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According to official news, the crypto technology startup Orochi Network announced that it has raised an additional $8 million in funding, bringing the total funding amount to $20 million. This round of investment received support from MEXC Ventures, Plutus VC, Bolts Capital, Ant Labs, and previous round shareholders. At the same time, Orochi Network also received funding from the Ethereum Foundation.Orochi Network utilizes zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to provide audit-compliant infrastructure for RWA tokenization, ensuring the authenticity and security of data. It is committed to building a foundational support for verifiable data infrastructure to enhance institutional trust, promote the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), and provide secure, auditable solutions for enterprise systems.

The press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, stated that in the first half of November, Russia, the United States, and Ukraine will hold negotiations in Abu Dhabi regarding security guarantees for Russia and Ukraine. Currently, a trilateral format is being discussed, but future European participation is not ruled out.

Evan Conrad published an article on October 22 titled "The end of startups," with the subtitle "The coming credit crunch." Evan Conrad stated that within the next six months, most AI startups will be unable to purchase computing power, as global computing power is sold out. To obtain capacity, new clusters need to be contracted, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for non-investment-grade entities to secure online capacity.Evan Conrad mentioned that startups are not investment-grade, thus they are required to pay larger upfront payments. He has seen cases where 100% of the contract amount is required to be prepaid, as lenders and cloud providers are unwilling to take on additional credit risk. He believes that investment-grade tenants are scarce, and due to leveraging and selling to non-investment-grade token buyers, their ratings are downgraded, which he refers to as a credit bottleneck. He anticipates that investment-grade GPU buyers will increasingly demand that token buyers themselves be investment-grade or pay large upfront deposits.In the article, he provides an example where, at the time of writing, B300 could be purchased for $6 per hour and then sold for approximately $30 per hour for inference. He expects GPU prices to rise, and the gross margin for inference layers to decline, making it harder for clients with poor credit to obtain tokens. He proposed that lenders treat GPU clusters as collateral and stated that the physical delivery forward market SF Compute could allow lenders to use GPU hours on a liquidity book as collateral, rather than relying on a single service provider's cluster.

According to Digital Asset, the Bank of Korea will require virtual asset transfer service providers to report monthly to the foreign exchange information system the end-of-month holdings of users who have conducted cross-border cryptocurrency asset transfers to overseas exchanges, personal wallets, etc., since July 19, 2024, starting from December 2. Even if there are no cross-border transactions in that month, reports must still be submitted.The report covers the number of coins held, the converted balance in Korean won, and the total amount of cross-border inflows and outflows for the month. Dormant accounts, delisted assets, and staked assets are also included in the scope and must be submitted by the 10th of the following month at 17:30. It has not yet been determined whether there will be a requirement to retrospectively submit records of cross-border transfer transactions conducted before the implementation of the reporting system.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) stated in the frequently asked questions document regarding retail payment regulation conclusions that the removal of surcharges for the designated card networks eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa starting from October 1, 2026, is in the public interest. The RBA will lift the ban on the "no surcharge" rule for the aforementioned networks from that date, with the changes based on Standard No. 3 of 2016 and the revisions to the merchant card payment costs and surcharge standards in 2026. eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa have all decided to implement the no surcharge rule from that date, generally applicable to their credit, debit, and prepaid cards, including cards issued overseas.American Express, UnionPay, and PayPal have also decided to eliminate surcharges, but are currently not formally regulated by the RBA. American Express and UnionPay will withdraw from their existing commitments with the RBA on October 1, 2026, while PayPal's no surcharge rule will take effect on October 5, 2026. This scope is limited to fees charged due to customer card payments and does not include surcharges for weekends, public holidays, booking fees, or service fees. Merchants must comply with the new card organization rules unless exceptions apply; businesses, non-profit organizations, and inter-business card payments do not receive a general exemption.The reforms will be implemented in phases. Starting from October 1, 2026, a lower interchange fee cap will apply to domestic card transactions; from October 30, designated card networks and large acquirers must publish the specified card payment fee information on their websites. From January 30, 2027, large acquirers must disclose how the decrease in interchange fees is passed on to merchant service fees; starting April 1, the interchange fee cap will apply to transactions involving overseas-issued cards acquired in Australia, and acquirers must also provide merchants with more detailed statements. The RBA stated that businesses can still factor the costs of accepting card payments into their overall pricing and may offer discounts for specific payment methods.

According to Bloomberg, AI startup Emulate, founded by alumni of Google DeepMind, has been established for only three months and currently has no official website or products. However, venture capital firms are eager to get involved, driving its valuation to several billion dollars.The report states that due to intense competition, investors are willing to buy in at continuously rising prices during the same round of financing, leading to different valuations for the same company within the same round of financing.

According to TechCrunch, the AI laboratory Flapping Airplanes, established for about a year, announced the completion of a $1 billion Series A funding round, co-led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, GV, and others, increasing its valuation to $45 billion, three times higher than the $15 billion valuation nine months ago.The company is dedicated to improving the data efficiency of AI model training and developing a GPU framework that can simultaneously perform tasks such as training and inference to reduce the costs of AI development and operation.

According to CNBC, Arda, an AI manufacturing startup founded by former OpenAI research director and former Palantir head of product and engineering Bob McGrew, announced the completion of a $230 million financing round, with a valuation of $1.5 billion. This round of financing was led by Altimeter Capital, Accel, and Khosla Ventures.Arda develops AI software and agents for manufacturing engineers, helping to build and adjust assembly lines more quickly. Its AI models have been deployed at defense technology company Anduril. McGrew stated that when product design changes, retraining workers takes only one day, while adjusting automated production lines typically takes three to six months.Arda combines self-developed models, open-source models, and some cutting-edge models to run its software, with the next product roadmap incorporating robotics technology. Co-founders include Augustus Odena, Alex Mark, and Jakob Frick. Apoorv Agrawal from Altimeter noted that the global manufacturing industry is valued at $16 trillion, with approximately $3 trillion in the United States. McGrew joined OpenAI in 2017 and left in 2024.

According to a report by Reuters cited by Phoenix Technology, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon informed employees in an internal memo that the company will initiate performance-focused global layoffs following the annual employee evaluations, with notifications set to begin in November. The memo reviewed by Reuters was sent out on Monday, and Amon stated that this move aims to establish a stronger performance culture and address the company's ongoing failure to meet expectations.The memo did not disclose the number of layoffs, and Reuters is currently unable to determine the scale. Amon mentioned that the layoffs will take into account business priorities, organizational needs, skills, and expertise; as the business expands, the required capabilities and skills are also changing, and it is essential to have the right people in the right positions. Qualcomm has not yet responded to Reuters' request for comment. As of September 2025, Qualcomm has approximately 52,000 employees worldwide, most of whom are full-time, with the fiscal year typically ending in late September.As one of the world's largest smartphone chip manufacturers, Qualcomm has been impacted this year by sluggish sales of consumer electronics, and soaring memory chip prices have suppressed demand in key markets. Since the beginning of the year, Qualcomm's stock price has increased by about 1.5%, while the S&P 500 index has risen by over 12% during the same period, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has seen an increase of nearly 60%. On Tuesday, Qualcomm's stock price fell by about 1% in pre-market trading. In the most recent earnings report released in late July, Qualcomm projected that quarterly profits would fall below market expectations and indicated that revenue from Apple products would decline faster than previously anticipated, while stating that by fiscal year 2027, growth in data centers and other non-mobile businesses would be sufficient to offset the aforementioned losses and provide additional growth.

Layer-1 blockchain Qubic has restarted the network and initiated the fund recovery process. Previously, attackers exploited a wallet seed vulnerability to transfer approximately 1.4 million USD worth of QU tokens from 1,404 accounts. The network validator Computors has approved the recovery plan, and affected users can submit claims, with a deadline of May 1, 2027.The Qubic block explorer shows that the network resumed processing ticks on October 19 at 20:00, with progress exceeding the previously paused 85,371,949. The vulnerability affects wallet seeds generated by certain Apple devices and browsers. Qubic recommends using version 4.26.4 or above to create new wallets and to transfer funds as soon as possible.

The Liquid Network officially announced the progress of the phased recovery, stating that the network recovery work has entered the final stage, focusing on strengthening security mechanisms, conducting independent audits, and gradually restoring the redeeming function of pegged assets.In terms of functional recovery, the network will first gradually open semi-automated BTC and LBTC exchange services, coordinating with participating exchange service providers to implement this service, which itself does not impose transaction volume limits at the protocol layer.In the next phase, the Liquid Network will restore the 1:1 Bitcoin reserve support for the network, and then gradually reopen the Federation redeeming function to authorized PAK key holders, but the full restoration of related functions still depends on the completion of remaining security checks and operational requirements.

The Kremlin stated that there is an urgent need to restart strategic nuclear stability dialogue with the United States.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated at the Invest in Germany Summit in Berlin that Germany hopes to become a leader in integrating AI in key industries, specifically naming manufacturing, machinery, and the automotive industry. He urged small and medium-sized enterprises to utilize existing data, saying, "Please open the door for AI to use your data." He claimed this is Germany's true secret and real advantage.NVIDIA announced at the summit that it would increase its investment in the European AI sector, planning to support four German startups: Agile Robots, Avelios Medical, Mirelo, and Reflex Aerospace. This is part of its nearly $10 billion commitment to Europe for investing in companies, universities, and research institutions; NVIDIA did not disclose the specific amounts for these four investments. Agile Robots develops AI robots for manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare, Avelios Medical creates hospital management software, Mirelo develops AI models for generating audio from video, and Reflex Aerospace designs and manufactures satellites.NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that AI will only enhance, not replace, Germany's capabilities in manufacturing, mathematics, and science, and called AI a new tool for businesses. NVIDIA is expanding its cooperation with the German federal government and the Industry 4.0 Platform, with both parties signing a joint declaration of intent to promote industrial application AI models. On the same day, Siemens announced a new AI program in collaboration with NVIDIA at its Erlangen plant, stating that the related technology could reduce engineering work in production preparation by up to 85%, and AI production planning could lower costs by up to 20%.

NVIDIA has successfully won central processing unit (CPU) chip orders from the rapidly growing artificial intelligence startup Modal. Modal had previously only used Intel and AMD chips, indicating that NVIDIA has made significant progress in entering this market.

Google's advertising policy announcement indicates that starting from October 21, 2026, advertisers targeting cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets in the UAE must obtain permission from one of the designated local regulatory authorities and be certified by Google.Acceptable licensing authorities include the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). Advertisers must also comply with other local legal requirements, and this policy applies to all accounts globally that target the aforementioned advertisements in the UAE.

A startup that provides web data APIs for AI agents recently announced the completion of a $9 million funding round, led by General Catalyst, with participation from Orange Collective and Robinhood Ventures.The company's single API supports search, scraping, crawling, and monitoring functions, aiming to enable AI agents to easily access and utilize internet data. Currently, the API has been adopted by over 800 clients. Institutions such as SV Angel, Eniac VC, and Pioneer Fund, as well as angel investors like Paul Graham, Guillermo Rauch, and Rick Rubin also participated in this funding round.To coincide with this funding, the company announced the issuance of 50,000 credits to all users registered today.

According to The Defiant, THORChain announced that its v3.21 upgrade will fix the FIN contract vulnerability on Rujira and allow the previously paused application layer to restart. The network has set the upgrade target at block height 28,366,100, with an expected time around October 23. After the restart, trading, lending, borrowing, and automated trading on Rujira will resume. Rujira's products run through smart contracts within THORChain, rather than on an independent blockchain, and the application layer can pause these contracts without affecting the underlying layer of THORChain.According to Rujira, the vulnerability was discovered on September 26, when an attacker transferred a custom concentrated liquidity position without holding a position. The team paused the application layer with the support of node operators, and only one position from the Rujira team itself was affected, with no loss of user funds. Rujira attributed the vulnerability to a flaw in the position transfer function, rather than the trading logic of the liquidity strategy. On September 27, Rujira stated that the fix is located at the underlying layer and has been scheduled for the v3.21 upgrade.Regarding the restart window, Rujira proposed a conditional grace period in its plan on October 15: if the application layer is ready to resume, any credit account position with a loan-to-value ratio above 100% and meeting liquidation conditions will request node operators to pause the credit account contract for an additional 24 hours, allowing borrowers to replenish collateral before liquidation resumes. Borrowers can replenish collateral through Rujira Borrow or by directly transferring assets to the credit account address. Rujira indicated on October 10 that positions still deemed unsafe after the grace period may be liquidated when the liquidator triggers the process.

According to the Industrial and Commercial Times, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has approved TSMC's first phase plan for the production of advanced semiconductors using 3-nanometer process at its second factory in Kumamoto Prefecture. This will be the first time a manufacturer in Japan produces 3-nanometer chips. TSMC can further expand its production capacity based on additional support from the Japanese government. Kumamoto Prefectural Governor Seiji Kimura stated that this plan will drive a new wave of creative revitalization.The Nikkei reported that the Ministry of Economy has listed the Kumamoto second factory as a recipient of subsidies, with plans to produce 3-nanometer chips, expected to officially start production in December 2028, with final capacity depending on the amount of subsidies. The Ministry will include the budget needed for subsidies in the fiscal year 2027 budget request, with the Japanese government originally planning to provide 732 billion yen in subsidies. The Asahi Shimbun pointed out that the Kumamoto second factory is still under construction and is adjacent to the already operational Kumamoto first factory.Previously, TSMC planned for the second factory to manufacture 6-nanometer and 12-nanometer processes, with a monthly capacity of 48,000 wafers, and planned to produce 40-nanometer chips; in February this year, the plan was changed to 3-nanometer, reducing the monthly capacity to 6,000 wafers. The adjustment plan for the Kumamoto first factory was also approved by the Ministry, with the original plan to produce 55,000 wafers per month covering 22 to 28 nanometers and 12 to 16 nanometers, while the new plan stops production of 12 to 16 nanometers, changing to 45,000 wafers per month for 22 to 28 nanometers.

On October 16, SBI Holdings and Startale Group announced their participation in Open Standard to explore the interoperability of the dollar-pegged stablecoin OUSD and the yen-denominated trust-based stablecoin JPYSC. The article states that Open Standard will launch in June 2026, and the alliance already includes over 140 global companies, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase, with OUSD already publicly launched on-chain. The announcement clarified that this only involves exploring a pilot project and does not represent the launch of new commercial services or the initiation of production environment settlements or trading activities.Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President, and CEO of SBI Holdings, stated that cross-border transactions will become more common, and seamless conversion between yen and dollar stablecoins is crucial. Joining Open Standard and exploring related proof of concepts is an important step. He also mentioned that the SBI Group has been the first in Japan to offer dollar stablecoins USDC and RLUSD. Startale Group CEO Sota Watanabe stated that joining Open Standard reflects both parties' belief that the future of finance is on-chain, borderless, and interoperable, and that the pilot interoperability of JPYSC and OUSD is of significant importance.JPYSC is issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and is positioned as an on-chain yen settlement infrastructure compliant with Japan's Payment Services Act and trust law framework. In July 2026, SBI Global Asset Management, DigiFT, and Startale announced a proof of concept for tokenized securities settlement and distribution payments, considering the future use of JPYSC. Open Standard claims it was established in 2026, with founding partners including Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa, and over 200 institutions have signed up to add OUSD to the platform.

According to Cointelegraph, the Central Bank of Russia stated in updated regulatory guidelines that arrangements for individuals to conduct peer-to-peer transactions in crypto assets will continue until July 1, 2027. After that, related transactions must be completed through authorized intermediaries. The Central Bank of Russia also clarified that individuals are not allowed to transfer crypto assets from digital accounts to self-custody wallets.Russia is expanding its regulated crypto market, with the country's largest bank, Sberbank, having been authorized to provide crypto asset trading services, having previously been approved to become a digital asset custodian. The new crypto asset regulatory rules in Russia took effect on September 1, bringing trading operators and custodians under the supervision of the Central Bank of Russia; the country still prohibits the use of cryptocurrencies for payment of goods and services. Jan3 CEO Samson Mow stated that P2P transactions are more resilient to regulatory crackdowns than centralized platforms.