Daily Brief · October 8, 2026
Venture funding increased 31% to $5.6 billion in the second quarter, while Tether launched a real-world asset platform and partnered with Kazakhstan's central bank.
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Crypto VC Funding Rebounded to $5.6B in Q2 2026 Led by Later-Stage Deals
Crypto venture funding climbed 31% quarter-over-quarter to $5.683 billion across 384 deals in Q2 2026 . Later-stage rounds captured approximately 78% of the capital invested, pushing the median deal size to a record…
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Tether Launches Hadron Platform to Expand Into Real-World Asset Tokenization
Tether introduced Hadron, a platform designed to tokenize stocks, bonds, commodities, funds, and loyalty rewards . The service provides issuance, lifecycle management, and compliance toolsets, and supports multiple…
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Tether Signs Pact with National Bank of Kazakhstan to Study Tenge Stablecoin and Tokenization
Tether partnered with Kazakhstan's central bank and the Alatau City Authority on Oct. 7, 2026, to assess stablecoins, asset tokenization, and decentralized finance .
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ESMA Directs EU Crypto Firms to Halt Unauthorized Stablecoin Services
ESMA instructed crypto service providers authorized under MiCA to halt all services involving unauthorized stablecoins for European Union clients .
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Attacker Drains 200 ETH From Dormant MakerDAO Auction Keeper
An attacker drained 200 $ETH from a legacy MakerDAO auction-keeper contract on Oct. 6, 2026 . Missing access controls let the attacker settle 2020 auction lots and route the $542,982 to Tornado Cash, though active…
The numbers
Bitcoin is trading at $82,694, ether at $2,550, and the total market cap stands at $2.77 trillion.
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