cent

Alibaba is accelerating the expansion of its data centers in Europe and the Middle East, driving its 20 gigawatt global infrastructure development.Alibaba will establish its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland, and the Netherlands within the next 12 months, and expand its data center layout in Malaysia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, France, and Hong Kong.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, after HYPE broke through 97.5 USD, Wintermute has begun to transfer HYPE tokens in large quantities to major centralized exchanges.

According to CoinDesk, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of EU member states wish to prohibit crypto platforms from providing indirect yields on stablecoins through lending, staking, and other products. The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) stated in response to the European Commission's consultation on the review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) that electronic money should be used for payments rather than savings, continuing to support the prohibition of crypto asset service providers (CASP) from paying rewards for stablecoins, and that the ban should not be limited to services already regulated by MiCA but should also cover unregulated activities such as crypto lending, borrowing, and staking.Central banks believe that allowing indirect yields could blur the lines between electronic money and bank deposits, distorting the fair competitive environment of the EU financial system. The ESCB stated that maintaining and, when necessary, strengthening this ban, while covering both direct and indirect forms of rewards, should be a clear legislative priority. This position also echoes the controversy in the U.S. surrounding the Clarity Act, where eight U.S. banking groups urged senators to tighten the bill's restrictions on stablecoin rewards, which ultimately failed in a procedural vote of 49 to 50.In addition, central banks also proposed to eliminate the MiCA requirement for stablecoin issuers to hold part of their reserves in the form of bank deposits, replacing it with liquidity rules based on the liquidity of reserve assets. Currently, stablecoin issuers must keep at least 30% of their reserves in credit institutions, and this percentage rises to 60% for those classified as significant stablecoins. The ESCB suggested that significant stablecoins must allocate at least 40% of their reserves to assets maturing within one day and 60% to assets maturing within five working days, while the corresponding thresholds for non-significant stablecoins are 20% and 30%.

According to a Reuters report, the European Central Bank and the central banks of EU member states expressed opposition to the requirement that major stablecoin issuers hold at least 60% of their reserve assets in the form of bank deposits during the consultation on the regulatory framework for crypto assets, MiCA. The reason is that this could expose banks to fluctuations in the stablecoin market and undermine the stability of deposits.The central bank system suggested changing the regulation to require that a certain proportion of reserve assets must be short-term assets maturing within 1 to 5 working days. At the same time, the central bank pointed out that despite MiCA being in effect, non-compliant crypto companies can still reach EU customers, and regulatory enforcement faces "significant challenges," posing risks to investor protection.

Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming stated at the Yunqi Conference that the current demand for AI from customers is strong, and the company will fully invest in AI infrastructure construction, aiming for the scale of global data centers operated by Alibaba Cloud to exceed 20GW by 2032. Meanwhile, Pingtouge released the strongest domestic AI chip Zhenwu V900, with computing power increased to three times that of Zhenwu M890, and the annual shipment volume is expected to increase significantly.

Data Center Watch data shows that from April to June, approximately 45 data center projects in the United States were halted or delayed due to opposition from local residents and communities, with a total value of $68 billion. The agency added that communities across the country are now pushing for bans on new data center construction, often taking action even before developers apply for relevant permits.In the first quarter of this year, a total of 75 data center projects in the United States faced opposition, involving approximately $130 billion. The 45 projects affected in the second quarter accounted for more than half of all large new projects tracked during the same period. This year, state legislatures in about 30 states have proposed or passed regulations related to data center siting, electricity, and water usage. Currently, there are 843 groups opposing data centers across 49 states in the U.S., excluding Hawaii.Miquel Vila, Chief Analyst at Data Center Watch, stated: New opposition groups are continuously emerging, and opposition actions are appearing in more and more states and local government jurisdictions, with the number of signatures on online petitions also steadily increasing. A petition opposing a data center project in Tennessee has garnered over 500,000 signatures on Change.org. The agency reported protests against data centers outside the United States for the first time, specifically mentioning several countries in Europe, as well as Australia and South Africa.

According to the official API data released by Kalshi, most of the dollar trading volume in the Ethereum perpetual contract trading on this exchange comes from a single recurring fixed-size order.In response, Kalshi stated that its related incentive program has been publicly filed. This data was compiled by The Defiant based on Kalshi's public API data.

The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, Vladimir Chistyukhin, stated that the country's cryptocurrency industry may have the necessary conditions to operate legally by the end of the year, with relevant regulations progressing as planned. According to the International News Agency, Chistyukhin mentioned that significant and large-scale secondary regulatory rules are currently being formulated, and the "fine-tuning" of internal rules is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.This year, Russia has continued to advance cryptocurrency legislation. President Putin signed a law in August that establishes a regulatory framework for digital currencies and digital rights, but the use of Bitcoin for payments remains prohibited. The central bank has approved the public to trade Bitcoin on the country's cryptocurrency exchanges, and non-qualified investors can purchase Bitcoin and other assets worth 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,582) through a single intermediary, while qualified investors face no restrictions.Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, plans to launch Bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallets and digital asset custody services in December. The bank expects that the trading volume of its new cryptocurrency business could reach 40 trillion rubles (approximately $4.7 billion) in its first year. Since 2022, Russia has prohibited the use of digital assets as a means of payment or legal tender, but lawmakers have made exceptions for international payments, likely aimed at circumventing Western sanctions. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, the U.S. and Europe excluded Russia from the SWIFT system, and the Russian Finance Minister stated that the country's enterprises have been using Bitcoin to bypass related restrictions.

According to Reuters, the European Central Bank has launched the Pontes service, connecting its payment system with blockchain-based financial markets, allowing banks and investors to complete on-chain transaction settlements using euros supported by the European Central Bank, rather than relying on stablecoins or other private currencies.The first batch of participating institutions includes Deutsche Bank, Santander Bank, and the clearing institution Clearstream Bank, with the service operating during weekdays from 8:00 to 16:00 Central European Time.

According to Gate market data, Accenture (ACN.N) rose 6.1% in pre-market trading, investing $2 billion in collaboration with Anthropic for artificial intelligence evaluation.

SparkLabs Group, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (QIC) from the National Fund of Kazakhstan, and IT Park Ventures from Uzbekistan have signed a term sheet to establish the SparkLabs Mirae Silk Road Fund I LP venture capital fund, managed by Mirae Asset Venture Investment and SparkLabs Group. The signing ceremony took place in Seoul during the state visit of the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to South Korea and the first Central Asia-Korea Summit.QIC and IT Park Ventures are both anchor investors. The new fund will invest in Series A and later-stage startups in the Central Asia region with validated business models that are ready to expand beyond the region, focusing on AI-native companies, although not limited to this industry. Portfolio companies will receive support from SparkLabs and Mirae Asset's global network, as well as assistance in expanding to South Korea, the United States, and the Middle East.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessenet told reporters after several hours of talks in New York with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and other officials that the discussions were "very successful," covering topics such as artificial intelligence, trade, and investment. The talks took place on September 20 at JPMorgan Chase headquarters, occurring ahead of the summit this week between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.Bessenet stated that both sides agreed to establish a dialogue on artificial intelligence, aimed at reaching a common understanding of goals and threats, and plan to meet again. Li Chenggang, China's representative for international trade negotiations at the Ministry of Commerce, said the atmosphere of the talks was good, and the working group would continue discussions on Monday.

On September 18, the Central Bank of Russia released a draft proposal, intending to measure related exposures through ratios N31 and N32, based on the own funds of individual credit institutions and the consolidated capital of banking groups. The scope includes direct investments, derivatives linked to the prices of crypto assets, as well as loans, bonds, and repurchase agreements whose settlement or value depends on crypto assets.Client custody assets for which the digital custodial institution within the bank or group bears the losses will be included, while assets that do not bear losses will not be included but will still be subject to a 50% risk weight. Own accounts and client positions for which the bank bears responsibility will be subject to a 1250% risk weight. The draft is planned to be officially released in the fourth quarter of 2026, taking effect 10 days after publication, with banks expected to report N31 and N32 values starting from January 2027.

According to a research report released by Tiger Sniff on September 20, as of August 2026, there are a total of 106 publicly disclosed centralized embodied intelligence data collection centers in the country, of which 84 are in operation, accounting for 79.25%. 52 centers disclosed the number of deployed robots, totaling approximately 3,972 units, which estimates that there are at least over 5,000 robots operating in data collection centers nationwide. The peak of construction is expected in the first quarter of 2026, after which new projects will significantly decrease, and the industry will shift from intensive construction to concentrated operation.In terms of regional distribution, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong have 18, 17, and 11 centers respectively, Sichuan has 8, and Beijing has 7. In terms of robot brands, Zhiyuan Robotics appeared 31 times, Leju 15 times, UBTECH 13 times, and Yushu Technology and Galaxy General each 10 times. 65.96% of data collection centers use a single robot brand, while 34.04% adopt a multi-brand strategy, and cross-entity data reuse remains a challenge.Regarding data pricing, the current real machine data costs about 500 to 1,000 yuan/hour, UMI and other non-entity data costs about 300 to 400 yuan/hour, and simulated synthetic data costs about 200 to 500 yuan/hour, with remote operation collection accounting for 79.05%. The report points out that centralized data collection has not yet formed a stable commercial closed loop, with buyer growth lagging behind base expansion. Centers that primarily rely on one-time construction funding will face greater operational pressure, and the industry elimination race has already begun.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket event "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Baltimore Orioles," the "Over" option in the sub-market "O/U 8.5" has experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, soaring from 50% an hour ago to the current 81% (a fluctuation of 31%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Cointelegraph cited a report from The Wall Street Journal stating that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened to prevent Binance from obtaining a license across the European Union.

According to Coinglass data, the total open interest for ZEC futures contracts across the network is 2.34 million coins, approximately 3.35 billion USD, with a 29% increase in the last 24 hours. In the last 4 hours, the liquidation amount for ZEC was 9.08 million USD, and the liquidation amount in the last 24 hours was 58.9 million USD.On Binance, the long-short ratio for ZEC/USDT accounts is 0.3646, the long-short ratio for large accounts is 0.3168, and the long-short ratio for large account positions is 0.7663. This indicates that there are more short traders, while the relatively lower long positions are more concentrated among a few large holders.