Biggest USD Stablecoin Returns to Bitcoin After 12 Years: Main Crypto News This Morning

Key crypto market updates of the October 2 morning: BTC hits $86,600 after Jobs report, USDT launches on Bitcoin, and SEC/CFTC draft joint rules.

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The crypto market is heading into Friday evening, October 2, 2026, amid a phase of powerful strategic accumulation. U.S. labor market data came in weak: Non-Farm Payrolls rose by just 29,000, against expectations of $84,000–$90,000, while unemployment climbed to 4.2%. The industry’s total market capitalization stood in the $2.94–$3.03 trillion range.

Bitcoin responded to the macroeconomic trigger with a gain, holding near $86,688.47, up 3.38% over 24 hours. Ethereum broke above the upper boundary of its prolonged sideways range and traded at $2,749.47, up 1.69%.

The institutional sector also showed strength. Net daily inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs turned positive at +$103 million, according to SoSoValue. BlackRock’s IBIT absorbed +$196 million, offsetting a $61 million outflow from Fidelity’s FBTC. Ether ETFs, meanwhile, recorded net daily outflows of $55 million.

This financial backdrop coincided with infrastructure changes, regulatory reforms in Washington, and the merger of Armada Acquisition Corp. II with Evernorth. Real-world asset (RWA) activity on Solana is setting new records, while the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, is preparing to return to the Bitcoin blockchain under Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino’s slogan: “It’s coming home.”

More than a decade later, the world’s largest stablecoin is returning to its native network. Utexo, a project actively backed by Tether, officially announced the launch of USDT on Bitcoin under a new commercial license.

The technology stack combines the security of Bitcoin’s base layer, the speed of the Lightning Network, and the privacy of the RGB protocol. Client-side validation keeps most transaction data off the public ledger, enabling private B2B transfers, direct BTC-USDT swaps, and BTC-backed lending without wrapped tokens.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino publicly backed the initiative, coining the phrase “It’s coming home.” Tether also co-led Utexo’s $7.5 million seed round alongside Portal Ventures and Big Brain Holdings.

Utexo co-founder Viktor Ignatyuk confirmed that the company is holding strategic talks with Morgan Stanley representatives in Washington to integrate the infrastructure into U.S. and European bank custody services. Hundreds of exchanges and wallets have already expressed interest in the launch.

The context behind this return:

On her final working day at the agency, Commissioner Hester Peirce, together with new SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, proposed reforms to digital asset custody rules. The proposal would formally allow RIA advisers and funds to use state-chartered trust companies for custody, as well as limited self-custody, subject to strict cybersecurity controls.

At the same time, the CFTC and SEC are fast-tracking a common set of rules to replace the stalled CLARITY Act. SEC Chair Paul Atkins acknowledged the industry’s evolution, saying that the crypto market had outgrown its status as a niche curiosity and become a trillion-dollar asset class. Other regulations—the Federal Reserve’s GENIUS Act proposals and the Innovation Exemption for NMS, which is in effect until 2031—remain in force.

Meanwhile, shareholders of Armada Acquisition Corp. II approved its merger with Evernorth. Shares in the combined company, under the ticker XRPN, are set to begin trading on Nasdaq on October 8. The company will hold 473 million XRP on its balance sheet, worth about $730 million. Against this backdrop, XRP rose to $1.5444, up 3.57%. October’s unlock followed the standard pattern: of the 1 billion XRP released from escrow accounts, only 300 million XRP entered circulation, while Ripple returned the remaining 700 million tokens to escrow.

The real-world asset (RWA) sector on Solana reached an all-time high, exceeding 1.2 million unique wallets holding tokenized stocks. According to Token Terminal, 775,000 new addresses joined the market in September—more than half of the all-time total. As a result, Solana now accounts for as much as 95% of on-chain activity in this segment. Solana’s native token, SOL, rose to $122.62, up 4.18%.

By contrast, the artificial intelligence sector, with a total market capitalization of $24 billion, missed the current rally. NEAR, last week’s leader, corrected by 4–9% to $4.80–$4.88. Bittensor (TAO) held in the $304–$311 range, while Render settled at $1.91–$1.97.

The session’s biggest laggard was Quant (QNT), which plunged 16% to $250 after news of its integration into The Clearing House system. The market quickly realized that the asset itself is not required for the interbank network to operate. Meme coin SHIB remained a passive passenger, trading in a narrow $0.00000575–$0.00000589 range, with a market capitalization of $3.4–$3.5 billion.

The current session is marked by a squeeze on bears. According to analytics service CoinGlass, total liquidations in the derivatives market over the past 24 hours reached $362.77 million, with positions forcibly closed for 79,443 traders.

Short sellers accounted for most of the losses: forced liquidations of short positions reached $269.87 million, while longs lost $92.90 million.

Open interest stood at 653,000 BTC—about $56 billion—alongside a threefold increase in funding rates. This points to an inflow of new leveraged long positions, rather than spot demand alone.

The weak Non-Farm Payrolls report, with a gain of 29,000, and modest hourly wage growth of 0.1% weaken the case for a Federal Reserve rate hike in October. At the same time, unemployment rising to 4.2% points to a gradual cooling of the labor market, rather than a collapse.

Yesterday’s manufacturing ISM PMI price index, at 77.9, remains the main inflationary counterweight for markets. Meanwhile, Citigroup’s annual targets of $113,000 for BTC and $3,028 for ETH continue to provide strong long-term psychological support.

The weak labor market report is fuel for a continued rally in risk assets. Alongside the Evernorth merger under ticker XRPN, Utexo’s upcoming launch of USDT on RGB, and SEC and CFTC efforts to prepare a replacement for the CLARITY Act, the market has a fundamental impulse to test Bitcoin’s psychological thresholds of $95,000 and $100,000.