Why did BTC just spike on SpaceX-Tesla merger talk?

There’s never a dull moment onchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin

$82,189.07

󰍾

1.05%

Ethereum

$2,429.23

󰍾

0.86%

Tether

$0.9989

󰢸

0.01%

BNB

$736.69

󰍾

1.20%

XRP

$1.34

󰍾

0.17%

USDC

$1.00

󰍲

0.00%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

BTC, stocks surge on SpaceX-Tesla merger talk

Since the end of the summer, bitcoin prices have hung in a relatively tight range centered around $80,000 that mostly rises and falls alongside oil prices and the AI-trade dominated stock market. 

After dipping last week over oil prices and concerns about the vast amounts of capital being deployed in AI, both crypto and stocks bounced back this week as traders adopted a “renewed willingness … across financial markets to take on additional risk,” according to Bloomberg. 

By Wednesday AM, BTC was closing in on $85,000 on the news that the SpaceX and Tesla boards are considering a $3.5 trillion merger of the two Elon Musk-led giants, which boosted both firms’ shares. “There’s a lot of merit to combining the companies,” Musk said, following SpaceX’s announcement of blockbuster earnings that soundly beat estimates.  

Bitcoin ETFs also saw their biggest day of inflows in a month on Monday, with $526.6 million of new capital. Despite the big day, BTC ETFs remained down around $90 million for the month so far. 

“So, does this signal that the worst is over when it comes to the selloff across tech, and in particular chip stocks, seen since the beginning of this month? Maybe,” David Morrison at Trade Nation told Bloomberg. “Certainly, there has been yet another impressive start to the earnings season.”

Here’s more news you should know… 

Ethereum and Solana staking hit record levels in Q3

According to Bitwise's latest quarterly staking report, the percentage of circulating Ethereum and Solana that has been staked both hit new records in the third quarter of 2026.

Around 43.8 million ETH, almost 36% of the total supply, was staked as of September. For Solana, the percentage was even bigger: around 440.5 million SOL, making up 69% of the total supply.

For both blockchains, annualized staking yields fell slightly. "As more ETH is staked, rewards are distributed across a larger pool, reducing the yield earned on each ETH," the report noted. 

Staking is part of the process both Ethereum and Solana use to create new tokens, verify transactions, and secure their blockchains. 

CHAIN REACTION

Wall Street and crypto are quietly merging

Crypto started as a potential disruptor to Wall Street. But increasingly, financial firms and institutional investors are adopting crypto tokens and blockchain technology as part of their efforts to keep pace with the rapidly evolving global financial system.

Following a new JPMorgan report on the trend, one executive described a “convergence” between Wall Street and crypto companies. The firm’s analysts predicted that BTC will outperform stocks in the next decade — and a recent survey of clients found around 10% already hold crypto and 17% saying they planned to “prioritize crypto” in part due to increased regulatory clarity. 

Here’s the latest…

JPMorgan is launching its deposit token on Ethereum

The largest bank in the U.S. announced this week that it’s bringing its deposit token, JPM Coin, onto Ethereum. JPM Coin, which represents institutional clients’ existing bank deposits, will allow clients to send and receive money 24/7 and within seconds, instead of over several business days. 

JPMorgan says it expects JPM Coin to be used by large cryptocurrency businesses seeking to make payments onchain, and said it chose Ethereum for its deep liquidity and popularity with clients. The token also launched on Base, the Coinbase-incubated blockchain, last year.

“We’ve clearly been in a year of further convergence between Wall Street and crypto,” said Emma Landriault, global head of Kinexys Labs, JPMorgan’s blockchain unit. “It’s not just Wall Street going to public chains, but the institutional web3 players getting more embedded and partnering with traditional financial institutions.” 

Sam Altman’s World is rolling out World IDs for banks and financial firms

Word — the blockchain-based identity project co-founded by Sam Altman — announced that it’s launching its World ID verification product for banks and financial firms. 

World ID uses iris-scanning technology to confirm that users are actually human, and a growing number of apps and websites (including Zoom and Okta) are able to use that proof to distinguish humans from bots.

The company, which calls its Proof of Human technology “essential infrastructure for the AI era,” described the growing risk of deepfake scams targeting finance companies as the impetus for launching a finance-specific World ID product. 

World is partnering with Bain Capital, VanEck Funds, and other firms to explore how its technology can support banks and other financial institutions. VanEck was previously named as a beta tester of World ID’s Zoom integration, which uses the World ID app and a live selfie to confirm the person on a call matches the World ID of the person connected to the account.

According to World, more than 18 million people already hold a Proof of Human ID.

Standard Chartered says stablecoin usage is growing, but new supply has slowed

Over the last year, the total market for stablecoins has ranged between $300 billion and $320 billion — and according to British financial firm Standard Chartered, that number is set to grow to $2 trillion by 2030. 

(Previously, the bank had predicted that milestone by 2028, but the bank’s global head of digital assets research says stablecoin supply should see renewed growth as crypto markets recover.)

And the utility of stablecoins continues to set new records. The monthly transfer volume for stablecoins has averaged nearly $10 trillion this year, more than double last year’s monthly average. USDC, for instance, saw a 19% year-over-year increase in its circulation in the second quarter. The stablecoin firm is now planning to launch in 40 new markets, citing rising organic demand from individuals and businesses in countries across Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.

NUMBERS

$3 billion 

The amount in stablecoin foreign-exchange transfers that MoneyGram is on pace to conduct annually, according to the company. As stablecoins disrupt remittance companies’ business models by offering faster transactions and lower fees, MoneyGram and Western Union see crypto as a way to retain and win new customers. 

$10 billion

The amount that’s been deposited into smart-contract managed “crypto lending vaults,” up from $4 billion at the start of the year. Each vault has an investment manager, who determines lending strategies for the tokens held in vaults. Fintechs, hedge funds, and digital asset treasury firms are the most common depositors. 

2030

The year when some researchers say there’s a “plausible risk” that “Q-Day” could arrive, which is when breakthroughs in quantum computing could endanger public-key cryptography, which is widely used to authorize crypto transactions. Google’s quantum AI unit recently unveiled a breakthrough in quantum computing around a concept called “magic state cultivation,” and Coinbase and other leading crypto firms have begun upgrading their systems for a post-quantum world.

TOKEN TRIVIA

JPMorgan just brought its deposit token, JPM Coin, onto which blockchain?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer