Crypto news, 24 October 2026: bitcoin below 80,000 dollars, the SEC, Initia and Franklin Templeton
Bitcoin slips below 80,000 dollars, the SEC adds tokenisation to its 2027 examination priorities, Initia halts after an exploit, Franklin Templeton grows on the XRP Ledger and the LIBRA case is dismissed.
Saturday, 24 October 2026. We bring together the relevant facts of the last 24 hours, each checked against a primary or reliable source. In focus: a weak weekend for markets, US supervision of tokenisation, a new security incident and a growing tokenised money market fund.
Markets: bitcoin slips below 80,000 dollars
According to CoinGecko data checked on 24 October at 18:08 (Zurich time), bitcoin is trading at around 79,700 US dollars, about 65,700 Swiss francs, down 2.4% over 24 hours; ether is at around 2,300 dollars (-4.3%). On Friday evening bitcoin was still close to 81,600 dollars. Over seven days bitcoin is down 1.9% and ether 4.4%. In CoinGecko's daily series this is the lowest level since mid-September. CoinDesk links the weakness to reports of US personnel being evacuated across the Middle East.
According to Farside, US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of 137.9 million dollars on Friday 23 October, including 110.3 million from BlackRock's IBIT and 31.8 million from Fidelity's FBTC; the figure for one smaller fund was not yet available. The provisional balance since the start of October is about -313 million. Ether ETFs closed at +4.4 million.
United States: the SEC lists tokenisation among its 2027 examination priorities
The SEC's Division of Examinations has published its priorities for fiscal year 2027, covering more than 34,000 registrants. The areas named include risks associated with evolving market infrastructure, including Treasury clearing reforms and tokenisation, which the document mentions twice: among the high-risk areas in examinations of clearing agencies, alongside default management and securities lending, and among the emerging trends for examinations under Regulation SCI, together with extended trading hours and quantum computing. The document has no dedicated section on crypto assets. The list is not exhaustive.
Security: the Initia blockchain halted after an exploit
On 23 October at 15:41 UTC Initia halted its layer 1 network and connected rollups because of a security incident. According to an update published by the team on Saturday, at 14:59 UTC an attacker exploited a bug in the script caching of Initia's MoveVM that allowed security checks to be bypassed, and credited themselves with unbacked WETH, iUSD and USDC tokens. Before the halt, roughly 2.7 million dollars were bridged out of the network and swapped for 1,135.52 ether on Ethereum. According to Initia, no native INIT was minted. A fix is being prepared and is expected to be audited within a few days; the network remains halted.
Tokenisation: Franklin Templeton expands its money market fund on the XRP Ledger
According to a CoinDesk review of ledger records, Franklin Templeton issued new shares of its Singapore-domiciled tokenised money market fund (sgBENJI) worth about 150 million dollars on the XRP Ledger, linked to two subscriptions of 75 million each. The number of shares on the network rose from about 48 million to almost 193 million, worth about 200 million dollars. All of them sit in a single wallet; it is not known whether it represents one investor or several. Holders must be approved by Franklin, which can also freeze and recover the tokens.
Argentina: the LIBRA memecoin probe into Milei is dismissed
An Argentine federal judge has dismissed the criminal case against President Javier Milei, his sister Karina and others linked to the launch of the LIBRA memecoin, which collapsed in February 2025. According to CoinDesk, the judge found that promoting the token on social media did not amount to fraud without evidence of a specific deception. Investors removed as plaintiffs have appealed to the cassation court; if reinstated, they could challenge the dismissal.
Sources
- CoinGecko, bitcoin and ether prices, checked on 24 October 2026 at 18:08: 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/
- SEC, press release of 23 October 2026 and 2027 examination priorities: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026-109-sec-announces-fiscal-year-2027-examination-priorities, https://www.sec.gov/files/2027-exam-priorities.pdf
- Initia, official posts of 23 and 24 October 2026: https://x.com/initia/status/2113661738625155217, https://x.com/initia/status/2113915002008612945
- Cointelegraph, article on the Initia exploit: https://cointelegraph.com/news/initia-halts-blockchain-exploit-drained
- CoinDesk, Franklin Templeton on the XRP Ledger: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/10/24/franklin-templeton-adds-usd150-million-in-fund-shares-to-xrp-ledger-all-in-one-wallet
- CoinDesk, dismissal of the LIBRA case: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/24/argentina-drops-criminal-probe-into-president-milei-over-crashed-memecoin-libra
