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In brief Starknet is “actively considering” becoming an independent layer-1 blockchain, with 2027 as the target to become the first fully quantum-resistant network. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said an L1 would let Starknet control its own security upgrades instead of waiting for Ethereum, whose roadmap targets core post-quantum infrastructure around 2029. The STRK token traded near $0.073 on Friday, up about 20% in 24 hours and more than double its roughly $0.03 price in April. Starknet, the Ethereum scaling network built by StarkWare, said it is weighing a move to become its own blockchain.”We are actively considering becoming an L1,”…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: Binance has launched a Meteora spot trading competition running through October 15, with 400 BNB in token vouchers allocated to the main prize pool. Eligible users must register and trade at least $500 worth of MET pairs to qualify. Binance is using a sizeable BNB prize pool to push trading activity around Meteora. The exchange launched a new spot competition on October 8 built around MET, with a total of 400 BNB allocated to the main rewards pool. The event runs through October 15. Eligible traders…

In brief Bitcoin rebounded 1.38% to $82,837 on Friday after dipping to $80,427 on Thursday, while total crypto market cap rose 2% to $2.8 trillion and the Fear & Greed Index fell to a neutral 56. Bitcoin ETFs shed $484.9 million on Wednesday and $244 million on Thursday as the 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.32%, and Fed minutes point to another hike by year-end. Myriad traders give a 67% chance Bitcoin trades at or below $80,000 before October ends. The crypto markets are breathing today, with the total capitalization up 2.1% to $2.89 trillion on Friday. The bounce recovers only…

In brief Executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI firms are privately war-gaming the political fallout of a catastrophic AI event, most likely a cyberattack on finance, internet access, power or water, and plan to brief Congress quickly. Industry insiders reportedly expect a major incident within six to 12 months, while OpenAI says its preparedness exercises do not treat such scenarios as inevitable and Anthropic declined to comment. Planners assume Democrats will push to curb AI after the Nov. 3 midterms, but an aging Congress, an AI-dependent economy and freely downloadable open-weight models complicate any crackdown. Top executives at Anthropic,…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: October 8 marks the cutoff for production-style staging traffic on The Graph’s centralized Subgraph Studio endpoints for Polygon and BNB Chain. Developers are being pushed onto The Graph Network, where independent indexers serve queries and earn the associated fees. The Graph is shutting another door on the centralized infrastructure that helped bootstrap its ecosystem. October 8 is the transition deadline for Subgraph Studio staging traffic on Polygon and BNB Chain, moving those queries toward The Graph‘s decentralized network of indexers. For users of decentralized applications, almost…

In brief Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent Cantor Fitzgerald a 13-item request for records on its Tether business arrangement, with responses due Oct. 23. The letter claims Cantor’s 5% Tether stake rose from $600 million to an estimated $10 billion since Trump returned to office, but does not accuse Cantor of breaking a specific law. Blumenthal also asks for the terms of any Tether loan that helped Howard Lutnick transfer his Cantor stake to his children. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is asking Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald to hand over records on its business relationship with Tether, the issuer of USDT, the…

In brief Blockchain.com has applied to the CFTC for two licenses—a designated contract market and a futures commission merchant—to offer event contracts and crypto derivatives to U.S. retail and institutional customers. The move would bring in-house what it now offers abroad through Polymarket and Hyperliquid. It joins a crowded federal-license rush, as the CFTC asserts authority amid state gambling suits and a Supreme Court fight. Blockchain.com is making a bid to join the U.S. prediction-market boom, telling CNBC it has applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for licenses to offer event contracts and cryptocurrency derivatives to American customers.The crypto…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: Hyperscale Data says Ault Markets is now providing invite-only access to a decentralized exchange running in beta on the Ault Blockchain. The publicly listed company plans to expand the platform with additional assets, including tokenized precious metals. A publicly traded data-center company now has a decentralized exchange running in beta on its own blockchain ecosystem. Hyperscale Data announced Thursday that Ault Markets has opened invite-only access to the DEX operating on the Ault Blockchain. Users can request an invitation through the Ault Markets site while the…

In brief DWF Maas and Falcon Digital, two firms tied to market maker DWF Labs, sued custodian BitGo for $141 million in London’s High Court, alleging it sold locked-up tokens early in breach of a private OTC deal. The firms say BitGo got the tokens at a discount on a pledge not to sell before vesting, then moved them to exchanges early. Both parties have ties to Trump-backed World Liberty Financial. Two companies tied to crypto market maker DWF Labs have taken BitGo to court, alleging the custodian dumped locked-up tokens early and tanked their value, in a $141 million…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: Binance has launched a P2P merchant referral campaign across around 20 African markets. Referrers and qualifying new merchants can each earn 50 USDT if the new merchant completes the required number of trades and reaches at least 10,000 USDT of volume within 30 days. Binance wants more merchants sitting on the other side of peer-to-peer crypto trades across Africa, and it is paying users to bring them in. The exchange launched a new P2P referral campaign Thursday offering 50 USDT to both the referrer and a…