though some advocacy groups criticized it for being too weak after provisions for third-party audits were removed.

⚖️ Microsoft Faces Class Action Over AI Compute Supply

• Microsoft is facing a class-action lawsuit from ChatGPT Plus subscribers alleging the company exploited its Azure cloud dominance to artificially inflate ChatGPT subscription prices.
• The lawsuit claims Microsoft's exclusive agreement with OpenAI to control compute resources resulted in prices "100 to 200 times" higher than competitors, with token prices reportedly dropping 80% after OpenAI began sourcing compute from Google.

💰 Societe Generale-FORGE and Bitpanda Expand DeFi Partnership

• Societe Generale-FORGE and Bitpanda are expanding their partnership to bring regulated euro and USD CoinVertible stablecoins to the DeFi sector, complying with the EU's MiCA framework.
• Bitpanda will become the first European retail broker enabling customers to earn yields on these stablecoins through lending and borrowing on DeFi protocols like Morpho and Uniswap.

🔐 Security Alliance Introduces Tool to Combat Crypto Phishing

• The Security Alliance has developed 'TLS Attestations and Verifiable Phishing Reports' to help verify crypto phishing attacks, addressing the $400 million lost to scams in early 2025.
• The system acts as a cryptographic oracle during TLS connections, allowing users to analyze suspicious websites without directly accessing them, creating cryptographically signed proofs of phishing content.

📉 US Bitcoin and Ether ETFs See $755M Outflow After Market Crash

• Spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in the US experienced outflows exceeding $755 million following weekend liquidations of $20 billion in the crypto market.
• Bitcoin ETFs saw $326.52 million in outflows while Ether ETFs faced $428.52 million in withdrawals, with analysts suggesting investors are waiting for clearer macroeconomic signals before reinvesting.

Technical Analysis
Bitcoin - Bitcoin is within an approximate horizontal trend channel in the short term. This indicates that investors are uncertain and waiting for signals of further direction. A break upwards will be a positive signal, while a break downwards will be a negative signal. The currency has support at points 109600 and resistance at points 113400. Negative volume balance shows that volume is higher on days with falling prices than days with rising prices. This indicates decreasing optimism among investors. The currency is overall assessed as technically neutral for the short term.

Ethereum - Ethereum is within an approximate horizontal trend channel in the short term. This indicates that investors are uncertain and waiting for signals of further direction. A break upwards will be a positive signal, while a break downwards will be a negative signal. The currency is between support at points 4000 and resistance at points 4300. A definitive break through of one of these levels predicts the new direction. Negative volume balance indicates that sellers are aggressive while buyers are passive, and weakens the currency. The currency is overall assessed as technically slightly negative for the short term.