Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Ramp has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a trust bank charter to provide digital asset custody. The proposed bank would not take deposits or make commercial loans, and Ramp said it would build products alongside its banking partners. The filing marks the latest push by a crypto firm to secure a national trust charter.

TREE NEWS update: CATL and Chery Automobile have jointly established CATL Chery (Wuhu) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., with registered capital of 1 billion yuan. The new company’s business scope covers battery manufacturing, battery component production and sales, and energy storage technology services. Equity penetration data shows the venture is co-owned by CATL and Chery.

TREE NEWS update: Paragon suspended PAPER trading and settled all open positions at $0.026296, with the halt taking effect at 06:31:15 Beijing time. The platform acted after Papertrade said it no longer plans to open PAPER transfers, removing the spot price basis the pre-listing perpetual contract needed to converge toward. Settlement used the time-weighted average of oracle prices over the hour before the halt; all orders were cancelled and margin released, requiring no action from traders.

TREE NEWS update: Aster is set to delist its PAPER perpetual contract after Papertrade ruled out token transfers for now. Paragon had already halted its PAPER market and settled all open positions at $0.026296. The transferability decision removes the basis for the perpetual market, prompting the delisting.

TREE NEWS update: Papertrade founder Jez said the team set its PAPER token to non-transferable after perpetual futures markets arrived faster than expected, exposing unresolved attack risks the protocol had not yet mitigated. Jez said the team had assumed large perp markets were about six months away, forcing a decision before a fix was found. He argued PAPER represents a claim on protocol revenue and its value depends on Papertrade attracting traders, not on free trading.

TREE NEWS reports: A single address is holding more than $24 million in long oil positions on Hyperliquid, ranking first in CL contracts and fourth in BRENTOIL. The CL position totals 149,000 contracts worth $14.73 million at an average entry of $98.14, with unrealized gains of $109,000. The BRENTOIL position is 93,000 contracts worth $9.98 million at an average entry of $106, showing $48,000 in unrealized profit.

TREE NEWS update: Decentralized trading platform Aster has immediately placed its PAPER pre-market perpetual contract into reduce-only mode and will delist the market at 09:45 Beijing time on October 20, the exchange announced. Aster cited recent developments around PAPER and potential market risks, describing the move as a precautionary risk-management measure to maintain orderly trading. Users holding open positions are advised to close them before the delisting.

TREE NEWS reports: PEARL broke above $2 to trade at $2.01, up more than 5% in 24 hours and 82.2% over the past month, with a market capitalization of about $702 million. Coinbase previously said it would add Pearl (PEARL) to its listing roadmap. Pearl is a standalone public chain launched in April 2026 that bills itself as an “AI version of Bitcoin,” using GPUs to run large-model matrix computations so miners provide verifiable AI compute alongside block production; total token supply is about 2.1 billion.

TREE NEWS update: BlackRock filed a registration statement with the SEC on Oct. 19 for the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF, ticker PBIT, which seeks returns linked to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) or similar bitcoin-related assets via options and fixed-income investments without directly holding bitcoin or a bitcoin ETF. Each tranche carries an initial loss threshold of roughly 10% of the reference asset’s starting value, though the fund cautions the threshold may change and losses could exceed that level; the management fee has not been set.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitfinex head of derivatives Jag Kooner said a bitcoin rally could revive treasury buying but a return to last year’s indiscriminate capital raising looks unlikely. The comment suggests easy-money conditions for corporate bitcoin treasury strategies have ended, even if renewed price gains draw buyers back.

TREE NEWS update: Pump.fun has launched pre-IPO token trading covering eight companies including OpenAI and Anthropic. Separately, Papertrade said its PAPER token remains non-transferable due to perpetual contract attack risk and gave no date for opening trading. Mastercard introduced stablecoin security tools for payment fraud and sanctions screening, while the Blockchain Association backed the Treasury’s GENIUS Act implementation rules and called for clearer stablecoin issuance and sales requirements.

TREE NEWS reports: A BTC trading address with a 100% win rate across 12 rounds between Sept. 18 and Oct. 13, 2026, increased its BTC short position by about $1.43 million, raising it from roughly $680,000 to about $2.11 million. The add-on took place between 01:04 and 09:20 on Oct. 20. The address is 0xf517639a8872e756ac98d3c65507d2ebc25cc032.

TREE NEWS reports: US spot ZEC ETFs recorded $10.45 million in net outflows on October 19 (US Eastern Time), with the Zcash ETF (ZCSH) accounting for the entire outflow and cumulative inflows of $152 million. Spot NEAR ETFs drew $5.42 million in net inflows, all through the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR), which has cumulative inflows of $88.47 million. ZEC ETF net assets stood at $602 million, while NEAR ETF net assets totaled $86.95 million.

TREE NEWS update: Super League shareholders approved Metaplanet’s 2,100 BTC investment, with the gaming-media company planning to rebrand as Superplanet, a Nasdaq-listed US Bitcoin treasury platform. The closing of the transaction is expected in Q4 2026.

TREE NEWS update: Papertrade has kept its PAPER token non-transferable, citing risks from perpetual-futures attacks. Holders who earned PAPER through trading losses can stake the token to receive USDC distributions, but no date has been set for when they will be able to transfer or sell their tokens. The decision leaves holders with staking rewards but no exit route.

TREE NEWS update: BlackRock has filed for a new bitcoin fund offering downside protection and upside exposure to its IBIT ETF, marking the asset manager’s third fund tied to bitcoin. The world’s largest investment manager disclosed the filing without specifying the structure’s launch date or fees.

TREE NEWS update: BlackRock’s iShares trust filed on Oct. 19 with the U.S. SEC to register the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF, ticker PBIT. The fund aims to deliver capped upside exposure to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) and similar bitcoin exposure while offering a degree of downside protection. Its strategy typically involves buying bitcoin options in three tranches, selling options to offset the purchase cost — which caps gains — and holding fixed-income products for interest income to hedge option costs and support downside protection.

TREE NEWS update: Strive, a Nasdaq-listed bitcoin holder, purchased $335 million in bitcoin after warrant holders exercised their warrants, bringing in $369 million. The company now plans a $630 million sale of 15% preferred stock.

TREE NEWS update: SkyAI, formerly a medical device maker, has sold all of its Solana holdings and is offering to repurchase shares and warrants using its $223.8 million in cash. The company is funding a $201 million buyback as it exits its Solana treasury strategy.

TREE NEWS update: Circle minted a total of 500 million USDC on the Solana network in two transactions on October 20. The mints of 250 million USDC each occurred at 04:39 and 04:51, worth roughly $500 million combined. Solscan data shows both mint transactions were executed successfully.