🔮 If You Can't Beat 'em Buy 'em, TradFi Kinda Trusts Stables, Mining Stock Stasis, Wallet Wars

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Hyperliquid and BNB Chain Erode Solana’s Fee Dominance

The distribution of fees among major layer-1 blockchains has shifted sharply in 2025. Earlier this year, Solana generated more than half of all L1 fees, but now accounts for only 9%, losing ground to Hyperliquid and BNB Chain, which have risen to over 40% and 20% respectively. The decline coincides with the end of Solana’s memecoin boom that peaked around February with TRUMP, alongside rising derivatives activity on Hyperliquid and BNB’s new Aster platform, both of which generate higher fees per transaction. BNB Chain has also benefited from its integration with Binance Alpha and Binance Wallet, which channel significant retail traffic on-chain. Analysts say Solana will need a breakout native dApp or a new speculative cycle to regain traction, as volatility-driven trading continues to favor derivatives-heavy ecosystems like Hyperliquid and BNB Chain.

Source: DefiLlama, The Block

Truth Social Launches Prediction Markets Through Crypto.com Partnership

Trump Media’s Truth Social is entering the prediction market sector with “Truth Predict,” developed in partnership with Crypto.com. The platform will let users trade event contracts on politics, sports, and markets using Crypto.com’s Cronos token and CDNA’s regulated infrastructure. Truth gems can be converted into CRO for trading, marking the first time a publicly traded social platform has integrated prediction markets. CEO Devin Nunes said the feature aims to “democratize information” and merge free speech with actionable market insight. The launch comes amid record investor demand for platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, signaling growing mainstream adoption of prediction markets.

MegaETH ICO Raises $1.4B as Investors Bet Big on Next-Gen Ethereum Layer 2

MegaETH’s ICO drew nearly $1.4 billion in commitments this week, oversubscribed 27.8x against its $50 million cap, signaling massive investor enthusiasm despite lingering skepticism around Layer 2 tokens. The sale, valuing the project at $999 million, follows earlier community raises and NFT mints, marking MegaETH’s third major round. Pre-market trading now values MEGA at $4 billion FDV, though the team joked that the full-commitment valuation would hit a meme-worthy $27.8 billion. Allocation results will be announced in early November, with a mainnet farming season planned for December to reward contributors. The frenzy highlights renewed appetite for high-risk L2 bets, with MegaETH positioning itself as a community-first alternative amid token fatigue across the sector.

Prediction Markets Poised to Disrupt $100B U.S. Sports Betting Industry Ahead of 2026

Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are seeing record volumes as a new U.S. tax law under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) drives traditional sports bettors on-chain. Starting next year, gamblers will only be able to deduct 90% of losses against winnings, while CFTC-regulated prediction markets remain exempt, allowing full deductions. This loophole has triggered a surge of institutional and high-volume gamblers to platforms like Kalshi, which already sees weekend trading spikes, and Polymarket, which is rolling out U.S.-compliant sports markets. With Donald Trump Jr. advising both firms and Truth Social launching its own betting product, industry players suspect the OBBB may have been designed to bolster the sector. The move could pull major sportsbooks like DraftKings into the on-chain arena, setting up prediction markets to capture a large slice of the $100 billion U.S. sports gambling market.

Source: Dune

Tether Posts $10B Profit in 2025, Rivaling Wall Street’s Biggest Banks

Tether reported $10 billion in profit for the first three quarters of 2025, surpassing Bank of America’s $8.9 billion and nearly doubling U.S. Bank’s $5.5 billion, while closing in on Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley’s earnings. The stablecoin giant issued $17 billion in new USDT during Q3, lifting its circulating supply to $184 billion and solidifying its position as the world’s dominant stablecoin with over 500 million users. Its profits are primarily driven by yields on $135 billion in U.S. Treasuries—more than the reserves of several major economies. Headquartered in El Salvador, Tether is now expanding into the U.S. with a regulated stablecoin, USAT, under Trump’s new legal framework and recently launched its AI division, Tether Data, to build open STEM-focused AI tools.

Phantom Turns Wallet Into Full-Stack Payments Platform With CASH Stablecoin Launch

Phantom’s launch of CASH, a USD-backed stablecoin on Solana, signals the rise of wallets as integrated financial platforms. Since debuting in late September 2025, CASH supply has reached $76 million across 3,000 holders, processing over $50 million in daily volume. Issued through Stripe’s Open Issuance and backed 1:1 with USD, CASH lets platforms keep all net revenue from issuance while offering users instant funding, peer transfers, DeFi access via Kamino, and Visa-enabled global spending. Following Phantom’s Hyperliquid-powered perps integration, these updates showcase wallets’ growing role as full-stack gateways for stablecoin payments and onchain finance.

Source: Dune

Regulation

Crypto Mining Stocks Outperform Bitcoin Amid AI Pivot and Institutional Demand

Crypto mining equities have outpaced Bitcoin’s gains over the past year, with Riot Blockchain and Hut 8 Mining rising 110% and 211% respectively versus Bitcoin’s 65% increase. The outperformance reflects investor optimism around efficiency gains, capacity expansion, and diversification beyond mining. Many firms are repurposing infrastructure to host AI and high-performance computing workloads, monetizing existing facilities while reducing exposure to Bitcoin price cycles. The AI-compute pivot has drawn institutional investors seeking hybrid exposure to crypto and artificial intelligence. Mining stocks have also benefited from institutional demand for Bitcoin-linked equities, offering regulated access to the asset class. The sector’s momentum is further supported by corporate treasury strategies like American Bitcoin Corp—a joint venture between the Trump family and Hut 8—highlighting how miners are blending operational Bitcoin production with long-term accumulation to attract both traditional and crypto-native capital.

Source: The Block, Yahoo Finance

Mt. Gox Extends Repayment Deadline to 2026 as Unpaid Claims Persist

Defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox has delayed creditor repayments until Oct. 31, 2026—the third extension since 2023—citing incomplete procedures and processing issues. While roughly 19,500 creditors have received Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash repayments, many remain unpaid. The trustee says base and early repayments are mostly complete, with 34,689 BTC (about $4 billion) still held. Founded in 2010, Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014 after losing 850,000 BTC in one of crypto’s largest hacks.

Western Union to Launch USD Stablecoin on Solana, Turning Remittances into On-Chain Settlements

Western Union will launch its own U.S.-dollar-backed stablecoin, the USD Payment Token (USDPT), on Solana in 2026, with Anchorage Digital as issuer. Integrated into a new “Digital Asset Network,” USDPT will enable instant on-chain settlements while leveraging Western Union’s 500,000+ agent locations for global remittances. The move lets the company reduce costs, speed up transfers, and capture interest income on reserves, turning its remittance float into a profit source. Choosing Solana over Stellar or Ripple highlights performance priorities and signals stablecoins’ growing role in mainstream finance.

Visa Expands Stablecoin Support Across Four Blockchains and Currencies

Visa is deepening its crypto push by adding support for four stablecoins across four blockchains, spanning two fiat currencies, CEO Ryan McInerney said on Tuesday’s earnings call. The payments giant can now accept and convert these stablecoins into more than 25 fiat currencies, while stablecoin-linked Visa card spend has quadrupled year-over-year. Since 2020, Visa has facilitated over $140 billion in crypto and stablecoin flows, including $100 billion in user purchases, and now hosts 130 stablecoin-linked card programs in 40+ countries. The company also enables partner banks to mint and burn stablecoins through its network, a step analysts at William Blair see as central to Visa’s next growth phase. They predict stablecoins will become a structural driver for cross-border payments and power a “slingshot recovery” in Visa’s stock performance. See similar: Uphold relaunches XRP rewards debit card in US

Other Domestic Regulation Updates

• 'It's orange dot day': Michael Saylor's Strategy buys another 390 BTC for $43 million
• Bitwise spot Solana ETF sees $69.5 million net inflows on debut
• MetaMask parent Consensys pursues IPO with JPMorgan and Goldman

Other International Regulation Updates

• KRWQ launches as first Korean won stablecoin on Base
• Ex-Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao's lawyer demands 'immediate retraction' from Sen. Warren over post-pardon remarks
• ECB Targets 2029 Launch for Digital Euro, Prep Work to Continue

Pain & Gain

Pain

• Bitcoin, Ethereum Tumble After Fed Cuts Rates, but Powell Says Another 'Not a Forgone Conclusion'
• Plasma’s XPL token crashes 80% as hype fades amid woeful debut.

Gain

• Standard Chartered says bitcoin may never fall below $100,000 again 'if this week goes well'
• Circle launches Arc public testnet with over 100 institutional participants
• MetaMask goes multichain: one account supports EVM, Solana and soon Bitcoin
• Standard Chartered sees tokenized real-world assets reaching $2 trillion by 2028 — 'vast majority' on Ethereum
• Coinbase Beats Q3 Forecasts as Transaction Revenue Jumps to $1 Billion