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News · Oct 6, 2026 · 4 min read

Bitcoin today: CFTC proposes its first crypto rules, Treasury drops wallet and mixer rules

The CFTC opened rulemaking for US crypto trading on Monday, and Treasury's FinCEN withdrew two proposals that would have put paperwork on transfers to self-custody wallets. Bitcoin held near $86,000 as Strategy bought another 334 coins.

Firsthand card: "Bitcoin today: CFTC proposes its first crypto rules, Treasury drops wallet and mixer rules"

The CFTC proposes its first crypto market rules, after Congress did not

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on 5 October for crypto trading in the US. It sets out two rule sets: one for retail crypto transactions and one for a new type of CFTC-registered crypto exchange. Chairman Michael Selig said the rules are "designed to prevent, rather than only prosecute after the fact, fraudulent schemes such as FTX", in the CFTC's release.

It is a request for comment, not a rule. The 60-day comment period starts when the notice appears in the Federal Register. Cryptopolitan reports that the focus is leveraged retail trading, that ordinary spot trading is untouched, and that the agency acted because the CLARITY market-structure bill failed in the Senate in September. A later commission could withdraw agency rules, so a law remains the lasting route.

Bitcoin was at $85,771 on 6 October on our price series, 0.8% under Monday's $86,488. Futures liquidations were quiet, about $4 million of longs and $1 million of shorts so far today, and the Fear & Greed Index reads 73.

Chart: Bitcoin's daily close since 15 September. The price has held between $83,000 and $87,000 for two weeks while the rule-making news arrived. Open the chart

Treasury withdraws its unhosted-wallet and mixer rules

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network withdrew two proposals on 5 October, Cointelegraph reported. One, from December 2020, would have made banks and exchanges keep records on transfers to and from wallets their customers control themselves, with reports for the larger ones. The other, from 2023, would have named international crypto mixing a primary money-laundering concern.

FinCEN said the mixing rule "could have a chilling effect on legitimate activity and place a large reporting burden on covered financial institutions". Decrypt notes that Coin Center, a policy group, welcomed the move but warned the legal authority to write similar rules remains.

Strategy buys 334 bitcoin at $85,839 a coin

Strategy's filing with the SEC on 5 October says it bought 334 bitcoin between 1 and 4 October for $28.7 million, an average of $85,838.8 a coin, using $15.7 million from share sales and $13.0 million of cash. That is above every daily close on our series for those four days, which ran from $83,571 to $84,862.

The company now holds 848,000 bitcoin at an average cost of $75,440.7. Today's price is about 14% above that average.

ETF inflows slowed to $241 million after a $2.39 billion week

The US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $241.1 million in the week of 28 September to 2 October on our ETF flows chart, against $2.39 billion the week before, which held the $999 million day of 21 September. The week had one outflow, $148.7 million on 30 September, and ended with $189.9 million of inflow on 2 October.

The funds held 1,280,477 bitcoin at the last reading. The run that carried the September rally is told in our piece on the squeeze and the inflows.

Chart: Net flow into the US spot bitcoin ETFs each trading day since 1 September. The tall bars of 21 and 22 September are followed by a much quieter week. Open the chart

Under 80,000 blocks remain until the next halving

The chain's tip was block 970,146 on 6 October. The next halving falls at block 1,050,000, which leaves 79,854 blocks. At ten minutes a block that is about 555 days, which puts it in April 2028. The reward then falls from 3.125 to 1.5625 bitcoin per block, and why a machine's efficiency decides how many of those it survives is in our guide.

What it means for miners

Both regulatory stories are about the edges of the business, not the machines. A miner's payout goes to an address they control, and the withdrawn Treasury proposals were the ones that would have put reporting on moving coins to such an address. That is one fewer open question for anyone planning to keep what they mine.

The economics are unchanged by any of it. Hashprice was $41.17 per petahash per day on 5 October, 48% above the $27.74 of 6 June. With hashprice at today's level, the most efficient machine in stock on our cheapest power, the Bitmain Antminer S23 XP Hyd at 8.9 J/TH in Nigeria at 3.9¢ a kilowatt-hour, makes a coin for about $18,000 of electricity, against a market price near $86,000.

That gap is the case for keeping the coins you mine. Output is never guaranteed.

A coin made for about $18,000 of electricity, against a market price near $86,000.

Sources and further reading

Disclosure

Firsthand Bitcoin sells and hosts mining hardware, including this machine. No manufacturer, distributor or affiliate programme paid for or reviewed this page and we take no commission on the links above. Historical figures are computed from daily bitcoin price and network hashprice, each day valued at its own prices. Nothing here is investment advice.