Bitcoin news

On October 16, 2026, at block 971,712, Bitcoin's mining difficulty rose 5.92%, from 132.72 to 140.58 trillion. It is the third-largest increase of the year and the highest level since March 5, 2026. The network's computing power (hashrate) has passed 1 zettahash per second, or about 1,025 exahashes per second, while hashprice, the estimated revenue a miner earns per unit of computing power, stands at around 36.75 dollars per petahash per second per day.

Difficulty is recalculated automatically every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, so that the network produces one block every ten minutes on average. When new machines join, blocks arrive faster and difficulty goes up; when miners switch off, it goes down. This mechanism, in place since Bitcoin launched in 2009, keeps the issuance of new bitcoin predictable regardless of how much computing power is deployed.

Higher difficulty means each miner earns fewer bitcoin for the same computing power: in practice a pay cut, especially for operators with expensive electricity. The increase reflects computing power returning after mining revenue improved earlier in the month, when hashprice briefly topped 41 dollars. For users, a high hashrate strengthens network security, because an attack becomes more expensive.

The next adjustment is expected around October 28, 2026. Early estimates point to another increase of about 14%, a provisional figure that can still change significantly depending on how fast blocks are found until then.

According to a Form 8-K filed with the SEC on October 14, 2026, US company Strive acquired 2,822 bitcoin on October 12 and 13 at an average price of about 83,266 dollars per bitcoin, including fees and expenses, for a total of roughly 235 million dollars. Over the same period, the company announced that 273,493,909 warrants to purchase 13,674,703 Class A shares had been exercised, for expected gross proceeds of 369.2 million dollars.

Strive is one of the listed companies that hold bitcoin as a treasury asset, following the model popularized by Strategy since 2020. These firms often fund their purchases by issuing shares, convertible bonds or, as here, warrants: securities that let the holder buy a share at a price set in advance. Form 8-K is the filing US listed companies must publish to report a material event. In mid-September 2026, Strive had already bought 1,355 bitcoin, bringing its reserve to 26,355 BTC at the time.

For the ecosystem, the growing number of corporate treasuries puts a rising share of the bitcoin supply in the hands of listed companies whose buying power depends on access to capital markets. For their shareholders, the company's value becomes highly sensitive to bitcoin price swings, both up and down. The exercise of warrants also increases the number of shares outstanding.

What to watch: Strive's next 8-K filings, which will show how the warrant proceeds are used and how its total reserve evolves, and the company's next quarterly report, which will include the valuation of its bitcoin holdings.

On October 12, 2026, London's High Court ruled that victims' rights to more than 61,000 bitcoin seized by the Metropolitan Police must be assessed under Chinese law rather than English law. Judge Mark Turner held that the key events, namely the signing of the investment contracts, the transfer of funds and the fraud itself, took place in China. The bitcoin, valued at roughly 5 billion dollars, stems from a fraud run by Zhimin Qian.

Between 2014 and 2017, Zhimin Qian raised about 40.2 billion yuan through more than 128,000 investment contracts in China, converted part of the money into bitcoin and moved to the United Kingdom in 2017. London police seized devices giving access to the coins in 2018. Convicted of money laundering in 2025, she is serving a sentence of 11 years and 8 months. Deciding which law applies, meaning the legal system used to settle a dispute with foreign elements, is a preliminary step in cases of this kind.

For the roughly 16,000 victims taking part in the UK proceedings, the ruling makes recovery harder: they will have to prove a property right over the bitcoin under Chinese law, not just a claim to be repaid for their losses. The sharp rise in the price since the original purchases also raises the question of who is entitled to the gain. The case shows that bitcoin seized by a state can remain tied up in court for years before any return or sale.

This is a preliminary decision and does not settle who ultimately owns the bitcoin. The victims' representatives, including law firm Fieldfisher, plan to appeal, with the appeal expected to be heard in 2027. The next stages will focus on claimants proving their property rights under Chinese law.

On October 8, 2026, a wallet that Arkham Intelligence attributes to the United States government transferred 12,267 BTC, worth about $1.01 billion, to new unlabeled addresses. The coins come from bitcoin seized after the 2016 hack of the Bitfinex exchange, one of the largest thefts in Bitcoin's history. The day before, about 3,200 BTC ($264 million) and $119 million in USDT from FTX/Alameda and Bitfinex seizure wallets had moved to Coinbase Prime deposit addresses.

The Bitcoin blockchain is public: anyone can follow an address, and analytics firms link some addresses to their owners. A transfer, however, says nothing about intent. Coinbase Prime also provides custody, so a deposit can serve to consolidate funds or prepare a court-ordered restitution, not only a sale.

These movements draw attention because a March 2025 executive order directs forfeited bitcoin into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and states that it should not be sold. According to CoinDesk, the government holds about $25.5 billion in crypto assets. For the market, the question is whether these holdings stay locked or could come back into circulation.

What to watch: the final destination of the 12,267 BTC, any official statement from the Department of Justice, and progress on restitution to the victims of the Bitfinex hack.

On October 9, 2026, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission finalized rules allowing crypto-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The rules take effect on October 16, 2026 and, for now, cover only bitcoin and ether. Each fund must invest at least 80% of its net assets in a single eligible cryptocurrency, and holdings must be kept with custodians regulated by the SEC.

A spot ETF actually holds the asset it tracks. Investors buy fund shares through their usual brokerage account, without managing private keys or opening an account on a crypto exchange. Until now, only institutional and wealthy investors in Thailand could access foreign crypto ETFs.

The framework therefore opens bitcoin exposure to a broader public, with safeguards: investors must confirm they understand the risks, brokers may not lend money for these purchases, and retail investors remain barred from products offering indirect access to foreign crypto ETFs, such as depositary receipts. Mutual funds and private funds will be able to invest in these Thai ETFs, within their existing limits.

What to watch: the first filings by asset managers, since no fund has a confirmed launch date yet, and a possible extension to other cryptocurrencies, which the regulator mentioned last year.

On 7 October 2026, Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's senior vice president in charge of its crypto and international businesses, told The Block that the company had bought 25 million dollars of bitcoin, held directly on its balance sheet. At the prevailing price of around 86,000 dollars, that is a little under 300 bitcoin. He framed the purchase as a way of aligning the company with the crypto community rather than as a financial bet, and called it small for a firm with a market capitalisation of about 100 billion dollars.

Robinhood is a US brokerage app that lets users buy shares and cryptocurrencies. It reports around 28 million funded accounts, 27 million of them in the United States. Holding bitcoin in a corporate treasury is not new for a listed company: Strategy built its whole model around it, and other firms have followed at very different scales. What stands out here is the buyer's profile, a mass-market platform that already sells bitcoin to its customers.

The amount is small compared with daily market volumes and has no measurable effect on the price. The signal is mostly symbolic: a platform offering bitcoin to millions of retail users is also choosing to hold some on its own account. Such a position does, however, expose the company's earnings to bitcoin's price swings.

What to watch: how Robinhood reports these bitcoin holdings in its next quarterly results, and whether further purchases follow, which the company has not announced.

On 5 October 2026, FinCEN, the US Treasury bureau in charge of fighting money laundering, announced the withdrawal of two proposed rules targeting crypto assets. The first, unveiled in December 2020, would have required banks and money services businesses to report transactions above 10,000 dollars involving unhosted wallets and to keep records above 3,000 dollars. The second, from 2023, designated crypto mixing as a class of transactions of primary money laundering concern. The withdrawal notices were published in the Federal Register on 6 October.

An unhosted wallet is one where users hold their own private keys instead of relying on a platform. It is the form of custody many bitcoiners prefer. A mixing service pools funds from several users to make transactions harder to trace on a public blockchain. FinCEN said it took the criticism into account: the definition of mixing was seen as too broad, with a risk of chilling legitimate activity, and the reporting burden as too heavy for financial institutions.

For holders, the withdrawal removes the prospect of stricter identity checks when moving funds to a personal wallet in the United States. It does not remove existing rules: regulated platforms remain subject to know-your-customer and anti-money laundering obligations, and the sanctions already imposed on certain mixing services stay in force.

What to watch: the next steps in court cases involving privacy tools, including the trial of Roman Storm (Tornado Cash), and the crypto market structure rules that the CFTC and the SEC still have to finalise.

On October 1, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US markets regulator, published a rule proposal governing the custody of crypto assets by registered investment advisers, regulated funds and business development companies. The text allows, under conditions, self-custody by the adviser when no qualified custodian is available, and recognizes state-chartered trust companies as custodians. The public comment period will stay open for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

"Custody" means safekeeping a client's assets, which for bitcoin means safeguarding the private keys that allow it to be spent. US custody rules derive from laws dating back to 1940 and were designed for traditional securities. Until now, many managers preferred to give clients bitcoin exposure through spot ETFs rather than holding it directly, for lack of a clear framework.

If adopted, the rule would give advisers and funds an explicit compliance path to hold bitcoin directly, which the SEC describes as a pathway where none existed before. This could widen the range of professional firms able to manage bitcoin on behalf of others. Nothing changes for individuals who hold their own bitcoin: Commissioner Hester Peirce clarified that the self-custody in question concerns the adviser, not the individual investor.

What to watch: publication in the Federal Register, which starts the 60-day clock, then industry comments and the final version. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said more crypto proposals will follow. This work is moving forward through rulemaking since the Senate rejected the CLARITY Act in September 2026.

US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.4 billion of net inflows in the week of September 21 to 25, 2026, according to SoSoValue data cited by The Block. It was their best week since the one ending October 10, 2025 ($2.7 billion). Daily amounts fell steadily, however: $999 million on Monday, $714.7 million on Tuesday, then $347 million, $190.6 million and $134.5 million on Friday. BlackRock's IBIT took in $1.2 billion, ahead of Fidelity's FBTC ($701.7 million).

A spot ETF actually holds the bitcoin it represents. Every net inflow forces the issuer to buy coins, every outflow to sell them. These flows are therefore used as a gauge of demand from investors who go through the stock market rather than a crypto platform. Since their launch in January 2024, these funds have gathered $57.6 billion of cumulative net inflows and manage $108.4 billion in assets.

The key point is the reversal of the annual balance: 2026 net flows turned positive on Tuesday and now stand at $934.1 million, after showing roughly $5.8 billion of net outflows on July 13. The move came alongside bitcoin's climb back above $86,000. The steady decline in daily amounts is a reminder, though, that these flows can fade quickly.

What to watch: the daily figures for late September and early October, which will show whether demand holds, and the rate environment, with the US 10-year Treasury yield above 5%.

In an 8-K filed with the SEC on September 28, 2026, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) reported buying 1,665 bitcoin over the past week for $142.7 million, an average price of $85,681. The company now holds 847,666 BTC, acquired for a total of $63.95 billion at an average cost of $75,437 per bitcoin. The purchase was funded by selling 1.47 million MSTR shares, which raised $246.2 million in net proceeds.

Strategy is the largest listed company holding bitcoin. Its model is to raise capital on the markets (common stock, preferred stock, convertible notes) to buy bitcoin and keep it on its balance sheet. In early September it bought nothing for two weeks, then resumed with 950 BTC the week before this filing.

The same raise was also used to repurchase $151.7 million of STRC preferred shares, $48.1 million of which came from its US dollar cash reserve. The company is therefore balancing bitcoin accumulation against the management of its debt and preferred securities. Its weekly announcements are closely watched because they reflect the appetite of a large buyer in a market whose supply is capped at 21 million units.

What to watch: the next 8-K filings, usually published on Mondays, which will show whether the buying pace holds, and the MSTR share price, on which the company's ability to raise new money depends.

In a filing with the SEC dated September 21, 2026, the US company Strive reported buying 1,355 bitcoin between September 14 and 18, at an average price of about $79,475 per coin, including fees. The purchase amounts to nearly $108 million. As of September 18, Strive held 26,355 bitcoin and had $229.6 million in cash. The purchases were funded by issuing new shares.

Strive is one of the so-called Bitcoin treasury companies: listed firms that keep bitcoin as a reserve asset on their balance sheet, following the model launched by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) in 2020. Their approach often consists of raising capital on the stock market, through shares or debt, and then converting part of those funds into bitcoin.

These regular purchases add direct demand to the market, alongside that of spot ETFs. They also expose the shareholders of these companies to bitcoin price swings, and issuing shares dilutes the stake of each existing shareholder. The model depends on the ability to keep raising money on favourable terms.

What to watch: Strive's next weekly SEC filings, which detail its purchases, and how demand from treasury companies evolves while bitcoin trades above $84,000 at the end of September.

On September 24, 2026, three divisions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US derivatives regulator, published an update to their frequently asked questions on crypto assets. The document sets a 20% capital charge on proprietary positions in bitcoin and ether held by registered intermediaries, in line with the haircuts the SEC applies to broker-dealers. Payment stablecoins carry a 2% charge. Clearing houses may accept crypto assets as initial margin, provided they meet existing risk standards.

A capital charge is the share of equity an intermediary must set aside to cover the risk of an asset it holds. The more volatile the asset is considered, the higher the charge. Initial margin is the collateral deposit required to open a position on a futures contract. Until now, the place of bitcoin in these mechanisms remained unclear for firms supervised by the CFTC.

By clarifying the rules, the CFTC gives derivatives brokers who want to hold bitcoin or accept it as collateral a framework with concrete numbers. This could ease the integration of bitcoin into traditional financial infrastructure. The trade-off is a high capital requirement, which reflects the asset's recognised volatility. For ordinary holders, nothing changes directly.

What to watch: how clearing houses actually use this option, and the progress of the crypto market structure rules that the CFTC sent to the White House on September 17.