Telecom infrastructure, Fed debate and South Korea tax talks
NVIDIA said major telecom operators around the world are extending its accelerated computing technology into communications networks to deliver services closer to users and enterprises, improve wireless performance and automate network operations. T-Mobile completed what NVIDIA described as the world’s first commercial network AI-RAN call, while Deutsche Telekom, BT and Elisa announced AI-RAN pilots.
NVIDIA also introduced two Aerial RAN Computer configurations for intelligent computing and radio access network workloads at high-capacity sites. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, nine telecom operators are building or expanding infrastructure based on NVIDIA technology. Nokia and Cisco are integrating NVIDIA Nemotron open models into autonomous network operations software.
Former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm, creator of the Sahm Rule, argued that the Fed should not wait and that an October rate hike would be the safer “insurance” move. Three weeks ago, markets put the odds of an October hike at 70%. That figure has since dropped to 17%.
Sahm pointed to several data points she said are worsening: August PCE inflation at 3.4%, September core CPI running at roughly 4% on an annualized basis, transportation and warehousing prices rising to their highest level since 2022, and renewed oil price expectations. Her concern is that the Fed may be less at risk of hiking once too many than of waiting until inflation is out of control and then being forced into a sharper response. She also questioned what evidence the Fed would have left, if it does not hike in October, to prove inflation can still return to 2%. In her framing, the question is whether 25 basis points now is cheaper than a higher cost later.
South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance held a meeting on virtual asset taxation with Dunamu, Bithumb, DigitalX, Coinone, Streami and agencies including the Financial Services Commission. The discussion covered the current tax framework, market conditions, tax preparation work, and whether to delay or abolish the tax, but no clear decision was made.
South Korea set its virtual asset tax policy in 2020, originally planning implementation in 2022. It was later pushed back to 2023, 2025 and then 2027. The National Tax Service is preparing detailed rules, though issues including staking still require coordination with the finance ministry. If those rules are released next month, only about two months would remain before the planned implementation timeline.
Exchange listings and the OCC’s stablecoin rule
Upbit said it will list AXIS in KRW, BTC and USDT markets.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Wednesday released the final rule implementing the GENIUS Act, becoming the first regulator to complete stablecoin rulemaking under the law. The rule takes effect on Jan. 18, 2027.
The framework sets standards for approved stablecoin issuers and creates a path for banks and nonbanks to conduct payment stablecoin business. It also spells out standards for foreign stablecoin issuers and asset custody.
The final rule requires supervision of stablecoin issuance to follow standards tied to reserve backing, redemption and risk management. Compared with the earlier proposal, the final version does not include a presumptive violation provision for certain business relationships between issuers and third parties. OCC officials said the agency will still review such arrangements case by case and retains enforcement authority against conduct designed to evade the law’s requirements.
Stablecoin rewards had already become a flashpoint between U.S. banks and the crypto industry. Banks have argued that such rewards could pull deposits away from the banking system, while the GENIUS Act does not impose a blanket ban on platforms offering rewards to users.
The structure of the Bitcoin derivatives market is also shifting, with options open interest rising to nearly 60% of the total, a sign that risk-management demand is growing.
Bithumb separately said it will list AT in the KRW market, with trading expected to open at 22:00 local time.
AI-linked index products, on-chain trades and Bitcoin volatility
CME Group plans to work with AI index startup Silicon Data on tradable products tied to AI model token spending. The products would be based on the company’s large language model token index, with token prices across different AI models weighted by usage.
Silicon Data CEO Carmen Li said the market already has a relatively solid understanding of GPU compute costs, but still lacks visibility into the consumption layer of the AI economy. In August, the two companies had announced plans for futures products based on GPU rental costs. Silicon Data said the new token index products are planned for the coming months, subject to regulatory approval.
The company’s LLM token spending index, after falling over the summer, is hovering near lows seen since it began publication last December. That may reflect users shifting from premium models to cheaper alternatives.
A Solana trader bought 19.2 million KIMCHI for $8,790 and later sold the full position for $264,600, locking in about $255,900 in profit for a return of roughly 2,897%. The trader entered when KIMCHI’s average market capitalization was about $455,200 and exited when it had climbed to about $13.7 million.
K33 analysts said Bitcoin volatility could pick up as next week’s Fed rate decision and the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections approach. Data shows Bitcoin’s 28-day volatility has fallen to 1.2%, close to its lowest level since 2026, reflecting subdued trading activity.
Options trading hours, Dogecoin applications and custody M&A
Cboe Global Markets said Cboe has expanded trading hours for some U.S. single-stock and ETF options, adding premarket and after-hours sessions. Premarket trading will run from 7:30 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. ET on weekdays, and after-hours trading from 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET.
The expansion covers 29 underlyings, including Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Robinhood and Intel, as well as major ETFs such as SPY, QQQ and GLD.
With support from the Dogecoin Foundation, Dogecoin Labs has been formally established, combining the MyDoge wallet, the DogeOS application platform and the Such App payments product under one independent organization. Jordan Jefferson will serve as CEO.
The group said it will focus on expanding DOGE use across consumer applications, payments, commerce, DeFi and gaming, extending demand beyond community culture and meme-driven activity into practical use cases.
Standard Chartered signed a final agreement to acquire 100% of crypto custody firm Zodia Custody, subject to regulatory approval. Under the arrangement, Zodia Custody’s custody business will be folded into the bank, while its software business will move into a separate company backed by SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s venture arm.
Wallet backup company Vault12 submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, saying the SEC’s proposed token safe harbor framework still does not remove centralized exchanges’ concerns about listing tokens. Trading platforms, it said, remain worried that the SEC could later challenge a token’s legal status retroactively.
The SEC’s Regulation Crypto Assets proposal, introduced in August, would create an exemption for token fundraising and allow eligible projects to sever the link between a token and the original investment contract through a safe harbor mechanism. Vault12 proposed adding a 60-day objection period. If the SEC does not object within that window, a qualifying filing should become final as to the agency, except in cases involving fraud or material misstatements.
Institutional views, investment moves and Grayscale product changes
Coinbase Institutional said in an analysis that chip stocks have posted another double-digit decline over the past two weeks, marking a second major selloff since June. Bitcoin, however, has been notably more resilient during both pullbacks. The firm said that may indicate the market is no longer treating Bitcoin simply as a leveraged proxy for tech stocks, with price action gradually decoupling.
Former New York Fed President Bill Dudley said the AI investment boom could push the Fed to hike first and then cut sharply later.
Robinhood Ventures Fund I said it invested $30 million in preferred shares of Erebor Bank, National Association. Erebor is a U.S. nationally chartered bank focused on the innovation economy, serving sectors including defense, robotics, artificial intelligence and hard tech. The bank received a national bank charter and federal deposit insurance from the OCC in February 2026, and deposits have now exceeded $7 billion.
Grayscale said it is expanding in-kind subscriptions, allowing eligible investors to deliver digital assets directly in exchange for shares in Grayscale products rather than first selling crypto for fiat and subscribing in cash.
The mechanism now covers 10 products: Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC), Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ETH), Avalanche Staking ETF (GAVA), Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK), Dogecoin Trust ETF (GDOG), Hyperliquid Staking ETF (HYPG), Solana Staking ETF (GSOL), Sui Staking ETF (GSUI), XRP Trust ETF (GXRP) and Zcash ETF (ZCSH).
GTA 6 featured a fictional meme coin called Dacity Coin, and traders speculated in a Solana token with the same name.
Bastion Trading, which holds about 9.99% of SkyAI, issued a statement demanding that Executive Chairman Paul K. Danner III and several directors explain the decision-making behind liquidating the company’s entire SOL treasury and approving a cash tender offer. Bastion asked SkyAI to raise the tender price from $3 per share to at least $3.5, increase the maximum purchase ratio for pre-financing warrants from 95% to 100%, exclude strategic adviser warrants from the offer, disclose securities and potential gains held by directors, executives and affiliates, and publish details on the SOL sale, the company’s balance sheet and the basis for the offer price.
SPCX rose as much as 10.22% intraday to $163.12.
Bankless founder David Hoffman wrote on X: “Do you think the ZEC move is over? ZEC will reach 10% of BTC’s market cap this cycle, and 25% next cycle.”
According to Binance market data, SpaceX shares rose 10.56% to $163.390, lifting its market capitalization to $2.22 trillion. TSMC rose 0.34% to $426.535, for a market capitalization of $2.21 trillion.
Solana mainnet upgrade, whale rotation and the PHP security issue
Solana said the Alpenglow upgrade is now live on mainnet. The change cuts transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to roughly 150 milliseconds.
A whale described as the “UBTC-to-ETH rotation whale” swapped another 3,038.73 ETH worth $7.5 million through three addresses in the past hour. Since Oct. 11, the same entity has rotated more than 46,103.3 ETH worth over $115 million at an average switch price of $2,513.11.
A severe security issue in the widely used PHP programming language forced multiple government websites in Europe and elsewhere offline on Wednesday as operators moved to protect systems. The PHP development team said Tuesday local time that it had found two critical vulnerabilities and urged users to update immediately once patches were available.
On Wednesday, the PHP team said patched versions had been released. Reports that hackers were already exploiting the flaws led government agencies in countries including the Netherlands and Finland to take some sites offline before the patch release as a precaution. PHP underpins platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Magento. W3Techs data shows that about 75% of websites where the server-side language can be identified use PHP. WordPress supports about 43% of websites globally, spanning blogs, small business sites, government portals, e-commerce platforms and news sites.
Google responded to the PHP core vulnerabilities CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619 by saying Google Cloud itself is not affected, though users running PHP on the platform may still face risk. Google also said Gemini 4 Argon was involved in vulnerability discovery, exploit development, attack detection and patch validation.
ETF flows, corporate Bitcoin holdings and White House messaging
Bitfinex said Bitcoin has repeatedly faced downside pressure but continues to hold the lower end of its range. The exchange expects BTC to trade between $81,300 and $84,400 ahead of the Oct. 28 FOMC rate decision. If price tests the upper end of that range, short-term traders taking profit could create selling pressure.
On Oct. 19, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $526.7 million, pointing to stronger spot demand. Even so, BTC remained in a narrow band between $81,724 and $83,470, still below the $84,333 average cost basis of ETF investors. At the same time, futures open interest on major exchanges has risen 4.2% from the Oct. 12 low to 645,410 BTC, while funding rates have normalized, suggesting leveraged long positioning has recovered somewhat.
Elon Musk said on SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call that both SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees of independent directors to evaluate a possible merger, while stressing that no deal can be assumed at this stage.
Based on Tesla’s latest quarterly filing and SpaceX’s pre-listing S-1, the two companies hold 11,509 BTC and 18,712 BTC respectively, for a combined 30,221 BTC. At roughly $83,000 per Bitcoin, that stake is worth about $2.5 billion. The combined cost basis is about $1 billion, or roughly $35,000 per coin on average. If a merger is completed, those holdings would sit on one balance sheet, making the combined company one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holders globally, behind only a small number of firms including Strategy. Neither company has signaled plans to buy more or sell, and the merger remains under evaluation.
As U.S. midterm elections approach, ties between President Donald Trump, his administration and the crypto industry have drawn scrutiny over conflict-of-interest allegations. White House officials said Trump plans to highlight his administration’s actions against overseas criminal groups using cryptocurrency for fraud during a White House event focused on cybercrime.
The White House said transnational criminal groups have stolen money from Americans through romance scams, phishing and ransomware attacks. U.S. law enforcement has frozen about $833 million in crypto assets tied to overseas fraud, seized 503 scam-related crypto websites through a Homeland Security task force, and notified nearly 9,000 U.S. citizens that they are being targeted.
On-chain transfers, derivatives licensing and AI product launches
Onchain Lens said on X that Pump.fun transferred 129,800 SOL worth about $14.06 million from its fee wallet to Kraken, possibly for sale. Solscan data shows the receiving address is labeled as a Kraken deposit address, and the funds were later split into multiple transfers to Kraken hot wallets.
Decentralized perpetuals platform Lighter said on its third-quarter investor call that it plans to apply to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a derivatives license in November 2026, aiming to become the first on-chain perpetual DEX approved by the CFTC. Founder Vladimir Novakovski said the team has been in discussions with regulators for about 11 months. Lighter is already integrated with Robinhood Chain for perpetual trading, and Lighter Core has surpassed 1 million accounts. OKX market data showed LIT up 22.26% over 24 hours to $3.89.
According to Claude’s website, Anthropic launched a research preview of Claude Duet, a proactive AI assistant, and opened a waitlist. Claude Duet is powered by Opus 5.5, comes as a standalone app on iOS and Android, and is also available on desktop through claude.ai.
The assistant runs on an independent cloud computer, can call connected apps, sends a morning briefing each day, and continues handling tasks while the user is away. It asks for user approval before sensitive actions such as sending messages or making payments. The research preview is limited to U.S. Claude Pro and Max users. Team and Enterprise plans are not included. Anthropic engineering lead Felix Rieseberg also announced the waitlist on X.
Meta reported third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26% year over year. Operating income fell 37% to $12.99 billion because of $9.9 billion in legal expenses, while net income rose 264% to $9.86 billion and diluted EPS came in at $3.83. Average daily active people in September reached 3.64 billion, up 3%.
Meta guided fourth-quarter revenue to $73 billion to $76 billion. It narrowed its 2026 capital expenditure outlook from $130 billion-$145 billion to $135 billion-$145 billion, and said it will continue investing aggressively in 2027 to support its core business and AI plans. Reality Labs losses are expected to narrow to about $15 billion.
Tesla reported third-quarter revenue of $28.05 billion, roughly flat from a year earlier. Adjusted EPS was $0.48, above the market expectation of $0.45. GAAP net income fell 43% to $787 million, operating income dropped 56% to $718 million, gross margin was 19.60%, and free cash flow reached $1.53 billion versus a prior market expectation of negative $4.921 billion.
Tesla did not sell any Bitcoin in the third quarter and still holds 11,509 BTC. Its quarterly GAAP net income included $288 million in unrealized gains tied to those holdings.
OpenAI updated its usage policies, with the new rules taking effect on Nov. 20, 2026. Under the policy, operators of model access intermediary platforms or other services that let third parties directly access OpenAI models, such as model routers and AI gateways, must obtain prior approval from OpenAI. Services that simply integrate OpenAI models into applications are not subject to that requirement.
The updated policy also bans using OpenAI models or their outputs to prepare, curate or provide training data or signals for models that substitute for or compete with OpenAI, including building training tasks, reinforcement learning environments, and scoring or ranking feedback. It also bars extraction of protected reasoning content through unauthorized access or reverse engineering. The policy adds requirements on minors, high-risk uses, and approvals tied to national security and law enforcement use cases.
DEX merger, security warnings and governance updates
Aerodrome and Velodrome, two DEXs on Base and OP Mainnet, said they are merging to launch an on-chain spot exchange called Aero. Aero will operate on Ethereum mainnet, Base, Robinhood Chain, Ink, OP Mainnet, Arc and Arbitrum. Combined monthly DEX volume across those seven networks is about $120 billion.
After the merger, AERO and VELO will migrate into a new AERO token, while veAERO and veVELO will convert into sAERO. Aero is developed by Dromos Labs. Founder and CEO Alex Cutler said 100% of platform revenue will go to AERO stakers. New features include Predictive Allocation, the cross-network trading function Metaswaps, and Slipstream V3, which supports dynamic fees and MEV capture. In the third quarter, Aerodrome held a 58% share of DEX volume on Base, while Velodrome held 60% on OP Mainnet.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X that two PHP vulnerabilities affect servers running applications such as WordPress and Magento. Details leaked before the patch release, and the patch was published on Oct. 21. Confirmed exploitation cases appeared shortly after the leak. He said attackers do not need authentication to turn affected websites into tools for stealing visitor credentials or attacking their devices. IT teams are deploying WAF protections and patches. Zhao warned users to be extra careful when visiting any website over the next few days.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said that when Bybit enters the U.S. market, it will seek to work with companies that already have a local customer base in order to compete with firms such as Robinhood. As an example, he mentioned brokerages like Interactive Brokers that have not yet entered crypto. Zhou said state-by-state licensing in the U.S. can take two to three years, making it more practical to wait for the Clarity Act or for the SEC to adopt a federal-level framework.
He also said the U.K. remains a possible expansion target because no global exchange has established clear dominance there. Bybit is studying entry into the British market, though a London office location has not been finalized. Bybit says it is the second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, with more than 80 million registered users across over 180 countries and regions.
Cardano DeFi protocol Genius Yield is gradually winding down operations. Co-founder Lars Brünjes announced an open-source browser app called Genius Zero that lets users bypass the Genius Yield backend and interact directly with smart contracts to unstake, cancel DEX orders and claim rewards.
The app uses the MIT license and relies on Blockfrost for on-chain data queries. Claiming rewards still depends on a multisig service run personally by Brünjes, while unstaking principal does not. Fees from the original DEX order book still flow to addresses controlled by Genius Yield. Changing the fee structure requires signatures from three of the four original founders, and that authorization has not yet been obtained.
The SEC said three companies have notified the agency that they intend to operate tokenized securities venues under the new Innovation Exemption. TSV LLC filed on Sept. 23 and is owned by Obsidian Systems co-founders Ali Abrar and Ryan Trinkle, with plans to run on Canton Network. Trinkle is also a board member of the Canton Foundation. OKXICE TSV filed on Oct. 4 as a joint venture between OKX and ICE and plans to run on X Layer, OKX’s Ethereum Layer 2. Kephas Corp. filed on Oct. 14 as the U.S. subsidiary of Perpetuals.com, led by former FTX Europe executive Patrick Gruhn, and plans to run on the public permissionless Layer 2 network Kronos X Public with a permissioned trading pool. The SEC said inclusion on the list does not mean the firms have satisfied exemption conditions.
Coinbase Markets said Coinbase Derivatives will conduct routine maintenance starting at 18:00 Beijing time on Oct. 24, expected to last nine hours. Futures and perpetual futures trading on Coinbase Financial Markets will be paused during that period, while account access will remain available. Maintenance is scheduled to end at 03:00 Beijing time on Oct. 25.
Kling 4.0 API has officially launched and will gradually open to enterprise clients and developers worldwide. Kling 4.0 is the latest model from Kuaishou’s Kling line and can generate up to 30 seconds natively in a single run, supporting long takes and continuous narrative. It is already available through iQIYI Nadou Pro, Higgsfield, LibTV, Magnific (Freepik), Meitu, OpenArt, OiiOii, TapNow, Tencent Design Miora and updream.
GMX governance forum proposal GMLabs-003 would direct all remaining Solana-side protocol revenue, after GT buybacks, to GMX buybacks, with purchased tokens added to the staking rewards pool. The GT buyback mechanism would remain unchanged.
The proposal would also introduce a 180-day unstaking waiting period for existing and new GMX and esGMX staking positions on Arbitrum and Avalanche, counted from the time an unstake request is submitted. Previously accrued staking time would not count toward the waiting period. Pending requests could be canceled, and existing positions would not need migration. The changes are planned for Oct. 28, depending on implementation readiness.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote that he does not believe defense will automatically outpace offense. He expects the cybersecurity end state to favor defenders, but said the transition period will be very difficult. In his view, “good guys finding bugs in released software before bad guys do” is not a model of defense dominance. He argued that formal verification and major reductions in the trusted computing base are the kind of methodological shifts needed, and said those shifts are only beginning. He added that this is why he continues to support slowing down or pausing, and called for more than 1% of GDP to be invested in strengthening security across the digital, biological and physical worlds.
Google said Chrome 156 has entered the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux under versions 156.0.8078.47/.48 and will roll out over the coming days and weeks. The release fixes 353 security vulnerabilities, including 6 critical, 61 high, 197 medium and 89 low-severity issues. Critical flaws affected components including Skia, Accessibility, CSS, Paint and WebRTC. Anthropic researcher Xinyang Ge, using Claude, reported five of the bugs, while OpenAI Codex Security reported four. The highest single bounty was $10,000.
AI watchlist items
PANews AI Watch highlighted several AI developments from the past 24 hours. They included Anthropic’s Claude Duet taking aim at ChatGPT Dots and Meta Muse; the “Patch the Planet” effort by Wiz Research and OpenAI disclosing multiple high-risk flaws in PHP’s core engine with a CVSS score of 9.2, including unauthenticated remote code execution and memory leakage affecting all PHP versions from the past decade, with patches released on Oct. 21; and Recursive’s release of Flint, an open-source local coding model with a 39.8B-parameter MoE architecture and about 2.5B active parameters under the Apache 2.0 license. Recursive said Flint scored 74.2% on SWE-bench Verified and runs at more than 125 tok/s on an M4 Pro MacBook.