Deutsche Bank to Launch Its First Digital Asset Service in Coming Weeks

A new Bank of America report shows U.S. stock funds recorded another $39 billion in weekly inflows, putting the annualized inflow on track to reach $636 billion this year, a record high. U.S. Treasuries have logged inflows for 16 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch since August 2024. However, Bank of America’s strategy team led by Michael Hartnett remains "risk-averse", citing rising real yields, price movements in AI and bank stocks, and potential volatility from the midterm elections. EPFR data indicates global stock funds drew around $64.5 billion in inflows in the week ended October 14. U.S. large-cap stocks saw $32.5 billion in inflows, while growth, value, and small-cap stocks posted inflows of $1.6 billion, $1.2 billion, and $1.1 billion respectively. Tech stocks led with $10.7 billion in inflows, while financial and consumer stocks saw outflows of $1.4 billion and $0.6 billion respectively. Emerging markets recorded $17.7 billion in inflows, Japan drew $0.4 billion, and Europe saw outflows of $1.5 billion. Safe-haven assets were also popular: U.S. Treasuries drew $3.6 billion in inflows, investment-grade bonds $3.5 billion, municipal bonds $4.5 billion, and emerging market bonds $0.8 billion. High-yield bonds saw outflows of $0.9 billion for the third straight week. Cash funds saw outflows of $53.1 billion, gold drew only $0.1 billion in inflows, cryptocurrencies saw outflows of around $0.6 billion, and bond funds as a whole posted $11.8 billion in inflows. The fund flows stand in contrast to the cautious stance of Bank of America’s strategists.

CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju took to X to share his views on MicroStrategy (MSTR)'s market outlook, noting that analysts are not concerned about potential exclusion from the MSCI index, and MSTR's market consensus remains strongly bullish. Ju cited Wall Street target price estimates for MSTR: Citi at $240, Barclays at $175, and B. Riley at $195, adding that these targets are trending upward rather than downward. He argued that MSCI status is merely a capital flow narrative that has already been priced into the market. According to Ju, the key metrics to watch now are: mNAV of approximately 1.0x, STRC at par value, and $3.75 billion in reserves sufficient to cover dividends. Supported by Wall Street target price hikes and solid financial metrics, MSTR's bullish thesis has not been undermined by the MSCI factor.

Modular blockchain project Celestia has announced the launch of Eden, a high-performance EVM chain built on Celestia. Celestia says Eden will act as an experimental sandbox for "Agentic Commerce", used to test the behavior and infrastructure needs of AI agents when conducting on-chain autonomous payments, transactions, and model calls. Celestia notes that as AI agents start engaging in more frequent on-chain transactions, market demand for block space, real-time settlement, and low-friction payments will continue to rise. Eden will help teams observe what transaction environment agents need, how they manage funds, and how their on-chain activities will impact network design. Eden’s first experimental project is Botfun, which is currently in closed beta. Per Celestia, participating agents can issue their own tokens and trade around narratives generated by other agents; each model inference call is paid on-chain via x402. Celestia states this experiment briefly pushed Eden to become one of the largest x402 networks by transaction volume. Technically, Eden is an EVM-compatible chain supporting atomic batch transactions, application-sponsored gas payments, and larger smart contract deployments, with its native gas token being TIA. These designs will reduce signature and fee friction when agents execute consecutive payments, swaps, and interactions.

Crypto analytics account CryptoOnchain noted in its latest report that Ethereum’s market structure has improved following Binance’s leverage liquidation, but no clear bullish catalyst has emerged. ETH is currently trading around $2,439, down 6.5% over seven days and 5.2% over 30 days, with an overall on-chain score of roughly zero, indicating a neutral stance. Positive factors cited in the report include: Binance’s open interest fell 4.7% over 30 days to around $6.1 billion, with long liquidations rising 47%, showing fragile leverage is being cleared out; funding rates are also near zero. Additionally, Binance’s ETH reserves dropped 2.4%, reducing its supply share and easing selling pressure; its staking rate stands at 36.1%, in the 98.6th percentile. However, negative factors are also prominent: Binance’s USDT reserves fell 2.3%, with stablecoin net outflows of around $175 million, indicating insufficient new buying funds; Coinbase’s premium is -0.11, signaling weak institutional demand. On the network activity front, transaction volume dropped 4%, and burn fees fell 58%. CryptoOnchain concluded that Binance’s leverage has been largely cleared, making the market structure healthier, but no bullish catalyst is yet present. If USDT flows back to Binance and Coinbase’s premium turns positive in the future, Ethereum’s outlook could shift to bullish.

The Tokenized Asset Coalition (TAC) has launched the Global Access Protocol (GAP), a framework designed to enable the composability of tokenized securities within decentralized finance (DeFi). TAC stated that the protocol was jointly developed with the Digital Securities Initiative over a period of one year, during which multiple discussions were held with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and U.S. Department of the Treasury. Further details will be unveiled next week. Additionally, TAC announced 12 new members, including Ascend, Control, Cryptio, Digital Securities Initiative, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, Euler, Lava, OpenZeppelin, Overmatch Capital, Protocol Wealth, Reserve, and T-RIZE.

The Quantum Alliance, a consortium of nine crypto firms, was launched today. Publicly disclosed members include security company Hacken, Charles Hoskinson’s Midnight Foundation, quantum-resistant Layer 1 blockchain Quantus, and Postquant Labs; additional members have not yet been individually named. The alliance will develop common security standards for blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is estimated that roughly 6.4 million Bitcoin—representing 30.2% of the total supply—have exposed public keys, including around 1.1 million linked to Satoshi Nakamoto. Existing quantum computers are not yet capable of stealing these assets. However, the Quantum Alliance has significant internal divisions over the quantum threat timeline and response strategies. Bryn Bennett, chief revenue officer at The Vault, stated no one knows the exact date, but estimates of when quantum threats will become actionable are constantly advancing. Richard Carback, CTO of Postquant Labs, believes 2028 is a realistic timeline. The core debate centers on whether to freeze vulnerable assets. Carback advocates for transferring rather than freezing, while Bennett points out that freezing is a governance decision for the Bitcoin network, and any freeze would set a precedent that trades property rights and network neutrality for quantum risk. Previously, CZ suggested freezing Satoshi’s Bitcoin, and developer Jameson Lopp also proposed restricting vulnerable tokens, though critics argue this violates Bitcoin’s fundamental promise of non-seizure. Moving forward, the alliance plans to publish joint security testing and migration guidelines.