start

On October 16, SBI Holdings and Startale Group announced their participation in Open Standard to explore the interoperability of the dollar-pegged stablecoin OUSD and the yen-denominated trust-based stablecoin JPYSC. The article states that Open Standard will launch in June 2026, and the alliance already includes over 140 global companies, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase, with OUSD already publicly launched on-chain. The announcement clarified that this only involves exploring a pilot project and does not represent the launch of new commercial services or the initiation of production environment settlements or trading activities.Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President, and CEO of SBI Holdings, stated that cross-border transactions will become more common, and seamless conversion between yen and dollar stablecoins is crucial. Joining Open Standard and exploring related proof of concepts is an important step. He also mentioned that the SBI Group has been the first in Japan to offer dollar stablecoins USDC and RLUSD. Startale Group CEO Sota Watanabe stated that joining Open Standard reflects both parties' belief that the future of finance is on-chain, borderless, and interoperable, and that the pilot interoperability of JPYSC and OUSD is of significant importance.JPYSC is issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and is positioned as an on-chain yen settlement infrastructure compliant with Japan's Payment Services Act and trust law framework. In July 2026, SBI Global Asset Management, DigiFT, and Startale announced a proof of concept for tokenized securities settlement and distribution payments, considering the future use of JPYSC. Open Standard claims it was established in 2026, with founding partners including Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa, and over 200 institutions have signed up to add OUSD to the platform.

According to Cointelegraph, the Central Bank of Russia stated in updated regulatory guidelines that arrangements for individuals to conduct peer-to-peer transactions in crypto assets will continue until July 1, 2027. After that, related transactions must be completed through authorized intermediaries. The Central Bank of Russia also clarified that individuals are not allowed to transfer crypto assets from digital accounts to self-custody wallets.Russia is expanding its regulated crypto market, with the country's largest bank, Sberbank, having been authorized to provide crypto asset trading services, having previously been approved to become a digital asset custodian. The new crypto asset regulatory rules in Russia took effect on September 1, bringing trading operators and custodians under the supervision of the Central Bank of Russia; the country still prohibits the use of cryptocurrencies for payment of goods and services. Jan3 CEO Samson Mow stated that P2P transactions are more resilient to regulatory crackdowns than centralized platforms.

According to Top Chinese Innovation Society reports, former head of the basic model for humanoid robots at ZhiJi Dynamics, Yu Tao, has left to start his own venture, focusing on the combination of LLM and embodied intelligence. According to relevant sources, his company's first round valuation is 70 million USD, and the second round valuation is 200 million USD, with DeepSeek and a leading top-tier fund participating in the investment.Yu Tao holds a PhD from the University of Science and Technology of China and was a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore. He previously served as a senior researcher in Tencent AI Lab's Absolute Enlightenment team, where he led the team to build the full-body tracking system LimX WBT and the motion generation system from scratch during his time at ZhiJi Dynamics. According to reports from Phoenix Technology, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has recently met with several entrepreneurs in embodied intelligence and is internally evaluating different entry methods, such as forming a team independently or investing in external startups.In August of this year, DeepSeek invested approximately 141 million RMB through a strategic placement in Yushu Technology for its IPO; previously, Bloomberg also disclosed its plan to lead the investment in the robotics company Winverse AI founded by former Tencent AI scientist Hu Han.

According to Techcrunch, Indian startup Scimplify announced the completion of a $25 million strategic financing round, led by Hitachi Ventures, with customers Henkel and Teknor Apex participating as new investors, and existing shareholders Accel India, Bertelsmann India Investments, and others following on. After this round of financing, the company's valuation reached $250 million, and the total equity financing amount rose to $80 million.Scimplify was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in Bangalore. Leveraging its self-developed AI platform Scinode, it coordinates the research and production processes of chemicals, reducing material delivery cycles from the traditional 12 to 18 months to as short as 2 months. The company currently serves over 1,000 clients, with products covering more than 40 countries, achieving an annual revenue of approximately $200 million, a year-on-year increase of about three times, and has achieved EBITDA profitability for two consecutive months. Revenue from the energy, electronics, and defense sectors has increased to 45% to 50%.

Alibaba's AI office product Qianwen Office released its e-commerce version on October 14 and is currently open for invitation testing. Users can switch to the "E-commerce Management" mode in Qianwen Office to experience it.According to public information, this version introduces cross-platform management dashboards, trend insights and selling point analysis, bulk generation of popular materials, and cross-platform ROI intelligent optimization for e-commerce clients' daily work scenarios. It has currently integrated with business consulting tools such as Shiji Canmou, Youzan, and Qianniu. Reports indicate that the project began preparations in June this year, entered a concentrated development phase in September, and is coordinated by Qianwen Office CEO Chen Yusen, with nearly a hundred employees participating. About 20% of the current paid users of Qianwen Office come from the e-commerce industry.

AI insurance startup Harbor AI ended its stealth mode on October 14, announcing the completion of a $10 million seed round financing, led by Base10 Partners, AbstractVC, and 8vc, with participation from RestiveVC, NFX, iEndeavors, Kibo Ventures, DidacLee, MVP Ventures, and others.Harbor AI was co-founded by Elechi, Cristian, Luis, and another co-founder, positioning itself to provide insurance for the agent economy. The company believes that as AI agents take on responsibilities traditionally held by humans, the sources of risk are shifting from human decision-making to machine behavior. Its goal is to make such risks measurable, manageable, and insurable, thereby creating a new category of insurance.

Palantir's Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar stated in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that many AI researchers have started smoking to demonstrate their confidence in AI to other researchers. He quoted the attitude of such researchers saying, "I truly believe in AI; it will cure cancer, so I’m showing you that I’m all in." Sankar did not name any specific researcher nor cite survey data; this statement was made in passing when host Margaret Brennan pressed him on why he was so focused on the topic.In the interview, Sankar referred to effective altruism as a "millennial-style doomsday cult" and mentioned FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried as the most well-known representative of the movement. He also cited Pascal's idea that everyone has a "God-shaped hole" in their heart, claiming that some researchers are trying to fill this hole with a machine god called AGI.Medical data contrasts with this claim. The U.S. CDC states that smoking causes about one-third of cancer deaths in the U.S., and cigarette smoke contains at least 69 known carcinogenic chemicals, with smokers being about 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated in August that the promise of AI curing cancer is "more of a cliché than inspiring," and that only a true cure for cancer can win public trust. CBS polling shows that 50% of Americans believe the problems created by AI outweigh the problems it solves, and 45% want the government to limit the use and development of AI.

On Tuesday, Alibaba Group launched the Qwen Glasses N1 series smart glasses at an event in Hangzhou, extending its artificial intelligence strategy into consumer electronics. The company claims to be a full-stack artificial intelligence provider in China, covering everything from data centers and software to end products. The series starts at a pre-discount price of 2999 yuan (approximately 450 USD). Bloomberg reported that this price is not lower than that of industry leader Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, with Alibaba aiming to compete on quality and functionality, not just price.Wu Jianjun, General Manager of Qwen AI Hardware Products, stated that the new glasses are equipped with an improved 50-megapixel camera and sensors. The Pro version is priced at 3499 yuan and features eye-tracking capabilities, with a standby time of 25 hours or 9 hours of music playback on a single charge. The new model is about a year after the first version released last November, integrating the Qwen AI assistant more closely and expanding its functionalities. Following Meta's example, Alibaba is trying to make smart glasses an entry point for its artificial intelligence tools and agents. Last month, Meta launched a simplified version of smart glasses without a camera, priced at 349 USD, primarily for interaction with the Muse AI assistant.

According to Bloomberg, AI research institution DeepSeek plans to lead the seed round financing for robotics AI startup Winverse AI, with an investment amount reaching tens of millions of dollars. Winverse AI was founded by a former top AI scientist from Tencent and is currently still in a low-profile operational stage.In addition to DeepSeek, investors such as Long-Z Investments, an investment institution under Meituan, also participated in this round of financing, bringing the company's valuation to approximately 400 million dollars. DeepSeek will utilize its over 12 billion dollars in financing funds to support this investment, betting on the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence and robotics technology. This investment indicates that DeepSeek is further expanding from large model research and development into the field of embodied intelligence and robotics AI.

According to CoinDesk, the market started cautiously this week due to the strengthening of the US dollar and rising US Treasury yields. Bitcoin is trading above $83,000, while gold hovers around $4,180 per ounce, with both down about 0.5%. Tech stock futures are slightly lower, WTI crude oil has risen above $92 per barrel, and the US dollar index (DXY) remains above 102.4.The US inflation data to be released this Wednesday will become the focus of the market. The market expects the year-on-year growth rate of the core CPI in the US to be 2.5%, and the overall CPI year-on-year growth rate to be 3.7%. If these expectations are met, it will accelerate compared to last month and may further influence the market's judgment on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.In addition, according to market news, IREN, which has shifted from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure business, has reached a multi-year cloud service agreement with the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. Following the announcement, IREN's US stock rose about 4% in pre-market trading.

According to The Wall Street Journal, sources say that Amazon (AMZN.O) is in talks to acquire the artificial intelligence startup Decart.

The State Tax Inspectorate of Lithuania has updated the user reporting program for cryptocurrency service providers, clarifying the reporting scope and operational standards through Order VA-63, aligning national regulations with the EU DAC8 and the OECD Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). The new regulations require regulated cryptocurrency service providers and local crypto operators to enhance customer due diligence, collect user identity, transaction records, and tax residency information, and record customer identification numbers, transaction logs, and account balances. Entities that have completed registration and reporting obligations in other EU member states are exempt from re-reporting in Lithuania.The comprehensive operational reporting across the EU will commence on January 1, 2026, with data collected by the platform in 2027 to be automatically exchanged by member state tax authorities starting mid-2027. The new regulations do not change Lithuania's capital gains tax rate on virtual assets, but relevant institutions must update customer access processes and backend systems. Starting from March 2, certain transactions involving electronic money tokens (EMT) must additionally obtain payment service authorization, including transferring EMT on behalf of customers and operating custodial wallets for third-party transfers; exchanges between EMT and exchanges between EMT and fiat currency do not automatically fall under payment services.

Aero announced the token exchange terms and schedule for the merger of Aerodrome and Velodrome. The merger will start on October 21 at 20:00 (Eastern Time), at which point the token emissions of the two old platforms will cease. Existing AERO will be exchanged at a 1:1 ratio for the new AERO, with each VELO exchanging for approximately 0.044 AERO. This ratio applies to both circulating tokens and locked tokens. The exchange rate for VELO depends on the supply at the time of launch, with Aerodrome holders receiving 94.5% of the new supply and Velodrome holders receiving 5.5%.According to DefiLlama data, as of October 9, the total locked amount for the two exchanges is approximately $422 million. The merger was announced in November 2025, and the developers, Dromos Labs, originally planned to complete it in the second quarter of 2026. The new model replaces the original weekly voting cycle with real-time allocation, allowing staked AERO (sAERO) holders to direct rewards to the liquidity pool and accumulate earnings along with exchange revenue. There is an initial 47-hour cooling period for allocation adjustments.Existing veAERO and veVELO positions will be converted to new sAERO positions, with the remaining lock-up time carried over and rounded up to the nearest whole week, and permanent locks will convert to the longest staking period. Tokens will not be automatically exchanged; self-custodied assets must be managed through the upgrade portal at aerodrome.finance or velodrome.finance, and rewards and rebases must be claimed and active votes cleared first.

According to the official announcement, the 152nd Gate contract points airdrop will be open for collection from October 9th, 18:00 to 23:59 (UTC+8). This period features two points redemption prize pools, both adopting a first-come, first-served mechanism.Among them, Prize Pool One is aimed at users with a contract points balance of 120--90 points (decreasing), with a redemption threshold of 15 points, corresponding to a reward of 0.015 SPYG; Prize Pool Two is aimed at users with a contract points balance of 40 points, with a redemption threshold of 20 points, allowing for the collection of a 100 USDT position experience voucher.

The official account of the AI assistant Claude from the artificial intelligence company Anthropic stated that the application volume for the Claude Startups program has exceeded expectations, and they will suspend the $1000 API credit offer for Claude Team.Claude mentioned that there have been hundreds of thousands of applications for the program, and the team is re-evaluating to cover as many startups as possible. Accounts that have already received the discount can still retain their related rights; accounts that have applied or have been approved but have not yet claimed will enter a review process, and some previously approved accounts will not be able to receive the discount.Claude stated that accepted program members can still use Startup Stack and Applied AI office hours. Users on the Claude Max or Team plan can continue to use their monthly API credits as usual in the Console.

According to Dongcha news, the former head of ByteDance's AI programming tool TRAE, Shi Yang, has reportedly left the company before the National Day holiday. The news states that he plans to start a business with ByteDance's former head of AI data and security, Fu Yue, focusing on AI office solutions. This project is said to have completed its first round of financing, with a valuation of approximately 200 million USD; the company name, financing amount, and investors have not yet been disclosed.Shi Yang's LinkedIn profile shows that his tenure at ByteDance ended in September, and his new job is marked as a startup project with an undisclosed identity. He joined ByteDance in 2024 and was responsible for Doubao MarsCode and TRAE, having previously founded the identity management company Yufu Technology, which was later acquired by Tencent.Fu Yue was responsible for ByteDance's AI training data business and was reported to have left in August. In August of the same year, TRAE and the Kouzi team were merged into the Doubao system, with the relevant product teams reporting to Doubao head Zhao Qi. On October 9, TRAE announced the merger of TraeWork and TraeCode into a single product.

According to U.S. officials, despite Trump's fluctuating attitude towards restarting the war against Iran, the U.S. military is preparing plans to resume large-scale military operations against Iran.The U.S. Department of Defense has developed a new three-day strike plan against Iran, with three aircraft carriers set to be deployed in the Middle East.

According to TASS, the Moscow Exchange plans to offer cryptocurrency trading services under the new regulatory framework starting from December 1.Boris Blokhin, Senior Managing Director of the Moscow Exchange, stated that the exchange will continue relevant testing work before the official launch.

The founder of the decentralized perpetual contract trading platform Hyperliquid, Jeff Yan, was interviewed by the Empire podcast at DAS 2026 Asia Station. When asked what he would build if he were a builder and no longer allowed to create infrastructure, he stated he would look at what hasn't been built yet and has real potential, depending on what other builders are doing.Jeff Yan mentioned that at least for now, he might explore options because he has heard many people want to trade options. He believes that perpetual contracts generally meet the needs of many users, but some users express that trading perpetual contracts does not satisfy all the market views they want to express.He thinks that HIP-4 is a very obvious way to build an options protocol, which can inherit spot, order books, and portfolio margin; on the market-making side, there are also perpetual contracts that can be used to hedge the delta of options. The key is how to turn that one element into something widely appealing. He does not believe that any products similar to options or convexity yield styles have truly achieved escape velocity in the crypto space, but such products have clearly done so in traditional finance.