Crypto Pulse—Industry Perspectives

The U.S. prediction-market industry is facing another important regulatory development as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) moves toward clarifying how event contracts should be treated under federal derivatives law. On September 28, the agency sent two related rule proposals to the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. The move comes days after a federal appeals court ruled that Ohio and Tennessee could enforce their gambling laws against Ka

If you've ever spotted a sleek black ring on the finger of a tech CEO or an NBA player, chances are it was an Oura Ring. Starting as a small Finnish startup, Oura created an entirely new product category, captured roughly 74% of the global smart ring market, and was widely expected to be the biggest consumer tech IPO of fall 2026.Then, just hours before its Nasdaq debut, Oura suddenly put its IPO on hold. So what makes Oura worth as much as $15.6 billion, and what does the market really think of

Fairshake is expanding its political campaign ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, announcing support for 32 House candidates from both major parties. The move comes weeks after the CLARITY Act, a major crypto market-structure bill, failed to advance in the Senate, pushing the digital asset industry to focus more heavily on the next Congress. 1.Fairshake Builds a Bipartisan House SlateFairshake, one of the largest political organizations backed by the U.S. crypto industry, plans to support

DeFi is one of the most difficult sectors to break into. Established protocols such as Aave and Morpho already have deep liquidity and large user bases. Yet a differentiated product can still attract capital. Concrete has reached approximately $1.2 billion in deposits, processed more than $23 billion in cumulative volume, and attracted around 54,000 depositors.Concrete helps wallets, exchanges, and institutions bring capital on-chain and allocate it through a unified vault structure. However, sc

The Meme Stock narrative has taken over the crypto market in recent months, fueling the rise of launchpads such as Flap.sh on BNB Chain and Pons on Robinhood Chain. Now it is Solana's turn, and the name leading the charge is StonkFun.In less than two months, StonkFun has pulled off what many challengers before it could not: it out-earned Pump.fun, the undisputed king of memecoin launchpads, in daily revenue, burned around 18% of its native token supply, and pushed its market cap from a few milli

Ethena is ending the token incentives and inflation tied to USDe growth on September 30, marking a significant change in how the protocol has rewarded participants. The move brings an incentive program that had already been reduced substantially since 2024 to an end, shifting greater attention toward Ethena’s underlying revenue model and the long-term economics of USDe. 1.Ethena Brings USDe Token Incentives to an EndEthena has confirmed that token incentives connected to USDe growth will reach z

The Indonesian government estimates that the country’s digital economy approached US$100 billion in 2025 and could reach US$180 billion to US$340 billion by 2030.The headline measure is generally gross merchandise value, or GMV. GMV captures transaction value flowing through platforms. It is not the same as GDP contribution, company revenue, merchant profit, or worker income.Indonesia also reported 65.77 million QRIS users and 44.86 million merchants as of June 2026, with 96.68% of merchants cla

President Prabowo Subianto has instructed the government to accelerate completion of the Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The direction was issued during a ministerial meeting on September 22, 2026.IEU-CEPA was not yet in force at the time of writing. Substantive negotiations have concluded, but the agreement still requires language finalization, legal revision, signature, and domestic ratification procedures.The Indonesian government has targeted implementa

Bitcoin holders now have another route to obtain USDC without first selling their BTC. On September 21, 2026, Circle introduced Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing for eligible institutional Circle Mint customers.The workflow allows a customer to deposit BTC, receive cirBTC, and use that wrapped Bitcoin as collateral in a supported third-party lending market. Borrowed USDC can then be delivered through Arc or Ethereum.The structure preserves exposure to Bitcoin’s price, but it does not create risk-fr

Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, or OJK, is moving a range of incidental reports in the capital-market, financial-derivatives, and carbon-exchange sectors from offline submission to a digital system. The framework is established through OJK Regulation No. 9 of 2026 and the technical guidelines in Board of Commissioners Member Regulation No. 8 of 2026.OJK Regulation No. 9 took effect on July 31, 2026. Technical implementation through OJK’s Online Reporting Application, known as APOLO, be