CANDY Weekly: The Week in Crypto and the CANDY Ecosystem (Oct 19–25, 2026)

Welcome to CANDY Weekly, your seven-day catch-up from CandyPulse. If you only have five minutes, this is the week in crypto: what moved, what changed and what is happening across the CANDY ecosystem.

Between October 19 and October 25, CandyPulse published 18 stories. Here are the ones worth your time.

CANDY ecosystem

• More Games, More RUSH: CandyRush Adds New Games, and RUSH Now Converts to CANDY in the Cardaxo App: CandyRush has added new games where players earn RUSH. Players can use RUSH in the Cardaxo app, convert it into CANDY and spend it worldwide with Cardaxo.
• One Coin, an Entire Ecosystem: How CANDY Connects Payments, Shopping, Gaming and Rewards: CANDY is the single coin behind a growing ecosystem on CandyChain: Cardaxo for payments and shopping, CandyRush for gaming, and rewards that flow back to users. The presale is live at cryptocandy.io.

Regulation and policy

• HSBC Launches RedCoin, a Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoin, Through PayMe: HSBC has launched RedCoin (RCHKD), a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, on its PayMe app, with transfers and payments at more than 100,000 merchants. Tokenized fund investing comes next.
• Crypto Exchanges Race Into Prediction Markets as Binance.US and Blockchain.com Seek U.S. Approval: Blockchain.com has filed for two CFTC licenses to offer prediction markets and crypto derivatives in the U.S., and Binance.US plans its own bid. Here's why exchanges want in.
• Tokenized Stocks Face Pushback: Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and Alphabet Object to OKX-ICE Plan: Sixteen companies, including Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs, have objected to tokenized versions of their shares trading on OKXICE, the planned venue from OKX and ICE.
• Webull Brings Crypto Perpetual Futures to U.S. Customers in November Through Kalshi: Webull will offer crypto perpetual futures to eligible U.S. customers from November, starting with Bitcoin, listed on Kalshi's CFTC-regulated exchange.
• German Banks Bring Crypto to Your App: Sparkassen Starts Phased Rollout Through DekaBank: Germany's Sparkassen savings banks have started letting customers trade Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana and POL in the Sparkasse app, through DekaBank. Banks are joining step by step.

Markets, Bitcoin and ETFs

• Bitcoin ETFs Pull In $1.08 Billion in Three Days, Then Hit a $635 Million Outflow: U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $1.08 billion over three sessions, led by BlackRock and Fidelity, ending two weeks of withdrawals. The next day brought a $635.5 million outflow.
• JPMorgan's Bitcoin Forecast: 10% a Year Over the Next Decade, Ahead of Stocks and Gold: JPMorgan Asset Management's long-term outlook gives Bitcoin a 10% annual base-case return over the next decade, above its forecasts for U.S. stocks, bonds and gold. It's a forecast, not a guarantee.
• BlackRock Files for a Bitcoin 'Buffer' ETF With Downside Protection and Capped Upside: BlackRock has filed for the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protection ETF (PBIT), designed to limit initial losses to about 10% in exchange for capped gains. The fund is proposed, not yet approved.
• JPM Coin Arrives on Ethereum as JPMorgan Expands Deposit Tokens for Institutions: JPMorgan is bringing JPM Coin (JPMD), its token for U.S. dollar deposits, to Ethereum for approved institutional clients, after first launching it on Coinbase's Base network.
• BitMine Keeps Accumulating: ETH Holdings Hit 6.04 Million After Adding 12,535 ETH: BitMine now holds 6,041,481 ETH, about 4.9% of Ethereum's supply, after buying 12,535 ETH last week. It needs roughly 89,000 more ETH to reach its 5% goal.

More news

• Chainlink Teams Up With LG CNS to Build Korea's Digital Asset Infrastructure: Chainlink and LG CNS have partnered to bring oracle, data and cross-chain tools to Korean institutions, with a focus on won-backed stablecoins and tokenized securities.
• Fireblocks Denies Report of $2.5 Billion Visa Acquisition Talks: Fireblocks has denied an Axios report that Visa was in late-stage talks to buy it for about $2.5 billion, calling it 'news to us, and not true at present time.' Visa declined to comment.
• Visa and Mesh Team Up to Let Crypto Wallets Pay at 175 Million Merchants: Mesh will connect crypto and stablecoin wallets to Visa's network, so holders can pay at stores and online without a separate crypto card. Launch timing and wallets are still to be announced.

Guides and analysis

• Token Unlocks Explained: What Really Happens to the Price (and What to Watch): A plain-English guide to crypto token unlocks: cliff vs linear vesting, why prices often fall before an unlock, why they don't always crash, and a checklist for reading any unlock.
• CRC-20 on CandyChain: Deploy Tokens and Smart Contracts With the Tools You Already Know: CandyChain's CRC-20 token standard is compatible with ERC-20, so anyone can deploy tokens and Solidity smart contracts on CANDY's own Layer 1 using MetaMask, Remix, Hardhat or Foundry.
• ONDO's Big Unlock on Jan. 18, 2027: Can Demand Absorb the Supply?: Ondo's next major token unlock lands on Jan. 18, 2027, with estimates of 1.71B to 1.94B ONDO. Here's what it could mean for a price already down about 80% from its high.

The week in numbers

Coming up in the CANDY ecosystem

Cardaxo, CandyRush and SugarPen are live, and Claimo is in beta. Still to come: CandyBet prediction markets, Candy RWA rewards tokenization, the CandyWorld app for CANDY and RUSH swaps, and the AI Agent Marketplace. CandyPulse will cover each launch as it happens.

Never miss a week

CANDY Weekly is published every Sunday. Bookmark candypulse.org, follow the daily headlines on the Crypto News Today page, and check the Bitcoin price today page for live prices.

This roundup is for information only and is not financial advice.