Need a quick overview of what happened in crypto today? Here are the biggest developments affecting Bitcoin, blockchain, DeFi, Web3 and crypto regulation, along with the key market trends investors are watching.
Today’s crypto headlines include a more bullish Bitcoin outlook from Standard Chartered, a sharp decline in MANTRA’s token following a blockchain halt, and billions of dollars being invested by Bitcoin miners into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
Standard Chartered Says $100K Bitcoin Target May Be Too Low
Bitcoin could move closer to its previous all-time high of $126,000 before the end of the year, according to Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered.
Kendrick believes Bitcoin’s latest recovery could gain additional momentum after October 6. He said the recent rally has been supported mainly by short liquidations, while inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs have also started improving.
Another potentially bullish factor is relatively low open interest. This could give new investors more room to enter the market if Bitcoin continues to rise.
Kendrick has now suggested that Standard Chartered’s $100,000 year-end Bitcoin forecast could prove too conservative.
Earlier in the year, Standard Chartered reduced its Bitcoin year-end target from $150,000 to $100,000. The bank also lowered its Ether forecast from $7,500 to $4,000.
At that time, Kendrick expected Bitcoin to potentially fall toward $50,000 and Ether to around $1,400 before recovering later in the year. The recent market rebound has now made that bearish scenario appear less likely.
MANTRA Token Falls to Record Low After Blockchain Halt
MANTRA’s native token suffered another sharp decline after the MANTRA Chain unexpectedly stopped producing blocks.
The token dropped approximately 18.5% from its 24-hour high, reaching a new all-time low of around $0.004126 late Thursday.
MANTRA later recovered slightly toward $0.0044. However, the token remained roughly 10% lower over the previous 24 hours.
Trading activity also increased dramatically. Volume jumped almost 600% to around $24 million, indicating heightened market activity following the network disruption.
MANTRA Chain Paused as Team Investigates Incident
The MANTRA team confirmed that an incident had affected the blockchain and said the network was temporarily halted as a precaution.
At the time of the announcement, the project had not identified the exact cause of the problem or provided a timeline for restoring the network.
The halt effectively froze transactions and prevented assets from moving across MANTRA Chain.
As a result, several exchanges affected by the disruption temporarily suspended MANTRA-related deposits and withdrawals. No confirmed timeframe has yet been announced for when normal services will resume.
Bitcoin Miners Spend Billions Expanding Into AI
Bitcoin mining companies are increasingly looking beyond cryptocurrency mining and investing heavily in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC).
According to data from BlocksBridge Consulting, Bitcoin miners spent more than $5 billion during the first half of 2026 on AI and HPC expansion.
However, those operations generated only about $341.2 million in revenue during the same period.
Among nine comparable publicly traded Bitcoin miners, companies invested roughly $15 in capital assets for every $1 generated from their AI and HPC businesses.
AI Infrastructure Spending Continues to Surge
Across a wider group of 15 Bitcoin miners and AI data-center companies, capital expenditure reached approximately $30.7 billion during their latest reporting periods.
That figure has already exceeded total spending for 2025 by around 42.6%.
Despite the enormous upfront costs, revenue from AI-related operations is beginning to accelerate.
The nine miners included in the comparison generated approximately $205.8 million from AI and HPC during the second quarter, representing a 52% increase compared with the previous quarter.
Companies including Core Scientific, TeraWulf and Bitdeer were among those reporting growth from these operations.
Why Bitcoin Miners Are Turning to AI
Transforming Bitcoin mining facilities into AI-ready data centers is expensive.
Companies often need to invest heavily in electrical substations, cooling systems, networking equipment, buildings and specialized computing hardware such as GPUs.
Nevertheless, many miners see AI and high-performance computing as an important diversification opportunity.
Traditional Bitcoin mining continues to face challenges from rising infrastructure costs, increasing competition and changing mining economics. AI workloads could therefore provide miners with an additional source of long-term revenue.
Crypto Market Outlook
Today’s crypto developments highlight three major themes shaping the market.
Bitcoin sentiment is improving as institutional analysts reconsider their price targets. At the same time, incidents such as the MANTRA Chain halt demonstrate the risks that remain within individual blockchain ecosystems.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining companies are attempting to transform themselves into broader digital infrastructure businesses by investing aggressively in AI.
Together, these developments show how rapidly the cryptocurrency industry is expanding beyond Bitcoin trading alone.
