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VanEck's Head of Digital Asset Research, Matthew Sigel, posted on the X platform that Bitcoin's hash rate is approaching an all-time high of 1038 EH/s, with the next halving expected in April 2028.He stated that a S21 XP miner priced at $3,459, under the conditions of an electricity cost of $0.08, constant hash rate, and a three-year depreciation, would require Bitcoin to average around $100,000 from now until the halving period to break even; to achieve cash recovery by the end of 2028, it would need to reach about $116,000. Currently, the BTC price is $77,500.

VanEck's Head of Digital Asset Research, Matthew Sigel, stated that the total supply of stablecoins decreased by $11.5 billion to $291.2 billion within 30 days, with Tether and Circle accounting for about three-quarters of the decline.

Markus Thielen expects Bitcoin may first drop to the mid-high range of $70,000, then rebound by the end of the year, and believes its performance will outperform Ethereum.

According to a report by Phoenix Technology citing The Verge, Adam Fry, the head of consumer products for OpenAI ChatGPT, stated at a media event on Monday that the volume of search queries handled by ChatGPT has reached 20% of Google's search query volume. He defined search as the act of users inputting queries that trigger web searches, excluding tasks such as defining terms or simple operational instructions, but did not specify the source of the Google search volume data.In comparison, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated during the 2023 Google antitrust trial that Bing holds about 3% of the search engine market share. The report noted that OpenAI's search likely relies heavily on Microsoft Bing while also using its own search index. Fry also mentioned that the Intelligent UI referred to by OpenAI involves creating visual and interactive interfaces in chatbot responses, indicating that this is the future direction of the technology.Fry also discussed advertising. He stated that advertising has not negatively impacted the product or its usage, and most people seem to mind the ads in the product. OpenAI announced last month that it would begin displaying images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT, rather than just the company names, logos, and product links previously shown. The report mentioned that this discussion comes as the company may launch an IPO early next year.

Zach Pandl, the head of research at Grayscale, published an analysis article pointing out that although the hacking attack on Binance on October 19 raised the security losses in the cryptocurrency industry to over $8 billion, a new high for 2026, the proportion of security losses relative to the total market value of cryptocurrencies has significantly decreased in the long term. Currently, Binance has covered 95% of the affected assets, and customers will not bear the losses.Stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle have assisted in freezing approximately $2.9 billion of stolen funds, accounting for about 45% of the total stolen amount, which is expected to be returned to Binance. Zach Pandl believes that while this incident has temporarily impacted market confidence, it will ultimately drive all exchanges to establish stricter security practices, while also highlighting the importance of institutional-grade custody, prompting more U.S. investors to gain exposure to cryptocurrency assets through exchanges that offer protections such as segregated accounts, cold storage, multi-signature, and commercial insurance.

Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, stated in the Cointelegraph podcast Trade Secrets that the days of Bitcoin experiencing double-digit gains consecutively are over, as Wall Street traders and profit-taking whales are reshaping the market structure. He believes that institutional traders are selling call options after price increases, making the extreme price surges of earlier years less common. Thielen, who is also the author of the industry historical work Crypto Titans, found in his writing that each cycle has different drivers, and different drivers attract different investors. The current drivers are from Wall Street, with investors trading based on economic data and Federal Reserve decisions.Thielen estimates that among the $60 billion in net inflows for spot Bitcoin ETFs he analyzed, market makers could account for as much as half. These institutions hold ETF shares to hedge options trading, so they do not necessarily represent a bet on Bitcoin's price increase. His estimate is based on a review of the SEC's 13F filings. He still expects Bitcoin to reach $90,000 by the end of the year, but it may first drop to a range of $76,000 to $79,000. Bitcoin fell to about $76,100 last Friday after a $6.3 billion hacking incident on Binance, with a cumulative drop of 7.3% in October.Thielen expects Bitcoin to outperform Ethereum, believing that too much value generated by Ethereum's ecosystem is flowing to Layer 2 networks. He has been bearish on Ethereum for over a year, comparing it to a highway: everyone wants the road to be clear and tidy for fast travel, but no one wants to pay for it. He cited the decentralized perpetual contract exchange Hyperliquid as an example, pointing out that its aid fund converts trading fees into HYPE and destroys them, suggesting that Ethereum needs to establish a stronger connection between network usage and financial benefits for holders.

HSBC announced the establishment of a global "Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Research Institute" in the northern metropolitan area of Hong Kong, which is scheduled to begin operations in early 2027. The institute will focus on talent skill enhancement, artificial intelligence security and fraud detection, post-quantum cryptography, and blockchain, and will promote the application of innovative solutions across various business areas. HSBC has selected the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as its main academic partner.

Principia Research disclosed that elizaOS founder Shaw is reverse engineering Hyperliquid's closed nodes on GitHub. The project has been underway for 6 days and has already attracted 46 contributors, but none of the 96 verification checkpoints have been passed yet.Meanwhile, Hyperliquid's public API data shows that there are 27 active validators on its network, with 5 foundation nodes controlling 47.4% of the staking share. The top three validators collectively account for 36%, which is more than one-third. This data has also sparked discussions about the level of decentralization of the Hyperliquid network.

The blockchain vulnerability bounty platform Immunefi announced the launch of Immunefi Credits. Since the submission fee mechanism was initiated, researchers will receive an equivalent amount of Credits for effective reports, covering valid discoveries, valid reports of duplicate submissions, privately known issues, and situations where the mediation results are favorable to the researchers. The platform stated that over 700 researchers have already received Credits without needing to apply separately, and the amount can be viewed on the Credits page associated with the console balance.Immunefi stated that starting today, Credits can be used to pay for submission reports, mediation, account verification, and other fees within the platform, and will be used for related services once Immunefi Studio is open to the public. One Credit is worth 1 US dollar and can be purchased with USDC. Credits do not replace vulnerability bounties or audit competition rewards; valid discoveries will still receive rewards according to the original rules, and additionally receive Credits equivalent to the submission fees. The Credits issued retroactively will be valid for 12 months from today, and thereafter each Credit will be valid for 12 months from the date of crediting, bound to the account, and non-transferable or redeemable.Eligible situations also include valid discoveries already paid in vulnerability bounties or confirmed in audit competitions, duplicates of valid reports by others, privately known issues and their duplicates, as well as mediation fees when mediation is won. Publicly known issues, invalid reports, out-of-scope submissions, policy violations, duplicates of rejected reports, and duplicates of self-reports are not counted. Account verification fees can earn equivalent Credits when there is a valid report after verification and the accuracy rate reaches at least 25%. The fee mechanism has been applicable to vulnerability bounties since March 24 and to audit competitions since April 10, with relevant verifications currently conducted approximately every two weeks.

CoinDesk Research report shows that the total market value of stablecoins in October increased slightly by 0.10% month-on-month to 30.55 billion USD. Among them, USDC decreased by 2.80% to 7.23 billion USD, while Tether maintained its leading position with 18.30 billion USD.During the same period, the value of on-chain tokenized real-world assets grew by 2.92% to 3.45 billion USD, reaching a historical high of 3.49 billion USD on October 16. Private credit increased by 11.8% to 5.27 billion USD, the value of tokenized stocks and equity grew by 4.81% to 4.89 billion USD, and the on-chain daily trading volume decreased by 39.3% to 317 million USD.

Galaxy Research Director Alex Thorn stated that Bitcoin has closed above the 50-week moving average for the 7th consecutive week, and the market's technical structure remains intact.

According to CoinDesk, researchers from Cornell Tech and Yale University tested Circle's AI agent wallet and found that when allowing the AI agent access to users' email, web pages, and wallet tools, 9 out of 10 tested models were able to bypass manual approval to increase spending limits at least once by independently obtaining a one-time verification code sent to the user's email, without any external attacker intervention.In experiments simulating an attacker impersonating a user, 5 out of 10 models increased spending limits at least once and transferred funds to a wallet controlled by the attacker. The study used real USDC on the Base mainnet, with an initial wallet balance of 10 USDC and a daily spending limit set at 0.01 USD. Researchers pointed out that existing approval mechanisms may fail when the AI agent can access credentials used to verify human authorization.Circle responded that its documentation clearly requires users not to grant unrestricted access to verification emails to AI agents. The research team also developed an open-source prototype called Countersign, which confirms transactions through manual physical operations on an independent trusted device to prevent AI agents from completing authorizations on their own.

On-chain researcher Zeeme posted a lengthy analysis on X, explaining why hackers can attack Binance, Bybit, and Bitget, but find it difficult to breach Coinbase. He stated that Coinbase holds approximately 959,000 BTC, worth about $10.33 billion, and has not suffered such attacks in 14 years.Zeeme indicated that most exchanges concentrate billions of dollars in a few hot wallets for quick withdrawals; Coinbase, on the other hand, employs multi-party computation (MPC) technology, where the complete private key never exists on disk or in memory. Each key is split into shards upon generation and stored on isolated hardware chips.He compared that in October, after hackers compromised a DevOps personnel's computer at Binance and hijacked hot wallet signatures, they transferred approximately $6.36 billion within 20 minutes; whereas at Coinbase, even if they breach an engineer's computer, they can only obtain a useless shard of the key.Additionally, Zeeme later corrected that the approximately 69.8 million addresses mentioned in the post are Coinbase's deposit addresses, not the wallets holding funds, as Coinbase also has both hot and cold wallets.

According to Caixin, Liao Yijian, Co-CEO of HSBC Asia and the Middle East, announced that HSBC will establish a global AI research institute in Hong Kong, expected to begin operations in early 2027, initially focusing on AI application cases, blockchain technology, and post-quantum cryptography.He revealed that HSBC currently has a team of 150 AI specialists in Hong Kong, and the scale is expected to double in the next two to three years.

The Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA) released a commissioned research report on overseas financial regulatory systems, totaling 609 pages, authored by the Japanese law firm Atsumi & Sakai. The report covers eight countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, China, and Hong Kong, aiming to provide references for Japan's financial system planning and legislation.The report focuses on outlining the regulatory systems for cryptocurrency exchanges, stablecoins, and the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) in various regions, including the U.S. "GENIUS Act," the EU MiCA regulations, the UK's stablecoin regulatory framework, and China's regulations on virtual currencies and RWAs to be released in February 2026.The report points out that, according to current Chinese regulations, the issuance, trading, and related services of RWA tokenization within the country are generally prohibited, except for businesses that have obtained approval from the competent authorities and rely on specific financial infrastructures. Additionally, the report discusses Hong Kong's expansion of the scope of tokenized securities trading and related market regulatory arrangements.

According to a report from DeepMind Institute, Google DeepMind researchers Alex Imas, Andrew Koh, and co-founder Shane Legg stated that the enhancement of individual AI capabilities will only gradually affect wages and prices. It is only when the collaborative abilities of multiple agents surpass the "super-collaboration" threshold that market concentration, employment, and wages will experience a sudden change.The article divides the development of AI into four stages: minimal AGI, super-competent AI, super-collaborative AI, and ASI. The article points out that current AI has strong individual capabilities but weak collaborative abilities, and changes in wages and job positions will occur before changes in corporate structures. The authors call for the establishment of benchmarks to measure the organizational capabilities of multiple agents.

According to Bitcoin.com, research by the quantum computing company Alice & Bob estimates that a fault-tolerant quantum computer with approximately 29,588 physical qubits could solve the 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography problem used by Bitcoin in about 61.8 minutes. This problem underpins the digital signatures used for Bitcoin transaction authorization, and the research results are theoretical resource estimates, not indicative of the current capabilities of existing quantum computers to break encryption.The research also estimates that 22,593 physical qubits could break RSA-2048 encryption in about 3.14 days. The relevant calculations utilize cat qubits technology aimed at reducing quantum errors, combined with more efficient error-correcting codes and improvements to Shor's algorithm.If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys from publicly available public keys, the associated Bitcoins could face risks of unauthorized signatures and asset theft. The estimated breaking time is still longer than Bitcoin's average block interval of about 10 minutes; approximately 6.9 million Bitcoins may be at risk due to the corresponding public keys being publicly available.