Odaily reports: Prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket expanded ahead of the US midterm elections in November, with combined monthly trading volume reaching $53 billion in July, more than double the $26 billion recorded in May, with trading concentrated primarily in sports.

Political trading accounted for a relatively small share, with Polymarket averaging about $2 billion per month this year and Kalshi under $300 million; as of July, trading volume around which party controls the House and Senate had exceeded $30 million.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had previously prohibited Kalshi from listing congressional control contracts and at one point proposed classifying election contracts as gambling. The agency withdrew the relevant proposal in February and on June 10 published a structured event contract framework proposal that would not classify elections as gambling. Kalshi launched its Midterms Hub the same month, displaying traders' implied probabilities for individual districts alongside polling averages.

Chuck Todd, former NBC News political director and former host of Meet the Press, will host the NEXTPredict summit in New York on October 22–23. He said he hopes to understand the extent to which pollsters and prediction markets need and influence each other, and whether trading is used for hedging or entertainment. Research by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective found that a $3,500 bet could move 97% of midterm election-related market prices by at least 5 cents; Morgan Stanley, after studying more than 72 million Kalshi trades, found that prices closely tracked outcomes. (Decrypt)

Odaily report: Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has reached a partnership with Singapore-based payment network Thunes to connect stablecoin transfers with bank account and mobile wallet payouts, covering billions of accounts. The partnership targets vendor payments, gig income disbursements, and international remittances, with recipients able to receive funds in real time via bank accounts or mobile wallets.

Coinbase will integrate Thunes' Direct Global Network, gaining the ability to receive funds through local clearing systems and alternative payment methods. Thunes is responsible for the "last mile" of funds entering recipients' bank accounts and mobile wallets, with its network covering more than 140 countries and over 90 currencies.

Coinbase will provide stablecoin infrastructure to help Thunes further incorporate relevant tokens into its business operations. Thunes said its network connects more than 12 billion mobile wallets, stablecoin wallets, and bank accounts, and covers over 220 payment methods. (Bitcoin.com News)

Odaily reports: According to Odaily monitoring, a certain address's contract account has accumulated losses of approximately $38.1879 million, with the official figure including unrealized PnL. Between 22:51 and 23:15 on October 20, 2026, it closed a BTC long position worth approximately $3.2378 million, then opened a BTC long position worth approximately $3.2407 million and a BTC short position worth approximately $3.7572 million.

Address: 0x1f250df59a777d61cb8bd043c12970f3afe4f925; Total PnL: -$38.1920 million (sample as of 2026-10-20 22:51)

Odaily: Bitcoin Treasuries posted that Strive (ASST) is pushing for the second spot on the Bitcoin treasury rankings, with a funding round of $700 million that was 2x oversubscribed. As of now, cumulative Bitcoin treasury holdings have reached 36,818 BTC. SATS has begun trading. @GrafYves, @TheOtherParker_, and @TylerCompiler will provide analysis on this, and the discussion also touches on whether STRC has a pricing discrepancy relative to SATA.

Odaily: Coinbase will add support for Axis Labs (AXIS). Users can now generate an AXIS deposit address on the Coinbase website, Coinbase app, and Coinbase Exchange, but only in regions where trading is supported. AXIS deposits will be unavailable until the asset issuer unlocks transfers.

Odaily reports: Mastercard has announced early access to its AI agent payment system, Agent Pay for Machines, and demonstrated actual transactions at the Cloudflare Connect conference. Built on the open protocol x402, the system allows AI agents to autonomously discover services, negotiate transaction terms, and complete payments, while operating under human-preset budget caps. When an agent accesses a paid service and receives a "402 Payment Required" response, it generates a digitally signed payment credential, which the service provider verifies before delivering the service; the credentials can be settled in batches. In the demonstration, a marketing agent completed 9 payments to two independent merchants under a single budget, without needing to register separate accounts or handle separate invoices. Coinbase provides wallet services, Base handles on-chain settlement, and BVNK supports fiat or stablecoin payments and settlement through Mastercard's Global Money Platform. Mastercard will also provide developers with buyer and seller APIs, SDKs, and a testing environment, and has already conducted end-to-end pilots with Cloudflare, AWS, Coinbase, and other organizations.

Odaily: Ethereum staking volume has now risen to a record high of 43.8 million ETH, accounting for 35.9% of the total ETH supply. At the same time, staking yields and the number of validators have both declined. (Cointelegraph)

Odaily reports that according to Gate data, Brent crude oil (XBRUSD) briefly pulled back to $110/barrel, currently at $110.05/barrel, with a 24-hour gain of 0.1%.

Odaily reports: Cryptocurrency trading platform OKX launched its Shield account protection program in the United States on October 20, with eligible users able to receive up to $500,000 in coverage. The program covers certain unauthorized account takeovers caused by phishing, malware, and SIM-swap attacks, and users must enable passkeys and other security settings.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his interest in cryptocurrency began in 2011, and he currently serves on OKX's board of directors and co-chairs the company's joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. He supports OKX's push to tokenize US stocks and said some companies remain on the sidelines.

Andrew Cuomo expects that the CLARITY Act will not receive a vote before the 2026 midterm elections, with the next opportunity possibly in January next year. He said the US Congress should reduce partisan strife and establish clearer federal rules for the digital asset market; companies such as Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet are currently cautious about tokenized stocks. (Bitcoin.com News)

Odaily: Sources say negotiations between Iran and the United States are still ongoing, and reports that the two sides are about to reach an agreement are untrue. (Jinshi)

According to Lookonchain monitoring, a new address suffered 5 more liquidations in the past hour, with a cumulative loss of $1.11 million over 2 days.

According to Odaily, the Flap founder posted on X, stating that they heard the rewards would be distributed very soon, but the community will also receive more rewards.

Odaily reports: The wallet address associated with Irish drug dealer Clifton Collins has resumed fund transfers after more than 10 years of dormancy, moving 500 BTC to Coinbase Prime, valued at approximately $41.52 million. There were previously rumors that his private key had been lost, and roughly 6,000 BTC under his name had been in an inaccessible state.

According to Gate data, Brent crude oil (XBRUSD) fell to $108/barrel, currently at $107.87/barrel, a 24-hour decline of 1.8%.

Odaily: Hunter Biden, son of former U.S. President Joe Biden, posted that more than 12% of LAPTOP tokens have been permanently burned, with another 30% of the tokens tied to real-world prediction events. Hunter Biden explained that if the relevant predicted events come true, the corresponding tokens will be burned; if the predictions do not materialize, the tokens will be donated to charity.

Odaily: An address dormant for 10.7 years has just been activated, containing 500 bitcoins currently worth $41.5363 million; in 2016, these bitcoins were worth $195,000.