Catch up on the biggest crypto news from October 2, 2026, covering major industry developments, company updates, regulation, partnerships, and market-moving announcements.
The SEC moved on crypto custody. It proposed dedicated custody standards for registered investment advisers and regulated funds holding crypto. The proposal is not final; it goes to public comment first. SEC has checked off the last major item on its crypto agenda. Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda credited outgoing Commissioner Hester Peirce with helping build a workable digital-asset framework.
Trump is expected to name former SEC Chair Jay Clayton as White House AI czar.
Illinois agreed to delay its new crypto tax by six months. That matches yesterday’s reports of a postponement of the 0.2% transaction tax until 1 July 2027, pending court approval.
The US Treasury sanctioned a Hamas financing network that used fake charities and crypto. Secretary Scott Bessent said the action covered a Hamas military-wing member in Gaza, two France-based fundraisers, and two sham charities that raised more than $2 million from 2020 to 2026.
The IMF approved another $139 million payout to El Salvador after a waiver tied to the country’s Bitcoin accumulation limit. The Fund cited better-than-expected growth and progress on Bitcoin transparency, AML, and moving the Chivo wallet to private operators.
BNY is in talks with Kraken’s parent, Payward, over an infrastructure partnership.
Absa Group launched digital-asset custody on the XRP Ledger. The South African bank has regulatory approval to offer institutional custody, administration, and transfers for BTC, ETH, XRP, and USDC.
ECB board member Isabel Schnabel argued that central-bank money must go onchain, warning that tokenized markets will otherwise settle in private or foreign-currency assets.
BitGo’s CEO warned that crypto “one-stop shops” such as Coinbase create structural risk, comparing parts of that setup to elements of the Lehman collapse and arguing the industry still needs clearer market-structure rules.
Themes ETF Trust asked the SEC to push the effective date of eight leveraged crypto ETFs to 30 October 2026. The lineup is 2x long and short products on Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, and Solana. This is a filing date change, not an approval.
Evernorth secured shareholder approval for its merger with Armada II, a step toward a publicly traded XRP treasury company. Nasdaq trading is expected around 8 October.
Chainalysis attributed Bitget’s $387 million hack to North Korea-linked actors. Stolen funds moved across Ethereum, XRP, Zcash, and Tron in the first three hours. The firm said 2026 DPRK-linked crypto thefts are now above $1 billion.