Crypto news, 19 October 2026: JPM Coin on Ethereum, OKX, Qubic and MiCA

Monday 19 October 2026. This round-up gathers the relevant facts published between the weekend and today, each checked against a primary or reliable source. There is no FINMA news on crypto assets.

Markets: bitcoin just below $82,000

According to CoinGecko data checked on 19 October at 18:29 (Zurich time), bitcoin is trading around $81,900, about CHF 67,700, up 1.0% over 24 hours; ether is around $2,400 (+1.4%). In the hourly series for the last 24 hours bitcoin rose from about $80,800 on Sunday at 22:00 to $82,800 this morning at 9:00. Over seven days bitcoin is down 0.6% and ether 4.6%. For US spot ETFs, the Farside tables do not yet show today's flows.

Tokenization: JPM Coin comes to Ethereum

JPMorgan has brought JPM Coin to the Ethereum mainnet. It is not a stablecoin but a deposit token: it represents dollar deposits at the bank and is reserved for institutional clients. Until now it was issued on Base, the layer-2 network built by Coinbase; the official page of Kinexys, the group's blockchain unit, now lists both networks. According to CoinDesk, the bank cites Ethereum's liquidity and its existing use by institutions; in January it had also announced plans for the Canton Network.

Tokenized shares: nine issuers say no to OKXICE

OKXICE, a 50/50 joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange (ICE, owner of the New York Stock Exchange) and OKX, is preparing a venue for trading tokenized versions of US shares against stablecoins, under the temporary SEC exemption published on 22 September. In its public notice of 15 October it lists nine companies that have filed a formal objection, including Broadcom, Verizon, CoreWeave and UnitedHealth. The rule is clear: if the issuer objects within 30 days of being notified, the venue cannot offer a third-party token of its shares.

Security: Qubic halts its network after 1,404 wallets are drained

Between 23:42 UTC on 17 October and 01:26 UTC on 18 October an attacker drained 1,404 wallets on the Qubic blockchain, for about 2.94 trillion QU, roughly $1.4 million according to Cointelegraph. The network was halted. The cause: seeds generated by the web wallet with JavaScript's Math.random() function, which is not suitable for cryptography; the fix released on 18 October (version 4.26.4) uses crypto.getRandomValues(). According to Qubic, 87.1% of the funds remained frozen on the network and the rest was frozen by the exchange MEXC. The lesson applies to everyone: keys should only be generated with verified tools.

Europe: the MiCA register and stablecoins in French tax law

The latest update of ESMA's interim MiCA register includes, among others, BingX EU, authorised by Austria's FMA on 13 October, YouHodler Italy, authorised by CONSOB on 8 October for five services including custody and exchange, and Openbank Deutschland of the Santander group. The file of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) has 379 rows for 376 distinct entities.

In France, the National Assembly adopted on Friday, in the first reading of the 2027 finance bill, amendment I-3898 by 38 votes to 37 with 25 abstentions: exchanging crypto assets for e-money tokens under MiCA would no longer benefit from tax deferral. The text is not final.

Sources

• CoinGecko, bitcoin and ether prices, checked on 19 October 2026 at 18:29: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin
• Farside Investors, Bitcoin ETF Flow: https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• J.P. Morgan Kinexys, JPM Coin: https://www.jpmorgan.com/kinexys/jpm-coin
• CoinDesk, JPM Coin on Ethereum, 19 October 2026: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/10/19/jpmorgan-s-jpm-coin-representing-dollar-deposits-is-coming-to-ethereum-bloomberg
• OKXICE, Public Notice of OKXICE TSV, 15 October 2026: https://www.okx.com/cdn/assets/files/2610/F085D8D65135AB9C.pdf
• Federal Register, SEC exemption for tokenized shares, 22 September 2026: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/22/2026-19388/order-granting-temporary-conditional-exemptive-relief-pursuant-to-section-36a1-of-the-securities
• Qubic, Security incident update, 18 October 2026: https://x.com/_Qubic_/status/2111796725677715474
• GitHub, qubic/wallet, seed generation fix: https://github.com/qubic/wallet/commit/09dd288c338c7ccfade043e840c53b80e795a916
• Cointelegraph, Qubic freezes chain, 19 October 2026: https://cointelegraph.com/news/qubic-freezes-chain-after-attacker-drains-14k-wallets-with-weak-seeds
• ESMA, interim MiCA register: https://www.esma.europa.eu/esmas-activities/digital-finance-and-innovation/markets-crypto-assets-regulation-mica
• YouHodler, CONSOB authorisation, 9 October 2026: https://www.youhodler.com/blog/youhodler-italy-consob-mica
• Assemblée nationale, vote no. 8836, 16 October 2026: https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/scrutins/8836

Information, not advice. Prices and data are those reported by the sources at the time they were checked.