HEX shed $246 million in market capitalization this week after founder Richard Schueler, known in crypto as Richard Heart, was detained by authorities in Istanbul on Oct. 14.
HEX drops after Richard Heart detention in Turkey
HEX’s market cap fell from $561 million to $315 million after Schueler was detained, according to Cointelegraph’s weekly Hodler’s Digest roundup.
Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said police seized $7.15 million in cash, along with firearms and ammunition, during an early morning raid in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district. Authorities also searched 15 related addresses.
According to Anadolu, police impounded nine luxury vehicles registered to Schueler’s wife. The reported haul also included 28 watches, 300 bags and 19 graphics cards.
Interpol issued a Red Notice for Schueler two years ago over allegations of tax fraud and assault after Finnish authorities sought his arrest. A spokesperson for Finland’s National Bureau of Investigations declined to comment.
Turkish media have referred to Schueler as “Whale James” and linked him to a $1 billion unregistered securities offering case in the United States. That case was dismissed by a US judge in February 2025.
Images circulated by Turkish media appeared to show a surprised Heart without trousers, with the lower half of his body blurred. The pictures quickly became a source of jokes on social media. Eric Wall, a longtime HEX critic who has publicly debated Schueler on video and online, said he first thought the image was AI-generated but now believes it is real.
HEX supporters said authorities have yet to confirm whether Schueler has been formally arrested or charged.
Ledger unveils Atom after reseller tampering incident
Ledger on Thursday introduced Atom, a new $849 device built with stronger anti-tampering protections, days after confirming that wallets sold through a reseller in Asia contained malicious implants.
The French hardware wallet maker said Atom combines a crypto wallet with everyday apps in a smartphone-like form factor. It separates Android apps from sensitive wallet operations and includes protections that Ledger said would block the implants used in the recent Asia incident. The company also said the device can detect tampering even when powered off.
Atom is expected to become available in summer 2027. Ledger said it will support AI agent approvals, encrypted messaging and post-quantum cryptography.
The launch came as a public dispute broke out between former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles and Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. Karpeles said at least two people had notified Ledger as early as December 2025 about spyware found inside tampered Ledger devices, and said the company had even written about the issue on its website in March 2026.
He argued Ledger failed to properly secure its reseller supply chains, which have now been suspended across Asia after more than $90 million was stolen. Gauthier replied on X that Karpeles was “no white knight” and pointed back to his failures before the Mt. Gox hack. Karpeles then responded.
Quantum concerns move closer as Starknet opens L1 vote
Google demonstrated a new process called “magic state cultivation” on its Willow quantum processor, saying it reduced errors by a factor of 40. The technique reached a record 99.99% accuracy rate for a specialized quantum state needed for advanced calculations.
Theta Labs, in parallel, posted three new quantum circuits that it said could cut the number of qubits needed to break elliptic curve cryptography by 28% from Google’s current estimate of 1,175 logical qubits.
Against that backdrop, and with concerns that AI’s growing math capabilities could threaten elliptic curve cryptography even before QDay arrives, Starknet opened a vote on whether to transform from an Ethereum layer 2 into a post-quantum layer 1.
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson told Cointelegraph that Ethereum’s post-quantum roadmap may be too slow to meet the challenge from AI, which is why Starknet needs to consider becoming a fully post-quantum L1.
“Quantum-proofing crypto is urgent, so we must move at lightning speed,” he said. More than 99% of votes cast so far support the move. Starknet’s token has lost almost 50% this week after a large surge the week before.
Standard Chartered delays $2 trillion stablecoin call to 2030
Standard Chartered said stablecoin transaction activity is still growing even though the market’s overall value has stalled, suggesting that existing stablecoins are circulating more often rather than fresh supply driving the increase.
The bank now expects stablecoin market capitalization to reach $2 trillion by 2030, two years later than it had previously projected, after the market plateaued at about $309 billion this year.
Separately, the European Banking Authority classified Circle’s USDC as a significant e-money token under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, or MiCA. Only 45 projects have received that classification.
Binance.US reportedly seeks funding at a $1 billion valuation
Bloomberg reported Thursday that Binance.US is seeking to raise as much as $100 million in a funding round that could value the exchange at $1 billion.
The report said the US-based crypto exchange is pursuing private investment as it looks to expand. That valuation would be far below the $4.5 billion pre-money valuation Binance.US secured in 2022, when it raised $200 million in seed funding.
Weekly winners and losers
By the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.8% at $81,484, Ether (ETH) was down 5.7% at $2,386 and XRP was down 8.3% at $1.28. Total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.72 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market value, the week’s three biggest gainers were Monero (XMR), up 9.7%; Injective (INJ), up 5.6%; and Celestia (TIA), up 5.1%.
The three biggest decliners were Starknet (STRK), down 46.7%; Pump.fun (PUMP), down 27.1%; and Raydium (RAY), down 26.5%.
Bitwise says Q3 charts point to “crypto spring”
Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said the third quarter may have been “one of the best quarters in crypto’s history,” arguing that a sharp rebound in prices and expanding onchain markets point to the start of “crypto spring.”
In its quarterly market review published Thursday, Bitwise said its large-cap crypto index gained 46.4% during the quarter. It also reported $6 billion in inflows to US spot Bitcoin ETFs, bringing year-to-date net flows back into positive territory.
Hougan wrote, “Page after page after page, it’s all the same: The most recent part of the chart is turning sharply upwards. That’s exactly what you want to see if you’re looking for the start of a crypto spring.”
MSCI rules, Russia’s P2P ban and a WSJ report on Bo Hines
Index provider MSCI adopted new exclusion rules that could result in Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi being removed from its global indexes, while several other crypto treasury companies also face possible exclusion.
In August, Strategy opposed the changes but downplayed the disruption, saying funds tracking MSCI’s Global Investable Market Indexes hold about 13 million shares, equal to 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding. The company said that amount represents less than one day of trading volume.
Russia will ban direct peer-to-peer crypto transactions between individuals starting next year, requiring people to use authorized intermediaries for such trades. The regulator said the ban will take effect on July 1, 2027.
The regulator also said individuals are not allowed to transfer crypto assets from their digital accounts to their own non-custodial, or self-custodial, wallets.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Bo Hines, a former crypto adviser to US President Donald Trump who later joined Tether, kept a one-third stake in investment firm Nxum while pushing lawmakers to pass the GENIUS Act.
According to the report, Nxum received $6.3 million as part of a deal with Tether, and the first payment was made while Hines was still serving in government.
