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According to Bloomberg, the Dutch government plans to promote reforms aimed at improving efficiency through measures such as artificial intelligence, reducing approximately 25,000 civil service positions over the next few years. The Dutch cabinet is expected to announce specific plans for utilizing AI to enhance work efficiency early next year.The government's goal is to save 900 million euros annually by 2027 and to increase the annual savings target to 3.5 billion euros (approximately 3.9 billion dollars) starting in 2035. The number of civil servants in the Dutch government is expected to reach about 160,000 by the end of 2025, an increase of 41% compared to 2018.

Dongfang Gangwan Fund Chairman Dan Bin is making a "major adjustment" in the technology sector. According to statistics from Private Equity Ranking Network, as of the end of the third quarter of 2026, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund held a total of 13 U.S. stock targets, with a total market value of approximately $1.469 billion.From the perspective of industry distribution, AI remains a key focus for Dongfang Gangwan. As of the end of the third quarter, Google was the largest holding in Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund. However, in terms of buying and selling actions, Dan Bin's preference for sub-sectors within the AI industry has changed significantly compared to the second quarter.According to statistics, in the third quarter of this year, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund reduced its holdings in targets such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom, and Lumentum, which were newly purchased in the second quarter, while increasing its positions in storage giant Micron Technology, SanDisk, as well as Nvidia, Google-C, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that America's allies are racing to reduce their dependence on SpaceX.

According to the information released by the SEC, Robinhood (HOOD) director Bhatt Baiju sold 50,912 shares of the company's stock on October 21 at an average price of $101.4 per share, for a total value of approximately $5.1625 million. After the transaction, his direct holdings decreased to 4,636 shares.

According to a report by Forbes on Friday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is preparing to reform its voluntary disclosure program, planning to reduce penalties and expedite the processing of tax violation cases, including those involving cryptocurrency.Jarod Koopman, head of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, stated that the agency aims to launch the revised program before December and to close cases within 120 days after taxpayers complete the required submission process. He noted that the new plan will not establish a separate disclosure channel for digital assets but will apply the same voluntary disclosure procedures to other forms of tax noncompliance. Koopman also mentioned that the penalties under the revised program will be significantly lower than current levels, although he did not provide specific amounts. The IRS is considering allowing taxpayers to settle debts through installment payments or settlement offers.According to Forbes, the current program often takes a year or longer to complete and primarily targets taxpayers who intentionally fail to comply with tax laws and may face criminal prosecution, rather than those who make reporting errors due to negligence. Meanwhile, legislative efforts are advancing another voluntary disclosure program aimed at cryptocurrency taxpayers. Section 502 of the Digital Asset Taxation Certainty Act will establish a correction process with clear penalty standards for past violations, and the bill was passed by the House Ways and Means Committee in September.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Franklin Templeton, with assets under management of $1.7 trillion, has completed the final regulatory procedure before listing two ETFs that convert stock dividends into Bitcoin.On October 22, the company submitted Form 8-A to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to register shares of the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF for trading on NASDAQ. The prospectus submitted on the same day indicates an effective date of October 27. These two funds were first filed in June of this year, with codes and fees not disclosed at that time.The stock fund code is FBEQ, which tracks the VettaFi US Large-Cap 500 Bitcoin DRIP Index. This index holds the 500 largest companies in the U.S. by market capitalization, weighted by free float. As of September 30, it actually held 499 stocks, with a concentration in the information technology sector. The fund's initial allocation is 95% stocks and 5% Bitcoin, with regular or special dividends distributed by companies being used to purchase Bitcoin at the opening of the next trading day after the ex-dividend date, increasing the Bitcoin allocation with each dividend payment.During quarterly rebalancing, any Bitcoin allocation exceeding 5% will be reduced to 4.5%; if the Bitcoin allocation exceeds 20% between two rebalancing periods, it will be brought down to 4.5% within two trading days, with the funds flowing back into stocks. The fund does not directly hold on-chain Bitcoin but gains exposure through Bitcoin exchange-traded products (including its own spot fund), futures and options, or depository receipts, with some achieved through a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. The FBEQ fee is 0.09%, with no 12b-1 fees, managed by Franklin Advisory Services, and Franklin Templeton Institutional serves as a sub-advisor. The innovation fund employs the same mechanism, tracking the VettaFi US Innovation 100 Bitcoin DRIP Index, with components from the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on NASDAQ.Franklin Templeton had previously filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF in September 2023 and launched it in January 2024 under the code EZBC; in April of this year, it acquired 250 Digital and established an institutional digital asset department, Franklin Crypto. These two DRIP funds extend the strategy to investors who will not purchase Bitcoin on their own.

The hedge fund Bridgewater's China business department informed investors that the institution's bullish stance on gold has decreased and that it holds a cautiously optimistic view on the domestic Chinese stock market. The Shanghai-based hedge fund stated in a letter to investors in September that it has gradually reduced its previously overweight position in gold.Bridgewater China noted that rising interest rates have increased the opportunity cost of holding gold, while rising oil prices have suppressed demand from energy-importing countries like India. The institution also expressed optimism about Chinese assets, believing that the current stock market valuation is not high, the policy direction is favorable for long-term capital formation, and that there may be more funds flowing into the stock market in the future against a backdrop of lower bond yields.

According to Caixin, Hong Kong-listed company Jingwei TianDi (02477.HK) announced on the evening of October 21 that its major shareholder, Hengfeng International, sold 716 million shares in the open market at an average price of HKD 0.1494 per share, cashing out approximately HKD 107 million.The announcement showed that Hengfeng International's shareholding ratio decreased from 24.94% to 10.01%. Hengfeng International is controlled by Qian Fenglei, who holds a 78.56% stake. Jingwei TianDi was included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect in March this year.A senior financial observer in Hong Kong told Caixin that this low-price reduction and cashing out raises suspicions of ulterior motives, and it cannot be ruled out that it is related to the recent monitoring of market manipulation by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.

According to CoinDesk, Ben Edgington, the coordinator of the Ethereum rapid finality research direction, along with several researchers, submitted a draft proposing to reduce the transaction finality waiting time from about 16 minutes to about 4 minutes, improving it by approximately four times.The current goal is to push this draft into the formal upgrade proposal process. The core idea of the draft is to separate the original "block selection" and "finality confirmation" mechanisms of validators, allowing finality to progress at a faster pace and facilitating future adoption of quantum-resistant signatures.Faster finality is expected to reduce the costs incurred by cross-chain transfer services due to capital occupation. The Ethereum Foundation's research provides an example: if a service advances about 1 million dollars per hour, under a 16-minute delay, approximately 267,000 dollars would be pending recovery, which could be reduced to about 67,000 dollars after shortening to 4 minutes.

According to Microsoft's 10-K filing for fiscal year 2026, as of June 30, 2026, the company had approximately 223,000 full-time employees, down from 228,000 the previous year, a decrease of about 5,000, marking the first decline in ten years.Among them, there are 121,000 employees in the United States and 102,000 employees overseas; approximately 77,000 employees are in research and development, a decrease of about 4,000 from the peak in 2024. During the same period, Microsoft's revenue for fiscal year 2026 increased by 18% year-on-year, reaching $331.8 billion.The above employee statistics do not include the new round of approximately 4,800 job cuts in July 2026. Microsoft previously stated that the eliminated positions would not be directly replaced by AI.

According to the market information platform Liquid247.xyz, the Hyperliquid address 0x7fdafd...17d1 reduced its BTC short position by 306.94 coins, with a nominal value of 25,808,200 USD.At the time of publication, BTC was quoted at 84,082 USD, and ETH was quoted at 2,473.30 USD.

NVIDIA stated that DSX can reduce the cooling water consumption to nearly zero at a scale of 2 gigawatts.

Solana's largest network upgrade since 2020, Alpenglow, officially launched on Wednesday. This upgrade moves validator voting from on-chain to off-chain, packaging votes into certificates that can lock transactions within one to two rounds, aiming to reduce the final confirmation time for transactions from about 6 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds, speeding it up by about 40 times. If this goal is achieved on the mainnet, Solana's transaction settlement speed will be faster than the blink of an eye, bringing it closer to the trading and payment experience of centralized exchanges.Currently, a 6-second confirmation time means that prices may change before the transaction is locked, causing exchanges and payment applications to wait before considering deposits as complete. In comparison, Ethereum takes about 13 minutes to achieve full final confirmation. At the same time, validator costs are expected to decrease by about 60%: currently, validators spend about 2 SOL daily on voting fees, which doubled after Solana recently reduced block time to about 200 milliseconds; Alpenglow eliminates voting fees, replacing them with a fixed validator entry fee of 0.8 SOL per epoch (approximately 24 hours).The upgrade launch process was not smooth. The testnet has been cleared and restarted from scratch six times since its launch in early May, with one migration failing across the entire network and having to be rolled back. According to an article published by Galaxy Digital, one of about 100 validator operators on the testnet, a subsequent migration was successfully completed, clearing the way for Wednesday's launch. Since these events occurred on a network built specifically for testing, there was no risk to real funds. The upgrade was scheduled to switch at the start of epoch 1064 on Wednesday, with actual changes occurring at slot 459,653,000 after a transition of 5,000 slots.

According to Engadget, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued a proposal requiring Apple to open access to NFC contactless payment on the iPhone and significantly reduce related fees. The CMA stated that Apple's fees and rules hinder the innovation and development of fintech companies in the UK. Currently, 39% of payments in the UK are made via contactless methods, with Apple Wallet being the most used.Unlike the European Union, no company in the UK has launched a competing wallet product against Apple so far. The CMA proposed that Apple open Wallet access to international mainstream contactless standards, with the CMA setting the fee principles without directly pricing them. Apple has expressed opposition, stating that it should not be required to adopt solutions with weaker privacy and security protections. The consultation will close on November 17.

According to on-chain analysts, a certain whale that started accumulating 80,157.67 ETH on March 11 has reportedly sold 75.03 WBTC and KBTC four hours ago, valued at 6.2 million dollars, with an average price of 78,068.55 dollars for the related tokens. If sold, it would yield a profit of 346,000 dollars.The whale's previously accumulated 80,000 ETH currently has an unrealized profit of 30.79 million dollars and has not yet reduced its position.

The NEAR ecosystem governance proposal HSP-029 has entered the voting stage, proposing to gradually reduce the maximum annual issuance rate of NEAR tokens from 2.5% to 1.6%. This proposal was put forward by SVRN CEO Sal Ternullo, planning to linearly decrease by approximately 3.75 basis points per epoch over 24 months, while maintaining a 90/10 allocation ratio between stakers and the treasury. After the vote passes, there will be a 90-day grace period before the reduction officially begins.The proposal's calculations indicate that this plan is expected to reduce the issuance of approximately 11.8 million NEAR tokens over two years, with a cumulative reduction of about 66.1 million tokens over six years, equivalent to a 4.36% decrease in supply compared to the current situation. The annualized staking yield will gradually decrease from the current 5.268% to 3.372%. The author points out that this move aims to reduce the degree of dilution for non-staking holders and responds to discussions regarding the protocol's discretion risk following the withdrawal of the previous Sovereign Fund proposal.This proposal must go through a dual process to take effect: after passing the House of Stake vote, validators must also independently adopt it through the standard protocol upgrade process. The proposal cites Solana's SGP-0002, which was passed in August 2026 with a staking weight approval of 67.001% for a similar issuance reduction, as a precedent. Currently, the NEAR network has a total of 406 active validators, with a staking rate of 42.71%.

The decentralized perpetual contract trading platform Aster announced that, in light of recent developments related to PAPER and potential market risks, it has adjusted the pre-market perpetual contract for PAPER to a liquidation-only mode and plans to officially delist the contract at 9:45 AM Beijing time on October 20. Aster recommends that users holding open positions proactively close their positions before the delisting, calling this a precautionary measure to manage market risks and maintain trading order.Previously, Papertrade stated that there are currently no plans to allow external transfers of the PAPER token and will adjust short-term trading fees and the token issuance curve. The team believes that the PAPER perpetual contract could make the liquidity pool's solvency a target for short selling, and external short exposure may increase the profit potential for manipulation attacks, as these markets are not controlled by the protocol.Papertrade founder Jez also pointed out that due to the rapid progress of the perpetual contract market, PAPER is currently set to a non-transferable status to avoid potential attack risks and maintain the long-term healthy development of the protocol. Jez emphasized that PAPER represents users' rights to the protocol's earnings, and its long-term value depends on whether Papertrade can continue to attract traders. The team made this risk management choice based on the operational data from the first week after the protocol's launch.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released Working Paper No. 1385, comparing the cross-border payment costs of traditional banks, fintech remittance companies, and stablecoins. The paper points out that stablecoins can complete cross-border transfers through networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Tron, reducing reliance on correspondent banks and SWIFT.The paper states that the exchange rates of stablecoins for major currencies can approach wholesale foreign exchange rates, and on-chain transfer fees are relatively low. However, the complete process involving fiat currency, stablecoins, and fiat currency still incurs transaction, withdrawal, and exchange fees. Stablecoins reconstruct the intermediary process but do not eliminate intermediaries. Insufficient market depth limits the cost advantages of large payments, and some advantages in emerging markets are related to capital controls and demand for US dollars.

According to reports from Ark Invest Tracker, several funds under Cathie Wood's ARK Invest have made adjustments to their holdings. Among them, ARKK purchased 102,280 shares of CoreWeave (CRWV), accounting for 0.0836% of the ETF. At the same time, it sold 18,087 shares of Shopify (SHOP) and 15,988 shares of Palantir (PLTR), accounting for 0.0418% and 0.042%, respectively.The operational direction of ARKW is consistent with ARKK, buying 30,218 shares of CRWV, accounting for 0.1008%. The fund sold 2,668 shares of SHOP and 2,361 shares of PLTR, accounting for 0.0252% and 0.0253%, respectively. Additionally, it sold 500 shares of DraftKings (DKNG), accounting for 0.0005%.ARKG purchased three biotechnology-related targets on the same day, namely 60,269 shares of Iambic Therapeutics (IAM), 19,856 shares of Scribe Therapeutics (SCTX), and 4,835 shares of Freenome (FRNM), accounting for 0.0261%, 0.01%, respectively.