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In brief Raheim Hamilton, co-creator of darknet marketplace Empire Market, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and fined $5 million. The site facilitated more than four million transactions worth over $430 million between 2018 and 2020, all of them paid in crypto. Hamilton agreed to forfeit about 1,230 Bitcoin, and co-creator Thomas Pavey is due to be sentenced later this month. A co-creator of darknet marketplace Empire Market has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said Wednesday.Raheim Hamilton, 30, of Suffolk, Virginia, was sentenced Monday by…

In brief A batch of 100.02 BTC mined in July 2010 moved on October 7 for the first time in 16 years, worth about $8.3 million at roughly $83,000 per Bitcoin. The coins were split into 10 BTC and 90.02 BTC outputs sent to two new addresses, both unspent as of Thursday, and nothing onchain identifies the owner or shows a sale. The move follows a run of dormant-wallet activity, including six wallets that shifted 553.59 BTC between August 16 and 26. A batch of 100.02 Bitcoin mined in July 2010, from a period commonly known as the Satoshi-era, moved…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: Moscow Exchange plans to begin offering cryptocurrency trading from December 1 and says testing with professional market participants is already underway. Under Russia’s new framework, unqualified investors are expected to face limits on which assets they can buy and how much they can invest. Russia‘s largest securities exchange is preparing to move from crypto derivatives into direct cryptocurrency trading. Moscow Exchange plans to offer crypto transactions from December 1, according to senior managing director Boris Blokhin, who said the venue is already testing the service with…

In brief The NFL filed an amicus brief backing New Jersey’s bid for Supreme Court review of a Third Circuit ruling that shielded Kalshi’s sports contracts from state gambling laws. The league said the CFTC and operators have refused its requested safeguards, including bans on easily manipulated bets and a minimum trading age of 21. If the Court upholds the ruling, the NFL said it would push regulators and Congress for stronger protections before the 2027 season. The NFL has picked a side in the fight over sports prediction markets, and it isn’t Kalshi’s.In an amicus brief filed Thursday, the…

In brief Google Cloud introduced the Gemini agent on Thursday, a single AI for work that runs in the cloud for hours or days and operates across Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Chat and Calendar. Managers can create “coworker agents” with their own Workspace email address, calendar, Drive storage and company directory listing, each tracked in an audit trail separate from any human. Google gave no pricing or general availability date; financial services and legal versions are in preview, with government, healthcare and retail listed as coming soon. Google Cloud introduced a universal AI agent for the workplace on Thursday,…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: Sui and Alibaba Cloud are working on an integration that would let AI agents pay for cloud services per request using stablecoins within budgets set by their owners. The collaboration was unveiled at Sui Basecamp and remains under development, with no public launch date yet. The next stablecoin user may not be a person. Sui and Alibaba Cloud are working on a payments model that would allow autonomous AI agents to pay for cloud resources one request at a time without asking a human to approve…

In brief Manus parent Butterfly Effect raised more than $500 million, led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital with Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund participating, in its first round since Meta’s acquisition collapsed. Meta announced a roughly $2 billion purchase in December 2025; China’s planning agency ordered it unwound on April 27, and Manus announced in August it would resume independent operations. Manus reported $100 million in annual recurring revenue about eight months after its March 2025 launch; no valuation was disclosed for the new round. Manus, the AI agent startup that Meta bought for about $2 billion before China forced…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: The XRP Ledger’s BatchV1_1 amendment remains in its activation window and is expected to enable around October 9 if validator support stays above the required threshold. The upgrade allows multiple transactions to be bundled into an atomic group, replacing an earlier Batch version that was halted after a critical bug was found. A major XRP Ledger upgrade is approaching activation after one of the more unusual validator coordination episodes in the network’s recent history. BatchV1_1 is currently inside the XRPL amendment process and is expected to…

In brief Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet activated Glamsterdam on October 6 at epoch 353,024, with a block gas limit of nearly 200 million, more than three times mainnet’s 60 million. Sepolia blocks 11,872,013 through 11,872,037 used between 47.1 million and 85.9 million gas, roughly 24% to 43% of the limit. The announcement sets no date for the Hoodi testnet and schedules no mainnet upgrade, so mainnet’s limit stays at 60 million for now. Ethereum’s Sepolia test network activated the Glamsterdam upgrade on October 6 and began producing blocks with a gas limit of nearly 200 million, more than three times the…

In brief Bitcoin ETFs lost $484.9 million on Oct. 7, their biggest one-day outflow since June 25, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $207.7 million. The 30-year Treasury yield hit about 5.7%, its highest since 2002, while Brent crude settled near $100 and most Fed officials expect another rate hike by year end. The funds are down $163.3 million for October through the 7th, after Bitcoin’s six-year October winning streak ended with a 3.69% drop in 2025. Bitcoin ETFs lost $484.9 million in a single day on Wednesday, the worst outflow since June 25, according to Decrypt’s ETF tracker. BlackRock’s IBIT…

In brief Orca and Loopscale merged under the Formation brand, headquartered in New York, with Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt as CEO; financial terms were not disclosed. Formation targets financing for AI, energy, robotics and defense assets, backed by Orca’s $550 billion-plus in trading volume and Loopscale’s $150 million in deposits and $2 billion in loans facilitated. Formation plans to operate a tokenized securities venue under the SEC’s five-year Innovation Exemption and to introduce issuer tools within 12 months. Solana decentralized exchange Orca and lending protocol Loopscale are merging into a single company called Formation, the two teams announced Wednesday.The new…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure TL;DR: Coinbase Financial Markets has agreed to stop offering new sports-related event contracts to Michigan customers by October 10 and close remaining open positions by the same deadline. Michigan agreed not to pursue enforcement while Coinbase complies, but the wider legal fight over whether states can regulate federally registered event contracts remains unresolved. Coinbase is pulling sports prediction contracts out of Michigan while its legal battle with the state continues. The Michigan Gaming Control Board said Coinbase Financial Markets has agreed to stop offering new sports-related event…