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The global bond market is experiencing heightened risk aversion due to the sell-off of artificial intelligence-related stocks and escalating geopolitical tensions. The spread of high-rated Asian corporate dollar bonds has risen to its highest level since July last year, and the global corporate bond yield premium has surged to 129 basis points.Concerns about the pace of spending related to artificial intelligence have triggered turmoil, with Castle Securities CEO Griffin warning of bubble risks, while Blackstone President Jon Gray believes market demand remains strong.

According to market news, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea stated that it will study a plan to allow cryptocurrency exchanges to participate in the Security Token Offering (STO) market, including issues such as market environment, investor protection, integration of licensing systems, and dual operating licenses.The Chairman of the Financial Services Commission of South Korea, Lee Ik-hyeon, expressed support for the proposal to utilize existing exchange technology and trading infrastructure to develop the STO market, emphasizing the need to integrate the technology and trading infrastructure of existing exchanges into the token securities market.

According to Jinshi, SK Group's newly established data center business unit SK Hyper is in talks with large technology companies and financial investors for financing, planning to raise funds for a data center construction project expected to cost $350 billion. SK Hyper has begun discussions with potential partners, aiming to build data centers in South Korea with a total capacity of 15 gigawatts by 2035.SK Hyper CEO Chung Suk-geun stated that the first phase of the 5-gigawatt construction alone requires $350 billion, which includes equipment costs. The company plans to complete its first round of external financing by the end of this year or early 2027, and will continue to raise funds over the next three to four years while sharing the overall construction costs with data center tenants and external investors.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the event "Gold Digging vs. Thunder," the sub-market "Isaiah Hartenstein: Points O/U 7.5" has seen a dramatic fluctuation in the probability of the "Yes" option, soaring from 36% an hour ago to the current 53% (a fluctuation of 17%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

a16z crypto partner Ali Yahya posted on X that he has decided to leave a16z, move to San Francisco, and start a company. He stated that he has been with the company for nearly 10 years, and when he met Chris Dixon, Ben Horowitz, and Marc Andreessen in 2017, he was an engineer at Google Brain working on robotics research, with a strong interest in open source but no knowledge of investing.Ali Yahya mentioned that at that time, Chris Dixon had already laid the groundwork for a16z in the early crypto space by investing in companies like Coinbase, but the company's crypto team consisted of only Chris Dixon, and he hoped to expand the team. Chris Dixon invited him to leave Google to help build the company's crypto business. He expressed that forming the team together and supporting founders' work has been the most meaningful experience of his life, and he thanked Chris, Ben, Marc, and the team.Regarding his entrepreneurial direction, Ali Yahya stated that he is still in the early stages and is most focused on infrastructure that can support an open software ecosystem. He made two observations: current AI is mostly a technology for individual use, but in the future, it will shift towards collaboration among multiple people and multiple intelligent agents, potentially leading to large-scale open networks; the cost of software development has significantly decreased, allowing for on-demand generation and disposal after single use, which will change the software stack and may give rise to new operating systems mediated by AI and an AI-native developer ecosystem. He invited those working in related fields, especially those in the Bay Area, to communicate with him.

The technology division of South Korea's LG Group, LG CNS, has reached a strategic partnership with Chainlink, aiming to promote the development of South Korea's $68 billion digital asset market. LG CNS will leverage Chainlink's cross-chain, data, and orchestration infrastructure to enhance its digital asset platform solutions.LG CNS will also rely on Chainlink's full suite of platform capabilities to develop digital asset solutions for various institutions in South Korea. LG Group is one of the largest business groups in South Korea, with 63 subsidiaries and total assets of approximately 186 trillion won. LG CNS is the main contractor for South Korea's central bank digital currency project, the "Han River Project."

According to attendees, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday that there are no systemic issues in the artificial intelligence industry, and it cannot be compared to the internet bubble at the turn of the century. Bessent expressed an optimistic attitude towards this cutting-edge technology, believing that technological advancements will benefit the United States, but also acknowledged that data centers and AI companies have not done enough to explain the benefits of this technology to the average American.The closed-door meeting attracted over a hundred executives and investors from the financial industry, with ticket prices starting at $7,500 and top sponsorship packages costing up to $100,000. Proceeds from the meeting are used for charity. This year marks the 14th edition, having raised nearly $72 million in total. Bessent has publicly predicted multiple times that the development of artificial intelligence will significantly increase productivity and greatly boost U.S. economic growth. Currently, there is growing concern in American society regarding investments in artificial intelligence and data centers, leading to a sell-off of AI stocks.Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen pointed out that she always confirms the presence of the media and issues public reports when she gives speeches. Bessent's office responded that his views expressed at the closed-door meeting had been publicly stated before and do not involve issues of transparency; in addition to artificial intelligence, he also discussed his views on the U.S. economy. More and more regions are beginning to oppose the construction of data centers, which is affecting the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, leading to a decline in support for U.S. President Trump and the Republican Party.

Analysts indicate that regulatory-led measures can encourage institutional participation in the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the short term, but only legislation can make the framework more robust in the long term. Currently, the cryptocurrency industry has to rely on a series of fragmented regulatory actions, which may be overturned in the next two years due to political changes. At the same time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a five-year "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks, requiring that tokens must possess the financial and voting rights of the original stocks.Additionally, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is exploring allowing leveraged cryptocurrency trading on regulated U.S. platforms, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted national trust charters to an increasing number of stablecoin issuers and digital asset companies, placing activities such as custody and reserve management under federal regulation. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is also considering allowing companies to classify certain stablecoins as cash equivalents to support their broader use in payments and liquidity management.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring on-chain data, it predicts significant capital movements in the Polymarket. A large whale invested $86,680.99 in the event "Power Balance: 2026 Midterm Elections," betting on "Democratic Victory." Based on the current transaction price, the latest corresponding winning probability for this target is 67%.

The New York State Department of Financial Services in the United States has issued an alert regarding two critical PHP vulnerabilities, urging regulated entities to quickly identify and remediate known exploited vulnerabilities.

Blackstone Group President Jon Gray refuted billionaire Ken Griffin's claim a few days ago that there is a bubble in artificial intelligence (AI). Gray stated on Thursday, "When you think of a bubble, you think of building capacity first and then hoping for demand to appear.But in the AI field, you are building capacity while hoping to keep up with demand." He said this is a "completely different situation" compared to phenomena like the telecom bubble of the 1990s. He mentioned the AI consulting company Ode, which Blackstone co-founded with Anthropic. "We simply cannot keep up with customer demand," he said. "Demand is growing almost parabolically."

SpaceX launched the SpaceX Super Intelligence (SI) Partner Network, with partners including Nvidia, Apollo, Databricks, and Bain Capital.

Domain infrastructure company D3 announced the launch of the Frontier Hyperliquid Vault, a membership program that provides participants with priority access to a new round of top-level internet domains. Nasdaq-listed Hyperion DeFi (NASDAQ: HYPD) is listed as the launch partner for the vault. D3 is a core contributor to the Doma Protocol and one of the few ICANN-accredited Web3 registrars, with investors including Paradigm.At the launch of the program, ICANN opened the second round of new top-level domain applications in internet history in August 2026, receiving over 1,600 applications covering suffixes such as .agent, .crypto, .wallet, .sol, .robot, and .hype is also included in this round of applications. The last expansion occurred in 2012, resulting in approximately 1,200 new top-level domains, which are now used by tens of millions of websites.The participation process is as follows: users deposit qualified assets with supported custodians on Solana and Hyperliquid to earn Frontier Points, and then gain priority in registering domain names by committing points before formal registration. As part of the initial commitment, Hyperion DeFi will receive a distribution of DOMA tokens in future potential token generation events based on incentive arrangements with the Doma Foundation. The Doma Protocol is a DNS-compatible blockchain aimed at tokenizing the domain market, which is valued at approximately $36 billion.

The Blockchain Association stated that it has sent a letter to the leadership of both the House and Senate, urging Congress to advance prudent, bipartisan digital asset tax legislation, and launched TaxClarityforAmerica.com for the public to understand the principles, view congressional progress, and contact legislators.The association noted that approximately 67 million Americans hold and use digital assets, but the current tax system is outdated, leading to uncertainty for taxpayers, excessive compliance burdens, and forcing innovation to move overseas.Its "Digital Asset Tax Principles" include: a meaningful small exemption; taxation of mining and staking rewards as newly created property upon disposal; reporting arrangements that protect taxpayer privacy; tax compliance based on economic substance rather than technical form; and wash sale rules that do not penalize everyday activities while preventing abuse.The association also stated that the House Ways and Means Committee had previously advanced legislation related to digital asset taxation, and Senator Steve Daines has also introduced a Senate version. Congress is in recess until after the elections on November 3, and there remains a legislative window during the short session.

The BNB Chain development team announced that the BNB Smart Chain testnet will undergo the Jenner hard fork upgrade on October 28. Validators, node operators, block builders, and application developers need to start preparing for the upgrade.The Jenner upgrade includes the Payment Lane feature, which defaults to reserving 5% of block Gas for eligible payments.

According to Financewire, payment infrastructure provider X Pay, aimed at AI entities and APIs, announced the completion of a $1 million financing round, with investors including DCI, Credit Scend, Skyland Ventures, Zerra Ventures, and 5 other institutions.The funds from this round will be used to expand the supported blockchain networks, conduct independent security audits, launch an API marketplace, and prepare for EU compliance requirements, including MiCA.

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 the "X Layer Q3 2026 Fundamental Report" released by Principia Labs, the Ethereum Layer 2 network X Layer saw growth in on-chain activity and the scale of the DeFi ecosystem in the third quarter. Among them, TradeZone processed approximately 287 million transactions, which is 2.6 times the EVM transaction volume during the same period; the daily average number of EVM transactions increased by 262% month-over-month to 1.22 million.The report also shows that the total locked value in DeFi increased by 100% month-over-month to 173.4 million USD, and the revenue from ecological application transaction fees increased by 490% month-over-month to 1.86 million USD. The market capitalization of OKB increased by 53.8% month-over-month to 2.54 billion USD. Principia Labs believes that with the development of Exchange OS, X Layer is gradually forming a full-stack trading system covering on-chain transactions and DeFi applications.