This week, Ireland fined Coinbase €3.25 million over safeguarding failures, Solana activated its Alpenglow upgrade, France proposed new DeFi liability rules, and BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF designed to limit downside risk. Here are the key crypto developments you need to know.
Top gainers and losers of the week
- Pepe (PEPE) – spearheaded this week's gainers with solid bullish action, rising 24.75% over the last seven days to reach $0.000005061;
- Monero (XMR) – continued its steady upward trend, climbing 9.52% across the weekly stretch to lock in at $608.87;
- MemeCore (M) – posted modest gains to complete the top list, advancing 8.38% over the seven-day period to settle at $0.8927.
- Starknet (STRK) – reversed sharply from its previous week's highs, plunging 30.83% over the last seven days to drop to $0.05244;
- Celestia (TIA) – came under strong selling pressure, falling 23.37% throughout the week to settle at $0.546;
- Stacks (STX) – drifted significantly lower across the seven-day period, shedding 22.10% of its value to close at $0.3171.
Central Bank of Ireland fines Coinbase Ireland €3.25 million
The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase Ireland Limited €3,252,618 for breaching its safeguarding and outsourcing obligations under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, between Nov. 1, 2020 and Aug. 19, 2025. The announcement on Oct. 22 follows a settlement reached on Oct. 21.
The regulator set sanctions of a reprimand and a €4,646,597 penalty, and a 30% settlement discount brought the fine down. Coinbase Ireland has accepted the sanctions, which take effect once the High Court confirms them.
The bank said the firm placed excessive reliance on the US-based Coinbase Group to run its safeguarding processes and controls. The designated safeguarding account was left underfunded for lengthy periods. Shortfalls reached €5.2 million in 2024, according to the settlement notice. Coinbase says no customers lost money or were prevented from accessing their funds.
The central bank said failing to inform it of material changes after authorisation was "completely unacceptable".
The case is the regulator's 164th enforcement outcome. It follows a €21.5 million fine on Coinbase Europe in November 2025 for anti-money laundering failures.
Solana switches on Alpenglow, but 150 millisecond finality is still a target
Solana's Alpenglow consensus upgrade is live on mainnet. The Solana Foundation says it activated in epoch 1064 on Oct. 21. Its first phase, Votor, replaced TowerBFT, the protocol the network has used since 2020. The Foundation's page says validators now send votes directly to each other and aggregate them into certificates. The aim is to cut finality from about 12.8 seconds to roughly 150 milliseconds.
Consensus took over from slot 459,653,000, after a genesis block certified by 446 of 654 validators. The handoff took about 900 milliseconds, the Foundation says.
Rotor, the second phase, will replace Turbine for block distribution. It has no release date.
SOL fell about 4% overnight to roughly $104 despite the launch, according to TradingView data. Some explorers also show fewer transactions, because votes moved off-chain.
France wants crypto exchanges to answer for certain DeFi losses under MiCA review
French authorities have proposed that crypto platforms be liable for some customer losses on decentralized finance protocols they help clients reach. The Treasury, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the central bank and the ACPR filed the joint response on Oct. 21 to a European Commission consultation on revising the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
"CASPs should be liable for certain incidents affecting clients where they actively facilitated access," the authorities wrote.
They also want platforms to vet protocols before offering access and to monitor them for vulnerabilities. The rules would apply fully to significant providers, with lighter duties for smaller ones. Platforms could still offer uncertified protocols if they do their own due diligence and give enhanced risk warnings.
MiCA currently excludes services provided in a fully decentralized way without intermediaries. The French paper backs voluntary certification for advanced self-custody wallets, not a blanket requirement for developers. The paper does not say which incidents would count. The Commission's report to EU lawmakers is due by June 30, 2027, and could propose changes to the law.
BlackRock files for a Bitcoin ETF
BlackRock filed on Oct. 19 to register the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF, ticker PBIT. It would be the firm's third U.S. Bitcoin-linked fund. The filing says it "seeks to provide upside exposure to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) and/or similar bitcoin exposure up to an approximate limit, while seeking to provide a level of downside protection."
The fund would not hold Bitcoin or Bitcoin exchange-traded products. It would use options on IBIT, along with a separate portfolio of cash and fixed-income instruments. Each options tranche initially targets about 10% downside exposure, but losses are not guaranteed to stay within that limit. Bitbase reports the fund typically holds three overlapping call spreads, rolled monthly within each quarter.
The registration is a Form 485APOS, and the SEC review period could put an effective date in early January 2027 at the earliest. The Motley Fool notes the management fee is still blank, and the filing does not name a listing exchange. The fund's options would likely count as Section 1256 contracts for tax purposes, and the Motley Fool says the structure could mean a heavier tax bill than a spot ETF.
Kataryna Dyl
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