Something's hidden on-chain 🎃 On Monday, a Halloween hunt begins. Real wallets, real rewards, and one more surprise at the end. Turn on notifications. You won't want to miss the first clue.

Scammers have found a new lure: compliance. Fake exchangers send you to a separate "AML check" site that looks legit, shows a progress bar and says your wallet is clean. Then one click empties it. Read below for what to look out for and what a real inspection looks like.

Musk says SpaceX and Tesla are looking at a merger. For crypto, the interesting part is the bitcoin: put the two together and you get over 30,000 BTC on one balance sheet. SpaceX holds 18,712 BTC, Tesla holds 11,509. Combined that's about $2.5 billion, enough to make it the sixth-biggest public company holding bitcoin. It's far from a done deal. Both companies set up independent committees to look at it, and Musk isn't even allowed in the room. His take: he likes the idea, but shareholders get the final say. On its own, a merger wouldn't add a single new coin. It just puts two existing stacks in one place. What happens next is the real question. So would a SpaceX-Tesla giant buy more bitcoin, or just forget it's there?

Your next job interview could cost you your crypto. To keep you safe, we're breaking down a scam that's been gaining serious traction this year. A "recruiter" sets up an interview, then swaps the meeting link at the last minute. The new page looks like Zoom or Teams and asks you to install an update or paste a command to fix the audio. That update is malware that goes after passwords, sessions and wallet keys. Microsoft tied one such campaign to $10M+ stolen in six months. Five checks before any interview call: 1️⃣ Link leads to a download? Ask for the meeting ID and join through the app you already have. 2️⃣ Update conferencing apps only from their own menu, never from a browser tab. 3️⃣ Never paste a command from a web page into a terminal. 4️⃣ Any request to run a file or disable protection ends the call. A real recruiter reschedules. 5️⃣ Keep wallets off the machine you use for calls and job hunting. Already ran something? Disconnect, and move funds to a new wallet from a clean device. Full breakdown: bit.ly/3UFI8zN

Strategy bought another 267 BTC last week for about $22 million, roughly $82,800 per coin. The interesting part is the contrast with the summer. As Bitcoin slid, Strategy sold for the first time in years: 6,948 BTC across four sales between late May and early August, for about $432 million. That works out to an average of roughly $62,150 per coin, about 18% below the company's average purchase price of around $75,400. It is worth noting that it is not so much a matter of timing as it is about how the model works. Strategy funds most of its purchases by raising capital through stock and preferred shares, which is easiest when the market is strong. During the summer drawdown, it sold part of its stack to cover preferred dividends and build a dollar reserve. Now that conditions have improved, it's buying again. Does this change how you see Strategy as a long-term Bitcoin holder?

CPI vs PPI: why crypto reacted to both last week CPI tracks what consumers pay for everyday goods and services. PPI tracks what producers get paid before those goods reach a store. When producer prices rise, some of that usually reaches consumers later, which is why markets treat PPI as an early warning. Last week both came in hot. CPI rose to 3.7% against 3.6% expected, and a day later PPI jumped to 6.3% against 5.3%, its highest in more than four years. Hotter inflation raises the odds of higher rates, which lifts yields and the dollar and weighs on crypto. BTC briefly dipped below $80,000 before recovering to around $83,000. Next up: the Fed meets October 27–28. Do you follow PPI, or just CPI?

It was another cautious week, with total market capitalization slipping to $2.77 trillion, down 2.33% over the past seven days. Sentiment cooled further: the Fear and Greed Index dropped from 57 to 51, staying in the neutral zone, while BTC dominance climbed back above 60% to 60.30%. The Altcoin Season Index fell from 66 to 55. Last week's leader became this week's biggest loser, with Starknet giving back 43% as its rally unwound around a scheduled token unlock. Monero led the gainers with an 11% rise. With dominance rising and the index falling at the same time, capital is moving back into Bitcoin rather than rotating through altcoins. So last week's question got its answer: a few breakout assets weren't enough to hold the rotation together. The index is now 20 points away from altseason territory. Is this a pause before the next rotation, or the start of a longer Bitcoin-led stretch?

Two Ethereum L2s announced shutdowns in one week. What's happening, why, and what to do if you bridged during the airdrop era. Blast went first on October 2. It once held around $2.3B, but TVL had fallen to about $32M, and the team said the chain now costs more to run than it earns. Four days later, Abstract, the chain behind Pudgy Penguins, followed after losing tens of millions funding it. The reason is mostly economics. Posting data to Ethereum got much cheaper, and activity has concentrated in a few big L2s. Once airdrop farmers leave, smaller chains struggle to pay their own bills. If you still have funds on Blast, Abstract or Silicon, each network has announced its own deadline, and the earliest one is this month. Check the details only through the project's official channels, and ignore anyone in your DMs offering to help you move funds.

Sending $200 through a typical remittance service costs around 6% on average, according to the World Bank. Sending USDT on TRON costs a few dollars or less, whatever the amount. That gap is why stablecoins became everyday money in so many countries. Our new guide shows how to use them in practice and what to watch out for along the way. Read the full version below.

A hardware wallet protects your keys, but only if the device reaches you untouched. That's the takeaway from the past week. Ledger found that some devices sold through an authorized reseller in Southeast Asia had been physically modified before they reached buyers, and moved quickly to pause sales with resellers in the region while it investigates. The secure chip and the device software weren't affected. The weak point was the path between the factory and the customer. A few habits make that path much safer, whatever brand you use. The most reliable option is to buy directly from the manufacturer's own store. When the device arrives, check the packaging, and if anything looks opened or resealed, don't set it up. A new hardware wallet should never come with a recovery phrase already written down. You generate the phrase yourself during setup, and it should never be typed into a phone or a website. If you bought from a third-party seller and something feels off, contact the manufacturer's support before moving any funds onto the device. Self-custody is about control, and that control starts before your first transaction. Where did you buy your hardware wallet?

CPI just came in hotter than expected, and Bitcoin dropped within minutes. If you've ever wondered why one inflation report can move crypto, here's the short version. CPI, the Consumer Price Index, tracks how much a typical basket of goods and services costs in the US from month to month. Core CPI is the same measure without food and energy, which swing a lot and can hide the underlying trend. That's why the Fed watches core more closely. The Fed uses these numbers to decide on interest rates. When inflation runs hot, it tends to keep rates high or raise them further. Higher rates make borrowing more expensive and make holding cash and bonds more attractive, so money moves out of riskier assets. Crypto often reacts first, since it trades 24/7 while stock markets wait for the opening bell. Today was a clean example. Headline CPI rose to 3.7% against 3.6% expected, and core hit 2.6% against 2.5%. The odds of a Fed hike at the October 27–28 meeting jumped from about 22% to around 45%, per Reuters, and BTC slipped below $83K. These releases are scheduled in advance, so the moves never come out of nowhere. The next CPI report lands on November 10. Do you keep an eye on macro data like CPI, or just watch the chart react?

Starknet is considering leaving Ethereum. Here is what that actually means. On October 8, Starknet stated it is "actively considering" becoming an independent L1 blockchain with the goal of achieving full quantum resistance by 2027. The logic is that as an L2 solution, the network can only be as secure against quantum threats as Ethereum itself, which plans to reach this milestone around 2029. The market reacted instantly. The STRK token surged approximately 80% in a week, with futures trading volume significantly exceeding spot volume, followed by a 17.5% price drop on Monday, just ahead of the 127 million STRK unlock on October 15. However, it is important to note that there has been no governance vote or set timeline yet, and no migration either. If you hold STRK in your own wallet, there is no action required at this time. Headlines about network changes are a favorite cover for phishing. Any link offering to "migrate your tokens" is a red flag until the project makes an official announcement. We're curious to hear your take: if Starknet leaves Ethereum, will it open new room to grow, or lose the security that made it an L2?

Monero isn't "untraceable." It's private by default, and that's not the same thing. We broke down how a USDT to XMR swap works and what the public USDT leg still reveals 👇

It was a fairly quiet week, with total market capitalization easing to $2.83 trillion, down 3.50% over the past seven days. Sentiment followed price action: the Fear and Greed Index returned to the neutral zone at 57, while BTC dominance rose slightly to 59.30%. Nevertheless, the Altcoin Season Index climbed to 66/100, fueled by strong gains in several altcoins. Starknet is leading the market with an 81% surge after announcing it's considering leaving Ethereum to become a standalone L1. The simultaneous rise in Bitcoin dominance and the Altcoin Season Index suggests that capital is not flowing into altcoins across the board. Instead, it is concentrating in a few specific projects with their own catalysts. Consequently, rotation is becoming more selective rather than broad-based. For a full-blown altseason, the index still needs to reach 75. Will a few breakout assets be enough to push it there?

Hyperliquid had a busy week, and the news cut both ways. On Monday, Bloomberg Terminal started streaming prices for select Hyperliquid perps. Nobody can trade through it, but it puts a decentralized exchange on the screen pro traders watch all day. Around the same time, Hyperliquid bought back and burned ~112K HYPE, about $10M worth, bringing the total burned to ~49M HYPE. Then the week turned. Hyperliquid Labs unstaked ~$330M of team HYPE for an OTC deal with undisclosed buyers. The tokens don't go through the order book, but it's the team's largest distribution yet. Singapore's MAS said it isn't aware of Hyperliquid being regulated in any major jurisdiction, even though the team confirmed its HQ is registered there. On October 8, HYPE ETFs lost $9.7M in a single session, wiping out the week's earlier inflows. Cumulative inflows since launch now sit at ~$336M. The visibility and the buybacks are real. So are the cooling ETF demand and the open regulatory questions. What matters more to you here: the buybacks or the regulatory risk?