Last night's and this morning's important news (October 26 - October 27)

Changpeng Zhao: Will focus on YZi Labs investment business in the future; invited to serve as a crypto industry advisor to multiple national leaders

According to Caixin, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao confirmed on October 25th that U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a pardon order for him. Zhao stated that he will continue to dedicate his efforts to the family office YZi Labs investment business and has been invited to serve as a crypto industry advisor to leaders of several countries.

ETH breaks through $4,200, up 3.12% intraday

OKX market data shows that ETH just broke through $4,200, currently trading at $4,202.15 per coin, with an intraday increase of 3.12%.

Hong Kong media: Ant Group has applied for Web3-related trademarks such as “ANTCOIN” in Hong Kong

According to Hong Kong Economic Daily, research into documents shows that Ant Group has applied to register a series of trademarks related to virtual assets, stablecoins, and blockchain in Hong Kong, including “ANTCOIN.” This may be a preparatory step for expanding related businesses in the future, aiming to diversify beyond traditional payments and deepen into financial technology.

SharpLink currently holds ETH worth $3.58 billion, with unrealized gains of $480 million

Regarding “Sharplink Gaming has added 19,271 ETH to its reserves,” on-chain analyst Yu Yan explained that these ETH were not purchased in the past two days but on October 17th: they raised $76.5 million through a stock sale on October 17th and used that to buy 19,271 ETH at a price of $3,892 each. SharpLink currently holds a total of 859,853 ETH, with an average cost of $3,609 per ETH. The current unrealized gains are $480 million.

Western Union to pilot stablecoin-based settlement system

According to Cointelegraph, financial services company Western Union plans to pilot a stablecoin-based settlement system to modernize remittance services for over 150 million customers. During the Q3 earnings call on Thursday, CEO Devin McGranahan said the pilot “aims to utilize on-chain settlement channels to reduce reliance on traditional agent networks, shorten settlement cycles, and improve capital efficiency.” McGranahan noted that Western Union initially avoided entering the crypto space due to concerns over volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and customer protection, but the passage of the GENIUS Act has changed that. The company states that stablecoin services will give customers more options and control over fund management and transfers, especially for those in high-inflation countries.

Richard Heart has transferred a total of 30,066 ETH to a new wallet, worth about $125 million

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Richard Heart (founder of HEX and PulseChain) has transferred a total of 30,066 ETH (worth approximately $125 million) to a new wallet. Of these, 29,804 ETH (worth $124 million) were transferred via Tornado Cash.

Bissent: U.S. no longer considering 100% tariffs on China

According to Jinshi citing Global Times, on October 26th, the China-U.S. economic and trade team concluded a two-day consultation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reuters reported that this was the fifth face-to-face meeting since May this year. After the talks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bissent told U.S. media that the two sides reached a “very substantive framework agreement” in Kuala Lumpur, and the U.S. is “no longer considering” imposing 100% tariffs on China.

Solana co-founder: Layer2 does not inherit Ethereum’s security and has fundamental issues that are hard to overcome

Solana co-founder Toly posted on X that current Layer2 networks face fundamental security issues. He believes that building complete Layer2 code is complex, with a broad attack surface, making it difficult to ensure bug-free and high-performance operation. As a result, existing Layer2 solutions commonly adopt upgraded multi-signature mechanisms, which render security guarantees essentially ineffective. Toly emphasized that Layer2 and cross-chain bridges like Wormhole face the same extreme risks—multi-signature wallets can control all bridging funds. In contrast, validators on chains like Sui, even with 100% staked support, cannot unilaterally change states without coordination from mainstream exchanges and RPC nodes. Meanwhile, Layer2 multi-signature setups can directly upgrade bridging contracts and transfer funds. He explicitly refutes the claim that “Layer2 inherits Ethereum’s security,” pointing out that five years into the Layer2 roadmap, Wormhole bridges on Solana face the same extreme risks as Ethereum funds on Base, while also generating comparable returns for Ethereum L1 stakers. Toly believes that security issues in Layer2 are insurmountable, which is why it has not achieved true security over the past five years.

Sharplink Gaming has added 19,271 ETH to its reserves again, worth $80.37 million

According to Onchain Lens, Sharplink Gaming has added 19,271 ETH to its strategic ETH reserves, valued at $80.37 million.

Padre: PADRE holders will receive PUMP proportional to their holdings, with wallet addresses due by December 30

According to SolanaFloor, after being acquired by Pump.fun, Padre announced that, based on the October 24 snapshot, PADRE token holders will receive PUMP tokens proportional to their holdings. Holders must submit their Solana wallet addresses by December 30 to claim tokens. Previously, Pump.fun’s acquisition announcement tweet stated that “PADRE will no longer have utility on the platform,” which sparked strong opposition, leading to the above measures.

Data: Bitcoin’s illiquid supply has decreased, with about 62,000 BTC flowing out of long-term holder wallets

According to The Block, based on Glassnode data, since mid-October, approximately 62,000 BTC (worth about $700 million) has moved out of long-inactive wallets, marking a significant decline for the first time since late 2025. This reduces Bitcoin’s illiquid supply and may make it harder for bullish momentum to develop. However, Glassnode notes: “Interestingly, during this period, whales have actually been accumulating; over the past 30 days, whale holdings have increased, and since October 15, they have not sold significantly.” Additionally, wallets holding between $10,000 and $1 million in BTC have seen the largest outflows, continuing to sell since November last year. Glassnode states: “Momentum buyers have essentially exited, while dip buyers have not provided enough demand to absorb this supply. With the number of first-time buyers remaining flat, this supply-demand imbalance will continue to pressure prices until stronger spot demand emerges.” As Bitcoin prices decline, the proportion of profitable Bitcoin supply also drops. Currently, about 82.3% of the supply is in profit, up from the year’s low of 76.0% in April.

Proposal to temporarily soft-fork Bitcoin to curb spam messages sparks debate among developers

According to The Block, debate over blockchain data capacity has led to a controversial proposal, BIP-444. This proposal was introduced after Bitcoin Core v30 removed the limit on data added via OP_RETURN. Currently, only about 6.3% of nodes run the new version. BIP-444 suggests limiting OP_RETURN outputs to 83 bytes, with most other scriptPubKeys restricted to 34 bytes, effectively blocking outputs with large scripts or data blocks. It also proposes limiting the size of individual data pushes, invalidating current or undefined script versions to prevent bypasses, restricting the size of embedded Merkle trees in Taproot outputs, and banning OP_IF in Tapscripts, effectively abolishing ordinal inscriptions. These changes would be implemented via a temporary soft fork lasting one year, allowing developers to seek alternative data storage solutions. Critics argue this violates Bitcoin’s permissionless principle and constitutes censorship. Jameson Lopp of Casa pointed out that the proposal does not clearly define the problem and that node operators’ legal responsibilities remain uncertain. The proposal has not yet been submitted to the Bitcoin developer mailing list for feedback but has already sparked heated discussion on social media.

A whale sold 99,979 SOL a week ago and has since reallocated to 4,532 ETH

According to Lookonchain, a whale sold 99,979 SOL worth $18.5 million a week ago and has now reallocated to buy 4,532 ETH at $4,084 each.

Arthur Hayes: Zcash token ZEC could rise to $10,000

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes posted on X that Zcash token ZEC could rise to $10,000. Zcash was launched in 2013 as a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, enabling fully anonymous on-chain transactions. Today, ZEC’s market cap exceeds $5 billion, reaching new highs.

Suspected HEX and PulseChain founder Richard Heart transferred 11,558 ETH again to a new address

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, Richard Heart (HEX and PulseChain founder) transferred 11,558 ETH to a new address about 15 minutes ago, beginning to move funds in batches via Tornado Cash. The recipient address has already transferred out 7,300 ETH, worth $29.56 million.

Tom Lee: ETH remains in a super cycle

BitMine chairman Tom Lee posted on X that ETH is still in a super cycle. Most of the time, prices “lead” fundamentals, but sometimes fundamentals lead prices, such as surging stablecoin demand and Ethereum transaction volume reaching record highs.

Whale with 100% win rate has unrealized gains exceeding $10 million in three days

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, a whale with a 100% win rate has seen unrealized gains of over $10 million in just three days.

Li Chenggang: China and the U.S. have reached preliminary consensus on multiple important trade issues

According to Jinshi, on October 25-26, China-U.S. trade negotiations concluded in Kuala Lumpur. China’s International Trade Negotiator and Vice Minister Li Chenggang told media that both sides reached a preliminary consensus on several key trade issues, and each will proceed with domestic approval processes. Li said that over the past month, China-U.S. trade relations experienced some turbulence and fluctuations, which attracted global attention. Since the May Geneva trade talks, China has strictly followed the consensus from multiple calls between the leaders, diligently implementing agreements and maintaining a relatively stable trade relationship. He emphasized that these fluctuations are not what China wishes to see, and that the U.S. has taken a tough stance while China is committed to defending its interests. During the negotiations, both sides maintained mutual respect and equal dialogue. Moving forward, both will strengthen communication, build mutual trust, manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and push bilateral trade relations to higher levels. Both sides agreed to leverage the China-U.S. trade consultation mechanism under the leadership of the two presidents, maintain close communication on trade concerns, and promote healthy, stable, and sustainable development of China-U.S. trade relations for the benefit of both peoples and global prosperity.