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Anthropic recently submitted a draft AI safety bill to U.S. lawmakers, which has been questioned by U.S. AI safety advocates. The draft sets a high threshold for the government to urgently halt dangerous models, requiring that risks involve scenarios such as biological weapons, cyberattacks, or AI going out of control, and potentially causing more than 50 deaths or serious injuries, or losses exceeding $1 billion; some provisions may also limit state government regulatory authority.Nathan Calvin, the strategic head of the AI safety organization Encode, subsequently compiled Anthropic's decisions over the past year. In February of this year, the company modified its previously strict safety policy: it had previously committed to pausing training or releases if safety measures did not keep pace with model capabilities, but the new policy no longer requires the company to independently halt R&D at higher risk stages, citing that competitors might take advantage of the opportunity. During the same period, the company invested heavily in computing power, formed a chip team, and allowed Claude to take on more AI R&D tasks.On October 21, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei posted a lengthy rebuttal on X. He acknowledged that the company had made some mistakes but insisted that competing for cutting-edge AI capabilities did not violate its safety mission, stating that the company adheres to a race-to-the-top approach, believing that only by staying at the forefront of technology can it drive the industry to raise safety standards. He listed nine safety decisions that had cost the company commercially, including restricting the Mythos-level model's open access for months and strictly limiting biology-related requests. The safety roadmap updated by the company on October 19 states that existing policies mainly target the deployment of dangerous models, and in the future, it may be necessary to directly limit the speed of R&D, with plans to propose relevant policy options by January 15, 2027, or explain why none were proposed.

According to Sifted, the Dutch startup Photon Bridge announced the completion of a €10 million seed round financing. The company is developing laser technology that can be used for internal connections of AI chips in data centers, aiming to enhance inter-chip connectivity performance.The company claims that its laser technology can be manufactured at scale to meet the rapidly growing demand for AI infrastructure.

Elon Musk stated that the bottleneck in the development of artificial intelligence lies more in power, cooling, and infrastructure, rather than in chips.

Cryptocurrency researcher Kerman Kohli published "Compute Financing" on Substack on October 19, 2026, discussing financing for computing power construction. He believes one of the main bottlenecks is capital, especially credit: early expenditures mainly come from balance sheet cash, followed by a shift to equity financing. The article cites Alphabet's $85 billion financing and Meta's fundraising through shareholder dilution, with the next step being the credit market.Kohli summarizes the current beliefs of creditors into three points, which he believes are incompatible: AI may be a bubble; the biggest risk is counterparty risk in purchase contracts; the underlying GPUs are not valuable and depreciate like ordinary hardware. He argues that demand is closer to infinite, stating that the demand for agentic AI is growing by about 2.5 to 5 times each year, with supply potentially doubling by the end of 2030. Memory is expected to sell out by 2027, with computing power commitments reaching trillions of dollars, and he mentions Jane Street's multi-billion dollar commitments, as well as the needs of pharmaceutical companies, research, military, and cybersecurity.Regarding efficiency, he states that when the cost of intelligence drops by 90%, the increase in usage is even greater, with a baseline exceeding 10 times, and he cites Jevons' Paradox.On the topic of purchasing, Kohli believes that computing power is more substitutable than real estate; when demand is strong, if someone withdraws their commitment, others will take over. He mentions that many creditors require 2 to 3 year contracts and down payments of 20% to 30%, sometimes as high as 50%, and locking in long-term discount contracts effectively shorts computing power for lenders. The article also states that computing power rental prices have risen by about 50% in the past 6 months and about 100% in the past year, with B300 supplies being tight. Regarding collateral, he notes that the A100 from 2020 is still operational and rented out until 2029, leading him to believe it has at least about 9 years of use value; the current price of B200 is about 50% higher than when it was released about two years ago, and a 6-year-old A100 is still worth about 25% of its value. He concludes that computing power will surpass real estate to become the largest asset class, and the scale of credit-supported computing power is currently just beginning.

The cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase stated on X that stablecoins can complete cross-border transfers in seconds, but the funds still need to enter channels that the recipient can actually use.Coinbase mentioned that it is collaborating with the cross-border payment company Thunes to connect its stablecoin infrastructure to local bank accounts and mobile wallets worldwide.

According to monitoring by the blockchain security agency Salus, the Aztec Connect attacker made 30 transactions on October 19, depositing 1,255.8 ETH (approximately 3.01 million USD) into Tornado Cash. The batches consisted of 12 transactions of 100 ETH, 5 transactions of 10 ETH, 5 transactions of 1 ETH, and 8 transactions of 0.1 ETH.On June 14, the attacker exploited a settlement verification vulnerability in the deprecated Aztec Connect contract to steal approximately 2.19 million USD in assets, including 908.987 ETH as well as DAI, wstETH, and Yearn vault tokens. After holding the funds for about four months, the attacker redeemed the vault tokens on October 19, converting the token assets into an additional 346.767 ETH. The balances of the 6 stolen ERC-20 tokens have all been reduced to zero.

Polygon announced the launch of Polygon CDK Besu, supporting banks and financial institutions to deploy private blockchains based on Hyperledger Besu, and connect to other blockchains and their liquidity through Agglayer from the outset. It currently supports deployment on the Ethereum mainnet.

Mark Newton, an analyst at Tom Lee's fund, stated in an interview with CNBC that it is currently suitable to buy technology stocks on dips, but investors need to maintain diversified allocations and be prepared for sector rotations.In the past month, cross-asset volatility has significantly increased, with the S&P 500 index recently falling about 6%, and the technology sector also experiencing notable adjustments over the past week. However, compared to the gains in September, he believes the damage to technology stocks has been relatively limited.This year, the market has consistently shown characteristics of sector rotation, initially with the energy sector rising nearly 40%, then the momentum spreading to the technology sector, and now shifting towards the healthcare sector, which has reached an all-time high. Investors need to be prepared for sector switches and maintain diversified allocations.Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers, reminds that even if investors do not actively allocate to AI, they may still hold a high exposure to technology stocks through S&P 500 index funds. Currently, the market remains focused on sector rotation, but he is concerned about the continued decline of technology stocks and that investors are beginning to question the return on AI investments.

According to Bitcoin.com, asset management company Vaneck has applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to withdraw the registration documents for the Lido Staked Ethereum ETF. The document is dated October 14, 2026, the registration statement never became effective, and the fund has not sold any shares.The product was originally planned to hold liquid staking tokens stETH issued by the Lido protocol, rather than staking Ethereum directly through designated validators. The total locked value of Lido is currently about $23.6 billion, down from $33.3 billion a year ago.BlackRock launched ETHB, which stakes Ethereum directly through validators, in March 2026, with a net asset value of $409.8 million as of March 31.

On October 16, according to Yicai, Xiaohongshu released a company-wide letter, connecting its internal AI Level 1 department Dots with the company's core infra team, and clarifying that another internal technical organization, hi lab, will focus on long-term technological exploration and layout of cutting-edge technology directions. The reporter for the article is Ning Jiayan, and the editor is DingTalk.The company-wide letter clearly defines Xiaohongshu's positioning as a technology application company, stating that its logic in investing in model research and development differs fundamentally from that of cloud vendors. The letter states: "We have a clearer direction for the next stage: the greatest value of technology lies not only in pursuing model capabilities or computing power scale itself, but more importantly, in the deep integration of models and applications, where technology and products enhance each other to jointly create valuable user experiences in this era."

According to official news from Visa, the stablecoin pre-funding capability of Visa Direct has transitioned from the pilot phase to commercial deployment. Payment infrastructure provider Inyo Global has become the first service provider to put this functionality into production, supporting eligible Visa Direct clients and partners.

During a live AMA interview hosted by CoinMarketCap, Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han discussed the development direction of digital finance, the product positioning of Gate Money, and the accelerated integration of digital assets with traditional finance.Dr. Han stated, "The future of digital finance lies not only in providing more asset choices but also in connecting assets, funds, and payments, allowing users to manage assets, transfer funds, and meet daily payment needs more conveniently within one ecosystem." Upholding the core concept of "One Gate, Everything Money," Gate Money integrates services such as digital assets, fiat currency, stocks, ETFs, gold, bank accounts, payments, and asset management into a single account, covering scenarios like asset holding, receiving payments, transferring, exchanging, paying, and earning. Users in eligible regions can also open an e-banking account with the same name and use the Gate Card for online and offline consumption with fiat or digital assets, further bridging asset allocation and daily payment scenarios.Regarding the accelerated integration of digital assets and traditional finance, Dr. Han also explored the roles of stablecoins and asset tokenization in cross-border capital flow, on-chain settlement, and financial service innovation. As user demands extend from single transactions to investment management, fund transfers, and daily consumption scenarios, Gate will continue to expand the asset categories, payment methods, and service capabilities of Gate Money, enriching the application of digital assets in diverse financial scenarios and providing users with a more integrated financial service experience.

According to CTV News, the Toronto police announced the arrest of 7 people in a violent kidnapping case targeting cryptocurrency holders and the subsequent investigation, including 3 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, with a total of 82 criminal charges filed.The police stated that the victim was kidnapped on July 25, handcuffed, and beaten, as the suspects attempted to obtain access to their cryptocurrency assets and corporate security systems, after which they were released. The investigation also seized firearms, drugs, and approximately 2,500 stolen military ammunition, and the case is still under investigation.

According to The Defiant, asset management company VanEck is seeking to withdraw its filing application for the Lido Staked Ethereum ETF. The proposed fund was originally planned to directly hold stETH and provide investors with exposure to Lido's liquid staking tokens through brokerage accounts.Reports indicate that the fund's registration never took effect, meaning this product failed to enter the formal issuance stage. Lido is the largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, and stETH is the liquid staking token it issues, allowing users to stake ETH while maintaining asset liquidity and earning staking rewards.

According to "Du Jia," Tencent is conducting a small-scale test of its personal investment analysis assistant "Rena Lan Cai," which has a PC version and a WeChat mini-program, supporting connection to WeChat. This product is positioned as an AI assistant for individual investors, helping users obtain and understand market and company information, and is currently in a small-scale testing phase.The web version breaks down the investment research workflow into visual modules, with core features including market quick reads, individual stock tracking, and AI Q&A. The market quick read summarizes global market dynamics, continuously updated in the morning, noon, closing, and evening, and associates market information with the user's watchlist; the left sidebar allows users to customize stocks of interest and displays real-time market data, while the right side features an intelligent Q&A panel linked to the day's quick read content, supporting follow-up questions about industry rankings, cash flow in financial reports, and more. In addition to the PC version, Rena Lan Cai is also launched as a WeChat mini-program, with basic functionality aligned across both platforms and conversation records shared. The product also appears in the WeChat chat list as a WeChat ClawBot intelligent entity, allowing users to directly access investment research capabilities in the chat window.The report states that Alibaba is also internally testing its AI investment research product Qovest, and Baidu's previously released Kuku AI is also focusing on investment research, as major companies collectively enter the personal investor AI investment research space. Rena Lan Cai essentially serves as an investment research assistance tool, not providing investment advice and avoiding direct trading compliance red lines.

According to Bloomberg, stock, options, and cryptocurrency API broker Alpaca announced plans to launch a prime brokerage business in the first quarter of 2027. Prime brokers can provide financing, asset custody, and securities lending services to large investment institutions such as hedge funds.The plan aims to target the institutional financing needs arising from the integration of cryptocurrency and traditional securities markets.

According to official news, ASTER has connected to Solana through Sunrise, and users can currently access and trade ASTER within the Solana ecosystem.Aster stated that this connection will further expand the trading and usage channels of ASTER across different blockchain ecosystems.

According to a report by Mobile Payment Network, regarding some payment platforms that are registered only as financial technology companies without obtaining any financial category licenses, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Christopher Hui, stated that appropriate enforcement actions will be taken as necessary under the relevant statutory regulatory framework to maintain financial stability and protect the rights and interests of customers and the public.According to the Hong Kong Payment Systems and Stored Value Payment Instruments Ordinance, unless a statutory exemption is obtained, anyone who issues or operates stored value payment instruments in Hong Kong without a license is committing an offense. If cases of suspected unlicensed operation or violations of the Payment Ordinance are discovered, the Monetary Authority will intervene directly and will collaborate with other relevant regulatory agencies depending on the nature of the case, and will refer the case to law enforcement agencies if necessary.