In Bitcoin block 974112, one transaction paid 99.7% of its value to the miner. The recipient got just 0.3%. It wasn't a mistake. Multiple participants were competing to spend $BTC from the same address, repeatedly replacing transactions with higher fees and different recipients. That's what happens when several people know the same private key. And it's also what can happen when crypto is stolen through a compromised key. A thief can offer almost the entire stolen amount as a fee. He's not risking his own money. When Bitcoin thieves compete, miners win.

Bitcoin was designed to eliminate intermediaries. But without them, who will carry out the owner's last wishes after they die? Satoshi called lost BTC "a donation to everyone." Hal Finney trusted a bank vault. Vitalik Buterin proposed social recovery. Does crypto really need inheritance mechanisms? https://t.co/gTGUAiLQAD

The Liquid Federation has deposited 50 BTC to begin restoring full backing for LBTC. But here's the problem: Liquid transactions are confidential. Neither the amounts nor the types of assets transferred are publicly visible. So even after the reserves are replenished, we can't independently verify that every LBTC is backed by a real bitcoin. If attackers managed to mint 4,000 unbacked LBTC, how can we know they didn't mint more? That's the fundamental weakness of confidential blockchains: where transparency is missing, verification gives way to trust.

In August 2025, Tether announced plans to launch USDT on RGB, a Bitcoin L2. Now there's finally a launch date: November 28, 2026. But the USDT issued on RGB won't be backed by fiat currency or bonds. Instead, it will be backed by USDT0 tokens on Arbitrum. And USDT0 isn't even issued by Tether. It's a third-party token backed by USDT, circulating on networks where USDT isn't officially available. So we're getting a stablecoin backed by another stablecoin, which is itself backed by USDT. Each layer takes us another step away from Tether. What started as a major announcement about bringing USDT to Bitcoin is turning into something far less impressive. For Tether, though, it's a great deal: no responsibility for the tokens being issued, but plenty of free publicity for the USDT brand.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that crypto could help Israel bypass potential Western financial sanctions. He says he's already ordered a plan to be drawn up. Crypto instead of banks. Banks originally emerged independently of governments. Over time, governments brought them under their control. Today, banks can't even let customers withdraw their own money without satisfying regulators. But now governments themselves are discovering how dependent they are on banks. And they're looking for alternatives. Will governments ultimately embrace crypto? Hardly. They have no use for a financial system they can't control. But for people who value freedom over control, crypto offers exactly that: the freedom to hold and transfer money without relying on banks.

Ethereum staking has hit a record high: 43.8 million $ETH, or 35.9% of the total supply. Most people see this as bullish. I see a warning sign. Over a third of all $ETH isn't being put to any practical use beyond staking. People stake $ETH to earn more $ETH. But why do we need more $ETH? To earn even more? And then what? Is this really a sign of Ethereum's strength, or a sign of crisis?

France's National Assembly has approved an amendment that could introduce a 31.4% capital gains tax on crypto-to-stablecoin swaps starting in 2027. The tax would apply to profits, not the full swap amount. And it could cover stablecoins whose issuers aren't authorized in the EU. Paying directly with crypto is already a taxable event in France. You don't have to ban crypto to discourage people from using it. Just make it so expensive that they stop on their own.

What if a company could issue shares, buy crypto, and end up with MORE crypto per share? That's the curious case of Tron Inc. ($TRON): • $200M planned stock offering to buy $TRX • Shares valued at 2.44x its TRX holdings • New shares could actually INCREASE TRX per share • Justin Sun's money is already funding daily TRX purchases It looks like a buyback funded by investors. But the real mechanism is much more interesting. Full breakdown 👇 https://t.co/JGK0k8fqg2

While other blockchains are turning into ghost chains, Starknet is breaking records. On October 15, it processed 316,448 transactions - roughly 4 per second, all day long. That's almost half of Bitcoin's daily transaction count! But here's the paradox: Starknet has surprisingly few users. On a recent day, just 3,400 active addresses generated 166,800 transactions. That's 49 transactions per address! Onchain games, DeFi infrastructure, and perpetual futures trading help keep the network busy. And most likely, without anyone artificially inflating the numbers.

A trader lost $979,000 on Papertrade, a new perpetual futures exchange on HyperEVM. Yet he ended up $17,800 in profit. How? Papertrade rewards losing traders with PAPER tokens. These tokens can't be traded or transferred, but they can be staked to earn USDC. Where does that USDC come from? Other traders' losses. Papertrade plays against its customers. When someone loses money, the platform keeps 100% of that loss and shares part of its revenue with PAPER stakers. So the trader who lost almost $1 million has already recovered his losses, made $17,800 on top, and still holds his PAPER tokens. He can keep earning a share of other people's losses. The more traders lose, the more PAPER stakers can earn. Early traders may even have an incentive to bring in new customers, hoping their losses will cover their own. Would you buy a token that pays you every time someone else loses money?