What a week! Bitcoin slipped under $95K, the broader crypto market took a hit, and volatility was everywhere. Yet amid the sell-offs, major developments kept rolling in: SoFi opened retail crypto trading as the first U.S. national bank, tokenized energy financing gained momentum, China questioned the U.S. over a massive Bitcoin hack, and Uniswap surged on a major proposal.
Here’s everything you need to catch up.
Top gainers and losers
- AB (AB) - gained 38.50% this week to an end price of $0.007465
- Uniswap (UNI) - 34.37% rise with a total price of $7.23
- Starknet (STRK) - 26.59% upkeep ending this week with a price of $0.1383
- Dash (DASH) - loss of 40.83% to a total price of $68.56
- Internet Computer (ICP) - ended this week with a total price of $5.74 and a drop of 29.52%
- Canton (CC) - 27.26% drop to a price of $0.1103
SoFi becomes the first national bank in the U.S. to open crypto trading to retail customers
SoFi Technologies has begun offering crypto trading to its U.S. banking customers, a move made possible after regulators clarified how traditional banks are allowed to handle digital assets.
At launch, clients can buy, sell, and hold a broad range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin at around $97,000 and Ether near $3,200.
Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box, CEO Anthony Noto said SoFi is now the only nationally chartered bank enabling retail crypto trading. He traced the decision back to a shift in guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in March, which relaxed earlier restrictions that prevented banks from offering direct crypto access.
“We were not allowed to do that as a bank,” Noto said, reflecting on the two-year gap during which SoFi could not let customers transact in crypto at all.
That earlier prohibition was part of the bank’s 2023 charter approval, which required SoFi to pull back from its crypto business entirely. The company re-entered the sector this June through cross-border payment features that relied on blockchain rails. Those services let users convert fiat into crypto and send funds internationally, offering a controlled way to rebuild crypto operations inside the bank’s compliance framework.
SoFi plans to introduce its own dollar-backed stablecoin, SoFi USD, which will be fully reserved and designed to integrate with the bank’s lending and payment infrastructure.
In his view, stablecoins can make payments more reliable only when issuers maintain high-quality reserves and avoid credit or duration risk.
“Just because it’s backed dollar for dollar doesn’t mean those dollars will be there when you try to liquidate,” he said, noting the importance of bankruptcy-remote structures and transparent reserve management.
SoFi currently holds more than $41 billion in assets, according to Business Quant data. Its latest quarterly report listed net revenue of $962 million and a member base of 12.6 million. Internal surveys showed that a majority of its customers, about 60% want access to crypto investments.
Noto also acknowledged that he holds crypto personally. He has allocated roughly 3% of his own portfolio to digital assets, with Bitcoin making up most of that position. He compared the early crypto ecosystem to the early internet, calling the underlying blockchains “communication networks” that support payments and a growing set of applications.
Turbo Energy tests tokenized financing for renewable installations on stellar
Turbo Energy, the Spain-based solar and battery manufacturer listed on Nasdaq under TURB, has launched a pilot program that uses blockchain to finance distributed renewable energy projects.
The pilot is being developed with Taurus, a digital asset infrastructure provider, and the Stellar Development Foundation. Their joint goal is to show that tokenized financing can improve liquidity and broaden investor access to renewable-energy debt, particularly for the type of mid-sized installations that struggle to secure traditional funding.
Turbo Energy plans to tokenize debt financing tied to on-site Power Purchase Agreements involving its SUNBOX solar-plus-storage systems. These projects follow an Energy-as-a-Service model, which lets businesses subscribe to clean energy without buying or maintaining equipment.
Turbo Energy referenced data from Grand View Research showing that the global Energy-as-a-Service market was valued at $74.43 billion in 2024 and could grow to $145.18 billion by 2030, driven by rising demand for distributed clean-energy infrastructure.
Digital assets have long been criticized for the electricity requirements of proof-of-work networks such as Bitcoin.
Earlier this year, the Italian energy company Enel Group worked with Conio to give investors access to tokenized shares of solar panels on the Algorand network. Buyers could own a portion of a solar installation and use the energy generated to offset their household power bills.
In October, Brazil’s Thopen announced that it was evaluating Bitcoin mining as a way to consume excess energy from local renewable projects. The approach would give the company a buyer of last resort for its unused power. A separate initiative in the UK surfaced in August, when Union Jack Oil outlined plans to use natural gas at undeveloped wells to generate electricity for Bitcoin mining, turning stranded resources into a monetizable output.
China raises questions over alleged US role in LuBian’s massive bitcoin hack
China’s national cyber defense agency has raised sharp questions about the United States’ involvement in the disappearance of more than 127,000 Bitcoin tied to LuBian, once one of China’s major mining pools. The claims surfaced shortly after the US Department of Justice announced what it called the largest forfeiture action in its history.
Update: DOJ official confirms they have the funds, says cannot comment on how they got them
— db (@tier10k) October 14, 2025
Has to be an interesting story on how that came to be
The Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC), a state-backed cybersecurity group, published a technical report examining the 127,272 BTC stolen during the December 2020 breach.
Although the hack remained unknown outside industry circles for years, Arkham Intelligence identified it in August as the largest Bitcoin theft ever recorded.
The CVERC’s analysis arrives just weeks after the United States filed a civil forfeiture case targeting 127,271 BTC connected to Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince Group. According to the DOJ, Chen controlled the Bitcoin that LuBian custodied at the time of the hack.
The DOJ’s mid-October complaint sought to formally seize roughly $14.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. However, the indictment noted that the government already had the assets in custody.
CVERC pointed to Arkham’s blockchain analysis, which shows a wallet labeled “LuBian.com Hacker” sending 120,576 BTC to a wallet identified as “US Government: Chen Zhi Seized Funds.”
The transfer occurred on July 5, 2024, in a single transaction that moved nearly the hacker’s entire balance.
CVERC also referenced a series of blockchain messages sent from Chen Zhi and his company to the hacker address. Each message was embedded in a small Bitcoin transaction of approximately $23.
The LuBian theft now sits at the center of an unusually public dispute between Washington and Beijing. The batch of hacked Bitcoin represents roughly 39% of the 326.5 BTC ($34.2 billion) linked to US government-associated wallets, according to Arkham’s data at the time of reporting.
The tension has emerged as crypto becomes a more visible geopolitical theme. During a recent interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, US President Donald Trump said the country is “far ahead of China and everybody else” in cryptocurrency adoption, adding that China is “getting into it in a very big way right now.”
Uniswap token surges 38% as fee switch and Burn proposal are announced
Uniswap’s governance token, UNI, jumped more than 38% following a new proposal from the Uniswap Foundation and Uniswap Labs that could reshape the token’s supply dynamics and strengthen investor incentives.
The “UNIfication” initiative aims to make holding UNI more rewarding by activating a protocol-level fee mechanism that directs a portion of fees into token burns. Additionally, the proposal outlines a Protocol Fee Discount Auctions systemto boost returns for liquidity providers.
The protocol is built to help teams and builders:
— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) November 13, 2025
+ Distribute tokens
+ Discover a credible market price
+ Automatically seed liquidity on v4
In a way that's transparent, onchain, and open to everyone
As part of the plan, 100 million UNI, roughly 16% of the circulating supply will be burned from the treasury. Fees generated on Uniswap’s Ethereum layer 2 solution, Unichain, which has produced $7.5 million in annualized fees since its September launch, will also flow into the burn mechanism.
Following the announcement, UNI rose approximately 38.5% to $9.70, outpacing other major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, BNB, and Solana. Its market capitalization surpassed $6 billion, making it the 34th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Since its November 2018 launch, Uniswap has become the largest decentralized exchange, processing around $4 trillion in cumulative trading volume.
Anastasiia G
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