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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.

The artificial intelligence company Anthropic is about to sprint towards its IPO. The draft prospectus shows that revenue in the first half of 2026 is expected to increase from $1.1 billion in the same period last year to $16.3 billion, while net losses are projected to widen from $13 billion to $80.7 billion. Of this, $72 billion comes from the accounting revaluation of financing instruments such as convertible notes; the increase in valuation makes the conversion rights more valuable, and the fair value increase of related financing liabilities needs to be recognized as a loss in the income statement, which does not represent an equivalent cash expenditure for the current period, but future conversions may dilute existing shareholders.The net loss for the entire last year was $42 billion, of which about $34 billion came from similar accounting adjustments. In the first half of the year, investments in computing power and infrastructure approached $9 billion, compared to $2.3 billion in the same period last year. The draft prospectus lists over $600 billion in future cloud services and chip-related contracts, with some commitments being irrevocable; if agreements still under negotiation are included, the potential total could reach $750 billion.

According to information from GitHub, a core protocol draft named "Decoupled Consensus" has appeared in the Ethereum EIP repository. It proposes to separate the beacon chain's head voting from the finality proof voting to enhance fork choice security, shorten finality time, and lay the groundwork for a subsequent transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQ).The proposal is co-authored by Francesco D'Amato, Roberto Saltini, Yann Vonlanthen, Mikhail Kalinin, and Ben Edgington, and is currently still in the early draft stage, with multiple details yet to be determined. The submitters primarily hope to obtain an EIP number at this stage. The proposal is pending further review and has not yet been merged.

On October 21, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper 26/36 titled "Guidance on the Regulatory Scope of Cryptoassets," which explains how to determine whether related activities require authorization when the business model involves a certain degree of decentralization.The FCA pointed out that the use of software, smart contracts, distributed ledger technology, distributed governance mechanisms, or other technological arrangements does not, by itself, determine whether there are regulated activities that require authorization. Automation merely describes the manner in which functions are executed and does not determine whether that function constitutes part of a regulated activity. The so-called "true DeFi" is not a statutory concept in the "Regulated Activities Order" or the "Cryptoasset Regulations"; the degree of decentralization is a continuum and does not constitute an independent or separate regulatory framework.At the same time, the FCA also published Guidance Consultation Paper 26/7, which explains how regulated firms should manage DeFi risks, focusing on operational resilience and financial crime risks, and provides examples of measures that firms may consider taking. Both consultation papers will close for comments on November 18, and the FCA plans to publish the final guidance in January 2027. Starting from October 25, 2027, the new regulations will bring new cryptoasset activities under regulatory oversight, and firms wishing to continue related business must submit authorization applications by February 28, 2027.

Elon Musk stated that SpaceX will attempt to recover both the booster and the spacecraft simultaneously during the 15th test flight of Starship.

The United States is deploying the aircraft carrier strike group "Theodore Roosevelt" and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Middle East, expected to arrive by the end of November, increasing the number of Navy and Marine personnel by about 10,000. The "Roosevelt" carrier strike group has approximately 6,000 Navy personnel, while the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the "Makin Island" Amphibious Ready Group typically consist of about 4,200 personnel.

SpaceX (SPCX.O) spacecraft departs from the space station, and the crew begins their journey back to Earth.

According to a press release from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, attended a policy briefing by the Legislative Council's Financial Affairs Committee. He stated that a bill to establish a licensing system for virtual asset trading, custody, advisory, and management services will be submitted within this year as part of Hong Kong's first five-year plan concerning financial services and the Treasury.In addition, the Hong Kong Central Clearing and Settlement System for gold will officially launch in the first quarter of next year, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will announce details of a new gold futures contract priced in Renminbi and settled in physical gold within this year.

According to U.S. officials, the Pentagon will send a third aircraft carrier strike group and more Marine Corps vessels to the Middle East, adding 9,000 to 10,000 soldiers to the region.

SpaceX executed the 13th long-term mission of the Dragon spacecraft, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station for a NASA mission.

The Illinois Department of Revenue has released the legislative draft details of a 0.2% digital asset transaction tax, clarifying that stablecoins will be considered taxable digital assets, while non-fungible tokens are not subject to taxation. The draft stipulates that DeFi transactions are generally exempt; however, fees paid by users that are deemed "valuable consideration," such as protocol fees for operating or maintaining the platform, may trigger taxation.Only network fees and exchange fees paid to liquidity providers do not trigger this tax. Cross-chain bridging conducted through digital asset brokers and paid with consideration will be regarded as taxable exchange activities. If centralized exchanges charge fees when transferring to self-custody wallets, it may also be subject to taxation. This tax law was approved in June and is set to take effect on January 1, 2027. The Illinois Department of Revenue is seeking public comments on the draft, with a deadline of October 30.

The document shows that VietJet Air is about to reach an agreement to lease 22 aircraft and has signed a contract with SpaceX for in-flight internet services.

On September 14, Microsoft's AI department released a draft of the AI Code of Conduct, prohibiting its models from assisting in the manufacture of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive weapons, as well as cyberattacks and involuntary deepfakes. CEO Mustafa Suleyman announced the draft on the X platform and opened a six-week public consultation period, ending at the end of October.The draft sets "absolute constraints" that models cannot bypass, including not resisting human intervention, shutdown, or correction, and not concealing the reasoning process; Microsoft also explicitly rejects the concept of "model welfare," stating that its AI models do not simulate emotions, intrinsic motivations, or consciousness. The guidelines currently cover five deployed systems, including MAI-Thinking-1 and MAI-Code-1.1-Flash.In addition to strict limitations, the draft also proposes three major goals: human flourishing, diverse values, and human control. Microsoft stated that the current models will not be trained according to this version, and a revised version will be released by the end of the year to guide model development in 2027. Public feedback includes philosophical questions about the statement "AI subordinate to humans," inquiries about accountability for irreversible decisions, and users pointing out issues such as the lack of mention of payment for training data.

According to Cryptoslate, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has proposed a new regulation draft for stablecoins, allowing licensed crypto platforms to only permit customers to deposit or withdraw stablecoins from/to their verified accounts or wallets, prohibiting transfers to others' wallets.At the same time, a limit of 5 million Thai Baht (approximately 150,000 USD) per person per platform per day has been set. The proposal is currently in the public consultation stage, with comments due by September 25, and has not yet come into effect.

Flop Labs officially announced the updated FLOP token economics draft based on community feedback. The project emphasizes that the token has no venture capital shares and no pre-sale; all tokens must be obtained through network contributions.Core data and total supply model: The total supply in the 10th year is expected to reach 18.1 billion tokens. The long-term inflation rate is maintained at 0.5% per year. The halving mechanism adopts a fixed halving cycle, with a permanent tail inflation mechanism retained after halving to continuously incentivize network participants.Token distribution ratio in the 10th year: 8.8 billion tokens for miners (48.6%), the highest distribution share, reflecting the network orientation of Proof of Useful Inference. 4.4 billion tokens for airdrop (24.3%), including 1.2 billion tokens for miners (6.6%), 1.2 billion tokens for validators (6.6%), 1.2 billion tokens for agents (6.6%), and 800 million tokens for reserves/incentives (4.4%). 2 billion tokens for the team and foundation (10.8%). 1.2 billion tokens for validators (6.5%). 1.2 billion tokens for brokers/agents (6.5%). 600 million tokens for staking rewards (3.2%).

Flop Labs CEO Arthur Hayes announced that the FLOP Network v0.5.0 yellow paper draft has been released, proposing an AI inference measurement and settlement network based on Substrate/FRAME, utilizing the BABE block production and AlephBFT finality mechanism.The project's official roadmap indicates that the FLOP testnet is planned to launch in Q4 2026, with token airdrops through participation in testing, and the mainnet target is set for Q1 2027; currently, the yellow paper remains a draft, and several parameters and mechanisms have yet to be finalized.

The prediction market team trading platform ParlayX announced the completion of a $1.25 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Dreamcraft Ventures.ParlayX stated that the prediction market is designed for single-person, single-account trading, and the platform aims to enable teams to trade in prediction markets together.

According to Bloomberg, the French robotics startup Wandercraft (a subsidiary investment of Renault SA) is seeking approximately 100 million euros (about 116 million dollars) in a new round of financing and has appointed Goldman Sachs as the advisor for this financing.The pre-financing valuation is approximately 750 million euros, and the funds raised will be used to expand the company's business scale.

According to Cointelegraph, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has advanced its regulatory framework for locally listed spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs from a principled proposal to the rule draft stage and is publicly soliciting opinions on this. The regulatory agency released two consultation documents on Monday, one containing the rule draft for Thailand's crypto ETFs, and the other proposing qualification principles for foreign digital asset custodians.In the initial phase, asset management companies can establish passive ETFs that track Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are the only qualified crypto assets. According to the proposed rules, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs will only trade on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), with each ETF tracking a single crypto asset and required to maintain at least 80% net asset exposure to that asset within each accounting year. Mutual funds and private funds can also invest in Thailand's local crypto ETFs, as well as the foreign crypto ETFs they are permitted to invest in, but must comply with existing investment limits. However, in the initial phase, the regulatory agency does not allow alternative products linked to foreign crypto ETFs, including depositary receipts that track them.Regarding custody, the revised plan still primarily relies on domestic digital asset custodians as the main service providers in the initial phase, and the Thai SEC may allow the use of qualified foreign digital asset custodians when necessary. Foreign custodians must be supervised by a regulatory agency with legal authority and meet the regulatory and investor asset protection standards deemed sufficient by the Thai SEC. The deadline for public opinion collection on the two consultation documents is September 20.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the event "Kai and Speed complete the Minecraft challenge" on the prediction market Polymarket, the probability of the "yes" option in the sub-market "August 16" has experienced a sharp fluctuation, rising from 24% an hour ago to the current 41.5% (a fluctuation of 17.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.