Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin-backed loans allow holders to borrow cash or stablecoins without selling their BTC, using the cryptocurrency as collateral. The mechanism hinges on collateral ratios, loan-to-value (LTV) thresholds and liquidation rules that determine how much can be borrowed and when positions are closed. The explainer outlines how these three components interact in practice.

TREE NEWS update: Ledger has integrated Morpho lending, letting eligible users borrow USDC or USDT on Ethereum against wrapped Bitcoin. The pledged collateral sits in smart contracts and remains subject to liquidation. No launch date or fee terms were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Privacy startup Fhenix has gone live on Ethereum and Arbitrum, deploying an encryption coprocessor that lets smart contracts compute on hidden balances. The system launches with dual-mode tokens and two initial applications, and Fhenix said Consensys Diligence audited the setup.

TREE NEWS update: France’s Treasury, AMF, Banque de France and ACPR called on the European Commission to make crypto exchanges liable for certain client incidents when they provide DeFi access without adequate screening, in a joint response to the Commission’s MiCA review. The four bodies said platforms should be responsible for verifying users before opening DeFi protocols to them.

TREE NEWS update: Western Union has selected Noah to settle receiver redirect payouts in USDPT, a Solana stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, the remittance company said. The service will move funds in more than 60 currencies across over 200 countries, with recipients collecting the stablecoin.

TREE NEWS reports: Lido’s proposed lend exit plan would tap borrower collateral to fund withdrawals, starting with positions nearest liquidation and reducing their debt first. The plan does not specify eligibility for healthy loans or the lender’s route to ETH. No date or formal announcement was provided.

TREE NEWS update: Dogecoin Labs launched with backing from the Dogecoin Foundation, uniting MyDoge, DogeOS and Such App to expand DOGE beyond meme-driven demand into payments and DeFi. The new entity brings three ecosystem projects under one umbrella to pursue broader utility for the token.

TREE NEWS reports: PancakeSwap’s total value locked has topped $380 million as a proposed fee-sharing overhaul heads to a vote. The plan would allocate 88% of swap fees to liquidity providers and cut CAKE emissions by 69%, amid expanding DeFi activity on BNB Chain.

TREE NEWS update: French authorities are proposing changes to EU crypto rules that would require crypto exchanges to conduct checks on DeFi protocols and hold them liable for certain customer losses. The proposal would make exchanges responsible for vetting the decentralized finance protocols they offer access to. The changes target the EU’s existing crypto regulatory framework.

TREE NEWS reports: Wallets linked to the $295 million Drift hack in April sent another $46 million in Ether to Tornado Cash on Wednesday, bringing the total laundered through the mixer to $109 million in two days. The addresses still hold $138 million in Ether after the transfers.

TREE NEWS reports: The address linked to the Drift Protocol exploit deposited another 24,885 ETH, worth about $61.3 million, into mixing protocol Tornado Cash, on-chain monitoring by Lookonchain shows. The attacker, who stole more than $270 million from Drift Protocol, still holds 56,569 ETH valued at roughly $139.3 million after the transfer.

TREE NEWS update: Decentralized GPU network Aethir will introduce a daily ATH token burn starting November 2026, funded solely by network fees paid by customers, the company said. The burn amount will float with GPU compute bookings, with tokens sent to a public burn address and tracked on a dashboard launching alongside the first burn. A new floating network fee, set via TWAP and capped so it never exceeds Cloud Host rewards, replaces the fixed platform fee.

TREE NEWS reports: SideSwap has processed about 600 redemptions after reopening L-BTC swaps, paying users from its own bitcoin wallet while Liquid federation reserves still cover roughly 85.8% of outstanding L-BTC. The disclosure follows the resumption of swaps on the platform.

TREE NEWS update: Solana is scheduled to activate its Alpenglow consensus upgrade on Oct. 21 at epoch 1064, replacing TowerBFT with the Votor voting engine. Developed by Anza over roughly 18 months, the upgrade aims to cut on-chain finality from about 12.8 seconds to 100–150 milliseconds and free roughly 75% of block space previously used by vote transactions. More than 90% of validators have met the switch requirements.

TREE NEWS reports: An address tagged “Drift Exploiter 1” has moved a fresh batch of stolen funds into Tornado Cash, transferring about 18,800 ETH valued at roughly $46 million as of the monitoring time. The transfers were flagged by on-chain tracking, with the funds routed through the mixing service in a new round of laundering activity tied to the Drift exploit.

TREE NEWS update: PancakeSwap has opened voting on ‘The Flip,’ a proposal that retains CAKE buybacks funded by non-stablecoin protocol fees and phases in a roughly 69% cut in effective daily emissions. The final plan ties the emissions reduction to a CAKE supply condition. A vote outcome has not been disclosed.

TREE NEWS reports: Papertrade, a synthetic perpetuals venue on HyperEVM launched October 10, saw traders net lose $63.2 million in its first 212 hours, with $54.1 million (86%) distributed to PAPER stakers, IOSG data through October 19 shows. About 23,000 addresses deposited $335 million and $249 million was realized in losing closes. A Paragon HIP-3 perpetual on Hyperliquid priced PAPER at $0.024, implying a $211 million market cap on 8.69 billion tokens.