The Block
Quick Take A criminal investigation is looking into whether Tether is being used by third parties for illicit activities such as terrorism and hacking, WSJ reports. The Treasury Department, meanwhile, has been weighing sanctioning Tether because of the stablecoin’s use by U.S.-sanctioned people and groups, according to WSJ.
Quick Take The crypto data tracking platform Arkham added Solana blockchain data to its platform. Users can trace large fund movements from certain wallets, obtain real-time trade alerts and gain other information regarding the fifth-largest blockchain by market capitalization.
Quick Take Lido DAO voted to incorporate the community staking module, a step towards creating a fully permissionless staking protocol.
Quick Take During a hearing at the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia on Friday, assistant U.S. attorney Kevin Rosenberg said they planned to “extend a plea,” according to a Bloomberg report. Eric Council Jr. was arrested and charged last week with “conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.”
There are twice as many bitcoin call options as put options set for the Nov. 8 options expiry, the first expiry following the U.S. election, according to Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers.Derivatives traders expect brief, but significant bitcoin price volatility around the time of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, Strijers added.
Quick Take AI memecoins endorsed by the Truth Terminal chatbot, such as GOAT and FARTCOIN, have seen a double-digit price drop. The wider AI memecoin market cap dropped by over 2% in the past 24 hours, according to Coingecko data.
The market for tokenized Treasuries is growing and could challenge stablecoins’ dominance, JPMorgan analysts said.However, analysts noted that regulatory restrictions and liquidity concerns suggest tokenized treasuries may only partially replace stablecoins.
Analysts at BitMEX Research argued MicroStrategy is “highly unlikely” to be forced to sell its bitcoin based on the current debt structure, but “anything is possible.”MicroStrategy stock traded at a 25-year high of $235.89 as of Thursday’s close, having gained more than 10% for the day.
Quick Take So far, Farcaster’s monthly revenue in October stands at $15,825 — a ~96% drop from its peak monthly revenue in February. In May this year, it raised $150 million in its Series A, with a reported valuation of $1 billion.
