News & Research

The U.S. state of North Dakota plans to launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin called the Roughrider Coin in 2026, Bloomberg reported. Initially, it will be used for interbank lending between local banks and credit unions, same-day loans, and infrastructure financing. The service could later be expanded to offer stablecoin deposit accounts to customers.

CryptoQuant reported that Bitcoin's uptrend appears strong, noting that there are no signs of a price peak yet. According to the on-chain analytics firm, the Net Realized Profit trend indicates that the scale of profit-taking is still at a moderate level.

Coinbase has begun offering cryptocurrency staking services in New York for assets including ETH and SOL, Cointelegraph reported.

The UK crypto market could grow by up to 20% following the lifting of a four-year ban on retail investment in crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs), according to British investment firm IG Group. The change took effect on Oct. 8, allowing retail investors to access these products again. A survey conducted by the firm found that 30% of UK adults are willing to invest in cryptocurrencies through ETNs.

Square, a division of Jack Dorsey's payments firm Block, has announced the launch of Square Bitcoin, a new payment and wallet solution for small and medium-sized businesses. The service allows small merchants to accept BTC payments without fees and automatically convert up to 50% of their daily card sales into BTC.

Predictive Oncology (POAI), a Nasdaq-listed company that previously announced plans to focus its investments on Aethir (ATH), has raised a total of $343.5 million through a private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering. The funding includes $50.8 million in cash and $292.7 million worth of ATH. The company plans to use the acquired ATH for its Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategy and the cash to purchase additional ATH on the open market.

KAIO, a project specializing in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, has added support for the Sei (SEI) network, CoinDesk reported. The move allows $200 million in tokenized assets on the platform to be used within the Sei-based DeFi ecosystem.

The three major U.S. stock indexes have opened higher. S&P 500: +0.18% Nasdaq: +0.27% Dow: +0.29%

Payment infrastructure solutions provider Coinflow announced it has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital. Other participants in the round included CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, and Jump Capital. The company plans to use the funds to build an instant settlement infrastructure using stablecoins and to expand its global services.

Crypto custody firm Fireblocks is expanding its services in partnership with Galaxy and Bakkt, Cointelegraph reported. The company will provide a custody framework that meets the regulatory requirements of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).