Summer Mersinger steps down at the Blockchain Association
Summer Mersinger leaves the Blockchain Association on October 16, with Kristin Smith back as interim chief on October 17 while keeping her Solana policy role.
Karthik Subramanian
Digital Assets Correspondent
Karthik Subramanian is a founder, writer, and technology consultant with nine years in the crypto ecosystem. He covers token economics, L1/L2 infrastructure, DeFi protocols, wallets/custody, and the bridge between crypto and forex—broker technology, liquidity, and macro drivers. Karthik’s writing focuses on clear, practical frameworks that help professionals evaluate new products and on-chain innovation alongside FX market realities.
October 2026
Blast winds down Ethereum layer 2 as costs exceed revenue
Blast is winding down its Ethereum layer 2 because costs exceed revenue. TVL was a little over $32 million, and interface withdrawals close on 26 October.
OKXICE's SEC notice lists 63 stocks; Cerebras objects
OKXICE's October 4 notice tells the SEC it will offer 63 tokenised NMS stocks around the clock on XLayer. Cerebras has already filed an issuer objection.
Loong Wang's Metal startup seed is almost $50 million
The Australian Financial Review says the Metal startup co-founded by Loong Wang raised almost $50 million, with Airwallex and Capital 49 leading the seed.
Volatility Shares gets a Cboe path for six 3x products
SEC approval gives Volatility Shares a Cboe BZX path for six 3x products on bitcoin, ether, gold, silver, crude and natural gas. The order sets no trading date.
CFTC registers Coinbase Clearing for collateralized futures
The CFTC registered Coinbase Clearing on 28 September 2026 to clear only fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps. No contract is named.
OUSD goes live with $666m on Bridge, not a $1bn mint
OUSD went live on September 30, issued by Stripe's Bridge. BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY hold reserves behind $666.2m circulating, not a reported $1bn mint.
Drift Protocol opens DFX claims on a thin recovery pool
Drift Protocol opened DFX claims for April losses at Velocity. The pool is about 3.1 million USDT, and sources still disagree on the theft and Tether's pledge.
Roughrider Coin goes live on Fiserv's banking rail
Roughrider Coin is live as Fiserv's first bank use case, with VersaBank issuing and Solana settling. No volume, supply or reserve total was published.
NYDFS and Wyoming sign virtual-currency oversight MOU
NYDFS and Wyoming signed a virtual-currency MOU effective on September 23, ahead of the October 1 notice. The six-month aim is an endeavour, not a passport.
Bank of Russia opens three crypto registers on 5 October
Three Bank of Russia registers open on 5 October 2026: exchangers, digital depositories and information-system operators. A filing is not approval to trade.
SEBI and RBI open a Demat 2.0 tokenised bond pilot
SEBI and the RBI opened Demat 2.0 on September 10, 2026: tokenised corporate bonds stay on the depository register and settle in the wholesale digital rupee.
SoFiUSD goes live on SoFi Bank's Mastercard settlement
SoFiUSD now settles SoFi Bank's Mastercard debit and credit cards. The bank expects more than $25 billion a year, but merchants still withdraw cash, not tokens.
Settlemint signs Utila to an MoU, not a live custody rail
Settlemint signed a September 22 MoU to pair DALP with Utila MPC wallets. The release promises pilots, not a live custody rail, three weeks after a Ripple deal.
September 2026
NOWPayments has not confirmed where its volume settles
TRON DAO says 40% of NOWPayments volume runs on TRON. The company has not published that split, and its own payout file cuts the chains a different way.
VT Markets takes best gold trading platform at FinanceFeeds Awards
VT Markets has won Best Gold Trading Platform at the FinanceFeeds Awards 2026, capping a January in which it reported $1.5 trillion in gold turnover.
Bitget's $387.5m breach spoofed its approvals, not its keys
Bitget's $387.5m breach came through spoofed approvals, not stolen keys. Why MPC and HSM spend missed it, and what exchange ops teams should audit now.
North Capital’s PPEX ATS hands MoonPay a US securities stack
North Capital's sale to MoonPay moves a broker-dealer, a transfer agent and the PPEX ATS, with $8.7bn of volume, into a crypto group pending regulator approval.
Bullish and Equiniti bet tokenised stocks on the share register
Bullish and Equiniti's issuer-sponsored token coalition ties tokenised stocks to the share register. What Alpaca, Apex and DriveWealth add, and what is missing.
Quant now sits under both US and UK tokenised deposit rails
Quant now runs the tokenised deposit layer for The Clearing House and the UK's GBTD. Neither deal discloses contract value, term or a vendor-failure plan.
Also filing this week: Rick Steves and Abdelaziz Fathi.