Crypto news today: Bitcoin rejected near $85K, Fireblocks denies Visa talks and a16z widens beyond crypto

22 Oct 2026

22 Oct 2026, 22:10 UTC+02:00

TL;DR

Bitcoin gave back its push toward $85,000 on Thursday and slipped below $82,000 as weak tech signals hit risk assets, even as the network's hashrate climbed to a seven-month high. Fireblocks denied a report that Visa is buying it, a16z renamed its crypto fund to a16z Frontier, and SoFi launched a tokenized deposit paying 4.4%.

The stories that mattered for crypto traders on Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Markets

Bitcoin is turned back near $85,000. BTC topped out near $84,800 late Wednesday, then dropped more than $2,000 within about six hours and slid below $82,000 on Thursday. Tesla’s lower than expected Q3 capital spending revived doubts about the AI trade, and Asian stocks fell hard, with South Korea’s Kospi closing down 3.52%. Altcoins did worse than bitcoin, and CoinDesk’s DeFi sector index lost 5.6%. Cointelegraph also noted that open interest had climbed to $55.95 billion before the reversal, its highest since Sept. 25. (CoinDesk, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph; our full story)
Hashrate hits a seven-month high. BlocksBridge Consulting says bitcoin’s seven-day average hashrate is back above 1,000 EH/s for the first time since March 3, even as big public miners move capacity to AI. Difficulty rose 5.92% on Oct. 16 and another rise of about 5.16% is projected. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju called the recovery an “indirect bullish signal” from institutions backing public miners. (Cointelegraph, Cointelegraph)

Business and banking

Fireblocks denies Visa acquisition report. Axios reported that Visa was in late-stage talks to buy the custody firm for about $2.5 billion, far below its $8 billion valuation from 2022. Fireblocks said the report was “not true at present time”, Visa declined to comment, and Coinbase denied being involved in any deal. (CoinDesk, Cointelegraph)
a16z Crypto becomes a16z Frontier. General partner Chris Dixon said the renamed fund will also back AI products, autonomous machines and networks linking people and AI agents, while the firm keeps investing in crypto. Paradigm, Framework Ventures and Haun Ventures have made similar moves this year. (CoinDesk)
SoFi launches a tokenized deposit. SoFi Earn (SOFIE) pays a variable 4.4% APY, is covered by FDIC insurance up to the usual limits and converts one for one into the bank’s SoFiUSD stablecoin, which has no FDIC cover. It is rolling out to SoFi Crypto members through November. (Cointelegraph)
Coinbase Ireland fined EUR 3.25 million. The Central Bank of Ireland said the unit breached safeguarding and outsourcing rules. Coinbase said no customer lost money or access to funds. (CoinDesk; our full story)

Networks and upgrades

Ethereum drafts a four-minute finality plan. Researchers led by Ben Edgington proposed splitting validator votes so blocks can become final in about four minutes instead of roughly 16. The design is unfinished and has no activation date. (CoinDesk)
XRP Ledger fix slips to November. Support for the fixCleanup3_4_0 amendment briefly dropped to 26 of 35 validators, resetting its two-week countdown. It is now listed to go live on Nov. 4 and support has recovered to 31 votes. (CoinDesk)
Starknet backs research into its own layer 1. A non-binding vote passed with 93.52% of voting power in favor of exploring an independent, quantum-resistant chain. STRK stays the native token, and StarkWare hopes to publish a draft whitepaper in November. (Cointelegraph)

Politics

Winklevoss PAC enters the Texas Senate race. The Digital Freedom Fund reported spending more than $81,000 on direct mail supporting Republican Ken Paxton, and its total support for Jon Husted in Ohio has reached about $7 million. Election Day is Nov. 3. (Cointelegraph)

What it means for traders

Leverage is back in the picture: open interest built up before the rejection near $85,000, and CoinDesk says some market watchers see $82,500 as a level that could open a deeper slide if it breaks. Keep stops and position sizes realistic, and check funding and liquidation rules on your exchange using our exchange comparison, including BingX and OKX.
Custody and safeguarding are in focus: the Coinbase Ireland fine and the Fireblocks reports are reminders that how a platform holds client funds matters. See how we check this in our testing method.
Network upgrades can move timelines: the XRP Ledger delay shows how amendment votes can shift dates, so do not trade on activation dates as if they were fixed.

Related reviews

Sources

News is for information only and is not financial advice. More crypto news

Get crypto news first on our Telegram channel.

Join on Telegram