Биткоин снова на дне: российский крипторынок бьет рекорды, а Bitcoin Core вызывает споры Translation: Bitcoin Hits a Low Again: Russian Crypto Market Sets Records While Bitcoin Core Sparks Controversy

The prices of digital gold fell below $104,000, with the Russian cryptocurrency market becoming a leader in Europe by trading volume. A controversial update for Bitcoin Core was released, along with various other developments from the past week.

At the start of the week, the value of the leading cryptocurrency continued to recover following the market crash on October 11. It stabilized above $115,000, but then entered a gradual decline.

The correction intensified sharply on October 17, a Friday, amid widespread liquidations, particularly of long positions. The price of digital gold dipped below $104,000.

As usual, the decline in Bitcoin pulled the entire market down, with leading altcoins experiencing an even steeper retreat.

As a result of a rebound, Bitcoin’s price clawed back to approximately $108,500. Over the week, marked by heightened volatility, digital gold decreased in value by 2.9%.

Most other cryptocurrencies in the top ten by market capitalization finished the week in positive territory. Solana’s price rose by 5.3%, while Ethereum gained 4.2%.

The exception was the BNB token, which fell by 9.6%. Negative news surrounding Binance likely pressured the asset’s price; the exchange was accused by the community of selling listings to crypto projects, and the media reported an ongoing investigative inquiry by French regulators concerning the platform.

The total market capitalization decreased from $3.9 trillion to $3.8 trillion, with Bitcoin’s dominance slightly declining to 57%.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index remained in the negative zone, with a reading of 29 indicating fear in the market.

From July 2024 to June 2025, the volume of the Russian cryptocurrency market reached $376 billion, placing Russia at the top among European countries, according to a Chainalysis report.

Traditionally, the UK led the list but has now dropped to second place with a figure of $273.2 billion. Rounding out the top five are Germany ($219.4 billion), Ukraine ($206.3 billion), and France ($180.1 billion).

Experts also noted a record surge in cryptocurrency transactions originating from Russia, with the figure hitting $379.3 billion.

Key drivers include an increase in significant institutional transfers. Transactions above $10 million jumped by 86%, nearly double the European average.

The Bitcoin Core team released version v30 of the client, which sparked mixed reactions within the community.

All previous versions of the software are now considered «end-of-life» and will no longer receive updates.

Bitcoin Core v30 includes bug fixes, modifications to base fee rates, improved performance, and mining interactions.

However, the key change was the increase in the data transfer limit in outputs using OP_RETURN from 80 to 100,000 bytes. This aims to significantly enhance the volume of non-financial transactions on the network. Users still have the option to set a manual limit by specifying the -datacarriersize parameter.

The proposal to lift the limit was put forward in April by Bitcoin developer Peter Todd.

This initiative created a split in the community. Opponents argue that it encourages the use of the network for non-financial transactions, which could clutter and overload the blockchain. Another concern involves the potential distribution of illegal content, for which node operators could face legal repercussions.

Supporters counter that users will find alternative methods to publish arbitrary data, and miners have the ability and incentives to include such transactions in blocks.

Since the Bitcoin Core team’s announcement in June about lifting the limit in release v30, the client’s market share has dropped from 88% to 78%. Competing solution Bitcoin Knots, which offers stricter filters, has gained traction, with over 21% of node operators transitioning to this software.

Tether, the company behind the most popular stablecoin USDT, introduced an open-source wallet development kit (WDK).

According to the company’s website, the toolset is «designed for people, machines, and AI agents.» Multi-chain wallets can be integrated into any devices—from the most compact embedded systems to mobile, desktop, and server platforms.

The developers believe that non-custodial wallets are foundational to a free and open financial system. They «create a resilient infrastructure that is immune to interference or control from centralized entities.»

Thanks to the open-source nature of WDK, anyone can create «their own independent, secure permissionless solutions.»

On October 14, a test version of a major Ethereum upgrade called Fusaka was successfully deployed on the Sepolia network.

Reports indicate that the activation took 20 minutes.

The next phase will involve testing the upgrade in Hoodi, scheduled for October 28. On December 3, the hard fork will be launched in the mainnet of the second-largest cryptocurrency.

The primary goal of Fusaka is to enhance Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency. A significant improvement will be the introduction of the PeerDAS protocol (EIP-7594), which is expected to double network throughput.

In a new piece from the «Silicon Tanks» series, the revolutionary efforts of hacker Richard Stallman in liberating software through the creation of copyleft licenses were recalled. Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin endorsed this concept.

In a series of articles about the Global South, the digital paradox facing Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country with a valuable youth demographic, was examined.

In the traditional digest, essential events in cybersecurity over the week were recapped.