Data shared by the cryptocurrency analysis platform CryptoQuant reveals a remarkable increase in transfers by large $XRP investors to Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. In the last 30 days, the total amount of $XRP sent by whales to Binance reached 1.66 billion, marking the highest level in the last seven months.
According to CryptoQuant data, 30-day whale inflows, which reached approximately 1.65 billion $XRP in September, subsequently declined. However, transfers have recently gained momentum, allowing the previous peak to be surpassed. As a result, the activity of large investors on Binance has reached its highest level in the last seven months.
Related NewsArthur Hayes Says, “The AI Bubble Will Burst, Bitcoin Will Soar,” and Gives a Date
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Canadian health ministers meet in Winnipeg today after the federal government announced it would extend funding for mental health, addictions and home care by one year.
Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel made the announcement on social media late Wednesday, saying the extension represents $1.2 billion in funding.
The existing funding was set to expire next year.
Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara is to host provincial and territorial counterparts today, and Michel is to co-chair Friday’s meeting.
Provincial health ministers had said they were worried about “profound and negative” effects on patients and health-care jobs if the federal funding agreements weren’t renewed in this year’s budget.
Provinces and territories also raised concerns about the future of the Canada Health Transfer as the federal budget states the minimum growth rate will drop to three per cent from five per cent in 2028.
Asagwara says they spoke with Michel about the unanimous concerns of health ministers and are keen to hear more on federal health funding.
“I am thrilled to be able to say that I feel Minister Michel has been listening,” Asagwara said Wednesday.
“I look forward to hearing some news from the minister on this, we all do.”
Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, said funding commitments should be a priority.
She said the federal government can’t lose sight of the importance of health care as it ramps up spending on defence and other priorities.
“There has to be a just balance, and we have to see our health-care system as an investment, as a human rights issue, and as proud Canadians, it’s the core of our fabric, and we need to hear our prime minister speak more loudly about it.”
The Canadian Medical Association said in a release Wednesday that the meeting is an important opportunity for the federal government to provide certainty on funding to provinces and territories.
The association said strong and reliable federal funding to maintain universal health care is foundational to growing Canada’s economy.
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Hilary Swank may be 52, but it’s not slowing down her family — the Yellowjackets star has announced she’s pregnant with her third child.
The two-time Oscar winner is already mom to two children with her husband, Philip Schneider. After freezing her eggs at age 37, she welcomed twins Aya and Ohm in 2023 when she was 48.
Swank dropped the news on Wednesday with a light-hearted Instagram video showing her family dancing in a dark room with glow sticks on their bodies to make them look like stick figures. In the video, Swank turns around to reveal a tiny glow-stick-figure in a circle on her belly.
“A lot of people have been asking what project I’m doing next,” she wrote in the caption. “This one releases in December,” she added, with an emoji of a baby angel, suggesting this is when the baby is due.
Swank has previously spoken about how happy she is to have waited to have children, telling Women’s Health in 2025 that she feels she’s a different parent than she would’ve been even in her early 40s.
“I’m much more patient. I’m much more understanding,” she said. “And I have my career that’s already established, so I’m not divided. I’m able to really sink in and be present with them and be a hands-on parent.”
The American actress won her first Oscar at 25 years old with her starring role in the 2000 film Boys Don’t Cry, following it up with a second best actress Oscar for the 2004 film Million Dollar Baby. Most recently, she appeared in the Netflix series Away and Showtime’s Yellowjackets.
She’s also spent the past few years lobbying the California government to pass bills requiring manufacturers to disclose ingredients in diapers and in prenatal vitamins.
Swank isn’t the first celebrity to welcome kids in her 50s. Pop icon Janet Jackson and supermodel Naomi Campbell both had children at age 50, in 2017 and 2021 respectively, with Campbell welcoming a second child at age 53. Brigitte Nielsen, of Beverly Hills Cop II fame, gave birth to her fifth child and only daughter in 2018 at the age of 54.
Late pregnancies a growing trend
Advanced maternal age pregnancies — defined as occurring past the age of 35 — are becoming more common in North America.
In 2021, a quarter of mothers were 35 or older when they gave birth, compared with just 16 per cent 20 years earlier, according to Statistics Canada. In the U.S., federal data shows 21 per cent of births in 2023 were to those aged 35 or older, up from nine per cent in 1990.
Natural pregnancy is possible at any time before menopause, but the chances go down as you age.
Anne Hathaway, 43, announced in June that she was pregnant with her third child, telling Access Hollywood in July she was “overjoyed” that it had happened.
“When you get to a certain age, that hope looks like it’s about one per cent to two per cent,” she said. “It’s a blessing that we do not take for granted.”
Anne Hathaway, 43, seen on the red carpet last month in New York City, announced in June that she was pregnant with her third child. (Evan Agostini/Invision/The Associated Press)
The majority of later-stage pregnancies like Swank’s are possible through modern technology such as egg-freezing or in vitro fertilization (IVF), which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Egg-freezing allows families to press pause by extracting and preserving eggs from the ovaries at a younger age, before the eggs degrade in number and quality, which happens naturally with aging. The eggs can be stored at fertility clinics for decades, if desired, before being reimplanted when a person decides they’re ready to try to conceive a child.
Developments in medical care have made pregnancy and birth safer over the years, but medical experts caution that the risk of complications with pregnancy still increases at an advanced maternal age.
And although egg-freezing is growing in popularity in Canada, providing more options for when to start a family, the procedures averaged $12,000 to $15,000 in 2024 — not quite accessible for every Canadian.
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are moving ahead with a plan to allow specialty pharmacies to produce certain peptides, a class of largely unregulated injections that have become popular among followers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other wellness influencers.
Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services submitted a peptides “interim access policy” to the White House for review, according to a posting Thursday on a government website. The plan was sent to the Office of Management and Budget, which reviews federal rules and regulations with the potential for significant economic impact.
HHS officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday afternoon.
Peptides are the building blocks of more complex proteins, triggering hormones inside the body needed for growth, metabolism and healing. Drug companies have brought several to market as medications, including mainstay treatments for diabetes and weight loss.
But the ones at issue here haven’t gone through that rigorous vetting process. Nevertheless, they have gained a foothold among Americans interested in bulking up, looking younger or boosting energy. Those uses are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and most of the data on peptides comes from animal studies.
Before joining the administration, Kennedy publicly declared that “FDA’s war” on peptides and other wellness products would soon end.
After becoming health secretary, Kennedy said U.S. compounding pharmacies must be allowed to sell peptides because Americans were increasingly turning to “gray market” peptides made in China and other countries. Those products remain widely available for purchase via online platforms like TikTok.
The White House filing doesn’t give specifics of the new policy, but two people familiar with the plan say it is intended to allow pharmacies to temporarily compound some of the most popular peptides, including BPC-157, a chemical promoted to build muscle and heal injuries. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential government deliberations.
The update is the latest indication that Kennedy and other Trump administration officials are looking to ease access to unproven products that are popular within the Make America Healthy Again movement. Some of the biggest MAHA figures sell peptide injections and supplements.
The FDA previously placed BPC-157 and more than a dozen other injectable peptides on its list of substances that are too risky to be compounded by pharmacies. Possible risks include contamination, allergic reactions and tumor growth, according to the FDA.
But earlier this year, Kennedy directed the agency to reconsider a short list of chemicals that have been widely promoted by wellness influencers and fitness celebrities.
In July, a panel of external FDA advisers recommended the agency drop its restrictions on six of the seven peptides put before them. That recommendation went against the scientific conclusion of FDA’s staff scientists, who reiterated that none of the peptides had been studied enough to establish their safety and effectiveness.
The new policy sent to the White House would essentially assure compounding pharmacies — specialty businesses that mix customized medications that aren’t available from traditional drugmakers — that they won’t be targeted for producing certain peptides, according to the people familiar with the plan. That approach, known as enforcement discretion, allows the FDA to selectively choose to not enforce some of its own regulations.
Formally adding the peptides to FDA’s list of drugs that are safe for compounding would require federal rulemaking, a process that could take years and involves multiple rounds of public comment. It was not immediately clear if the administration still plans to pursue that process.
The proposal was quickly praised online by some Kennedy allies who sell peptides.
“This is huge,” Brigham Buhler, a wellness clinic operator who sells peptides through an online service, posted on X. “This isn’t about whether you’re for or against peptides. It’s about whether you’re for or against MEDICAL FREEDOM.”
The peptide business has caught the attention of major telehealth providers, including Hims & Hers and Noom. Both companies recently announced plans to offer peptides to their customers if the federal government eases access. Wall Street analysts estimate the market could be worth $2 billion to $3 billion.
___
The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Sony is keeping its Walkman players alive with three new, very pricey models, including a gold-plated version that costs $5,899.
On Thursday, the company refreshed the Walkman digital music players with a trio of “premium” models, including the NW-WM1ZM3, which features a gold-plated chassis that’s primarily made out of oxygen-free copper, held together with gold-plated screws. It also comes with a headphone jack and a 5.5-inch touch screen to view, play, and stream music on Android 16.
(Credit: Sony)
For consumers looking to save a little, the NW-WM1AM3 features a mostly black aluminum chassis but still offers gold plating on the back. It will set you back $2,899.
The pricing is certainly exorbitant, considering the Walkmans are merely MP3/WAV players and cost more than a more versatile smartphone, including some foldable models. But Sony is marketing the products to “music enthusiasts and audiophiles” seeking exceptional, uncompromising sound quality. The Walkmans are built with an assortment of premium hardware components and software features to pull this off.
(Credit: Sony)
The third product, the NW-ZX900, is cheaper at $1,899 and has a slightly smaller 5-inch touch screen, but it still includes many of the same high-end audio features, Sony says. To update the product line, the company upgraded the power circuitry to “provide cleaner, more stable power with minimal interference.”
Recommended by Our Editors
“A larger, high-purity 4N copper coil is used in the L-C filter to optimize the balanced output signal from the digital amplifier,” Sony added. “Its flat conductive wire reduces resistance and distortion, enhancing clarity and detail across the frequency range.”
Sony’s website says all three models are expected to start shipping in January. The three products also have a battery life of up to 31 hours.
About Our Expert
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
Football’s global governing body is expected to change a rule that allowed a red card for USA forward Folarin Balogun to be controversially overturned during the World Cup, according to media reports on the agenda for Thursday’s FIFA council meeting in Zurich.
The decision-making body is convening for the first time since this year’s tournament, and a motion to prohibit such actions in the future will be top of the agenda. Members will also discuss the organisation’s funding, rules and other matters amid a turbulent time in the sport.
During the World Cup’s round-of-32 match, Balogun received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia in a 2-0 win for the home team. It triggered an automatic one-game suspension.
However, United States President Donald Trump urged FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the case, and Balogun’s red card was overturned, allowing him to play in the USA’s round-of-16 match against Belgium.
The decision to overturn Balogun’s red card ignited one of the tournament’s biggest controversies, with widespread criticism from football federations, former FIFA officials, experts and coaches.
The 37-member FIFA council is expected to vote on whether to prohibit disciplinary committees from overturning automatic match suspensions at the World Cup, but the Balogun controversy is unlikely to go away.
FIFA Vice President Debbie Hewitt is among the sport’s leaders who have asked Infantino to release all documents related to the case.
Thursday’s FIFA council meeting is the first since Infantino came under fire earlier this year for a now-shelved plan to sell a 20 percent stake in the World Cup’s commercial business to private investors.
Infantino has faced calls to resign from the leaders of three regional football confederations – UEFA (Europe), AFC (Asia) and CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean) – and their representatives will be present in Zurich for the FIFA meeting.
They will be joined by their counterparts from Africa, South America and Oceania.
Under the plan, Infantino proposed selling a minority stake in a FIFA commercial subsidiary to private investors, with a company launched by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, identified as the proposed lead investor.
The council will also address FIFA’s governance, with some of the sport’s most powerful figures determined to limit Infantino’s powers if they cannot force him out of office.
Infantino, 56, will stand for re-election in March 2027, with a November 18 deadline looming for potential candidates to submit their nominations.
Ukraine’s military Starshield satellite connection has been restored, a Ukrainian Ministry of Defence source says, just days after the United States reportedly restricted the service.
The Reuters news agency, quoting a source, reported that Kyiv is still seeking clarifications from Starshield’s parent company, SpaceX, as to why its service was disrupted between Tuesday and Wednesday.
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Ukraine relies on Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s internet service, Starlink, to provide intelligence amid its war with Russia.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has denied the company’s involvement and suggested only the US government could have disrupted it, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that Washington is still sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
Here’s what we know:
Residents collect things from a house destroyed in a Russian air strike, on the outskirts of Dnipro, Ukraine, October 15, 2026 [Reuters]
What is Starshield?
Starshield is a sister service to Starlink, an array of 11,000 satellites placed by SpaceX into Earth’s low orbit to provide high-speed internet connectivity even in remote areas.
Starshield, launched in 2022 and provided to the US government, is designed for military use as it allows for deeper encryption to process sensitive information. SpaceX says it is primarily used by US defence agencies and other “government partners”.
Ukraine’s military relies on Starshield, especially to guide its drones, on which it relies heavily to attack Russia.
What happened to Ukraine’s access to Starshield?
On Tuesday, Ukrainian defence officials said they had lost access to important satellite-based communications and that the disruptions had affected military missions. This came in the wake of heavy Russian strikes, which hit the country with more than 100 drones and five ballistic missiles, for which Ukraine said it had received no prior warning.
“Intelligence on Russian ballistic missile launches helps save lives, and this is one of the most critical issues. This is precisely what helps prevent people from being killed – when there is an early warning about ballistic missiles,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Regarding this strike, unfortunately, there was no warning from partners.”
Serhiy Beskrestnov, a defence adviser to Zelenskyy, posted on Telegram that SpaceX had also “implemented a speed limit” on Starlink terminals, capping internet speeds at 100mph (160km/h).
That meant any drones or missiles flying at more than 100mph lost their guidance connection.
“Our armed forces did not receive a warning about these restrictions, and this led to the failure of a number of missions,” he said, adding that this was clearly “related to the current political situation”.
Officials said the restrictions also reduced capabilities for front-line logistics, reconnaissance and relaying signals.
Who controls Starshield?
On Wednesday, Musk denied any involvement in the incident, insisting that the service is “controlled by the US government”.
Responding to a post on X by Ukraine’s former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who said the speed limits were being lifted and demanded unrestricted internet speed, Musk wrote, “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government.”
“Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he said, referring to the US president.
Musk further clarified that Starlink is for “civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company” – an apparent attempt to differentiate it from Starshield, which Kyiv also deploys but is not allowed to use for offensive operations.
The SpaceX boss has shown an active interest in the Russia-Ukraine war since it began, but has not been particularly favourable towards Kyiv. In 2022 – just after Russia invaded Ukraine – he proposed a “peace plan” under which Kyiv would end its claim to Russia-occupied Crimea and would drop hopes for joining NATO. Zelenskyy criticised Musk’s comments, and tensions between the two have remained.
On Sunday, the billionaire, who is also the CEO of Tesla and owns X, said Zelenskyy “has gone too far”, in a response to Trump’s comments that the Ukrainian president should leave office.
On Wednesday, Musk appeared to blame Zelenskyy for deaths in the war. “And so the slaughter continues,” he wrote on X. “Time for Zelensky to go.”
Does Ukraine blame the US for restricting intelligence?
Ukrainian officials have complained that the country received no warning in advance of Russian ballistic missile strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Usually, the US provides crucial early-warning alerts that allow Kyiv to issue evacuation orders.
Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday that US military officials had earlier warned Kyiv that Washington would block intelligence unless attacks on Russian energy infrastructure stop.
The Ukrainian leader added that he did not accept suggestions that the Starshield incident could have been a glitch. “It was not a technical problem; it was the will,” he said.
Why might the US restrict intelligence from Ukraine?
Tensions between Kyiv and Washington have been building since Trump took office last year over a host of issues, including weapons transfers and the US’s increasing closeness to Russia.
In recent weeks, Washington has pressured Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries to allow more oil into global markets. In particular, Trump has sought to blame Ukrainian attacks on Russian diesel facilities for the rising price of the fuel globally ahead of November midterm elections.
Trump said last week he had agreed to a deal with President Vladimir Putin to release Russian diesel stocks into the US and global markets, despite existing sanctions on Russian oil.
Zelenskyy criticised the move and said it would embolden Putin.
Over the weekend, Trump unilaterally announced an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, apparently without consulting Zelenskyy, who told reporters the deal was “news to me”. Russia also did not confirm it. Angered, Trump called for Ukraine to replace its president and blamed Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure for global energy disruptions.
Ukraine said it had, in fact, refrained from attacking Russian refineries and would continue to do so if Russia did the same. However, Russian strikes have continued. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had caused blackouts affecting 600,000 people.
“We’re done,” the Ukrainian president said in the FT interview, confirming that Kyiv had subsequently resumed attacking Russia’s oil infrastructure.
An Al Jazeera investigation has exposed holes in claims that an Israeli counter-film to the acclaimed documentary NAZA achieved more than 44 million views. By examining domain registries, web archives, source code, and three independent traffic tools, the investigation exposed the fabricated numbers adopted by official Israeli entities to promote the film.
The original award-winning film, NAZA, draws on testimony from 24 unnamed Israeli military whistleblowers, accusing the army of using artificial intelligence-powered targeting systems to kill numerous civilians in Gaza. The documentary takes its name from the Israeli military term for civilian casualties expected in air strikes. After winning the special jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival and receiving a historic 25-minute standing ovation, the film was scheduled to screen in 56 countries.
Official backlash
The success of the original documentary triggered a political storm in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that the chief of general staff, the head of the Shin Bet, and the attorney general launch a comprehensive investigation into the participants and prosecute them for information security violations.
The film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, were accused of treason, and Netanyahu and Culture Minister Miki Zohar threatened to revoke their Israeli citizenship.
Network of domains
To counter the film’s global resonance, opponents created a counter-film. On September 16, just days after NAZA premiered, the domain nazadocumentary.com was registered via Cloudflare, with the owner’s details hidden.
The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine revealed the site initially disguised itself as the official NAZA website, listing the directors’ names and information on screenings and press. However, it described the film as exposing the systems behind the calculated mass killing of terrorists in Gaza. By September 30, this deceptive page vanished, replaced by a new title, “NAZA: The Real Story”.
The individuals behind the 49-minute counter-film are Ariel Averbuch, Roy Danino, and Hagai Gutman, who claimed the work was self-funded. Later, two more domains, whatisnaza.com and watchnaza.com, were registered to redirect users to the counter-film.
The fake counter
By the morning of October 14, the nazadocumentary.com website’s counter displayed 43,758,421 views, without disclosing the source of the number or how it was calculated.
Public platforms told a drastically different story. The full 49-minute version of the film on its official YouTube channel had not exceeded 130,000 views by the same date. This means the website’s counter displayed roughly 336 times the actual viewership. The YouTube channel had fewer than 2,000 subscribers, and the film’s account on X had only 170 followers.
Independent traffic analysis platforms confirmed the discrepancy. The US-based platform Semrush estimated the site’s total visits by October 8 at about half a million. Israeli-founded Similarweb estimated only 326 visits for September. Furthermore, the film’s domains were absent from the Tranco list of the world’s top one million visited domains.
Data from the web analytics platform Semrush shows that 80 percent of the website’s initial visits originated from Israel. [Semrush]Semrush analytics reveal that direct links were the primary traffic source for the Israeli counter-film’s website in October. [Semrush]
Discrepancies and code
An examination of the page’s source code revealed that the element displaying the huge number was internally tagged as “visitors” but displayed to users as “views”. The number is delivered directly from the site’s server, making its calculation method invisible from the outside. Upon opening the page, the counter begins at 97 percent of its value and counts up for three seconds, creating the illusion of a live counter.
Additionally, the site collects actual viewing data without publishing it, sending a “watch-tracker” file after about 25 seconds of video playback to identify the viewing session and parts watched, leaving it unknown whether the counter is based on this data.
Despite the seemingly fabricated metrics, official Israeli accounts spearheaded the promotion of the counter-film. The Israeli Embassy in Washington promoted it on October 3 on social media.
Tzipi Hotovely, head of Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, awarded the three creators certificates of recognition for countering the original film. Hotovely said the film had garnered tens of millions of views, transforming an unsupported, fabricated number into an official talking point.
This elaborate digital campaign unfolds against the backdrop of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which began in October 2023. Since the conflict started, Israel has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our daily news show ‘FOMO HOUR’ covering all of the top stories and market action.
GM!
Today’s top news:
Crypto majors fall 3-5% after hot CPI; BTC at $80.9k
Over $900M liquidated as crypto majors selloff; alts down 5-15%
Solana sets Oct 21 for Alpenglow on mainnet
Papertrade flips Circle in daily revenue with $7.5M
Kalshi says state-level oversight would drive prediction markets offshore
BitcoinBTC · USD
$82,357+0.67%
Oct 8Oct 10Oct 12Oct 14Oct 15
$84.2k$82.9k$81.5k$80.2k
24h HighHigh$82,508
24h LowLow$79,806
VolVol$1.8B
Market projectionsOdds by Myriad
→
🏎️ Solana Cuts Finality From 12.8 Seconds to 150 Milliseconds
Next Wednesday, Solana rips out the engine and drops in a new one while the car is doing 70 on the highway.
On October 21, around 15:00 UTC, Solana activates Alpenglow on mainnet, retiring the consensus mechanism it has run on since launch. Finality drops from roughly 12.8 seconds to a target of about 150 milliseconds – 85 times faster. Anza, the core dev shop behind it, called it “18 months of work for a migration that happens in one slot.”
Finality is the moment a transaction stops being reversible, the point where you can hand over the goods knowing the payment can’t be clawed back. Solana has always felt instant, but there was a roughly 13-second window where a block could in theory still get dropped. Every exchange and payment processor has had to build around that window. Next week it closes.
The old system breaks if more than about a third of staked SOL turns hostile. The new one is built to survive 20% of stake acting maliciously plus another 20% simply offline, and keep finalizing. For a chain whose reputation was built on outages, that’s the number institutions will actually care about.
Now the part that’s going to cause trouble. Validators currently cast their votes as transactions on the chain. Under Alpenglow they vote directly to each other instead, which means Solana’s headline transaction count and TPS figures are about to fall off a cliff. Nothing real changes – same users, same volume, same apps – but the number everyone has quoted for years was mostly validators voting at each other. Expect a wave of “Solana activity collapses” posts next Wednesday from people reading a dashboard.
This is also just phase one of two, and the second piece has no date yet. And Solana has missed an Alpenglow date before – a September 28 activation was announced, then pushed. So, grains of salt.
But clearly Solana is focused on speed as one of its primary differentiators – and it’s about to get a lot faster…
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
Crypto majors are very red after CPI sent rate hike odds higher; BTC -3% at $80.9k; ETH -6% at $2,360; SOL -5% at $102; HYPE -3% at $79; ZEC -12% at $1,090
Top alt movers include PYTH (+3%) and CRV (+4%)
Oil -1% at $95; Gold +0.2% at $4,180
Stock futures are mixed ahead of PPI; DOW +0.3%, Nasdaq -1.1%
Over $900M in crypto longswere liquidated over the past 24 hours, led by ETH and BTC
Meme leaders were red down 3-5%; DOGE -5%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -6%, PENGU -5%, TRUMP -3%, SPX -4%, BONK -5%
Robinhood chain leaders were red down 5-20% reversing their recent gains; Pons -6% to $212M; AI -20% at $80M; Cashcat -18% at $100M; VRAX +40% and Wolfpack +55% led top movers
Solana top movers included Dope +100%, Stream +9000%, Nihilism +1200% and Pepper +90%
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
Papertradeflipped Circle in revenue with $7.5M, highest of all onchain protocols; Hyperliquid was next with $2.64M, then Pump.fun with $2.04M
Polygon Labsclosed its acquisition of Coinme, picking up 37 state money transmitter licenses, 11 exemptions and FinCEN registration to cover 48 states, and turning its Open Money Stack into a licensed U.S. payments rail
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks even at 31.2 ETH, BAYC -1% at 5.45 ETH, Pudgy +2% at 2.42 ETH
Yield Field Deeds (+10%), aligndraw (+38%) and Robinpunks (+230%) led top movers
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Privacy cryptocurrency Zcash has tanked 11% over the past 24 hours.
Luke Nolan, senior researcher at CoinShares, says this drop was likely caused by a build up in leverage after the token’s “meteoric rise” in recent months.
Another expert says that growing concerns that AI could break crypto encryption before quantum computers might’ve prompted losses for Zcash.
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash has fallen 11% over the past 24 hours to a market capitalization of $18.5 billion, per Decrypt data, making it one of the biggest losers of the day.
One expert says this drop in valuation comes after its price has soared in recent months, which has led to a build up in leverage and amplified losses. Others say that growing concerns that AI can break cryptography faster than quantum computers are causing the privacy token to take bigger losses.
Luke Nolan, senior researcher at CoinShares, highlighted that Zcash’s “meteoric rise” means that it is still up 460% from its March lows and that in a “fragile” crypto market the largest gainers tend to take losses too.
“There was a decent build-up of leverage on the way up as this is also a natural consequence of a strong move,” Nolan told Decrypt. “More attention brings more perp traders to take on leverage, and when there is a sneeze, the moves get amplified as those leveraged traders are either forced to reduce exposure or get liquidated.”
Over the past 24 hours, per CoinGlass data, $17.9 million worth of Zcash long positions were liquidated, a large figure compared to Hyperliquid’s $7.3 million over the same period.
The race to quantum-proof Zcash
The price drop comes as other industry-wide concerns start to swirl, some of which could see positive upside for Zcash.
Last week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake warned that the industry needs to plan for “bunker mode” as AI could break crypto encryption before quantum computers do. The conversation was sparked after OpenAI published major progress in math, which presented concerns for the future of encryption.
“The OpenAI math breakthroughs has caused a lot concern in crypto given the conspicuous lack of cryptography proofs,” Ryan Zurrer, founder and director of investment firm Dialectic, told Decrypt. “More complex privacy protocols such as Zcash have the most to lose in a zero-day event if core primitives are rendered obsolete against AI-driven cryptography attacks.”
Zcash has been aggressive with its quest to quantum-proof the network. Zakura, a Zcash full node developer, recently said that its team expects to be quantum-proofed as well as reasonably AI-proofed by January. Its quantum-resistant roadmap “served as a key catalyst” for its recent rally, Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey, told Decrypt. “Although actual implementation is still some distance away, it indeed reflects the market’s continuous focus on the privacy sector since the beginning of this year.”
Privacy continues to be a major crypto industry talking point. Sun added that as traditional finance continues to merge with the crypto industry, the need for privacy will continue to rise.
“As an increasing volume of traditional financial assets and operations migrate on-chain, privacy protection will no longer be merely an optional add-on,” Sun told Decrypt, “but rather a fundamental prerequisite for financial institutions adopting blockchain technology.”
Last week, French lawmakers progressed a law proposal that would require citizens to report crypto holdings equal to or above €100,000 ($112,000), or otherwise face a penalty. The proposed law received significant backlash in the wake of a wave of crypto-related “wrench attacks,” robberies, and kidnappings across the country. Although the law hasn’t passed yet, somehavelooked to privacy protocols as government oversight looms.
Nolan from CoinShares highlights that investors should zoom out when looking at Zcash’s recent performance, pushing back on recent narratives pushing its price down.
“I think the French proposed law had little to do with the move, and in my view, it’s simply a larger pullback given the meteoric rise,” Nolan told Decrypt. “When you put the drawdown in context on the daily chart, even though it’s been 35%+, it looks like a blip in comparison to the upmove.”
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