In a shocking development, it was revealed that the National Basketball Association (NBA)’s official Instagram account had been compromised. This happened after the account posted a promotion for a Solana [SOL]-based memecoin called $NBA Coin, urging followers to join the community and buy the token.

The post included a cryptocurrency contract address, which users could use to identify and trade the token. However, the promotional language and the fact that comments were later disabled raised suspicions that the account had been hacked.

Adding to the skepticism, the post was subsequently deleted, and the account returned to sharing regular basketball content. But although the incident appeared suspicious, the NBA had not publicly confirmed the suspected breach in any of its recent posts.

The NBA account deception

The token was reportedly created on Pump.fun and had a market capitalization of approximately $3,500 on the 14th of October, suggesting limited trading activity at that time.

However, since the promotion came from a globally recognized brand, it did attract attention and might have also encouraged unsuspecting fans to purchase the token, believing it had the league’s endorsement. So, if the promotion was unauthorized, buyers could face losses given the decline in the token’s price. 

Well, this isn’t the first time the NBA was hacked. Back in March 2025, hackers compromised the NBA’s official X account and other regional accounts to promote the $NBA coin, falsely presenting it as an official digital asset.

That time too, the post was deleted within minutes, and the league confirmed the accounts had been hacked. 

2026 still echoes the 2025 memecoin scam epidemic 

Though the situation looks like it’s under control, memecoin scams still continue to be a major problem in 2026. Despite greater awareness of cryptocurrency fraud, scammers continue to exploit social media hype, celebrity endorsements, compromised accounts, and investors’ FOMO (fear of missing out). 

One striking example emerged recently in September 2026, when blockchain analytics firm Bitquery linked 56 memecoin launches to a single operation on Robinhood Chain, estimating that the group netted $15.5 million.

Of the 55 tokens that traded against ETH, 53 lost at least 90% of their value from their peaks. Investigators found that wallets funded by the same operation bought tokens early and sold them to later buyers. 

This further coincided with Elon Musk reportedly being drawn into promoting the SLINK memecoin after hackers compromised the X account of Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and the mother of four of his children.

Final Summary

The $NBA Coin had a market capitalization of approximately $3,500 on the 14th of October.
The account was also compromised in March 2025, along with other regional accounts, to promote the $NBA Coin. 

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All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

Bitcoin-focused developer Babylon Labs has submitted a proposal to let users borrow stablecoins on Aave against native Bitcoin (BTC).

Under the hood, users would lock their BTC in vaults on the Bitcoin network and borrow against it on Aave. A non-transferable token on Ethereum would represent the collateral, while the BTC itself would remain on its native blockchain without being bridged or wrapped.

The Wednesday proposal follows an initial submission on May 25 and a preliminary community vote that passed on June 10, according to Babylon Labs.

Under the proposal, Aave DAO would receive the first $500,000 in qualifying annual revenue generated by the integration.

Aave already supports loans against tokenized Bitcoin through tokens such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC). Wrapped tokens rely on custodians to hold the underlying Bitcoin, introducing counterparty risks.

As of Thursday, the proposal remains at the Aave Request for Comment (ARFC) stage, where it faces community feedback and risk analysis.

If community consensus is reached, it can proceed to a three-day offchain Snapshot vote, which requires at least 320,000 AAVE-equivalent votes in favor before advancing to a formal onchain vote, according to Aave’s governance rules.

The onchain vote must meet quorum and approval requirements.

Related: Aave launches V4 on Avalanche, laying groundwork for tokenized credit markets

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

This article first appeared in The Energy Mag. The original article can be viewed here. The Energy Mag (formerly The Miner Mag) provides news, data, and insights on the energy–compute–markets nexus.

The Blue Owl Capital-owned company appointed lead arrangers, underwriters and bookrunners this week for the five-year facility, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The proposed borrowing could rank among the largest data center financings in Asia.

The mandate marks a step toward arranging the loan rather than a completed financing. The fundraising comes as pressure on AI-related debt raises questions about the cost of financing new computing capacity. Bonds issued by AI cloud provider CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) fell into distressed territory on Oct. 14, with yields exceeding 15%.

Stack has already tapped banks to expand its Melbourne operations. In July 2025, it announced an A$1.3 billion green financing facility for the next phase of its MEL01 campus. Deutsche Bank, MUFG Bank, Natixis, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and Société Générale fully underwrote that facility.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is seeking approval from its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to activate an upgraded naming protocol on the Ethereum mainnet. 

ENS founder Nick Johnson submitted an executable draft proposal to activate ENSv2, the next version of the protocol. If approved, the upgrade would freeze new registrations on the original ENS registrar while allowing existing domain holders to continue renewing their names. 

The upgrade introduces a redesigned registry architecture with more flexible domain management and permissions. After the activation, ENS Labs plans to transfer its remaining administrative control over the upgraded contracts to the DAO. 

New .eth registrations would move to the upgraded system once domain records have been synchronized. Johnson warned that new registrations would be temporarily unavailable on either version for several hours during the transition. 

Existing domain holders are not required to migrate, and their names would continue functioning normally, according to the proposal. ENS Labs also reserved existing .eth names for their current owners on the upgraded system, allowing users to migrate when ready. 

The activation proposal remains in draft stage and must advance to an onchain DAO vote before implementation.

Under ENS governance rules, executable proposals require at least 1% voter participation, representing 1 million ENS votes, and majority approval during a seven-day voting period. If approved, the upgrade would be subject to a minimum two-day timelock before execution. A voting date has not yet been announced.

Related: Ethereum’s zkAPI brings privacy-preserving API payments to mainnet

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

21Shares extended its market reach with the launch of Anthropic’s synthetic exchange-traded product (ETP).

On the 13th of October, 21Shares announced the launch of the Anthropic synthetic ETP (CLAU). The product became Europe’s first ETP offering continuous, unleveraged exposure to the implied valuation of Anthropic ahead of its upcoming IPO.

How the 21Shares Anthropic ETP will work

The product uses a new 21Shares x FalconX structure to enable trading in private market valuations, like standard ETFs.

The ETP uses total return swaps (TRS) linked to the Kaiko Anthropic USD reference rate, which derives its daily reference price from Anthropic perpetual futures on Binance.

Instead of holding physical shares of the private AI company, the product tracks market-implied valuations through notes managed via FalconX’s prime brokerage platform.

What does this entry mean for the ETP  sector?

Even with the Anthropic ETP launch, the sector has not picked up. Over the past 24 hours, for example, the tokenized ETP market cap dropped 6.2% to $595 million.

At the same time, trading volume dropped to $160 million, reflecting low market activity. Month-to-Date (MTD), the sector has recorded relatively weak performance, down 0.49%, and adding only $64 million in value.

With the recent addition of Anthropic, especially amid the current AI buzz, tokenized ETPs could turn things around.

For crypto ETPs, only the Bitcoin ETP has shown some strength, with CoinShares Bitcoin ETP reaching $1.7 billion. At the same time, the 21Shares ABTC is up 5.3% over the past 30 days but is still down MTD.

Crypto ETFs were no different in October

While October is historically associated with greater demand, ETFs have largely taken a step back.

On the October 7, for instance, Bitcoin ETFs saw $487 million in outflows, with the weekly session ending on October 9 seeing $681 million in outflows.

So far in October, Bitcoin ETF outflows have crossed $1.45 billion. Ethereum ETFs are no different, as they have continued to bleed.

ETH ETFs are on a three-week losing streak, recording $542 million in outflows as of October 9, the largest since January, and $60 million in outflows on October 13.

The rising outflows across ETFs and ETPs suggest that investors have significantly reduced their exposure. Historically, this has resulted in extended poor performance for the assets.

If these fund performances continue at this rate, an Uptober rally is unlikely to materialize.

Final Summary

21Shares announced the launch of the Anthropic synthetic ETP, offering continuous, unleveraged exposure to Anthropic’s implied valuation ahead of its upcoming IPO.
The tokenized ETPs’ market value plunged 0.46% MTD, while Crypto ETFs saw outflows continue. 

After US lawmakers failed to pass a comprehensive digital asset market structure bill, financial regulators stepped up efforts to change rules around the oversight and enforcement of crypto companies and offerings. 

However, the two primary regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), are understaffed at the leadership level, leaving the decisions for regulating aspects of the $3 trillion crypto market largely in the hands of just three individuals, two of whom were nominated by US President Donald Trump. 

At the SEC, two commissioners — Chair Paul Atkins and former Acting Chair Mark Uyeda — remain following the departure of Commissioner Hester Peirce earlier this month. The dearth of leadership at the CFTC is even more stark, with Michael Selig serving as the only Senate-confirmed chair and commissioner since December 2025. The agencies are intended to each have five commissioners.

Both agencies have proposed rules that appear to be attempting to take the place of legislation from Congress in regulating cryptocurrencies. 

The SEC proposed rules to provide companies with a safe harbor from tokens being treated as “investment contracts” in August, and the CFTC followed suit in October, with Selig saying the agency would use its “existing statutory authorities“ to address crypto regulation through proposed rules on exchanges. Atkins added on Oct. 2 that “more regulatory proposals [were] on the horizon” for crypto.

Could one SEC commissioner have the final say on crypto rules?

On Sept. 30, the SEC made these regulatory avenues even easier with a lack of commissioners. The agency released a final rule which went into effect on Oct. 2 that it said amended quorum requirements for what it called “promot[ing] flexibility and finality of agency rulemaking.” The rule reduces the number of commissioners required for a quorum to just one person if only two are present in many cases.

“[…] with now just two commissioners around and it being entirely possible that one of them might have to recuse themselves from an issue (or be otherwise MIA), just one is now enough to pass a formal rule that applies to America’s vast multitrillion-dollar securities markets,” wrote Robin Wigglesworth in an Oct. 5 op-ed for the Financial Times.

Related: Crypto regulation at SEC, CFTC to come down to 3 commissioners following key resignation

Uyeda responded in his own Financial Times op-ed on Sunday, claiming that the SEC’s “commitment to its mission remains unchanged” despite having only two commissioners and no announcement from Trump about additional nominations to fill the empty seats. The policymaker said that the rule change “clarifies that the Commission can establish a quorum if all but one commissioner is disqualified from a matter.” 

“Suggesting that the SEC is ‘hastily revamp[ing]’ its quorum rule so that the remaining commissioners can ‘have their way’ makes for a colourful comparison to fictional dystopian regimes but misleads readers about why the Commission revised its quorum rule and why it’s for the better,” said Uyeda.

As of Tuesday, the White House had not announced any nominations for the SEC and CFTC, potentially leaving the rulemaking process in the hands of just one person at each agency for months, if not longer. Congress still has time to vote on the market structure bill at the center of the controversy, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, but some experts don’t see lawmakers advancing the legislation in a lame duck session between the 2026 midterm elections and when the next session is sworn into office in January. 

Magazine: Is Bitcoin kidding itself about the Lightning Network?

Ethereum layer-2 network Starknet has launched a wallet privacy feature that lets users interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) apps without publicly linking activities to their main wallets. 

StarkWare, the team behind Starknet, said that its new Shadow Accounts feature creates separate, persistent addresses for individual applications. Users can fund the accounts using shielded balances held in the network’s STRK20 privacy pool. This allows them to maintain lending, trading or other DeFi positions under different onchain identities. 

The new privacy feature obscures the connection between the shadow account and the wallet funding it. However, balances, transactions and positions of these shadow accounts remain publicly visible onchain, according to Starknet. 

Once integrated into a DeFi application, the feature allows users to connect their wallets, switch from public to private mode and deposit assets into a vault. Their Shadow Accounts then maintain their positions until they withdraw funds back into a shielded balance. 

StarkWare said the functionality could eventually extend beyond vaults to liquidity provision, lending, borrowing, staking, derivatives trading, prediction markets and NFT marketplaces. 

The launch follows StarkWare’s broader blockchain privacy push. In June, the company introduced its STRK20 privacy framework, which allows private transfers and shielded token balances on Starknet. 

Later that month, StarkWare demonstrated a Private Know Your Customer system that enabled users to verify personal information without revealing their full identity documents.

Related: StarkWare unveils Starknet quantum roadmap, says industry has no excuse

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Layer-1 blockchain Aptos has launched an optional new feature that could help shield traders from attacks involving maximal extractable value (MEV), including frontrunning and sandwich attacks. 

On Monday, Aptos said its Encrypted Mempool feature is now live on its mainnet, allowing users to opt in to keep pending transactions encrypted until their block ordering is finalized. Aptos said the feature was built for institutions submitting large transactions to the chain, traders wanting to avoid MEV risk, AI agents and builders. 

“When you send a transaction on any major chain today, anyone watching the network can see the details before it executes, the function you’re calling, the assets and amounts involved, and the contracts you’re interacting with,” Aptos said. “Bots use that visibility to trade against you or copy your strategy.”  

Sandwich attacks, one form of MEV attack, cost Ethereum traders about $60 million over the 12 months through October 2025, according to Cointelegraph’s analysis of EigenPhi data. On Solana, sandwich attacks generated $29.7 million for bots over an 11-month period examined by Bitquery, which identified nearly 6.9 million attacks affecting about 2.2 million wallets. 

How Encrypted Mempool works 

When a user opts in, a compatible wallet or app encrypts the transaction’s contents on their device before sending it to Aptos. Details such as the assets and amounts involved stay hidden, while the sender’s address and gas fee remain visible. 

The encrypted transaction enters the mempool, which is where pending transactions wait to be included in a block. Validators agree on the order of the transactions while being blind to their contents. 

Related: Aptos commits $50M to AI agent infrastructure push

Once the ordering is finalized, validators collectively decrypt the transactions, which are then executed and recorded onchain. No single validator can decrypt a pending transaction on its own. 

Keeping transaction details hidden until their ordering is fixed can prevent bots from reading pending orders and inserting trades ahead or around them to profit at users’ expense. 

The protection comes with added costs and a small delay. Encrypted transactions carry a minimum gas price at twice the network’s base minimum, according to Aptos’ developer documentation. Aptos also said the system adds around 20 milliseconds per block in tests involving 50 nodes, compared to the existing consensus implementation. 

Aptos joins other networks offering protection against harmful MEV. Gnosis Chain launched an encrypted mempool using Shutter in July 2024, while Ethereum’s Flashbots Protect routes transactions privately to block builders. Aptos said its distinction is that its existing validators handle both transaction ordering and decryption, rather than relying on a separate decryption committee or trusted builders.

Magazine: Ledger attack spreads to EU, AI finds ’18 trillion XRP’ bug: Hodler’s Digest

Investors are adjusting their positions ahead of an important macroeconomic week.

On the 14th of October, the US is scheduled to release its CPI data for the month of September. This report is crucial as CPI rose 3.4% year over year in August, while the monthly inflation jumped by 0.4%.

The stubborn inflation pressured the Federal Reserve into raising interest rates by 0.25% in September. Naturally, this CPI data will affect the central bank’s rate decision in the upcoming FOMC scheduled for the 28th of October.

But why is crypto crashing? Is it simply cautious positioning ahead of CPI? The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) has broken above 102 for the first time after five consecutive weeks of gains, with the dollar now on track to see its best week since early March 2025.

A rising dollar is often a negative factor for the price of risk assets.

In short, capital seems to be flowing back into safe assets. That being said, it also explains why crypto is crashing. A strong dollar reduces the capacity of other countries to repay dollar debts, thus damaging the global economy.

As a result, investors are selling their riskier assets (i.e., Bitcoin, altcoins) and converting them into safer bonds, which, in turn, lowers their prices.

However, a stronger dollar makes imports cheaper for the U.S., which could lower inflation. At the same time, the market’s expectations for hikes have fallen to 19% from 42% in a month, while the likelihood of no change is up to 80% from 51%.

It appears that the market is expecting the Fed to keep rates on hold for now, with the higher dollar potentially lowering inflation.

Why is crypto crashing beyond pre-CPI repositioning?

According to CoinGlass data, the crypto market saw over $800 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, with more than $600 million in long positions betting on higher prices.

Notably, the total crypto market cap is testing the $2.7 trillion support level. Considering the CPI data ahead, this can very well be a healthy market reset if the buyer conviction holds.

According to AMBCrypto, this is where the chart below begins to matter. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has plunged to 57, down nearly 20% in the same timeframe.

This indicates that the market is cooling off, implying that despite Bitcoin [BTC] falling below $82k, the confidence across the market is starting to fade.

Despite fading rate hike expectations and ongoing deleveraging, the market is too weak to absorb the selling pressure, while the U.S. dollar continues to strengthen.

Under these conditions, the pending CPI report may become a critical factor that will set the direction for the market, thus determining the outlook for risk assets.

For now, the ongoing crash looks like more than just short-term repositioning.

Final Summary