Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Visa and Mesh are planning to let consumers spend crypto directly from their wallet balances, with merchants receiving fiat through Visa payments while Mesh handles the conversion. Initial availability and participating platforms have yet to be announced. The partnership aims to simplify crypto payments at merchants by handling conversion behind the scenes.

TREE NEWS reports: Crypto futures liquidations across major exchanges totaled $334 million in the past 24 hours, with $175 million in long positions and $160 million in shorts, CoinGlass data show. BTC liquidations reached $65.89 million and ETH $112 million. The largest single liquidation was a $11.81 million ETHUSDT order on Binance.

TREE NEWS update: SkyAI has sold its entire Solana treasury and now holds $223.8 million in cash, the company said as it launched a $201 million buyback. The $3-per-share buyback will run through Oct. 29.

TREE NEWS update: AI chip startup Tenstorrent closed a $1.5 billion Series E round, reaching a post-money valuation of $6.2 billion. Tether was among the investors in the round. The deal marks one of the largest AI funding rounds involving a crypto company as a participant.

TREE NEWS update: Charles Hoskinson said he is developing a new programming language for Cardano using Groth16 proofs, working with Lucas Rosa, a co-creator of the Aiken smart contract language. The Cardano founder has not disclosed the language’s name, released any code, or given a launch timeline.

TREE NEWS update: JPMorgan has chosen Ethereum as the blockchain for its JPM Coin dollar deposit token, citing the network’s liquidity and client use, a bank blockchain executive told Bloomberg. The token, aimed at large crypto firms and financial institutions, debuted on Base last year.

TREE NEWS reports: An optical components manufacturer in Nanchang, Jiangxi, has seen orders for high-speed optical module components booked through the end of 2027, as AI computing demand drives growth in high-speed optical communications. The company’s telecom optics revenue rose 118.25% in the first half of the year, nearly matching last year’s full-year profit in six months. Its traditional imaging-to-optical communications business mix has shifted from 8:2 to 5:5.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitmine purchased an additional $30 million in Ethereum, bringing its total holdings to 6.04 million ETH—4.9% of the total supply and 99% of the way to its “Alchemy of 5%” goal. Chairman Tom Lee described the market-wide selloff as an attractive entry point for the purchase.

TREE NEWS update: Nevada-chartered qualified Bitcoin custodian AnchorWatch Trust Company has launched a Bitcoin custody service, priced at a flat fee of no more than $10,000 per month, with optional insurance coverage of up to $370 million per client. Clients include trustees, public companies, trust institutions and high-net-worth individuals requiring qualified Bitcoin custody.

TREE NEWS update: AnchorWatch has launched a Nevada-chartered bitcoin custody service offering optional insurance coverage of up to $370 million per client, with a monthly fee capped at $10,000. The trust company’s launch adds an insured custody option for institutional bitcoin holders.

TREE NEWS reports: Videos circulating on social media showing iPhones floating in the Strait of Hormuz after a cargo ship sank were generated with artificial intelligence, an Iranian fact-checking site found. The clips were based on real footage of a sunken Singapore-registered container ship but showed implausible movement of phone boxes and errors in camera views. The original video carried an AI-generated label. Singapore’s maritime authority said on Oct. 14 that two Singapore-registered container ships were hit by “unidentified projectiles” in the strait and one later sank.

TREE NEWS reports: Tom Lee’s Ethereum treasury company Bitmine saw the value of its combined holdings drop to $15.1 billion, marking a second consecutive weekly decline as a lower ether price offset continued buying. The firm kept its weekly ether purchases near last week’s pace even as the value of its stash fell.

TREE NEWS update: DekaBank has enabled bitcoin trading for customers of five German savings banks through their banking app, with more than 230 additional Sparkassen expressing interest in the service. Trades cost €0.99 plus a spread, and withdrawals are restricted to approved custodians, Deka said. The rollout marks the first live bitcoin offering for the savings bank network.

TREE NEWS update: Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, left on Oct. 14 when his secondment expired, with no successor named. Witt was the council’s last remaining staffer, following the departures of Bo Hines in August 2025, David Sacks in March 2026 and Harry Jung in July 2026. The CLARITY Act, which Witt championed, failed a Senate procedural vote 49-50 on Sept. 15.

TREE NEWS update: Echo Protocol is winding down operations, halting new deposits and borrowing while keeping withdrawals and repayments open. The shutdown notice sets conflicting November deadlines before collateral liquidation begins, leaving users uncertain about the exact cutoff. The protocol has not clarified which deadline governs the liquidation process.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitwise bought 127,241 LINK tokens, worth about $1.54 million, through its Chainlink ETF roughly half an hour before the report. The asset manager now holds 5.018 million LINK, valued at approximately $60.21 million, at an average purchase price of about $10.6. For comparison, Grayscale’s LINK holdings are worth close to $126 million.

TREE NEWS update: SkyAI has sold its entire Solana treasury and launched a $201 million tender offer, reporting $223.8 million in cash. The company dropped the SOL-price condition attached to the offer while keeping a $3 per-share price that Bastion Trading is challenging.

TREE NEWS update: Strive purchased 1,223 bitcoin for about $100 million, paying an average of roughly $81,734 per coin. The purchase follows the 2,822 BTC the company acquired earlier last week and brings its total holdings to 36,818 BTC.

TREE NEWS update: Solana treasury company SkyAI, formerly Sharps Technology, has sold its entire Solana position, cutting holdings from over 2 million SOL in September to zero as of October 16. The company now holds $223.8 million in cash and has launched a buyback program of up to $201.3 million at $3 per share or warrant.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitmine purchased 12,535 ETH last week, bringing its treasury to 6.04 million tokens and its total investment holdings to $15.1 billion. The company did not disclose the purchase price or the source of funds for the acquisition.