GM, bitcoiner — October 24, 2026

Your morning Bitcoin brief: Lightning Labs’ Wavelength goes live on mainnet, a disclosed DoS flaw crashing Core Lightning nodes, Franklin Templeton registers ETFs turning dividends into bitcoin and other bitcoin news

Network Stats

As of Oct 24, 2026, 5:02 AM EDT

MARKET
  Price       $80,642  (-1.21%)
  24h volume  $22.4 bn
  Dominance   60.1%
  Sats / $    1,240

NETWORK
  Block       #972,905
  Hashrate    1,068 EH/s
  Difficulty  +5.62%
  Retarget    5 days
  Halving     535 days  (63.3%)

MEMPOOL
  Fee    1 sat/vB
  TX     53,099
  Size   25.7 MB
  Queue  26 blocks

LIGHTNING
  Capacity  3,754 BTC
  Channels  32,518

Lightning & L2

Lightning Labs’ Wavelength goes live on Bitcoin mainnet

An Ark implementation, the Wavelength SDK lets humans and agents send and receive bitcoin with a few API calls, self-custodial from the first command, with no node or liquidity to manage. Version v0.2.0 is out. x.com lightning.engineering

Security & Privacy

Researcher Nishant Bansal discloses a DoS flaw that crashes Core Lightning nodes

Versions v25.02 through v26.04 abort on a channel_announcement naming the same node twice and crash again on every restart until the record is removed by hand. The attack needs only an attacker-controlled 2-of-2 output and on-chain fees. Upgrade to v26.04.1 or later. delvingbitcoin.org nishantbansal2003.github.io

Funds & ETFs

Franklin Templeton registers ETFs that turn stock dividends into bitcoin

The $1.7 trillion asset manager registered two Nasdaq-listed funds that launch with a 95/5 split between US stocks and bitcoin, with every dividend buying more bitcoin. bitcoinmagazine.com

Institutions & Treasuries

Blockstream launches institutional consulting and opens a Lugano office

Blockstream will offer its engineering expertise to banks and asset managers from the new Swiss base; Lugano mayor Michele Foletti and partners Gonet & Cie joined the ribbon cutting during Lugano Plan B week. bitcoinmagazine.com x.com

Technology & Development

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #428 covers a single-issuer layer 2 with unilateral onchain exit

The issue describes a design whose users can redeem their bitcoin onchain without the issuer’s cooperation and summarizes a proposal to include hash preimages in output script descriptors, plus its regular sections. bitcoinops.org

@adam3us makes the case for Simplicity as Bitcoin’s last soft fork

The pitch on stage at Lugano Plan B: one expressive language with formal semantics could raise the security bar for Bitcoin scripts and open the door to opt-in Confidential Transactions or covenants. x.com

Regulation & Policy

Byron Donalds calls CLARITY “about as good as you can get”

In an Oct. 17 interview with Bitcoin.com News, the Florida congressman and gubernatorial candidate said governments should hold bitcoin, opposed a Fed-issued digital currency and doubted federal agencies can keep pace with markets. news.bitcoin.com

Community

Block launches “Bitcoin Does” national ad campaign

Head of Bitcoin Marketing Maria Pesce says the campaign, aimed at onboarding millions, focuses on real-world utility over technology. bitcoinmagazine.com

Bitcoin Rap Sheet

New York seeks $1.37B from Novatech founders in crypto fraud case

The demand against founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion follows a court’s default judgment; state filings show investors deposited more than $1.16 billion, while only about $26 million went to the platform used for trading. news.bitcoin.com

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