Crypto News Roundup: Hoskinson at the UN, Midnight Goes Permissionless, and the SEC and CFTC Step In
Charles Hoskinson makes the case for exponential crypto adoption at the United Nations, Midnight opens mainnet to every developer as NIGHT more than doubles, and US regulators move after the Clarity Act stalls.
Editor's note (October 2026): The ULTRA ISPO has closed and the ULTRA token will not launch. ISPO ADA is being refunded to delegators, and the ULTRA pool now runs as a regular Cardano stake pool. Read the update.
Three stories worth your time this week: Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson took the case for crypto to the United Nations, Midnight opened its mainnet to every developer and NIGHT more than doubled, and Washington's regulators started writing the crypto rules that Congress could not pass.
1. Hoskinson at the United Nations: crypto is going exponential
Charles Hoskinson spoke at the United Nations in New York on October 2, during the Government Blockchain Association's Future of Money, Governance and the Law week, which brought policymakers, regulators and builders to Washington and New York. You can watch his remarks on X.
His argument was about the shape of the adoption curve. Exponential technologies look slow for years, then infrastructure gets cheaper, new users arrive and everything moves at once. In his words, "very little does something, a little bit more does everything". He pointed to the internet and AI as technologies that were underestimated early, and to renewables: Germany once expected a few percent of its power from renewable sources, and they made up 55.9% of its public net electricity generation in 2025.
His crypto example was tokenized stocks, which he said have grown about fivefold, from roughly $600 million to around $3 billion, in under two years. His conclusion: blockchain has reached the steep part of the curve.
For us, the timing is notable. The same week Hoskinson made that case to a UN audience, the SEC opened a five-year path for tokenized US stocks to trade onchain (more on that below), and Midnight, the chain he founded and where ULTRA will live, opened its doors to every developer.
2. Midnight: permissionless mainnet, and NIGHT more than doubles
Midnight's mainnet has been live since March, but until now every smart contract needed a security review before it could deploy. That gate came down on October 2. Developers can now deploy contracts straight to mainnet without prior approval, and applications can deploy contracts on behalf of their users. The Midnight Foundation still recommends testing on Preprod first.
The market noticed. NIGHT started September near $0.019, was trading around $0.024 on September 24 and then rose for eight straight days. It touched about $0.052 early on October 3 and was trading near $0.048 as we wrote this, a market cap of roughly $800 million and a gain of about 160% since September 1 (CoinGecko).
The dev pipeline behind the move is real:
- Node 1.0.3 shipped on September 26 with security fixes, described by Midnight CTO Sebastien Guillemot as the last main technical release before contract deployment. Node 1.0.4 is due shortly after.
- v8 will bring private contracts to mainnet, and a v9 composability upgrade that lets contracts call each other could land before the end of the year, according to Guillemot.
- Wallets and tooling: Gero Wallet 2.7.1 added full dApp support, shielded mainnet balances and sponsored DUST fees. Google Cloud launched a testnet NIGHT faucet, and Ura is piloting fee sponsorship on Preprod, so apps can cover transaction costs for their users.
- Builders: a VIA Labs cross-chain sprint drew 37 developers, moved USDM from Cardano to Midnight and produced five private payment apps.
Why this matters for ULTRA. ULTRA is built to launch on Midnight, and open contract deployment is the milestone we have been waiting on. ULTRA delegators are earning their allocation every epoch through the ISPO, and a chain that any developer can now build on is good news for everything that comes next. We will share launch details when they are locked, not before.
3. Clarity stalls, so the SEC and CFTC step in
On September 15 the Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The cloture vote went 49 to 50, eleven short of the 60 needed to start debate. Every Democrat who voted opposed it, along with four Republicans, and the main sticking point was an ethics provision covering crypto dealings by senior officials. Sen. Thom Tillis filed a motion to reconsider, so the bill can come back (The Defiant).
What followed was a burst of regulatory action, and nearly all of it pointed in crypto's favor.
SEC: an Innovation Exemption for tokenized stocks (Sept. 17). Two days after the vote, the SEC opened a five-year exemption that lets qualifying venues trade tokenized versions of US-listed stocks on public, permissionless blockchains through licensed automated market makers. The tokens must carry the same rights as the underlying shares, and the smart contracts must be public and auditable. Chair Paul Atkins tied the move directly to Congress stalling.
CFTC: wallets can connect to regulated markets (Sept. 17). The CFTC extended no-action relief to all providers of "passive software", including non-custodial wallets. They can connect users to regulated futures and derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers, as long as they never hold customer funds or steer trades.
CFTC: crypto market rules head to the White House (Sept. 18). Chairman Michael Selig said in August that if Clarity stalled, the CFTC would use its existing authority. It has now sent a crypto rulemaking to the Office of Management and Budget for review. The text is not public yet, but Selig has described a new registration category for crypto trading venues modeled on regulated futures exchanges.
CFTC: tokenized collateral and blockchain records (Sept. 24). New FAQs let regulated firms invest customer funds in tokenized versions of assets they could already hold, as long as the token carries the same legal and economic rights. Blockchains can now satisfy CFTC recordkeeping rules. Selig says markets should prepare for "mass tokenization."
SEC: buybacks and liquid staking (Sept. 25). SEC staff published FAQs saying that token buybacks on a functional, decentralized network do not by themselves make a token a security, and that qualifying liquid staking receipt tokens are not securities either. The FAQs carry no legal force, but they show where the agency's thinking is.
The catch. Agency guidance and exemptions can be revised by the next set of commissioners in a way that a law cannot, and that is why the industry still wants Clarity passed. For now, though, US crypto has clearer guidance than it has had in years. For a US-based Bitcoin miner and Cardano stake pool like us, that is very good news.
The takeaway
Three stories, one direction. Tokenization is moving from pilot to policy, privacy-preserving infrastructure like Midnight is open for building, and US regulators are writing rules rather than lawsuits. We are building in the right places.
Delegate to the ULTRA pool to earn ULTRA each epoch, and follow along on the Ultra Labs blog for the next roundup.
This post is for information only and is not financial advice. Prices are as of October 3, 2026, and crypto assets are volatile.