Polymarket Rebuilds Its Contracts With Protocol V2

Polymarket started running production canary markets on a rebuilt smart contract system set to replace the Conditional Tokens Framework. Protocol lead Rajath Alex announced the upgrade, which swaps the 2019 Gnosis-based design for a single ERC-1155 positions contract.

The redesign introduces pUSD as collateral, one exchange per market type, and a router, trimming layers accumulated as new formats arrived. Coverage spans Binary, Atomic Neg-risk, Incremental Neg-risk, and Combinatorial markets at launch.

An OracleAggregator plugs into UMA, Chainlink, and other sources for resolution, while provisions exist to move positions and collateral across chains once Polymarket expands beyond its current network. Canary markets run through October 30.

Six firms audited the code, including Certora, which formally verified it, and the bug bounty pays up to $5 million for critical findings. The work lands as the company talks to raise $1 billion at a $21 billion post-money valuation.

ZachXBT Fronted $349,700 to Infiltrate Alleged Launderers

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT posed as a client to penetrate a Chinese organized crime network he alleges laundered over $1 billion for Lazarus Group. He funded an address with 349,700 USDC, losing roughly 5% per order with no guarantee of return.

A vendor called Jimmy Green discussed moving Bybit funds before transactions occurred, and three Solana addresses he shared exposed a $12 million cluster. Tether later froze 442,000 USDT, part of $75 million ZachXBT has helped freeze since 2022.

Ondo Opens Tokenized Private-Company Exposure

Ondo Finance unveiled Ondo Private Markets, issuing tokenized notes tracking the per-share value of a pre-IPO artificial intelligence company at qualifying liquidity events. Trading runs around the clock, open only to eligible non-US investors in permitted jurisdictions.

The notes convey no ownership or shareholder rights, standing instead as obligations of the issuer. Acting CEO Ian De Bode noted 87% of companies above $100 million in revenue stay private, while Ondo platforms hold $3.7 billion locked.

Circle and Ripple Back OKX at Flat $25 Billion Valuation

OKX raised fresh capital at a $25 billion valuation from Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, and London quant firm Qube Research & Technologies. The price matches March's round, when Intercontinental Exchange invested roughly $200 million.

The joint venture OKXICE is seeking approval to sell tokenized stock in 63 US companies including Nvidia and Apple. Under the SEC exemption, issuers get 30 days to object, handing each a veto over whether OKX lists their shares.

Data of the Day

A 4chan post from December 2023 called the October 2025 peak to the day, built on a pattern where lows to highs took 1,064 days and highs to lows took 364. Bitcoin duly topped at $126,198 on that date.

Adding 364 days lands the supposed bottom on October 5, with bitcoin near $86,100 and roughly 30% below its peak. It bottomed near $57,000 in July, though analyst Benjamin Cowen still flags a possible fourth-quarter floor near $44,000.

More Breaking News

• The CFTC proposed federal exchange oversight, using leverage as the trigger, with venues avoiding it able to keep operating under state licences instead.
• Prysm shipped a last-minute fix so validators propose 200 million gas blocks during Glamsterdam's Sepolia test, more than triple the previous limit.
• The Winklevoss twins filed for WINK, a spot Zcash fund charging 0.25% with Gemini custodying, undercutting Grayscale thirteen years after their first bitcoin attempt.
• Solana launched an open settlement standard shaped by J.P. Morgan input, compressing multi-day delivery-versus-payment into one atomic SOL transaction settling in seconds.
• Adam Iza received 78 months for defrauding Meta of $37 million and hiring off-duty deputies, running concurrently with a 15-year bitcoin robbery sentence.
• Paxos launched USDG on Arbitrum, where a proposal would add 100 million ARB in incentives as the stablecoin passes $3 billion in circulation.
• Strategy bought 334 bitcoin for $28.7 million, lifting the bitcoin treasury to a record 848,000 coins worth roughly $73 billion.
• Bitmine added 15,112 ether worth $41 million, reaching 99% of its 5% target as the ether treasury hit 6,016,414 tokens.