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Your morning Bitcoin brief: MSCI’s new rules could squeeze Strategy’s bitcoin buying, nine blockchain groups launch a Quantum Alliance, two DoS vulnerabilities disclosed in older Eclair versions and other bitcoin news
As of Oct 17, 2026, 11:48 AM EDT
MARKET
Price $81,365 (-0.33%)
24h volume $18.6 bn
Dominance 59.4%
Sats / $ 1,229
NETWORK
Block #971,880
Hashrate 1,042 EH/s
Difficulty +2.03%
Retarget 13 days
Halving 543 days (62.8%)
MEMPOOL
Fee 3 sat/vB
TX 84,185
Size 41.2 MB
Queue 42 blocks
LIGHTNING
Capacity 3,750 BTC
Channels 33,101MSCI will exclude companies classified as non-operating businesses from its Global Investable Market Indexes; Strategy shares fell 9.6% in the first full session after the Oct. 15 announcement, though its 848,250 BTC remain about $5 billion above cost. cryptoslate.com news.bitcoin.com
The plan requires shareholders to approve changes to the dividend structure; Strategy intends to keep STRC’s 12% annual dividend rate. news.bitcoin.com
The bank ties the move to a target of 8% compound annual growth in its corporate banking services by 2028; co-head Gerald Podobnik said the services will complement its traditional offerings. news.bitcoin.com
Europe’s second-largest bitcoin treasury raised $30 million and grew its bitcoin holdings by 11% in the first half of 2026, despite a $75 million bitcoin impairment loss. cointelegraph.com
Bitcoin held above $80,000 as South Korean tech stocks recovered from a sell-off and traders lowered their expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike. cointelegraph.com
The coalition aims to set common security standards against a threat that could eventually put roughly 6.4 million BTC at risk, including an estimated 1.1 million tied to Satoshi Nakamoto. Keystone says it has joined to work on wallet security. news.bitcoin.com x.com
Covers the disclosure of two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in older Eclair versions and a proposed scheme for running complex multi-round contracts inside Lightning channels, plus new releases and release candidates. bitcoinops.org github.com
Peers would learn addresses via normal addr-relay and derive punch timing and partner choice from upcoming blocks; Anthony Towns asked whether attackers advertising real addresses could monopolize these connections. delvingbitcoin.org delvingbitcoin.org
Block’s Proto mining hashboards are now available on Sazmining’s mining-as-a-service platform. bitcoinmagazine.com
The CFTC joined Gemini in asking a federal judge to overturn the settlement after concluding its original lawsuit should never have been filed; the judge declined on Oct. 15, 2026. news.bitcoin.com
According to Chainalysis, one of the victims of last week’s Ledger theft was a scammer themself. bitcoinmagazine.com
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