Top Stories of The Week
Bitcoiners lose their mind after Scott Bessent walks into a Bitcoin bar
The Bitcoin community lit up on Thursday after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an unannounced appearance at the launch of Washington’s new Bitcoin-themed bar, Pubkey.
“Having the Secretary of the Treasury at the Pubkey DC launch seems like a moment I could easily look back on and say ‘wow, it was all so obvious,’” Bitcoin treasury company Strive’s chief investment officer Ben Werkman said in an X post on Thursday.
Steven Lubka, Nakamoto’s vice president of investor relations, called it “the sign you have been waiting for.”
Many other prominent Bitcoiners, including Bitcoin analyst Fred Krueger, Gemini chief of staff Jeff Tiller, Bitcoin podcaster Natalie Brunell, and Bitcoin Policy Institute co-founder David Zell, also viewed Bessent’s appearance as a hugely positive sign for Bitcoin.
India’s government may consider stablecoin framework, diverging from RBI
The government of India may consider stablecoin regulations in its Economic Survey 2025-2026, while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) takes a “cautious” approach to crypto and pushes for a central bank digital currency, revealing a divergence in policy recommendations.
The government will “present its case” for stablecoins in the annual report published by India’s Ministry of Finance, which outlines key policy recommendations and the state of the economy, business publication Moneycontrol reported, citing an official familiar with the matter.
However, the central bank continues to urge a “cautious” approach to stablecoins, according to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, speaking at the Delhi School of Economics on Thursday.
Bitcoin hits ‘most bearish’ levels: Is the bull cycle ending?
Bitcoin is entering bearish territory as institutional demand dries up and key market indicators point to a downward phase, according to data from analytics platform CryptoQuant.
Bitcoin market conditions have turned the “most bearish” within the current bull cycle that started in January 2023, CryptoQuant said in its latest crypto weekly report shared with Cointelegraph.
CryptoQuant’s Bull Score Index has declined to extreme bearish levels of 20/100, while the BTC price has fallen far below the 365-day moving average of $102,000 — a key technical level and the final bearish signal marking the start of the 2022 bear market.
The price drop comes amid weakening institutional demand, including reduced buying by Bitcoin treasury firms such as Michael Saylor’s Strategy, along with limited inflows into exchange-traded funds.
Warning: WhatsApp worm targets Brazilian crypto wallets, bank accounts
Brazilian crypto holders are urged to be on the lookout for a sophisticated hacking campaign that includes a hijacking worm and banking trojan shared via WhatsApp messages.
According to a new report from Trustwave’s cybersecurity research team SpiderLabs, the banking trojan, known as “Eternidade Stealer” is being pushed via social engineering on messaging application WhatsApp such as “fake government programs, delivery notifications,” messages from friends and fraudulent investment groups.
“WhatsApp continues to be one of the most exploited communication channels in Brazil’s cybercrime ecosystem. Over the past two years, threat actors have refined their tactics, using the platform’s immense popularity to distribute banker trojans and information-stealing malware,” said Spiderlabs researchers Nathaniel Morales, John Basmayor and Nikita Kazymirskyi.
Ex-Coinbase lawyer announces run for New York Attorney General, citing crypto policy
Khurram Dara, a former policy lawyer at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, officially launched his campaign for New York State Attorney General.
In a Friday notice, Dara cited his “regulatory and policy experience, particularly in the crypto and fintech space” among his reasons to try to unseat Attorney General Letitia James in 2026.
The former Coinbase lawyer had been hinting since August at potential plans to run for office, claiming that James had engaged in “lawfare” against the crypto industry in New York.
Until July, Dara was the regulatory and policy principal at Bain Capital Crypto, the digital asset arm of the investment company. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as Coinbase’s policy counsel from June 2022 to January 2023 and was previously employed at the crypto companies Fluidity and AirSwap.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $84,785, Ether (ETH) at $2,753 and XRP at $1.95. The total market cap is at $2.90 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Starknet (STRK) at 24.86%, Aster (ASTER) at 12.01% and MYX Finance (MYX) at 9.06%.
The top…
cointelegraph.com