art

The 2026 Wealth Survey by U.S. Bank shows that the average American Generation Z starts accumulating wealth at 19 years old, significantly earlier than previous generations. The survey covered 5,000 American adults aged 18 and older. Generation Z consciously begins to build wealth on average at 19, including investing, saving for retirement, or long-term savings, which is 6 years earlier than the average age of 25 for Millennials, 10 years earlier than 29 for Generation X, and 13 years earlier than 32 for Baby Boomers.Despite starting earlier, 56% of Generation Z believe they are doing everything right but have not achieved their expected financial situation, 62% report difficulty in making financial progress, and 49% have paused or plan to pause their investments. 62% of Generation Z and 61% of Millennials believe that the stock market is a more realistic path to wealth than buying a home, with the percentages for Generation X and Baby Boomers being 51% and 45%, respectively. About 47% of Generation Z obtain financial information through social media, and nearly half of young people are more interested in emerging options like cryptocurrency, but most still believe that traditional investments are the best way to achieve long-term goals. About 70% of parents have provided or plan to provide assistance for their children's significant milestones.

The on-chain derivatives protocol Variational announced that the Token Generation Event (TGE) for the token $VAR is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026. The initial token distribution includes 32% genesis allocation, 18% ecological reserve, and 50% for team and investor shares. The genesis tokens will be airdropped according to the proportion of Variational points held and will be 100% unlocked at TGE; the ecological reserve will be retained by the Variational Foundation for ecological growth and distributed at its discretion.The team and investor tokens will be locked for 12 months after TGE, followed by a minimum unlocking period of three years. Team members are also subject to individual vesting arrangements, and the specific shares for both parties will be announced before TGE. Variational stated that it plans to use all revenue directed to the treasury for the repurchase and destruction of $VAR. Weekly point distribution will continue until TGE, with 150,000 points distributed each week; accounts must hold at least 1 point to qualify for signing terms and receiving the genesis allocation, and any unclaimed portion will be destroyed.Variational originally planned to end the points program in the third quarter of 2026 and subsequently launch $VAR, but this timeline has been delayed due to significant strategic partnerships. In the final weeks before TGE, the project will conclude private testing, launch Omni on the public mainnet, expand exchange functions, and release trading APIs, while also announcing details on repurchase and token usage, and disclosing the impact of new partnerships on Omni, Pro, and traditional financial markets on-chain when conditions permit.

Supply chain sources say that TSMC's wafer foundry prices are set to rise again, with adjustments to Wafer Out prices based on different processes starting from January 2027, with an increase of about 3% to 6%. The utilization rate of 8-inch factories exceeds 100%, and processes below 45 nanometers are fully loaded, with order visibility extending to 2030. The increase for advanced processes is higher, while mature and specialty processes are negotiated individually based on products, utilization rates, and customer conditions. TSMC has not responded to market rumors.Supply chain sources indicate that TSMC's 2-nanometer and 3-nanometer processes are in short supply, and the pressure on advanced packaging capacities such as CoWoS has not been alleviated. Customers find it difficult to switch suppliers immediately even in the face of price increases. The factory in Arizona, USA, reflects higher manufacturing costs, and the foundry quotes remain high. After the price adjustment, quotes from foundries such as Samsung Electronics, Intel, United Microelectronics Corporation, and World Advanced, as well as testing and packaging factories and IC design customers, may also be affected. United Microelectronics Corporation, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, and World Advanced have announced price increase strategies, which will continue until 2027.The supply chain states that this wave of AI demand has increased the need for PMIC, MCU, driver ICs, analog ICs, and sensors, in addition to GPUs, ASICs, and HBM. IC design companies point out that after the wafer price increase, product costs need to be reassessed, with higher-end GPUs and ASICs having relatively larger pass-through space. TSMC Chairman Wei Zhejia has stated that customers do not switch wafer foundry partners just because they are dissatisfied today. Supply chain sources say that orders transferred from Google, Apple, NVIDIA, and others mostly involve non-core chips or limited-scale orders, with no significant changes observed in the high-end process customers' chip placements.

David Hoffman, founding partner of Bankless Ventures, published a discussion on the "Bitcoin Buy Side Trophy," stating that the crypto market occasionally sees a single asset absorbing the capital shift from Bitcoin holders. The Bitcoin community has long maintained a consensus of "holding only BTC," with a scale of about $1.7 trillion; individual shifts usually go unnoticed, but when enough people turn to the same asset, it becomes contagious. He cited 2021's ETH as an example, where its market cap rose from about $12 billion at the bottom to about $554 billion at the top, and referenced Su Zhu's statement from October that year, indicating that some people specifically moved cold-stored Bitcoin to buy ETH, and some publicly known Bitcoin maximalists may privately hold ETH.He believes that ZEC in 2026 is similar to ETH in 2021, having formed a consensus point for some Bitcoin capital, with reasons including privacy, quantum, or as a hedge against Bitcoin exposure "just in case." ZEC's market cap rose from about $200 million to about $2.6 billion, which is still small relative to the $1.7 trillion BTC; the key lies in relative scale rather than dollar appreciation, as the buying pressure is driven by Bitcoin wealth. As long as a very small proportion of holders can be persuaded to allocate a small amount of ZEC, the buying pressure will continue; very few people skip BTC, ETH, and other crypto assets to buy based solely on ZEC's own merits.He also believes that NEAR will win the weaker "smart contract buy side" in 2026, with funds coming from more decentralized market participants. The crypto market has always prioritized value storage, with smart contract chains coming second; ETH's position is weaker than BTC's, and SOL's challenge to ETH is greater than any asset's challenge to BTC.

Meta Platforms announced that it will integrate Muse into all of the company's smart glasses products.

According to Cointelegraph, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will establish a new EU strategic regulatory priority themed around digital innovation starting in 2027, initially focusing on AI and tokenization.Regulatory authorities in EU member states will identify emerging areas of tokenization, documenting how businesses use or plan to use AI and tokenization technologies in products and processes that directly affect investors, and conducting preliminary checks on some of the most affected companies.ESMA stated that the risks that need to be prioritized include biased or misleading AI outputs, products that are difficult for investors to understand, and reliance on a few third-party service providers. This priority will be advanced in parallel with the regulatory priority for cyber and operational resilience that will be launched in 2025.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, CoinRoutes co-founder Dave Weisberger stated in a video interview with Bitcoin Magazine that the biggest unreleased factor for Bitcoin is not ETFs or corporate hoarding, but rather collateral treatment. He pointed out that banks face a nearly 100% discount when holding Bitcoin, and once Bitcoin is treated like other assets based on volatility and liquidity, the situation for lending institutions and companies like Strategy Inc (formerly MicroStrategy) will change.Weisberger referred to this adjustment as the "final hurdle" and mentioned that both the Basel Committee and regulators believe this change is inevitable, but it has not yet been fully realized. He also discussed topics such as asset tokenization, Hyperliquid, and Federal Reserve policies, believing that Wall Street is providing support for related directions under the trend of tokenization.He further stated that the influx of ETF funds has reduced Bitcoin's volatility; every 25 basis points change in interest rates adds $100 billion to the U.S. fiscal deficit; Bitcoin still possesses asymmetric option characteristics, and the issue of "clean collateral" has not been resolved, so market FOMO sentiment has not truly begun.

Starting from September 25 at 15:00 (SGT), B.AI's popular model rights will welcome a new round of upgrades: the brand new MiMo-V2.6-Flash will take over the 90% discount, and the flagship MiMo-V2.6-Pro will enjoy a 50% launch discount.Currently, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, GLM-5.3-Flash, Qwen3.8-Flash, Hy3, and MiMo-V2.5 are enjoying the final 90% discount. Developers are urged to take advantage of the last window period to recharge and call in advance to ensure a smooth workflow transition.

The official Cosmos Hub announced on platform X that the validators have successfully restarted the Cosmos Hub network as scheduled, block production has resumed, the network is operating normally, and they will continue to monitor the network status and provide further updates.

According to Techcrunch, AI agent startup Ema has completed a $77 million Series B funding round, led by Creaegis, with existing investors Accel, Section 32, and Prosus participating in the round. To date, the company's total funding has reached $140 million, with a valuation that has more than doubled since the last funding round in 2024.Ema was founded in 2023 by former Google and Coinbase executive Surojit Chatterjee and former Okta executive Souvik Sen. The company deploys technology called "AI Employee," which is a system capable of coordinating multiple AI agents to help businesses execute multi-step business processes within existing applications, rather than handling one task at a time.It is reported that most of the new funds will be used to expand market operations, as the company had previously focused primarily on product development.

According to Fintech Global, Chicago-based AI startup Go.AI has completed a $85 million Series A funding round, led by Updata Partners, with participation from existing investors GFT Ventures and LAUNCH. To date, its total funding has risen to $90 million.Go.AI primarily provides locally deployed, auditable AI infrastructure for regulated entities such as banks. The new funds will be used to expand the engineering team and enhance marketing efforts, driving the company to expand from its core regulated industries to a broader range of compliance-oriented institutions.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will advocate for the establishment of artificial intelligence standards in a speech at the United Nations.

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) announced a group-level collaboration with Bitpanda to expand its cryptocurrency asset layout. According to a joint announcement released by both parties on Wednesday, Bitpanda Enterprise will provide digital asset infrastructure for member banks within the RBI network to launch cryptocurrency services, potentially covering around 18 million customers. The announcement stated that each member bank will decide on the specific service content and launch pace based on local market conditions and regulatory requirements.RBI CEO Michael Höllerer stated that the demand for cryptocurrency assets in the markets where the group operates is continuously growing, thus the decision to collaborate with Bitpanda to address this. He mentioned that as a customer-centric bank, RBI is committed to meeting customer needs in the best possible way. Bitpanda indicated to Cointelegraph that this promotion is still in the early stages and will be gradually advanced based on local market and regulatory requirements, with further details to be announced once each market is confirmed.This collaboration builds on the cryptocurrency integration launched in 2024 with Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien in Austria. Bitpanda has obtained authorization under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and stated that it is regularly communicating with banks and financial institutions exploring cryptocurrency brokerage services, but declined to comment on ongoing or confidential negotiations.

On the afternoon of September 23, President Xi Jinping left Beijing on a special plane, at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, for a state visit to the United States. Accompanying President Xi on the trip were his wife Peng Liyuan, Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee Cai Qi, and member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee Wang Yi, among others.

According to disclosures from cryptocurrency practitioner Jordy and local police reports, former Hack VC partner and platform head Hsin-Ju was found dead near the Interstate 15 exit in the Mojave Desert, California, on August 24, at the age of 37. The time of death was the day after she claimed she would expose Hack VC. Investigative agencies stated that the cause of death is still under investigation, and it is currently unclear whether it was due to high temperatures, sudden illness, mechanical failure, or other reasons.On August 23 local time, Hsin-Ju tweeted that she had rejected Hack VC's settlement proposal and would publicly disclose relevant evidence from her time at Hack VC on August 26. She previously stated that she was required to continue working despite a medical emergency during her tenure and was threatened by the company that if she resigned before the completion of an event, she would be blacklisted in the industry; after leaving, she accused the company of issues with handling health insurance and continued to face pressure during legal negotiations. She has since fired her lawyer and stated that she would rather not receive a settlement than keep this matter private.

The PermissionDelegationV1_1 upgrade of the XRP Ledger entered a 14-day activation countdown on September 21, having received support from 29 of the 35 trusted validator nodes. If the support rate remains above 80% during this period, the upgrade could officially activate as early as October 5 at 11:18 UTC; at least 28 validator nodes must continue to support it, or the countdown will reset.This feature allows accounts to split permissions by role. For example, a stablecoin issuer can allow a connected compliance system to approve customer accounts holding its tokens while keeping the keys with full control offline; operational accounts can gain payment permissions but cannot change keys or delegate authority to others. Each trustee can have up to 10 permissions, and the main account can modify or revoke them at any time.This is the network's second attempt to introduce this feature. The original version had vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to make others pay transaction fees with improperly signed transactions, and by repeatedly submitting high-fee transactions, they could deplete the victim's XRP balance. This vulnerability was reported by community testers on September 15, 2025, and validator nodes were advised to reject the amendment, so it was never activated. The fixed version was released with xrpld 3.3.0, changing the way unauthorized transactions are rejected, ensuring that fees are not deducted before signature verification.

According to Bloomberg, AI startup Mirendil, founded by former Anthropic researchers, is negotiating a new round of financing, with a post-money valuation expected to reach $5 billion. Sources say that Kleiner Perkins is in talks to lead the round, which could bring in up to $1 billion in new funding, and Andreessen Horowitz is also in discussions to participate.Three months ago, Mirendil completed a $200 million seed round led by the aforementioned two firms, with a valuation of $1 billion. The company was established earlier this year and is dedicated to building self-improving AI models, with plans to launch a cutting-edge model early next year.

Bitget announced the successful conclusion of the 2026 King’s Cup Global Invitation Tournament (KCGI). This tournament centered around "UEX Panorama Competition" and for the first time integrated crypto contracts, TradFi contracts, and stock spot (rToken) into the same event system. During the tournament, a total of 83,529 traders and 1,476 teams from around the world competed based on performance and multi-track trading challenges, sharing a total prize pool valued at 3 million USD.As a core part of the event, the UEX Arena set up five major leaderboards for team earnings, trading volumes in various tracks, and individual earnings, with a prize pool reaching 2 million USDT. The UEX Treasure Map provided participating users with a chance to win a 100% winning treasure chest reward of up to 600,000 USDT through a task key and track fragment synthesis mechanism.In addition, this KCGI set up a special incentive of 100,000 USDT for team leaders and 200,000 USDT in early bird benefits, and after the conclusion of the tournament, a glory live stream lottery was held, offering multiple rewards such as KCGI limited merchandise, gold-plated footballs, and cash vouchers.