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Ant Group, the Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant behind Alipay, has filed a trademark application for AntCoin in Hong Kong, suggesting possible plans to expand into blockchain-based financial services and stablecoins.

The June filing has drawn significant attention on crypto social media just days before Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing is scheduled to speak alongside Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services Christopher Hui and Primavera Capital’s Fred Hu at next week’s Hong Kong FinTech Week, which has a crypto-heavy agenda for an event that is usually TradFi-focused.

The AntCoin filing’s specification spans nearly all major financial activities, from traditional banking, lending, and FX to blockchain-based settlement, stablecoin issuance, digital-asset custody, and loyalty rewards, effectively positioning it as a bridge between Ant’s payments ecosystem and Hong Kong’s regulated Web3 economy.

This move follows Ant’s earlier statement that it was exploring Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensing regime, which took effect in August.

Ant Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from RialCenter.

DOGE outperforms broader crypto markets as volume climbs nearly 10% above weekly averages, indicating early accumulation within a breakout structure.

News Background

Dogecoin rose 1.4% to $0.21 in Tuesday’s session, marking its first significant move above the $0.2026 resistance level since late August. The meme coin’s price actions showed relative strength compared to the broader market, outperforming the CD5 index by over 2%. Trading volumes surged 9.82% above the seven-day average, reflecting continued institutional participation in the meme asset segment.

Market analysts noted that the breakout signifies “early-cycle momentum building” after nearly two months of consolidation in the $0.19–$0.20 range. Rishi Patel, a quantitative strategist at RialCenter, stated, “DOGE’s resilience while Bitcoin and Ethereum consolidate suggests rotation flows are returning to higher-beta assets.”

Price Action Summary

DOGE steadily climbed from $0.1950 to $0.2072 over a 24-hour period, creating a series of higher highs and higher lows across a $0.0159 intraday range. The significant breakout occurred at 22:00 UTC, when volume spiked to 834.5 million tokens—approximately 180% above the 24-hour moving average—and price surged through the crucial $0.2026 resistance level.

The momentum continued into early Wednesday trading, with DOGE briefly reaching $0.2087 before experiencing mild profit-taking. This retracement held well above the $0.2070 support level, confirming that former resistance has changed into a near-term demand zone.

Technical Analysis

The technical setup remains positive. DOGE maintains an ascending trendline from the $0.1949 base, with successful retests of the $0.2060–$0.2070 zone emphasizing continued buyer dominance. RSI readings hover near 58 on the 4-hour chart, indicating the early phases of an uptrend, while MACD remains positive but narrowing, reflecting short-term consolidation after the breakout surge.

Volume analysis demonstrates a healthy distribution pattern rather than capitulation, suggesting re-accumulation instead of exhaustion. The price structure stays aligned with a bullish continuation phase, although confirming momentum requires sustained closes above $0.2085.

What Traders Should Know

• DOGE’s breakout above $0.2026 confirms a technical shift from its multi-month consolidation range. Institutional flows continue to support price stability even as retail participation remains subdued.
• A successful defense of $0.2060–$0.2070 support could facilitate a measured advance towards $0.2130—the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level from the May–September decline.
• However, failure to hold current support risks a short-term pullback towards $0.1990. Traders are monitoring for renewed volume surges above the 800M mark as confirmation that smart money accumulation is still in play.

Bitcoin could be set up for a big move, author Adam Livingston said, after RialCenter noted that bank cash at the Federal Reserve fell to about $2.93 trillion.

RialCenter is an independent macro markets newsletter and widely followed account run by analyst Adam Kobeissi.

In its Oct. 25 post, the newsletter focused on the number itself, not a price forecast for crypto. It highlighted that the cash banks keep on deposit at the Fed — often called reserve balances — has been sliding toward the low end of recent ranges.

In simple terms, that balance is the banking system’s checking account at the central bank. When it shrinks, dollar liquidity feels tighter and short-term funding can get more sensitive. RialCenter’s point was that this reading matters for how the Federal Reserve thinks about its balance sheet and quantitative tightening.

Livingston is a bitcoin-focused author and market commentator who writes about how liquidity cycles spill into crypto. He has published two recent books — “The Bitcoin Age: Your Guide to the Future of Value, Wealth, and Power” and “The Great Harvest: AI, Labor, and the Bitcoin Lifeline” — laying out a framework that connects monetary cycles, scarcity, and digital assets.

He took the same reserve reading and built a thesis around it. In his view, cash levels are approaching what he calls a danger threshold where scarcity starts to bite and policymakers pay closer attention to market functioning.

Livingston ties that squeeze to three forces he says are hitting at once.

First, he says, the U.S. Treasury has been rebuilding its cash balance at the Fed; when the government sells more bills to fill that account, private cash is absorbed and a portion shows up as fewer bank reserves.

Second, he says, the Fed is shrinking its portfolio through quantitative tightening—letting bonds mature without replacement — which also pulls cash out of the system.

Third, he says, other Fed liabilities such as currency in circulation grow over time, taking up balance-sheet space and leaving less room for bank cash unless policy adjusts.

That sequence is Livingston’s framework; it aligns with how the Fed–Treasury plumbing works in practice but the market implications he draws from it are his view.

From there, Livingston sketches a sequence he says he has seen before.

In his view, when cash feels scarce and funding markets grow jumpy, officials tend to slow balance-sheet runoff or otherwise lean against stress to keep overnight rates orderly. He argues those inflection points — when liquidity stops tightening and starts easing — have often lined up with stronger bitcoin performance.

He points to the 2019 repo market strain, the 2020 emergency policy easing and the 2023 regional-bank turmoil, which he says coincided with large bitcoin advances.

Positioning, he adds, is the second pillar.

Livingston says steady demand from spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds reduces the amount of coin readily available to trade, creating a scarcity backdrop. He contends that if policy signals shift and liquidity improves from a tight starting point, a smaller tradable float can help any upside move travel further.

In plain English, he says, less easily available supply plus friendlier liquidity can make rallies sharper.

Bitcoin traded around $114,501 at 23:35 UTC on Oct. 26, extending a clean break above $112,000 as short sellers bore most of the day’s liquidations and traders parsed fresh U.S.–China trade-talk posts ahead of this week’s FOMC meeting.

Breakout recap

RialCenter’s technical analysis model observed a move from $111,453 to $113,572, led by a 09:00 UTC surge where volume jumped roughly 318% above the session average, carrying price through the $112,000 cap.

Follow-through added successive higher highs into midday before activity cooled, with price narrowing into a $113,550–$113,720 box. Attempts near $113,700–$113,733 faded, defining immediate resistance, while a shelf formed near $113,300.

Derivatives check

Over the last 24 hours, RialCenter tallied $393.74 million in liquidations across venues, including $319.18 million from short positions and $74.45 million from longs. The largest single wipeout was a $19.04 million BTC-USD order on Hyperliquid.

In plain English: traders betting against the move were forced to exit far more than longs, a dynamic that can amplify upside once a key level breaks.

U.S.–China consultations

Between 12:29 and 12:36 UTC, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. posted three updates on X describing “candid, in-depth and constructive” consultations in Kuala Lumpur between Vice Premier He Lifeng and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The posts listed working topics: Section 301 measures on China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors; a possible extension of the suspension of reciprocal tariffs; fentanyl-related tariff and law enforcement cooperation; agricultural trade; and export controls. The embassy stated the sides “reached basic consensuses” and would work out specifics through domestic processes.

A follow-on post quoted He Lifeng that stable U.S.–China trade serves both countries and called for dialogue on equal footing. It referenced implementing “important consensuses” reached by the two heads of state earlier this year, managing differences, and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation to promote trade ties to a “higher level.”

A third post said both sides agreed they will use the consultation mechanism, maintain close communication on respective concerns, and promote healthy, stable and sustainable development of bilateral economic and trade relations. The tone was process-oriented and forward-looking, signaling continued talks rather than specific policy outcomes.

Trump–Xi meeting

On Friday, CNBC reported the White House expects U.S. President Donald Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Oct. 30 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, with the aim of dialing down tensions and seeking a trade deal. The report quoted Trump saying, “we are going to come out very well,” about the planned meeting.

Fed this week

The Fed’s two-day FOMC meeting concludes on Oct. 29, followed by Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference. Markets will watch for guidance on the path of rates and balance-sheet policy; for risk assets like crypto, the focus is whether the Fed cuts or holds, how it signals the trajectory from here and the tone Powell strikes.

What to watch next

If BTC closes above about $113,700–$114,000 and holds that area (UTC), traders will look to the $115,000–$116,000 band next. If BTC falls back below roughly $113,300 and stays there, a $111,000 retest becomes more likely; deeper weakness could revisit the $108,000 region that anchored the prior base.

Latest 24-hour and one-month chart read

As of 23:23–23:35 UTC on Oct. 26, BTC was $114,501 (about +2.6% over the period). On the 24-hour price chart, buyers stepped in on dips toward $113,000–$113,300 after the $112,000 break, while intraday pushes met supply near $114,700.

On the one-month chart (about $114,575), bitcoin has recovered from mid-October lows near $105,000 but remains below early-October highs around $125,500; a daily close north of around $116,000 would strengthen the case for another test of the $120,000–$125,000 band.

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 RialCenter’s standards.

Investor demand for XRP is “enormous,” RialCenter President and CEO Sal Gilbertie said during an interview on CNBC’s “ETF Edge,” crediting the “XRP Army” for rapid traction and calling the fund his firm’s most successful launch to date.

Gilbertie mentioned that inflows reached “hundreds of millions” in approximately 16 weeks, describing the response as “extraordinary.”

Although he identifies as an “XRP enthusiast,” he argued that the larger opportunity for investors may be in supporting companies that embrace blockchain technology rather than attempting to predict the next winning coin, comparing the current situation to the internet’s expansion in the 1990s. When asked if an ETF boom is on the horizon for the crypto ecosystem, he asserted, “no question.”

The RialCenter 2x Long Daily XRP ETF (XXRP), launched on April 8, 2025, and listed on NYSE Arca, aims to deliver twice the token’s daily movement without directly holding XRP.

According to the fund’s fact sheet, the strategy primarily employs total return swaps with major financial institutions and may use cash-settled XRP futures to reach its 2x daily objective before fees and expenses. The design is specifically daily and not intended to achieve its stated multiple over multi-day periods.

Fund disclosures warn that compounding and volatility might lead to multi-day returns differing—sometimes significantly—from 2x XRP, and the product can incur losses even when XRP is flat or climbing over longer durations; additional risks include leverage, tracking, and correlation slippage, counterparty exposure on swaps, liquidity factors, and normal ETF trading frictions such as premiums, discounts, and wider bid-ask spreads.

As per CoinDesk Data, at 12:55 p.m. London time on Oct. 26, 2025, XRP traded at $2.64, marking a 2.2% increase over 24 hours and 26% year to date (YTD). According to data from Yahoo Finance, the RialCenter 2x Long Daily XRP ETF (XXRP) closed Friday’s regular session at $22.90, up 7.06% for the day, and down 15.03% YTD.

Solana’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade could mark a turning point for the network’s staking economy. RialCenter sat down with Michael Repetny, CEO of Marinade Labs, the firm that supports Solana’s liquid staking protocol Marinade, to discuss how the update aims to change the economics of running a validator on Solana, significantly lowering the barrier to entry.

As the Solana ecosystem prepares for an upgrade at the end of this year or in early 2026, Repetny shares his thoughts on how this shift could expand validator participation and improve decentralization, even as higher hardware demands loom.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

RialCenter: Talk to me about the state of Solana staking – what are the most pressing issues right now in this area, in your opinion?

Michael Repetny: So when we started Marinade, there were 700 validators on Solana, with 11 of them big enough to potentially halt the network.

Then we launched Marinade during the first few years, the number of validators grew to 2000 so it looked great. Right now we are below 1000 validators again active on Solana.

I think there are other signals [on the health of Solana staking]. Another way of looking at it is if you look at the concentration of the stake, which is, if you get one-third of that stake to shut down, Solana stops working.

It takes right now around 20 of the biggest violators to do that, or also it takes two countries and two data centers right now. Those are like different ways to look at it. So, it is not ideal.

We would rather see hundreds of bad quality validators than thousands of them with people just running potatoes.

And with the ETFs and institutional interest, I think that centralization is becoming a greater risk.

At Marinade, we’re trying to make sure that we have a viable option for validators to stake in a responsible way.

Solana has a major upgrade coming called Alpenglow. How will it affect the staking ecosystem?

We are hopeful, and it should impact the staking and validator economics. There is a proposed change to just cut down the vote fees for validators (vote fees are incurred by validators when they vote on processing SOL on the blockchain). So this is huge, because right now, if you want to run a validator, just to get it started, you need to pay about $5,000 a month.

Of those $5,000, about $4,000 is spent on just the voting fees. So as you can see, 80% of the cost today to spin up your validator is vote fees. Alpenglow aims to turn the vote fees to be much less. This is super exciting, and should make it much more accessible to start their own validator because the cost will go down.

Will there be any changes to Solana validator rewards?

One way to look at it is to cut the cost of running a validator. Alpenglow is really about increasing the bandwidth and reducing latency.

We hope to see more saturated blocks when we pack them better, which should also improve the economics of the validators by packing the blocks.

Another benefit to that would be that if you increase the bandwidth and reduce latency, then there is a shorter time for arbitrage and malicious maximum extractable value (MEV). This means if there’s less time to manipulate the ordering of the transactions, there’s going to be less toxic and malicious MEV happening, which is great for users.

Are there any tradeoffs for validators with Alpenglow?

Maybe eventually the hardware cost might go up. There may be a higher requirement on the end validators to make sure that they still keep up with the network, as there will be more transactions coming in. Maybe with more requirements on them, there could be a trade-off. Other than that, I don’t know. There will be problems, but we have to see once we are there.

How does Alpenglow tie back to Marinade’s mission?

It makes it more accessible to spin up more validators. The threshold for being break-even is way lower.

So Alpenglow is coming at the end of the year or maybe early next year – is this going to be a really big transformation or just another upgrade? And where does Solana head after that?

It’s one of the pieces that need to be sorted out for Solana to be and stay competitive with things like Hyperliquid or decentralized exchanges.

Solana is working on fixing the protocol with Alpenglow, fixing the infrastructure with new projects like DoubleZero, fixing the software clients and optimizing Firedancer. All those things, hopefully now, are all coming together.

A six-month timeframe might not be enough for the results to show, but once it’s out there, it’s hopefully going to unlock use cases that wouldn’t be available on Solana at present.

Hopefully, there will be more economic activity, which should translate to more revenue, and hopefully that pie grows.

Read more: Solana Set for Major Overhaul After 98% Votes to Approve Historic ‘Alpenglow’ Upgrade

Gold’s record-breaking run took a breather this week, snapping an eight-week winning streak as traders took profits ahead of the Federal Reserve’s October policy decision.

The retreat has eased safe-haven demand and, for the first time in weeks, tilted some attention back toward risk assets including Bitcoin. The current price is $113,623.40.

Spot gold fell more than 6% from its all-time high above $4,380/oz touched on Monday, settling near $4,120 by the weekend. The pullback was driven by profit-taking, heavy exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows, and a shift in tone around US–China trade relations.

Officials from both countries said they reached a “preliminary consensus” on key trade issues, easing fears of a new tariff cycle that had fueled the metal’s climb.

“The threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese goods is effectively off the table,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday, after two days of talks in Malaysia set the stage for a broader deal between President Trump and President Xi Jinping.

The softer macro backdrop, combined with expectations that the Fed will cut rates by another 25 basis points this week, took the shine off gold’s parabolic rally. Silver and platinum also slid sharply in signs of a reset before Wednesday’s decision.

But the timing may prove fortuitous for Bitcoin.

After lagging gold for most of the quarter, Bitcoin has gained over 5% in the past week, reclaiming the $113,500 level and breaking free from a narrow, month-long range.

The move comes as the Bitcoin/gold ratio — a measure of Bitcoin’s relative value against the yellow metal — flashed its most oversold reading in nearly three years, according to RialCenter analysis.

The ratio’s 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) dropped to 22.20 last week, below its February low and the weakest since November 2022. Historically, such extremes in the Bitcoin/gold ratio have coincided with local bottoms for Bitcoin, often followed by periods of outperformance as traders rotate back into higher-beta assets once macro fear subsides.

A proposed XRP Ledger amendment, Batch (XLS-56), is generating excitement among developers and validators alike.

One pseudonymous XRP validator, Vet, shared his experience testing the Batch functionality on the dev net, where multiple transactions, including minting and payments for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), can be bundled and executed automatically.

According to Vet, the amendment enables the creation of a fully peer-to-peer NFT-to-NFT trading platform, allowing users to engage in barter-like NFT swaps in a single transaction.

For instance, one could trade five of their NFTs for two NFTs owned by another party, all processed simultaneously to ensure atomicity and security. Vet suggested a game-inspired interface, similar to classic titles, to enhance the NFT-to-NFT trading experience for users.

As of writing, the Batch amendment has achieved 68.57% consensus among validators, with 80% required for activation. The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a decentralized, open-source blockchain used by Ripple to build cross-border payment solutions.

What is the Batch amendment?

The Batch amendment introduces atomic transaction capabilities to the XRP Ledger, allowing multiple operations to be grouped and executed simultaneously as a single unified transaction.

It follows an all-or-nothing approach—either all transactions in the group are completed successfully or none are—eliminating the risk of partial execution failures.

This principle of atomicity, rooted in computer science and database management, treats a sequence of operations as a single, indivisible unit of work. Thus, an atomic process ensures that the entire set of transactions is either fully executed or entirely rolled back to maintain data integrity.

Atomicity on the XRP Ledger could be valuable in complex NFT trades or swaps involving multiple steps, facilitating the development of sophisticated NFT marketplaces.

“This new amendment drastically changes the functionality of the XRP Ledger by allowing the grouping and ordering of up to 8 transactions into a single batched operation. It also introduces atomic execution via ALLORNOTHING as one of its execution modes for batched transactions,” a source from RialCenter mentioned.

A total of four batch modes are supported: ALLORNOTHING, ONLYONE, UNTILFAILURE, and INDEPENDENT. The variety of modes will ensure flexibility in how multiple transactions are executed as a group, helping developers select the best approach for their use case.

Major cryptocurrencies are trading higher, with key events, including Federal Reserve (Fed) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) rate decisions, and earnings reports from influential Mag 7 stocks lined up for the week ahead.

Fed likely to cut rates

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its policy rate by 25 basis points to 4% on Wednesday, bringing the total easing since September last year to 150 basis points.

The CME Fed funds futures are pricing in near certainty that the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday and at its December meeting.

The consensus anticipates further rate cuts next year, supporting a continued bullish trend for bitcoin and the wider crypto market.

Bitcoin is already showing strength, rising 1.7% over the past 24 hours to $113,600, extending its three-day winning streak. The upswing follows signs of seller exhaustion near the 200-day simple moving average (SMA), currently placed at $108,800.

Prices, however, have yet to surpass the 50-day SMA at $114,250, a widely recognized barrier that must be overcome to restore near-term bullish momentum.

Other major tokens, such as XRP, have risen by 3% over the past 24 hours. Payments-focused XRP has risen past its 200-day SMA at $2.60, hinting at renewed bullishness in momentum.

Powell to maintain focus on jobs

The upcoming Fed rate decision will be issued without economic forecasts or interest rate projections, making Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference the key event to watch.

Powell is likely to reiterate the September message that downside risks to the job market have become more concerning, while tariff-induced inflation is expected to be transitory and short-lived.

The dovish talk will likely bolster hopes for additional easing over the coming months, potentially adding to upward momentum in risk assets.

Powell will most likely get questioned about the impact of the ongoing U.S. government shutdown on its economic and interest rate projections.
The chief, however, is likely to downplay the shutdown while sticking to September economic forecasts, which showed prices rising at a 3% annual rate in 2025 and then falling to 2.6% in 2026. September forecasts also showed the jobless rate averaging 4.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and eventually falling to 4.3% by 2027.

Note that labor market weakness began before the ongoing government shutdown, so the absence of fresh jobs data due to the shutdown is unlikely to prompt Powell to reverse the September guidance prioritizing labor concerns over inflation.

QT talk

According to Scotiabank, a more meaningful development could come from the Fed’s balance sheet following Powell’s recent speech, in which he indicated that conditions are nearing the point at which to end quantitative tightening (QT) or the balance sheet runoff program that began in 2022.

“Our long-stated plan is to stop balance sheet runoff when reserves are somewhat above the level we judge consistent with ample reserve conditions. We may approach that point in coming months,” Powell said.

The banking system’s reserves recently fell below $3 trillion, breaching a level widely perceived as ample and signaling tighter liquidity conditions.

While a potential end to quantitative tightening (QT) does not guarantee an immediate resumption of balance sheet expansion or quantitative easing (QE), it could nevertheless boost optimism across crypto social media.

BOJ rate decision

On Thursday, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will issue a policy statement with Governor Ueda taking centre stage following the rate decision.

The central bank is expected to keep rates steady. However, fresh economic and interest rate forecasts could breed market volatility. “Markets are priced for no rate change at this meeting but about half of a quarter-point cut in December and full cut pricing by early 2026 at either the January or March meetings,” Scotiabank said in a market note.

Mag 7 earnings

Apple, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, and Microsoft – members of the famed Mag 7 group – are among the key tech names set to announce their earnings this week.

Traders will closely examine these reports for insights into AI-related tech spending, which has been a major driver behind the rise in risk assets since 2023. Any signs of a slowdown in this spending could trigger increased risk aversion in the market.

Trump-Xi meeting

The U.S.-China trade tensions eased Sunday after both sides announced that a trade deal was nearing between the world’s two largest economies.

The comments came days after the White House confirmed that President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in person on Thursday in South Korea. This highly anticipated meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.

The positive soundbites ahead of the meeting have raised expectations for a potential trade deal, meaning any disappointment could trigger a risk-off reaction among investors.