Cryptoccino — Wednesday 07 October 2026

Privacy coins outperform as BTC consolidates. While Bitcoin and Ethereum barely moved over the 24-hour period before the tanker-shock flush, Zcash and Monero led all large-cap coins. The move coincided with the Winklevoss Zcash ETF filing and Fortitude’s $100M mining equipment commitment, giving ZEC both an institutional narrative and a supply-side story. decrypt

Winklevoss twins file for a spot Zcash ETF under the WINK ticker. Winklevoss Asset Services submitted an S-1 for a Nasdaq-listed ZEC fund with Gemini as custodian and a 0.25% fee, putting it in direct competition with Grayscale’s existing ZCSH product. The filing is the second Zcash ETF pitch in recent weeks and arrives as privacy-coin volumes pick up. theblock decrypt

US government shifts $103M in seized crypto, including 833 BTC and 40,285 BNB. On-chain trackers flagged wallet movements consistent with government addresses, splitting the haul between Bitcoin held in long-term custody and a large BNB tranche that analysts read as a potential liquidation candidate. Government sell-downs have historically created brief price overhangs, though the BTC portion appears to be a transfer rather than an exchange deposit. cryptobriefing

Ethereum sits near $2,700 with $414M in longs inside liquidation zones. With the broader crypto flush covered in the lead, the ETH-specific number worth flagging is the size of the overhang: $414 million in long positions still within range of being swept if spot drifts lower. Glamsterdam testnet patch work is ongoing, so the protocol catalyst is weeks out at minimum. cryptobriefing

Abstract, the Pudgy Penguins-backed Ethereum L2, is shutting down on 15 December. The team cited the unsustainability of a chain built solely around consumer crypto, and disclosed losses in the tens of millions. Users must bridge assets off before the December deadline; the closure is a notable data point on the limits of NFT-brand-driven L2 bootstrapping. theblock decrypt

OKX raises fresh capital at a flat $25B valuation from StanChart, Circle, Ripple and Qube Research. The round is notable less for the price tag, unchanged from the NYSE-owner round seven months ago, and more for the strategic composition: a global bank, the two dominant stablecoin issuers, and a quant fund all writing cheques simultaneously. OKX is also rolling out OKX Money, a consumer stablecoin product targeting 10% yield for everyday users. bloomberg_crypto coindesk decrypt

Coinbase revives the Pro brand and completes its Deribit integration as Coinbase Global Exchange. The Pro relaunch is targeted for year-end and will sit alongside the newly unified derivatives desk built from the Deribit acquisition. The combined entity makes Coinbase a credible global competitor in options and futures, not just spot, at a time when institutional demand for crypto derivatives is growing. theblock cryptobriefing

Spiko closes a $90M Series B to scale its $2.7B tokenised cash fund business. The Paris-based firm runs tokenised money-market products and plans to use the capital to expand into new jurisdictions. The raise lands the same week BlackRock’s Nikhil Sharma pitched tokenised MMFs as instant collateral at TOKEN2049, underscoring how quickly the on-chain cash-equivalent category is attracting serious capital. theblock

ZachXBT fronted $349,700 to go undercover with alleged Chinese Lazarus money launderers. He posed as a client seeking to move funds, gathered intelligence on the network, and says the effort helped freeze assets tied to the $1.5 billion Bybit hack. The SEAL weekly report for 29 Sept to 6 Oct logged 65 separate incidents across the same period. theblock seal_radar

Conduit sues Tether in New York federal court over $2.76M frozen without explanation. The payments firm alleges its USDT treasury wallet was frozen on Tether’s own initiative, linked to a Brazilian investigation Conduit says it has no connection to, and that Tether has since profited from the reserves while refusing to release the funds for over a year. The suit asks for the funds plus damages. theblock cointelegraph_regulation decrypt

Flash loan attacks drained $1.2B from DeFi between 2020 and 2024, per new research. A study scanning over 20 billion transactions found attacks grew in sophistication and became harder to predict over the period. No single protocol dominated the loss table, pointing to systemic oracle and liquidity design weaknesses rather than one-off code bugs. decrypt

The US scraps the proposed $10,000 reporting rule for crypto sent to self-custody wallets. The Treasury-backed proposal would have required exchanges to file reports for transfers of $10,000 or more to private wallets, drawing heavy industry opposition. Its withdrawal removes one of the more operationally burdensome compliance proposals of the past two years. coindesk

Cardano rolls out CIP-0113, giving token issuers the ability to freeze, seize and restrict assets. The new standard is positioned as an institutional compliance tool that could accelerate RWA issuance on the network, but it introduces permissions that sit uneasily alongside the chain’s decentralisation narrative. Token holders on any issuer that adopts CIP-0113 are now subject to unilateral asset controls. coindesk cryptobriefing

Rep. Don Davis introduces the No Betting on Your Own Race Act, targeting prediction market self-dealing. The bill would fine federal candidates $10,000 for trading contracts tied to their own elections, and gives prediction platforms explicit authority to close such accounts and report violators. Congress is in recess until after the midterms, so the bill will not be addressed before the elections it targets. theblock decrypt cointelegraph_regulation

Bitcoin.de remains suspended after Germany’s BaFin rejects its MiCA licence application. The German exchange has been largely offline since June while awaiting authorisation; the regulator’s refusal now forces it to seek licensed third-party partners to restart services. It is an early and public casualty of MiCA’s enforcement phase. cointelegraph_regulation

What else is grinding?

• Ripple Prime has signed Brevan Howard as its first prime brokerage client for multi-asset clearing and financing, deepening a relationship that began with Brevan’s Ripple equity stake. theblock
• Ondo Finance launched an on-chain private-markets platform offering tokenised notes tied to a pre-IPO AI company, its first move beyond public fixed-income assets. theblock
• Polymarket shipped Protocol V2, replacing its legacy Gnosis-based setup with a single ERC-1155 positions contract and its own pUSD collateral layer. theblock
• The UK Treasury named Barclays, Morgan Stanley, HSBC and three others as joint lead managers for a pilot digital gilt issuance expected before early 2027. bloomberg_crypto
• Canary Capital’s staked TRX ETF (TRXS) began trading in US brokerage accounts, adding staking yield on top of spot TRX exposure. cryptobriefing
• Circle’s social team welcomed DJ Khaled to “Team USDC” without explaining the arrangement, prompting immediate backlash referencing his 2018 SEC settlement for undisclosed crypto promotions. decrypt cryptobriefing

Last sip. Ethereum’s Glamsterdam testnet patch is in, but the capacity upgrade it unlocks still has no confirmed mainnet date.