U.S. regulators are moving closer to a formal federal framework for cryptocurrency trading and stablecoin activity, with Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig describing work toward a voluntary registration regime for crypto platforms while Congress has yet to pass comprehensive market-structure legislation. The effort would give trading venues a clearer route to federal oversight, although participation would initially remain optional.
The regulatory push arrives alongside a series of moves linking digital-asset markets more closely with established financial infrastructure. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has encouraged community banks to examine payment-stablecoin services and consider becoming permitted issuers under rules associated with the GENIUS Act, which is scheduled to take effect in January.
The combined direction places particular focus on platforms that handle trading, custody and dollar-linked tokens. A voluntary CFTC framework could offer participating venues a more defined compliance path, while the OCC guidance opens a channel for smaller banks to compete in stablecoin payments rather than leaving the activity to specialist crypto companies and large financial groups.
CFTC expands its focus to prediction markets
The CFTC has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Basketball Association to establish information-sharing and communication channels covering prediction-market integrity. The NBA identified Kalshi and Polymarket as its preferred prediction-market platforms, according to the supplied information.
The agreement follows similar arrangements involving the CFTC, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. Such partnerships give sports leagues and the derivatives regulator a mechanism to discuss suspicious activity or market concerns as event-contract trading gains a more visible place in U.S. financial markets.
Prediction markets allow users to trade contracts tied to defined outcomes, such as election results or sporting events. Their expansion has prompted debates over whether they function primarily as financial markets, gambling products, or a hybrid of both. The CFTC’s engagement with major leagues suggests that integrity controls are becoming a central condition for their broader acceptance.
Stablecoin use cases extend beyond trading
Tether has helped establish FASE, a Swiss non-profit foundation that includes the Solana Foundation, Chainalysis and Anchorage Digital among its participating entities. Early plans include a pilot with Prosper Global aimed at distributing stablecoin-based humanitarian aid to as many as 1 million people.
FASE is also working with Goodwall on digital education and anti-fraud tools intended to reach up to 10 million young people. The initiative frames stablecoins as payment rails for organizations operating across borders, where traditional financial systems can be slow, expensive or difficult to access.
Circle, meanwhile, minted two USDC batches on Solana totaling 500 million tokens, according to blockchain tracker Onchain Lens. The tracker said Circle had minted $112 billion of USDC on Solana during 2026 through the address identified as 7VHUFJHWu2CuExkJcJrzhQPJ2oygupTWkL2A2For4BmE.
Large USDC issuance on Solana reflects the network’s role in stablecoin transfers and on-chain trading, where transaction costs are typically lower than on Ethereum’s main network. Minting does not necessarily mean that the full amount immediately enters market circulation, since issuers may create tokens in anticipation of redemptions, treasury movements or customer demand.
Ritual launches a tokenized AI network
Ritual has launched its mainnet alongside its native RITUAL token, which will be used to pay for gas, model calls, HTTP requests and scheduled execution on the network. The protocol combines blockchain settlement with services designed for artificial-intelligence applications.
Ritual’s initial token supply is 10 billion, with no fixed maximum supply. The project set annual issuance at roughly 5% and adopted an EIP-1559-style mechanism that burns base fees. Under that model, part of the fee paid for network activity is removed from circulation, while token issuance continues to fund network operations and incentives.
About 1.8 billion RITUAL tokens, representing 18% of the initial supply, were unlocked at launch. The allocation assigns 29% to core contributors, 25% to ecosystem growth and research and development, 14% to network participation and future incentives, 11.3% to Labs traders, and 10% to the foundation. A 50 million-token airdrop, equal to 0.5% of supply, was allocated to eligible users and unlocked immediately. Coinbase said it would list RITUAL for spot trading.
The design gives Ritual a substantial initial float while leaving a large share of tokens under long-term project and ecosystem allocations. That structure makes future unlock schedules, fee generation and usage of the network more relevant than the launch-day token supply alone.
Akash considers a migration to Solana
Akash has opened governance proposal No. 346 to migrate from its sovereign Cosmos chain, akashnet-2, to Solana mainnet. At the time of reporting, about 98.29% of votes supported the proposal. Voting is scheduled to run through Nov. 2.
If governance approves the measure and audits are completed, AKT would be issued on Solana as an SPL token within two to three weeks. Holders would receive a 1:1 migration, retain the AKT ticker, and have two years to use a one-way migration portal. Staked AKT would need to complete a 21-day unbonding period before it could be migrated.
The proposal would move Akash’s token and network activity into Solana’s ecosystem, placing its decentralized cloud-computing project alongside a larger pool of on-chain liquidity, wallets and consumer applications. It would also end Akash’s operation as an independent Cosmos-based chain, a substantial architectural change for a network originally built around sovereignty within the Cosmos ecosystem.
Corporate treasuries keep accumulating ether and XRP
Bitmine Immersion Technologies said it purchased 10,452 ETH during the past week, lifting its holdings to 6.05 million ETH. The company said that total represented about 4.95% of Ethereum’s supply and reported crypto assets, cash and marketable securities valued at roughly $15 billion.
Bitmine said around 5.23 million ETH of its holdings were staked, generating estimated annualized staking income of about $318 million. It also reported repurchasing 22.90 million common shares this year for approximately $399.6 million.
Evernorth separately disclosed a committed equity-financing arrangement with an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald that could provide about $80.70 million, based on an Oct. 22 closing share price of $15.46. The company said the proceeds could support general corporate purposes, including XRP purchases. Evernorth currently holds about 473 million XRP.
These treasury strategies concentrate exposure to token prices, staking yields and capital-market access inside listed companies. Bitmine’s reported ether position, in particular, would make changes in Ethereum’s price and staking conditions material to its corporate balance sheet.
Security and market infrastructure deals continue
S&P Global has completed its acquisition of on-chain security company OpenZeppelin, following an announcement made on Sept. 17. Financial terms were not disclosed. OpenZeppelin said its team has performed more than 900 audits and identified more than 10,000 vulnerabilities before project launches.
Its open-source OpenZeppelin Contracts library has supported more than $38 trillion in cumulative transferred value, according to the company. The library will remain free and publicly maintained under a standalone business unit led by founder Demian Brener, who will report to Yann Le Pallec.
The acquisition gives S&P Global a direct foothold in smart-contract security infrastructure, an area that has become increasingly relevant as financial firms explore tokenized funds, stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement systems.
For deeper insight into stablecoins’ growing role in policy and payments, explore this stablecoin regulation explainer next.
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