Bitcoin news: 19 to 27 October 2026
8 stories from the Bitcoin world, 19 to 27 October 2026, each in a few sentences. Published 27 October 2026.
26 October 2026
Strategy buys no bitcoin and repurchases $205 million of preferred shares
Strategy, the largest company holder of bitcoin, reported on 26 October that it neither bought nor sold any bitcoin from 19 to 25 October, ending a five-week run of purchases. Instead it spent about $204.9 million from its cash reserve to buy back 2.07 million of its STRC preferred shares. Its holdings stay at 848,517 BTC, bought at an average of about $75,446 per coin.
The largest company buyer of bitcoin does not buy every week, and this week it used its cash on its own shares instead.
Source: The Block
26 October 2026
Strive adds 6,182 bitcoin for about $511 million
Strive said in a US securities filing on 26 October that it bought 6,182 BTC between 17 and 23 October for about $511 million. That takes its holdings to 43,000 BTC, fourth among public companies behind Strategy, Metaplanet and Twenty One. It also set up a program to sell up to $1 billion of preferred stock, and the money may be used for more bitcoin purchases.
It shows that some listed companies are still buying bitcoin in large amounts and keeping it on their balance sheets.
Source: The Block
23 October 2026
Lightning Labs launches its Wavelength payment toolkit on Bitcoin mainnet
Lightning Labs made Wavelength, its open-source toolkit for adding bitcoin payments to apps and AI agents, available to everyone on Bitcoin mainnet on 23 October. Payments travel over Lightning and settle on an Ark-style layer, users keep their own keys, and each account can hold up to 300,000 sats while the software is still an alpha. Lightning payments carry a 0.25% service fee on both sending and receiving, plus normal routing fees.
It lets developers add bitcoin payments to their apps without running a Lightning node, so more apps may start accepting small bitcoin payments.
Source: Lightning Labs
22 October 2026
Crypto industry group asks Congress to pass digital asset tax rules
The Blockchain Association, a US crypto industry group, sent a letter on 22 October asking the leaders of the House and Senate to pass bipartisan tax legislation for digital assets. The letter sets out 10 principles for a final bill, including an exemption for small transactions and no tax on moving coins between your own wallets, and says 67 million Americans hold and use digital assets. A House committee approved one such bill, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act (H.R. 10357), by 38 votes to 5 in September.
If a small-transaction exemption becomes law, people in the US could spend small amounts of bitcoin without working out the tax on every payment.
Source: Crypto Briefing
22 October 2026
Bitcoin hashrate climbs back above 1 zettahash per second
Bitcoin's seven-day average hashrate climbed back above 1 zettahash per second, or 1,000 exahashes per second, its highest level since 3 March, Cointelegraph reported on 22 October, citing BlocksBridge. The recovery came even though large listed miners have moved machines over to AI work, which BlocksBridge says has cut their own realized hashrate by 23%. Mining difficulty, which adjusts to this competition, rose 5.92% on 16 October.
More computing power securing the network makes it more expensive for anyone to attack or rewrite bitcoin transactions.
Source: Cointelegraph
22 October 2026
Spot bitcoin ETFs have their largest one-day outflow since June
US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds had net outflows of $635.6 million on Thursday 22 October, the largest for a single day since June, according to data compiled by The Block. BlackRock's IBIT ($254.1 million) and Fidelity's FBTC ($217.5 million) led the withdrawals, which more than erased the previous day's $528.4 million of inflows. Even so, the funds were still up $442.7 million for the week at that point.
ETF flows show whether people who hold bitcoin through ordinary brokerage accounts are putting money in or taking it out.
Source: The Block
22 October 2026
Bitcoin Core will release fixes for easy-to-find bugs faster
Bitcoin Core developers merged a change to the project's security policy on 22 October, proposed by Chaincode Labs developer Antoine Poinsot. Bugs that a simple AI query could find will now be fixed in every maintained release and published with a security advisory as quickly as possible, instead of being patched quietly and held for the next major release. Poinsot pointed to a rise in such reports as AI tools make flaws easier to spot, and one AI-driven audit in August logged nearly 5,000 findings across hundreds of crypto projects.
If you run your own node, security fixes for easy-to-find bugs will now arrive sooner, so install updates soon after they come out.
Source: Decrypt
19 October 2026
BlackRock files for a bitcoin ETF with downside protection
BlackRock filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 19 October for a new fund, the iShares Bitcoin Managed Protect ETF. If launched, it would aim to give gains tied to BlackRock's IBIT bitcoin fund up to a set limit, while offering some protection against losses. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said it is BlackRock's third bitcoin ETF filing, and IBIT already manages more than $65 billion.
It would give people who buy bitcoin through a brokerage account a way to limit losses, in return for giving up some of the gains.
Source: The Block
We write these summaries ourselves and do not give investment advice. Prices and plans change, so check the latest before you act on anything here.