WuBlockchain’s weekly Top 10 list this week centered on US inflation data, regulatory moves in Europe and the US, and a set of crypto industry developments involving Solana, Ledger and BitMine.
US September CPI topped expectations across the board
US unadjusted CPI rose 3.7% year over year in September, the highest since May this year and above the 3.6% market expectation. Unadjusted monthly CPI came in at 0.6%, the highest since April.
Core inflation also exceeded forecasts. US unadjusted core CPI rose to 2.6% year over year, the highest since June and above the 2.5% expectation. Seasonally adjusted core CPI increased 0.3% month over month, compared with a 0.2% consensus forecast.
Reuters: a Democratic midterm win could bring tougher scrutiny for crypto firms
Reuters reported that if Democrats win control of either the House or the Senate in the November US midterm elections, they could step up investigations into crypto companies, prediction markets and Wall Street banks, while gaining the power to summon regulators and company CEOs to testify at hearings.
The report said Democratic lawmakers are preparing to examine business ties between Donald Trump and his family and the crypto and prediction market sectors, focusing on possible conflicts of interest and national security risks. Reuters added that such inquiries might not stop the Trump administration from loosening financial regulation, but could slow the policy process and raise legal and reputational risks for companies.
France pushes EU-level taxes on crypto assets
Leaders from the EU’s 27 member states began negotiations on Oct. 15 over the bloc’s 2028-2034 long-term budget, with sharp disagreements over the size of the budget and possible new tax revenue sources. France opposed deep spending cuts and called for new EU-level taxes on digital services, crypto assets and online gambling to bolster shared fiscal income.
The European Parliament had already proposed exploring capital gains taxes on crypto assets as a possible new source of budget revenue. EU leaders hope to reach an agreement before year-end, though any new tax would require unanimous approval from all member states.
UK High Court applies Chinese law in 61,000 BTC recovery dispute
On Oct. 12, the UK High Court ruled in a cross-border asset recovery dispute involving more than 61,000 BTC tied to the Tianjin Lantian Gerui illegal fundraising case. The court found that Chinese investors’ property claims over the bitcoin in question should be assessed under Chinese law rather than English law.
That ruling means roughly 16,000 Chinese victims participating in the UK recovery process may be unable to share in the appreciation of bitcoin and may instead be limited to recovering principal and interest.
Bank of England deputy governor says there is no need to rush a CBDC
Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said the UK does not need to rush into launching a retail central bank digital currency because digital payments are already evolving quickly. She said commercial stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits could deliver some of the same functions envisioned for a digital pound.
Breeden said the central bank wants domestic companies to build successful sterling stablecoins that can offer an alternative in a market dominated by dollar stablecoins, so UK residents and businesses are not forced to access innovative payment services only through dollar-based tokens. The Bank of England is also upgrading its real-time gross settlement system to support tokenized financial transactions and round-the-clock instant settlement.
Solana’s Shanghai event was abruptly postponed
A Solana Accelerate China 2026 event scheduled by the Solana Foundation in Shanghai on Oct. 16 was abruptly canceled before the morning session, and the reason remains unclear. One registered attendee said they waited for an hour and a half and still could not enter.
At noon, organizers sent an email saying the morning agenda had been postponed بسبب venue-related logistics considerations. The message said all registered attendees would be notified directly once a new schedule is confirmed, and apologized for the late notice and inconvenience.
Earlier, Solana Foundation Chief Strategy Officer Rachel Conlan wrote that the foundation had opened a new office in Shanghai and showcased Solana branding on the city skyline. Conlan, previously Binance’s global chief marketing officer, joined the Solana Foundation in September this year. Binance founder CZ later commented that it was surprising Solana could advertise in China and even have an office there, while BNB Chain still had not done so.
Brazil launches tokenized securities pilot
Brazil’s securities regulator, CVM, issued Resolution No. 249 to launch a tokenized securities pilot. The program will test securities trading on blockchain in a controlled environment using simulated stocks and funds, with no real assets involved.
The pilot will assess the suitability of public and private blockchains for securities issuance and operations, along with risks tied to smart contracts, cybersecurity, interoperability and network resilience. It will also explore how market rules can be translated into smart contract logic. Brazilian exchange B3 plans to launch a tokenization platform in 2027 together with its own stablecoin.
Ledger confirms supply-chain hardware tampering tied to CryptoBilis
Ledger’s security team, Ledger Donjon, formally confirmed a supply-chain hardware tampering attack affecting devices sold by Southeast Asian distributor CryptoBilis. Ledger said all confirmed theft cases so far involve devices sold through CryptoBilis, with no anomalies found in other sales channels. It also said widely circulated reports of large losses are third-party estimates and have not been fully verified by the company.
Ledger warned users who bought through CryptoBilis but have not initialized their devices not to power them on for setup. Users who have already set up the devices were told to move funds immediately to a wallet with a brand-new seed phrase.
Cointelegraph separately reported that European electronics retail group MediaMarktSaturn removed all Ledger hardware wallets from both physical stores and its online platform. A company spokesperson confirmed the move and said the retailer was in contact with Ledger. Earlier, X user Johannes said Ledger wallets purchased from two different MediaMarkt stores contained unauthorized cables and cellular communication modules.
Ledger later said that as of Oct. 13, MediaMarktSaturn had suspended Ledger device sales across its stores and online platform with Ledger’s cooperation after a German consumer reported a suspected malicious implant inside a device. The investigation is ongoing, and no fund losses have been reported so far. Ledger said there is no sign that its infrastructure, systems or services were breached, and that Ledger Donjon will inspect received devices. The company also said many circulating claims and loss figures remain unverified and that official investigation results should be treated as the reference point.
Ledger also announced a new Android-based hardware device called Atom, planned for release in mid-2027. The device is designed to combine support for everyday smartphone applications with hardware-level crypto asset protection, and includes a tamper-proof enclosure intended to defend against physical modification methods such as screen-reading plug-ins used in earlier attack cases.
BitMine raises ETH holdings to 6,028,946
BitMine said it added 12,532 ETH over the past week, bringing total holdings to 6,028,946 ETH. That represents about 4.9% of Ethereum’s 122.1 million supply, meaning the company has completed about 99% of its goal of holding 5% of ETH supply.
As of Oct. 11, BitMine had staked 5,067,309 ETH. In forward-looking statements, management said the company had "basically completed ETH purchases," suggesting the pace of additional accumulation could slow as it approaches the 5% target.
Solana Alpenglow is scheduled for mainnet activation on Oct. 21
Anza, Solana’s core development team, said the Alpenglow consensus upgrade is scheduled to activate on mainnet at about 14:50 UTC on Oct. 21. The upgrade will replace TowerBFT with the Votor consensus mechanism and aims to cut transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds.
After the upgrade, validators will exchange votes directly rather than recording votes as on-chain transactions. That could lead to a visible drop in transaction count metrics that include validator voting activity. Alpenglow previously went live on testnet and devnet on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25, respectively. The mainnet rollout is still a plan, and the 150-millisecond figure is a performance target rather than an observed mainnet result.
Key funding deals this week
- Polychain led a new funding round for Network School at a $2 billion valuation.
- Fission completed a $10 million Series A round led by Pantera.
- Binance US is seeking to raise up to $100 million at a target valuation of about $1 billion.
- Uniform Labs, the developer of Multiliquid, completed an $8 million funding round led by Polychain.
- More industry fundraising events are available at crypto-fundraising.info.