After nearly two months of grinding sideways action, with multiple price dips below $110k,

Bitcoin

Bitcoin

0.82%

has finally snapped out of its consolidation phase with a powerful rally, smashing past its August ATH.

In the early hours of today, October 5, 2025, BTC surged to just under $126k, surpassing and holding above the $ 124,000 ATH it set in August.

Bitcoin

BTC

$123,034.12

0.74%

24h

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24h

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Sep 28th, 2025 | 7:00 PM

BTC Price:

$110,219.48

A predictable cooldown followed the ATH set in August in its price action as it entered a correction and range-bound trading phase.

September brought in fresh volatility. BTC spiked to $118k after the US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates. But the momentum gave out almost as soon as it picked up pace, and the price fell back below $109k within a week.

124,963.45

2.00%

ETHUSD

4,559.70

0.99%

SOLUSD

235.19

2.30%

PYTHUSD

0.16230

2.37%

LINKUSD

22.61

1.73%

Token2049 scrubs references to sanctioned stablecoin and 'platinum sponsor' A7A5: Reuters

By Zack Abrams

Policy • October 4, 2025, 3:48PM EDT

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Token2049, the crypto conference which recently concluded in Singapore, scrubbed references to ruble-backed stablecoin project A7A5, whose issuers have been sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K., after being asked about the project by Reuters.

A7A5’s presentation concerned the future of stablecoins, and the project was listed as a “platinum sponsor” of the conference.

The entities behind A7A5 were sanctioned by the U.S. in August, with the UK following soon after, for providing support to sanctioned exchange Grinex, a successor of the shuttered Garantex exchange.

Token2049, the organization behind the high-profile crypto conference of the same name that recently wrapped up in Singapore, scrubbed references on its website to A7A5, a stablecoin project sanctioned by the U.S. and UK, which presented at the conference and was listed as a "platinum sponsor," according to Reuters.

The project had a booth at the conference, according to the Reuters report, and several staff members were present. Oleg Ogienko, the project's director of international development, spoke about the future of stablecoins, saying A7A5 holds 44% of the non-USD stablecoin market with a $1.2 billion market cap.

The entities behind the ruble-backed A7A5 stablecoin were sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in August, which alleged the token "was created for Russian customers of A7 Limited Liability Company (A7), a Russian firm that provides cross-border settlement platforms used for sanctions evasion." The UK soon followed suit with its own sanctions against the project's backers, claiming the token was "specifically designed as an attempt to evade western sanctions."

Ogienko corroborated this account to Reuters, telling the publication, "we were sanctioned several times," but denying the project had anything to do with money laundering and claiming to be regulated properly by Kyrgyzstan’s virtual-asset regime. The project's backers have not been sanctioned by Singapore, where the conference took place. The Block could not immediately reach Token2049 or A7A5 for comment.

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After Reuters reached out to Token2049 for comment, the report states, references to A7A5's sponsorship and Ogienko's speech were scrubbed from the Token2049 website. The token has been closely linked to Grinex, a successor of the shuttered Russian-based Garantex exchange, which had previously been sanctioned by OFAC.

Researchers at blockchain firm Elliptic told Reuters that as much as $70.8 billion of A7A5 has been transferred since the token's launch in January of this year. Elliptic has previously published analysis using leaked documents to draw links between A7 founder Ilan Shor, the A7A5 stablecoin, and allegedly even the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov.

"USD stablecoins carry wallet-blocking risks based on nationality, which infringes on user rights," the A7A5 X account said in a summary of Ogienko's talk. "The future of finance is multipolar, where regional stablecoins become a real alternative to the digital dollar."

The program "will yield referral rewards, mUSD incentives, exclusive partner rewards, access to tokens, and more," MetaMask said, and will distribute "over $30M in LINEA token rewards" during its first season. LINEA is the native token of Linea, an Ethereum Layer 2 network also incubated by Consensys, and was launched in September with a 9.4 billion token airdrop.

"Long-time MetaMask users will not be ignored - they'll be given special benefits, and MetaMask Rewards will have meaningful connections with the future MetaMask token," MetaMask wrote in its announcement. MetaMask also said the program is "not a farming play" and represents "a genuine method of regularly giving back to our community."

It is unclear whether users in certain jurisdictions will be restricted from participating in the program, and if any anti-Sybil measures will be enacted by MetaMask. The Block could not immediately reach MetaMask for comment.

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MetaMask's planned MASK token was announced by Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin in mid-September. Lubin said, on The Block's "The Crypto Beat" podcast, that the MASK token "is significantly related to the decentralization of certain aspects of the MetaMask platform."

MetaMask's mUSD stablecoin went live around the same time, issued by Stripe-owned firm Bridge. The token currently has a circulating supply of $87.7 million, according to the token's website, The token was launched on Ethereum and Linea, and is not yield-bearing.

MetaMask's announcement was met with criticism by some X users. "[T]his will go over well and no one will be disgusted and insult you," crypto streamer "Gainzy" wrote in one sarcastic response.

The headline numbers are hard to ignore as the BTC USD pair gained sharply, closing at its ATH, while the ETH USD pair followed with conviction, but barely pushed above $4,500. Still, with BTC dominance brushing close to 60 %, the tug‑of‑war between majors and alts remains intense.

In terms of legal stability, Thailand is ahead of many countries in the region regarding regulations and framework. He said awareness of crypto is moderately high in the country, though there's always room for further education.

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According to Chainalysis's latest annual report, Thailand ranked 17th in the 2025 global crypto adoption index and seventh in Asia-Pacific, following some of the world's most dynamic and populous markets.

Other factors include greater disposable income and the ability of people to make plans about various assets or treasury options, he said.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission data indicated the value of digital assets in Thailand as of August was nearly THB100 billion (US$3.08 billion), with daily trading value of roughly THB3 billion, rising from last year's THB91.3 billion and THB1.79 billion, respectively.

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There were 2.83 million digital asset accounts last month, up from 2.43 million accounts last year.

Thailand has room for further growth. These improving statistics show Binance that the opportunity is high for the country to develop as a digital asset hub within the region, said Seker.

Thailand is critical for Binance to achieve its ambitious goal of reaching 1 billion users by the end of this year.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar joins Mornings with Maria to discuss major investments from NVIDIA, SoftBank, and others, the U.S.–China AI race, and how AI will transform jobs, business, and America’s economic future.

A recently completed stock deal saw OpenAI's valuation surge to $500 billion and become the world's most valuable private company, according to a report.

Current and former OpenAI employees sold about $6.6 billion in shares to a consortium of investors that included Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi's MGX and T. Rowe Price, according to Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter. 

The deal valued the ChatGPT-maker at $500 billion – well above the previous valuation of $300 billion, which was the prevailing level for a $40 billion capital raise that was led by SoftBank earlier this year.

That valuation pushes OpenAI past Elon Musk's SpaceX, which had a $400 billion valuation during an insider share sale this summer, according to a Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the transaction.

He cited improvements from 400 microseconds to 150 microseconds in settlement speed, describing the feature as intuitive for those accustomed to trading environments where execution and latency are critical.

Framing Solana as “the new Wall Street,” Hougan said the blockchain’s technical edge is resonating with market participants. He said the narrative is “really resonant” and added that “you’ll see substantial flows.”

Technical Analysis of SOL's Price Action

According to CoinDesk Research's technical analysis data model, during the 23-hour session from Oct. 3 at 15:00 UTC to Oct. 4 at 14:00 UTC, SOL traded within a narrow $8.40 range between $228.19 and $237.04, reflecting a period of consolidation.

The high was set at $237.04 around 16:00 on Oct. 3 before steady selling pressure pushed the price lower toward the $228–$229 area, which acted as support.

Trading activity was strongest early in the session, with volumes peaking at 3.29 million units around 17:00, but gradually declined to just 42,637 by the closing hour of the analysis period. This sharp reduction in volume suggested weakening participation and a potential pause before a larger directional move.

In the final 60 minutes, from 13:11 to 14:10 UTC on Oct. 4, SOL broke below the established $228–$229 support zone. Prices fell from $229.84 to $228.94, a 0.39% drop that confirmed the bearish shift.

Within this window, the market showed two phases: an early rebound attempt that briefly lifted the price to $229.78 at 13:38, followed by renewed selling that drove the token down to $228.72.

Importantly, this breakdown coincided with a surge in volume. The single busiest minute occurred at 14:01, when 18,011 units traded — the highest one-minute reading of the session.

This pattern of falling price alongside rising volume suggested larger sellers were active, potentially increasing the likelihood that bearish momentum continues.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.

Chainlink's native token (LINK) saw a 6.7% increase this week despite Friday's pullback, bolstered by institutional and protocol adoption.

Plasma has integrated Chainlink's services to support stablecoin payments on its blockchain.

Swiss bank UBS is piloting Chainlink's CCIP protocol with SWIFT for tokenized fund operations, signaling growing institutional interest.

The native token of oracle network Chainlink

LINK

$22.39

pulled back slightly on Friday, establishing a higher low, posting a 6.7% gain this week. The price action has been supported by a string of news headlines about institutions and protocols tapping Chainlink's services.

Plasma (XPL) said on Friday it has joined Chainlink Scale, adopting Chainlink's oracle services for its stablecoin payments-focused blockchain. The network has integrated Chainlink's Cross-chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), Data Streams and Data Feeds services, supporting developers to build stablecoin use cases on Plasma.

The drop in external debt – by 15.4 % – over this period does not mean that the country’s overall finances have improved. Rather, it is due to the gains in the value of the Kenyan shilling, thanks to pervasive state interventions since February 2024.

So high is Kenya’s public debt that servicing it ate up 69.6% of domestic revenues as of June 2024. This is more than double the recommended limit of 30%, making the country’s public debt unsustainable. This has been the case since at least 2019.

As a finance scholar with research interests that include development finance and economic growth in Africa, I think the high ratio of debt service to revenue leaves Kenya with few options and diminishing time to steer out of trouble.

In this article, I explore possible effects of unsustainable public debt and some ways through which Kenya could mitigate a sovereign debt default.

As late as January 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessed Kenya’s debt as sustainable, even as it warned that “overall and external ratings for risk of debt distress remained high”. With its insistence, the government proposed a raft of tax measures, through the 2024 Finance Bill, aimed at raising additional revenues.

This ignited nationwide protests that forced the government to withdraw the bill. Consequently, the country’s tax revenue is expected to suffer a shortfall of about KES 346 billion (US$2.7 billion) during the 2024/25 fiscal year.

This constricts the government’s ability to repay debt. Despite its falling ability to pay, the government continues to pile up debt. Indeed, as recently as September 2024, senior government officials were in China negotiating additional loans.

Unless it secures a debt write-off, debt rescheduling, or similar deal to reduce the debt burden, Kenya will almost certainly end in debt default. The country must use every effort to avoid this possibility.