Crypto news, 21 October 2026: the OCC and the GENIUS Act, Standard Chartered, Malaysia and Solana
The OCC's first final stablecoin rules, Standard Chartered acquires Zodia Custody, tokenised bonds in Malaysia, Alpenglow on Solana and outflows from ether ETFs.
Wednesday 21 October 2026. This round-up gathers the relevant facts of the last 24 hours, each checked against a primary or reliable source. Today's focus is on stablecoin rules in the United States and banks moving into crypto custody.
Markets: ether ETF outflows top one billion in October
According to CoinGecko data checked on 21 October at 18:13 (Zurich time), bitcoin is trading at around 84,500 US dollars, about 69,800 Swiss francs, up 2.6% over 24 hours; ether is at around 2,510 dollars (+3.1%). Over the last 24 hours bitcoin moved between 82,500 and 84,500 dollars; over seven days bitcoin is up 3.1% and ether 3.3%.
According to Farside, US spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net 23.2 million dollars on Tuesday, after 526.7 million on Monday; the month-to-date balance is -64.8 million. Ether ETFs lost another 26.1 million: the thirteenth outflow in fourteen October sessions, taking the monthly total to -1,084.5 million. Citing SoSoValue data, Cointelegraph describes it as the largest monthly outflow of 2026.
United States: the OCC adopts the first final GENIUS Act rules
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which supervises US national banks, has issued its final rule implementing the GENIUS Act, the federal payment stablecoin law signed in July 2025. It sets requirements on reserves, redemption, risk management, audits and reports, custody, licence applications and the supervision of foreign issuers. Anti-money laundering and sanctions rules will follow in a separate rulemaking with the Treasury. The rule and the act take effect on 18 January 2027; the OCC will announce separately when it starts accepting applications. According to CoinDesk, the rule states that existing stablecoin rewards programmes are not presumed to comply and will be assessed case by case.
Custody: Standard Chartered acquires Zodia Custody
Standard Chartered has signed definitive agreements to acquire 100% of Zodia Custody, which has regulated entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg. After completion, subject to regulatory approvals, the custody business will be integrated into the bank's Securities Services. The software and services arm will move to Zodia Solutions, a new company under SC Ventures backed by banks including Northern Trust, NAB Ventures, SBI Ventures and Emirates NBD. Financial terms were not disclosed, and no disruption is expected for clients.
Malaysia: the central bank launches SSDS+ for tokenised bonds
Bank Negara Malaysia has launched SSDS+, a platform built in-house on cloud and distributed ledger technology to issue, record and safekeep tokenised bonds and sukuk. It is connected to the RENTAS+ settlement system, which enables round-the-clock payments in central bank money. Beyond wholesale issues, the platform is ready for tokenised government and corporate bonds aimed at retail investors.
Technology: Alpenglow goes live on Solana, with roots in Zurich
Today at around 16:00 Swiss time, Solana validators replaced the TowerBFT consensus protocol, in use since 2020, with Alpenglow. According to Anza, the team that developed it, a transaction now becomes irreversible in about 150 milliseconds instead of 12.8 seconds. The research group that published the design in May 2025 is led by Roger Wattenhofer, a professor at ETH Zurich.
Sources
- CoinGecko, bitcoin and ether prices, checked on 21 October 2026 at 18:13: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin
- Farside Investors, Bitcoin ETF Flow and Ethereum ETF Flow: https://farside.co.uk/btc/, https://farside.co.uk/eth/
- Cointelegraph, 21 October 2026: https://cointelegraph.com/markets/ether-etf-outflows-near-1-1-billion-october
- OCC, news release and Bulletin 2026-50 of 21 October 2026: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2026/nr-occ-2026-92.html, https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2026/bulletin-2026-50.html
- CoinDesk, 21 October 2026: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/10/21/occ-s-final-rule-to-start-fresh-in-weighing-stablecoin-rewards-against-genius-act-ban
- Standard Chartered, press release of 21 October 2026: https://www.sc.com/en/press-release/t/
- Bank Negara Malaysia, press release of 20 October 2026: https://www.bnm.gov.my/-/ssdsplus
- Anza, press release of 21 October 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alpenglow-is-live-on-solana-the-worlds-fastest-finality-on-a-global-network-302915579.html
