Bitcoin cooled as the dollar popped and gold cleared $4,000, the SEC teased real rulemaking, and ICE wrote a giant check to Polymarket.

If you want an edge this week, you'll see where to barbell risk, which timelines actually matter, and which niche is graduating from "interesting" to investable.

Undervalued High Flyers (Sponsored)

5 Stocks Poised to Soar

Imagine doubling your portfolio in just 12 months.

Our research team has zeroed in on 5 stocks with explosive upside potential — each positioned for +100% gains or more.

These rare setups don’t come often… and access to the report is completely free for a limited time.

Don’t wait — the window to download closes MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.

[Claim your free copy now before it’s gone.]

*This free resource is being sent by Zacks. We identify investment resources you may choose to use in making your own decisions. Use of this resource is subject to the Zacks Terms of Service.
*Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk. This material does not constitute investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Zacks Investment Research is not a licensed dealer, broker, or investment adviser.

Never Miss a Game-Changing Crypto Play Again!

We now send our daily picks via text, too, so you’ll get the same powerful content right on your phone.

👉 Click here to get crypto picks by text so you’re always in the know.

Market-Moving News

The dollar's surge is pinning Bitcoin while Gold does the safety work—so you can barbell: keep core BTC for scarcity upside and let gold hedge near-term shocks.

Meanwhile, the SEC's "innovation exemption" puts a real timeline on clarity, and clarity lowers risk premiums.

Prediction markets just leveled up with ICE's backing of Polymarket, which means deeper liquidity and better data pipes, not just headlines.

Read on for what to watch this week, where the next narrative could land, and how to position without chasing.

Markets

Gold Skyrockets Past $4K as Bitcoin Slips on a Stronger Dollar

Gold punched through $4,000 per ounce for the first time, while Bitcoin fell a little over 2% after failing to clear $126,000.

The divergence arrived as the Dollar Index jumped to 98.90, its highest since early August.

A stronger dollar often pressures USD-denominated assets, and Bitcoin felt the squeeze first.

The CoinDesk 20 also slid more than 4% to 4,186, signaling broader risk-off in crypto.

Technicals point to a possible pullback toward $118,000 if the dollar keeps firming.

That comes days after Bitcoin briefly tagged fresh highs above $126,000 on more than $3 billion of spot ETF inflows.

Gold's surge is being led by renewed demand for gold-backed ETFs.

ING notes holdings are the highest since September 2022, with room to grow before revisiting the 2020 peak.

Macro tailwinds add fuel as central banks diversify away from the dollar and geopolitical tensions stay elevated.

On-chain mirrors that move, with tokenized gold like PAXG and XAUT trading above $4,000, and the gold-token market cap topping $3 billion.

Take: If the dollar stays hot, Bitcoin's upside may consolidate while gold does the heavy lifting for "safety."

You can barbell here—keep core Bitcoin exposure for scarcity upside, and let gold (or tokenized gold) shoulder near-term macro jitters without overpromising on timing.

Policy

SEC Targets' Innovation Exemption' Rulemaking by Late-2025 to Early-2026

SEC Chair Paul Atkins says formal rulemaking for an "innovation exemption" remains a top priority.

The ongoing US government shutdown could push the timeline from the end of 2025 into early 2026.

Atkins argues crypto was "repressed" in recent years, pushing builders overseas.

His stated goal is to anchor innovation in the US rather than watch founders relocate.

A formal exemption would move the SEC beyond case-by-case enforcement and informal staff guidance.

Clear lanes could help teams plan launches, raise capital, and iterate without tripping over ambiguities.

Congress is also active, with attention on market structure and stablecoins.

The GENIUS Act is already yielding Treasury draft rules, laying plumbing for real-world payments and collateral use.

Not everyone thinks a broader market-structure bill crosses the finish line this year.

Even so, incremental guardrails for stablecoins and tokenized finance can still compound utility.

Take: Don't trade the headline—trade the clarity.

If the exemption lands, you get less regulatory fog, easier US launches, and better pathways for institutions to participate, which can lower risk premiums without promising straight-line price moves.

Time Runs Short (Sponsored)

7 Stocks Set to Move Before the Clock Strikes 2026

Every market cycle has a turning point — and this might be it.

Fed pivots, defense spending surges, and AI infrastructure growth are driving a quiet rotation beneath the surface.

We’ve pinpointed 7 companies with catalysts that could send them soaring before year-end.

This isn’t about speculation.

It’s about timing — and the window is closing fast.

Get your free “Q4 2025 Stock Advantage” report now before Wall Street catches on.

Finish 2025 in the lead, not left behind.

Investment

Polymarket Reveals $205M in Prior Rounds Ahead of ICE's Up-to-$2B Investment

Polymarket disclosed two previously unannounced raises: $55 million in 2024 and $150 million in 2025.

The 2025 round, led by Founders Fund, reportedly valued the company at about $1.2 billion.

Including earlier disclosed raises, pre-deal funding totals roughly $279 million.

The fresh disclosure follows Intercontinental Exchange agreeing to invest up to $2 billion at a roughly $9 billion post-money valuation.

ICE's involvement positions it to globally distribute Polymarket's event-driven data.

The partners also flagged future tokenization initiatives tied to prediction markets.

Polymarket lets users trade yes/no outcomes across politics, markets, and culture.

Institutional interest in event-based trading is climbing as regulated competitor Kalshi expands.

Activity on Polymarket has been setting records, including a new high for markets created last month.

The firm has also weighed new financing amid rising competition and plans for a structured US re-entry.

Take: With ICE at its back, Polymarket moves from niche to legit data infrastructure.

If you're hunting edges, watch for deeper liquidity, better market quality, and potential product integrations—not a guaranteed moonshot, but a stronger runway for the prediction-market niche.

Shifts Favor Select (Sponsored)

7 Stocks Handpicked For Advantage In The Current Climate

Every month, our system screens thousands of companies.

Only a handful qualify as true opportunities.

This time, just 7 Best Stocks passed every filter — and they’re primed for the next 30 days.

These names aren’t hype-driven.

They’re backed by strict earnings-based rules that have helped this model more than double the S&P 500 since 1988.

You’ll see which 7 stocks made the cut, why they stand out, and how they could be the most exciting trades in your portfolio right now.

[Download your free copy of the 7 Best Stocks today.]

Future Forward

The next catalysts aren't hiding in charts—they're on calendars. Conferences, airdrops, and launches are the moments where narratives upgrade from whispers to headlines.

If you want first-mover advantage, show up early and listen for the shift—who's building, who's funding, and who's pivoting. That's where positioning beats prediction.

Pick one or two to track closely, set alerts, and map your "if-this-then-that" plan now. When the room moves, you won't.

Crypto Conferences:

💎 10th Family Wealth Report Family Office FinTech Summit 2025 (Oct 9, 2025)

💎 Finxtex Trilogy UAE 2025 (Oct 9, 2025)

💎 Nigeria Blockchain and AI Week 2025 (Oct 9, 2025)

Upcoming Airdrops:

🎁 Cookie DAO (COOKIE) Airdrop (Oct 10, 2025)

🎁 Matchain (MAT) Airdrop (Oct 19, 2025)

Upcoming Token Launches:

🚀 Lern360 (LERN) IDO on Kommunitas (Oct 9, 2025)

🚀 Autify Network (AUTY) IDO on Spores (Oct 10, 2025)

🚀 EarnPark (PARK) Token Sale Tier 3 (Oct 15, 2025)

Which event are you most excited for? Let us know!

Crypto Know-How: What Is Polymarket?

Polymarket is a crypto-native prediction platform where you trade on yes/no outcomes for real-world events.

Think elections, sports, policy moves, or tech launches—if people debate it, you can likely trade it.

Each market is a question with two tokens: one pays $1 if the event happens, the other pays $1 if it doesn't.

Prices float between $0 and $1, so a 63¢ "Yes" suggests a 63% implied probability.

You don't need to hold a position forever—you can buy, sell, or flip as odds change.

That makes Polymarket useful for hedging, expressing views, or just getting a cleaner signal than social feeds.

For you, the value is twofold: sharper probabilities to guide decisions, and potential profit if your read is better than the crowd.

It's not risk-free, but it's a smarter way to turn opinions into positions.

Everything Else

• Kazakhstan shut 130 illicit crypto exchangers and seized $16.7M while tightening AML checks on large card top-ups—use licensed venues so your funds don't get frozen mid-sweep.

• Bitcoin miner-turned-AI infra player IREN popped about 9% on new multi-year NVIDIA Blackwell cloud contracts, hinting where GPU demand—and miner upside you can actually trade—is headed.

• An $11B Bitcoin whale moved another $360M in BTC to a DeFi wallet two months after rotating roughly $5B into Ether, a pattern that can cap BTC near term while boosting ETH liquidity if it continues.

• Two men in Scotland will stand trial for allegedly plotting to steal $23M in crypto—some of it planned from prison—reminding you to harden physical security, keep holdings private, and separate custody from your home.

• Ethereum's validator exit queue pushed past $10B with a 41-day wait, but institutions like Grayscale are restaking billions, so expect churn and redeployment into LSTs/DeFi rather than a straight supply dump.