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Your morning Bitcoin brief: Bitcoin Core changes its security policy as AI eases bug hunting, South Africa may reconsider proposed crypto rules, China reportedly moves to confiscate $5 billion in bitcoin and other bitcoin news
As of Oct 23, 2026, 5:03 AM EDT
MARKET
Price $81,674 (-0.09%)
24h volume $27.3 bn
Dominance 60.0%
Sats / $ 1,224
NETWORK
Block #972,747
Hashrate 1,057 EH/s
Difficulty +5.01%
Retarget 6 days
Halving 536 days (63.2%)
MEMPOOL
Fee 1 sat/vB
TX 47,622
Size 24.5 MB
Queue 25 blocks
LIGHTNING
Capacity 3,794 BTC
Channels 32,665Bitcoin Core says keeping certain vulnerabilities secret no longer offers much protection now that AI-assisted bug hunting has arrived. cointelegraph.com
Older webpki-roots versions (RUSTSEC-2026-0381) trust compromised emSign certificates. Core CLN and the Lightning protocol are unaffected; exposure is possible when using the default-enabled plugin’s commands or bkpr-currency. A fix awaits upstream updates and a CLN release. x.com x.com
The release updates netlayer to v0.7.12 with the latest Tor security release, renews signing keys and refreshes bundled DAO data. @bisq_network says it updates often to keep pace with Tor’s roughly two-week releases and AI-driven bug discovery. github.com x.com
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana indicated the government may revisit the draft regulations following thousands of public complaints. news.bitcoin.com
The group asked congressional leaders to pass bipartisan crypto tax legislation; according to Bitcoin Magazine, the Clarity Act is near dead and the House bill has been stripped of mining and staking relief. bitcoinmagazine.com
Arkham’s Miguel Morel breaks down the transaction trail, whether the move points to a sale or a custody transfer, and reserve policy factors. bitcoinmagazine.com
Thursday’s withdrawals ended a three-day inflow streak and left the funds with $175 million in net outflows for October. cointelegraph.com
BIT Asset Management’s Bitcoin Fund ETF is expected to begin trading on SIX Swiss Exchange in November, with its public offering restricted to Switzerland. cointelegraph.com
The research finds ETF flows track past BTC price moves rather than predict future returns; per CryptoSlate’s coverage of the report, US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw outflows during seven of eight major selloffs. cointelegraph.com cryptoslate.com
The slide comes during so-called Uptober, a month when bitcoin is supposed to rally. bitcoinmagazine.com
A Fidelity analysis suggests such preferred stocks could draw income-seeking capital into bitcoin purchases, with investment outcomes tied to bitcoin’s performance and issuer strength. news.bitcoin.com
According to CryptoSlate, a reported PSBT v2 import failure affects mixed-version Core wallets, while an explicit RPC option still creates v0 files. cryptoslate.com
According to @HiglobeOfficial, US-based payers can send funds from Lightning-enabled wallets via Higlobe payment links, while Voltage’s infrastructure handles settlement. @gkrizek says it helps professionals receiving money from the US. x.com x.com
According to Ki Young Ju, public miners backed by major TradFi players are coming back online and boosting hashrate, which he sees as a positive sign for BTC’s fundamentals. cointelegraph.com
Per the post, @adam3us shares lessons from the cypherpunk movement with @AaronvanW at 10:30, and @BlockstreamJade is at a booth all day. x.com
According to Bitcoin Magazine, the alleged fraudster tried to abscond with nearly 62,000 bitcoins. bitcoinmagazine.com
On October 23, 1995, Mark Twain Bank in St. Louis began accepting applications for accounts to withdraw and deposit eCash over the internet. The bank offered DigiCash electronic cash denominated in U.S. dollars.
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