Kraken’s October delistings have moved into the withdrawal phase. Trading and deposits for 13 assets were scheduled to stop on October 23, while customers have a longer window to remove remaining tokens before the exchange begins liquidating balances.

TL;DR

• The trading cutoff has passed for 13 tokens named in Kraken’s notice.
• Withdrawals remain scheduled until January 29, 2027 at 15:00 UTC.
• Balances left behind face liquidation, with no assured recovery value.

The trading cutoff and withdrawal cutoff are different

The exchange’s official notice, updated October 8, names BMB, ELX, APU, BDXN, DUCK, BOS, U, OBOL, IDEX, FIS, UXLINK, ALTHEA and NOBODY. Deposits and trading were set to end at 14:00 UTC on October 23. The scheduled liquidation period is February 1–12, 2027.

These dates describe three distinct stages in an exchange’s handling of an asset. Losing an order book does not immediately eliminate the ability to withdraw. Conversely, being able to see a balance in an account does not establish that it can still be traded there.

A withdrawal also needs a destination that supports the actual token and network. A matching ticker on another service is insufficient evidence: tickers can be reused, and an asset can exist in multiple technical forms. The receiving service’s deposit status matters as well as the sending service’s withdrawal status.

The deadline problem resembles the operational transition in Binance Pool’s announced closure. A notice can leave time to act while still requiring customers to change where a service is performed.

A displayed reference price is not a liquidation promise

Kraken warns that thin or inactive markets could leave liquidation proceeds far below recent quoted prices, potentially negligible or zero. The notice does not offer a minimum sale price or a guaranteed percentage recovery.

That warning reflects a basic distinction between a price observation and an executable sale. A small last trade can set a visible reference price even when few buyers are willing to absorb a larger balance. The proceeds from selling an entire position depend on available demand at execution.

NewsBTC’s reporting on CoinShares’ BTF liquidation concerned a fund with an identified cash deliverable. Kraken’s notice describes a future process whose proceeds are still uncertain; the word liquidation does not imply the same economics in both cases.

Moving tokens to personal custody changes the responsibilities again. The key-control arrangements examined in NewsBTC’s custody coverage illustrate why possession, recovery arrangements and trading access are separate questions.

The immediate development is therefore a change in available actions. The trading date has passed, the withdrawal date remains ahead, and the eventual liquidation price has not been determined.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR: Google’s updated rules for UAE-targeted crypto exchange and wallet ads took effect October 21. Advertisers need an accepted local license and Google certification; the policy is not blanket permission for all crypto promotions.

Crypto exchanges and software-wallet providers targeting customers in the United Arab Emirates now face the licensing and certification conditions set out in Google’s updated advertising policy.

The change took effect on October 21, according to Google’s official policy notice. This is the implementation date of an earlier announcement, rather than a newly issued rule on Wednesday.

For the crypto exchange and software-wallet category, Google lists four accepted authorities: the Capital Market Authority, Dubai Financial Services Authority, Financial Services Regulatory Authority and Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Advertisers also need certification from Google.

A License And An Ad Approval Are Separate Steps

A financial-services authorization and permission to distribute an advertisement answer different questions. The first concerns the business’s regulated activities. The second concerns whether a particular platform will carry its marketing under that platform’s rules.

The updated notice links those processes but does not merge them. Possessing a license does not, on its own, establish that an advertiser has completed Google’s certification process.

Equally, a reader encountering an ad should not treat its appearance as an assurance about investment returns or a guarantee against loss. Advertising eligibility concerns access to the marketing channel; it is not an assessment of every transaction a customer might make afterward.

For firms, the operational consequences sit with campaign preparation. A company needs its authorization and certification details to match the service it is promoting and the jurisdiction it is targeting. Marketing teams cannot safely infer that eligibility in one market automatically carries over to another.

The notice also discusses other financial-product categories. Those should not be collapsed into one universal crypto rule: the license list above is the one Google provides specifically for cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets targeting the UAE.

The immediate change is therefore precise. Eligible providers have an updated route to advertising access, with a local licensing requirement and a separate platform certification requirement attached.

Related Reading

• Twitter Joins Facebook and Google in Banning Crypto Advertising
• Why Google is Removing All Bitcoin Mining Apps on the Play Store
• Block Takes Bitcoin Mainstream With First Major Consumer Ad Campaign

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

South Korea is approaching another decision point on its long-delayed cryptocurrency gains tax, with exchanges and policymakers preparing to discuss whether the January 2027 start date is realistic.

TL;DR: The country’s planned crypto tax has already been deferred three times. A new proposal would push implementation toward 2029, but no additional delay has been enacted.

Finance officials are expected to meet representatives of major domestic exchanges on October 20. The industry is arguing that the systems needed to handle different transaction types and calculate cost bases are still incomplete. A rushed launch, exchanges say, risks creating inconsistent tax treatment or driving activity to offshore platforms.

South Korea’s planned rate is commonly described as 22% after local tax is included, rather than a simple 20% all-in charge. The question now is less about whether crypto gains should ever be taxable than whether the supporting reporting infrastructure is ready for millions of transactions across different venues.

A lawmaker’s proposal would link the effective date to cross-border data sharing through the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, potentially moving the start to 2029. That measure requires legislative action; a meeting with exchanges cannot, by itself, change the law.

For investors, the current scheduled date remains January 2027 unless lawmakers decide otherwise. For exchanges, a later timetable could buy time to build reporting systems, but another postponement would also prolong policy uncertainty. South Korea has reached this crossroads before, which is why a proposed delay should not be reported as a settled outcome.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, has agreed to acquire Lithuania-based Saldo Bank, taking a route into European banking that goes beyond obtaining another exchange registration.

TL;DR: The proposed acquisition would give Payward an existing licensed banking operation in Europe. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2027.

Saldo provides banking products including loans and deposits. Bringing it into Payward would potentially put cash accounts, crypto assets and lending under a more connected product offering, rather than forcing customers to move between a separate crypto venue and their bank every time they need to borrow, spend or settle funds.

This is an important difference from a cryptocurrency firm simply partnering with an external payments provider. Ownership of a bank brings a regulated operating business, supervisory obligations and a different level of responsibility for customer money. Payward will not acquire unrestricted banking powers across Europe merely by signing the purchase agreement; the necessary approval and post-acquisition controls are still ahead.

The European push also fits a wider industry pattern. Crypto companies are pursuing banking relationships and charters as tokenized securities, stablecoins and conventional financial accounts become more closely linked. Existing lenders, meanwhile, are building crypto products of their own.

For Kraken users, the immediate message is about direction rather than a product they can use today. A completed acquisition could eventually make financing and fiat services feel less fragmented. Until regulators approve the transaction and the integration is completed, the promised benefits remain plans rather than available services.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

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TL;DR: Binance has launched a P2P merchant referral campaign across around 20 African markets. Referrers and qualifying new merchants can each earn 50 USDT if the new merchant completes the required number of trades and reaches at least 10,000 USDT of volume within 30 days.

Binance wants more merchants sitting on the other side of peer-to-peer crypto trades across Africa, and it is paying users to bring them in.

The exchange launched a new P2P referral campaign Thursday offering 50 USDT to both the referrer and a qualifying new merchant.

The promotion runs from October 8 through November 7 and covers a broad group of African markets, including Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and several countries in West and Central Africa.

The reward is not paid simply for sharing a referral link.

A new merchant has to complete at least 10 trades with 10 different counterparties and reach cumulative trading volume of at least 10,000 USDT equivalent within 30 days of registration.

That structure tells you what Binance is actually trying to buy.

It is not registrations.

It is active liquidity.

Peer-to-peer markets work differently from a normal exchange order book.

Merchants quote prices and payment methods directly to users who want to move between local fiat currencies and crypto.

The usefulness of the marketplace depends on having enough reliable merchants available across different banks, payment systems and currencies.

Africa has been one of the strongest regions for that model.

In markets where users face expensive international transfers, currency restrictions or inconsistent access to banking, P2P crypto can provide an alternative route into dollar-denominated assets such as USDT.

That also creates regulatory and operational challenges.

P2P trading can attract fraud, payment disputes and attempts to move money outside established compliance controls.

Binance therefore requires merchants to go through verification and can impose additional business onboarding requirements.

The referral campaign expands the network while keeping those qualification hurdles in place.

Each referrer can earn rewards for a limited number of successful merchant introductions.

Binance says payments will be distributed after the qualifying conditions have been met.

The campaign is another sign that the exchange still sees P2P as a strategic product even as regulated spot exchanges and stablecoin payment apps expand around the world.

A centralized exchange can offer a deep USDT market, but that does not automatically solve the problem of getting local currency into or out of the platform.

P2P merchants fill that last-mile gap.

The model is particularly powerful in countries where conventional crypto payment rails are thin.

Fifty dollars is not an enormous acquisition cost for a merchant capable of generating repeated local trading volume.

For Binance, the math is simple.

More verified merchants mean more payment options, tighter spreads and a better chance that a user can find someone willing to trade when they open the P2P marketplace.

The campaign is paying for the supply side of that network.

TL;DR: Hyperscale Data says Ault Markets is now providing invite-only access to a decentralized exchange running in beta on the Ault Blockchain. The publicly listed company plans to expand the platform with additional assets, including tokenized precious metals.

A publicly traded data-center company now has a decentralized exchange running in beta on its own blockchain ecosystem.

Hyperscale Data announced Thursday that Ault Markets has opened invite-only access to the DEX operating on the Ault Blockchain.

Users can request an invitation through the Ault Markets site while the platform remains in beta.

The company says the exchange follows a decentralized model in which listing decisions and trading are not controlled by a single centralized operator.

Ault Markets provides the software interface used to reach the exchange.

For Hyperscale Data, the launch is part of a broader attempt to build blockchain-based financial products alongside its existing AI, data-center and Bitcoin exposure.

The company trades on NYSE American under the ticker GPUS.

Its crypto strategy has already included Bitcoin holdings and the development of the Ault Blockchain.

The DEX gives that network a user-facing financial application rather than leaving it as infrastructure without a market attached.

Hyperscale says it plans to expand the range of assets available through Ault Markets over time.

Among the planned additions are tokenized silver, gold and platinum products.

Those assets are not live simply because they have been mentioned, and the company says further announcements will be required as they move toward launch.

Still, the roadmap shows where Ault Markets is trying to position itself.

The product is not being framed only as another venue for swapping crypto tokens.

It is also being built around the idea that real-world assets can trade through blockchain rails.

That puts Hyperscale into a crowded field.

Major exchanges, fintechs and specialized tokenization companies are all working on versions of tokenized stocks, funds, commodities and other traditional assets.

Ault Markets will have to prove that its own chain and distribution model offer something those larger competitors do not.

Invite-only beta access is a very early stage.

Liquidity is particularly important for any decentralized exchange. A technically functional market is not necessarily useful if users cannot execute meaningful trades without large price impact.

The platform will therefore need assets, market makers or liquidity providers and enough user activity to turn the software into an actual market.

Hyperscale’s public-company status makes the experiment more unusual.

Crypto-native teams launch DEXs constantly.

A listed US company doing it as part of a broader corporate strategy is still far less common.

For now, Ault Markets is small, gated and unfinished.

But it is live enough for invited users to start finding out whether the company’s blockchain ambitions extend beyond press releases.

TL;DR: Binance has launched a Meteora spot trading competition running through October 15, with 400 BNB in token vouchers allocated to the main prize pool. Eligible users must register and trade at least $500 worth of MET pairs to qualify.

Binance is using a sizeable BNB prize pool to push trading activity around Meteora.

The exchange launched a new spot competition on October 8 built around MET, with a total of 400 BNB allocated to the main rewards pool.

The event runs through October 15.

Eligible traders must register for the promotion and generate at least $500 in qualifying trading volume to receive rewards.

The largest prizes go to the highest-volume participants.

First place receives 12 BNB, followed by 10 BNB for second, 8 BNB for third, 6 BNB for fourth and 4 BNB for fifth.

Additional BNB is distributed across wider ranking bands, while smaller traders can share another portion of the pool proportionally.

Binance is also running limited reward rounds during the competition, creating extra BNB prizes around shorter trading windows.

It is a familiar exchange tactic.

Newly listed or strategically important tokens need liquidity, and competitions give active traders a reason to concentrate volume in a specific market.

That can tighten spreads, increase order-book depth and make the asset more visible inside the exchange.

The trade-off is that promotional activity can make short-term volume look more organic than it really is.

When users are trading partly to qualify for rewards, the resulting activity does not necessarily represent long-term demand for the token.

Meteora itself is closely associated with Solana’s liquidity infrastructure, giving MET a recognizable ecosystem story beyond the competition.

Binance’s campaign puts that token in front of a much larger pool of centralized exchange traders.

The promotion also shows how BNB continues to function as a customer acquisition and engagement tool inside Binance.

Instead of paying rewards in MET alone, the exchange is using its own ecosystem asset as the prize.

That can appeal to traders who are willing to trade MET but would rather receive something more liquid as the reward.

The competition is restricted to eligible verified users and excludes categories such as market makers and brokers.

Volume generated through certain zero-fee activity is also excluded from the calculations.

As with most exchange promotions, the fine print matters.

A trader who chases leaderboard position can easily spend more on fees or take more market risk than the eventual voucher is worth.

For Meteora, however, the objective is straightforward.

For the next week, Binance wants people trading MET.

Four hundred BNB gives them a reason to look.

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TL;DR: Yapı Kredi Kripto has selected Integral’s digital-asset technology to power pricing, liquidity and risk management for its upcoming regulated crypto trading service in Türkiye. The launch comes as the country builds a formal licensing framework for digital-asset providers.

One of Türkiye’s biggest banking groups is preparing to put crypto trading inside regulated financial infrastructure.

Yapı Kredi Kripto, the digital-asset business associated with Yapı Kredi, has selected Integral to provide technology for its upcoming cryptocurrency trading operation.

Integral’s systems will support pricing, liquidity aggregation and risk management.

In practice, that means the crypto business will be able to connect to sources of market liquidity while managing customer execution and exposure through infrastructure designed for institutional trading.

The timing is important.

Türkiye is implementing a new regulatory framework for digital-asset service providers, creating a clearer route for established financial institutions to offer cryptocurrency products.

Yapı Kredi’s move illustrates what that transition can look like.

Instead of customers being forced to choose between a conventional bank and a standalone crypto exchange, banks themselves can begin building regulated digital-asset businesses.

Türkiye is an especially significant market for that model.

Crypto adoption in the country has long been driven partly by an appetite for alternative stores of value and active trading.

That produced a large customer base before much of the institutional structure now being built around the sector existed.

Regulation changes the competitive landscape.

Large banks enter the market with existing customer relationships, compliance systems and recognizable brands.

Crypto-native exchanges, meanwhile, bring years of product experience and a culture of 24/7 trading.

Yapı Kredi Kripto will need both institutional-grade infrastructure and a user experience capable of competing with established digital-asset platforms.

Integral’s role is focused on the infrastructure side.

The company specializes in electronic trading technology and liquidity connectivity, giving Yapı Kredi a way to build the execution layer without creating every component internally.

The partnership also highlights a broader pattern.

Bank adoption of crypto is increasingly moving away from experimental pilots and toward operational services.

Customers do not care whether a bank has published a blockchain research paper.

They care whether they can actually buy, sell and hold assets.

Yapı Kredi is now building toward that stage.

And in a market as crypto-active as Türkiye, the arrival of major banks could reshape who ultimately controls the relationship with digital-asset customers.

TL;DR: Kraken Pro has launched a trading competition around perpetual futures linked to Oura and Moonshot ahead of their anticipated IPOs. The contracts provide price exposure to the private companies without conferring shares or an allocation in any future public offering.

Kraken is pushing crypto-style perpetual futures into an area normally reserved for venture capital and private markets: companies that have not gone public yet.

The exchange has launched a Pre-IPO Challenge centered on OURAx and MOONSHOTx perpetual contracts.

The products give traders exposure to market expectations around Oura and Moonshot before either company completes an anticipated initial public offering.

There is an important distinction.

Buying one of the contracts does not mean owning equity in either business.

Traders do not receive shares, voting rights or any allocation in an eventual IPO.

These are derivatives designed to provide price exposure.

Kraken allows eligible participants to trade the contracts with leverage of up to 10x.

The competition runs from October 6 through November 6 and includes a $10,000 USDG prize pool based primarily on trading volume.

Participants must enroll and reach at least $10,000 in combined volume across the eligible contracts to appear on the leaderboard.

The promotion itself is relatively small.

The product behind it is much more interesting.

Private-company valuations have traditionally been difficult for ordinary traders to access.

Employees, venture funds and specialist secondary-market investors can transact in private shares, but there is no continuous public market equivalent to buying Apple or Bitcoin.

Synthetic pre-IPO contracts attempt to fill that gap.

Rather than transferring the underlying equity, they create a market around expectations of what a company could eventually be worth.

Crypto exchanges are particularly suited to that format because perpetual futures already operate continuously and do not require an expiry date in the same way as conventional futures contracts.

But the products introduce obvious risks.

A synthetic price can diverge significantly from any eventual IPO valuation, and leverage magnifies that uncertainty.

Kraken explicitly notes that the contracts do not provide ownership of the underlying companies.

Still, the launch shows how quickly crypto derivatives venues are broadening their scope.

The same market structure built around Bitcoin and altcoins can increasingly be applied to stocks, indices and now private companies.

Crypto exchanges spent years borrowing products from traditional finance.

With pre-IPO perpetuals, the flow is beginning to move in the other direction.