SEC drops to 2 members, and 1 hidden rule shifts crypto power
Hester Peirce’s Oct. 2 resignation has left Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda as the SEC’s two listed commissioners. A new rule permits one eligible member to constitute a quorum when every other sitting member is disqualified from a particular matter. Under…
Open USD supply hits $666 million as 10 wallets trap most tokens
Open USD had $666.3 million outstanding on Oct. 5, but most of that supply remained in launch and custody wallets, according to Crystal Intelligence’s wallet study published Oct. 6. The findings show substantial launch inventory, with little evidence of…
Google Launches Nano Banana 2.1: Better Than Its Predecessor at Half the Price
Google’s new image model, Nano Banana 2.1, is live. It costs about half as much as its predecessor, but the performance claims come from Google’s own tests.
Circle Welcomes DJ Khaled to ‘Team USDC’ and Crypto Twitter Is Furious
Nothing in Circle’s posts announces a sponsorship, but replies dug up Khaled’s 2018 SEC settlement over a crypto fraud he promoted. The internet never forgets.
Bitcoin rally delivers $4.1 billion tax windfall for Strategy
Strategy estimated a $4.1 billion income-tax benefit after Bitcoin’s fair value rose above cost as of Sept. 30, according to its Oct. 5 filing. The benefit comes from a lower estimated tax expense through an accounting adjustment. The filing shows…
Someone Scraped 5.6 Billion TikTok Videos and Put the Data on Hugging Face for Free
A developer posted metadata for about 5.6 billion public TikTok videos, scraped through the app’s private API in a way TikTok’s terms prohibit. The free dataset also doubles as a storefront.
US services price gauge hits a four-year high, clouding Bitcoin’s rate-relief outlook
The US services prices gauge reached a four-year high in September even as growth slowed, a combination that could keep leveraged Bitcoin positions exposed to restrictive financing conditions. The October 5 survey pairs softer activity with more…
Pudgy Penguins’ Ethereum Layer-2 Abstract Is Shutting Down
Abstract will shut down Dec. 15, saying a chain focused solely on consumer crypto proved unsustainable, and is urging users to bridge their assets off before then.
Tether Hit With Lawsuit Over $2.76 Million Stablecoin Freeze
The payments firm alleges Tether froze its treasury wallet on its own initiative over a Brazilian investigation it has no connection to—and has profited from the reserves while refusing to release the funds for more than a year.
3 countries control 66% of Bitcoin mining, but 1 rival is gaining
Bitcoin’s estimated US mining footprint shrank as Russia’s grew, with little change in top-three country concentration. Hashrate Index’s Oct. 5 country estimates put the US at about 335 EH/s, down from 345 EH/s in the previous edition,…