![\"BTCUSD_2025-10-19_17-57-37\"](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-8bff02ad89ea1e52-7281306676579716-1024x611.png\")
As usual, the flagship\u2019s drop dragged the market lower, with leading altcoins suffering steeper declines.<\/p>\n
A rebound lifted bitcoin back to about ~$108,500. Over a volatile week, digital gold fell 2.9%.<\/p>\n Most other top-10 coins ended the period in the green. Solana rose 5.3%, Ethereum \u2014 4.2%.<\/p>\n BNB was the outlier, down 9.6%. Negative headlines around Binance may have weighed on the token. The community accused<\/a> the exchange of selling listings to crypto projects; media reported<\/a> that France\u2019s regulator had opened a probe into the platform.<\/p>\n Total market capitalisation slipped from $3.9trn to $3.8trn; bitcoin\u2019s dominance eased to 57%.<\/p>\n The Crypto Fear and Greed Index<\/a> failed to exit negative territory. A reading of 29 signals fear in the market.<\/p>\n From July 2024 to June 2025, Russia\u2019s crypto-market volume reached $376bn, putting the country first among European nations, the Chainalysis report says<\/a>.<\/p>\n Britain, traditionally in top spot, slipped to second with $273.2bn. Germany ($219.4bn), Ukraine ($206.3bn) and France ($180.1bn) rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n Analysts also recorded a record rise in crypto-transaction volumes attributable to Russia, reaching $379.3bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n A key driver was more large institutional transfers. Transactions over $10m jumped 86%, nearly twice the European average.<\/p>\n The Bitcoin Core team released<\/a> client version v30, prompting a mixed reaction from the community.<\/p>\n All previous builds are deemed \u201cfinal\u201d and will no longer receive updates.<\/p>\n Version v30 includes bug fixes, changes to base fee rates, and improvements to performance and mining interaction.<\/p>\n The key change is a bump in the data-carrier limit in OP_RETURN<\/a> outputs from 80 to 100,000 bytes. That will greatly increase the scope for non-financial transactions on the network. Users can still set a manual cap via the -datacarriersize option.<\/p>\n The proposal to lift the limit was submitted in April by bitcoin developer Peter Todd<\/a>.<\/p>\n The initiative split the community. Opponents argue it encourages non-financial uses that bloat and congest the blockchain. Another concern is the potential spread of illegal content, for which node operators could face criminal liability.<\/p>\n Proponents counter that users will find other ways to post arbitrary data anyway, and miners have both the ability and the incentives to include such transactions in blocks.<\/p>\n Since the Bitcoin Core team announced in June that v30 would lift the limit, the client\u2019s market share has fallen from 88% to 78%. The beneficiary has been the rival Bitcoin Knots, which offers stricter filters. More than 21% of nodes now run it.<\/p>\n Tether, issuer of the most popular stablecoin USDT<\/a>, unveiled<\/a> an open-source wallet development kit (WDK).<\/p>\n According to the company\u2019s website, the toolkit is \u201cbuilt for people, machines and AI agents<\/a>.\u201d Multi-chain wallets can be integrated into any device \u2014 \u201cfrom the smallest embedded systems to mobile, desktop and server platforms\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Developers argue that non-custodial wallets are the foundation of a free and open financial system. They \u201ccreate a resilient infrastructure, immune to interference or control by centralized entities\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n With WDK\u2019s open source, anyone can build \u201ctheir own independent, secure, permissionless solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n Also on ForkLog:<\/strong><\/p>\n On 14 October a test version of Ethereum\u2019s major upgrade, Fusaka, was successfully deployed<\/a> on Sepolia.<\/p>\n Activation took 20 minutes, according to reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next step is testing the upgrade on Hoodi \u2014 scheduled for 28 October. On 3 December the hard fork will be deployed<\/a> on the mainnet of the second-largest cryptocurrency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fusaka\u2019s main goal is to improve Ethereum\u2019s scalability and efficiency. The key change is introducing the PeerDAS protocol (EIP-7594). It is expected to double network throughput.<\/p>\n We recalled<\/a> in a new piece in the \u201cSilicon Tanks\u201d series how hacker Richard Stallman sparked a revolution in software freedom by creating copyleft licences. The concept was recently endorsed<\/a> by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.\u00a0<\/p>\n In our series on the Global South, we examined<\/a> the digital paradox faced by Indonesia, the world\u2019s fourth-most-populous country, whose chief asset is its young generation.<\/p>\n![\"Cryptocurrency](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-ad6ff6ca465d8ab6-7281317114402885-1024x582.jpg\")
![\"Crypto](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-efe2c7ab076673b3-7281333492093302.webp\")
Chainalysis: Russia\u2019s crypto market hit a record $376bn<\/h2>\n
![\"2025-geos-report-formatted-charts-5-1500x975\"](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-14d9c86fe1d348a1-7281345177492751-1024x666.png\")
What to discuss with friends?<\/h2>\n
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Developers released a contentious Bitcoin Core update<\/h2>\n
Tether unveils open-source wallet development kit<\/h2>\n
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Ethereum developers successfully deployed Fusaka on the Sepolia testnet<\/h2>\n
What else to read?<\/h2>\n