Today's top news highlights:
Japan becomes the 11th country to use official resources to support Bitcoin mining.
Binance will launch its 57th HODLer airdrop project: Sapien (SAPIEN).
Macro
US stocks closed higher: all three major indexes rose, while Nvidia fell nearly 2%.
U.S. stocks closed Wednesday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.48%, the S&P 500 up 0.37%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.65%. Tesla (TSLA.O) rose nearly 4%, Nvidia (NVDA.O) fell nearly 2%, and Advanced Micro Devices (SMCI.O) plunged 11%. Blockchain concept stocks generally rose, with Coinbase (COIN) up 3.9%.
Circle updates its terms of service to allow the legal purchase of firearms using USDC.
According to Decrypt, stablecoin issuer Circle has updated its terms of service to allow the purchase of legal firearms using USDC, a policy that had previously drawn criticism from the U.S. gun industry and Republican lawmakers for allegedly discriminating against legitimate business activities. Circle confirmed to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) that USDC can be used for "legal arms transactions protected by the Second Amendment" and stated that it will not refuse such transactions in the future. Senator Bill Hagerty called the update a victory over the "weaponization" of the financial system. Industry insiders, however, warned that the incident exposes the vulnerability of centralized stablecoins to political pressure.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that Tuttle has submitted an application for a single-stock ETF called "Crypto Blast," which proposes to implement a weekly payback strategy on the underlying stock while investing unmargined cash in cryptocurrency ETFs tracking BTC, ETH, and SOL.
Japan becomes the 11th country to use official resources to support Bitcoin mining.
According to VanEck research data, Japan has joined the ranks of countries worldwide with government-backed cryptocurrency mining, becoming the 11th country (excluding the United States) to officially support Bitcoin mining. This trend has been growing since 2020, with participating countries including Iran, Bhutan, El Salvador, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Ethiopia, Argentina, Kenya, France, and Russia.
Franklin Templeton launches its first tokenized money market fund in Hong Kong.
According to The Block, Franklin Templeton launched its first tokenized money market fund in Hong Kong, the "Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund," backed by short-term US Treasury bonds and issuing and recording ownership through blockchain. This initiative is the first project to be implemented under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's "Fintech 2030" plan, which covers AI and tokenization ecosystem development. The fund participates in the HKMA's "Project Ensemble" sandbox, collaborating with HSBC and OSL to test tokenized deposits and fund flows, aiming to achieve near-instantaneous settlement between traditional and on-chain systems. A Ripple and BCG report projects that the tokenization of real assets could reach approximately $19 trillion by 2033.
Opinion
UBS analysis indicates that if the US Supreme Court rules Trump's tariff policies illegal, it is expected to force the US government to refund approximately $140 billion in tariffs to importers, equivalent to 7.9% of the estimated federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2025. If the US government loses, the massive tax refunds will immediately trigger a fiscal shock and may lead to a structurally low-tariff trade environment. If trading partners do not retaliate, this environment will ultimately benefit the US economy and stock market. UBS estimates that the government is likely to use legal tools such as Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to rebuild tariff barriers, but this process will take several quarters and reduce trade policy flexibility. While the refunds will bring unexpected profits to importing companies, the impact on the overall market may be limited because tariff costs have not significantly lowered S&P 500 earnings expectations. UBS believes that the ruling could ultimately reduce the overall effective tariff rate, increase household purchasing power, alleviate inflationary pressures, and provide the Federal Reserve with more room for interest rate cuts. As long as trading partners avoid escalating retaliatory measures, this will generally be welcomed by stock market investors.
Wintermute analyst Jasper De Maere wrote that liquidity in the crypto market is slowing, with a significant weakening of inflows into major channels such as stablecoins, ETFs, and digital asset treasuries (DATs), leading the market into a "self-financing" phase rather than an expansion cycle. While global liquidity remains strong, high SOFR rates are attracting funds to government bonds rather than crypto assets. Data shows that since the beginning of 2024, the total size of DATs and ETFs has grown from $40 billion to $270 billion, and stablecoin issuance has more than doubled from $140 billion to $290 billion, but both have shown signs of stagnant growth.
The CEO of DeFiance Capital stated that the company is currently focusing more on supply and demand factors within the crypto market, while ignoring the impact of the macroeconomy. He pointed out that the bullish attitude of traditional financial professionals in the United States towards cryptocurrencies is largely superficial, with limited actual action. Meanwhile, the marginal risk capital in the crypto market currently mainly comes from offshore and South Korean CEXs, but the trading volume of these exchanges has been showing a structural decline for several consecutive months.
OpenAI CFO: OpenAI is not yet ready for an IPO.
According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI's CFO stated that OpenAI is not yet ready for an IPO. With a "very healthy" gross margin, OpenAI is on track to break even and hopes for federal support for its data center investments. The market should have more confidence in the potential of artificial intelligence. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar stated that the market is overly concerned and focused on a potential bubble in the AI field and should show more "enthusiasm" for the technology's potential. Friar said, "When I think about the actual impact of AI and its impact on individuals, I think people aren't enthusiastic enough about AI. We should keep working on it." To support the construction of its AI data centers, OpenAI has entered into a series of major deals with Nvidia and AMD, which have been criticized as "circular financing arrangements." However, Friar denies this circularity, stating, "What we're doing right now is building the complete infrastructure to get more computing into the world. I don't think it's circular at all. A lot of work last year was diversifying the supply chain."
World Economic Forum (WEF) Chairman Borg Brende said on Wednesday that global financial markets may face three potential bubbles that deserve global attention. Speaking during a visit to São Paulo, Brazil's financial center, Brende said, "We may see bubbles emerge in the future. First, a cryptocurrency bubble; second, an AI bubble; and third, a debt bubble." He added that government debt levels have never been this high since 1945. Brende pointed out that while AI promises significant productivity gains, it could also threaten a large number of white-collar jobs. "The worst-case scenario is that we may see a phenomenon similar to the 'Rust Belt' in major cities, where jobs with a large number of back-office positions and a high concentration of white-collar workers are more easily replaced by AI." He cited recent layoff announcements by companies like Amazon and Nestlé as an example of this trend.
Project Updates
Binance will launch its 57th HODLer airdrop project: Sapien (SAPIEN).
Binance has announced the listing of its 57th HODLer Airdrops project – Sapien (SAPIEN), an open protocol for large-scale verification of human knowledge. Users who subscribe to BNB through Simple Earn or On-Chain Yields between October 20th and 22nd, 2025, will receive a SAPIEN airdrop, with a total supply of 15 million SAPIEN. SAPIEN is currently available for deposit and will open trading pairs with USDT, USDC, BNB, and TRY at 18:00 Beijing time on November 6th, at which time it will be delisted from the Alpha Market. The initial circulating supply is 250 million SAPIEN, representing 25% of the total supply.
Due to a vulnerability in Balancer V2, the fixed-rate lending protocol Notional V3 lost a total of 721.6 ETH on the Ethereum mainnet and Arbitrum. Balancer/Aura leveraged vault users suffered a 100% loss, and ETH lending and liquidity provider accounts will experience significant write-downs. To prevent further risks, Notional V3 announced it will shut down services on both chains and automatically migrate cross-currency lending users to Aave. The official team stated that detailed write-down percentages and exit strategies will be released soon, urging affected users to contact the team as soon as possible.
MegaETH announced that its MegaETH public sale attracted over 53,000 participants, resulting in an oversubscription of 28 times, with only about 10.1% of addresses ultimately receiving an allocation. The team divided the allocation strategy into two categories: "core community" and "long-term investors." The former, selected through manual screening of early supporters, accounted for 9.5% of winning addresses and received 25% of the allocation. The latter, however, utilized a comprehensive scoring system based on on-chain activity, social influence, and participation in the Mega ecosystem to select the best candidates. Approximately 29.4% of locked-up users received an allocation, with the allocation ratio tiered according to their comprehensive scores. Users who did not lock up their shares had a success rate of only 10.1%, receiving allocations starting at 20% based on their ranking. The team emphasized that this allocation aimed to balance fairness and long-term commitments, while reserving the right to refund accounts targeted by Sybil attacks.
Important data
According to Lookonchain statistics, over the past three days, multiple whales have collectively purchased 394,682 ETH, amounting to $1.367 billion, with an average purchase price of $3,462. The largest buyer was an address that had previously borrowed 66,000 ETH from Aave, suspected to be a whale that had shorted the market; it has now repurchased over 250,000 ETH at approximately $3,480. Bitmine, 7 Siblings, OTC traders, and several new wallets have also significantly increased their holdings during this market correction.
Financing/Acquisition
According to Business Insider, Google is in preliminary talks with artificial intelligence company Anthropic to further increase its investment. Sources familiar with the matter say the new funding round could value Anthropic at over $350 billion. The deal could include a strategic investment (with Google providing Anthropic with more cloud computing services), convertible bonds, or a new round of priced financing to begin early next year. The New York Times reported in March, citing legal documents, that Google had already invested over $3 billion in Anthropic, acquiring approximately a 14% stake. These latest talks come as Anthropic engages in a multi-trillion-dollar competition with its main rival, OpenAI, for dominance in generative AI models. Meanwhile, the tech giants are divided: Amazon and Google support Anthropic, while Microsoft and Nvidia have invested billions of dollars in OpenAI.
Solana ecosystem project Harmonic has raised $6 million in seed funding, led by Paradigm.
Harmonic, a Solana ecosystem infrastructure project, has completed a $6 million seed funding round led by Paradigm, with participation from several key Solana stakeholders as angel investors. Harmonic aims to build Solana's first open block-building system, aggregating bids from multiple block builders in real time to help validators obtain the optimal block. This system addresses the current issue of overly centralized block-building power in the Solana network, operating similarly to an order routing system in high-frequency trading.
Crypto venture capital firm CMT Digital raised $136 million for its fourth fund.
Cryptocurrency venture capital firm CMT Digital has raised $136 million for its fourth fund, a round that closed in early October, attracting participation from family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and several large institutions. Specific investors were not disclosed. CMT Digital has allocated approximately 25% of its $136 million to investments in the popular stablecoin sector, betting on startups such as Coinflow and Codex.
Institutional holdings
According to Bloomberg, Robinhood's Q3 earnings report showed a 271% year-over-year increase in net profit to $556 million, exceeding market expectations; cryptocurrency trading revenue jumped 300% to $268 million, but still fell short of analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, CFO Jason Warnick will leave the company in Q1 2026, and will be succeeded by Shiv Verma.
According to Onchain Lens, Bitmine bought 20,205 ETH from Coinbase and FalconX early this morning, worth approximately $69.89 million; at the same time, address "0xca6" received 4,009 ETH from Galaxy Digital, bringing its total holdings to 13,281 ETH, worth approximately $45.58 million.
Digital asset finance company Hyperscale Data, Inc. announced the completion of its previously disclosed “ATM” equity offering, further strengthening the company’s balance sheet and accelerating its growth plans. Through this offering, the company sold a total of 255,490,454 Class A ordinary shares, raising a total of $125 million.
