Institutional appetite for Bitcoin has surged to new and unprecedented levels this year. 

As of October 8, global bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) and publicly traded companies have collectively acquired 944,330 BTC — already surpassing the total amount purchased in all of 2024. 

To put this in perspective, these institutions have bought roughly 7.4 times the new supply of bitcoins mined this year. 

With three months remaining in 2025, it’s safe to assume that rate will only go up. 

Bitcoin institution statistics from September

According to a monthly report shared by Bitcoin Treasuries with Bitcoin Magazine, public and private treasuries added a…

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Square has unveiled Square Bitcoin, a groundbreaking solution that allows local businesses to accept and manage bitcoin directly within the Square ecosystem. The platform combines Bitcoin Payments, Bitcoin Conversions, and a built-in Bitcoin Wallet, giving sellers zero-fee bitcoin transactions for the first year and seamless integration with their existing Square tools.

As cryptocurrency adoption grows rapidly—projected to rise 82% in the U.S. by 2026—Square is simplifying bitcoin use for Main Street businesses. With Bitcoin Conversions, sellers can automatically convert up to half of daily card sales into bitcoin, diversifying savings while managing everyday operations from one dashboard.

Square Bitcoin expands on the company’s mission to empower small businesses with advanced financial tools. By merging Block’s bitcoin expertise with Square’s commerce technology, the launch makes bitcoin as easy to use as cash or cards, helping sellers cut costs, control finances, and participate in the digital economy.

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The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has officially lifted its four-year ban on retail access to bitcoin and crypto exchange-traded notes (cETNs).

Starting today, firms can offer retail investors exposure to bitcoin and other cryptoassets through ETNs traded on FCA-approved investment exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange or Cboe UK. 

The change came into effect today after months of consultation and signals a more open — though still cautious — regulatory stance toward crypto.

“Since we restricted retail access to cETNs, the market has evolved, and products have become more mainstream and better understood,” said David Geale, executive director of…

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Polymarket, the crypto-native prediction market, has added support for bitcoin deposits, giving users a direct way to fund their accounts with BTC alongside other existing crypto options.

The move coincides with bitcoin’s recent rally to all-time highs above $126,000, currently trading around $124,300, and reflects growing demand for crypto-native funding options on prediction platforms.

Polymarket has taken the world by storm over the past two years, emerging as the largest prediction market where users trade shares tied to the outcomes of real-world events — essentially betting on what the future holds.

On Polymarket, traders are bullish about the bitcoin price….

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Bitcoin is pushing above $124,000 after touching the mid-$120,000’s in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin hit record highs above $126,000 earlier this week, but it seems investors took some profits and a strengthening U.S. dollar challenged the so-called “debasement-trade” flows. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $123,962.

Many investors have started to use bitcoin as a hedge against a potential devaluation of the dollar, known in trading circles as “debasement trades.”

The surge earlier in the week was fueled by heavy inflows into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) and speculative bets on fiat currency weakness amid a prolonged U.S. government…

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Polygon, the Ethereum Layer 2 network, has rolled out the Rio hard fork on its Proof-of-Stake mainnet — a major upgrade aimed at making the blockchain faster, lighter, and more efficient for global payments and real-world asset transactions. The update redesigns block production and introduces stateless verification to improve scalability.

At the center of Rio is the new Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP) model, where validators select a small group of producers to create blocks for longer durations. Polygon says this innovation reduces chain reorganizations, shortens block times, and ensures fair fee distribution, keeping all validators incentivized.

The upgrade also includes PIP-72, enabling “witness-based” stateless validation so nodes can verify blocks without storing the full blockchain state — cutting hardware costs and improving speed. Part of Polygon’s “GigaGas” roadmap, Rio aims to process up to 5,000 transactions per second, marking a key step toward faster and more reliable crypto infrastructure.

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