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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.

Bank of America Global Research has raised the target price for SpaceX (SPCX.O) from $235 to $275.

Several large banks in the United States have discovered unauthorized AI agents accessing customer accounts, with some agents attempting to perform independent operations. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and other banks are racing to curb the risks posed by these agents.Morgan Stanley has begun to block third-party agents from accessing accounts, while JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup are also restricting access.

David Hoffman, the founder of Bankless, retweeted the compliance updates of the perpetual contract trading platform Lighter on X, stating, "Lighter's big market is back." During the Lighter third-quarter investor conference call the previous night, Hoffman, as an investor, asked whether, given that Lighter has had extensive prior communication with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the approval for the Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) licenses is expected to be granted earlier than the stipulated 180-day review period.Lighter's founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski responded that extensive prior communication would make the process much smoother. He stated that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission currently has a lot on its plate, so he could not provide a specific timeline, but internally there is a fast-acting team, and the approval process is expected to go relatively smoothly. Previously, Hoffman had liquidated his ETH holdings and shifted to tokens like LIT, ZEC, and NEAR, which have all significantly outperformed ETH since then.

According to the official announcement from JPYC, the yen stablecoin issuer JPYC has signed a memorandum of cooperation with South Korea's Shinhan Bank's Japan SBJ Bank and LINE NEXT, planning to conduct a proof of concept for direct top-ups of yen stablecoins to bank accounts and digital wallets.According to the division of labor, SBJ Bank provides bank accounts and payment infrastructure, LINE NEXT provides technology such as its Unifi wallet and Unifi Pay, and JPYC provides support for the issuance and redemption of yen stablecoins. JPYC is a regulated yen stablecoin issuer in Japan, with its tokens pegged 1:1 to the yen, supported by bank deposits and Japanese government bonds.

The Bank of Korea has maintained the policy interest rate at 3%, in line with market expectations.Previously, South Korea had raised interest rates in consecutive meetings in July and August.

Alex Gluchowski, CEO of Matter Labs, announced Prividium Commander at Money20/20 USA, pointing out that while most banks have tested blockchain, only a few have truly put it into production services. The crux of the issue lies in operational processes rather than the technology itself, including aspects such as issuance control, transfer processing, audit requirements, and compliance workflows.Prividium Commander is positioned as a unified control plane, allowing institutions to manage permissions, configure token functionalities, and set operational strategies all in one place, while also integrating with existing traditional financial systems of banks and being compatible with both public and private chain infrastructures. This product is built on Matter Labs' permissioned privacy blockchain platform, Prividium, which is based on ZK Stack technology, allowing institutions to run private chains on their own infrastructure and anchor transactions to Ethereum through zero-knowledge proofs, achieving Ethereum-level settlement finality without disclosing customer balances and transaction details.Matter Labs open-sourced the Prividium Core permission engine in September 2026, with the Deutsche Bundesbank being the first testing party. Cari Network has chosen Prividium to build a multi-bank tokenized deposit platform, with participants including regional banks such as Huntington and M&T Bank, planning to go live later in 2026. By mid-2026, Matter Labs had fully shifted its focus to the institutional privacy infrastructure of Prividium.

Vantage Bank and Rio Bank completed principal and interest payments for loan participants using the loan service platform Participate, utilizing tokenized deposits from Hazel Network. Participate stated that after Vantage submitted the payment, the platform completed the distribution of principal and interest, with tokenized deposits reaching the recipient's digital wallet in less than 3 minutes. The loan balance and payment notifications were automatically updated in sync, connecting the traditional processes that relied on wire transfers, spreadsheets, and email notifications. This payment was announced on October 19.This payment marks the first implementation of the collaboration between the two banks that began in April this year. Custodia CEO Caitlin Long confirmed that the transaction occurred on the Ethereum mainnet. Hazel was jointly developed by Vantage and Custodia: Participate (a subsidiary of BankLabs) provides loan workflows and payment instructions, Vantage offers banking services and reserves, and Custodia is responsible for wallets, blockchain operations, compliance, and reconciliation monitoring.According to the Hazel white paper, this settlement model includes both on-chain and traditional bank ledger records, with transactions permitted only for authorized participants, while customer identities and account information are kept off-chain. Participate plans to offer tokenized deposits and Fedwire payment automation services to 750 banks for loan participation and syndicate payments.

David Hoffman, the founder of Bankless, stated that the market for ZEC may not be over yet and provided his assessment of relative valuation: in this cycle, ZEC could reach 10% of BTC's market capitalization, and in the next cycle, it might reach 25%.

According to Bloomberg, financial executives have differing opinions on whether AI has become a bubble. Ken Griffin previously warned that AI investors are almost certainly in a bubble and should prepare for setbacks, stating that significant economic transformations are often accompanied by bubbles. Recently, the market has been concerned that the time it takes for the massive upfront capital expenditures in AI to translate into profits and productivity gains may be longer than expected. Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing stated that there is no reason to worry about a sharp reversal in asset prices in the short term; individual companies may face setbacks, but he does not believe the market is in a bursting bubble.Sewing distinguished between a bubble and ongoing volatility, mentioning geopolitical tensions. He stated that if the regulatory framework is appropriate, the industrial application of AI will become a century opportunity for Germany. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink advocated for accelerating the construction of AI data centers, warning that delays could threaten economic growth and exacerbate inflation due to high computing costs. He previously mentioned that AI faces a supply shortage, with demand growth exceeding expectations, and stated that the faster more data centers are built and more computing power is available, the quicker costs can be reduced.Federated Hermes Chief Investment Officer for Global Equities Steve Chiavarone said that investors worried about an AI bubble may be correct in their judgment, but it is several years too early; infrastructure still has several years of growth potential, after which the risk of overbuilding will become more pressing. The market is still differentiating which companies can secure funding and at what interest rates, which is contrary to the bubble period.Compared to the AI bubble, both Fink and Sewing view the fiscal deficit as a more pressing concern, especially as the AI industry competes with the government for investment funds. The U.S. fiscal deficit is nearing $2 trillion, and U.S. Treasury yields have risen to decades-high levels.Fink stated that the current level of capital competition is the highest he has seen in his career. Regarding the rising risk of French government bonds, Sewing said it cannot yet be called a debt crisis, but it serves as a warning for public finances, emphasizing the importance of budget discipline.

According to FXNewsGroup, Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI) announced that it has invested $30 million to purchase preferred shares of Erebor Bank, National Association in the United States. Erebor is a nationally chartered bank in the United States focused on the innovation economy, serving sectors including defense, robotics, artificial intelligence, and hard technology.The bank obtained its national bank charter and federal deposit insurance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in February 2026, and its deposit scale has exceeded $7 billion.Erebor was founded in 2025, co-founded by Palmer Luckey and others, and supported by institutions such as Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, and 8VC. RVI is the first fund under Robinhood Ventures, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2026, primarily providing investors with private equity exposure through investments in private companies.

Anchorage Digital, the first federally regulated crypto bank in the United States, announced a partnership with the tokenization platform Securitize, which will allow for the direct minting and redemption of stablecoins issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., without the need for intermediaries. Anchorage Digital Bank is also responsible for custody and settlement, ensuring that the counterparty and custody standards on the dollar side of tokenization transactions on Securitize align with those on the securities side.Securitize is the largest tokenization platform globally by assets under management, providing regulated infrastructure for tokenized funds for institutions such as Apollo, BlackRock, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck, with platform assets exceeding $4 billion. The stablecoin issuance ecosystem of Anchorage Digital Bank includes USDtb, issued in collaboration with Ethena Labs, and USA₮, co-developed with Tether.According to an independent reserve report verified by Anchorage Digital Bank, as of August 31, 2026, approximately 99% of the $530 million reserves of USDtb are held by the Securitize tokenized BlackRock BUIDL fund.Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, stated that Anchorage Digital Bank is designed for the large-scale issuance of stablecoins under federal regulation, and regulated issuance is key for tokenization to reach institutional scale. Carlos Domingo, chairman and CEO of Securitize, mentioned that collaborating with Anchorage Digital Bank enables them to directly access digital dollars issued under federal regulation and custodied by the same institution.

According to The Block, Standard Chartered has signed a final agreement to acquire 100% of the equity of the cryptocurrency custody institution Zodia Custody, with the transaction pending regulatory approval.Under the arrangement, Zodia Custody's custody business will be integrated into Standard Chartered, while its software business will be transferred to an independent company supported by Standard Chartered's venture capital division, SC Ventures.

According to Decrypt, the crypto advocacy organization Stand With Crypto stated that within 90 days from May to August 2026, UK bank customers submitted a total of 10,092 complaints through the organization's online tools, involving 9,803 individuals. The related complaints pertain to transfers being blocked or restricted to crypto platforms registered with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).Statistics by bank show that Lloyds Banking Group received 2,297 complaints, accounting for over 22%, and the bank has not disclosed its policy on restricting crypto transfers. Barclays Bank received 1,569 complaints, National Westminster Group received 1,278, and HSBC UK received over 1,000.Stand With Crypto calls on banks to replace blanket restrictions with risk-based case-by-case reviews and urges the FCA and the UK Treasury to publicly state that a complete industry blockade and hard transfer limits on registered or authorized crypto companies are difficult to justify solely on the grounds of anti-fraud or financial crime rules. The report also mentioned that the FCA's crypto regulatory framework will come into effect in 2027.

Bank Negara Malaysia announced the launch of a new generation of paperless securities depository system SSDS+, based on distributed ledger technology, supporting the issuance, custody, and safekeeping of tokenized debt securities, including Islamic bonds (sukuk). The platform can track the ownership and transfer of tokenized securities and connects to the real-time electronic funds and securities transfer system RENTAS+, completing the corresponding bond payment settlements with central bank currency.Bank Negara Malaysia stated that while SSDS+ is primarily designed for wholesale issuance, it also has the capability to support tokenized government bonds and corporate retail bonds. The announcement did not disclose the specific securities issued through the platform, nor did it publish relevant trading volume data.The launch of the platform is a follow-up initiative to the three-year asset tokenization roadmap announced in November 2025, which outlined pilot projects involving Islamic finance, supply chain financing, and programmable payments. In February of this year, Bank Negara Malaysia also tested the ringgit stablecoin and tokenized bank deposits through its Digital Asset Innovation Center, with participating institutions including Standard Chartered Bank, CIMB Group, Bank of Malaysia, and investment holding company Capital A.

According to Jinshi News, former Executive Director of the Bank of Japan, Eiji Maeda, stated that the next interest rate hike is expected to occur in December, followed by another increase in March or April.Eiji Maeda mentioned that the current pace of interest rate hikes has accelerated to approximately once every three months, and he believes this pace is appropriate.

Elon Musk predicts that in the next 3 to 5 years, AI entities will drive a 1,000-fold increase in bandwidth demand.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the Bandwagon-5 carpool mission into orbit from Florida.