USDC price

$GRVT The discrepancy between technicals and fundamentals isn’t exclusive to L1s anymore. The stablecoin market is showing a similar trend this year. Technically, Tether’s $USDT is down over 2.5% over the past 12 months. And with $USDT accounting for more than 50% of the total stablecoin market, its outflows are still a major contributor to the stablecoin market’s almost $8 billion drop from its yearly opening market cap of $315 billion. However, despite the outflows, stablecoin adoption has continued to gain ground. Notably, South Korea’s government and the Bank of Korea are planning to amend the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act this year to recognize stablecoins as payment instruments, underlining growing regulatory support around stablecoins. To understand why this divergence matters, the aforementioned chart could give us a clearer picture. According to DeFiLlama, OG stablecoins have been recording a continuous outflow of capital over the last 30 days, with Circle-issued USDC recording a total of 4.7% net decrease. On the other hand, newer products, such as RLUSD, BUIDL USD, $USDf, and U, have been witnessing inflows. In particular, Falcon USD [$USDf] registered a whopping hike of over 42%, pushing its market value above $1 billion. Notably, this is where South Korea’s move matters. The recognition of stablecoins as a means of payment may stimulate their use and demand. Given that some new stablecoins have already gained popularity, favorable regulations may drive their adoption and popularity to even greater heights. Now, the big question is whether these newer players can turn growing adoption into sustained market growth. South Korea’s stablecoin push sparks debate over next crypto rally South Korea’s stablecoin move is coming at a critical time. Capital flows have been shifting, and unlike previous cycles where macro FUD sent investors to safe havens, gold and silver are under pressure. The spot price of gold was below $4,000/oz for the first time since 29th July, while silver was down 54% from its January all-time high and at its lowest since November. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has been performing reasonably well. In fact, at the time of writing, $BTC was up more than 23% from its late July low of $65K, even though it’s still around 36.5% below its $126K peak. Compared to gold and silver, $BTC has been flashing signs of some relative strength too. The catch? The stablecoin market cap has fallen back to its July levels over the same window, and still seemed to be about 5% below its $321 billion peak. In short, crypto has been holding up despite stablecoin liquidity weakening across the board. According to AMBCrypto, this is where South Korea’s move becomes important, as it adds to the growing gap between stablecoin adoption and market performance. $BTC has exhibited resilience despite a drop in stablecoin market cap, suggesting that “adoption-driven” momentum could be supporting the market even as liquidity takes a hit. Ultimately, South Korea’s support of stablecoins appears to be part of a broader market shift. Even though liquidity has been under pressure, rising adoption and growing interest in newer players suggests the market is evolving beyond its established leaders. Combined with Bitcoin’s relative strength, this divergence might highlight how regulatory progress and adoption could shape the next phase of crypto market growth.

$GRVT One AI computing deal dominated crypto venture capital funding from October 17–23, 2026: Tenstorrent’s $1.5 billion Series E accounted for approximately 85.1% of the $1.7626 billion announced across eight disclosed financings. Whop’s $200 million round followed, while smaller investments backed banking, stablecoin payments and AI-agent infrastructure. Key takeaways Tenstorrent reached a $6.2 billion post-money valuation. Sequoia and Shopify Ventures led Whop’s Series D. Tether backed Tenstorrent and led investments in Mural and Peso. Crypto venture capital funding reaches $1.7626 billion The weekly total covers financing announcements, including transactions completed before the reporting period. It excludes valuations, cumulative fundraising figures and previously announced offerings. The deal inventory drew on Crypto Fundraising, DeFiLlama and DropsTab, with checks against company announcements, investor disclosures and reporting. Tenstorrent’s financing led the crypto-linked funding tally, followed by commerce platform Whop. Tenstorrent’s Series E funds servers and chip designs Tenstorrent completed its equity financing on October 19, with Trace Capital and Innovation X leading the round. The investment established a $6.2 billion post-money valuation. Tether Investments participated alongside ARK Invest, Morgan Stanley, Sandisk, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management & Research Company. Tether confirmed its participation on October 20. Tenstorrent said it would direct the proceeds toward deploying Galaxy servers at scale and developing AI and CPU designs licensed to chipmakers. The company has operations in Santa Clara and Austin. Whop raises $200 million for expansion and product development Whop’s October 21 Series D brought in $200 million, with Sequoia and Shopify Ventures leading. Whop placed its valuation at $5.1 billion and said the money would fund international expansion and research and development in payments and advertising. The platform supports sales of digital products, subscriptions, software access and online services, with stablecoin payment capabilities connecting its commerce operations to crypto infrastructure. Tether’s February strategic investment was a separate $200 million transaction that valued Whop at $1.6 billion. Only the October Series D counts toward this reporting period. Banking, payments and smaller infrastructure deals Mural secured $15 million for infrastructure connecting banking and blockchain payments. Banking, payments and smaller infrastructure deals Mural secured $15 million for infrastructure connecting banking and blockchain payments. Erebor and Mural Robinhood Ventures Fund I disclosed its preferred-stock purchase on October 21; the transaction closed on September 17. Erebor serves US businesses in technology, defense, robotics, AI and digital assets. Robinhood said Erebor received its full national charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and FDIC insurance in February. Its deposits exceeded $7 billion, a figure excluded from the funding total. Retail investors gain exposure through RVI, a New York Stock Exchange-listed closed-end fund; the preferred shares are securities, not insured deposits. Tether led Mural’s $15 million Series A, joined by North Island Ventures and existing investors. Mural’s October 20 announcement placed cumulative funding at $28 million. The New York company connects accounts, payments, identity verification and compliance tools. Mural said it processed $2.1 billion across 128 countries after its API launched in 2025; customers include Deel and Opera. Proceeds support hiring, licensing, compliance and market expansion. Its AI-agent payment controls include spending limits, approved counterparties and audit records. AI data, Bitcoin income and automated payments Dataline raised $10.6 million in seed funding, co-led by Lattice and Dispersion Capital. Participants included Coinbase Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Anagram and Vlad Tenev. The AI-agent data provider also plans a separate public token sale, excluded from the tally. HoneyB’s developer, Nectar Group, raised $5 million in a seed round that included Portal Ventures, Peer Ventures and Anchorage Digital Ventures as investors. Through coordinated custody, credit and asset management, HoneyB intends to pair Bitcoin collateral with institutional-grade income strategies. Solana Ventures led Hylo’s $1 million strategic round, with Colosseum participating. The protocol is building leveraged tokens, stablecoin systems and yield infrastructure, separate from its prior $1.5 million seed round. X Pay, headquartered in the Netherlands, secured $1 million from a group of nine investors, among them DCI, Credit Scend, Skyland Ventures and Zerra Ventures. It uses x402 for automated USDC payments. The capital will be used to expand blockchain support, conduct a security audit, build an API marketplace and prepare for EU compliance. Tether also led Bolivian fintech Peso’s pre-seed investment, announced October 21, to expand Latin American USDT payment infrastructure. Lighthouse secured additional strategic funding for persistent AI-agent memory and decentralized storage. Sonic Labs entered an OTC agreement involving approximately 13 million S tokens. Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.

$GRVT Institutions cashing out of $USDC will fund rebates for institutions minting it through Circle Match, a newly available service that pairs the two sides in hourly auctions, Circle said in its Oct. 22 announcement. The service is open to eligible institutional Circle Mint customers, with approval required and availability varying by jurisdiction. It gives customers converting $USDC back into dollars control over the maximum fee they will accept, while customers turning dollars into $USDC set a minimum rebate. Every matched order in an auction clears at one uniform fee. Redeemers pay it, and Circle says the full amount currently goes to matched minters as spendable $USDC in their normal Mint wallets, subject to product terms, auction rules and disclosed fees or exceptions. Circle says it retains no separate spread on matched volume. The payment depends on a matched minting order. Simply holding $USDC does not qualify someone for the rebate. The clearing fee on a matched redemption cannot exceed the customer's stated maximum or the rate for Circle's Express redemption service. Clearing below Express can therefore reduce the auction fee relative to that route, but a lower fee is not guaranteed. This auction mechanism is separate from the redemption-surcharge removal CryptoSlate covered on Oct. 19. Both sides must fund their orders before entering. Redeemers deposit $USDC. Mint-side customers wire dollars into a separate Match balance, where the money becomes restricted $USDC. Under Circle's Mint agreement for users outside the European Economic Area, that prefunding cannot be sent to external blockchain addresses. Participants who want to exit can request redemption of their restricted Match-only $USDC without a fee, with the corresponding dollars returned by wire to the bank account on file. Existing weekly Mint deposit and withdrawal limits apply. A one-minute lock before clearing prevents participants from withdrawing committed orders, although new orders and price improvements remain possible. Better-priced orders take priority; orders at the clearing fee share fills proportionally. Any unmatched amount follows the customer's selected Fallback, Roll or Cancel setting. Submitting an order does not secure a rebate or a redemption fill. A match still faces banking hours Circle describes atomic $USDC settlement when orders match and says matched redemptions pay out as fast as Express. Section 2.12 of its non-EEA Mint agreement nevertheless makes dollar payouts subject to U.S. banking hours. The agreement also says a delay caused solely by those banking-hour constraints is not a settlement failure under its terms.

$GRVT Initia, a layer-1 blockchain built to support interconnected rollups, has halted operations after researchers reported an exploit that allegedly enabled an attacker to mint unauthorized tokens and convert them into crypto assets worth more than $2.6 million. The network was stopped at 3:41 p.m. UTC on Friday, according to an announcement from Initia on X. The team said it is coordinating with security researchers, validators, and exchanges to assess the full scope of the incident. Key takeaways Initia paused its layer-1 and rollups at 3:41 p.m. UTC after reports of an unauthorized token-minting exploit. Security researcher Spreek first flagged the issue, alleging minted tokens were converted into roughly $2.6 million in other assets. D2 Finance later described the mechanics as minting 2 million AUSD tokens without sufficient backing, followed by cross-chain withdrawals. The stolen value appears to have been consolidated into an Ethereum wallet, according to D2 Finance. Initia has not publicly confirmed the full losses or the exact root cause, leaving timelines and impact on users unclear. How the alleged exploit worked The initial public warning came from blockchain security researcher Spreek, who reported that an attacker minted tokens without authorization and then converted approximately $2.6 million into other assets, noting that more funds were still in motion. DeFi platform D2 Finance then reported additional details, saying the exploit involved a vulnerability that allowed the creation of unbacked tokens—specifically, minting 2 million AUSD without sufficient backing. According to D2 Finance, the attacker used cross-chain transfers to withdraw about 1.4 million AUSD, 105 Ether (ETH), and 1.08 million USDC to Ethereum. Where the funds appear to have landed D2 Finance further said the stolen assets were consolidated into an Ethereum wallet holding approximately 1,135.5 ETH, which it valued at $2.73 million. The firm attributed the problem to a vulnerability in a Move function that allegedly permitted the attacker to create unbacked tokens and then exchange them for assets on Ethereum. While these figures are tied to D2 Finance’s analysis and Initia has not independently published an official loss estimate, they provide a concrete picture of the likely attack path: mint, transfer across chains, then consolidate liquid assets on Ethereum. Network halt raises questions for rollup-dependent apps Initia’s stated response was immediate: halting its layer-1 and rollups after the security incident. That decision matters because Initia is designed to run a network of interconnected rollups, often described as “Minitias,” meaning many application flows may depend on the underlying chain’s availability and safety. As of the halt, Initia had not publicly confirmed the estimated losses or the precise cause of the exploit, and the timeline for restoring network operations remains uncertain. The incident also underscores how token-minting vulnerabilities can become fast-moving events when they enable immediate conversion into other liquid assets—particularly when cross-chain bridges or withdrawal paths are involved. Market reaction and what to watch next In the hours following the incident, Initia’s native token, INIT, briefly fell to around $0.115 before rebounding above $0.15, based on CoinGecko data. At the time of writing, the token was trading near $0.1496, up about 14% over the previous 24 hours, though price moves during security incidents can reflect a mix of market positioning and rapidly changing expectations rather than confirmed recovery details. With the core technical picture still not officially confirmed by Initia, traders and users will likely focus on follow-up updates: whether the team identifies and patches the specific Move function vulnerability, the total amount of assets affected (including any funds still being moved, as initially described by Spreek), and how validators and exchanges plan to coordinate risk controls during the halt. Until Initia publishes its own findings, much of the impact assessment will remain tied to the external analyses already shared publicly. This article was originally published as Initia Pauses L1 and Rollups After Reported $2.6M Exploit on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.