Richard Heart, the founder of HEX, was detained in Istanbul this week as the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization fell by $246 million. At the same time, Starknet opened a vote on whether to become a post-quantum layer-1 blockchain, while the broader digital-asset industry weighed new wallet-security concerns, stablecoin growth and a potential Binance.US fundraising round.
According to Cointelegraph, the developments formed part of a volatile week for the crypto market, which also included a more optimistic assessment from Bitwise and new concerns about whether some crypto-focused companies could be excluded from major stock indexes.
HEX market value falls after Istanbul detention
Turkish authorities detained Richard Schueler, widely known as Richard Heart, during an early-morning raid in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district on October 14. Turkey’s Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said police also searched 15 related addresses and seized $7.15 million in cash, firearms and ammunition.
News agency Anadolu reported that nine luxury vehicles registered to Schueler’s wife were impounded. Authorities also reportedly found 28 watches, 300 bags and 19 graphics cards.
HEX’s market capitalization declined from $561 million to $315 million during the week, a reduction of $246 million. Supporters of the project said authorities had not yet confirmed whether Schueler had been formally arrested or charged.
The detention follows an Interpol Red Notice issued two years ago after Finnish authorities sought Schueler’s arrest over allegations of tax fraud and assault. Finland’s National Bureau of Investigations declined to comment.
Turkish media have referred to Schueler as “Whale James” and connected him with a $1 billion unregistered securities offering in the United States. That case was dismissed by a US judge in February 2025.
Images circulating in Turkish media appeared to show Heart surprised and without trousers, although the lower part of the image was blurred. Cointelegraph said it could verify only that the image was circulating, not whether it had been altered. HEX critic Eric Wall, who has debated Schueler, said he initially believed the image was AI-generated but later came to believe it was genuine.
Starknet considers post-quantum transition
Starknet has opened a vote on whether to change from an Ethereum layer-2 network into a post-quantum layer-1 blockchain. A layer-2 network generally operates on top of another blockchain, while a layer-1 is a base network with its own core infrastructure.
The proposal comes amid new developments in quantum computing and concerns about the future security of elliptic curve cryptography, a system used widely in digital assets. Google said its Willow quantum processor had demonstrated a process called “magic state cultivation,” reducing errors 40-fold and achieving 99.99% accuracy for a specialized quantum state.
Theta Labs has also published three quantum circuits that it says could reduce by 28% the number of qubits needed to break elliptic curve cryptography, compared with Google’s current estimate of 1,175 logical qubits.
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said Ethereum’s post-quantum plans could be too slow to address the potential challenge from artificial intelligence and quantum computing. More than 99% of votes cast so far supported the proposed change.
Starknet’s STRK token fell 46.7% over the week after rising sharply the previous week. The decline made it the worst performer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies listed in the source material.
Wallet protection, stablecoins and exchange funding
Ledger introduced Atom, an $849 hardware wallet designed to combine crypto storage with smartphone-style applications. The company said the device separates Android applications from sensitive wallet functions and can detect tampering even when it is switched off. Ledger also said the design would block implants involved in a recent incident involving wallets sold through an Asian reseller.
Atom is expected to ship in summer 2027. Planned features include AI-agent approvals, encrypted messaging and post-quantum cryptography. The announcement followed Ledger’s confirmation that malicious implants had been found in wallets sold through a reseller in Asia. Those reseller channels have since been suspended, while more than $90 million was reportedly stolen.
A public dispute has also emerged between former Mt. Gox chief executive Mark Karpeles and Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. Karpeles said people had notified Ledger about spyware in tampered devices as early as December 2025. Gauthier responded by referring to Karpeles’ record before the Mt. Gox hack.
Standard Chartered now forecasts that stablecoin market capitalization will reach $2 trillion by 2030, extending its earlier timetable by two years. The bank said the market had levelled off at about $309 billion this year, even as transaction activity continued to rise. That suggests existing stablecoins are being used more frequently rather than growth being driven primarily by new issuance.
The European Banking Authority classified Circle’s USDC as a significant e-money token under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets framework. The designation has been granted to 45 projects.
Binance.US is reportedly seeking as much as $100 million in private funding at a potential valuation of $1 billion. That would be below the exchange’s $4.5 billion pre-money valuation in 2022, when it raised $200 million in seed funding.
Market picture and the broader outlook
Moneyiar market data at 22:19 on October 19, 2026, showed Starknet trading at $0.0579048604, down 3.73% over 24 hours and 34.31% over seven days. Ark was at $0.1749928207, down 9.94% over seven days but up 2.86% in 24 hours. Starpower was priced at $0.1691322256, with gains of 26.33% over 24 hours and 55.76% over seven days. Infinity Ground traded at $0.1025293171, down 31.28% over 24 hours while remaining up 48.1% over seven days.
The source material said Bitcoin was down 3.8% at $81,484 for the week, Ethereum had fallen 5.7% to $2,386 and XRP had declined 8.3% to $1.28. Total crypto-market capitalization stood at $2.72 trillion.
Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan offered a more positive interpretation of the quarter. Bitwise reported a 46.4% gain in its large-cap crypto index during the third quarter and $6 billion in inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, bringing net flows for the year back into positive territory. Hougan described the pattern as evidence of a possible “crypto spring.”
Other developments remained less encouraging. MSCI adopted index rules that could lead to the removal of Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi from its global indexes. Russia said direct peer-to-peer crypto transactions between individuals would be banned from July 1, 2027, requiring authorized intermediaries for such trades. The regulator also said individuals could not transfer crypto from digital accounts to their own self-custodial wallets.
