Kaupr Digest — Sunday, 25 October 2026
Good evening!
SpaceX, Meta and Tesla reported rising spending on AI this week. Ken Griffin called AI "almost certainly" a bubble and Gartner warned of write-downs, while Fidelity and Blackstone saw less risk.
In Europe, Germany's savings banks, Deutsche Bank, Spanish and Austrian banks moved further into crypto, and Germany granted most of the region's MiCA licences. Bitcoin stayed between $80,000 and $85,000 as ETF money flowed back in, and the infrastructure behind stablecoins and tokenisation kept being built. Four threads ran through the week's Daily editions; here they are in one read.
Two live events are coming up: Who listens to bitcoin in Norway? on Saturday 31 October, and Impact Onchain on 4 November. You will find them further down, along with our new newsletter Onchain Finance, which published its first Onchain Money on Thursday.
— Morten
The debate over AI spending and debt
The warnings. Chip stocks had their longest losing streak since 2008. Citadel's Ken Griffin said investors are "almost certainly" in an AI bubble, and Gartner warned that more than $3.5 trillion of AI infrastructure spending could face write-downs. CoreWeave's bonds traded at 76 to 81 cents on the dollar.
The counterarguments. Fidelity's Jurrien Timmer sees the risk in high-yield debt rather than in stocks, and considers the large hyperscalers sound. Blackstone's Jas Khaira called fears over AI debt "overblown", as most data centre debt is backed by companies with strong credit.
The spending. AI now brings in more than half of SpaceX's revenue, much of it from leasing data centres to companies such as Anthropic, and SpaceX says its capital spending could double this quarter. Meta's capex pushed its free cash flow negative, and Tesla's profit fell 43% as it spends on robots and robotaxis. SpaceX and Tesla are also studying a merger.
The week gave investors both warnings and reassurances, while the quarterly numbers showed AI spending still rising.
European banks move into crypto
Germany leads. Customers of German savings banks can now trade bitcoin in their banking app, and Deutsche Bank is about to hold crypto for corporate clients. German authorities granted 42 of the 72 MiCA licences issued across Europe in the third quarter, mostly to banks.
Spain and the rest of Europe follow. Cecabank is taking its crypto custody to other EU countries, and Santander and BBVA ran a syndicated loan on blockchain from start to finish. Austria's Raiffeisen is rolling out crypto trading across its banks, and two Bulgarian banks are adding crypto to their apps.
More access for savers. Switzerland approved its first spot bitcoin ETF for retail investors. In Sweden, Goobit plans a savings platform for bitcoin, gold and interest, run through a Finnish MiCA-licensed partner while its own application is under appeal.
This week, more of Europe's crypto news came from banks and regulators than from crypto firms.
📅 Two Kaupr events
Hvem lytter til Bitcoin i Norge? — Saturday 31 October, 14:00–15:30 CET
Who in Norway is paying attention to bitcoin: banks, Norges Bank, politicians? Bitcoinpolitisk Institutt Norge joins us in the Kaupr studio to discuss bitcoin, politics and what lies ahead, on the anniversary of the bitcoin white paper. Free and online, in Norwegian, with a live draw for a trip to El Salvador.
Impact Onchain — Wednesday 4 November, 11:00–12:30 CET
Together with FirstBlock-athon Stockholm, we look at what it takes to turn hackathon work into lasting projects: funding, partners, pilots and buy-in, and blockchain beyond finance. Free and online.
Bitcoin stays between $80,000 and $85,000
A quiet market. Bitcoin held above $80,000, and its volatility fell to one of the lowest levels in two and a half years. In our Trendline, Venkat Hrushikesa Varri saw it settling into a range after a failed push towards $87,000.
Tested at $84,000. Bitcoin reached a weekly high near $84,500, then gave back more than $2,000 overnight at the same level that turned it back the week before. Glassnode points to $87,700, the average cost of buyers from late 2025, as the next resistance. By Thursday, bitcoin was below $82,000 as oil climbed and stocks fell.
Different readings. JPMorgan Asset Management expects bitcoin to beat stocks and gold over the next decade, but calls such a forecast premature. Options price in far more volatility than bitcoin has delivered. Meanwhile, US spot bitcoin ETFs took in more than $1 billion in three days, winning back October's outflows.
The price barely moved over the week, while views on where it goes next spread out.
Stablecoins, tokenisation and faster settlement
Markets that never close. Most trading in tokenised stocks now happens outside US market hours, and 73% of stablecoin volume moves when US banks are closed, according to Coinbase. Nine companies, including Broadcom and Verizon, objected to having their shares tokenised.
Banks and issuers build. Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley see tokenisation as a way to grow, and Circle plans to enter about 40 emerging markets. BeInCrypto argued that growing institutional use does not by itself lift token prices.
The infrastructure. Ethereum researchers proposed cutting settlement time from about 16 minutes to four. Fireblocks denied a report that Visa is in talks to buy it, and a16z renamed its crypto fund a16z Frontier, widening it to AI and other technologies.
Much of this week's progress was in the infrastructure underneath, from settlement times to custody.
Also this week
Walmart opened its store to AI shopping agents, using MCP, a protocol originally created by Anthropic, while Amazon has started blocking them.
Bitcoin Core will fix bugs faster, as AI makes vulnerabilities easier to find.
Zcash jumped 11% after developers set the date for an upgrade that makes payments confirm three times faster.
📬 New from Kaupr: Onchain Finance
Two tracks: Onchain Invest and Onchain Money
On 15 October we launched Onchain Finance by Kaupr, in two tracks that alternate every Thursday: Onchain Invest and Onchain Money. The first Onchain Money came out this week, on how everyone is building a version of money, from Sweden's digital krona to bank stablecoins and the digital euro.
Kaupr Today comes in two editions
Kaupr Daily — daily signals on onchain finance, every weekday.
Kaupr Digest — the week's most important news in one read, every Sunday.
More from Kaupr
Onchain Invest — tokenised assets, wealth and markets, for anyone putting money to work, every other Thursday.
Onchain Money — stablecoins, banks and payments for businesses and consumers, every other Thursday.
Onchain Growth — weekly briefing on the Nordic and Baltic onchain industry, every Tuesday.
Onchain Build — notes for builders, organisers and operators.
Onchain Community — where the industry meets between issues.
Kaupr Events — upcoming events, curated picks and full recordings.
Kaupr Weekly — ten-minute podcast on the week's most important news, every Sunday.
Thank you for reading Kaupr Digest. Wishing you a good Sunday — Kaupr Daily is back on Monday morning.
Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor