Whale Movements, Fed Decision, and Crypto Innovations

The U.S. Federal Reserve's FOMC meeting is scheduled for October 27-28, with a monetary policy announcement expected on October 28, followed by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference. Markets are largely pricing in unchanged interest rates, but the Chair's forward guidance will be crucial for risk assets.

Bitcoin blocks are now carrying roughly twice as many transactions as before, with daily confirmed transactions averaging between 700,000 and 800,000 in October 2026. This increase is primarily due to the adoption of smaller Segregated Witness (SegWit) payments, which take up less block space, indicating efficiency rather than a surge in demand.

The planned Ethereum 'Glamsterdam' update continues to face delays and technical issues, including a critical bug that could have allowed staked Ethereum to be attributed without stakers' objection. Originally slated for the first half of 2026, the update remains in the Sepolia testnet, potentially impacting its development roadmap.

Bitcoin mining service Luxor has completed a $16 million funding round to expand its AI division, launched in September. This move aligns with a broader trend of Bitcoin miners reorienting their businesses towards AI by renting out computing capacities to the AI industry to generate new revenue streams.

At its Swell conference, Ripple announced expanded partnerships with Robinhood and BNY Mellon to integrate its financial infrastructure and institutional services. Additionally, Ripple received final approval to launch Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally regulated institution for RLUSD reserves and institutional digital asset custody.

Shares of Bitcoin treasury company Datavault AI (DVLT) have crashed nearly 50% after the company revealed it has been unable to withdraw its Bitcoin from the Biconomy cryptocurrency exchange for approximately four months. This issue follows a previous $150 million investment in Bitcoin-denominated assets and raises questions about accounting and liquidity.

Coinbase denied an internal system breach after a third-party Amplitude incident reportedly exposed contact details for around 70,000 users. Concurrently, South Korean exchange Bithumb confirmed unauthorized access to its internal employee mobile groupware system, exposing employee names, work email addresses, and phone numbers.